Teal

Profile

Username:
tealstar
Name:
Teal
Location:
Matlacha, FL
Birthday:
09/26
Status:
Married
Job / Career:
Publishing

Stats

Post Reads:
294,573
Posts:
1116
Photos:
8
Last Online:
> 30 days ago
View All »

My Friends

2 days ago
> 30 days ago
> 30 days ago
> 30 days ago
> 30 days ago
> 30 days ago
> 30 days ago
> 30 days ago

Subscribe

Teal's Modest Adventures

Life & Events > Boring > Grumble, Grumble
 

Grumble, Grumble


Still on half life, trying to get strong enough to return to physical routines. Ed is better but coughing a lot and keeping me awake. May have to move to spare bedroom tonight. Cats doing okay with all this, but Brunswick hangs out with me, and Max does too, although he likes to hit me on the leg now and then to show me who’s boss.

My gtf , Nadine, also sick. I have stayed away from her so I know she didn’t get this from me.

Ed was going to teach a couple of Nadine’s friends, French-speaking, and very slow to assimilate language-wise, and he said he couldn’t consider it for another month and they have decided to wait for him rather than get another tutor through the literacy program. He refers to them as Nadine’s munchkins.

TV programming over the weekend was ghastly. Yet another rerun of all the Godfather movies and after you have seen them all 30 times each, they wear a bit thin and the music gets tiresome. Also, I liked the mystique of it to start with but each sequel got darker and more corrupt and dispiriting, and towards the end I was really turned off when, Vito, tired and weak and no longer foxy, dies on a park bench. Was that supposed to be a moral lesson? Lots of good guys die that way.

There was a lengthy history documentary about the Civil War and Sherman’s march through George that I was never really aware of. It seems that Sherman invented total war, which was to bring the war to the civilian population and break the spirit of the enemy. They marched through George all the way to Savannah, burning all war-related buildings and some others too because the soldiers got carried away, and foraging all the food from the locals because they were traveling light. Slaves helped them when they could, tipping them off to buried valuables, and a whole group joined the march. Sherman didn’t want this and wasn’t all that unbiased, but couldn’t say no. This was after Gettysburg so, basically, the war was already won by the Union, but the South kept fighting on and the idea was to stress them so badly by devastating a key state and making them worry about their families, that they would stop, and they did.

No wonder so many in the South still hate the north. But, of course, that would mean they really knew the history, and I highly doubt that they do. I think it is more sour grapes and ego than any specific knowledge of what really went on.

I asked Ed what the result would have been if the North had lost. He is incredibly well read in history. Ask him anything. He said we would be two countries , the Confederacy, and a Federal union, with two presidents. And we wouldn’t be living here, I said, and he said, you got THAT right.

The grammies were on and pre-empted CSI Miami, which, to my mind, was totally uncalled for. I didn’t watch them because I don’t give a rat’s ass about what recordings got a prize or not and what new hopeful is now on the way to super stardom.

I like movies a lot better and I don’t watch the Oscars either.

Maybe I’m writing all this because I’m still not up to snuff (whatever that means) and feel like growling. You are all, by now, familiar with my growls. Please indulge me for Valentine's day if no other reason.

Xx, Teal

posted on Feb 14, 2011 9:12 AM ()

Comments:

Oklahoma was not a state but people here were mostly transplanted Southern
people and so were Texans. Many joined the army and fought for the South.
The Cherokees were Confederates. Laura says I have a Southern accent but
I don't hear it.
comment by elderjane on Feb 15, 2011 12:38 PM ()
My older daughter became so enamored of The Godfather series back in her late teens that she began saying she wanted to be a Mafia Momma. I told her it was much sleazier than even that movie depicted it to be. Thankfully, she got through that stage.
comment by redimpala on Feb 15, 2011 9:02 AM ()
How weird is that? None of the women in that series had an easy time -- they were either abused, or disheartened, or cheated on. And the daughter was killed by her father's enemies, caught in the crossfire at the opera. Oh, yeah, what a life.
reply by tealstar on Feb 15, 2011 10:59 AM ()
The Grant/Sherman connection is historically interesting. Ask Ed.
I hardly watch anything on "network" TV, yet, it's a part of my DISH package. I heard that the Grammy winner of "new performer" was a gal jazz singer. Never heard of her, but then, I'm out of touch.
comment by solitaire on Feb 15, 2011 6:39 AM ()
Yes, the documentary said a lot about the Grant/Sherman friendship and how Grant helped Sherman out of a bad time and they were extremely loyal to each other. The march was Sherman's idea and Grant took a risk to sign off on it because it was so bold and had never been done before.
reply by tealstar on Feb 15, 2011 11:01 AM ()
Oh God yes. The most ignorant Southern person knows all the details of the
Civil War. The carpet bagging, the March through Georgia, and all the history. We have a whole vocabulary not known to Yankees. There were
so many mercenaries fighting on the Northern side that behaved despicably.
comment by elderjane on Feb 14, 2011 6:07 PM ()
I never thought of Oklahomans as typical southerners. Are you Oklahomans as militant as, say, those in Alabama and Mississippi about the Civil War? I hereby grant you special status as an honorary northerner.
reply by tealstar on Feb 15, 2011 11:03 AM ()
Feel free to grump. My human grew up in Macon, Georgia, smack dab in the middle of Sherman's march. Please be sure that folks there know that bit of history. "That's the 'new' courthouse," they say in the outlying towns, "that they built when Sherman burned the old one." There is a visible difference in the age of buildings within the strip of devastation and outside of it. Folks there still grump about Sherman, and yes, we apply the lesson--the Iraqis and Afghanis and a long list of other folks are still going to be hating America a century and a half from now.
comment by zillahkatt on Feb 14, 2011 12:45 PM ()
I am a cat. I hate no one who might feed me. Lots of folks where Human came from hate Yankees, though, and many more assumed an attitude of genteel superiority. I believe the economic devastation of that war still has its impact on anyone who lives in this part of the world, though.
reply by zillahkatt on Feb 16, 2011 8:37 AM ()
oh, ms. katt, do you hate the north?
reply by tealstar on Feb 15, 2011 11:04 AM ()
My favorite parts of the Godfather was the wedding at the very beginning, with that 1940s look to it and that bit in Havana. But like you, I've moved on, and they no longer hold my interest as much. I'm glad you're recovering!
comment by troutbend on Feb 14, 2011 10:43 AM ()
I love your posts whether you are grumpy or not. I have never seen any of the Godfather movies, should I be ashamed of myself? They have NEVER interested me in the least.

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY TEAL!!!
comment by aussiegirl on Feb 14, 2011 9:18 AM ()
Happy Valentine's day to you too, dear one. I'm tired of the Godfather movies because I've seen all of them many times. But if you watch, say, the first one, you will find it incredibly powerful and might want to see the rest. I also read the book way back before it was a movie.
reply by tealstar on Feb 14, 2011 5:00 PM ()

Comment on this article   


1,116 articles found   [ Previous Article ]  [ Next Article ]  [ First ]  [ Last ]