What I Heard This Week! 08-08-2019
A man was posing next to a towering hill of soap suds floating on top of a heavily polluted stream in Mexico. He had asked a co-worker to take a picture of him standing next to the suds, when he fell into the trembling, shaking, foaming mess. It took them five days to find his body which was 30 miles from where he fell in. The stream carries excess detergents from homes, household waste, discharges from textile plants and factories as well as open sewers and drains. The problem is so bad that at times, the river turns blue because of discharges of wastewater from blue jean factories. I thought that we were supposed to leave this world better than we found it.
The Mystery Boat in Freeport is a landmark that everyone has seen. It’s right next to Antonelli’s RootBeer Stand. The city has now budgeted $30,000 for the first phase of renovation of the boat after removing more than a dumpster full of trash from the interior. The first phase will be the roof and better drainage, so it doesn’t hold water and continue to have wood rot. The second phase will be replacing the boat’s mast and outriggers. What a great piece of history to save.
Ex-football coach, David Temple got a 2nd chance to prove to a jury that he didn’t kill his pregnant wife in 1999. He was first convicted in 2007 and sentenced to life in prison, serving almost 10 years before that verdict was reversed. At the time of the murder, he was in the middle of a secret relationship with a coworker, who is now his soon-to-beex-wife.Hmmm. This week he was found guilty (unanimous) in the murder retrial and can now face a range of punishment from probation to up to life in prison again.
Willie Nelson is performing at Smart Financial CentreinSugar Land on November 18. You know you like him, so how many more chances do you think you’re going to get? He is 86 years old. Tickets go on sale this Friday.
Anne-Elisabeth and I took all three cats to the vet at the same time on the same day. I wasn’t aware that cats lose massive amounts of fur during stress periods. We were covered in cat fur; it was in my mouth; drifting, floating through the air around us. Then I got the bill and didn’t realize until that moment that cat-moms can stress-sweat. Hah. I’m still surprised that they didn’t make us pay a clean-up fee. We arrived home and did the old poop-scooping test for worms. That was new – they had always done that at the vet. This allows you to sneak around for days hoping the right cat will poop and you can get it in the little jar before it gets too much litter on it. This is super hard, especially when the cats are looking at you with that old, “could I have a bit of privacy PLEASE” in their eyes. All three are doing well, and we don’t have to go back for a year. For whatever reason, Winnie now thinks that she can relax on the piano anytime she wants (close your eyes and picture Michelle Pfeiffer in The Fabulous Baker Boys, singing Makin’ Whoopee). Sully continues to chew through the wood on my cabinet doors and moldings plus she can jump the 8-foot brick fence in an instant, and Oliver (the one that was dumped in front of my office at Christmas after being stuck in the engine of a suburban all the way from Wild Peach) is still the greatest gift anyone could receive. He’s perfect. Yes. I’m a cat-mom and I love it. If there is a 12-step program, I don’t want to hear about it.
“I wish I could stand on a busy corner, hat in hand, and beg people to throw me all their wasted hours.”Bernard Berenson
Don’t forget that it’s the Texas Sales Tax Holiday Weekend, August 9-11. I would have printed this list in this column but it’s huge…Texas law exempts the following items, with a few exceptions, from sales and use taxes, if priced below$100: clothing, footwear, school supplies, backpacks, diapers (for babies and adults). Get the full list at TexasTaxHoliday.org.
RECENT BIRTHDAYS: Singer actress Madonna is 61. Actress Jennifer Lawrence is 29. Former President Barack Obama is 58. Britain’s Duchess of Sussex Meghan Markle is 38. Actress Joanna Cassidy is 74. Actress Mary-Louise Parker is 55. Today Show meteorologist Dylan Dreyer is 38. Rock singer Joe Elliott is 60. Def Leppard. Singer Ramblin’ Jack Elliott is 88. Actress Susan Flannery is 80. The Bold and the Beautiful and Days of Our Lives. Actress Geraldine Chaplin is 75. Former movie studio executive Sherry Lansing is 75.
Russi Taylor, the longtime voice of Minnie Mouse, died of colon cancer at the age of 75.
Toni Morrison, Nobel laureate and author of such books as The Bluest Eye, The Song of Solomon and Beloved, died at the age of 88. This is a quote from her on becoming a mother: “There was something so valuable about what happened when one became a mother. For me, it was the most liberating thing that ever happened to me. Liberating because the demands that children make are not the demands of a normal ‘other.’ The children’s demands on me were things that nobody ever asked me to do. To be a good manager. To have a sense of humor. To deliver something that somebody could use. And they were not interested in all the things that other people were interested in, like what I was wearing or if I were sensual. Somehow all of the baggage that I had accumulated as a person about what was valuable just fell away. I could not only be me – whatever that was – but somebody actually needed me to be that. If you listen to [your children], somehow you are able to free yourself from baggage and vanity and all sorts of things and deliver a better self, one that you like. The person that was in me that I liked best was the one my children seemed to want.” Hmmm. I like it.Bottom of Form
“El Paso will never be the same, because a racist came to our city to try and make a point. It didn’t work though, because the backlash of this community, as we hold national, state, and local politicians accountable, will be the only point that will be made.” El Paso County Sheriff Richard Wiles
Pray for the people of El Paso and Dayton.The El Paso shooting is ‘currently’ the seventh-deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history. How do you treat people? We need to be kind to the person in front of us and kind to the person behind us. We need to be nice. We need to be gracious. We need to have compassion. We need to treat others the way that we want to be treated. We can start today to fix what is broken in our society, but it can only start with us.
11-year-old Ruben Martinez of El Paso, wants to honor the victims of the city’s mass shooting. His school administrator counseled him on how to cope with his feelings, “I told him, why don’t you think of something you can do to make people feel better?” Ruben is now challenging people to commit 22 Random Acts of Kindness. One for every person that was killed. Perhaps we all need to practice this. #elpasoCHALLENGE
Brazoswood High School – looking for prom dresses, shoes or jewelry for their Promising Prom. Please bring by the front office at 9th grade campus or main campus on August 9th. Here’s your chance…first random act of kindness.
Downton Abbey movie…September 20th. Mark your calendar. The trailer is great!
This may not make a difference to you, but Anne-Elisabeth and I were at Central Market this past weekend. Aug. 7-20th is Hatch Chili Pepper time!! Fresh roasted Hatch peppers, salsa, breads, chips, cookies, more. 110 tons of Hatch Chile peppers fresh from Hatch, NM. There are so many ways you can use them…Texas Caviar, Chile Relleno, Hatch pineapple coleslaw, mac & cheese, meatloaf. See HEB.
Several years ago, a local group of women formed a Women’s Giving Circle, called Women Building Community. The idea was for this group of women to each donate $5000, then invest it and allow a portion of the funds to be distributed each year in supporting charities and non-profits that provide help to women and children in our community. By pooling contributions, you always make a much greater impact. The first year we were able to give back $3000. Fast forward and this year we were able to give $17,000 at our 16th annual ‘Garden Party’ luncheon, sponsored by one of our corporate members, BASF. The recipients this year were Brazoria County Alliance for Children, Brazosport CaresInc., Gathering Place Interfaith Ministries, Life Skills House and Refuge for Women. It feels so good to be a part of this group. If you would like to become a member of something that will outlast us all, contact Barbara Franklin at The Community Foundation. There are now other levels and categories of giving including Friends (any amount of giving) and Corporate.979-848-2628 or cfbr.org/grants
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”Margaret Mead
You saw the baby bottles around town. The Pregnancy Help Center raised over $70,000 with this fundraiser. Next year when you see one of their baby bottles, throw some of your change in. Every little bit helps.
“Autumn will come whether or not you enjoyed summer.” – Terri Guillemets
As I got back to my car at the post office this morning, there was a young woman next to me getting a child out of the car seat, so I placed my vehicle in park and waited for her to finish before I pulled out of my parking spot. During this very short moment, I thought about all the visits to the post office when my kids were little. It always seemed like such a struggle to get them in &out of the car for such short visits, no matter where we were going, but they loved visiting the post office, especially Gage. He was fascinated with the holes in the floor where the folding metal curtain went. He never could figure out why the bad people had their pictures on the wall. He loved the mailboxes and our mailbox key. He loved Miss Dawn, Miss Freda, and Mr. Joe…both of my children just loved their friends at the post office and their friends at the post office just loved them. Sweet Joe Marshall passed away, but Dawn and Freda still ask about my kids every single time I’m there. So, as this young mother retrieved her toddler, I got out of my car, approached her and told her very briefly what I just told you, adding that I had always tried to treat every excursion as a field trip because to my little guys, every moment was an adventure – it’s just so hard for us as adults to enjoy those moments when we are right smack in the big middle of all the work…but as an adult now…it’s so easy to look back and see joy in every tiny, little bitty, mundane thing we did. Every day should be a field trip.My eyes leaked.
“How did it get so late so soon? It’s night before it’s afternoon. December is here before it’s June. My goodness how the time had flewn. How did it get so late so soon?”Dr. Seuss
Jean Ciampi writes a column for this newspaper, Much Ado About Nothing. If you’ve never read it, please do so today. Jean writes what the rest of us are thinking but we just don’t have the gift that allows us to express our feelings the way she does.
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A Sign of our Times: A motorcycle backfired in the middle of NY Times Square which tourists and New Yorkers thought were gunshots. Video shows widespread panic as people ran in all directions…screaming, climbing over each other, banging on the doors of theaters still in performance as they searched for safety. At least on pedestrian was injured while running. Makes you really think about the real thing.
