We’re down in the Bahamas, at the Pisciottas’ sumptuous home in the Shoreline development outside Freeport. It is a fantastic, relaxing place where we always enjoy ourselves. So far, we’ve managed to eat some good Caribbean food, drink beer at several oceanside bars, and crash a party thrown by some of the many Brit residents [...]
Archive for December, 2009
Vacation Time: The View From The Deck
Posted in Travel, World, tagged Bahamas, Freeport, Travel, vacation, Vacation Time on December 31, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Bailout Fatigue
Posted in America, Politics, The Economy, tagged America, bailouts, economy, GMAC, Politics on December 31, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
The government will be distributing another $3.8 billion to GMAC, the former GM subsidiary that makes car loans and home loans, but mostly, bad loans. Although the U.S. government already has given GMAC $12.5 billion in an attempt to shore up its balance sheet, the company is still experiencing massive losses. This latest cash infusion [...]
The U-Trou Bomber (Cont.)
Posted in America, Travel, World, tagged air travel, Airport security, America, Department of Homeland Security, terrorism, Transportation Safety Administration, Travel, World on December 31, 2009 | 1 Comment »
Time has published a pretty good wrap-up of the various failings of security that allowed the U-Trou Bomber, Umar Abdulmutallab, to board the flight from Amersterdam to Detroit with enough high explosive to bring down a loaded airplane sewn into his underwear — notwithstanding the warnings from his father and the other circumstances that should [...]
The Passing Lane
Posted in America, tagged America, Automobile accidents, Commuting, Driving, Safe driving, Slow drivers on December 30, 2009 | 1 Comment »
Commuting presents a daily set of challenges and frustrations. There are the timid souls who don’t understand that the proper way to merge onto a highway is to accelerate into the traffic flow, rather than creeping up to the merge point, hoping that the traffic on the highway will make way and then braking suddenly [...]
The U-Trou Bomber (Cont.)
Posted in America, Travel, World, tagged air travel, Airport security, America, Department of Homeland Security, terrorism, Transportation Safety Administration, Travel, World on December 28, 2009 | 1 Comment »
The continuing story about the failed effort by the U-Trou Bomber, Umar Abdulmutallab, to blow up a Northwest Airlines flight from Amsterdam to Detroit will be interesting to follow in the next few days. It is pretty clear that it was mostly due to luck and faulty detonation that we avoided another deadly terrorist attack [...]
PenPal’s Return
Posted in Dogs, Family, Penny on December 28, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Yesterday Kish picked up Penny from the breeder’s home, where Penny — or PenPal, as we call her — had her second litter of puppies. She had four healthy pups this time, and she looks like a female dog who recently was nurturing her offspring. Still, she is a bit thinner than when she left, [...]
Hanging With The Browns Backers
Posted in sports, tagged Browns Backers, Cleveland Browns, sports, Westerville Browns Backers on December 27, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
UJ has invited me to join him and the Westerville Browns Backers at Jimmy V’s in Westerville for prior Browns’ games, and today Russell and I took him up on the invitation. The Browns Backers is a world-wide organization of Browns fans. If you find yourself in a strange city on Sunday and want to [...]
The U-Trou Bomber
Posted in America, Travel, World, tagged air travel, Airport security, America, Department of Homeland Security, terrorism, Transportation Security Administration, Travel, World on December 27, 2009 | 1 Comment »
The recent story about the failed attempt to blow up a Northwest Airlines flight from Amsterdam to Detroit can’t help but send a collective shudder through the minds of holiday travelers. The would-be terrorist, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, tried to detonate some high explosives strapped to his leg. Fortunately, his device failed, and our country was [...]
Happy Boxing Day!
Posted in World, tagged Boxing Day, Holidays, World on December 26, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
I think every calendar I’ve ever owned has identified December 26 as “Boxing Day.” We don’t celebrate it — whatever it is — here in the States, but the name of the holiday certainly is evocative. The internet, of course, lets the us learn about these curiosities with a few taps of the keyboard. It [...]
A Hot Topic (Cont.)
Posted in America, Environment, Science, weather, World, tagged America, climate change, Climatic Research Unit, Environment, global warming, Science, weather, World on December 26, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
One great thing about the holidays is seeing your children and nieces and nephews, fresh from their college campuses, and learning what is on their minds. We were up in Vermilion to visit with the “Kishman cousins” on Christmas Eve, and I had a chance to chat with our godson Andrew, who is a junior [...]
A Webner Family Christmas
Posted in Family, Growing Up, tagged 1960s Christmas, Akron, Christmas, Christmas Traditions, Family, Growing Up, Ohio, Santa Claus on December 25, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Christmas at 2320 North Short Hills Drive in Bath, Ohio in the 1960s was a magical time. It was a focus of the year for the five growing children in the Webner clan and lives on, rich and funny and idyllic, in my memory. The Webner Family Christmas was steeped in traditions that heightened the [...]
The Nebraska Compromise (Cont.)
Posted in America, Healthcare Reform, Politics, tagged America, Health Care Reform, Healthcare Reform, Nebraska, Politics, Senator Ben Nelson, Senator Harry Reid, United States Senate on December 23, 2009 | 2 Comments »
A lot of people apparently are as appalled by the unseemly vote-buying in the Senate as I am. Here’s another take on the shenanigans surrounding the vote of Nebraska Senator Ben Nelson on the “health care reform” legislation. For me, the reaction of certain Senators to the outrage many of us feel is just adding [...]
