The State of Maryland and Snow Removal

Living as I did for many years in the state of Illinois, I've spent many long winters complaining about the rotten job the state did at snow removal. Anything under 2 inches and it seemed like they didn't even bother to get the plows out which caused the snow to pack to an unfortunate glasslike consistency. Anything over 4 inches and it seemed like they couldn't create more than one lane in each direction. And don't get me started on Parking Lots. I broke my leg in my work parking lot because as near as I could tell, no businesses in the midwest ever heard of salt.

Well let me tell you, that is not the case in Maryland. Yippee skippee, yes, they have heard of salt and they lay it out so thick on sidewalks that it's like walking on gravel or sand (a whole 'nother hazard but I don't want to seem like a complainer). Usually the parking lots are clear the day after the snow stops if not before so you don't even need to wear snow boots.

An interesting effect of this generous laydown of salt (many times before the snow even STARTS) is the discolored pavement. In the mornings you have to wonder if it's heavy frost or salt stain. It's usually the latter. I've come to the conclusion the difference in state policy is as simple as: HILLS. In Illinois there are a few hills and yes they do ice up and become tough to get up. Robin and I got stuck on one of them on the way to the Doctor after she broke her arm on ice on the sidewalk (again, not salted). But in Maryland there are ALOT of hills and the prospect of thousands of miles of impassable roads is not to be borne in a state this crowded. So just like I love not worrying about tornadoes, I love the salted Maryland roads.

I still miss Illinois, though and all my friends. Just not as much when it's snowing.

Ambulances and my evening commute

Leaving work today a little earlier than usual (Yay!) I noted as I got to the parking lot exit that Reisterstown Road was pretty backed up. That's not too unusual in the thick of rush hour but because it was still before 5, my radar kicked on. A look to the left confirmed flashing lights at the intersection where I normally turn left.

I was still a pretty fair distance away as you can see so I wasn't immediately sure if the left turn was blocked off. It can get complicated trying to predict where to go to avoid being stuck in the blocked lane and the complication is not made simpler when you're trying to take a picture at the same time. Happily the light was red for a while. The vehicle was not moving when I took the above picture, Robin! After getting a little closer I determined that there was no going left at that intersection, and that the left lane was pretty backed up as people (hope springing eternally) kept getting in the lane anyway. Being extremely lucky, the right lane was pretty empty so I nipped over there and proceeded toward the wreck lamenting to myself that the lane I was in didn't have a very good view and so was not going to get me a good picture. Reflecting, I do not believe taking the camera to work made me a more compassionate person. I tried to get a picture as I

passed the intersection but the lighting and a moving vehicle made for a big dark blob of a Firetruck and nothing else. A little further on an Ambulance (just like the one Robin hit) bulled its way through bumper to bumper traffic to trundle past in the left turn lane. The roadway on that side was actually more backed up than mine I think because all the cross traffic and tried to go through the parking lot of the Burger King to get onto Reisterstown Road. I put away my camera and then two more police cars did the same thing. I didn't get a great look but I saw enough to think the accident had been pretty cleaned up. I can't imagine what good two more cops were going to do. Maybe they were bored. In the end my commute didn't take anymore time than usual.

Chick-Fil-A and my Morning Drink

Pretty much every morning, much to Robin's disgust,
I go to Chick-Fil-A. Primarily I go to get a Large Diet Coke in a foam cup. I love foam cups, they keep my drink cold all day and don't sweat like plastic. This is difficult for me to say since I work for a Cup company and we don't make those kind of foam cups, we make the plastic ones. Happily, lots of people are just fine with the plastic cups so the company survives without my business. Normally when I get to the Chick-Fil-A there is no line. It's not because they don't get a lot of business but they are very fast.

This month, however, Thursdays are "Get a Free Breakfast Item" day and the normally empty drive-thru was full all the way around the corner and past the ordering speaker so I had to wait. This was hard for me because being essentially self-centered I think I should be rewarded for my loyalty and moved to the front of the line. Who knows, maybe if I went inside they would treat me like a queen and wait on me first. The drive-thru shows no favoritism. First in-First out. No cutting. Still the free Cinnamon thingy was good. It doesn't get much better than Free and Good so the day started fine. How it ended is another post.

How Liberty Dies...

I want to go on record before I insert this youtube link that I thought of this ALL ON MY OWN. I was talking with Paul, my boss about how this whole Obama cult thing reminded me of how the Emperor took over in Star Wars by sneaking in without anyone realizing what he was doing. Paul being a Star Wars fan to the 10th level replied: "Yeah, It's like when Queen Amidala says..." Thinking I was my idea was unique and original I asked Robin to try to find the movie quote clip on Youtube and lo, and behold a million somebodies had already been thinking the same thing and created clips to go with. So here's a clip that's WAYYY better than anything I could have done.

Guilty!

I was really excited to learn this week that Ann Coulter has a new book out. I like to sit in my car over lunch and listen to a few minutes of Rush Limbaugh. That's all the media I can stand, I confess. Otherwise I'm in a COMPLETE news blackout and have been since the Democrats took over the Congress in 2006. Okay, the blackout was lifted briefly when Sarah Palin was nominated but the curtain fell again immediately after the election and I have no intention of lifting it anytime soon. It's my metaphorical way of staying in bed with a blanket over my head. This week, on Monday I think, Rush had Ann Coulter on as a guest. If you don't listen to Rush you may not find that very newsworthy but Rush Limbaugh has plenty to say for himself and he does not normally have guests in. When he has in the past, it's the President or Vice-President, not someone plugging a book. So when Rush said Ann was coming up after the break I stuck around. One of the few perks of management is not having to clock watch your lunch hour. I know some people obsess over Ann Coulter's humor and contend she's too mean and controversial in her delivery but I say, Stop being so wimpy and stand up for yourselves! I buy all her books. They are incredibly well researched and fact based. Yes, funny and sometimes mean (frankly, I can't judge there. I can be kinda mean myself. We're human, that's why we need forgiveness) but she speaks the truth. And I defy anybody in the media to fact check her books and claim an error. They don't do it because they can't so they spend all their time decrying 'her tone' like Americans are too stupid to hear the mean coming from the Left. A Sarah Palin SNL joke anyone? How about a Bush joke? Nobody ever decrys their tone. But I digress. So Tuesday, known in our house as Book Day, we bop over to the Borders and I pick up my copy of Guilty. I don't know how long it's been out but it was already at #2 on the bestsellers list. Conservative commentary really sells.

Illinois is Ranked!

It was great to see that Illinois has finally been ranked in the top 25. So far, the season has been really good. It makes me hopeful that CBS will broadcast one of their games in our area. If not, I still have hope for the NCAA tournament. That leaves me with multiple reasons to be longing for March!

To be a dork or not to be a dork: THE RESPONSE

I must defend my honor! Over on Banter Basement Robin has decided to take on the ugliness of comfort shoes as an issue. She proudly claims that crocs are too ugly to wear and then goes out and spends $7 bucks on a pair of fake crocs too ugly to be believed! She's claims victory in that her shoes were at least cheap. Give me a break! This is merely a winter issue for Robin. She wears Birkinstock shoes all summer long. And I must tell you in a faceoff between crocs and birkis, the crocs win hands down!

Just off the top of my head I can give you these reasons:

- Cute, fun colors

- Washable

- No sole discoloration

- Ability to add neat decorations suited to your personality

- Cheaper than Birkis!

I rest my case.

Obama is no Lincoln

While clicking through some of the links at Banter Basement I found this great article on Gateway Pundit. Having recently read "Team of Rivals" by Doris Kearns Goodwin about the Lincoln presidency I was thrilled to see that someone else had noticed a similarity between the anti-war democrats of today and the Copperheads of the Civil War. Check it out:
http://gatewaypundit.blogspot.com/2009/01/lets-be-real-obama-is-no-lincoln-hes.html

Google Images has Life Photos

So I'm trying to attach my blog to my Facebook profile. I've half done it but I need to prove that I'm the author but everytime I try something is wrong with the either Facebook or Blogger. So while I'm dinkin' around, I decide to go google some images so I have something interesting to post. I mean this is called Judy's Bully Pulpit but it seems lately like I have no opinions, which is a little worrying. Anyway - When I get to Google Images I discover that you can now search a newly digitized Life photo archive! Doesn't that sound awesome?? So of course I search my favorite standby, Tricia Nixon. I have a scrapbook of newspaper and magazine articles about Tricia that my older sister, Karen started in the 60's and gave to me to continue when she got married (the same year as Tricia -1971). I have not added to it in a long time, obviously because Nixon hasn't been President for almost 35 years. But if I did see an article about her even today, I would clip it and add it to my scrapbook. And actually I see lots of articles online but I'm not weird enough to try to archive them yet, even if I knew how. So I do the search on Tricia and I expect to see alot of images because after all, Tricia had the last White House wedding (what was Jenna Bush thinking to pass that option up??) and there was a TON of coverage. It's hard to imagine now when the children of Presidents try so hard to stay private but Tricia (and Julie) were in the paper all the time and had lots of magazine articles written about them.

I have several Life articles:

Time magazine covered the wedding.

She was in Rolling Stone Magazine,

and even did a White House tour which CNN replayed a few weeks back and I missed because we haven't watched CNN since the Iraq War started and they admitted to showing propaganda for Hussein just to get to keep their bureau open.

Tricia did a photo shoot for Ladies Home Journal modeling clothes the way celebrities do today. I remember pouring over these magazine spreads and then checking all the newspaper clippings to try to compare the clothes and see if she was wearing anything from the magazine shoot.

Now that I ponder it, I guess my obsession with Tricia, her clothes and her wedding prepared me for my Diana clothing obsession a few years later. I even have this paper doll book in my scrapbook twice! One torn apart and one still together. Even today when I'm at a flea market or antique mall I look for the magazine issues she was in so I can buy a copy in it's original format.

So anyway, I check out the Life archive and it's pretty good, I mean it has lots of pics but amazingly only ONE of her wedding! Frankly, just a regular google images search will net you 14 or 15 pages of images so the 6 or 7 from the Life archive weren't that impressive. Still, I'm willing to concede that I possible didn't pick a good subject. I'll check it out again, for sure.

New Year/New Blog!

While updating our password notebook (and what's that say about our poor world that we have so many sign-ons and passwords that we need a notebook to keep track of them all!) I came across poor old Judy's Bully Pulpit abandoned in 2006 due to lack of interest. She was so neglected that I hadn't even updated my account name to the no longer new google account names. So I switched her over and I've copied over the only post worth re-reading. I'm going to add her to my Facebook profile and see if maybe a few people start reading her. Good Luck Judy's Bully Pulpit. I know there's someone out there waiting for you!

My Favorite Movie

Originally posted August 29, 2006

One of my favorite ways to break the ice in a meeting whether it's a children's choir practice or a work related project team is to play the "Favorites" game. During a lull in the action, I ask everyone to name a favorite ______. The categories are endless and can be as simple as cereal or as complex as books. In addition to being a great time filler or an easy way to start a meeting, it's also a terrific way to get to know someone. There's lots of insight to be found in what kind of cereal someone likes because invariably the person will also say why they like it. That's because nothing gets to the status of a favorite without a little bit of thought and usually it gets there through a lot of thought. My favorite movie is not something I arrived at quickly. I have reached a pretty ripe old age and watched a lot of movies that never made it to favorite status. Star Wars, Star Trek, Grease, I liked them all but never gave them the ultimate thumbs up. Then one day I was visiting my older sister and her husband and "The Fifth Element" was on. Being a man, Ron didn't turn off the tv when we arrived and so inevitably when the conversation lagged we all began to watch the movie. I'm not sure how much of the beginning we had missed at that point but I can say positively that we didn't leave my sister's house without borrowing the dvd to watch again at home. The cool futuristic vibe, the clothes, the color orange everywhere, Bruce Willis, Milla Jojovich, Chris Tucker, even Gary Oldham. Every character is so intensely watchable! And the plot is interesting but easy to follow. I have my own dvd now but still if I'm channel hopping and I run across this movie I have to stop and watch the rest whether it's near the end or just started. I simply love it. Favorite tv show, hard to pick. Favorite movie: hands down. The Fifth Element.