Tristan was dressed as a skeleton. His costume was made by Karen. Tristan is the anatomically correct skeleton. There were kids there dressed as skeletons in store bought costumes. The store bought costumes only had one forearm bone and one shinbone when everyone knows there are actually two forearm bones and two shinbones. Tristan’s costume was complete with the ulna, radius, tibia, and fibula. Tristan’s costume also had the patella (knee bone) which was problematic as it seemed to fall off the costume at times.

2012/09/30 11:30 It is Sunday morning and I am reflecting on the busy week that was. On Tuesday Alice and I had lunch with Marguerite at Rico’s. I had a delicious Chicken Francaise and I watched somewhat terrified as the little baby Alice stuffed an entire piece of Italian bread into her mouth. I was afraid that she was going to choke but she got it all down. The little girl is an eating machine. A typical breakfast is three bananas, a bowl of cheerios, and three hot dogs. I am not exaggerating. On Thursday I had lunch with Dody; a friend from high school. I was flying solo at Applebee’s for that lunch as Alice was with her Mom. On Friday the little baby Alice and I met Karen and her Bristol co-workers at Pastabilities for lunch. The lunch was to celebrate Karen and Theresa’s birthdays. When I got the e-mail invite for the luncheon I asked if it was okay to bring a date. I imagine that Karen’s co-workers were probably relieved to see that I didn’t bring a “real” date to my wife’s birthday party but that instead it was just the little baby Alice. Lunch at Pastabilities is done in a cafeteria style, not like the full dinner service with wait staff that they do for dinner. I got my lunch on my tray and I asked for a glass of wine to go with it. The guy doing the check-out said, “Getting an early start on the weekend?” Actually, pretty much every day is the weekend for me. I can have a glass of wine with lunch anytime I want. I could have a pitcher of Margaritas with lunch if I wanted. Not really. If I didn’t have the little baby Alice I could do the Margaritas. Still, every day is like the weekend. The only reason I really know what day it is is because of my pill minder. I dole out my meds once a week into a plastic pill minder that has the days of the week on it. I am finishing up my second month of retirement. The first month I was retired it felt like I hadn’t worked for a year. Now after two months it feels like forever since I toiled for the Evil Empire. The scars on my soul have in fact faded and the memories have dulled. The human spirit, the soul, is often times resilient it would seem. After lunch at Pastabilities Alice and I went to Home Depot to get some packing straps in anticipation of my trip to Lake George. Calling the impending trip to Lake George just a trip really doesn’t do it justice; this was to be a Tiki quest. Over a year ago, when Karen and I attended our first Ohana: Luau at the Lake in Lake George, we passed a place that sells concrete statuary in the town of Corinth. There was a very large concrete Moai on display and I said then that someday it would make its home in my Tiki garden. For over a year I have dreamed of getting that Moai and this weekend it was going to happen. I talked my friend Sean into joining me on this quest. To be fair it really didn’t take much convincing. We camped at the campground next to the Tiki Motor Inn. Thanks to Sean for providing all the camping gear. I haven’t gone camping in years. Sean has, but he said he has never camped fifty yards from a Tiki bar, fifty yards from a diner, fifty yards from an A&W, and about one thousand yards from an awesome brew pub. After establishing camp we walked to the Tiki bar. I introduced Sean to his first rum cocktail. There was no dinner or Polynesian dinner show at the Tiki Motor Inn that night. As this was the off season the dinner and show were only on Saturday night. We left the Tiki bar to have dinner at the Adirondack Brew Pub. I have never had a bad meal there and we weren’t disappointed. Before dinner we had an amazing chocolate mocha stout. The beer was 12% alcohol and poured like syrup. It was served in a 12 ounce brandy snifter that was filled to the rim. It was awesome but would have been even better after dinner. After we finished dinner we went back to the Tiki bar. So, a Scotsman, an Irishman, and an Australian are sitting at a bar. That sounds like the start of a joke but it was my Friday night. The Scotsman, me Scott, and the Irishman, Sean, were sitting at the bar in the Paradise Lounge at the Tiki Motor Inn drinking with Aussie Bob. Aussie Bob is in his seventies. He is married to the bartender slash bar manager. She is his third wife and they have been married for twenty eight years. Bob has been married for forty eight years – just not to the same woman. Bob and his bride spend the spring and summer in Lake George and then leave to spend the spring and summer in Australia. I ordered a couple of Dark and Stormys. I wanted Sean to try one. Our bartender said there wasn’t any ginger beer left. Aussie Bob, in addition to being married to the bartender, does the ordering and the inventory for the bar. He said there was one in the trash. Lake George is a seasonal place and most of the town was shutting down. The Paradise Lounge was getting set to close after Columbus Day weekend so the ginger beer was in the trash only because they were getting ready to close. Bob fished the beer out of the trash and it was a can of Gosling’s ginger beer. Our bartender opened the ginger beer just as Bob was saying to wash it off first before you open it. Too late. Hey, it’s a Tiki bar. We drank Dark and Stormys made with ginger beer that had been saved from the refuse container. The Paradise Lounge had been scheduled to have karaoke that night but they had canceled because they didn’t think there would be much of a crowd. Several people did come in looking for karaoke. Aussie Bob took the stage and sang “Waltzing Matilda” acapella. He knew all the verses. Nobody else got up to sing even though he did get a rousing round of applause. At about eleven Sean and I left. When we left the Paradise Lounge we walked back to the campsite and we sat in the rain drinking some of Sean’s homebrews. Sean and I seem to spend a fair amount of time drinking beer in the rain but it’s all good. When we retired to the tent for the evening I warned Sean that I get up every night about four to pee. I fell right asleep and slept quite soundly until I woke when nature began to call. It was 3:36 AM pretty much right on schedule. I was sleeping on a mat on the ground and as I age it seems to get harder and harder to get up off the ground. Definitely not a graceful thing to watch I’m sure. Once I was up I had to put my shoes on and I realized in a tent that there is nothing to lean on. At this point I also realized that when I am at home in the morning I just roll out of bed and tiptoe the 15 or 20 feet to the bathroom and do my business. This whole process in the tent was taking long enough that time now seemed to become very important. I began to question whether I could make it to the bathroom or not. No time to tie my shoes, I ran in the dark and somehow made it in time. The rest of the evening passed uneventfully and in the morning we broke camp in the rain. We had breakfast, I showed Sean around the Town of Lake George, and then we headed out to Corinth to acquire the Tiki statue. We pulled into Corinth Statuary and I told the owner I wanted to get the large Moai. She said, are you coming back to get it? I said that we were taking it with us. She said, just the two of you? Yes. She said, in that van? Yes. She said, how far are you going? Syracuse. She said, just the two of you, in that van, to Syracuse? At this point I started to have doubts. Maybe I was more insane than I have considered. I have always considered myself crazy but I figured I had a kind of functional insanity. This cement Moai was bigger than I remembered. He was heavy. Well over four hundred pounds. To his credit Sean never wavered and basically said let’s do this. We got the Moai on the hand truck that I had brought. We strapped the Moai to the hand truck with the new cargo straps I had just purchased. I wheeled him over to the van. It took four people to get him into the van but once he was in and resting on his back in the hand truck everything seemed pretty stable. Sean and I set out on the final part of the journey. We didn’t know at that point that near disaster was only 15 to 20 minutes away. At this point on the trip home the slumbering Tiki god must have become angered because when we turned a corner he rolled over. There was the horrible sound of camp gear being crushed and the van lurched as the four hundred pound Tiki god repositioned himself. He almost took out the back rear panel of the van from the inside. That would have been difficult to explain to the insurance company. Yes, I was in an accident but it was an internal accident. The back rear panel was taken out from the inside by an enraged Tiki god. Of course what would have been even worse would have been the Tiki god causing us to have a serious accident. A serious accident could have possibly earned us a ‘Darwin Award’. It certainly wouldn’t have looked good in print. Once the Moai was on his side the hand truck wheels were useless and we couldn’t move the concrete monolith. We stopped for lunch and called ahead for reinforcements. When we got back to the house my son Michael was there to lend assistance. With the three of us now attempting to lift the Moai and roll him back onto the wheels of the hand truck the result was the same. We couldn’t budge him. We decided to try a mechanical solution in the form of a come-along used in construction. I didn’t have one so I went to Home Depot and purchased one. We had limited success with that and so we graduated to the big guns. We tied the frame of the hand truck to the bumper of my son’s pickup truck and we were able to drag the Moai to the back of the van. Here we were able to right the Tiki god and lower him and the hand truck to the driveway. None of this helps explain the mysteries of Easter Island and how the Rapa Nui people were able to move the huge Moai that line the shoreline. Their Moai were much more massive and they didn’t have wheels or Ford F-150’s. The Moai now rests on the hand truck in the backyard. He will stay there until I get a base set for him in the Tiki garden and then he will make the final leg of his journey to his new home. I am sure the final part of the move will prove to be an adventure as well.

My super cool pop-up cocktail book.

2012/09/25 13:00

Nap time!

2012/09/23 12:30 I am a collector. I admit this. Do you know who else was a great collector? Thulsa Doom. In the 1982 movie “Conan the Barbarian”, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and written by John Milius, James Earl Jones played the character Thulsa Doom. He tells Conan, in that wonderful voice of his, “It must have been when I was younger. There was a time, boy, when I searched for steel, when steel meant more to me than gold or jewels.” He searched for steel. I search for Tiki mugs, Polynesian Pop, rum, and cocktail stuff. That’s all we have in common; we’re both great collectors. Thulsa Doom was ruthless and evil – me not so much. Anyways, sometimes I find some truly amazing things. Like this – a pop-up cocktail book. How cool?!

The little baby Alice didn't get to go to the pirate party. She said she would have made an awesome pirate.

Pirate piñata.

Pirate booty.

2012/09/22 20:00 Tristan went to Noah's birthday party today. It was a pirate party.

Pirate fight.

Phil and Kathy gave me a bottle of Pyrat rum. Pyrat rum is an Anguillian rum. Anguilla is a very small island in the Caribbean five miles north of St. Maarten. The island is very small and there is no sugar cane on the island. The rum is not distilled on Anguilla but rather is blended there from 9 different Caribbean rums. It is then aged in oak barrels on the tiny island.

Marty and Laura gave me a bottle of Plantation 5 year old Barbados rum. This rum is made from 100% sugar cane juice and so is similar to a Rhum Agricole. It can’t be called Rhum Agricole because that is an appellation like Cognac or Bordeaux and so only rums from specific locations can be called Rhum Agricole.

I am bowling in the Bristol Anaren bowling league again this year. Tonight was my first night bowling with the team. Tristan and Alice came with me to the lanes where Karen was going to pick them up when she got out of work. Once Tristan saw what was going on he wanted to bowl. Karen stayed and Tristan bowled three games.

2012/09/16 11:30 Had a wonderful dinner last night that Laura cooked in honor of my retirement. I made Painkillers before dinner. It was Karen and I, Laura and Marty, and Phil and Kathy. I was given rum as presents. I have said it here before; the gift of rum is always appreciated. I made Painkillers with Pusser's rum. They came out quite nicely.

2012/09/19 23:00

2012/09/10 23:30

In a few days I am having the driveway enlarged and repaved. No more parking in the lawn this winter. I spray painted a line in the grass where I wanted the new driveway to go. We were coming back from an errand and Tristan came running to me very concerned. He said, "Pop pop, Bamma crossed the line!" I sighed and said, "Tristan, your Bamma has been crossing the line for a very long time."

2012/09/14 16:30 When life hands you lemons make lemonade. When life hands you molasses make rum. Actually, if life hands you lemons see if you can trade them for molasses so you can make rum. Or, if you already have rum and life hands you lemons trade them for limes. Limes make better Tiki drinks. Screw the whole lemons thing. Why is life handing me lemons? Let’s just seize the rum. Who will make his mark the captain cried? To the devil drink a toast? We’ll glut the hold with cups of gold and we’ll feed the sea with ghosts. I see your hunger for a fortune could be better served beneath my flag. If you’ve the stomach for a broadside come aboard my pretty boys. I will take you and make you everything you’ve ever dreamed. Make fast the guns tonight we sail. When the high tide floods the bay cut free the lines and square the yards. Get the black flag stowed away. The turk the arab and the Spaniard will soon have pennies on their eyes. And any other laden fancy we will take her by surprise. Our sails swell full as we brave all seas on a westward wind. To live as we please with the wicked wild eyed women of Portobello town. Where we’ve been told that a purse of gold buys any man a crown. Who’ll drink a toast with me. To the devil and the deep blue sea. [apologies to Emerson, Lake, and Palmer].

2012/09/08 14:00 Karen and I were running errands and had our grandson Tristan with us. He started acting up at Lowe's and threw a little tantrum. Karen said that next time we went somewhere he wasn't going to be allowed to go. Tristan said, very dramatically, "Wherever you go I will find you." Karen: "Okay Hawkeye."

Digger Jones.

Sand sculpture. This years sand sculpture was a tribute to the US Olympians.

2012/09/03 23:00 I went to the fair today by myself. Last day of the fair. Labor Day.

2012/09/01 09:00 I finished my first month of retirement. I am very happy to be retired and I am settling into it nicely. I am way busier than I had thought I would be. I have a lot of demands on my time. I am not complaining I am just saying that things are a little different than I imagined. There were 368 page views of the website in August. That’s only the fourth time there have been over 300 hits. It’s also the second month in a row over 300. That’s never happened before. I have a lot of work to do on the website. I am not happy with the present state. I have a lot of stuff I need to put up and I haven’t been happy with how much time I have been spending on the website. I thought I would have more time to work on the website once I was retired. I am even more disappointed that I haven’t accomplished any art projects. I am hoping that September will be more productive.

The NY State Canal Corp. had a scale model of the proposed development of Syracuse's inner harbor. It is to be a 350 million dollar development of both retail and residential space. There will also be a satellite campus for OCC.

Alice liked the chickens, the ducks, the peacocks, and all the other fowl.

Playing games on the midway.

I can remember when the games were 50 cents or a dollar. Now they are three to five dollars. We told Tristan he could play 2 games. He played the fishing game first where you are guaranteed a prize. Then he wanted to do the race game where you shoot a water cannon at a target to advance. Karen told him he didn't want to play that one because he wouldn't win a prize. The carny barker overheard and he suggested a 'family race'. I paid six dollars and Karen raced Tristan. Karen won. The carny went nuts, "What part of that didn't you understand?! What, do you just like beating little kids?" Karen, in her defense, says she wasn't really paying attention and wasn't trying to win.

Butter sculpture.

The little baby Alice and a little baby cow.

The little baby Alice and her Uncle Michael sharing some pizza at Trapper's.

Alice playing skee-ball at Trapper's. She completely disregards the rules.

2012/08/25 09:00 I was meeting Karen at Trapper’s last night after she got out of work. We were meeting a group of friends there. I asked Michael if he wanted to join us. I told him he would get something to eat. I guess I didn’t make it clear that we were meeting people. After we got there Michael said, “That group of people seem very friendly and they seem to know a lot about us. I guess we were meeting people here?”

2012/08/20 19:00 How cool is it being retired? Hanging with my grandson today and he asks, "Pop pop can we go to the movies and have popcorn?" Well, my schedule is pretty much wide open, so, yeah, matinee it is. "Ice Age:Continental Drfit", popcorn, and red icees. We went to the 4:30 PM showing. I have seen the other two Ice Age movies on DVD. I have actually sat and watched them both a couple of times with Tristan. I enjoyed them and had no problem sitting through them more than once. The newest "Ice Age" was okay but I don't think I'd sit through it again. I can't explain it but it just wasn't as good as the first two.

2012/08/21 22:30 I played bar-trivia with my daughter and her friends at Nibsy's Pub on Tipp Hill. I think she thought my age and life experience would benefit her group. Adison said I could name the team. I said okay "The Rum Smugglers". Thanks to my daughter's poor handwriting we became "The Bum Smugglers". OMG! So embarrassing.

2012/08/23 20:00 This is just an observation. In the past when I have sat in a doctor’s waiting room it has never really occurred to me to wonder what people are there for. It’s different when the doctor is a psychiatrist. It’s more interesting I guess wondering why people are there. I’m just saying.

Playing in the waiting room at the doctor's office.

Shriner bank and bobblehead.

Balinese bust.

Adison and Karen atop a six-story elephant; riding in the howdah.

2012/08/10 20:00 I was on my way back from the NAS Wildwood Aviation Museum when Adison called. She and Karen were leaving the beach early because the weather wasn’t the best. They were looking for something to do. So, we decided to take a trip north to Margate and see Lucy the Elephant. Lucy is a six story tall elephant. Actually, Lucy is a six story tall example of novelty architecture. Lucy was constructed in 1882. Nobody had ever built an elephant shaped building in 1882. The idea was the brainchild of James Lafferty. Mr. Lafferty applied for and was granted a US patent for ‘zoomorphic’ architecture. Lucy is constructed of wood and tin sheeting. Mr. Lafferty built Lucy, who wasn’t yet called Lucy, to sell real estate. I don’t see the relation between a giant six-story elephant and buying a vacation home. I guess nobody else did either because the elephant colossus failed to spur any real estate sales. She was sold to new owners in 1887. Lucy was first called Lucy in 1900. As a point of fact Lucy is an Asian elephant and only the males have tusks so Lucy is in fact a dude. Over the years Lucy was used for many things including as a residence for a short time. Lucy was a tavern that was closed down during prohibition. The giant elephant fell into disrepair and was scheduled for demolition to make way for condo developments. Some local residents started a campaign to save Lucy and she was moved to her current site and was restored to her former glory. The howdah carriage atop Lucy is a replica of the original which had been destroyed.

The Naval Air Station at Wildwood, New Jersey.

2012/0810 12:00 I just finished touring the NAS Wildwood Aviation Museum. The Naval Air Station in Wildwood, New Jersey, was built in 1941. It was originally called the NAS Rio Grande because it was on Rio Grande Blvd. It was sometimes confused with Rio Grande, Texas, so in 1943 the name was changed to NAS Wildwood. The Naval Air Station at Wildwood was an important part of the war effort. Pilots for the Helldiver dive-bomber were trained here. The Helldiver, from what I learned at the museum, had a poor safety record. Thirty nine pilots were killed in training at Wildwood before they could even make it to a combat theater. I also learned that Wildwood, in the 1940s, wasn’t a bad place to be stationed or to pull leave. One of the veteran sailors interviewed in the film I watched said that there were 63 bars in Wildwood, lots of sailors, and lots and lots of girls.

Sammy's Beach Bar rum.

2012/08/10 11:00 I don’t want to re-ignite the great debate of our time. All I am going to say is that Van Halen were at their best when Diamond Dave was the front man. With that said you have got to love Sammy Hagar. Sammy Hagar wanted a better tasting Tequila for his bar. The result was Cabo Wabo which became the number two brand of Tequila in the US. Sammy sold 80% of the ownership in Cabo Wabo for 80 million dollars. That’s right, 80 million dollars. He vowed after that sale, with his fortune set, that he would never again do anything just for money. "Now I never do anything unless it's fun, unless it makes me happy." Sammy has spent the last few years working on a rum. The rum is distilled in Maui, Hawaii. I had been waiting for a chance to get my hands on a bottle when I found one at a nice liquor store in Cape May, NJ.

The Waikiki.

The Ala Kai.

The Royal Hawaiian.

2012/08/09 18:00 I did a little urban archaeology today. I collected some architectural shots around the area. Some hints of what Wildwood looked like in the 1950s.

The gardens around the Hereford Inlet lighthouse were beautiful.

The lighthouse at Hereford Inlet was done in a Victorian style. That seems a little strange for a lighthouse design. At the time the lighthouse was built there were nothing but fishing shacks on the island. The construction of the lighthouse and the style of construction were meant to encourage construction and development on the island. By all accounts it was a success.

Before I got to the Hereford Inlet lighthouse I was on the other side of the inlet. The above photo was taken from Stone Harbor looking south across Hereford Inlet toward Wildwood, New Jersey.

2012/08/09 09:00 I got my last paycheck today. That’s the thing that I am going to miss the most in retirement. No more paychecks. I have to say that the best part of working was paychecks. I would venture to guess that a lot of people wouldn’t work at all if it wasn’t for paychecks.

2012/08/09 19:00 I went to see the Hereford Inlet lighthouse today. I took the tour and I was the only one on the tour. My tour guide was very nice. I asked a couple of questions and she was having some trouble remembering stuff. The tour guide said to me, “I‘m sorry. I am 82 years old and I am forgetting some of the dates I should know. I am probably going to have to retire soon.” I didn’t say it to her but I was thinking like, yeah, that’s why I retired 27 years before you. I wanted to go out at the top of my game.

"Moron Madness". Not much to say about the boardwalk.

2012/08/08 16:00 I took a walk on the boardwalk today.

View from the Cape May lighthouse. Looking north towards Wildwood, NJ.

The Cape May lighthouse.

2012/08/07 10:00 After today I will have been retired for one full week. I think the full impact of my retirement has been muted by the fact that we are on vacation this week. I am assuming that the full impact of what I have done will be felt once we are back at home. Yesterday we went to Cape May. Karen, Adison, and I drove south to Cape May for the day. They went boutique shopping while I went to the Cape May lighthouse. I climbed to the top of the lighthouse. I am a veteran lighthouse climber. When it is hot outside it is even hotter inside the lighthouse. A lighthouse on a hot day is close, stuffy, and like a sauna. I came prepared with an extra shirt. Good thing too, because after the 199 steps I was soaked through from the sweat. At the top of the lighthouse there was a nice breeze and a spectacular view. Adison has become quite the runner of late. She is training for a half-marathon. She talked me into running a 5K race with her. We are going to run a 5K race on October 7th. I will have to start training as soon as we get back from vacation. I will have about 60 days to get ready for the race.

I took the opportunity while relaxing at the Jersey shore to begin the Tikification of my ride. The van will henceforth be known as the Tiki van; the official ride of Khan Tiki Mon's Bar and Lounge.

2012/08/05 11:30 Can you go on vacation when you are retired? I don’t think so. I think when you are retired you are just going on a trip. My wife, Karen, is on vacation at the beach in Wildwood, New Jersey. I am just along for the trip. My daughter, Adison, is joining us at the beach for her vacation. I am just on a trip. Karen and I left Syracuse on Saturday morning. It is about a five hour drive from Syracuse to Wildwood and the Jersey shore. It wasn’t too bad a drive except through Philadelphia. My sister-in-law, Caity, and my nephew, Sage, will be joining us for the week. It’s Sunday and I am missing the Middle Ages Brewery annual party today. It was an awesome time last year and I am sorry to be missing it this year. You can’t do everything I guess. New Jersey. The Garden State. Apparently there must be a local ordinance here that says if you have a huge-ass Lincoln Navigator with Jersey plates then you can park like an asshole. And there are a lot of huge-ass Lincoln Navigators in Jersey.

2012/08/06 09:00

Samuel Adams 'Dark Depths Baltic IPA'. I love the label. Sea monster and a deep sea diving helmet. Awesome.

2012/08/02 11:00 It is my second day of retirement. I am kind of easing into the whole idea. I have had so much responsibility weighing on me for so long. It is really nice to start to unload some of the burdens. I still have plenty of crap to deal with but I have let go of a huge part of it. It seems like it would be easy to lose track of what day it was, since it really doesn’t matter much anymore. However, I will always know what day it is because I have a pill minder with the days on it so I don’t forget to take my meds. I have a new favorite beer I’m drinking right now. It’s by Sam Adams and they call it their ‘Dark Depths Baltic IPA’. I originally bought it because I liked the art on the bottle. The description on the bottle reads ”Dark, Fierce, and Blustery. Across the cold and brackish waters of the Baltic, the English porter was transformed from a mild ale to a dark and complex lager that confounds definition. Immersed in dark roasted malts and a bold citrus hop character, these big and contrasting flavors are brought together with the smoothness of a lager for a brew that’s bold, mysterious, and full of flavor”. Usually the hyperbole spewed by the marketing types is too much but in this case it’s pretty accurate. The brew has an incredible depth of flavor and is a real joy for the palate.

2012/08/01 13:00 So, I am retired. It is my first day of retirement. I did not get my coffee this morning from the Red Apple like I have been doing every day for years. I made coffee at home. It has been so long since I made coffee at home that my creamer was expiring. I still used it and it was a good cup of coffee. I will need to get set up better. I will be heading out to Wegmans shortly. I think you can see how much more exciting my website will be now that I am retired. Yesterday was my last day of work and my co-workers at Beacon North surprised me with another going away cake. It was a delicious raspberry and peach cake that Melanie got from Wegmans. There were of course many jokes made about what kind of cake they would have for my going away party next month. But, that’s not going to happen as I really did it this time and I retired. I retired just like I said I was going to, just a month late. After I did all my exit stuff and turned in my badge I went to Liverpool and met Marguerite. Karen joined us later and we celebrated my retirement. We had a very nice dinner on the patio. There was a cool breeze and when the threatened rains came the patio umbrella and the trees kept us dry. In the course of conversation Marguerite mentioned how she used to work at the department store Grants downtown many years ago. I told her how when I was a kid we used to go downtown at Christmas time to see the store windows all decorated. The highlight for us kids was riding the monorail around the store. I stand corrected though, because it wasn’t Grants that had the monorail but rather Edwards. Looking at it now it’s so funny because it was such a rickety contraption that was probably just thrown up by the maintenance people at Christmas time. I’m sure there weren’t any monorail inspection requirements. This is something that could never happen today. It made a lasting memory for me.

The monorail at the Edwards department store in 1955 photo. There were 308 page views of the website in July. That’s only the third time I’ve had more than 300 visits in a month.

khan tiki mon's rants and rambles V.6.60

OMG! If you thought there was too much information shared before… If you thought this was all too boring… If you feared that these rants and rambles were never going to stop.. Khan Tiki Mon has slipped all ties and tethers to the Evil Empire… There is nothing holding him back now and there is no end in sight. Can nothing save us? No. Let the ‘Summer of Scott’ begin.

This latest iteration of my rants and rambles will be much like past versions. The key components will be unchanged. There still may be too much information shared and I am still most definitely weird as all get out. If you have been to the website before then you have chosen to ignore the warnings and you have undertaken the perilous journey through the site of your own free will. Good for you. If you are new to the site then consider yourself as warned and read on at your own peril.

2012/08/01 09:00 Today starts the rest of my life. A new chapter if you will. Many years ago when I was in high school I was contemplating what to do with my life, as teenagers in high school do. I thought that I might like to be an artist. I bought a canvas, some acrylic paints, and brushes. I made a painting. I was horrified by the result. I was totally unable to capture what was in my mind on the canvas. I hated it. I had some aptitude for math and science and so I decided to become an astrophysicist instead of an artist. That’s pretty funny but it’s true. I often joke that a lot of my problems in life can be blamed on Carl Sagan. It was Carl Sagan who inspired me to a career in science. I got as far as advanced differential equations before I really understood that I had no chance of being a theoretical physicist. Why did I hate my attempts at art so much? For one thing I am a perfectionist. I am a perfectionist and I have some OCD tendencies. My wife disagrees with me when I say these things because she has never seen evidence of these tendencies in me. I have spent most of my life being painfully non-confrontational. And so, being as non-confrontational as I am, faced with doing something that won’t reach my standards I have always chosen to just not attempt it at all. All of this brings me back to that painting I attempted all those years ago. I wasn’t able, at that point in my life, to allow myself to try something that I couldn’t be perfect at. I understand now that the first time Michelangelo took mallet and chisel to stone the result was most likely a pile of broken rocks and not the statue “David”. I have reached a point in my life where I am able to accept, maybe even embrace, my imperfections. I am no longer afraid of failure and I have no need to validate what I do with the acceptance of others. I have spent the last four or five years of my life in a very dissatisfying work environment. The Evil Empire. I was good at my job. I found that I had a real talent for spreadsheets and EXCEL. Business gets done with spreadsheets. For a little while immersing myself in the world of EXCEL was very satisfying. I could make my data do whatever I wanted it to. I could format the data so that it displayed the way I wanted it to. I had total control and there was a very satisfying order and stability to the work. Certainly in real life no one did what I wanted and chaos seemed to reign supreme. My hard work and dedication did not go unnoticed and I was offered a new job. It was a promotion with a raise in pay. But, I had proved myself to be a little too valuable? How was I to be replaced? I was told that I would have to stay in my old job for probably six months until a suitable replacement could be found. But not to worry, I was promised. You will be taken care of and made whole. The wages lost waiting for the promotion to take effect will be made up to you. You’re just too valuable to let go right now. The six months turned into a year. But don’t worry, we promise you will be treated fairly. The year turned into two. Thanks so much for being so patient, you are an awesome team player and we promise this will all be made right. Every week my pay was short; my bonuses were short. Two years turned into three and then four. I had a final showdown with my HR department. I was told, “At this point in time the company has no intentions of ever keeping any of the promises that were made to you.” That revelation was not a surprise to me after four and a half years. It was kind of refreshing to have the truth told after all the lies. I did take offense when I was told I should be happy because many people in the company were being treated worse than me. Using that logic I should be even happier if some of them were in a plane crash. I really took offense at the suggestion that someone else’s misfortune or mistreatment would make me happy. That whole premise is kind of like what HR on a pirate ship must be like. “Arggh, everyone gets 10 lashes from the cat-o-nine-tails save you. Y’er the Captain’s favorite so you get 5 lashes.” I suppose if you are being beaten with a switch while the person next to you is being beaten with a two-by-four, you might be able to take some solace in the switch without fully embracing the concept of your need to be beaten at all. I had some co-workers who said I should get a lawyer. “Why bother?” I explained to them that promises are not legally binding. While my treatment was unethical and probably immoral I didn’t have a legal remedy. Corporations, governments, and bureaucracies are soulless entities. That’s an important thing to remember. I was a loyal and dedicated employee and my fealty was never appreciated. In almost twenty four years of service probably half of those years were served with perfect attendance. In total I probably only missed thirty days of work and that number was only so high because of two major health scares. One was a heart attack. I had a heart attack and missed twelve days of work. Who does that? I scammed the doctor into letting me return to work early. I worked from home before I was released to go back to work. Who does that? You can’t expect a corporation, or a government, or a bureaucracy, to return loyalty offered. Men go to war. They fight, kill, and die. And studies show that it isn’t for patriotism or idealism. It’s for their brothers; their comrades at arms. In one of the best scenes in the movie “The Outlaw Josey Wales” the Native American chief Ten Bears says, “It’s sad that governments are chiefed by the double tongues…No signed paper can hold the iron. It must come from men”. Men don’t leave their brothers behind. But corporations do. It’s called downsizing, or rightsizing, or outsourcing, or offshoring, etc. But it’s leaving your men behind and leaving your men behind for profit. There is no soul there. Governments, corporations, and bureaucracies are indeed chiefed by the double tongues. They are certainly not any place where you would want to pledge your allegiance. You want to work and be governed by an honorable man (or woman). I am reminded of the novella “A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens. The story of poor Mr. Fezziwig for me is at least as sad as the poor little Tiny Tim and his little tiny crutches. As a young man Ebenezer Scrooge is apprenticed to Mr. Fezziwig. Fezziwig is a capitalist, a business man, but he moderates his profit motive with kindness, affection for his employees, and social responsibility. Here’s a man you could gladly offer your fealty to. He resists selling out. Fezziwig feels a responsibility to the people that depend on him. But, in a business downturn, Marley and Scrooge take advantage of his misfortune and seize a majority control of the company. Marley and Scrooge run the company as predators, preying on the shareholders and employees alike. If you shed a tear or two for little Tiny Tim you should do the same for Mr. Fezziwig. Who runs the modern corporation? Who charts the course for the Evil Empire? The CEO, Chief Executive Officer, today has much in common with the sociopathic serial killer. That’s a fact. Academic studies have shown the CEO to be four times as likely to have sociopathic tendencies as the general population. The chief characteristic that the serial killer and the CEO have in common is a lack of empathy. Just as it’s hard to torture and kill if you have a conscience the same holds true for cutting jobs, selling out colleagues, ruining the environment, and lying as a matter of course. The traits that define the anti-social psychopath make for a great CEO. The successful CEO has no conscience, none at all, no feelings of guilt or remorse. The modern CEO has no limiting sense of concern for employees, shareholders, colleagues, friends, or family. I worked with and for some good people in the years I served the Evil Empire. There were good things done but those accomplishments were achieved because of those good people and in spite of the Evil Empire. The Evil Empire is a soul crushing entity and I knew that I needed to escape. And so I have slipped the shackles of the Empire and I choose to live the remainder of my life as a free man. While scars on the soul may never fade hopefully time and rum will cause memory of the pain to fade. I will pursue the things that make me happy and that give my life purpose. From here forward I am sole proprietor of Khan Tiki Mon’s Bar and Lounge. In that position I will wear many hats; mixologist, artist, chef, historian, curator, webmaster, dishwasher, pool-boy, dogwalker, and gardener to name just a few. I will help family and friends. I will be a better citizen. And I will make things that I will call art.

2012/10/24 14:00 Hope is not a strategy. It's okay to bring it with you but don't rely on it.

Half marathon and the 'medal ceremony'.

Finishing the 13.1 miles.

The little baby Alice was tired.

Family photo before the race start. Aunt Adison and her niece Alice and her nephew Tristan.

Dana, Meaghen, and Adison.

2012/10/21 17:00 Adison ran her fiirst half marathon today.

Watching the "Lorax" on DVD.

Trevor and the little baby Alice at the pumpkin carving party.

Some of the entries in the pumpkin carving contest. The bottom one, Frankenstein, was Karen and Tristan's entry. The headless horseman won.

The litlle baby Alice enjoyed the pumpkin carving party.

Tristan finalizing the design choice for the pumpkin.

2012/10/20 23:30 Saturday night was the annual pumpkin carving party at Scott Hays. Much fun was had by all.

At the panel at SubCat Studios.

While I worked on the front deck Five-O patrolled the parkway; officers Tristan and Noah. Later, after Karen got home from work, we went to Fremont School for a spaghetti dinner and for the book fair. Karen, Tristan, and I had a nice dinner of spaghetti, meatballs, and a salad. After eating dinner in the cafeteria where Tristan has lunch every day we went down the hall to the book fair and got Tristan some books. I dropped Karen and Tristan at home and then went downtown to Armory Square for an open house at SubCat studios. SubCat studios moved from Skaneateles to Armory Square in Syracuse in 2009. The state of the art studios are located next to the Red House Arts Center. I recently started playing pool with one of the owners of SubCat, Jeremy Johnston, and he graciously gave me a tour of the new digs. I was very impressed.

It was a beautiful Autumn day for the run. The air was cool and crisp. The fall foliage was in full display.

Today was the run that I was supposed to do with Adison. We were going to do the 5K together. Since I backed out she went ahead and did the 15K instead. I was forced to back out after my training was interrupted by a little girl. I have been taking care of the little baby Alice and that has seemed to eat up most of my time and energy.

2012/10/07 22:00

After we left the pumpkin patch we stopped at Webster's Pond to feed the ducks and geese.

Karen did not molest the Indian this year. If you don't remember what happened last year you can read about it in Rants and Rambles V.5.5 the entry for 2011/10/29.

The little baby Alice playing in the corn house. Been picking corn out of stuff ever since.

Tristan is an excellent pumpkin picker.

2012/10/02 17:00 I got one of the Wegmans Pumpkin Pie yogurts to try a few days ago. It was awesome. Went back for more and they were sold out. Must be more popular than planned for.

2012/10/03 23:30 I hit the pool hall tonight for my Wednesday night league in my new shirt courtesy of Dawn Frasier aka Sophista-tiki. She designed the fabric and made the shirt custom. I love it.

2012/10/02 09:00 I woke up this morning with a big lump on the back of my head and a headache. It feels like someone hit me with a baseball bat or the back of an axe. My wife said she didn’t hit me while I was sleeping, at least not that hard. The only logical explanation is an alien abduction. To the best of my recollection I have never been abducted by aliens before. To be fair, I have put on a few pounds over the years so maybe it’s just the first time they dropped me. I don’t know.

To this day the mystery remains as to how the giant stone Moai on Easter Island were moved. All do agree that there were no Ford F-150's used.

The large cement Moai resting comfortably in my backyard awaiting his final move to the Tiki garden.

Angry and uncooperative four hundred pound plus cement Moai.

Lake George at the end of the season. Cold, wet, overcast, with a heavy fog obscuring the mountains.

Campsite of the Tiki expedition.

First sighting in June of 2011 of the large cement Moai that would one day be in my possession.

Me and Lindsay. Adison took the picture and somehow it is out of focus. Adison is always complaining that I take unflattering pictures of her. I don't know how she took an out of focus picture with a self-focus camera.

Adison and I at Coleman's. The beer I'm holding is a prop beer. Not mine. I was drinking tonic with lime - no booze - because I am in training for my 5K in October.

After Coleman's we went to Shifty's. Adison had suggested that we go to Shifty's to hear the band "Digger Jones". We were going to meet Adison's friend Lindsay there. Adison asked me if I had ever been to Shifty's before. She then asked why I was laughing. I had to explain that I had been going to Shifty's for thirty years. Had a great time listening to the band "Digger Jones".

2012/09/08 09:00 Last night Adison and I went bar-hopping. I met her at Coleman's Irish Pub on Tipp Hill.

Getting on the bus.

2012/09/04 10:00 Today was the first day of kindergarten for Tristan. He is going to kindergarten and it is a full day program.

Ready for school.

The NY State DEC aquarium.

Birds of Prey.

A street performer. This guy was pretty funny and quite entertaining. Escaping from a straightjacket while standing on pavement doesn’t sound very exciting. There is no element of danger. Or is there? This escape artist had a volunteer from the audience time him and another standing by with a bottle of water. If he didn’t escape in time the audience volunteer was instructed to throw the water on him. Still not dangerous? Well, he told us the water was fracking water from Pennsylvania and we all know how dangerous that is. Too funny.

2012/08/29 22:00 Karen and I went to the Great NY State Fair today and we took Tristan and Alice. I will be lucky to make it to the fair twice this year. On my 'bucket list', one year I want to go to the fair everyday.

2012/08/27 10:00 Twenty nine years ago today I married my best friend. We said for better or for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health. Been there and done all that and I love my bride more today than ever. A good marriage is a partnership where burdens are halved and joys are doubled. I wish to have twenty nine more years and then some with this amazing woman. Karen, I love you babe. Happy anniversary!

Wedding day.

These are the bamboo chairs we got on clearance at Ikea. I think they are awesome. Very comfortable, they look great, and they are in a great place on the backyard lanai for me to enjoy my coffee in the morning.

Wild, wonderful Karen T. I have been saying that for years. It's stamped on a license plate so it must be true.

2012/08/26 17:00

Venezualen rum as housewarming gift. The gift of rum is always appreciated.

The housewarming party was Tiki themed.

2012/08/25 23:00 I went to a housewarming party for Blair and Kim Frodelius. It was a nice time and I am sorry that Karen couldn't make it. She was feeling a little under the weather and stayed home to sleep.

At Coleman's Irish Pub on Tipp Hill; Friday night. Karen says since I have retired I am becoming a 'party animal'. She bases this on the fact that I went to play bar-trivia with Adison on Tuesday and then went to Trapper's and Coleman's on Friday.

It was an absolutely beautiful day for the 41st annual Madison Bouckville Antique Festival.

2012/08/19 20:00 Sean and I went to the 41st annual Madison Bouckville Antiques Festival today. It was a beautiful day for it. We walked around the tents looking at stuff for hours and probably didn’t even see an eighth of the stuff there. I picked Sean up in the morning and we stopped and had breakfast at a diner in LaFayette. From there we headed east on Route 20 to Madison and Bouckville. US Route 20 is the longest road in America. It runs east-west from coast-to-coast. In NY the US Route 20 follows the route of the historic Cherry Valley Turnpike. The Cherry Valley Turnpike was built at the turn of the 19th century. The route was designated US Route 20 in 1926. For decades the thoroughfare was the main east-west artery in NY and remained so until the 1950s and the opening of the NY State Thruway. There is a lot of history on this road; parts of which weren’t paved as late as 1934. There could be a lot of great road trips on this route which ends in Boston on the east coast and ends one mile from the Pacific Ocean in Oregon. I picked up a Shriner bobblehead and bank, a boat cleat, 2 burlap coffee bags, and a Balinese bust. The boat cleat I am going to use to display my block and tackle that I got from my Dad. The burlap coffee bags were only used once for coffee and are from Costa Rica. Sean got a good deal on a Bass Ale beer tap. He is going to have a collection of beer taps in the brewery that he is building.

It is a dogs life as they say.

The birthday cake I made.

Mayor Bloomberg won’t be happy if he sees this. We went to the movies last night to see “The Bourne Legacy”. Robert got a blue Icee that was absolutely massive. And it comes with free refills. The movie was pretty good. Maybe not as good as the first three but it was entertaining. Training Report Day Three. Brego and I went back to the canal. I didn’t make it to the YMCA. We ran and walked the same four miles we did the previous day. I ran a little bit more this time and took a few minutes off the first day time.

2012/08/19 09:00 I fell asleep on the couch last night. It might be more accurate to say that I fell into a coma last night. I fell asleep watching TV, sitting up, and stayed in that position until I woke up at 4:28 AM. I took my meds (I don’t like taking them that far off schedule) and went to bed. We went out to dinner on Friday night with my parents and then came back to the house for birthday cake. I had made the cake on Tuesday but we didn’t get a chance to have it then. The cake had been sitting on the counter. Earlier in the day my grandson Tristan approached me and said very seriously, “Pop pop, can I ask you something?” I said sure. He asked, “Is that a birthday cake on the counter in the kitchen?” Why yes it is. He wanted to know whose birthday it was. I told him it was Grandpa’s birthday (he calls his great-grandfather Grandpa) and I asked if he wanted to go to the party. “Sure!” Tristan loves parties.

2012/08/15 23:30

2012/08/14 15:30 I am going to say something here that I mean in the best possible way. I am overwhelmed by the stuff I have to do. I mean, there is so much I want to do, that I want to see. There are so many projects that I want to accomplish. I am retired. I am a free man. My days are my own and I will have no trouble at all filling those days with interesting and meaningful things. I could never understand those people who say that they can’t retire because they don’t know how they would stay busy. Wow. So sad. Training Report Day Two. I am preparing for my 5K race that I will run with my daughter in October. I am starting training slowly so as not to overdo and injure myself right from the start. Today Brego and I went down to the canal. We alternately ran and walked. More walking than running and after an hour we had covered about four miles. I can only improve from here. I plan to go to the YMCA tomorrow. I will start with the treadmill, the bike, and the rowing machine. I hate the rowing machine. When I was in cardiac rehab after my heart attack my trainers kept pushing the rowing machine. It is a very good cardio-vascular workout. I will do some resistance training as well. It is amazing but we lose weight in our sleep. The more resistance training you’ve done during the day the more weight you lose while sleeping. It takes energy to repair the damage done from the weights. Also, the cardio can speed up your metabolism. I really need to shed some pounds before the race. I don’t want to be carrying around this extra weight. After a couple of weeks I will add the stairmaster to the routine. I will need some better shoes. The canal was nice. We saw a big frog. We saw lots of birds and quite a few turtles. Some pretty big turtles were swimming around today. We saw a big fish eat a small fish. That’s fairly violent and more than a little messy. I am baking a cake for my Dad’s birthday. We are going out to dinner and then will come back to the house for cake.

2012/08/12 23:30 We shook up the routine a little bit today. Karen and I went to Panera for Sunday coffee and the paper instead of Tim Horton’s. Adison went with us. Have to admit that I like the coffee at Panera more than Tim Horton’s. We may go to Panera from now on. We had Chinese food for dinner. ‘Happy Family’, lots of rice, beefstick, spare-ribs, and an eggroll.

I love the Swedish meatballs at Ikea.

2012/08/11 23:30 I am home safe and sound after a week at the Jersey shore. Karen and I left Wildwood, New Jersey after having a nice breakfast at Uncle Bill’s Pancake House. Truly some awesome pancakes were had for breakfast. The traffic was slow going and most annoying through Philadelphia. We stopped at Ikea in Conshohocken, Pennsylvania. We had some Swedish meatballs with smashed potatoes and Lingonberry jam. We bought some odds and ends and two bamboo chairs that were on clearance. The chairs are very nice and I will post photos later when they are in their new home.

2012/08/11 09:00 Time to leave and head back to Syracuse. Last night the pressure was on to finish the vacation puzzle. I even helped (I put in 5 pieces). Karen stayed up until 2:00AM to finish the puzzle and there were 2 pieces missing.

Karen and Sage working on the puzzle Friday night.

Usain Bolt and his signature pose.

Adison is standing under Lucy the giant six-story tall elephant and she is ‘bolting’. ‘Bolting’ is when you attempt the pose made famous by Usain Bolt, the fastest man in the world. We had just watched Bolt win gold at the Olympics in London.

The view from Lucy's eye.

The Ala Moana.

Alice the butterfly and Tristan the skeleton at the ZooBoo.

The little baby Alice is a butterfly for Halloween this year.

Karen and I took Tristan and Alice to the Zoo Boo last night. We had to park so far away that we rode the school bus that they were using for a shuttle to the zoo. I guess they have a real problem with zombies on the school bus. I watch “The Walking Dead” so I know how messy these zombies can get. Glad to see the school district is prepared.

2012/10/27 23:30

GOP

2012/10/27 11:00

We don't wear the hat because it's cold but because it makes us look so darn cute.

2012/10/26 13:00

Working with wood and the sharp and pointy tools that are used in woodworking might not be the smartest move for someone that has to take a blood thinner for the rest of their life. When I start carving in earnest I might invest in some of those Kevlar gloves.

2012/10/19 08:30 In November of 1994 I was laid off from my job in a round of ‘downsizing’. I disliked where I worked and I wasn’t fond of the company that had laid me off. The company hadn’t, at this point, completed its transformation to the Evil Empire. That metamorphism wouldn’t be complete for another dozen years. During my forced hiatus the weather was amazing. It was unseasonably warm and dry. The nice weather continued through December. I used this time to build a deck on the front of my house and to put a brick patio in the front yard. Prior to this construction there was a wobbly concrete step and a perpetually muddy spot that the kids tracked into the house. I was called back to work after about six months. I never completed the railings on the front deck. My wife complains that I never finish anything. I have been accused of having a fear of completion. Well, yesterday I spent the day working on the railings for the front porch. I am going to finish the job that I started eighteen years ago and then who will have the last laugh? Completing this project should go a long way towards silencing my critics.

Alice and the Coach purse.

2012/10/16 09:00 I had a very disturbing nightmare last night. I had killed a friend of mine. The murder didn’t happen during the dream. The death had already occurred and I had the knowledge that I had committed the crime. I didn’t know why I had killed her. People asked me if I knew anything about what had happened and I lied and said no. I felt guilt and remorse for what had happened as well as confusion as to why I would have committed such a terrible act. I wanted to find out why I had committed the murder in the hopes that maybe there was a reason. Sometimes when you have a powerful dream the emotions from that dream linger even after you wake. That happened this morning as I felt crappy for at least an hour after I woke up. I have said here before that my retirement hasn’t gone exactly the way I had planned. I am spending a good deal of time and energy taking care of Alice, my granddaughter. I am changing diapers, feeding the little girl, and basically being ‘Mr. Mom’. I like the TV show “Once Upon A Time” which just started the second season. I was watching a TIVO’d episode and Snow White, her daughter Emma, the warrior princess Mulan, and Sleeping Beauty were battling ogres. The show ended up being about mothers and the sacrifices they make for their children. At one point I was really getting a little teary eyed. I am becoming such a woman I guess. Age, fading testosterone levels, and my new nurturing position must be getting the best of me. Don’t take what might sound like a complaint the wrong way. Taking care of the little rugrats is important and as long as it’s needed I wouldn’t have it any other way.

2012/10/17 09:00 Alice and I had lunch downtown at Niko’s in Hanover Square yesterday. We met Michelle for lunch. Alice warmed up to Michelle very quickly. Alice loved Michelle’s Coach purse and wanted to keep it. Too funny!

Adison preparing to cross the finish line after fifteen tough kilometers.

Adison before the race.

I said, "Look! It's the Great Pumpkin." No it's not, I was quickly corrected by Tristan. Tristan and I have been watching the Charlie Brown Halloween special. Tristan explained to me that the real Great Pumpkin "flys" over the pumpkin patch and he has toys for boys and girls.

Pumpkin Hollow. Karen and I took Tristan and Alice pumpkin picking.

2012/10/04 20:00

I won one game and lost the match.

2012/10/30 09:00 Karen and I watched the latest episode of “The Walking Dead” on TIVO last night. Then I went to bed and had a zombie nightmare. Go figure. As usual my nightmares have to be strange as all get out and this one was no exception. I was a scientist working with other scientists to make the flesh of zombies edible. We were trying to make the flesh infection free so you could eat zombie meat and not get infected. Also we were trying to make it taste like chicken. My job was cubing the zombie meat. Very disturbing. As I write this Hurricane Sandy has made landfall on the east coast and is causing all kinds of havoc. Over 13,000 flights cancelled (including Adison’s and she is now stuck in Washington state). The stock market is closed for a second day today. Here in CNY we seem to have been spared by the storm they are calling a ‘Frankenstorm’. Just some rain here so far and the rain hasn’t even been that heavy. No winds to speak off. Hope it all stays like that.  ​

2012/10/31 14:00 Today is Halloween and Alice and I went to Tristan’s school to see the Halloween parade. It is always fun to see the little kids in their costumes. Days before the Halloween parade a warning letter went out to parents. In part it said, “Costumes should not be too scary for our youngest students, so please, no pretend blood and no sharp or threatening props or tools”. So, you can imagine my surprise when even after this admonition one of the students came dressed as a rapist (Ben Roethlisberger).