Saturday, October 30, 2010

I am Embarrassed

I am embarrassed when I am sitting in a restaurant, trying to squeeze the last dollop of ketchup or mustard from a plastic bottle only to have it make a loud noise that makes it sound like I am farting.

I am embarrassed when the automated supermarket checkout machine says loud enough to make other shoppers turn to look at me like I am a blithering idiot, PUT THE ITEM IN THE BAG, this after I’ve put my item in a bag.

I am embarrassed when a family member or friend bad mouths another family member
or friend to me instead of to the subject of their criticism. Leave me out of it.

I am embarrassed when I run and bang on the door of a stopped bus and the driver
will not open the door and then the bus moves to the next corner where the bus stop stands
and I realize the bus had been stopped the block before at a red light and not a bus stop.

I am embarrassed when I’m casually walking though a parking lot towards my car
and another car’s alarm goes off and a loud voice demands that I “step away from the vehicle.” 
I was only walking past the other vehicle not trying to break into it.

I am embarrassed when I receive an email from a stranger asking to be my friend.
I don’t know the person making the request or why they would want to be friends with me
so I routinely delete the email.

I hope you’ve enjoyed sharing some of my embarrassing moments.
Recalling them has made me think about ways in which I might avoid repeating them
in the future.  You may comment and share some of yours.

Thursday, October 21, 2010

THE OTHER TY

He was an outfielder playing for the New London Planters in baseball’s Eastern League when the call came inviting him to The Show.  He was 20 years old when he made his debut with his hometown team, the Philadelphia Phillies and in his lone game in the majors, on April 30, 1918, he got a base hit and later returned to the minor leagues with a batting average of 1.000.  For some baseball players a good pickup game is all they’ll ever play in.  At the major league level, one good baseball game is all Clarence William “Ty” Pickup did play in but it was memorable because it was for The Phillies. His 81-year-old son Harry, a retired steam fitter, said teammates called his father Sy, short for Clarence and since it was the Ty Cobb-era, Sy morphed into Ty. 
Ty Pickup passed away in 1974 at the age of 77. When he wasn’t playing baseball he spent the winter months working for the Pennsylvania Railroad.  After his baseball career ended he was a wholesale delicatessen salesman and distributor in Northeast Philadelphia.  Harry Pickup, a cadet pilot during the Korean War, never took up baseball nor did any of his 10 kids including daughter Patricia, a Software Developer who runs Pickup Consulting Inc. “I remember seeing a family photo of my Grandfather in a baseball uniform but I really didn’t know much about him until I was a teenager,” Patricia recalled.  Ty’s son Harry doesn’t recall playing much baseball with his Dad.  “He worked seven days a week and at home all he pretty much talked about was his job,” Harry said.  Ty did however share with his son some thoughts on the way the game had changed mainly in the equipment ballplayers used. Harry does recall his Dad saying that the gloves had changed an awful lot, getting much bigger, and bat handles were a lot more tapered than ones he used.
            After he went one-for-one with the Phillies Ty Pickup hurt his leg and so the leftfielder who batted Right and threw Right, was sent back down to the minors where he played from 1919 until 1921 for the Pittsfield Hillies, Hartford Senators, Durham Bulls and Waterbury Brasscos.  He came back in 1928 for the Rocky Mount Buccaneers and the Wilmington Pirates. Pickup finished his baseball career with 1,030 hits, although not one of them was bigger than the base hit he had with the Phillies back in 1918.

Sunday, October 17, 2010

Discreet War

The TV drama Law and Order claims its story ideas are ripped from the headlines.  Truth is that’s where I get many of my writing inspirations. Some headlines are truly stranger than fiction like one a week or so ago which reported “U. S special forces in discreet war.”  The Associated Press dispatch revealed that “American commandos are working discreetly in Yemen’s mountains to train that country’s military to fight al-Qaeda-linked extremists in a signature Obama administration effort to fight terrorism without inflaming anti-U.S. sentiment.”  Does this ring any bells for anyone old enough to remember the signature Truman, Eisenhower and Kennedy administration efforts to fight Communism by sending U. S. military “advisors” to Vietnam to, at first, bolster France’s hold on Indochina and then to train the South Vietnamese military? Discreet wars indeed. 
This is how they start, small, discreetly until they grow, maybe out-of-control. The recent Associated Press report went on to say that “the scope and amount of military training in Yemen have grown slowly, reflecting the Pentagon’s intention to tackle the terror threat while being mindful that a large American footprint in the conservative, Muslim country could actually fuel the insurgency, while also becoming financially unaffordable.”  Over the last year, the number of U.S. trainers moving in and out of Yemen has doubled from 25 to about 50 now.”  50 U. S. military trainers. Doesn’t sound like a big number does it?  
Bear with me and take a look back at history; it’s sometimes helpful.  In 1950 President Truman sent 123 non-combat troops to help with supplies for the French to fight against the communist Viet Minh.  In support of the French in 1954, President Eisenhower authorized 24 CIA pilots to operate US Air Force planes, flying undercover using French insignia, but maintained by the USAF. In 1955, President Eisenhower deployed the Military Assistance Advisory Group (MAAG) to train the ARVN (South Vietnamese Army).  Military Assistance Advisory Group (MAAG) is a designation for American military advisors sent to assist in the training of conventional armed forces of Third World countries. This is said to mark the official beginning of American involvement in the war as recognized by the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.  Move ahead to May, 1961 when President Kennedy sent 400 United States Army Special Forces personnel to train South Vietnamese soldiers.   Then just seven months later, in October 1961, following successful NLF attacks, Defense Secretary Robert S. McNamara recommended sending six divisions (200,000 men) to Vietnam.
            To me, the war in Iraq smacks of Vietnam.  The war in Afghanistan smacks of Vietnam. Will this latest “discreet war” in Yemen evolve and escalate into another smack in America’s face?
(For The Record, in composing this post I have referenced a Wikipedia article entitled “Role of the United States in the Vietnam War”)

Monday, October 11, 2010

Tweak Release Me, Let Me Go

The title of this blog, Tweak This, derives from my observation that in countless daily instances dozens, thousands, perhaps more people choose to tweak something.  In a world where so many people use words in so many different ways it is kind of refreshing to find one word that has almost universal appeal, utilization and acceptance. According to Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary tweak is (1) to pinch and pull with a sudden jerk and twist (2) to pinch (a person or a body part) lightly or playfully.  Whether with a recipe, an economic stimulus program, a strategic business plan, a planned military troop drawdown or a pulled hamstring muscle merely saying a change has occurred seems insufficient. The common denominator – a tweak.  
A tweak can be a good thing or a bad thing.  Going into spring training this season Phillies pitcher Cole Hamels had tweaked his elbow.  That was not good.  Then “to offset the effect of a subpar curve ball, Hamels worked to add a cut fastball or slider…the team believed this tweak would to restore Hamels to top pitcher status.”  That was good.
In some cases tweaks appear to be as essential to a finished product or program as initial, conceptual inspirations.  Following a judicial set back, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer reportedly said “she would consider changes to tweak the law to respond to parts faulted.”  Whether she will employ a sudden jerk and twist or act lightly and playfully has yet to be determined.
Consider the following randomly selected examples culled from the media over the past year:
            “Avril, in Bala Cynwyd, PA has tweaked its operation, expanding from a conventional BYOB dinner house into a more casual café, still with a Euro focus.”
            “Irked by mainstream media they find phony and superficial, some people are tweaking the message to make their own statement.”
            “Google tweaks its China Strategy in attempt to keep its site up.”
            “Democrats tweak bank bill to preclude bailouts.”
            “Time Inc. exec seeks Auton-omy, tweaks Bewkes.”
            “Philadelphia School Reform Commission tweaks charter-school policy.”
            Campbell plans soup product and packaging tweaks.”
            “NFL tweaks instant-replay rules.”
“Oyster House, the classic Philly fish house…feels sufficiently true to tradition and with more consistency and a few tweaks, the next level is within reach.”
“Tweaking the big money art world on its own turf.”
“Cosmetic Makers are using pheromones to tweak the rules of attraction.”
“Kellogg tests shorter, fatter cereal box representing the package-foods company’s biggest box tweak since the 1950s.”
“Genetically modified salmon may be the first lab-tweaked animal on American dinner plates. “
And finally, “Gunmakers tweaking products, approaches to attract women shooters.”
I guess I have a hard time abiding all the tweaking that goes on. Wasn’t it the Beatles who sang, Let It Be, Let It Be, Let It Be, Let It Be.  I just yearn for the tweak-end.

Monday, October 4, 2010

The Daily Grind

The Butcher, the Baker, the Candlestick maker, Landscapers, Barbers, Hairdressers, Chefs and Carpenters all seek out  81-year-old Antonio Borrelli to keep the tools of their trades in good working order. When  Steve Gary of Havertown was growing up in The Bronx, New York in the 1940’s and ‘50’s it was not an unusual sight to see tradesmen plying their craft on his block from horsed-drawn wagons or carts pushed on foot.  “Stephen, take these down to the man in the street with the grinding wheel,” his Grandmother would say, giving him a handful of knives and scissors as the sharpening man was coming up the street. Today, keeping knives and scissors and saws and cleavers and other cutting tools sharp is an art form practiced by fewer craftsmen each year.  Antonio “Tony” Borrelli has traveled half-way around the globe honing his sharpening skills.
Tony began working on keeping things sharp as a boy in his native Italy where he walked through farm fields looking for large stones that could be fashioned into grinding wheels. He learned about sharpening knives in his southern Italian hometown of Volturara Appula, in the Foggia region.  After WW II, with few jobs available, he like many other Italians migrated to Argentina where he worked in several Buenos Aires factory machine shops using his grinding skills.   He became more experienced after moving to America in 1963, spending 10 years working in a machine shop at the General Electric plant on
Elmwood Avenue
in Southwest Philadelphia.  It was in 1974 that he opened his own business, A&A Tool Sharpening Service, in Upper Darby (
788 Garrett Road
, near
Avon Road
, 610-352-4499). “There used to be seven or eight shops nearby doing this work when I opened my shop,” Tony recently recalled. “Today I’m the only one in the neighborhood doing it and there is only a handful left in the Region.”  
Steve Gary can easily attest to Tony being an artisan who can breathe life into a rusty, banged up tool with ease. Steve collects buys and sells antiques and collectibles and has, over the years, acquired many butcher cleavers and knives.  He spends weekends set up at markets in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania Dutch Country, where many deer hunters dress their own kills and are always searching for good butchering tools. “{I have found many cleavers and butcher knives that have appeared to be beyond resuscitation,” Steve said, “until that is Tony laid his magic hands on them. He’s turned them out as clean and sharp and useful as they were on the day they were made.”
How does Tony go about it? “I use different grinding wheels for different types of metal,” he explained. He uses four machines with four different grades of wheels for a heavy grind, a finer grind, to hone and to polish. He employs various industrial compounds, grease mixed with paste, to get the job done. Tony then uses different materials to check the sharpness of the tool he’s worked on including fine, sheer silk for barber and hairdresser shears and fine paper for knives.
How much longer does Tony think he’ll go on working?  “I’m 81,’ he said proudly, “and as for longevity, keeping active like I do keeps me sharp.