The cat's pajamas

 Let me take you up the road to semi-rural Harford County, MD, where Cynthia Morgan, a school bus driver with 11 years of time in driving for the public schools (via contractor Cleary Transportation Inc.) had the can tied to her because she let a 10-year-old student hop off the bus to rescue an injured kitten on the road in the north part of the county.

The road where Alex Thomas was the only passenger still on the bus at the time is known as Heaps School Rd, and that should tell you that it's not like pulling over on I-95. It is in fact designated as a low-traffic rural road. So, Alex gets the kitten and the cat is taken for help and Alex gets home maybe 45 seconds late, so what's the issue?

The charges against Ms Morgan: Stopping at an unapproved/non-designated bus stop and letting a student exit the vehicle, alongside policies prohibiting unauthorized animals on school buses.

I've seen the back-and-forth online about all this. Most people take the sensible approach that sometimes, a little flexibility is a good thing when it comes to the choice of leaving an animal - to wit, a little kitten - in a dangerous place.

But then, there is a group of people I call the Whatifs. "What if the kid got off the bus and was run over by a car driven by a drunken politician?" "What if the cat was rabid and clawed her way to freedom, infecting the boy and the driver?" "What if the kitten belonged to a kindle of kittens out in rural Pylesville?"

This is not the actual kitten, but still.....

And to Mr and Mrs Whatif, I always come back with, "What if the 45-second delay in going down the road had saved the lives of the driver and the young man, not to mention the kitten, when a rogue communications satellite dropped out of the sky?"

This thing is dragging its way through the levels of bureaucrazy up there (misspelling intentional) and I hope that people will come to a level of common sense about it. The anonymous poem "Kindness To Animals" points out that gentle care of any animal is always returned. Maybe with affection, maybe with Androclean loyalty, maybe just, as in the poem, with a song from a robin in return for a few crumbs.

What's really crumby is firing the lady for doing the right thing. I expect everyone who had a "WWJD" wristband, tee shirt, or hat to stand up for Ms Morgan.

Reading is fundamental

 The first country radio station I worked for was WICO in Salisbury. The second thing the general manager there ever told me, after telling me not to leave my lunch on the table in the break room because "the river rats might get it" was that he did not allow his DJs to play any records by George Jones and Tammy Wynette because they were scheduled to play a concert in town one night, but Jones showed up drunk and pugnacious, got into a fight with Tammy (his wife) and roared out of town, leaving concert-goers disappointed.

The boss wrote to Jones and told him that he was instituting a lifetime ban on their records, and Jones wrote back - the letter was framed and hanging on the office wall - saying "I'm gonna build me a station right there in your town and put you out of business. - George."

I'm telling you this because I am almost finished Jones's autobiography, "I Lived To Tell It All," and it is one horrible book because every chapter is just "I drank a gallon of whiskey and passed out on stage" over and over and over again. Plus, in the later years of his addiction, someone got him hooked on cocaine, so add that to the toxic mix.

Jones was my favorite country singer, because he had a voice that could convey any emotion, but what I didn't know about him was that he was so desperately hooked on self-destruction that absolutely nothing - legal means, physical restraints, tears from those who loved him, and begging from people who had looked forward to hearing him sing - stood between him and his intoxicants. Even though he had fairly long periods of sobriety, it was always a matter of when, not if, he would plunge headlong into a bottle or a vial again. I knew he was messed up, but I never thought he would write a book bragging about it.

I guess it's true, that old saw about never learning too much about the people you admire. I wish I had never read that book about Andy Griffith and Don Knotts being total philanderers. Imagine cheating on your wife with Miss Crump! 

Kitchen Switchin'

 I'm not one for home decorating tips, which makes it all the more interesting that by logarithms keep sending them to me online. To me, "throw rug" is a verbal command, not a noun, and any time I see a piece of furniture labeled as as "occasional" table, I have to ask what it is the rest of the time. And I get few answers.

But here we go! The other day I was informed that tile backsplashes are no longer cool and I should start digging the grout of mine to make room for what all the cool kids have on the way behind the sink and stove...mirrors! 

Yes, they said that people are breaking their necks to have mirrors replace those old tile backsplashes.

They submitted these pictures to make their point. Couple things. #1, if I'm boilin' grits in the kitchen, I don't want to look up and see my dumb face at that hour of the morning.  And B, I don't want to see the mirror image of a clock while I'm trying to get breakfast on the table. I couldn't tell if it's quarter to six or half past nine!

Here's another picture they sent, but I like our tile backsplash. It doesn't look back at me, and it doesn't try to make the kitchen look twice its size with smoky mirrors.  Home designers, come back to me when you find a way to make a backsplash out of a 41" TV monitor! Do that, and I will have you over for grits!

Tuesday rerun: Fact known by few

  This is a fact known by few! Do you know Rachel Scott, the marvelous ABC news reporter? She's on TV most every night and she works hard to help us understand what goes on in Washington, DC.

Years ago, she was brand new to national news and was covering one of those early presidential primaries in an ice-cold state. She mentioned on Instagram that she was freezing under her top coat and I mentioned that she ought to look into purchasing a down vest. Being a California native, she had no idea such a thing existed, but I don't think she's been that cold ever since then. Down is marvelous for keeping warm. Ask any goose!

The happy couple, Rachel with husband Elliott Smith!

But that's not the fact known by few, and you will be among the few soon. Rachel got married earlier this month, and I read the wedding story in the New York Times because I am a romantic at heart. The article talked about her lovely trousseau, which included no down garments, and all the fun she and her new husband and their friends and family had, and that crowd included singer Gene Chandler, who is her grandfather.

The happy grandpa

You cannot have listened to an oldies station for five minutes without hearing his big hit "Duke of Earl," a huge hit in 1961 that really sets the mood in a lot of movies about the good old days, and I wish they were back. Gene really did it up fancy back then! He would come out on stage with a top hat and fancy cane and cape, as any proper duke would.

I like knowing that Shirley MacLaine and Warren Beatty are brother and sister, and that Peter Graves and James Arness were brother and brother, and that Keisha Lance Bottoms, former mayor of Atlanta and advisor to President Biden, is the daughter of Major Lance, whose hit songs included "The Monkey Time" and "Um, Um, Um, Um, Um, Um".

But being the granddaughter of a duke confers a certain status on Rachel, who is a  royally wonderful reporter and seems to be a very good person as well. Congratulations to her and her husband! 

Indigenous

  Indigenous Peoples' Day is a holiday celebrating and honoring Native American peoples by commemorating their histories and cultures.  After all, they were here first! It's time to recognize and pay them respect! Indigenous Peoples' Day is a holiday in Baltimore County and is observed today.

 Local government facilities, state motor vehicle branches, and public libraries across Baltimore County will close today, in observance of the federal Columbus Day  holiday. 

Baltimore County government offices, senior centers, and all branches of the Baltimore County Public Library will be closed for the holiday. Recreation and Parks indoor facilities will also be closed, except for activities operating under previously approved permits. There will be no CountyRide service today.

Sunday Rerun: C'est dommage

 A long time ago, at work, a computer guy showed me something he should not have...it was a printout of all the passwords of everyone who worked there.

He wanted me to see how many of the passwords were filthy. That was hardly surprising, given the general tone of the billingsgate in that workplace. We were told over and over to make sure that no one could guess our password, so as to make sure no one did a dirty deed in someone else's name, but I'm here to tell you, a good 60-70% of the signons were terms for favorite activities among the highly libidinous. I think they were easy to guess, but I never tried.

The other surprising thing was how many people thought that something like "BOBBYD" would be hard to guess, if your name was Bob and your last name started with a D (made-up example).  Or for the guy who hummed "Stairway To Heaven" to choose "LEDZEP."

I'm walking down memory lane as a way to get around to telling you that the French people are looking into the $multi-million ripoff at the Louvre, and they found that the most famous museum in all the world used "LOUVRE" as the password to their security system.

I mean, sacre bleu! 

Not only that, but France’s National Cybersecurity Agency first was made aware of this foolish choice in 2014, when they reported “serious shortcomings” in the Paris museum’s security systems, such as two-decade old security computer software.

 “An attacker who manages to take control of it would be able to facilitate damage or even theft of artworks,” the agency said in 2014.

But here we are in 2025, and no one saw fit to do something about the situation.

French riot police stand near the Louvre Museum's glass pyramid 

And on October 19th, thieves entered the museum, stole the nation's crown jewels, and made good their escape within eight minutes.

If only the people in charge of guarding the jewels had known!

The Saturday Picture Show, October 10, 2026

Now I'm getting mixed signals.

I thought Dakota Johnson did a fine job on SNL the other night. She brought along a friend, who brought along a birthday cake.

A guy went to an Air B'n'b that said to bring your own ladle. No need to anymore!

I really didn't think they were still in business!

Here is Celine Dion, falling down at a concert in France. She was trying to do the duck walk. She is not Angus Young.

It's almost cranberry season, so don't get bogged down! Get yours early. 

You've heard of a dog in the manger. Here's a fox in the bushes.

Wherever this hotel is, I want to stay there someday so I can hear them call my name every time they answer the phone.

Yankees fans seem to feel that just because they show up wearing Yankee caps and Yankee jerseys, they are also Yankees. My advice: when you go to a game, sit there and watch the professionals play, and keep your hands to yourself.

 A long time ago, a friend of mine who happened to be a Baltimore City police officer told that I should look at the year and expiration month of a car stopped ahead of me at a light or whatever. She said I would be surprised at how many thought they could just drive around with expired tags and just get away with it. This picture was taken the other night in Baltimore City.

Classic Peanuts

 

Between the daily editions and the Sunday strips, Charles Schulz posted 17,897 original "Peanuts" comics over the years.  At the time this one appeared in our daily paper on October 4, 1969, I thought it was and always would be the best one ever, and nothing ever changed my mind about that. 

The words Charlie Brown said to himself sounded like every one of the good old country music songs that I loved since I was Charlie's age.  What I didn't know back in the pre-WWW days, was that Schulz was a big country fan, even naming the "boneless cat" Faron after his favorite male singer, Faron Young.

Just swap out the gender and this strip works for anyone who's ever been lost in love. I just hope that Charlie wound up with the little red-haired girl for real.