What the Movies in the Twentieth 
Century  Have Done to People

I'm addressing this blog to the people who went to the movies in the 40's, 50's, 60's and 70's.  You remember Alan Ladd, John Garfield, Van Johnson, Montgomery Cliff, Clark Gable, etc. and the women - Veronica Lake, Betty Grable, Lauren Bacall, Olivia DeHaviland, Rita Hayworth, etc.  Most of the leading men were short and had to either wear shoes with elevated heels or stand on a box.  The women had flawless complexions, beautiful hair, sculptured eyebrows and perfect hairdoes.  Why?  Was it to make you believe that the world was like this or that you couldn't be successful in love, a career or just be liked unless you too were beautiful and tall and slim.  The leading men and women were perfect in figure - the women slim and the men muscular.  Then television came along and the producers tried to keep the same pattern going but there were just too many shows on tv to film everybody perfectly.  But they tried.

Now, more people who are not the usual beauties can be seen on television and this is a very good thing.
One does not have to be beautiful to be loved, to find a mate and live happily ever after.  In fact, if you meet a person who appears to be less than beautiful but they have a beautiful soul, the beauty of their soul will take over and you will begin to see the beauty in their faces and bodies.  The modeling industry has tried to convince young girls that they have to starve themselves to be acceptable as a model and this has been a terrible disservice to young women all over the world.  Be yourself, be a good person and your beauty will shine through.

The Cleaning Woman

When will we wake up and realize that we are paying for the privilege of watching commercials on television. These commercials try to sell everything from drugs that could cause lymphoma and/or cancer to cereals that will make you slim. We see smarty pants lady selling drugs that help you clean out your bowels to a commercial that tells us “it won’t make you go, it will just make it easier to go. Go where???? Wouldn’t it be better if they brought back the commercials for rum, whiskey and beer.

We pay probably a hundred dollars or more a month for our cable programming and we are subject to so many commercials that we could go into the kitchen, fry some eggs and come back with your plate and the commercials are still on. Why do we allow this to continue? It wouldn’t be so bad if the shows were new, ones we haven’t seen before, but, there are about 4 new shows and 500 reruns. We’ve seen them all, know exactly what will happen next and yet we sit in front of that boob tube and watch these reruns that we are paying to see. We need an Occupy Television Headquarters.

What about these republicans running for the nomination! By the time the candidate is selected we will know All the dirty news about him/her. And where will we get this information? From the Republicans themselves. The Democrats won’t have to do a thing. Obama will get back in without attacking any one.

Please God, keep us out of war with Iran, war with Pakistan, war with China, etc. etc. We are worn out with wars. We have to close down schools, lay off teachers, fire personnel, police personnel, nurses, pay less money to doctors, close down health centers, etc. etc. but we can build more Drones, tanks, guns, bombs, etc. and, when they are out of date we can sell them to our enemies to make war with the U.S.

Talking about schools – merit pay for teachers??? Doesn’t anyone other than principals and teachers realize that the teacher who can handle the disruptive student gets them all in her/his classroom? When it’s time for testing, they fill in any circle so they can get done. How would that teacher ever be entitled to merit pay?

I have to stop now. I have dusting, mopping and vacuuming to do and I have to do it at night when everyone else is asleep.

MAGGI--OUR PERSONAL GPS GUIDE

By Betty Lou

I’m sure that many drivers have purchased and used a GPS in order to locate vacation spots, friends’ homes, the location of businesses, etc. etc. The TomTom we have is a gift from the aliens who live above the skies.

The first time we used one was in England. It was to be a gift to Bob’s sister but we needed to use it before relinquishing it to Diane before we left for home.

Since we were in England, it was only natural to find a voice with an English accent and who spoke of roundabouts and motorways and the great rest stops off the motorways. Maggie spoke with such clarity in England that when we returned to the states and left her behind with Diane, we bought a new GPS that would navigate us through the North Country of New York. Maggie was gone and a woman with no accent at all and who spoke slovenly appeared on the voice. I told Bob I couldn’t understand her. I didn’t know if she said turn left or turn right or 300 yards ahead or 200 yards ahead. I asked him to please find a voice with an English accent and what luck, Maggie’s voice came in loud and clear.

I needed Maggie not only for the clarity of her voice but her immense patience with us as we made wrong turns or stopped at places she was unfamiliar with.

However, I have been thinking lately that what we think is patience is really a shutting down of the microphone while she swears and curses at our stupidity without being heard by us. How could anyone in their right mind deal with people who give her the most far out and remote sites to locate. Just the other day we were on our way to Hammond. We hadn’t heard from her in awhile and I know we were getting close to our location. I just knew she had spilled coffee on the map where Hammond was located and she had to sop it up with a sponge. When the location of Hammond was all smudged, she had to put in a call to her employer to locate Hammond for her so that she could finally relay the information to us. Just in the nick of time, she said, “Ahead, turn right.” Wow, she almost got us lost that time.

When thinking back to our trip to England I realize that the times we turned off the Motorway by mistake, she swore under her breath, “Dam fools, made the wrong turn. Now what am I going to do. They expect me to get them back on their way immediately. They can’t even wait till I have a bite of this delicious donut I just bought from the sweet shop.” If you’ve ever been to England you have to count the exits. Maggie will say, “Stay on the motorway and take the 4^th exit. Have you ever tried to count the exits when there are cars in front of you taking the first exit, the second exit, etc. It’s enough to drive you crazy. And Maggie is trying with all her ingenuity to get us on the right road. When we took the third exit by mistake, I knew she said, “Now, what the hell am I supposed to do.” That saintly woman with the patience of Job has disappeared.

Granted I’ve never heard any of this language coming from Maggie, but don’t you really think she gets exasperated with the idiots on the roadway????