Winding Down The Week...
Yep, closing in on that elusive weekend with another nice day in the Heartland - temps supposed to reach into the high 70s today, and continuing into the weekend (don't count out those vegetables in the garden just yet, folks).
And it looks like I might be spending a little chunk of the morning mowing the front lawn (hopefully for the last time this year).
We'll save the side lawn for the weekend (that's the issue with a CORNER property...lotsa lawn...lol)
And the answer to yesterday's "WHO SAID THAT?" quote is OLIVER CROMWELL (1599-1658) - "Not only strike while the iron is hot, but make it hot by striking." (WTG, CWM...staying awake in history class DID pay off...lol)
Anyway, let's get this show on the road, shall we?
*** I've been thinking about the whole prohibition thing since the Ken Burns film aired this past Sun-Tues, and "if" something like this were to happen TODAY, I honestly don't know which side of the fence I'd be sitting on.
I do enjoy a drink from time to time, and yet I don't miss NOT having it available.
I don't "need" it to survive or even exist.
There are times when I can honestly claim that it takes me long enough to polish off a six-pack (of Guinness or Sam Adams) that the bottles have accumulated a bit of DUST on them.
Ditto for the harder liquor - It will take me the better part of a YEAR to empty a bottle of scotch.
So, I'm a cheap date, right?
No, but I always DID know how to "nurse" a drink, especially when you had to pay BY THE GLASS (or bottle).
Like anything in life, it's always best to SAVOR the moment (or the beverage).
Everything I have in our house that is a "potent potable", is NOT meant to be guzzled, but rather sipped, and I think that's where a lot of people get off track. They don't know HOW to enjoy something...anything...everything.
To them, it's consume...then consume some more.
Bet they couldn't tell the difference between a LAGER beer and a PILSNER, let alone the brand...even by sight.
If I were living in the prohibition era, I sure would have STOCKED UP ahead of time, and yes, that would have made me a "law-breaker", but given the manner that the 18th Amendment was enacted and how it was pursued, I think any REASONABLE American would have seen it for what it truly was.
Government intrusion into the "home" for the sheer sake of doing so, is NOT what this nation is about (or ever should be).
Now, I've spent my share of time in bars of ALL types...and for a lot of different reasons.
My Dad used to take me to the tap-room when he played darts, and I sat on a bar chair sipping my coke (felt like a real man, too...and all at 6-7 years old). But that was OK to do. Mom knew Dad wouldn't get sh*t-faced with ME in tow, and I would get some free sodas from Dad and the other guys there (nice little angle I had going on). Everyone made out fine.
Dad was pretty much a beer drinker, but he would have a Manhattan once in a while...or a boilermaker.
Mom liked sloe gin and 7-up, or mixed cocktails, but would have a beer now and then.
Never saw mom get wasted, either. In fact, she could drink Dad under the table (on a dare).
Dad would get toasted every now and then, but he was a "happy drunk", and always fell the hell asleep...LOL.
I guess you could say I got lucky there...coulda been a helluva lot worse.
Dad would wander in from the bar, humming to himself, and Mom's radar was at full power. She read him the "riot act" and then that was it...they went to bed. Never saw dad with a hangover either...I tell you, that's just not normal.
I did my share of "over-imbibing", too, and paid the price for it by "driving the porcelain bus" on more than a few occasions. That wonderful "technicolor yawn", as we used to call it. You just want to die...you feel that bad.
But, after enough attempts to prove that you "think" you can handle anything that sits on the bar (and failing marvelously), you "get the hint"...
Drinking is not the "career choice" you thought you wanted, so you refrain. And rightly so.
I admit to driving while impaired many, many years ago, and got away with it (meaning, I was never pulled the hell over).
And you LEARN from that, too.
After all, a car is a pretty big "investment", and you really don't want to see it wrapped around some light pole or in a lot more pieces than what took to build the damn thing, because of YOUR OWN stupidity, so...so "back off the booze".
You can do a lot of other stupid things in life WITHOUT amending it with alcohol, so why add insult to (possible) injury, eh?
So, I guess I would have to say that I would have been opposed to prohibition, as long as people could find better ways to POLICE THEMSELVES.
Yet, even today, we find such is not the case...people just don't give a flying coital involvement.
All the things Prohibition was meant to eradicate continued during that era, and are still with us today.
Thankfully, we DO have programs that help those in need of help, such as AA (founded in 1935, and basically a redo of the old Washingtonians, who abstained from alcohol).
But, too many folks still insist on getting sh*t-faced, and always with the same predictable results.
Several hundred thousand people every year are victims of drunk-driving in some manner, either directly or indirectly, and the costs associated with such imbibing are part of the reason our insurance costs are so damn high.
Domestic abuse is often the result of someone drinking, as are many homicides, assaults, rapes, and the like.
Just the other day, we had a stabbing here (of a white man by a black man) in Ft. Wayne, resulting from an "argument".
Here's the link to the story:

http://www.journalgazette.net/article/20111006/LOCAL07/310069970
Now, forgive me for pressing logical thinking and civil behavior here, but USUALLY, two REASONABLE PEOPLE can pretty much come to terms in most any argument and arrive at some common ground...or they can just walk the hell away from it.
Add a bit of hooch into the mix, and the smallest of disagreements easily escalates into one of the other pulling a weapon of some sort and using it.
Now, I'm not saying this stabbing on Tuesday was "alcohol-fueled", but it has a damn good probability of being so.
I know that it's not all that easy to deal with a drunk, especially if they're a "stranger".
Just Ask Momma Fargo...hell, she finds the "picks of the litter" when she rolls up to a D&D situation (drunk & disorderly and NOT dungeons & dragons...LOL) They can be confused, all-loving, combative, lethargic, schizo, passed out...or a combination of ALL the aforementioned.
And they can change demeanor in a heartbeat.
Those are not "happy" drunks...not one bit.
I drink because I can...and because I like the taste of certain liquors and the combinations.
I knew enough bartenders (in several countries) that I enjoyed the ability they had to make mixed drinks.
I do practice Ben Franklin's edict: Everything in moderation - nothing in excess, and that works for me.
Others...not so much.
And it's even worse when DRUGS are added in.
We have one black guy that wanders about the streets (usually at night, when all the other weirdos show up), going from one house to another (where the f$ck does he live?) and he's "singing" ...sort of...and badly, too. can't tell if it's supposed to be a "rap" or not, it's that bad...and unfortunately LOUD.
Now Mr. "Tu-Putz" is someone that has no qualms about "sharing" his inebriated or stratospheric feelings...with everyone, but the thing is, no one else seems to think it's bothersome.
Well, guess what? To THIS transplanted Philly guy...IT IS.
I did pass this information along to the FWPD quadrant captain...for all the good that will do.
What I do know that if he EVER becomes confrontational with me (when HE'S the one being a asshat), I will end him where he stands.
If this person cannot find the self-restraint and self-control to whoa-up his action, I certainly am not going to be the recipient of his boisterous activities.
You wanna get stoned out of your mind?
Fine, do it SOMEWHERE ELSE, like at whatever crib you're crashing at these days.
Let your "government-sponsored baby-mama" deal with it, and stop acting the fool ON THE DAMN PUBLIC STREETS.
Then again, IF we had POLICE PATROLS to look for stuff like this, he'd have been "rolled" before this became a regular activity around here.
It's when people who have little control of themselves when SOBER take to have even LESS control after a few drinks of some tokes on a blunt.
It's not an alcohol problem, or even a drug problem at this point.
It IS...(altogether, gang)...A PEOPLE PROBLEM.
And when we (as a society) start seeking the root cause and treat THAT, instead of the symptoms, things will begin to be better for everyone, including the drunk or the stoner.
But having the government "do it for us", is not the answer. Their job is to run the nation...not our lives.
That alone can be the biggest challenge for them...AND for us.
Be well, make a difference to someone, and...
Stay safe out there, America.