EMBLEMATIC

of a time gone by. Like so many things I notice as I get older, there are more signs emblematic of times gone by.

Hood ornaments. When's the last time you saw one? The last I can recall was the jaguar on the 2000 Jaguar.

Oh, there may be something stuck on the front of cars, but they sure aren't emblematic (Ok, I've overused that word) of anything. Maybe a cheapened logo of a company that makes parts and components in 5 different countries. Yes, that's the state of the industry today. Gone by.

Gone bye. Gone buy. They all apply; pick one.

How about the top 40? I remember when Featherstuns' in MTV reproduced the Top 40 weekly. They had a display in their store of the top ten records of the week.

Can anyone name ten songs currently on any top 10 list? I wonder why not? I wonder why when I change stations on my car radio whether FM or AM, I get a ton of oldies. Why do kids of this generation sing the songs of ours? We certainly didn't know our parents and grandparents songs. What few we did know, we didn't care for. Gone by.

Finally, remember when if you worked hard and saved you were rewarded? If you overspent or didn't save you went broke. Or before bailouts and stimulus programs? When we were capitalists instead of socialists?

Me, too. And I miss them all. To top it off, I remember when we got a hole in our jeans, we had our Moms sew them up. We certainly didn't buy them like that as they do today. (If you had any doubt about how the world has passed me by Sonny Boy, that should cement it.)

A GOOD OLD TONGUE STICK

When our son was very small and he wouldn't like reprimanded he'd stick out his tongue at us. Hopefully unnoticed. But when he was caught in the act he would respond with, "I was just airing my tongue out".

Tongue sticking is childish. But it's better than waving at someone with the middle finger. We could learn a lot from the little ones.

So my question for today is who deserves a good tongue stick or a good airing of the tongue from you today?

My list would be so long, I'm afraid, so I'll just list and only on occasion give a reason why. By the time I'm done sticking, I may need a drink because I'll be evaporated.

Those opposing Sheriff Joe, ARod, T.O., Roger Clemens, Boston Red Sox, Chicago Cubs, New England Patriots, Jerry Jones, NBA players with multiple tattoos, College Basketball Tournaments, the movies, any of the Osbournes, clouds without accompanying precip, signal-less drivers, tailgating drivers, drivers who complain about speed cameras when they allow you to go 11 miles over the limit before they ticket you, pain, suffering, unemployment, socialism, stimuli packages, politics, sand traps (how the heck you can hit a little sand trap and miss a huge green is one of life's mysteries), atheists, terrorists, thieves and other misceants, people who chew their food and talk at the same time, the new hairstyles,the new clothing styles, most of the American Idol top twelve, in fact most tv shows.

I quit. I don't feel better at all. Maybe I should go to the book of Numbers, Chapter 12, I think, where we are told not to grumble. I've always been good at that. I just stuck my tongue out and curled it back towards me. Now I feel better.