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Drooling on the Pillow

Friday, November 11, 2005

A Thank You With Organ Music 

Here's my favorite Veteran's Day post. Gregor, at What A Sad Old Goth, talks about the Veteran's Day parades of his childhood and wonders where the poppies went.

UPDATE: Jim tells him (and me) in comments.
Posted by: Sluggo / 11:48 PM
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Veteran's Day 


To the men and women who have served this country and protected us from our enemies:

Thank you.
Posted by: Sluggo / 10:31 AM
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Thursday, November 10, 2005

Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch'intrate! 

The choice:

A) Habanero Enema
B) Calling Medicare

Hmmm.

Today I had no choice. I got a call from a hospital in Pennsylvania telling me that Medicare was refusing a claim on a brief stay by my mother six months ago. The problem was apparently an open claim against Prudential over an auto accident that happened fifteen years ago. I won't go any further into it or you will start believing you've chosen Option A.

The Good: Just about everyone I talked to was very helpful, extremely pleasant and more or less knowledgeable.

The Bad: I should have said that everyone was trying to be helpful. One person helpfully transferred me to the wrong state office three times. And I think the fact that I had to talk to eleven different people goes in this column. While the people were very pleasant I had the impression that their right hand was hovering above the transfer button the moment they picked up the phone.

The Ugly: The consensus of Dee, Heather, Helen, Katherine, Betty, Sarah, Donald, Cora and a couple others whose names I didn't get, is that the solution lies in my reconstructing missing and non-existent accident information, getting Prudential to disgorge all the records from their end relevant to this ancient accident, including a Letter of Exhaustion and a Record of Payment, filing said information with the New Jersey Medicare office (where the accident took place), requesting a document transfer to the Pennsylvania office (where the hospital claim originated) and wait for their issuance of a No Fault File Claim Closed doo-hickey. Then get the hospital to re-submit their claim. My mother has to sign releases from the New Jersey Office, the Pennsylvania office and Prudential so that they'll talk to me. I have to request the forms and then we have to wait for them to send us the forms. Then we send them back.

Piece of cake. Luckily I have nothing to do for the next six months. Did I mention that this accident had absolutely nothing to do with her recent hospital stay? I probably didn't have to.
Posted by: Sluggo / 3:02 PM
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Wednesday, November 09, 2005

And $4.89 Gets Me A Grande 

You Passed the US Citizenship Test

Congratulations - you got 9 out of 10 correct!


Research reveals that I did not miss the same one as Nightfly. I erred by one year on the date of the Constitution.
Posted by: Sluggo / 8:57 PM
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Auto-da-Fiero 

Iowahawk has been keeping an eye on l'intifada for us and is a compendium of news from the front, including a shocking rampage by Jerry Lewis.

In a daring daylight annoyance spree, the 75-year old
film veteran was seen clumsily victimizing fruit pyramids,
mimes, and bourgeois doyennes along the fabled Parisian
boulevard. In one shocking encounter caught on security
cameras, Lewis stumbled and spilled a large bag of white
substance -- later identified as flour -- on a startled
matron and her poodle. Compounding the damage, Lewis
attempted to brush the flour from the shocked woman’s
hair with a shopkeeper’s broom, while loudly declaring
“woy goyvin, with the flour in the doggie, HEYYY
LAAADY!”

Other headlines include "French Rioters Unionize, Go On Strike" and some good news:
Immigrant Parisian youths, enraged by lack of job
opportunities and a growing shortage of flammable
cars, tonight turned their wrath on another hated
symbol of French cultural oppression - the accordion.
There are precious few people who can make up stuff almost as strange as life.
Posted by: Sluggo / 1:09 PM
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The Gov 

Here's hoping Jon Corzine is a better man than I think he is. My expectations are exceedingly low, but I wish him well.
Posted by: Sluggo / 7:35 AM
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Tuesday, November 08, 2005

Tummy Ache in Paris 

I'm not an NPR basher. I'm a New York Times basher. But this morning in the car when they had a teaser promising to come back with a story about the "protests in France over unemployment and racism", I had no choice but to switch over to WINS.


That's like calling this 'gastric distress.'

Things will eventually calm down, but those who believe the riots in Europe are a manifestation of youth and temporary economic conditions should remember that the first Palestinian Intifada began more or less spontaneously. The second did not.
Posted by: Sluggo / 10:30 AM
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Sunday, November 06, 2005

Forrester for Governor 

To my mind there's no great problem deciding on my vote on Tuesday. Granted, I'm a partisan Republican and, without a very strong reason, would vote for the Republican candidate anyway. But while the case for Doug Forrester may not be that strong, the case against Jon Corzine is rock solid. He bought his way into a Senate seat, he's done little or nothing in that position, he's locked himself into the culture of corruption in New Jersey politics and he's presented himself as a confused and clueless hack in the present campaign.

What kind of state do we live in when a $450,000 gift to a labor boss who subsequently endorses the donor is shrugged off? It's either what it appears to be or an act of such political simpleness as to be much more worthy of pity than a vote.

The whispering campaign against Corzine in recent weeks is contemptible and foolish. Those who indulge in such tactics are kidding themselves if they think they're helping Forrester's campaign. We've reached a truly absurd state when Democrats are in a position to lecture Republicans on campaign etiquette. I can let that go as there is no indication any of this emanated from the Forrester campaign.

There's no Kean and no Bradley in this race. Doug Forrester is a capable man and stands in the political center. A little too center, perhaps, for me, but this is New Jersey and he's the best I'm going to get.

New Jersey needs someone who can begin the process of breaking down the institutionalized corruption in this state. That person is not going to be a Democrat and it's most certainly not Jon Corzine. Since the phony financing charges against him have blown away I see nothing in Doug Forrester that is tainted by political or personal corruption.

He's presented sensible policy prescriptions and a calm, but forceful demeanor.

I'm voting for him.
Posted by: Sluggo / 6:17 PM
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Carnival of The New Jersey Bloggers, Number 25 


All the heppest cats (and I like to think that includes yours truly) are over at The Art of Getting By where Janet is slinging the malteds and much more in a very stylish Carnival.
Posted by: Sluggo / 8:30 AM
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