Ellen's Nest

Lost My Name, Lost My Password

Maybe, just maybe, I'll write now.  I need a change.

My Day With Chicken Joe

When my mom was little and living in Cranston, RI, some 80 years ago, she said she'd watch people cut the heads off chickens. Sometimes those chickens would still run around, even without those heads.

When I arrived at work today there was a message on my desk.  An employee, I'll call him Joe, needed $800.00 immediately and was crying and needed to talk to my husband or me.  I figured he was just whining and ignored it, because everyone is always whining that they need money and a lot of times we give them money and then they leave town and leave us high and dry.  (It's happened more times than I can count on my fingers.)

After about 1/2 hour of being there, Joe came rushing into the office running around like one of those chickens with his head cut off.  His (older) truck's radiator was leaking and he needed another truck. His route manager told him to take another employee's (who is on vacation) newer truck.  Joe was in and out of the office at least six times with a panic-ridden look on his face.  Something was definitely wrong.  I was tempted to give him a valium, but of course I didn't have one and after watching him I would have been better off with it, anyway.  Finally, he left.

Five minutes later I got a call.  Joe was hysterically crying on the other end of the line, telling me why he needed $800.00.  Somewhere in the conversation it came up about bailing his stepson out of jail, his ex-wife's car being repossessed, etc.  He wasn't whining.  He was crying.  I said I'd talk to my husband, all the while thinking about all the times we've been ripped off.

Joe called 30 minutes later to see if I talked to Mike.  Not yet, of course and I didn't tell him I didn't try.  I figured it was time for me to go home.

I Can't Post

My "high speed" comcast cable is behaving worse than dial-up.  It won't even let me open web pages - very frustrating.  It's an outside problem, but the powers that be have to come check inside first and they can't come until Monday.  (It's not inside, but of course no one would listen to me, so here I wait, patiently?)

So, anyway, I can't upload.  I can't download.  I'll be lucky if I can post this.

New Orleans - Great Place

Where the vacation never ends!

Bitter and Nasty

I've been so bitter, nasty, and upset about the whole Katrina mess. Pam sent me this link.  I guess I'm normal. I've felt so helpless.

Thanks Pam.

Bushville 9/11/05

Support Katrina Survivors

Am I Dreaming?

This figures.  Some little town in Texas.  Could be Mississipppi.  Could be Alabama. Whatever.  Read on, if you haven't already read about this fiasco.  I think we are back in the '50's.

Yearbook to be Reprinted Over "Black Girl" Caption

A North Texas school district is having four pages of its high school yearbook reprinted to correct a photo caption that identified a student as "Black Girl."

All white students are identified by name in the photograph of Waxahachie High School's chapter of the National Honor Society. The teen identified as "Black Girl" is the only black student in the photo

Disclaimer: Does Not Apply To All Men

Does anyone out there have pet peeves? If you read me often then you know I don't complain (much). But, I have a pet peeve that drives me up a wall! It's cranky men who race around the supermarket at such a fast clip (like a ten minute mile pace) that it's almost as if they are exercising. They just about knock you down with their carts and act like YOU are in the way! They get ticked off at you when you are reading labels or taking your time strolling down the aisles.

Once I even had one of those bozos stop and try this line on me. "I noticed you are not wearing a ring. Do you shop here a lot? I'm an anesthesiologist, you know, a doctor who puts people to sleep before operations?"

I, of course, thought, "Duh," blushed, because I'm shy, and said, "I'm married."

He grabbed a 10 lb. bag of flour and took off pretty much knocking down some woman on a cell phone a little way down the aisle. I couldn't figure out what the flour was for, but did it really matter? I went back to my leisurely shopping.

Later, two aisles over, where the toys are, I saw this same guy with the flour dumped out in a hill, on the floor, playing with army men and get this ... pork chops! Strange. Tsk!

Patriot Act = Throwing Away Your Rights

Government Uses Color Laser Printer Technology to Track Documents

Jason Tuohey, Medill News Service

WASHINGTON--Next time you make a printout from your color laser printer, shine an LED flashlight beam on it and examine it closely with a magnifying glass. You might be able to see the small, scattered yellow dots printer there that could be used to trace the document back to you.

This is our freedom! (from Buck Fush)

Hearing the Masses, gw Style

A few other people's views of george's visit to town last week:

Pointing the Way
Editor, NDN:

During President Bush's recent visit to Collier County, sheriff's deputies did not just move protesters and supporters away from the entrance of the Rookery Bay facility. Just before the president arrived, deputies ordered protesters to move far back from the roadside where they had been placed. If we had been obedient, we would have been left standing in a lower-lying shaded area where we would have been invisible to the president and his entourage.

I believe this order was part of a nationwide strategy to muzzle dissent and shield the president from the truth that many people are alarmed by his administration's stances on numerous critical issues. Pro-Bush onlookers clustered with the protesters were not pushed to move far backwards. Protesters stood their ground close to the road. Messages demanding sane environmental and social policy, protection for civil liberties, international cooperation and the end of U.S. imperialism were unmistakable and unavoidable.

Protesters roused an emotional response in at least one passenger of the presidential motorcade. From the back of a black SUV with opaque windows emerged a hand that gave us "the finger" as the vehicle drove past.

Instead of cursing protesters, Bush and his supporters should think about what we say and why we speak out. I practice free speech because true democracy calls for the input of a passionate and informed citizenry. Only the confused authorities of a hollow democracy hate to hear the voices of the people.

LM/Golden Gate
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