388- "AIN'T NO MOUNTAIN HIGH ENOUGH....".....

Can you name that high school in Northern Virginia and the popular film's title? You need to realize that the plot is LOOSELY based on that school!
a- T.C. Williams High School in Alexandria, Va.
b- "The Titans"....
c- Used the film in sosh! classes!

387- THE OLYMPICS' CHOICE?...SHOULD BE RIO de JANEIRO!!......

NO South American country has ever been "awarded" the event, and Rio's time has arrived! Goggle to RIO de JANEIRO and check out some of the scenery, please. Then, YOU make a choice, just for the heck of it!

UPDATE-------AND IT WILL BE RIO de JANEIRO....hey, blame it on Rio!

386- OUR NATIONAL PARKS...(BIGGIE SECRET COMING UP)...AMERICA's BESTEST ASSETS!..................

John Muir...Teddy Roosevelt...Ken Burns. Some of our true national heroes!
European countries used to kid us, insult us by claiming that the "old countries" had cathederals hundreds of years in the making...the Parthenon...the Pyramids...Big Ben...the Eiffel Tower....
Did you realize that our America has magnificent natural "cathedrals", like saving Grand Canyon...Yellowstone...Yosemite...and millions more acres, now, of pristene NATURAL lands and rivers and lakes? America was the first country to, finally, realize the importance of getting away from civilization.
PLEASE...check out a PBS station this week or so and settle back, relax, turn off the phones and watch the latest Ken Burns masterpiece..."National Parks." Invite your family, especially children, and friends over...'K?

A SECRET FLASH: and what will our latest popular quarter series be like in the upcoming year or so, after the extremely popular "States series and six (6) territories series?"....a series with our National Parks! I'm thinking that the first one will be....(drum roll)....Yellowstone National Park!!!

385- THINGS That M'ANAZE And CONTINUE To FASCINATE MOI!.....

a- Outer space...sometimes I close my eyes and try to imagine how far space goes...but my mind simply will not comprehend and kick into overdrive! What the heck is "out there"?
b- e-mail....I've asked 'puter whizzes and read, but this guy just cannot fathom how I can type in a message and have it sent to Australia in a jumpin' jack flash! c- The radio in my little yellow auto...mystifies me, for all of these years, how I can touch a button and instantaneously "catch" a signal from "out there."
d- Laying bricks at the site of a huge building....fascinates the heck out of me how each small brick is laid, one at a time, and becomes one monstrous building. Why don't the bricklayers look up and get bogged down realizing that their task seems like an absolute, impossible assignment...and quit?
Maybe that's a great lesson in life for the chosen few: "The longest journey begins with but the first step......!" And only those chosen few who keep on keeping on, putting one step after the next until their destination is reached, will WIN!

e- Reminds me of me creatively working on my very first novel, The Serpentine Bond!, for the past couple of years! The 600-pages about seven (7) university students, who BOND during their four years of higher education studies, is nearing completion of the last draft onto 'WORD'. I look back, with all the boxes and piles of notes and endless organizing and rewriting and rewriting, and often wondered why, would I EVER bring it all together? But I didn't quit and am coming closer and closer to all that work. Don't EVER allow anyone to tell you that creative writing is a whizzzzzzz. Got a hankering to write? BEGIN...helps to having a mentor, too. This writer is most appreciative of the local Virginia Gazette for publishing way over 100 essays, for a handful of editors at national magazines and the editor at a UVa publication for my indepth essay on capital punishment.

f) Well, this non-quitter can see the light at the much closer covered bridge portal and KNOWS that The Serpentine Bond! WILL become
a huge bestseller not only in my America but in at least 43 other countries! Why? The storytelling will keep the reader glued to the plot...the 7 SB characters are exceptionally indepth...and? You'll fall in like with all of their ADVENTURES on the weekends. Did I mention that, after becoming attached to the 7 and after graduation, after 10 years, the plot twists and turns into a...a diabolical mystery, with one of the 7 bestest friends plotting to revive their 10-year-old plan to make American society STOP in its tracks! But which one of the seven is responsible within the bond? One is lying, deceiving the others, a bond? But which one? Hmmmmmm...before the others can stop him...or her? I intend to have the very last page of SB sealed so NO ONE can sneak a peek to see which one of the seven done "it", or tried to do "it!"

g- And how someone can allow a considerate person to hold a door open for them and then walk through without so much as a 'thank you.' That is what I classify as a pissant (in the dictionary!)
h- MUSIC...once explained to a music choir director in high school about my theory that humans had and could go much further with composing the music and songs being created at the time, and now! Just when I believe that not another 'original" tune could be created, up comes more originals. Fascinates me that there has to be millions of different combinations of musical notes, arrangements "out there"...has to be! I look at this moment or three, just what the BEATLES wrote and performed...fascinating. I think, also, of many classical pieces already created and performed over the years....fascinating, and how many more and what will be written in the future! Original lyrics and musical notes, using only the known notes, continue to be composed, added to and will be recorded.
i- HOW OUR MUSIC and videos are CREATED and RECORDED.... For many of us, think back to 45's...33-1/3rd records...CDs. What happend, not long ago, to video cassettes? And computers, just a short handful of years ago, were not like those early ones we remember? The technology is moving sooo fast, trying to keep up with it boggles my mind. Want to know how to 'copy' tunes into your iPod? Ask a child! "Hey, I need help with my iPod!!!
j- CORRUPTION...just look around our country...banks...community organizers...Wall Street.... Our society, in general, has moved into a lack of cooperative morality, backed into a personal "me, me, me-ism." It's all about me! To heck with others...." BUT...it was heartening to see a small group of William and Mary students, during their Homecoming parade on October 24th, raising $$ for their trip to Belize. The small group were going to this Central American country to HELP a school there! Each year there is no fanfare from the news media, just W&M students giving of their time and caring with the children! WE STILL have hope for our society to move away from "me-ism!"

384- **IN MEMORIAM FOR DERRION ALBERT!....

Derrion was an HONOR student, a homebody, a somebody who mattered as a young person, one who studied diligently and spent many hours a night on his computer....in Roseland, Chicago. I WILL NOT talk about how he died in the streets, but instead bless Derrion for his short life and goals to attend college!!!!!
May many other young persons, all across our America, be positively inspired by Derron's GOOD attributes only and continue on with their own dreams of accomplishments and lofty goals. Derron will not have passed in vain! He was our ultimate hero!!!!

383- THIS HUSBAND, And HERO, TACKLED A CREDIT UNION ROBBER WHILE HIS WIFE STOOD IN LINE....

West Allis, Wisconsin...the 54-year-old husband's wife was in line at a credit union when a ROBBER took over. The husband crossed two line ropes to TACKLE the pissant robber, knock the guy to the floor and hold him until the police arrived! The wife also got involved and kicked the pissant. Tape can be seen on the Internet.
Why? He told the police that he feared for his wife's life!!!! How about that, guys?
I have yet to uncover our hero's name...but will.

382- SO, WHO DO YOU TRUST?...

Social Commentary: what I discovered while talking with a management person about the food prices you're NOW paying, in comparison with what you were paying, say, this past summer? What if you were paying 68-cts. and the price of a house brand of soup jumped to $1.16 in one week? That's a whooping 48-cts. jump in price for that one (1) can of "chicken with stars" soup! For enough of you who watch prices closely, you should recognize more huge price jumps on individual prices at this same retailer...check 'em out closely, now, each time you go shopping! And I discovered WHY? By the way, this educator did teach a special practical Econ class, and, as always, did extensive research as the classes were being taught!

a- This retailer, for years, has prided itself on the lowest prices in competition! It's common practice, most of us know, was for competitors to visit other retailers and check prices...OK? And for this large retailer to boast of having the lowest prices, by 'checking'.
b- NOW, however, I have discovered that this same retailer checks on surrounding competitors' prices AND raises their ownprices UP to come close to matching the competitors, but slightly lower than those checked competitors. In other words, this retailer, now, is checking competition BUT using the tactic to jump their own earlier "lower" prices considerable higher. They are actually RAISING their prices quickly and precipitously much higher to 'match', all under the guise of remodeling their stores while the store was in a state of changing flux, thinking that you, the savy customer, wouldn't recognize what they were doing!
c- That first glaring example, this summer, came from their house brand soup, like their 'chicken with stars soup' jumping in one week from 62-cts. to 68-cts, then the next week to a whopping $1.16 (48-cts jump for one can of soup) That's when I began asking questions! That's when someone inside management told me that the company's "NEW" pricing policy was to check other's prices and then jump way up to come right under a competitor's price, no matter what was originally being charged. Hence, huge price jumps, overnight! have noticed, now, more and more glaring huge jumps in prices from earlier this summer---16-oz. cans of their brand of fruit! PAY ATTENTION, America, to what's going on!
d- Working my way through high school in a small local grocery chain, I had learned so much about the grocery business. That 68-cts. price this summer, jumping to $1.16, was already paid for with the much lower wholesale price at 68-cts. And, as said before, the soup price was jumped significantly, earning this huge retailer a much higher rate of return, over and above the original wholesale price, for each and every can of that soup!!!! Imagine doing the same practice with thousands of items?
Did you like it last summer when the same principle was gouging you with gasoline at $4.00+ a gallon, knowing that the original wholesale price for gasoline had already been set and paid at the much lower wholesale price? Gasoline companies, last summer, raked in huge EXTRA profits from marked- up prices...from us, once again, the poor consumers.
e- Solutions? Don't buy the item, items when you discover ANY huge jump in price overnight!! Prepare your own soup at home! Don't buy the huge marked-up house brand in the store. That will force, SUPPLY AND DEMAND, the prices back to actual wholesale level if we all band together!!!
f- When I asked how 'they' could do this to consumers, that's us, the reply was a quick "it's that old inflation!" INFLATION? Bull! Rationalization...making excuses, on the back of us, the consumer. YOU HAVE A RIGHT TO KNOW!!

381- EMILY MONTFORO!....THANK HEAVENS For LITTLE EMILY At THIS WEEK'S PHILLIES' BASEBALL GAME!....

Haven't seen what Emily, three-year-old from Laurel Spring, N.J., did at the Phillies' baseball game? People around America are flocking to catch a glimpse on YouTube and Google. SHE WON THE HEARTS OF AMERICA!
Her Dad, Steve Montforo, reached out on the stadium ledge to catch a fowl ball, who in turn immediately gave it to his little daughter, Emily. And she immediately threw it back over the ledge! She later tells a TV program that she was doing what her daddy had taught her to do...throw the ball back when playing catch.
That fowl ball disappeared, strangely, but the team later gave the four members of the family four baseballs signed by the entire team.
YOU GO, EMILY!!

380- MY LATEST AMERICAN HEROES #3 & #4!...HANNAH GILES And JAMES O'KEEFE!!!!!.....

Hannah Giles is the 20-yr.-old college student who bravely went undercover in different cities, with James O'Keefe (videographer) to SEE if a.c.o.r.n. was involved with illegally obtaining and using monies given them by OUR federal government. Both are now under attack by the radicals. Be strong, Hannah and James! YOU examine the undoctored videos, and YOU decide. NO ONE ELSE was smart enough or brave enough, but these two were! Both our U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives have NOW begun bills to cut off ALL funds, periods, with a.c.o.r.n. Our U.S. Census Buread has severed all ties with that "community action"...30 members have been found guilty around American...more have been charged.
Ready for this? A Maryland state proscutor has decided to charge both of the STUDENTS with wiretapping.
****STUDENTS THROUGHOUT AMERICA!!...come to the aid, support and defense of your, our, fellow collegian and speak out and up to give your support in any way to and for Hannah and James...please!!! I have begun...am trying to find a way to Twitter, e-mail or FaceBook both! Know how? Share, please!
This American government educator has closely looked at the Maryland, State, law on this case. It should be thrown out, if filed, on the obvious grounds that the taped interview, even though a.c.o.r.n employees alledgedly didn't didn't know it was, were NOT in a private position. The interview was in an office next to the front door and window and had more than one employee, several, in attendance and participating. Read the Maryland! I did!
In my opinion, and many others, the impending(?) suit is an insulting attempt to squelch to shut up the two students, knowing that there are MORE tapes ready to be brought out for public scrutiny. How do we know that? The suit mentions asking the court to forbid any other tapes from made public.
I just typed in Hannah's name into my FaceBook account...and there she is...I left her a glowing message on her 'wall.'

379- ***IN MEMORIAM FOR ANNIE LE......

By now, many of you know that Annie Le, Yale University student lab tech, in New Haven, Ct., was murdered in the protected basement lab area. My sincere thoughts go out to her friends and familty. By all accounts, Annie was one of the absolute best kind of persons! As a sociologist, when will these sicko acts of crime cease? This pissant who was responsible MUST be charged and brought to justice, soon!!
LATEST!...alledged perp has been arrested and charged!

378- MY LATEST AMERICAN HERO #2!.....PAULA DEEN!...

A few of you, I believe, know and understand the "rags to riches" story of our Paul Deen! She was born and raised in Georgia and, after a divorce, had a problem with leaving the house, agoraphobia (public places). But she knew how to cook the old-fashioned, traditional Southern way. Paula began her very small catering business in her own kitchen, preparing "complete" lunches. Her two sons would go out each day to sell them. And people fell in like with those lunch bags.
Eventually, she took another big jump and opened a restaurant, The Lady and Two Sons! That two developed into a huge success, with dedication and GOOD old-fashioned Southern food...comfort food!. When someone suggested that she move her "act"into television, with her own cooking show and homespun way of talking, her first reaction was...NO! She just could not go out in front of people, nuch less an audience!
But, again, she mustered up enough courage to try. The rest is history!
Her homey wit, down to Earth cookin' methods and honesty quickly won over Georgia's audiences and later into the entire country.
Cheesy meat loaf...fried chicken...gooey buttercake...her baked macaroni and cheese and homemade banana pudding are but a handful of her popular recipes.
You go, PAULA DEEN....you deserve all of the accolades and $$$$$ you and your two sons earn!

377- MY LATEST AMERICAN HERO! #1...DICK CLARK!....

Think back...to the original American Bandstand out of Philadelphia, on TV. DICK CLARK introduced thousands of young people across America to the latest pop music, but also, he introduced and gave many up and coming 'wannabe' singers and groups a national audience venue! Dick Clark was the epitome of great manners and allowing the artists to speak with their music instead of making himself the center of attenton. And he was a true, genuine gentleman for decades on his different TV shows, like "$10,000 Pyramid." DICK CLARK later moved his interviews and "talk" show talents to New Year's Eve, successfully.
BUT...our true television entrepreneur, who had given sooo much to others on his years of television, suffered a stroke a couple of years back. When he tried so hard to 'comeback', continue the best he could do, last year on the New Year's Eve program, his thoughts were not exactly insync. Some inconsiderate pissants, on TV, poked fun at him. I was pulling for him, though! Can you believe that a couple of pissant, sicko commentators last New Year's Eve made some smartass remarks about his speech? I believed it, heard it and felt sick to my stomach. However, DICK CLARK is the true hero...for keeping on keeping on! Who remembers the pissants?
You go, DICK CLARK...you have been and will always be my and tens of thousands of other rock 'n roll fans our hero! You are a deserved good guy, Dick Clark. Can you dig it? We give YOUR song a 10+1!

376- 23 CHEERS For TAYLOR SWIFT, And BEYONCE, AT THE MTV VIDEO AWARDS SEPTEMBER 13th!....

TAYLOR SWIFT, a bright, highly talented, young up and coming singer, walked up on stage to accept her excellent Country Music video award, when someone, his name doesn't deserve any recognition whatsoever, slipped on stage and took the 'mike' and began a humiliating tirade telling everyone that another singer deserved more recognition as the "best" video in the world, and he appeared either on drugs or alcohol. TAYLOR stood there, a lady! An absolute insult and incommon display of rudeness, grossness came from the "guy"! The audience booooed and continued booing him the rest of the TV show, directed at the pissant?
BEYONCE, when the camera looked at her, renounced the display of pure distain with her facial expressions and later called Taylor back up to share a hug, warm hug and an apology...bravo! And bravo to the huge audience for NOT accepting the outrageous behavor each and every time the "guy" was seen! Later, the "guy" made a quickie "apology", undoubledly believing that all was forgiven. In one of my early blogs, this sociologist described the current behavior of being crude, rude to another person or group and then trying the ole quickie apology ploy, trick, figuring that the dastardly act will be gotten away with, quickly, and will wipe the slate clean...after doing the cowardly damage. Don't let it work! It's the latest kind of ploy to get the rest of us, society, to feel sorry for the crude and rude abuser.
"Hey, the person said they were sorry!...c'mon, forgive and foget! BULL*#@+!"
It's, again, the original intent. If a person is genuine and respectful, they wouldn't try and say that crappla game to begin with, to hurt and demean. Thinking before inserting one's foot into one's mouth is a matter of COUTH.
Taylor Swift...you ARE a class act!!!!

Beyonce update! Find the recent tape of Beyonce, in Australia, bringing a little girl (ill) up on stage and singing to the little girl, only to the little girl...please find it...thanks. You might, by the way, have a tiny tear or three. Both Boyonce and the little girl did.......
I say that Beyonce is an absolute, total class act and sincere, honest person! We need more of this 'positivity' in our American society in the 21st century...right?

375- "CONTRABAND"...IN OUR MOVIE THEATRES?....

This guy remembers, when my daughter was 'widdle', I would pop a bag of ORVILLE at home, purchase a Big Gulp 'Doc' at you-know-where, and head for a matinee, skillfully concealing both. Hey, what would I have been charged with, "failure to reveal hidden contraband"? As we walked through the lobby to see a Disney film, the BG top came loose and began slowly dripping out of my pocket all the way through the lobby. She looked over at me and, in a loud voice, said: "I told you we shouldna hid the Big Gulps, Daddy!"
Okay, raise your right hand now if you've never declared that movie food was far too expensive AND taken "contraband", cleverly, into the theatre...didn't think so!
So, what and how did you do it?...'fess up, please.
a- Candy is easy to do...movie candy is expensive! See...rationalizing is easy!
b- Popcorn can be easy, from home, but here's where you need your wife, girlfriend or little daughter to help...remember those LARGE handbags or bulky sweatshirts that have a built-in pocket? Jackets during winter? If it's still popping inside your sweater, you might have a problem.
c- KFC boxes of chickn strips, styro slaw and those delicious instant mashed potatoes with a dab of gravy on top present a major problem, especially when your open the boxes, spread out the picnic on an adjoining seat and the aromas begin to waft over the aisles near you!...or forget to bring the individually wrapper SPORKS! Fingers, in the dark, won't work.
d- That Domino's large pizza with "everything" box? Tell me, where do you "hide" that, uh, box? No matter how you try it, the entire pizza will slide down to any end. Hide it in your pants as you pay at the counter? Under your left armpit? How about hiding it under your cap or hat, balancing it as you walk to your seat? You could, in the car, stack the slices on top of each other and then stuff into a plastic bag that you brought...instant mush? Friend have a huge tote bag?
e- Subway "foot-longs"? In the original bag? A maybe but still have a problem with the smells wafting out and about your neck of the theatre. You could bring enough to share with those around you, like a bribe.
f- Those nifty packs of two tiny Burger King sliders with cheese? Another possibility. But I don't think hiding that tray between your legs, as you try to walk to your seat, will work, though....?
g- Sushi...now there's a possibility. Very little sound to open and harly any wiff of the rice stuff. That plastic container is small enough to fit most anywhere, too. Only problem? In the dark, my fingers could accidently scoop up a bit of that fiery hot green stuff they stick onto the tray, along with my non-spicy California Roll morsel...not good! "Where's my full strength Big Gulp, quick?"

374- LET'S PLAY "PERRY MASON" FOR A MOMENT Or THREE!....

Ready? Let's say that we have a guy and a women in a car, and the guy beats the hell out of the woman. When he gets a chance to explain, later, this guy rationalizes that he does not remember beating her. That's his excuse. He has yet to, failed to make any form of apology to her and the Court.
Oh, suppose the judge sentenced the woman beater to a brief, pansy time behind "bars"?
Can you figure out who this big, brave guy is and responsible for this atrocity? He literally got away with savagely beating up this woman? Why? And why do some women, even girls, allow this? Scared? Low self-esteem? The coed "deserved" it? When WILL our judicial system, judges and prosecutors, protect our women and girls with an equal sense of justice? INSIST!

373- "SOCIAL CHANGE" IS A DANGEROUS PROPAGANDA TOOL...PAY CLOSE ATTENTION, PLEASE!....

As a sociologist and American government educator, and an astute student of history, YOU, please, pay attention to any subtle, clever attempt by any leader/s to use the educational system, especially during those earlier years of young minds, to influence directions for thinking that deviates drastically away from our 200+ years of developing a strong form of Democracy. Look back at earlier 20th century Germany, and the youth "movements" during that era! Look, really look at Iran's leader/s...China!
Then...look closely at what's happening all across our America, with ordinary people, on their own, speaking out and up for the American ideals that's we've earned for those 200+ years. THEY WILL NOT BE STIFLED! They are exercising their, our, basic American-style of FREEDOM of speaking up and out for what many of our fellow Americans believe is right!!
As Otis P.T. Suggins would say: "Know what I mean?"

372- ANYONE FOR SOME COCONUT MILK?....

A little FYI...Asking questions is a sign of intelligence!"
Coconut milk is not that clear liquid you hear and find swishing around in a ripe coconut. That's really 'coconut water'.
Coconut milk is derived from cutting up the white inside coconut rind and squeezing it in a press. That resulting white liquid is the real coconut milk! To obtain the coconut milk requires some skill and work!