A Real Survivor

Bogie is almost 14 years old. Since the average life of a Shar pei is about 10 years, that is impressive.

But Bonnie and I wonder that he has made it this far. He has had at least 4 narrow escapes so far: One day we came home to find that he had swallowed a handful of Bonnies presription pills for high blood pressure. Vets at the emergency room induced vomiting, and he came out just fine. Then, he had an attack of "the bloat," in which his stomach virtually tied a knot in itself. Emergency surgery fixed that, and he again recovered just fine. Not too long ago he started to choke on a piece of rawhide chew--Bonnie's quick application of the Heimlich maneuver saved him. Today, he was chewing on a large piece of dried sting ray tail and, of course, tried to swallow it. The Heimlich did not work; we rushed him to the emergency vet, who extracted it. So Bogie survived again. We are, of course, relieved and thankful. Bogie survives to continue a long and happy existence.

Bonnie and I have learned our lesson, though. Chewing is the natural precoursor to swallowing. Swallowing is the natural consequence of chewing. You cannot count on a dog to reduce a piece of rawhide, or anything else to a digestable size before he tries to swallow it. So all of the 'edible' chew toys are now banished from our house. Other dog owners would be wise to follow the same course of action.

Welcome, Jazz!

The Poochie Williamson clan has a new Member. Her name is Jazz.

Jazz was born on May 18, 2008. On July 13, she left her home in Charlotte, NC, to join us in Yorba Linda. She is as loveable as she looks, and she is getting along well with the other members of the pack, Bogie and Lucy.

Bonnie and I are not getting quite as much sleep as we did before she came, and there are a few damp spots on our carpet. But we are really enjoying our new family member, and she seems to like us, too.

On the Leading Edge

For most of our lives, Bonnie and I have been on the leading edge of changes in society. We got a waterbed when they were still considered "weird hippy things." We took La Maze classes when they were recommended by only a few OB/GYNs. We bought a VHS recorder shortly after they first came out. And while the "in crowd" was still extolling the virtues of white wines, I was sampling merlots.

But one bandwagon that I did not jump on until this week was that of the users of cell phones. My problem was not an aversion to technology, but rather one of simple economics. As long as I was paying $30.00+ per month for a land line to my home, I saw no value in signing a contract to pay an additional $30.00 a month for a cell phone.

I counted up the situations in one year in which I might need to make a call when no land line was available. There were maybe two or three--once when on the way to a retail store, and unable to locate it, once when I was at the grocery store and forgot one of the items Bonnie wanted me to buy, once when I was stuck in traffic, and would be way late getting home. It hardly seemed worth $360.00 per year.

Besides that, many folks who already have cell phones really anger me. They take a call while dining in a restaurant. They check their messages in a movie theater. They gab on the phone while shopping for groceries (I am sure there is nothing so urgent that it could not wait until they get home). And, most aggravating of all, the yak into the little boxes while driving down the freeway at 40 mph, instead of the posted 55 mph. I do not want to become one of those crass inconsiderate jerks.

This week, though, I finally decided to get a cell phone. The main reason is that the "pay as you go" plans make more economic sense. I bought a Trac Phone and one year (400 minutes) of cell time. The whole package ends up costing about $10.00 a month--less if I subtract the cost of the phone. Not only that, if I have not used the 400 minutes when I renew next year, the excess rolls over. The benefits I get for the $10.00 a month seem worth the cost. First, the phone will be there in the 3 or 4 situations that I expect I will need it for. Second, since I will turn it on virtually all of the time I am away from home, Bonnie knows she will be able to reach me if an emergency arises. Now that the telephone companies are phasing out pay telephones, the cell phone becomes almost a necessity.

So far, the Trac Phone experience has exceeded my expectations. When I activated the phone and added the minutes from the card, I received 510 minutes instead of 400. Although I signed up on June 3, the renewal date is August 3, of next year, so I get 14 months instead of 12. That's hard to beat. In the 4 days I have had the phone, I have not used any minutes yet.

Some may say that 20 cents a minute is not a bargain rate. However, these are emergency minutes; they are worth more to me. Moreover, the big companies advertise 10 cents a minute, but they add a $1.00 surcharge for each day that you access the service. That means one five-minute call can cost 30 cents a minute. With the Trac phone there are no "roaming" charges, and long distance calls within the continental US and to some foreign locations are charged at the same rate as local calls. So for the usage I expect, the Trac Phone is a good buy.

Talking about the economics, have you noticed that most cell phone calls are "double-billed?" When you make a call from land line to land line, only the originator is charged for the call. But when a cell phone is the receiver, both originator and receiver are billed for the minutes. In the long run, it would seem the telephone companies would like us all to use cell phones, and eliminate land lines completely.

So I have arrived in the 21st century with respect to telephone service. But I am not giving you my cell phone number. I only want to receive those urgent calls from immediate family and very close friends. Everyone else should just call my land line number. If I am not there, leave a message on my machine. But don't look for my number in the telephone book; it's unlisted. Most of the time, I view the telephone as an intrusion.

Get Ready To Call Me Grampa

Bonnie and I received some wonderful news today. Our younger daughter, Heather, told us that she and Josh are expecting a baby in early December.

We were preparing to drive to San Bernardino to celebrate some family birthdays (mine, Bonnies, her dad's, and Josh's). Bonnie's was in February, and I was sick; mine was in March, and Bonnie was sick, Josh and Bonnie's dad have theirs in June. Our other daughter, Amber, her husband, Ron and Bonnie's dad met us at the restaurant. Heather and Josh drove to our place so the four of us could go the rest of the way in one car. Heather presented Bonnie a pair of booties with LA Lakers logos on them as she made the announcement.

The booties have the logo because Bonnie is an avid Lakers fan. In fact, she is watching a Lakers/Spurs playoff game as I write.

Bonnie is thrilled, of course, and I am excited, too, about the prospect of becoming grandparents. Watch for some pictures in December!

Teddy Roosevelt's "Square Deal"

On my Bullmoose Journal blog for October 2, 2006, I posted a picture of one of my favorite Theodore Roosevelt campaign items. This pin is 7/8" in diameter, but at least one exists that is 1 1/4 inches in diameter. The pin is pretty rare; I have only seen 2 or 3 in over 55 years of collecting. This one has it all--the picture, the date, the slogan, and even a carpenter's square to emphasize the slogan. In his 1912 Progressive Party campaign, Roosevelt offered "a square deal for every man and for every woman in the United States."

About six years ago, another pin with a carpenter's square on it showed up. It is also 7/8 inch diameter. This one bears the name Parker. Alton B. Parker was Roosevelt's opponent in the 1904 campaign. The phrase "square deal" has always been attributed to Roosevelt. But Alton Parker apparently used the carpenter's square first, albeit without the slogan. Except for the handful of these pins that appeared in 2002, to my knowledge it has not been seen before or since.

This "square deal" pin is a lot more common. It is 7/8 inch diameter, and was used in the 1912 campaign. Almost every collector of TR campaign items has this one.

Here is a fourth "square deal" pin. It is also 7/8 inch diameter. I found it on eBay a while back. It is the only one like it that I have seen. The seller probably did not even see the meaning, let alone consider it a campaign item. It can only mean "square deal," and is probably a Theodore Roosevelt campaign pin.

If you have a "square deal" pin that is different from these, please post a comment about it.

Admiral Nelson Again

In my other blog, Bullmoose Journal, I posted an entry about a character jug, depicting Admiral Horatio Nelson, that I acquired. I have been fortunate enough to win another item, an antique Staffordshire pitcher, relating to the Admiral.

The pitcher is about 7 inches tall. The images on it depict both Lord Nelson and Captain Hardy, who commanded HMS Victory at the battle, although the crude depictions bear little resemblence to the famous officers. It was probably made in the early nineteenth century.

It's not hard to find items commemmorating the achievements of Admiral Nelson. Many were produced in 2005 in celebration of the 200th anniversary of the famous battle. But I prefer the older ones. That's why I was attracted to this pitcher.

I may be able to date the piece more accurately if I can identify the pottery mark on the bottom of the pitcher. It looks to me like a stylized "JC."

If someone knows something about the pitcher or the pottery mark, please post a comment.

Return to "Our Boarding House"

When I was very young, I enjoyed the comic strips in the daily newspaper about as much as every youngster did. They were all different back then. We had Dick Tracy, Lil' Abner, Mutt and Jeff, Smokey Stover, and a host of others that are long gone. Probably the only one that is still around is Blondie.

At first, I paid little attention to "Our Boarding House." On week days it was just a single panel, although it was a full sized strip in the Sunday edition. It had too many words, and folks just seemed to be standing around and talking. But as I entered my teens I began to read the strip daily. Maybe it was the fez that he wore around the house that caught my eye. I became fascinated by the interaction of Major Amos B. Hoople, his boarders and friends. They all seemed so human, in an exaggerated way.

Major Amos Barnaby Hoople

Our Boarding House was syndicated as a daily cartoon in hundreds of newspapers from 1921 until 1981. During the 1920's and 1930's, boarding houses were an institution in our society. The boarding house was the home away from home where men lived to save money until they got married and moved into a home of their own. Women in the same situation usually "took rooms" with a family. Boarding houses were often a second source of income for a family struggling to support the household.

Our Boarding House told the story of wizened homeowner Martha Hoople and her quirky stable of boarders. It appeared for four months in 1921 before the Major ambled obnoxiously back into estranged wife Martha's life after a ten-year absence.

Major Hoople's disagreeably daft personality was quickly embraced by readers. Aside from his affinity for cigars and the weathered fez donning his balding head, Hoople was best known for stretching the strip's text bubbles to the bursting point with his long-winded speeches, littered with colorful non-words like "harumf," fap," and "egad," about the astounding ten years he spent away from his wife. He considered himself an expert on every subject, and was always on the lookout for a new get-rich-quick scheme.

I searched the web for Major Hoople images, but I had only modest success. This cartoon seems fairly representative of the style.

I did find, however, a Canadian company that sells a book of Our Boarding House cartoons. The company is Lee Valley Tools. Here is a link:

[http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.aspx?c=1&p=52679&cat=1,46096,46100&ap=1]

I ordered a copy, and look forward to experiencing once more the remarkably colorful speeches of the good Major. My wife just told me that I am starting to look like him--fap!