Sugar Industry Garbage

I really am not paying attention to the sugar industry, realizing that my cakes and cookies just would not taste right without the real thing even while realizing that working conditions for those poor people are often quite lamentable. However, I am baffled at bizarre efforts to involve me in Afro-Cuban activism in this regard. I vaguely remember that when I was a reporter in Central Florida, that a co-worker Sheryl Rubin was obsessed with that issue, having previously worked at the newspaper in Clewiston. I vaguely remember Sheryl saying some things about that but that was her issue. I wouldn't want to step on her territory. I vaguely remember one day years ago when I took the scenic route home from Haines City and was driving along some little country road and saw a farm building on the side of the road with a huge sign on the front which included the word: "Calkins." I was quite surprised to see the exact spelling of my own name and yet I am not related to those people and have no idea who they are. I did not stop to find out what that was about. No one in my family has ever been involved in the sugar industry and/or farming in Central Florida so it would be ridiculous to imagine myself having any connection to that, just as it would be ridiculous to imagine myself related to the Olympic swimmer Tracy Caulkins. I realize that the sugar industry has its problems because I read some articles somewhere but I was never among the reporters who were following that. I also hate sports so obviously I was never interested in sports reporting. Thus, it makes no sense to cast me in that drama when I have no clue. Yes, I was fired by Max partly because Sheryl wanted to be in charge but she really does not know anything about me.

Time Travel Drugs

Yes, that was so weird, all that stuff about the Tudor cousins, Queen Elizabeth I and the Catholic Mary Queen of Scots, who earned the nickname "Bloody Mary" because she put so many people to death during her brief reign, before she was ousted and replaced by her Protestant cousin. It is possible that the McClellans of the 16th century were acquainted with the Royals and yet this bizarre ranting of yours proves only that Stacy and her crew are definitely on some sort of drugs. I have no Catholic cousins that I know of, certainly none named Mary. I have always been Protestant and yet it is my Dad's cousin whose name is Elizabeth and she is really not a Protestant now. My grandparents were living in Throckmorton in 1930, according to census data, and yet we have no idea of Sir Walter Raleigh or why we should take special note that he secretly married Elizabeth Throckmorton, who was a servant of the queen's. So I just don't get it. These things are a matter of historical record and yet they have nothing to do with me. My grandmother's name was Strickland, a family that may have been somehow connected to Mary, and yet this has nothing to do with me. Our Strickland ancestors doubtless came to America to distance themselves from all of that Catholic hysteria. No insult intended to the Stricklands of UK, but we really do not see any reason to reconnect or bridge back to all of that ancient history. It just gets ridiculous. It is not who we are. Besides, time travel is really not possible technically or technologically speaking. We mortals are bound by time and space and only God can see beyond these perimeters. I remember having this discussion about time travel with Cori and she was furious that I refused to believe that time travel is possible. I still disbelieve it, even if there was some seeming rationality to the idea. I think that we only have one life and that's all we get. That is how God made this world. Someone really should remind Cori of this point but then I suppose that whatever I said about that got mangled and turned around in reverse just like everything else I ever said.

Non-Relatives

It is interesting to note that there is one Italian branch of our family and only because Dorothy Barth married an Italian man so all there children have an Italian. However, we are probably not related to them because they never speak to us directly, only send their vile Italian Catholic mafia dogs to prey on us from to time. I wonder when they will finally get a clue that we are not interested in converting to Catholicism and thus dumbing down to their level of stupid. One does needs feel sorry for these stupid Catholics who don't know any better but we know better so we don't need their stupid chatterboxes cluttering our lives. We are better off without all these stupid Catholic bitches ruining everything, thanks anyway.

Was it Riley or Raleigh?

The Irish are fond of referring to a life of ease as the "Life of Riley" but are they really talking about Sir Walter Raleigh? I really have no idea. I never thought about this before. I never thought of myself as living an easy sort of life, myself being for one thing neither Irish to any overwhelmingly great degree nor male so the saying does not apply to me. And even if I did have an easy life, who is to say I enjoyed it at all when the entire time I was forced to pay for it with money I did not have, at the sacrifice of all personal relationships, career achievements, and any other dignity of a human sort, always forced to wallow in feelings of guilt and remorse that I am not allowed to dismiss as if I were a dog being trained by a slave master? I rather think that Reilly's opinion would thus be entirely irrelevant and not applicable to my circumstances and I see less reason than ever to feel sorry for these little chatterbox monsters. Anyway, even though Raleigh's gestures curried great favor with the queen he was beheaded later so maybe there is really nothing to worry about.

More Name Jokes

We are asked to feel sorry for poor little Ima Stone, one of the persons listed on the roster of ridiculous names which was distributed by someone. I don't remember where that came from. It was just there, not seeming like a real person, just an abstraction unrelated to the real person bearing a lifelong joke, when you put it that way. I cannot imagine what the life of the real Ima Stone might have been like but she was not alone. There were quite a few other names on the list as well, not that I would know anything about that.

Unbelievable

It is unbelievable to me that anyone would question the relevance of my commentary even if your personal beliefs are somewhat different than mine. The United States is still majority Protestant and/or non-Catholic and also non-Latin in culture so what I said makes perfect sense to me. And where is my missing paycheck for dropping everything to answer all your idiotic questions? I am not your slave, after all.

Name Games

I really have no interest in encouraging these silly name games. Of course someone other than myself set that up because obviously I am a human being and not a vegetable of any type, not even a stalk of sugar cane to be axed. Sorry if I am not laughing but I just think it's ridiculous to slaughter my name as an example of name jokes of which I was not the original author and thus undeserving of such violent reciprocity. I remember in high school remarking very matter-of-factly in conversation on the phenomenon often observed in Latin culture of Spanish males who are named Jesus, as for example the boys' physical education teacher/soccer coach who was often overheard in conversations called "Don Shus" but actually his first name appears printed in the yearbook as "Jesus." So does that make the Hispanic male some sort of deity? No, obviously not. No one believes that. The girl I was talking to seemed surprised to see the name of "Jesus" in the yearbook so I was just explaining how that likely happened. Of course, we English-speaking people think that is sort of weird. We would never do that to our children. However, that often happens in these Latin cultures although some have said probably more in the lower classes or among persons of the "popular" Catholic religiosity who actually not properly educated in religious matters. Anyway, it is often hard to explain how people get stuck with all these weird names. The variety of name jokes is endless. There was a list that was passed around years ago but I don't have it handy at the moment. However, it is true that this phenomenon of persons named Jesus is mostly unique to Latin culture where religious devotion is often given to these dramatic displays of hysterical excess. I probably could have explained about Jesus better than that but it was hard to get a word in edgewise with these little chatterboxes.