Category Archives: commentary

Keep it Local, Folks!

Posted on June 3, 2016 by mohawkvalleygirl

I wrote a letter to the editor of the Utica O-D.  I felt so pleased with it that I thought I would use it as a blog post as well.  Full disclosure:  Another reason is I could use WordPress’ word-count feature  by typing it in here.  It is a little more serious than my usual stuff, but it is a subject I feel strongly about.

How would you like it if your boss said to you, “I’m not going to pay you for the last hour you worked.”  That is what happens to brick and mortar businesses when customers shop their store but buy on-line.

Take for example an eyeglass shop.  People spend up to an hour with the optician looking at glasses.  They utilize this person’s time and expertise, cause wear and tear on the premises and merchandise, then go and make their purchases on-line, “because it’s cheaper.”

Brick and mortar businesses cannot compete with the internet on price.  They try to compete by offering service and a hands-on experience.  I feel it is wrong for people utilize these things but buy elsewhere.  In the case of the eyewear shop, they have sometimes paid for an exam, but the profit from that does not make up for taking up the optician’s time and using of the merchandise.

Most businesses, especially small locally-owned shops, are not out to gouge the customer.  They merely want to make a fair profit on their time and money invested.

I understand people’s desire to save money.  However, spending money on-line sends it out of the community.  That hurts everyone.  The money you don’t save by spending locally stays here.  It is an investment in our towns and villages.  Please, let’s keep our local shops in business.

 

Leave a comment

Posted in commentary, local business, personal and tagged , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

More Tired than ‘Tude

Posted on May 18, 2016 by mohawkvalleygirl

My original plan for today was to write a Bad Attituesday post AND a movie commentary post (can’t really call what I write a review) while on breaks at work today.  Then I would type both posts in and not have to worry about a post tomorrow, when Steven and I have a program to attend at the Herkimer County Historical Society (preview of coming attractions).  My real plan was to avoid running again today while allowing time to do so tomorrow.

Why do I even bother making a plan?  It never works out for me.

I had no ideas for a Bad Attituesday post, so I tried my hand at the movie commentary  I wrote quite a bit on it, in spite of being somewhat mortified to realize I had not paid much attention to the movie in question.  It was running into some length and I had not finished.  Still, I did not despair.  I could come up with an ending, sure I could.  Something would come to me as I typed it in.

As the day progressed, I thought to myself, why not run?  Why not run in place on the mini-tramp for bouts of ten minutes or so, interspersing this with push-ups, crunches, flutter kicks, etc.?  What a great idea!  Especially if it rained, which was beginning to look possible.  I could still type in the movie post.  I didn’t have to do a Running Commentary two days in a row.

The rain held off, so I ended up running outdoors, taking a different path from yesterday and running for a whole minute longer.  I ran slow, even for me.  It did not feel as good as yesterday.  I persevered.  When I walked my cool-down, my legs felt sore, but it was the good sore of having just worked out.  I felt reasonably content, but still not inclined to write a Running Commentary.

Anyways, I had to cook supper first.  Well, not really “had to.”  Steven works till 6:30, so it would be quite acceptable to grab something easy and let him do the same.  This might even be preferable, because I don’t want to wait till 6:30 to eat and if I don’t Steven will have to reheat whatever I fixed.  But I really wanted to use some leftovers, I had what sounded like a pretty good plan to me, and I could always take any leftover leftovers for my lunch tomorrow.

I know, I know,  I could have just done a cooking post.  I could not have PLANNED to do a cooking post, since I was not sure till I was actually taking the cast iron frying pan out of the cupboard that I was going to cook.  But I can write that sort of thing on the fly.  I’ve done it before (I know, I’m doing it now, but this isn’t a “real” post, as you can tell).

Does the phrase Tired Tuesday mean anything to you?

Well, it means something to me.  It means I am leaving the — Good God — THREE pages of movie commentary untyped for now.  I shall look forward to finishing it.  In the meantime, I’m going to think of a silly title for this piece of foolishness, hit publish, and relax with my crochet and a true crime show on cable television.  Happy Tuesday, everyone.

 

Leave a comment

Posted in blogging, commentary, humor, personal, Tired Tuesday, Why I Cant Write a Post and tagged , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

But Is It a Profitless Post?

Posted on March 22, 2016 by mohawkvalleygirl

I have two let-myself-off-the-hook features for Monday:  Middle-aged Musings Monday and Monday Mental Meanderings.  Well, today I feel that I have no mental facilities for musingn or yet meandering.  This often happens to me (you may have noticed).  And yet, I never let it stop me from making a post daily.  Sometimes I wonder if that is really the best thing to do, but in general I find such questions profitless.

Ooh, that might be something to ponder on a Monday:  profitless questions.  Why do we continue to ask them?  Because we want answers?  Because we want that frisson of superiority that comes from asking somebody a question they cannot answer?  That second motive is not very praise-worthy.  However, some people, it must be admitted, get their jollies by trying to make others look stupid.  Incidentally, anybody who is thinking to try that shit on me, be advised, it’s no great feat to make me look stupid; I do it all the time myself.

Here is a better query:  What makes a question profitless?  The fact that it cannot be answered? Philosophers everywhere would disagree.  They LOVE asking unanswerable questions.  They do not find them profitless (although I’m not sure there is a whole lot of profit in philosophy; I don’t really know about these things).

I think what makes a question profitless is that the answer, if there is one, doesn’t do you a whole lot of good. For example, in many cases the question “How did this happen?” is not nearly as useful as “What do I do now?”  The question, “Should I continue to make a daily blog post even if I have nothing in particular to say?” is quite profitless, because I intend to keep posting every day no matter how one answers.  So there.

And this is today’s post.  Happy Monday, everyone.

 

Leave a comment

Posted in blogging, commentary, humor, Middle-aged Musings Monday, Monday Mental Meanderings, personal and tagged , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

Wrist to Run

Posted on March 14, 2016 by mohawkvalleygirl

I was undecided whether to do a Wrist to Forehead Sunday post or another Running Commentary, so I thought I’d just start typing and see what comes out.

I kind of impressed myself by running two days in a row, because I really did not intend to.  I had a number of chores to attend to and no desire to attend to any of them.  Just to bring up my mental woes as a slight change from my physical ones, I am fighting another bout of depression.  My biggest symptom this time seems to be a huge case of Don’t Wanna Do Nothin’ (the double negative does not make a positive in this case).  Actually, I’ve been wondering lately if my physical problems don’t stem from that.  My body is obliging me with a nice bout of psychosomatics, giving me a marvelous excuse to, in fact, do nothing.

Be that as it may, I knew I must get some things done.  I went to the grocery store.  I did the dishes.  I began to make my prompt book for Leading Ladies (we begin blocking rehearsals on Tuesday).  I looked at the clock and realized I had time enough for a two hour nap before my husband would return home from work.  Yes!  Nap!  Just what I needed.  I forgot to mention that we have a murder mystery rehearsal at three.  I had forgotten it myself until Steven reminded me.

Naturally I could not sleep.  I’ve been having dreadful insomnia lately.  It is not the least bit unusual for me to have insomnia, so I did not let it bother me unduly.  As I gave up on the nap I remembered that I was also supposed to do laundry today. I gathered a load and threw it in the washer.  Ah, the joy of having a washer and drier on the premises.  While it washed I indulged in a check of Facebook and in reading several other blogs.

When Facebook got old and I got tired of reading blogs, I began to think about running.  It was just after noon.  I had plenty of time for the length of run I am currently up to.  I decided to do it.

Then remembered the laundry.  It was done by now, so I went down and put stuff in the drier, carefully pulling out stuff to hang on the bars upstairs.  As I brought them upstairs, I decided I really wasn’t feeling all that well.  I would not go running.  I hung up the non-drier items.  What would I do instead?  Contemplating the other chores awaiting me, running started to sound a lot more pleasant.

So  I went. It would be nice to report that I got a good dose of endorphins and felt terrific afterwards.  That does happen sometimes.  It did not happen this time.  However, no run is without its rewards.  If nothing else, one can feel satisfied that one ran at all.  I worked on my ability to persevere and keep going despite it being not all that much fun.  Of course, it’s never all Plod and Persevere.  I had several moments of feeling Not Bad At All.  And I hope I don’t have a reason to feel bad about this blog post.  Happy Sunday, everyone.

 

4 Comments

Posted in blogging, commentary, humor, personal, Wrist to Forehead Sunday and tagged , , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

Murder Movie Monday?

Posted on February 23, 2016 by mohawkvalleygirl

Spoiler Alert!  I’m going to completely give away the plot, solution, big reveal and dramatic conclusion of 10 Little Indians also known as And Then There Were None.

I was in the play version of this Agatha Christie classic, having formerly read the book and the play. Steven and I own a DVD of And Then There Were None (1945).  When they did Agatha Christie Day on TCM, I DVR’d 10 Little Indians  (1966) and finally got around to watching it sometime later (full disclosure:  it was not the first time I’ve seen it).  I wrote about it even later than than, then discovered it in my notebook, and we watched our DVD yesterday with the idea that I could write about both movies today.

The original story is set on an island, the classic isolated place to murder people.  The 1966 version changes things up by bringing the characters up a treacherous snow-covered mountain in  a cable car.  The characters are different, too.  The judgmental spinster is replaced by a glamorous actress.  Fabian plays the spoiled, arrogant young man.  In the original, this character is a rich ne’er-do-well.  In the movies he is a singer hired to entertain the guests.

Both movies make use of this handy character, who sits down at the piano and sings the ditty about the 10 Little Indians.  Both movies also have one character murmur to another to hang in there (or words to that effect), he’s almost out of Indians.

Incidentally, I had never heard of this macabre poem before reading the book.  The 10 Little Indians I know goes, “One little, two little, three little Indians…”  Nobody gets killed; we just count.  That is the kind of sheltered childhood I led.

A little epergne (I’ve never used that word before; I hope it’s right) in the middle of the table depicts the ten unfortunate Indians.  A mysterious hand breaks one off every time a character is picked off.

Of course the characters behave in the time-honored fashion of movie characters confronted with a mad killer.  They lose their cool, they go off alone, they trust or mistrust each other for the flimsiest of reasons.  This is not a 70s slasher flick, so nobody has sex just before meeting a gruesome end.

In fact, none of the ends are particularly gruesome, which to me is another advantage of old movies.  I find a couple of deaths horrifying by reason of empathy.  For example, how would I feel if I was scaling down a mountain and looked up to see a hand chopping away at the rope holding me.  Yikes!

It’s not all chills and thrills, unfortunately.  Things move too slowly for my tastes.   But perhaps I ask too much.

I guess I did not need the spoiler alert after all, because I feel distinctly disinclined to actually give away the ending.  I will say that I like the movie ending better than the play ending.  And I like the very end of the 1966 flick better than the 1945 version.  Anybody who has seen both versions (or either version), feel free to offer your opinion in the comments.  Don’t worry if you give away the big reveal; we’re still covered by the Spoiler Alert.

 

4 Comments

Posted in commentary, humor, movies, personal and tagged , , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

Is It a Saying or a Cliche?

Posted on January 30, 2016 by mohawkvalleygirl

Another common saying revisited:   Pull yourself up by your bootstraps.

I once heard somebody say it was a good way to land on your ass.  Ain’t that the truth!

I’m not saying you will inevitably land on your ass.  However, it seems to me you’d better have strong bootstraps, killer abs, and a completely non-stick surface.  Of course you might have these things and you may, indeed, make the bootstrap thing work.

Yes, I know it is just an expression.  It means, if I am not mistaken, that rather than wallow in your problems you can use your own power to overcome them or, to return to the metaphor, rise above them.  However (still in the metaphor), I’m thinking there are easier ways to rise.

For example, you might push yourself up, maybe even rolling over onto your front side to get more power from your arms.  Tis would work best if you are on a clean, dry surface rather than a muddy, mucky one. In other words, it depends on the problem.  Maybe sometimes it is better to not worry about presenting the tough, I-got-this-covered persona and just get up the best way you can.

You could also pull yourself up.  This, of course, requires something sturdy and firmly fastened to pull on, for example, a strong rope tied by a square knot to a solid wall.  How did the rope get there, you may ask?  Well, maybe you put it there earlier, in case of just such an emergency.  Maybe it just happened to be there.  Maybe a friend put it there.

Ah yes, my favorite aid to rising above our problems:  the hand of a friend.

Some may argue that this is not necessarily reliable, or that it is far better to depend only on one’s self, or that it is foolish to spend so much time and energy dissecting an old metaphor that few people use any more anyways.

There may be merit to these arguments.  I don’t know; I’m no genius.  I’m just a silly blogger enjoying Lame Post Friday.  Have a marvelous weekend, everyone.

 

4 Comments

Posted in commentary, humor, Lame Post Friday, personal and tagged , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

Turns Out Polonius Was Right

Posted on January 1, 2016 by mohawkvalleygirl

It is New Year’s Eve, although as the previous two posts may have pointed out, it will probably be dated January 1, 2016.  I can’t worry about that now.  I must make my post!  (Said with a dramatic gesture.)

It is not Lame Post Friday, my usual place for half-baked philosophy, yet what better time can there be to wax philosophical than the threshold of another year?  Oh, you can probably think of lots of times (you know who you are). Why do I even bother with these rhetorical questions? HELLO!  THAT ONE WAS RHETORICAL TOO!!!

There is some controversy about the efficacy of New Year’s Resolutions.  Many people firmly eschew them. Others embrace them with fervor.  (Look at me articulating with the E words: “efficacy,” “eschew,” “embrace!”)  I personally am of two minds here.

Part of me says, “Take any opportunity to improve yourself, you need it” (yes, I often talk to myself in the second person).  And for another reason, how can you worry about self-improvement during the holidays?  Start a diet with all those Christmas cookies and candy around?  Clean the house amidst all those decorations?  Work on that novel when you have shopping, wrapping and partying to do?  It’s madness, I tell you! (Again, with dramatic gesture.)

The other part of me says, “You’re setting yourself up for failure!  You’ll never stick to it, and then you’ll feel bad about yourself!”  Quite frankly, I think this is a spurious argument.  Say I start a diet in January then eat a pan of fudge brownies in February.  Does this mean I have to wait until next January to start another diet, thus wallowing in self-loathing for 10 months?  Well, I guess that would give me a chance to eat a lot more brownies…

My real problem is that I feel all self-conscious, like I’m doing the cliche, obvious thing, having a New Year’s Resolution. None of the cool kids are doing it.  And by “cool kids,” of course I mean the unusual, alternative, unexpected kids.

And then I come to the stunning realization:  EITHER WAY, I’M FOLLOWING A CROWD!  Some people make New Year’s Resolutions, some do not.  Whatever I do I’m wrong.

Or, whatever I do, I’m right.

Happy New Year, everybody.

 

2 Comments

Posted in commentary, humor, Non Sequitur Thursday, personal and tagged , , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

Thoughts for the Season

Posted on November 30, 2015 by mohawkvalleygirl

I told you it was going to be Wrist to Forehead Sunday and I didn’t lie.  At least, not about that.  Well, why wouldn’t it be Wrist to Forehead Sunday?  It is the last day of a delightful four-day weekend.  The only good thing is that it is a mere three weeks before my next delightful four-day weekend.  Oh, all right, that isn’t the ONLY good thing, but still…

Wrist-to-Foreheady as I am feeling, the day is not without its charms.  I went running for the fourth day in a row, so I feel pretty pleased with myself over that. Additionally, Steven and I took a nice walk, and we are now watching movies.  While we watch I am finishing an afghan to donate as a raffle item to a Breakfast with Santa which my sister organizes every year for her church in Liverpool, NY.  Um, right now I am typing a blog post while I watch, but I’ll get back to the afghan in another hundred or so words.

Now that Thanksgiving is over, it is time to start thinking about Christmas, beginning, I suppose, with that afghan for the Santa breakfast.  Oh, I know, some of you have been thinking about it right along and already have all your presents bought and wrapped.  In fact, I have been thinking about it too.

Mostly I have been thinking about how bad I have been all year, so I do not expect any presents.  That is quite a relief, really, because I have too many things in my house as it is.  I am also thinking that most likely everybody on my list has been bad as well.  After all, this is my family we’re talking about.  I’m quite sure they are all on Santa’s Naughty List, with the possible exception of my mother.

Now I learned long ago that Santa Claus is a pushover, and most of the kids on his Naughty list get presents anyways.  I think this year I will set the fat man an example and not give presents to those who have not behaved.  That will give me a head start on being bad for next year.  After all, judging other people so harshly will certainly put me on the Naughty List.

 

Leave a comment

Posted in commentary, humor, personal, Wrist to Forehead Sunday and tagged , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

I’m Grateful I Finished This Post

Posted on November 26, 2015 by mohawkvalleygirl

You know, in a little more than a month, people are going to start asking each other what are their New Year’s Resolutions.  And some people will answer, with varying degrees of huffiness, that THEY do not make New Year’s Resolutions.  Some will say they are perfect as they are; the less obnoxious will say they always strive to improve and do not NEED an arbitrary date to do so.

What has this to do with Thanksgiving, you may ask.  Well, I will tell you, I hope with no huffiness but with honesty.

I try to spend my life in a state of relative gratitude.  For one reason, when you are feeling grateful, you feel less depressed, angry, resentful, sad and other negative emotions.  For another reason, it helps to counteract my usual complaints and whining, which I’m afraid can become rather tiresome.  In confess, I pursue this attitude with a greater or lesser degree of success at different times.  As Billy Wilder so aptly observed, nobody’s perfect.

For example, I complain about my husband’s job but hasten to add that I am grateful he has a job.  I used to groan over the necessity to go to the laundromat but hastened to add that I was grateful there were lots of machines and the place was clean.  Right now I am almost purely grateful for our new (to us) washer and drier.  Soon I’ll find something there to bitch about but no doubt will hasten to add how grateful I am that I have them.

You see where I’m going with this.

I am looking forward to tomorrow (Thanksgiving) as a day I will spend time with family and eat a lot of good food.  I am not going to wax eloquent about all that I am grateful for.  Please believe that I am grateful for many things.  And feel free to share your own list of gratitudes on Facebook, in person, in a comment here or in your own blog (my computer is telling me “gratitudes” is not a word, but I can’t think of a better one).

More astute readers will remember that this is Wuss-out Wednesday and be nodding wisely.  I am, of course, grateful for all my readers (you know, for not posting a list, I have mentioned a few gratitudes, haven’t I?).  I shall humbly sign off now and begin pondering tomorrow’s post.

Now, about that New Year’s Resolution…

 

Leave a comment

Posted in commentary, humor, personal, Wuss Out Wednesday and tagged , , . Bookmark the permalink.

Vampire? What Vampire?

Posted on October 30, 2015 by mohawkvalleygirl

I was not sure if I could write effectively about Atomic Age Vampire (1961),but when I realized the title made it a perfect candidate for Non-Sequitur Thursday, I thought I would give it a try.

Spoiler Alert!  I’ve probably already spoiled it for some people by giving away the lack of truth in advertising.  Then again, you might like to be forewarned about that.  At least I’m not going to give away the ending, because I don’t exactly remember it.

The movie is one of our “50 Horror Classics,” the DVD set I purchased for a very moderate amount, considering how much entertainment we’ve derived from it.  I had a craving for some Halloween cheese, and this movie fit the bill nicely.

The movie opens cheesily enough in a strip club.  To add to the ambiance, it is rather obviously dubbed.  A sailor (I think) is about to go on deployment (I guess) and is breaking up with his beautiful blond girlfriend because she would not quit her sleazy job.  I must confess to some feminist indignation on Blondie’s behalf.  Sailor Boy must have know she had a career when he started dating her.

And isn’t that typical of either gender?  They fall in love with somebody and the first thing they want to do is change them. It gives me that little frisson on virtue, because I love my husband just the way he is.  But I digress.

I may digress further in a bit, because this is also another one of those movies that centers around a mad scientist using nefarious means to restore and maintain a woman’s beauty.  What does this say about our superficial society?  In mad scientist’s defense, other than restoring her beauty (which, to be fair, she wants too), he does not desire to change Blondie but loves her (albeit in an obsessive, mad scientist kind of way) just the way she is.

Ah, I see I’ve left out the part where she loses her beauty.  In her grief over Sailor Boy’s defection, Blondie crashes her car.  That she survives at all is quite the miracle, but the only thing to sustain much damage seems to be her face.  Really, shouldn’t she at least have been in a wheelchair?  Maybe one arm in a sling?  But no, just her face all bandaged up like the Invisible Man.  Go figure.

Mad Scientist naturally has a female assistant who is in love with him and will do his bidding.  And, just as naturally, he is just not that into her (I love that expression).  Personally, I thought she was pretty good-looking, but I suppose she lacked Blondie’s glamorous appeal.  I mean, once Blondie gets her face back.  Maybe it was all about the bodies, which, I confess, I did not particularly notice.

Anyways, Lovelorn Assistant convinces Blondie that Mad Scientist can help her.  Do I need to tell you that restoring Blondie’s beauty requires the murders of numerous other young, nubile females?  Lovelorn Assistant does most of the killing.  Oh, these people who will do anything for love!

Now that I think about it, they could have done a lot more with the two adjoining love triangles:  Mad Scientist/Assistant/Blondie and Blondie/Sailor Boy/Scientist.  But then I suppose that would have left less time for nefarious scientific doings.

I bet some of you have noticed that I have not yet mentioned any vampire, let alone an atomic age one.  That’s because I didn’t see any.  I suppose one could make the argument that the killing of young ladies to feed Blondie’s beauty is vampiric activity.  And there may have been some atomic stuff in the laboratory that I failed to notice.  The killing of young ladies is, of course, a time-honored mad scientist technique, not an atomic age innovation.  I am inclined to believe that they just slapped on a title that they thought would get people to watch the damned movie.  After all, it worked on me.

2 Comments

Posted in commentary, humor, movies, Non Sequitur Thursday, personal and tagged , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.
← Older Posts
Newer Posts →