When Chow Becomes Too Good Of A Good Thing

 When stationed at Rhein Main Air  (late 1970s)....the chow hall went and did an usual thing....they operated for a number of months a midnight chow operation (opening from midnight to 1  AM).

Offerings?   Well...just fried chicken.  You'd walk in and they had box lunch.....with a roll, fried chicken, and a bag of chips.   For a drink?  You'd get a can of Coke.

About six weeks into this....a number of folks who weren't working at night (this was totally designed for night-shift people)....were testing the box and found it to be a great evening dinner.

So this odd development started....where people in the barracks stayed up to midnight (mostly watching AFN-TV) and then walking to the chow hall at midnight.  

I'd guess in the beginning, it was around thirty-odd people, and maybe by the 4th month....there might have been near eighty people doing this.

Calorie consumption going way up?  Oh yeah.....these were folks already visiting the chow hall for breakfast, lunch and dinner.  There were folks, at least twice a week, who were consuming 4,500 calories a day.  

This was so successful.....that it was draining cash flow from the chow hall.  So they had to make up another rule.....you had to be in uniform to get the box.  This created the next trend....where folks dressed up in fatigues at midnight to get the box lunch.  Eventually, they even went to a card-system.....to identify night-shift people and prevent over-use.

If they'd gone to something like roast beef, or just ham/cheese sandwiches?  I think most wouldn't have made the effort, but for some reason.....they had some  guy who knew how to make 4-star fried chicken.  

What'll Happen to Jussie?

 Sentencing for Jussie Smollert will occur today (Thursday).

Anyone's guess here.

I think if he'd come out and done the 'I-admit-guilt-while-doped-up' routine.....most of what would be handed out is rehab time and a hefty fine.

But I'm likely to believe he's going off for 12 months of jail-time, with good behavior getting him out in six months.  

Mentally Fit Story

 I noticed this AM....Politico had done a poll, asking the question if President Biden is mentally fit.  Around 25-percent said 'yes'.  The rest....less so.

Does a poll mean anything?  No.

If you'd gone to the people of New York in the 1980s....asking if George Steinbrenner was sane.....probably half would have said 'no'.

If you'd gone to Americans in the late 1930s and asked if FDR was sane...probably one-third of them would responded 'no'.

The trouble is....polls like this get out, and various people from Europe start asking stupid questions....like if he is not mentally fit, why are you allowing him to stand as President, and the obvious answer is that you really don't President Harris to be the solution to this problem.

My Opinion of Russians

 Lately, I've been watching Russian YouTube sites (1420 is an interesting guy who does on the street Russian interviews).  So, you get a great prospective of regular Russians. 

My general views of Russians (not Putin or the Kremlin elite)?

1.  If you locked ten Russian scientists in a room.....within eight hours, they'd invent something something out of thin air, without any encouragement. 

2.  I kinda believe that 50-percent of Russians consume vodka to serious levels, and the other fifty percent of Russians never consume vodka or alcohol of any type.

3.  I believe that Russians probably read 50-percent more than the typical average American.

4.  Based on YouTube, I would remark that a quarter of Russian society dress like it's 1977.  Course, maybe it's a fashion trend, or maybe just that they all like the style/look.

5.  Per one-hundred.....there are probably more intellectuals in Russia, than in the United States.  I'm not saying it's a positive thing....just a noted thing.

6.  If I had to go to the 'Lost' TV series island and could select ten people to accompany there, I'd make sure that nine of the ten were Russians (with one Brit in the mix).  We'd face off the smoke-creature, the bad-evil folks, and probably build a boat within two weeks to leave the island.

7.  You just don't see that many 'chunky' Russians.  Maybe it's the diet....maybe the lack of fast-food....or maybe just good cleaning living.

8.  Urban Russians don't seem as ready for difficulties....as rural Russians are.  

9.  It just seems like every Russian guy has a simple 10-tool bag he carries around in his car, which seem to resolve every single repair on a car required.

10.  Maybe it's just me, but almost every Russian gal on YouTube seems like she walked off a James Bond movie set.  

The Thing About Soviet News

 Russia for the most part....has shut down all news media operations except state-run units.  So what you get is fully-filtered news.

Oddly enough, this is mostly how the Soviet Union survived all those years.

You'd have one newspaper in a major city of 500,000, with one editor responsible for ensuring only the 'right' news got printed.  

It was OK to talk about sport scores, or discussing over 60 lines about some weight-lifting competition. 

If a water-main burst and destroyed the contents of some shopping district area....you'd just write a two-line piece describing renovation being done in such-and-such district.

If some drunk Russian hit a few cars with his dump truck, then ran over a old lady and her dog (killing them both)....the editor would have sat long and hard over the story.  The end version would have been a 1-line piece saying 'some lady on J-street met an untimely end, with her poodle 'Barney'......leaving you the reader to wonder what the untimely end was about.

A cat up in a tree, and rescued by the local fire department?  This would have been a full page with four pictures.....with a broad description of the six-man crew, and six lines to describe the cat in detail.  In fact, another six lines would have been added over an imaginary grandmother who came to offer cookies and tea to the firemen after the episode.  There would have been enough details to write a one-hour TV show over....but half of it would have been bogus (filler-material).

Stories over farmers having giant pumpkins?  Great....maybe even a sixty-line story to detail that.  Stories over a farmer failing?  Nothing.  

Soviet people got used to this, and as the 1990s arrived, with commercial news available.....I think most were in a state of shock.   You got to learn about dope dealers, murders, planes falling out of the sky, corruption, and failed lives.

Going back to the old style Soviet news pattern?  They have to be sitting there and asking what really happened to trigger filtered news?

Just Something Odd

 I hate to bring up the Ghislaine Maxwell case (most folks thought it was done)....but there's some hearing going on about one of the juriors.

So the story goes....when picking the jury, there was a questionnaire, and it kinda asked....have you any sexual abuse in your history......the person said no.  Well....weeks passed, and this juror starts to talk about their personal sexual abuse as a kid to the other jurors....likely influencing them.

The fed prosecution folks came back and want them to answer more questions in a court hearing.  Nope....the juror just can't do that....using their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.

What'll happen? At the least, they will drag the person into some fed court.....giving a false testimony situation, and with evidence by other jurors likely....the person ends up with potentially five years in prison.  My guess, the judge might feel sorry for the person, and just limit it to one year....getting out in eight months on good behavior.

The problem left?  Do you have to redo the Maxwell case all over?  My gut feeling?  Yeah.  This giving her lawyers all the inside parts of the case?  Yeah, and it's more likely this time that she beats the prosecution on most of the charges.  

All of this manufactured?  Well....you just sit and wonder....what kind of idiot would do this stuff, and could a good bribe cause you to make up the abuse stuff with the jurors, even if you had to do 12 months in prison?    

The 'Rust' Question

 I noticed yesterday that the Santa Fe DA announced that he's reviewing the 'Rust' movie set shooting....over Alec Baldwin's statement that he didn't pull the trigger, and if it's possible for a gun to fire with no pull on the trigger.

For the record, various episodes have occurred where the trigger was engaged, and without a finger upon the trigger....it just 'failed' and fired.  Hint: this is why you never aim at anything unless the intent is there to put-down or kill someone.

What'll likely occur?  Some specialized gunsmith will go over the weapon and be asked.....just what kind of shape is the gun in?  

Baldwin's whole explanation that he never pulled the trigger?  It all goes back to this one idea.

If you asked a hundred handgun owners.....I would imagine that 90-percent would say it's practically impossible for this scenario to occur.