What, did they run out of Ranch Dressing?

Some may say there are already enough changes in NASCAR, No more Winston, no more Dale Sr., no more Southern 500, and now this…no more wings, and add spoilers. 

That’s right, spoilers.

They are only minutes away from making  a small change to the cars, granted, it’s small, but it could drastically change and impact how the races go from here on out.  

Well, at least until they make more changes, which it seems they are never gonna’ stop doing.  They are going to replace the wings with spoilers.  Now, spoilers were not used in NASCAR until just a few years ago, and even though we thought we saw them in the 70’s, technically, I guess we didn’t. 

The drivers were complaing about the wings, and the fans sober enough to notice were as well.

Apparently, they reduce the maneuverability of the cars and make the races longer and boring.    Some lately have seemed like funeral processions.

The shift could come as early as this month.

NASCAR Prez. Mike Helton thinks the fans deserve a traditional race.  And recent research on spoilers has given the boys in Daytona a way to make it happen.

Well it’s about time.  Let’s think about the fans, afterall, they are paying for it. 

Who cares if the season is already underway.  Everyone wants to know if the change will impact the competition.

I realize this isn’t a huge game changing difference, like aluminum bats or Poodle Skirts on the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders, but the difference will be measureable and and the boys in the garages back home and the pits at the track will need a little tweak time to get things right. 

Could be interesteing.

And of course it isn’t the same caliber change as that “Car of Tomorrow ” crap we’re still having to deal with…look at Dale, JR.

With this change, some drivers feel the there are two seasons of NASCAR this year. 

But, you gotta’ hand it to them, they are giving the fans what they asked for.  Better, faster, and more interesting races.

And it’s about time.

Now, it’s UP to the drivers.

Well, we actually called it the Five and Ten Cent store, but it’s one and the same.

It was in Germantown, it’s not there anylonger, and it was owend and operated by one of the nicest guys I’ve ever known.

Mr. Seelbrede.  I don’t know his first name, he was always Mr.  as was everyone back then. 

They carried everything you needed, from fabric to greeting cards to toys, hula hoops, and candy; they sold candy corn and peanuts mixed, it’s still my favorite and may have been the beginning of that addiction.  They even had wagons.  They weren’t a dime though.

It was the precursor of the Dollar Store.  Only much better.  It was a local store, operated by a local man, who knew the community, it’s needs, and it’s small wants.  He was a really nice man, and had a beautiful daughter who grew UP to be Miss USA in 1981, Kim Seelbrede.  She recently told me (via Facebook) her dad worried about kids stealing.  I was surprised to find out that they did back then.  We were way to afraid to steal.   She said “his greatest joy was clowning and connecting with his customers”, and it showed!

Mr. Seelbrede was special. 

He called me Wally.

For a few years I had no idea why.  I just thought he figured my  name was Wally, and I never corrected him.  Which is odd, as I usually corrected everyone on everything back then.  Somethings never change.

I was “outspoken”.

Finally, one day, I asked him “Why?”

He said, “Well, you look like Mr. Peepers.”

And amazingly, I did.

Now Mr. Peepers was on TV.  So, as a seven year old looking like a star was fine with me, it didn’t matter that he was reduced to selling laundry detergent.

As you may remember, I’ve often claimed that I was switched at birth, and my real parents are rich Hollywood types who could spoil me materially.  Alas, Mother insists not.

But really, take a look at this and tell me what you think?

Me:

Mr. Peepers:

Since my my motto has always been “If there’s a will, I wanna be in it!”…

…I need to run now, gotta’ go call the lawyer.

…as King Solomon.

You remember him, the wise Israeli King ,who when given a choice asked for wisdom rather than power, riches, or fame.

The son of King David, you know, the shepherd boy who slew the Giant Goliath and defeated the Philistines over and over and over again. 

Solomon, the King and Judge who knew that if he suggested cutting the baby in half, the one the two  harlots were fighting over, the real mother would plead for it’s life and the pretend one would not.

You know, Solomon of the Bible.  First Kings, Chapter Four to be exact.

Yes, he really existed, he really was that wise, and he really was that rich and powerful. 

He took over the throne in about 937 BC (that’s Before Christ, I don’t use BCE, which is before common era…why leave Jesus out completely?), when his father died.

Now Solomon was the “love child” of David and Bathsheba, it’s not just an Opera, it’s a true story.  David lusted after Bathsheba as she was a skinny dippin’ in her roof-top pool.  Her hubby Uriah was in battle, where Dave should have been, and so hormones a ragin’, Dave put in for a booty call.  When he found out Bathsheba was “in the family way” and that Uriah would know it wasn’t his, he tried to trick Uriah into thinking it was by calling him home thinking he’d have a little bedroom time with the honey.  When that didn’t work, he put him at the front of the battle, where he was sure to be a casualty.

So, after Uriah’s death and Hero’s funeral, David added Bathsheba to his stable of wives, and Solomon became a Prince of Israel.   And later King.

Historians have for years tried to tell us that David and Solomon were “largely mythical and that there was no strong government to speak of in that era.”  But the Bible for hundreds of years has told us that they were real, and that their was a kingdom, and that it was that great.

Now, an Archaeologist has found what she sees a “proof” for the Bible in an ancient wall in Jerusalem.

Proof for the Bible…really, you need proof?

Apparently a wall under the Dome of the Rock dates back 3,000 years, the time of Solomon, and it supports the “biblical narrative” about the era. 

Whoopie!

This wall is deep beneath the Temple Herod built and the Romans destroyed around 70-71 BC.  The Temple of Solomon was destroyed by Babylonian Thugs when Israel went into captivity back in the day.  Herod rebuilt, Rome destroyed, and they just kept building new stuff on top of it, so finding things is, let’s just say, a chore!

Nevertheless, the style, building skill, and materials used in the wall support the fact that The Davidic and Solomonic Kingdoms were “actually as strong and powerful as the Bible says they were.”  Imagine that!

Seems every one in the Archaeological community is stunned by this finding.

Again, Woopie!

Eliat Mazar, said archaelolgist, says, “It means that at that time, the 10th century, in Jerusalem there was a regime capable of carrying out such construction.”  Ms. Mazar (no relation to Debbie, who was voted off Dancing With The Stars way too early) claims her dig was the first to complete excavation and the first to turn up strong evidence for the wall’s age.

Said evidence:  a large number of pottery shards, which archaeologists often use to figure out the age of findings.

Aren Maeir who teaches archaelolgy at Bar Ilan U near Tel Aviv, says that he as “yet to see evidence that the fortifications are as old a Mazar claims. ”  He says there are remains from the 10th century in Jerusalem, but proof of a strong centralized kingdom remains “tenuous”.  And he added, “There’s a kernel of historicity in the story of King David.”

“This is pertinent and annoying because?”, you ask.

I don’t need science to prove the Bible for me, it’s nice and all.  But I accepted that a long time ago.  If it’s in there, it happened.

So, dig, don’t dig, date, don’t date, I really don’t care.  But since your science is proving God right…don’t treat me like an idiot because I been believing it for a long, long time.

Ok, note to Aren and Eliat.  God called,  He left a message:  “Told Ya SO!”, and He asked that you re-read …

1 Kings 4:1:
So king Solomon was king over all Israel.

You might wanna read the rest, it’s pretty interesting.

…no, this isn’t about Tiger Woods.

Today would be the 278 birthday of George Washington.  So, for starters, he’d dead in case you weren’t sure.

We see him everytime we pull out a dollar bill, but do we think of him and what he accomplished?

Probably not.

And back “in the day”, we got the day off from school.  Now, it’s just “Presidents’ Day”.

There are many stories about Old GW; some true, some questionable.

The “cannot tell a lie” thing is probably, well, a lie.

I doubt that Little George made it all the way through childhood without telling a lie, I’m sure I didn’t.  And I doubt that he was always completely truthful in social situations.  I mean really, are any of us gonna’ say “Yes.” to the ‘does this dress make my hips look big?’  question. And at that time, they all looked big.  The dresses were ginormous to make the waists look smaller.  Ah, Fashion!!

And I seriouldy doubt that “skipping a stone across the Potomac” bit is on the money as well.  Physics, physiology, and aero-dynamics make me doubt that one.

But, there are a few things for sure.

He had good manners.  He even had a book that he kept which told him things like: don’t drum your fingers on the table at dinner and stuff like that.

He was probably sterile.  There are no known descendants of GW.  His children were his wife’s children from her marriage to Old Man Custis.  Custis was loaded, and left Martha a truck load of cash, slaves, farms, and land.  She was the most sought after widow in the Colonies, and the wealthiest.  And George was the one who won her.   

They were married at “The White House Plantation” near Fredricksburg, VA.  It’s not there anymore, the maurading Yankee army during the War of Northern Invasion burned it to the ground, even though her Great Grand daughter, Mary Custis Lee (Mrs. Robert E. Lee) pinned a note to the door begging the army to spare the house for it’s history.  Apparently, they couldn’t read.

But, back to George.  He was an amazing young man.  His father died when he was a child, and his half-brother, Lawrence helped to teach and rear him.  Lawrence also left George his “farm” Mount Vernon as well.  Washington was a surveyor at the age of 17.  He surveyed much of Virginia’s western lands, all of Lord Fairfax’s lands, and was appointed as the official surveyor of Culpepper County when it was created.  So, he was a businessman.

He was a “gentleman farmer” as well.  His Plantation, Mount Vernon was a successful working business that provided nearly everything needed to survive.  Of course, it was worked and partially managed by slaves, with Martha running the show while George was out surveying land, fighting wars, and claiming more land for Great Britain.

He fought brilliantly in the “French and Indian Wars”, and was a Lt. Col at the age of 22.  In 1758, at the age of 26, he was a Brigidier General.  Not bad for a partially educated half orphaned boy from the Tidewater.   After the F and I War was over, he took a break from military service for 16 years and ran Mount Vernon and got into Politics.

He married Martha in 1759, helped to rear her two children from her first marriage, but they had no children of their own.  Like I said, he was probably sterile.  He had smallpox, and that may have done it.  Who knows?

When the colonies decided to break free from Mother England, George went all out.  He was appointed the Commander of the Army, won battles, lost battle, survived Valley Forge, and led the troops to victory at Yorktown, with the aid of the French, when they could still fight and all.

He thought his work was over, but not so.

He was unanimously elected as the first President of the newly created United States of America and went to running the country.

He and Martha moved to New York City, which is where the seat of government was before the City of Washington was built.  He never lived in the city of his name, and never lived in the White House.

His presidency set the standard for all to follow.  Two terms, then retire.  Govern with the Constitution, stand for what it means when tested, as in the case of the Whiskey Rebellion, and listen to the people who put him in power. 

Is anyone in Washington reading this?  Gosh, I hope so.

When he retired from the Presidency, he gave some advice in his farewell speech. He warned against ‘permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world’, saying the United States must concentrate primarily on American interests. 

What a great idea!

He stressed the value of the Constitution and the rule of law, the evils of political parties, (holy crap, what a visionary!!) and the proper virtues of a republican people. He called morality “a necessary spring of popular government”. He said, “Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle. 

Wow!

Then, he went home.  And he shut UP.  Entertained his friends, ran his farm, and died at the hands of misguided medical “professionals” who were doing the voodoo that was medicine at the time.

Henry Lighthorse Harry Lee said in his eulogy of Washington that “He was first in war, first in peace and first in the hearts of his countrymen.”

He may never have fathered any children, but he was truly, “The Father of His Country”.