"Oh, no man knows through what wild centuries rove back the rose". (De LaMare)

.....I'm afraid that the 21st Century is running away from me.  I'm a child of the 20th Century. The other day Rh+ laptop computer froze and we couldn't figure out how to shut it down, so failing everything else, we pulled the plug and after a few minutes plugged it back in again--but same result.  So I told her either to call Comcast or call in a Geek to fix it, but she did nothing about it for a couple of days.  But she was so anxious to read her email that she began frothing at the mouth like a Pit Bull.  So, in desperation she plugged it back in again & a little message superimposed on the frozen web page said that an error had been discovered and that it would be fixed. And so, the laptop went about fixing it all by itself and in about 20 minutes there was her desktop all ready for her use!  Was there a little Geek hiding in that machine, or a robot? Or a Smurf? Or Captain of the Enterprise.


.....21st Century stuff, that episode.  But then there is Facebook and Twitter and Linkup  or something of that nature; and Apps, and iPhones, and iPads and Flash Drives, and HD.  Life is complicated enough with medication and doctors' bills and .09 interest on Savings accounts that do nothing to help you cope with high food costs & mortgages (although I have no mortgage) and $3.99 a gallon for gas.  I was used to paying 5 cents for a hot dog with mustard and a Mission Orange.  When someone young asks what plane I flew in WWII and I say, a B24 Liberator, they get glassy-eyed; when they ask if I won any medals and I mention the DFC, it means as much to them as Sequester means too me. In 1940s we had no such thing as a "sequester".  Kids today never heard of a "record album" or black and white TV.  A skate key is like a dinosaur to them.  And when Orson Welles says "Rosebud" kids today think they smell a flower.

.....It's all too nerve-wracking to me. I'm cancelling my Facebook and Twitter accounts because when I go there, I have no idea what I'm doing and now I don't want anything to do with them.  Anyway, right now I am writing a script for a musical I am showing next March.  I never wrote a musical, though most everything else including a Sestina.  You can try it, but you won't succeed. The Sunday Times crossword puzzle is easier; so is running a marathon or learning to eat broccoli.  Unfortunately, while writing this musical, I must neglect my  blog, although I'll turn to it now and then as a change of pace.  I'm 89 though I can still think, but the 21st Century baffles me as well as it baffles Congress.

Those Were the Days! (and Nights, too).

Well, I'm at it again--but while I was away, I noticed that the world was passing me by; it's running away from me!  Everyone, almost everywhere is carrying phones that light up, that take pictures, that send emails or text messages using fingernails to manage the keypad, that can turn on CNN or watch a ball game like Manchester United vs. Real Madrid.  Sneakers can now be purchased for $225, especially if they are "Air Jordans".  Whatever happened to Keds selling for $3.50?  Now, there is Lady Gaga; what was wrong with Betty Boop?  Now we shop at Walmart or Target--giant stores.  What ever happened to the "Five and Ten" where you could shoplift a cheap Japanese toy with no one the wiser?

 

Insofar as music is concerned, you can turn on your car radio and listed to "rapp"--some bad poetry with music attached.  Personally, I prefer the old boombox you carried on your shoulder while listening to Billy Holiday singing "At Last my Love has come Along"; or Cab Calloway singing "Hi di hi di ho".   And I'm not keeping up with the computer technology downloading--or is it uploading, Facebook and Twitter.  It seems as if the whole world is now twittering and seeking "apps" (whatever they are!). 

 

And in the media nothing is sacrosanct anymore.  Ziva on NCIS is not even Jewish! She's Catholic from Santiago.  We now have a black President and First Lady, and Mississippi wants to secede.  Spielberg therefore made a film starring Lincoln to remind everyone about the Emancipation Proclamation.  Why not a film about Calvin Coolidge?  He was also our President.  And would you believe gas is now selling here for $4.07 a gallon!  I believe I'll retrieve my tricycle out of the attic.  I could go on, but what's the point?

GETTING OLDER SUCKS

 

 

I'm really getting angry at Nature? God? Since I got off the last cruise ship I've been attacked by a bout of pneumonia, urinary tract infection, and now COPD--one after another. And since I have been cabined, cribbed, and confined, I've decided to return to Red Baron's blog as an attempt to relieve my frustrations and depression.  I realize, of course, that I may have lost all my readers and comment tators, but perhaps I'll get them back. There's more to come, but now I think I'll go watch THE MENTALIST.