Herkimer, New York

Family trips are often the high points of childhood memories, often increasing in their exoticism and sheer pleasure as viewed from the distant past. So it was with the family vacation of 1958. I was six years old and my father had just bought a beautiful 1958 Ford Fairlane and the family was embarking on a summer trip to Canada. We were headed for Nova Scotia, where there was a road the supposedly went uphill and downhill at the same time. We got as far as Herkimer, New York when my brother remarked to my father that the engine was making a funny noise.

My father said, "Just ignore it, turn up the radio!". Soon, passing a gas station, my father reluctantly turned in to get second opinion on the car.

Being only six, my memory resurfaces the next week where the family stayed at the Hotel Herkimer. Every day we walked through the park and every day my father came back from the garage with bad news. Apparently the family trip to Canada had met with a permanent dead end in Herkimer. The mechanics thanked my family for the watermelon we had left in the car. It must have tasted good that hot August day.

My brother and me were playing at the one pinball machine in the hotel when a man came out and said, "Hey kids, would you like to see a radio station?"

"Sure," my brother said. We walked around the station and the disc jockey, he looked like a spaceman with those huge headphones waved at us. Then the gentleman who gave us the tour gave us a gift of records. I still have the Conny Francis record in my collection.

Finally my father, exasperated by the fate of the car, sent me, my mother and brother to the train station where we took the train back to Hackensack, presumably through New York.

It was my first trip on a train.

The car was finally repaired, but it was a source of constant expense and aggravation during it's lifetime with the family. It was replaced in 1966 with a Ford Falcon, a much better automobile.

The family never made it to Nova Scotia. Thanks to college radio, I got to sit with headphones and wave to people while doing my air shift. The glamorous world of radio.

Anarchists

Just when you think we can't possibly have one more thing to worry about, we find out that anarchists are sending bombs in Italy.

Tin tin deo

Last week, James Moody died. I first heard him when I was in college when I bought a copy of Blue Note Records Three Decades of Jazz, 1939-1949. The last cut on side four was "Tin tin deo". I played it for some of my college friends who, like me, knew very little about jazz beyond maybe Louis Armstrong. Yes we knew all about Jethro Tull and King Crimson and Pink Floyd, but jazz was new to us.

Years later, when I was working in Denver, we had a shared radio on the floor and the radio frequently played King Pleasure's warbling of Moody's Mood for Love.

Turns out he had a long career and recorded and performed widely. And what ever happened with the court of the crimson king.

The cure for cancer

After billions of dollars of research, they finally have discovered the cure for cancer. Aspirin. People taking aspirin for headaches will live longer. But they'll still have headaches.

Christmas leave

Assembly No. 1225

State of New Jersey

214th Legislature

Sponsored by:

Assemblyman John Christmas

Assemblywoman Susan L. Homaker

Synopsis:

Provides fifteen days paid leave in the month of December for women who wish to maintain family Christmas traditions. This includes needlework, baking, wreath making, the sending of Christmas communications, the purchase of Christmas gifts, candle making, and other tasks as assigned by the families of said women. Many traditions in New Jersey are being forgotten and this act is intended to rectify this situation.

An act:

Resolved that women need special legislation in order to maintain family Christmas traditions. This act will give fifteen days paid leave to all full time employees in the State of New Jersey to fulfill these traditions. A log must be maintained and photographs available to verify the activities performed. Photographs of outdoor Christmas displays must be available in computer readable format. Indoor candles must be photographed. Photographs and samples of Christmas cookies, pastries, baked geese and other holiday meats and fish must be maintained. Receipts of Christmas related shopping must be made available. This documentation, called a "yule log", will be submitted along with the New Jersey state income tax form the following year.

Egg nog must be prepared from scratch in order for a woman to be eligible for this paid leave. Christmas trees must be natural chopped down trees for houses over 4,000 square feet. Genuine stringed popcorn must decorate these trees. Decorations for all trees, artificial and natural, will consist of a ratio at or higher than 25% for ornaments hand crafted in the United States. Other regulations to be promulgated by the appropriate state agencies.

Editor's note: The turkey is now leftover sandwiches and we are now in the Christmas season. The egg lobby had a lot to do with the egg nog ruling.

Audrey Tattou

Thanks to Netflix, I've discovered Audrey Tattou. Yes we remember her from the DaVinci code, but I'm thinking of the string of French language comedies featuring the jolle fille. So far I've seen three movies with her, Amelie, Priceless, and He loves me he loves me not. All three movies are off-beat (very off-beat) romantic comedies/bedroom farces with lots of fast cutting. I'm sure there are more. So now you know what dvd's you can give me for Christmas.

Mortgage interest deduction

The new Commission on eliminating the Public Debt recommends ending the deduction for home mortgages. The mortgage deduction is as much a part of America as apple pies and penalties for unnecessary roughness in football games. It is part of our culture and our heritage.