# 425 - September 24th, 2014
Greetings one and all – if you are sitting comfortably
then I shall begin… Well, it’s a month into the school year and, as far as I
can ascertain, the school is performing remarkably well both in the classroom
and in their sporting endeavors. G.P.A.’s above 3.0 abound among the student
athletes and the sports’ teams are enjoying great success. The girls’
volleyball team has just one loss while the boys soccer and football teams both
have 100% winning records, and girls soccer, while having a mixed won/loss
record, have come a long way since their two-girl first practice a month or so
ago!… Our small rural high school never ceases to amaze me - and thankfully
it’s far more often than not for good reasons!...
For your Quotes of the Week
let’s stay with the world of sports, about which here are a couple curmudgeonly
comments to start with… First let’s hear from George Orwell who remarked,
“Serious sport has nothing to do with fair play. It is bound up with hatred,
jealousy, boastfulness, disregard of all rules and sadistic pleasure in
witnessing violence: in other words it is war without the shooting” - clearly a
man who never graced the sporting arenas with any degree of success… And almost
as begrudgingly we have George Bernard Shaw’s comment that “games are for
people who can neither read nor think” - well I think we have found another
loser on the sports field, although he did quite well elsewhere, being the only
person to win both a Nobel prize (for literature) and an Oscar (for adapted
screenplay)!… Perhaps these gentlemen were simply overwhelmed by the very
salient point raised by writer/journalist Russell Baker who observed, “In
America, it is sport that is the opiate of the masses”… Baker is probably
correct, and after my recent experience in Oakland I would suggest certain
Raider fans should perhaps take his comment a little further and take some
opiates to calm themselves down, or at least help them escape the dismal
performances of a team that many years ago ceased to exhibit their ‘commitment
to excellence’ motto…
Public
Service Announcements (P.S.A.’s)… Calendars and pens at the ready… #777 - A reminder of another top-notch live music
show coming to the Navarro Store Amphitheatre, or is it Palladium. This will
take place on Saturday, September 27 at 7pm and it’s the return to the Valley
of the great electric blues harmonica man, Charlie Musselwhite. Tickets
available at 895-9445. It should be a really special show and that’s without
the delicious food presented by Guy on the grill and the beer and wine that’s
available from the store at very reasonable prices…
#778 - The Vets from the Mendocino Animal Hospital will be in the Valley twice
next month - on Thursdays, October Oct 9 and 23… #779 - It will rain this week…
Moving
quickly on to a few of the topics and Valley events under discussion this week
at The Three-Dot Lounge – yes it’s “Moans, Groans, Good Thoughts, and Rampant
(and surprisingly reliable) Rumors” from my favorite gathering place in the
Valley, a location that sees people get together and share their thoughts about
life in A.V. and where we subscribe to the Winston Churchill philosophy that “A
lie will get halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to put on
its pants”… So I’ll put my pants on and continue…
... ‘Things people say’ – I overheard these words
uttered by a tourist sitting outside the Paysanne Ice Cream store in Boonville
on Saturday afternoon – “Oh, yes, Hendy Woods is quite pretty”... ‘Quite
pretty’? I think she meant to say, “Absolutely stunning” but she had drunk too
much wine and was unable to express herself very well...
… So the Scots have decided they want to stay within the
U.K. I have relatives in England who, had the electorate voted to leave, were
very prepared to pay more import tax on their whisky and sheep’s stomach
(Scotland’s only contributions to society of any real benefit) but they were
looking forward to a bagpipe-free life, one without men in thick woolly skirts
and no underwear, and one where if you asked someone to lend you a pound (about
$1.50) they would say yes without quibbling over the interest rate…
… Regulars at the Three-Dot were quite amused when word
reached them that their recent comments about the Chamber of Commerce’s almost
non-existent events’ page on their website provoked a response that the
Chambers’ Board members are simply volunteers and should not be criticized for
this. We did not view those remarks as criticism, merely a constructive and
gentle nudge to prompt the Chamber to promote commerce. Isn’t that what they
are supposed to do - even as volunteers? Meanwhile, I see that they have made
some changes to the aforementioned page, with the addition of the lunches (but
not dinners) at the Senior Center and the Saturday morning Farmer’s Market -
all good stuff - keep up the good work! The more events on the page the better
as no doubt many visitors to the Valley check the Chamber’s website before
coming here, as do some local folks. And besides, surely it’s time to put to
rest the unfortunate local adage that ‘the Chamber is the Valley’s best-kept
secret’…
Oh,
dear, have I upset somebody? I’ll get my coat and leave shall I?... That’s ok -
I’ve got see a man about a sheep anyway… So, until we talk again – ‘Keep the
Faith’; be careful out there; stay out of the ditches; think good thoughts; be
wary of strangers with more dogs than teeth; please remember to keep your
windows cracked if you have pets in your vehicle; and may your god go with you…
Oh, and of course, one final request, “Let us prey”… Sometimes poking, often
stroking, but always humbly yours, Turkey Vulture…
p.s. You can contact me with words of support/abuse
either through the Letters Page or by e-mail at <turkeyvulture1@earthlink.net>
p.p.s. Skylark – read any good books lately?... Keep on
humming, Hummingbird… Everything cool with you, O.J.? Of course it is…
posted by Turkey Vulture @ 8:37 AM
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