Just in case there is a Pop quiz.

Here is your homework for today.

Autocracy. You need to define autocracy. It means to rule by one person. Often considered a dictatorship. Look it up. All through the years of the Trump administration it was ruled by an authoritarian rule and mostly from one person. Surely you believe Webster’s dictionary, right?

But as we all know, America was founded by Democracy. Ruled by many. Many voting. Everyone has a vote.

An Autocracy has only one or two votes. Thad exclusively of the autocrat. Check this out on your own. Let me know what you discover.

Do they still teach American History in our public schools? I for one am not ready to change our present form of government to an extreme conservative/libertarian government model. Possibly the Vladimir Putin model. Are you? If so, get ready to lose many of your social benefits. And possibly lose many personal freedoms. As well. Again, get out your dictionary and look up Autocracy or authoritarianism. You may not like the definitions. I sure don’t.

Okies at school. Not all schools were this bad.

Charlie Boy the Okie sixth grader.

This was 1956 in the sixth grade. My sixth grade teacher’s name was, and I’m not joking, Miss Longnecker. This is the truth. She was a “plus-size” woman. Fat and sometimes used a cotton braded rope as a belt for her tint size dress. She had long thin spindly teeth and at best tolerated us fidgety kids. I’m almost sure she despised me and a few others in our sixth grade class. How could she not help but revile a skinny Okie boy wearing wire rimmed glasses? The type of glasses only bookkeepers and undertakers wore. Looking back I do recall Miss Longnecker grabbing a kid by the throat that was mouthing off and began to choke him right there in front of about 25 other classroom kids.

This was at Freemont an elementary school near East Los Angeles. In a suburb known for its mixed ethnics. Mexican, Italian, Asian, and we Anglo Okies. None the less getting along with each other for the most part. However there were these two boys. One seemed to be my same age and the other appeared he had repeated sixth grade two or more times already. But unknown to the school officials The bigger and older boy was rumored to have driven himself most days to school and parked down the street from the school. He was about 14 or 15-years old but still under age for a drivers license. Remember this is Los Angeles near its worst. But anyway, both of them seemed to be off on their own reckless thing. One thing was to catch up with me and force me over behind the school incinerator out of sight of the adult playground monitors. Then give me a few punches in the stomach or slap me around. I don’t think they liked my cheesy wire rimmed glasses and my long skinny Okie legs while wearing my high water jeans. I must have looked like the dorky type needing some pummeling on occasion and appeared to be easy to shove around. And they were probably right. So anyway I tried my best to stay away from these marauding low-brow trouble makers. I mentioned this a time or two to Miss Longnecker but she didn’t seem to be too concerned or worried. Well then so much for that.

Then it occurred to me, I had a smaller friend here in school named Douggy who was smallish but wiry and feisty. Probably a inch or two shorter than me. But you know, he had mentioned on several occasions he was taking boxing lessons. I do recall a few weeks previous when he was confronted by some guy thinking Douggy was a bit short and could be easily taken advantage of. But much to that guys surprise Douggy with his fast action dope-slapping hands popped this guy around like a rag doll and sent him running.

In an attempt to solicit help from someone to act as my bodyguard I mentioned to Douggy these two bullies who on many occasions how they punched and slapped me and if he could help me fend them off. So he agreed. The next time the two bullies came towards me I called for Douggy and he came quickly and took both of them on. He approached them so forcefully and fast with hands flashing and slapping the two of them they didn’t know what happened. Then the two retreated in shock and took up residence in the boy’s lavatory. Douggy had done his job and the two never bothered me again. Not sure I had thanked Douggy for his expert help. As for Miss Longnecker, she was later fired and the parents of the boy Miss Longnecker choked filed a child abuse complaint with the school district.

But anyway Douggy wherever you are, God bless.

That’s a funny name for a dog.

So I had this dog. He was a special bred dog and was a mix of Yellow Lab and Golden Retriever. He had a body of a Lab with a head and feathered tail like a Golden. So far so good.

However he had special training first from a puppy raiser and then from a guide dog trainer. Yes, he was trained to lead blind people like me. So far so good. I paired up with Darber in 1999. Yes, his name was Darber. Not sure where that name came from. The guide dog school described these mix breeds as Golden/Lab crosses. I guess in order to get the best of both breeds. Gentle, loyal, and eager to please. And to please the dog partner, me.

But anyway we trained together for about three weeks at the Guide Dog facility at San Rafael, California north of the Golden Gate Bridge. . Darber seemed a bit Alpha-male but willing to guide. We had an issue or two before we left the guide dog school. But we graduated anyway. Boarded a plane at SFO and flew home. We sat just behind the bulkhead and all Darber wanted to do is look out the window. Maybe looking for UFOs or something. Don’t know. My other guides boarded a plane and quickly fell into doggie slumber at my feet.

But anyway to make a long narrative short Darber still had guide issues. But after two years of him guiding me I had enough. He basically went towards where he wanted to go and not where I needed him to go. So I contacted the guide dog school and as they say at the school Darber had a career change and I went back and trained with another dog. Paring up with Rickles. The best guide dog I ever worked with.

But anyway, what to do with Darber. He still had good obedience, seldom barked, and was a very good pet. Then a teacher friend asked me to bring Darber to her school. So I did and Darber was received with a hundred pets on the head. They loved him there. Then the teacher friend ask if Darber could come two or three days a week. At that time Darber was staying with my oldest adult daughter and she agreed to drop Darber off at school on her way to work. Then that routine stuck. Thus Darber’s career change began and it was from Guide dog into Therapy dog. The school kids took turns each morning running out to my daughter’s car to escort Darber into the school where he had a spot in the teacher’s classroom and stayed until the final bell each day he visited. The teacher told the kids to not feed Darber any of their lunches. Darber had a special diet and to not feed him people food. Yeah right!

None the less, Darber became a regular presents at school and fulfilled his position as therapy dog. Actually bringing a bit of calm and release of tension during a normal frenetic school day. Then after a full year of Darbers presents at school he was featured in the school’s year book with two full pages of kids posing with Darber the therapy dog.

Then followed graduation for some of the seniors. Most of the grads wanted Darber to walk with them as they receive their diplomas. But the parents nixed that idea. Even though the school thought it okay.

Then finally it was his third year at school on therapy duty when Darber, at age seven, fell very ill and died. The school kids were most distraught and tears were shed. I never knew what it was that caused his sudden death. Not sure. One of the teachers with a religious fervor placed her hands on Darber and prayed for his recovery. But to no avail sorry to say. I’m certain Darber is now in doggie heaven. Running, barking, and enjoying his second career change. Rest in peace.

Book Report.

She doesn’t wait for you to ask. She’ll ask you first. This is the usual approach by former NBC Today co-host Katie Couric. Unabashed and not restrained by convention or social protocol. When she met her future husband she didn’t wait for him to approach her. She walked up to Jay Monahan and asked him to lunch. Just like that. Not too long after that they married. After a happy marriage, giving birth to two wonderful daughters, Jay dies of colorectal cancer. Bringing great sadness to America’s favorite morning show host. All the while hiding her emotions on-the-air.

The book: “Going There” by Katie Couric, autobiography 2021

A “girl’s” story about never allowing anything to stop her reporting of the day’s news. Or from keeping her from presenting to America’s TV morning audience interviews with interesting people. Couric’s live on-the-spot coverage of stories like the Columbine school massacre, interviewing a mom who killed all five of her children, co-hosting with Bryant Gumbel, anchoring the CBS Evening News and Couric’s later discovery of her former Today’s co-host Matt Lauer’s sudden firing. Lauer’s firing due to sexual improprieties

Again the book is, Going There by Katie Couric and published in 2021. The audio book is read by Couric herself. Read or listen to it. You might like it.

User friendly? Bah Humbug.

I have three desktops. A Mac Mini, a Windows ten, and a windows XP. Of the three the XP is easiest to operate. Fortunately for me the basic XP works quite well. With the exception of browsing on the net. Googling is somewhat easy but can’t click on the links. The old IE8 browser is not supported by the new net providers. However, my old Outlook Express and MSWord works. Oh so easy. Then to get on websites I must go to Windows Ten. My Windows Ten is so so slow. My Mac Mini is complicated at best.

So, I would like Microsoft to revive the XP and call it something else. Ultra Windows or Windows Double cloud plus. But not tell anybody what is happening.

It was my understanding when Microsoft decided to pull the plug on XP tens of millions of XP users were still out there trying to keep their machine afloat. Come on! It’s a good PC. Why don’t MS sell the support to a third party? But no. They would not like the competition for their Win11.

Whatever happened to ease of operation? Or the oxymoron ‘User Friendly mantra.” Using any desktop has never been either of those fantascical claims. More like difficult or almost impossible to operate.

Actually I would take back my old Wimn98 in a heartbeat. I would trade my Win10 with its convoluted frenetic operations for just a plain and simple XP. Hey Cortana! Shove it. Hey SIRI, kiss my asterisk.

From the Okie hall of fame.

One of the greatest Oklahomans.

He was a showman and a clever salesman. Had you grown up in Los Angeles in the 1950s and during early television years back in the early 1950s you first would have seen this country gentleman on Sunday morning Los Angeles TV. What did exist prominently on the seven L A TV stations at that time on the early dawn hours were test patterns. Often showing a full Indian headdress full with eagle feathers. All in black and white. No color at that time. This was in the age of 12-inch oval picture tubes which had a clarity of a black and white photo overlaid with wax paper.

So this daring Okie came to town and bought a Dodge car dealer in Huntington Park. Just north of Long Beach, California. He too noticed the unused TV time blanketed with test patterns. But anyway Cal Worthington; born 1920 as Calvin Coolidge Worthington from Shidler, Oklahoma quickly saw a possible opportunity to promote his car dealership.

But again, when he showed up in Huntington Park about 1952 he contacted the local L A TV stations and negotiated an almost free deal to provide programming and use the early morning test pattern time for his sales interests. Cal began showing old ‘B’ Westerns with the likes of the trick riding Tom Mix or the bull whip wielding Lash LaRue and inserted his car dealer commercials about every five minutes instead of showing test patterns. Shortly after he hired a country band to play for the folks coming to his showroom. Then sales started coming. Cal would walk around his sales lot and show some of the new and used cars he offered. Then he got his golden retriever involved and named the dog Spot. Then he would say, come see Cal and see my dog Spot. Then to catch people’s attention Cal would say, come and see my dog spot” while pointing over his shoulder to a gray elephant. Then it was a kangaroo. Then a lama. On and on it went Almost P T Barnumish. None the less you couldn’t but help loving old Cal. He was somewhat humble, unpretentious, and most of all a folksy Okie. You would often see him in a western cut suit with Stetson. “Come see Cal.” He was my kind of Okie.

The last I heard of Cal he owned many Ford dealers all through California and was doing quite well and still regaling the TV viewer with his folksy style. He died in 2013. I would put him up there along with James Garner and Dr. Phil. And just a cut above Paul Harvey.

A Poem.

By C. Ronald Oldenfatt

Please listen to me.

Oh please, a warm conversation

Is desired between two of us.

We can Give and take from each other.

By quietly speaking one’s feelings and emotions

Into a Climax of mutual affirmation.

And belief of one another.

Speak from the heart.

Listen from the heart.

Let’s be one in genuine discourse

Holding each other’s hearts

In our welcoming clasped hands.

I will get to know you

And you, me.

What we learn from each

Other will be like nourishing

Our inner being. Our collective

Souls will be like

A spiritual mirror reflecting

Our mutual Goodness and truth.

Hey Alexa

Are you listening?

C. Ronald lives with his spouse Sheba on the shores of Boomer Lake. Along with a pet iguana named Ned.

So, do we want Trump back in office?

I don’t get it. We recently have been hammering Biden in the media for lack of producing good legislation. Build Back Better and voting rights reform is what we need. All the while all republicans under Trump’s heavy hand is pushing back almost all Democrat proposals. So for this we want to kick Biden out of office. Right?

Here’s my dirty little secret. I voted for Biden just to rid Trump from office. A Trumpless presidency was the goal. But to say Biden is a failure is ridiculous. Just the fact that Biden is now in the White House is a major accomplishment for all America. I feel confident that Biden will keep his hand on the wheel and keep a steady Kiel. All of this reinforced by Biden’s long time congressional and Vice Presidential experience. In the mean time all Republicans are under Wizard Trump’s spell. With their only purpose is to thwart any good legislation proposed by Biden and the Democrats. What kind of governing is this? By the way where is the good legislation from the Republicans? Tax cut for the rich is not good legislation. Restricting voters is not good legislation. Harassing legitimately voted officeholders is not a good political policy. Attacking the Nation’s Capitol building was treasonous. Threatening the lives of congress people is also treasonous. Attempting to reverse the results of an election by intimidation and threat is not good. This is NOT what America is all about.

Goal number one is Trump is out of office. Goal number two is Biden is in office. Let’s keep it that way. Trump’s history goes back thirty plus years. Thirty years of scheming, tricking, lying, and cheating his business partners. He can’t even play a round of golf without cheating. Nothing had changed while he was in office. Trump is unreliable and unfit for the office of the Presidency. That, my friends, is why Biden is now President and put there by a strong majority of the voters. Republican, Democrat, and Independent voters. “Stop the steal” is a bunch of hog wash. There is absolutely nothing to support a stolen election. It has been adjudicated dozens of times to the favor of the voters. Passing Democrat legislation is not necessarily the point but keeping the cheater Trump out of office is the real point of this whole rant. Amen!

So this is snow huh?

When I was in my early teens and living in Los Angeles we kids drove up with our parents along with a wooden toboggan to a ten-thousand foot high mountain. A snow covered peak often called “Mount Baldy which was located in the San Gabriel Mountain range. Mountains of the Los Angeles basin. .” Few people knew the mountains real name of Mount San Antonio. When winter came and it snowed we could see from our backyard, which faced out to the east, a snow covered peak called Mount Baldy. Looking like a pointy head bald man. None the less, we often found a reasonable sled run to run our toboggan down and down and down again. Just having a crazy fun time.

It’s hard to believe that it could snow in balmy Southern California. But at Ten-grand feet, it certainly did. Rarely did it ever get cold enough in our almost sea level East L A neighborhood to ever snow. The upper forties is as cold as it had ever got. But taken from the annals of ‘Believe it or not’ back in January of 1949 when I was in kindergarten, it actually snowed on the near sea level grounds of our elementary school. It was such a rare occurrence the school principal let us outside for the morning before the snow melted. I can vividly remember my oldest sister tossing snow balls at her friends out on the front lawn of our school. Somewhere tucked away is a black and white photo of she and friends snow balling and splattering each other with real balls of snow. Just a Winter Wonderland that year. However all evidence of the snow disappeared by noon. So back to the typical dry sidewalks along the palm tree lined avenues of sunny southern California.