"HOW SHALL WE THEN LIVE?" Francis Schaeffer

Thursday, June 14, 2007

2007 Mustang GT

My son drove up last night in his brand-new, jet-black, Mustang GT - the classic "throaty purr" indicating the presence of 8 honkin' cyclinders creating 300 horses at 6000 rpm. Oh, it's nice.

He didn't listen to his old Dad. I said, light colors last longer and 6 cylinders will be all the horsepower you'll need.

I was WRONG. I'm glad he got the real thing. At this stage he can afford the gas (he's single) and every guy should have a hot car at least once in his life. It's good to be young when you're young. He bought like a 27 year old, not like a 57 year old and that's good.

Enjoy it Tom. You made the right choice.

Sunday, June 10, 2007

Life and death of Judy Garland (Francis Gumm)

(Found on James Lilek's blog in response to his post on Judy Garland Days in Grand Rapids)

The Case of Frances Gumm vs. Judy Garland
Submitted by CivilDefense on Sun, 06/10/2007 - 7:39am.

Do you really "...have to wonder how her life would have unfolded if she’d stayed" home in small-town middle America"?

With respect, I don't think so. Her life would have been better, far happier, and almost certainly much longer. (Her daughter, too, wouldn't have been a bundle of second-generation neuroses and inherited pathologies.)

Google the sad end in summary of Garland's story and you learn that she was just 47, full of sleeping pills, and that "everybody loved her" ... everybody but Frances Gumm, apparently. (As I recall, "everyone loved" Marilyn Monroe, too --- not to mention Elvis, Jim Morrison, etc. ad nauseum)

When you're very, very young, deeply impressed by what you see and unaware of what you don't yet know, Garland's meteoric life story has great appeal. Young people don't see those brassy, rouged twin whores, Glamour and Fame, as the flattering, life-sapping, withering harpies they truly are.

As you age, have a family, enjoy the profound pleasures of a modest life and the peaceful retreat of relative obscurity, I think most of us come to regard a life like that lived by Gumm/Garland as a curse and a tragedy ... even if it's set to music and recorded in Technicolor.

Saturday, June 09, 2007

"Kakes" graduates

My youngest, "Kakes," graduated from college a month ago. She ended up with a triple major; English, Psych & Linguistics. Through-out her 4 years she received all A's except for one B+. I'm quite proud of my two children. Having graduated from college they should be able to find gainful employment and support my early retirement. That's my plan; not necessarily their's.

Anywho, congrats to Kakes for a job terrifically done.

Sitting quietly

This morning while I was unloading my Motobecane racing bicycle, I "twinged" my back. Well I completed the 24 miles with my friend Ron but my back is warning me that I need to be very careful in the next couple of days. Such is life right?