NEWS ON THE HOMEFRONT, LOCAL AND NATIONWIDE

A HODGEPODGE OF MISCELLANY

MSN asks if Martha (Stewart) has her mojo back. I'm sure the nation holds its breath in anticipation of hearing of her stocks' comeback. I hear the term "mojo" used in various contexts. I have asked a number of adults and teens to define mojo for me and received about as many answers as were the number of people asked. What the heck is mojo, exactly? Or is it one of those vague, undefinable terms that people know what it means, according to context used, but can't define it?

Once in the presence of guests, including foreign nationals who had never been to the US, I rather unkindly referred to a certain individual as a "stone turkey." This casual comment elicited a spate of unanswerable questions from the foreigners. They understood the word "stone" by geological definition and the word "turkey" as an American fowl, but they could not understand that I did not refer to a stone or rock sculpture of a fowl. Although the Americans in the group were intelligent and well educated, none could come up with a definition for the term that did not include other slang words, equally incomprehensible to the non-Americans. Every one of us understood exactly what a "turkey" was when applied to a fellow human but we were unable to convey that meaning to foreigners.

MSN also announces "Retrosexual; the return of Macho". Groan!! Ofcourse amongst some our menfolks, macho never left. I don't want our men to be wimpy but macho can be somewhat wearing on the nerves. The pressure to be macho is a hardship for some of our little boys who have more gentle dispositions. Why can't men be allowed to just be themselves?

St.Louis and New York have their electricity back (as of this morning) so that may alleviate some of the heat related suffering. Our neighbors in California have lost lives and continue to suffer the heat, although the news claims relief is in sight.

Houston and inland for a ways is slated for more liquid sunshine. One area has received 7 inches of rain these past few days, other 2 to 3 inches. Ofcourse, as is normal, Houston gets flooded here and there every time the weather angel spits. The Chronicle featured a man from Utah filming a "flooded" street, amazed at so much rain. Hah! The water was scarcely up to the hubcaps!! He thinks THAT'S a FLOOD!! If he stays here long enough, he may see rain over the tops of tractor trailer trucks and the freeways inundated in places. Days of rain are not to be cursed, however. We are behind normal rainfall and we need it; also, it has kept us cool during the heat wave. I dashed to the store on my scooter during a short break in the rain and was so cool I wore my sweats. (Sorry, Ann. I know that's cruel when you have been so punished by heat). But I'm old and get cold easily; poor circulation and all that.

Our own good friend and blogger, Marty On the Homefront, http://martyonthehomefront.blogspot.com has received the honor of having her blog posted on the Iraq Afghanistan Veterans Association (IAVA) website. http://www.iava.org/index.php?optionfiltered=com_content&task=view&id=1757&Itemid=142 The site publishes daily, so go to page 2 (bottom of page,click on number) and look for post "On The Homefront". Depending when you access the site, it may be moved to page 3. Congratulations, Marty !!
Marty has a son in Iraq and I have a grandson there; both are on their second tours of duty in Iraq. Both Marty and I support the IAVA and recommend that others support it too, as a means to support our troops. The organization offers a great deal of help and support to our military men and veterans.

Granny and I like to welcome new visitors to our blog. We have a new visitor whom we hope will visit often and become a friend. He is a new kid on the blolgging block, so to speak, and has entered only one post so far. We'd like to encourage him to continue, so please pay him some visits. He writes about our common humanity and in defense of the children victimized by the wars on MiddleEast. Check him out at http://dory-middleast.blogspot.com (that's right - two e's in title, one e in url). Email: dory.azar@gmail.com WELCOME, DORY.

Re: previous post about the heat and reference to Granny's water cooled unit. An emailing reader asked me what it was. Now, friends, readers. visitors, lurkers - whomever you may be -
do not ask me anything even remotely connected to technology. Ask PT. He posts on air conditioning machines and I'm sure he knows exactly what and how and why those units are and operate. He can be found at http://rovingellipsis.blogspot.com , still whittling.