From time to time, I receive an interesting e-mail from a friend. And sometimes, I share the information I receive with other friends. This past weekend, a friend (Kim Eckert) sent me the following e-mail and I thought it was filled with information I thought you would enjoy. So, here it is – with some personal comments from me:
1. Cucumbers contain most of the vitamins you need every day. Just one cucumber contains Vitamin B1, Vitamin B2, Vitamin B3, Vitamin B5, Vitamin B6, Folic Acid, Vitamin C, Calcium, Iron, Magnesium, Phosphorus, Potassium and Zinc.
2. Feeling tired in the afternoon, put down the caffeinated soda and pick up a cucumber. Cucumbers are a good source of B Vitamins (see No. 1) and Carbohydrates that can provide that quick pick-me-up that can last for hours. (Of course, I drink decaffeinated sodas – better described as carbonated mop water. Whether caffeinated or decaffeinated, neither gives me a quick pick-me-up. Unfortunately, I probably will not eat a cucumber as a replacement for my decaffeinated soda.)
3. Tired of your bathroom mirror fogging up after a shower? Try rubbing a cucumber slice along the mirror, it will eliminate the fog and provide a soothing, spa-like fragrance. (Or you could use one of those anti-fog wipes and not waste food.)
4. Are grubs and slugs ruining your planting beds? Place a few slices in a small pie tin and your garden will be free of pests all season long. The chemicals in the cucumber react with the aluminum to give off a scent undetectable to humans but drive garden pests crazy and make them flee the area. (The smell of cucumbers can drive me away if they are strong enough.)
5. Are you looking for a fast and easy way to remove cellulite? Before going out or to the pool, try rubbing a slice or two of cucumbers along your problem area for a few minutes, the phytochemicals in the cucumber cause the collagen in your skin to tighten, firming up the outer layer and reducing the visibility of cellulite. It works great on wrinkles, too. (I have found that when I eat cucumbers that my face tightens up – kind of like when you eat a lemon.)
6. Want to avoid a hangover or terrible headache? Eat a few cucumber slices before going to bed and wake up refreshed and headache free. Cucumbers contain enough sugar, B vitamins and electrolytes to replenish essential nutrients the body lost, keeping everything in equilibrium, avoiding both a hangover and headache. (In order to get a hangover, you have to be drunk. If you are drunk, do you think you will remember to eat some cucumber slices before going to bed? If you do, you will wake up with cucumber breath.)
7. Looking to fight off that afternoon or evening snacking binge? Cucumbers have been used for centuries and often used by European trappers, traders and explorers for quick meals to thwart off starvation. (To thwart off starvation – yep, that’s the time I will eat cucumbers. Or when I’m drunk and can remember No. 6.)
8. Have an important meeting or job interview and you realize that you don't have enough time to polish your shoes? Rub a freshly cut cucumber over the shoes. Its chemicals will provide a quick and durable shine that not only looks great but also repels water. (The smell will also repel anyone you come in contact with over the next few hours.)
9. Out of WD 40 and need to fix a squeaky hinge? Take a cucumber slice and rub it along the problematic hinge, and voila, the squeak is gone.
10. Stressed out and don't have time for massage, facial or visit to the spa? Cut up an entire cucumber and place it in a boiling pot of water. The chemicals and nutrients from the cucumber will react with the boiling water and be released in the steam, creating a soothing, relaxing aroma that has been shown the reduce stress in new mothers and college students during final exams. (I will avoid this as I am neither a new mother nor a college student taking a final exam.)
11. Just finish a business lunch and realize you don't have gum or mints? Take a slice of cucumber and press it to the roof of your mouth with your tongue for 30 seconds to eliminate bad breath. The phytochemicals will kill the bacteria in your mouth responsible for causing bad breath. (The taste would kill me.)
12. Looking for a “green” way to clean your faucets, sinks or stainless steel? Take a slice of cucumber and rub it on the surface you want to clean. Not only will it remove years of tarnish and bring back the shine, but is won't leave streaks and won't harm you fingers or fingernails while you clean. (And you eat this vegetable?)
13. Using a pen and made a mistake? Take the outside of the cucumber and slowly use it to erase the pen writing. It also works great on crayons and markers that the kids have used to decorate the walls. (I am sure the fragrance it leaves on the paper and walls will also keep the grubs and slugs away, too.)
Pass this along to everybody you know who is looking for better and safer ways to solve life's everyday problems.
This e-mail is not going to solve life’s everyday problems, but it gives you some things to think about.
Saturday, July 17, 2010
New generation can thank Mario Galento
My grandmother, Annie Locke, was a wrestling fan. I guess that explains why I like to watch – and occasionally attend wrestling matches. As I have grown older, I have attended fewer and fewer of the events.
My children, on the other hand, still attend wrestling matches. They like to go to the GCW events here in Phenix City. They seem to enjoy them – just like I did as a kid.
As I stated to start this column, my grandmother was a wrestling fan. If wrestling was being held within 100 miles of her location, she wanted to go. If wrestling came on television, she watched – and you better not get in her way. I think she knew as many holds as any professional wrestler and was prepared to use them if you needed to be put in your place.
I can remember attending wrestling matches in the old Municipal Auditorium in Columbus, the Houston County Farm Center in Dothan, at Fred Ward’s Front Street Arena in Columbus, Darnell Field in Phenix City and on Dillingham Street in Phenix City at a place that no longer exists. In fact, none of the old wrestling venues – except the Houston County Farm Center – still exist. They are now faded memories of my youth, but not completely faded away.
My father made sure my grandmother made it to many of those wrestling matches. I sat ringside with Granny Locke while Daddy sat in the cheap seats. That was probably the best thing for him to do since he always pulled for the bad guys. I think he became friends with most of them because he was their only fan. Granny Locke always pulled for the good guys and threatened the bad guys with bodily harm – many times telling them to stay back or she would stick them with a hat pin.
I was fortunate to share the experience with my grandmother and my dad – my uncle Wallace stepped in from time to time to make sure granny got to the matches when Daddy couldn’t. It wasn’t quite a family event to go to wrestling, but we went together to those places.
Once in a while, when traveling to high school football games on Friday nights, Frankie Bell and I get to talking about the good ole days of wrestling – when wrestling was real. Well, lets say it was “real” entertaining, much more so than today. No wrestlers today can match the fear that Ox Baker put into a child’s heart when he wrestled or Abdulla the Butcher for that matter. These guys played their roles as evildoers to the hilt.
Everybody hated Ox and Abdulla, but there were others who were just as mean – Mad Dog and Butcher Vachon to name a couple. The bad guys today, well, they are comic book characters at best. Does Caine or the Undertaker strike fear into the hearts of little children? I do not think so. The Assassins were scarier than these two comic book characters.
I think my favorite bad guy was Mario Galento (real name: Bonnie Lee Boyette). Mario, who had significant roles in a couple of movies – Frontier Women and Natchez Trail – in the 1950s and 1960s was good at acting his role of villain. In fact, Mario could stir up a crowd to a near frenzy. The local police would have to escort Mario from the ring – sometimes to the ring as well.
After the matches, though, Mario had another job – selling pizza to the crowd. He and his family owned a pizzeria in Atlanta and brought their product to some of the matches to sell. Mario is also the first wrestler I knew that sold and autographed photos at the matches. Mario was a bad guy and an entrepreneur. Today’s wrestlers can thank pioneers like Mario for teaching promoters how to market their products – their wrestlers.
The guys I cheered for and against as a kid are the same kind of guys my kids go to watch today – local guys trying to make a little extra money on the side and hopefully making it to the higher levels of the sport in the future. If they do not make it to the big time, they can be happy knowing they made a lot of people happy by providing weekly entertainment – and by establishing lasting friendships and fan bases. For every John Cena, there are hundreds of Vordell Walkers out there trying to keep people interested in the sport.
Ric Flair, Shawn Michaels, Bret Hart and Hulk Hogan did not hook me on wrestling. Sure, I enjoyed watching them perform over the years, but it was wrestlers like Chief Little Eagle, Greg Peterson, Billy Boy Hines, Bill Dromo, Dick Steinborn, Tito Copa and even Mario Galento got me hooked long before I ever heard those other names. It wasn’t the guys you see on Monday nights on national television or on pay-per-view events who got me hooked. It was the guys that wrestled at the Darnell Fields, Front Street Arenas and Houston County Farm Centers that did that – just like the guys wrestling in Phenix City on Thursday nights are doing now for a new generation of fans.
My children, on the other hand, still attend wrestling matches. They like to go to the GCW events here in Phenix City. They seem to enjoy them – just like I did as a kid.
As I stated to start this column, my grandmother was a wrestling fan. If wrestling was being held within 100 miles of her location, she wanted to go. If wrestling came on television, she watched – and you better not get in her way. I think she knew as many holds as any professional wrestler and was prepared to use them if you needed to be put in your place.
I can remember attending wrestling matches in the old Municipal Auditorium in Columbus, the Houston County Farm Center in Dothan, at Fred Ward’s Front Street Arena in Columbus, Darnell Field in Phenix City and on Dillingham Street in Phenix City at a place that no longer exists. In fact, none of the old wrestling venues – except the Houston County Farm Center – still exist. They are now faded memories of my youth, but not completely faded away.
My father made sure my grandmother made it to many of those wrestling matches. I sat ringside with Granny Locke while Daddy sat in the cheap seats. That was probably the best thing for him to do since he always pulled for the bad guys. I think he became friends with most of them because he was their only fan. Granny Locke always pulled for the good guys and threatened the bad guys with bodily harm – many times telling them to stay back or she would stick them with a hat pin.
I was fortunate to share the experience with my grandmother and my dad – my uncle Wallace stepped in from time to time to make sure granny got to the matches when Daddy couldn’t. It wasn’t quite a family event to go to wrestling, but we went together to those places.
Once in a while, when traveling to high school football games on Friday nights, Frankie Bell and I get to talking about the good ole days of wrestling – when wrestling was real. Well, lets say it was “real” entertaining, much more so than today. No wrestlers today can match the fear that Ox Baker put into a child’s heart when he wrestled or Abdulla the Butcher for that matter. These guys played their roles as evildoers to the hilt.
Everybody hated Ox and Abdulla, but there were others who were just as mean – Mad Dog and Butcher Vachon to name a couple. The bad guys today, well, they are comic book characters at best. Does Caine or the Undertaker strike fear into the hearts of little children? I do not think so. The Assassins were scarier than these two comic book characters.
I think my favorite bad guy was Mario Galento (real name: Bonnie Lee Boyette). Mario, who had significant roles in a couple of movies – Frontier Women and Natchez Trail – in the 1950s and 1960s was good at acting his role of villain. In fact, Mario could stir up a crowd to a near frenzy. The local police would have to escort Mario from the ring – sometimes to the ring as well.
After the matches, though, Mario had another job – selling pizza to the crowd. He and his family owned a pizzeria in Atlanta and brought their product to some of the matches to sell. Mario is also the first wrestler I knew that sold and autographed photos at the matches. Mario was a bad guy and an entrepreneur. Today’s wrestlers can thank pioneers like Mario for teaching promoters how to market their products – their wrestlers.
The guys I cheered for and against as a kid are the same kind of guys my kids go to watch today – local guys trying to make a little extra money on the side and hopefully making it to the higher levels of the sport in the future. If they do not make it to the big time, they can be happy knowing they made a lot of people happy by providing weekly entertainment – and by establishing lasting friendships and fan bases. For every John Cena, there are hundreds of Vordell Walkers out there trying to keep people interested in the sport.
Ric Flair, Shawn Michaels, Bret Hart and Hulk Hogan did not hook me on wrestling. Sure, I enjoyed watching them perform over the years, but it was wrestlers like Chief Little Eagle, Greg Peterson, Billy Boy Hines, Bill Dromo, Dick Steinborn, Tito Copa and even Mario Galento got me hooked long before I ever heard those other names. It wasn’t the guys you see on Monday nights on national television or on pay-per-view events who got me hooked. It was the guys that wrestled at the Darnell Fields, Front Street Arenas and Houston County Farm Centers that did that – just like the guys wrestling in Phenix City on Thursday nights are doing now for a new generation of fans.
Thank goodness the case was dismissed
Let me say right off that I do not want anyone to think that all Phenix City police officers fit in the following description. But, there are some that do.
Some of our officers have become too disenfranchised from our community. In other words, they do not know us anymore. They have become too rigid in the performance of their duties and no longer understand that they are hired to “serve and protect.” Some of them must have misunderstood those words as to “harass and ticket.” But, I repeat, not all of our officers are like this – in fact very few are like this.
I remember the old days – when Phenix City was not that much smaller than today, but a whole lot more personal. Police officers knew the people they were to serve and protect by name. There was an officer in my old neighborhood in Asbury Park that not only knew the names of the kids in the neighborhood, but also the names of their parents and in which houses they lived. I bet you will find few that could claim that today.
I miss those days. I feel sorry for those people who will never know those days when life was lived at a slower pace – no video games, no 24-hour television stations and less mass transportation. In those days, kids played outside and neighbors talked with each other. We never had to create a neighborhood watch and put up those signs all over the place. In my old neighborhood, everyone watched out for each other. I am lucky to still live in a neighborhood where folks care about each other.
I especially missed those old days when I was pulled over by a Phenix City police officer on May 24 on my way to work. The officer asked why I was not wearing my seatbelt. I told her my doctor told me not to wear it because I had heart surgery recently and that the chest incision was not completely healed. She asked for the doctor’s excuse. Now, I do not know about you, but when my doctor gives me instructions he does not always write them down. I guess he feels I am intelligent enough to understand what he is saying and to follow those instructions. I told the officer I did not have a written excuse from my doctor. I did offer to show my chest incision as proof. The officer informed me that was “not relevant.”
Guess what? I was issued a ticket.
I asked the officer to have a supervisor come to the scene. I was told, “He said he ain’t coming.” I was also told a clean driving record of 38 years was “not relevant.” I was also informed by the officer that I would be arrested, handcuffed and taken to jail if I did not sign the ticket being issued. I signed under protest – actually wrote that on the ticket along with my signature.
As I began to leave, a second officer came to the scene. I stepped out of my vehicle thinking this must be the supervisor. It was not. This officer stepped out of his vehicle and, when he saw me step out of mine, held up one hand as if to tell me to halt and placed the other on his weapon. What? Was he going to shoot me for a seatbelt violation? I asked if he was the supervisor and he said he was not. I left.
I immediately contacted the City Manager and Police Chief. I informed them of the situation. I also told them to go talk to the officer and when the officer said I got ugly that she would be telling the truth. There was nothing they could do, but suggested I get a doctor’s excuse and take it to court. They said the judge would probably dismiss the charges. You think? But, why was I going to have to go to court in the first place? Could not the officer have used some common sense and sent me on my way with a warning or by telling me to be careful until I could wear the seatbelt again? The Police Chief told me the city could give the officers it employed all the training possible, but that they could not “fix stupid.” No they can’t.
I did inform the City Manager and Police Chief that before this ordeal ended it would cost the city more than the $25 dollars it would cost me if I were convicted in court. I figured at their salaries I had already gotten ahead by $50 or more for them having to deal with me over the telephone. And, I figured by going to court I would add to that total. That was the price the city would have to pay to keep hardened criminals like me off the streets.
So, I had to cancel another appointment with one of my doctors – not the one that told me not to wear the seatbelt (that was my heart surgeon) – in order to attend court on June 24. After 30 minutes of waiting, my case was called. I obtained no excuse from my doctor to take to court. I did not think I really needed that since I had proof of my reason for not wearing the seatbelt on my chest. The judge looked at me and asked if I had been wearing my seatbelt at the time I was pulled over and I said I was not. He said more than asked, “You weren’t wearing it because of your heart surgery?” I said, “Yes sir.” He said, “Case dismissed.” Finally, the ordeal was over.
Do I want you to harbor ill feelings for our police officers? No. There are far too many good officers to allow a few bad apples to taint their reputations. Do I want you to feel sorry for me for having to go through the ordeal? No. I want you to fight back like I did when you are confronted by the kind of police officer I had to deal with. Tell the Police Chief and City Manager of any problems. They will not know there is a problem if you do not tell them. And, remember the good officers who genuinely serve and protect our community, give out praise when it is deserved.
And, remember to carry your doctor’s instructions with you at all times.
Some of our officers have become too disenfranchised from our community. In other words, they do not know us anymore. They have become too rigid in the performance of their duties and no longer understand that they are hired to “serve and protect.” Some of them must have misunderstood those words as to “harass and ticket.” But, I repeat, not all of our officers are like this – in fact very few are like this.
I remember the old days – when Phenix City was not that much smaller than today, but a whole lot more personal. Police officers knew the people they were to serve and protect by name. There was an officer in my old neighborhood in Asbury Park that not only knew the names of the kids in the neighborhood, but also the names of their parents and in which houses they lived. I bet you will find few that could claim that today.
I miss those days. I feel sorry for those people who will never know those days when life was lived at a slower pace – no video games, no 24-hour television stations and less mass transportation. In those days, kids played outside and neighbors talked with each other. We never had to create a neighborhood watch and put up those signs all over the place. In my old neighborhood, everyone watched out for each other. I am lucky to still live in a neighborhood where folks care about each other.
I especially missed those old days when I was pulled over by a Phenix City police officer on May 24 on my way to work. The officer asked why I was not wearing my seatbelt. I told her my doctor told me not to wear it because I had heart surgery recently and that the chest incision was not completely healed. She asked for the doctor’s excuse. Now, I do not know about you, but when my doctor gives me instructions he does not always write them down. I guess he feels I am intelligent enough to understand what he is saying and to follow those instructions. I told the officer I did not have a written excuse from my doctor. I did offer to show my chest incision as proof. The officer informed me that was “not relevant.”
Guess what? I was issued a ticket.
I asked the officer to have a supervisor come to the scene. I was told, “He said he ain’t coming.” I was also told a clean driving record of 38 years was “not relevant.” I was also informed by the officer that I would be arrested, handcuffed and taken to jail if I did not sign the ticket being issued. I signed under protest – actually wrote that on the ticket along with my signature.
As I began to leave, a second officer came to the scene. I stepped out of my vehicle thinking this must be the supervisor. It was not. This officer stepped out of his vehicle and, when he saw me step out of mine, held up one hand as if to tell me to halt and placed the other on his weapon. What? Was he going to shoot me for a seatbelt violation? I asked if he was the supervisor and he said he was not. I left.
I immediately contacted the City Manager and Police Chief. I informed them of the situation. I also told them to go talk to the officer and when the officer said I got ugly that she would be telling the truth. There was nothing they could do, but suggested I get a doctor’s excuse and take it to court. They said the judge would probably dismiss the charges. You think? But, why was I going to have to go to court in the first place? Could not the officer have used some common sense and sent me on my way with a warning or by telling me to be careful until I could wear the seatbelt again? The Police Chief told me the city could give the officers it employed all the training possible, but that they could not “fix stupid.” No they can’t.
I did inform the City Manager and Police Chief that before this ordeal ended it would cost the city more than the $25 dollars it would cost me if I were convicted in court. I figured at their salaries I had already gotten ahead by $50 or more for them having to deal with me over the telephone. And, I figured by going to court I would add to that total. That was the price the city would have to pay to keep hardened criminals like me off the streets.
So, I had to cancel another appointment with one of my doctors – not the one that told me not to wear the seatbelt (that was my heart surgeon) – in order to attend court on June 24. After 30 minutes of waiting, my case was called. I obtained no excuse from my doctor to take to court. I did not think I really needed that since I had proof of my reason for not wearing the seatbelt on my chest. The judge looked at me and asked if I had been wearing my seatbelt at the time I was pulled over and I said I was not. He said more than asked, “You weren’t wearing it because of your heart surgery?” I said, “Yes sir.” He said, “Case dismissed.” Finally, the ordeal was over.
Do I want you to harbor ill feelings for our police officers? No. There are far too many good officers to allow a few bad apples to taint their reputations. Do I want you to feel sorry for me for having to go through the ordeal? No. I want you to fight back like I did when you are confronted by the kind of police officer I had to deal with. Tell the Police Chief and City Manager of any problems. They will not know there is a problem if you do not tell them. And, remember the good officers who genuinely serve and protect our community, give out praise when it is deserved.
And, remember to carry your doctor’s instructions with you at all times.
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