Being fired from a job these days means you are frog-marched out of the building without as much as a “by your leave.” In addition, someone else packs your coffee mug and other personal belongings; you are suddenly persona non grata.
As I cogitate on the New Year this “Eve,” a sober attitude must serve to assess where we as a nation and community are headed. However, as the mid clucks stroke night, I am in a funk over cliff diving and embarrassment over our governmental leaders.
We have all day to play with toys that Santa unloaded under the tree yesterday and plenty of leftovers in the fridge to satisfy our pleasure-induced hunger. At least that’s my situation as I wind down and realize the unfinished chore really doesn’t matter today.
The countdown is on ’til Christmas Eve. Santa Claus is scheduled next week to bring toys and all manner of wondrous gifts to good little boys and girls in a "whishing" mission, borne in his reindeer-powered sleigh.
T’was the week or two before Christmas and Santa Claus probably can’t believe what he is seeing in his naughty and nice list. “They” say Jolly Old St. Nick should pop chunks of coal in Joe Cohen’s stockings this Christmas Eve. The North Pole doesn’t work that way.
Realization of age, not necessarily wisdom, creeps up when one least expects. Such awakenings may appear in the daily course of events. For instance, Sunday morning’s news dispatches recorded the U. S. Navy had decommissioned USS Enterprise (CVN 65) in ceremonies at Norfolk (Va.) Naval Operations Base.
I give in! I have been converted like Saul of Tarsus on the road to Damascus. Sixty-two million American voters cannot be wrong; therefore I have retired my “Don’t Tread on Me” flag.
Thanksgiving Day is tomorrow, President Abraham Lincoln said so, and we certainly will be giving thanks to the Heavenly Father; the food on our table just a portion of the blessings we have received the past few weeks.
One can only look back on the crazy events of last week and recall the wisdom offered by Kornfield Kounty sages Archie Campbell, Gordie Tapp and Grandpa Jones in the 1970s television show “Hee Haw:”
I was asked to share some thoughts about this Veterans Day and those who have borne the battle in defense of liberty.
If a man’s greatness is measured in the number of his enemies, then George W. Bush must be the most powerful man ever to inhabit the White House. He must top Franklin D. Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln, who freed the slaves and tried, until his tragic assassination, to heal the nation’s wounds inflicted in the Civil War.
Election Day won’t be the same at the William R. Talley Recreation Center in Frederick this year. For the first time in my memory, Flint Hill United Methodist Church will not be serving up its tasty viands on Election Day.
First order of business is that if you waited until today to register to vote, or change your party affiliation, or tell them you died, it’s too late. That suspense date, as they say in bureaucratic jargon, was yesterday.
Railroad Days in Brunswick is a natural fit for me, thus last weekend was a must event. The obligatory roundtrip ride to Harpers Ferry aboard the MARC train was gilding on the lily that Brunswick has become.
All of a sudden it would seem we are living in Cochise County, Arizona, hard by the US/Mexico border, not bucolic Frederick at the Mason/Dixon Line.
Surprise! Surprise! Faithful electorate! It is understandable if you thought we were only going to elect a new president November 6th. There is so much more for which you are being asked to cast Yea or Nay ballots.
You don’t have to go far from the bosom of Frederick, with its cocoon of economic stability, to see what really is happening in America. A huge billboard looms above the highway near Washington, PA., proclaiming, “OBAMA NO-JOBS ZONE.” It is a huge plea for help in that mostly coal mining region of America.
If you are a third grader about to start school Monday, you may not have identified her, but you hope Miss Landers is at the chalkboard when you arrive. I don’t know the odds of this happening, but would like to think that your chances are pretty good.
She stood at the hotel counter, the African-American woman’s eyes on the computer. She turned to my guest, “Indian, huh?”
Good morning, travelers. I am persuaded that Ernie Kovaks and Charles Dickens should be the lesson of this day as I plant my foot firmly and put on my best grump face.
I’ve had a number of significant emotional experiences in my life. A couple at the hands of my dad, who had to make some course corrections, a time when I realized God is not the invention of a Jerusalem Public Relations firm.
Today is Independence Day, a time for glorious celebration and bombs bursting in air! We mark 236 years of freedom which requires us to protect and defend the remarkable Declaration of Independence that rebuked British tyranny.
I was invited to an ice cream social last week. You may be confused that ice cream and toppings can be the key refreshment for a teen party. No sodas, no booze, no cigarettes, no drugs, no “I hate America” rowdiness. I was surrounded by Boy Scouts and their families.
Curiosity always manages to get the best of me. The phone rang last week and I agreed to answer questions in a survey that would only take 10 minutes. It was a curious survey about personalities and issues in Frederick County, local, state and national governments.
You may have noticed an item Monday in the Daily Blather if you looked beyond the fog of its Monday petite edition:
(The Frederick Post, June 4, 1962) – "Debbie Thompson sprinted to a new national Junior Olympic Record in the 75-yard dash Saturday and ran anchor on the record-breaking 220-yard relay team as the Frederick Track and Field Club, both boys and girls, won the Junior Olympic meet in Baltimore.”
You’ve heard the U. S. Marine Corps mantra that it will leave no comrade behind. It isn’t, however, exclusive to the Corps this traditional Memorial Day. The Army, Navy, Air Force and, yes, the U. S. Coast Guard, continue striving to account for those missing in action. We also want our children home.
Past school board president Brad Young and I have disagreed in the past, but I don't believe it affected our collegial relationship. However, he was miffed at what he described as my “poorly written article” about Frederick County Public Schools which appeared here last Wednesday.
I returned this week from a wonderful reunion with my high school class of 1961 in Newport News, VA. A common theme was the quality and integrity of teachers and administrators in our school system, which handed us diplomas that had value. We were ready for work or college!
Frederick Community College has matured as one of the nation’s top two-year institutions. Its techno-equipped campus was on display last Friday at the new student center, where scholarship benefactors were recognized for making education a reality for more than 800 students.
I suppose I have fond memories looking back on street riots, demonstrations and other mayhem which have been a part of my career in journalism and public affairs. Looking ahead three weeks to the International G-8 conference scheduled at Camp David, one might decide against going to Thurmont for dinner May 18-20.
The U. S. Postal Service (USPS) has fallen on hard times, if you see what the rest of us see. It is getting so it cannot live up to its accepted credo and we are stuck in that “gloom of night....”
The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) released the 1940 census last week. It is the first on-line, location-only searchable data base, with the extra added attraction telling me that my dad was on hiatus between U. S. Army hitches in Detroit in 1935.
Good morning, voters. I am anxious to read what happened yesterday at the Primary Election polls. I was there, but cannot impart any numbers to you. I am, however, assured by history that there were surprises that will make the November 6 election another melee.
Early Voting, the 2012 Primary election edition, is “On” at the Frederick County Senior Citizens Center on Frederick’s Taney Avenue. It may have secured its place in local lore, taking on the appearance of a Springtime Frederick County Fair. This is even better than the concept’s successful 2010 launch.
It isn’t nice to leave Lewistown’s Jim Olson and his Maryland Veterans for Romney (VFR) standing outside the door. That’s where they will be this afternoon at 3 P.M., not in Frederick, but the Arbutus American Legion home.
While President Barack Obama and Afghani President Hamid Karzai maintain their Chess gambit of words, it is clear that no “move” matches up to the Teddy Roosevelt watchword of walking softly and carrying a big stick.
Who is at fault in the on-going public relations disaster regarding Fort Detrick’s Area B ground water contamination and migration? Is it lackadaisical scientific investigation, a sensationalist media selling newspapers, or an intractable U. S. Army?
Anyone who has the courage to ask questions of second graders must be ready for answers which may or may not be in the teacher’s syllabus. That lesson was learned at Parrs Ridge Elementary School, Mt. Airy, two weeks ago.
My “Right Wing Extremist” neighbors admit to some naiveté, being mere knaves or babes in the wood for doubting the efficacy of social engineering in Maryland State House deliberations. Is this the time to recall “an effete corps of impudent snobs,” words of wisdom from the disgraced former Vice President Spiro Agnew?
“It cannot be,” a learned student of pagan and religious rites said with fervor. “Mardi Gras cannot be celebrated after Fat Tuesday and ‘Trash’ Wednesday!”
It has come down to this: “Occupy FMH!” We can see the street riff-raff headed for Frederick Memorial Hospital.
The locker room echoed with praise for former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, and it was almost with disdain that my friend and former colleague spat out the name of former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich. How quickly the room emptied and the showers came on.
I am tho’ confuthed! I find myself burned up that the gaggle of Republican presidential candidates never misses an opportunity at self-immolation. I’m slipping over the edge now with the dual dilemma of new Sixth Congressional District boundaries and sibling rivalry among our GOP inhabitants.
Looking back on 2011 is a notion that Leroy (Satchel) Paige said we should avoid because chances are “the Devil may be gaining on you!” The late, great professional baseball pitcher knew from which he spoke. I am forging into 2012 with optimism.
Christmas and New Year wishes to our faithful readers. No doubt you agree that special greetings are due our soldiers, sailors, Marines, airmen, and Coast Guardsmen serving far away from their families. Christmas for these uniformed patriots is still “Duty, Honor, Country,” in the words of the late General of the Army Douglas MacArthur.
This Halloween story is a cross between Linus waiting for The Great Pumpkin and Seymour, the flesh eating monster plant from the movie, “Little Shop of Horrors.” The subject of this tale has captured the curiosity of the neighborhood and boasts monster pumpkins from the Seymouresque tendrils threatening the Japanese maple.
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the Occupational Health and Safety Administration’s (OSHA) collective wisdom may result in saving a lot of infants’ lives, and that’s a good thing…
Walter T. Mills – raconteur, unimpeachable source, information central for politics and notions, and skilled barber/hair stylist. You must love the man. He tells it like it is; there is no retreat in him. Don’t be fooled by those who think he’s Floyd the Barber in his West Patrick Street digs.
Mayor Randy McClement must now be the darling of the League of American Bicyclists in Baltimore. He huddled with local bike enthusiasts on a regular basis this year to talk about biker friendly lanes in the city. He coughed up money from his contingency fund to make good things happen and created a monster on West Seventh Street.
Interesting that the Obama Administration has decided not to quarrel with the 11th Circuit Court, which struck down Obamacare, deciding it is unconstitutional to require citizens to purchase health insurance. We knew that all along.
Lots of folks applaud the hit-the-ground-running actions of our new Board of County Commissioners. To some, however, it is evident their “mandate” is wearing thin with the apparent rush to privatize county services. They need to slow down; they have four years to right the ship of state.
Frederick will offer several possibilities this weekend for you and your family to join in celebrating our 235th Independence Day. A favorite is the 17th Annual Celebration hosted Monday by Col. James Olson (USA–ret.) and his family at their ranch on Angleberger Road near Lewistown.
Nearly 2,300 Seventh-day Adventist soldiers, who volunteered to serve as medical research subjects for the U. S. Army at Fort Detrick and Walter Reed Hospital some 57 years ago, show no adverse health effects, according to a recently completed health survey.
I confess it has been a long hiatus from watching Frederick Keys baseball at Grove Stadium. All it takes, though, is the grandson’s cajoling to spring for box seat tickets – and a Keyote tee-shirt – near the visitor’s bullpen and third base.
Boy Scouts of America (BSA) hasn’t strayed too far from its founding in the United States 100 years ago. Marketing strategies and media technologies have improved, but BOYS LIFE still arrives in my mail box each month. I’m clinging to my youth, the “groaner” jokes on the back page and those values I hold dear.
A touch of Americana was on display Sunday as the Woodsboro Memorial Day Parade kicked off. Residents have enjoyed this event for many years.
Yes, I was not at the Frederick Fairgrounds Saturday. If it was running you wanted to see, Tuscarora High School was the place to see more than 800 young athletes. Word about the Frederick Striders’ 2011 Track and Field Invitational must have been in the classified section, as if it mattered.
It is difficult to imagine that Frederick County Public Schools (FCPS) facilities Services Division Director Ray Barnes can’t wring enough budget fluff from the $506 million operating budget to make simple repairs at schools like North Frederick and Emmitsburg Elementary or Frederick High School where health and safety is a genuine issue.
Brad W. Young says selection of Frederick County Public Schools (FCPS) Superintendant-designate Dr. Theresa R. Alban is fulfillment of the campaign promises of Board of Education newbies, who were certain the education budget had met its match in their election.
Frederick County voters got what they asked for in a school board in November and a new Frederick County School Public Schools (FCPS) superintendant last week. The budget is no better off and North Frederick Elementary School still leaks.
Apparently the “Buck…” touted by President Barack Obama, stops in Libya, not in the Oval Office. Col. Moammar Gadhafi continues to be in Mr. Obama’s face, surviving both rebels and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Joint Task Force. Reports of his impending demise are apparently exaggerated.
If you have surviving Guinness and Harp, hoist a “Black and Tan” for Abner Doubleday, founder of major league baseball. Ah, “baseball!” The word exudes renewed optimism and a line of demarcation from what many consider to have been yet another winter of discontent.
Move over, friend Barry. Somehow I’ve morphed to your aggregation; you would call it an awakening. It strikes me that getting involved in Libya’s internal struggles is probably a less-than-wise projection of United States power abroad. I may seek counseling for this new personal political stance.
“Mr. Boh” gave Maryland a pretty good beer and the moniker, “The Land of Pleasant Living.” In the good old days Baltimore had the Colts as perennial contendahs; the blue collar Orioles on 33rd street; Bethlehem Steel; the B&O and seafood dives that gave the inner harbor character.
It isn’t love and certainly this “rumbly in my tumbly” can probably be attributed to gas. Not that kind, Bubba, it’s the stuff Jed Clampett found while shooting at some food. The voice-over called it “bubbling crude … black gold.”
People are bitter, rumor has it. They are clinging to their guns and/or religion or “antipathy to people who aren’t like them…” to paraphrase candidate Barack Hussein Obama.
Having the right of way doesn’t mean you shouldn’t apply the brakes to avoid a collision. Such is the case of this writer’s commentaries here at www.thetentacle.com regarding Fort Detrick’s Area B groundwater remediation controversy. Editorial license requires caution in discussing personalities, hence the need for brakes and arresting gear.
One can’t help but cogitate on when and where justice might be served for the Frederick Yellow Cab driver who was robbed by a shotgun-toting juvenile. His age notwithstanding, Ideres Terral Barker is a full grown man at 16, fully capable of making bad decisions. This time he won’t be headed to the school prom.
FACT: The chemical weed killing compound tested at Fort Detrick would have been undetectable in the soil after 80 days,” according to a study published in the Botanical Gazette. Further, the article notes that the compound 2,4-Dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D) was determined to be relatively non-toxic to man!
Sheriff Chuck Jenkins won’t be issuing concealed gun carry permits to Frederick County applicants this year – probably never will, as a result of the decision to drop the proposal from Frederick County’s 2011 legislative package. It wasn’t going to gain traction in Annapolis anyway, considering the statewide implications.
Former Alaskan Gov. Sarah Palin sets off a fire storm wherever she goes, whatever she says and whatever happens external to her. She is a politician both men and women take pleasure in seeing, whether it is her beauty or the way she identifies with us.
The raging gun control clique is crawling out from under the rocks! Their grief, their chagrin, their outrage at the tragic assassination attempt on Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D., AZ) Saturday is so obviously political that it makes one’s stomach turn.
How could one not enjoy the traditions of Christmas in Frederick? Music and arts festivities highlight the joyous period, but it ends tomorrow night, Jan. 6, 2011, at historic Steiner House on West Patrick Street, where the Frederick Women’s Civics Club celebrates Twelfth Night (Old Christmas or Epiphany if you will) and crowns its three kings of Mardi Gras.
“On the whole,” W. C. Fields is said to have written for his epitaph, “I’d rather be in Philadelphia.” He disliked that city, where snow Sunday thwarted the NFL Eagles. I agree. Precious little attracts me to Philly, but one might make the case that the long deceased comedic actor’s words could extrapolate an accurate face on the year 2010.
The excitement of Christmas has the grandson agog, full of hope that Santa Claus’ imminent visit Friday night will yield a bounty for everyone, especially him. He also wants lights, lots of them, to herald the big “Eve.” Age and infirmity haven’t dimmed my anticipation of Christmas, but stringing lights has always been an adventure.
The era of “Hope ‘n Change” in Frederick County began with re-elected Clerk of the Court Sandra Dalton swearing in the all-Republican Board of County Commissioners and new members to the Board of Education. It is a time of political euphoria for “our side,” but with it the optimism that the elixir of victory doesn’t turn into a morning hangover.
Education isn’t what it used to be – and it never was, modifying the words of homespun philosopher/humorist Will Rogers. There is an outside chance of improvement. We are throwing enough money at it, considering Frederick County Public Schools’ more than $500 million operating budget.
This is National Education Week, intended to highlight quality education of our children. In that spirit, Granddad read – to a class of first graders – volumes intended to enlighten, encourage and embolden their thirst for knowledge, starting with “If I Ran the Circus,” (© 1956) by Dr. Seuss (nee Theodore Seuss Geisel).
These lines, chipped into a sentry stone in Gibraltar, are by an unknown author:
God and the soldier All men adore
In time of trouble And no more;
For when war is over And all things righted,
God is neglected – The old soldier slighted
The Democrat Party’s overall whipping in the Gubernatorial Election here and everywhere wasn’t the most traumatic event last Tuesday – Frederick County ran out of “I VOTED” stickers.
In the grand scheme of things this writer is pretty small potatoes, but if you measure a man in part by his enemy, one might evaluate me on a grander scale.
Forgive this writer for ignoring the election catfights in order to pay homage to friends and colleagues who have crossed the “bar,” – paraphrasing Alfred Lord Tennyson – their missions complete.
Today is gorgeous and all is well. We have no looming environmental disaster; our president broke bread with the Episcopals Sunday; and our “femailman” brought an invite to a fund raiser in Hagerstown for Maryland Republican gubernatorial candidate Robert Ehrlich.
We witnessed the phenomenon of “Frederickana” while serving as a judge in the gubernatorial primary election at William R. Talley Recreation center last Tuesday. Top of the too-good-to-be-true list is the lady nonagenarian who walked the more than half-mile distance without escort from her home near Culler Lake, appearing as hale as any adult in the room.
All this hoo-doo about green this and green that has become ridiculous to the point that it recalls the myth that massive investment in computer technology will significantly reduce the use of paper and ‘save the trees.”
Long-time Frederick residents are weary of the cast of usual suspects whose allegations of Fort Detrick atrocities have been hailed in the media and dashed by competent authority.
Historically the only credit many fighting men received in the early chronicles of America’s military defense of liberty was being “noted in dispatches from the front.” With that in mind, I was reminded last week that the cast of characters changes ever so slightly from one ceremonial rite to the next in Frederick.
Spring has been a long time coming. The primary symptom of my Cabin Fever from the long winter’s night has been media overload. Getting into the sunlight replenished my deficiency of Vitamin D, but clarity in local and national events is like the weather – partly cloudy.
Many scientific and lay persons express dismay at the Department of Justice’s Amerithrax report. It begs belief of its conclusions despite a host of miscalculations, far-fetched circumstantial evidence and omission of some mitigating facts. This creative assessment of evidentiary material lacks Hollywood’s blandishments, but not the creativity.
It is probable that the G-Men of the U. S. Justice Department and Federal Bureau of Investigation are content, sleeping well tonight. One might observe that Mrs. Diane Ivins and her family have been denied such slumber. Dr. Bruce Ivins is surely in the care of his Father in Heaven.
My bicycle has become an historical artifact. Underneath this white stuff is Frederick City’s bicycle path that provides a highway to a younger and healthier time. The north extension is a road to nowhere, stopping short of Schifferstadt Architectural Museum.
Pitchers and catchers report in a few days to baseball complexes from Florida to Arizona – it cannot come soon enough. The annual February migration of professional baseball teams, including our Orioles and Nationals, predicts the coming of spring more reliably than Punxsutawney Phil. Frederick County isn’t Florida, as attested by the snow cone threatening visitors on the front stoop.
Science has suffered an undeserved black eye from university professors claiming to be scientists. The sun is shining the light of truth on heralded evidence accepted by many climatologists concluding that the earth is warming. The data has been exposed as not founded on hard and fast rules of scientific discovery.
The pollster asked for an assessment of President Barack Hussein Obama’s first year in office. My best response was a guffaw and reference to one of America’s great Post World War II legislators, fiery Southern Senator Beauregard Claghorn, who opined, “It’s a joke, son!”
What a week we experienced (drool, tingle, shudder). On reflection I realize that after 128 years, the Second Period of Reconstruction is upon us. A sea of organizers, charlatans, tax cheats, and political insiders from Chicago, New York, and Arkansas, have taken charge of the nation’s government.
Age and infirmity played a minor role in my kicking off the can’t-miss, spectacular “Age of Obama,” by going to sleep a few seconds before the Waterford® Crystal Sphere dropped at Times Square on New Year’s Eve. The arms of Orpheus obscured the weariness of 2008 with its cast of buffoons in government, entertainment, sports and New-Look Journalism.
It was the remote’s fault that John L. (Lennie) Thompson, Jr., popped up on my television screen. Mr. Thompson was trashing the reputation of a man testifying before the Frederick Board of County Commissioners about the New Market Regional Plan. Mr. T didn’t have the aggies to look him in the eye, a clear indication our commissioner is a Bum!
Frederick is the epicenter of those who would terrorize the nation with envelopes and little white powder, if one believes the U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Count me among the naysayers, who number more than a roomful.
My son assures me that I should feel no guilt in hanging up on telemarketers. It is not alright, he says, to listen to pre-recorded messages about my car’s warranty, or Part D Medicare insurance and such. In that state of mind, I should have “passed” on a recent political phone call that probably verged on the sophomoric.
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