Historical Day

This is truly a long awaited day in our country. The opening news pictures on the 6:30 P.M. news were of The Last Patrol convoy loaded up with the fighting men that have been in Irak. Richard Engle was the reporter on duty, riding on the back of one of the troop filled truck telling us that ,indeed this was the end of American combat troops in Irak. They were driving along a two lane paved road about 30 miles from the Kuwait border. they had been traveling since about 2:00 A.M. They reviewed back and showed some of the scenes that we have been shown on the six o'clock news since the war started in the year 2001. We saw the troops being driven into the war zone and now see them finally being driven out. I must admit when a picture of David Bloome suddenly appeared riding along on the back of a vihicle reporting on the battles of the soldiers, one of the first news people to be allowed to ride with them, I cried all over again for his family. A three year old daughter and two year old twins and their mother left behind by the evils of war. During these war years we lost over 4000 soldiers, men and women, and had 32,000 wounded. Think of the thousands and thousands of children left with out their mothers and fathers, the mothers and dads whose sons or daughters were killed or wounded, the living 'survivors' of the war that will forever be haunted by their experiences, and will be forced to live their lives out in their traumatized state, some of them in mental hospitals, some homeless and living on the streets because they no longer 'fit' into society or function as they did before going to war. Throughout the whole time G.W.Bush told us 'We shall prevail!" At one point in a staged tableau from a USN ship, we were told."Mission Accomplished".

Now, years later, we are withdrawing combat units but leaving 50,000 men and women behind to help the Irak government. How long will they be there? Do we really believe that the danger the combat troops faced has come to an end? Are the 50,000 men and women left behind out of danger? I'm just saying.. Ciao

Andthe Beat Goes On

I thought I would open the paper today and not be met with Karen S.'s picture or name but alas, she is due in court again today to try to settle a custody issue with her former husband Tim. It seems to me that would be a slam dunk! I guess I'll have to listen to the news tonight to see just how that all worked out. I have nothing but abject pity for her five year old daughter. How sad to have to grow up being singled out as being the child of that woman. I know the four boys must have their share of embarrassment and have memories of turmoil and trouble in their home but they are at least old enough to make decisions and have opinions of the mess she created. I pity all of the children involved in this case. Enough, already!

I am going to switch to another subject. Since I have a lot of free time on my hands I am free to watch day time television. I never had the opportunity before because I worked. I have certainly found out that I didn't miss much.

I do like to turn on the TV as soon as I awaken because I am a news junkie. I want to know what is going on in the world at all times. I don't particularly enjoy the local news because it is mostly murders, swindlers and car wreck stories. Local news is a waste of time, so why do I watch it? As Rowan would say, "I don know either"

I watch the Today show, not because I think they are more accurate , (none of them are totally accurate) but from force of habit. I've become attached to Matt L. Anne C. Al Roker. I personally can barely tolerate Meridith V. I think she could easily be replaced by someone with more intelligence and more pizazz. Any way, after I am fully awake and have a bit of knowledge about what is going on in the world, and a few recipes I'd like to try, I get up.

I do my morning matins and ablutions and then start my day. I read the morning paper from front to back,( a task that is becoming easier and easier since the CJ is so pitifully inept,) while I eat breakfast. I try to do the chores that I have lined up for the day and then check my e-mails, face book, Internet news and tune back in to the last segment of the Today Show, Kathy Lee G.and Hoda K. They are frequently very funny. They have one feature on the show whereby they choose people from the Today Show viewers that stand on the street and scream during the show. They bring them inside for a make over! I think they extend their stay in N.Y.
for the next day so they can appear on the show in their new persona. It is remarkable how they can make these drab, dowdy people into classy, sexy looking beautiful people. There are always members of the family or best friends waiting to see how fabulous they look. A 'mercle' right in front of our eyes. The people are blind folded and stand and wait for the signal,"OK you can look now! The blind folds are snatched off and their awe begins.
They shout "Oh, my God, Oh, my God Oh, my God' The the make-over-ee, is directed to turn and see herself in the long mirror and she shouts ,"Oh, my God, Oh, my God." The on lookers rush to join the make-over-ee and they all shout, in unison, "Oh, my God, Oh my God". I wonder who scripts this part of the show. I wonder if back stage it is dubbed the "Oh, my God" segment of the show.

They are not the only Oh,my Godders on TV. "A mother who lost her children back in 1989 is reconnected to then and they all cry and shout "Oh, my God" for five minutes. Sometimes the show host puts the mics in their faces and asked dumb questions like, "Are you surprised?" "Oh, my God!" A little dog is rescued out of the raging flood waters and the dog owner grabs the half drowned put into his arms and the reporters rush to him and asks, "Did you think he would ever be rescued?" "Oh, my God."

I am certainly not one to rebuke people for mentioning God, but is that praising? I don't hear a Thank God in any of these events. I've seen the acronym OMG on signs, bracelets, charms, tee-shirts etc. It almost seems like blasphemy to me. It is irreverant, or contemptuous. Is it taking the name of the lord thy God in vain? Ciao.

The Blame Game

I really can't remember the TV show or the comedian from years past that made the statement,"the devil made me do it" but I do remember that it became very popular and always made people laugh when it was used. We have progressed from that point since then. No longer are things blamed on the devil but things are blamed on a multidude of other things, real people, society, the Republicans, the Democrats, your wife/husband, teacher, best friend, mother, father, alchohol, whoever or whatever is handy or thought to be feasible at the time. or capable of being used. So the sordid, x-rated trial came to a close, guess what? It was all Tim Sypher's fault!

Despite the fact that Karen Sypher went into Porcino's restrarant dressed in a provocative outfit and made herself available to Patino, who had two things against him one, he was in his cups and two he is male. She clearly set out to seduce him. She's had a lot of practice so it was a sure shot. She then drove him to his home because he does not drive when under the influence, as do many of his fellow coaches. The date was July 31, 2003. She claimed she did it because of the snow!

K.S. had made the statement many times that she could hardly wait to tell her side of the story, but when her lawyer took over he chose not to let her or any one else testify. Hfe simply made his closing argument and the trial went to the jury. In the closing argument her lawyer claimed that there was enough evidence to say that the whole smutty affair was all Tim Sypher's fault.

Nevertheless, saner heads prevailed and the jury, six men and six women, convicted her of attempting to extort Patino and of lying to the FBI and four other charges. Guilty on all six charges. Some are Federal offences which allows no probation. The sentencing is scheduled for Oct. Her lawyer is not allowed to appeal until after the sentencing because of Federal law.

She was released from the court and walked out onto the street smiling all the way. She will be on the loose until October. Gentlemen, zip your bloomers. Caio

Dirty Laundry

Just when you think you have heard it all... The first half of the trial is over and tomorrow starts the defense. Sypher says she can hardly wait to tell her side of the story.

Each and every male that has appeared on the witness stand has admitted to having had sex with K. Sypher. No one has come forward to make claims of what happened before her first marriage but from her first husband, her lawyer, her boy friend, her second husband, Patino and her third husband have all been members of the K.S. club. So far her present lawyer has not testified so we will be left in the dark as to whether he joined the club or not.

One of the witnesses was a reporter that said she got a call from Karen one day to let her know she was volunteering to go to police headquarters to file a charge and she wanted a camera crew and a reporter to meet her there. They did. She spent most of her session that day disputing the things she had said in her other encounters with the police.

When she was asked the question: "If he raped you why did you drive him home? She replied," it was snowy and his designated driver had left the restaurant." (The driver had not left) and it was July 31st. Her credibility is a little questionable.

She claimed to be pregnant and did in fact have an abortion in August. She and Patino did the nasty on July 31 and the abortionist verified the fact that she was indeed FIVE weeks pregnant.
We are all smart enough to figure out that if she thought she was pregnant with Patino's child she would not have been eager to have it aborted. Life time meal ticket there.

Her first husband and her last husband (Sypher ) have used words to explain her actions and words by saying, "She is nuts" "She is crazy," etc.

It will be interesting to see what the other side will say. I'll keep you up to date. Caio.

Trial and Error

The Sypher vs. Pitino trial is taking place in Louisville at the present time.. The two major participants in this real life drama are both flawed people. I would think that if a novelist sat down to write a fictional account of the story that is playing out here, he would very likely choose people with the same traits and personalities as these two.

Rick Pitino's public persona is that of one who is self assured, talented, aggressive, inspirational, and attractive. He is handsome and out going. As far as his private life is concerned, we know very little but he has shown himself to be compassionate and loving and emotional about the woes of his friends and family. He has suffered great sorrows in his life, he lost a young son and a brother-in-law that he was very close to that was killed in the 911 attack.

Karen Sypher grew up here in Louisville and attended school with neighborhood kids, rode in car pools, packed her lunch, wore uniforms, grew up and married. She did not distinguish herself in any way as far as we know. Obviously she did want to have life a little easier than she had it. She wanted to be somebody and she chose her femininity as her weapon of choice. She married and had a child or two and went to work in an office doing menial tasks. She early on claimed that she was being sexually harassed by her boss and took the matter to court. She was not too successful in gaining much money from that encounter but undaunted she decided to expand her search. Fate, I guess, had her be at Porcino's on the same night that Pitino came there with friends.

His major flaw came to the forefront. He has no resistance, apparently to the charms of a well endowed, floozy. She displayed her charms and he fell victim to them. Obviously fouled by alcohol. How could he be so stupid? That is the age old question. Men have been trapped in the webs of evil since Adam fell victim to Eve in the Garden of Eden.

Karen Sypher was sure that she had trapped the "cash cow" but things did
not work as she had planned. He "kissed and told" when he sobered up and realized he had jeopardized his life as he knew it. He was a victim of extortion he claimed.

Nobody said she was the sharpest knife in the drawer but she continues to display her poor taste and make a fool of herself. It is probably a given that her lawyers told her to lose the low cut tops and short tight skirts and stilettos so she put on a turtle neck shirt sans under garments and stuck with the stilettos. Yesterday she went back to a lower neck shirt but filled in the "vee" with a large cross on a chain. The cross looked to be about three or four inches tall. In the parking lot, as she approached the court house, she stopped and held up the cross and kissed it! I kid you not, this actually happened.

If you are keeping score I think the flaws of one are out numbering the flaws of the other. We are all flawed in some way or another but we have to learn sooner or later to overcome some of the more egregious ones. I will be glued to the news to see how this all plays out. I've just given the bare bones of the situation but will be anxious to see how it comes to a conclusion. Ciao

Open Seseme

Life before the Tylenol incident,back about twenty or thirty years ago, was much simpler. At that point in history a deranged man(?) decided to bring down the pharmaceutical company that manufactured Tylenol. He somehow arranged to remove a bottle of Tylenol from a drug store shelf and replace the capsules with a deadly foreign substance and place the bottle back on the shelf for some unsuspecting shopper to buy. As you may well imagine this single act had a cataclysmic effect on the packaging and labeling habits of companies across the entire spectrum of merchandise.

You could no longer simply open containers and go on about your business. In some instances you needed a tool of some sort to do the task. Despite the fact that there were some containers labeled 'child proof' (that only children could open) there were many items that could not be opened even by children! I did lunchroom monitoring for many years and was called upon to open juice boxes, Twinkies packages, Lunchables, and other boxed items. (I found that a push pin was an invaluable tool to carry with me to assist me in opening cheese sticks, yogurt containers and other edibles.) Shrink wrapped foods were, and still are, extremely challenging!

In every day life from that time on packaging became more and more complex. Creative packaging was no longer limited to food and drug items. Things like batteries, toiletries, cleaning supplies, and the list goes on, are all encased in plastic. Some things are so tightly packaged that one would think that the fear of the item getting away drives the packager to greater lengths.

As the packaging rage flourished my ability to open things diminished. Gradually my hands lost their strength. I had to have Doc open more and more jars,and when he was not available I perfected the art of opening most small jars with the nut cracker. If the lid was larger than the scope of the nut cracker I had to get help. I have been known to use the pliers to open some of the "squeeze here and turn" bottles like Clorox, Listerine and others. I've been considering asking the bag boy to loosen the lid on the Tide bottle at the grocery. I've had to postpone my laundry duty on days when my efforts to open the Tide bottle have not met with success and my hands hurt from trying. I can come back the next day and give it more tries and finally get it open. The nut cracker can assist me with the milk bottle lids, and condiment lids. The "push down and turn" containers can be very intimidating!

Remember when you could open the cereal box and then pull apart the lightly sealed inner bag that contains the cereal and pour the cereal in the bowl and then roll the bag down to insure the freshness of the rest of the box? Now, I have to resort to the scissors, which I keep handy at all times, to cut open the bag and still try to leave enough that it can be rolled down. Alas, poor me!


It has come to the point that all I can easily open is a book and a bottle of wine. The wine, I have Stephanie to thank for because she gave me an electric wine opener! When frustration and discouragement reach the lowest point it can be very relaxing to open my book and pour a glass of wine and bask in the comfort of my Bogart blue lounge chair and read! Ciao.

Note: if you buy pasta that was packaged in Italy you can easily open it, put it in boiling water and be ready to eat it in record time holding a fork with pain free hands.!Ciao,Ciao

Rock On!

Finally, I think the saga of the Indian Head Rock has come to an end! The dispute has raged on for the last three years. The fate of the eight ton boulder that was the cause of much angst in these three years has finally been resolved. The antiquity is being returned to its rightful owner, Kentucky, in the near future. Thankfully this prevents litigation. Portsmouth, Ohio will relinquish the control of the rock with no further need for the resolution settlement in Federal Court. Portsmouth has agreed to return the rock to Kentucky.

Just to refresh your memory I will review the facts. The rock was on the bottom of the Ohio River when historian Steven Shaffer led an expedition of divers to remove the rock from the Ohio River in September, 2007. Shaffer and one of his cronies was facing criminal charges at one time because they violated Kentucky's antiquities law. Said rock was on the Kentucky side of the river and therefore was owned by Kentucky..

The rock is believed to be a relic of prehistoric Indians. It has a crude carving of a face, possibly done by the Indians but it also has the names of some Portsmouth families from the early 1900's carved into it. (They were probably in an under water carving class.)

I am missing something here because I can't really see it becoming a tourist attraction if it remained on the bottom of the river. Seems to me that Shaffer and his cohorts did Kentucky a favor by dredging this gigantic, eight ton rock up to the surface. Rather than dropping the thing back into the river they(Ohio) are going to remove the rock from their storage place, (some warehouse somewhere) and move it to Kentucky, the rightful owner.

It seems the integrity of the archaeological site has been compromised so the rock will be stored by Greenup County officials until a permanent home can be found for it and then it will be on display for the public to see. Do you see a special trip in your future to travel to Northern Kentucky to view this phenominal chunk? The Heritage Council is gearing up for the anticipated crowds. Kentucky Rocks. Ciao.