Saturday, January 28, 2017

Sarah Palin, the end of an error.

Hello, shalom, yo, how’s the family, hi-de-ho and happy Saturday morning from Howdygram headquarters! You will surely be pleased to note that I finally flipped myself into a normal sleeping pattern and woke up today at 9:15 after half a dozen pleasant hours of uninterrupted overnight sleep. Holy crap, right? And waking up early-ish also affords me the opportunity to eat a favorite breakfast ... Hormel Compleats Real Meatloaf with Nice Mashed Taters and Tan Sauce! This is amazing!



In other news ...

EVERY ACTIVIST NEEDS A FEW GOOD SIGNS. On Tuesday Sam will be protesting (again) against Trump administration policies at Senator Cornyn’s (R-TX) office in Plano, and this time he’s ready to take along an arsenal of homemade signs. So yesterday he bought poster board and markers at Michael’s, and I’ll be in charge of hand-lettering everything over the weekend because I’m the “artistic” one and Sam’s printing tends to be virtually illegible. I’m okay with this. It takes me back to my radical days in the 1970s. (Hey. Can a person can still get high huffing Sharpies?)

SARAH PALIN, THE END OF AN ERROR. Professional loser Sarah Palin officially shut down her political action committee — Sarah PAC — on December 31, bringing our long national nightmare with Caribou Barbie to an end. During the 2016 election cycle her PAC wasted $830,000 on “consultants” and $168,000 on travel and lodging ... more than double what it donated to conservative candidates. Back in 2009 and 2010 when Sarah Palin was at her “peak,” her PAC raised $5.6 million and spent all but $509,000 on herself, even though her inner circle kept insisting she was laser-focused on electing more Republicans to governors’ mansions and Congress. Yeah, not so much. She mostly focused on buying houses and trying to weasel herself into photo ops or rallies with high profile candidates.
I HAD TO CHANGE MY DOCTOR APPOINTMENT. As it turns out, Sam has a follow-up with his dermatologist at the same time on the same day — 10 a.m. on Friday, February 3 — to have the bandages and dressings removed from his leg (he had more skin cancer surgery, remember?) so I rescheduled with Dr. M for February 13. Holy crap. It’s always something.

TASTE BUDS: GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN. One of the toughest side effects of diabetic neuropathy has been a rather severe taste disorder. Just about everything tastes like wet cardboard to me now with the exception of a few flavor profiles ... salty, cheesy, milk chocolate and spicy Asian. Everything else is just atrocious. There are times when my taste buds bounce back for a week or two and food is glorious again, but for the most part DIABETES SUCKS.



 Mike Connors, who starred as a hard-hitting private eye on the long-running television series “Mannix,” died from complication of leukemia on Thursday at a Los Angeles hospital. He was 91.

“Mannix” ran for eight years on CBS beginning in 1967. Connors portrayed a self-employed Los Angeles private eye with an African-American secretary played by Gail Fisher. At first the network was concerned that affiliates in the south would object to an intelligent Negro who wasn’t a maid (seriously!), but there was never any kind of backlash. Glorioski!

Connors’ movie and TV career stretched from the 1950s to 2007, when he had a guest role on “Two and a Half Men.” He made his film debut in 1952’s Sudden Fear with Joan Crawford.
I never watched “Mannix” ... but my parents did, and mom had a crush on Mike Connors for the entire run of his TV show. Eventually (in the early 1970s) she also had crushes on Dennis Weaver (as “McCloud”), Jack Klugman (as “Quincy M.E.”) and probably half a dozen other actors. As for yours truly, back in 1967 I was crazy about “Laugh-In,” “The Smothers Brother Comedy Hour” and “Gomer Pyle U.S.M.C.” I was 16 at the time.


Sam is on his way to the bank as I write this post, depositing three surprise checks that came in the mail yesterday. Apparently we qualify for reduced property taxes now that I’m 65, so the city of Mesquite and Dallas County sent us $1,260 as a partial refund for last year’s property taxes. HOLY CRAP, people ... this is nothing at which to sneeze! I’m so goddamn excited I might open a can of Hormel tamales for lunch!

Thank y’all for reading this and I hope you have a really swell weekend.

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