Pizza tracker

 

In these stressful times, it has come to my attention, thanks to You Tube, that a scientific method has been discovered to trace when a major unannounced military event is about to take place. That is by using the pizza tracker,  Using modern cell phone technology, we can now trace when pizza parlors in the vicinity of the Pentagon have unusual cell phone usage at unusual times. The theory that staff in the Pentagon that normally go home at 5 are suddenly buying pizzas in the evening means that employees are planning late nights or perhaps all night sessions at the Pentagon. The reason that staff is being fed pizza at night is that they are needed for emergency tasks in house when they normally would be home. 

Perhaps in Pikud Merkaz in Israel, there is the felafel tracker that notes when unusual amounts of falafel are being purchased by Israel defense employees. You learn so much on YouTube. 

Happy Birthday Wavy Gravy

Wavy Gravy was one of the great counter culture heroes of the sixties. He fed the hungry at Woodstock and ran the Hog Farm commune in California. I first discovered him one Saturday when I told my parents I was going to marching band for a football game. Instead of going to the game I took a bus to New York then a subway to the Village. I walked around Washington Square Park then walked on East 8th Street and went to a book store. There I bought Demian by Hermann Hesse and a copy of the Realist. In the Realist I read a long article by Hugh Romney about the Hog Farm. 

Here are links to the  article on the Hog Farm 2nd page of article, third page of article, last page of article,

Truthfully, I did not move to the Hog Farm. Instead I went to Rutgers College and Library School. I never even went to Woodstock. 

America pre and post I Want to Hold Your Hand

 

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I have a theory that the modern age in America began when the Beatles made their first appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show. I have listed some of the sociological and legal phenomena before their appearance on CBS in February 1964.

America before I Want to Hold Your Hand;

Children respected the opinions of their parents.

Parents controlled the living room television.

Young people were well groomed. No beards outside of Greenwich Village.

Black people kept to their own neighborhoods or lived in the South.

Mexicans lived in Mexico except when they were needed to pick crops.

Women took care of the children but did not have to work outside the home.

Gays were forbidden from teaching in schools.

No Black History Month.

No Women's History Month.

No Cinco de Mayo in the United States.

No such thing as trans rights. 

Gasoline, coffee and eggs were cheap.

Secretaries made coffee for the men in the office.

Now with our new administration we are going back to those years before the Beatles appeared on the Ed Sullivan show. Everything that happened after that time will be gone, forgotten. We'll go back to the halcyon days prior to 1964. Men will have to start wearing ties again. Women will have to start wearing skirts again. The one exception is that women will   have to take care of the children except now they will still have to work outside of the home. 

But honey, I haven't been to a demonstration in years

 

I have many memories of demonstrations in my distant past. Visiting my brother, I even walked two blocks through Boston with an antiwar demonstration. I can remember chanting "Ho Ho Ho Chi Minh NLF is gunna win". Yet at reaching retirement I felt I could avoid such things and concentrate on streaming tv and going to nice restaurants. However it took a little prodding, but I have now gone to two of these this month. In the role of first person reporting, I am going to give my synopsis of the two events. 

The first one I went to was the Hands Off demonstration in Monroe Township New Jersey. It was held on the street intersection of a mall. You parked at the mall and stood on the street with a hand  made sign. We were told to keep out of the street. You felt a little penned in, since you were on a narrow sidewalk facing a steep looking incline on the side away from the street. People were friendly. A lady with a bull horn led the chants. The chants were actually similar at the Trenton rally. Nothing as scandalous as the "NLF is gonna win" chant from the sixties. Lots of cell phones taking pictures. Glad I am beyond my job seeking years. You never know. 

 

On Holy Saturday I went to the rally at the State House. I am a veteran of such rallies from when the CWA led them when state workers contracts were due. This was organized by 50501  This event was more like a rally. Speakers. Chants. Port a Potty's. NJ employee parking was made available. 

Most of the first hour consisted of chants. I'm getting tired of the chants. Perhaps a few Pete Seeger type songs instead. I suspect most of the participants are veterans of 60s - 70s student demonstrations. The speakers mentioned the need for more young people at these things. My friend and I rewarded ourselves with beer and sandwiches after the events.  Coopers does have a nice view of the Delaware River. 

Good Friday

 

On Good Friday, devout Catholics go to the Stations of the Cross in their local church. There, the priest stands in front of each of the the stations and leads the prayers while the faithful, armed with rosaries, recite the Lord's Prayer and the Hail Mary. 

Afterwards the participants go home to a fish dinner. Of course there is bacala. A new type of fish  dinner for Americans is poke. Poke is a Hawaiian salad made with marinated raw fish and Chinese rice, vegetables and seasonings. It is not bad and is starting to turn up in the shopping malls of New Jersey. 

Of course, during my extended youth, I can remember celebrating Good Friday at a go go bar with friends. Youth. 

Dial a Demonstration

Back in the late sixties and early seventies, if you lived in the New York area, you could wake up in the morning and decide which demonstration you wanted to attend on that day. You could help the environment, fight the war, support women's rights or other topics simply by picking up your phone and calling Dial a Demonstration. Then you would get information on upcoming demonstrations in the area. I guess today's equivalent is finding your local chapter of Indivisible, possibly on Facebook. 

Editor's note: I could not find any links to Dial a Demonstration, with the exception of an earlier Mustache blog, on Google. Such a mainstay of life of that era appears to have been forgotten. 

 

Are they on pot, alcohol or sober?

 

It's been a while since I talked about You Tube, although I still watch it, even with things like Netflix. Hulu and Passport at my disposal. I especially like the small viewership travel or opinion shows that feature regular people. Recently I was watching a couple of travel and living abroad videos. I started to say to myself, "Drunk, high or sober". One lady was slurring her words a bit so I originally thought that she had had a few. Later, as her commentary became dreamier and she started staring into space I said to myself, "no, cannabis." 

I've also noticed from a Scottish travel expert who loves trains and ferries has been known to nip a few on camera and I suspect, during setup. I suspect that in a lot of travel videos the wife is either high or has been drinking. Perhaps a gummy after Guatemalan tacos?  So who knows, this may start an Internet trend as viewers comb the web to play.