James Rising

For those regular readers this is an off week for my column in the WEEKENDER, their choice, not mine.

I have decided to fill in the gaps with my scribbles for other publications. At this point I am writing for http://www.speedtv.com/ and http://truckseries.com/, both of which I work for full time as an on-line associate editor.

Here’s an article that just ran in both:

Peyton Sellers had bad luck during the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Good Sam RV ERS 125 at Pocono Raceway but pulled out a 25th place finish. (Photo: Ronda Greer)

TRUCKS: Sellers Overcomes Bad Luck At Pocono

Peyton Sellers struggled all weekend at Pocono Raceway…

NASCAR drivers and teams are nothing if not tough and resilient. Witness Brad Keselowski’s gritty performance in winning the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Good Sam RV Insurance 500 at Pocono Raceway just four days after breaking his left ankle.

Other competitors also faced and overcame challenges at Pocono.

Take Peyton Sellers, who drove the No. 66 SkillsUSA-sponsored Turn One Racing Chevrolet in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Good Sam RV Emergency Road Service 125 at Pocono Raceway. The team’s bad luck began on Thursday of race week when its hauler knocked over the flag stand at the track…More

What makes you happy?

In a world full of war, death, destruction, catastrophe and broken promises you have to take joy where you find it.

A drive to work free from tailgaters. A gas price sign closer to $2 than 3. A string of green lights. All things that can make the morning commute a bit easier to bear.

A voice mail light that’s not lit. An email account with no spam. A desk that you cleaned off the night before. It doesn’t take much to start the day off right.

A meeting that lasts less than half an hour and actually accomplishes something. A quiet lunch with a co-worker where the job is not the main topic of conversation. A project completed on time and done well. These make work more bearable.

A swift and safe ride home. A loving greeting at the door. Dinner with conversation about the day’s small victories and defeats.

If every day could have most of these things, how happy would you be?

The cynic in me wants to say that bad days are what make us appreciate the good days.

The cock-eyed optimist wants the cynic to jump off the Market street Bridge. A good day would be to see Mr. Cynic float downstream and bother Harrisburg or other points south.

Some times it doesn’t take much to be happy. My Father once told me that happiness is just unhappiness turned inside out. I didn’t understand it at the time and there are days when I still don’t. But on a good day I get it.

Tuesday Review: The Silence of the Lambs

The Silence of the Lambs
1991 R 118 minutes

This just came available (to my knowledge) on Netflix streaming.

It’s just terrific. Seeing it again after a few years just reminds me that a movie doesn’t have to ooze special effects to have an impact. The movie is 20 year old and with very few exceptions (the quaint use of the “Police Fax” machine) it holds up very well.

The Silence of the Lambs is of course now part of our movie lexicon. But picture how daring it was 20 years ago to show a monster like “Buffalo Bill” as he dances for the camera with his manhood tucked between his legs.It makes you shiver. But, as I said it’s now fair game for parody:

This probably says more about the state of our society than anything else.

Jonathan Demme’s first major motion picture director credit was brought in for $19 million and has grossed more than a quarter of a billion, world wide. He went on to direct “Philedelphia” ansd a score of documentary efforts including Bruce Springsteen: The Complete Video Anthology 1978-2000 (Video 2001).

What Demme does best here is to use the amazing star power of Jodie Foster, Anthony Hopkins and Scott Glenn to his advantage. Foster as agent Starling is note perfect, Scott Glenn (Jack Crawford) exhibits just the right amount of daddy and sexual tension without being overt but the real star is the controlled psychosis of Hopkins as Dr. Hannibal Lecter.

What is amazing about his portrayal is the fact that he only on screen in the two hour movie for 16 minutes! It’s remarkable and a telling lesson soaked up by later actors (See Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight) Less is always more in every genre.

The movie is still not for the faint of heart. Jodie Foster saying “Cunt” was and is shocking. Ted Levine as Jame ‘Buffalo Bill’ Gumb is just plain out there.

The movie won Won 5 Oscars including:

Best Actor in a Leading Role
Anthony Hopkins

Best Actress in a Leading Role
Jodie Foster

Best Director
Jonathan Demme

They were all richly deserved.

The Rant D’Jour is about buffets. I am not a fan.

With all due apologies to the hundreds of restaurants in the area that serve buffets…The more

With all due apologies to the hundreds of restaurants in the area that serve buffets I can’t stomach it.

Oh yes I am guilty of the occasional trip to the salad bar. But those endless mazes of hot and cold buffets are too much for me in so many ways.

First of all the whole concept is a little bit on the unappetizing side. Food is supposed to come out the oven or pot and onto my plate. Not sit like a car in a showroom waiting for someone to pick it. And when you do choose something that looks appetizing doesn’t it always seem like it doesn’t taste as good as it looked?

A buffet is all you can eat. I have been to some buffet restaurants that have some regular customers who definitely have had all they can eat and all you and I and some third world nations could eat too. Now I am not a skinny guy so I can’t say too much here but some of these buffet gals and guys need to show a little restraint at the restaurant. And a little mercy to their stretch waistbands, if you get my drift.

Now here’s my major maladjustment when it comes to buffets. Other people. Other people who I don’t know are in close proximity to my chow. These are folks who for all I know clean sewers for a living. Or who don’t wash their hands after going number two. While they don’t, I hope, actually touch the food they certainly touch the serving utensils and then I get to touch them by proxy. Ewww.

Even the best buffet is set up so you have to reach over some of the offerings to get to the steaming pile of stuff you want. Hope nothing shakes loose from someone’s sleeve.

And then there’s the kids at buffets. Don’t get me started. I once saw a pre-teen aged urchin pile his already used plate with some food, change his mind and PUT IT BACK! And when I spoke to the little creep about this his mother yelled at me! “He’s been taught not to waste food” she shouted at me. Yeah, right.

Do you know what they call those little awnings over buffets? Sneeze guards. Think about that for a moment. The designers of the buffet concept actually expect the food will be protected from sneezing Buffet goers the size of a water buffalo’s by that contraption?

One popular buffet style restaurant in the back mountain that is now a pile of dirt in an empty lot lost my business early on. It was set up so the buffet line ran along the kitchen and had one way sliding glass mirrors so the cooking and serving staff could see the buffet and replenish it and you couldn’t see them. Except for some reason I could see them. They were looking at the customers, making faces at them and generally doing rude and obscene things behind the scenes. Pretending to pick your nose and then handling food has never seemed funny to me. I never went back.

I’m not even going to mention my sneaking suspicion about some buffets. I will just say one word and let you figure out the rest.

Recycling.

Sometimes it seems like the war on drugs is being fought by people on drugs.

Now there are plenty of people who advocate the legalization of some drugs. But I don’t think any sane person will recommend that you make methamphetamine available to one and all with no penalty.

The horror stories surrounding crank are countless. The meth labs blowing up when the backyard deranged chemists make a mistake in processing the speed. The physical abuse and crime rates that skyrocket around meth centers, so bad in Missouri that they have taken to calling the state methouri.

The problem is that the ingredients to make the stuff are common substances. I Google searched and found dozens of recipes in just a few minutes. All of them call for over the counter cold meds that contain ephedrine or pseudo ephedrine.

So, in what you would think would be a brilliant move to stem the tidal wave of meth, the sale of Contact and other cold meds has been limited in most states where meth is a problem. It’s pretty much put the backyard meth chemists out of business. Unfortunately our friends south of the border have no such restrictions so the flow of meth from Mexico is picking up where the locals left off. As a matter of fact according to some authorities the Mexican speed is cheaper than the home grown variety and it wasn’t very expensive to begin with. Most crime associated with meth use isn’t to buy the drug. It stems from the fact that speed scrambles the addicts up so badly that they can’t hold any jobs at all and have to steal just to live.

So once again our leaders in well intentioned moves have made a bad drug problem even worse. The war on drugs accounts for most of the criminal populations in our prisons. Maybe something needs to be done but so far every move we make seems to make no sense.

A humongous dead tree fell last night, mostly on the road that runs past the Rising Ranch. Dead maple maybe. I am not sure as it was long denuded of branches or leaves and was home to countless woodpecker feasts and not so incidentally all manner of insects.
There have been a lot of storms and winds lately. We have had to clear quite a few fallen limbs and in one case most of a tree off our property. In this case it is not clear to me if this particular one is on our property or not. In any case it’s far too large for my talents with my diminutive chain saw.

Plus, and this is a big plus, it’s across some lines. I am not well versed in what lines carry what. I know these lines are not carrying MY power or cable because I know where that comes from and it crosses the road further down. These lines, thick mothers, do not go in my house. Could be telephone, could be high voltage, I won’t mess with it.

It’s bent but not snapped the lines. It’s pretty big and will probably move some more the next time it blows. Some of it was in the road when it came down last night, about 9 pm. We were alerted by stopped traffic and I went out, six cell flashlight in my hands.

A small crew of guys had leaped from their SUV’s and pickups and were dragging the limbs off the road.

“Anyone call 911,” I shouted. “It’s across some power lines or something,” I said.

No response from the ad-hoc tree removal forces. Not even a grunt. No surprise there and I took cold comfort from the fact that I knew better than to touch the debris, which even at night I could see was pretty much clothed in poison ivy.

I returned to the ranch and briefly discussed calling the authorities with the long-suffering wife. I voted no as I was pretty sure if it had to be cleared it would be cleared. I have seen many such sized trees across lines elsewhere, some of them for a long time. Plus, and this is a big plus, I did not want to become responsible for the clearing of said snag. Called upon to pay for men with longer chain saws and bucket trucks is not in my economic future, thanks anyway.

The pictures were taken at great possibility of death on my part. The speed limit on this road in question is 35 mph. Most people routinely go 55 mph and some exceed Pocono Raceway qualifying speeds. People were swerving, cursing and blowing their horns at me. I wished them safe travels in my own way.

NOTE TO LEHMAN COPS: Feel free to park in my driveway with timer strips. (I know the stateys won’t give you radar guns. Pricks.) You will pay for a new cruiser in no time. I’ll spring for the donuts and java.

The Rant D’Jour is about meth and the war on drugs.

Sometimes it seems like the war on drugs is being fought by people on drugs. Now there are plenty…more

Sunday Wrap:

That's a wrap

Monday August 1, 2011

Rant D’Jour Apple Jacks taste like…..

Blog Post Dancing lessons from god

Tuesday August 2, 2011

Rant D’Jour Mascot Wars.

Blog Post Tuesday Review – Prodigal Son

Wednesday August 3, 2011

Rant D’Jour Woof, I say!.

Blog Post WEEKENDER Column: What I’ve Learned.

Thursday August 4, 2011

Blog Post Radio DaZe – On vacation.

Rant D’Jour Who’s got my golden arm?

Friday August 5, 2011

Rant D’Jour Mehmet Ali Agca

Blog Post Picture This: Nubble Light with rainbow

Saturday August 6, 2011

Rant D’Jour Nailed it!.

Blog Post Aggregate Saturday

Aggregate Saturday:

I’ve actually done better than I thought I would this week with posts. Even though some of it (well, let’s be honest, most of it) was recycled at least I have posted most every day.
–
I am doing this update from the Pocono Raceway media center. While I type the NASCAR Camping World Trucks are qualifying on the track. Here in the media center we can hear the trucks but not see them, except on the monitor which is playing SPEED. I could be in my home office. Except the coffee is better.
–
Vacation was great. Too brief as usual.
–
Weather looks OK for today at the track, tomorrow for the Cup race, not so much. Could be a long day. Possibly the race will happen on Monday. Either way makes little difference to me. I am in for the duration.
–
Long day today-Nationwide is in Iowa and the race doesn’t begin until 7:30 pm. Should be in bed by 12 mid.
–
That’s all for today.

Nailed it!

Picture This:

This is the “Nubble Light” and the view you see is from the place where we have stayed the last 7 years during our Summer and our Fall vacations. A fast moving thunderstorm had just passed through.

It makes me wish I had a decent camera and not the crappy one that is in my Blackberry.

It also makes me wish vacation was longer. It’s over today and we are on the road back home.

The Rant D’Jour is about the man show shot a Pope.

You would think if did something like this you would be locked up and they would throw away the key… more