Home country

In my opinion, professional athletes are like independent contractors. They sell their talents to the highest bidder and spend their time proving their worth. Nationalities go only as far as to show their birthplaces. But after they are free to play wherever they wish.

This system provides the weirdest combination of athletes in various sports. Big name soccer clubs spend stellar amounts of money to invite players from around the world. To see a soccer team's line up it is as mixed as the United Nations. Tennis players, soccer players are the real independent contractors.

A great number of them do not even live in their home country for various reasons mostly to avoid taxation. So, when a tennis player plays and fans waive their national flag, I find it hilarious. The guy was born let's say in Sweden and they are waiving the Swedish flag it is funny because he happens to live in Monaco to avoid taxes. Nationalities and home countries have very little to do with these sports.

Home countries do not help athletes in their quest. Either well to do parents, or good sponsors are the ones who will pick up the tab. In today's world of mixed marriages these athletes can take advantages of either of their parents' birthplace. 

Hungary had two world class short track speed skaters. They were both Chinese and were brothers. Father Chinese, mother Hungarian. For years they competed in the colors of Hungary. Recently they decided to go to China because it looks like the grass is greener over there. Many of Hungary's professional basketball teams have black players who have Hungarian citizenships even though none were born there. And this phenomenon is all over the world.

A funny world we live in. 

Debate

Short of anything entertaining on the telly, I was watching the second Republican presidential primary debate. I don't know how many clowns Ringling Brothers Barnum and Baily on their payrolls but the seven that was on the podium today were just as amusing. 

These people are living in a dreamworld. They have minimal support according to the polls, yet they are still chasing the rainbow. I really can not understand that they still hope to get a nomination and then the presidency. They can easily make promises because they will never have the opportunity to realize them.

The most heard words were we will, we shall, we should. Nothing concrete, just promises. The former vice president kept telling us how much he did as governor of Indiana and as Trump's vice president. We all know that vice presidents don't do much just stand in the shadow of the president. Suddenly this bible toting guy says he did so much.

Chris Christie the former governor of New Jersey is on a personal vendetta trip against Donald Trump. He supported Trump early in his presidential campaign and as a reward was expecting some respectable assignment. When Trump realized that he is nothing but blubber he was sidelined. He became unemployed and eventually go a job with ABC News as a contributor. Do we want him as a president? NOOOOO!

Actually, none of these aspirants would make a good president. So where do we stand now?

But regardless, Good Country America!

 

Strikes

In my early days in this country, I worked in building construction as a field engineer. That meant I was laying out things outside for the ongoing construction, I was familiar with the plans and if there was any misunderstanding it was my job to explain it to the workers involved. I liked this work, and I was pretty good at it.

At that time there was no union for these jobs even though every larger construction site had at least one position like mine. I mostly worked alone. The prevailing custom was that when the job was finished they usually kept us until a next job opened up. This way there was a possibility to a long and nice career in construction.

But this thing came to an abrupt end when they decided to include us, field engineers into an Operating Engineer local. At first this seemed like good thing. Got a nice salary increase and great benefits. When the particular job was over, we were shown the door. We were too expensive to keep, so we were let go. The union did very little to help in finding a job, so we were forced to use our connections or rely on pure luck if wanted to work.

I was lucky enough to find a few jobs but my hopes to stay with a reputable construction company were over. Eventually I did change career path which fortunately lasted for over 40 years, and it did turn out pretty good. As a result of all this I am not much of a union supporter. Yes, there are many industries where lower educated (blue collar) workers are involved and yes, the employers are trying to take advantage of them, and these people do need some kind of protection and representation. But 21% salary increase and 32 hour work week sound a little ridiculous. I never receive 21% increase ever.

However, there are many professions where the individuals do have the means and possibilities to arbitrate for their own packages. Why do doctors, nurses, screen writers have to strike? Can they not speak for themselves? Can they not navigate their own path? If they are badly needed their employers will compensate them for sure. 

In 1963 New York newspapers got hit by a massive strike that lasted 114 days. They could not come to an agreement between the owners and the unions. Result was that four very good daily papers closed their doors and layed off their employees. Now, who were the winners and losers? All those employees found themselves without work and I am sure their unions were not able to help.

I am not saying that the auto workers should not be represented. But I am saying that their demands should be reasonable. They have to realize that most of them are trained just to do one thing on an ever moving assembly line. They have no trades that can be useful outside their plants. For an individual who worked there most of his or her life the so-called retraining is a myth. They can be retrained to work at McDonalds. It is very unfortunate that unionization is very close to politics. It was proven when our illustrious president visited the picket lines. I know he got a free baseball cap out of it but if this was not to garner votes than I don't know what was the point of his visit? Maybe he was bored in the White House.

Many years ago in New York City engineers, designers were trying to get organized. It did not succeed. Private engineering companies wanted to do nothing with unions. When I joined my company, I met a very nice and smart designer, older than I was. I found out that he was a former ill fated union organizer. Because they knew who he was, he was blackballed by the industry for several years. Eventually, my company hired him as a draftsman. He was glad he had a job because one can not live without money.

This is a free country but no matter how much they or we hate big business we can not live without them. They are movers and shakers of life here.

Yom Kippur

We, Jews just got over Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. This day goes along with an all day total fast. No liquids, no solids. A very serious fast. By doing this and praying we are atoning for our misdeeds, sins we committed throughout the year. This is similar to the Catholics'. They go to confession, tell the priest what bad things they did, and the priest will tell them to say ten Hail Mary, and all is forgiven.

Difference is that good Catholics go weekly or monthly or whenever they think they should. Us Jews bear our burden all year because we only have one day set aside for our admissions. Also, a 24 hour fast is a lot more serious than ten hail Mary.

Anyway, we are done now for a year. All bad things are forgiven, and starting now we can be bad again. At least that is how I interpret this. Even though I was told that at my age I don't have to fast, I did it. From Sunday evening dinner until Monday 4:30 in the afternoon. It was easy, no headaches. could have continued but I thought it was enough.

Interestingly and historically on these High Holy Days the weather was always good. Nice and sunny was the norm. But what is lately normal? On Yom Kippur it was totally miserable. 61 degrees and rain all day long. I guess Mother Nature doesn't like Jews. For me it didn't matter, I stayed in and only went out when we walked Robin.

By the way, Robin did not fast.

Sunday

 Same old thing. It is Sunday and I am resting.

Women owned cars

We have two cars. An older and a newer model. Since I do not drive any longer those two cars are registered on my wife's name. So, they are her cars. As the undisputed owner of these two automobiles she makes the rules and us, simple passengers must obey them.

No eating in the car. That is the first cardinal rule. If we don't like it, we can walk, said she. The cars are always in spic and span shape. They are so clean we could eat from the floors if we could eat in the cars. The minute there is any dirt mark on the outside or inside, off to the carwash. These cars were washed more than any other car in history.

We are already regular visitors at the neighborhood carwash. Clean the inside, wash the outside, wash the floormats. This is the usual menu. Thankfully, the cars did not yet rust in spite of the frequent washes.

A wash with the vacuuming takes about 5-8 minutes. When all is done, and they wiped it dry we stay another 15 minutes because my wife goes over everything and wipes down the entire car, again. Women!

When I had my cars in recent 50+ years I never had them washed so frequently. But that is the difference between a man's car and a woman's car. The way I looked at it, the dirtier a car was it had more of a patina and character.

Words

Living long enough we see things going away from everyday life. That is mainly because the changes in technology. Yet the expressions stay with us and only us, oldtimers really appreciate their origins.

I am listing a few words that are still part of our vocabulary. I am sure there are many more but these are the ones that come to my mind.

Sailing         When they used ships with sails, many years ago this word was associated with their movements. Moved by the force sails projected to the ships. But today every ship, might that be an aircraft carrier powered by nuclear energy is using the terminology of sailing.

Dialing        Many years ago telephones had rotary dials. In order to call out we had to dial. That meant sticking one finger into the correct number, one by one and turn the dial. That was how we called in the "stone age". The word remained. Todays telephones are all push button operated but the expression remained. When prompted we have to dial the number.

Dial tone     This is the same as dialing. When the phone is activated, we are listening to the dial tone. That sound prompts us to "dial".

Hang up     Wall mounted telephones were used, to finish a call the caller had to hang up the phone. That is place the phone on a hook that automatically disconnected the line. In today's technology we do not hang anything up but still use this expression to finish a call.

Shipping     Before air transport became popular or overwhelming trans oceanic package transport was done by ships. Thus, the word shipping. Today this word remains and is being used for any kind of commercial transport.

cc                 In the days of typewriters in order to make copies carbon copying papers were placed between the sheets typed on that way producing carbon copies. In correspondences if carbon copies were sent to other parties the designation cc were used to indicate that fact. Today we do not create carbon copies. But email still has this designation (cc) if we want our emails to go to other addresses than just the original.

Now, writing this does not mean that I have too much time on my hands, it just means that I was thinking, and these interesting facts came to my mind.