Long Island

I drove down to Hauppauge, Long Island, with my brother for a family meeting to decide on how to best take care of our mother. Her heart is too weak to allow her to live by herself anymore and she needs someone with her 24/7.  All of us have moved off the Island so there'll be some discussion on where she will stay.

She is in good spirits though. Having all her kids around her probably helped. For being 87, the physical therapist was surprised at how physically strong she still is. My mom's a tough old bird.

We'll have to sell her condo and her car and eventually move her somewhere; until then a home aide basically moves in with her. She can't be moved for another few months until they can hopefully get her heart a little stronger so she can survive an ablation operation on her branch bundle and installation of a pacemaker.

Will be back maybe in a few days.

Don't Worry, I'm With The Government

The NSA initiates it's newest overt data collection protocol -

JunkStat

Asking For Trouble

I find Cadbury Creme Eggs somewhat revolting (I'm a semisweet chocolate guy myself) but my wife and daughters will go berserk when they find this out:

Hershey's has blocked British-made Cadbury chocolate from entering the US. 

The chocolate company struck up a deal with Let's Buy British Imports to stop imports of Cadbury products made overseas, reports Tatiana Schlossberg at The New York Times.

The company will also stop importing British Kit Kat bars, Toffee Crisps, and Yorkie chocolate bars.

Fans of chocolate manufactured in Britain say it tastes better than American-made chocolate.

A Hershey's representative told The New York Times that the company has the rights to manufacture Cadbury chocolate in America using different recipes, and that importing British chocolate is an infringement.

Right around Easter my wife would buy those things; she and our daughters would open the foil and gleefully suck that sugary, sweet milky crap out of them. I still shudder at the thought. But these were Cadbury Eggs, not Hersey Eggs.

There's going to be trouble.

Heck, my youngest daughter had an imaginary friend that she named Cadbury. She was teased mercilessly by her older sisters about it but Cadbury remained a close friend for several years.

Personally, I do not care for Hersey's chocolate, it's too sugary. If I can have my druthers, I prefer Dove dark, semisweet chocolate.

Story here. I have a gut feeling that Hersey's is gonna get their ass kicked.

Wiggle Your Fingers

Emily and Dave receive detailed instructions from Sister Mary Francis
on the proper use of hand puppets to consummate their wedding vows.

Winter Weekend Project

The circulation pump for my hot water baseboards went kablooey this weekend.  This Bell & Gossett pump was installed when the house was built in 1960. To replace this with the same type of pump would be $300.

A friend who does HVAC gave me some advice and we ended up with this. It cost only $85 and does the same work. Also it does not need to be lubricated.

So my friend spent some time with me on Saturday morning and we're all nice and toasty again. The empty pump flange you see next to the new pump is still there after I tore out the downstairs zone and replaced it with electric heat about 25 years ago.

The hardest part was getting on my knees to bleed the cast iron baseboard heaters. They are also 55 years old so most of the bleeder valves were corroded and needed to be replaced. I had to use the gel knee pads and even then it wasn't pleasant.

A half hour after the job was done the downstairs toilet overflowed....

Not The Answer

After many years of study and observation, I have finally arrived at several definitive responses which should never, under any circumstances, be given voice in the presence of your spouse.

When asked, "What was the song they played at your wedding?" never answer "I Finally Got A Man by Melanie and the Meal Tickets."

When dining out on your wedding anniversary and the waitress asks for your order, never answer, "Menopausal Meatloaf slathered in Stony Silence Sauce."

*Rage*Disgust*

Look at what this asshole does when visiting India in honor of their country when their anthem is played...

And what does he do when the American national anthem is played?

Now That's Cold

Pieter Schelte's wedding in 1942

Heil Hitler asshole.

Leaders of Jewish communities and Holocaust memorial groups in Britain and the Netherlands have reacted with rage and despair at the arrival in Rotterdam of the world’s biggest ship, the Pieter Schelte, named after a Dutch officer in the Waffen-SS.

The vice-president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, Jonathan Arkush, said: “Naming such a ship after an SS officer who was convicted of war crimes is an insult to the millions who suffered and died at the hands of the Nazis. We urge the ship’s owners to reconsider and rename the ship after someone more appropriate.”

Esther Voet, director of the Centre for Information and Documentation on Israel (Cidi), based in The Hague, said that the timing of the ship’s arrival, shortly before Jews were targeted and killed in Paris and the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, was “a coincidence, I’m sure, but a sign of the times. We lost our battle to have the ship’s name changed, and we are left eating dust.”

Story here.

Under direction of the Nazi SS, Pieter Schelte was director of the Dutch East Company which was charged with the "colonization of Eastern Europe." He was responsible for picking up Dutch men who were put to forced labor in Nazi-occupied Baltic territories in Eastern Europe; hundreds lost their lives.

Schelte hated Jews and was quoted as saying "The German race is model. The Jewish race, by comparison, is parasitic ... therefore the Jewish question must be resolved in every Aryan country." Some 70 percent of the Netherlands' 140,000 Jews perished in the Holocaust.

Schelte allegedly joined the resistance before the war ended but he fled to Switzerland were he was apprehended (by whom?) in 1944. Maybe he did have a change of heart but his wedding was celebrated in Nazi publications and prominent Nazi's were in attendance. I also think that more than a few guilders changed hands in covering his ass - this guy had some bucks.

The Schelte is the world's biggest ship, over 1,250 feet long and 407 feet wide.

The Waffen SS

The Waffen-SS (Armed SS) was created as the armed wing of the Nazi Party's Schutzstaffel (SS, "Protective Squadron"), and gradually developed into a multi-ethnic and multi-national military force of Nazi Germany.

The Waffen-SS grew from three regiments to over 38 divisions during World War II, and served alongside the Heer (regular army) but was never formally part of it. Adolf Hitler resisted integrating the Waffen-SS into the army, as it was to remain the armed wing of the Party and to become an elite police force once the war was won. 

Yeah, I'd name the world's largest ship after him. This POS died in 1981; obviously his family is trying to rehabilitate his name. After the war he did not dedicate himself to humanitarian purposes to atone for the hundreds he helped kill. He pursued money. I doubt any of it went to the families of the men he killed.

There's No Place Like Home

After furiously clicking the heels of his sparkly ruby red sneakers, Sid
finally realizes that he can never return home to his parent's basment