James Strauss Blog - Page 19 of 20

Some short film clips along and near Bellows Beach and Mana Kai, Hawaii. This “vacation ” back to the Islands has been restful….. More later with some action with the small boys! Outrigger Canoeing along the Coast The long paddle home Thanks...

Polling numbers…..do they mean anything?

Polling numbers seem to be all over the place in this contentious Election 2016 How deep into West Virginia, Alabama and Arizona can the pollsters go to hold up Donald Trump’s numbers?

Observation on Ryan-Trump

It is entertaining to sit back and watch Paul Ryan twist and squirm under the punishing thumb of Trump. Ryan has to stick to his endorsement of Trump while Trump refuses to endorse him in return….

Trump and Cowardice.

Note that Donald Trump, man who would not go into the military, continues to insult and demean the integrity of those who not only served but also went into harm’s way and were either captured, wounded, or killed, or all three. Donald Trump hates that simple...

Today’s Reflection-Veterans

It is truly sad that no ex-military will be represented in the White House once again.
How can there be so many veterans who served in foreign wars overlooked when there is so much fear today

Mass Media and the Lies

I want you to pay attention to the glaring fact that the mass media is taking the orange-topped human maggot of a republican candidate and elevating him to being the equal of, or greater, than Clinton in popularity…..

Has the Royal Hawaiian Hotel Gone to the Birds?

For the past 50 years the Hawaiian Islands have been a magnet to me. This week, July 30th through August 8th, finds us enjoying the natural beauty and wonderful people again. Excuse for the trip is really scouting locations for the filming of my new Arch Patton...

Unwelcome, A Harvey Adventure, Short Story by James Strauss

Every day of spring was a day of changing development and disorder met with directed management efforts. The life of the forest’s top predator was filled with one crisis after another…..

More reflection of 1993……

1993 just can’t seem to leave my memory bank. Other events of note in 1993: January 20: Bill Clinton is sworn is as the 42cd President of the United States. January 31: The Dallas Cowboys defeat the Buffalo Bills 52 to 17 in Super Bowl XXVII. February 26: Six...

Reflections of 1993……….

by James Strauss | 4 comments

1993 Yearly Inflation Rate USA 2.96% Year End, Close Dow Jones Industrial Average 3654 Interest Rates Year End Federal Reserve 6.00% Average Cost of new house$113,200.00 Average Income per year $31,230.00 Events: include Brady bill signed into law, World Trade Center...

Alive in the Forest, A Harvey Adventure, Short Story by James Strauss

by James Strauss | 8 comments

The change in weather was abrupt. One night it was full winter with blowing snow and hanging ice and the next there was only melting everything, with water and mud abounding everywhere……..

Seattle Experiences….. Boingo

Boingo, Legal robbery of Wi-Fi? Boingo seems to have circumvented and capitalized on loopholes, or is enforcement a thing of the past? Seattle Washington. Boingo Poison. Yes, Boingo. If you don’t know the WiFi company then you haven’t traveled. They are...

Audio of Harvey the Grey Cat Rules, Adventures of Harvey

Harvey, the Grey Cat, Rules his Forest Domain. Except when a interloper arrives and Harvey tries to enlist the aid of his Human to help rid this outsider. Results are a bit comical. Audio Version ...

Sleepless in Seattle, I Don’t Think So….

Dateline: Seattle Washington March 26, 2106 Seattle, Washington. The Bernie people are all over the downtown of Seattle, getting public hyped up to attend Bernie’s big presentation at Safeco Field tonight at seven. Washington is very much Bernie territory and...

Off to Seattle, March 2016

Journey to Seattle United Airlines. Up above some very republican state down below. Probably Wyoming, on the way to Seattle. Please don’t let me crash on Cheney’s ranch in Wyoming! United is United except for an exceptional crew today. The woman in front...

Holy Moly, A Harvey Adventure, Short Story by James Strauss

by James Strauss | 5 comments

HOLY MOLY Short Story by James Strauss The forest abided. The spring fed the stream that gushed downhill toward the lake with the gurgling sounds of coming warmth penetrating everything on both sides of it. The stream was the winding arterial graft that wrapped...

The Clearing, A Harvey Adventure – Short Story by James Strauss

The winter storm took three days to pass and those days were anything but restful or relaxing. Bad Taffy spent the entire time running back and forth from the to inside of the house….

Preparing the Attack, Harvey Adventure, a Short Story by James Strauss

Harvey settled into his short-shouldered round bed set atop the couch, sitting in direct opposition to the fireplace. The stone fireplace was across the room……

The Online Banking Ripoff, 2016…….

I have been writing about some banking phenomenon going on across the country of late. I liken it to the luggage fees charged by the airlines. Outrageous? Absolutely, these luggage fees, but at least the airlines tell you what the fees are and what you are going to have to pay…..

Sanctuary, A Harvey Adventure, Short Story by James Strauss

Harvey rushed toward the small stand of pines set about twenty body-lengths back from the road. Right Claw, Left Eye and Nothing Crow sat on the black wire set up half way between the snow-bermed edge of the road and the nearest tree. ..

The Event Horizon, Harvey Adventure, Short Story by James Strauss

Sleep didn’t come that night for Harvey. His place, usually at the foot of his principal human’s bed snuggled into one ankle, was foregone to allow for tactical positioning. The heating vent near the front dining room window was not only covered by a billowing silk drape held back by some wall mounted tie……..

Harvey and Habits……keeping a marriage solid?

Harvey the Grey Cat. This morning. Harvey likes the end of the bed while I am in the shower, shaving and all that. He waits so he can approve of my attire for the day. He’s easy because he always approves.

Looking back Inside our Mind

What’s it like inside our minds? Oh, we all know that our cranial container has all this gray stuff composed of crisscrossing nerves and synaptic tissue.

Political Debates 2016……

Political Debates 2106 Dateline: Lake Geneva Wisconsin. February 11, 2016 Well, you may like Bernie, but in listening to the latest debate in Milwaukee earlier tonight, I found Bernie to be rather nasty in trying to make his point while running Hillary down. He used...

Are You Being Bullied?

by MKWeb | 1 comment

Is everyone being Bullied? Dateline: Lake Geneva Wisconsin. How does bullying work, anyway? A rational person would think that every big blustering bully would be turned away in every circumstance by the people witnessing obviously bullying behavior. If that was truth...

So what is this about a Cat Named Harvey?

Harvey. My cat of 14 years. There’s been some controversy over the ownership (if it can really be called that) of cats who live at home but also run in the wild upon occasion……

Sunday Morning at Geneva Java Coffee Shop

Dateline: Sunday, January 9, 2016 Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. Sometimes interesting people are just at the next table. Geneva Java Coffee Shop on Sunday morning. This guy and his female friend (Cal Tech graduate in physics) talking about Larry Niven’s first book about the Pak…….

Harvey, the Grey Cat Rules

Back over one shoulder a crouching human could be seen creeping through the wet soggy grass that led up to the edge of the forest. Harvey waited, standing upright, shifting his gaze from the ungainly man to the forest and back…….

Thumper, A Harvey Adventure, by James Strauss

Movement through the base of the forest isn’t difficult, not if you’re a thirteen-pound cat with fur the color of the darker flora. Harvey moved sinuously inside the brush next to the nearby flowing stream. By sticking close to the water, he could avoid the giant rabbit ………

Bad Taffy, A Harvey Adventure

The pride of humans, to which Harvey had become attached, occasionally required him to sit so its other members could admire him. He sat on top of a not uncomfortable basket for one such session. Sitting up on a basket ………

New Years Observation

Dateline:Lake Geneva Wisconsin January 6, 2016 New Years Observation The real first snow and GSR of the year. I don’t know why but today is the day when the impact of the New Year made its appearance all over Lake Geneva and the surrounding area. I know because...

Good Christ the Fox, A Harvey Adventure

by James Strauss | 6 comments

Harvey crouched down near the side of the garage, his long feline body carefully inserted into the slot between the relatively warm wall of wood and the below zero frigidity of the ice bank only inches away.

Arboreal, a Harvey Adventure

by James Strauss | 9 comments

There was no special talent necessary for inhabiting the tops of trees. Harvey relaxed to better reflect upon the lower forest below him, as the wind moved the branches supporting his body slowly back and forth with boring regularity. Squirrels from his former territory had taught Harvey well…….

The Coming of Dawn, A Harvey Adventure

Observation. Keen patient feline observation. Not notice, interest or simply seeing. Harvey stared, his ears moving undetectably to take in all sound, the nose of his blackened gray muzzle very faintly sniffing the gentle breeze flowing down the hill not far from Bad Taffy’s residence…..

In the Basement, a New Year!

Dateline: January 2, 2016 Lake Geneva Wisconsin. What is the place you make? Most of life is supposed to be about what we make of what is here when we got here and then what we do with whatever the hell that is. I once asked a nun in fifth grade this...

Night Flight, an Arch Patton Adventure

NIGHT FLIGHT Short Story By James Strauss The air above Africa is rarified. Volcanoes spew up from below to be reported for the first time by overflying airliners. Storms with horizontal lightening that will take any passengers breath away wedge in from all...

New Years Wish List, 2016

Dateline: Lake Geneva Wisconsin, December 27, 2015. The New Year approaches. What changes would you like to see take place within the confines of your culture? How about these:

The Present, a Short Story

by James Strauss | 30 comments

The child who was not a child, crouched with his back to the warm window. It was below zero in Wisconsin, but not in the deep window well. A mouse looked up at him, it’s puzzled stare demonstrating no understanding, but also no willingness to back down. The child smiled. ……..

Boxing Day, Political Sparring and such

by MKWeb | 2 comments

Boxing Day occurs every year on December 26th. It’s a national holiday in the UK and Ireland. If the day after Christmas falls on a Saturday or Sunday, the following Monday is designated as the official public holiday…….

Advent Trees and Star Wars…..

Four days in between me and Christmas. I must finish the fourth and fifth Advent trees today so the fourth will be up tonight and then the fifth I will light up on the 23rd. The first four are all white lights, except for that weird yellow…………

Christmas Pueblo, Arch Patton Adventure

by James Strauss | 18 comments

Christmas Pueblo An Arch Patton Adventure by James Strauss Arch Patton found himself inside the confines of the Pueblo of Santa Fe County jail, Christmas Eve, on some vague trumped-up barroom brawl charge. He was in the “drunk tank,” which is what they call the cells...

Flight home from Santa Fe

Boy was I wrong. Not about Starbucks in Santa Fe. On a quiet day you can hear that Starbucks suck all the way in Oklahoma. No, I was wrong about that shop being the only coffee joint located near the Plaza of downtown Santa Fe……..

Final Sunday Evening, Santa Fe

Evening was just about to come on when the sun burst forth and blasted the side of the La Fonda Hotel with brilliant light. The snow, the people, the sun, the buildings, all of it making things appear like there were a hundred or more years ago……

Reflections of Sunday Morning in Santa Fe

Really early Sunday morning. The snow came down in the night and I awoke with surprise. The heavy soft blanket is everywhere and treacherously beautiful, as the snow removal equipment owned by Santa Fe……

Slow Sábado in Santa Fe……..

I walked out to see how the snow was doing. A lot of it seems to be evaporating right into the air. I walked up the sidewalk toward the Catholic Church at the top of San Francisco and then turned to look behind me……

Friday, Friday…..Fun in Santa Fe

John Tittle and his friend Coaster. John wears his shoes without laces because he says they don’t return your laces when they let you out of the ‘facility’ when they pick you up for not having enough money on some nights. Hmmm……..

Santa Fe Going to the Dogs?

What is it about dogs and me in Santa Fe? Now here’s a dog that was laying down this morning and waiting for its owner to wake from street side sleep on San Francisco just across from the main Plaza

Wednesday in Santa Fe…….

Downtown Subscription, the coffee shop I almost got thrown out of last visit, but fled when I saw it coming (for discussing whether ISIS and Al Qaida really exist, too loudly). The place is thronged, as it’s about the only coffee shop left in town……..

On My Way to Santa Fe

by MKWeb | 1 comment

Berghoffs. Concourse C. Gate 21. United Awful Airlines. Waiting. Salvio gets us all into the Christmas spirit by putting up the decorations, laughing a lot while singing the strangest Spanish version of Silent Night I’ve ever heard…..

Bed and Breakfast in the Heartland

Hicks, country folk, rural people. Have you been to the outback of America and really circulated and spent some time with the locals who don’t often venture into the larger urban areas

What Cost, the War on Terror?

War on Terror? Dateline: Lake Geneva Wisconsin. The world. What happens when the military industrial complex gets threatened? Not by outside forces. It wants that. No, I am talking about inside forces. The forces inside western borders that deny funding. It’s...

Application of Intellect?

The application of intellect. The public cannot be brought into the light unless it can be made to understand and observe what light is. At one time most of the world depended upon systems of hands on education to accomplish….

Alone in the Forest, a Short Story by James Strauss

by James Strauss | 54 comments

The hike was not a real challenge. Though it would’ve been impossible without his mom’s last gift; the special aluminum snowshoes. Thomas floated across the top of the pure white surface, even though his backpack weighed more than half as much as his own ninety pounds…….

Possessions Top to Bottom?

Did you really think that some of the population, mostly those that possess most everything, would ever be willing to part with some of what they’ve got? Origins of possession mean nothing at the top end……

Do you “Like” Me… and is it Important?