Guilt

It’s Christmas Eve, and it’s snowing--absolutely beautiful, I tell you.  Oh, and it’s 19 degrees, the temperature is falling, and then there’s the wind chill.  I have a couple of hours on my hands before My Bride and I head off to an open house, and this can only mean one thing.... Movie Notes From the Rust Belt--Youngstown, Ohio Our feature today, courtesy of PubDHub.info, my beloved ROKU box, the Internet and my secure, wireless home network, and that dandy 46 inch High Definition Wide Screen is that 1945 jungle thriller, The White Gorilla. Seems that one gorilla was born white and was cast out by the black gorillas, making him an ornery cuss.  A renegade, if you will.  He’s white and he’s pissed.  Quite a take on the white/black black/white issue considering that this is 1945, dontcha think? Sorry, but that’s about it.  Absolutely no story to get in the way of the jungle animal scenes, filler material re-used from a silent 1927 serial called Peri...

I may have mentioned that I’m a driving instructor here in NorthEast Ohio.  Maybe not.  Regardless, I am. A driving instructor, that is.  This means that I spend my days in a car, one-on-one, with teen-agers, somewhere around 8 hours a day.  We HAVE to talk about something. The cool kids in this neck of the woods pretty much all watch The Walking Dead.  So, when it became available on Netflix, I took it for a spin.  I can now talk with knowledge about The Walking Dead.  The initial offering on Netflix was the first three seasons--short seasons to be sure, but still.....This can only result in one thing, and I apologize in advance.......... Television Notes From the Rust Belt.....Youngstown, Ohio. Without belaboring the point, this mess is a real crap-fest.  It gets dumber by the episode.  In short, a colossal waste of time.  No kidding. The Walking Dead, in it’s entirety, is based on a comic book.  Like you were surprised. ...

Briefly--I bought a new Norelco model #6955XL triple header from the Amazon web site for a paltry 35 bucks American.  For reference purposes, I consulted the inflation calculator again and found that my current 35 bucks American was worth $5.49 in 1968.  I only made a dollar and a quarter an hour at the gas station I worked at then, but still.....The overall price of a Norelco rotary head shaver has declined and the shave is better.  A good deal for me. When I joined the Army in 1968, I was paid a gross sum of $102.00 a month (that’s equal to $650 today)--currently, an Army private gets $1467.00--But on payday, I only saw about 80 dollars.  I guess the rest of it went to taxes or something.  Payday in the Army was the first of the month.  We stood in line and saluted the Pay Officer (who was also the Executive Officer of the company), and recited “Sir, Private Young reports for pay”.  Unless your name wasn't Young.  Whereupon we were paid in cas...

I’ve been using Norelco rotary head shavers for most of my life.  Of course, when I started shaving, I used a double edged blade like most others of my ilk.  I started shaving in the early 1960‘s, so that will sort of give you a time-stamp reference.  I did discover, however, that I really carved myself up with a blade, so I made the switch to electric. The hot deal when I was a teen-ager was Norelco rotary head shavers, so that was the ticket for me.  I had a job and income, so I bought one in 1967.  A dual head shaver.  It had a flip-top for ease of cleaning, a handy pouch to carry it around, and it was battery operated.  It used 4 penlight batteries. What??  Never heard of a penlight battery?  No idea at all?  OK then, we’ll talk batteries for a little while.  “Flashlight batteries” were what we called flashlight batteries back then.  In today’sworld, the cool kids call them “D” cells.  Smaller batteries were called...

Money=Happiness.  At least some of the time. The Billionaire Boy’s Club in El Lay (AKA the Los Angeles Dodgers) seems to have an unlimited budget.  In the last off-season they purchased every available quality free agent in baseball.  They have the biggest payroll in baseball, outstripping even the Yankees. Wow.  More than the Yankees.  Unbelievable. Not only that, they have enough money to sign other quality baseball players and warehouse them in their minor league system to prevent any other team from signing them.  What a great deal. I’m a fan of the San Francisco Giants.  Have been since they moved West from New York in 1958.  I’m happy that they managed to win a pair of world titles (nearly back-to-back) before the Dodgers opened their bottomless checkbook.  Grateful actually.  But I fear that their winning run is over.  Money+El Lay=Disaster for any team in the National League West other than the Billionaire Boy’s Club...

I watch my share of Fox News.  Other news, too, mostly because I want to see what the other side is ranting about (it usually has something to do with white guys over the age of majority,who are pretty much universally despised)--TV news has replaced print media in my world. No more newspapers in the house.....nor have I renewed my subscriptions to news magazines. This means that I’m subjected to/hammered with commercials for prescription medicines and medical devices. What fun. Catheters.  Pre-lubed or pocket sized?  You make the call.  Medicare or medicaid will pay.  Just go see your doctor.  No problem. Hoveround takes me where I want to go.  The cost will be covered by medicare, I guess. But what really gets me are the commercials that tout the benefits of prescription medicines and encourages you to go to the doctor and insist on some.  It can’t be much longer until we see commercials for pot.  It’s medicine, you see.  Som...

No question about it.  When I have time on my hands, I watch an absolute crap-load of movies on television.  Not really “television” movies, although I have nothing against them as a genre.  I’m just not that sophisticated.  Plus, like I have frequently said, I’m not a critic.....I’m a fan. Movie Notes from the Rust Belt.....Youngstown, Ohio On Netflix, via my ROKU box delivered through the wireless home network into the 46 inch high definition wide screen Vizio (I may not have mentioned this before, but this is a “smart” TV--probably smarter than me in many respects), I watched a modern dark comedy drama thriller film noir from 2005 starring John Cusack, Billy Bob Thornton, and Oliver Platt called The Ice Harvest. Dandy story here--way too much plot to run down here, but suffice it to say that if you liked movies like Get Shorty, Fargo, The Whole 9 Yards, and Pulp Fiction you’ll most likely like this one too.  If you like books like The Four Corners of Ni...