tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-50613322081680380592024-03-18T08:41:02.770-04:00Tilting at WindmillsRamblings of a badly aged Baby Boomer who went from
Rebel Without a Cause
to Bozo
Without a Clue
in, seemingly, the same afternoon.William Kennyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05450318295942216572noreply@blogger.comBlogger6001125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5061332208168038059.post-61981034391045012752024-03-18T00:00:00.019-04:002024-03-18T08:40:30.890-04:00The More I Know, the Less I Understand<p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Everyone has a theory for what ails us as a society. <br />Except me. I have Stephen Covey. </span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLmKcvixTyMpx8yulx1o8OJ0axB91X_u1M6dkfCwg7qVrbBW40xFp1RySQX1RDKWOBHpOH6aHFBsFjL882meL8PJ7hjC11_Hg0XgjmVmHizgH7bTexDhTiBVNWlss-qS3p4qdgUxfyxIcjx2esBDcfgI2vWyF1dw4suWKIyrXXHX-lhDhcPSUKAmPpz0o/s1333/Heart%20of%20the%20matter.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1333" data-original-width="1062" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLmKcvixTyMpx8yulx1o8OJ0axB91X_u1M6dkfCwg7qVrbBW40xFp1RySQX1RDKWOBHpOH6aHFBsFjL882meL8PJ7hjC11_Hg0XgjmVmHizgH7bTexDhTiBVNWlss-qS3p4qdgUxfyxIcjx2esBDcfgI2vWyF1dw4suWKIyrXXHX-lhDhcPSUKAmPpz0o/w510-h640/Heart%20of%20the%20matter.jpg" width="510" /></a></div><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Subject to your questions this concludes <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRrT37ruAtE&ab_channel=DonHenleyVEVO"><span style="color: red;">my briefing</span></a>.<br />-bill kenny</span></p><p> </p>William Kennyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05450318295942216572noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5061332208168038059.post-6056301342792583322024-03-17T00:00:00.001-04:002024-03-17T00:00:00.129-04:00Worth Repeating<p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">This is NOT the first time around for these thoughts, but they fit the date so here they are again. </span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: medium;">When I first offered them, I called this </span><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></span></p><h3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 22px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0.75em 0px 0px; position: relative;">With the Morals of A Bayonet Blade</h3><div class="post-header" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 10.8px; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><div class="post-header-line-1"></div></div><div class="post-body entry-content" id="post-body-4051799634645924089" itemprop="description articleBody" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 1.4; position: relative; width: 570px;"><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #333333;">This is a day that, as full of Irish heritage as I am (along with so much else (maybe more?)), I get more than a little</span><span style="color: #333333;"> </span><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0" style="color: #333333;">creeped</span><span style="color: #333333;"> </span><span style="color: #333333;">out by the</span><span style="color: #333333;"> </span><span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1" style="color: #333333;">celebrations</span><span style="color: #333333;"> </span><span style="color: #333333;">of all that is emerald even when it's not.</span></span></p><p><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">There's a claim there are more persons of Irish descent living in New York City than there are in Dublin, but I suspect that's a statement you can make without (nearly) fear of contradiction about almost every ethnicity who've come to settle here in The Land of the Round Doorknobs.</span></span></p><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Whether your tastes run from Danny Kaye singing Danny Boy to U2 through The Chieftains or <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7HHQ7kMXl7M" style="color: #29aae1; text-decoration-line: none;"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2"><span style="color: red;">Horslips</span></span></a> and how you wash down your <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bubble_and_squeak" style="color: #29aae1; text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: red;">bubble and squeak</span></a>, if you're celebrating being Irish or pretending to be Irish, or you just like to bathe with Irish Spring, I hope your day is a good one. <br /><br />When <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRKx7hd3X9k" style="color: #29aae1; text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: red;">The Gangs of New York</span></a> was making the rounds, I watched it like a deer in the headlights growing more disquieted and discomfited with each frame. Though <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">I was</span> already old enough to realize history is written by the winners and should have bee<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">n old</span> enough to know better, I learned of a past of which I had only suspected. </span></span></div><div class="post-body entry-content" id="post-body-4051799634645924089" itemprop="description articleBody" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 1.4; position: relative; width: 570px;"><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="post-body entry-content" id="post-body-4051799634645924089" itemprop="description articleBody" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 1.4; position: relative; width: 570px;"><span style="color: #333333;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuH-eZGGHSwiMT4F04W1KgeZu37VQMbgiv99jqkBAKi7fV0aqWwkkLQ1ddEnVLhAbYJ9Ov5j5BBUFG2iXgCKNzDqKv_IGNBSB75bknM4IFCm7van7FXuqLH9zJjiCyLjVODsH9rbvLJJScvkp-NpU06ob9rvVY9wP_DexQxZzqKkbX3yCseekW2n3JU8o/s410/San_Patricios%20monument.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="200" data-original-width="410" height="312" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuH-eZGGHSwiMT4F04W1KgeZu37VQMbgiv99jqkBAKi7fV0aqWwkkLQ1ddEnVLhAbYJ9Ov5j5BBUFG2iXgCKNzDqKv_IGNBSB75bknM4IFCm7van7FXuqLH9zJjiCyLjVODsH9rbvLJJScvkp-NpU06ob9rvVY9wP_DexQxZzqKkbX3yCseekW2n3JU8o/w560-h312/San_Patricios%20monument.jpg" width="560" /></a></div><br /></span></div><div class="post-body entry-content" id="post-body-4051799634645924089" itemprop="description articleBody" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 1.4; position: relative; width: 570px;"><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">For cinema, the movie had more than an inconvenient truth or two about alternatives to the 'melting pot' (myth) explanation every child received as part of her/his American history classes in grade schools across this country for most if not all of our growing-up years. (And I'm not just talking about Leo's accent.) <br /><br />Instead what more of us learned as we aged was that we have as many dirty little secrets as we have truths we hold to be self-evident (and sometimes the former is also the latter but in that <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">case </span>is always unacknowledged). </span></span><div style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">The stories of the <a href="http://www.sonofthesouth.net/leefoundation/civil-war/1863/august/new-york-draft-riot.htm" style="color: #29aae1; text-decoration-line: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span style="color: red;">1863 draft riots in New York City</span></span></a> during the Civil War were as well-known in their time as the number of leaves on a shamrock and the animus and enmity directed at 'the others' (of all stripes) is as true to this day, a century and a half later. <br /><br />So whether you're marching down that New York City Fifth Avenue today or in any of the hundreds of slightly out-of-control celebrations across the nation that we tend to use to get us closer to spring, spare a thought for the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Patrick%27s_Battalion" style="color: #29aae1; text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: red;">Battalion <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">de</span> San Patricio</span></a> five thousand miles from a home to which they could never return who became a <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Legion-Strangers-Arthur-Barlow/dp/0741474654" style="color: #29aae1; text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: red;">Legion of Strangers</span></a> to those who would have been their countrymen, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jT05670l-U" style="color: #29aae1; text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: red;">but were refused</span></a>.<br />-bill <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">kenny</span></span></div></div>William Kennyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05450318295942216572noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5061332208168038059.post-3496536520696305132024-03-16T00:00:00.055-04:002024-03-16T00:00:00.134-04:00Some Days This Stuff Writes Itself <p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">My email system(s) are so much smarter than I am-they automatically (and mysteriously as far as I can tell) can sort spam from real correspondence before I ever see it. Considering how easily distracted I am by almost everything that's probably a small mercy for me.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">After a certain amount of time, days I think, the spam folder empties itself into the trash as we roll merrily along and I remain blissfully oblivious to whatever havoc could have been unleashed by a message. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Except every once in a while my curiosity gets the better of me and I peek into the spam folder for a glimpse at what I am missing. More often than not I encounter a fragment like this from yesterday's mail harvest, "<i>I am a Beautiful
Midget girl I just need some fun.</i>" </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Good to know. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bfyS-S-IJs&ab_channel=RandyNewman"><span style="color: red;">Forewarned is forearmed</span></a>. <br />-bill kenny</span></p><p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p></o:p></p><p><br /></p>William Kennyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05450318295942216572noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5061332208168038059.post-4831251009612013332024-03-15T00:00:00.095-04:002024-03-15T00:00:00.134-04:00Far Between Sundown's Finish <p> <span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-68562140"><span style="color: red;">Haiti</span></a>, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/03/14/israel-hamas-war-news-gaza-palestine/"><span style="color: red;">Gaza</span></a>, <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2024/03/14/ukraine-war-live-updates-latest-news-on-russia-and-the-war-in-ukraine.html"><span style="color: red;">Ukraine</span></a>, <a href="https://www.rfa.org/english/news/uyghur/thailand-uyghurs-03112024055040.html"><span style="color: red;">Uyghurs</span></a>, and the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3U5LEzTCJQ&ab_channel=TheByrds-Topic"><span style="color: red;">refugees on the unarmed road of flight</span></a>.</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivyMsAOnOxvX3K16Ag1lFO1qjSYMbAy6PND8uKT1WIQ3ru00qRqGKKomGsM5E6qJSJsEjy-AimXNqZTmQhqBBWiokGqxsbBAQBX1678GCPTit9kBKw4lNQRNHwbBEq-sLENaD_hJm49o3XS-yyvxVkkOf2fj6PIrNa5HBo9wFe0Hbh5azyIfSQ0ZYdiHY/s474/ferlinghetti%20sleep%20of%20the%20well-fed.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="313" data-original-width="474" height="433" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivyMsAOnOxvX3K16Ag1lFO1qjSYMbAy6PND8uKT1WIQ3ru00qRqGKKomGsM5E6qJSJsEjy-AimXNqZTmQhqBBWiokGqxsbBAQBX1678GCPTit9kBKw4lNQRNHwbBEq-sLENaD_hJm49o3XS-yyvxVkkOf2fj6PIrNa5HBo9wFe0Hbh5azyIfSQ0ZYdiHY/w561-h433/ferlinghetti%20sleep%20of%20the%20well-fed.png" width="561" /></a><br /><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Here in the Land of the Round Doorknobs, the rest of the world is just low-voltage noise that we pay close to no attention to. Instead, we're outraged when <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2024/02/16/business/gas-prices-inflation/index.html"><span style="color: red;">gasoline prices</span></a> are more than a dollar a gallon as the Founders intended. We have a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/13/technology/tiktok-ban-law-congress.html"><span style="color: red;">Congress that bans TikTok</span></a> but doesn't have the balls to do the same for assault weapons. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">And we're sleep-walking to a national election in November where one of the major parties' presumptive nominees is currently facing <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2LbtTggWhM&ab_channel=BloombergPodcasts"><span style="color: red;">multiple and more felony counts</span></a> on various charges and has been found guilty of sexual assault and stealing from his own charitable foundation. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bET_OGhQxjE&ab_channel=DavidCrosby-Topic"><span style="color: red;">Of Thee I Sing</span></a>.<br />-bill kenny</span></div><br /><p><br /></p>William Kennyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05450318295942216572noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5061332208168038059.post-51674113827584542822024-03-14T00:00:00.041-04:002024-03-14T09:13:15.315-04:00Talk about Fear of Flying<p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">I came across a story the other day in my local newspaper and laughed, for a moment, until I started to think about all the times I've flown and how many times I might have been involved in a similar situation and never realized it. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Luck of the Irish perhaps? Not helping calm me down, if you didn't already know this, is I hate to fly. </span><span style="font-family: arial;">And</span><span style="color: red; font-family: arial;"> <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/airline-news/2024/03/11/pilots-asleep-flight-plane-indonesia-batik-air/72929170007/"><span style="color: red;">this pair</span></a></span><span style="font-family: arial;"> are now yet another reason why.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">At least their airplane was larger than the one that flew me from Philadelphia to Groton-New London Not Quite International Airport all those years ago, where every passenger (all ten of us) had both a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-WemyIbgJQ&t=23s&ab_channel=Toyota702"><span style="color: red;">window and an aisle</span></a> seat.<br />-bill kenny</span></p>William Kennyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05450318295942216572noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5061332208168038059.post-46356292485553713962024-03-13T00:00:00.352-04:002024-03-13T00:00:00.150-04:00A Penny, or Perhaps More, for Your Thoughts<p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">We're about to enter the most serious time on the municipal calendar, the annual deliberations and processes that produce a city budget. I've been a Rose City Resident for over thirty years but while the actors in speaking parts may change, the movie really and rarely does. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">We all want 'nice things': good schools, paved streets, excellent public safety and infrastructure, as well as hope that somehow despite the increases in prices we see every day on every store shelf, the goods and services delivered by our local government will somehow cost less this coming year than they did this one. Spoiler alert: Guess what won't happen again this budget season? </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">We can feign surprise, unhappiness, and even anger but we want what we want, and it has to be paid for. Historically, humans formed government early on as a means of creating a collective (defense) to provide for individuals and we've just merrily rolled along ever since. When times were/are good, everyone smiles, and when times get tough we become unpleasant. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Perceptions of reality are reality. For every chart and index you can show me that says we are living well (albeit also well beyond our means), I can produce one that says never have so many had so little while so few have so much. And we're both right. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Sadly, until relatively recently we've been able to muddle along and compromise for something we thought was the greater good but now for lots of reasons I don't pretend to understand we prefer argument to agreement and seek to blame one another for circumstances we very much do control.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Nationally, I fear we listen too much to people on all sides of the aisle who claim government no longer works and, when elected, set about proving their own point. Locally, we have far more in common than what separates us, putting us more or less in the same boat (in all three rivers); it's usually more a question of how much we're willing to pull together on any given oar on any given day to get us to land every fiscal year. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">We'll read it again real soon enough in newspapers and on social media platforms, 'this is a difficult budget season that requires hard choices,' or words to that effect. Of course it is, governance is hard work and we're lucky to have friends and neighbors willing to help do it. All the budget babble is code for having to choose between what we want and what we want <u>right now</u>.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Proving perhaps God does have a puckish sense of humor, our City Manager will offer his first draft of a budget on<a href="https://www.norwichct.org/198/Budgeting"><span style="color: red;"> April 1</span></a>. I know, April Fool's Day, though I don't think any of us will assume he is joking. Before we get to that point on the calendar, maybe a read-through of our current budget, <a href="https://www.norwichct.org/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/1305"><span style="color: red;">adopted last June</span></a>, will help give us a sense of perspective and proportion. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">You'll find a schedule of <i>all</i> the hearings for <i>all</i> the departments <a href="https://www.norwichct.org/AgendaCenter/City-Council-Elected-9"><span style="color: red;">here</span></a>. All hearings will be live on the public access TV channel as well as available on the city's website for review. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">You may have read recent news stories on the </span><a href="https://www.theday.com/local-news/20240301/norwich-grand-list-up-33-after-property-revaluation/#comment-68767" style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: red;">33% increase in the city's grand list</span></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"> which at first read is astonishing except we had a city-wide reassessment so this year's budget formulations will be even more fraught with anxiety and concern as mill rates are recalibrated and need-to-haves and nice-to-haves, struggle for pride of place in the final calculations. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">This is a year for stubby pencils and open minds and hopefully, more consensus than contention. All of us need to commit to the idea that g</span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #222222;">overnment supports programs delivering the best quality, most necessary, and lowest cost public services for our collective good. </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0kcet4aPpQ&ab_channel=PinkFloyd"><span style="color: red;">And nothing else</span></a><span style="color: #222222;">.</span><br /><span style="color: #222222;">-bill kenny</span></span></span></p><p><br /></p>William Kennyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05450318295942216572noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5061332208168038059.post-53410890719964324812024-03-12T00:00:00.042-04:002024-03-12T00:00:00.147-04:00My Fair(est) Lady<p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span data-dcy-id="0.9739384862042626" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">I've never been a hockey fan-actually, never much for ice skates. We have a beautiful </span><a href="https://rosegardenicearena.com/" style="background-color: white; text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: red;">Ice Rink</span></a><span data-dcy-id="0.29494021348157506" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"> in Norwich that we went to when our children were younger (and so were we come to think of it) but I don't think I've been in it for the last two decades or so. It's me, not them.</span></span></p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span data-dcy-id="0.6378823064740322" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">Back to the hockey. The first time I saw her she was wearing a </span><a href="https://www.nhl.com/sabres/" style="background-color: white; text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: red;">Buffalo Sabres</span></a><span data-dcy-id="0.40401918247070956" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"> hockey jersey, a souvenir, so to speak (as I was to learn) from an earlier relationship. (I'm fine with the memory because I got the girl in the jersey.) To be honest, if the Sabres, or any hockey team had looked as good in their jerseys as she did in this one, I'd have become a huge fan of the struggles to capture </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanley_Cup" style="background-color: white; text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: red;">Lord Stanley's cup</span></a><span data-dcy-id="0.35403348136448143" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"> years earlier.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"></span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><span data-dcy-id="0.9557375608839476" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">She was tall, taller than I, thin, with long straight hair. I had seen her in a club Chris and I went to in Frankfurt am Main's </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sachsenhausen_(Frankfurt_am_Main)" style="background-color: white; text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: red;">Sachsenhausen</span></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"> district and this was later and we were at another place, "Old Smuggler's", beyond the Hauptwache near the Eschenheimer Tor district.</span><br /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><span data-dcy-id="0.9245893182493452" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOjvs8gMGLIBLH7wdHYgZ49rKUhdM4CtvXj0VFqkkQ5SIgci8q9Gb1qY-wSTyqG68LydpFEBhQ3GwuF2OsJXo-CPUDSYlgAlLEqDkniNt9jVtpmeyMP2IgZH6TcivtPpYu8lnipr-6QCnp0tHqKl9Bj7iBpbv3PUvjJfUAKan6S8R510nSvVAoaEAldLI/s400/sigrid%20in%20my%20ring.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="259" data-original-width="400" height="259" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOjvs8gMGLIBLH7wdHYgZ49rKUhdM4CtvXj0VFqkkQ5SIgci8q9Gb1qY-wSTyqG68LydpFEBhQ3GwuF2OsJXo-CPUDSYlgAlLEqDkniNt9jVtpmeyMP2IgZH6TcivtPpYu8lnipr-6QCnp0tHqKl9Bj7iBpbv3PUvjJfUAKan6S8R510nSvVAoaEAldLI/w400-h259/sigrid%20in%20my%20ring.jpg" width="400" /></a><br /><br /></div>She was, and is, so beautiful, I forgot to breathe and the moment I saw her I <em>knew</em> I would marry her. I didn't know her name, know how to meet her, or know anything about her but <u>I knew I would marry her</u>.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"></span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><span data-dcy-id="0.7592782346663152" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">I'm not a person with a strong religious faith (me, not Him) but by the time we got engaged forty-seven years ago on Palm Sunday (the 3rd of April it's engraved in my wedding ring), I came to believe that it wasn't, and couldn't be. coincidence or happenstance that had crossed our paths.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"></span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><span data-dcy-id="0.4917411948131889" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">I cannot conceive of how wretched my life would be without her--how, in a hundred different ways every day, everything I do and everything I am is because of her. </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQa1-DqOkQk" style="background-color: white; text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: red;">She almost makes the day begin</span></a><span data-dcy-id="0.33580111088996856" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">. Happy Birthday, Angel Eyes</span></span><br /><span data-dcy-id="0.33580111088996856" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial; font-size: 13.2px;">.</span>William Kennyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05450318295942216572noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5061332208168038059.post-65318815114246426012024-03-11T00:00:00.025-04:002024-03-11T00:00:00.253-04:00Yes, Please. <p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Where was <a href="https://www.foodandwine.com/campbells-grilled-cheese-tomato-soup-flavor-8605028?utm_source=GetTheElevator.com&utm_medium=email"><span style="color: red;">this</span></a> on those cold winter days, not just of my long-ago childhood but of recent weeks? </span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUnFQ9eXEPg-zSeWSR8kN24vvxRq-Je_EIGsqhsI4CvH-I4OBi05BJeBCPhMwSbrWKQaV84CopTSOYgOId2ouKUhlLdDrYjj-sz43BsiZNVKcvja4_qsckhLNkywwAKBj5941ib_hTHV_JHKCGn1PtirerlcwEfhz4_gFDaPIxlDaIawRsDQ_-jPcUmbI/s604/campbells%20grilled%20cheese%20soup.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="537" data-original-width="604" height="356" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUnFQ9eXEPg-zSeWSR8kN24vvxRq-Je_EIGsqhsI4CvH-I4OBi05BJeBCPhMwSbrWKQaV84CopTSOYgOId2ouKUhlLdDrYjj-sz43BsiZNVKcvja4_qsckhLNkywwAKBj5941ib_hTHV_JHKCGn1PtirerlcwEfhz4_gFDaPIxlDaIawRsDQ_-jPcUmbI/w400-h356/campbells%20grilled%20cheese%20soup.png" width="400" /></a></div><p></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Yes, maybe it's not heaven in a bowl, but I, for one, say, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWm4kMwkBPc&ab_channel=CiscoHouston-Topic"><span style="color: red;">give it a chance</span></a>!<br />-bill kenny</span></p>William Kennyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05450318295942216572noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5061332208168038059.post-49436962457870487472024-03-10T00:00:00.015-05:002024-03-10T00:00:00.133-05:00Rise and Shine <span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">If you have recently risen from bed and are slightly out of step with the rest of us, perhaps you failed to advance the clocks in your house before retiring</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">. If it's of any consolation, you are not probably alone. Some of us deal with the annual 'spring forward/fall back' routine better than others. </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">To me, it's another way we're separate from all the other lifeforms on the planet. Animal, vegetable, mineral, most everything else adapts to the 'gets dark later/gets bright earlier' hot and cold parts of life on the Big Blue Marble, but not us. We impose, or attempt to, ourselves on our environment and surroundings.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">We create a concept we call "time" and then work on its division into seconds and minutes that added together we call hours and then gather twenty-four of them (no other species does, aside from the </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDO5ea8MwgY" style="background-color: white; color: #cc6611; text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: red;">rabbit in Through the Looking Glass</span></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">), pronouncing that to be a day.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">We then line up a bunch of days into something we call a week, combining them in various clusters of varying lengths called months concluding here, my dear, with that which we call a year. Not bad for bi-peds with big brains and opposable thumbs (and basic cable).</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">For the next couple of days, most of us will be out of sorts and/or out of sync and will blame it on shifting of those damn clocks. I'm not sure that's valid for anyone other than the people working the 11 to 7 overnight shift (who had an hour shaved off their day today, but work nine and get paid for eight at some point this fall), but it sounds great and we all do it. Why we really should be ouchy and grouchy is that so few of us have a plan for what to do with the extra daylight. More's the pity.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">We could start a garden, read to a child, go for a walk, visit with a friend, spend more time with a loved one, fly a kite, ride a bike, paint a fence (or a masterpiece) or write a letter. Of course, you could say, we don't need more daylight to do </span><b style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><i>any</i></b><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"> of those things. And you're right, we don't. </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7a8VOeCeEY&ob=av2e" style="background-color: white; color: #cc6611; text-decoration-line: none;"><span data-dcy-id="0.9400074719811422" style="color: red;">So why don't we just do them</span></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">?<br /></span></span><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial;">-bill kenny </span><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></span>William Kennyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05450318295942216572noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5061332208168038059.post-45698484593961251222024-03-09T00:00:00.030-05:002024-03-09T00:00:00.245-05:00Dotard or Rapist/Racist <p> <span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">When I was a kid, politicians were all old people. </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7Iv6FqFqbpYHk0dUELnErgNGX6HZC_p60u1i2ClvCqbbrh5sxXJ6HiBKqndyerEGQ8ZkHUVLCykcD6BJiMLgQL10KtYQNmQoPZ4-MUCsRXAqwuBm0BdpTjK50TxNHHZgC91N_Wf9C73o8cAjwFFeEG_CJTCGvkCXXFlf6kRaXwG0e03A4YtyGQu_S2qs/s578/I%20wish%20this%20were%20funny%20instead%20of%20true.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="420" data-original-width="578" height="466" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7Iv6FqFqbpYHk0dUELnErgNGX6HZC_p60u1i2ClvCqbbrh5sxXJ6HiBKqndyerEGQ8ZkHUVLCykcD6BJiMLgQL10KtYQNmQoPZ4-MUCsRXAqwuBm0BdpTjK50TxNHHZgC91N_Wf9C73o8cAjwFFeEG_CJTCGvkCXXFlf6kRaXwG0e03A4YtyGQu_S2qs/w564-h466/I%20wish%20this%20were%20funny%20instead%20of%20true.png" width="564" /></a></div><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Now I'm old, and the politicians are <i><b>even</b></i> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n06f6et66NQ&ab_channel=ABKCOVEVO"><span style="color: red;">older</span></a>.<br />-bill kenny</span><br /><p><br /></p>William Kennyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05450318295942216572noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5061332208168038059.post-22326750854739331632024-03-08T00:00:00.050-05:002024-03-08T10:20:00.250-05:00Fixing a Hole <p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: arial;">I've heard them referred to as 'brain farts' or 'out of body experiences.' In German it's called 'putting Sundays on the calendar.' </span><span style="font-family: arial;">Those moments when you're here and then you're gone, right before your own eyes it seems. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">In more recent years we've often misapplied terms like Attention Deficit Disorder for something we called 'daydreaming' when we were kids. Aside from being inaccurate, it's incredibly cruel, perhaps explaining its continued popularity in some circles. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">But what if we're more complex than we ever realized. Not complicated, complex. There's a difference because there's a distinction. Situations, with apologies to Firesign Theatre, where '<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAcHfymgh4Y&ab_channel=HempsterXLM"><span style="color: red;">your brain may not be the boss</span></a>.' </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://www.wired.com/story/what-your-brain-is-doing-when-youre-not-doing-anything/?utm_source=GetTheElevator.com&utm_medium=email"><span style="color: red;">Salience and default mode network</span></a>. Hard at work, or hardly working? <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGRoSJaz-nw&ab_channel=TheBeatles-Topic"><span style="color: red;">Can't really tell</span></a>.<br />-bill kenny</span></p>William Kennyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05450318295942216572noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5061332208168038059.post-89685542969675010032024-03-07T00:00:00.001-05:002024-03-07T00:00:00.252-05:00Not Quite the State of the Union<p> <span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">But to be very clear, MY state of the Union.</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWdJ8UR5nkBHjjQr2raws5RI4uxFRXgZfR_UgZwPyETrD0cTPmKgKEZaW4K3sFCuJtAoUK222SxTlVrHR_gqTlvNNQGo7RWqa3cnuGDj_KADh3jICwhOzINVKGPf-p4vPawZT8r4fBHPV-pbYoHnLUo1OM_rTOfJgfvIwnJE5VPrGh2fNRNvMBs-2AxFM/s640/12%20Chang%20eis%20not%20a%20spectator%20spor.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="640" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWdJ8UR5nkBHjjQr2raws5RI4uxFRXgZfR_UgZwPyETrD0cTPmKgKEZaW4K3sFCuJtAoUK222SxTlVrHR_gqTlvNNQGo7RWqa3cnuGDj_KADh3jICwhOzINVKGPf-p4vPawZT8r4fBHPV-pbYoHnLUo1OM_rTOfJgfvIwnJE5VPrGh2fNRNvMBs-2AxFM/w573-h640/12%20Chang%20eis%20not%20a%20spectator%20spor.jpg" width="573" /></a></div><br /><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">If you do not change direction, you may end up exactly <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBIxScJ5rlY&t=3s&ab_channel=johnmayerVEVO"><span style="color: red;">where you're heading</span></a>.<br />-bill kenny</span></p>William Kennyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05450318295942216572noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5061332208168038059.post-75511632746091476652024-03-06T00:00:00.028-05:002024-03-06T00:00:00.260-05:00(Almost) A Walk in the Woods<p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">My timing was a little off. Either I was very late or very early in heading to Mohegan Park on our bonus day, February 29. I love to hike around Spaulding Pond regardless of the time of year though I will concede Thursday morning's cloudiness with something that felt a lot like snow and then some rain before finally some blue sky was a little more than I bargained for.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">I wasn't alone. There were a couple of us strolling, although one of us was jogging at a pretty decent pace with headphones and mirror sunglasses on, looking a little like one of those "Greetings from Transverse City" posters I always imagine movie theaters of the future will be showing. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">I'm not good at guessing ages so I assume everyone I passed and with whom I did the nod and smile greet shuffle was about my age, plus or minus a decade. In my defense, we were all sort of bundled up against the wind, except for The Jogger who was in what seemed to be an electric blue Lycra running suit (probably visible from space). </span></p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5Mbz6HY174xkdWKmKorSTGq5dvXZeSUSLqo6Q2RPT1ZOo-d0ySK8yI3_8Pdwvg1K53w8AlGfKLFjhQKpGr1TtVMIFXCdvCpauJjoCc9-23p8nAWryYKkoHfWBkrlSM34tENQjFMNY7IugEXaC4f0xBVps65D8k9E8KQZYm1M_GoyfFCAgKqqTCBoX71U/s3055/20211019_115909-01.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1593" data-original-width="3055" height="334" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5Mbz6HY174xkdWKmKorSTGq5dvXZeSUSLqo6Q2RPT1ZOo-d0ySK8yI3_8Pdwvg1K53w8AlGfKLFjhQKpGr1TtVMIFXCdvCpauJjoCc9-23p8nAWryYKkoHfWBkrlSM34tENQjFMNY7IugEXaC4f0xBVps65D8k9E8KQZYm1M_GoyfFCAgKqqTCBoX71U/w581-h334/20211019_115909-01.jpeg" width="581" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: x-small;"><b>Souvenirs and memories</b></span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">The great thing about Mohegan Park, even on a day in February we only have every four years, is you can inhale nature and exhale something a lot closer to tranquility than when you parked the car. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Even a geezer like me, slightly shivering when on the shady side of the Spaulding Pond walk, can smile when I catch a glimpse of one of the turtles near the pavilion that's balanced on one of the branches floating in the water and is working on its tan even though it's all shell. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">I carry a handful of peanuts in my jacket pocket and am always on the lookout for chipmunks. We feed the squirrels at my house but I've yet to see a chipmunk in my neighborhood, so I make sure to pack provisions when headed to Mohegan Park. I love how you can hear them, and the squirrels and I have no idea what other small animals crashing around in the underbrush on the far side of the walk, where the flora and fauna reclaim the park. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">I wasn't the only one who stopped, looked, and listened as chipmunks, more a brown blur with a black and white stripe than anything else, rushed from one side of the walk to the other. The one I managed to interest in a peanut popped it in its cheek like it had been doing it professionally for years, causing me as I always do, to wonder how they know they can eat peanuts (perhaps the better question might be what can't they eat).</span></p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeKdVHqXmmjef2PuPsdW8DPSgcpTK3EdVXTiLzvtX7DeVBCsVVvCA1K0nILjUNNeAJPsf_0QQ1VFUWALV_bey46bLkWOFXC7Zpr_knUGPArCTUg7IVYiQ4mKfgFw3C0oL8Gq4jfwEMgpWMET6DO26c410eFwCOnZYT4tWnkecH9XQAbW-RE9vnOEgLdVk/s3095/PSX_20211019_180854.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1877" data-original-width="3095" height="388" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeKdVHqXmmjef2PuPsdW8DPSgcpTK3EdVXTiLzvtX7DeVBCsVVvCA1K0nILjUNNeAJPsf_0QQ1VFUWALV_bey46bLkWOFXC7Zpr_knUGPArCTUg7IVYiQ4mKfgFw3C0oL8Gq4jfwEMgpWMET6DO26c410eFwCOnZYT4tWnkecH9XQAbW-RE9vnOEgLdVk/w580-h388/PSX_20211019_180854.jpg" width="580" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: x-small;"><b>From a warmer walk</b></span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">The playground was deserted-not that it should be surprising under overcast skies with temperatures hovering just above freezing. And when you go to Mohegan, off-season- so to speak, it's refreshing to see all the conifers that normally get overwhelmed by the leaves of all the other trees but on a crisp and cold day more winter than approaching-spring they stand out as their glistening green branches help remind me that the wheel of seasonal change is slowly turning in my favor. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">On Thursday, the birds outnumbered the people and were quite pleased with themselves as I walked the shore of the pond, looking, I suspect, like so many others for a sign however faint that better days are coming our way. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGT4V6JmINA&t=17s&ab_channel=8wrcevo"><span style="color: red;">I already know where I will spend them</span></a>.<br />-bill kenny </span></p>William Kennyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05450318295942216572noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5061332208168038059.post-81720020282854026112024-03-05T00:00:00.047-05:002024-03-05T00:00:00.134-05:00Not All Super Heroes Wear Capes<p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">For a winter that hasn't been especially ferocious in these parts, it has been savage enough when I look at passing faces, or even at my own in the mirror. Every corner turned seems to present a new unhappiness a whole new 'thoughts and prayers aren't going to fix this shit' moment and all you can do is flounder on and hope for a respite somewhere in the cacophony of chaos that seems to be enveloping us at every level. </span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdmrUx2K_B5V1PvbfqJ_9DLz368ThZn2vnqKwzaLI9VmYfaZn0isYjEgYgnR8hlXWvL3LbGtThz5JxYklcBbv5Erady0K0SaqOC5Ri97T-x1oy8bHGkxmxuSBTu-39hGAPGDr3WZUXbJQLispHVBi0RjmtiC4YZXqxNcQzKkCHXfXK_Vob9He0rgNX6vw/s1080/How%20to%20save%20a%20life.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1080" height="623" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdmrUx2K_B5V1PvbfqJ_9DLz368ThZn2vnqKwzaLI9VmYfaZn0isYjEgYgnR8hlXWvL3LbGtThz5JxYklcBbv5Erady0K0SaqOC5Ri97T-x1oy8bHGkxmxuSBTu-39hGAPGDr3WZUXbJQLispHVBi0RjmtiC4YZXqxNcQzKkCHXfXK_Vob9He0rgNX6vw/w549-h623/How%20to%20save%20a%20life.jpg" width="549" /></a><br /><br /></div><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;">I used to pray for God to send me a Big Gesture but I've given up on prayer and know I'll settle for an appreciative nod and a smile. I don't know about you but I'm nearing the end of my rope and already know there's not enough still left to tie a knot in it and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjVQ36NhbMk&ab_channel=thefrayVEVO"><span style="color: red;">hang on a little more</span></a>.<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;">-bill kenny </span><p></p>William Kennyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05450318295942216572noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5061332208168038059.post-1924876486662131962024-03-04T00:00:00.001-05:002024-03-04T00:00:00.142-05:00Greetings from Selectric Ladyland <p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">For very close to fifty years, at least five days a week every week (seemingly) my whole life to that point, I dressed up to go to work and traveled someplace where I joined with others who were doing the very same thing and we exchanged our time and talents for money to buy cars and houses and nice things for our families, and sometimes a variety of herbs and other botanicals to quiet the voices inside wondering why we were doing it at all.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">We were grown-ups. The thing as kids we couldn't wait until we were old enough to be and it turned out it was all a con and some of the least fun I have ever had with my clothes on. It took the Contagion, COVID-19, to force us as a society to rethink 'work,' not the why we do it but the how. Good news if you were a shareholder in Zoom technology, that's for sure. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">And a windfall in terms of a research grant to every social scientist with a theory on how much farther we could go each all alone than collectively in an employment environment and now we've told ourselves the worst has passed (though I'm not so sure of <a href="https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#datatracker-home"><span style="color: red;">that</span></a>), You didn't know they had a play at home game, did you? There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">And in much the same way as no one enters the same river twice because both they and the river have changed, the return to the office looked like some of the old ways in the old days but the instruments have changed if not the music itself. This is why stay-at-home <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YsN_PRrXcwU&ab_channel=BostonTypewriterOrchestra"><span style="color: red;">never sounded as sweet</span></a>.<br />-bill kenny</span></p><p> </p>William Kennyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05450318295942216572noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5061332208168038059.post-78424569181229680002024-03-03T00:00:00.064-05:002024-03-03T09:37:28.463-05:00Auto Biography<p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">We have subscriptions to Acorn TV and Brit Box so I spend a lot of time watching television from beyond our shores. I love the settings, the plots, the accents, and, of course, the cars. But I've always idly wondered why we and they drive on opposite sides of the road. (I've also wondered why French cars seem to all have yellow headlights but I've decided eating snails may affected their vision. Truth to tell I have no idea.)</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">But the Brits and us and steering wheels that's an entirely different kettle of fish. We should, I have learned, be blaming <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/02/business/why-americans-drive-on-the-right-and-the-british-on-the-left/index.html"><span style="color: red;">Conestoga</span></a> wagons. Seriously. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">So, here's my question: When driving through the Chunnel, connecting Folkstone, United Kingdom with Coquelles, France, at what point do drivers change sides? Okay, <a href="https://www.rac.co.uk/drive/travel/driving-in-europe/channel-tunnel/"><span style="color: red;">trick question</span></a>. And speaking of imponderables, do <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwTqC2T6q4E&t=10s&ab_channel=AndrewBoynton"><span style="color: red;">penguins have knees</span></a>?<br />-bill kenny</span></p>William Kennyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05450318295942216572noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5061332208168038059.post-41898704614184213882024-03-02T00:00:00.040-05:002024-03-02T00:00:00.149-05:00What a Wonderful World<p></p><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: medium;">"Now I don't claim to be an A student,</span></span></div><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><div style="text-align: center;">But I'm trying to be.</div><div style="text-align: center;">For maybe by being an A student baby,</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">I can win your love for me." </span> </div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRp6Vx_sD7VAgPxBxTyHhoHJjAXpLkK72q_sQh5UHnYtQZ891pydKNlZYQC5lW7CwM3fMm506t9eBSQLglkTPwZ8kkiI5OeaVMX-kK-e7OJOuZDpKa_BEFyVfHvQQcaxDCGfeJnrctI7MOu-Fal6Rp6V17uzUO_cT1O1CU-hQ5WzZbUCaP4-l46q4fnbg/s602/sigh.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="393" data-original-width="602" height="418" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRp6Vx_sD7VAgPxBxTyHhoHJjAXpLkK72q_sQh5UHnYtQZ891pydKNlZYQC5lW7CwM3fMm506t9eBSQLglkTPwZ8kkiI5OeaVMX-kK-e7OJOuZDpKa_BEFyVfHvQQcaxDCGfeJnrctI7MOu-Fal6Rp6V17uzUO_cT1O1CU-hQ5WzZbUCaP4-l46q4fnbg/w559-h418/sigh.jpg" width="559" /></a></div></span><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">"But I do know one and one is two.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">And if this one could be with you,</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">What a wonderful world <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYjZjfSsEk8&ab_channel=ArtGarfunkel-Topic"><span style="color: red;">this would be</span></a>."<br /><div style="text-align: left;">-bill kenny</div></span></div></div><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><p></p>William Kennyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05450318295942216572noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5061332208168038059.post-28270497498393423682024-03-01T00:00:00.022-05:002024-03-01T00:00:00.143-05:00Two Down, Ten to Go<p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"> Without putting too fine a point on it.</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-Wrr_uiMFlXge9yWVFGHTdaHv2jDF8ysGQBt3nZ7_5PUIRe3jjMtK1Zlh5C4vXz-gbluYfU8HkDgaBoOFd6regshs7qlFdE9xxfTdAQPKWi4CnLE4bwyi3yaZLwwI2kGc46mTr6dzbXy_O_XMxIkS5BJhJXy_WXIXYDCrvXx9vG4G21e0OGaAFmrdewI/s360/25%200101%20yesterday%20you%20said%20tomorrow.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="274" data-original-width="360" height="488" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-Wrr_uiMFlXge9yWVFGHTdaHv2jDF8ysGQBt3nZ7_5PUIRe3jjMtK1Zlh5C4vXz-gbluYfU8HkDgaBoOFd6regshs7qlFdE9xxfTdAQPKWi4CnLE4bwyi3yaZLwwI2kGc46mTr6dzbXy_O_XMxIkS5BJhJXy_WXIXYDCrvXx9vG4G21e0OGaAFmrdewI/w571-h488/25%200101%20yesterday%20you%20said%20tomorrow.jpg" width="571" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">I can't wait to see what you'll say and do tomorrow and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpk7y1xgiis&ab_channel=Ambrosia-Topic"><span style="color: red;">neither should you</span></a>.<br />-bill kenny</span><p></p><p><br /></p>William Kennyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05450318295942216572noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5061332208168038059.post-36855465013474919332024-02-29T00:00:00.065-05:002024-02-29T00:00:00.143-05:00An Extra Day of Suck<p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Whenever the New York Yankees end up in extra innings on games broadcast on the YES Network, Michael Kay always announces 'we have free baseball coming up next' which is, for me, no matter who is playing, like paying for two scoops and getting three. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">The Frauds of Baseball didn't need to streamline the game as far as I'm concerned. Pitch clocks, and all the rest of it were and will never be my cup of meat. Game takes too long? Why, what else did you have in mind? Who goes to, or turns on a baseball game, with plans to ALSO do something else? </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Sorry. I think it's the meds. Anyway, today we have the one of the 'buy one and get one free' days of the year where you didn't want the first one to start with and would do almost anything to get rid of the second one, 29 February. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">I understand (or say I do) the reason why we have a <a href="https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/leap-years-are-more-important-then-you-may-think-heres-why-we-have-them-and-why-they-matter/3368330/"><span style="color: red;">Leap Year</span></a>. What I do <b>not</b> understand is why it's at the end of February. What would have been so wrong about putting it in April, or how about May when spring has sprung? Or we could make Endless Summer a day longer and tack it onto July or August.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Instead, we have muck and mire on the streets and sidewalks, the winds of March arriving early and we shiver our timbers off in February. Quite frankly, February 29 is like finding out there is indeed one more unreleased song on that recently unearthed Beatles' archive and it's a duet with Tiny Tim and Yoko Ono. Dead Whoopee.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://music.apple.com/gb/album/music-for-leap-year-celebrations-29-songs-for-february-29th/1498082600"><span style="color: red;">Once every four years</span></a> is about all I can stand.<br />-bill kenny</span></p>William Kennyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05450318295942216572noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5061332208168038059.post-27531933449306513832024-02-28T00:00:00.227-05:002024-02-28T00:00:00.132-05:00Keep Kicking the Can <p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">A crisis is "a time or state of affairs that is unstable or crucial and may lead to a dangerous situation." You can look it up if you wish. And yet our ongoing collective effort to build a new police station, a sojourn that has been a work in progress for a decade, without a resolution, is seen more as a 'what do you want? This is Norwich.' rather than a 'state of affairs that may lead to a dangerous situation.'</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">We've devoted over a decade to talking about building a new police station and here we are, on the threshold of the Spring of 2024 and will you look at that: <u>still waiting for a new police station</u>. Maybe we didn't talk enough about one; haven't written enough newspaper articles on the need for one, or had enough jabber-jaw sessions on local radio stations outlining the expanded requirements necessary to support a modern public safety effort. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">The only thing more puzzling/annoying about the continued lack of a new police station is the amount of surprise from so many on social media that it hasn't happened. I was part of the original committee about a decade ago that evaluated various sites throughout Norwich for their suitability as a future home. In my memory, about two dozen sites were being proposed. I doubt they are all still available or that they are still affordable. That referendum failed, and a decade later, a refloated referendum also failed. All we got from kicking the can farther down the road was scuffed shoes.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">One of the things I never understood, based on an evening's tour of the police station at the time was how/why the original decision to bundle the tooth (the holding cells, processing stations, locker rooms for all the police officers, the armory and range) with the tail (the administrative, archival, community rooms, and clerical support) as one package. Everywhere we toured that evening had stacks and stacks of files on top of other files across what seemed to be every available square foot of floor space. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">I mention this because at the time, as is still the case for me, I'm not sure we are looking at the issue the way we need to solve our crisis, and make no mistake, we have a crisis that will continue to worsen no matter how much longer we delay creating a solution. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">The police chief has a very good idea of what core competencies a new facility needs to support-he is the expert on police operations. Let's consider for a moment a building, that accommodates all of those requirements, and, here's the tricky part for some, you take all the administrative (and essential) components, and place them in some of the vast amounts of vacant office space in Down City. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Norwich Public Utilities has over forty-four miles of secure fiber-optic cable across the city, let's consider using some of that bandwidth to support routine law enforcement activities and I'd wager it will be a lot more economical than creating new floor space to stack files on. </span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Support and clerical staff in downtown will put ‘feet on the street’ as we’re so fond of saying and be more economical than creating additional floor space to stack files on. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;">If you were to ask anyone on our current City Council what they see our city looking like in a decade (or generation) be prepared for seven different answers. And if you ask how what's to be situated in Chelsea fits in with the 'rest of' downtown' brace yourself for silence. As it is, no matter whom we elect we end up with members of the City Council who plan the way horses run, one footfall in front of where they are.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;">When you don't know where you're going, any road will get you there. Based on the maps and plans we've made and discarded for decades, where we are now is where we have always wanted to be. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Just repeat after me: </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51GKdxaElsY&ab_channel=RockCollectionHits" style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;"><span style="color: red;">Crisis? What Crisis?</span></a><span style="color: red;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial; font-size: large;">-bill kenny</span></p>William Kennyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05450318295942216572noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5061332208168038059.post-78058415118644133402024-02-27T00:00:00.057-05:002024-02-27T00:00:00.259-05:00You Knew It Was One or the Other, Right? <p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">I'm not sure the state of Florida has ever recovered from the Presidential election of 2000-what I called <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfvL2oLeBYs&ab_channel=NRRArchives2"><span style="color: red;">Chad and Jeremy</span></a> in honor of the little piece of paper hanging from the ballot that were eventually interpreted much like tea leaves to signal the election of George H. Bush. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">I guess it was just easier to embrace the reputation of buffoonery and defiance of logic that in more recent years, under Governor Ron DeSantis, has become the hallmark of everyday life in the Sunshine State. Hope you have your white rubber galoshes on, because you'll need them for this latest installment of <a href="https://www.thefloridamangames.com/"><span style="color: red;">Hold My Beer</span></a>.</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQtD1asVVIqIbqPfiwkFk_UKYf0wAkvmJoEUI8ferUYQ59EY86m7q7RDR2qQ5kC2Sb5Q-el3YAeJF8SEQRBkgoVmkv7Usv9xl3S4-TncDkNpkAJM_49nl9GocK0gw8Frdx3NNqxbvvKbws4bVT8Q8yu0qoAuakk2wBNkWxxhbwAotCdymOPoRq1bQ_emw/s1536/florida%20man%20games%20logo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1008" data-original-width="1536" height="421" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQtD1asVVIqIbqPfiwkFk_UKYf0wAkvmJoEUI8ferUYQ59EY86m7q7RDR2qQ5kC2Sb5Q-el3YAeJF8SEQRBkgoVmkv7Usv9xl3S4-TncDkNpkAJM_49nl9GocK0gw8Frdx3NNqxbvvKbws4bVT8Q8yu0qoAuakk2wBNkWxxhbwAotCdymOPoRq1bQ_emw/w540-h421/florida%20man%20games%20logo.jpg" width="540" /></a></div><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;"><br />Wait until this catches on-and ESPN has </span><a href="https://apnews.com/article/florida-man-games-5b6179b81fcab5a70764109cd126b207" style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;"><span style="color: red;">wall-to-wall coverage</span></a><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;">. I call 'Merch rights."<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;">-bill kenny</span><p></p>William Kennyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05450318295942216572noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5061332208168038059.post-14537672642385142912024-02-26T00:00:00.028-05:002024-02-26T00:00:00.140-05:00Stand on a Star <p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"> Many people may discount or dismiss you; make sure you're not in that number.</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7liW-4hTq9g-sxEdj-oF9KSAOCRObpVn5WaGYE2_cac_ESuzJ-uEqBWzRx2ApMhnYNYdZhhk7mOgiuJuyOsOuDTSVBaasowVROxieJTJu6TSFXSV5LeO_bSjWYFd99tS6_LXv5s80fuzZyuR8HdBRt_28sArVZKb9jB3Tp5FFMCCmzLcvXp2FoheX0cU/s615/24%201010%20Let%20the%20dreamers%20wake%20the%20nation.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="419" data-original-width="615" height="436" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7liW-4hTq9g-sxEdj-oF9KSAOCRObpVn5WaGYE2_cac_ESuzJ-uEqBWzRx2ApMhnYNYdZhhk7mOgiuJuyOsOuDTSVBaasowVROxieJTJu6TSFXSV5LeO_bSjWYFd99tS6_LXv5s80fuzZyuR8HdBRt_28sArVZKb9jB3Tp5FFMCCmzLcvXp2FoheX0cU/w559-h436/24%201010%20Let%20the%20dreamers%20wake%20the%20nation.jpg" width="559" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">For those holding their breath waiting for you to fail, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cv-0mmVnxPA&ab_channel=CarlySimon"><span style="color: red;">make sure they suffocate</span></a>.<br />-bill kenny</span><br /><p><br /></p>William Kennyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05450318295942216572noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5061332208168038059.post-23667102496484138732024-02-25T00:00:00.047-05:002024-02-25T00:00:00.128-05:00Bob Richards Died for Your Sins<p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">When we were kids, Mom was our school day breakfast chef and our father was the Sunday morning wizard. Which means every weekday morning we had cold cereal, or English muffins (we really thought they were English. We were kids; how we would know otherwise?) or corn muffins which for years caused me to throw up for no discernible reason.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Saturdays always were, ala Calvin & Hobbes, sugar-frosted Tastee Bombs and cartoons all morning long and while we didn't raise our two children in quite the same way (the cartoons are way worse now) and I was thinking of all those breakfasts, around the round wooden table in the kitchen when I found this, "<a href="https://historyfacts.com/arts-culture/article/5-things-people-used-to-eat-for-breakfast/"><span style="color: red;"><b>Five Things People Used to East for Breakfast</b></span></a>."</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Five more reasons I was a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7pkOZ5n6PQ&ab_channel=GeorgeHarrison00"><span style="color: red;">Cheerios and Wheaties man</span></a>.<br />-bill kenny</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"> </span></p>William Kennyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05450318295942216572noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5061332208168038059.post-70946177186559070322024-02-24T00:00:00.046-05:002024-02-24T00:00:00.137-05:00Steppin' Out<p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Yesterday was a big day, sort of, for me. I put on actual shoes (okay, sneakers) and went outside for the first time since coming home from the hospital last Wednesday afternoon after spinal fusion surgery. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">A procedure, with the benefit of hindsight I will concede that is probably easier to bounce back from in your fifties instead of waiting until you're nearly seventy-two. Something about the road less traveled is what makes it appealing.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">I've been assured by my surgeon and his team I will make a complete recovery which I take to include also putting on my own socks and shoes without help. I'm glad I mastered underpants and trousers first. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJwt2dxx9yg&ab_channel=JoeJacksonVEVO"><span style="color: red;">And so are my neighbors</span></a>.<br />-bill kenny </span></p><p><br /></p>William Kennyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05450318295942216572noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5061332208168038059.post-63471665156373214422024-02-23T00:00:00.034-05:002024-02-23T09:42:55.862-05:00What Happened to "Children Are Our Future?"<p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Sometimes the things we do speak so loudly that I can't hear what we're saying.</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFN3cwUKvVmxZvL8sv_NKMtuUw1pZ4KIr5CBSxG-_KXDruJb1g6lRmazvSNEnbpLgbQvAwuXaWkGHe_wnQAVBuhWuePoS8turKEdjbqgjk4vqOPPzsIo5ibMqSUd_xfXBSu7bmoOPaqVQ44p-Rl-W5cyIPUq3dsTzOlVV8wFtr2AhWvDbQ1zoDd9Gg1o8/s581/You're%20doing%20it%20wrong.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="410" data-original-width="581" height="452" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFN3cwUKvVmxZvL8sv_NKMtuUw1pZ4KIr5CBSxG-_KXDruJb1g6lRmazvSNEnbpLgbQvAwuXaWkGHe_wnQAVBuhWuePoS8turKEdjbqgjk4vqOPPzsIo5ibMqSUd_xfXBSu7bmoOPaqVQ44p-Rl-W5cyIPUq3dsTzOlVV8wFtr2AhWvDbQ1zoDd9Gg1o8/w575-h452/You're%20doing%20it%20wrong.png" width="575" /></a></div><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">"Every child matters. If we fail the children, we are bound to fail our present, our future, faith, cultures and civilizations as well."-Kailash Satyarthi<br />-bill kenny</span></p>William Kennyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05450318295942216572noreply@blogger.com0