Where are you getting drunk this weekend?

You know you will. There is some sort of festival or event happening with beer trucks, food trucks, loud music and plenty of people wandering around carrying red Solo cups. Great fun.

Whether it is warm and sunny or chilly there will be plenty of things to see and do and eat and drink. Doesn’t matter if you don’t have tickets, just come on by and join the crowd.

Every weekend there will be an excuse to gather.

“Fall Jazz Festival”, “Summer Sizzler”, “Spring Flowers”, “Winter Crafts & Fairs”, “Farmer’s Market”, “Sidewalk Sales”, “Country Hoedown”, “Antique Autos”, “Fashion Friday”…. The list goes on and on.

There is always a reason to drink.

“Finest State Wines”, “The Battle of the Breweries”, “Load up your Shots”, “Beer Bash”…

And eat!

“Fish Fry”, “Best BBQ in Town”, “Burger Bash”, “Chicken in the Rough”, “Seafood Soul Sacrifice”…

And the diversity cultural mix…

“Greek Festival”, “German Oktoberfest”, “Indian Pow-Wow”, “African Heritage”,  “Carnevale”, “Marti Gras”, “St. Patrick’s Day”, “Fourth of July”, “New Years Eve”….

Buy a souvenir t-shirts and memorial mug to put on your shelf. Rub elbows with hundreds of strangers and maybe get your wallet picked.

Remember to drink responsibly. There will be traffic DUI checkpoints.

Eviction

You are not moving, but you can’t live here.

All your worldly processions are in the street and you have nowhere to go.

For whatever reason, you are on your own.

All the people wandering around this globe are at sometime in this predicament.

Hopefully there are kind souls who will offer shelter of a tent or a vacant building before the elements takes its toil.

The rest will turn away from the homeless.

Congestion

Seems every morning (from what I hear on the traffic radio reports) there is a wreck and commuter traffic is backed up. Maybe a slow one-lane rubberneck to view the carnage or a complete highway parking lot stop, congestion is a pain.

You’ll be late for that very important meeting and you are carrying all the notes and charts leaving your boss holding the bag. You’ll miss out on all the fresh doughnuts and the coffee will be cold. Your kids will be late and have to makeup chapters 7 – 21 instead of watching Disney streaming. Your vet will move on to another appointment so your dog will have to be scheduled to another day. There will be a line to wait in. All the good parking spots are filled.

My working career was mostly by public transportation. The bus would arrive at approximately the same time everyday (rain or shine) and deliver me to my destination in time to get settled in before the bell rain. If I missed the usual bus, another one would be along in 15 minutes.

In my youth, I’d walk to work. About 45-60 minutes on fairly level sidewalks. Like going to the gym before work, but without a shower. It was also a great release of work tension before I got home.

Growing older (and wiser?) I’d peddle my bike the five miles downtown. I’d leave before the 9AM rush and take side streets to avoid traffic. A few nights riding home in the rain or having a bike stolen sometimes questioned the method of transportation but the price of an automobile to only use to drive to work – park – drive home didn’t seem economical reasonable

I’ve been in some of that congestion but could not understand going through that experience everyday. When on a highway and a wreck blocks the path, there are no alternatives but to wait. The situation is out of your hands until the car in front starts to move.

This transportation vulnerability is like being on a train or an airplane. Once you board, the travel is out of your hands. If the tracks buckle or the engines fail, there is nothing you can do about it.

Maybe congestion should be taken as a time for contemplation instead of road rage? That is the time to check your updates instead of when the vehicle is moving.

That is your PSA for today.

Virgin

We all enter this world as virgins. We don’t know nothing about nothing. We spontaneously breathe, see and poop, but everything else has to be taught or experienced

We are virgins to life.

We are virgins to thinking on our own until schooling. We are virgins on society until sports, teams, classrooms or clubs. We are virgins to our beliefs until churches, synagogues or chapels.

We are virgins about relationships until family shows us routines, neighborhoods present proper order, and friendships are formed.

Still we are virgins to so many things.

I’m a virgin to zip lines. I’m a virgin to theme parks. I’m a virgin to spelunking. I’m a virgin to hang gliding. I’m a virgin to tight rope walking. I’m a virgin to flying an airplane. I’m a virgin to free diving. I’m a virgin to standing on the moon.

Life has offered some experiences while others will only be read about when it is all over.

Life is funny that way.

“ Serving at the pleasure of the President”

The powers of the president of the United States include those powers explicitly granted by Article II of the United States Constitution to the president of the United States, powers granted by Acts of Congress, implied powers, and also a great deal of soft power that is attached to the presidency.

The Constitution explicitly assigns the president the power to sign or veto legislation, command the armed forces, ask for the written opinion of their Cabinet, convene or adjourn Congress, grant reprieves and pardons, and receive ambassadors. The president shall take care that the laws are faithfully executed and the president has the power to appoint and remove executive officers. The president may make treaties, which need to be ratified by two-thirds of the Senate, and is accorded those foreign-affairs functions not otherwise granted to Congress or shared with the Senate. Thus, the president can control the formation and communication of foreign policy and can direct the nation's diplomatic corps. The president may also appoint Article III judges and some officers with the advice and consent of the U.S. Senate. In the condition of a Senate recess, the president may make a temporary appointment.

The president must also appoint his staff of aides, advisers, and assistants. These individuals are political appointments and are not subject to review by the Senate. All members of the staff serve “at the pleasure of the President”.

Since 1995, the president has been required to submit an annual report to Congress listing the name and salary of every employee of the White House Office

This oath of obedience was to the backdrop of another White House staff member, Stephen Miller, on the same day proclaiming (at length) similar statements of obedience and loyalty stating that the President’s directives should not be questioned.

While the statement “I serve at the pleasure of the President” has been used as far back as the 1700s, the recent emphasis on unwavering loyalty and obedience to the President seems to be new. The phrase was originally intended to mean that White House staff are ‘at will’ employees and can be let go without a substantive reason.

The phrase “I serve at the pleasure of” is commonly used in reference to royal leaders, such as “I serve at Her Majesty’s pleasure.” A member of the King’s Court might use that phrase. It conveys a kind of absolute unquestioning loyalty and subservience. It also keeps their head attached.

A 2007 article in the New York Times says the phrase dates back to 1789:

“…one phrase has been used repeatedly to defend the conduct of the White House: the attorneys ‘serve at the pleasure’ of the president. It seems to ascribe a royal air to the president, as though, if it contributed to his pleasure, an attorney or two might be beheaded. What is the origin of this phrase?… 

The origin is the Latin ‘durante bene placito regis’… which translates as “during the pleasure of the king.” It means that nobody could hold an official position against his will.

Members of the armed services and military are ‘at will’ employees:

“Military officers are the leaders of the military, and instead of enlisting in the sense that enlisted military men and women do, they are commissioned officers who serve indefinitely at ‘the pleasure’ of the President of the United States.”

In April 2000, the phrase “I serve at the pleasure of the president” was used in the popular television show West Wing in season 1, episode 19, “Let Bartlet Be Bartlet.” During an important scene of that episode, the staff pledge allegiance to the President.

LIFE: Having Or Being?

Growing up in the post-war era (although there never was a post-war because there was always another war) the teachings of the new world order was consumption.

This all tied in with the war effort to build bigger and stronger and faster machines of destruction, transforming the factories from constructing guns to manufacturing refrigerators. Tanks turned into sedans and fighters turned into luxury flight transportation (but no one got a parachute).

The competition to succeed (a carryover from winning (?) a war) came with the obligation to show everyone your accomplishments and wealth

The requirements were to have a mortgage on a house, loan on a automobile, credit debt on furniture and two kids and a dog. Taxes were not your friend because our leaders had decided to ‘rebuild’ the vanquished and make them allies. In the long run, it was cheaper than bodies.

Every holiday became a buying opportunity and retailers optimized the use of advertising to promote your dopamine necessity. Even if you had a product, the new upgraded version had to replace it.

Have you ever been to an estate sale? How about a Yard Sale?

There are piles of items purchased and collected for whatever reason at the time and are now either someone else’s treasure or trash. Collectable niche or a junk curio fill our shelves, cover our tables, hang on our walls to display what we are through items.

Should our obituaries be a listing of our having?

 How many cars do you own? What is your latest most expensive gizmo to show off? Jewelry? Designer fashions? Entertainment center? Did you save enough for a glitzy box that will shown be underground for no one to see?

Then there are those who feel this brief time in space should be shared rather than impressed upon each other. A musician will play a tune for a few pence and appreciates the applause. Dancers, singers, actors perform to be in the moment. Poets and authors write their thoughts and desires and opinions and dreams for others to read.

By being, the joy of the day might be a smile or a bird’s song or a good deed. If no one else knows the experience, you can pass it on to another without an explanation.

It don’t cost nothing.

Music Stands

Kids, I know you haven’t notice or maybe you think this is the way it is suppose to be, but not all entertainment acts use music stands.

Orchestras are an exception because they have to follow all those black dots and watch the person up front waving the stick. That is hard to do.

But the little clubs and diners are seeing more and more music stands popping up.

Did they not rehearse enough to learn the songs? Do they forget the words?

A music stand is just another barrier between the performer and the audience.

Maybe Elvis had cue cards off camera? Maybe the Beatles remembered the words to the songs they wrote? Maybe Woody Guthrie made it up on the fly? How did Dylan remember all that stuff?

Not all acts use music stands. Opera and show tunes command the stage without props to assist their memory. Heavy metal bands music stands would be destroyed in minutes and besides you can’t hear them anyway.

Bring a bunch of dancers and pyrotechnics and a singer can lip sync over a pre-recorded tape. Is it about the show or getting all the words right?

Sooner or later the music stand industry will realize that is a huge chunk of real estate that can be plastered with advertisement. Put a mirror on the back so the audience can see themselves photographing from their phones. Let’s see what technology has to offer.

In the meantime, singers and musicians can hide behind big black stands that hold their books and pages and assumedly items. Maybe they are protection shields like the president’s podium?