May 132012
 

Happy Mother’s Day

Mother's Day card

Mother's Day card (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

from the Cantankerous Old Coots.

We love mothers.

We love Mother’s Day.

We love all the corny, sentimental music.

We do draw the line at Mother’s Day Brunches however. If Mom needs a Mother’s Day Brunch, she should have had a daughter.

So where did Mother’s Day come from? 

If you are like me, you have no idea who thought up the idea of Mother’s Day although you might have suspected that it was dreamed up in the Hallmark Cards back office. It wasn’t.

Hallmark has profited from Mother’s Day just like the florists and restaurants but the idea was first proclaimed by Julia Ward Howe following the Civil War. It started it’s climb to prominence when  Anna Jarvis trademarked the phrases “second Sunday in May” and “Mother’s Day”, and created the Mother’s Day International Association Creating Mother’s Day was no bed of roses however and Anna had reason later in life to try and reform her creation when it became too commercial for her tastes.

Mother’s Day’s Dark History

Moving right along to today we find many examples of good mothers. For example the Mother of the Year selected by American Mothers Inc.

MOTHER OF THE YEAR

Motherhood

Time Magazine has it’s own ideas about motherhood and issued this challenge.

Are you Mom enough.

Of course no Mother;s Day is complete without a good movie to celebrate the joys of motherhood and how important mothers are to their sons.

Mother knows best!

Even today, many sons find the movie inspiring and use it’s example to honor their own mothers.

B’klyn man guilty of stealing $100K in benefits by dressing up as dead mom

I hope that learning more about Mother’s Day gets you in the proper spirit to honor the mother’s in your life today and that the news stories provide inspiration for your celebrations.

 

 

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Ralph

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

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Apr 222012
 
American Way

Image by MrVJTod via Flickr

It’s a dilemma!

Dealing with the news here at Cantankerous Old Coots is difficult. Coots are sick of the preachy, nagging news coverage from the newspapers and broadcasters. So the approach we have followed is to look for positive news stories each week that encourage a positive outlook. Each week, we shift through the stories looking for upbeat and encouraging news. It’s a diffciult task and frankly, we are getting pretty darn discouraged. First of all, there just isn’t much good news out there these days and second, there just isn’t much cantankerosity involved in good news. Those stories are either sickly sweet or blandly boring. It’s time to shake things up.

So now what? 

The problem is deciding what to do. We’ve got Bob going political with his political coot podcasts, at least when the stars align.  On the rare occasions that Bob actually delivers  Coots would be over emphasing the political arena. Not that there isn’t enough political lunacy to fill hundreds of blogs. The world is fast going to hell in a handbasket- whatever that means. There is oppression all over the world. Cultural values are degraded. Morality is compromised. Facebook has changed. The American way of life is eroding. It’s not a pretty picture.  Still when it comes right down to it, COC is not about politics, it’s about lifestyle.

So, here we are.

Up a creek without a paddle so to speak and without a pot to piss in. So what does a resourceful Coot do when he is out of options? He polls the readers. One of the secrets to our success here at Coots is responding to our readers. So here, at this crossroads, the direction we take is entirely in your hands. Take the survey. Let us know what you think.  And then we can proceed to do whatever we darn well please anyway, just like the politicians.  So anyway, here is the survey.

What should we do about the Coots News Service?

  • 3. Just let it out. I want to read a good rant. (100%, 2 Votes)
  • 1. I love the CNS, don't change a thing (0%, 0 Votes)
  • 2. I think the emphasis on good news is whimpy, get real (0%, 0 Votes)
  • 4. Replace it with a podcast. (0%, 0 Votes)
  • 5.Those are lousy. I will leave a suggestion in the comments (0%, 0 Votes)

Total Voters: 2

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Ralph

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

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Oct 172011
 
Daily News

Image by Enokson via Flickr

Who do those reporters think they are?

This news situation isn’t getting any better. This week was another bust for positive news.  I don’t know what those reporters think they are doing. It’s like they know better than we do what we want to read. Last time I checked, this was still a free country. Maybe we have to buy health insurance but so far we don’t have to buy newspapers or turn on the TV. They still have to make us want to.

So how can we take the news business back?

It’s going to take some discipline because it’s hard to take control when you have been conditioned to get your news from the ‘experts’. It’s not easy thinking for yourself and deciding what you think is important.   Still the time is here when we have to take actions.  I have never seen such a flat our refusal to give us good news in my lifetime, and I’m no spring chicken.

Is it intentional?

I don’t know whether the reporters are doing this on purpose or if they are just too fat-assed lazy to dig deep enough to find the silver linings. I’d like to think that reporters are real people just like you and me but I’m beginning to doubt it. They seem to think that we should lap up any old stories they find, especially if they are bad news. Reporters these days only know how to parrot press releases and follow the bandwagon. I hate to be negative about anybody but when they go negative on me it’s hard to hold back.

It’s not that hard to go positive!

Take this story.

JPMorgan Forecasts Another Drop in Home Prices

Sometimes it only takes a tweak to change bad news into good. Look at it from another perspective and it all changes. Take this news about further drops in the housing prices. Sure it may be bad news for homeowners who are under water but think about what it means for the homeless. Each time the price of housing drops, more homeless people can afford to get off the street and into a home. Why didn’t they say it like this?

Good news for the homeless with anticipated further drops in housing prices.

In this next story, it’s similar. Europeans were fearful of eating vegetables because of recent illness. Early news suggested that the only way to protect yourself was to stop eating vegetables but now there is good news. Broccoli and zucchini are fine. Just pass on the sprouts. I was doing that anyway.

Germany: Sprouts are cause of E. coli outbreak

Change the headline and it becomes positive.

It’s OK to eat those veggies, just hold the sprouts.

So that’s my suggestion for reporters this week. If you can’t find good news then take the bad news and dig deeper. Get off your duffs and do a little work.

And now for some of the good news we want to hear.  It’s not true but then 95% of the stuff on the news is made up anyway so why not make it cheery?

“Don’t Fear the Beer!”  Beer bellies are healthy.

New Obama plan to stimulate the economy, Michelle to vacation in the US this year.

College tuition rates drop as students decide college is not worth the bother

Now it is your turn. Either turn around a bad news headline from the paper today or make up a good news headline of your own. Don’t let the media ruin your life. You are more than qualified to do it all by yourself.


Ralph

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

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Sep 292011
 
Confusing signal

Image via Wikipedia

It gets confusing looking at all of these old posts coming up from the archives.  Some of them are really pretty good and I am glad they are out again to inspire someone.  Hopefully.  Well  if you havent noticed, this is not a podcast.  Why?  I just don’t feel like it this week.  Much like Bob, lassiez- faire is the way to go for this week.

What is that Bob?  You are not lassiez-faire?  Where is Tuesday’s “podio” production?  Anyway, this post is a response to Ralph‘s post yesterday.  He brings up some good points.

The meteoric rise of the Coots is great, but why is it happening and what can we do to make it happen more?  Where are the people that want to beat down our digital door to learn how to be cantankerous?  I’ll tell you, they are still out there.  They are waiting for the time when the lessons are on video and audio and we are charging $19.95 for them.

I can do that if it will help.  In the meantime we will have to be content with podio (still sounds like something I need to do to get my kid out of diapers) from Bob and commentary from the rest of us.  We may never understand exactly why this blog works.

We may never make actual money from it.  Scratch that, we haven’t made any money yet but now that we have that new program that links bank accounts and passwords to visiting IP addresses…wait, you are not supposed to know about that.

In light of success and always trying to manage it to create something more, hopefully better, we are switching things up a bit.  We will still have old posts from the vast hoard of wonderfulness that we have spewed forth over the past year and a half.    Those post up rather randomly but still worth the read.

Bob will be bringing us “The Political Coot”  live on Tuesday mornings at 10 AM Eastern.  That is 6 AM on the west coast kids…too damn early if you ask me.  If you miss the live session you can catch the replay the next Monday right here on the Coots.

Ralph will continue to be the workhorse backbone of the Coots and will still publish whatever the hell he wants on Wednesday.  If a big enough burr gets under his saddle then Saturday will have a post.  Sunday, the CNS news service survives for now, it may not in the future.

Justin will continue to try and sollicit guest posts from our frequent commentors, Hansi, this means you.  He ( Justin not Hansi) will also be posting whatever comes to mind on Thursday and Friday.  Thursday should be a podcast but, like today, it isn’t.  Friday is up in the air if it will be a podcast or not.  We still have to have something to actually read on here.

So there you have it folks, the Coots are on the rise and we will be taking over your bank accounts  er internet systems and browsers soon!  and remember, from the comments on Ralph’s post,

Maybe that is the secret to happiness and the meaning of life- a giant 404 error.

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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Sep 072011
 
Licentie

Image via Wikipedia

kjkjk

Good News!

As our faithful readers know, last week was a blowout. I couldn’t find any good news and so I decided that no news is good news and indulged in a snit. Well, I was worried this week as I looked over the headlines. I know I threatened to make my own news if that’s what it took to find good news but you can all feel relieved. This week I found some good news.

 

Let’s start with the economy. Finally maybe things are looking up because there are new jobs appearing around the country. It beats me why anyone would hire anybody but for whatever reason they are. For some reason the unemployment rate went up too. It’s not such good news when there are more new people looking for jobs than new jobs. Still with this economy, I’m ready to grasp at any straw.

Job Creation Much Better Than Expected; Rate Hits 9%

The EU has been in a bad way lately with so many countries owning more than they are worth. It was making the Euro look pretty lame in their bid to become a world currency. Greece was thinking about dropping the Euro and once the defection started, the rest of the PIGS would surely follow. Well, Greece says they wouldn’t think of leaving the Euro zone. I guess those bailouts really work.

Greece denies report it’s seeking to leave euro

Locally there is more good news. Our recently departed governor is returning to his old career. Apparently he was an entertainer of some sort. It ‘s hard to imagine what kind of success a short guy with a saggy face and a hicky Austrian accent could make for himself in Hollywood but he must have made some connections during his time in office. I don’t think Californians will be interested in seeing any more of him but according to a Hollywood hack,

“I guarantee that you’ll get another look at Arnold Schwarzenegger in this movie,”

That’s enough to keep me away.

Arnold Schwarzenegger picks drama for comeback

Closer to home, Sacramento keeps the lights on at night.

Don’t the city fathers know that that’s what street lights are for? I would say something about the brightest bulbs not deciding to reside in the city whose claim to fame is that it is two hours from places you would like to be but then I’d have to explain why I live here –  or maybe not.

City Takes Unique Approach To Deter Copper Thieves

Good news for the tourist season in Martha’s Vinyard. They sighted the first great white of the season. This is sure to keep the hoi polloi away from the playground of the idle rich . This will be good news for the Jersey Shore too. Snooky will have lots of business.

Great white zeroes in on whale off Vineyard

Young ladies these days seem to have minds of their own. After a Toronto cop suggested that dressing like a slut might cause men to thing that that’s actually what you are and act accordingly, spontaneous demonstrations popped up on college campuses all  over honoring  sluts. I always wondered why educating women is a good idea. This proves my point.

Cop’s rape comment sparks wave of ‘SlutWalks’

Finally, a heartwarming story to wrap up this weeks CNS. Marie Osmond gets married again –  to her first husband. Doesn’t it just warm your heat?

Love, etc.: Marie Osmond remarries long-ago ex-husband

So now we’re back in the groove with the news. Enjoy.

 

Ralph

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

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