My understanding is that there are elections coming up in a couple of weeks. I am anxiously looking forward to the results in a couple of mayoral elections, one a primary, the other, well, we run things a little bit differently here in Texas.
In my old stomping grounds up in Chillicothe, Ohio, there are primary elections, followed by a general election in November. Handy arrangement. The parties put forward a number of candidates for various offices and then distill down to just one candidate to run per office in the November general election. In the Republican primary for Mayor of Chillicothe is someone I am quite familiar with, one Jack Everson.
I like Jack and I wish him well. I went to school with him, I understand that he's had a successful career in business and now he wants to give back to the community by being a public servant. I have no doubt that he would make an excellent choice and that eight years hence, once he has served a couple of four year terms, he will have laid the groundwork for someone else (perhaps younger and wiser) to come in and provide the city with the leadership it needs.
Jack would have trouble at least in this part of Texas where if one manages to get elected to public office, they will essentially hold that office for life.
Take Allen, Texas mayor Steve Terrell (please!). He was mayor and had been mayor of Allen prior to our arrival in Texas some thirteen years ago. He's still the mayor and he's running for re-election again. Since Texas seemingly has no effective primary election cycle (having to do with the fact that Democrats are strongly discouraged from having aspirations for public office) the candidate elected in May wins the whole shebang.
So saying, we will once again anoint Steve Terrell as mayor of Allen still yet another time, despite efforts of malcontents like me to vote the guy out.
I have nothing personal against the man. Honestly. I frequent his business, I see him in the store where I work from time to time and believe me, he seems like a personable man. But for some reason I just can't hand someone control (albeit limited) over the city I live in for more than two terms or eight years. There comes a point where having an election becomes a futile exercise. We may as well save our money, stop having elections and appoint some of these politicians as (Insert name of office here) For Life!
Governor (For Life) Rick Perry just won his third term - full term, that is, last fall. He'll preside over our State Senator (in since before we got here) and our State Representative (in before we got here) at the Statehouse in Austin where the names seldom change. We're looking for ways to save money, folks, so let's do it by eliminating those pesky elections!
Anyhoo, wee're back to the polls here in a couple of weeks. Good luck, Jack. At least you'll have the sense to realize that when you get into office, you will be a servant to the people instead of someone who expects the people to be servants willing to hand you control of a multi-million dollar enterprise time and time and time and time again.
Be Seeing You!
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Pseudonyms
A few weeks back I recieved a "Friend" request from someone on Facebook using a pseudonym which was used by an acquaintance over 40 years ago. To that point, I was using that particular name as part of "The Great American Novel" which I am busily writing on one of the other files on my computer. After politely declining the invitation, the writer made the request again, this time providing me with information which told me that I really did know this person. We had a couple of rounds of correspondence before I figured out who the person was. He was always a private sort of chap in the first place and I have no doubt as to the reasons he used a pseudonym to cover up his identity in such a public venue.
A similar situation broke earlier today. The name was unfamiliar, the face on the internet vaguely familiar. She went public with the name by which many of us knew her back in the day. Okay, mystery solved. We had a conversation via instant messaging after she broke the news... one of those typical "Hey, howya doin'just thought I'd rattle your cage" types of conversations you have with people you have not seen in 40 years. We never got into the "Why the change of name?" questions. Marriage, divorce, perhaps a whim, or perhaps a desire to break from the past.
Having been in radio for a number of years, I am familiar with people who use pseudonyms for one reason or another. Memory flashes back to the old TV show WKRP in Cincinatti where Venus Flytrap told the story of Gordon Sims who disappeared from the radar after going AWOL from the Army. I worked for a while for a fellow who called himself Randy Jay, who was in fact named Calvin Dailey Jr. For quite some time I called myself either Bruco in the Night-time or Uncle Bruco (see the title for this set of blogs), reverting to my real name only in the last several years of my overstay in radio.
Pseudonyms are used in other situations, as well. I recall being part of the CB craze back in the late sixties into the early seventies when I had a "handle" in order to avoid (like so many others) having to have a license to run my mouth off on my walkie-talkie. More lately I've taken to Geocaching which, like in those days of CB radio, most of us take on a "handle" when we are out using multimillion dollar satellites to hunt for Tupperware in the woods. (For my current pseudonym, see the signature line I use on most of these blogs.)
Then there are the people who use pseudonyms either because they had always been called something other than their real names. My Uncle Mike was one of them. He was always Uncle Mike. Nothing else, that is until it came time when we would see mail addressed to someone named Fay. For some time, I wondered as to who this person Fay was, until it was explained to me that Fay Ritz Vincent was nicknamed Mike from a very early age in honor of another of his relatives. No one used the name Fay Vincent at the time he was alive... it wasn't until after Uncle Mike died that Baseball Commissioner Fay Vincent became known to the public at large. There was at the time of Mr. Vincent's tenure as Baseball Commissioner sniggers from people who who would ask "What kind of a name for a man is Fay?"
I now know of two.
Be Seeing You! (BCingU)
A similar situation broke earlier today. The name was unfamiliar, the face on the internet vaguely familiar. She went public with the name by which many of us knew her back in the day. Okay, mystery solved. We had a conversation via instant messaging after she broke the news... one of those typical "Hey, howya doin'just thought I'd rattle your cage" types of conversations you have with people you have not seen in 40 years. We never got into the "Why the change of name?" questions. Marriage, divorce, perhaps a whim, or perhaps a desire to break from the past.
Having been in radio for a number of years, I am familiar with people who use pseudonyms for one reason or another. Memory flashes back to the old TV show WKRP in Cincinatti where Venus Flytrap told the story of Gordon Sims who disappeared from the radar after going AWOL from the Army. I worked for a while for a fellow who called himself Randy Jay, who was in fact named Calvin Dailey Jr. For quite some time I called myself either Bruco in the Night-time or Uncle Bruco (see the title for this set of blogs), reverting to my real name only in the last several years of my overstay in radio.
Pseudonyms are used in other situations, as well. I recall being part of the CB craze back in the late sixties into the early seventies when I had a "handle" in order to avoid (like so many others) having to have a license to run my mouth off on my walkie-talkie. More lately I've taken to Geocaching which, like in those days of CB radio, most of us take on a "handle" when we are out using multimillion dollar satellites to hunt for Tupperware in the woods. (For my current pseudonym, see the signature line I use on most of these blogs.)
Then there are the people who use pseudonyms either because they had always been called something other than their real names. My Uncle Mike was one of them. He was always Uncle Mike. Nothing else, that is until it came time when we would see mail addressed to someone named Fay. For some time, I wondered as to who this person Fay was, until it was explained to me that Fay Ritz Vincent was nicknamed Mike from a very early age in honor of another of his relatives. No one used the name Fay Vincent at the time he was alive... it wasn't until after Uncle Mike died that Baseball Commissioner Fay Vincent became known to the public at large. There was at the time of Mr. Vincent's tenure as Baseball Commissioner sniggers from people who who would ask "What kind of a name for a man is Fay?"
I now know of two.
Be Seeing You! (BCingU)
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