I'll Call It Like I See It

by sheila morris

Tag: jeopardy

  • all cat adventures point to Pretty

    all cat adventures point to Pretty


    If the Jeopardy question was who loves to rescue people, animals, random family castaway treasures – the correct answer would be who is Pretty?

    If the Jeopardy question was what particular super Cat Sleuth solved the mystery of the Bully Cat’s permanent stomping grounds weeks ago – the correct answer would be who is Pretty?

    Bully Cat’s crib – one block south of our house

    Yes, Pretty observed with her cat detective skills several weeks ago that we have neighbors a block down the street from our house (the opposite direction of Neighbor John’s cat condo) who regularly leave their garage door open at night…just enough for a cat to scoot under. She suggested that cat might be Bully Cat since I mentioned I saw him occasionally in the vicinity of the open garage door on my morning walks. Aha.

    Today I spied Bully Cat hustling toward the garage door

    My last view of BC was his tail as he made himself little to slide under it.

    However, 15 minutes later when I finished my walk he mysteriously appeared in front of our house, gave me a wary stare and then looked longingly toward our carport – perhaps for Carport Kitty who never materialized.

    Bully Cat was exploring my yard trash today

    where in the world is Carport Kitty?

    Not to worry. Although CK was nowhere to be seen when we came home from babysitting late this afternoon, Pretty called to me from the kitchen a few minutes later with the welcome words the cat is out here looking for you and her supper. I sprang into full meal preparation mode with her Fancy Feast chicken pate plus a generous helping of Meow Mix pellets. Yummy. She allowed a brief pet as I placed the bowl in front of her. Sigh.

    I stood guard to protect her from undesirable interference from either Bully Cat or Yellow Cat now revealed to be the Orange Tabby.

    Seriously. I stood outside in the cold carport guarding a cat’s dining experience for what seemed to be an interminable amount of time. My dogs eat their meals in 30 seconds, but this cat made a career of her dinner.

    As for Pretty, she was safe and warm inside catching up on her Tweets, getting ready for tonight’s Jeopardy, perhaps plotting her next rescues. Thank goodness she rescued me.

    *************

    Stay safe, stay sane, get vaccinated and please stay tuned.

  • Answer: 300 Million Dollars a Day (from the archives)

    Answer: 300 Million Dollars a Day (from the archives)


    On October 27, 2011 I published the following post. I’m no foreign policy expert or even wonk, but I am devastated by the disastrous unraveling of order – the chaos that is Afghanistan as the United States leaves a country it first sent troops to in October, 2001.

    Answer: 300 Million Dollars a Day

    Question:  How much does the United States spend on the War in Afghanistan?

    Sigh.   If only I’d been watching Jeopardy instead of 60 Minutes last night.   If only The Good Wife hadn’t moved to Sunday nights for the new fall season in 2011.   If only the football game on CBS had ended on time so I wouldn’t have gotten started watching 60 Minutes because I wanted to know when The Good Wife would actually be coming on later.   If only I’d remembered my New Year’s Resolution to avoid TV news shows at all costs.  

    But no, I wasn’t watching Jeopardy.  Instead,  I got hooked on a segment of the  60 Minutes  Sunday evening news program commemorating the anniversary of the ten-year War in Afghanistan and an interview with the two men responsible for its, ahem, conclusion.   As if. 

    So the interview goes by swimmingly with numbers rolling off the tongues of men who look stern and tired and unhappy to be where they are, including the interviewer.   Number of American lives lost so far?   1,800.   One thousand eight hundred men and women no longer with us or their families and friends.   1,800.   Gone.  Immense, immeasurable, staggering loss.

    Number of dollars spent so far?   Half a trillion.   I don’t even know how many zeroes to put in half a trillion.   I’ll call it a gazillion and I’ll break it down into smaller numbers so we can all relate to it.   Let’s see.   That would be about two billion dollars a week or 300 million dollars a day.   Oh, okay.   That’s easier to understand.   If we put this in Powerball lottery terms, we’re spending 20 Powerball lotteries of 15 million dollars each on a daily basis in a country that hates us on a war that will never be over and wonder why we have an uncontrollable federal deficit.   Seriously.   As my daddy used to say, the inmates are running the asylum.

    Oh, and the two men responsible for bringing this war to a successful conclusion?    The same team that helped to end the insurgency in Iraq.   I kid you not.

    I will not watch TV news shows.   I will not watch TV news shows.   I will not watch TV news shows.   Maybe if I don’t watch them, the news will vanish Without a Trace, which is what I prefer to watch along with The Good Wife.

    *********************

    IMG_20210816_093722329

    Screen shot today of US stats – not including the costs by NATO allies, most especially Germany and the UK, Canadian involvement until 2013, and the immeasurable loss of lives and property by the civilian population of Afghanistan in the past 20 years.

    And guess what? We made a pact with the Devil who has regained control of a country he never left…and never will.

    I remember another 20 year war from 1955 – 1975 in a faraway place known as Vietnam. I know, I know. No comparison, says Secretary of State Blinken. But I vaguely remember helicopters landing and taking off from rooftops to rescue people then like the images I saw today in Kabul. God help the women and children of Afghanistan.

    I will not watch TV news shows. I will not watch TV news shows. I will not watch TV news shows. Somebody stop me.

    *********************

    Stay safe, stay sane, get vaccinated please and stay tuned.

  • hear ye, hear ye – calling ALL patriots: Mayday, Mayday!


    Tears rolled down my cheeks today as I watched and heard House Manager Adam Schiff read the two Articles of Impeachment referred to the Senate by the House of Representatives for trial and removal of the president. Listening to the charges of high crimes and misdemeanors in the Senate chamber against the American president Donald John Trump, even a president I never supported, was an unexpectedly joyless experience.

    I think I finally understood what Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi had been reminding the nation in every press conference she’s held concerning this process. Somber, solemn, even sad, the burden of discovery of the facts that forced her to stand up for her belief in the constiution of the United States regardless of political consequences. Her belief, and the conviction of her party’s caucus in the House,  that no person is above the law in this country gave her no choice in pursuing the removal of someone who continued to threaten our national securtiy and ultimately our democracy.

    Today I felt her pain and sadness and wept with her for a country caught up in crisis.

    Pretty tells me that only people like me who have the luxury to watch either MSNBC faithfully or FOX news religiously during the past few months actually cared about the Senate trial or its outcome. Until yesterday I assured her she was wrong.

    But I had a conversation yesterday with a young woman who teaches sixth grade at a middle school here in South Carolina.  Obviously a person with a good education and a teacher for all the right reasons in this her eighth year of classrom experience. We talked about politics – the Democratic debate the night before. I asked her if she watched the debate, and she said no. She was waiting for the later ones. And then she added out of the blue, really politics are a joke in this country since Donald Trump became president. I felt she spoke for many in her generation; I had a sense of loss and frustation that perhaps our brightest younger citizens were turned off by the  divisions, heated hateful rhetoric, the images of a country at war with itself.

    Then last night Pretty was once again proven to be right about the state of political awareness in our nation when three Jeopardy contestants, three clearly smart women who wouldn’t be on Jeopardy if they weren’t, had a question with a picture of a man they were asked to identify. None of the three buzzed in to answer. The man was Adam Schiff, the person who was the face of the House impeachment process during the past three months  because he is the Chair of the House Intelligence Committee which began the investigation into the president’s misconduct as a result of a whistleblower complaint. I have to admit I was stunned at their lack of recognition of this key House spokesperson.

    Clearly I have too much time invested in the parade of outrageous acts that have defined this country in the past three years. Yes, I hope for a change in leadership, but I also hope for a change in our country’s attitudes toward ourselves in our home towns, attitudes that celebrate our differences, attitudes of finding common ground with our neighbors who share the same dreams for their families that we have for ours, attidudes that rise upward toward the men and women who represent us in Congress and elsewhere around the world.

    The outcome of the Senate trial of this president supposedly has already been determined along party lines. I just watched 99 Senators sign a book attesting to their oath for a fair trial. I would like to believe they will be true to that oath. Regardless of the outcome, this is a moment in time for us to decide who we are as a nation. I encourage every American to care enough about our country to tune in to the Senate trial as our history and future unfolds.

    Hear ye, hear ye – calling all patriots – mayday, mayday!

  • Answer: 300 Million Dollars A Day


    Question:  How much does the United States spend on the War in Afghanistan?

    Sigh.   If only I’d been watching Jeopardy instead of 60 Minutes last night.   If only The Good Wife hadn’t moved to Sunday nights for the new fall season in 2011.   If only the football game on CBS had ended on time so I wouldn’t have gotten started watching 60 Minutes because I wanted to know when The Good Wife would actually be coming on later.   If only I’d remembered my New Year’s Resolution to avoid TV news shows at all costs.  

    But no, I wasn’t watching Jeopardy.  Instead,  I got hooked on a segment of the  60 Minutes  Sunday evening news program commemorating the anniversary of the ten-year War in Afghanistan and an interview with the two men responsible for its, ahem, conclusion.   As if. 

    So the interview goes by swimmingly with numbers rolling off the tongues of men who look stern and tired and unhappy to be where they are, including the interviewer.   Number of American lives lost so far?   1,800.   One thousand eight hundred men and women no longer with us or their families and friends.   1,800.   Gone.  Immense, immeasurable, staggering loss.

    Number of dollars spent so far?   Half a trillion.   I don’t even know how many zeroes to put in half a trillion.   I’ll call it a gazillion and I’ll break it down into smaller numbers so we can all relate to it.   Let’s see.   That would be about two billion dollars a week or 300 million dollars a day.   Oh, okay.   That’s easier to understand.   If we put this in Powerball lottery terms, we’re spending 20 Powerball lotteries of 15 million dollars each on a daily basis in a country that hates us on a war that will never be over and wonder why we have an uncontrollable federal deficit.   Seriously.   As my daddy used to say, the inmates are running the asylum.

    Oh, and the two men responsible for bringing this war to a successful conclusion?    The same team that helped to end the insurgency in Iraq.   I kid you not.

    I will not watch TV news shows.   I will not watch TV news shows.   I will not watch TV news shows.   Maybe if I don’t watch them, the news will vanish Without a Trace, which is what I prefer to watch along with The Good Wife.