Paula Deen & WALMART, ANTI-AMERICAN

      So what is her story? Is it any different than her accusers or those who are throwing her to the lion's den? I don't know how this came to be except she was to have made racial slurs years ago. How many years ago may in some crazy way make sense. I didn't say makes it right but makes sense.
       Everyone and anyone who was brought up by parents who are bigots picks up their habits and maybe not forever, but it's a hard thing to get rid of. In my family I learned every nationalities'  nasty slang term. Italian? There are a few I can name right now. Peurto Rican, same. German, Norwegian, Irish, Black, Polish? I grew up in New York and met just about everyone whose parent was an immigrant which opened the door for all of those awful names.
    Back to Paula Deen. I saw her this morning talking/crying to Matt Lauer, (who I rarely watch anymore)barely understood a word. All of that bawling isn't going to do her any good. How many will believe it?
   Here's what counts:the kind of person she is now and that's it! Are all of those accusers without fault? Imagine if they were interviewed and would they tell the truth? I doubt, so that means Paula Deen is punished for telling the truth.

   Now let's connect Walmart and Deen. They dropped her, so what do we make of that?  Look at the damage Walmart has done to this country alone. They have put out of business most small family owned businesses-so does that mean Walmart is anti-family? Anti-AMERICAN? Where do they get the majority of their products from? Not America !!!! Let's look at Walmart, an ANTI-AMERICAN COMPANY !!! This is all , in my opinion of course:)
 

Five Guys yuck Burgers, Fries & Atmosphere OMG!

       I take full responsibility. Isn't that what people say when they commit a wrong? Well tonight I was in a mood for a great cheeseburger, not just good, but great and I was told by two kids that Five Guys was the best.
     Walking in I see all Red & white, looks refreshing and clean. This is in York Pa. But what I hear is the exact opposite of what I see. Acoustics? The noise level sounded as if I was at a ballpark, actually worse in a way and when I walked outside the  heavy traffic noise didn't compare to inside Five Guys. It was welcomed. I don't know how anyone is able to even talk in that place!
     Now the food. I have a child who does not like meat and I, being a newbie here thought they might have a better offer for a kids menu, but the only thing different was a grilled cheese at almost 4.00 pop ! This sandwich was  each slice of bread folded over with what appeared a slop of melted cheese oozing out. It was disgusting to say the least.
     French fries are tasty if you want a pound of salt with them. I love salt, but even that was too much. So why not lessen the salt and let customers add more if they want? Because salt sells. All appears freshly made and they advertise     Five guys uses peanut oil for cooking/frying. They sure do. I picked three fries from my little guys' bag and my fingers were soaked as was my napkin.
     Now for the burger I wanted so bad tonight. The meat may have been quality as I didn't bite into any grizzle, however they add the cheese between the burger and only if a person adds toppings such as lettuce, tomato, pickles, mayo, and all they offer is it tasty. My opinion. The meat itself tasted plain, the same as if I would make a burger without anything added, but I add two ingredients which make it delicious and no salt needed.
     I'm sure many would say it's a great juicy burger, but the juicy part comes from, lettuce, tomatoes, pickles, ketchup and more, not from the beef itself. This was at suppertime, about five-thirty to six and only twenty-nine people then, but again sounded as if there were three hundred. Take your ear plugs, a wallet full of money as if you want a soda, it costs, 2.29 and water is 2.09-the fact that's it's refillable is supposed to make a person feel better. Well I for one have had my fill. For 15.89 I could have bought....and I didn't have a soda or fries, but one good thing did happen. I learned a lesson, just because it's supposedly good in Philly doesn't mean it's good elsewhere.

My Brother Doug and Vietnam

       I never thought to want to write about him before but I probably have in earlier blogs, yet not in this way.
       My brother Doug was the thrid youngest or the sixth from the eldest. He was truly built like a stringbean and last I knew he was six foot-six tall. Doug has greenish blue eyes and always had very thin hair, but grew into looking like  a guy name John Russell, a TV character who played The Lawman. He even grew a mustache and as far as I know still has it.
       As kids Doug loved to tease and play stickball or baseball. He hoped to grow up and pay pro ball. I can't help but think my father dashed that dream as all Dougie wanted to do, finally, was leave home and join the Marines.
       Dougie had a great sense of humor but I think many would say dry. Teasing, he did like he was born to do it and I and my little brother was his number one target. Of course I didn't blame him about the baby brother, he was spoiled rotten and to the core. Dougie was so different than the rest of us as I thought I was too. We were more like observers, not always believing we had the kind of parents that we did, and that they were even called parents. I would watch Doigie stare at my father many times as he puffed with a big nasty mouth. Doug would sit, holding his chin,  finally looking at the floor, he'd get up and walk away. In an apartment there wasn't much room to go away to, except the kitchen, or possible donwstairs on the stoop.
        It appeared to me Doug preferred to be where the male parent wasn't and I didn't blame him. To me he looked like his thoughts were always on his freedom. One day Dougie took exceptional pleasure in teasing the baby brother, and then me. To make it worse he refused to take the trash down when my mother told him, very unlike Doug. But I had it and as soon as my father walked in from work, I told him what was going on. Know this; I never tell, because I know what's coming. Little did I think  about what was about to happen then.
   Here comes Doug to face the music, admits to his fun, and what happened in the next seconds really broke my heart. Dougie found himself on the floor in the next room with my father bellowing over him all kinds of profanities and as he got up, punch! Another hit, in the stomach with Doug in yet another room. HE lay still, doubled over, moaning.I went to him, bending near his side asking if he was hurt and crying. Doug, holding his stomach, knees up to his chest, said, nah, he didn't hurt me. The courage that guy had. I promised from that time on he could tease me all he wanted to and I'd never tell. He did, I didn't. But when he got up, he grabbed the trash and took it out apologizing to my mother, my mother who sat drinking coffee.
     Dougie turned eighteen before we knew it and there he stood saying goodbye with a sargeant promising he wasn't going to war. The Sarge said we don't take them right from boot camp. He was now a Marine, owned by the Government. He went to Vietnam, twice.
      IT seemed like the second time was the hardest. I remember a Marine coming to our Brownstone one day to tell us Dougie was missing, but everything was being done to fine him. Then we got a telegram saying he was wounded and being cared for in a tent in Vietnam, more info would follow. It was almost a month before we received word he was coming home on leave.
   We had a party. I got drunk. We all got drunk. Dougie went to a local park and his grilfriend came to us saying he was crying, hugging a tree, that he didn't want to go back. We were so scared. What? Go Back? I got in the car with my father, who I depsised, but needed to see Dougie. We ran red lights, but arrived. There here was, all six foot-six of him, broad shouldered, thinning hair, a squared chin, in his Marine uniform. It was then I saw my brother leave the tree and hug and cry with my father. Shortly, he came home, slept and packed up to leav the next morning.
    I woke up, hung over, swolled about the eyes, knowing Dougie was leaving and yet had to get on the train. Some lady asked me if I was okay and another said, look at her, she drunk. I withered in the corner thinking of Dougie. My train stopped and I got off at the Broadway stop. The twin Towers started ground breaking across from where I worked and that day a ticker tape parade was going to go on in a couple of hours for an astronaut. My office was on the second floor facing Broadway. Coffee was waiting and my boss saw what a mess I was. I started to cry. She asked me why, that I should be happy, he's home and safe. Then I told her. IN the next seconds a phone rang and a supervisor called me. He yelled, Hey Nance, do you know some guy named Doug? It's for you. He called to say Goodbye.
      I tried, I really tried so hard not to cry. We talked for moments and he too cried a little but I pictured his chin, strong, with that little dimple and in his Marine uniform. We said, so long Doug, so long Nance and see ya soon. About an hour later the parade started. I was called to take a break with others when all of the confetti rang down from the top of my bank and there was the astronaut, waving, smiling, and celebrating. I felt like I hated him. What was there to celebrate? MY brother was going back to war-again!
      Well the time came and Doug did come home, thnak you God and thank you all of his friends who tried so hard to keep one another safe. Doug took some time off, hung out with the baby brother, still spoiled, but Doug was a changed man, very much so. He was wounded and schrapnel left in his back. Medical reacords were botched because many medics were on pot and also over worked without the needed tools. Doug suffered serious effects from Vietnam, yet he married, one marriage, four sons and is I as remembered him, a saint.
     The only brother I ever knew as pure, I am proud of you Doug. I love you Doug forever.
     

Montel Williams-Cash Now?

    The commercial I saw today amazed me. Here was Montel Williams advertising/hawing a company showing a mom with a child, also African American to use this system if you need money before you get paid. He's rich! I'm sure the people were models, but how does he do this commercial? If people can't make it through a pay day, how does it help to have to pay that company and extra twenty per hundred on each pay day. No, I don't know the exact amount they charge, but why would he do that? Will young single African American moms who love and believe Montel run to this new way of banking, aka pay day loans? Well not so new. Many knows these types years ago as loan sharks and I know it really doesn't have anything to do with color, it has to do with being desperate. Montel is this your character?