Hard to Believe
I’m having trouble swallowing this idea of tax cuts for billionaires. If they already have got 1 billion dollars, would 2 billion make their lives better?
I’m also having trouble with the trickle-down fairy tale.
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Go Figure
The most powerful nation the world has ever known, and it’s being destroyed by an old man who the demeanor of a child.
Dave Thomas
April 17, 2025
Gene was driving through the suburbs. He was in the right-hand lane and was going the posted speed limit. Impatient speedsters were lining up behind him. Some were making a risky attempt to get into the faster moving left-hand lane. A traffic light turned red, and Gene stopped along with a truck in the left lane. The passenger in the truck leaned out his window and says to Gene, “How come you were going so slow?” Gene replies, “I didn’t know that speed limit sign was just a suggestion, or I might have gone a little faster!”
Help Wanted
I may have shown you this story before. It’s one of my favorites, so I’m running it again. I think it’s funny, and I hope you do, too.
We lived in Keller, Texas, a small town on the north side of Fort Worth. My friend, Gene Maness, also retired, was going to have to work that day. He owned a rental unit in the center of Fort Worth, and he was going to re-tile the bathroom floor there. He dreaded the job because he knew his bad knee would really be hurting by the end of the day.
Gene loaded the materials in the back of his small pick-up, and headed for I-35. Not being one to enjoy freeway driving alongside all the morning commuters, he soon cut over to Main Street. Going through Old Fort Worth, he passed Billy Bob’s and the Stockyards and soon crossed the Trinity River and headed up the hill to the business district. It was a nice, warm day, and he had his windows down as he drove through town. Coming to a red light, he was the first one at the intersection, and he noticed a young woman standing on the curb as he drove up and stopped. The young woman bent down and peered in his window and smiled. “Is there anything I can do for you?” she asked. Gene stared at here for a moment and then asked, “Can you lay tile?”
Dave Thomas
April 10, 2025
Last summer, the visits from the crows were pretty regular. They showed up within a few minutes of 6:15 A.M. and had their morning snack. That was usually the only visit of the day. Their habits have changed considerably in the last couple of months. We’ve had rain and fog, cooler temperatures, Daylight Savings, and the beginning of spring. The regular group of five usually shows up on schedule. That would be Boss Crow, Lame Foot, Bouncer, Clucker, and one other that we guess is a mate. Sometimes, nine crows show up. We figure that those birds are members of the extended family and are there because something has happened to their regular food source. Once in a while, 21 birds show up, and, on rare occasions, there can be as many as 40 to 50 birds.
Sometimes Lame Foot will drop by several times during the day. These visits are social rather than for food. He really enjoys talking to Pat, so these extra visits are for conversations. He will arrive flying at window height so she will know he is there. Pat will go outside, and they will exchange stories and catch up on the gossip for the day. Lame Foot is very well-mannered. He stands quietly and listens while Pat speaks her piece and then he gives his report.
Pat still gets escorted. The other morning, she went to the grocery store and had an escort both ways. The crows fly ahead of her and fly low enough that she can see them easily.
Another day, as Pat went out to feed the crows, a neighbor lady was coming up the sidewalk on her morning walk. Pat went on down to the sidewalk and started chatting. The crows were used to being fed as soon as Pat appeared, so they began flying in circles and squawking. The neighbor says, “I know you’ve been feeding the birds for a while, but do you recognize any of them.?” Pat says, “This is my original group, and the have traits that tell me who they are. Boss Crow likes to sit on the garage rest and never stops jabbering. You can see Lame Foot’s problem. Bouncer bounces rather than walking. Clucker clucks like a chicken when he talks. The fifth bird is a little smaller than the others, so we figure she is a mate.” The neighbor says, “Well, I sure recognize Boss Crow. He never shuts up!” After a few more exchanges, the neighbor continued on her walk while Pat fed the crows and got them quieted down.
Last year, while listening to a book about crows, I heard a paragraph about crows enjoying their version of windsurfing. On a windy day, they get on the roof of a building and jump off into the wind and perform acrobatics. They do circles and hover and float up and down and do fancy little tricks. After a crow has had his turn, the next guy jumps off. They do tricks that seem highly unlikely for a bird.
One day Pat was going to the hospital for a blood draw. It was a nice day, but windier than usual. As Pat parked the car, she glanced at the building across the street and saw five crows standing on the edge of the roof. Suddenly, a crow leaped off the roof and into the air. There must have been a strong updraft at the spot they had chosen. They would hover in place and then start doing circles and turns as they rode the updraft and then dive lower and spread their wings to be carried aloft again. As the crow finished, he returned to the roof and the next guy would jump off. Pat said they were like a bunch of kids taking turns to slide down a hill.
Dave Thomas
3/27/2025
The 80/20 rule is what I use to ball-park most things I am trying to figure out. 80% being the good or positive side. 20% being the bad, negative, or clueless side. What I am thinking of today, though, will require changing the formula. There are 535 people in the Congress who have sworn an oath to protect the constitution and conduct the business of our government. A few of the people are real heroes in that they are doing their jobs. The rest of them just seem to be standing around with their thumbs up their butts. I’m going to be generous and change our numbers to 5/95 Rule. That’s 5% good guys and 95% shirkers. That gives us 27 good folks and 508 who aren’t sure what time it is.
What are we going to do with the 508 goobers? We could send them to a course called
“What it Means to Be a Patriot.” Or we could just send them all home. They would lose their status as a big shot in their communities, the biggest regular paycheck they’ve had in their lives, the fantastic medical benefits, and the rest of the perks they enjoy.
The 508 took an oath to protect the Constitution and to protect the American people. They have failed to do either. I think that meets the definition of fraud. Maybe that’s the answer. Sue them for fraud?
This is no time to be reticent. The 508 folks and the rest of the American people should be shouting out against what is happening to our country. Get loud! Get heard!
Dave Thomas
3/20/2025
I read, many years ago, that a democracy won’t last 250 years. I don’t remember the exact quote or who said it. It was probably Socrates or Plato or another of those old guys. We Americans were getting ready to celebrate 250 years, but it doesn’t look like we will make it.
The Republicans have given our democracy to an immoral man who is trying to destroy it. Besides tearing apart the government, he is making enemies of our friends and allies. A few weeks ago, we were the greatest nation the world had ever known. Now, we are just a zero. We are vulnerable.
Our country might soon be known as Western Russia and Washington DC could be known as Putinville.
God help us!
Dave Thomas
3/13/2025
Back to Basics
It’s amazing and wonderful to live in this age of such great technical achievement. I can sit down at my computer and send messages to any place on Earth. If I so desire, I can board an airplane and actually go to those places. We cruise along, fat, dumb, and happy, until something jerks us back to basics and real life. Many Americans cannot put an egg on their breakfast plate this morning. Sunnyside up or scrambled, it ain’t gonna happen until this bird flu mess is cleaned up.
Dave Thomas
2/27/2025
Decision Time
Stand up for America and democracy! Don’t let them destroy us! This year is as important as 1776.
Dave Thomas
2/20/25
We may not see eye to eye this morning. I’ll eventually get the point but will provide some background first. The time period would have been between 1944 and 1946. I don’t remember exactly.
Intermediate School in Augusta, Kansas held the 3rd, 4th, and 5th grades. It was a 3-story brick building that had been the high school until the early 1920’s when the new high school was built. The stairway from the first to the second floor was pretty steep and was 12 to 15 wooden steps. We were told constantly not to run on the stairs as too many people could be hurt if one happened to fall.
The Intermediate School occupied the west end of a city block. The Elementary School (Grades K, 1st, and 2nd) occupied the east end of the block. For some strange reason, there were three residential homes on the south side of the block. Two of them faced Columbia Street, and the third one was on the southwest corner facing State Street and Columbia. One of these homes, a 2 story, was owned by Mrs. Ana Wright, the mother of my great aunt, Rachel (Wright) Peebler. I always called Ana Wright “Grandma Wright.”
The principal of our school was Mr. Wilson. I knew Mr. Wilson pretty well as he roomed with Grandma Wright. To get to work, all he had to do was go out the back door, take a dozen steps and he was in the school yard.
On the day of our story, I made the dumb mistake of running up the stairs when returning from recess. Mr. Wilson was standing at the top of the stairs and stopped me and pulled me aside. He told me that when school was out to come straight to his office. I worried about that for the rest of the day. Foolishly, I hoped that since I knew Mr. Wilson so well that I wouldn’t be punished.
Now, we are getting to the point of the story where you may not agree with me. When I and 5 other “hoodlums” got to the office, we were told to line up single file. Mr. Wilson was sitting in a chair and holding a razor strop. For those of you not familiar with it, a razor strop was a piece of leather used to sharpen the old straight razors. It was approximately 4 inches wide, 18 inches long, and ¼ inch thick with one end trimmed to serve as a handle. Mr. Wilson informed us that our infractions had earned us a swat with the strop. We were to come to him one at a time and bend over, and he would issue the punishment. I marched up to him, bent over, and took my lickin’. The swat hurt for a few seconds. Then the pain went away, but the memory didn’t. I’ve always been a guy that followed the rules. Knowing that my parents would be disappointed and being disappointed in myself was humiliating. We didn’t have time-outs back then. I contend that a swat on the butt is just what a rambunctious boy needs. I don’t think that a time-out would be remembered, but the swat has been burned into memory.
Dave Thomas
2/13/2025
The news programs last week were telling about the painting of Mona Lisa by Da Vince being moved to a new location in the Louvre. The new location would make it possible for more people to see her and would also offer more protection from deterioration. We were fortunate to get to see her in the year 2000. Pat and I had planned a trip to Paris and London, and our grandson, Jeff, had just graduated from high school, so we took him along as a graduation present. The picture is interesting, and I am glad to have seen it.
Thinking of museums and art reminds me of two other former works that I was lucky enough to see. In June of 1944, when I was seven years old, we were on a vacation in Los Angeles. My granddad lived in L.A. and had gone back to Kansas to visit his Dad, his siblings, and us. When he returned home, he stopped in Augusta and picked us up. My dad, mom, and sister, Sylvia, and I were going to L.A. for a vacation. When we got there, Grandpa took us all over the city to see the sights. One day, we went a few miles to the city of San Marino to the Huntington Art Gallery. Besides the art, the garden behind it was also a famous attraction. Kids under 12 weren’t allowed in the gallery, so Sylvia and I were told to look around the garden while the grownups went inside. After a short time, Mom came out and took us into the gallery. There was no admission charge, but a uniformed guard stopped us and told us we were too young. Mom said she realized that, but she couldn’t bear the idea of us missing a chance to see “Blue Boy” and “Pinkie.” After a little back and forth talk, the guard told mom we could only go for a quick peek. “Blue Boy,” painted in 1794 by Thomas Gainsborough, was the first we came to and I remember his blue clothing being very blue and very well done. We had to go around a corner to see “Pinkie” which was painted in 1770 by Thomas Lawrence.
We have visited many galleries and seen many beautiful paintings. I feel most comfortable with pictures of the southwest. The people, the desert, and the mountains all give a good feeling.
Dave Thomas
2/6/2025
National Emergency
-We have a national emergency at our southern border. We are being overrun by people looking for jobs and a safe place to raise their kids.
-Here’s a question for those of you who could have voted but didn’t bother. What the hell is wrong with you???
Dave Thomas
1/30/2025
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