JUST WONDERING ABOUT A FEW THINGS

Why were there only protests when Bush was President? While reductions in forces have occurred in Iraq, Obama just requested several thousand more troops be sent to Afghanistan. I haven't heard or seen any calls of Facism. There's been no objections that I've heard.

Why is it when anyone disagrees with an Obama policy he is a racist? Can racists only be White?

Just at what point did the US decide we needed Czars? Are you serious.? Why not go all the way and give them the title Tsar? I just don't understand how a president who tries to distance himself from the Socialist tag can call the overseers czars. It baffles.

And when the payments cannot be made on those foreign cars Americans purchased under the Cash for Clunkers stimulus program, are the taxpayers going to bail them out?

Finally, I need an economist to tell me when the high inflation starts. I have a feeling it will. We may look back at Jimmy Carter's malaise era of 18 % inflation and long for its return. It's happened elsewhere.

Even in Socialist countries.

THE WAY I SEE IT

Michael Vick has paid his debt. I mean he did prison time. 18 out of 23 months--that's way more than most. He's apologized. He should be reinstated now, and not have to be penalized two regular season games.

I don't much agree with those running the NFL. I haven't since Tagliabue was the Commish. But the league just keeps getting better. The owners just keep making Madoff type money.

The Arizona Cardinals are now worth nearly 1 billion dollars. That's right and that's just about the average worth of NFL teams. Just five years ago they were worth half that much. Plus, if they would put the team up for sale, they would have a buyer in no time. It's that kind of business.

Still. I'm not a Vick fan. Never was. He is a talented football player, but I think one without a true professional position. There have been a ton of players like that. But he's exciting to watch; he can certainly help teams win games, and I think he'll be a great fit in Philly with McNabb.

I hope he does. I would never approve of what he did. Even cock fights sicken me. But I am a believer in giving a second chance to one who has paid his debt to society after serving his prison term. But the NFL thinks they need to deprive him the chance to make his living for an additional two weeks.

To me, that's the real crime. That and the worth of professional sports teams these days.

HOW COME UGLY IS UGLY?

Even in Spanish. Feo or Fea just plain sound bad. It's just the opposite with pretty and bonita. It's connotation, but how does it transcend languages?

How does ugly work anyway? Sophia Loren had really no pretty facial feature. Yet she was stunning looking. Others, exhibiting just one of her features on an ordinary face would turn to ugly with that display. To clarify, I mean if some Plain Jane took on Sophia's large mouth, she would no longer be plain but ugly.

Teeth are the same way. Well, kinda. If you take someone else's teeth and transposed a picture of them in your mouth, no matter how perfect they might be, you would more than likely be ugly. They just wouldn't fit your face.

So if you follow or accept my premise, then we continue with our Mr. Potato Head game of re-positioning facial features until we can define what is pretty and what is ugly.

Take moles, for instance. Cindy Crawford's and Robert Redford's. Cindy's for its wart-like appearance and location on her face. Redford's for his raised almost witch like facial moles On most anyone else, they would look terrible and warrant removal. Those two have done very well wearing them on their countenance.

So there you have it. At least part of it. Except for the following 2 statements: "She's pretty ugly." And "He's so ugly he's cute." There's just no explaining those two.

ACCORDING TO

A recent study, mowing actually relieves stress.

Now, I could have cited the study, could have given credence to it, but there are so many studies these days and so many conflicting reports on this and that, well why bother?

Do I buy it? No. Mowing was just the opposite for me.

From hand pushing the old non-power kind, to racing my speed Gravely rider around our huge yard, I ran the gamut of mowing. And the gamut of getting mowers to mow.

Briggs and Stratton is the only kind. Right. Gravely, Wheelhorse, Kuboda, Sears, it didn't matter. I couldn't get any of them to run efficiently for me. Plus, I found out you have to add oil. You have to clean the air filter from time to time.

What's wrong with not sharpening the blade? Isn't that what sticks in the yard are for?

As you can tell, mowing was stressful for me. There was always something I'd rather have been doing. The task wasn't all that bad. But I never remember courting off the days until I got to mow again either.

GOOD FENCES

Maybe because they look like teeth. Maybe because that's what I grew up with. But I like a good fence.

For the purpose of enclosure. Of separation. Of ownership. And boundaries.

On the other hand, a wall is more permanent. No see through. Seclusion. Exclusion.

Frost said it perhaps best in his poem "Mending Wall". The two neighbors separated by more than a physical boundary. One says "Something there is that doesn't love a wall." His neighbor responds twice "Good fences make good neighbors."

One place I like a wall is at a baseball park. Fences are for Little League. Now, don't ever think that there's a worse wall/fence than the plastic garbage bag wall in Minneapolis. That is just plain wrong. But then domes are, too.

I think had Robert Frost lived to see domed stadiums for baseball and football that he may have penned a poem or two about them.

So I'll try: In open air is baseball best

Likewise the orbital football.

Weather is as much a necessary part

As the plays drawn up on coaches' charts.

I think I better stop for fear of a lawsuit from some Frostian relative. But I'll take a fence over a wall. Most of the time.

ALL ABOUT MCDONALDS

He was always missing signs. Nonverbal communication signs. Hints. Some direct.

How did he know he couldn't read them? Others could and others told him.

But he had misread them, too. So he finally stopped trying to read the opposite sex. What they said, he took at face value.

Until he saw her throw her hair back. Tilt her head. Part her lips. And look up at him that way. Bedroom eyes someone once called it. There was little doubt about her intention.

She wouldn't break his gaze. She was moony eyed others called it. She was transfixed on his very being. What I mean by that is, she acted as if there was no other in the world but him. She looked long and hard.

They stood close. So close that he could smell McDonald's on her. That's right. Behind all that glamor. Beyond all those sighs and attention directed only at him, he could smell the grease. The without a doubt distinctive odor of McDonalds.

And what did that say? What did that do to him? It made him think of a Wendy's Frosty. Vanilla. Just like him.

THIS LITTLE PIGGY GOES WEE WEE SNORT SNORT ALL THE WAY HOME

What can I say to improve on this picture? Finally, a picture of talking out of both sides of his mouth(s).

Recently our youngest grandson son, while sitting up close and personal next to me, said I smelled just like his Dad.

"What does your Dad smell like?"

"Pork."

So I guess that's the smell of Father and son.

I can think of a whole lot of other things I'd rather smell like. But Nathan surely knows.

So all our attempts to disguise our true selves, to spruce, to primp a little, we've been uncovered by a six year old. We are, in fact, just a couple of porkers.