NankerPhelge's thoughts

[NankerPhelge]

Thanks, Beau. I'll try that sometime.

 

[NankerPhelge]

Finally had another thought. This one kind of sprang from the beer thread, even though it's not about beer, but a soft drink instead.

I have an old pop can somebody gave me that used to hold a drink called "Gold Water." The slogan is "The right drink for the conservative taste." This drink was made by a supporter of Barry Goldwater when he ran for president.

I thought the can might be worth some money, so I was checking it out on eBay. Not worth much, but I did end up running across, what I thought was, a funny story. I guess Goldwater was a making televised campaign speech in the same town where the guy who had developed this drink in his honor lived. Somebody presented Goldwater with a can while he was on stage, and he took a big swig. Then, in front of everybody and on TV, he spit it out and said "This tastes like ****. I wouldn't even drink it with gin."

Just thought that was funny.

 

[ACamp1900]

lol... damn, talk about marketing gone wrong.

 

[dshans]

Ahh, yes. Good old Au H2O! Not my cup o' tea. Right up there with Billy Beer.

 

[NankerPhelge]

You mean you actually have tasted that crap? I am awed.

 

[BeauBenken]

Good ol' Billy Carter...haha

Whatever happened to him?

 

[NeuteredDoomer]

He died at age 51.

 

[dshans]

You mean you actually have tasted that crap? I am awed.

Which crap?

Gold Water or Billy Beer?

I've had neither. I had no interest in either.

Should I open a thread – "dshans' rambles and blather?"

 

[BeauBenken]

Eek. I know some history...just what they teach you in school though.

Was his death alcohol related?

 

[NankerPhelge]

Yeah, but they turned his gas station into a museum. So, I guess he's got some sort of immortality.

I've actually got an unopened 6-pack of Billy Beer. Know what? It's not worth much more now than when it was made. Boy, was I disappointed. Thought I'd hit the lottery when I inherited that.

 

[BeauBenken]

Which crap?

Gold Water or Billy Beer?

I've had neither. I had no interest in either.

Should I open a thread – "dshans' rambles and blather?"

Do it, brother. Of course, you better capitalize your title accordingly.

We all need one though. Our sanctuaries from the mods.

 

[NankerPhelge]

Which crap?

Gold Water or Billy Beer?

I've had neither. I had no interest in either.

Should I open a thread – "dshans' rambles and blather?"

Sorry, I thought you meant you had tasted this "Gold Water" drink. I never even knew anyone else that had heard of it, let alone tasted it. But, I am still awed.

 

[BeauBenken]

Yeah, but they turned his gas station into a museum. So, I guess he's got some sort of immortality.

I've actually got an unopened 6-pack of Billy Beer. Know what? It's not worth much more now than when it was made. Boy, was I disappointed. Thought I'd hit the lottery when I inherited that.

Just keep saving it. It'll be worth a few shiny pennies someday.

Reminds me of 7up bottles with Notre Dame championship football schedules on them I use to have. I got them for free at a neighbor's garage sale. I think they were stolen from my old house while we were moving though. Along with some old time coke bottles.

 

[NeuteredDoomer]

Sorry, I thought you meant you had tasted this "Gold Water" drink. I never even knew anyone else that had heard of it, let alone tasted it. But, I am still awed.

I'm sure the idea for the drink went quickly down the drain (pun intended) after Au H2O's public spitting.

Billy died of pancreatic cancer.

 

[NankerPhelge]

Probably that crappy beer.

 

[dshans]

... you better capitalize your title accordingly.\

I may work my azz off to appear upper case, but in reality I'm strictly lower case.

And more often than not I bore myself with my boorish banter.

The Mods know where my computer lives.

Grammar, spelling and punctuation are the opiate of the literati!

 

[NeuteredDoomer]

Probably that crappy beer.

No. Like I said, it was pancreatic cancer.


Not Another Teen Movie :

Janey: [talking about her dead mom] I remember it like it was
yesterday, Christmas 1989, Dad had just gotten fired from the Zippo
factory, Mom was still pulling in tricks to make ends meet, Daniel
Day Lewis won an Oscar for "My Left Foot", and all I wanted was one
of those little Betsy Wetsy dolls.
Jake: I remember those. Push her belly and she'd **** all over
herself.
Janey: She said she was going out to get my Dad a bottle of gin, but,
I knew she was going to get me that present. It was raining really
hard that night, the roads were... slippery.
Jake: Janey... a car accident.
Janey: No. Cancer.

 

[NankerPhelge]

Haven't had a lot of thoughts I considered appropriate for the board lately, and maybe this one isn't, either. But, this one has been nagging me for awhile, so I thought I would throw it out there if anybody wants to respond. What brought it to a head, again, was Amy Winehouse's recent death and all the talk about the "27 club."

I was sitting in "Nanker'sWorld" a couple of weeks ago, drinking beer and listening to "Exile on Main Street." Got to thinking about just how damned good the Stones were in those days. And, as big a fan as I have been since I was just a kid, how really somewhat ridiculous they look now.

There's a country song by Waylon Jennings, maybe a duet with Willie Nelson (I can't remember exactly now) which talks about how sad it is to watch your heros die. But is it? Some people are really good at something, be it music, sports, etc., when they are young, but then their skills deteriorate as they age. Some move on to something else, age gracefully, and are satisfied with the excellence they once had without trying to prolong that past their ability to do it anymore. Others, however, just can't seem to deal with growing older and continue trying to maintain that youthful prime well beyond possibility.

I guess part of my thought process or my question is, are some people just better off dead? I don't mean to be flippant or callous here, I am just exploring. Given the relatively fleeting nature of this life (in the grand scheme of things, the difference between 20 years old and 90 years old is really nothing but less than the blink of an eye), is it better sometimes to flare like a rocket and then leave than to stick around and have that youthful excellence and exuberence mitigated by age and deterioration?

I know I am not explaining myself very well, but for example, look at the "27 club." How will Brian Jones be remembered for all time? As the young, brash, golden-haired rock idol founder of the Stones. What if he were alive now? Would he be like Mick Taylor, an fat old guy who can barely eke out a living? What the heck would Janis Joplin be like today? A bag lady wandering through the streets with her shopping cart? Or Jim Morrison? A bitter old drunk sitting at a bar somewhere boring the hell out of the young people? Or would these people have been able to "age gracefully" beyond the thing that brought them to worldwide attention and made them legends to so many people?

This is not limited, by the way, to music stars. I'm sure the same thing happens with sports figures, also. How sad is it to see the clips of Babe Ruth in his last couple seasons with the Braves? What if Knute Rockne would have lived long enough to have a decline in his coaching abilities and his last few seasons would have been losing ones before Notre Dame gave him the axe, rather than being killed in that plane crash at the height of his fame? Would he be as much of legend today as he is?

Oh, well, just getting old, I guess. Just some thoughts, not very well articulated, I know. But thought I would throw them out there in the Lounge, during the off-season, in case anyone was interested.

 

[Old Man Mike]

Thoughtful meditation.

Life isn't about oneself. A life well lived is about figuring that out, and seeing oneself as part of something bigger. Getting "Notre Dame Spiritual" for a moment: none of those self-reflective "problems" exist once one gets past oneself and becomes merely a "pane-of-glass" through which you pass on what you have to the people who surround you without caring what you get out of that.

What "we" would think of an old Babe Ruth or an old Knute Rockne wouldn't be too important to the Ruth or Rockne himself, if he had evolved well as a person, and we were at least civilized enough to be kind. If WE were evolved enough, we'd be generous to the old masters and givers-of-themselves. The "problem" lies not in our "stars" but in ourselves.

There's an old proverb about the two seas of Palestine. The Sea of Galilee was a healthy sea, with clear running water filled with fish. That is because it DID NOT KEEP. It took what came and "selflessly" passed it on. The Dead Sea keeps. It gives nothing. Everything is focussed into itself. And ...it is dead.

An old man may not be able to do all that he once could to "thrill" the young, but why should the young demand that he do so? If the old man gives what he has, in accordance with his station, we should applaud as loudly as when he hit the home run. He is still living a life well lived.

 

[NankerPhelge]

Thanks for the thoughtful response. It's hard to watch the old people that won't let go and age gracefully. I am satisfied with what they did, and won't demand more, for one reason, because it is not mine to demand. But you see so many who don't seem to realize they can't do it anymore, and should just move on (not necessarily die, but move on to a different stage of their lives, maybe something they can excel at their present age). No doubt we live in a culture that tends to worship youth, and that is no doubt a big part of it. Don't older men and older women realize how ridiculous they look when they try to dress, look, and act younger than they are?

Anyway, thanks for the response, Mike.

 

[NeuteredDoomer]

Thanks for the thoughtful response. It's hard to watch the old people that won't let go and age gracefully. .

I don't know about that. I guess it is a case by case bidness.

 

[NankerPhelge]

I haven't had a thought for a long time, what with sitting through that "oh-hum" football season. But, recent experience has led me to think that The McCallan Scotch, in all its renditions, is way, way overpriced. The Glenlivet 21 year old is sublime, like the ambrosia of the gods. The McCallan is good, too, but in my opinion isn't as good as The Glenlivet, and costs about $100 more a bottle. They must have one hell of a marketing program.

 

[dshans]

I haven't had a thought for a long time, what with sitting through that "oh-hum" football season. But, recent experience has led me to think that The McCallan Scotch, in all its renditions, is way, way overpriced. The Glenlivet 21 year old is sublime, like the ambrosia of the gods. The McCallan is good, too, but in my opinion isn't as good as The Glenlivet, and costs about $100 more a bottle. They must have one hell of a marketing program.

Unlike you, I have many thoughts. Most of them fleeting. Few, if any, are worth passing along – though some elude my defenses and slip out.

I'm far too miserly to pop for $100+ for a bottle o' booze. Unless, that is, someone else is footing the bill. Cognac is a whole different story.

 

[NankerPhelge]

I read LA's post about how he banned TD Jesus for posting under two user-names and then having a conversation with himself. It made me think of a true story I have heard about a pretty famous Indiana lawyer who got called before the In. Supreme Court on disciplinary charges. He decided to represent himself at his trial. Rather than just give a narrative account of his position, he decided to call himself as a witness. So, he would ask a question from the counsel table, walk up, take the witness stand and answer the question. The Justices were tolerating this little circus until the defendant/lawyer asked a question, took the stand and, after pondering for a moment said "could you please repeat the question?" Game over.

I just thought that was funny.