Musical Wanderer

Today people buy and then resell houses, cars, and other items, a process commonly called flipping.  Some of us "flip" toys, including my former student and master flipper Will .  He hits garage sales and estate sales and sells his finds on his own website .   I just cruise ebay while watching tv.  I just had a great flip of toys I found on ebay.  I will pay homage to the master toy-flipper with this post. Two weeks ago I found a bunch of toy soldiers and vehicles for 18.88 including shipping.  It was described by the seller as "Large Lot of Old Junk Military Men Landscape & Vehicle Toys Small and Bigger sizes"   and the photograph shows a bunch of soldiers of different sizes, globs of plastic, and pile of plastic pieces.   Like a prospector in the Klondike, I saw gold in that pile.   I was happy it was Buy it Now on ebay so I didn't have to bid against other prospectors.  I've sold some of it in separate lots.   Let's see ...

Thoughts on 42 Came home last night after seeing 42, the movie about Jackie Robinson, and all I could think about was the movie Lincoln.  Both movies were about extroadinary people who made the US better. Lincoln whose pragmatic nature shifted to powerful idealism made the rule of the land equal for all.  Robinson, who broke the code that kept inequality alive.  Both true heroes for all time. Both lived in wretched times.  The US was not living up to the powerful ideas that brought the nation into being.  After both did what they did, we became a more perfect union.  And this made this typically cynical pessimist see a better nation ahead. When I was born, most white women could only find work as teachers, nurses, or secretaries.  Opportunities for black men and women were even less than those for white women.  I remember hearing white men addressing grown black men as "boy." A non-heterosexual  person had to hide who he or she was from...

Memorial day has passed yet I am still playing with an idea.  This now famous photo captures everything about the horror of war.  The young woman's fiancee was killed in Iraq.  All of their plans for a life together are a total loss.  I hope she will someday recover from her grief, meet another young man to love, marry, have a happy life.  From time to time she will think of her dead fiancee, but move on to her new life.  It's only fair that her life not be totally ruined by war. But I also got to thinking: will this photo and photos like it of grieving mothers, wives, and daughters be the only memorial to the thousands of Americans killed in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq?  Everyone has an opinion on whether the war was right, but thousands of sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, fathers and mothers have died there.  Tens of thousands have been wounded, maimed, or crippled, physically and mentally.  Congress has shown itself more ...