The Blaisdell Blog

Today’s youth clearly needed to be raised better.    The spoiled brats I have seen on television lately have no regard for free speech, good grammar or proper language.   Instead, they will shout about their right to be heard, but God forbid anyone dare speak an opposing position.   That brave soul who dares take the negative in a debate is accused of every foul crime from matricide to the nebulous term “hate speech.” Hate speech is evidently any opinion with which our current crop of rude louts disagree.   I would have thought that hate speech meant using crude, profane or threatening language (which, by the way, they use in abundance).   But, no.   Today’s youth don’t want to have to justify their positions with proven and observable fact, so they limit what they don’t want to hear to generic labels that no one can disagree with.                 Lout:   “Are you in favor of ...

There is a photograph on the wall of my sister’s home that is both precious and haunting to me.   It is a restored, blown up and framed photo of my father on his way to the South Pacific during World War II.   It was taken by an Army photographer from a small tender craft as my Dad’s ship, the S.S. Monterey, left harbor.   In a happy accident, the picture was taken with a close up of Pfc. Frank G. Yatckoske front and center.   He is in the midst of a host of soldiers leaning over the rail, all smiling and mugging for the camera.   My father is leaning out from the rest, his arms braced on the rail of the ship, his smile—a straight, wide grin filled with mischief—is set in a young, lean, handsome face.   Every man on that ship seems filled with enthusiasm, bonhomie, even a sense of adventure. Those poor young men didn’t have a clue.               I don’t want to contemplate what happened to...

I constantly fight my weight.   How about you?   I live an active life, but I am nowhere near my fighting weight (and I’ve got a fight or two left in me) so I work at my diet constantly.   The rules are simple: calories in minus calories burned equal weight gained or lost.   Science and practice both tell me that the key is actually the calories “in” part.   Successful diets (the ones you can stay with for a lifetime) involve changing our eating habits so that we are (1) mindful of how many calories we are taking in and (2) disciplined enough to do something about it.   There is also an element of reality here.   I know that I like a drink in the evening.   If that means sticking to fruit and salad during the day I don’t whine about it.   If I want fettuccini Alfredo, fine, but the rest of my caloric intake that day is going to be mighty skinny.   I am making choices.   The pounds are receding by ounces.   It is s...