For the rare and cherished few who expect to find something new on this site a couple of times a week, we must explain that it is not because we had run out of pithiness. It is because a company that calls us a “valued customer” apparently doesn’t value our customership very much at all.
On September 29, Mediacom laid a cable on top of our street to restore our internet service after the Socket folks ripped up the buried line while digging to install their fiber optic cable. A couple of weeks later I suggested to the folks at the local Mediacom office that it would be good to bury that cable before the first big snow brought out a snowplow that would collect it—and who knows how many above-ground connector boxes and private mail boxes that the cable pulls down as the snowplow proceeds down the street.
That line was still lying on the street until the afternoon of December 22. It snowed and as I had told the foretold in the Mediacom office and the first snowplow did yank out the. I saw several feet of orange cable in the yard of a neighbor up the street. On the 20th, I had visited the local office for a second time and a friendly lady behind the desk said repairs are usually made within 24 hours. I told a nice Mediacom lady from Iowa who answered the company trouble line that I expected this problem to be solved regardless of the temperature (which was below zero, you might remember) within 24 hours. The company sent us a notice that it would be a week before anything was done, that repairs would be made on the 28th and required us to be at home between 10 a.m. and noon.
On the afternoon of the 27th, Mediacom—without ever calling us or ringing our doorbell—stretched a new line across the top of the street. The line was only partly covered so vehicles going over it did not damage it. The next day, the Mediacom tech person who was supposed to respond rang our door bell. We had a nice discussion in which he told me, among other things, that we would lose our internet service as many times as the snowplows came out this winter. Too bad. But that’s Mediacom Life.
I sent a letter to the editor of the News-Tribune, who published it yesterday. Several folks at church or at the noontime restaurants we checked out told me they agreed with it. They’re apparently valued customers, too.
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I made a big mistake the week before Christmas.
I bought a new computer because my old hard drive was dying.
For the price I paid for the computer, I could have bought about eight of Donald Trump’s superhero cards.
Buyer’s remorse has not yet set in, though.
If you bought any of them, would you let me know if any of them show him as a Capitol policeman on January 6, 2021 or as a Ukrainian freedom fighter?
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There’s this old and somewhat indelicate saying, “When you’re up to your ass in alligators, it’s too late to drain the swamp.” The release of the January 6 Committee report has called that observation to mind in reference to someone who once promised to drain a certain swamp.
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One of the fun things about researching history is prowling through the millions of pages of old newspapers at the State Historical Society. And reading the old advertisements is often fun. I made a copy of a headline for one and it’s magneted to our refrigerator.
It says “Ice Cream is Real Food.”
Now that’s real truth in advertising.
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State Conservation Department Director Sara Pauley Parker wrote in her Missouri Conservationist “Up Front” column in December of 2021 that she’s a dog person. She wrote, “I especially appreciate dogs that will look you in the eye, know their role in life, and want to serve honorably.”
I’m hoping the Missouri House and the Missouri Senate will be kennels, starting Wednesday.
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It’s hard to beat honey by itself and honey-butter on a hot roll is an unacknowledged delicacy. A old newspaper ad I came across recently urges people to “Get that quick relief that brings back the normal ‘pep’ and energy. Don’t suffer a minute longer than you actually have to.” The cure? Dr. Bell’s Pine Tar Honey for Coughs and Colds.
If Dr. Bell’s cure isn’t tasty enough, you might try a spoonful of a variation made by the Certified Hospital Products Company: Pine Tar Honey and Eucalyptus (Mentholated).
Menthol. That will do the trick.
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Retired Missouri football coach Gary Pinkel has been inducted into the National Football Foundation College Football Hall of Fame, something he could not have imagined after his teams had gone 10-14 in his first two years in Columbia. In fact, he admits he started wondering if he’d made a mistake going to Missouri and if he would last much longer.
In his first four years the Tigers were 22-25. But Missouri kept him.
The Tigers played their 34th bowl game a few days before Christmas. (Their 35th bowl game was Covided out a couple of years ago). Their fourth bowl loss in a row left Eliah Drinkwitz’s record at 17-19.
The fourth year will be a critical one for him, as it was for his predecessor, Barry Odom. Odom was sacked when his Tigers were 25-25. But Gary Pinkel was only 22-25 after four years and Missouri kept him.
How have other Mizzou coaches done after four years? Larry Smith was 18-27. Bob Stull was 12-31-1 before he left the field and became an athletic director at another school. Woody Widenhofer was 12-31-1 and Al Onofrio was 22-24.
Incidentally, Don Faurot, whose name is on the field on which Drinkwitz’s players perform, was 0-4 in bowl games.
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