Cultural Musings

Another year passes. The wheel of life continues to turn.

Last week ushered in the solstice and with it memories of several friends who passed away during the sunny summer warmth of 2006. I write it here to honor their memories...all three of them young, vibrant and cut down in the prime of life.

"Jesse" ..... I miss you sweet boy and defend your honor and right to privacy even unto death. You are sorely missed by those who really mattered..... You have left your mark of beauty and kindness as a legacy and inspiration to those of us left in your wake.

Rita Annie......the neighborhood has not felt the same since your passing. I hope you found your peace in the light. I will always blame Kaiser-Permanente for senseless death ....if only they'd listened to you and ordered your tests before you were stage 4. You fought the hardest fight and stayed with us so much longer than anticipated.....Optimistically, I believed you had the will to stay alive forever. I remember and feel your spirit in the books....you know which I refer to.

Steve.......You left us only days after Rita......only none of us saw it coming and reeling with shock we cried for you, your young children and widow and the projects you would never finish. Many days I still live in the denial of your having left this world.


A new summer is upon us now. Fresh lives have come into being to renew the meaning of life, the passing of time and the creation of joy for the future.

The local newscast is ugly again.

Some dimwitted dickhead has decided his mission in life is spread misery by torturing harmless animals.

Last night some dumbfuck shot 15 baby goats amongst a herd grazing in the quiet of the Oakland Hills.

Baby Goats.

This is on the same caliber of sadistic twit who felt compelled to repeatedly run down and kill a family of tame ducks residing in the decorative pond of a San Jose carwash.

Security video captured the image of the man and his Acura engaging in his animal murderfest....too bad the image was too blurry to capture the license plate.
I can't believe it has bean nearly a year since the incident.

The Santa Clara Valley Humane Society has a reward fund of over $35,000. to find and convict this piece of shit. I can't believe NO ONE recognizes the perpetrator.

It never ceases to amaze me how one bad apple can ruin the entire bushel or in this case destroy and alienate a community of friends.

For the second times in recent years I have witnessed the destructive narcissism of one solitary individual derail a previously functioning community of amiable messageboard members.

Ironically in both instances the unraveling came following the death of a well liked person.

In the first case a King Bee ..... more recently in a different cyber world, a Queen Bee decided to exploit the tragedy to insinuate themself into the private life of the surviving friends and family.

Two years ago following a sudden tragic death, a self proclaimed King Bee held court to the rest of the messageboard as "official mourner"......not satisfied, he loudly beat his breast about the "fact" that he had been the "very best friend" of the deceased and began advising her husband and children to avoid other outsiders pretending to have been "M's" friends on the forum. This behavior understandably created a shitstorm of angry resentment - particularly from another forum member who had coincidentally known "M" in real life as a next door neighbor and interestingly, had no knowledge of any friendship existing between her deceased neighbor and the King Bee.

King Bee soon found himself in the middle of a mutinous hurricane. As he began to lose influence and attention he upped the ante by creating a Private, by invitation only message board devoted to the memory of "M" including a page sized photo image of "M" the King Bee had finagled from the griefstricken family.

Last time I looked, the King Bee had a gasping forum with few members remaining. Everyone who had loyally followed from the original board eventually got wise to his mendacity and shameless manipulations to self aggrandize and gain sympathy.


A similar dynamic has arisen on yet another forum. A self elected Queen Bee has somehow managed to keep most of her juggled lies in the air long enough to fool people who really are smart enough to know better.

The Queen Bee is really more like a wasp as she mercilessly attacks and attempts to sting to death any member who competes for the attention of celebrities, or vulnerable rich men. She jealously guards her terrritory by starting whispering campaigns against any perceived rival with viciousness that would do Karl Rove proud. Members who fail to endorse her line of "reality" are pointedly ignored or alternately stung to death by the Queen and her recruited worker bees.

In this case the Queen Bee has rewritten history to portray a deceased forum member as her "one true love" despite the fact she never met him or knew his legal name.

The Queen Bee has tried to win over the surviving family of the deceased by sharing some of her honey......honey intended to serve as sticky glue to ensconce herself into the dead man's estate and family bosom.

When no one wanted her honey she began to spew venom in its place.

Queen Bee has demanded proof of this man's existence....buzzing loudly for a copy of his death certificate! Next, accusing his family of having tricked her into giving the unsolicited honey via fraudulent means. BUZZ! Sting!

Almost a year has elapsed and the Queen Bee simply changes tactics .....lately recruiting baby bees who weren't around to remember the reality for new swarms to protect her hive of deceit and lies. Why? Why do the worker bees just accept her spin?

Jim Jones managed to convince over 900 people to drink cyanide laced Kool-aid. He was a dangerously charismatic sociopath....so is the Queen Bee.

It has been an awfully disturbing week for animal lovers.

Early this week headlines were flashing the horror of cats and dogs being struck down by a mysterious toxin believed to be in cans of tainted pet food. I rushed to discover which of the over ninety brands of pet food known to be the culprits. My heart pounded as I scanned the roster, shuddering at the names I knew....brands I have fed my dog in the past. Relief flooded me when I didn't see his current favorite among these.....but for the grace of God.
I gulped and cried for the sad-eyed, suffering little pets shown on local TV news; dogs and cats undergoing intensive care in local veterinary clinics... their tearful guilt-ridden owners telling the sad diagnoses of acute kidney failure and discouraging prognoses regarding survival of their little beloveds.

Last night I learned of the stupid and senseless cattle shootings taking place in rural Marin County. Some as yet unidentified teenagers with a handgun drove down a quiet lane to shoot a dairy cow and her two calves. There have been other mysterious cattle shootings there in recent weeks. Those ranchers are pissed and fixin' to shoot back....who can blame them?

The icing of the cake of animal horrors came to my attention today on Court TV.
Last month the 4 year old Australian Shepherd belonging to a 17 year old girl had gone missing without a trace. Around Valentines Day she found a package addressed to her on her doorstep..... inside she found valentine candies and a plastic bag containing the head of her missing pet. Police arrested the creepy 24 year old neighbor who beheaded her dog and sent it to her spitefully because she had rejected his romantic advances. Sick Fuck.

So now I pray to the angels.... for healing energy to help the poisoned pets. I pray people will thoroughly destroy any cans of the tainted food lest unknowing folks scavenge them from garbage dumpsters and feed them to other pets. Tell your friends about the toxic food....even today I heard a story of a pet owner with two sick cats who didn't believe his cats could be among the poisoned because he feeds them high-end Iams. Sadly, Iams is on the list.


I discovered a wonderful website where we can help feed shelter animals by simply clicking on the site everyday.... http://www.animalrescuesite.com/ is sponsored by advertisers who will donate .6 bowls of food to rescued and shelter animals every time a visitor to the site clicks on the food fund bar. They publish a daily tally of bowls generated by site visitors.

It is free....it is easy if you bookmark it.... and it is something concrete we can do everyday to help make a difference in the lives of abandoned and unloved animals.

Are new televisions piece of crap or do I just have bad luck with electronics?

I bought a nice 19'' Color TV back in 1984. It kept going for years and years.....about 4 years ago the color started to look a little faded so I bought a new model to replace it and gave the old fadey one to my friend's son. Replacement TV #1 kicked the bucket when it was about 18 months into warranty. My warranty as per Circuit City promised repair or replacement. So....a repairmen is sent to my house and he tells me the circuit board has been destroyed by "water damage".....I say "Huh?' because i never had anything wet anywhere near this TV. Bad news I am told is that my warranty does not cover 'water damage' so I am screwed and don't bother us for further evaluation or argument.

I went shopping for replacement TV #2 and made sure to purchase an extended in home repair warranty. This piece of electronic wizardry took a huge dump last april.....no warning , just a hiss and buzz then no picture or sound.

While covered by a warranty, I would be required to wait more than 2 weeks for the soonest repair appointment at home. ( like watching my evening television programs and I wasn't thrilled to wait weeks to watch them so I ventured out to purchase replacement #3 which would be an upgrade and I would just have an additional TV for another room.

TV #3 is a big ass 32" monstrosity that enlarges people's faces to frightening dimensions and weighs enough to kill you if it fell over .

Last night replacement TV #3 made a snap and went dark during Anderson Cooper's 360. Yeah, it is still under warranty and I can get it fixed, but I have to get a friend to help me wrestle the beast out of the way so that deposed replacement TV#2 can hold reign in my personal TV Land.

So whats the deal? Is it simply a new ideology of built in obsolescence or do I just have bad TV karma?

I had almost forgotten this blog.

I started it because friends were all doing them and they seemed like so much fun at the time. Pretty soon it I realized it gave me the same performance anxiety that I used to get when I was in school and had a paper due and no idea what I wanted to write about. I couldn't decide how much of my personal life to reveal either. If people who actually know me happen to read this will I offend them or say more than I want them to know?

I thought I could just keep this completely anonymous ....like a one-night stand. Interesting thought but then who even cares enough to bother finding or reading the blog?

I just found a nice comment left by someone named Juicy Fruit with an invitation to look at his blog. I checked it out and wanted to post a comment only it appears that there isn't anyway to leave a comment there. So I will put my comment here and maybe someday Mr Juicy Fruit will see it.

I like the name JUICYFRUIT because it reminds me of my Grandmother. She always had a pack of Juicyfruit gum in her purse. When I was small she would always offer me gum....she would pull out a stick and break it in half so we shared. She had a funny little cackle and southern accented "Half a stick is really all a person needs."

She never was far from her tube of Ben-Gay either, but for reasons known to any who have ever smelled the stuff, I don't get excited over Ben-Gay. When she died my sister and I stood over her open casket and simultaneously concluded we had failed her by neglecting to place a tube of Ben-Gay in her casket to keep her happy in the Everafter. But I digress.....

I bought one of those huge bonus packs of Wrigley Juicyfruit in its iconic bright yellow foil wrapper about a month ago. I don't know why I did....I am not a big gum chewer anymore. When I opened the pack the sweet aroma ushered me back to visions of her. Sweet memories of the most hilarious and confident woman I have ever known. Ah... the taste....nothing else in this world tastes like Juicyfruit gum. I can't even describe it. It makes me feel like a small child, but in the good way.

That bonus pack of Juicyfruit is still here at my desk with a few sticks remaining. I haven't wanted to finish them because I like to smell them and finishing the pack will end my pleasure or compel me to but another package for the sake of indulging my obsessive nostalgia.

Thanks Mr. Juicyfruit blog guy.....I enjoyed my trip down Grandma memory lane....I hope you are having a great time in your newlywed life.

I sure do love my little old chihuahua. He's at least 10 years old, but I rescued him as a full grown adult, I'll never be certain.
I talk to the little guy all the time and I don't mind if people think I'm crazy. I know he understand quite a bit of verbal language, especially since he became blind from cataracts. We just finished eating my dinner of carne asada tacos. I thought them a bit picante, but he didn't appear bothered by the bits I shared with him. Being a chihuahua, I consider him an honorary mexican descendant with an inherent privilege to partake in latin cuisine. He considers himself very important and attempts to rule the territory of my bed like a warlord. My Spanish speaking friends have dubbed him "El Rey de Cama" (translation: King of the Bed.)

When I adopted my boy, he was in a very sad state. He had just spent 4 months with his previous adoptive owner who had become tired of the dog. Apparently my boy had been terrified of the resident German Shepherd as well as the family's young children so he withdrew to his doggie bed in a small laundry room where he ventured from the safety of the bed only for food and potty outings. My boy had become quite proficient at producing menacing growls and life threatening savage snarls. Clearly the boy had been passed around from home to home and tormented consistently.

The story has a happy outcome. My doggie has gained his sense of security. He's a happy sweet little fellow now who happily greets all guests who visit. I wish he could live as long as I will.

Tomorrow when Sara comes to see us, my boy will hear her car and begin the tail wagging. Sara always talks to him in her special 'animal whisperer' manner. She likes to encourage him to roll over and show her his "frijolitos" while she scratches and rubs him. He loves her more dearly than anyone.

The gratitude of the formerly misunderstood and unloved spirit is enormous and humbling.