Judy Holtzer (Knopf)

Wow, have I missed you guys!!........... It'll be a while till I remotely (here, 10-13,000 miles away in Israel and all) catch up. I want to send on to my kids and a couple of friends the great puns and one-liners that I noticed, and to really look at the pictures sent in during my prolonged absence.

I've been absent since sitting at my computer has become extremely painful. Which brings me to my request, if you-all please: It was discovered when chronic pain became much worse that my degenerating lumbar spine problem was masking acute hip osteoarthritis, and I am waiting for March 10 when I will be having hip replacement surgery.

So I am reaching out to ask if anybody has had hip replacement and is willing to share his/her experience with me, to my profile, of course.  In a way, I hope that I receive no response, since IMO 68 is much too young for hip replacement, but I have not looked at age statistics.

In closing, Ann, I am sure that with your superior empathatic skills, you know what a lucky woman you are in being able to enjoy the fruits of retirement, as noted by Steve. Acutally, this was my plan too, but Man proposes, G-d disposes.... 

Thanks in advance!

Judy Holtzer Knopf, in Beer Sheva, Israel

David Buchholz

Judy, It's been exactly two years since I had anterior hip replacement surgery on my left leg.  I spent one night in the hospital, and within three weeks was out pruning trees.  My surgeon has advised me not to run, but I can.  I walk about fifty-sixty miles a week through the East Bay hills.  I feel occasional discomfort when putting on socks and tieing my shoes; it's not a big deal.  I would have posted the x-ray of my titanium hip, but I'm afraid that a number of my photographs have already grossed people out in other ways, and I don't want to be kicked off the forum. 

Larry:  I should have added that the hip replacement surgery doesn't prevent me from playing golf.  It doesn't.  What prevents me from playing golf is golf.

Larry Klein

Dave, we always knew the 'guitar-man' was hip, but now it appears that you are EXTRA hip.  Some days on the links fell like I'm getting near the head of the line for one of those miracles of modern medicine.

Judy - don't sweat it.  Several of my bridge-playing friends who are much older than us have had the hip replacement, and they are all doing quite well.  You may not need to walk 50-60 miles per week afterward as Dave does, but a gool walking regimen would certainly be beneficial.  I do my miles now as a hopeful preventative, but my time will come.  Best of luck with the surgery in March.

David Buchholz

Getting back to retirement...Steven Levinson said this, "You can spend as much time as you want doing what you didn't have enough time to do before (or were otherwise constrained from doing for one reason or another) purely for the love of it and not for reasons of economic survival."  When before could I have spent hours chasing an egret, just hoping for the light to be right?  For the moment to be something more than just another shot of a bird?

Bruce Fette

Ann,

At least for today, I think you win the prize for 1) your wonderful volunteer work and at least up to this moment 2) the good humor award.

The family was voting on the best jokes of the morning.

I predict that Phil will soon add excellent material to the best humor of the day.

All, What a great egret picture! 

I dont know how you got the shutter speed and focus just right just before he took flight. Whats the trick to being ready like that?

Steven Levinson

Dave:  Now THAT'S retirement!

Barbara Kahn (Tepper)

Judy - I've missed hearing from you!  Sorry to hear about your pain.  I have a good friend who had a hip replacement and it was like a miracle cure so I hope this is what your result will be!

We had to cut our vacation in half because of a medical emergency for my husband.  We left the car in Florida and it's being transported back to NY. We flew home last Sunday.  I didn't want him in a Florida hospital.  So it goes, one day at a time. We always try to be optimistic and hope for the best.  

At least my treatments are going well and I'm able to take care of him.  I believe that your hip replacement will be a success!

Keep in Touch! 

Barbara

Stephen (Steve) Dixon

Dave, that egret taking flight is a terrific photograph. 

Jeff Daum

Great composition and timing Dave, right down to capturing the droplets of water.

David Buchholz

Bruce, Jeff, Stephen, Steven...thank you.  Bruce, as far as being prepared.  Jewell lake, a forty-five minute walk from my home, is where the egret has been hanging out.  It's a lovely hike, and whether or not he's there, it's worthwhile.  However, now that I know that he's around a lot, I take my camera with a 200 mm lens, a long enough telephoto that will allow me to fill the frame without getting too close.  If he's in the middle of the lake or near the inaccessible shoreline I just watch him for a few minutes, then move on.  If he's near the footpath I watch for a while, choose a high ISO on my camera, an open aperture, a center focus, and move slowly in his direction.  He's allowed me to get so close I could almost touch him.  He often turns and walks into the reeds or walks out on a half-submerged tree that has fallen into the lake.  On the two or three occasions that he has flown off, though, I simply raise the camera, set the motor drive so that I can shoot two or three shots a second, and shoot, hoping for something.  The faiilure rate is about twenty to one.  For me, it's the hunt, the process, and I don't fret when I fail.  If things come together, as they do occasionally, I enjoy the moment, then move on.

A surprising caveat...when I first discovered him I didn't realize how large he was with his wings unfolded.  As he flew away he more than filled the frame in a few of my first shots, and I cut off some of his wings.  Delete.

Barbara, we must all be optimistic and hope for the best...best wishes to you and your husband.

Philip Spiess

Judy:  Good to hear from you again.  Not to worry:  my sister Barbara (WHHS 1963) underwent a hip replacement two years ago and is doing fine.  (She is a worrier and a complainer, so if she could survive it with no subsequent concerns, 'tis good.)

"Extra hip":  Good one, Larry!  Glad to see your humor's not out of joint.

Dave:  Your wonderful photos of the egret bring to mind a story I used to share with my Museum Studies students on the history of museums:  Phineas T. Barnum, considered one of the "fathers" of American museums (along with Charles Willson Peale), made his money and fame, before his famous circus, running his "American Museum" in New York City (probably one of the largest museums of its day -- and certainly known for its freaks and curiosities).  On one particularly day, the museum was filled to overflowing and people weren't leaving -- which meant there were no new admission fees coming in.  So Barnum had a big sign put up :  "This Way to the Egress!" . . . over the door to the fire escape, which locked after you went through it.  Now, you people, being Walnut Hills graduates who have studied Latin, know that "egress" is Latin for "exit" -- which is another Latin word for "exit," i.e., "going out" ("exodus," which is not Latin, but most of you know what language it is), but Barnum's less literate audience, looking for the "egret" or the sacred "ibix," or something, stumbled through the exit doors and had to pay another admission to come back in.  "O tempora!  O, mores!"  And lovely pictures they are, Dave; I'm impressed by your patience in stalking the fowl beast for the ultimate exposure!

Barbara:  Hope all goes well with your husband and you.  You did well to move him out of a Florida hospital:  my mother-in-law spent a number of years under the control of Florida doctors and was drugged into unconsciousness; her husband (my wife's step-father) got equally shabby treatment from Florida doctors, who didn't even have oxygen available when he desperately needed it!  It became apparent to us that many doctors in Florida (I won't damn them all) prey on the elderly for their money because, being elderly, they need the treatments, and have nowhere else to turn.  Again, I hope all goes well with you and your husband.   

Barbara Kahn (Tepper)

Thanks Phil!  While everyone assured me that Dr Phillips Hospital in Orlando was an excellent institution we knew nobody there and were at their mercy.  At home my older son works in our large county hospital and knows many people in the health system.  I felt very comfortable her with doctors chosed by people we knew and getting excellent care.  

They scare you to death about signing yourself out but we did it anyway.  The car just arrived in NY after being shipped by Plycar.  My son arranged for that too.  We're getting the testing done and hopefully a procedure on Thursday will help the most.

We're really lucky all the way around I figure.  My younger son drives us to the far doctor appointments because I only drive locally while on the medication.  We should be dug out from the blizzard by Thursday. We should've been in Hilton Head this week but you go with the flow.  

You guys expecting snow there too?  

Philip Spiess

Barbara:  That phrase about "They scare you to death about signing yourself out but we did it anyway" sounds all too familiar and ominous.  But good for you.  Health care is best dealt with at home, where you know the doctors and feel safe (and hopefully, as you apparently do, have family and loved ones to watch over you and help with transportation, etc.).

Yes, we're expecting snow (but not like it's already hitting the New England states).

Barbara Kahn (Tepper)

I went to the grocery store just to get out and see for myself what was happening because we did our shopping yesterday.  People are posting pictures of bare shelves.  Nearly all fresh food was gone too - only a little beef not much else.  Tv already pre-empted with weather bulletins and all canceled for tomorrow.  We'll see what happens...it's another adventure!

Bruce Fette

keep us posted Barbara.

My wife has a sister and cousins there too.

Bruce

Ed Seykota

With all this talk about snow in the news, I have to ask some of my neighbors exactly what that means. No use, no one around here seems to know. One guy thinks it might have something to do with cold weather.

Philip Spiess

Ed:  To help you out here, "Snow" is a Hollywood phenomenon (usually made with torn white paper) that appears in the 1954 movie, White Christmas, an interesting World War II nostalgia remake of the earlier 1942 movie, Holiday Inn (which has that immortal hoofer, Fred Astaire, tossing firecrackers at his feet while dancing on the Fourth of July), both movies featuring said torn white paper and a captivating tune (not heard much any more, though some say it is second in popularity during the Yuletide season only to a piece called "Silent Night" -- and wouldn't we all be grateful for that, given what's usually on the radio from November 1 through December 25) by the composer/lyricist Irving Berlin, whose chief claim to fame was that he lived to be over 100.  Curiously, the 1954 movie also has a song, "Snow, Snow, Snow," that seems to be a paean to torn paper (no, Rip Torn did not appear in either movie).  Besides a rip-snorter of a song on this subject -- "There's No Business like Snow Business" (1946) -- Berlin's other claim to fame, aside from the fact that this "White Christmas" tune has been called by Variety "probably the most valuable song copyright in the world," is another tune, dubbed by him "God Bless America" (1939, but originally written in 1918), which was recorded and sung in 1938 by a radio star named Kate Smith (and a damned good thing she appeared on radio:  when she later appeared on TV she always dressed in black and was as big as a house -- I once saw a film clip of her doing the "Charleston," and she looked like the Goodyear Blimp had broken loose from its moorings during a hurricane.  P.S.:  True fact:  I once rode on the Goodyear Blimp in Florida just after a hurricane, but, as near as I could tell, it was nothing like Kate Smith, at least not "When the Moon Comes Over the Mountain" [in-joke folks:  just Google it!]).  [Note aside:  Has anyone ever noticed that the famed ventriloquist Edgar Bergen, father of Candace Bergen, with dummies Charlie MacCarthy, Effie Klinker, Mortimer Snerd, etc. (now in the Smithsonian Institution), made his fame -- as a ventriloquist -- on the radio?!!  But I digress.]  Berlin, it turns out, was a true patriot:  the copyright proceeds from "God Bless America" go to the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts of America.  (Full disclosure:  I am, and have been for some time, an Assistant Scoutmaster in the Boy Scouts -- and I have not received one damn cent from Irving Berlin's estate, although, growing up in Clifton, I sang it every Thursday night in summer at the conclusion of the Burnet Woods band concerts if "Smittie" (Withrow High School's bandmaster) was conducting (often accompanied vocally by Marian Spelman, our Teedee's relative)!

Hollywood also recognizes "snow" as a certain powder that, I believe, is placed on a small glass plate and inhaled into the nostrils with a straw or spoon, providing halucinatory inspiration, a "kick," and possible legal action if one misbehaves.  Dale?

I hope this clears up your various confusions, Ed.

David Buchholz

There's snow business like show business, Phil.

Larry Klein

Good Heavens to Mergatroid, Phil!  Have you finally gone off the (Berlin) wall?  Kate Smith was an American classic, and when she sang her lungs seemed to have more air than anything ever produced by Goodyear.

Real snow, of course, is produced in winter climes, whereas your "Hollywood" snow is produced in the tropics of S. America or the poppyfields of Afghanastan.  I prefer the former, myself.

And speaking of Boy Scouts - I can't confirm this, but it's likely that the WHHS mascot name was selected by a group of student Boy Scouts.  I leave it to you to determine their rank.

Now I'm pretty sure Ed will be totally confused.  What the heck were we talking about, anyway?

Barbara Kahn (Tepper)

Thanks Bruce and very funny guys - love the snow jokes!

We fared better than expected here on the south shore of Long Island. Our town had about 1' only, less than expected.  Everything was closed though and it made it easier to clean up.  

East of us in Suffolk County they got at least double what we did so they're still cleaning up.  So, here we still sit - not going out today because both of us aren't driving right now.  Tomorrow our son will take us to the hospital for a test for Roy and we'll know more from there.  Still optimistic that we can get our lives back - maybe in the spring?  Turn over a new leaf in the spring?

Philip Spiess

Larry:  I once went through the Berlin Wall, not off of it (the year before it fell).  And you're right:  Kate Smith had a great voice; she was no windbag (unlike the Goodyear Blimp, to say nothing of some current radio performers, er, commentators, er, bloviators!).  And, although I never quite made it to Eagle rank myself in the Boy Scouts (I was two merit badges short, but was too involved in the theater my Senior year at WHHS), my son is an Eagle Scout -- something which has served him well in advancement in his fire-fighting training.  But I was always confused about our WHHS mascot -- I've never seen a blue and gold eagle.

Bruce Fette

Barbara,

We are certainly eagerly awaiting that new spring leaf here. :)

I kind of wish that I had a new spring leap in my step too :)

We all hope that hubby gets a great report.

Bruce

Philip Spiess

Ditto Bruce's comments, Barbara!  And seeing Bruce with his rocket, I am negligent in reporting that Bruce and I went out rocket shooting in December (was it, Bruce?) with several of Bruce's rockets.  Great fun -- he certainly knows what he's doing; I was just along for the ride and to help pick up fallen rocket parts -- quite different from picking up fallen women.  (Tom Lehrer:  "'Vonce ze rockets are up, who cares vair ze come down?  Zat's not my department,' says Wernher von Braun."  Speaking of whom, back in July, Bruce and Churchill McKinney and I paid a visit of homage to the grave of Wernher von Braun in Ivy Hill Cemetery, Alexandria, Virginia.) 

Ed Seykota

Phil,

Thanks a lot (or as we say in these parts, muchas gracias) for your amazingly colorful response to my wondering about the meaning of snow.

I have to confess that, despite living in Puerto Rico, a major node in the supply chain for various chemical compounds, I had no idea that “snow” refers to an illicit substance. (Gasp!)

I must add, I deeply appreciate your illustrating, through the intensity of your reply - and through your various and urgent diversions into marginally relevant subjects - and through your generically persnickety attitude, the kind of fate that might befall a devout worshiper of the white powder; in other words, I had no idea you like to ski and that skiing can have such a salubrious effect on your desire to discharge data.

Larry,

You correctly surmise that I live in the state of confusion (state codes CN or CF – no one around here seems to know which). This does not, however interfere with my enjoyment of the banter on the WHHS chat-n-scratch.

Barbara,

On the subject of lines (I mean the ones at supermarkets, not the kind Phil likes - at the bottom of ski lifts) these days you can find the long ones in Venezuela – where central planning keeps prices low – and supplies even lower.

Rick,

Thank you for encouraging me in my attempt to bring some bluegrass licks to an island that has, literally, hundreds of different rhythms, many of them characteristic of a particular village. I currently have a recording in the works.

Dave,

Thank you for posting the Punography. Great material for entertaining the audience during the retuning pause between songs.

Ann,

Thank you for reminding me, through your example, that the gift lies in the giving and that showing kindness towards and compassion for others helps to keep us all in the healthy, happy and alive column.

Ann Shepard (Rueve)

Ed, thank you. I really feel privileged to be in a position to help others.  

But, what's the fascination with "script" font. They're discontinuing teachIng cursive in grade schools. 

Anyway, speaking of snow, the Aleut, Inuit and Yupik languages (Eskimos) have many words. But I didn't see a line with Phil's Hollywood definition:

tlapa           powder snow
tlacringit      snow that is crusted on the surface 
kayi            drifting snow
tlapat          still snow
klin            remembered snow
naklin          forgotten snow
tlamo           snow that falls in large wet flakes 
tlatim          snow that falls in small flakes 
tlaslo          snow that falls slowly
tlapinti        snow that falls quickly
kripya          snow that has melted and refrozen
tliyel          snow that has been marked by wolves 
tliyelin        snow that has been marked by Eskimos 
blotla          blowing snow
pactla          snow that has been packed down 
hiryla          snow in beards
wa-ter          melted snow
tlayinq         snow mixed with mud
quinaya         snow mixed with Husky shit
quinyaya        snow mixed with the shit of a lead dog
slimtla         snow that is crusted on top but soft underneath
kriplyana       snow that looks blue in the early morning 
puntla          a mouthful of snow because you fibbed
allatla         baked snow
fritla          fried snow
gristla         deep fried snow
MacTla          snow burgers
jatla           snow between your fingers or toes, or in groin-folds 
dinliltla       little balls of snow that cling to Husky fur 
sulitlana       green snow
mentlana        pink snow
tidtla          snow used for cleaning
ertla           snow used by Eskimo teenagers for exquisite erotic rituals
kriyantli       snow bricks
hahatla         small packages of snow given as gag gifts 
semtla          partially melted snow
ontla           snow on objects
intla           snow that has drifted indoors 
shlim           slush
warintla        snow used to make Eskimo daiquiris 
mextla          snow used to make Eskimo Margaritas 
penstla         the idea of snow
mortla          snow mounded on dead bodies 
ylaipi          tomorrow's snow
nylaipin        the snows of yesteryear ("neiges d'antan") 
pritla          our children's snow
nootlin         snow that doesn't stick 
rotlana         quickly accumulating snow
skriniya        snow that never reaches the ground
bluwid          snow that's shaken down from objects in the wind 
tlanid          snow that's shaken down and then mixes with sky-falling snow
ever-tla        a spirit made from mashed fermented snow, popular among Eskimo men
talini          snow angels
priyakli        snow that looks like it's falling upward 
chiup           snow that makes halos
blontla         snow that's shaken off in the mudroom 
tlalman         snow sold to German tourists
tlalam          snow sold to American tourists 
tlanip          snow sold to Japanese tourists 
protla          snow packed around caribou meat
attla           snow that as it falls seems to create nice pictures in the air
sotla           snow sparkling with sunlight 
tlun            snow sparkling with moonlight 
astrila         snow sparkling with starlight
clim            snow sparkling with flashlight or headlight 
tlapi           summer snow
krikaya         snow mixed with breath
ashtla          expected snow that's wagered on (depth, size of flakes)
huantla         special snow rolled into "snow reefers" and smoked by wild Eskimo youth
tla-na-na       snow mixed with the sound of old rock and roll from a portable radio
depptla         a small snowball, preserved in Lucite, that had been handled by Johnny Depp
trinkyi         first snow of the year 
tronkyin        last snow of the year 
shiya           snow at dawn
katiyana        night snow
tlinro          snow vapor
nyik            snow with flakes of widely varying size 
ragnitla        two snowfalls at once, creating moire patterns 
akitla          snow falling on water
privtla         snow melting in the spring rain
chahatlin       snow that makes a sizzling sound as it falls on water 
hootlin         snow that makes a hissing sound as the individual flakes brush
geltla          snow dollars
briktla         good building snow
striktla        snow that's no good for building
erolinyat       snow drifts containing the imprint of crazy lovers 
chachat         swirling snow that drives you nuts
krotla          snow that blinds you
tlarin          snow that can be sculpted into the delicate corsages Eskimo girls pin to their whale parkas at                  prom time
motla           snow in the mouth
sotla           snow in the south
maxtla          snow that hides the whole village 
tlayopi         snow drifts you fall into and die 
truyi           avalanche of snow
tlapripta       snow that burns your scalp and eyelids 
carpitla        snow glazed with ice
tla             ordinary snow