Weekly Thought Bonanza Aug 29/30

On Sunday I produce a column called “The Weekly Thought Bonanza”. This column is about random thoughts that run through my head all week and trust me there are a lot of them. I will try share as many of these as I can so each one of my readers can spend their weekend using a little extra brain power on these thoughts of mine.

Hurricane season is in full swing and so far we have had two near misses in the month of August. The National Weather Service has predicted a below average hurricane season this year. Two near misses does not seem so below average to me.

Harlan Coben is a phenomenal author and has written some incredible novels recently. If you want a great book on a rainy day or when you are by the pool, check him out.

There is not enough coffee in the world to satisfy my coffee cravings. Green mountains Wild Blueberry and Raisin Nut Blend are two of the best.

Healthcare has been the national debate in this country since the Obama Administration decided to tackle it this summer. I commend the administration for trying to cover every American citizen, which I might add should be the number one priority for the administration. I do not believe that this should be done without getting a think tank of the nations best and brightest to fix healthcare in this country once and for all. Let’s do it right the first time finally.

Two of my best friends welcomed in two beautiful baby girls this week. I wish them all the love and happiness in the world with their new arrivals.

A Chacarero Sandwich is one of the best sandwiches I have ever had.

There has to be a better way of getting on with our lives after bananas turn bad. Every time I go get that last banana I feel like my day is over before it begins when that last banana is brown inside and out. I watch the bananas on the banana tree all week go from green to brown and I can never understand why they go so quickly. Shouldn’t the whole bunch last till they are all gone?

A dead snapping turtle was in my yard a few weeks ago as I was just about to leave my house for the doctor’s office. I did not have time to bury it before I left and I figured when I got home I would just take care of it. Much to my chagrin as I pulled in the driveway I saw seven turkey vultures having lunch on the poor turtle. My first instinct was to go and grab the shotgun and scare the away but I just started throwing rocks and they all scattered. I thought Steven King might have moved in next door. I had never seen a turkey vulture in my whole life before this happened and I hope to never see one again. When I looked up turkey vulture online I found out that they are on the endangered species list since 1918. Isn’t that just lucky for them as they get to prey on dead animals and scare the stuffing out of everyone who they come across yet they are the one’s who get protection.

I hate to say it but Lifetime has some of the saddest movies of all time. I seem to always stop the channel on one of them and I end up watching the whole heart wrenching movie. Watch The Memory Keepers Daughter, it is not a feel good movie but a good one. I know I am such a sap.

Ed Norton is the best actor on the planet period.

Next week many children go back to school and I have a thought. Why not start dropping the home economics and study halls for more math and science. Just a thought but what do I know I spent most of my time in study hall reading Sports Illustrated.

One more reason to get rid of the Miss Universe Pageant beside Donald Trump is the fact the only real news this year’s pageant produced was all the contestants had a condom “Olympics”, where they had a blow up a condom competition. Real class acts.

Only 121 days till Christmas if you keep count of such things.

The "Weekly Thought Bonanza" thought of the week; Why can’t people say what is going on, instead of what the f (you know the word)? In what grade in school did we learn that? Great example we set for our children.




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Why Can’t My Grass Grow Green?

I moved into my current home in the winter of 2006. The pool had its cover on and snow was plentiful on that cold February day. I had to wait for the spring to see my new lawn. The builder told me he had just put down brand new sod in the summer of '05 and I had visions of the green grass of Ireland dancing in my head. When the spring came it was about as green as the sand on a beach.

My dreams of a beautiful lawn were just that, a dream, and I went online to find a solution to the problem. I called a professional lawn company and they explained to me that the lawn needed to be seeded and aerated. I have heard of aerating a putting green on a golf course but never a backyard. I was quoted a price of three thousand dollars but I did not care. I wanted the green grass in my dreams and I gladly paid the company. It was the end of April and, of course, April showers bring May flowers and green grass. So the day after the lawn was aerated and seeded; the rains from the heavens came and came and came. The rain did not let up for two weeks. I watched as all the grass seed just washed away with every rain drop. I called the lawn company again and they told me for another one thousand dollars they will reseed the lawn all over again. I was upset with Mother Nature but the visions of that green grass were all that I cared about.

When June came, I had sporadic patches of grass and I believed I could see the light at the end of the tunnel. I joined the lawn company’s yearly program as they assured me that by the fall I would see a major improvement. The lawn actually became worse in the fall and I chalked it all up to the lawn company being subpar. I had a sprinkler system as good as any golf course and it did not make a difference in year one. Next year I was going to get my green grass one way or another.

I received several advertisements in the mail over that winter with the most beautiful pictures of lawns. I called a few of the companies and decided on one in particular because they assured me that they knew how to handle my lawn problem. I paid five thousand dollars and I knew this was going to be a good year for my lawn.

A big truck pulled in that spring and sprayed my lawn with green mist. The mist was a combination of grass seed and fertilizer. The day they sprayed the lawn was green with the seed and the fertilizer. It lasted for about two days before the green started to disappear. I was so impressed with the technology; I just knew it was going to work. Not only did it not work, I had moss and crabgrass growing where grass should be. I was so distraught by the end of the year I threw my hands in the air and I really needed to do some serious research over the winter.

I decided in year three to hire a local lawn company instead of one of the national chains. My lawn was improving but it still was the worst one on my block. I was getting so embarrassed. Forget about the dreams of my beautiful lawn, I just wanted to have a lawn that my neighbors would not laugh at any more.

Year three was better than the first two as I had only a few bare spots in the lawn. I had what I thought was grass but I learned my lawn was ninety percent weeds and I had a grub problem now. Grubs and weeds after all that money. The end of year three had me more upset than the previous two.

This year I hired a local lawn pro again. The local pro explained to me how he was going to get my lawn up to where I wanted it. He said it was going to be at least a three year process. I do not know if he was snowing me or he really did know what he was doing. He did tell me that he had a degree in environmental studies from the University of Rhode Island. That in itself is going to make me trust this individual. He told me he had the same problem with his own lawn and showed me a before and after picture. I was so impressed I nearly hugged him. My hopes and dreams have been renewed again as I have finally started to see some progress. Oh the green, green grass of home.

Your lawn is not just a lawn, it is the piece of earth that you own as an individual of this planet. Walk barefoot on your lawn and when the cool grass goes between your toes, remember to think about this one special thought; this is my piece of planet earth that no one can take away from me. That special feeling of pride is why I strive to have that perfect piece of planet earth all to myself. I have given my blood, sweat, and tears to own this little piece of earth and I appreciate it everyday even if it has some weeds and is the color of sand on the beach.


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Do I Buy Organic Foods or Not?

I love going to the grocery store every day. I am a great cook and I love to buy my meats and produce daily. From the checkout clerks to the stock people, I have had several conversations about everything and anything. One particular conversation I have had recently has started my thought process running wild; what does organic mean and why does it cost more?

All agriculture, produce and livestock were considered organic until the twentieth century when pesticides, genetic altering and synthetic chemicals were introduced. The addition to these chemicals and genetically engineered procedures in the food supply increased production substantially, adding nutrients not produced by nature, and extending the longevity of meats and produce. Here is where the debate begins, is the science here beneficial or not?

There is absolutely no question that pesticides have lead to some controversy in the scientific community. There is controversial data on the health implications of certain pesticides. For example, the herbicide Atrazine has been shown in some experiments to be a teratogen causing demasculinization in male frogs exposed to small concentrations. Under the effects of Atrazine, male frogs were found to have greatly increased occurrences of either malformed gonads, or testicular gonads which contain non-degenerate eggs. Effects were however significantly reduced in high concentrations, as is consistent with other teratogens affecting the endocrine system, such as estradiol. * Kermit the frog is in deep trouble with Miss Piggy if he develops malformed testicles.

Organic foods prohibit the use of pesticides unless the pesticides are made from plants. Some organic pesticides, such as rotenone, have high toxicity to fish and aquatic creatures with some toxicity to mammals. It causes Parkinson's disease if injected into rats. *

I did the research on organic foods and I am more confused than ever. I will either eat foods with pesticides and have square testicles or I could decide to eat foods with organic pesticides and develop Parkinson’s. Maybe I should just not eat or maybe, just maybe, I need to figure out which is best.

I checked several websites and everyone of them had pros and cons with each. My decision on which one was the better choice for me still had me absolutely confused. Having me confused is not that difficult.

Whole Foods Stores is the number one retailer in the world of natural and organic foods. I have been to a Whole Foods Store and I have found it very intriguing. They certainly have a great selection of products and I have always found their food to be good. Their laundry soaps, organic dryer sheets that have no scent, and their bath products I found to be less than stellar however. Actually organic non-food items are downright subpar. Chalk one up for the non organic side here.

Organic foods are up to forty percent more expensive than non organic foods. Organic foods do have a certain flair about them though. If there is really no health benefit to organic foods is the price really worth it?

Experts say that you should wash all of your foods regardless if they are organically grown or not. I have to tell you, that I have not washed all the apples and broccoli I buy all the time. Shhh, it is our little secret.

At the end of my research there was no concrete evidence in either direction that whatever food you eat has much of a difference either way. Organic junk food is still junk food and an apple with pesticides is still an apple. I just have to decide whether a square testicle is just a square testicle. I do not think that particular thought will be shared with my local grocer.



Information gathered from Wikipedia*

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Have We Forgotten?

The Darryl Worley song, “Have We Forgotten”, tells the story of how we have basically forgot how it felt on nine eleven and the days directly after the attacks. Does anyone remember what happened that day anymore? New United States Attorney General Eric Holder must have missed that day in time. Attorney General Holder has decided to open up an investigation of CIA interrogators because they threatened terrorists during interrogations. The techniques that were used were enormously successful and we are about to cripple the intelligence community. The CIA is not above scrutiny but to investigate years of proven techniques to obtain information is ludicrous.

The second major event on the same wave length within the past week was the release of the Lockerbie Bomber from a Scottish Prison. Lockerbie bomber, Abdelbaset al Megrahi, received a hero’s welcome when he landed in Libya. Megrahi was released on humanitarian grounds as he suffers from cancer. Did Megrahi show compassion to the passengers and crew when flight 103 had 259 people aboard when they were blown out of the sky?

Time has passed since 9/11 and flight 103 I give you that, but to forget these acts is almost as big a crime as the acts itself. There was no mercy shown by the individuals who committed these heinous acts; yet we are now to believe that mercy should be shown on them.

The individual freedoms that we have as citizens of this country were not handed to us without a struggle. Freedom is not free and we as a nation need to maintain that freedom on a daily basis by any means necessary.

The Geneva Convention was drawn up in 1949. It covers the humanitarian treatment of armed forces on land and at sea, prisoners of war, and civilians. And all of them have now been accepted by virtually every State in the world. Terrorists are not, nor should they ever be covered in any convention. They are not soldiers they are murderers.

The Obama administration could be tying the hands of the CIA and its sister agencies if they continue to place restrictions on the people who try and keep us free from the awful acts committed against us. Obama has been in office for the same amount of time almost as President Bush was when the attacks on 9/11 came. President Obama must remember back to that day longer and harder than everyone else here in America as he is the leader of the free world. It is now his administration in place and ultimately his responsibility as President of the United States to make sure another 9/11 or flight 103 never ever happens again.

Unfortunately, this is a poll driven political society now and there is an equal divide in this country as to how to handle terrorists properly. On January 22nd, President Obama ordered the closure of Guantanamo Bay, where several of the terrorists that have been detained, within one year. At the time of President Obama’s announcement of the closing of Guantanamo Bay, public opinion was equally divided on whether to close the facility. Since that time, Americans have had second thoughts on closing the Guantanemo almost 2 to 1. Several of the terrorists that have been returned to their homeland have gone right back to their old ways.

Shouldn’t our elected leaders start making the right decisions and better yet the tough decisions needed? When you are given the honor of representing your constituents, is it not your number one responsibility to keep them safe at all costs?

We can no longer just sit back and hope the rest of the world will come to the table and negotiate. Terrorists do not want to negotiate, they want to annihilate us. They want to bring harm on our families any way they can. They are not rational and we cannot treat them rationally. By taking away techniques the CIA use to gather information from terrorists is just bad business.

We are in an age where nuclear weapons could easily fall into the wrong hands. Close your eyes and imagine if the 9/11 terrorists or Abdelbaset al Megrahi had a nuclear weapon. Do you honestly believe this country could have survived a nuclear attack on its very own soil? We have to stop being complacent and we need to take a proactive approach to fighting terrorism or we could be in serious trouble.


To listen to Darryl Worley's Have You Forgotten cut and paste this link in your web browser:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pdznv9Q6o9s

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Traded to the Yankees

Controversy has always followed me and now it has exploded over a simple trade, a change of mind you could say. I have left Red Sox Nation and I have joined the Evil Empire. I have become a Yankee fan on August 25, 2009. John Sterling move one seat over in the broadcast booth, Chasse is coming to Yankee Town.

My earliest childhood memories have the Boston Red Sox stamped all over them. I cried when Yaz popped up to Craig Nettles, I hate Bucky” Bleepin” Dent (until today, Bucky you the man!!), Aaron Boone’s homerun in ’03 gave me nightmares for weeks. I lived and breathed Boston Red Sox baseball up until 2006, when the winds at my beloved Fenway Park started blowing in straight from centerfield.

In January of 2002, John Henry, Tom Werner and the New York Times Company purchased the Boston Red Sox from The Yawkey Trust. I should have known right there trouble was a brewing with the Times involved and Katie Couric on Tom Werner’s arm. I also should have known where John Henry was coming from when he sold the Florida Marlins to buy the Red Sox with the help of Commissioner Bud Selig. Henry dumped the Marlins for the Sox. Where is the loyalty Mr. Henry?

The first thing this group did was nix the plans of building a new Fenway Park. Visit Camden Yards and you will see why a new Fenway Park is desperately needed. When you have to turn your body to look at home plate from half the seats in the stadium you know there is a problem. Granted the ownership group has made improvements but it is the worst park in the major league.

The new management appointed Larry Lucchino as President of baseball operations; and soon after that Theo Epstein was the new general manager. The Red Sox brain trust was now put in place. Within two years, the Red Sox had won their first world championship in eighty six years. I cheered that championship as loud as anyone else in Red Sox Nation.

The two thousand five Boston Red Sox made the playoffs but were beaten in the first round that year. Two thousand six was pretty much the same except for the fact they did not make the playoffs. This was the year that my beloved Red Sox proved to me that this ownership group was more into the bottom line than they were into winning. The Sox were in first place at the All Star break in ’06 and stood pat and did not make a move at the trade deadline. I started to feel then that the Red Sox ownership group was going to rest on the 2004 championship instead of becoming a team that was more concerned at winning at all costs.

The winter of 2007, I starting thinking the Red Sox was no longer the team for me. I bought an Atlanta Braves hat and started watching the Braves because I believed we here in New England were tied to them as they once were the Boston Braves. The Braves just were not the Ted Turner Braves any more however. They were just like the Red Sox, the bottom line was more important than winning. I abandoned the Braves and again went back to the home town team.

The 2007 Red Sox produced another World Series Championship but unlike ’04, it was just not the same. A sweep of the Colorado Rockies gave me renewed hope that the Red Sox were the team of the 2000’s. It was short lived however, as the Sox were beaten by the Devil Rays in the 2008 American League Championship Series. I chalked up 2008 as an injury riddled playoff run and looked forward to 2009 and the 2009 off season.

The Red Sox banked their whole 2009 season on one player Mark Teixeira. The Red Sox was outbid by the Yankees for Teixeira’s services. The Red Sox did not bid that one million dollars extra needed to secure his services. The Yankees not only had Teixeira under contract but they also signed CC Sabathia and AJ Burnett. The Red Sox answer to those signings was two retreads Brad Penny and John Smoltz. I was tired of the Sox not trying to go the extra mile.

The Red Sox have the highest ticket prices in the major league, yet they cry poverty all of the time. They could have had that new stadium if the ownership group actually stepped up to the plate, no pun intended. Mr. Henry has lost half the fortune of his investment business over the last five years. It is no wonder he has, because if he runs his investment business like he does the Red Sox it is doomed to fail.
The straw that broke the camel’s back was this year’s trading deadline. The Red Sox could have had Roy Halladay but pulled back and never made the deal. They did pick up Victor Martinez to their credit but he is no Halladay.

The Yankees beat the Red Sox six out of seven games over the last week. There was an atmosphere in that Yankee dugout over these seven games that you see on a little league field. There was tremendous pride in those players that I admired greatly. The Yankees, unlike the Red Sox, will do anything to win. The Yankees will think outside the box when need be unlike the Red Sox. I can live with a team that does anything to win even if it loses but when that team cares more about profit; I lose my faith in them. I, Cris Chasse, have decided to be traded to the New York Yankee Nation. I will forever be grateful for the memories the Sox gave me during the first forty years of my life; and I look forward to the memories the Yankees will give me for the rest of it.

Some of you might think I am a traitor and I respect that. The Patriots almost moved to Connecticut a few years ago and if they did I would have become a fan of a different NFL franchise if they had. Your heart as to be in a team to live and breathe for them and my heart is now in the Big Apple.


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Not In My Backyard

Time and time again projects are derailed because residents of a city or town refuse to allow innovative projects to go forward. A majority of these projects are not just beneficial to the economy they are also beneficial to the quality of life of our community. Whether it is selfishness or a lack of understanding, there is a feeling in communities that while there might be a benefit to most of these innovative projects, public sentiment still has that “not in my backyard” mentality.

An announcement was made last week that a commuter rail will go down to New Bedford and Fall River, Massachusetts to be linked to the state capital of Boston. Before the official press release was even announced to the press, residents in surrounding towns were up in arms about the possibility of having the commuter rail run through their community. Southeastern Massachusetts has been hit hardest by the economic recession in Massachusetts, yet the one thing that could revitalize the area, will never see the light of day. I see more litigation in this case than with big tobacco. The not in my backyarders will never allow the commuter rail and will fight it out in court before they would concede to the greater good of our community.

A few years ago, Bradlees Department stores were in many small communities in the Northeast. Bradlees, year after year, lost millions and millions of dollars until it finally went bankrupt. All of the stores closed and at least thirty percent of former Bradlees stores are still empty to this day. Wal-Mart, at the time of Bradless demise, tried to purchase these buildings and build stores in these communities. The public outcry was so great Wal-Mart abandoned the project. When you have to drive twenty miles to buy a garden hose, next time remember how easy it could have been to pull into that Wal-Mart and buy that hose a mile down the road. The local job market would have been helped with the Wal-Mart brand as well.

Despite a relentless increase in fuel consumption, the oil industry hasn't built a new refinery in California in 35 years and probably never will again. Nor is it likely to invest in significant expansions of existing facilities, even though prices in California are 30 cents a gallon above the U.S. average. Even as demand grows, industry executives say expanding or building refineries is almost impossible in California, thanks to red tape, strict environmental laws and rampant opposition. That makes a new refinery a major risk -- a $2 billion, 10-year undertaking, depending on how long it takes to get the permits, said Bob Slaughter, president of the National Petrochemical & Refiners Association. California is constantly in the news as residents of the state are up in arms because of the cost of gasoline on average is 23 cents more than the rest of the nation. The biggest problem here is that California residents do not want refineries in their back yard, henceforth the higher gas prices.*

Do not get me wrong here, there have been several disasters such as Three Mile Island, companies that have put toxic waste in our rivers and streams, and the Exxon Valdez oil spill that have soured the public on some of these projects. Can anyone tell me however why adding a Wal-Mart to a town would be so terrible?

We do not look out for the greater good anymore, as we only look out for ourselves. No one wants a small town or a historic part of a city to be run over by commercialism. Stopping progress and impeding the betterment of others is going to derail the American Economy for our children if we do not start thinking things through. America was built on innovation and our ability to see into the future.

When Bill Gates, Paul Allen, and Steve Jobs pushed Americans into buying their very own personal computer, our economy skyrocketed. A new industry was born. America was light years ahead of other countries and beat back a severe challenge by the Japanese, who threatened our economy with their new found innovation. We succeeded and we have prospered because America found out that real innovation is built in a garage and not in a board room.

New technology is what America is all about. Take for example Wind Turbine technology. The price of electricity is skyrocketing and with the amount of electricity needed on the rise we need to find a way to produce more while protecting the environment. Wind Turbine Farms as they are called, have been shot down time and time again because no one wants them in their community. Think it out people. Thousand dollar electric bills are not out of the question if we do not find a new way to produce electricity.

My final point to make is that it is a small but loud majority that beats back real progress because of our "not in my backyard" mentality. These are the same people looking over their 401k statements blaming everyone and everything on everyone else but the person in the mirror. Innovation and progress is a good thing. Maybe you have to wait at a stop light an extra thirty seconds for that commuter rail to go by, maybe just maybe that extra thirty seconds will secure the future of our nation.

* Quotes from the Los Angeles times

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Weekly Thought Bonanza August 22-23

On Saturday’s I produce a column called “The Weekly Thought Bonanza”. This column is about random thoughts that run through my head all week and trust me there are a lot of them. I will try share as many of these as I can so each one of my readers can spend their weekend using a little extra brain power as they get to ponder what goes through my head in a week.

Does it have to rain every time I have plans on the weekend? When you have nothing to do, it never rains. I will never get the weather; which brings me to wondering how weatherman can only be right fifty percent of the time and still have a job. I know how they keep their jobs; all you need to do is say it MIGHT rain tomorrow. You will not be wrong with a maybe.

I hate to say it, but this might be the Yankees year. Listen people; let’s get over the “Yankees Suck” chants. We are better than that. Act like you have won it before. Just a suggestion.

WE are Marshall, is a phenomenal movie and an even better story. God works in mysterious ways and when that community suffered; they came together and persevered. A lesson for everyone.

The Food Channel just ran a piece on Appalachian cooking. Possum and raccoon brains were on the menu. Next time you complain about a television dinner, think twice before you do.

Last week’s poll question asked if the media covered the Michael Jackson death too much. Overwhelmingly you all said yes. Now if our national media would just listen to us for once and not try for the quick ratings boost maybe they could go back to reporting what is really important.

What happened to chalk boards? Did the world run out of chalk?

Does anyone remember life before television remotes? What would children do if they had to get up off of the couch and change the channel?

New Hampshire does not mandate helmets for motorcycle riders. That is just not live free and die, it is just really insane.

I cannot remember the last time I had a beer that knocked my socks off. We have 500 microbrews and they all seem to taste the same.

Unemployment in this country is way too high for a full recovery. We spent all of this economic recovery money on pork barrel projects that did not create any jobs. Why don’t we spend the money on infrastructure and get people working with real jobs. It is a win win situation. Better roads, good jobs, and of course, a lower unemployment rate to get a recovery moving.

Can anyone tell me why Paris Hilton is more of an American icon then some of our leaders? This country is going astray.

Facebook is such a great way to re-connect with old friends.

The “Weekly Thought Bonanza” thought of the week: Last night I watched a program on the Learning Channel that basically predicted we all could live to 1000 by year 2069. When I cannot pee standing up anymore I am out.


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