Use Stockholders for Lab Testing!

 

by Pa Rock

Howler Primate

Forty-three of our primate cousins escaped custody from a research facility in South Carolina earlier this week when a keeper (an inattentive primate) left their pen unlocked.  The small rhesus macaque monkeys, all females,  weigh about seven pounds each (the approximate weight of a newborn human primate) and were all bred in captivity for medical research and testing.  There were fifty in the pen when the adult human primate screwed up, and seven were still there when the breakout was discovered.

The great escape was from a company called Alpha Genesis which specializes in breeding monkeys for  medical research.  It occurred in southern South Carolina in an area that is commonly referred to as "the Lowlands."  People living in the area are being advised to keep their doors and windows locked and to not allow the little monkeys into their homes.

(Pa Rock is advising the monkeys who are currently on the lam to not get into any pickup trucks driven by smelly human primates named Bubba or who go by two first names, especially if the truck is flying any type of flag.)

Nineteen monkeys escaped from the same facility in 2016, and two years later, in 2018, 26 more also ran to temporary freedom from the Alpha Genesis breeding and testing facility.  That leads one to ponder which group of primates at the facility is smarter, the guards or the inmates?

Latest reports indicate that a group of the escapees have been spotted in the woods near where they had been imprisoned, and employees at the facility are trying to lure them back into confinement with food. The monkeys are reportedly very fond of apples.

A primate who represents part of South Carolina in the US House of Representatives has vowed to keep her constituents up-to-date on the situation with the escapees.  Pa Rock's Ramble is also carefully monitoring the monkeys' brave attempt for freedom.

(Corporations that manufacture items which require lab testing with animals should consider using stockholders - and leave monkeys - and other innocent creatures - the hell alone!)

An Ode on Theft Mode

 

by Pa Rock

Septuagenarian

Old people, and particularly those living in rural areas, hang onto their driver's licenses and cars for as long as possible for three primary reasons:  grocery shopping, doctor visits, and trips to the pharmacy.  Some of us also like to make the occasional trip to visit grandchildren.

Yesterday afternoon I had an appointment for a doctor's visit in the community of Mountain Home, Arkansas, which is fifty miles from my residence.  It was an important visit centering on a cardiac test, and it was to be followed by two more visits to the same clinic over the next couple of weeks.  If for some reason I failed to make yesterday's appointment, the result would likely roll over and impact the timing of the next two visits as well.  I HAD to get there!

The appointment was for one p.m.  I hustled around in the morning and did a day's house and pet work in just a few hours, and at 10: 40 a.m. I walked out of the house and got in the car - with plenty of time to spare.  I sat in the driver's seat, got myself organized, and put the key in the ignition - and the car would not start.  Not only would the low mileage 2020 Kia Soul not start, the car alarm started going off as well, sending loud, repetitive blasts of the horn out across the serene rural community.

After two or three minutes the alarm stopped on its own, so I tried putting the key in the ignition and starting the car again, and the entire noisy process started once more.  My son has a friend who is a mechanic but I didn't have his number in my phone, so I called my son at work who didn't answer.  Then I phoned my other son who only lives a few hundred miles away and told him of my issue.  He called the Kia dealer in Kansas where I had purchased the car and quizzed the person who answered the phone.  She advised him that it sounded as though the car was in "theft mode," and that I would probably have to get it towed to a Kia dealer to have the "theft mode" shut off.

My son phoned back with that information.  The nearest Kia dealer was in Batesville, Arkansas, which was seventy miles away.  My daughter-in-law, a saint, was also on the internet trying to find a fix for the situation.

The car was in "theft mode," and I was rapidly going into "panic mode" as the time kept ticking away.  I knew there had to be some simple way to fix the situation and I began experimenting.  All that I learned was that every time I put the key in the ignition, the car alarm would start, and if I got out of the car, every time I opened the driver's side door the alarm would start.

Finally I decided that my only immediate options were either to cancel the appointment, something I was loathe to do, or rent a car for the afternoon.  I went in the house and got on the internet and found one place in West Plains that rents cars, but then I decided to call my insurance agent to see if her agency would cover the rental or if she had any other ideas.  Ramona is always very helpful.

Ramona didn't answer the phone, however, Addie did - and that was good because Addie is the smartest person in West Plains.  Addie listened to my tale of woe and then said "I need to look something up."  She put the phone down for a couple of minutes and when she came back on asked if I was in the car.  "No, I'm in the house," I told her.

"Go back outside and when you get to the car, press the 'unlock' on your key fob."

"It's already unlocked."

"Just do it, and then open the door and get inside and try again."

I did what she said and unlocked the already unlocked door, opened the door and was excited to find that the alarm did not go off, and then I seated myself behind the wheel, inserted the key, turned. the ignition, and the damned car started!

Old people, if you are pressed for time and have to be somewhere - and your only car won't start, don't muck around with car dealers and tow trucks.  Call your insurance agent and let that person find a way to keep you from spending their money!

I made it to Mountain Home with fifteen minutes to spare!

(Has there ever been a time when a car alarm actually prevented a crime - or are they just there to be a nuisance?)

Nasty People

 

by Pa Rock

Survivor

I was in town yesterday in a publicly-funded building sitting in a private room having a conversation with a representative from the Area Agency on Aging as she guided me through the upcoming year's enrollment in the Medicare Part D (prescription drugs) program.  I meet with the same woman every year in the same public building, and she is always very helpful in assisting me to obtain the best deal on the program that helps me afford all of my many meds throughout the year.

(If you haven't noticed, the cost of being old is going up markedly.  Last year she found a program for me that was less than ten dollars a month out-of-pocket.  Wowzer!   The same program for next year has risen to nearly $45 a month and it no longer covers three of my important medications, so we had to come up with something else.  The best and most affordable option turned out to be a plan that runs just over $90 a month - a raise of 800%.  I'm not expecting things to get better under the next President who doesn't have to worry about the cost of his meds and is unlikely to worry about the cost of mine.)

The lady from the Area Agency on Aging had borrowed a room for the afternoon from a publicly-funded agency that deals with old people.  When I entered the small room I neglected to close the door, which was alright because it was stuffy anyway and we were neither one loud people.  But as we sat at the table trying to conduct our business, two women showed up and sat down outside of the open door.    And although they were speaking softly, they were just loud enough that one could not avoid tuning in on their conversation.

The first thing the Old Dears did was to congratulate each other on Kamala's loss on the previous day.  Then thy proceeded to get nasty.

"Democrats are such nasty people," one said.

"Yes, they are nasty,"  her friend replied.

"And did you see that they carried Colorado and New Mexico?  Those are nasty states."

"Yes, I saw that, too."

"And Democrat cities.  Those really are very nasty."

"Yes, they are so nasty."

Of course, if you were replace the word "Democrats" with "Blacks" you would have had the complete and unfiltered meaning of what they were really trying to communicate to each other.

When they started harping on Democratic cities, I realized that I was more focused on their drivel than I was on the important information that the lady from the Area Agency on Aging was trying to impart.  "Would you care if I closed the door?"  I asked, politely.

"I'll do it," she replied quickly and got up and shut out the racket.

I'm old enough to remember when people did not just routinely refer to others as being "nasty," but I realize how we have gotten to that point - and I know specifically who to blame.   The United States of America is a nastier place than it was just a few years ago, and basically one man is to blame.  His incivility and vulgarity has infected us all,  even me and two two nasty old biddies who sat in the hallway yesterday sharpening their good Christian tongues on the nastiness of Democrats.

As I was driving out of the parking lot after the meeting, a pickup truck being driven by a young man roared past with a large flag flapping in the breeze.  It was one-half of an American flag connected to one-half of a Confederate flag.   The nasty young man driving the vehicle was obviously celebrating something!

Missouri's Extreme Abortion Ban Reversed by Voters!

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

In one of only a handful of good news stories to emerge in last night's election results, Missouri voters approved a state constitutional amendment that overturned the extreme abortion ban that had been imposed on the "show-me" state by it's right-wing GOP legislature.  The measure which passed with 53% of the vote will add language to the state constitution guaranteeing "a fundamental right to reproductive freedom."   The amendment also says that any government interference in reproductive health care, including abortion and contraceptives, is invalid.  It is set to take effect in thirty days.  

Opponents of the freshly passed measure are vowing to fight it tooth-and-nail in the courts and to push an effort in the legislature to ask Missourians to vote on the amendment again.  They appear to favor the process of democracy only when it goes their way.

Pro-reproductive rights measures also passed in Arizona, Colorado, Maryland, and Montana - and failed in Florida (which required a super-majority of 60%), South Dakota, and Nebraska.

Certain Republican politicians had spoken publicly during the campaign season saying that decisions related to abortion were best left with the states.  It will be interesting to see if they maintain that air of neutrality now that the election is over.

Missouri took a gigantic step forward yesterday in re-establishing a woman's right to control her own body and health care decisions.  Now, fellow Missourians, let's fight like hell to preserve that win!

Famed West Plains Native Endorses Kamala

 

by Pa Rock

Missouri Voter

It's not all doom and gloom here in southern Missouri on Election Day.  Well yes, the weather is still gloomy and the rain continues to fall, but that actually could be good news in a county that has given Trump 80% of the vote in the last two presidential elections - because for every voter that decides not to go to the polls in this wet, nasty weather, there is an 80% chance that it is one of Trump's!  That, and the fact that there is a popular Abortion Rights amendment on the ballot, could conceivably skew the county total more to the left than it has been in the recent past.

Hope abounds.

Also today I noted on the internet that one of West Plains, Missouri's, most famous offspring, comedian and actor Dick Van Dyke, has endorsed Kamala Harris for President.  Mr. Van Dyke, who was born in West Plains on December 13, 1925,  after his poor pregnant and unmarried mother had been packed off to live with relatives during her pregnancy, left our community as an infant, something which likely impacted his political leanings.

Dick Van Dyke is currently 98-years-old - and still voting.  He, like centenarian Jimmy Carter, understands the importance of voting in the preservation of our democracy.

If you haven't already been to the polls, GO VOTE!  (And if you live in southern Missouri, take an umbrella!)

Scam-a-Lot: Elon's Lottery is a Fraud!

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

The Oxford On-Line Dictionary offers this definition of "lottery":   "A process or thing whose success or outcome is governed by chance."  

Elon Musk, the world's richest human, is currently involved in an effort to send Donald Trump back to the White House.  On October 19th Musk made an announcement at a rally in Pennsylvania which excited a bunch of people.  He told Trump rally-goers that he was going "to be awarding one million dollars randomly to people who have signed the petition - every day from now until the election."

(After carefully removing my shoes and socks so that I could get the count right, I believe that means he will probably issue his 18th and final million dollar check today to some lucky, random, petition-signer.)

The petition to which Elon Almighty referred is an innocuous document in which signers attest to their support of the First and Second Amendments to the US Constitution.  So far, so good, but:  people who sign Elon's petition must be registered to vote in one of the seven swing states (Arizona, Nevada, Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and Georgia) and they must provide - in addition to their names - their email addresses, cell phone numbers, and mailing addresses.

All of that private and very personal information on registered voters in swing states would be of inestimable value in a close presidential election.  But, it's Elon's money and if he chooses to rain it down on lucky random winners, then so be it.

But the state of Pennsylvania, for one, had some problems with the whole scheme.  The state reasoned that even if Elon was not outright trying to buy votes, he was at least using his money to encourage people to register in the hopes of being randomly selected to win a million dollars - and paying people to register to vote is also illegal.

Yesterday when the state of Pennsylvania finally got the matter before a judge, after a stall by Elon as he killed a couple of days by trying unsuccessfully to get the case transferred to a federal court, Elon's lawyer, Chris Gober (who was working for Musk's America PAC), disclosed that the winners had not been chosen randomly, as in a lottery drawing, but were instead pre-selected by the super PAC (America PAC) that is primarily funded by Elon Musk, and the criteria for selection was to choose winners based on who the PAC believes would be effective political spokespeople.

Again, it's Elon's money, and if he wants to give it away to complete strangers in million-dollar lumps, he certainly can, but what some are arguing he cannot do is to promote the eventual winners as being "randomly" selected when, if fact, they are not.

The state of Pennsylvania and been arguing that Musk had been operating an illegal lottery, and Musk's lawyer essentially replied, in court, that it was not a game of chance because the winners were pre-selected based on their perceived ability to be of help to the Trump campaign.  The money was more of a "salary" than it was a lottery win.

Christopher Peterson, a law professor at the University of Utah, was quoted by NBC News on this new Musk revelation as saying:

"This is absolutely, unambiguously illegal.  You cannot lawfully lie to the public about conducting a random sweepstakes, lottery, or contest and then rig the results to hand-select the winners.   It really is not complicated.   This is just fraud;  a simple, ugly fraud on the public."

Elon Musk, of course, is rich enough that no court will get very meaningfully deep into his pocket, but this scam has at least given him the street cred to prove to the national Republican Party that he is, at his core, one of them.  And from a taxpayer's perspective, it is nice to know that now some of Musk's money is actually going to be taxed by the US government!

Small mercies.

Dawn is Breaking on a Stormy Election Day

 

by Pa Rock

Persistent Voter

It began raining in southern Missouri late Sunday night and has been coming down almost nonstop ever since.  The unrelenting rain and thunder with occasional lightning is still with us as the sky slowly brighten into day - Election Day.  I voted early, a week ago yesterday, and I am glad that I did because I would not want to have to get out in all of this wet mess, drive to the polls while dodging occasional flooding along the way, and then have to weave my way through the MAGA trolls in the parking lot in order to cast my ballot.  Instead I am home, and dry, and thinking about breakfast.

Missouri does not normally allow for early voting, but this year the state legislature enabled something they call "No Excuse Absentee Voting"  which allowed voters to vote an absentee ballot in their county clerk's office a couple of weeks before the actual election.  The process is much more convenient than waiting on the single Election Day and then wading out in the rain to cast a ballot, but sadly, not everyone knew about it.

The Missouri Legislature is not big on early voting, or any other subversive plot that might weaken the white, male, Republican hold on our state government.  They (the legislative GOP majority) are even trying to pass an amendment to our state constitution this year that would make ranked-choice voting unconstitutional - and to make sure it passes they hooked it to language that also bars illegal immigrants from voting, something that illegal immigrants could not do to begin with.

But I digress.

It is bleak and stormy outside this morning and that WILL impact people's ability to get to the polls - and in this area many of those people who cannot get to the polls, or who choose to remain home and stay dry, will be Republicans.

Election Day should be a federal holiday so that more people would have the day off and be able to vote when it is convenient - or dry.  Or, the election should be spread over several days and end on Election Day.

Why shouldn't everyone have a safe and dry opportunity to vote?  It's called democracy.  What a concept!

Pa Rock has voted.  You should, too!

Is Iowa a Swinger, Too?

 

by Pa Rock

Voter

I live in a very red, rural county that gave Donald Trump right at  80% of its votes during the last two presidential elections, and my state, which is also red, gave Trump just over 56% of its votes during those same two elections.  I'm not proud of any of that, it's just the way it is.  Because my state, and especially my portion of the state, is not competitive, national candidates never bother to campaign here,  They solicit our donations but really don't give a rat's ass whether we even bother to vote or not.

Missouri will cast our ten electoral votes for the elderly, convicted felon, Donald John Trump.  Any third-grader with access to a laptop and wifi could have safely predicted that a year ago.  The deed is done, the die is cast.  Save that campaign cash for the battleground states of Arizona, Nevada, Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and Georgia.  They are the chosen ones who will select our President for us - just as other chosen ones like Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and a handful of others sort through all of the candidates who would like to be President and let us know which ones will actually be on the ballot.

Easy peasy.

People who live in certain states, like Missouri, can go suck eggs because we have no say in the process whatsoever.  God's favorite states and the electoral college will present us with a new President in January, and then we can all sit back and prattle on about the triumph of democracy, even if it excluded us.

With my negativism in how this "democracy" selects its President firmly entrenched, imagine my utter joy upon hearing just a couple of evenings ago that a crack has developed in the system and a rural state just to the immediate north of Missouri has a new poll result circulating which says that the Democrat, Kamala Harris, is leading in that state by three points.  The state is Iowa, and it has a long, solid history of voting for Republicans for President.  Iowa, like my own state of Missouri, is routinely taken for granted in  the general elections where Presidents are chosen, so candidates do not spend money or waste their valuable time there.

Candidates go to the seven swing states, over and over and over again, and Iowa is not on the list.

But now Iowa has a highly regarded poll from a well respected polling firm of Selzer and Company and which was conducted for the Des Moines Register and Mediacom which shows Harris in the lead by three points - in a non-swinging, supposedly red state.   WTAF!   Nate Silver, another highly respected national pollster, says that Ann Selzer, who heads Selzer and Company, "has a long history of bucking conventional wisdom and being right."

National Republicans responded by calling the poll "fake," (one of their favorite four-letter words), and Trump reacted with indignation (one of his favorite moods).

So if this new poll is for real, and I, for one, certainly hope that it is, then what gives?  Why is a reliably red state suddenly developing a noticeably blue blush?  One speculation that seems to be soaking up a lot of printer's ink is that Iowa farmers, the primary economic engine of the state, are still pissed about the Trump tariffs from his last term that crippled their sales abroad.  The other major speculation is that Iowa women are angered by the Trump Court's Dobbs' decision which overturned their right to an abortion that had been in effect for nearly half-a-century, and that they are also turned off by Trump's constant denigration of women.

If the poll is right, and if those reasonings are too, that can only be good news for the Democratic Party as those same motivators play out across other midwestern farm states - including the one I live in.

It's a damned shame that the national Democratic Party did not think enough of us to spend a few dollars out in the sticks during this election cycle.  It could have been the smartest investment they ever made.

Give 'em hell, Iowa!

Unwell Candidate Rages Over Faulty Microphone

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Donald Trump's mental acuity is no longer just slipping, it now appears to be cascading downward at a very rapid rate.  This week alone he has publicly fantasized about former congresswoman Liz Cheney in a combat situation staring down nine gun barrels as they fired at her face, opined about a potential assassin having to shoot his way through the news reporters covering his rally in order to get to him - and said, "To get to me, somebody would have to shoot through the fake news and I don't mind that so much," complained loudly about his opponent appearing on "Saturday Night Live" (something he has done twice), made multiple unfounded allegations about potential election fraud, and made a verbal threat of physical harm to backstage workers at a venue in Milwaukee.

Trump made the unseemly remarks about Liz Cheney getting shot in Arizona, and that state's attorney general has said that her office is investigating whether Trump's remarks rose to the level of a death threat toward Ms Cheney or not.

Milwaukee this past Friday night seems to have been a truly critical point for Trump.  He was onstage speaking when his microphone failed.    Trump raised and lowered the microphone trying to get it working, with no success, and at one point he began bobbing his head over the mic simulating oral sex.  The microphone was apparently set lower than Trump liked, and news reports said that he spent four minutes complaining about the height of the microphone.  Then he said, "You want to see me knock the hell out of people backstage?"

Finally a technician gave him a handheld microphone, and Trump did not like that either.  He roared to the crowd:

"I'm working my ass off with this stupid mic.  I'm blowing out my left arm, now I'm going to blow out my right arm, and I'm blowing out my damn throat too, because of these stupid people!"

Much of what Donald Trump says is, of course, just noise.  Realistically a man with almost eight decades under (and hanging over) his belt is not going to "knock the hell" out of anyone, and Liz Cheney has undoubtedly faced down insects that were more of a threat to her than Trump, but still he roars, and still the press reacts as though his childish outbursts are news.

They're not.

They're just more signs of the rapid onslaught of aging.

How Are the GOP Wives Voting?

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

The Republican Party, one of the most paternalistic organizations in America, may be dealing with a gender revolt within its ranks.  

A political maelstrom began building earlier this week when a political action group calling itself "Vote Common Good" released an ad for the Harris-Walz ticket that was voiced by actress Julia Roberts.  In the ad Ms. Roberts is speaking to American women.   While discussing the sanctity of the voting booth, she says:  "In the one place in America where women still have a right to choose, you can vote any way you want, and no one will ever know."

That language takes a subtle swipe at domineering husbands, and by employing the word "choose," it is also a dig at the Trump abortion bans.  The commercial is a masterwork of political messaging, and one that has many Republican's outraged.

In the ad a woman emerges from the voting booth after casting her vote, and her husband asks her if she made the "right choice."  At that point she winks at a female friend.

Reaction to this blatant appeal to connubial treachery from Republican hacks has been swift and severe.  Jesse Watters, a Republican mouthpiece for Fox News, said that if he found out that his wife, Emma was "going into the voting booth and pulling the lever for Harris, that's the same thing as having an affair!"

Charlie Kirk, a conservative activist and a founder of Turning Point USA, discussed the ad with Fox News host Megyn Kelly on her radio program.  Kirk, who was clearly unhappy with the concept of the Julia Roberts ad, said:

"I think it's so gross.  I think it's so nauseating where this wife is wearing the American hat, she's coming in with her sweet husband who probably works his tail off to make sure that she can go you know and have a nice life and provide to the family, and then she lies to him saying, 'Oh yeah, I gonna vote for Trump,' and then she votes for Kamala Harris as her little secret in the voting booth."

Former GOP congresswoman Liz Cheney reacted to Charlie Kirk's tirade by referring to him as a "twit."

Donald Trump even pushed his way into the discussion over how wives vote.  In a call-in to Fox and Friends after the ad came out, Trump, who was famously photographed on Election Day of 2016 trying to observe how his wife was voting, disparaged Julia Roberts as well as the ad itself.   He said he was disappointed in Ms. Roberts and predicted that she would look back on the ad someday and "cringe."  Then the cringe-worthy, elderly politician went on to say:

"But the wives and husbands, I don't think that's the way they deal.  I mean, can you imagine a wife not telling her husband who she's voting for?  You ever hear anything like that?  Even if you have a horrible - even if you had a bad relationship, you're gonna tell your husband.   It's a ridiculous ad, it's so stupid."

The thrice-married Trump apparently considers himself an expert on interactions between husbands and wives.  And as for the "ridiculous" and "stupid" ad, it certainly seems putting the fear of the ballot into more than a few Republican blowhards!

The fundamentalist clergy also checked in on the matter.  According to a posting in "The Guardian" by Rebecca Soinit, "This week, the fundamentalist Christian pastor Dale Partridge argued in a series of tweets that 'in a Christian marriage, a wife should vote according to her husband's direction'"-  and, one must suppose, the Constitution be damned!

Just remember, ladies, that within the confines of the voting booth, you still have freedom of choice - whether your men folk like it or not!

 

Great work "Vote Common Good" and Julia Roberts - you have produced a winner!

Ending Missouri's Abortion Ban

 

by Pa Rock

Missouri Voter

For the past couple of decades the Missouri State Legislature has increasingly become a cesspool of right-wing political hackery and bigotry fueled by the religious fervor of evangelical zealots.   Sometimes the outrages of the show-me state legislators go unchecked, and at other times their legislative "accomplishments" are so harmful to the common good that the people have to step in and correct their legislators.

As an example, a few years ago the Missouri State Legislature thought it would be in the public's best interest if they passed legislation making Missouri a "Right to Work" state, an intentional misnomer which actually makes it more difficult for workers to unionize and thus helps to keep wages low.  Angry Missourians who have to work for a living took to the streets passing petitions for a state constitutional amendment to do away with the legislature's phony "right-to-work" legislation - and the amendment passed.

Now Missourians are preparing to go to the polls to correct another of our legislature's overreaches.  Several years ago the legislature passed a total abortion ban that would go into effect if and when the US Supreme Court ever overturned the Roe v Wade decision.    When the conservative cabal that controls the Supreme Court did that very thing in June of 2022, Missouri enacted its total ban on abortions within an hour of the announcement of the Dobbs' decision.  This coming Tuesday, Missouri will very likely become the first state to reverse a total abortion ban, and they will do that by a vote of the people on a proposed constitutional amendment.

I received a very simple flyer in the mail this week.   It was one sheet of plain paper, eight-and-a-half inches by eleven inches, folded in half with the message on one side and the address on the other.  The flyer contained a notation that it was paid for by a group called "Missourians for Constitutional Freedom," and it had a return address that was a P.O. Box in St. Louis.  The message was in favor of Amendment 3, the proposed constitutional amendment in Missouri that would repeal our state's abortion ban.

(I am a supporter of Amendment 3 and have a sign to that effect in my yard.)

The complete message was outlined in two columns.   One side was a listing of what voting "yes" on Amendment 3 would accomplish, and the other was a listing of what voting "no" on Amendment would accomplish.  The message in its entirety was stark, and it was effective in bringing the matter into a sharp focus.  Here is a verbatim summary:

Voting YES on Amendment 3:

• Voting YES on Amendment 3 will end the abortion ban and provide access to care for Missouri women, including survivors of rape and incest.
• Voting YES on Amendment 3 will ensure that Missourians, not politicians, are in charge of their own healthcare and decisions.
• Voting YES on Amendment 3 protects the health of women and ensures those with pregnancy complications or miscarriages get the care they need.

Voting NO on Amendment 3:

• Voting NO allows the abortion ban to remain in effect, with no exceptions for rape, incest, or when the woman's health is at risk.
• Voting NO gives the government the power to make the personal medical decisions for women and their families.
• Voting NO means doctors must wait until patients' conditions worsen before providing treatment.

Ten states have measures on the ballot next Tuesday that will establish or strengthen abortion rights and will help American women regain the right to control their own healthcare decisions.  They include:  Nebraska (which also has an "anti-abortion"measure on its state ballot), Arizona, Florida, Montana, Nevada, South Dakota, Maryland, Colorado, New York, and Missouri.

A right that was summarily taken away by the US Supreme Court is being reinstated in a piecemeal fashion, state by state, through votes of the people, but there is still a danger that a Republican dominated national government could pass legislation for a nationwide abortion ban.  Ultimately the United States will have to do what Missouri is about to do, and enshrine a woman's right to make her own healthcare decisions and control her own body in its constitution.

Healthcare is a matter of personal freedom and certainly not the business of political or religious hucksters. 

Voting ends next Tuesday.  Do your part to support democracy and protect our individual freedoms!

Whether They Like it or Not

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

The American patriarchy, channeling itself through the bulbous personage of Donald John Trump, recently set about establishing a perimeter of defense for our nation's women.  In a speech in Wisconsin on Wednesday night, Trump seemed to be talking about the threat he apparently believes that immigrants pose to American women, although with the way he rambles it is possible that he could have also been bemoaning the dangers that sharks or even celebrity cannibals might present to American womanhood.

Well, have no fear ladies, because Donald John is on the case!  At that speech in Wisconsin Trump described himself as a "protector" of women, and he said that he would protect them "whether the women like it or not."

Glory be!  Safe at last, safe at last, thank God almighty our women folk are safe at last!  And they will be personally protected by Donald John Trump, a man who has been found civilly liable for the sexual assault of a woman.  In an article published the day before yesterday in an online publication entitled "The Cut," writer Andrea Gonzalez-Ramirez lists twenty-eight women by name who have accused Trump of some form of sexual assault, and he, himself, bragged into an open microphone several years ago on the now-infamous Accesss Hollywood tape:

"I'm automatically attracted to beautiful ---, I just start kissing them.  It's like a magnet.  Just kiss.  I don't even wait.  When you're a star, they let you do it.  You can do anything.  Grab 'em by the pussy.  You can do anything."

Women do face many hardships and obstacles in their lives that do not impact most men as dramatically as they do women, and some might even be desirous of extra attention and protection from men, but clearly Donald John Trump is not the person who should provide it.  His record with women speaks for itself.

I suspect that women are already fighting hard this year to protect themselves, and they are conducting that fight with ballots.  And I further suspect that this year Donald Trump is going to find out how it feels when women finally fight back - whether he likes it or not!

The Oligarchy Comes to Prey

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

 

Donald Trump, a blowhard whose status as a billionaire is well within the margin of error and whose power rests more within the confines of his lungs than it does his cranium, nevertheless likes to think of himself as rich and powerful - and to surround himself with true billionaires who actually are rich and powerful.  Those individuals gravitate to Trump because they know that he can be easily flattered and influenced - if not purchased outright - by cash donations.

Donald isn't shy about asking his rich friends to stuff his pockets.   In April of this year he invited a large group of oil company executives to a dinner at Mar-a-Lago where he pressed them to make a billion-dollar contribution to his campaign.   The meeting was labeled "a roundtable discussion on energy security," but the message seemed clear that a quid pro quo was afoot and that if the oil companies would take care of Trump, he, in turn, would take care of them.  News reports indicate that Trump specifically promised the group that he would slash Biden's tax credits for electric vehicles and he committed to spending less government money on developing wind power.   Some oil company "wants" were discussed as well including their desire for the government to end the pause on new natural gas export permits, and expanding the number of off-shore drilling lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico.

The Supreme Court says that money is speech, but it is also obviously influence.

This past week there have been a couple of US-based billionaires in the news as they genuflected and sucked up to Trump.   Each, by virtue of their business interests, could benefit financially by cultivating ties to the Republican presidential nominee.

First, obviously, is Elon Musk, the world's richest person.  Musk, who owns SpaceX, a company which has put most of the planet's communications' satellites into space, and which occasionally provides a taxi service to-and-from the International Space Station, now seems to be running Trump's political ground game in Pennsylvania and has been attending and speaking at Trump rallies.  Musk, who one commentator referred to as "an out-of-control pogo stick" because of his tendency to jump up-and-down on stage at the Trump rallies, has also begun sponsoring a lottery that gives one million dollars a day to a swing state resident who is registered to vote and who signs a generic petition saying that he or she favors the First and Second Amendments to the US Constitution.  The legitimacy of that lottery is being decided in court today.

Musk also owns the media platform, "X" (formerly Twitter), which of late has become little more than a right-wing echo chamber for the Trump campaign.

But clearly Musk is sharing his wealth in an effort to strengthen the election chances of Donald Trump, and clearly Musk, a businessman, sees that effort as something that will bear fruit at some point.   Elon Musk has many contractural ties with the US government.

Jeff Bezos, the billionaire owner of Amazon.com, Prime streaming services, Blue Origins (a space flight company), and The Washington Post newspaper, was also in the news this week.  Bezos, the world's second richest human, has many lucrative government contracts of his own and benefits directly from his dealings with the US Postal Service and the nation's space program.  This week when his newspaper, The Washington Post, the nation's premier political newspaper and one that is based in the capital city of the United States, was preparing to endorse Vice President Harris for President, Bezos personally stepped in and announced that the paper would no longer be endorsing presidential candidates.   Bezos, the businessman, could not afford to run the risk of offending Donald Trump, a man who could potentially become President again and could then negatively impact Bezos's business interests.

Influence.  It's as good as cash in the pocket.

Bezos, unlike Musk, did take a financial hit over his editorial interference in his own newsroom. Several Post employees spoke out against their boss, and a couple resigned, and at one point yesterday it was reported that 250,000 individuals had cancelled their subscriptions to The Washington Post.  (Looks like our Prime rates may be about to go up!)

Vlad Putin has his own cadre of filthy rich oligarchs, and he plays them to his advantage, and while Donald Trump is clearly not the sharpest crayon in the box, he does pay attention to how the men (it's always men) he perceives as strong leaders do things.  Trump knows that political power has a value, and people who want to avail themselves of his power will pay for the privilege.

The oligarchs prey on the government and its treasury through useful idiot politicians, and then, sooner or later, the rest of us pay the bills.

The Election: A Choice Between Darkness and Light

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Maybe Donald Trump is not one of the biggest liars in the history of the world.  Perhaps he has been horribly misjudged and his rampaging falsehoods are nothing more than simple misunderstandings.  Maybe the more than 10,000 whoppers that he supposedly told during the four years he spent as President can be blamed on something organic, such as a hearing impairment or a persistent brain fart.
 
But what about all the rancid name-calling in which he engages?   Can that be explained away as well?
 
This week following his ‘racist-palooza’ at Madison Square Garden in New York City, an event in which various speakers launched verbal attacks against migrants, Jews, Blacks, and, in particular, Puerto Ricans, Trump ignored numerous calls for a personal apology – he does not do apologies – and instead tried to lighten the entire incident by referring to that five-hour-plus name-calling extravaganza as a “love fest.”   He has also taken to referring to the January 6^th, 2021, attack on the US Capitol as “a day of love,” while totally ignoring the deaths, injuries, destruction of property, and total mayhem that ensued that day, much of it at his direction.
 
Love, love, love – all you need is love!
 
Maybe Donald Trump’s obvious mental shortcomings trick him into believing others are also held back by challenges like having a “low IQ,” and maybe he actually suffers from a delusion which makes him believe that he is as intelligent as Kamala Harris.  

And Trump's penchant for calling highly successful women “nasty,” what is with that?  First it was Hillary, then Kamala, and now Michelle Obama.  On a bad day (for Michelle Obama) her public approval rating is above 50 percent while Trump’s languishes below forty, and on a good day she is at 60 percent or better and he is still stuck in the thirties.
 
Smart, successful women seem to scare the crap out of Trump.   (It’s a good thing he has a diaper to catch it!)  He retaliates to the supposed threat they pose by name-calling.  A woman who intimidates Donald John can expect to be publicly labeled as “low IQ,” a "radical” or a “Nancy Pelosi liberal,” or even a “communist.”   And he will also call her “nasty.”
 
It seems as though an underwear model who is basically posing nude while in the full-flower of pregnancy is some sort of artiste, and a porn star spanking a flabby real estate developer and reality television personality with a rolled-up magazine is just a working girl trying to get by – but any prominent female who speaks forcefully and intelligently about things that Trump either doesn’t agree with or doesn’t understand is “nasty.”
 
"Nasty” is just a Trump shorthand to cover his inability to come up with something more clever.
 
Racism and rebellion have nothing to do with love, and most of Trump’s name-calling is just him projecting his own faults and shortcomings onto others.   Hillary, Kamala, and Michelle have never paid a porn star for a spanking – but guess who has.  And none of those fine ladies have ever boasted about grabbing another human being by the crotch!

We all know who the "nasty" person is, whether we will admit it or not.
 
Let this be your guide:  Would you trust Donald Trump to babysit your children or grandchildren – or even allow him to be in the same room with them without adult supervision?

And if he can't be trusted around innocent children, why the heck would we give him access to the nuclear codes and control of the United States Armed Forces?

Donald Trump is a very nasty man stumbling around in mine field of bitter darkness, and Kamala Harris is the bright beacon of the future calling us forward.

This election should be the easiest political choice that any of us will ever face.

Puerto Rico is Beautiful!

by Pa Rock

Tourist 

Tony Hinchcliffe is a not-so-funny, mean-spirited comedian who finally managed to get noticed while doing a stand-up set at Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally Sunday night.   During his comedic tirade, Hinchcliffe took direct aim at the US Territory of Puerto Rico and its citizens.  “I don’t know if you guys know this, but there’s literally a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean right now,” he said.  “I think it’s called Puerto Rico.”  Before his set ended, the unfunny comedian had also made, according to ‘Fortune’ magazine, “lewd and racist comments about Latinos, Jews, and Black people.”
 
In addition to Hinchcliffe and Trump himself, the rally contained several speakers whose racist remarks seemed designed to make decent cringe or perhaps even feel threatened.    The tone of the event was so White-centric that it invited comparisons with a Nazi rally held at the Garden in February of 1939.
 
I have been to Puerto Rico twice in my life and would jump at the chance to go again.  It is one of the places that I seriously considered as a retirement option.  Last Friday night while we were in New York City, my friend, Carla, and I had our evening meal at “Junior’s,” a nice restaurant in the theatre district and only a block or so from our hotel.  While we were waiting on our meals, we struck up a conversation with our waiter, a man who appeared to be somewhere in his late thirties or early forties.  He asked where we were from, and we, in turn, asked where he was from.  “Puerto Rico,” he said proudly.
 
I told the man about my visits to Puerto Rico, a week each time, and how much I liked the massive Spanish fort, Old San Juan, and the rain forest.  “El Yunque,” he said – the name of the national rain forest that takes up much of the center of the island, and with that he seemed to visibly drift away toward another place and time.  “Si, it is very beautiful.”
 
El Yunque is very beautiful.  Both times that I was on the island I drove up into the forest passing through thick, lush foliage, waterfalls cascading down the mountain sides, and a cacophony of nature sounds weaving their way through idyllic vistas.  It is a beautiful natural reserve that is just minutes from the  picturesque beaches and commercial hubbub of San Juan.
 
The island also has many smaller towns and attractions that bring in the tourists who prime the pump of the local economy.  It was badly neglected during the two big hurricanes that occurred during the Trump presidency, neglect which, in hindsight, appears to have been intentional.   One of the ugliest scenes of those four awful years under Trump was him standing above a throng of storm-ravaged hurricane survivors in Puerto Rico playing the “Great White Father” as he threw rolls of paper towels to people whose homes had just been destroyed and lives upended.   They may have not had food, water, electricity, or shelter, and many did not, but by God they had paper towels – and Donald Trump to thank for it!
 
(After Hurricane Maria in 2017, one of the deadliest natural disasters in US history, the Trump administration blocked the delivery of massive amounts of hurricane relief – up to $20 billion – to the US Territory of Puerto Rico, and the island is still suffering from that intentional neglect and abandonment to this very day.)
 
But I digress.
 
Puerto Rico is enduring hard times which are rooted in actions – or non-actions – of the Trump administration, but the people of the island are proud and self-reliant – and they are survivors.  They are many things, but they are not “garbage” and neither is their island.
 
The Trump campaign staff realized immediately that Tony Hinchcliffe had made a strategic error in attacking Puerto Rico and its citizens, and the campaign quickly released a memo which said that he was not speaking for Trump and that Trump does not see the island and its inhabitants that way.  BUT, as of late Monday evening, Donald Trump has not bothered to make such a declaration himself.   Trump, in fact, seems to like the sound of the word “garbage,” and has recently described the United States as “a garbage can for the rest of the world.”
 
So, with Trump’s views on immigration and immigrants already so well known, Tony Hinchcliffe probably had no qualms at all about describing Puerto Rico as “a floating island of garbage.”
 
There are surely some people who would describe Trump Tower as a floating island of garbage in New York City, and I would be hard-pressed to argue with them.  
 
But Puerto Rico is beautiful, go and see for yourselves.  You will be glad you did!
 

Yes on Kamala, Yes on Reproductive Rights

 

by Pa Rock

Voter

Jimmy Carter and I now have some very important things in common:  we have voted in this year's presidential election, and we voted for Kamala Harris!  Jimmy got to take advantage of "early voting" in Georgia, but the Missouri state legislature seems to think that "early voting" is some liberal San Francisco plot that will make children want to change their genders, so we have "no excuse absentee voting" instead.

I just got back from voting a "no excuse absentee" ballot in the county clerk's office at the courthouse.  The place is hopping with probably a dozen people voting while I sat and slowly pored over every candidate and issue on my ballot.  I marked mine for Kamala and Tim at the top of the ticket, chose Democrats for every state office, voted for a Libertarian for Congress, and two Democrats at the local level - the only two running - for state representative and county coroner.  Seven Republicans ran unopposed for local offices.

I supported Amendment 3, a citizen's initiative to amend the state constitution to repeal our state's god-awful total abortion ban.  I even have a "Yes on 3" sign standing proudly in my front yard.   The government, and especially Missouri's crappy-assed state government, does not belong in our bedrooms or our doctor's offices.  It's a matter of freedom and personal liberty!

There were two gambling issues on the ballot, one to allow sports' betting - and another allowing a casino for Lake of the Ozarks.  I always vote against gambling initiatives because they damage and impoverish families, and casinos target senior citizens.  "Gaming" is bad business.

I also voted to not renew four justices to the state Supreme Court because that's just the way I roll.

As I was submitting my completed ballot by sliding it into the machine, a fellow senior citizen walked in and asked a lady at the counter if he could vote early.  "We don't have early voting in Missouri," she told him.  "But we do have "no excuse absentee voting."  

"What's the difference?"  he asked, cautiously.

"There ain't none," she admitted.

Back in the Ozarks Again!

 

by Pa Rock

Traveling Fool

I arrived back at my little home in the Missouri Ozarks at 10:30 this morning following a four-hour (199-mile) trip from the burbs of St. Louis.  Sunday morning, so traffic was light the entire way.

For those who might be planning a trip to New York City and haven't been before, or haven't been in several years, here are some current prices to help with budgeting:

• A cab ride from LaGuardia Airport to Manhattan will run you about $100, tip included, each way - and it will take about an hour.  Traffic congestion in horrid.
• An economy room for two in a decent hotel will be in the neighborhood of $500 a night.
• Careful shoppers can get tickets to Broadway shows for $75 to $150 per ticket, and I heard of some going for as much as $800.  It depends on which play you select, the date of the performance, and the quality of seat you desire.
• Pedi-cabs, those pulled by a human, are generally priced at nine dollars per minute if you hail one on the street to use as a taxi.
• A sandwich and fries at any place with tables and chairs will run between twenty and thirty dollars.   (There are a couple of McDonalds, a Wendy's, a very large Krispy Kreme, and a Dunkin' Doughnuts in the vicinity of Times Square with more reasonably priced food options.  Of course, if you want to eat at a McDonalds, you can vacation in Joplin - or West Plains!)
• Pancakes at Friedman's Restaurant in the Edison Hotel are ten dollars each, and if you want two thimbles of syrup instead of just one, you will have to request the second one, firmly.
• Tips are expected for every service - take plenty of five-dollar bills.

There are people sleeping on the streets of New York.  Most are derelicts, but one wonders if some might be tourists who didn't realize how expensive a few days in New York City would be!

On the plus side, Carla and I felt completely safe walking the streets of New York, day and night, the entire time we were there.  Everyone should experience the Big Apple at least once in their lives if they can.

Rating the Plays

 

by Pa Rock

Traveling Fool

We managed to take in four plays during our three-day visit to New York City, and I was also in the audience for a performance of a 45-minute except from "The Brass Teapot," a Musial adaptation of a work that was originally written by may son,Tim, and with which he is currently involved.  That, of course, was the impetus for me coming to Gotham and the highlight of my trip.

"The Great Gatsby" was, in my jaundiced opinion, far and away the best of the four full-length plays that we managed to see.   It was a faithful adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel of life among America's nouveau riche in the during the "roaring" 1920's, just before the world stumbled into the Great Depression.   The story was Fitzgerald's, but it was the lighting, set designs, music, and acting that brought his timeless tale to life in all of its glorious noise and excesses.  Everything added to the author's work, and nothing on the stage diminished it.  "The Great Gatsby is a romping, stomping good musical that shows us how the other half lived and played a century ago.

Second on my list of favorites was "Our Town," a classic American play penned by Thornton Wilder in 1938 which went on to win the Pulitzer Prize.  It describes three days in a "typical" New England small town (a fictional place called Grovers' Corners, New Hampshire) at the turn of the twentieth century, and goes on to explain quite a bit about human nature and the essence of life and society.  This particular version of the play was star-studded, which  helped to draw in the crowds for the well known story, and it was promoted as being a contemporary interpretation of the material.  

The contemporary aspect of this version seems to rest on the fact that the cast is bi-racial.   The family of Doctor Gibbs is Black and the newspaper editor's family is White, and the story coalesces around the romance and marriage of the doctor's son and the editor's daughter.  A biracial marriage, of course would have never happened in any portion of early 20th century America, and was, in fact, illegal in most places.   But, it worked well in this adaptation and added an interesting twist to the story.

My third favorite play for the all-too-brief stay in the city was "The Roommate," a dialogue-driven story of two very opposite women who move in together to save money.   The play brings to mind Broadway's most prolific playwright, the late Neil Simon, and in particular his classic "The Odd Couple."   Stars Mia Farrow and Patti Lupone both give incredible performances and manage to stir a great amount of audience empathy for the flawed characters which they inhabit.

Last on my list is "Once Upon a Mattress, an old theatre comedy staple that stars Sutton Foster as Princess Winifred from the swamp.     I have seen the play several times over the last few decades which probably dampened my enthusiasm for this particular production, but it just did not feel as sharp to me as it could have been.  It was a Carol Burnett hit, and she is such an overpowering figure in American comedy that it is difficult to sit through this play without imagining how Carol would have said a particular line or sung a certain song.   But for those who haven't seen the play before or who grew up after the era of Carol Burnett, this show will brighten your day - or evening.

We would have liked to have seen "Suffs" and  "Sunset Boulevard" while we were in the Big 

Apple, but that didn't happen.  Maybe the next time I fly to this cultural Mecca, it will be to see a full Broadway production of "The Brass Teapot"!

I would come back for that - even by plane - but not on Delta!!

Saint Theresa of 42nd Street

 

by Pa Rock

Stranger in a Strange Land

Tonight we dined at Junior's - sandwiches and cheesecake - and then attended an evening performance of "The Roommate," a Neil Simonesque type of comedy with only two characters - an unlikely duo of an Iowa divorcee in her sixties and a somewhat younger New York City lesbian vegan as they embark on a social adventure of  learning to be roommates with one another.  The Iowa woman who owns the house they are occupying is played by Rosemary's baby's mother, Mia Farrow, and the New Yorker with the colorful past and present is given life by Patti  Lupone.  The playwright who put it all on paper was Jen Silverman.

(If Mia Farrow is Rosemary's baby's mother, does that mean that Ronan Farrow is Satan - or just one of his siblings?  Enquiring minds want to know!)

I laughed, a lot, and occasionally felt pangs of compassion for each of the characters as they struggled to overcome their own flaws while learning to adjust to life in the orbit of someone else.  It is a very good show, and I highly recommend "The Roommate."  And yes, it definitely has a strong Neil Simon vibe, but this lifelong fan of the Bard of Broadway has no problem with that.

But my real adventure this afternoon began in the hotel and played out on the streets of New York which, despite what Republican fear-mongers want you to believe, are absurd and noisy and busy, with many strange odors, but seem to be basically safe.  

(I did run into a group of elderly women while jaywalking this afternoon who were all wearing tiaras.)

Not long after that I was at the hotel, and, being tired-out from the walk over to Tim's production and back, decided to take a nap before heading out to dinner and the theatre.  Then, when I got up from the nap, I discovered that I had rolled over on my glasses while sleeping, screwed-up the frames, and popped the lenses.  They are my only glasses, and I really did not want to spend the last two days of the trip without them, and then have to drive home from St. Louis squinting through the windshield.

A member of the hotel staff used his phone to find an optical shop on 42nd Street, about a 20-minute walk from the hotel.  It was after four, and Carla found out the shop was open until seven - so I lit out on foot   - which I figured had to be quicker than trying to snag a cab.  Our hotel is on 47th Street.  First I hiked five big blocks to 42nd Street, but not having glasses I couldn't read the street signs which were posted at the far end of the intersection from where I was at.  I stepped up to a stranger, a woman who appeared to be in be in her late forties and was pushing a baby carriage, and asked her which street I was on.

I suspect that her initial thought was that I was just another NYC street weirdo, which maybe I was, but she looked me over and seemed to come to a decision to be of assistance.  "This is 42nd Street'" she said.  I told her that I was just another tragic tourist with a hard luck tale and looking for the optical shop.  It was undoubtedly obvious that I was rattled and in a hurry, but she was a very calming soul.  She told me that she lived on 42nd Street and thought she knew where the shop was at, a block or so beyond her apartment.  As we walked, we chatted, and she started telling me life's blessings would kick in and everything would be alright.  When she reached her destination, she pointed on down the street to my ultimate destination.

I thanked her.  "I'm Rocky," I said.

"And I'm Theresa," she replied.

My very good friend from Okinawa, Nefredia, came back to the states several years ago and was a social worker in Brooklyn until her recent retirement and move to North Carolina.  She often spoke of blessings,  Theresa reminded me of her.   Such nice ladies, helpful and caring.  I was truly moved by this close encounter with a stranger.  New York City is big and noisy with plenty of interesting smells, but the streets flow wide and deep with human kindness.  

A young man in the optical shop fixed and cleaned my glasses in less than five minutes.  When I asked about the cost, he said there was no change but that I could tip, and I did.  He had been one of my blessings that Theresa had foretold.

New York, New York, it's a helluva a great town!

The Brass Teapot Comes to the Big Apple

 

by Pa Rock

Proud Papa

My primary purpose in making this trip to New York City was to see an abbreviated version of a new musical stage production of "The Brass Teapot," a work rooted in a short story of the same title that my son, Tim, wrote in 2008 and published on the Internet.  It has since been the basis of an ethics class at the University of Kansas as well as two films, a short version in which Julia Roberts' husband, Danny Moder, was the cinematographer, and a feature-length film which premiered at the prestigious Toronto Film Festival in 2012.  The feature length version has run on Showtime and has been shown several times on Prime.

Tim collected me at my hotel this morning and we walked together down 8th Avenue to the venue where his work was playing.   He said just before we got there that we had crossed over into "Hell's. Kitchen," but it all looked, sounded, and smelled just like the rest of New York City to me!

The new musical version of"The Brass Teapot" was presented twice at the New World Stages here in NYC, once yesterday and again this morning.  I was at the morning performance, and it was dynamic and flawless.   The performance was introduced by four people:   Tim (and boy were my buttons popping!), Ramaa Mosley, the co-writer and the director of the film versions, Erik Kaiko, the producer who came up with he concept for turning the work into a musical, and Chaz Cardigan, a young dynamo of a musical talent who composed the music and wrote the lyrics.

The music was wonderful and added strength and depth to the material, and the professional actors who handled the dialogue and songs were absolutely amazing.  It was a thrill to watch.  The young lady who was sitting next to me whooped and hollered at the end of every number - and I really relished her enjoyment because in addition to being an exuberant theatre fan, she is also my grand-niece, Lauren, who is a sophomore here at Barnard College of Columbia.  Lauren is involved in theatre at her school and seems to be focusing in that direction for an eventual career.   It is always so great getting to see Lauren!

I also enjoyed seeing Ramaa Mosley again.  We first met at the film festival in Toronto when "The Brass Teapot" was released.   She was holding my granddaughter, Olive, who was about a year old at the time.  (Now Olive is thirteen and almost as tall as Ramaa!)   Ramaa and I met again when she came to my town of West Plains, Missouri, in 2016 where she directed the feature film "Lost Child" which was also written by Tim, and during that trip she even visited my humble abode, as well as invited me to sit in on one of the movie's production meetings.  And now we have also connected briefly in New York City.  Ramaa, we are going to have to quit meeting like this!

I was very pleased to meet the young man who infused "The Brass Teapot" with such fantastic music.   Chaz Cardigan gave me a big hug when Tim told him who I was, and then he told me how much he liked working with my son - and his manner and attitude clearly said that his sentiment was heartfelt    Such a nice young man!

Leaving the theatre I picked some SWAG, a "Brass Teapot" tote bag with big lettering on the side.  Later while walking down Broadway on the way back to the hotel, I heard someone behind me say something about the bag that I was carrying, and then a couple stepped up beside me and the gentleman asked if I had been to the presentation and had I enjoyed it.  "Yes" I told them, and added that I had loved it. I finished with a boast about my son being the writer, and they quickly told me that their son was the music composer for the show - Chaz's parents!  We had a very nice visit on the crowded sidewalk next to Broadway, and I left feeling that meeting those nice people was the perfect ending to a very special theatrical outing.

What a grand day in the city - and it's still just early afternoon!

More later!

Gatsby Is Greater than Ever!

 

by Pa Rock

Theatre Fan

I was in line for two hours this morning at the famous notorious well known TKTS sales area which blocks Broadway at 47th Street in New York City, waiting patiently to score discount tickets for matinee and evening Broadway shows for today.  Our plan was to see the suffragette play "Suffs" in the afternoon and the old Carol Burnett classic "Once Upon a Mattress" for this evening, but with TKTS, a person has to be flexible.  I came away with a pair of evening tickets for "Once Upon a Mattress," but had to settle for "The Great Gatsby" for the matinee.  (I have read the novel of the same name by F.Scott Fitzgerald twice, and seen the two most recent movie versions of the material, so I was not expecting to be impressed by whatever Broadway was trying to achieve with a staged rendition of "Gatsby," but boy howdy was I surprised!)

The current Broadway version of "The Great Gatsby" is a helluva a good show!  The sets and special effects are amazing, the singing and dancing dynamite, the acting first-rate, and the script and original music are woven together in such a way that they actually enhance and tell Fitzgerald's simple, yet complex, story in a more poignant manner than the author was able to achieve with just the printed word.

I wasn't familiar with any of the cast, but that did not hinder them from becoming, to perfection, the people that Scott Fitzgerald gave literary life to a century ago.   The players are all extraordinary actors, and each of the main characters belt out songs with enough force to  entertain passers-by on Broadway out in front of the theatre.

The production is a stunning visual experience with flappers and dandies dancing their way through the roaring twenties, classic cars driving across the stage and through the amazing sets, and even fireworks going off on stage!

It is such a damned good show.  Scott and Zelda would have loved it!

And Pa Rock certainly did!

Ellen's Stardust Diner and the TKTS Line

 

by Pa Rock

Line Member

Anything worth doing is worth standing in line to do, or some such horseshit.

The streets of New York are loud, and crowded, and almost totally out-of-control.  Some traffic does get through, but mostly it is just snarls of vehicles blowing their horns, with the occasional emergency vehicles inching by  blaring their sirens - and all the while people crossing against the lights, jaywalking, and zipping by on mopeds, electric bicycles, and motorized skateboards.  If you are old and frail and trip over trash on the sidewalk, or a beggar, you are likely to be ground into a grease spot by the herds of pedestrians who are searching for their hotel, or a place to eat, or just the meaning of life.

And lines!  God Almighty, there are lines everywhere!

Last night we stood in line at Ellen's Stardust Diner for about an hour waiting to relive old memories with a meal in  in fun atmosphere served by the singing waitstaff. The last time I had been there was fifteen years ago and it was really a memorable experience - but last night, not so much.     The place was more crowded and less appealing than my memories had led me to expect, and loud, golly damn was it loud!  The food was less than memorable this time around, and so was the entertainment.  But a meal's a meal.

We also stood in line on the sidewalk to get into "Our Town" yesterday, and that was worth the wait.  Today I sat in line for two hours on a marble bench at the infamous TKTS stand in order to get discount tickets for shows this afternoon and tonight.  The good news was I got there early and was first in line.  The bad news was that as the booths were ready to open, suddenly there was a fast-pass line that opened next to me and I had to wait for the special people to go through.

Standing in lines is part of the price you pay for certain rewards in life, I understand that.  But lines should be fair.  

After finally getting served in the TKTS line, I came away with tickets for "The Great Gatsby" this afternoon, and "Once Upon a Mattress" tonight.  Anxious to see both.

Tomorrow morning is Tim's production/workshop of a portion of the new musical version of "The Brass Teapot," the purpose of my trip to New York City.  That will be the highlight of the trip.  Go, Tim!

More later.

New York, New York! It's a Helluva Town!

 

by Pa Rock

Weary Traveler

It's been a long day already, and there is still quite a bit of daylight left to burn.  Everyone at Carla's house was up by 2:30 a.m,  and by 6:30 a.m we were in the air headed toward the Big Apple.  We rode in on Delta.   I am not a Delta fan ever since they stole the price of a KC to Boston round trip from me during the pandemic.  Today we got a deal and flew First Class on a small commuter jet - the price of the ticket were about the same as regular tickets.  Of course, it all evened out in the wash because the only extra that came with the First Class ticket was a seat that was a little more comfortable than a regular seat - no piping-hot breakfast, mimosas, or warm towels to wash our dirty hands and faces.  A protein bar and a small glass of tired orange juice was the extent of the pampering.

Delta Airlines, you still suck!

The cab ride from LaGuardia to our hotel, the Edison in the theatre district, was memorable.  Our driver, a Jewish man in his forties, was very verbose and entertaining and pointed out some of the sights as we worked our way into town.  He had a degree in education, but came from a family of cabbies and decided that is where the big bucks are at.  He must be doing alright because twelve years ago he was trying to decide between buying a sports car or spending a month in Greece, and decided to do both!

We arrived at the hotel at about 10:00 in the morning, but could not check into our room until 3:00 p.m., so we sought out a diner recommended by some of the hotel staff.  The food was lousy, but on the way back to the hotel we stopped by the Ethel Barrymore Theatre to see about getting tickets for a contemporary version of "Our Town."  I love "Our Town," a great play by Thornton Wilder.  Tim and I were in a production of that play at Crowder College many years ago.  I was Doc Gibbs, and he was Walter, the newspaper editor's son.

The man in the box office sold us two front row seats for this afternoon's matinee, and we have just recently gotten back to our room from that outing.  Front row is not ideal seating at the Barrymore because the patrons are close enough to the stage to rest their feet on it should they take the notion, but it was a great experience, nevertheless.  Richard Thomas (John Boy Walton) played the role of the newspaper editor, and Katie Holmes was his wife.  Jim Parsons (Sheldon from "the Big Bang Theory") was the stage manager.   When Parsons took his curtain call at the end of the production, if he had reached out his hand - and I had reached out mine from where I was sitting, we could have easily shaken hands.

Our room at the Edison is on the 6th floor and overlooks the front of the theatre where "Our Town" is playing.

Fun times!  We may catch one more show tonight.  Also talking about trying to have our evening meal at Ellen's Stardust Diner if we can get in.  That was one of my favorite stops during my only other trip to NYC.

More later!

Off on Another Adventure!

 

by Pa Rock

Traveling Fool

Today I am on the road heading to suburban St. Louis, Missouri, to meet up with Carla, a close friend from college in the 1960’s.   Carla and I lost contact for quite a few years after graduating from what was then called Southwest Missouri State College in Springfield, Missouri.  Today it is known as Missouri State University.  We reconnected fifteen years or so ago when we helped to sponsor a college trip to New York City in January of 2009. We were there when Captain Sullenberger landed his passenger jet in the East River.
 
That was my first and only trip to the Big Apple, but Carla has been a couple of times since.  Tomorrow morning we will be boarding a flight in St. Louis to revisit that amazing city.  The primary purpose of this trip will be to see a portion of a stage play that my son, Tim, has been working on.  The play is being workshopped at a large New York City theatre and presented to theatre professionals and potential backers.  I was able to see the entire play performed in Chicago this past July - and it's a good one - a musical version of "The Brass Teapot," based on the movie of the same name - which was based on a short story that was written by my very talented son!
 
Carla and I hope to see some Broadway plays while we are in NYC.  On our last trip we saw five plays in seven nights, including Lin Manuel Miranda starring in his first Broadway production “In the Heights” – back in the days before his other smash hit, “Hamilton.”   We also attended a taping of "The David Letterman Show” and were outside of ‘The Today Show” at 30 Rock where we mugged of the cameras and waved to our friends back home.  Then there was the boat ride around the Statue of Liberty, the visit to Ellis Island, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, dinner at Tavern on the Green in Central Park, a visit to the “Strawberry Fields” memorial in Central Park, and aggravating the doorman at the Dakota trying to get him to show us where John Lennon was shot – which he finally did.  
 
This time we hope to see a few more plays and explore some of the places that we missed on the last trip.   As luck would have it, Game One of the World Series between the New York Yankees and the Los Angeles Dodgers will be played in New York City on Friday night – our last night in town.  That should add even more excitement to our adventure!
 
We had a great time in New York City in January of 2009, and I am sure that this trip will also be memorable.  I will be posting updates from the trip in this space, so check back!