HOW DO YOU BECOME A "MAN"? and HAPPY HOUR IN THE CORRAL

HAPPY HOUR

  Some think of California as LA, Hollywood, SoCal, San Francisco, freeways, beaches, show business and population.
   Many forget California is "the west."  Sure, there are eastern states where they can wear the title of "the west," but none are as western as California. I frequently see cowboys, on horseback, riding the range, tending to cattle. We have friends who are ranchers and a lot of what they do is traditional cowboy work.
    So while happy hour can be a cold beer, glass of wine or cocktail, it can also be this.

     Seeing horses on a mountain side, kicking up dust in the long slant of evening sun, I feel as though I'm in a cowboy movie-in my case it would be Billy Crystal's City Slickers!!!  

HOW TO BE A MAN

     A comment in a program about women in war launched me on a thought trail. No disrespect to that issue.  In fact I encourage viewing of  MAKERS, an excellent series on PBS, but this concept of "being a man" is stuck in my head.

      It was said it used to be the only way a male could prove his manhood was to go to war. If I were an anthropologist I might refute that historical premise. However, in our age, manhood certainly comes in many faces, roles, and iterations.

      A life of labor, providing for a family come to mind. Setting aside individual dreams to assure a quality of life for children is a very manly thing. There are countless journey's to "manhood"-living honorably, true to ideals, teaching, being a cop, staying sober, back breaking labor, medical work, emergency services, mentoring, emigrating and starting over, building, leading a church choir, driving a cab, being a lineman, editing a newspaper, plumbing, lawyering, running a business, investigating hate groups, challenging bad laws, standing up for the abused or disenfranchised, being a correspondent, philanthropy, creating, and on and on. Women do these things too and making such a point should serve to underscore how gender judging ideas like "manhood" or "womanhood" are anachronistic. Maybe it is better to think of our humanity instead.

     There is still combat, danger, crime, evil, hatred and other, perils, disasters and destruction's of life. Men and women will  respond and sometimes in heroic and sacrificial ways. I think a nation is indebted to those who go into harm's way (There is very little that is manly or womanly in the way this nation has historically responded to our service personnel. But that is another discussion. And too medical workers and journalists who endure combat or natural violence, without weapons, are rarely remembered for their service)

     Valor and courage are fine human attributes, but they can also be manifest in hard work, sacrifice, loyalty, reliability, honesty and devotion.

      We've all known good men and good women who have simply been brave in the way they have lived good lives. 

      If we can think of manhood in diverse ways, beyond the context of struggle, then maybe we can start putting down our clubs, spears, guns and bombs.

GOOD BYE TO A GOOD GUY

Courtesy of Mediabistro.com/

    Ben Bradlee was no saint, but he was a helluva of good newspaper man. He spoke his mind, guided the Washington Post to an era of greatness, presided over the courageous Watergate coverage, was friend and confident to Presidents, an advocate of a strong and free press and an entertaining story teller.

      To generations of journalists he was a kind of patron saint, a standard bearer. 

       Ben Bradlee, 93. -30-

      See you down the trail.

THE WEEKENDER-OSCAR TIME

AND THE OSCAR GOES TO...

    Nope.  No predictions here.  There's enough of that from other sources.  I'm pleased to have seen most of the nominated performances and am convinced there is some extraordinary talent working on both sides of the camera in this era.

    There is a longing though.  Johnny Carson's hosting kindles memories of a good era.  And Billy Crystal's work was some of the most inventive and sensational.   

     I still like to fantasize what it must have been like to be in the Hollywood crowd in the 30's and 40's when personality more than corporate seemed to be the power behind the studios and silver screen. It hangs in my mind as a time of icons.  

WEEKEND VIDEO

HERE'S A SWEET SHORT

WORDS MATTER

HOME GROWN VIDEO

It is bottling time at some local wineries

so....here's a late valentine

       Enjoy the Oscar telecast and have a great weekend.

See you down the trail.

IN DEFENSE OF CRYSTAL-A DRONE STORY-THANKS FOR THE AWARD

GET OVER IT

     Apparently some are upset, or so some would lead us to believe, over Billy Crystal's impersonation of Sammy Davis Jr.  

     First, it is a reprise of a famous sketch he's performed many times, secondly it was in no way disrespectful, and this

particular bit was hilarious. If you were offended, of course you are entitled to your sentiment, but come on, comedy

is all a joke. Lighten up!  There are serious things over 

which to be offended, but these recriminations sound shallow, void of a knowledge of this artist's history, self-serving, contrived and as though someone was just looking
for something to tweet.  

WHEN I WANTED MY OWN DRONE

     Reading Associated Press writer Joan Lowy's piece on drone's going mainstream reminded me of my attempt to put one to work for my news organization.

     In covering national security and intelligence issues I made friends with people with unique skills and job descriptions.  Later when I was a television news executive I got a call from an old contact telling me about some amazing  new technology.  We set up a show and tell.  He, and a retinue, brought a couple of drone aircraft to our conference room.  They played a recording of the craft in flight, showed telemetry data, discussed it's operation system and the budget for flying it.  

      They did not want news coverage, but wanted to let me know, as a favor to an old friend, the system was available.

Well, I was awestruck.  This is years ago, long before there was public knowledge of the technology and certainly long before military applications.  They had rigged a craft with a

camera to show how we could use it in covering critical situation incidents; emergencies, disasters, accidents, hostage situations, surveillance in investigative reporting, and many more possibilities that my mind ran to.  

      Now here the story takes a couple of jogs.  In the contingent in the room were a couple of guys who were very circumspect about who they were and what was their interest. There was the developer, an engineer, a business partner and financial backer and two guys who later I learned

were what I suspected at the time-federal employees watching over this prized technology.  
      My contact was probably not the first to develop such a system, but may have been the first willing to "test it" in a commercial field exercise, in this case assisting journalism.
      The other jog was the broadcast division executive who shot it down even before we could fly it.  He'd "never heard of such a thing," and didn't want to give it a try.  He said we "didn't have a budget" for such a line, though I showed him where and how we could afford it. He was a numbers cruncher, not at all a visionary or creative thinker.  

      So, now as drones are used by police, farmers, power companies and at lot less cost than the helicopter and pilots I kept on staff, I can't help but imagine what if.

THANK YOU CHUBBY CHATTERBOX

      There is only one way into this and it is to resort to 

fully acknowledged copy cat writing.  I was "humbled and honored" to read this weekend that The Chubby Chatterbox,
who's blog link is listed along the side, had nominated me
for an award he had won, that of the Versatile Blogger.
      The Chatterbox is a marvelous writer and an equally superb artist. He has taken blogging to a fine level of creativity, imagination, style and warmth. So I am all the more humbled and honored-- with all sincerity.
       In getting this nomination I am to tell you seven things about myself and to pass along my nomination to other bloggers.
       #1 I am a blessed, lucky, fortunate man, with a wonderful and creative wife, two loving daughters who make me proud and more friends than I deserve.
      #2 I have authored two published historical mystery
and historical thriller novels: The Sanibel Arcanum and The Sanibel Cayman Disc.
      #3  I co-authored a professional guide, Crisis Coverage and News Room Credibility, with US Army Lt. Col. Charles Ricks,retired FBI Executive William Ervin, and the late Benjamin Strout.
      #4  I have recently finished a new manuscript and I am searching for a new agent and publisher.  My previous publisher was purchased by a media conglomerate that did away with the literary imprint.  I was invited to do graphic novels or coffee table books.  I have declined and I am work on a more literary project now, an homage to Kurt Vonnegut and Tom Robbins.
      #5 I spent four decades in journalism and documentary work that took me to far reaches of the globe and/or put 
me at the ringside for important moments in history.
     #6  My idea of the ideal job was to have been a National Geographic photographer.  Never achieving that I now blog
and thus entertain my fantasy of that and my second ideal job-a newspaper columnist.
     # 7 Aside from hiking, I play a lot of tennis, a game I did not pick up until about 3 1/2 years ago which I think bespeaks my faith and pragmatic idealism.  It is probably good to work our butts off in good pursuit, no matter our age. Regardless of the score, what really matters is how we play the game.


      BLOGS I NOMINATE
      ODDBALL OBSERVATIONS by The Catalyst
      Vinylstats by Frank Phillippi
      Artist C.W. Mundy

DAY BOOK

SCENES OF THE SEASON

See you down the trail.