Month: April 2019

IMA: Man, times are sure changing, aren’t they?

JESS: Yeah, they are. You know what I heard the other day? I heard that the banks are complaining about people who don’t write bad checks and those who use live tellers … because the banks don’t make any money from those “dead beats”!

IMA: What? You mean I’m a better person, according to the banks, if I write bad checks? What kind of nonsense is that? And isn’t writing bad checks a crime?

JESS: Well, it’s a crime if you do it knowingly, but if it’s an accident and the bank and the creditor can charge you $15.00 apiece for a bad $5.00 check, then you will be loved by both!

IMA: After all these years being responsible at paying my bills on time, not getting into debt, writing checks only when I know there’s money to cover it…I get to this age and find out that “responsibility is not a virtue”. More and more people really don’t want you responsible … ’cause they can make money off your irresponsibility.

JESS: Right, and to prove it, banks are going to find a way to charge you … if you won’t write bad checks, or call and ask for your balance (they already can charge you for this), then they’ll make you old folks (and everybody else) pay when you go to a live teller instead of using your ATM card.

IMA: That sounds almost like the way jobs go these days, too. You work hard at staying at one job, to prove that you’re not flighty and the Boss calls you “unambitious”; if you are content with the job you are doing and not seeking advancement, then management says you have no “initiative”; now with banks, we’re saving our money and our reputation and think we’re being thrifty and the bankers want to charge us even more to use the bank. The government wants us to spend more and save less, that’s why the interest on savings accounts is so low.

JESS: Seems like we’re starting to outlive our usefulness, huh? Well, I guess that’s what happens to phoolish phools like us!

So many of the following are dated, but when I listened to the tapes, I thought they were still typical of our conversations at the time. Forgive me for going way back in the past and just see them as the ramblings of a Phool!

Sometime ago, there was an article on the news about Bombers being built to keep us from going to war, but the comment was that some of the current bombers don’t seem to be able to fly. Well, if they don’t have to go to war, is that why they don’t have to fly?

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There was a Press Conference called to clear the air on the B2 Bomber, you know, the newest (at that time) secret weapon. Since the B2 is a secret weapon, it is covered by National Security and so the plans can’t be discussed, and the audit can’t be discussed, and the cost can’t be discussed, and the progress can’t be discussed. So….why is there a Press Conference?

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IMA: JESS, guess what I heard on the radio the other day?

JESS: Don’t make me guess, just tell me!

IMA: I heard that the government is paying some people (don’t know exactly who) $2000. 00 per day, to store a lot of surplus food, because, they said they can’t afford to pay $10.00 per day to distribute it to the needy.

JESS: Kinda makes you wonder just how much money the government spent in the Poverty Program to get the poor people out of Poverty!

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IMA ON THE DRUG WARS: “I bet if the Law would pretend that gangs and drug dealings were the Black Panthers or the protesters at the 1968 Democratic Convention, they could probably get rid of both gangs and drug dealers!”

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IMA said she just heard on the news that somewhere in Florida the Police Department will only have to pay $1.00 per car because some Corporation is going to buy them and have their logos painted on the sides … just like the Nascar race cars. Hey … you know some school systems are already contracting with Soft Drink companies, etc. to pay for school stuff as long as their machines are placed in the schools; let’s forget the fact that some of the soft drinks are really not the best nutritional stuff for the children.

So the Corporations are buying the schools, now the Police Departments; they’ve already bought public radio and public television, the multimedia, the newspapers, radio stations and journalists, the movies, the government…why not sell them the fire departments too? (Oops, did I just hit on something in the works?) Anything else for sale? Oh yeaaaah…the children, who wear their logos on their sneakers, sweats, t-shirts, caps, school books…..!

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Always remember that these conversations took place many years ago

CONVERSATION ON PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION:

IMA: Jess, do the schools still teach that Look-Say Method of reading, that came in after our children left Elementary School?

JESS: I’m not sure, but you know you’ve seen the ads for “Hooked on Phonics” like it’s some new way of teaching kids to read, that supposed to be so good… and isn’t that what we used when we were in grade school?

IMA: Yeah, and that’s old…like us! But it worked — we learned how to read then and still remember how. So why did they change it?

JESS: Who knows?

IMA: I don’t understand why somebody … who, I wonder? … felt like they needed to change to the look-say method. I remember thinking at the time how dumb that sounded — kids would have to memorize every word in the language – instead of being able to figure out most of them by sound.

JESS: Must have been money! … somebody making a bunch of money, then find out it don’t work – then bring back the old way, like it’s new – and make a bunch more money.

IMA: You may be right. I don’t understand how somebody can convince a lot of so-called smart people that Look-Say is better than Phonics…but I never forget that IMA PHOOL!

MORE ON OUR PUBLIC EDUCATION SYSTEM:

JESS: Every time I tune in Talk Radio, I hear someone spouting off about our Public Education System, how bad it is, how dumb the kids are, how our kids can’t read, etc. Johnny hasn’t been able to read since the 70’s and we still haven’t figured out why. But somebody knows.

IMA: Well, the “BIG THEY” changed the way reading was taught, “THEY” changed the way math was taught, “THEY” introduced “social promotion” and put remedial reading as a College Course – so if you graduate from High School and can’t read your diploma- you’ll have to go to College to learn how! You don’t suppose this was a plan, do you?

JESS: Don’t know! But think about it? What we have here is a whole economic system based on consuming – consuming without too much questioning or reasoning. And if you want to maintain this system, us folks just have to spend, not think about it, just want it, or just buy it!

IMA: Maybe, there’s nothing wrong with our public education then, if it’s producing a population that just keeps buying. But then I’d have to call that our Public Indoctrination System – ’cause educated we’re not.

JESS: You got that right, you PHOOL!

ON CARPETING IN HOSPITAL ROOMS:

IMA: Jess, look at this article! It says that the hospital administrator and board vote to spend $375,000 to remove all the carpeting from the rooms in their hospital. Good grief!

JESS: Does it say why?

IMA: No, just “after careful study over the last 5 years, it was decided…”. Do you remember when I had that surgery in ’77? When I had to go back to the hospital they eventually put me in a private room…with carpeting on the floor.

JESS: Yes, I remember. thought it was strange at the time. Heard them talking about carpeting the corridors too, but they said there were too many carts that were needed and it was too hard to roll them; guess they forgot those wheels went into the rooms, too.

IMA: Took them almost 20 years to figure out what we decided that first day they put me in that germ incubator. Do you remember what we talked about then?

JESS: Oh yes! I remember when they couldn’t figure out what you had and were placing you in semi-isolation, but every one that walked in had street shoes on. I remember, too, when your IV dripped on the floor … all that sugar water soaking into that carpet; and the night you got so sick and vomited on the floor … and oh, I don’t want to remember some of the rest.

IMA: Well, don’t forget when I asked the doctor how long the carpet had been in that room and when that carpet had been cleaned last. Couldn’t figure out why anyone would think that carpeting was better than floors that could be mopped.

JESS: Oh the doctor’s answer was that she was told that mopping spread the germs around (of course, if you used a dirty mop and dirty water), and that the germs would settle to the bottom of the carpet…and I guess, just died down there? I also remember wondering then how much money somebody made from that venture and how much they’d make when they found out that it didn’t work.

IMA: Well, I don’t know how much they made putting it in, but someone’s gonna make $375,000 taking it out of this one.