Thursday, September 30, 2021

Obvious Truth

 


As soon as Republicans learn to steal elections using unsolicited mail-in ballots, then this form of voting will be seriously constrained (suppressed) by the Democrats. — Fletcher


STAND UP FOR FAIR ELECTIONS!


Quotable Quote



“I wanted the British to capture and hold West Point so that the separatists would not be encouraged by their unhinged leader, George Washington.” — Benedict Arnold


STAND UP FOR AMERICA!


Fractured Definition



Hoodwink— the high sign the mafia hitman gives you right before he puts two in the hat of the rat-fink he brought to the New Jersey pine barrens.



STAND UP TO OMERTÀ!


Headlines


Biden bets it all on unlocking the Manchinema puzzle

Mortgage demand falls as rates rise to highest level since July

Military leaders contradict Biden’s narrative of Afghanistan during tense hearing

U.S. Marine who blasted hasty Afghan withdrawal in military lockup

France goes after Amazon’s book business

$80 oil is sending the market toward demand distraction, Morgan Stanley says

Treasury Sec. Yellen says Congress has until  October 18 to raise debt ceiling

Gov. Kathy Hochul: Unvaccinated people ‘aren’t listening to God’

Progressives dig in as Pelosi tries to save key vote

Warren calls Fed Chief Powell a ‘dangerous man,’ says she will oppose his renomination

Durham probe reveals Nat Sec Adviser Jake Sullivan promoted fake Alta Bank story

North Carolina fires 175 workers over vaccine


STAND UP FOR AMERICA!


Wednesday, September 29, 2021

Clueless Joe


                                Can’t recall where I first saw this …


STAND UP FOR CROWD CHANTS!


Biden Voters



Americans, both real and imaginary, who voted for Joe Biden are now in the uncomfortable position of having to defend this choice against the incompetence he has managed to display in just nine short months:


- A disaster on the Mexican border


- Another disaster in mismanaging America’s Afghanistan pullout


- Still another disaster in alienating many with  his Covid vaccination and booster shot process and mandates


- Another (you know the word) in his scrapping our energy independence with multiple bonehead moves


- His unwillingness to be a moderating force (as promised) with his ultra-left enacted and proposed legislation that will destroy economic growth and is already causing the cruelest tax — inflation


- His unwillingness to push back on China for its Covid treachery, its genocides and its Taiwan provocations


- Biden, with his puerile words and deeds, continually embarrasses himself and our nation on the world stage.


And since these Biden voters, both alive and dead, are twisted into knots trying to defend their unfortunate pick, they often resolve their discomfort by hating Trump and his supporters even more (if that is possible).


But a few have had an epiphany and regret their votes … not that they would have necessarily pulled the lever for the Orangeman.



STAND UP FOR AMERICA!


Days of Old

Many years ago men sought the warmth of companionship with “taxi dancers,” women who would allow themselves to be held for the duration of a dance number … all for a silver dime. Rather sad in a way. This has morphed into today’s “lap dance,” a lot more intimate … and expensive.


STAND UP FOR COMPANIONSHIP!


Today’s Poser



Why is it OK to make gun owners jump through numerous required legal hoops (fingerprints, photo IDs, mandated classes, home safes, etc.) in order to exercise their Consstitutional-enumerated right to keep and bear arms … whereas there are far fewer such constraints against exercising our equivalent right to vote or attend church or claim to be a news reporter?


Would we tolerate making sure voters are literate English speakers before they can enter the voting booth … or could answer questions about the Bible before they could enter church or shul? I don’t think so …


(Thanks to Toby Leary of Cape Gun Works for this thought.)



STAND UP FOR OUR CONSTITUTION!


Quotable Quote



Sanctimony is the response when our ruling class is accused of anti-American policies. — Fletcher


STAND UP FOR AMERICA!


Headlines



Dems may drop debt fight to avoid shutdown

Fed Chair Powell to warn Congress that inflation pressures could last longer than expected

Biden admin unveils revamp of DACA

Senate Republicans block government funding, debt ceiling bill

North Korea fires possible ballistic missile into sea

Unvaccinated Americans say booster shots proves Covid vaccines don’t work, Kaiser survey shows

Biden says his $3.5 trillion spending bill ‘costs zero dollars’

Gov. Gavin Newsom makes universal vote-by-mail permanent in California

DeSantis pushes election officials to investigate Facebook

Pfizer submits data to FDA for Covid-19 vaccines in younger children

FBI statistics: Homicides surged 30% in 2020 amid Defund the Police movement

Blue states ask Americans to fund housing for Afghans


STAND UP FOR AMERICA!


Tuesday, September 28, 2021

Obvious Truth


Unless there is a way of reconnecting mail-in ballot with the envelopes they arrived in (which violates the sacred notion of a secret ballot), then after-the-fact realizations that some envelopes contained illegal ballots, these ballots cannot be found and invalidated …  and, consequentialy, such voter fraud cannot be remedied. 


And, as we have seen in the Maricopa County, Arizona election audit, the number of such invalidations could easily have swung that election.


This is a hole in the mail-in voting process anyone of evil intent could drive an 18-wheeler through.


STAND UP AGAINST VOTER FRAUD!


Heavy Stuff

  
Dinosaur femur

While I was waiting for a PET scan (with radioactive fluoride tracer), I kept ruminating over why and how our gravity might have changed over the millennia, First, kind reader, dwell on the fact that enormous dinosaurs roamed the Earth hundreds of million years ago. Then they disappeared in a relatively short period of time (maybe even tens of thousands of years … overnight in the span of history). Why?

Yes, I understand and believe the asteroid impact die-off theory … the K-T event … see: Wikipedia Entry.  But I also believe that dinosaurs might have been seriously stressed by increased gravity for even millions of years before this event … otherwise why was it that only much smaller animals eventually replaced them?


 Which takes us to the:


Postulate: the Earths gravity has gotten stronger over the last few hundred million years.


This postulate would totally explain the disappearance of those huge dinosaurs … but not the small ones like the velociraptors. I can only surmise that these smaller ones were totally dependent on their larger brethren for carrion … like today’s vultures … and when they went away, so did most of their smaller cousins.


This of course leaves the difficult question — how did gravity get stronger over hundreds of million years? I have two Lemmae:


Lemma 1: Sentists have speculated that there might be an undiscovered elimentary particle dubbed a “graviton.”  I myself have surmised that, after the Big Bang, gravitons attached themselves to matter to create our now-known world. However, excess gravitons (dark matter?) still exist in abundance … and are still increasing matters’ gravity throughout the universe … uniformly.


Lemma 2: Gravity is a measure of acceleration (distance/time^2) … which means that any decrease in the time unit, means that gravity increases exponentially. Science has been trying to discover if the time metric has changed over the millennia … but so far, no dice.  (Admittedly, an extremely difficult thing to discern.)


To me, one of these two Lemmae or both, might well be true … thus no more dinosaurs.


STAND UP FOR GRAVITY!

Obvious Truth

 


When Jamie Dimon and Elon Musk bow down to China because of its 1.4 billion potential customers … you suddenly realize that free-marker capitalism may have a fatal flaw. — Fletcher


STAND UP FOR AMERICA!


reddit Pic



Abandoned church in Paris …


STAND UP TO DERELICTION!


Headlines

 


Facing a heap of defeat, progressives stake hopes on spending bills

Social Democrats narrowly defeat Angela Merkel’s alliance in historic German election

Panel of scientists investigating origins of Covid disbands over links to Chinese lab

Mayorkas: Approximately 12,000 Haitian migrants released into U.S.

Abbott says Texas vote audits aren’t about Trump

Pfizer CEO says normal life will return within a year, and adds we may need annual Covid shots

Only 46% of 2020 voters say that they would vote for Biden today

Exclusive — Michael Savage: We’ll never recover from border assault

Turkish president defiant about turning to Russia for defense needs

Major crypto exchanges stop letting Chinese users sign up as Beijing renewed crackdown

50 HouseDems will oppose ‘bipartisan’ infrastructure bill

‘War criminal’ — Crowds heckle Hillary Clinton in Northern Ireland


STAND UP FOR AMERICA!


Monday, September 27, 2021

Metal Anguish

                                         China rising …

As usual, John Hinderaker of the Powerline blog once again pulls back the curtain on the mega-trends … this time that China already dominates the world in the production of metals … a key component of future economic expansion. See: Powerline blog entry. (Contains some revealing visuals.)


And we all have seen the hollowing out of our previously-proud manufacturing sector to the cheap-labor elesewhere-world.


The obvious pushback from the United States has been our dominance in the technology and energy production sectors … both of which we seem to be ceding elsewhere. May I be so impertinent to ask why? Perhaps we are more interested in societal fluff and self-congratulatory ceremonies?


Alas! Even our once-proud education system is being subverted by the woke police.



STAND UP FOR AMERICA!


Fractured Definition



Metronome — an elf riding the Paris subway



STAND UP FOR ELVES!


Headlines


The Republicans helped craft the infrastructure bill. They might not vote for it

Tesla drivers can request full Self-driving Beta with the press of a button

House Republicans take aim at Biden’s federal vaccine mandates

Black Lives Matter leader: Vaccine mandates ‘racist,’ vows ‘uprising’

Merkel warns Germany’s ‘future is at stake’ as voters swing to the left

Three killed in Amtrak train derailment in Montana

George Soros’ role in Russia hoax revealed 

Patel: Length of Sussman indictment indicates more indictments

FBI agents question Afghan rescue groups

China welcomes Haiwei executive home, Trudeau hugs Canadians freed by Beijing

Dems are trying to abolish Space Force

Taiwan deploys ‘anti-aircraft missiles’ against Chinese PLA



STAND UP FOR AMERICA!


Sunday, September 26, 2021

Today’s Poser



Instead of being self-taught, what kind of a lawyer … or president for that matter … would Abe Lincoln have been if he had he gone to Yale Law School?


“College makes you stupid.” — John Hinderaker of the Powerline blog


STAND UP FOR HONEST ABE!


Obvious Truth



Times of crisis, like now, have a way of stripping the pretensions from people … letting their true selves be exposed … and sometimes it’s not very pretty. — Fletcher


STAND UP FOR TRUE SELVES!


Headlines


As Dems race forwarrd, Manchin pumps break: ‘There’s no timeline’

Costco, Nike and FedEx are warning there’s more inflation set to hit

Arizona audit flags thousands of suspect ballots

Biden tells Indian prime minister not to answer questions from U.S. press

Jan. 6 committee seeks testimony from riot defendants who pleaded guilty

U.S., Pakistan face each other again on Afghanistan threats

Biden says he’s going to tax nonexistent trillionaires

Male Afghan refugees assault female soldier at Ft. Bliss

The ‘View’ hosts test positive for Covid before Harris interview

Ron Isana: China may be the first to ban Bitcoin, but it won’t be the last

Secret Service buys Chinese drones flagged as CCP spy tools

Joe Biden blames his failures on ‘what I inherited’ from Donald Trump


STAND UP FOR AMERICA!


Saturday, September 25, 2021

The Big Texas Freeze


Because of that hobgoblin, carbon dioxide, we may have not lost our way in terms of supplying energy to ourselves … but we certainly are well on our way to losing it. A perfect example was last spring’s big Texas freeze. See: Comon Cents blog


STAND UP FOR COMMON SENSE!


Latest Ramirez


Michael Ramirez Comic Strip for September 24, 2021


STAND UP FOR BORDER CONTROL!


Recount vs. Audit (Updated)

The much-awaited final Maricopa County 2020 presidential election forensic audit has revealed some disturbing results — among them, 57,000 questionable ballots:


(Please note all the ‘N/A’ holes in these results due to the non-cooperation of this county’s election officials.)

See: Final Maricopa County Audit Report.


These results show alarming holes in Maricopa’s voting process … evidence if you will … which need to be viewed in the light that Trump only “lost” the state of Arizona by 10,457 votes.


Now to the hand recount … which did not adjust for or eliminate the above obvious chicanery  … and which is the headline that most media outlets banner, the simple hand recount of all the ballots shows Biden actually picked up 360 votes … see: CNN Report.


Now, kind pilgrim, depending on your political bias, which result do you agree with … the forensic audit or the paper-ballot recount? 


My own take, for what it’s worth, is that those who are out to sway an election with unsolicited mail-in ballots, sloppy ballot verification administration and electronic voting-tally technology have made paper ballot electronic-assisted recounts meaningless. The more complex is made the ballot process, the easier it is to cheat.


Afterward: Hate to inject common sense into this issue … but why not subtract the voting irregularities favoring Trump from those favoring Biden … and, assuming this is a positive number, subtract this from Biden’s winning margin? It this result goes big negative, then the Arizona Senate should decertify the election. QED!


After afterward: Just discovered that most of these mail-in ballot discrepancies were discovered with the envelopes and not the ballots which were no longer associated with their envelopes. That, apparently, is why the above reconciliation cannot be done. Now we know.


STAND UP FOR ELECTION INTEGRITY!


Powerline Pic

 




STAND UP FOR SURVIVAL!


Complexity

 


Life is getting overly complex with the ins and outs of tax law, drug names and side effects, medical insurance coverage, internet navigation, vaccination risks, political infighting, trust accounting, daily scheduling, password security control,  etc., etc.  … that it seems clear that these mare’s nests are all designed to confound the uninitiated.


And, pilgrim, if you think this is true, try keeping on top of things with poor eyesight and the other exigencies of old age  …



STAND UP FOR SIMPLICITY!


Headlines


McConnell warms to Hershel Walker as primary war with Trump fizzles

CDC chief overrules panel in clearing Pfizer Covid booster shots for front-line workers

Democrats say they have reached a deal on tax increases

Dr. Frankenstein defends funding Wuhan lab … 

Biden picks up the tab for Florida school leaders fined by DeSantis

Bitcoin and ethereum sink as China intensifies crackdown on cryptocurrencies

Report: Biden owes up to $500k in back taxes

Fauci defends NIH funding Wuhan lab: ‘Only regret’ is it’s a distraction

Vilsack: Mini deals with EU more realistic than full trade pact

Maricopa County: Draft of Cyber Ninjas election review says Biden won

New emails reveal Hunter Biden wanted $2 million to help Libya unfreeze assets while Joe was VP

Obama-appointed judge: Florida ‘discriminatory’ ban on sanctuary cities is unconstitutional


STAND UP FOR AMERICA!


Friday, September 24, 2021

CURIOUS!



Over-65 Biden and Fauci still haven’t gotten their Covid booster jabs …


Afterward: How long will it be before at least the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are vilified as the “Trump death jabs?” (Not the “Biden murder mandates?”)


STAND UP FOR CURIOSITY!


Headlines



12 former security officials who warned against antitrust crackdown have tech ties

Chip shortage expected to cost auto industry $210 billion  in revenue in 2021

DHS  Secretary says the border is not open as illegals crossings hit record highs

Afghans brought to U.S. charged with child sex crimes, strangling wives

Distrust in the healthcare system dissuades clinical trial participation

Norway hikes rates, becoming first central bank in developed world to do so

Revealed: Peter Doszak admitted Fauci funded Chinese coronavirus research

Texas forms miles-long border  barrier from state trooper vehicles

House Democrats introduce $1 billion funding bill for Israel’s Iron Dome

Average daily U.S. Covid deaths climb above 2,000 for the first time since March

Maxine Waters: Border patrol’s treatment of illegals ‘worse than slavery’

Gates when asked  about lessons learned from Epstein mistake: He’s dead


STAND UP FOR AMERICA!


Carnac



The Answer: Goliath, Andre the Giant and Joe Biden


The Question: Who are three “big guys?”



STAND UP FOR 10% CUT FOR THE BIG GUY!


Thursday, September 23, 2021

Nature



The only trouble with communing with nature is that, sometimes, she talks back. — Fletcher


STAND UP FOR NATURE!


Viruses



There are over one million animal viruses in the world … see: Virology blog.  If the Fauci-Daszak “logic” holds and we must apply gain-of-function engineering to all those viruses that may someday produce a pandemic so that we might pre-develop vaccines for them … then, kind readers, by following this lunacy, we are facing an impossibly Herculean task.


STAND UP FOR GOOD SENSE!


Wow!



6,000 year-old Mexican tree … image found on Woodsterman blog.


STAND IP FOR SURVIVAL!


Headlines

 


Biden slips into political quicksand amid Haitian migration buildup

Stronger mortgage demand points to September surge in home sales

As Americans remained stranded, Biden says U.S. has ‘turned the page’ on Afghanistan

GOP slams Democrats for defunding Israel’s Iron Dome

Trump sues niece, NYT over 2018 tax records investigation

Jamie Dimon warns its possible the Fed could be forced into sharp move next year

The border crisis is so bad that even CNN is describing it as such

Dems face ‘perfect storm’ with redistricting map in 2022

Officials: Many Haitian migrants are being released in U.S.

Iranian President Raisi lambasts U.S. at first UN speech, Biden proposes compliance to nuclear deal

Biden’s approval craters in battleground states — faces 62% disapproval in Iowa

Democrats seek to spend billions on welfare, medical costs for Afghans


STAND UP FOR AMERICA!


Wednesday, September 22, 2021

This I Belirve


Trump’s pullout of Afghanistan would not have been an embarrassment

The 2020 presidential election was actually won by Trump in a landslide

Most Big Tech companies are dangerous monopolies

Jan. 6 was not an insurrection at the Capitol

The Clinton Foundation was a pay-for-play scam

Comey, Brennan, McCabe, Strzok and many others involved in Russiagate belong behind bars

Jeffery Epstein’s clients are rife with celebrities, business leaders and politicians

Naked males with their equipment exposed should not be allowed in female dressing rooms

Much of American media are propagandists, not journalists

America is not fundamentally racist

Inflation is going much higher and will last for years

The political left are crypto-Socialists

Trump is a patriot … Biden isn’t

Tyranny is slowly creeping into our federal and state governance

American’s education system is broken

Many abortions are murder

Gender transition surgery and drugs should be forbidden before the age of 21

China will continue to flex its muscles … dangerously

Covid vaccines are more dangerous than admitted to

Democrats are the party of anti-Semitism

Trump, as president, did most policy things right … his personality, not so much

Russia could be a strategic partner against China and radical Islam

As a result of Biden’s lax immigration policies, we will see another spate of terrorist attacks

Fauci abetted the gain-of-function research at the Wuhan lab with money and expertise

Covid originated at the Wuhan Institute of Virology

China purposely infected the world with Covid

Hunter Biden is a criminal reprobate

Global warming is not a crisis

Drugs are killing over a hundred thousand Americans a year … with little attention

Biological males should not be allowed to compete in female sports 

Iran will announce before the end of the year that it has the A-Bomb 

Joe Biden is in serious cognitive decline and isn’t running things

Our Mexican border is as open as it has ever been … on purpose

General Milley is a traitor

Batterie power will never replace most hydrocarbon-powered equipment

America has been suckered into being the free policemen for the world

There are still hundreds of American citizens behind enemy lines in Afghanistan


STAND UP FOR ONE’S BELIEFS!


Today’s Posers



Why does everyone get smaller as we get older? Perhaps we are preparing to disappear?



STAND UP FOR SHRINKING!


Obvious Truth



There are few things more dangerous to the world than when stupid pig-headed people (not naming names) attain positions of great power. — Fletcher



STAND UP FOR AN OPEN MIND!


Fractured Definition


                           Giant Weta from New Zealand


Bugaboo— Frightened by a huge harmless insect.



STAND UP FOR CAUTION!


Headlines



What Trudeau’s win means for Canada-U.S. relations

Democrats will put a debt limit suspension in bill that aims to prevent government shutdown

SCOTUS to hear arguments in abortion case challenging Roe v. Wade on December 1

WH: Migrants crossing border do not need proof of vaccination

‘Extremely troubling’: Investigation launched into border agents on horseback seen chasing immigrants

Covid is officially America’s deadliest pandemic as U.S. fatalities  surpass 1918 flu estimate

Poll: Fewer than half of Americans believe  that Biden is mentally stable

CDC: Some Afghans arriving in U.S. have measles, malaria, tuberculosis

CDC recommends waiting period for Afghan flights to the U.S. after measles cases

China likely won’t bail out Evergrande directly unless there’s ‘far-reaching contagion,‘ S&P says

U.S. has funded over 250 studies for Chinese Communist military researchers

Joe Biden plans to bring 10x as many refugees to U.S. next year


STAND UP FOR AMERICA!


Tuesday, September 21, 2021

Today’s Poser



Why hasn’t Dr. Fauci taken his booster shot yet … he’s clearly eligible at 80 … does he know something we don’t?


Or, for that matter, Sleepy Joe too? He’s eligible!


I’ve decided that my booster shot will await these two birds going first.


Afterward: See also CDC’s  latest VAERS Covid update. (Is someone trying to tell us something?)


After afterward:

                                        From Woodsterman blog



STAND UP FOR BOOSTERS?


Apt Analogy

 


For all you climate zealots — getting rid of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere would be the equivalent of eliminating the vowels from our alphabet or the salt from our oceans … impossible! — Fletcher 



STAND UP FOR FUNDAMENTALS!


Obvious Truth


Those who consider themselves elite Americans … or our ruling class …  generally despise Donald Trump on a visceral level … and even excuse the treachery that their like-minded countrymen have leveled against him. Otherwise-Americans … and we are rife …  are angry, disheartened and quite worried by the likely calamitous consequence of such a disconnect … and what it might take to return to the America we all loved. … or even, if we can return. — Fletcher


STAND UP FOR AMERICA!


reddit Pic




The Eye of God natural arch at Monument Valley …  a Navajo tribal park on the Utah-Arizona border


(with people as eyelashes)


STAND UP FOR NATURAL WONDERS!



Headlines

 


SPD in pole position as German campaign enters final week

Pfizer says it’s vaccine is safe and generates robust immune response in kids ages 5 to 11

Sen. Manchin wants Dems to delay voting on Biden’s spending package until 2022

Senate parliamentarian crushes Democrat attempt at amnesty for illegal immigrants

U.S. launches mass expulsion of Haitians from Texas

Elon Musk mocks President Biden as SpaceX completes first all-civilian mission

Biden admin to release family units in Del Rio border crisis into U.S.

Emmys: Hollywood celebrities go maskless around face covered staff

European Union-Australia trade deal runs aground over submarine furor

Evergrande collapse could have ‘domino effect’ on China’s property sector, AllianceBerstein says

FBI says human remains found in Wyoming likely Gabby Petito

More ‘F**K’ Joe Biden chants erupt at college football games


STAND UP FOR AMERICA!


Monday, September 20, 2021

Tongue Lashing


                Image found on daily timewaster blog


“You’re a dog-faced pony soldier!”



STAND UP FOR TONGUES!



Elaine’s

To pair with my recent blog post on Tinker’s … see: Tinker’s  … here is a repost of a story about another  bygone bar: Elaine’s. I had originally published it here ten years ago.


Another Closing, Another Show


There is a bit of nostalgic news today that once touched my life ... that famous celebrity bistro, Elaine's, is soon closing ... after Elaine (Kaufman) herself died this past December.  See: Elaine's Closing.

Now for the nostalgia -- back when I was single in New York City, I was a bit of a regular at a bar called Tinker's at 74th Street and Second Avenue.  One evening in 1964 at around nine in the evening, a rather heavy-set Jewish woman with horn-rimmed glasses came into this bar and started chit-chatting Tinker (Ward).  They appeared to be close friends. 

After a bit, both she and Tinker told most of us bar regulars that we were all invited to go to another bar further uptown ... a bar that this imposing woman was just opening.  We all piled in a few cabs and tumbled out somewhere in the high eighties.  We then previewed what appeared to be another nondescript bar that was about twice the size of Tinkers.  I say “previewed,” because, there were just a few other people in the bar arranging tables and getting ready for the real opening in a day or two.  I took no real notice of the bar’s name.  We were all treated to a few drinks ... I can’t remember who bought, Tinker or this woman ... and then filtered back to Tinker’s to finish our evenings in our usual libertine manner.  

I found out much later, after this new bar had become quite famous, that what we had previewed was “Elaine’s.”  Maybe it was my imagination, but I always felt that the few times I went into Elaine’s thereafter, Elaine would look at me sideways ... like she was trying to remember who I was.  I never told her.



STAND UP FOR ELAINE (RIP)!

Obvious Truth

 


The general consensus isn’t always right … particularly when it is being suspiciously hyped hard by the media …


STAND UP AGAINST GROUPTHINK!


Hard-hearted


I must be hard-hearted because I am increasingly cynical of the spate of sympathy scammers who use hungry old people, disabled veterans, dirty-faced children and mange-ridden dogs to extract money from a gullible public .. . very little of which usually ends up solving the misery depicted in their exploitive TV commercials.



STAND UP FOR REAL CHARITY!


Headlines


Confusion over Biden’s booster plan riles governors

SpaceX’s private International4 mission splashes down safely in Atlantic Ocean

Biden heads to his beach home [in Delaware] for weekend amid mounting crises

Farage: I ‘won’t obey’ any new lockdowns

Australia to France: You knew we had doubts about submarine deal

Small crowd gathers near Capitol to protest arrests of Jan. 6 rioters

Capitol police reportedly detain undercover cop at Justice for J6 rally

By withholding Regeneron, Biden could hurt black people

Poll: McAuliffe and Youngkin in tight race for Virginia Governor

California firefighters wrap base of world’s largest tree in fireproof blankets as blaze approaches

Pennsylvania voting reform bill reintroduced after governor’s veto

MN Supreme Court: Voters may scrap police department


STAND UP FOR AMERICA!


Sunday, September 19, 2021

Tinker’s

 


Not Tinker's ... but close

The neighborhood bar … the altar upon which so many lives and livers have been sacrificed. There is a visceral and universal appeal to the neighborhood bat cave ... a place where one can get crocked in the company of like-minded sots ... a place where one can go to erase the chalk-board tally of one’s misspent life ... a place where anonymous trysts begin and end ... a place where comfort trumps aesthetics ... a place where struck-up friendships are as shallow as the conversation ... a place to flee to when life needs to be relished under a whiskey haze. A place where "everyone knows your name."  Once, I too had a neighborhood bar. It was called Tinker’s.

It was a rather nondescript 1960’s singles’ bar, easily missed unless you were looking for it. If you were, it was on the southwest corner of 74th Street and Second Avenue in Manhattan. It had two large windows with green-and-white striped awnings facing Second Avenue, framing a dark entrance, and had another large window on 74th street, around the corner to the right. A red neon sign hung at the corner. It said simply “Tinker’s” and, after my hike up from 63rd Street and York Avenue, it always gave me a Pavlovian thirst. As you entered, on your left was a large mahogany bar which began perpendicular to a brick wall and then curved around to run about twenty feet parallel to the back-bar shelves and mirror.

The five-foot space that remained between the front window and the bar was filled with the stools of the regulars. Looking out the front window, you could watch the world saunter by. However, because of the low light levels inside Tinker’s, the world couldn’t watch you unless they stopped to peer in. The tap room to the right of the bar was filled with small tables and spindle chairs ... except for the far back right corner which had Naugahyde-covered benches and some more tables. That is where you sat if you didn’t want to be noticed or if the rest of the tables were occupied. The well-worn wooden bar floor had fresh sawdust spread on it weekly for that old-world charm, usually on late Saturday night or early Sunday morning.

The aisle that was formed between the bar and the tables led directly to a small rear hallway where there was the public dial telephone on the left and, on the right and rear, were the camphor-caked rest rooms with cigarette-filled plumbing fixtures. The small kitchen was located in the left-rear corner, off the bar and enclosed by this rest-room alley and the service bar. It contained an old cast-iron grill (on which were made some of the best hamburgers on the upper East Side), a French-fryer, a tiny refrigerator, and a paucity of other equipment (such as a glass-washer-steamer that look like it came right out of a doll house). Tinker’s was a study in minimalism.

The jukebox, next to the service bar, was one of Tinker’s best features. It generally was playing softly in the background ... usually the latest pop hits ... but also opera, Gregorian chants, jazz, and many, many old classics (such as Sinatra, Tony Bennett, and even Billy Holiday). If the bar patrons weren’t playing a song, then the bartender or waitress would pluck a quarter from the till and play six favorites. Without looking up, you could often tell who was serving drinks by their selection of their music A goodly amount of baraphernalia festooned the walls and ceiling -- some hats, a few pictures of sports teams, a few odd banners, and a bat (which served dual purpose of decoration and protection). Ashtrays were sprinkled everywhere since smoking was still a favored pastime. In warm weather, some tables were also set out on the sidewalk. The window to the right of the entrance was somehow opened which connected the inside and outside patrons ... like in a Parisian cafe.

After I was separated from my first wife in 1964, Tinker’s became my regular hangout for about three squandered years. There, I escaped the failure of my marriage and my lack of career progress. (What did T.S. Eliot say? “Malt does more than Milton can to justify God’s way to man.”) I used Tinker’s as the center of my meager social life. There, I was accepted but not embraced as a regular. This was fine with me as long as I could do my own thing. Occasionally I would go to other bars such as Dick Edward’s (where I took my second wife on our first date), the Green Derby (I usually went there just for lunch), P.J. Clark's (where my second wife and I spent the evening before our wedding), TGI Friday’s (the bar most convenient to my apartment), etc. But it was Tinker’s that was my “home turf”. I often went there to get together with old college buddies and tell war stories. But, I would usually go there right after work, have a burger and a beer, smoke some cigarettes, and then try to get lucky. Sometimes, I was even successful. But, if by ten o’clock nothing seemed to be developing, I would use the back wall phone to call a female from my “little black book” and shamelessly ask her to meet me at Tinker’s. Then, for the price of a few drinks, I could often find comfort for the night.

It took me a while to notice an important social-psychological phenomenon of the single bar scene at that time (I assume it still holds.) It was that unattached women would not go into such a bar until after the sun was down. Not being female, I can’t explain this pathology. But I did eventually learn to take advantage of it. This meant that early-on I wasted a lot of bar time between 6:00 PM and 9:00 PM in the summer time. Things were generally dead at Tinker’s during this twilight period. But there was a trade-off. If you didn’t get there early enough, you didn’t get a bar stool by the front window ... which then made it a little harder to get noticed. But if you got there late, the only seats left were the Naugahyde benches ... which were the equivalent of being banished to Coventry. However, in the winter, when the sun set early, the bar was usually crowded with eager young women, often by 6:30 PM, and so one’s entrance timing became a much simpler calculus.

“Tinker” Ward ran the bar. (I never knew his Christian name.) He was about five-foot-six, slightly built, even a little effeminate. Rumor had it that Tinker’s father actually owned the bar and occasionally he would come in to check on things. But it was Tinker who handled the money. Once a night he used to plunder the cash register for a wad of bills which went right into his wallet. Bar talk had it that Tinker’s grossed about $30,000 per week which, in turn, suggested that it netted about a half a million dollars a year. This was a considerable about of money at that time ... particularly since so much of it appeared to be tax-free. (I figure I contributed about $3,000 a year to that largess ... much too much for someone paying child support on a meager banker’s salary.) Tinker also had two brothers who appeared from time to time to taste the bar’s various potables. I also believe he had one somewhat attractive sister who, like many Irish woman of the day, drifted through life as a shadow. I never met or even saw Tinker’s mother.

Tinker managed the bar in a no-nonsense fashion. He issued crisp orders like a drill-sergeant and seemed to be on top of everything. But he also knew how to make his patrons feel welcome. He let his regulars run bar tabs. But he never let you reach into his pocket too deeply. He kept a clipboard of these tabs and you had to settle things every week or two at the most. I spent so much money there that sometimes I even had to pay my tab in installments. But as compensation for your loyal patronage, about every third drink was bought by the bartenders. They did this by rapping on the bar twice quickly while serving you your next refreshment. And they always poured drinks with a heavy hand. The bartenders and waitresses, be they male or female, were universally good-looking and of loose morals. I never hit pay dirt with any of the female employees, but it was pretty clear others did. The male barkeepers usually ended up the evening with the most nubile of the besotted females. Tinker himself would sometimes cut out an awestruck heifer.

At this time of my life I was suffering from a slipped disk in my lower back. I suspect it arose from the emotional turmoil in my life that surrounded my separation and impending divorce. I had been advised to have an operation where the two vertebrae surrounding the offending disks would be fused with some bone splinters taken from my hip. I resisted this medical suggestion, but was forced to wear a back brace for about a year. In the morning I would strap on this contraption under my pinstripes and go to work, sweating profusely on my walk to the Lexington Avenue subway near Bloomingdale’s. I would have to stop every few blocks to lean against a lamp post to ease the incessant pain. When I got to work, I could sit and earn my keep without discomfort. It was standing and moving around that was difficult. But, there was some solice from this affliction ... it kept me out of the draft and Viet Nam.

A little over a year after my wife and I had separated and I had moved to New York City from Scarsdale ... and after it became clear that there was no possible reconciliation ... I got a notice from the draft board telling me to report for active duty. (I suspect that my father-in-law ratted me out.) When I informed the Selective Service of my bad back and sent them my doctor’s note and X-rays, they were quite skeptical and ordered me to report promptly to Fort Jay, on Governor’s Island, off the lower end of Manhattan, for a battery of neurological tests. One crisp fall morning, I took a short ferry ride there and made my leafy way to their medical center, full of dread for my military future and my predictable (and likely bloody) tour in the Far East. When one of the Army’s frowning white-coated majors found no reflexes in my left leg and also measured significant muscle atrophy in this same leg, I was told I could leave without further testing. I had my life back! I got my 4-F rating in the mail a few weeks later.

Despite this malady, I still made my painful trek up to Tinker’s most week nights. There, with each drink, the pain in my back abated. After about four libations, I was again hale and hearty and I was back in grace. It was as though I had no ailment at all! At the end of the evening, if I had no companionship for the night, my pain-free walk home became my only solace for all that money and time ill-spent. I would amble down Second Avenue, then east on Seventy-Second Street, and then right on First. There I would often stop at Dorian’s Red Hand, a slightly more elegant Irish bar, a few doors down from Seventy-second, for a quick once over of its remaining female talent. This of course was a desperate move, but for the price of one beer I occasionally met a female who was as desperate as myself and I would spend the night with some nameless and faceless female. But, most often the chickens had already been plucked, so I would continue my trip down First Avenue to my favorite pizza parlor around Sixty-fifth. There for fifty cents I would wolf down a couple of steaming cheesy slices to line my stomach for my boozy slumber. Next, I turned left down Sixty-third, past the original TGI Friday’s, and hung another left to end up at the York River House at Sixty-third and York. I would usually exchange a few jokes with the doorman and then went to bed ... dreading my next morning’s walk to the subway.

Copyright ©  George W. Potts