Saturday, August 6, 2011

breakfast at Burger King

       Several times a week I go eat breakfast at Burger King.  I can get a sausage biscuit and a large cup of coffee for $1.61.   Today I decided to get just a biscuit and the coffee.  Without the sausage the cost was $1.71.  Sounds like  "govment" pricing.   Next time I want just a biscuit I'll get a  sausage biscuit and feed the sausage to my dog.   As the politicians always say,  to be perfectly open and aboveboard about the situation,  although I've bought hundreds of sausage biscuits over the years,  not once did I ever not want the sausage.

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

    I wonder if children of today have to contend with the hidden world of hazzards that we faced in the 1930s and 40s as we explored the vacant lots and fields in our neighborhood.   One of the most feared creatures was a snake known as the blue runner which would chase you until you dropped.  None had ever been seen, and no one had ever been chased by one, but we knew they were there.   We also had to be on the lookout for ground puppies, creatures whose bite  (it was never clear if it  would  bite or  sting or if it was an animal or an  insect or what ) was so deadly  i t meant  instant death.   There was the ground rattler (probably a real poisonous snake) and the, still waiting   to be viewed , hoop snake--a snake that grabs its tail in its mouth and  rolles along like a wagon wheel.  We had devil horses, red bugs ( mostly the bane of girls for some unknown reason)   horn snakes, and  blood weeds (rag weeds).

     Finally, for those brave enough to go swimming in the river,  there was the risk of meeting the blind mullet.. You may not know what a blind mullet is, but if you ever see or encounter one you will reconize it at once.

Saturday, July 2, 2011

Not a dog

The reason for the name is because the name Jack Russell is thought of by the general public to be a dog by that name.   Sometimes people laugh when I tell them my name.  There are plenty of men named Jack Russell.  I looked up on the internet to see if I could find a famous person by that name but all I found was information about Jack Russell terriers.  This popular dog is not a new breed.  It was developed in 1775 by a reverend John Russell.  (I've heard that Jack is a short name for John- can't imagine why).        Being an old man and having little to do and so much time to do it in, my daughter set up this blog site so I can use up some of it.      Now if you know any old people you may notice that they like to talk about the past and i'm no exception.    Although most of what I learned in school, slipped out about as fast as it went in some remnents of learning are still there like - determanents ,  Ohms law,  Laplace transformation (what in the world is that?)    I think its some kind of math procedure.   But I can remember something important I learned when I was 3 or 4 years old.  Our neighbor had a pet cow--you could keep livestock in town in those days -we had a hog- lots of people had chickens.   Well one day the cow started bellowing, rolling on the ground and causing a fuss.  Someone watching said that the cow must have ate some wild pea vines and the vines caused her to have gas.  So I know since that day that if you feed a cow wild pea vines it will give her gas.  Evan as a small boy I was kind of doubtful about that because I had seen other animals eat  anything you gave them with no ill effects,  but never-the-less if the subject ever comes up and somebody askes me what will be the mostly likely thing to give a cow gas, without hesitation my answer will be "wild pea vines".