The New Reality
Posted at 6:10 AM on January 26, 2010
by Dale Connelly
(37 Comments)
Radio Heartland has tickets to see Shawn Colvin at the Dakota tomorrow night, January 27th at 7pm. We'll keep the entry window open until 1 this afternoon.
Enter the drawing.
Obey the rules.
Good Luck!
The following message to the people of Minnesota's 9th district (all the water surface area in the state) from Congressman, Loomis Beechly, was found tacked to the door of an ice fishing house on Lake Mille Lacs.
Greetings, temporary constituents!This is a busy time in the 9th, what with so many seasonal residents spending weekend afternoons drinking beer and watching lake water freeze inside their portable mini-resorts out on the ice.
Welcome to the 9th district, and remember not to put your empties down the hole!
I'd like to talk to you about a very important Supreme Court decision from last week that makes it possible for corporations to engage in unlimited spending to try to influence the outcome of elections.
I am not one of those worrywarts claiming this one decision will overturn our American democracy just because moneyed interests can now monopolize the airwaves and spread rumors about candidates they oppose in the last few hours before it's time to cast the ballots.
To buy into nonsense like that, you would have to believe that most American voters are TV obsessed zombies who will thoughtlessly accept the last strong opinion they hear. I know you'll agree with me that there's absolutely no truth in that loony assertion!
And I find it laughable that some think our public servants will become creatures of the corporations, spouting only the phrases approved by their masters! That is as ridiculous as making the assertion that F-150 Crew Cab isn't Built Ford Tough, which we all know, it is!
Since you are my (temporary) constituent, I want to assure you that I still need and want your vote. But if you have ever seen a prison movie, you'll know that I also need and want the support of the biggest, baddest boys on the cell block, so I'm writing to tell you that I will be spending a lot of my time in the coming weeks getting to know as many powerful, free-spending interests as I can, becoming as friendly with them as I am with you.
And if you should hear that Corporation X or Labor Union Y is funneling "big bucks" into the Beechly organization, take that with a grain of salt. The bucks will vary in size but they can always be bigger, and the way I act around these donors will be determined by their interest in me.
Potential domestic and multi-national supporters of mine can start at the highly affordable and entertaining Mascot Level or the aggressively sympathetic Maven Level, going all the way up to the totally submissive Marionette Level. But I'm only pretending to love them because this is what I have to do to serve you - the voters!
Sincerely, The Honorable Loomis Beechly, Congressman, Minesota's 9th District.
Poor Congressman Beechly! And what about the unfortunate corporations and unions, who have to listen to his pleading! But no matter who you are, it is a great thing to have a strong advocate standing by who will support and protect you.
Have you ever had (or been) a Knight in Shining Armor?
Comments (37)
Pardon the change in topic. Am I the only one not getting a music signal today? I can hear other computer-based radio signals. After the Bursch announcement, I get silence.
I'm not getting the stream. The opening promo announcement comes and then silence.
we're streaming up here in Blackhoof - using the "MP3" selection of the area and i think our computer uses Music Match Jukebox player....
My theory is the big money interests are causing the problem. Maybe Mike can be a Knight in Shininh Armor and fix it.
barb, are you getting it by satellite?
MP3 gave me the play list but Windows Media worked and I get to watch the blue thing on Media Player if I want (don't).
yes, Clyde - we have WildBlue internet satellite. (no cable in our neighborhood)
on Wait, Wait last saturday they were talking about just this topic. something like pretty soon it'll be the "Target State of the Union" or the GatorAde Minnesota state elections. uffda.
i have had many, many KISAs in my life - too numerous to mention - lots of them Girlfriends who only seemed to see the good in me (gotta look hard) and then, of course, the Hubster who has always been there, as they say. still is
Everything is coming through clearly here in SW Mpls... via Windows Media Player and also on the actual HD radio in the other room.
Steve, are you on too now?
I am avoiding the topic the fine congressmouse addresses in his statement.
So I will tell you my KISA story. 40 years ago, when cars would vapor locked, a woman's car vapor locked in the middle of a key intersection on River Road East near the Shriners Hospital. With everyone honking around us, I went out and got it started. She called me her KISA. At the next intersection, she cut me off. That's when I decdied that upon grduation I was moving to a small town.
Needed to switch to the KISA at Windows Media. MAybe the regular stream is frozen.
Bundle up Heartlanders!
The AAC Plus stream doesn't seem to be working for me. I can get the iTunes stream, but my connection doesn't have quite the speed to connect to that one without a lot of buffering.
I had a few knights in shining armor just a few weeks ago on Christmas Day when my car got stuck in a plow ridge. I hadn't been stuck for more than three minutes when people started hopping out of their vehicles asking if they could help.
Greetings! I've had several Knights in Shining Armor come to my rescue the past couple weeks. The battery cables in my '96 Bonneville kept coming loose, so car wouldn't start. It always started at home, but not when I was out and about (I must have bad car karma).
I don't touch car engine innards, but nice men always came to my rescue -- wiggling the wires, jumping the car, etc. Got it fixed and it still happens. Was stranded last night again at karate, but nothing started it. So it was towed to the shop where they better fix it right this time. Ah, the joys of of old cars!
I am turning this into a road side KISA blog.
I lived right on the North Shore Drive for 25 years. In that time I was a KISA to about a dozen broken down drivers of various sorts. They were all fun and each had an interesting wrinkle. Tell a couple or three.
A trucker who blew out a coolant hose at 4:00 p.m. Christmas Eve. One of my HS classmates ran a parts store, which he opened for us. Between the three of us, we got him on the road in an hour. The next week I got a very nice check from the trucking company. They got my name and address from my classmate by calling his business. He also got a nice check. Two other times helped truckers and got checks later but again I had not given them my name. The company had found my name in a similar way.
A young man, clearly broke, ran out of gas. I gave him my lawnmower gas. The next Sunday he wondered into the church where I was pastor on a whim, not knowing anything about my being there. He and his family joined.
One Wed evening at the church, when we held Sunday School because so many families were in the resort business, a family broke down by the church. I drove him and his family, wife and three young kids, to West Duluth where the wife’s parents lived. The whole way down he lectured me on how Lutherans were all going to hell. One of the reasons he gave was that Lutherans were so uncaring of others.
A family broke down on July 4th right in front of my neighbor’s house. My neighbor was gone. I went and helped them push his van into my neighbor’s driveway. My wife took the family into our house, three generations, seven in all with an infant. His fuel pump was blown. My neighbor then came home. We drove him to a junk yard and my neighbor knew how to wire into his car temporarily an electric fuel pump off of a wreck. Took about three hours in all. While we were coming back from the junk yard, the driver, the grandfather of the group, asked which one of us was the pastor. I asked why he thought one of us was. He said he just felt it but didn’t know which of us was.
Good Morning RH,
Just yesterday I was a knight in shining armor of sorts to one of my students, I'll call Max. (The irony is that's his real name.) The children were all at work making snowmen for our bulletin board that's been empty since we returned from Christmas vacation. The materials used were card stock - from which the snowman figures were cut, construction paper, cotton balls, googly eyes and yarn. The first step was to take the cotton balls and tug at them from all directions to fluff them out to make them larger and then glue them to the snowman so it would look more like authentic snow (better in theory than practice). All was going well. Fluffy puffy snowmen were emerging right and left, embellished with googly eyes, colorful hats, scarves, buttons and boots, until I got to Max. His snowman had a hat and boots, period. I asked why he had not started on the cotton balls, and he looked up at me, his eyes filling, and said very quietly, "I don't like fuzz." Well, let me tell you we had our very own private cotton ball tugging lesson on the spot. In no time, Max was grinning and gluing and I was patting myself on the back for helping this little man kick his fuzz phobia.
RE yesterday's topic about careers, what other job could enable one to make such a claim?
To those of you who noticed I was absent yesterday, you kill me!
As someone else suggested, switching the player to Windows Media did the trick. My computer is singing again.
Thanks!
Morning! Using Windows Media Player this morning. Glad to have some choices to use when the old standby is stuck in the ether net.
Dale - What a great memory you have! I would never have guessed theTuca Tuca was from George of the Jungle. Was the bird who vocalized that a Tucan?
I wonder if there are other songs based on cartoons or thier characters. Is there a love song called "Boris, Daaahling" from Rocky and Bullwinkle"? Maybe someone should write one.
I also had a car-related KISA. Don't remember his name, but he was cute (I was in my 20s then and noticed these things more readily). I had an old Honda Civic that regularly leaked oil. I had recently returned from a trip to Grand Marais and was on my way out to Shakopee when my little car started sounding like a small engine plane rather than a Civic. Did I mention it was August, I was in stop and go traffic and I had no air conditioning and was now running the heater to pull heat off the engine?...Well, I threw a rod. Bam. Lots of smoke. I pulled over and got out of the car quick. My KISA couldn't have been more than two cars behind me - in an open Jeep as I recall. He had just picked up his car from having major engine work done, so he was quite sympathetic (and did I mention cute?). He offered to drive me to either a repair shop or my destination, since we both knew the car was likely caput. My car was pronounced DOA by the car undertaker later that day - and my KISA is out there somewhere and I never learned his last name....
Good Morning All,
I know a guy who has been a grerat help to me when I needed it. He stayed with my mother, who was in a wheel chair, when I didn't have any one else to help take care of her. He also took care of my garden when I was away on a trip and didn't have any one else to take care of it. I would have paid him for helping me, but he didn't want any payment.
This helpful person is from a family that is very trust worthy. Most people can be be more or less trusted, but there are some people, like the people in the family I am refering to, that stand out for their good character.
So Donna, I see you aren't telling us where you were or more importantly with whom (who? English folks help me here!)
My KISA that is first coming to mind (and there have been many) was the owner of a liquor store who drove me to my son's day care to pick him up after work when the battery on my car went toxic in front of the store.
It was a beastly hot day and they also gave us snacks and water while we waited for the tow truck.
Nice selection of stories, Clyde.
Dale--How about "Foggy Mountain Breakdown"
Lots of new and seldom heard names in the last couple of days. Hope you hang around.
Whom, catherine, in the purists sense. Whom is objective case, here object of preposition. But I am not a purist. I submit that for all real purposes whom has died, and shall it not be mourned.
before i retired, i worked at the Barker's Island Farm Market every saturday during the season. i was there to help folks learn about the veggies and fruits, to encourage using new things and to have tasting and recipes. one saturday morning i arrived, as usual, with the back of my little car packed with tables, pamphlets, and food for tasting. i threw my keys on the floor of the car, pushed the door lock (thinking i was opening), and closed the door. went back to the hatch to unpack and it was locked. everyone there tried so hard to open the car but newer cars don't let you do that - no matter what. so i called the police. they didn't do that anymore. i should call my husband to bring another set of keys. (Steve was 40 miles away in Blackhoof).- good luck, they said. so i called the dealer (KariToyota in Superior). got Craig in sales and he said, sorry the service dept. is closed on weekends. so i just stood and talked with folks and told them about the good food locked in the car :-)
all of a sudden, Craig drove up - keys in hand - he had gone over to service dept (a block away) and found out my key and made a copy for me.
he was a true KISA (and a smart business man). the next saturday when i drove up and started getting out everyone yelled "DON'T LOCK THE CAR!!!!!"
sure. she talks about us all of the time and then doesn't mention us as KISAs at all. wait until she bends over tonight, hehe,
Catherine, Sherrilee, and Kay - please rescue us from this ignorant peasant. be our KISAs
peez sent moor Gerls
Dodger, Dream, Alba, Majority... I'll gladly be your KISA, but your ignorant peasant might have to teach me to milk a goat in return this summer!
My KISA had a big tow truck. I had driven to Iowa to give a presentation to the Little People of America national convention. My son was a preschooler and had a great time in the hotel with hundreds of dwarfs. On the way back in the tiny ancient Honda Civic the oil light went on and weird noises sent me to the nearest exit. At the gas station they said, "Someone once fixed a foreign car here, but he died." They wished me well and gave me free popcorn. I tried driving on the shoulder with a goal to get to Albert LEa. This was before cell phones. Suddenly my car totally died-it too threw a rod. A tow truck stopped-the driver was going from southern Iowa to the Twin Cities to an auction. He put on coveralls , hitched up the car, moved the car seat into the trick and away we drove. He wasn't very chatty but I spose that is not the responsibility of the knighthood.
The onilne stream didn't come through this morning here. I hooked up to Pandora.
Beautiful clear blue sky--lovely to look at, delightful to enfold, but with it always comes in winter nothing but cold.
Thanks Clyde-whom=objective-got it. My grammar is like Pooh's spelling, it is good, but it wobbles a bit. Never really "learned" grammar-just do it by ear.
Goats of Blackhoof, I hear your plea, but you would not be happy on a 40' lot in St Paul and I am a dairy hypocrite. When I get my herd, I think they will be fleece goats. I'm sure you could all teach me basic husbandry though. Check your schedules and get back to me.
Beth-Ann, I think sometimes lack of conversation in a knight might be a positive advantage
Catherine--we all do it be ear; how else could we talk. That's one of many reasons why even Donna sees kids too late to really impact usage (what most people refer to as grammar).
Yes, I am blogging a lot; business is very slow. Blogging keeps me from worrying about whether I will have a job until December.
Dale made a comment an hour ago that reminded me of this, and sorry for being so Lutheran today. The parable of the Good Samaritan is of course a KISA story. Everyone knows the moral of the story--we should all help anyone in need no matter who they are, even outcasts like Samaritans. But in Africa that story is always used in sermons to teach a very different point. To them the moral is that you should accept help from anyone who offers it when you need it.
Cly de Usage - i finally learned grammer when i was 30, taking Norwegian. then backed up into English with what i had learned. still forget.
Catherine - i can just see you knitting away with all of that lovely mohair. want to learn husbandry? Majority says "i got some husbandry for you over here." even though breeding season is officially over, i am still not getting in his pen alone; when i need to trim hooves or handle him at all i take Steve in with me. T is afraid of Steve (and everyone else except me, it seems) guess you wouldn't need a buck for fleece goats unless you wanted some cute babies.....
All right, Dale, this is aimed right at you and your sneaky tricks. We are onto you. You write a blog with distinct political commentary in it, in your ironic way. And then poof you ask us about KISA tales, as if you had not made your political comment. You have done this kind of thing before. Sneaky, sneaky.
So first a question, after the census reduces MN to 7 districts, what number will Loomis Beechly? (You have such a knack for naming your characters, by the way.)
So I am going to extend your real blog a bit. I suggest politicians in this new world could learn from the sports world. For instance, the winner of the next presidential election could name the White House after his/her highest donor. Thus the Microsoft White House. The Big Bank Interests Senate. The Military Contractors House of Representatives. They could sell cabinet offices. The AFL-CIO Dept. of Labor. Or the Manufacturers Coalition Dept. of Anti-Labor. CBS FCC.
Think what Mr. Beechly could do with his unique district. Lake Cargill Minnetonka. Delta Minnesota River. We could each buy a creek or small river or pond. The Cly de Terre Bleu Blue Earth River. The barb in blackhoof Black River. Tim’s Shingle Creek. Jim’s Geneva Lake. Barbara Silver Lake. Pengra Pond. Connelly Carp Lake. TGITH, ah, ah, ah . . . We should each claim or own now.
Great stories today! My roommate's brother once helped me fix the solenoid on my 1967 Plymouth when it wouldn't start. He was so patient and just kept trying something else even though he really knew nothing about it... I so admired this trait, and he now goes by the name of "Husband" here in the blog. But I may try calling him KISA and see what happens.
Our computer is having problems last coupla days. Here's what I would've written yesterday:
Ended up in Elem. Ed. after giving up on Psych (couldn't stand the rats either) and French (and I see I join throngs of other who tried a foreign language career). When teaching didn't work out, tried office management, bookselling, and light bookkeeping. Realized later I would've loved to teach anthropology. Still looking for next career, and again I see there are several of us! Have found I can learn new stuff, and for me job satisfaction depends more on the people involved than anything else.
Barb-just because YOU think breeding season is over doesn't make it so, it seems-is that why he is named Majority, because he rules?
The cute babies thing would be my problem with dairy goats-so I will just keep hypocritically buying my cheese.
There is a woman at the Shepherd's Harvest who sits with an angora bunny on her lap calmly while she plucks the fleece and spins it into yarn-doubt a goat would do that, even if they would fit between me and a spinning wheel (I don't spin, but know people who do, so I figure I've got that covered).
Dale, I'm thinking the new spending rules will be great for Public Radio and TV-we watch and listen to little else, so are always floored by the amount of advertising (especially when we are in Iowa before caucus time).
With all the extra ad revenue pouring into commercial stations, people are going to flee to a station that still actually has programming.
We had some nice KISA encounters at a trip to Montreal recently. A total stranger gave us his commuter train tickets when we couldn't figure out how to operate the ticket dispenser, and two valiant Air Candada ticket agents reissued our tickets, got us a new flight plan, and managed to get us and our luggage through US immigration and on to a flight back home with only 5 minutes in which to do so. We didn't know that our original return flight had been cancelled months before and we had been rescheduled on a much earlier flight.
oh yeah, Catherine - that would happen. a goat would stand still while you plucked the mohair. well, actually - on alpines, the mohair is under their hair coats and is what keeps them warm by insulating more than there usual hair does. this stuff i pull out with a curry comb in the spring. Niblet has loads of it. and he (of all of my goats) would actually stand very still and wait for me to do whatever i wanted to him. as long as he could be near me. but his mohair smells like T
yeah, Majority does rule his little world. i didn't name him. we call him mr. T. and when he is chasing me i just scream "T!!!!!!" as loud as i can. doesn't help. he thinks i am playing.
just now i was out checking everyone. T was so happy to see me that he lofted about 4 feet into the air and did a spin. as good as having a dog, but he weighs a lot more.
so, mr beechly--what is actually new here? have the corporations not been buying you all for a long time?? is it just that it is now legal and above-board? this whole idea is making me feel snarky.
(wow, that is the BEST word! sounds exactly the way i feel!)
wish i could be KISA to all you goats--not enough grass and other green edible things in this area, though...but i think my cat would get a kick (ha ha?!) out of having goats for pets :-)
two young women in a suburb of Boston, whom i knew only as names from a mere acquaintance, were my KISA's years ago. I had moved (when in my 20s) to boston alone and wound up staying in a really bad place in a really bad neighborhood---i phoned them on the first thursday i was there, we all met for drinks in Boston on Friday night, and when they learned of my predicament, they said, "Come stay with us." no hesitation--just immediate rescue. they even drove me to my place, helped me pack my stuff, and took me home that very night. i remember lisa and mimi with great fondness.
it's sunny and beautiful here today, high 40's, ahhhh.
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