Grugger’s Way

Just Wishin’ and Hopin’ and Prayin’

Almost Christmas.  Some things to wish and hope and pray for:

A little more tolerance, a little more charity, a little more compassion.
A little less greed, a little less envy, a little less anger.

More peace signs, fewer acts of violence.
More gifting, less crime.

More jobs, less unemployment.
More abundance, less hunger.

Less lambast, less politics, fewer speeches.

More democracy, less dictatorship.

More cooperation, less confrontation

Less of the spirit of Santa.
More of the spirit of Christ.

More relaxation, restfulness, mindfulness and meditation.
Less stress.

Many happy moments with the family,
Fewer family arguments.

Any miracle at all.

Safety for our loved ones who will travel or who will be drinking and driving.

No More Short Shorts!

I look forward to the end of summer when I no longer stand out as the only guy wearing long pants at a picnic.  Shorts are like swim trunks to me; something to be worn at the beach.

Why do Men wear “Shorts” anyway?   This is a girly thing.  Oh, it’s okay for little boys, but once you grow up, PUT ON A PAIR OF PANTS!  What is so cool about wearing shorts, anyway?

Cool?  Do shorts really make anyone cool to look at?  Men, that is.   I think they look really dorky, and no look in recent memory has been “dorkier” than the long baggy things men and teenage boys are wearing these days.

I swear the funniest thing I EVER saw, shorts-wise, was a 250 pound, WAAYYY overweight 70-year-old City Councilman with a big belly and butt, and the “skinniest” little sticks for legs, just sticking out the bottom of the biggest, longest pair of baggy short’s you could imagine.

Well, if I weren’t against shorts for men before, THAT sight would have convinced me that no way would I ever embarrass myself by appearing in public like that.

  Perhaps (and that’s a big maybe) the only dorkier thing than the long baggy look is the short-short.  Even the shorts developed for athletes who ride bicycles for a living can look really dorky if they are the wrong color.  Witness the “oh-oh” selection of red biking shorts.

Movies for Mature Folks sounds like a pretty dull subject.

There aren’t very many movies made for people with brains over the age of 14. (At the bottom of this post are 2008 Movies for Grownups.)

I can’t figure out the fascination with Animation.   It must be a youth and gaming thing.  Animated movies hold absolutely no attraction for me.  I have seen some…it is almost impossible to avoid them if you have young grandchildren over to visit.   They LOVE them!  It’s like watching cartoons for them, plus there is adult humor that they can try to figure out.

Perhaps Disney can be credited with this phenomenon.  Disney always made movies for kids who have kids for parents.  They made movies with real people but the stories were almost cartoonish; then he developed the full-length feature cartoon.

On television, we saw the Simpson’s become a hit.  This was originally just a little “filler” bit on Saturday Night Live.  The adult humor–well, I will re-phrase that.  It is actually 14-year-old boy humor. Anyway, this form of entertainment expanded into the evening primetime hours on television, and the Simpson’s success spawned other “copy-cat” shows, each one trying to “out-gross” the other with their own version of 14-year-old boy humor.  I kept expecting the entire genre to self-destruct, but so far the audience for bad taste has exceeded my expectations.

I did see Shrek.  Then I heard people talking about how great Eddie Murphy was in Shrek.  I say, “Eddie Murphy didn’t act in Shrek!  It was his voice!  It was a cartoon!!” Ridiculous.

2008 Movies for Grownups (from AARP.org) Here are three of my favorites:

The Savages (About caring for an aging parent with dementia. Savage is the family’s surname. Stars Laura Linney and Philip Seymour Hoffman.)
The Kite Runner (Story of Afghanistan was a huge bestseller of a novel)

Atonement  (World War Two setting, the British at Dunkirk.  Stars Keira Knightley)

Thanksgiving also means Thanks for Giving.

There are thousands of hungry Americans who are suffering even more during this economic recession.

Food banks nationwide are struggling to keep up with demand.

The need for generosity have never been greater, and Thanksgiving Day is a good time to remember how fortunate we are and also to extend our hand to those less fortunate.

There are many organizations, nationwide, that sponsor free meals on Thanksgiving Day.

There are free meal events and food drives sponsored by professional sports teams, by community college students, and Fraternal clubs, like the Eagles and Elks.
Radio and television stations, often in concert with local newspapers, will sponsor events.  And most of all, churches and missions will be serving up Thanksgiving Day meals for those in need.

In Salina, Kansas, the Salvation Army teams up with Applebee’s to offer free Thanksgiving dinner to all comers.

Times are tough, though, for retail and for restaurants.  There may be fewer contributions this year, and fewer individuals and businesses able to be generous, all the while the need for help is growing.

I believe that the need is not for those who are giving to give more, but rather for more of us to give.  Remember when you write your checks for charity this year to include something for the hungry.