Ain’t goin’ back to here no mo.

They use to call it quality control.
Not sure what they call it these days. Sort of hit and miss maybe.
If you are going to own or operate a franchise your customer could only hope to have a food item at one location then days or weeks later miles away you get the same thing. McDonalds is good at this.
I have ordered from a Chili’s restaurant in Amarillo Texas a Cajun Chicken pasta alfredo dish and it was most delicious. I ordered the same in Stillwater, Oklahoma and it was not as good. Stillwater forgot the Cajun sauce. Plus, it was a bit lukewarm Almost cold. Stillwater must not be reading from the same cookbook as Amarillo.
I have been back to the Chili’s in Amarillo and was most satisfied with their chicken pasta dish. Then a few months later tried it again in Stillwater. Same thing happened; the Cajun sauce was not in the pasta. Both places have the same menu with description of Cajun Chicken Alfredo. But only Stillwater left out the Cajun sauce leaving it a bit dull and tasteless.
Then tonight I ordered a burger with fries. Usually, their fries are fresh and hot. Tonight, they were cold stiff and dry. What’s the deal. Don’t get me wrong, I am not usually this picky but one has expectations of good hot and tasty food. Assuming every location of the same franchise would prepare their entrees the same way at each location. Stillwater is most inconsistent. Hit and mis. When will I ever learn to never go back to Chili’s in Stillwater? If you are in Amarillo just off Interstate-40 stop in and try the Cajun chicken, Alfredo.

Vote in spite of the liberal press.

It is the freaking press.
It is the press that creates difficult mid-term voting for the opposition party. The liberal press theory is when the president and his party are in power the opposition wins more congressional seats than the party in power. And the press has been saying this finger painted blatherment for decades. Which means the so-called liberal press calls the election shots. Bull crappie. If people would stop listening to these half-baked cable jockey prognosticators and really voted in spite of bathtub brewed conjecture the party in power would easily maintain their majority. Are you following me on this?
Just do yourself and others a favor and do not listen to what the TV talking heads say. Screw them anyway. Just get out and vote. Don’t take anything for granted. Vote every time the polls are open. Democracy deserves your vote.

The little red signs that made you smile. For at least a mile.

Roadside Poetry
(updated)

The little red sequential fencepost signs sponsored by Burma Shave cream with clever and whimsical rhymes out on the pre-interstate highways of mid-century America.

In her room
Tilting a broom
Learning nuclear physics
Watching on Zoom.
BURMA SHAVE

There would be four or five one by three-foot signs posted off the highway about fifty-yards from each other in sequence on wooden fenceposts. Humorous limericks meant to not only entertain but to advertise the shave cream. Little signs often found out on long and sometimes lonely stretches of road. I wish they would bring them back.

The new governor of California did not like free tuition of state colleges.

“This chimp will never graduate from this college.”
Ronald Reagan, Bedtime for Bonzo; movie 1952

Fall 1962 I started my freshman year
at East Los Angeles College. A community college under the oversite of the Los Angeles Unified School District. At that time the total enrollment of students for both day and night classes at ELAC was about 10K. After filling out the required forms and papers then selecting my desired classes, totaling 15-credit hours, I handed the person in the school’s bursars office a total of ten-dollars. Yes, the entire semester of five classes cost me only $10. Just ten bucks. Handed the lady two five-dollar bills. Ringing the register paid in full.
At that time an all-new administrative building was finished along with the expanse of a center plaza. The campus was most welcoming and collegial. Every amenity one would expect of a metropolitan college setting was close at hand. Student center, canteen, auditorium, etc.
Had I enrolled at one of the California State colleges the total cost would have been $200 per semester. Two hundred dollars for a full load of classes. Still not a bad deal.
Then came governor elect Ronald Reagan. Reagan ended the affordability of the state’s community and state colleges and universities. Creating a significant increase and shifting the cost of education from the state to the student. Was this suppose to be a positive for Californians? It didn’t appear to be so.
And now America is talking about free colleges or community colleges. Wondering how to pay for this. Well, we’ve did it before. We could certainly do it again.

He could perform supernatural magic with his three red feathered chickens.

Butchy the chicken whisperer

He doesn’t like to compare himself to Harry Potter but Butchy the chicken whisperer has magical mystical powers over his following of chickens. Three in all. All Rhode Island Reds named Manny, Moe, and Jack. A trio of cluckers who think they have special divining powers to find buried treasures. After all they lived in East L A. A place once inhabited by dwarf pirates who buried their stolen treasures but forgot where they buried their purloined goods. Never thinking of drawing a treasure map with a big black ‘X’ over the buried treasure chest.

So Butchy the chicken whisperer became a chicken whisperer when Butchy decided he no longer could become Roy Rogers. A decision Butchy made since he wore cheap wire rimmed glasses. Glasses made of real glass and easily broken if someone tried to punch Butchy in the face. So riding horses and chasing down bank robbers was mostly out of the question. So chicken whispering became his career of choice. And one thing he hated to admit to others was his older sister thought Butchy looked like a pint-size bookkeeper with his gold wire rimmed glasses. “All he needed was a green eye shade,” his older sister would comment to her giggling teen girlfriends. But Butchy thought he would show them who he really was someday. “I am Butchy the chicken whisperer. Proud and true. Filled with magic whispering powers.

So, stay tuned. More excitement next time.

Santa Clause is sailing to town. Yo ho ho!

There is a virtual full parking lot of boats outside the L A Harbor beyond the breakwater barrier. Some anchored out there for about a month or more waiting for a docking space to unload their foreign made goods. All cargo ships wanting to dock and unload its full containers filled with Asian made widget and whatsit cargo made by conscripted Chinese workers making pennies on the dollar as compared to living wages of American workers. Cargo coming from several western Pacific Asian countries. So many containers and not enough docking space to unload them.

Well then, let’s turn our attention towards Amazon. Maybe Wal-mart as well. Best Buy might be a reason for this crowded deep sea parking lot. Port authorities also say not enough trucks and truck drivers going in and out of the harbor to huge warehouses inland. Then President Biden suggested the harbors should be operated 24/7. Some are already. Then all of this agitated by the electronic and print media saying Christmas will be delayed. Oh my goodness! Well, perhaps we have forgotten the true meaning of Christmas. You know what I mean?

Never the less, here is my take on this floating waiting game. It’s simple. Too many cheap goods needlessly coming from China to America. Goods that will eventually and perhaps quickly end up in a landfill. My opinion is we should be more worried about filling the landfill than how quick boats could be unloaded at dockside. Fifty years ago how did we ever get along without all this needless electronic/mechanical STUFF? Well, it’s today’s “Gotta have it” manufacturing and marketing get-it-now blather. The latest and greatest STUFF. Some of this STUFF that use to be manufactured here in America but congress and corporations sent most of it offshore for large corporations to make even bigger bucks. Trading quality for quantity. Had the manufacturing stayed in America certainly costs would have gone up. But all the while supporting good jobs and the middle class as a result. This is one reason many low wage American earners hate government and its big business enabling sugar daddies. Corporate Sugar daddies paying very little or no taxes. Taxes sorely needed to support our vital infrastructure. So we rush off to the big box stores hitting every unfilled pothole therefore ruining our cars and trucks tires and undercarriage. Or going online to order cheap goods only to see our identity stolen and personal info compromised. Black Friday, Amazon Plus, Wal-mart free delivery, etc. Surely we can get along without all this pre-Xmas anxiety. Let the boats stay out on the open seas until they all sink. Who cares? Get rid of the gaming videos devices and send the kids outside into the fresh air. Just buy a box of See’s Candy instead. What more could we all want?