For this artsy Saturday, I want to give you a picture looking out the dining room window of the Giant City Lodge State Park in southern Illinois. The park is not big and “Giant City” is nowhere to be found but it reminds me of Yellow Stone and other national park lodges. The CCC statues there is to honor all those who built the lodge in the 1930s. Continue reading Giant City Lodge
It’s been a few days since I visited a Will Rogers quote, so I spent hours going through my archives looking for just the right one to say what I currently feel. Well, actually, it took about one minute before I found one that grabbed me. But, spending hours just seemed more dramatical. I am not so much lately but for most of my life, I have been an avid reader. Except for my initial introduction to this novels and such via the Hardy Boys, Steinbeck, London, and a few others I have just not been that interested in fiction. … Continue reading Three Kinds Of Men…
No, I’m not going to have a countdown of my top ten list but I did just establish a new set of categories entitled “My 10 Pillars” in the header menu here at RJsCorner to reflect the new direction I recently took for this blog. They are not in rank order as each is just as important to me as the other. In the past, many of my posts were political in nature but since that venue is now totally in the gutter I have for the most part chosen a new track. I know this is not the first time … Continue reading The Top Ten…
In Will Rogers’ day during the Great Depression soup kitchens were where millions got their daily meal if they got one at all. I know a thing or two about soup kitchens as I volunteered in one for over eleven years. It was a very rewarding and eye-opening time for me I am not a “meat & potatoes” guy, but $1,000 for dinner seems pretty excessive. I guess if you are a billionaire or a CEO it probably only means an hour or so of work. The new remodeled Eleven Madison Park restaurant is now charging that and reservation are made months ahead! Eleven … Continue reading $1,000 Dinner!
For as long as I can remember California has been at the forefront of every significant social change. All change in this country just seems to seep into the west coast and then dredge across the country until eventually, all those Northeasterners have adopted it. The Southerners seem to always be the holdouts until they finally are forced into it. Here are some words from the New York Times to show you that California is doing it again. They are teaching us how to reinvent ourselves in the Post-Trump era. The new California, back from years of financial trouble, has … Continue reading (WS) As Goes California…
I know, there are probably several of you out there who might not agree that the photo below is beautiful. But, for a guy who made plastic models like this one in his youth, seeing the real thing in my old age is beautiful indeed. So, for this artsy Saturday, I give you the American Hotrod. Continue reading The Orange Beast
Fear is what drives far too many of us in the US right now. The majority of the most fearful live in the less populated rural areas of the country. You only need to look at the red/blue map to see that reality. Here are some causes as I see it of this inordinate fear: For many of these folks fear is due to just not knowing others different than themselves. Due to their isolated conditions, they just have a much smaller worldview than many of us. Education is another factor. Almost twice as many urban Americans have college degrees … Continue reading Being Afraid of Minorities… Why??
Good judgment comes from experience and a lot of that comes from bad judgment – Will Rogers It’s time I put out a post on the new quote in the header above. I think experience and wisdom often go hand in hand and as Will says learning from mistakes is a big part of it. I personally think I can remember more details of the things I got wrong than the things I got right. Due to my Aspie characteristics, I made a lot of social mistakes. Looking back I can see where opportunities were presented to me that I … Continue reading Good Judgment
I have to give Mark Twain credit for the quote in the title above. Something happened recently to make this quote “How did I get inside this old body” jump in front of me. In my youth, when I visited my grandmother the thing I noticed first was the line of pill bottles that were on her dresser. She seemed to always be taking her medicine. Fast forward to today, and given the fact that one of the most lucrative businesses to be in is pharmaceuticals, it is no surprise that many people over 60 have medicine cabinets that dwarf my … Continue reading How did I get inside this old body
For this artsy Saturday, I want to give you a simplistic display of textures and colors. They were found in Madison Indiana a few years ago. Continue reading Feast of Textures & Colors
I read a statistic the other day that almost half the folks under forty say their primary news source is Facebook? That totally astounded me. Yes, Facebook is a nice tool to keep up with family and friends, and even some not-so-friends but a primary news source? But maybe I am old-school when it comes to where I get my news. I want my news to be verifiable and truthful, not just someone’s personal feelings. I want it fact-checked before it is presented to me. It takes a lot of effort to accomplish this and that takes resources and organization. Hearing … Continue reading Getting Your News From Facebook?
I think just about all of us can pretty quickly recall some of our worst times in our lives. For me, one of those times was the damage done to my wife when the small Evangelical congregation we belonged revoked my membership due to my failure to align with the belief that, among other things, the earth is only 6,000 year old and any seeming proof otherwise is just God trying to trick us. My wife, who was recuperating from cancer surgery, was devastated by the rejection but even more so by the sudden loss of so-called friends there. It … Continue reading The Best Thing About The Worst Time…
I seem to often get Memorial Day and Veteran’s Day mixed up. Aren’t they both primarily to recognize our American soldiers? I think maybe it is time to broaden the concept of one of those days. We need to recognize others outside our military who provide us with valuable services. That is what this post is all about. Just what is the definition of “memorial”? Isn’t it as shown here to recognize meritorious service to our community. Surely no one can argue that meritorious service is provided only by our soldiers. Shouldn’t we be also recognizing others on this day? When … Continue reading Thank You For Your Service…
I know this is Sunday and that is usually where I do my weekly Squawk, but for this week I will squawk tomorrow, Memorial Day, on a topic that needs extended words. All the blog pundits say to always include enticing pictures with each of my posts. But is that really necessary? I see the opposite in some blogs I follow. One in particular always has a half dozen or so stock images strewn throughout the text. In my opinion, this blogger is a very talented writer and the images do nothing but distract from the story she is telling. I … Continue reading Without Pictures
For this artsy Saturday, I thought I would give you a long-armed selfie from 30+ years ago. It’s kind of out of focus but it is one of my favorite early pictures of my hubby and me. I really don’t remember where or exactly when it was taken but that doesn’t matter. I know that you primarily know me by my avatar on my comments and blog posts. I wanted to show you that have not always been bald or had a white goatee. :) Continue reading Long-armed Selfie?
“It doesn’t matter how sleazy they are if they are part of your tribe you support them.” Has our politics degraded to this? Some of the pundits say it has but I think it might not be so I was in college in the 1960’s and I can remember that the nightly news was all about campus protests and sit-ins. If you believed the reports back then every kid who was in college was a pot-smoking hippie. The reality of it, for at least Purdue University, was that the vast majority of us were just going to classes and doing … Continue reading Part Of The Tribe…
I know the title of this post is a worn out cliche but it does kinda make sense for this post about WalMart taking on Amazon in the online market. Another worn out cliche that fits this scenario is “Better late than never”. It is still kind of hard to think of Walmart as “old-school”. I can remember when there were none of them around. I think of McDonald’s in the same vein. Both are trying to hold on to the dominance they once had in their markets while others are quickly eating their dinner so to speak. McDonald’s, at … Continue reading Teaching An Old Dog New Tricks
This post is in honor of the new Will Roger’s quote in the header above. For those folks who might be viewing the post from the archive in the future, I will put the words here too. There are some folks in the country that seem to believe that our best days are behind us and if we could just bring them back we would be in great shape. As Will tells us, the trouble with that is that they want to find that point in time and then just sit there forever. That simply won’t work as time has the … Continue reading Just Sitting There…
Sante Fe Texas joins the list of tragedies in local high schools. The scenario is all too familiar. A disgruntled teen is depressed and wants to go out in a flash of attention. This time he got his weapons from his father’s stash but he could have just as easily bought them himself. This national tragedy that very rarely happens in other countries continues… It seems that a very real reality for teenagers now is to consider the possibility that they will be shot dead before they graduate. I can’t imagine having that feeling when I was their age! But … Continue reading They Won’t Listen…
I am once again trying to get you to understand my obsession with writing. Or maybe it is to help me understand myself, I don’t know. But, here goes. I am such a writer. It’s not even funny. I’m rarely blocked. If anything, I have more material to write, than I have time to write. That’s been the prevailing theme of my life: So many words, so little time. And some of the words are actually pretty decent. I devote my waking hours to noticing things and thinking about them in ways that few other people do. When other people … Continue reading I Am A Writer…
In my recent theme for artsy Saturday of simplicity, I want to give a salute to the American tractor. Two hundred years ago almost 90% of us were farmers who grew our own food. Even a hundred years ago about 40% of us were in that same state. It took industrialization to drastically change those numbers. Today, less than 2% of us are needed in that category. So, this picture is to celebrate the American farm and the Ford tractor. Continue reading The American Tractor
RJ's Corner - Having My Say 