"What's An Oprah?..................."

Good Afternoon;

Well I was in one of those philosophical fantasy discussions at the Starbucks yesterday evening with a friend, some acquaintances and some chance met folks at the adjoining table who we dragged into our conversation. You know the type of thing I mean, a combination of George Carlin's bit about trying to stump the nun's at Catholic school..."could God make a rock so big He Himself could not lift it", the perennial question asked by Bert Parks to the Miss America finalists..."what would you do to change.......?", the "If I ruled the world....." ego/power trip, and the " If you had $XXXXX, (at varying levels), what would be the first thing you would do...." query, [done in a 'speed chess', or 'top of the mind' style]. And after someone mentioned Oprah Winfrey's recent giving of free trips to Australia to an studio audience of 300 people. (which is being funded by the Australian Ministry of Tourism to the tune of $2.8 million (U.S.) dollars.?????), and her other gifts such as cars and scholarships and cash to unsuspecting people , we played..."What would you ask Oprah for?", also with no time to think about it.

(We had to write our answers for the "speed rounds", so we would not influence the others with our ideas.)

We had a lot of fun and a lot of laughs, and some interesting thoughts, comments and ideas flying around.

What surprised me most is some of the things that came out during the 'speed round'. One would think that in my situation housing, money, & employment would be the immediate focus. I guess the subconscious, when unmuzzled and allowed off it's leash bullies it's way to the forefront though!

The two most prominent things I would ask for both had to do with my daughter's and the combination of guilt/responsibility/honor that is all twisted up in my subconscious mind.

Okay, to the point;

If I was offered a finite sum of money to be immediately spent...it would whatever amount it would take to walk into the courtroom/child support office and resolve the arrears I owe, (that have stopped accruing since my daughter turned 18, over 10 years ago), and make it 'go away' as they say, forever. This is a 'debt of honor' I guess you could call it, that I want to repay, (and understand that it is to the State of Md.....NOT!! to my ex-wife or my daughter, who received all the monies due them, plus what I spent when my daughter was with me), I'm would not even worry about the monies that were deducted from my paychecks that have mysteriously not been accounted for.

The other 'quick reply' desire would be a trust or scholarship to guarantee my youngest daughter's schooling, both now and in the future.

Of course I know this all fantasy game playing but, hey, you never know who might read it and like John Beresford Tipton from that old TV show..that ran from 1955-1960, "The Millionaire", send out his own Michael Anthony with a check for $1,000,000......LOL!!

Anyway...I ended up sitting outside the library until after Midnight last night reading, (again), Tim Dorsey's "The Stingray Shuffle" and laughing so hard I thought I did myself an injury my chest was so sore. It is a hilarious book in a series set in Florida featuring the most twisted, lovable and righteous serial killer ever. He is Serge A. Storms, 'Floridiana' fanatic and history buff and the books are a travelogue and trip down memory lane of a long gone, neglected and maltreated, and/or vanishing Florida. Having been to many of the cities, towns, attractions, historical sites and landmarks noted in the book, it is just neat to say.."yeah, I've been there, or done that, or saw it before it was demolished...." the writer is an insane genius!

I ended up laying down and trying to sleep around 1:00 am., and shortly after I fell asleep the mouse came out to play. After 20 minutes of me banging and beating on the shelves and walls he decided to call it a night and I went back to sleep around 2:30 am. I woke at 8:00 am. and ate a handful of Tums and took my BP meds and lay back down for a few minutes, planning to be here at the library about 9:00 am. when they opened....HAH! At 10.30 am I was awakened by the vibrations of some morons badly distorted and out of tune sound system from a car parked in the lot across the street. What is it with these geniuses that they cannot tell the difference between volume and fidelity? I looked out at the car and it was the typical ghetto clone Crown Victoria, a former cab or cop car, repainted and jacked up with 22 inch rims and tires, differing from every other one of the same car in the city only by minor details of paint or some dumb name or slogan detailed on the side or rear...."originality, the missing link?".

Anyway, I'm here and about to leave to go and shave and eat something. I stopped at the Giant for some more Instant Coffee and had a cup with the now lukewarm water from their sink, I have to find out who in the area has a 'hot pot' or is not afraid of lawsuits and has their hot water heater turned up to 'Scald!!'...LOL!

I'll see you later......Dave

P.S. The title of today's post is the marketing slogan used by WJZ Tv 13 when Oprah Winfrey was first coming to Baltimore in 1976 to anchor the evening news, she then spent 5 years with Richard Sher hosting 'People Are Talking' before leaving for Chicago in 1983...I love useless trivia...LOL!

Someone last night actually suggested I send her a letter outlining my story, with links to the blog and the magazine articles and the upcoming TV story and see what response I get....EHHHHHHHH???!!!

I don't think so.....lol. I told her to go ahead and write if she wanted to, but I just couldn't go that route. Shameless self promotion is one thing, and sending out a link as a joke is another, as is trying to get attention to a cause or the plight of the homeless as a whole....but there has been so much fraud recently with the fake cancer lady and the "homeless veteran" who had 3 house and some organization or charity built him another....that's one limelight I'll steer clear of.

For the somewhat the same reason I tried to tell a woman who was talking to me yesterday about going to this Rabbi or that Charity in the Orthodox and/or Ultra-Orthodox Jewish community....How can I ask for or take money from a group I really have no interest in joining or participating in or with, and whom I think is way too rigid and insular. It would be under false pretenses, and as I've said before, I am self acknowledged foul up and f*ck up, but I try real hard not be a hypocrite.

Okay..that was another tangent...isn't writing in real time free association fun boys and girls.....LOL!!