My earliest memory of Carlin was back in Jr. High. One of my friends had watched his famous “Seven Words That Can Never Be Said on Television” routine. Of course, being kids in a more conservative time, we were totally fascinated that he would say all of these bad words. I still remember having those conversations.
The other significant thing I remember about him was his role in one of my all time favorite movies. He played Rufus, the time traveler in a phone booth in 1989’s classic “Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure”.
Carlin was a unique comedian with an interesting outlook on life. We are sad to see him go.
This ruling, if upheld, could potentially cost the US economy $3.5 Billion in both printing costs and retrofitting of vending machines, supermarket automatic checkouts and any other machine that processes paper currency. Just what we need in a slowing economy and skyrocketing national debt.
Oscar is a double amputee, born with out fibulas. The controversy here is not if a disabled person should be allowed to compete, but if his Cheetah Flex-Foot prosthetics give him an “unfair advantage” over able bodied runners.
I am completely in favor of Oscar running in the Olympics, even if his prosthetics give him an advantage. What this decision does is further the controversy in athletics on performance enhancing substances (I hesitate to call them drugs since many of them are produced by the human body), medical procedures and prosthetics.
I’m about as likely to run in an Olympic event as a double-amputee. Being 5′6″ tall with a body like a potato pretty much eliminates any possiblity of me being a athlete at that level no matter how hard I trained. Does this make me as ‘disabled’, in relation to athletics, as Oscar? If I could take steroids, have medical procedures and attach prosthetics to my body and trained every day in order to compete would it be OK? If not, why?
Athletic success at a level like the Olympics is not only a matter of training and discipline, but a matter of genetics. If your body is not capable of completing the task, no amount of dedication is going to get you there. A great example of what I’m talking about is the movie Rudy, the story of an undersized, underathletic guy that wanted to play Notre Dame football so bad he dedicated 5 years of his life to it, and got to play in one game. While his tenacity is to be admired, he was not really what anyone would call a successfull football player. Why? Because of genetics.
At what point do we decide what is normal and what is an ‘enhancement’? What if, and I can’t really imagine this, an able bodied runner decided to have his legs amputated in favor of prosthetic limbs that made him run faster? Would this person be allowed to compete? What if an athlete had surgery that allowed him to perform at a higher level? With this ruling, the lines of what is an acceptable modification in an athlete has been further blurred and a controversy that is already at the forefront of popular culture has been extended.
I’m happy to announce, the results are in. All 6 of the CFLs I installed are still burning brightly, but last week the lone incandescent burnt out. Obviously, this isn’t a perfect test, maybe I will run it again. I still have some incandescents, I think I will replace the burnt out bulb today with a new one and see if it lasts longer than the cfls.
The interesting thing would be to see if I can establish how long the bulbs last, and compare the costs with them. This CFL Savings Calculator, with it’s default settings, shows a savings of $0.44/month or $8.86/year for each CFL bulb. It would be interesting to see if my data supports that. If their numbers are accurate, and I have about 20 bulbs in my home, the total savings would be around $175/year. That’s not a huge amount of money, but worth doing.
Personally, I find this yet another blow to my lost youth. While I am one of the guilty parties, and haven’t purchased anything from The Finest in some time, I still have fond memories. My first experience with The Finest was back at Milliken Middle School. When we took field trips, or went to other events, they were often held at UNC. The most convenient place to feed a bunch of middle school kids was the McDonalds on 8th Ave. In those days, the finest was just a couple doors down from McDonalds, so we would sneak over there after scarfing down a burger to check the place out. At the time, I was a very sheltered child, only listened to Christian or Country music. I distinctly remember Kristy Alexander was just starting to turn into a real punk girl. She was listening to bands like Skinny Puppy or the Dead Milkmen. I was both fascinated and appalled by this music, and The Finest seemed to be a dark, dangerous place of forbidden delights.
As my music tastes expanded I spent many hours and hundreds of dollar perusing the collections in The Finest and other used music stores that have since went by the way. Unfortunately, the responsibility of adult life, the fact that I now have an extensive music collection and the convenience of acquiring new music online has reduced my visits to the store.
I certainly hope that Jim can find a buyer that will be able to keep The Finest name alive, and find a way to bring continue it on, but even if he doesn’t The Finest will live on in the memories of thousands like me.
Just goes to show all that tree hugging, drug taking, civil rights loving rhetoric goes right out the window the first time something they disagree with comes up. So much for “diversity”.
My grandparents are getting up in years. Both their late 80s now, and they live alone ( but within a mile of my parents ). While they are both in reasonably good health, they do have some difficulty getting around. My grandfather broke his ankle many years ago, and it’s never been quite right since. He got along OK when he was younger, but not it’s catching up with him. As a result for compensating for a bad ankle, he now has bad knees to go with it. Unfortunately, when you are pushing 90, knee replacement isn’t much of an option.
While they normally don’t have too much trouble, one challenge is getting in and out of the bath tub. My grandfather has difficulty with this, and has had to be rescued from the tub at least once. At Christmas, my grandmother asked me to do a little research into bath lifts.
I did some looking, and there are a number of very cool products on the market. Transfer benches, mechanical lifts, hydro lifts and battery powered electric lifts are all available. Problem is I can’t find one product review for any of them. Personally I think this is one of the great downfalls of the internet as we know it. There are zillions of products out there, and if you are looking for the latest gadget, phone, TV or game console, there are tons of reviews. On the downside, if you are looking for something that’s not a techy item, reviews are much more difficult to come by. I suppose 90 year old people aren’t much for writing reviews, and physical therapists are afraid putting this kind of information on line will probably devalue their overall expertise, but it’s still a problem.
I’m not sure what the solution is, but I would encourage everyone out there, if you purchase a product, not matter what it is, write a review and post it somewhere. Oh, and if you know anything about bath lifts be sure to leave a comment. I would be interested to hear what you have to say.
Every man must give account of himself to God, and therefore every man ought to be at liberty to serve God in a way that he can best reconcile to his conscience. If government can answer for individuals at the day of judgment, let men be controlled by it in religious matters; otherwise, let men be free.
John Leland - Right of Conscience Inalienable.
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