IT'S ALL BULLS**T!

Observation of the Day!

Anyone who has spent time in management has been subjected to or perhaps even initiated the latest business fad. The programs and seminars are usually the same basics of business, packaged differently with new buzzwords. Many of these programs are developed by academicians who actually haven't spent much time on the firing line of a business. They talk a good game i.e. BS.

I received a newsletter from the Eli Broad College of Business at my Alma Mater Michigan State. The following is a statement from John Miller, Executive MBA Program Director about the latest buzz i.e. Bulls**t.

"Organic growth is about harnessing the core competencies of the business - those competencies that are rare. difficult for competitors to duplicate and can be leveraged in multiple markets."

HUH???? Is that all there is too it!

Execute that!

The business of business is actually quite simple. It is only complicated by those in it, taught by those who aren't.

My man George Carlin still says it best, "It's all Bulls**t

Have a nice day!

Samuel C. Arnold

COMING OF AGE IN INDIANA!

On September 30, 1955 James Dean was killed in an automobile crash in Central California. I wrote the following piece in 1996. It is my most widely circulated writing and is also my personal favorite. I tried to capture the transition, the coming of age of my generation. I have also included some notes of the times. I hope you enjoy this little piece of history.

Custer’s Last Stand

A neon drive-in casts long shadows across a vast parking lot as the sun drops behind a distant hill. A large neon sign buzzes in the foreground. . . Mel’s Drive-In, while in the background, “Rock Around The Clock” blares from the radio of a beautiful decked and channeled, white with red trim, tuck-and rolled ‘58 Chevy Impala that glides into the drive-in.

The opening scene in American Graffiti from the original script.

We lived American Graffiti in Marion, Indiana -- my home town. Custer’s Last Stand was the Mel’s Drive-In of “Marion Graffiti”. I imagine every teenager of the fifties and early sixties had a Mel’s Drive-In or a Custer’s Last Stand in their town that evokes the same wonderful memories of those by-gone innocent days of a high school summer. Custer’s Last Stand was a classic 1950’s drive-in restaurant on the by-pass. It was Bob Custer’s place. It was our place. It was the gathering place on those warm Indiana nights

A driver’s license and a car were the only passports needed to participate in the rituals of youth at Custer’s Last Stand. Transportation came in a variety of shapes, sizes and ownership. It might be a friend’s car, your family car, or if you were lucky, your own car. I was one of the lucky ones.

My car looked like it might belong to a grandma -- actually it was a car formerly owned by a grandma -- mine. It was a 1949 four-door Ford sedan, battleship gray in color, with a straight stick. The closest thing to customizing it was a quick-turn knob I attached to the steering wheel. My car was hardly a symbol of cool, but it was all mine.

Some kids borrowed their family’s car to cruise Custer’s. Borrowing the family car was the low end of cool, but it did represent a degree of independence and freedom. Girls were often the prime borrowers of their families’ cars, since the boys often provided their transportation. Girls didn’t have to be cool. They were the object of cool.

Some cars circled round and round -- some parked. Circling Custer’s Last Stand was a little like the Indians circling General Custer and his troops at Little Bighorn. Cars were backed into parking places on the back row in order to have a prime view of the parade of teenage freedom. The stars of the parade were the half-finished customized ‘49 Mercs with gray primer, lowered rear-ends, chopped tops, de-chromed and leaded in, dual exhausts, smooth custom mufflers rumbling, radios blaring out the sounds of the fifties and drivers’ left arms cocked in open windows. Customized cars were cool. Cruisin’ Custer’s was cool.

If we had any money, we’d punch the call button on the speaker and wait to hear the familiar, “May I take your order please?” “I’ll have an order of fries, double ketchup and a Coke”. A car-hop, an auto waitress, would bring the order to the car and carefully (most of the time) attach the tray to the door. It was the haute cuisine of the times. Fries and a Coke were cool.

Custer’s Last Stand was more than fries and a Coke. Custer’s was a place to see and be seen. If you weren’t seen, you were missed. It was a place for cruisin’ and buzzin’ and parkin’, squealin’ tires a little, dates and sittin’ close, hangin’ with the guys and checkin’ out the chicks. It was a gathering place, and a place for making plans. It was a place to be together and ask the “whys” of the deaths of our friends, Larry and Jim. They peeled out of Custer’s one warm summer night and got themselves killed. Our plans didn’t include tragedies, but for the first time we caught a glimpse of our mortality, but it didn’t last long. Custer’s was the center of our universe, and we were immortal. Custer’s was the coolest.

We leaned on the fenders wearing the styles of the times, ducktails, pegged pants, senior cords, saddle shoes, white bucks and penny loafers; smokin’ cigarettes, eatin’ fries, drinkin’ Cokes and talkin’ ‘bout “stuff”. It was a James Dean thing. He was our icon of cool, wearing his red jacket with the collar turned up and his teenage frustrations out front. He was our Rebel without a Cause. James Dean had been born in Marion, just like us, and we felt he was our kindred spirit, expressing our inner most thoughts and feelings as the teenagers of the times. James Dean was cool.

James Dean was killed in a high-speed car crash, September 30, 1955. It was the day our music died. I was just starting college and sitting in my dorm room when I learned the tragic news. I felt the deep shock you feel when a famous person you like and can relate to meets a too soon death. His death served as a symbol of a coming of age, the carefree days of Custer’s were gone forever, and the rest of my life was beginning. It was my personal Custer’s Last Stand.

Custer’s Last Stand was eventually torn down and replaced by a McDonald’s.


*******

Footnotes:

1. Although Colonel Robert (Bob) Custer was the director of the Indiana Selective Service Commission, he is remembered by generations of Marion teenagers as the man who built and owned Custer’s Last Stand., the “ultimate drive-in on the by-pass” From its opening day in 1947 until it was torn down in the 70s to make room for the North Park Mall, and a McDonalds, it was the spot to see and be seen as a teenager in Marion. “C’mon, let’s buzz Custer’s.

2. American Graffiti was probably the best movie ever made depicting life of a teenager in the fifties and early sixties -- my era. Rebel Without a Cause was James Dean’s second of three pictures he made in his short lifetime, and I think his best.. His first picture was East Of Eden. When it was announced that East of Eden was coming to the Indiana Theater in Marion, they passed out buttons saying, “Dean Must Be Seen”. His third and last picture was Giant. Just after completing his work on the picture, he was killed in an automobile accident near Paso Robles, California on September 30, 1955, driving his Porsche to a sport’s car race, one of his many passions.

3. James Dean was indeed born in Marion, Indiana in an apartment on Fourth Street and raised in Fairmount, a little town ten miles South of Marion. He is buried in Fairmount next to his mother. There is a museum in his honor in Fairmount, as well as a James Dean Festival held every year, where his legions of fans (est. 30,000 annually) still pay homage to this icon of the fifties. To the younger generation of Fairmount, it is an old person’s get-together and rather thought by them to be a little silly. I wonder when their generation will make pilgrimages to the grave sight of one of their teenage idols. It’s a thing all generations do. From Dean to Elvis to Kurt Cobain.

4. I believe I saw James Dean in Marion one evening in Nick’s Chili Bowl restaurant in Marion. My Dad, brother and I were seated at a booth at Nick’s one evening in the late fall. A small group of three young men came in. My Dad thought it was James Dean, and I thought there was certainly a resemblance. He was wearing an overcoat, which was something he wore in some of his publicity photos. If James Dean was visiting home, Nick’s would be a place he might have come (not much to do in Marion). There is a note in his biography that he was at home about that time with a photographer friend. I have no way of knowing for sure, but for now I’ll just say, “Dean Was Seen.”

5. Larry Ellis and Jim Bonge were killed in an automobile accident. It was the first time we experienced the deaths of friends. I think of that tragedy every time I read of a similar accident involving teenagers such as Larry and Jim. It is a recurring event in every generation. Through their mortality they attain immortality in the memories of their classmates.

6. The character, Wolfman Jack in American Graffiti was a real disc jockey. I used to hear him broadcast from XTRA, a powerful mega-watt radio station located across the boarder in Tijuana, Mexico. He was a mystery man for many years. Before American Graffiti, because of his voice and style, some people thought he was black. He died in 1995.

7. In June, 1996 the U.S. Postal Service issued a James Dean stamp. Forty-six years after his death, he is still remembered on a large scale -- a true American icon. As with most human icons, he could also be a real immature jerk. But he was a true artist -- a very complicated individual. It must be remembered that he was only twenty-four when he was killed.

March, 1996

Have a nice day!

Sam

HELP!

Can somebody help me with this?

I am sure most, if not all, are sick of negative political campaign ads. You can't get away from them. They are everywhere. You can't even switch channels without seeing the same crap. Negative ads are half truths, out of context statements or outright lies.

Why do campaigns insist on going negative? They tell us, "because they work". Do they? If both parties run negative ads then how do they know negative "works"? How can they tell? There is a winner and a loser. Does that mean the candidate whose ads are most negative or least negative gather more votes? Depending on your point of few, the other guy is negative and my guy is telling the truth.

I think both parties underestimate the intelligence of the American people. Well, maybe not. Of course we are not all the best and brightest. These ads can only appeal to the dumbest people, who probably don't vote anyway.

As George Carlin said in his final performance, "It's all bulls**t!

Have a nice day!

Samuel C. Arnold

THIS JUST IN!

News You Need to Know, or Not!

SOUTH CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WSAZ) -- As if getting a DUI wasn’t enough, a man arrested for driving under the influence got in a lot more trouble at the police station.

Police stopped Jose Cruz on Route 60 in South Charleston Monday night for driving with his headlights off.

Then, he failed sobriety tests and was arrested.

When police were trying to get fingerprints, police say Cruz moved closer to the officer and passed gas on him. The investigating officer remarked in the criminal complaint that the odor was very strong.

Cruz is now charged with battery on a police officer, as well as DUI and obstruction.

OMG! Can wives now press charges? Men won't be able to because we all know woman don't fart.

*****

Swiss restaurant to serve meals cooked with human breast milk
Women will receive just over £3 (US$5.4) for 14 ounces of their milk.

The owner of the Storchen restaurant in the exclusive Winterthur resort will improve his menu with local specialities such as meat stew and various soups and sauces containing at least 75 per cent of mother's milk.

"We have all been raised on it. Why should we not include it into our diet?" Hans Locher, who has become Switzerland most controversial restaurant owner, said.

Mr Locher attracted the attention of the leading media of the German-speaking world this week after he posted ads looking for women donors, who will receive just over three pounds for 14 ounces of their milk.

He said: "I first experimented with breast milk when my daughter was born.

"One can cook really delicious things with it. However, it always needs to be mixed with a bit of whipped cream, in order to keep the consistency."

"They are not on the list of approved species such as cows and sheep, but they are also not on the list of the banned species such as apes and primates," Rolf Etter of the Zurich food control laboratory said.
I just don't know yet how I feel about this. I'll get back to you!

*****

VERMONT -- People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals sent a letter to Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, cofounders of Ben & Jerry's Homemade Inc., urging them to replace cow's milk they use in their ice cream products with human breast milk, according to a statement recently released by a PETA spokeswoman.
PETA officials say a move to human breast milk would lessen the suffering of dairy cows and their babies on factory farms and benefit human health.

"The fact that human adults consume huge quantities of dairy products made from milk that was meant for a baby cow just doesn't make sense," says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. "Everyone knows that 'the breast is best,' Oh Yah! so Ben & Jerry's could do consumers and cows a big favor by making the switch to breast milk."

Aren't people animals too? Now I know how I feel. I want to manage the barn. Bad Rotten joke. How does a breast pump sound? MMMMMMM!

*****

I get this," Clinton said. "My view is ... why say, ever, anything bad about a person? Why don't we like them and celebrate them and be happy for her elevation to the ticket? Especially if they are hot. And just say that she was a good choice for him and we disagree with them?" Our Bill. Always the gentleman!

*****

'Topless Midget Oil Wrestling' Costs Bar
Owner Plans To Appeal Ruling

City officials yanked the liquor license of a bar in Canton, Ill., for what they call "topless midget oil wrestling."

The Outskirts Bar and Grill hosted the event last month, authorities said.

At one point during the event, one of the performers took off her top. Kim Scott, the bar's owner, said she didn't know about it and quickly stopped everything once she found out.

The bar will lose its license for two months because city officials say the event violated an ordinance.

I am glad I don't have pictures.

*****

Farmers can find dates, or mates, on a matching website designed just for them.

By CHAO XIONG, Star Tribune

Stephanie Olson's father was leery when she told him she wanted to drive two hours to meet a man she'd met online. So she eased his concern by showing him a photo not of the suitor, but of his most prized possession -- an apple-red tractor that sparkled from meticulous care.

"The first thing my dad said was, 'It has nice rubber on it,"said Olson, 26, of Fosston, Minn. I am sure Dad was also thinking, "I hope he does too!" And from there, it was OK. I knew it was a nice tractor and well taken care of, so that would make a good impression on my dad."

It was one strategy Olson, a grain and alfalfa farmer, learned to employ in overcoming the unique challenges farmers face in the quest for love. Her first step was joining the dating website www.farmersonly.com, that unites singles with mates who can bend their game of romance around the annual cycle of planting and harvesting.

Olson met the man with the red tractor about three years ago. She had dad's blessing to trek to Fargo solo, but had one more card up her sleeve for her Romeo, Dan Klapprodt, a 28-year-old corn and soybean farmer from Toronto, S.D. (Fargo was a convenient, albeit unfamiliar, halfway point.)

"I told him I was bringing my dad with me," Olson recalled with a chuckle. "He said, 'OK, that's fine.' I had no intention of doing that; I just wanted to see what he would say."

Farmers need love too!

*****

The Baggy Pants Posse
Florida crackdown CRACK DOWN? nets 11 more perps for exposing their boxer shorts

SEPTEMBER 11--Last week we brought word of the arrest of Kenneth Smith, a Florida man busted for wearing baggy pants that exposed his boxer shorts. Well, it turns out that the Riviera Beach cops have been rather diligent in enforcing a new city ordinance targeting droopy shorts and trousers, according to police reports. Since officers began their crackdown last month, they have arrested at least 11 other baggy pants perps (of that group, two are juveniles). Below you'll find mug shots of eight of the other nine arrestees, aged between 18 and 36. As seen in a series of Riviera Beach Police Department probable cause affidavits, each of the males was nabbed after officers determined that low-slung pants or shorts had resulted in the exposure of between two and five inches of the individual offender's boxer shorts. While most of the busts occurred without incident, a few of the arrestees appeared bewildered that they were being arrested for a trouser-related offense. One of the juveniles, in fact, cursed out Officer J. Thornton and said, according to one affidavit, "Your a cracker and ain't got shit better to do." First-time violators of ordinance 12-3043 face a fine of up to $150.

It's about time?

*****

Based on the same time-honored, complex calculations it uses to predict weather, the Almanac hits the newsstands on Tuesday saying a study of solar activity and corresponding records on ocean temperatures and climate point to a cooler, not warmer, climate, for perhaps the next half century. Oh gosh an Inconvenient Truth, Al.

*****

Clay Aiken is gay, Lindsay Lohan is dating Samantha Ronson and Ellen DeGeneres is for gay marriage. Not that there is anything wrong with that!

Have a nice day!

Sammy C.

THIS IS BEST I CAN DO!

Not Much Here!

My favorite type of writing is humor and satire, but it has been hard to do lately with everything going on around us. There is nothing funny about politics and meltdowns. I did find a couple of items worth mentioning. I guess I will call it, dumbness.

1. David Blaine attempting to hang upside down for 60 hours and without eating. What on earth does that do to enhance the human experience. My bet is that he doesn't make it.

2. The man who shut down Terminal 6 at JFK because TSA found replica WWll hand grenaides in his bag.

3. George Michael being arrested again in a public restroom with marijuana and crack cocaine. Doesn't he have a better place to do his drugs? I believe this is the third time.

Have a nice day!

Sam

NO MATTER WHAT YOUR POLITICS!

Observation of the Day!

No matter what your politics, this story from the WCBS-TV New York is unbelievable. What a "class" act. Charlie Rangel is PATHETIC and a disgrace to the office he holds.

Reporting
Marcia Kramer

NEW YORK (CBS) ― Already under fire for his tax troubles, Manhattan Congressman Charles Rangel really put his foot in his mouth on Friday.

In a CBS 2 HD exclusive interview, Rep. Rangel called Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin "disabled."

The question was simple: Why are the Democrats so afraid of Palin and her popularity?

The answer was astonishing.

"You got to be kind to the disabled," Rangel said.

That's right. The chairman of the powerful House Ways & Means Committee called Palin disabled -- even when CBS 2 HD called him on it.

CBS 2 HD: "You got to be kind to the disabled?"

Rangel: "Yes."

CBS 2 HD: "She's disabled?"

Rangel: "There's no question about it politically. It's a nightmare to think that a person's foreign policy is based on their ability to look at Russia from where they live.

Republicans think Rangel's comments are insulting as well as shocking.

"Charlie Rangel's comments are clearly disgraceful," Rep. Peter King, R-Long Island, said. "This is just another liberal Democrat who can't accept an independent woman running for president."

King, who is co-chair of the McCain-Palin campaign in New York, watched Rangel's comments with CBS 2 HD. He was particularly upset because Palin's 4-month-old son, Trig, is disabled. He has Down's syndrome.

"We should be sensitive to her or any woman who has a child or family member who has any affliction at all," King said. "And so to use the word disabled in the context of a female candidate for vice president who has a child who is disabled really is wrong. Charlie owes her and the entire disabled community and apology."

Advocates for the disabled are also upset.

"It makes me feel as if he's trying to put her down, trying to say she's not good for the presidency or the vice presidency," said Michael Imperiale of Disabled In Action Of Metropolitan N.Y.

"A disabled president ran this country. He was disabled. His name was Roosevelt."

A spokesman for the McCain-Palin campaign also piled on, saying that this kind of rhetoric has no place in politics.

Screw Charlie Rangel!

Samuel C. Arnold

A PERFECT EVENING!

Observation of the Day!

Back in the forties and early fifties when many of us were children, we had a 4/60 air conditioner in the family car. Four open windows and sixty miles an hour. The windows had wings that diverted the breeze into the car. Of course it's different now. We are buttoned up behind closed windows, hermetically sealed away from the world.

Last evening I was driving home. It was a beautiful evening. The autumn sun was starting to ease into my eyes, the temperature was about 79, no wind and very comfortable humidity. It was the perfect storm of a beautiful autumn evening.

I turned off the air, opened the sun roof, and put the window down. I let my hand roll with the wind. I even used my hand as a foil as we all did when we were kids. I was missing a dog with his head out of the window, and I was missing a front porch to sit on watching the summer traffic pass by when I got home. When I was a little kid that porch was often our neighbor's porch. Uncle Jake, Auntie Campbell and Aunt Mary were our neighbors. Of course they weren't actually our uncles and aunts, but that relationship was very real. I spent many wonderful summer evenings, just watching the cars go by. Uncle Jake would spit his tobacco juice over the rail and Aunt Mary would often sing to me. The memory has never left me.

Aunt Mary was about thirty and loved her little Sammy Carl. That is where the Sammy Carl comes from as one of my Blog signatures. Even at seventy, she still called me Sammy Carl. Two days ago Aunt Mary passed away in Indiana. She would have been ninety-four on the September 28. Whenever I went to Indiana for a visit, I would carve out a few hours to visit with her. She still loved me as much now as she did then. I was her favorite. She liked my brothers, but I was her pride and joy and she loved me best. I was glad I had been able to reconnect with her. She had lost her husband in 1990 and often said to me that she didn't know why God didn't take her. She was a Christian lady and she was ready to go. Her mind was still sharp.

I had planned to see her on my trip to Indiana last summer. However, if you remember that was the weekend I didn't make it to Indiana because of the Wisconsin flood. I felt bad about that because she always looked forward for days in anticipation of my visit. Fortunately, I didn't tell her I was coming. She would have been too disappointed.

So in 2008 the 4/60 is gone, the porch is gone and now Aunt Mary is gone. For a few moments I relived a wonderful time of my life, but life moves forward at a blinding clip.

Have a nice day!

Sammy Carl