It’s not just a sleezy pick UP line in a bar.  Many people take it to heart.  But, after doing a little research for things about which to post, I’m just not so sure.

I find it interesting that Tori Black and Mother Teresa were born on the same day.  Yeah, I know, 78 years apart, but, nonetheless, the same day, August 26.

You may wonder why this is interesting to me.

Mother Teresa was, well, Mother Teresa, and Tori Black is an American Porn Actress.

Two women, same sign, same day, very different paths.

Mother Teresa was a Macedonian born Indian Nun who won the Nobel Peace Prize for all the good she did around the world.  Born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu, in Uskub, a part of the Ottoman Empire, now The Republic of Macedonia, she’s one of the most famous people ever, and is a standard for good deeds, kindness, and good works.  Raised a Roman Catholic, Agnes was fascinated by the stories of the missionaries in Bengal.  She committed her life to service at the age of 12! 

Her goal was to help the ‘poorest among the poor’. 

So, what went wrong with Tori?

I wonder, did she decide to become a porn star at the age of 12.  She entered the porn industry in 2007, and has starred in over 200 movies, most of the titles, well, even I can’t put them on the post!  She’s not won a Nobel Peace Prize, but she did win Hottie of the Year in 2009, Best 3-way sex scene, and Best 3-way all girl sex scene in 2010!  Yeah for her, I guess. 

I don’t mean to be judgemental…I’ll wait for you to stop laughing…but, I’m beginning to wonder if that horoscope thing isn’t just a bunch of crap.  Really, born the same day, same sign, something went terribly awry!

I mean, I was born the same day as Abner Doubleday and I suck at baseball!  And I was born the same day as Pearl Buck, a Nobel laureate, and even though I think I’m a great writer, and can’t understand why millions don’t read me every day, I know I’m no Pearl Buck!  Sean Hayes, Derek Jeter, Gretchen Wison…what do I have in common with them other than a birth date?  And, Michael Vick…I love dogs!

So, I’m just not so sure any more that it’s the sign, nor is it the day, maybe it’s the choices we make!

Not this one…

…but, this one…

I’ve seen the movie Giant, I’ve seen the movie So Big, I’ve seen Showboat, Cimmaron, Dinner At Eight, and Ice Palace, but I never paid attention to Edna Ferber.

What a miss!

After re-watching Giant for the umpty-umpth time the weekend after Elizabeth Taylor died, I thought, “Hey, you like to read, why don’t you read some Edna Ferber?”

So I did.

I bought SoBig and Giant.

And I’m glad I did.

Ferber, an American literary giant, was part of the Algonquin Round Table and helped to shape American Literature in the early part of the 20th Century.

The first book won Ms. Ferber the Pulitizer Prize.  On the surface, it’s about a Dutch High Pararie family and community out side of Chicago, and the cultured young woman who comes to teach their children, falls in love with a big lug of a farmer, and becomes part of their community.  But, really it’s about her and how she reared her son after becoming a widow.  And how she taught him to become the man he was supposed to be in spite of himself.

It’s a great book, a good read, and I highly recommend it.

It has a message, it’s literature, but it isn’t preachy.

Giant, though it didn’t win a Pulitzer, is an even better book.  Texas:  big and bold at it’s best.

I’m glad I saw the movie first, for even though it follows the story closely, Hollywood changed a few facts, cast people who look nothing like the book’s description of them (except Taylor’s part as Leslie Benedict), and made Jett Rink far far more sympathetic than he was in the book.

It was James Dean’s final film, and one of Rock and Elizabeth’s best.  Mercedes McCambridge plays Bick’s sister and was nominated for an Academy award.  She’s mean and hateful, and you love to hate her!

Giant and SoBig are both great reads, and Ferber’s descriptions of places, people, and events bring you to them.  She knew her craft, knew her characters, and new her challenge. 

They are “must reads” as far as I’m concerned.

I’m sure your local libray has them.  If they don’t, it’s not a real library!!

With all the late night doings and meeting in Congress, you know, that whole debt ceiling thing, some Congressmen have turned the Capitol into a Frat House.

A watchdog group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington or CREW, since apparently, they’re all jocks,  has a real problem with the number of congressmen electing to sleep in their Capitol Hill offices at night.

The group is asking the Office of Congressional Ethics, yes Virginia, there is one, to determine if these guys and gals are breaking the law violating House rules and tax laws by “failing” to report their overnight stays as a fringe benefit.

“The Capitol is not a frat house,” says the geek not greek leader of CREW.

According to CREW, press reports indicate that at least 33 members–26 Republicans and 7 Democrats–currently sleep in their offices at night.

It seems that rent is high in DC, and the hotels are tired of the hookers all night parties going on.

“House office buildings are not dorms or frat houses,” CREW Executive Director Melanie Sloan said while stamping her Gucci Glides and pointing her finger. “If members didn’t want to find housing in Washington, they shouldn’t have run for Congress in the first place.”

AMEN to that, even if housing were cheap, easy, or free, some of them shouldn’t have run – AT ALL.  But, that’s another post!

Sloan,  flipping her sun-streaked hair,  argues that turning a congressional office into a living facility violates House rules prohibiting the use of taxpayer resources for non-official duties.

Many of the gang are sleeping at the Capitol to save money!  Apparently, not everyone’s a Kennedy, Kerry, or McConnell!  Some claim it’s their most practical option, given the amount of time they already spend on the Hill.  Yeah, everyone in Washington is working soooooo hard!

This overnight behavior has been on the UP-tick in recent years.  Back in the 1980s, congressional leaders discouraged lawmakers from sleeping on the Hill because it mixed business with personal life.  And Nancy Reagan would never have let it happen! 

That all changed in 1994,  when Speaker Newt Gingrich strapped on his alb and blessed the practice as an affront to the “Washington elite.”   Wasn’t Newt’s presence enough of an affront?  (Was that out loud?)

Freshmen lawmakers, most of whom are broke, retroed (yes, I made that word UP, Lynn) the practice shortly after last year’s midterms.  Heck, they’d been UP all night studying, so what the heck…Oh, different mid-terms you say. 

Fifteen percent of elected freshmen said they planned to sleep in their offices and never find housing in Washington.

Fifteen percent were unavailable for comment.

Fifty-five percent just nodded and passed the bong!

Fifteen percent said, “Party on, Wayne!”

I think they should just call it quits and go home!

Back in the day when I was a kid…crap that sounded so old manish…an Ohio kid couldn’t make it through the seventh grade without knowing who Oliver Hazard Perry was.

Ohio History was a 7th grade required course, Mr. Longman was my teacher, and I looked forward to that hour every day of the week. 

Mr. Longman was one of the best teachers I’ve ever  had in my life, and he made history real.  And he made Oliver Hazard Perry and the Battle of Lake Erie very, very real.

Commodore Perry wasn’t an Ohioan, but that didn’t matter.  He was the “Hero of Lake Erie” in the War of 1812, and Ohio claimed him.  Perry was born in Rhode Island in 1785 on August 23.

Perry had heroism in his blood.  He was a direct descendant of William Wallace – you know, the Braveheart dude – and he was the younger brother of Commodore Matthew Perry who opened Japan to the West by force, and he was only 27 years old when he won the decisive battle of Lake Erie.

Piloting the flagship, USS Lawrence, named for his friend James Lawrence of “don’t give UP the ship” fame, Perry kicked some limey butt on the bay. 

Mr. Longman made that battle come to life for us even though some of us didn’t care or pretended not to.  He told of how Perry’s ship was so badly damaged that the British actually sent a boat over to demand the Americans pull down their flag and surrender the ship, and that Perry’s response was to fire a salvo, flip him the bird,  and have his men row his ship to the USS Niagra where he took command and finished the business at hand.

Perry’s defeat of the British was the first time in history that an entire British squadron had ever surrendered!  And even though it was a small battle as far as naval battles go, it was important because it protected the entire Ohio Valley and opened Canada for invasion.  The Battle of Lake Erie was one of the few real victories of the War of 1812, a war we were actually losing when the British decided it just wasn’t worth it any longer.

Of course times being what they were when I was in the 7th grade, Mr. Longman left the scandal out of the story. 

And there was scandal!

Perry and Elliot, the commander of the USS Niagra ended UP in a battle of wills and wits that out-lived them.  Many of Elliot’s men implied that Elliot stayed away from the battle and waited until he thought Perry was dead before he jumped in the fray.  Although both men were considered heroes immediatley after the battle, Elliot was eventually branded as a bad officer, and the shit hit the fan once again. 

Once the War of 1812 ended, and after Perry came back from the Second Barbary War in the Mediterranean, his feud with Elliot reheated.  Letters were exchanged, comments were made, everyone got all pissy, and Elliot challenged Perry to a duel.  Perry, much smarter that Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton, hell to the no declined.  So, Elliot and his cadre of supporters started a campaign that lasted 30 years, stretching long after each man had died, which left Elliot’s reputation in shreds.  No, Willie Longman didn’t tell us that.  Willie had too much else to cover.

Perry died at the age of 34 from yellow fever after being bitten by misquitoes aboard his ship the USS Nonsuch while on Venezuela’s Orinoco River.  South American health care being what it is was, he died before his ship made it to the Port of Spain in Trinidad where the doctors waited.  And we thought Hugo Chavez was the only bad thing in Venezuela!!

So, Ohioan or not, celebrate Commodore Perry today, and every time you see Perry St., Perry County, or a town named Perry, think of him, because there’s a pretty good chance it was named for the Hero of Lake Erie!