Mood:  vegas lucky

Frodo has an assignment for you.  Please mark your calendars, including the ASPCA one with the ducks on it, for Saturday, August 6th, 2011.  If there is any justice in this world, Frodo and Sam will stand in line outside an unidentified edifice in Atlanta in order to be interviewed and appraised by the "Antiques Road Show" when it comes to Atlanta.  They applied for their tickets on-line, concluding with a plea, of sorts, and a committment to contribute to PBS at some point in the future (admittedly, some may call it a promissory bribe).

Frodo's favorites are the brothers who appraise furniture, but he is not a furniture afficionado, so he is aiming for someone who shares his interest in the American South, its history, and, since we are in the midst of the 150th Anniversary thereof, the "War."  Frodo has some very special and important items, rarely seen anywhere, which he has been wanting to bring out into the light.  At the same time, he has been hoping for an opportunity to mimic the Brothers Crane, and their father Martin, with a high-five and to utter the magic "Ka-Ching," at the very top of his voice.

The Hobbits will be notified in early May about their acceptance, and Frodo will commence his preparations for his sure-to-be unforgettable display.  Until then he hopes he can keep from wetting his pants. 

Posted by loveysdaddyga at 8:27 PM EDT

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Mood:  sad

Eli Cottrell was a musician.  He was also a good-will ambassador, a philanthropist, and a remarkable man.  The following story is true, in every detail.

Memphis, Tennessee, is not a "place of good abode."  This is particularly the case in the summer, when heat bakes off the asphalt and there is no hint of wind anywhere in the poorer sections of town.  For those unfortunate enough to hold positions which required them to drive these hot city streets, and air conditioning was not allowed because it was a "luxury item," the days seemed endless.  Frodo shared the complexion of the police officers, the insurance salesman, and no one else in those days of violence and hatred.

Eli Cottrell had travelled the world with Lionel Washington and his Orchestra during the days after the Great War.  When his time for travel ended, he returned to his hometown of Memphis with a small nest egg, sufficient to cover the costs of the diner known as "Eli's Place."

Frodo became acquainted with the establishment because he had the geographical responsibility to collect overdue small tax liabilities.  "Eli's Place," according to his records, was a business that was so burdened.  Apparently, the owner had employees and he had neglected to pay the employee's share of the Social Security withheld from the employees on payday.  Frodo's instructions from his superiors were clear, any business operating in such a manner was to be closed.  It is, after all, bad business to allow liabilities to fall further and further behind, no matter who was responsible.

It was late on a Friday, in the heat of summer, and this would be Frodo's final stop of the working day.  He entered the little bar, and as he expected, his was the palest countenance around.  He walked to the cash register and asked to speak with Eli Cottrell, while every patron sat in silence and watched.  Frodo introduced himself to the smallish, and sweating, man as he wiped his hands on his apron before offering Frodo a seat near the piano and the jukebox, silently sitting in a front corner.  He offered Frodo a "Coca-Cola," an offer which greatly tempted the Hobbit despite his awareness of "the rules."  Frodo demurred.

Frodo explained his reason for visiting Eli Cottrell that day, and asked that the entire liability be immediately satisfied by cash, check, or money order.  Eli explained that he could make a partial payment after the weekend, but satisfying the entire amount would not be possible without some sort of "arrangement."  Frodo explained that Social Security Withholding was a "trust fund" for his employees, and that he could not maintain the status quo any longer.  Eli Cottrell sighed, then he pointed to the two ladies working behind the countertop.  They, he explained, were his employees, and their only income was from the minimum wage he paid them to cook.  Frodo noted that both appeared to be well into their seventies.  Eli Cottrell told Frodo that he did not withhold any money from their wages, that he paid both the employer and the employee portions of the tax, and it was his plan to continue doing so until both ladies had enough "quarters" to be eligible for Social Security.  They would each have no other income or support.

Frodo was stymied.  This was not in "the rules," and Frodo quickly sensed that some sort of "arrangement" had to be made, or everybody would lose.  Just then, one of the ladies from behind the countertop brought two Coca-Colas to the table, set them down in silence and hobbled back to her duty station.  Eli Cottrell asked Frodo if he liked music.  When Frodo smiled, Eli Cottrell turned to the piano, and started with "Hold That Tiger," in maybe the most lyrical of environments that Frodo has ever known. 

Every Friday, on his way home, Frodo would stop by "Eli's Place," in order to receive a partial payment on the past taxes due, and the amount required to stay current.  When he entered, there was always a Coca-Cola on the table, and everyone smiled and said "Good Day" to Mr. Frodo, of the IRS.  Then Eli Cottrell would play the piano before Frodo turned out the door and headed for home.

There was a time when "the rules" prohibited the use of the term "Mr." to address a man of color in Memphis, Tennessee.  The days were not that long ago.  Frodo used the proper name of this gentleman every day.  He addressed Frodo as "Mister" from that very first day, too.

Frodo thinks about Eli Cottrell from time-to-time.  He was just a little guy, who had a gift, and a heart. 

Hold that tiger.   

Posted by loveysdaddyga at 9:04 PM EDT

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Mood:  accident prone

"Room Service."

"Yes, this is Suite 1313, I'd like transportation to the American Embassy, please."

"I'm sorry Sir, but due to the recent unpleasantness, the American Embassy has been closed and the doors are locked."

"Closed, eh?  Well, can you get someone to take me to the Swiss Embassy?"

"I'm afraid not Sir, in fact, I am relatively certain that all, or nearly all, of the Embassies have had their staff transported to a safe location, at least until the bombing is halted."

"Well, in my case it already has."

"Sir?"

"Yes, I am, I mean was, the navigator on the F-15 that suffered mechanical problems while enforcing the 'No-Fly Zone' mandated by the United Nations Security Resolution."

"Oh General, what an honor it is to have you as a guest in our humble establishment.  I was made aware of your presence here when I came on duty earlier this afternoon.  Welcome to Benghazi."

"Thank you, I'm sure, but can you find a way to contact my superiors so that I can return to duty?  By the way, I'm just a lowly Colonel in the US Navy"

"Oh Certainly Sir, I'll get to work on it right now and get back to you post haste.  If you should need anything, anything at all, just ask for me.  My name is 'Curveball'."

Several minutes pass.

"Curveball here, Sir.  I am pleased to report that I have arranged your passage to the island of Malta on the only remaining cruise ship in the harbor."

"Malta, I don't want to go to Malta, I want to return to my ship."

"Actually Sir, the cruise ship is scheduled to depart for Malta as part of its normal cruise regimen, and the US Navy is dispatching one of its vessels to meet you there."

"Oh, hey that's good work Curveball.  Is that the ship just off to my left out this sliding glass door in my Suite?"

"It is indeed."

"What is the ship, and when does it depart?"

"It is a Carnival Cruise Lines ship named 'Odyssey Dawn,' scheduled to depart within the hour."

"Odyssey Dawn?  Carnival Cruise Lines?  Are you sure about that?"

"Sir, that which I have said is exactly what i was told by the US Representative at the travel office we use exclusively here in Benghazi, owned by a group of Americans who call themselves 'Air America'."

Posted by loveysdaddyga at 8:50 PM EDT

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Mood:  bright

"Professor Frodo?"

"A query, before the lecture even begins?  Methinks someone actually read this morning's Op-Ed in the campus newspaper?"

"Yessir, and I have to admit I did not get the point, and I am not sure if I agree or not."

"Fair enough.  Let me respond, first off, with a question.  What is the longest duration of a Communist form of government?"

"Well the Soviet Union began in 1917 and fell apart in the mid-70's, and, of course, China, came into the realm in 1946. . ."

"So, would you feel comfortable in saying that somewhere around 60 years has been the world's experience with Communism in charge of a particular society?"

"Well, it is what has happened/"

"Would you then consider the argument that Communism is a 'bridge' between what is generally a despotic regime, and one that seems to embrace democratic, if not capitalist values?"

"Again, it is what has happened and in the case of China seems to be happening, but that's not my point."

"Yes it is, you just don't know it yet."

"Sir?"

"Young man, if, as you infer, the current world order is being disturbed by the 'social media revolution' in the Middle East and North Africa, then you have to recognize that these nation-states are merely evolving from despotic hands, and that, if the past holds true, then 60 years or so of Communism must follow."

"No Sir, this is where I am confused."

"No, you are not.  Simply carry the point forward that if these nation-states do not adopt Communism, then they need some other 'bridge' over which they will travel for 60 years or so, isn't that logical?"

"I see, so are you saying that if the process is reversed?"

"No. and neither are you.  What you are saying is that if the despot falls rather easily, then there is little to which the new regime will commit if their initial expectations, and certainly that will be the case, fall short of the realities of democratic government.  If there has been little, if any suffering, in the transition, then there is no deterrent to further change, and that could go into very unpleasant alternatives."

"Hmm.  Is it your, I mean our, point that Egypt, which transitions from Mubarak to Democracy, at little cost, may change again because they haven't paid a comparative 'price' if you will, for overthrowing a tyrant?  The upshot being that, in the case of Libya, where the insurgents have gotten their butts beaten pretty severely, that when they do overthrow Qaddafi, that they will have more of an investment in Democracy, and will work harder to make it survive.?"

"That is what history tells me."

"How so?'

"Imagine if the Marquis de Lafayette established a 'No Fly Zone' over Philadelphia."

"So your argument is that the Libyans stand on their own, or we may see them shed a democratic system for something we may not like, like a 13th century Islamic state perhaps?"

"Freedom is worth fighting for," so says the bumper sticker."

"Perhaps Sir, freedom fought for is freedom won." 

"Imagine explaining this to the Congresswoman from Minnesota?"

Laughter (what would you expect?) 

Posted by loveysdaddyga at 9:26 PM EST

Updated: Saturday, March 12, 2011 10:09 PM EST

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Mood:  cool

Over the years, Frodo has developed an affinity for college basketball.  The same does not apply to the professional variety, for it seems to interest him almost as much as the latest edition of Harper's might mean to Sarah Palin.  It is the concept of the scholar-athlete which rises, for one golden moment this eve, when Duke and North Carolina square off in their nearly perennial battle for the top-spot in the Atlantic Coast Conference.  These young men deserve to be there as scholars as well as athletes, and that is what makes the game so very special, at least, to Frodo.

In days past, now so very long ago, Frodo would gather with the gallant Howard, and they would share a common affection for the game, not to ignore a particular favorite in a particular year, but to celebrate the strategy and the performance wrapped around the coaches, the fans in the stands, and those magnificient young men in their flying machines, if you will.  Tonight, again, Frodo will cheer and cajole, all the time knowing that his old friend will be there, too.

It is in certain moments that Frodo seems to remember warriors who have fallen in service to Aragorn, and to all of Middle Earth.  The gallant Howard, he of two daughters, had great affection for both who shared his easy chairs, but Frodo always knew that there was something extra special in their moments together.  Howard's first brought home an English Professor who could define the use of a gerund as well as diagram a sentence with the best of them.  A pick at the top of the key and a roll to the net were terms that left him wondering exactly what language was in use.  Frodo, ah Frodo, he was there, sitting aside, and hooting with the "Cameron Crazies" whenever an errant Tarheel pass ended up in the stands beyond an apoplectic head coach.  The gallant Howard loved them both, but it was Frodo who was "his boy."

Frodo will wake his canine assemblage with his hoots and his hollers, and every once in a while they will snort disapproval.  Occasionally, they too will raise an ear to the empty chair and perhaps hear a cheer for magnificent performance without seeing anyone there at all, just knowing.  Magic moments, indeed. 

Posted by loveysdaddyga at 12:56 PM EST

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Mood:  party time!

It matters not that the guy spells his name with a G, a K, or a Q, especially when he can best be identified by his lookalike cartoon character "Goofy."  He proved that beyond all doubt this evening when he sent one of his sons to cajole Anderson Cooper with definitive proof that "al Qaeda was smuggling hallucinogenics into Libya and putting them into the Nescafe of the young people" (or words to that effect).

The discussion took place in front of a truck full of packaged medication (which was probably the same vehicle exposed by Colin Powell to prove the existence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq).  Goofy's son was there to introduce the capsules into evidence for all the world to see.  Unfortunately, the pills turned out to be a mild painkiller, as opposed to something cooked up in the hills of East Tennessee.  Rather than producing psychedelic results, this medication warns the patient that residual effects may include only headaches, or constipation.

Perhaps that says much, much more than even the wordy Frodo can proffer.

Frodo ends his commentary this eve with a suggestion for the casting of the movie which is bound to hit the malls of America before this volatile year concludes.  Who other better to star in "Moamar, The Movie," than Charlie Sheen?  Frodo would watch those Oscars (and that is really news). 

Posted by loveysdaddyga at 10:14 PM EST

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Mood:  on fire

"Does God read?," asked Frodo.

Taking advantage of the silence, he then asked "If he doesn't, then carrying signs imploring his intervention would be a fruitless act, don't you think?"

Nodding heads seemed to agree.

"Wouldn't it be logical to infer that people carrying signs addressing God would be doing so for some other reason?"  Frodo was now on his feet, and out of his chair.  "Ladies and Gentlemen, if we accept the fact that God does not read, then we have to adjudge the presence of signs as something other than an expression of belief."

Drawing to his full height, he said "Let us then agree that God must indeed read our signs, just as he hears our prayers.  For what reason other than a prayer would one go to all the trouble of printing up a sign requesting divine intervention?"

"Unless," he thundered, as he spun on his heels in order to address the gallery, "the signs are created for a purpose other than prayer, therefore reflecting a fraud.  Could it not be that these false prayers are products intended to offend, to strike at the very heart of that which is true, and decent?  Doesn't it follow that such a product would be obscene?"

"By the very words of this Court, in judging that which may be art, and that which may rise from the gutter, there are standards which impact communication.  At the very least your Honors, can we not agree, that, intentional or otherwise, signs condemning the fallen to Perdition are obscene?"

"It is beyond our argument to address the vile language of people who insult the memory and the service of our brethren, for you have already deemed that 'free speech' is their right.  What we can do is take away their damned signs, labeling them as 'obscenity,' violations of our true 'community standard'."

"Barrister Frodo concludes his arguments before this, our highest Court, with this plea; let them freely demonstrate their monstrous opinion and speak with the split-tongue of the serpent if they so choose, but do not infringe on the sensitivity, nay the integrity, of those of us who choose to address our Maker in tribute unsullied by that which flies in the countenance of our own standards of decency."

"By the way, Justice Roberts.  You're an asshole."      

Posted by loveysdaddyga at 8:15 PM EST

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Mood:  incredulous

The scene is priceless to Frodo.  Two of three escapees from a chain gang continue their flight to freedom in "Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?" with a brief respite in a movie theatre.  To their shock they find the third member of their group therein, having rationally assumed that earlier activities had brought about his demise, or at least his transformation.  From across the room, one mouths to the third that evil spirits had deemed that he become an amphibian.  "We thought you was a toad," he attempts to explain.  For some inexplicable reason, Frodo always thinks of Newt Gingrich.

Gingrich slithered up from subterranean locations, reportedly, at the same time that Frodo walked in the sunshine, and the rain, of the City of Orleans and the campus of Tulane University.  As a graduate student, Frodo looked down his nose at mere undergraduates, so it is highly unlikely that the two ever shared the same table or drank from the same glass.  For some reason however, Frodo has this dark memory of an overweight nose-picker with a plastic package in a shirt pocket who constantly railed about the unfairness of the Black Student Union.  Frodo believes that on the day the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) "took over" the Administration Building in a vain attempt to achieve some measure of social justice, or something, Gingrich got himself interviewed by a local TV station as a "loyal opponent" of the hooligans who chanted from the upper stories.  Perhaps, thinks Frodo, he was there, at the very beginning of the Cyclops (played by John Goodman, of course).

No matter, but from the very first recognition thereof, Frodo has assumed that Newt was a toad.  Newt, so the story goes, has a fondness for ice cream and beer, at the same time.  Facts have likewise been brought to bear that he favors multiple wives, as if they were likewise contemporary servings of ice cream and beer.  Later in his story, the Toadster was somewhat grumpy because his seat was too far to the rear in Air Force One, and so he shut down the government, and he took out a "Contract on America," a copy of which he retains immediately adjacent to the lardlike encasement which surrounds his coronary pump.

He also eats flies.

The Toadster has also followed in the footsteps of Richard Outhouse Nixon and changed churches.  Outhouse, born a Quaker, became a Methodist, simply because there were more of them, thereby increasing the unthinkable assumption.  The Toadster has become a Catholic, just like his third wife, Callista (ain't that a name fit for an amphibian's consort?). 

She has to be hard up for money.

The Toadster has announced that he will decide within the next two weeks whether or not he will seek a nomination to the Presidency.  Frodo wishes that Newt could run, but everybody, well at least most people, know that a Toad cannot run.  It just sort of flops.

That tells you everything you ever needed to know. 

Posted by loveysdaddyga at 7:47 PM EST

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Mood:  incredulous

Rare it is that Frodo should find himself in philosophical alignment with anyone who ever attended Texas A&M, much less one who has since become a hot-air buffoon on the public airwaves.  Neil, or is it Neal, Boortz, actually once said that Ann Coulter was a beautiful woman (this was the closest point in his entire existence where Frodo considered a sex change).  Boortz dominates in his time-slot among all those who wait for Rush Limbaugh to follow, or is it to precede, while Frodo listens for the next spin of the disc that once was waxen.  By error, Frodo sometimes lands on the wrong station and thus was born the one instance described below.

 State Representative Bobby Franklin (R-43rd District) of Georgia runs in a "safe" district.  His constituents are overwhelmingly white, overweight, conservative, and intellectually uninvolved.  So much so in fact that Franklin has only had two serious primary challengers and no partisan opponent in the decade-and-a-half or so that the "people's choice" has served.  During that time, he has not sponsored a single piece of legislation that has ever even attained the level of "serious consideration" to merit a floor vote.  In fact, most Republicans admit to "rolling their eyes" and routing his bright ideas to the back rooms of the partisan dungeons reserved as a general rule for suggestions from the Democratic Minority.

Bobby Franklin has finally made the big news however, and it is indeed possible that most would have found out about Bobby even without the informational assault provided by the "social media."  The "representative " has submitted a plan to require an legislative investigation of every "miscarriage" reported by the medical establishment throughout the State of Georgia.  Bobby, no relation to Ben by the way, wants to make sure that no woman, much less a medical practitioner, would dare to conduct an "abortion" under the guise of a tenuous procedure and label it a "miscarriage."

Boortz, who fantasies himself as a "Libertarian," sees the Franklin proposal to be an unnecessary invasion of the government upon the individual liberties of the masses.  Frodo sees it as merely the rantings of a loon.

What grinds Frodo is that nutcakes like Franklin get re-elected because people are just too busy to pay proper attention to off-year and other minor election issues.  His parents and the Sleaze Baggers all turn out to vote for their boy, and this gets translated as the "will of the people."  What hurts, on a national scale, is that the absence of 40,000,000 voters in 2010, as opposed to 2008, means that "busy" people give Bobby Franklin's parents the opportunity to terminate collective bargaining rights and restrict other individual liberties.

Glenn Beck would be proud.   

Posted by loveysdaddyga at 8:07 PM EST

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Mood:  caffeinated

With appropriate apologies, when Frodo was the smallest of Hobbits, he asked his father about what he might someday become.  His father told him that if he "worked for the government," that he would always be assured of a job, but he should expect to make less than those who worked for a "private company."  By the same token, he said, working for a company means that in a "Depression" you are at much greater risk.

Frodo thought a lot about that, and studied a great deal about the very nature of bureaucracy in a capitalist society.  What he came to believe was that, during the Great Depression, federal and local bureaucrats for the most part retained their jobs, although, on the average, their compensation was reduced by about one-fourth.  In the private sector, of course, about twenty-five percent of all workers lost their jobs.  Once the world recovered from the worst downturn in modern history, the private sector grew back exponentially, and the bureaucracy settled into an accepted level of "lower pay" but "greater security."

With the advent of collective bargaining into the bureaucracy, first benefits and subsequently wages faced upward pressure.  The political ramifications of the "creep up" in benefits and wages was not off-set by increased risk for public employees at least on an equitable level.  Thus was borne the political footfall that has culminated in the strategic stupidity of the Governor of the State with the highest rate of public employee wages and benefits.  By including in his effort to, justifiably, bring spending down without adding to the tax burden, he concomitantly opened the collective bargaining issue into the battle.  It is as if he wittingly or otherwise, felt it necessary to dig a modern-day "Maginot Line" and to entertain trench warfare for what will seem like years, with no progress on either side.

It is not a difficult issue.  It does require a lowering of the decibel levels, and it requires that Wisconsin's politician-in-charge immediately acknowledge his opponents and sit down to bargain.  Collective bargaining is a part of our society, and to "take it away" from a single segment of the society is wrong-headed.

Right now, we need somebody to tell this guy he is "the worst person in the world."

Posted by loveysdaddyga at 9:24 AM EST

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