Cliffs Riffs - Stuph n Nonsense

This is a vintage Riff that was never published. I wrote it in March of 2005 and my editor said - nope, can't publish that Cliff. I was cleaning my computer today and came across it and decided I still agree with every word I wrote three years ago: When did high school sports get so serious? How have we let it happen? Who is more to blame, the coaches or parents? I’m not talking about good competitive rivalry here, but I would like to address the emphasis on winning at all costs. One of the latest examples to come to light in this neck of the woods is the possibility that a “parent and sports booster” gave rent free homes as an inducement to get some talented high school athletes into the school district for which he is a “sports booster”. I am very much in favor of sports programs for kids. Sports can and do teach young people a lot of very important life lessons and skills. What exactly are the kids learning in the current win-at-all-costs atmosphere that prevails? In the past fe...

Wow - I was sort of napping on the couch yesterday when I listened to This American Life on NPR. They did a show called The Giant Pool of Money (you can listen to it here: http://www.thislife.org/ ). What an eye-opener. It gave a real behind the scenes look at how so many people and institutions got in such financial hot water. Lending institutions were telling people to lie on their applications while at the same time mortgage apps were asking for less and less information, or at least verifiable information. They interviewed one guy whose mortgage app had him earning over 16,000 a month! The poor guy had no idea - because he actually made around 38k a year. If you care at all about the housing crisis - listen to this show.

What the heck - why bitch about gas prices? Shell et al are laughing all the way to the bank. I say we ought to embrace high fuel prices. Why? Because that seems like the only way we Americans are going to quit guzzlin' gas like there is no tomorrow. I am not pointing my finger at other people - Julie and I bought a Mustang GT a couple years ago which is a long way from a Toyota Prius for sure. However, our collective appetite for fossil fuel has got to be slowed down and 4 or 5 bucks a gallon is going to help. Another positive outcome is now that fuel prices are going up so high there is justification and motivation to finally explore alternatives. Without a motivator - which usually has to come in the form of some kind of financial threat (be it real or imagined) - we tend to leave things as they are. Now with pump prices climbing like crazy and heating costs going nuts we are scrambling to find new ways. Frankly I have every confidence that we will prevail and will find new ways...

Since we weren't open today, Julie and I went out for a nice Sunday brunch. A couple of tables over some guy with a loud voice - why do pontificators always have a loud voice? - was sharing his knowledge on everything with the people at his table and everyone else in his half of the restaurant. He started talking about the jewelry business and how there is such a big mark up in jewelry and he knows that jewelers sell things for three times what they paid for them, etc. etc. Hmmm , at the time he said that I was eating an omelet that was $7.50 and drinking a glass of juice that was $1.50 and Julie and I were splitting a large pancake that cost $3.95. The Expert and his crew were eating much the same thing. Lets examine my food. Pancake - 4 bucks! Lets see, what goes into a pancake? Flour, water, some form of fat, egg. So what does the restaurant make on a 4 dollar pancake? Ten times what they paid? Twenty times?? My omelet had 2-3 eggs in it, maybe 1/16 th of an onion, bell pepp...

Okay, over a year ago I decided to subscribe to National Geographic. When I was a kid we read NG every month and my memories were very good. The magazine was mostly what I remembered. Great stories and great pictures. They spend an awful lot of time reporting environmental stories - makes sense. But after a couple of issues I really began to notice the stink when I unwrapped each edition as it was delivered to the house (it came in a plastic wrapper). Wow - the smell of the NON-SOY ink was overpowering, especially for the first hour or two. Wait a minute - all the eco-friendly stuff I have ever read about ink pointed to soy inks as the answer. Not petroleum based, renewable resource, less toxic, etc. etc. So why is NG using the old stinky, polluting petroleum based ink? Wrote to them. They emailed back that soy ink did not work well for them and they felt it was lessen the visual impact of their pictures. Hmmm, I am supposed to do whatever I can to help the environment and NG is not wi...

I realize this is NOT a Consumers Report-esque blog, but let me tell why I think you ought to skip the purchase of an Orek vacuum. Abour 4 years ago we needed a new vac and Julie had seen all the ads about the Orek - she liked that it was lightweight when she went to a nearby showroom to try one out. We bought one and figured it was doing a good job. Let me mention that we have one cat and one small dog. Our dog is a beagle-mix and is very generous about letting her fine little hairs fall all over - she sheds. We live in a country setting, so it is fairly safe to say that dirt gets tracked into the house. On the other hand, all the kids are gone so the house is home to Julie and I and the cat & dog, not a mob scene by any stretch. Fast forward to two days ago - we decided to use the Orek at our store full time and Julie bought a new vacuum for the house. She spent $170 on a Bissel. The Bissel promotes itself as being "a magnet for pet hair" and is one of those bagless vac...

Boy I hope Hillary gets defeated in TX and OH today and that maybe she will fold up her tent and go home. Do I want her out of the race because she is a woman? Nope. The Clintons had their chance to run the country and we need someone new. I am not ready for another 4 or 8 years with Bill in my grille on a daily basis. She is a powerful, determined woman, but I don't have any problem with that - I just want someone new in the White House, gender notwithstanding.