Midweek Thoughts

Well, PBS spent 90 minutes Monday giving us Joseph Goebbels. No strange PBS political views of JG, but nothing but a lot of interesting old film of him, and the voice of Kenneth Branaugh reading excerpts from Geobbels' diaries. Actually not much point as to what the whole show was supposed to be about. Some screen crawls telling the viewer to go to some PBS websites to read what some historians think of Goebbels. Avoid academic historians like the bird flu plague. For all the money PBS gets, they bought a film as unreliable as any thing on the History Channel or any thing on BookTV.

There is a scandal going on in Iowa right now which has become the state entertainment of the summer. Somewhat complicated, but it involves the honchos of a state job-finding agency, who were getting huge salaries. It involves a lady with a GED degree, who took her salary to buy a house boat and entertain her fellow board member boyfriend, and there is a long-time city politico who lots of people have grudges against, and a board member who spent some time in prison for child molestation, and some county officials who were involved in the scandal somehow, and the whole matter gets stranger and stranger as the days go by. The Public can find at least one or more pieces of this matter to be Shocked about, even if you do not understand all of it. Like Watergate, honest people keep being found who got corrupted by something in the scandal.

It is hot and humid in the heartland this afternoon after rain and a lightening storm last night. I wanted a hot summer after a cold spring, and it seems to be getting here, so I am complaining
about how Hot it is. Some people will whine about anything.

Bob Dylan, Tommy Chong, and Priscilla Pressley all have birthdays, in different ages in their 60s.

Around this time of May in 1969 I travelled home on leave from Ft. Lee, going from Petersburg Va. to Omaha on the Northfolk and Western Railroad. Had never been on a trainride before. Meaningless fact to most readers, but the train was one of the last passenger trains in business before Amtrack came in. Very interesting ride with some interesting people I met, but was very slow. Wonder if the old steam trains felt as slow to the people who rode them.

(May 25) Tried to watch American Idol last night but could not get through it to the end. None of the singers who could sing at all did anything to me and I will probably barely follow their stints as celebrities instead of singers. Could make long lists of singers who crashed and burned quickly in opera, country, and pop music who were good but not good enough to sustain a career. Sad, but it happens.

Don't have a lot more to send into siberspace tonight. Lots of world news to absorb, and not much memorable at work today to record for human history. Yes, I know: one should always be alive and alert and ready to grasp the universal uniqueness of every little event that occurs in one's life, but I am not Proust yet, though someday I may try to record the ultimate meanings of pumping gas and buying some bread and soup, and driving in Des Moines in the afternoon traffic. Till then, this will be all for right now. Di di mau!