Names get me, they really do

I see that Joslyn Tinkle is still playing basketball for Stanford.  She's a senior now, and one of their stars.  Two years ago I opened a post by mentioning that there was a Stanford player whose last name is Tinkle, but I decided not to comment further, despite how much I like to deal with unusual names.  All right, all right, yes, I admit it -- I like to make fun of people's funny names.

Thinking about Ms. Tinkle immediately put me in mind of a man I used to know whose last name was Outhouse.  Now somebody with a surname like Knez cannot help but understand that people take pride in their family history and the good name of their forebears, but seriously -- wouldn't you be tempted to do something about it if your last name was Outhouse?

A simple solution, which would detract little from the familial and ethnic heritage of the name, would be to add an N to the end.  Outhousen looks much better in print, and it could be pronounced Oot-hoosen. 

He stuck with Outhouse, however, and when he married, his wife -- and who can blame her? -- refused to take his name and kept her own, which was Lipschitz.

Really.  I am not making this up.

Vaccines

According to the New York Times, it was on this date in 1954 that the first mass polio inoculations of children started in Pittsburgh.  It must have started about the same time around the country, including where I lived.  I remember going to the family doctor to get the polio shots.  It took at least two shots, weeks or months apart.  They hurt like hell and made your arm stiff for a week.  Better than polio, of course.

Another nasty one was the inoculation against cholera, which I had to get in 1971 because I was going to Italy and cholera had broken out in Naples.  It required two shots two weeks apart.  I got the first one the week before I left the States and the second one in Paris.  I made a complete fool of myself at the Parisian clinic where nobody spoke English (or admitted to it), but I finally got the idea that they wouldn't give me the shot unless I went into the bathroom and peed in a cup.  The efforts of the man at the reception desk to get the idea across to me seemed terribly amusing to everybody in the waiting room.

Not much in the way of inoculations lately.  I did get a tetanus booster a couple months ago when I hurt my thumb, but that's all.  I don't do flu shots because they make me sicker than getting the flu, although I admit that after the last one I had three or four years ago, I was only sick for three days instead of ten.

Goodness, this must be maklng for fascinating reading.  I'm outahere.

I Believe!

Cooking up taco meat, using ground chuck and my very own taste-tested combination of seasonings.  Double the meat, double everything else, right?  But wait -- oh no!  Too salty!  Real way too salty!  Now what'll I do?

Add a little sugar.  No good.  Still too salty.

Well, there is one thing.  It's a last resort.  But I'm there -- I'm desperate.  I've heard this works in stews and soups.  Will it work in a pot of ground beef?  Only one way to find out.  I've got nothing to lose.

I peel a small potato, cut it in half, and throw it into the pot.  I let it cook, stirring occasionally, for 20 minutes. 

The next time I taste the taco meat -- it needs salt!  OMG!  It works!  Taco meat saved!

Ridiculously salty potato, anybody?

The People's Choice

Tonight at 9:00 p.m. EST, the President of the United States will deliver his State of the Union address to Congress and the nation from Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.  It will be broadcast on dozens of television channels.

Tonight at 9:00 p.m. EST, the Michigan State-Michigan basketball game will tip off at the Jack Breslin Student Events Center in East Lansing, Michigan.  It will be broadcast on ESPN.

The President will talk about the economy, immigration, troop withdrawals, gay rights, and gun control.

The 8th-ranked Spartans (9-2 in conference, 20-4 overall) are tied with Indiana for first place in the Big Ten with #4 Michigan (8-3, 21-3) a game behind in third.

So, what'll it be tonight:  hoops from the Bres, or whoops from the Pres?

Are you kidding?  That speech will be all over the Internet by 11:00 o'clock for me to see, hear, or read any time I want to.

Go Green!

And both of these guys wanted to be President of the United States

Texas Governor Rick Perry has made a bunch of radio spots being broadcast in California in which he encourages companies and corporations there to move to Texas where, he says, taxes are lower and regulations less annoying.

California Governor Jerry Brown pooh-poohs the whole thing, claiming that corporations and entrepreneurs from various countries around the world all want to come to California. “Everybody with half a brain is coming to California,” he said.

That confirms what I’ve always suspected -- California is largely populated by half-wits.

Ex post facto consciousness raising

I love to catch anachronisms in movies and television shows set in other periods. The TV version of “M*A*S*H” was notorious, not just because of references to things that hadn’t happened yet, but even in things like the men’s hair-styles -- much more 1970’s than 1950’s -- and the fact that you never saw anybody smoke a cigarette.

Linguistic anachronisms are my favorite. I’ve noticed a few in my new all-time favorite television show ever, “Downton Abbey.” One scene has a man saying of his fiancée, “She’s just sucking up, Mother.” Nobody would have said that in 1920. I admit that neither She’s just being obsequious nor She’s just fawning upon you exactly roll off the tongue, but still, a writer of Julian Fellowes’ capabilities ought to be able to come up with something more in tune with the times than “sucking up,” the first known use of which, according to Miriam-Webster, was in 1976.

What’s even more fascinating are anachronisms of attitude. “Downton Abbey” not only has a gay footman, but those who know that he is don’t seem to mind. In one episode, he tries to seduce another male servant, who rejects him and reports him to his superiors, but the police are not called nor is he even sent packing in the middle of the night -- he keeps his job. No. Not in 1920.

I have also noticed in "Downton" as well as some other period dramas, including another of my favorites, "Foyle's War,” which is set during World War II, that there is a relentless tendency to refer to young females as “women,” when, in fact, up until just about 1970, they would have been called “girls.”

It seems to me that modern writers ought not to have to forsake verisimilitude for political correctness. But I don’t imagine having much luck getting someone to produce a Civil War drama in which the slaves are constantly called -- you know.

Uncle George

I see that today is the birthday of George Halas (1895-1983), original owner and long-time coach of the Chicago Bears, not to mention original founder of the National Football League.  That guy pretty much invented professional football.

I will always have a soft spot in my heart for Papa Bear, not just because I'm from the Chicago area and my family have always been Bears fans.  There is also a family connection, albeit an extremely flimsy one by the time you get to me, through my sister-in-law.  Her uncle was married to George's niece.

That makes George Halas my brother's wife's father's brother's wife's mother's brother.