On pets, and death.

We recently lost one of our beloved pets Pudgy the cat to a genetic illness. We were of course saddened by the loss. We will miss hearing her purr above our heads as we began to try to sleep at night. We "owned" her for around thirteen years. Although seriously I would say she owned us. We fed her upon demand, changed her litterbox twice weekly. Kept her water dish full. We would drop what we were doing to stop and pet her and gently rub her under her chin. In return she would purr. Or sometimes clean our hands with her tongue. We mostly miss the purr. It was a soothing bedtime ritual that she did over and over for at least ten years. Were time travel possible, I would go back in time. Sneak into our bedroom at night and record an hour of that purr to play at night as I climb into bed. We have three other cats. All wonderful pets, loving and purring almost on command. If you could command a cat to do anything that is. They are not known for their servitude. Each has a different personality, each special in their own way. None that will do the things Pudgy did for us. When we invest emotions in a creature that will only live at best a quarter of our lifespan, I suppose we should not complain. Of course geneticists are working on this. Experiments with mice have shown that slowing the aging process is a serious possibility. Although maybe it was the short and precious nature of Pudgy that made her so special to us. Isn't life made more precious a gift when it is finite? Would that purr be less special were it to last our entire lifetime? I suppose we will never know. There are those who have told us that we will meet her again in heaven. Which seems a silly thing to say. Would heaven for a human be the same as heaven for a cat? If cats love to catch and eat birds would there be birds in cat heaven? Would that be bird hell then? We cannot but wonder what sin a bird commits to be sent to a hell filled with hungry cats. Pooping on a freshly washed car? The point is of course that we will miss our Pudgy. She is buried out in the yard near her father Columbus who we lost last year. And on the property we have also buried our cat Bearman. And our Iguana Saura. All lived a good life with us. Or least as good of a life as we were capable of giving them. And over the years we will stop and remember them when we pass the spots where they were interred, although nature has probably long ago rendered those others back into it's embrace. And some day nature will do the same to us. We can only hope that we are remembered in as fond a manner. So it goes.

The Meaning of Life...

    Someone asked us recently. What is the meaning of life? The person asking was religious. What denomination is unimportant. They had tied the meaning of their life to their religion.And felt that without religion life had no meaning. And it's true that being religious can impart meaning to someones life. But the point is of course that the person who has the belief is imparting the meaning. And that's true of all of us. The meaning of life is different for each individual. Some of us may never find the meaning to our lives. Some find it quickly and easily. But it's not the same for everybody. We suspect it's not going to be the same for anybody. Although we all have the same needs, wants and desires. (with some variation, but they are almost universal.) How we define those wants and desires make us all different. Just a short note to point out that if you have found the meaning of your life, good for you. But you can't impart that meaning onto someone else. It wouldn't have the same meaning for them as it does for you. Personally this writer believes the meaning of life is to live it. To keep learning. To find as many answers to as many questions as is possible. It keeps us busy anyway. Ciao for now.

Granite monuments and religious fervor.

Doing some research recently on the Ten Commandments. And found a few interesting facts I thought I would share. First of course we have to define what the Ten Commandments are. The most common belief is that they are the commandments brought down from the mountain by Moses in the old testament. Of course there are different versions of what he brought down. The Catholics remove the graven images one. (Clearly as they have all those statues of Mary) The King James version differs from the Torah version. Mostly in small detail. But it's clear they are different. There are 613 laws in the Bible, the Ten Commandments are taken from these. In one version of the story Moses brings down 40 commandments, not just the 10 that most rabbinical or christian religions believe in. But what I wanted to know was where did all those granite monuments standing in front of public buildings in the United States come from? I discovered we have Cecil B. Demille to blame for that. Apparently as a publicity stunt for the release of his movie The Ten Commandments, he had a few built. And had the Fraternal Order of Eagles work to place them near government buildings. Yul Brynner attended one of the ceremonies. The F.O.E. continued to place another 2000 of them after Hollywood lost interest over the years. The Supreme Court was in two cases asked to reach a decision on whether they violated the constitution. In one case they said the monument was a violation of the constitution. (In Kentucky Mcreary vs ACLU of Kentucky) and had to be removed. (Which it was.) In another case they said that the monument could stay. (Van Orden vs Perry in Texas) But voiced some doubt in the statement by Justice Breyer that it served a "mixed but primarily non-reglious purpose." which he described as "borderline." So it behooves us to remember that when we see a Ten Commandment Monument in front of a public building. It was part of an advertising campaign in the late 50's for a hollywood movie.

And this is one of them. What a strange mixed up world we live in. Ciao for now.

The Winter of Eternal Suffering.

In the Upper Peninsula of Michigan it has snowed almost every day since April 1st. Nature has given us a clear April fools joke. We had a few weeks of good weather in March, the snow had almost all melted lulling us into believing spring had arrived. And then BAM! We are currently past record snowfall for April and it's only the 8th of the month. And we are expecting another 9 inches of snow by Monday. This writer loves the winter, and I find shoveling snow a peaceful and rewarding enterprise. But I have to say, enough with the snow already! I am looking out the front window and watching what would be light fluffy flakes floating down, turned into eye stinging chill producing arrows of crystal ice by the north wind. We live high up on a hill here in Ishpeming. And I swear nature says, "well they are closer to clouds, let's give them an extra deep dose of snow."   Still, it can be pretty. As this picture of our backyard shows.

During the month of March we watched the snow melt and thought, "hey lets use the nice weather to put that ramp on our front porch." Only to have a wet weekend of snow and rain mix. Looking at the snow now, I suspect we won't be doing that until May. Complaining about it is a pretty common thing to hear. Neighbors and strangers alike all talk about how they wish it would just end. All of my family and friends who are in the business of snow removal are simply overwhelmed. You can see them trudging to their trucks with scowls on their faces. Mumbling about "when is it ever going to" and "hell has got to be white." Don't get me wrong, I still like shoveling snow. I love the fact that you can see the results of your work instantly. And up here on the hill we get little traffic, so it's almost always a quiet job, filled with the "shush" sound of shovel and snow. But there are times.... after shoveling snow for 23 days straight for example. When the thought of a snowblower comes to mind. But then I just have to remind myself of how much time I spend sweating and swearing over a lawn mower that won't start and I think. "Hmmmnn... you know, shoveling isn't so bad." Anyway, my first full post to the blog since time, tide, and laziness has kept me from posting. Ciao for now.

We have been having a lot of discussion of religion on facebook recently. And thought that perhaps the blog would be a better place to discuss these ideas. As much as we love the public discourse it appears some of the things we say are found to be offensive. So perhaps here would be a better place to write such things. So I have reopened the crazy. And will begin posting at least weekly. If people are bored enough perhaps they will read it. Otherwise I'll just continue to post simply because of the cathartic effect. So coming soon. No... really this time. Ciao.

     We haven't posted here for a long long time, but thought with the recent news stories about Christian bakeries we should let our opinion be known. And of course since no one has probably read this in over a year we think we can print our opinion and nobody will comment. Cool huh! Ok, we've read the part in the Bible where it says that "Lying with mankind as with womankind is an abomination." and "of those that chew the cud or part the hoof you shall not eat of these." But we can't find the part where it says "Thou shalt not bake a cake for those that lie with mankind as womankind." We've done a pretty thorough search, can't find it anywhere. We also seem to remember something about not judging others. "There is only one law giver and judge." and "Who are you to judge your neighbor?" So it seems pretty clear to us. If you are religious, God want's you to leave the judging to him. If you believe that he is all knowing and all seeing then he pretty much should know what's in your heart. So go ahead and bake the cake. If there is any sin being done we doubt it falls on you for putting a couple of plastic guys (or women) holding hands on a cake. Just saying.

On freedom of speech and political correctness.

Recently we have all been victims of a social blitzkrieg. Every news channel is showing the
tale of Phil Robertson and the A&E Duck Dynasty media attack. We are being asked to choose
sides from a possibly homophobic religious rich man, to a freedom of speech hating   
corporation without a heart. In paraphrasing the bible Mr Robertson made it appear as if he
is comparing being gay with partaking of beastiality or perhaps being incredibly
promiscuous.  We suppose being brought up believing that homosexuality is a sin, could lead
one to assume that possibilty. On the other hand A&E is taking a clearly political stand and
putting Mr Robinson on "haitus." We have been perusing the message boards and chat rooms to
get a feel for what people are saying. First of all there seem to be a lot of angry people
out there. Discarding the nutcases.. (Of which there are plenty) we find that the majority
of rants were of a freedom of speech nature, (with a little dash of freedom of religion
thrown in for flavor). On the other side of the coin were people who were offended that
they could be lumped in with the rampant bestiality crowd. (Have you ever seen them, they
hang out at Walmart.) We could also understand why they could be a bit disconcerted. (Read
pissed off.) by this comparison. How do we feel about it. Mr Robertson may say whatever he
wishes and in a free country he has a right to his opinion. A&E, (a private company) has a
right to air whatever views they deem acceptable. It is not a free speech issue as the
religious right would have us belief. While Mr Robertson is entitled to his views, they are
based upon his own religious idea of right and wrong. And therefor not the law of the land.
Our personal feelings about homosexuality notwithstanding, we have no right to dictate to
other people what sort of relationships they have. It's none of our business. And our
opinion on the rightness or wrongness of homosexuality are meaningless.  However, recently
many states attempted to pass laws making it illegal for any one other than one man and one
woman to marry. These laws are based on their belief that it is a sin to commit such an act.
Based upon their religious ideals. These laws are wrong, we are not a theocracy, congress
can pass no laws establishing a religion. Therefore these laws are unconstitutional. Period.
Argument over. Oh we apologize for the quality of the paragraph and sentence structure of the blog, we copied it from notepad and things went haywire. And as we are running against the clock we had no time to correct it. Ciao for now.

Busy, Busy, Busy... and then some.

Well, Thanksgiving is over. Now the hectic run to Christmas begins. We have been very busy here at The Crazy. It's amazing how much stuff you can cram into one day if you stick at it hard enough and long enough.  Haven't had time to discuss philosophy, or read about recent N.A.S.A. achievements. Did read an article by some extremist conservative who was upset that Wal-mart was selling anti capitalist posters. I just have to shake my head at that. Isn't it the height of capitalism to sell an anti capitalist anything?  Some people are just idiots I guess. It amazes me how many people are down on Wal-mart. Saying they don't pay their employees enough. How much should you pay a stock boy? I have friends and relatives working there, and they seem to be making a fair wage. (They don't complain about it anyway.) This is just a quick note to let you know that we will be posting as we can this month. But I have to say we are VERY busy. Haven't had time to take a healthy crap. (Is it ok to discuss bowel movements on a private blog?) Does mentioning  the human bodily function lessen the gravitas of our posts? Anyway got to go. Driving through the (relatively mild) snowstorm for an appointment in Marquette. If we have time we will post about the horrors of Christmas shopping. After all we are going to WALMART. (Take that you conservative and liberal extremists!) Ciao for now.

The Double Slit Experiment and we need an aspirin.

Ok, we're about to get all scientific on your asses. Let's discuss the double slit experiment. You know the one we mean. Where scientists fire a laser or bright light at a flat surface with two slits cut into it. The resulting pattern on the sensor placed behind the flat slitted surface (try saying that fast five times) registers the light and shows either an interference pattern (light and dark bands) or a solid light pattern, depending on how the result is measured. Apparently when we are watching, the light behaves as waves causing interference (resulting in light and dark bands) however when we are measuring it with a particle detector the light shows a solid pattern and appears as if it went through one of the slots (italics mine) What does this mean. We can think of only three things. One that our observation of the experiment causes a change to the outcome simply by viewing it. Two, that light itself changes when it knows it's being observed or measured. Or Three, the particles interfere with themselves and pass through both slits simultaneously. So what can we learn from all of this? Sadly not a lot. It appears as if our simply observing or measuring the location of the photons (or electrons in some experiments) alters their reality. If unobserved they act in a wave pattern, if observed they act in a particle pattern. This experiment is further confused by the fact that detectors placed at the slits will not change the nature of the observed light pattern and will act as if the particle passed through both slits simultaneously. So even though the detectors say the light passed through say the left slit. The resulting pattern will show that it in fact passed through both. Which should be a physical impossibility. What does it all mean? Are multiple dimensions at work here? Are we observing quantum proof that the universe is subjective to how we view it? If such is the case, can we alter reality at will? That would be interesting wouldn't it? Of course could you imagine the chaos resulting from billions of individuals each altering reality to suit their own needs? Scary though isn't it? Excuse us, we need an aspirin and a nap. Here is a photographic representation of the double slit experiment. Make of it what you will. Ciao for now.

What is time?

     The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines time as  " the measured or measurable period during which an action, process, or condition exists or continues" or "the thing that is measured as seconds, minutes, hours, days, years, etc."  Both these definitions are true. Neither one is very helpful (or satisfying) when discussing time. Our definition of time could be stated as "the inexorable pull of nature toward the destruction of self" which sounds pretty negative (if not suicidal) to say the least. But it is true that each moment we live is one less moment we will continue to exist, (at least in a physical state, we can make no assumptions about what happens after the destruction of our psyche.) Is the fact that time is fleeting our reason for focus in life? If we keep our awareness of the passing of time sharply in our mind do we at least in some small way slow it's passing. Or does the juggernaut of time simply carry us along in a mad rush to the end of our existence? We at The Crazy have felt time crawling slowly (being made to watch reality television can be a particularly painful time slowing event) or whiz by (it seems when we are enjoying ourselves in any way time seems to fly by at hypersonic speed). Sadly we may never know. One thing is certain. Time cannot be altered at will. The arrow of time moves in only one direction. Or so all past history seems to show. And though we are all time travelers none of us will ever be able to travel to the past (except in our minds of course) and relive those events.  Just a quick note on time. Ciao for now.

The Arrow of time.

     It seems time is passing quickly here at The Crazy.  We have been running around trying to get things done, but apparently it's a big circle we live in. On the other hand we recently had some friends over for a football game. And every one of us mentioned how time seemed to be going slowly. We wondered... was time actually going slower? Were we all caught in a whirlpool of the flow of time? Is that what we are, the flotsam and jetsam of time? Struggling in a vain effort to reach the far shore, when no shore actually exists?

     Why is it that sometimes time seems to slowly crawl from then to now, and other times it spurts forward in leaps and jumps? If we look back on our lives in the context of time, are the moments you remember most in your life the slow moments or the fast jerks of the rough waters of time? We are going to be doing some research on the meaning of time in our lives. If anyone has any memories or stories about how time has affected you, please be sure to post them in the commentary. We are going to look at time. From a social, artistic, and scientific point of view through the next few posts. We hope you find it interesting, we know we will. Ciao for now.

Re posting of our halloween post from last year. Just cause I liked it.

The Earliest haunts of man....

Happy Halloween everybody! We haven't posted here in a while, we've been busy. We've needed 26 hour days, but had to make do with 24. So we've been forgoing sleep to get things done. Anyway, it's All Hallows Eve, the time when ghosts and goblins walk the earth. So we thought we'd do a little history lesson for you. Ghost stories it seems have been told since man began telling stories. One of the earliest is a story told by Pliny the Younger who was born in 61 A.D. He recounts the tale of a haunted house in Athens. It seems to have all the elements that are with us today when discussing ghosts, chains, beckoning spirits, and a surprisingly calm young philosopher.. You can read it HERE.  This is far from the first mention of ghosts in literature, but it's fascinating to we here at The Crazy. Over a thousand years before Pliny the Younger wrote this narrative, the ancient Egyptians long held that ghosts were pretty much everywhere. And when the Pharoah Akenhaten died he was cursed by the priests to wander the desert forever as a ghost. The reason for the curse? Erasing many of the Gods from ancient Egypt and assigning ONE god to rule above them. The God Aten (the sun god) and surprise... guess who the sun gods sole representatives on earth were to be, Ankenhaten and Nefertiti of course. Many Egyptians claim to have seen the Ghost of Ankenhaten wandering the deserts of that country. Europe has too many ghost stories to quantify. You can't throw a rock anywhere in many European countries without it passing through (not hitting obviously) a ghost. So what about here at home, what are some of the earliest ghost stories of the America's? How about a ghost of one of the founding fathers? The Ghost of Benjamin Franklin has been sighted many times near the library of the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia (with some reports that his statue in front of the library comes to life and dances in the streets). How about pre american, The tale of Colonel Buck is one example. He condemned a supposed witch to death. On the gallows she was reported to have said. "Your lies have offended the almighty, He will help me take you life and leave my mark upon your grave." The story continues with the Colonel being frightened to death by her spirit that very afternoon. And her footprint is still seen on his grave. It looks sort of like a foot as seen in the photo at the top of this blog entry. (Ok, water stain maybe.)  And finally, there is one American ghost that has been seen and reported by First lady Grace Coolidge, Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands, Eleanor Roosevelt, and perhaps the strangest report comes from Sir Winston Churchill who upon returning naked from his bath found Abraham Lincoln sitting in front of the fireplace in his room. (We imagine President Lincoln was as surprised as Mr Churchill.)  And President Harry Truman wrote in a letter to his wife that the White house floors "popped and the drapes move back and forth."   Mary Todd Lincoln told friends that the ghost of Andrew Jackson stomps and swears up and down the halls of the White House. So Happy Halloween to all of you. And if you see Mr Lincoln, tell him thanks for us will you. Ciao for now.

Experiment and other things.

After our last post we had mentioned we would try being more observant in our daily journeys into the great wide public. Not much to report although we spent Saturday afternoon at a packed Wal-mart standing around waiting for people to move. Not sure if the population around here is increasing or everybody got paid that day. The place was packed, and people with carts full of stuff they probably didn't need were standing in line at every checkout. 22 of which were open (out of 25, we think). So we decided to take a walk in the local woods and decompress from what was a stress inducing crowd of people scrabbling to get their dollar ninety five pizzas.


    Our journey started here.

 Stopped to take a picture of the frozen puddle, leaves, water, and snow.

 Came around the bend and there was a row of cedars making a nice frost protected tunnel.

 Then the trail turned into poplars and maple and various deciduous trees. Kind of a neat canopy.

 The trail broadened, and some trees still held their green leaves. Don't know why.

 Ah... the road not taken. The one on the right dead ended and backtracking was in order. Still it was an interesting spot, using the panorama setting on the camera.

 Decided to go a little artsy on your collective arses. The snow on the rock looks like white flowers doesn't it?

 The sun came out and turned the orange leaves into a yellow blanket. All in all a nice walk.

 Last shot was the stone wall surrounding the C.C.I. Cottage. Just liked the contrast between the rock the metal fence and the leaves and trees in the background.

The walk was much more enjoyable than the day at Wal-mart, and it cost us no money. So this was a short tour of a trail out behind our neighborhood. Love living in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

Did you see what you think you saw?

What kind of person are you? Are you generally good? Or do you tend toward evil? (If such things as good and evil exist that is.) How observant are you? Do you remember every person you talked to yesterday? Could you describe them to someone? Recently a university study took place that showed exactly how unobservant we are. An actor would engage in conversation on the street with the "average" person. At some point during the conversation two men would walk between the actor and the "average" person carrying a door.. When the door was between the two the actor would be replaced with another actor, taller and dressed similarly but not the same as the first. Surprisingly 50% of the participants in the experiment failed to notice the change. (We know. We found that number alarming as well.) So.. What is happening here? Are we all that unaware of the world around us. Is observation subjective? We suggest to you that perhaps we go about our day while in a self induced state of numbness. If we really payed attention to the world around us would we see something different than we expected. Over the next few days we at the crazy plan on doing an experiment of our own. We will focus more intently on the world around us and see if we notice things that heretofore escaped our attention. We will let you know what happens. Just a short blog entry to start up the blog again. We also would like to point out that we will be trying very hard not to post blog entries of a political nature. Politics are a miserable business these days. And we are getting enough of that pretty much everywhere. Ciao for now.

Coming soon. The Crazy returns. How crazy? Wait and see.

Reprise of an earlier post.

We haven't a lot of time to post, it is the Holiday season after all, and we are busy running around buying things and cooking things and putting up decorations and mumbling incoherently to ourselves. So Forgive us for reprising an earlier post.

It's been a strange couple of days since we last posted, we have been very busy here at the crazy, and have had little time to work on the blog. Having said that, we should point out that even had we the time it seemed that we we didn't have anything interesting to write about. On the news side there was all the falderall over Sarah Palins new book which to us seemed as interesting as watching dust settle on our knick knacks. Our personal lives have taken an unusual turn, but were most definitely of a private nature. Someone has pointed out that our early television broadcasts have had the time to travel 80 Light years or 400 trillion miles or so from earth. So if they have the capabilities people (or spongoid microformal flexworms) in the alpha centauri system are watching 'Lost'. Near Zeta Reticuli whatever creatures may inhabit those planets are being subjected to 'The Brady Bunch' (We certainly hope they don't see it as an act of war.} The lucky creatures near Mu Arae if they have the equipment, (or possibly natural tv antenna eye stalks.) are viewing 'The Twilight Zone'. And finally near Pi Mensae they could be watching 'Howdy Doody', which gave us the strange idea that if the creatures that may exist near Pi Mensae were able to pick up TV signals but thought they were messages from God. Would we call that religion Howdyism, and would the members of that religion be doodyites? Forgive us, it's early in the morning and we haven't had our coffee yet.

Just a quick reprise to fill some space and allow us to continue our mad holiday scramble. Ciao for now.

It's been a while....

We haven't posted in almost a month, we are working on getting some respite care for ourselves, and more social engagement for our son Connal, If you have read these posts you will know he is what they call multiply impaired. And we feel it's important for him to be comfortable in other environments besides home. We certainly will not be around forever. And although we were told when he was a wee tot that he probably wouldn't live a very long life, he has fooled everyone and become a very hearty and healthy young man. So we have been busy, and had no time for posting on the blog. You'll forgive us I'm sure. At any rate, they say that time and tide wait for no man. Which is a true enough sentiment. As they used to say in newsreel footage from the old black and white cinema days, TIME MARCHES ON. And it certainly does, doesn't it? As we get older it seems that the world moves faster every day. Just as we learn to use the new technology, or a new cellphone, or computer, or gaming system. They come out with another one, that's faster, more colorful, and more user friendly. Unfortunately we are still using the Human 1.0 operating system. Although technology has moved along at a furious pace, humans have not. We still kill each other on a whim, we still fight wars over misinformation and innuendo. We can even send unmanned drones over to do the dirty work, thereby relieving ourselves of the immediacy and horror of killing. Psychiatrists have dissected the human psyche, into ego's and id's and any myriad of motivations and stimulus responses. Philosophers have tried to look at the soul of humankind (if there is such a thing) for centuries. Trying to separate good and evil through the sieve of the unconscious mind. We have tried to improve ourselves through eugenics, (see Nazi Germany to understand how that turned out.) And Transcendental Meditation. Through Religion and Drugs. And it seems that we are still Human 1.0. Some of us here at The Crazy believe that education, and the quest for knowledge is the key to bettering the Human machine. Some of us believe that it's hopeless and we will eventually destroy ourselves. This writer believes that someday we will leave this planet and explore the stars. And that is where the key to the future lies, in the quest for understanding the universe. Some of us feel that someday, someone, perhaps a philosopher, or a scientist, or even heaven forbid a psychiatrist, will find the key that unlocks the door to Human 2.0 or at least Human Beta test 1.5. We can only hope. Just a quick note to get a little philosophical thinking off our chests. Whatever you do, do it well. And as a great musical philosopher once said. "Enjoy every sandwich." That's about it, ciao for now.

Save yourselves, we are beyond hope.

If you can read this... please tell someone. We are being held captive by a device so insidious.. so powerful.. that we are incapable of escaping it's clutches. It sits quietly in our living room. Innocently showing us it's blank face... until evening. Then the ON switch is thrown. And suddenly we are under it's power. The bright lights and enticing sounds draw us to the sofa. And we sit, and watch as it endlessly shows us images of others living fantastic lives. With sweeping drama, exciting action, and powerful stories of people who in most cases never existed, and never will. And still we sit. Sometimes it shows us products and services that we can buy for one low payment. And occasionally, (Just occasionally mind you.) it teaches us something about our planet, or our universe, or our history. But mostly it holds us in a trance like embrace. Truly, as Karl Marx once pointed out, religion was the opiate of the masses. But now, clearly, it's television.

  Certainly the television is a powerful opiate. It holds millions in thrall every day. Estimates are that 280 million people in the U.S. watch television every day. The population of the United States is 311 million or so. So the majority of us watch television at one time or another. The average American views between 5 and 7 hours of television daily.   And what do they watch? The most popular television show is currently The Big Bang Theory, (yes, we watch it here also) The next most watched. Dancing with the stars. (This surprised us here at The Crazy, as we find supposed "reality" shows to be full of horse hockey.)  Now these statistics are just for the United States. It's estimated that worldwide (Population estimate about 7 Billion People) that about 4.5 Billion televisions exist. And clearly more than one person is usually seated in front of a television. The number of people who watch television worldwide must exceed the number of televisions, so we at The Crazy will estimate 5 billion. (Seriously, no one really knows) Most television viewing takes place at night in America, so as the sun rises and sets, televisions are flipping on and off around the world. It's strange indeed to think that at any given moment billions of people are staring blankly at the brightly lit box we call a tv. Ahhh... but it get's more insidious than that. The first television screens were little black and white screens of 12 to 14 inches, and they were more round or oval than square. Now the average television in the home is increasing size by 10 inches a decade. And of course in color. Will we one day have an entire wall of our home devoted to one huge television screen? And what of the cultural damage? If our culture is decided by nightly television we are in major trouble. By the age of eighteen the average American has seen 200.000 acts of violence on television. And clearly problem solving will be effected, after all huge problems are solved in 1 hour nightly on television shows. Has anyone else noticed that each generation is moving faster, texting, emailing, blogging, (damn bloggers should all be shot...heh heh heh) we at The Crazy have noticed that the upcoming generation talks faster than the previous one.  And expects things to happen for them yesterday. What other result can come from a daily dose of seeing all the problems of the world solved in one hour? Certainly there are billions smart enough to know that what happens on television rarely has any real meaning in the real world. But as the population grows and many of the young become disenfranchised, disillusioned, and generally discombobulated, what will the final outcome be? We hope you see our point. Now excuse us, we have to go and set our DVR, there's a show we don't want to miss coming on later. Save us if you can.  Damn.....

    We have to give credit to the Book "Strange Wine" by Harlan Ellison for helping to form our ideas about the evils of television. We recommend the book, and the article titled "What killed the Dinosaurs and you don't look so good yourself."

The Earliest haunts of man....

Happy Halloween everybody! We haven't posted here in a while, we've been busy. We've needed 26 hour days, but had to make do with 24. So we've been forgoing sleep to get things done. Anyway, it's All Hallows Eve, the time when ghosts and goblins walk the earth. So we thought we'd do a little history lesson for you. Ghost stories it seems have been told since man began telling stories. One of the earliest is a story told by Pliny the Younger who was born in 61 A.D. He recounts the tale of a haunted house in Athens. It seems to have all the elements that are with us today when discussing ghosts, chains, beckoning spirits, and a surprisingly calm young philosopher.. You can read it HERE.  This is far from the first mention of ghosts in literature, but it's fascinating to we here at The Crazy. Over a thousand years before Pliny the Younger wrote this narrative, the ancient Egyptians long held that ghosts were pretty much everywhere. And when the Pharoah Akenhaten died he was cursed by the priests to wander the desert forever as a ghost. The reason for the curse? Erasing many of the Gods from ancient Egypt and assigning ONE god to rule above them. The God Aten (the sun god) and surprise... guess who the sun gods sole representatives on earth were to be, Ankenhaten and Nefertiti of course. Many Egyptians claim to have seen the Ghost of Ankenhaten wandering the deserts of that country. Europe has too many ghost stories to quantify. You can't throw a rock anywhere in many European countries without it passing through (not hitting obviously) a ghost. So what about here at home, what are some of the earliest ghost stories of the America's? How about a ghost of one of the founding fathers? The Ghost of Benjamin Franklin has been sighted many times near the library of the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia (with some reports that his statue in front of the library comes to life and dances in the streets). How about pre american, The tale of Colonel Buck is one example. He condemned a supposed witch to death. On the gallows she was reported to have said. "Your lies have offended the almighty, He will help me take you life and leave my mark upon your grave." The story continues with the Colonel being frightened to death by her spirit that very afternoon. And her footprint is still seen on his grave. It looks sort of like a foot as seen in the photo at the top of this blog entry. (Ok, water stain maybe.)  And finally, there is one American ghost that has been seen and reported by First lady Grace Coolidge, Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands, Eleanor Roosevelt, and perhaps the strangest report comes from Sir Winston Churchill who upon returning naked from his bath found Abraham Lincoln sitting in front of the fireplace in his room. (We imagine President Lincoln was as surprised as Mr Churchill.)  And President Harry Truman wrote in a letter to his wife that the White house floors "popped and the drapes move back and forth."   Mary Todd Lincoln told friends that the ghost of Andrew Jackson stomps and swears up and down the halls of the White House. So Happy Halloween to all of you. And if you see Mr Lincoln, tell him thanks for us will you. Ciao for now.

The Goblins will getcha if you don't watch out!

     Here it is, mid October and we still haven't discussed Halloween. We here at The Crazy love Halloween. (Or All Hallows eve, or Samhain,) This night (October 31st) was thought by the Ancient Celts to be the night when the spirits of the dead were released to roam the earth. The Celts would build bonfires, and dress in costumes (usually animal skins and antlers) they would burn food and animals in an attempt to placate these spirits, and also to predict the future. The holiday was mostly about the ending of summer and the beginning of the long dark winter. The Celts would extinguish their hearth fires early in the day. After the festival of Samhain (pronounced sow-in) was over, they would relight their hearth fires from the sacred bonfire to insure their protection in the coming winter. When the Romans conquered the Celts they also added parts to what has become our Halloween celebration. The Roman goddess Pomona (that's right Pomona, get over it.) the Roman god of fruits and trees, was incorporated into the Celtic Samhain tradition. (Perhaps where bobbing for apples came from?)
     On May 13, 609 A.D. Pope Boniface the IV, dedicated the Pantheon in Rome to all christian martyrs, and all Martyrs day was established, by the 700's A.D. the date was moved to November 1st. (Some say November 2nd)  and became All Saints day. The day before this event was designated All Hallows Eve.
     In some cultures the Night of All Hallows Eve was considered frightening, if not a dangerous time to walk abroad, as the spirits of the Dead may come and drag you away with them. Many cultures began wearing masks to walk about on this night so as to fool the spirits into thinking you were one of them. Somehow on the American continent the night also became about vandalism. And it wasn't until the 1950's that the traditional Halloween became a time for Family, celebration and trick or treating. It was thought that if you gave treats to the costumed folk who came to you door you could avoid the vandalism. In early America parades were organized and people began giving out food on the parade routes. Which over the years evolved into the current door to door sugar coma inducing event we now see.  Originally in early European cities food was placed in bowls on the doorsteps to placate the wandering spirits. (It's our guess here at The Crazy that many of these "wandering spirits" were starving folk who saw an opportunity for a meal.) Sadly for many of us, it seems that Halloween is slowly being eradicated. The traditions that started the holiday are steeped in superstition. And sadly many American cities are slowly shortening Trick or Treating to a few hours before dusk. How many of us remember going door to door till the wee hours of the morning trick or treating? If someone left their porch light on and their pumpkin lit they were fair game no matter what time of the night it was. 
     One interesting point about Halloween. It seems that the Jack-O-Lantern was originally carved out of a turnip. When many Irish immigrated to America in the 1800's they would carve out turnips in remembrance of Stingy Jack a man who trapped the devil in an apple tree. You can read the story HERE .They discovered the Pumpkin was much easier to carve and the current Jack-0-Lantern was born. So Happy Halloween to those of you who still love the oldest holiday still widely celebrated in America. Be sure to wear your mask when you go out. You never know if that shadow standing in the trees is a wandering spirit looking for someone to drag back to the land of the dead. That's about it, Ciao for now.