The Big Debate Tonight

The second presidential debate is tonight. 

Incredibly, this debate is expected to have even more viewers than the first presidential debate.  


And why is that?  Because of the recent revelations by the Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump being caught on an open mic bragging about sexual assault on women.  

Trump is threatening to bring up Bill Clinton's  sexual behavior of thirty years ago at tonight's debate.  Of course Bill Clinton isn't running for president but in Trump's world, he thinks this will help him win the presidency.  

Every day more Republicans are withdrawing their support of Trump.  Some have said they're not voting for him.  Others are calling for Trump to withdraw from the race.  

I for one will be glued to the TV tonight.  One thing is for sure, Donald Trump does entertain.  I have a theory that Trump is actually enjoying all this attention, even though it is negative.  Remember what Donald Trump has said about publicity . . . . "all publicity is good publicity."  






  

The Presidential Campaign Ended Today

Trump and Billy Bush - 2005 - Alpha Males and misogynists

Mark this date.  The U. S. presidential campaign ended today.  


The Washington Post published this story today.  See here

Trump is caught on a hot mic bragging "When you're a star . . . . you can do anything" to women, including grabbing their private parts. 

Folks, a revelation like this about a person's character is bad enough but when it reinforces an already known narrative, it is lethal. 

Trump's immediate response was "Bill Clinton was worse" won't make a difference.  All during this campaign every time Trump is revealed for who he is, the Trump campaign immediately pivots to "Hillary . . . . etc."  This time he pivots to Bill Clinton but there is one small fact he overlooks, Bill Clinton isn't running for president.

Many months ago I predicted that Trump would be the Republican nominee for president of the United States.  I never said he would win but I have to admit there were times during the past few months when I had my doubts.  But now I have no doubt.  Trump is finished.  There is no way out of this, even for his most reverent supporters.  The simple fact is that Trump needs more women voters.  He won't get those votes now.  Oh sure, he'll still have the white males without college degrees or as he says "I love the poorly educated!"  But he isn't getting that much sought after women's vote.

Braggart Trump with his Trophy Wife, Melanie

So now here is my prediction.  Trump with withdraw from the presidential race. This isn't the first tie I thought he would withdraw but now I am fairly confident he will withdraw.  Reince Prebius, the Republican National Committee chairman will ask Indiana governor Mike Pence to take Donald Trump's place as the Republican presidential candidate.  

Mike Pence, Indiana governor who signed a anti LGBT law
New Republican presidential candidate

Mark this date.  Donald Trump is finished.  Thank God. 

High School Classmates - 1957 - Lifelong Memories

How good is your memory?  I have this uncanny ability to remember names of folks that I know.  

I was reminded of this recently when I posted this photo of my sophomore class taken in 957.  After all these year I think I can identify everyone person in this photo.  

Now let's see.  I will start with the first row left from right:

Pat Weber, Anne Yerkes, Jackie Schmidt, Elsie Strock, Mary Jane Sabellico, Judy Wagner, Frances Wilkenson, Patty Zittle, Betty Lou Woodward, Virginia Walters, Bonnie Walton, Linda Smith, Jean Timmerman

There!  I got the whole first row.  I also remember all there personalities.  Who liked me, who I liked and who I didn't know that well.  My late friend Wayne "The Cajun" Juneau used to mock me for "living in the past."  I liked Wayne but he was wrong in his observation of me and my propensity to remember my past.  We are who we are today because of our past. Both the good and bad experiences and people.  We learn from the past.  

Now for the second row.  Notice that the first row was all girls.  This WAS back in the Fifties when the guys were always told to stand in the back, especially the case with me being so tall.  I think these days schools are more egalitarian in the way they treat and respect their students. One thing I have never forgotten from school days was that I was always in the back of the room and any group setting.  From first grade on we were seated alphabetically and since my last name begins is a "T" I was in the back.  I truly believe that this "you can't sit at the lunch counter" syndrome affected my self confidence.  My good friend Bill B., who was short and always sat up front was and is a very confident person, even to this day.  While I put up a good front, I never completely got rid of my lack of self confidence. 

Now let's get to that second row:

Polly Weber (who is the twin of Pat Weber in the first row), Anne Williamson, Cookie Seibert, Su Su Serafino, Judy Scarborough (who is a neighbor of mine now here in southern Delaware), Gracie Styer (who was good friend of mine in grade school, I never knew what happened to her), Jean Szell, Duer Smedley, Lou Wilkerson (who I got into a fist fight with - 9th grade), Don Smith (who I had the hots for), Kenny Van Lew (who I also got into a fight with - 7th grade and who died in combat in Viet Nam), Francis Trego, Olin Siever.

Hey!  I got the whole second row!!!  I'm impressed with myself.  Damn I'm good.
Yes, I'm complimenting myself.

Here we go with the third row:

Bob Zynn, Jack Swarner, Donald Yanascoli (who I also had a crush on), Bob Watts, Blaine Stong, me (believe it or not I had too much hair), Don "Buddy" White who was our championship quarterback, Henry "Champ" Stehman, Denny Williams (another crush of mine), Terry Stimson, Alan Wilson, Harry Styer, Bill White

There!  I did it!  Looking at this picture I'm reminded at how all the girls wore dresses.  Many of them with crinolines, I remember the rustle of those crinolines when the girls would seat themselves on the wooden chairs in our classrooms.

The guys who wore short sleeve shirts would roll the short sleeves up.  Why?  Where the short sleeves too long?  No, it was just the "thing" to do.

By the way, my very first real date (at the Soph Hop) was the girl third from the right in the first row.  Her name was Bonnie Walton. She of the sweater and plaid skirt.  The next time I saw here was at our 35th Class Reunion.  Guess what?  She was a lesbian.  Looking at this photo now I guess I could have figured that out when we went to the Soph Hop.  Not that I was trying to make out with her, or any girl.  I guess sub consciously I wanted a "safe" date, which is what I got.

Bonnie Walton - 1959

 

Bonnie and me at our 50th class reunion 2009

Ah memories.  

Class Reunion Video

This morning I performed a labor of love.  As you know, I love to take photos and videos to record memorable moments in my life. And at this time of my life, as I enter my ninth inning with two outs, I am worried that all my photo and video history will be lost.  But take heart folks, I have found a way to remedy this dire situation!

I can upload my photos and videos to You Tube and create a permanent record for those who are still alive and those who follow me.  What a relief!  

So now all I have to do is upload my photos and videos to YouTube and produce the wonderful video like I'm posting to this blog post today.

This is a video, slide show actually with musical accompaniment, of my high school's 40th class reunion.  I haven't attended all the reunions but I have attended enough to make several more videos.  By the way, click on the "X" to make that annoying YouTube ad to go away.  I guess I shouldn't complain because YouTube lets me make these videos for free but who wants to see an ad overlaid on such a wonderful video?

Now I understand that to most of you the individuals in this video/slide show you won't know or recognize (hopefully you will recognize a young me) but I think most of you will enjoy the video anyway.  I know I had a grand time putting it together.

The only downside is that so many of my former classmates in this video have now passed on.  I only wish I could have shared all the smiles with them.

In memory of those classmates who are no longer with us:

Judy Baldwin (Nixdorf)
Bill Jones
Gary Kinzey
Denny Myers
Bruce Nixdorf
Bonnie Walton
Patty Zittle
Bob Zynn


P.S.
The banner photo is our Class of 1959 taken when we were sophomores in 1957.  Yours truly is behind the "D" in "Delaware" with the big pompadour. Cool!

And one more By The Way, I can identify every one of my classmates in that 1957 class photo including the ones I had a crush on (little did they know) (smile).

Yes, that is Yours Truly, standing at the front door of our high school. This was the photo used as the centerfold of our high school yearbook. The first and only time Yours Truly was in a centerfold.

Centerfold - 1959 DHS Yearbook

Will I Ever Go Back To Provincetown?

Me in the back of my friend Bob's pickup truck, August 1974 at Bob White's Motel, Provincetown, Mass 

Back in the Seventies and early Eighties I used to spend all my vacation days in Provincetown, Massachusetts.  

The first time I visited Provincetown was in 1974.  I had heard a lot about Provincetown being the "Gay Mecca" from my late co-worker Don Lodge. I felt that I had missed out on all the "Gay Mecca" scene because I lived in Philadelphia, PA.  At that time Philadelphia was considered a pale imitation of New York City as far as the gay scene was concerned.

Being young and foolish (relatively), I thought I would grab this last chance of immersing myself into the Gay Disneyland of the East Coast.  

At 32 years old I felt I was past my prime gay attractiveness so I better make hay while the sun shined. Oh yes, I was brainwashed that if you were gay and over 30 years old you were washed up.  Oh how little did I know, witness the fact that I will soon be 75 years old and I am literally having the best time of my life now romantically and sexually.  Something I never would have believed way back there over forty years ago.  But I digress.  Back to the subject at hand.

I talked to my late good friend Bob McCamley about visiting Provincetown.  Bob had a pickup truck.  We were both butch.  What away to make an entrance into the gay Mecca, two butches in a pickup truck. 

Bob agreed to drive to Provincetown.  

He came by our townhouse in center city Philly one sunny Saturday morning and picked me up.  We were on our way!

To be continued:

Me and my friend Bob ready to depart Philadelphia for Provincetown, Mass August 1974

Trump Tax Return Shows He Could Have Avoided Taxes for 18 Years: NYT

Well, now we know why Donald Trump won't release his tax returns. 

The New York Times has published documents it said were Donald Trump's 1995 income tax returns, and the documents appear to show the businessman and GOP nominee reported a nearly $1 billion loss. 

Trump declared a nearly $916 million loss on his 1995 state income tax returns according to the documents, the Times reported in an article posted online Saturday night.

An unsigned statement from the Trump campaign posted to its website late Saturday did not appear to deny or dispute a single fact in the Times story, but asserted the document was "illegally obtained." 

Trump himself tweeted early Sunday: "I know our complex tax laws better than anyone who has ever run for president and am the only one who can fix them." Again, he did not deny or dispute the Times' findings. 

Three tax experts hired by the Times said the size of the deduction and tax rules governing wealthy filers could have allowed Trump to legally pay no federal income taxes for 18 years. There is nothing in the report that shows he actually took advantage of the rules to avoid paying taxes. 

I don't know about you folks, but I will not vote for a person for president of the United States who doesn't pay a penny in taxes.  Taxes that go to support our troops.  Taxes that go to support the defense of this country.  

Trump claims he's "smart" for not paying taxes.  What if everyone in this country didn't pay taxes?  Where would we be?

Now I realize that Trump's hardcore supporter just don't care about this latest revelation.  They care about the fact that Hillary had a home based e-mail server. These are the same supporters who answer every question about Trump with the first word "Hillary". 

Here is the question.  Do we want somebody who hasn't paid taxes for possibly forty or fifty years to be the head of our country? 

Two "great" hoteliers who don't pay taxes - one went to jail - the other one needs to go to jail

I'm not a religious person but I do pray that this con man will never be president.  If he gets elected by some fluke, God help us.

What Makes the Best Pet? Cats or Dogs?

Me and "Bobby" - 1953

While perusing my photos this morning I came across the banner photo I took of my late friend Dick Thomas's feral cats.

Dick Thomas and Ron Tipton - 1986 (30 years ago!)

I took this photo about thirty years ago at my friend Dick Thomas's country home in Pennsylvania.  Dick hired me at Girard Bank in 1965.  I didn't know him before he hired me.  We became friends during my twenty-one year employment at Girard. 

Dick lived in the city but had a "country place" in Chester Country near several big farms.

He used to feed feral cats that gathered at his place.  This was a picture I took of some of those feral cats.  Dick died some years ago, I wonder what ever became of those thirty or so feral cats. 

Dick's feral cats waiting for their meal

I love cats.  Bill doesn't.  That's why we don't have cats.  I had a cat once when I was a teenager.  I've written about him before. He was a gray tabby cat that took up with our family when we lived next to a manufacturing plant.

"Bobby" - my first pet - 1954

I loved that cat.  He was my first pet.  I named him "Bobby" after an upperclassman I had a crush on at that time of my life.  

I had Bobby for a few years.  One day I came home from school and no Bobby.  I asked my Mother "Did you see Bobby?"  She said "Oh, Pop (which is what we all called my father) took him to the SPCA because he was marking the front door."  

So that was the explanation for what happened to my loved pet.  My father took him to the SPCA.  No "Father Knows Best Moment" where he sits down and consults with me. No maybe betting Bobby fixed so he wouldn't mark the front door.  Just take him to the SPCA where he was probably put down.  

Regular readers of my blog know that I've written about this episode in previous posts but you know me, when I start writing my blog I just go with the flow and this hurtful episode just burbled up again. 

So of course I always wanted to get a cat again.When I moved in with Bill I suggested that we get a cat for a pet.  Guess what? Bill hates cats.  He told me when he was a kid he used to tie tin cans to cats' tails for "fun."  Oh yes, that was Bill when he was a kid. 

I pushed for a cat but Bill was adamantly against it.  He suggested a compromise.  He said "Let's get a Pomeranian dog.  They're about the same size as cats.  So that's what we got.  

Me posing for a Christmas card photo with our three Poms - 1986

Guess what?  I LOVED those dogs!  We had a total of five Pomeranians.  Two when we lived in center city Philadelphia.  Then three more when we moved out of Philly and moved to the country.  

My "fan" club

However, at this time of our life we have no pets.  Bill doesn't even want to have Poms.  He can't take the loss any more.  So here is my dilemma.  If I outlive Bill, I plan to get a pet or pets.  What to get?  Cats or dogs?  

Any suggestions?

Me with Babydoll and Horace (the father of Babydoll) - 1989