Great Health in Marshall

This afternoon Nancy and I had back-to-back doctor appointments. The purpose of the appointments were to develop a relationship with a Marshall doctor and subject ourselves to a preliminary physical.

As we walked toward our doctor's office we past another doctor's office. Must have been 20 people in the waiting room. First thought to come to mind was, "Why can't a doctor ever keep an appointment?"

We enter our doctor's office. Only one other person in the waiting room. As we approached the receptionist we were greeted with a smile and a pleasant hello. Of course, I knew they must have at least a dozen examination rooms all filled with people and it would be at least an hour before I even heard a doctor's voice.

We were handed the customary forms to fill out. Lets see, how many times a week do I drink? Look, all I want is a doctor who can identify me as a male patient the next time I show up with the flu. Oh, well.

At the time of my appointment a nurse opens the door to the examination rooms, smiles, and ask me to follow her. Oh great, trade the semi-comfortable waiting room for a cold sterile examination room and the customary hour wait for the doctor. As I walk in I count only three examination rooms, this can't be. There must be a hall door to more rooms.

The nurse takes my blood pressure in my left arm and says it is 110/70. I laugh and say, "Are you sure? I am typically borderline high at around 135/90." She walks around to my right arm, pumps me up, and says, "This arm reads 124/81." Now I laughed and say it must be the Marshall life style that has my blood pressure so low. We chat for a few more minutes, she heads for the door, and says the doctor will be right with me. What a great nurse and why did she have to spoil it all with such a known lie. Sure the doctor will be right with me!

I open my book and before I finish reading two pages the door opens and in walks the doctor. He is all smiles. We talk for a few minutes and he starts running through various tests. Any test I ask a question about he happily answers the question and then gives additional information if I look puzzled. He listens to my heart and asks, "Are you a runner?" I laugh and say the only running I do is from my office chair to the kitchen for a snack. The doctor says my heart beat is a very healthy "slow" and he thought I must be a runner.

As he continues to prod and look he asks, "Is Nancy Key any relationship to Holbart Key?" Oh no, I am found out! I truthfully answer, "Yes". The doctor says, "we bought their house". I answer with a partial truth, "Yes, I know we met the previous owners who told us you had bought it." We go on to another subject. Ah, he hasn't put it together that not only are we related to Holbart Key but to Knox Key the man who is suing him!

In all fairness to Knox let me explain the suit. A dead tree in the doctor's yard blew over in a storm and crushed a small historical house belonging the Fisher and Garrett. Knox is handling the damage suit since the doctor's home owner insurance refuses to pay for the damages.

The doctor leaves me for Nancy. Again the doctor was all smiles and as we compared notes later we both agreed had the best "bedside" manner of any doctor we had met. And, he continue his great bedside manner even after Nancy had to admit Knox was her brother!

Another good reason to move to Marshall: In Denver where everyone is running, jumping, pumping iron, dieting and living the healthy life style; Nancy and I are of average health. In Marshall where any one running has a pit bull behind them, the only jumping is of bail, pumping iron is something you do to pass the time in jail, dieting is only having two fried meals in a day and nobody lives a healthy life style; Nancy and I are in great health.

Marshall & Clean up

Speak Out


If cleanliness is next to godliness, then Marshall must be the devil’s playground. If the City government isn’t going to clean up Marshall, will the Marshall churches lead a clean up drive of Marshall? Lets pickup the trash in our streets and cut and rake our yards.

Tom Allin(Please use my name)

Movies

Movies


Nancy and I are readers and movie watchers. We have a television that is not connected to a cable or satellite service – it is our movie machine.

After watching a movie the other night I started thinking about my favorite movies. It took only a few minutes to come up with 26 best movies. Next I thought I should add my favorite “all time worse movie”. Then while researching I added two more movies. This totals 29 movies leaving an open space for one more movie to make an even 30 movies. I can’t wait to read what my friends and family believe are the BEST movies of all time and choosing one more movie to make “30 Best All Time Movies”

Farther below is a list of my favorite movies. To keep it short I limited it to American produced movies. The list is not in order, except the last movie listed contains the male role I should have been born to live.

I choose movies because of the characters, action, humor, romance, a time in my life, and I just liked it. I didn’t allow politics to enter into the equation or why would I choose “The Way We Were” with Barbara Streisand. As good as the movie “The Man Who Killed Liberty Valance” is, part of the reason it made my list is I remember being about 12 years old seeing this at the Cactus Drive-in Movie Theater with my family. “A Few Good Men” has one of the strongest lines ever delivered, “YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH!”

My worse movie is all my cousin’s Tim’s fault. One Saturday afternoon I made the mistake of stopping at my cousin’s Tim place. Next thing I know he has convienced me to watch the worse movie (his words) of all time: “The Attach of the Killer Tomatoes”. The good news is there were four cold beers in the refrigerator, a partial bag of potatoe chips and left over dip from the night before to serve as lunch. I have watched hundreds of movies since this momentous Saturday and none have come close to unseating this (most) worse movie.

I knew I had several huge favorite stars. However, it was until I read through my list that I discovered who were also in my favorite movies. You will find Jack Nicholson listed in four movies and Humphrey Bogart, Robert Duvall and Tom Cruise in three movies each.

Surprising but no Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts, Denzel Washington, Nicole Kidman, Nicolas Cage, Paul Newman, Audrey Hepburn, Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Johnny Depp, Anothony Hopkins, Jodie Foster, James Earl Jones, Sophia Lorren, Sean Penn, Kevin Spacy, Billy Bob Thorton, Lauren Bacall, Harrison Ford, Sean Connery, Glenn Close, or Glenda Jackson.

Most of my movie selections are men based movies. However, Meg Ryan does show up in two of the movies. How many of you remember she is a supporting actress in “Top Gun” or how about Meryl Streep in "The Deer Hunter"?

Directors were all over the board. Two movies each for John Huston, Francis Ford Coppola and Rob Reiner. Who else would have two movies in their Best list directed by “All in the Family’s”, Meat Head? Also in my list are John Ford, Roman Polanski, Robert Altman and the Coen brothers. In addition, there are a dozen or so directors who I have never heard of – go figure.

Miscellaneous thoughts:

The God Father: My favorite gangster movie. And, my favorite business movie. This movie is all about power, honor, loyalty, friendship, and courage stirred by corruption, revenge and violence.

Animal House: Some of my days at the University of Arizona were very similar. Moreover, what great comedy did we all miss with John Belushi’s drug overdosed?

The Matrix, The Alamo, Gone With the Wind, Apocalypse Now and any Humphrey Bogart movie: Have to be seen on 1940’s type wide screen.

The Wild Bunch and The Magnificent Seven: No foreign films in my list but these two are a copy of the great Japanese film, “The Seven Samurai”. Moreover, who can forget Sam Peckinpah’s direction of a slow motion bullet exploding thought a body. Peckinpah does gore with taste.

Easy Rider: This film defines the time period of my youth. I own all the music.

Risky Business: I wish this had been my youth. “Porsche. There is no substitute.”

The Deer Hunter, Apocalypse Now and even MASH: There is nothing glorious about war.

Apocalypse Now: After watching this movie I had a much better understanding of Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness”. This movie makes Darth Vader’s dark side look good.

The Alamo: If you have to die, die for freedom and in a great and glories last stand. In addition, how can you go wrong with a John Wayne movie.

Fargo: Proof that no name actors playing quirky roles can make a great movie. Maybe the best dark comedy of all time.

Gone With the Wind: Almost as good as the book! I’ve watched this movie in theaters, on TV, CD and DVD – just might be number One on my list. A great story for the big screen. Who doesn’t want to be Rhett or Scarlett!

When Harry Met Sally: Just a great romantic comedy film to watch and enjoy. And does anyone not remember Meg Ryan’s organism scene in the café?! Can men and women be friends without being lovers?

The Way We Were: Don’t know why I like this movie but I do.

The Road Warrior: A hero; lots of scary, ugly, soulless bad guys; humor – the Gyro captain, and the wagon train – the oil refinery people. Action, stunts, unsophisticated dialog, violence – a movie that has it all.

Shanshark Redemption: Great story, acting, lines, photography, etc., etc., etc. A story that proves you can never keep a good man down.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest: Nicholson is the ultimate anti-hero. Talk about rebellion and paying the price: a lobotomy!

MASH, Animal House, Blazing Saddles: No matter how many times I watch these movies, I still laugh. I especially laugh hard at the campfire fart scene in “Blazing Saddle”!

Top Gun: Great music, fast airplanes, motorcycles, Kelly McGillis’s body, Tom Cruise’s smile and scenes from a fighter pilot’s cockpit too!

The Terminator: My futuristic movie choice and with (Governor) Arnold too. “I’ll be back!”

Chinatown: I grew up reading private eye paperback trash novels. J.J. Gittes, played by Jack Nicholson, is exactly what a private eye is suppose to be: cold, self-confident, hard, flippant, sarcastic, tough, and never shows an emotion. Two great stories for the price of one.

The Maltese Falcon: Everything Chinatown is only 30 years earlier and better.

Casablanca: If I could choose any movie role to live, it would be Rick. I can’t imagine anyone else playing Rick/me other than Humphrey Bogart. Rick/Tom the tough cynic with a heart as big as all outdoors. Rick/Tom an everyday hero who understands the meaning of sacrifice for a higher purpose.
On most days Casablanca wins out over Gone With the Wind as my favorite all time movie. This is noble story of good over evil. The characters are strongly developed no matter how minor the role. It is a romantic melodrama with an ending where the boy doesn’t get the girl.
This is a movie that continues to get better As Time Goes By.



Below are My Best 30 minus One movies. Some off the movies have various lines that I will always remember (but I did look them up to get them exactly correct) and hope these lines bring great memories back to you.



My BEST 30 minus One:


The Attach of the Killer Tomatoes (My favorite “All Time Worse Movie”)

Dr. Nokitofa: “Technically sir, tomatoes are fags.

Dr. Morrison: “He means fruits.”

General: “You’d better bring a coat Mr. Richardson, there’s a little Jap in the air.”
Dr. Morrison: “He means a nip.”

Sam Smith (he has infiltrated the tomatoes & is eating with them): “Hey, can somebody please pass the ketchup.”

Starring: Nobody
Directed: John De Bello

Animal House,

John Belushi as John “Bluto” Blutarsky: “Over? Did you say over? NOTHING is over until WE decide it is.”

Also starring: Karen Allen, Donald Sutherland, Kevin Bacon, Tim Matheson, & John Vernon

Directed: John Landis


The God Father,

Marlone Brando as Don Corleone: “I’m gonna make him an offer he can’t refuse.”

James Caan as Sonny: “I want someone good, I mean very good, to plant that gun. I don’t want my brother coming out of the bathroom with just his dick in his hands.”

Al Pacino as Michael Corleone: “Fredo, you’re my older brother and I love you, but don’t ever take sides with anyone against the family again. Ever.”

“It’s not personal, Sonny. It’s strictly business.”

Also starring: Robert Duvall, Diane Keaton & Abe Vigoda

Director: Francis Ford Coppola

Gone With the Wind,

Clark Gable as Rhett Butler: “Frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn.”

“And you, miss, are no lady ….. don’t think that I hold that against you. Ladies have never held any charm for me.”

“You should be kissed and often and by someone who knows how.”

Vivien Leigh as Scarlett: “I won’t think about that now, I’ll think about that tomorrow.

“I found out that money’s the most important thing in the world, and I don’t intend ever to be without it again.”

“…Tara!…. Home. I’ll go home, and I’ll think of some way to get him back! After all, tomorrow is another day!”

Hatti McDaniel as Mammy: “You can’t show your bosum ‘fore three o’clock.”

Butterfly McQueen as Prissy: “Lordse, we got to have a doctor. I don’t know nothin’ ‘bout birthin’ babies!”

Also starring: Olivia de Havilland & John Howard

Director: Victor Fleming (45% of the movie, 4 others directed the remaining 55%)


Dirty Harry

Clint Eastwood as Harry Callahan: “Ah-ah, I know what you're thinking punk. You're thinking did he fire six shots or only five? And to tell you the truth I've forgotten myself in all this excitement. But being this is a .44 Magnum - the most powerful handgun in the world and will blow your head clean off, you've got to ask yourself a question--Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya punk!”

Directed: Don Siegel

Top Gun

Tom Cruise as Maverick: “I feel the need...:” Maverick & Anthony Edwards as Goose: “The need for speed!”

Maverick: “This is what I call a target rich environment."

Also starring: Kelly McGillis, Val Kilmer, Meg Ryan & Tom Skerritt

Directed: Tony Scott

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance

John Wayne as Tom Doniphon: “Whoa, take 'er easy there, Pilgrim.”

Also starring: James Stewart, Lee Marvin, Vera Miles, Edmund O’Brien, Andy Devine & Lee Van Cleef

Directed: John Ford

Blazing Saddles

Bandito: Badges, we don't need no stinking badges! Vamonos!

Cowboy: You use your tongue prettier 'n a $20 whore.

Cleavon Little as Bart: “Excuse me while I whip this out.”

Also starring: Madeline Kahn, Slim Pickens, Harvey Korman, Mel Brooks, Gene Wilder, & Alex Karras

Directed: Mel Brooks

A Few Good Men

Jack Nicholson as Colonel Jessep: “YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH!”

Daniel Kaffee: "Oh, spare me the psycho babble father bullshit!"

Also starring: Tom Cruise, Demi Moore, Kevin Bacon, Kiefer Sutherland & Cuba Gooding Jr.

Directed: Rob Reiner

The Terminator

Arnold Schwarzenegger as The Terminator: “I'll be back!”

Directed: James Cameron

The Alamo

Starring: John Wayne, Richard Widmark, Laurence Harvey, Frankie Avalon, & Richard Boone

Directed: John Wayne

The Wild Bunch

Starring: William Holden, Edmond O’Brien, Robert Ryan & Ben Johnson

Directed: Sam Peckinpah

Chinatown

Starring: Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway & John Huston

Directed: Roman Polanski

The Way We Were

Starring: Barbara Streisand, Robert Redford, Bradford Dillman & Patrick O’Neil

Directed: Sydney Pollack

The Magnificent Seven

Starring: Yul Bryner, Steve McQueen, Eli Wallach, Charles Bronson, James Coburn, & Robert Vaughn

Directed: John Sturges

Apocalypse Now

Starring: Martin Sheen, Marlon Brando, & Robert Duvall

Directed: Francis Ford Coppola

Easy Rider

Starring: Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper & Jack Nicholson

Directed: Dennis Hopper

When Harry Met Sally

Starring: Billy Crystal & Meg Ryan

Directed: Rob Reiner

The Matrix

Starring: Keanu Reeves & Laurence Fishburne

Directed: Andy & Larry Wachowsk

The Deer Hunter

Starring: Robert De Niro, Christopher Walken & Meryl Streep

Directed: Michael Cimino

Fargo

Starring: William Macy, Frances McDormand & Steve Buscemi

Directed: Joel & Ethan Coen

MASH

Starring: Donald Sutherland, Elliott Gould, Tom Skerritt, Sally Kellerman, Robert Duvall, & Gary Burghoff

Directed: Robert Altman

The Road Warrior

Starring: Mel Gibson

Directed: George Miller

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

Jack Nicholson as McMurphy: “I must be crazy to be in a loony bin like this.”

“Get out of my way son, you're usin' my oxygen.”

Sydney Lassick as Cheswick: “Rules? PISS ON YOUR FUCKING RULES!!!!”

Directed: Czech Milos Forman

Risky Business

Miles: “Joel, you wanna know something? Every now and then say, "What the fuck." "What the fuck" gives you freedom. Freedom brings opportunity. Opportunity makes your future.”

Starring: Tom Cruise & Rebecca De Mornay

Directed: Paul Brickman

Shanshark Redemption

Morgan Freeman as Red: “It takes a strong man to save himself, and a great man to save another.”

Tim Robbins as Andy: “Get busy living, or get busy dying.”

“Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies.”

Brian Libby as Floyd: “Red, I do believe you’re talking out of your ass.”

Directed: Frank Darabont

The Treasures of the Sierra Madre

Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Walter Huston, Tim Holt & Bruce Benett

Directed: John Huston

The Maltese Falcon

Humphrey Bogart as Sam Spade: “Yes, angel, I'm going to send you over. But chances are, you'll get off with life. That means, if you're a good girl, you'll be out in twenty years. I'll be waiting for you. If they hang you, I'll always remember you.”

Also starring: Mary Astor & Peter Lorre

Directed: John Huston

***Casablanca***

I always wanted to be Rick Blaine as played by Humphrey Bogart.

Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains, Conrad Veidt, Peter Lorre, Sydney Greenstreet & Dooley Wilson

Directed: Michael Curtiz

Rick Blaine: Last night we said a great many things. You said I was to do the thinking for both of us. Well, I've done a lot of it since then, and it all adds up to one thing: you're getting on that plane with Victor where you belong.
Ilsa Lund: But, Richard, no, I... I...
Rick Blaine: Now, you've got to listen to me! You have any idea what you'd have to look forward to if you stayed here? Nine chances out of ten, we'd both wind up in a concentration camp. Isn't that true, Louie?
Captain Louis Renault: I'm afraid Major Strasser would insist.
Ilsa Lund: You're saying this only to make me go.
Rick Blaine: I'm saying it because it's true. Inside of us, we both know you belong with Victor. You're part of his work, the thing that keeps him going. If that plane leaves the ground and you're not with him, you'll regret it. Maybe not today. Maybe not tomorrow, but soon and for the rest of your life.
Ilsa Lund: But what about us?
Rick Blaine: We'll always have Paris. We didn't have, we, we lost it until you came to Casablanca. We got it back last night.
Ilsa Lund: When I said I would never leave you.
Rick Blaine: And you never will. But I've got a job to do, too. Where I'm going, you can't follow. What I've got to do, you can't be any part of. Ilsa, I'm no good at being noble, but it doesn't take much to see that the problems of three little people don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world. Someday you'll understand that. Now, now... Here's looking at you kid.


Ilsa Lund: Play it once, Sam. For old times' sake.

Sam: [lying] I don't know what you mean, Miss Elsa.

Ilsa Lund: Play it, Sam. Play "As Time Goes By."

Sam: [lying] Oh, I can't remember it, Miss Elsa. I'm a little rusty on it.

Ilsa Lund: I'll hum it for you. Da-dy-da-dy-da-dum, da-dy-da-dee-da-dum...

[Sam begins playing]

Ilsa Lund: Sing it, Sam. Sam: [singing] You must remember this / A kiss is still a kiss / A sigh is just a sigh / The fundamental things apply / As time goes by. / And when two lovers woo, / They still say, "I love you" / On that you can rely / No matter what the future brings


Rick Blaine: Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine.


Rick Blaine: You know what I want to hear.

Sam: [lying] No, I don't.

Rick Blaine: You played it for her, you can play it for me!

Sam: [lying] Well, I don't think I can remember


Yvonne: Where were you last night?

Rick Blaine: That's so long ago, I don't remember.

Yvonne: Will I see you tonight?

Rick Blaine: I never make plans that far ahead.


Captain Louis Renault: What in heaven's name brought you to Casablanca?

Rick Blaine: My health. I came to Casablanca for the waters.

Captain Louis Renault: The waters? What waters? We're in the desert.

Rick Blaine: I was misinformed.


Captain Louis Renault: In 1935, you ran guns to Ethiopia. In 1936, you fought in Spain, on the Loyalist side.

Rick Blaine: I got well paid for it on both occasions.

Captain Louis Renault: The winning side would have paid you much better.

Rick Blaine: I stick my neck out for nobody.

Major Strasser: What is your nationality?

Rick Blaine: I'm a drunkard.

Captain Louis Renault: That makes Rick a citizen of the world.

Rick Blaine: Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.



For those of you who may wonder how my taste in movies corresponds with the Professionals, the following movies on my list were also ranked by the American Film Institute as being in the top 100 American films of all time:

#2 Casablanca #56 MASH
#3 The God Father #79 The Deer Hunter
#4 Gone With the Wind #80 The Wild Bunch
#19 Chinatown #84 Fargo
#20 One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest #88 Easy Rider
#23 The Maltese Falcon
#28 Apocalypse Now Goes to shows the pros can be

#30 Treasure of the Sierra Madra wrong, they missed 16 on my lis

#56 MASH

#79 The Deer Hunter

#80 The Wild Bunch

#84 Fargo

#88 Easy Rider

Goes to shows the pros can be wrong, they missed 16 on my list.

Diet, Exercise and Me

Diet, Exercise, and Me


I knew it was time to lose some weight when I reached the Jell-O like mass of 183 pounds. How did this extra eleven pounds from somewhere out there in the universe find me?

At this point in my life the added weight is concentrated in the middle of my body and under my chin. Although this physique allows me to fit comfortably into the Marshall social life, it does not allow me to fit into pants and collared shirts with ties.

Fasting

Nancy suggested I join her on a fast. Please understand I love food. I will do anything to avoid giving up food. The more unhealthy the food the more I like the food. I shave before stepping on the scales and when desperation sets in I been known to take a shower to rid myself of any unnecessary dead skin cells before weighing. Fast or chocolate cookies, or M&Ms, or German chocolate cake or you get the idea on my thoughts about fasting.

A philosophical question, “If you eat a piece of chocolate and no one sees you eat it, does it have no calories?”

I don’t know about everyone else but I do know that the longer I live, the tougher it is to lose weight. I believe this occurs because my body and fat have become such great friends over time. Moreover, the corollary to this fact is that the longer I live, the more my body discourages muscle from visiting.

Back to the fast. Our fast was a short fast: two days no food, five days with one 500 calorie meal per day and two days no food. However, at the end of nine days you are done, right? No, the fun is just beginning. It is now time to get back into the Health Club routine.

The Health Club

One of the advantages of moving to Marshall is getting to start over at a new health club. I was very self-conscious when entering our Denver club. To my knowledge no one else at our Denver club had to have a trainer rescue a client from a sinking rowing machine. Yes, I was the client.

The Marshall health center is reality. Reality in that the people look like real people not models or athletes – golfers and fishermen excepted. Where else in America can you go to a club that one 70-year-old member sports bib overalls, hay feed logo baseball cap, and a plaid work shirt rather than a young 20 something in spandex, shorts, and flesh revealing t-shirts. Furthermore I am one of the youngsters, I haven’t had a heart attack, and I don’t look like I eat fried food three times a day seven days a week. I feel better both physically and psychologically just walking into the club.

Exercise is made up of two parts: cardiovascular and muscle building. This is better described as “here comes the big one” and “I can’t get out of bed”.

Cardiovascular exercise is suppose to strengthen the heart. I have a problem with this concept. I figure your heart is only good for so many beats, and that's it. Everything wears out eventually. Think a light bulb, on – off – on – off – on – and finally one day off for good. Speeding up the number of times of turning the light on/off doesn’t improve the longevity of a light bulb – it speeds up the need to bury the light bulb. So how can speeding up your heart make you live longer? That's like saying you can extend the life of a life bulb by turning it on/off more often and faster. Rest is the key to saving the heart. Conserve the beats I say!

Muscle building makes cardiovascular exercise look incredibly smart. Think about it: muscle weighs more than fat. Therefore the more muscle the more you weigh. Let me see, I am at the health club to lose weight by replacing low weight fat with high weight muscle. I don’t get it!

The health experts say you must have a plan to be successful. They say for example, a contractor can’t construct a building without a detailed plan. My exercise plan is similar to the plan that built the Leaning Tower of Pizza.

These same experts say you must have a visual record. Wait a minute Mr. or Ms. Expert. The reason I am exercising is I am too big to photograph. If a photograph could be taken of me without the use of a wide-angle lens I wouldn’t need to work out and therefore no visual record would be required.

Along with the visual record the experts recommend recording your personal baseline. A baseline is a measurement of the existing behavior and noting when and how often that behavior occurs before treatment. Examples include, how often and when a person eats high calorie foods, or uses alcohol, or displays outbursts of anger. The baseline measurement of the behavior, will helps you set realistic goals and identify future improvement levels. It seems to me that I have read high calorie meals are to be avoided, alcohol is to be drank only in moderation, and isn’t anger a cardiovascular exercise?

I don’t get how this helps. I know that if I don’t have a high calorie Taco Bell meal at least once a week I get very angry. If I eat my high calorie Taco Bell meal I then have to drink to forget how big I am getting. It seems to me that if I eat I then drink and if I don’t eat I get angry. Great baseline: a lose, lose proposition.
Again the experts say with any new venture or change in life style it is imperative to have the right mental attitude. For instance, winners always have the mindset that their goals are possible and within reach. OK, I buy into this last sentence but and this is a big Butt: what about us losers. How are we couch potato losers to set exercise goals that are possible and within reach. Currently the potato chips are within reach but not the barbells.

Now this next expert statement is one that I finally agree with. “Starting an exercise regimen can be physically and mentally draining, with few immediate results.” If I could only go from none to a few immediate results, I would be ever so happy.

I am not a quitter so tomorrow I return to the health club. Ten minutes on the walking machine after circling the parking lot for fifteen minutes to get a parking spot next to the door. Then ten minutes on the step master so that I can remember why the elevator was invented. A final ten minutes on the stationary bike while my $250 bike continues to rust in the backyard.

Now that I have warmed up its over to the dead weights. “Dead weights” and exactly what exercise expert came up with this name. Shouldn’t they be called “Live weights” because if you use them you will live longer rather than die!

First exercise is barbell curls with one-pound weights. I understand the benefits of this exercise. It is the same motion and weight I use when drinking beer.

Next I will knock off a few bench presses. This is a favorite exercise because it involves lying down on your back using an imaginary bar and weight. I use the imaginary bar/weights because using a real bar and weight requires a spotter. A spotter is another over-weight and usually sweating person who leans over you and says dumb things like, “you can do it” as your chest is crushed by the weights you can no longer lift. Moreover, to add insult to injury the spotter drips their sweat all over you.

Over to the mirrors -- the better to see myself, for a set of shrugs. This is an easy exercise, just shrug – you know, bring your shoulders up to your ears and look like you have no clue what’s going on. I do my shrugs without weights so that I exercise two groups of muscles rather than one. The shrug exercises my shoulder muscles and because I use no weights I exercise my facial muscles to look like I am using weights.

No muscle training is complete without a leg workout. I am a big fan of the seated calf raises. I find a bench, take a seat, set my feet flat on the floor, and then raise my heels off the floor. The experts recommend balancing weights on your thighs but these weights flatten and spread your thighs which in my mind is counter productive.

I am documenting my weight lose. It is my intention to write a best selling book on diet and exercise. With the money my book makes I will spend it wisely on good doctors who will take care of my successful but soon to become chubby, soft and out of shape body.

Nancy, where are the chocolate covered M&M’s and the TV remote?

Speak Out: Marshall, Art & Beauty

Marshall News Messanger (newspaper)



Speak Out!

Marshall is working hard to become a center for the arts. Art is about beauty. Therefore in order for Marshall to be a center for the arts it must become beautiful. The city of Marshall needs everyone’s help to become a beautiful city of the arts. Business and churches must landscape their barren ugly parking lots. Rental owners must take responsibility for maintenance and landscaping of their property. Homeowners must mow and trim their yards at least every other week. Government must tear down condemned buildings, enforce its laws, and support everyone in the effort to make Marshall beautiful.

Signed (please include my name),
Tom Allin

Saving the Envir and Economic Consequences

Dear Grant,

Just read your email to your mom. At first I was going to buy “The Skeptical Environment” because I do not believe you can make changes to how the world operates without understanding and taking into consideration the economic consequences – good or bad. However, after reading your review I am no longer inclined to read this book.

Based on your review this book is a different – conservative or middle of the road, spin to what is reported in the mainstream press. Each side on any environmental issue has a spin to bolster their position so that when it comes time to compromise each side can say they gave up something they truly didn’t want to begin with – except for the truly radical environmentalist. And in the case of the press, sensational stories about 40,000 disappearing species sells advertising space (in order to make a profit). A new study two years later saying “you printed a mistake” doesn’t sell and therefore isn’t printed. Good news doesn’t sell papers (advertising).

Yes, it is too bad that everyone doesn’t read at least one scientific journal a month. Then again, its also too bad that many people don’t read at all.

I like to discuss environmental issues with you. You typically provide missing facts to the news media’s coverage of an issue. I would go so far as to say I would like to debate environmental issues with you but this would end in a massacre worse than the Little Big Horn. In addition, I do hate arrows puncturing my body!

As a side note, the only logic course I ever took in school was a freshman introductory course. I went into the final with a D- and waited until the night before the Final to read the book. About 10:00 pm I dropped a black bird (smuggled across the Mexican border by a fraternity brother), outlined the book over the next 9 hours, took the Final, and within two hours could not remember a single thing I had read the night before. I did get a C for the course. I do remember my mom coming out to wake me up, finding me not only awake but even more amazing in a cheerful and chatty mood at 6:30 am!

Having said I do not like arrows, I will go ahead and set myself up as a pincushion.

“is very much a believer that economic progress can go hand in hand with environmental improvement. This is in fact a very contentious view, and is opposed by many in the field of sustainable development.” P 4 of 5 of your email

Without economic progress there is very little chance for a large majority of the world population to move out of poverty. Moreover, without economic progress there is a very big chance that most of us not in poverty will fall into poverty. I want my environment to be better than it is today. However, I do not want to live in a cave in order to see a better environment. I am one of those people who doesn’t think the world was a better place before:

a) modern transportation which is fuel by large industrial complexes and fossil fuels for both the mode of transportation and the production of the transportation mode

b) modern housing that requires the production of cement, the cutting of trees, the mining of copper (indoor water), the production of plastic (indoor sewer), etc.

c) modern food production and distribution – the thought of eating a dozen types of home grown foods year after year rather than using my fossil burning SUV to go to a modern building housing foods from all over the world doesn’t thrill me

d) modern university/learning centers which can’t survive without corporate and private donations (money made from a growing economy), government grants (tax money derived from a growing economy), etc.

e) enough already, you probably can get my naive point about living in a growing economy versus a sustainable/replacement only economy

I do believe we have serious environmental problems:

Polluted water
Acid rain
Unhealthy air
Wetland destruction
Encroachment of wildlife habitat
Ocean pollution
Over fishing of the oceans
Global warming
And more

Identifying a problem is a first step. A second step is identifying solutions. The final step is putting into action a solution that is bought into by those who will be affected by the solution. I know no one, not even you, who will allow a major “negative” change in their life style – economic or other, to be imposed on them who will not reject, disregard, and sometimes fight to their death to defeat this negative change.

I am not against a CO2 reduction. However, I am only willing to give up so much for this reduction. For example: I may be willing to pay an extra penny per kilowatt-hour for electricity for every product I use (factories run on electricity) or am billed for on home usage and as a reduction in salary so my company can pay for lights, computers, phones, coffee makers, copy machines, etc so that I may work. I am not willing to pay say a quarter for every kilowatt or rolling blackouts, no HVAC, or other major changes to my life.

In summary, you can’t expect change to occur if you look at it without considering the economic consequences.

Tom

The American Front Porch

The American Front Porch


What characterizes small town America more than its front porches?

Many of us live in large cities or in our case, just moved from. These cities are vibrant and exciting; however, they can also be anonymous and isolating. How many of you can remember speaking to a neighbor in the last week or month or even the last year? Moreover, those who spoke to a neighbor, did you have a conversation or was it a greeting and quick exit to something less personal?

Most of us grew up in large towns or even larger cities. In spite of this, each of us has an image hidden somewhere in our mind of the great American front porch. The American front porch is all about neighborhood and family. Many of us grew up watching Andy Hardy movies – definite front porch America. Can anyone imagine Mayberry without front porches? Moreover, would Norman Rockwell have had a career without the American front porch?

The 500 block of West Burleson in Marshall, Texas is still home to the American front porch. Porches large or small; young, middle age, or older neighbors sitting and talking; in the morning, afternoon, or evening -- these are our neighbors and our porches.

The front porch of each house is a neighborhood gathering spot for friends and family. The porch may be large with a hanging swing and rocking chairs, shallow with a row of benches and rocking chairs, long with an extra balcony above and rocking chairs, or decorated with spindles and rail painted in Victorian colors with rocking chairs. Front porches and rocking chairs just go together. Each porch is individual in design but all conveys you are welcome -- not just welcome but must come up to sit a spell and have a talk.

We have met every one of our neighbors not at the grocery store, church, or the corner bar but on the front porch. No invitation is required or issued to visit; you just walk up and say, “hi”.

The other day as we returned from walking Jack, the dog, Nancy saw our next-door neighbors sitting on their porch. The three of us walked up and we introduced ourselves to Gloria and Perry Bonner. Then we talked. Perry is 83 recovering from a heart attack and using a dialysis machine and Gloria is a couple of years younger and can remember the fun of dancing with Perry on the top floor of the Hotel Marshall in the 50s. There we were on their front porch with Perry sitting in a rocking chair holding his brass capped walking stick and Gloria in blue curlers next to him in her rocker with the morning newspaper between them.

We talked of fun things – their travel, sad things – last year’s death of their son who Nancy went to school with, and in between mixed in a little neighborhood gossip. We talked as friends for better than 45 minutes and not a complaint about life was heard from any of us.

Toward the end of our talk the War came up. Slowly but surely it comes out that we are talking with a living American hero. Perry was with the Big Red One – North Africa, Sicily, Omaha Beach and into Germany before coming home. Gloria could not get up, into the house, and back fast enough with Perry’s cap and pinned medals. She said, “I am so proud of my man.” On the front of his cap is his Infantry Combat Badge and two Presidential Unit Citations. On the side of the cap three silver stars, four bronze stars, three purple hearts and assorted other medals. No discussion on how Perry earned the medals. Perry’s silence, Gloria’s smile, and the medals did all the talking for the next minute or so.

Next Gloria hands us two framed citations from the government of France. Perry’s only comment is, “It took better than 50 years for the French to send these to me and I almost sent them back last year.” In his hand was the walking stick of Brigadier General Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. Perry was with Roosevelt when he died of a heart attach five weeks after landing on Utah Beach where Roosevelt’s actions earned him the Medal of Honor.

Our own front porch is our favorite porch. It is L-shaped, 12 feet in depth, 38 feet on the long side facing the street and 17 feet on the short side facing our newly landscaped side yard. We have a hanging swing at the corner of the L, a wicker settee at the end of the short side, and a second settee with overhead ceiling fan and flanked by two big white rocking chairs facing the front yard. We have recently added several large pots with plants and no later than next spring hanging potted plants will be a part of our front porch.

This is where we met our first two neighbors. The first week we were here, Jacque stopped her SUV, hopped out, walked onto the porch, and introduced herself. Within ten minutes she had invited us to join a Thursday night dinner group and attend the following evening’s gathering. Jackie is like us: younger middle age; part time consulting and teaching at one of the universities in Shreveport; and returning to Marshall after marriage, a son, a full-time career, and seeing the world.

A day or two later while painting kitchen cabinet shelves on the porch I hear a booming, “Howdy neighbor”. This is Scotty. Scotty is about our age, weighs a good bit more than me, is a probation officer, and has done an incredible job restoring his Victorian house. To Scotty it’s never “Hi Tom” but always “Howdy neighbor”.

More than once while walking Jack we have been invited up to the porch for a neighborly chat. We have waved to others on their porches or they to us on our porch. The Burleson porches bring us together not just as neighbors but also as friends and members of the Burleson street family.

The front porch is an All-American living cultural icon. This front porch icon creates a place to gather for neighbors and family to talk about anything and everything. Our Burleson street porches encourage a sense of community and neighborliness like none of the other dozen plus places I’ve called home. Our porches connect us to our neighbors and provide a quite place for Nancy and me to peacefully sit and talk. A house with a front porch on a street of houses with front porches calls out for neighbors to be neighbors.
Come see the porches of Burleson street. Bring your white linen suit, Panama hat and we will serve up the drinks. Then we can all sit back, talk, and rock away the day’s cares on our porch.