Baskin Robbins – 31 Flavors

Did you know that Irvine ‘Irv’ Robbins (1917-2008), co-founder of Baskin-Robbins, opened his first ice cream store using money he saved from his #BarMitzvah! Born in Winnipeg to Eastern European Jewish immigrants, Robbins grew up working in his father’s ice cream parlor in Tacoma, Washington. He always finished the day happy and loved making others happy. After serving as an army sergeant in World War II, Robbins opened the Snowbird Ice Cream parlor in 1945 in Glendale, CA. In 1948, he joined forces with his brother-in-law Burt Baskin and the legendary Baskin-Robbins was born! Contributor: Jill GoltzerPhoto: Baskin-Robbins.

I post this because my parents were born in Winnipeg the children of Eastern Jewish immigrants who came to Canada between 1900 and 1905.

Global Warming – ‘An Inconvenient Truth’

Vice President Al Gore warned us in 2006 and while his timing may have been off global warning is an obvious reality.

Excerpt from Gore’s book ‘An Inconvenient Truth’

“The climate crisis is, indeed, extremely dangerous. In fact it is a true planetary emergency. Two thousand scientists, in a hundred countries, working for more than twenty years in the most elaborate and well-organized scientific collaboration in the history of humankind, have forged an exceptionally strong consensus that all the nations on Earth must work together to solve the crisis of global warming.

The voluminous evidence now strongly suggests that unless we act boldly and quickly to deal with the underlying causes of global warming, our world will undergo a string of terrible catastrophes, including more and stronger storms like Hurricane Katrina, in both the Atlantic and the Pacific.

We are melting the North Polar ice cap and virtually all of the mountain glaciers in the world. We are destabilizing the massive mound of ice on Greenland and the equally enormous mass of ice propped up on top of islands in West Antarctica, threatening a worldwide increase in sea levels of as much as twenty feet.”

Today’s Los Angeles Times provided current catastrophic conditions around the world. In Beijing torrents of murky brown water gushed past train windows in a subway tunnel. Severe flooding in western Germany turned streets into rivers that swept away cars and toppled houses. A fire in Oregon so big that the skies of New York city are hazy with smoke. A downpour over London on July 12, when about a month’s worth of rain fell on parts of the British capital, leading to flash floods that paralyzed some streets and forced the partial closure of its Underground rail system.

The LA Times reports “Experts predict that the frequency of floods like those seen this summer are likely to increase in severity and frequency as the planet warms.”

Perhaps all the nations in the world will take action to protect the planet in unison.

Dramatic photos from NASA highlight severity of California’s drought

Satellite imagery shows Shasta Lake in July 2019, left, and June 2021. The state’s largest reservoir is at about 35% of its capacity, officials said. The white ring is the receded shore line.

As the West descends deeper into drought, climate and water experts are growing increasingly alarmed by California’s severely shriveling reservoirs.

On Monday, Shasta Lake — the largest reservoir in the state — held a scant 1.57 million acre-feet of water, according to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, or about 35% of its capacity.

A series of satellite images captured by NASA show just how dramatically the water level has fallen.

The idea of piping water from the rain drenched east to the west coast doesn’t seem so far fetched if there is a pipe line (Colonial Pipeline) that carries 3 million barrels of fuel per day 5,500 miles from Texas and New York.

Bipartisanship? Not on My Watch!

I say green you say red. I say red you say green. That is the ways of the two major political parties in the United States.

We have laws requiring payment of taxes except we don’t want to fund the enforcement law if any of our supporters are impacted. Hence Republican Sen. Rob Portman said spending is officially off the table to help fund a nearly $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure spending bill. Now of course if the the spending bill was proposed by the GOP that would be a different matter.

Change the filibuster rules only if it is to our benefit. Many Republicans are thanking former Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid for a 2013 change that enabled the Democratic Party majority to approve the appointment of Supreme Court appointments by a simple majority.

When the Senate voted on President Donald Trump’s replacement for Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, just a simple majority was sufficient to get through the confirmation process. Gone is the filibuster rule that required 60 votes to move forward. Many Republicans are thanking former Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid change in the rules in 2013. Today the G.O.P. says no to changes in the filibuster because it would enable Democrats to pass their agenda with a simple majority.

On April 1 Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said he sees Republican opposition to President Joe Biden’s infrastructure plan, and vowed to fight the broader Democratic agenda. “I’m going to fight them every step of the way, because I think this is the wrong prescription for America,” McConnell said at a news conference in Kentucky.

The budget for the next fiscal year (starts October 1) and raising the debt limit are two items that will be in the news in the next few months. You can expect major battles in congress. We will get through the stumbling blocks as we always have. This is no way to run a country.

“My Unorthodox Life”

“My Unorthodox Life” on Netflix based on reality. Netflix’s ‘Unorthodox’ went to remarkable lengths to get Hasidic Jewish customs right. Wow! This is really interesting as I am Jewish. The difference between this lady and me is that we were reform Jews who rarely lit Friday night candles and only went went to a synagogue on high holidays. Even my grand parents from Europe weren’t all that religious.

The story about the woman depicted in this Netflix movie is explained in an article in the Los Angeles Times.

https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/tv/story/2021-07-14/netflix-my-unorthodox-life-julia-haart https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/tv/story/2021-07-14/netflix-my-unorthodox-life-julia-haart

A woman in a scarlet blazer and white platform heels steps out of a luxury car

L is for Liter

There are only three countries in the world that use the English system of weights and measures. It was called the British Imperial System.

Most common are the weight in the pound divided into 16 ounces (oz) and the ounce into 16 drams.

The basic unit of length is the yard (yd); fractions of the yard are the inch (1/36 yd) and the foot (1/3 yd), and commonly used multiples are the rod (5 1⁄2 yd), the furlong (220 yd), and the mile (1,760 yd). The acre, equal to 4,840 square yards or 160 square rods, is used for measuring land area. For liquid measure, or liquid capacity, the basic unit is the gallon, which is divided into 4 quarts, 8 pints, or 32 gills.

The three countries still on the English system – the U.S., Liberia and Myanmar – still (mostly or officially) stick to the imperial system.

The rest of the world has adopted the metric system and there is a reason. It functions like the decimal system much like the United States dollar. Ten pennies equal a dime. Ten dimes equals a dollar.

We just bought a new trash can that came in a box marked “10 L.” Further examination I determined it has a 10 liter capacity. We also buy 2 liter bottles of soda (pop).

The biggest reasons the U.S. hasn’t adopted the metric system are simply time and money. That is the excuse that is provided by Encyclopedia Britannica and repeated on other internet sites.

None of these countries did not offers excuses. They simply made the switch including Great Britain (United Kingdom) at the end of 1994 under a directive of the European Union.

There is a US Metric Association but it was founded in 1916. As the United States has become ever more reliant on goods from other countries. That new trash can says the USA will join the world on weights and measures.

(In the US) Why is soda sold in liters while milk and other drinks sold in gallons? By coincidence, the large plastic soda bottle was invented right around the time that the US was seriously flirting with a conversion to metric. So it was introduced in a 2 liter size instead of a half gallon size. My 16.9 FL. OZ. bottle of water is 500 ml.

Metric is coming to America. It’s not a plot and it’s not part of an invasion.

Do you have funds for the unexpected?

Owners would have to pay assessments ranging from $80,190 for one-bedroom units to $336,135 for the owner of the building’s four-bedroom penthouse, a document sent to the building’s residents said. The deadline to pay upfront or choose paying a monthly fee lasting 15 years was July 1. The association had just $800,000 in reserves.

The building was in a desirable location. Owners pocketed impressive returns when sold. All, except one apartment, sold for more than double the purchase price. Unit 508, a 1,683-square-foot condo sold for $800,000 in February, more than doubling its 2012 sale price of $370,000.

An HOA commonly maintains a type of savings account called the cash reserves or a reserve account for significant, infrequent, or unexpected common area costs.

When a development’s homeowner’s’ association (HOA) encounters large or unexpected expenses, the HOA needs money to repair or replace the damage. For example, what if a clubhouse roof starts leaking, the pool needs resealing, or a piece of equipment in the fitness room breaks down? At times like these, it is wise for HOAs to have a reserve account.

House in my neighborhood, asking price $800,000. Similar to the price of a condo.

Reserves for single family homes isn’t a bad idea either. When the bathroom tub backed up in my home the plumber said he needed to install a drain cleaning opening under the house. After he crawled under the house he reported that the main sewer line was leaking in many places. Cost for replacing the sewer system under the house was $5,000. There was no reserve fund. There was the retirement investments and that paid the bill. A similar situation resulted in installing new copper plumbing for another $5,500. Termites are lurking and the roof is 30 years old.

Owning a house is expensive but it provides us a place for both privacy and fun.

Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) plan to restore Trump presidency

CPAC attendees handed a “7-pt. plan to restore Donald J. Trump in days, not years,” which involves installing Trump as speaker and ousting Biden & Harris. It is more entertainment provided by the host of The Apprentice.

Many attendees are taking this as a serious happening.

My questions:

Who is the Good Witch of the North?
Will Donald Trump play the part of the wizard?
Is this a remake of The Wizard Of OZ?
Will the movie be on Netflix?

Trump Sues Again but it is a Fundraiser

If nothing else Donald Trump provides us with entertainment.

Donald Trump has sued Facebook, Twitter and Google, seeking to restore his social-media accounts after he was suspended following the Jan. 6 riot.

Trump accused the companies of violating First Amendment free speech rights through “censorship” against him and others, “blacklisting” and “canceling” people for political reasons. “If they can do it to me, they can do it to anyone,” he said.

The First Amendment, which says, “Congress shall make no law … abridging the freedom of speech,” applies to government entities, not private domains.

Less prominent people have sued Facebook and Twitter, but the lawsuits went nowhere. As the former president announced his lawsuit, pro-Trump organizations sent out fundraising solicitations to support it.

Trump “just wants a PR and fundraising moment, not a real lawsuit,” said Bradley Moss, a Washington-based attorney. Also, “he’ll almost certainly lose,” Moss said.