Posted on by rjonakait

Snippets

The Knicks are in the NBA finals. The New York team has not won that basketball championship in over fifty years, and it has been that long since the spouse has been a team sports fan. (She does have her tennis favorites, not always based on their good looks.) She watched eagerly and got pleasure when the Knicks won championships those many decades ago, but she learned the next year what diehard sports fans already knew: almost always your team ends the season without a championship. In short, they lose. Sports fans, somehow, overcome the almost perennial disappointment; the spouse could not. She buried her fandom never to resurrect it. She has not been watching the Knicks this time around.

I don’t understand. Players inspect three or four tennis balls before choosing one for a first serve. But after hitting a first-serve let, many of them don’t inspect three or four balls for their second first serve but just use the first one bounced to them by the ball person.

“A continual dripping on a rainy day and a contentious woman are alike; to restrain her is to restrain the wind or to grasp oil in his right hand.” Proverbs.

As I was waiting for a prescription to be filled, a twenty-something woman made some purchases and asked Rose behind the counter, “Do you sell toilet brushes?” Rose said that the store did not. The young woman continued, “Do you know where I might buy one around here?” Rose shook her head. I then suggested a hardware store a few blocks away. The woman thanked me and said, “My parents are coming tomorrow…. They have high standards.”

The Christian radio station gave a few brief Bible readings, although where the sacred words left off and commentary began was not always clear. It also presented short inspirational stories and exhortations. Mostly, however, it played music, and mostly that music fell into the rock category. I remembered back when rock started. (Alas, I am old enough to remember when “Rocket 88,” Bill Haley, and Elvis Aron were all new.) I recalled how ministers smashed 45s saying that rock was music of the devil. This made me think about how powerful He is. In only the short span of my lifetime, He had transformed a genre that would send me into eternal damnation into music that was now for the devout. Hallelujah!

“There are grounds for suspecting, in other words, that there exists a secret constitution, whose first article runs: The security of power is based on the insecurity of the citizens.” Leonardo Sciascia, Death and the Knight (translated from the Italian by Joseph Farrell).

When I was a kid, I would come find in a park or outside an old house a hand pump. Of course, I had to try it. The first couple strokes always seemed hard, but with minimal persistence they became easier. As I pumped, I would wonder if the pump still worked. Was there really water down there? Sometimes the effort produced nothing, but at other times a little water would spurt out. That sight produced a quickened, more forceful stroke. Then larger spurts, and finally, a stream without interruption. These efforts always produced a smile and a sense of accomplishment, a satisfaction that a younger generation will never have.

Posted on by rjonakait

Snippets

People can be so nice. Apparently my car warranty was about to expire, but I got (at least fifteen) “courtesy calls” about it before they closed my file. Very considerate.

How many people do you know who take almost no time to get to their wit’s end?

I have heard often of the “undeserving poor,” but never of the “undeserving rich.” Aren’t there a lot in that latter category?

I asked the kid what superpowers he would like to have. He said, “Not to have to tie my shoes.”

How would your thinking have changed if you had grown up without hearing about plantations but instead heard the more accurate “forced labor camps”?

I was on a park bench. Off to my left a man was ranting. Police were around the apparently mentally ill person, dealing with him patiently. On the next bench were people who panhandled in the park and seemed to know the ranter. One of them looked at the police, saw a blonde officer, and said, “Look at her. She doesn’t look like a cop. Why did she become a cop? She should have been, uh, uh, uh, a chemist, or something.”

I hoped it was for a law firm, but it did not say so. The billboard read: “Medical malpractice is all we do.”

It was a remarkable sight, the man wearing sweatpants held up by suspenders.

Do you remember when “Close Cover before Striking” was the most printed phrase in the English language?

In a park or outside an old house, I would come across a hand pump as a kid. Of course, I had to try it. The first couple strokes always seemed hard, but with minimal persistence they became easier. As I pumped, I would wonder if the pump still worked. Was there really water down there? Sometimes the effort produced nothing, but with others, a little water would spurt out. That sight produced a quickened, more forceful stroke. Then larger spurts, and finally, a stream without interruption. These efforts always produced a smile and a sense of accomplishment–a satisfaction that most in a younger generation will never have.

The doctor’s assistant taking my health history got to that now-routine question about sexuality.  But she said, “If you had to have sex, would it be with the opposite sex, the same, or both?” If I had to have sex?  My mind went through my sexual history. The last time someone held a gun to my head and said, “Have sex or else,” my performance must have been so inadequate that I can’t remember it.

I recently met a couple. He was six feet ten. She was shy of five feet even. What questions would you have liked to ask?