Just heard a news report. Joe is over in Japan. What great news. Maybe he will like it there and stay.
Most likely wishful thinking. Such good things rarely last. Still, we can dream.
Author Archives: bfrhodes99
Possible Solution for Robocalls or Telemarketers
- Check caller ID. If not recognized, don’t answer.
- When phone stops ringing, call back. If busy, it is likely robocaller or telemarketer attempting there next call. If they answer, if it is a business they will likely answer with 1. A recording 2. A business reply identifying their business 3. Some poor college kid might reply with no idea what to do. They generally are not trained to receive calls. Your choice as to what to do, most probably tell them to stop calling. Alternatively, you can simply hang up.
- Of course it could be Mom on a borrowed phone wanting some help. Apologize and tell her you’re on the way.
- If it is a telemarketer, refuse to do any business with them. It is the ultimate solution. If telemarketing doesn’t work, they will stop doing it. My guess is the phone companies will be the losers. They know when these guys set these things up & they know they are going to make a bundle on it. As. Long as the phone companies permit it, it will not stop, especially from foreign shores.
Food Deserts
I don’t know about where you live, but on the local news here, recently the news is carrying stories about “food deserts.” These are areas in Memphis where there is no food. No supermarkets exists in the desert. Those that want to shop for food must either go to a convenience store or go some distance to another part of the city.
I hope you won’t mind my borrowing a liberal term, but I suspect it is evolution. I suspect that the deserts just might be or have been high crime areas. Indeed, the areas without grocery stores are likely business deserts as well. I mean who wants to open a business in an unsafe area? It is not profitable. It is dangerous for employees, customers and vendors.
It does make me wander why they can find convenience stores. Well, they do charge more and they generally have less cash. Nonetheless, if they keep letting the criminals have their way, if they don’t start putting them behind those big walls, the convenience stores too, will disappear. They’ll fade away with all the past neighborhood markets
Evolution is not just survival of the fittest. Smartness, common sense and fiscal matters all figure into it too. It is likely why many come south of the stateline to do business, to eat, to go to school, and, in some cases, live. Northwest Mississippi is the fastest growing part of the state. My guess is that most of the new residents are from Memphis.
Just a shame that we have no way of filtering them. We have to let the libs settle here too. Notice I didn’t say dumb libs. That would be redundant. Hopefully, after a year or two, they will get smart. I mean, when we catch a criminal here, he goes to the hoosegow. Incidentally, no one here is calling for defunding of the police.
Some may find this strange but neither do we have food deserts. Oddly, you check the parking lots of the stores just south of the stateline, you will find many Shelby County car tags. Don’t mind that much. They are helping us pay for our law enforcement. They are helping us pay for our streets. Mostly, they are driving the value of my house up. Once or twice a week, I have an offer.
My guess is, not so many moving north. There won’t be until those “woke” people up there put the bad guys in jail and make it safe. Nothing brilliant about it. No need for a college degree. They have been doing it for centuries. Some are just stubborn. They insist on using the new unproven.
How Quickly They Fail
I was 5 the first time I saw a Sears store. It was also the first time I saw an escalator. Wow. Both were very impressive. The store was huge and it had moving stairs. I would have had a blast just riding the things up and down. I was totally impressed how the stairs all flattened and disappeared under floor.
I knew they had to go somewhere, but, to me it didn’t make any sense.
The store was in San Diego but I have seen many since. Not sure but I think it was in Chicago that the company built a huge building, which oddly, they called Sears Tower, I think.
When I first moved to Memphis, Sears had a big presence. Besides many large retail stores, they also had one of the biggest buildings in town. It’s a shame that it’s sat vacant for I don’t know how many years.
Sears is a small shell of what it was. I hate that. I did a lot of shopping there. My wife loved to do a lot of looking. We had a Sears credit card we used a lot.
However, one day the stores just started closing down. At first, it was one by one, then in bunches. I think there are but 2 or 3 retail stores in Memphis. They were on the brink of completely disappearing.
They weren’t alone in this. I’m not sure, but I can’t find a Woolworth’s anywhere. I think Montgomery Wards have pretty much disappeared from the landscape.
Let me explain. These used to be huge retailers. If there are any left, you must search for them.
Now we have Disney. They have parks all over the world. Everyone is convinced that they are here to stay.
If God desides, they will be no more than a memory in a decade. Givem the attitudes they have toward God, Jesus, the Christians and themselves, it would not surprise me. It would be a shame to destroy the man Disney’s memory like that. However, I would certainly understand it.
I’m not a prophet. Evev so, I am so tempted…. It does make me wonder what would replace it all. Would Disney World return to swamp or would someone turn it into housing projects? What would become of Disneyland and the surrounding hotels and restaurants? Just who would buy up Disney studios? Perhaps, for IRONY, a Christian company would buy them and make truly family friendly movies again, as Disney did. Perhaps he could make Christian oriented movies. One can hope.
Neutral Law Enforcement
During my thirties, my job took me to New York, just outside Syracuse. There’s a nice park there where I used to walk. It beat looking at the hotel room walls.
It was the right time of year and the evenings were almost always wonderful. There was a baseball diamond there and, of course, little leaguers playing baseball.
When I stopped and watched the game, they found out I was from Mississippi. They suddenly realized they found the perfect unbiased umpire. They immediately put me to work calling balls and strikes.
Apparently, they were impressed with my fairness, if not my accuracy. They kept calling me back and they never complained, not once. Now that, in itself, is something of which for me to brag.
The point is this, people love an honest neutral arbiter, whether it be an umpire, a judge in a courtroom, a prosecutor or even law enforcement officers. I guess that nowadays it’s too much for we Americans to expect. No more fair umpires in our government. No more fair observations from TV and radio reporters. There are no hopes of getting unbiased reporting from newspapers. Finally, and worst of all, the historians are twisting history. They say things happened I know didn’t happen. At my age, I actually remember stuff firsthand.
It makes me sad. However, I have hope. There is a righteous judge. All accounts will be settled. The most devious government officials will pay. I don’t need to do a thing. God’s judgment is true. God’s judgment is sure. No one will get away with anything. Those who don’t believe it are only deceiving themselves.
What amazes me is some actually think they know and understand it. Yet, definitely, they continue their march. I can’t think of anything more foolish.
All You Have to Do….
During a phone conversation, the young man was trying to sell me something. I don’t remember what it was. Maybe he was trying to get me to donate for something. It doesn’t really matter.
I do remember the last two things said. He said, “All you have to do is….”
I said, “I don’t have to do anything! ” I put the emphasis on the word have and hung up.
It seems to be, unfortunately a very overused very inaccurate phrase. When I was a private in the Marines, there were many things I had to do. When I was a child, there were many things I was required to do. Even today, as a citizen, as a driver, as a taxpayer there are things I must do. Last time I checked, as a potential customer, I don’t have to do anything other than pay for my purchases.
To be sure, there are things that are customary. There are things that are contingent. I mean, I do fill my own basket in a grocery store. Nowadays, I do my own scanning. Nowadays, I pump my own gas.
Before l can leave the store, I must make a valid payment. That is not just conventional but legal.
However, more and more these days I become angered when someone says all I need to do is….
It is wrong and it shows a wrong idea. As a customer, there are things reqired of me, to be sure. However, when this phrase is used, most of the time, it’s simply not true. It is very rare to be accurate by telemarketers and it is never appropriate for those representing charities.
Hence, unless a person wants to anger me, they should really avoid using the phrase, especially when not accurate. If on a phone the next sound they will likely hear is the click of a hangup. If in person, they will likely see me turn on my heel and leave. I’d suggest others do the same. Just maybe we customers might regain some of the control we deserve.
Just What We Will Know
Beware, artificial intelligence is coming.
In one of my books, a woman is doing battle with the authorities. She is convinced of something the police tell her is impossible. Actually, I guess it is not a new plot. However, as artificial intelligence becomes more intelligent, it also becomes more and more plausible, possible and likely.
Today, there are computers that can imitate our voices to the point we cannot recognize them from our own. Images, even videos can be done very convincingly, to the point we will doubt our own memories. We will be convinced that we were in places we’ve never been.
One day, you may receive a phone call that you will be convinced came from your son or daughter that is completely generated from 1s and 0s. It is a good reason to tell your child to remember a word or two that can be used that only the two of you know. Hopefully, you’ll never need it, but you might.
The computers will be able to convince us that people have done things they didn’t, uttered things that were never said, signed things we never signed. We are entering a brave new world in which we must doubt that which we hear or see. Unless we can hear or see that person who physically stands in front of us, the image just might be a lie, a deception, or a sham.
Indeed, you just might be put in the place of the woman in my book where you will know something, and no one will believe you.
Naturally, those most susceptible will be those with deep pockets. The purpose of the ruse will be to deceive the rich out of their riches. However, it will not stop there. It will be used to make politicians appear to say or do things they never said or did. It will make people holding positions in solid companies appear to flip their lids. It might even be used to convince folks they were in places they weren’t and all will believe because they will see the evidence on the video.
Of course, that can also work the other way. A murderer can use it to establish an alibi. A congressman can use it to pretend a visit he never makes. A horrible event never occurred.
I guess, to some degree, we are already there. I mean how many know of the burning and looting a short season ago. How many remember 9/11. Go ahead. Ask someone who was behind the destruction of the trade towers and the death of about 5,000 people whose only guilt was that they went to work that day. Already, the media has done what they can to rewrite that history.
Given a little artificial intelligence and they will be able to convince anyone that anyone did anything.
Fifty!
I am going to do something I rarely do. I’m going to get personal. Whenever possible, since we were married, I insisted that my wife scratch my back for a short time every day. It’s only fair considering what all I have put up with. (Read Newly Married post about burnt boiled eggs and grease fire.)
At any rate, come June 1, she will have been scratching my back for fifty years.
So. With your permission, I would like to publicly wish my better half an early happy anniversary. As a special treat for her, I’ll do my own backstretching on that day.
Thing is, I hope she will be scratching my back for a long time more. I really hate the idea of having to do it myself.
Ending With a Preposition
Under the rules of English, we are never to end a sentence with a preposition. Oddly, old though I am, I have been doing it all my life. Actually, most of us do. Many don’t know it…or care.
For those unaware, we should not say, “What did you do that for?” It’s more correct to say, “Why did you do that?”
Words such as to, with, for, on and the like are prepositions and, technically require objects, or a word immediately following it associated with it. For instance, in the previous sentence, I used it with with. (Careful how you read that)
Though I was taught in high school, I rarely paid it much attention. Near as I can tell, few ever noticed. Then I started writing, with a grammar checker. Seemed, every time I turned around, the grammar checker told me, “You can’t do that. It’s not proper. “
Many times, I welcome those suggestions. Other times I want to tell the smart Alecky thing to just stuff it.
I hate to admit it, but sometimes, I just can’t say what I want to say unless I end the sentence with to, with or one of those other little words. Well, I guess I could, but it would either be long or awkward.
I know there are those who adhere to this rule, but sometimes I think we need to take a vote. Time to eliminate it. At least they should make it a little optional.
For my aside, ever since I’ve been writing, it seems I’m getting more critical of others speech, which I really don’t much care for. (Please forgive the terminating for.) Nonetheless, there is one irritation I’ve developed that one irritant I believe to be valid. It seems folks do like to overuse “ing.” Why say hoping when you mean hope. Why say guessing when you mean guess. They truly do have separate meanings and I hear news reporters do it all the time. I’m not even sure it’s ever been addressed before. Ing is already a very common word ending. We just don’t need to add to them.
I’m guessing you can let me known what you all are thinking about it. I’ll be letting you.
Those Who Took The Oath
The investigation is done, it concludes that Trump did nothing wrong. That means those who took an oath to enforce the law, namely, the leaders in the FBI and other federal agencies were the ones who knowingly did great wrong.
It also verified that many of the dem congressional leadership intentionally used their office to promote lies, of course, with the aid of the media and social media.
Now, now that it is all over, the only people that are suffering are those who did nothing wrong. Indeed, some have even spent time in prison wrongly. Certainly Joe and his friends had their part in it all.
They know that they have gotten away with it. However, be sure God will avenge.
bfrhodes99 