Thoughts For The Day From Papa ‘a

Good Morning All!

Well, it’s off to The Tana House for a few days!  There’s nothing quite like the “Big Sky” of Montana!

Happy Birthday to my friend and family member, Sheryl, who celebrates her birthday tomorrow, June 28th.  Here’s to you, Sheryl…a bright light and one of the most thoughtful people in the Universe!  And Happy Birthday to my high school classmate, Bill, who was our Cheer King at Olympia High School in 1973!  Here’s to you, Bill!  Have fun on your special day of celebration!

We enjoyed time with our grandson, Joshua (Josh) these past few days.  Here’s a culinary tip from our travels with Josh…check out the relatively new “Incrediburger + Eggs” in downtown Spokane, next to the Ruby Hotel and in the former “Dempsey’s Rail.”  They have a terrific selection of hamburgers of all types.  I tried their “Pure Gold” which featured white cheddar cheese and a chianti wine jam…ummm…good!  Judy had the “Steelhead”, a delicious fish sandwich and Josh had the “Classic” burger.  All of them were fantastic!  Great service and great hospitality there!  Spokane has experienced a culinary renaissance of late…lots of great restaurants with lots of variety of menus to choose from.  It’s great to see!

I was driving along Spokane streets the other day and came upon a truck from Evergreen Sprinklers with the following sign affixed to its truck bed…”Life is too short to drag a hose.”  So true…

One of my fellow board members of PEG (People For Effective Government), mentioned the existence of a new political party movement called the “Modern Whig Party”.  I was intrigued by this information, so I decided to get on the internet and find out more about it.  Here’s an excerpt about it I found in Wikipedia:

The Modern Whig Party is a political party in the United States founded in 2007.  The party describes itself as a mainstream, middle-of-the-road grassroots movement representing voters who do not strictly accept Republican nor Democratic positions.  The party’s general platform supports fiscal responsibility, strong national defense, and integrity and pragmatism in government.  In my search for a political party I could support, the “Modern Whig Party” sounds like a pretty good fit for me.  We desperately need a different political party to emerge soon as an alternative to the Republican and Democratic parties…both of which have failed the American people in different ways.  As the old saying goes, “things have to get worse before they get better” and that may be the case for our beloved country before a majority of Americans settle on a better way forward.

Speaking of a better way forward, please check out People For Effective Government (PEG).  You can find out more information about this movement by going to pegnow.org.  PEG will be holding more Public Forums this Autumn.  Check out the website for information about Public Forum dates and times.

While generally speaking, I not enamored with most of the current Democratic candidates for President, I did appreciate New York Mayor Bill DeBlasio’s position on war powers during last night’s Democratic Presidential debate.  He made the point that many of our wars have been initiated by Presidents without the proper approval of Congress.  In many of these cases, much of our national treasure has been needlessly wasted by a less than thoughtful approach to committing our service men & women to “harm’s way.”  There are many examples of this in U.S. History…The Mexican War, The Spanish-American War, Vietnam, Iraq…I hope there’s more discussion about this issue, as we need to learn from past mistakes and ensure that current & future Presidents can’t initiate participation in war without the expressed approval of the U.S. Congress.

 

Here is some more from my recent World War II-related trip with my friend Harold Voltz:

May 26, 2019

We were taken to the Munich airport by Tomas, our tour bus driver, and Charlie, our “Beyond Band Of Brothers” tour guide and arrived around 10:00 a.m..  Charlie instructed us to go to Terminal 1, Section/Gate A for our Iceland Air trip home, but we couldn’t seem to find the right place, zigzagging back & forth from Gate to Gate, asking directions as we went along.  Lo and behold, an airport employee named Mamet, a Turkish fellow, got us to where we needed to be.  Otherwise, we might still be wandering aimlessly around the Munich airport!  The trick was to travel underground within the terminal…little did we know!  Plus, there is only one spot in the terminal for the Iceland Air counter and you can easily miss it if you’re not careful!  There was next to no signage for Iceland Air at their Gate and we passed by it one time before Mamet was able to guide us to it on our third time around!  At least, that’s our story, and we’re sticking with it!

 

We tried out a Greek restaurant in Munich not far from our hotel on the last night of our stay at my friend Harold’s suggestion and it was pretty good.  Lots and lots of garlic and live entertainment to boot.  We couldn’t seem to get the waiter’s attention to bring us the bill.  He seemed to be waiting on all of the tables in the restaurant!  The owner took pity on us and gave us a round of ouzo (licorice flavored liquor).  I had a salmon dish that was quite good.  I ordered red wine, but Greek wine is a bit too sweet for my taste buds!  We had good conversation amongst our tour companions from Chicago, California and Seattle and then headed back to our room for the night.

What a trip this was for Harold and me!  I could tell that Harold was enjoying every minute of following in his father’s footsteps from Arlon to Bastogne and visiting many of the places where his father and his fellow soldiers traveled in France, Belgium and Germany during the war.  For me, while this particular trip had never been on my bucket list, I loved every minute of it, particularly the time we spent at the farm house cottage in rural Belgium, the city of Arlon, the city of Bastogne and the War Museum there, the marvelous village of Houffelize in Belgium, our visit to the American Cemetery at Normandy, the city of Caen, our travels around Normandy (St. Mary Egliese, St. Marie-du-Mont) and last, but certainly not least (in fact the very best), our time with our personal guide and friend Roland LeBon prior to joining up with the “Beyond Band Of Brothers” tour.  It was a “trip of a lifetime,” for sure.

If you ever decide to make a similar trip, be sure to check out ToursByLocals and seek out Roland LeBon.  You’ll be really glad you did!  What a phenomenal experience with Roland!  You’ll also want to check out the “Beyond Band Of Brothers” tour options at www.beyondbandofbrothers.com and/or via e-mail at info@procomtours.com.  Be sure and ask for Charlie Koves to be your tour guide.

Here’s to all the men and women who served in Europe in some way or another during World War II.  We owe all of you a huge debt of gratitude for your service there…”all gave some, some gave all” in defense of freedom on the beaches of Normandy, in the forests & fields of the Ardennes and so many other villages & fields all across France, Belgium and Germany.  “Let us never forget”…

 

Here is the silly question for the day:

Q:  What do you call a cow standing in tall grass?

A:  Udderly tickled.

 

Here is the fact for the day:

Pepsi was named after the digestive enzyme pepsin.

 

Here are some thoughts for the day:

“Language is a mixture of statement and evocation.”

—Elizabeth Bowen, Irish novelist

 

“A writer should get as much education as possible, but just going to school is not enough; if it were, all owners of doctorates would be inspired writers.”

—Gwendolyn Brooks, American poet (1917-2000)

 

“Our romance won’t end on a sorrowful note, though by tomorrow you’re gone.

The song is ended, but as the songwriter wrote,

The melody lingers on.

They may take you from me, I’ll miss your fond caress,

But though they take you from, I’ll still possess…

The way you wear your hat,

The way you sip your tea

The memory of all that…

No, no, they can’t take that away from me.

We may never, never meet again,

On the bumpy road to love

Still, I’ll always, always keep the memory of…

The way you hold your knife,

The way we danced till three,

The you changed my life…

No, no, they can’t take that away from me…

No, they can’t take that away from me.”

—Cole Porter & Ira Gershwin, “They Can’t Take That Away From Me”

 

“Looking for God—or Heaven—by exploring space is like reading or seeing all Shakespeare’s plays in the hope that you will find Shakespeare as one of the characters or Stratford as one of the places.  Shakespeare is in one sense present at every moment in every play.

—C.S. Lewis, “The Seeing Eye” in “Christian Reflections”, as quoted in “C.S. Lewis’ Little Book of Wisdom” (2018)

 

Here’s to a great Friday and lots of love always!

Press on,

Papa ‘a (Dad, Uncle Mark, etc.)