Cantankerous Thanksgiving Reflections

 Posted by at 11:47  Plain 'ol Cantankerous, Reflections
Nov 262014
 

Time flies. Given that it’s been a while since I checked in with a contribution to the blog you might be asking what I’ve been up to. I’m not sure how to explain my inactivity. It’s not exactly that I’ve been busy- although I have been focusing on other activities more than COC. It’s not exactly that I’ve lost interest in posting – although the amount of comments suggests that either no one is reading COC or, if they are, they don’t much care for the content. It doesn’t matter. I get drawn back here like a moth to the flame. I just seem incapable of staying away. Once more I’m speaking my mind and letting it all hang out. Today, Thanksgiving is on my mind. Thanksgiving is almost on us and, dog gone it, I’m excited. I can’t explain but, no matter the reason, today I’m thankful.
Being thankful comes easy to Americans. We live in the greatest country ever. We have great traditions and a glorius track record of accomplishments. Thanksgiving is a time when we celebrate our history but there is more to Thanksgiving than political history and philosophy. Thanksgiving is also a celebration of abundance and a successful harvest. It’s a time to indulge the appetites and cravings suppressed throughout the rest of the year and relase the inner glutton that gets beaten down at other times.

Happy Thanksgiving from the Cantakerous Old Coots

Happy Thanksgiving from the Cantakerous Old Coots

I’t only natural to feel Thankful at Thanksgiving when you can finally free your inner gourmand. At last you can take a seat at a dining table loaded with delicious food and dig in with reckless abandon. After long months of watching your weight, counting your calories and measuring you cholesterol, it’s time to indulge. Thanksgiving provides an excuse to stuff yourself like a hog without worrying about snide comments deriding your expanding paunch. Finally it’s time to eat big like your grandparents instead of your teenage grand daughter and enjoy the bounty of our fruitful country. Thanksgiving embodies traditional American values as translated into a bountiful feast. Continue reading »

Ralph

Ralph is the inspiration for Cantankerous Old Coots and is our Grand Duke of Cantankerousness

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Long Live the Sanctimonious Old Sheep!

 Posted by at 15:26  Coots Lessons, Plain 'ol Cantankerous, principles
Sep 022014
 
Christmas card with Caspar Milquetoast by H. T...

Image via Wikipedia

Today, for a change, we are serious!

You’re accustomed to light hearted, trivial musings about life here at Cantankerous Old Coots but today brace yourself for some deeper thinking. If you thought that checking out the Coots would be mindless diversion, today, the Coots are asking for more.  Change is in the air.  Lick your finger and check which way the wind is blowing.  When you feel secure then read on.

One of the original ideas for the Cantankerous Old Coots was to provide a framework for people to shed their Casper Milquetoast personas and develop an unique brand of what we like to call cantankerousity- letting the chips fall where they may and standing up for yourself in a world that glorifies sheep. (We never said that we weren’t suckers for cliches).

We tried inspiration.

So began the series of Coots Lessons, intended to help people foster an independent frame of mind.  We formulated 16 Coots lessons covering a wide range of life experiences. These lessons were intended to provide the basis for an E-Book and eventually a body of instruction in the Cantankerous Old Coots University.

And then?

Well, life happens, and it seems that Cantankerous Old Coots have just as many problems reading the public as anybody else. We published that E-Book- a beautifully designed primer for getting started on the road to Cantankerosity. The only price for this valuable product was to join our community by signing up for our list. We anticipated that every reader would want to have this helpful document on their very own personal computers for easy reference and encouragement.

We were wrong.

At every step along the road, we sought evidence that somewhere out in cyberspace, there is an audience yearning to break out of the mindless ordinariness of daily life; the dreary monotony of not making waves. Alas, it seems that independent thought is dead in modern society. Instead of an eager audience of cantankerous people or even cantankerous wannabees, it seems that our vast and growing audience of readers is nothing but lookiloos- folks that love the idea of independent thinking but  are too afraid of their shadows (or what other people might think) to actually be independent.

Not Coots but Sheep

At the next Coot’s Convergence (that’s a business meeting for the uninitiated) I’m going to propose that we change the blog’s mission statement to better fit our audience. I’m going to propose that Cantankerous Old Coots be changed to Sanctimonious Old Sheep. Under the new motto we will revise our lessons to help our audience fulfill their destiny to make no waves, get lost in the background and make absolutely no difference in the world for anybody in their life.

The New Agenda

These are the tentative changes to the first five Coots, I mean Sheep, lessons.

Coot Lesson #1 – Let your feeling out!

Sheep Lesson #1 – Embrace the Uniformity!

Coot Lesson #2 – We don’t care what you think.

Sheep Lesson #2 It’s all about them

Coot Lesson #3 – Polite is over rated!

Sheep Lesson #3 – Mind your manners!

Coot Lesson 4- Say It When You Feel It!

Sheep Lesson #4 – Not so Fast

Coot Lesson 5- Let your face show what you think.

Sheep Lesson #5 – Show your happy face.

Give ’em what they want! That’s our new motto.

I’m convinced that this change will bring this blog into convergence with our audience, leaving them safely in their comfort zones and sleeping peacfully each night. I think that mindlessly reinforcing the conformity and bland acceptance that is modern life will grow our audience even faster in the future and provide safe cover for all the sheep out their to join our community and leave their own conventional wisdom in the comment area.

Cantankerous Old Coots is so out of date and 20th century. Long live the Sanctimonious Old Sheep!  Go ahead now sheep, it’s safe to comment!

 

 

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Ralph

Ralph is the inspiration for Cantankerous Old Coots and is our Grand Duke of Cantankerousness

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Podcast #…not today

 Posted by at 18:09  Plain 'ol Cantankerous, Podcast
Jul 292014
 
Moot the Hoople reunion gig, 2009.

Image via Wikipedia

Hello folks.  Today should be a podcast day but I am still having issues on when to record the stupid thing so there will be no crying babies or kids shows in the background.  I am still planning on doing podcasts hoping to attract some more readers/listeners to this site!

I want to take a short poll  cuing off of Ralph’s Monday post.  (check out this picture.  I type in “Ralph’s” and I get Mick Ralphs from Mott the Hoople.  Go figure.)

The poll is two fold and answered in comments.  First, is anyone besides Ralph and Bob listening?  let me know.  Second, what would you like to be hearing from the podcast?  Are there topics you would like to hear about?  I am planning some interviews with interesting bloggers for the near future as well.

Just as an aside, a pop-up window just popped up and showed me possible matches from match.com.  First of all, I have never  even been to match.com so I know it is a random ad, right?  Then how ‘come all of the “possible best matches” on there are GUYS????  I am not sure where they get their demographic information but I am ready to protest….

So that is all for today, at least right now.  Go read something from the archives or head over to Bob’s site at Juicymaters.com, or even Ralphs site at ralphcarlsonblog.com.  If you are really bored, head over to my site at justinsbrainpan.com.  All of us have so much to write about that we have to spread it around.  Like fertilizer.

Anyhow, please answer my questions to the best of your ability, your feedback will be invaluable to the future of the podcast.  You canleave a comment or hit the email form over on the right, or click the email link under any of our names over there.  Thanks in advance.

Justin

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Justin

Justin is the young Coot with a Cantankerous Soul who continues to be educated by older, more cootish Ralph and Bob. His Cantankerosity is his own.

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The 200th Post at Cantankerous Old Coots

 Posted by at 18:09  Plain 'ol Cantankerous
Jul 292014
 
celebration

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hihi

That darn Justin.

He sets me up the 200th post on Cantankerous Old Coots and gives me absolutely no warning. Plus the next scheduled post is our Coots News Service Summary. Not much room in that format to pontificate and blather about what it means to be a Cantankerous Old Coot.

One Year!

I’s just a bit more than one year that Coots has been open for business and it’s popularity still gives me pause. Everyone expects some philosophizing at a time like this. There must be some lesson here, something that we have learned over the year. Maybe there must but there is one, it escapes me.

I don’t feel any different.

I’m the same clueless old guy muttering in my corner- only I’m a year older, shedding brain cells by the minute. All I can do it look back at our vision when Coos got it’s start. When I decided to take mercy on Justin and keep him from falling flat on his face. I don’t remember what I was thinking with that first post. I don’t think I envisioned that one year down the road we would have built an audience.

Our Manifesto

I do remember thinking that it we ever expected Cantankerous Old Coots to be read, people would have to understand what it means to be a Cantankerous Old Coot. So I formulated out manifesto. I just reread it and it still makes a strong statement. Who ever imagined that I had that in me. But, to me, that’s the meaning of cantankerous. Digging deep inside and discovering all the spunk and spirit that you thought you had lost long ago 0r had beaten out of you by your job or just life.

Maybe it’s not much in the great big game of life but even a mild protest now and again can light some fires you thought would never spark again.

Do us a favor!  Please!

In celebration of the 200th post here at Coots, I’d like to ask every reader to do two things. First go back and read our first two posts at Coots, Justin’s introduction and our Manifesto- Sacred Cows and Sleeping Dogs. Then just take a minute and leave a comment telling us when you first discovered Coots. Even it its not your nature to comment, make an exception just this once.

And Thanks from all us Coots

Thanks on behalf of Justin, Bob and myself- Jen, too, wherever you have gone. It’s been a great year.

 

Ralph

Ralph is the inspiration for Cantankerous Old Coots and is our Grand Duke of Cantankerousness

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Just pick up your own crap!

 Posted by at 18:09  Plain 'ol Cantankerous, principles, rants
Jul 292014
 

Babysitter-001

No this isn’t another post about crap….per se.  This is about being a decent neighbor.  We have lived in this house now for a little over a year and in that time we have gotten very tired of our neighbors.  Well one set that lives next door.  They don’t bother us very much as far as direct interaction but, they are a pain in the proverbial ass.

What is that smell???  Oh yea, the old meat wrappers on the side of the BBQ grill that are marinating in the 100 degree heat.

What is that?  a 2 year old girl running naked in the front yard?  Oh, a naked 5 year old boy following?  Ummmm Parents?  Babysitter?  Oh there she is smoking on the front porch talking on the phone.  Oh the older kids are home from school, let the screaming, profanity laden put downs begin!

Continue reading »

Justin

Justin is the young Coot with a Cantankerous Soul who continues to be educated by older, more cootish Ralph and Bob. His Cantankerosity is his own.

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