The World According to Carl

No news word for this week, kiddies, but Uncle Jay still has plenty to teach you about political ads.

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This is just wrong on so many levels.

Christmas catalogues have been arriving at my household since late July. That’s ridiculous in of itself but some items being offered like this one are just stupid.

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My wife and I are rewarded ourselves recently for our gastric-bypass surgery weight loss by purchasing new fishing rod and reel combos. We plan on going fishing when it cools off later this month. We actually got some nice combos at Crum’s Mini-Mall in Panacea, FL (which, in my humble opinion, has the best selection of fishing gear in this area – they even beat all the places in Tallahassee). We’ve scoped out several good public freshwater and saltwater fishing spots in the region and we plan on starting at a public pier in Panacea at Woolley Park. We used to go fishing a lot when we dated and while we were newly married but weight gain made it harder and harder to walk the distances to get to fishing spots and more difficult to stand for long periods of time. Eventually we quit going and left the gear in the garage. When we decided to start fishing again, I checked the old rods and reels and found that the years in storage weren’t kind to them. I had this gear since I was in high school so they are almost 40 years old and even though they were some of the better gear at that time, the years in storage had caused enough damage to force us to go ahead and buy new gear. Rather than try some new brands we didn’t know much about, we went with what we knew and trusted, Shakespeare rods and Zebco 888 spincast reels. Good, all-purpose gear for us. We can use them for both saltwater and freshwater fishing. I know purists will decry our choice of using a close spincast reel for saltwater fishing but frankly, neither I nor my wife have the ability to cast with any open faced reel. The backlash (or birdnests) we would create would cause too much frustration for our time to be enjoyable. We don’t even know where to go to be taught. Anyway, I’ve used closed reels in saltwater conditions for years and years growing up and into adulthood and as long as it’s rinsed off with freshwater and allowed to dry thoroughly before storage it suffers no ill effects. I just make sure to lubricate the parts periodically.

Now with that said, here’s the reason I was inspired to write this; I was looking online at fishing rods and came across some that were offered for sale at a mere $450. That’s right, $450! That blew me away. Both of ours cost only a fraction of that (about 7% each) and are probably just as good. I cannot see spending $450 on a factory made fishing rod even with Bill Gates’ income. It just doesn’t make sense.

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Professional wrestling has lost one of its true legends, Captain Lou Albano. As with many wrestling fans I was introduced to Lou Albano during the Rock-n-Wrestling days of the WWF (now WWE) as well as his appearances in Cindi Lauper music videos and managing the British Bulldogs. Unfortunately I never had the opportunity to watch him much before that era when he was managing such wrestlers the Wild Samoans (Afa & Sika), Don Muraco and “the Russian Bear” Ivan Koloff much less when he was one half of the tag team known as The Sicilians with Tony Altimore. However even though none of the syndicated wrestling programs in the areas I lived as a kid ever showed anything of Albano’s I was aware of him and his unique appearance via various wrestling magazines I purchased starting in the late 60s. One interesting fact I learned while reading various news reports of his death was that Albano played college football on a scholarship at the University of Tennessee.

Lou Albano was definitely one of a kind. A phrase often used in wrestling promos comes to mind: “Often imitated but never duplicated.” I don’t know of the origin of that phrase but it definitely fit Lou Albano perfectly.

My prayers and condolences go out to the family and friends of Captain Lou Albano.

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Major kudos to Neil Cavuto.

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Uncle Jay’s news word for this week is acronym.

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Uncle Jay’s news word for this week is disillusion.

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My wife and I drove down to Panacea, Florida for the 4th Annual Mighty Mullet Maritime Festival and had a very nice time. Some nice bluegrass music, plenty of craft vendors, food vendors and other vendors. No mullet ironically. Of either kind. I guess if there were any fish of the mullet kind it sold out. I saw no mullets of the hair kind at all. Since we were only a block or so away, my wife and I decided to visit the Gulf Specimen Marine Lab as well. We’ve driven by their signs along U.S. Hwy 98 for years and never visited. We enjoyed ourselves and got to view their aquariums filled with sharks, fish, rays, crabs, etc. We capped off our visit with dinner at Hook Wreck Henry’s Dockside Café which was only a short distance from the lab. Good seafood. I highly recommend the place.

I’ve uploaded several photos of our visit to Panacea on my Panoramio.com account along with some photos of a unique collection of rusted out old automobiles next to U.S. 319 in nearby Medart, Florida. It’s not like it’s a bunch of old junked cars from a junkyard scattered about haphazardly. Instead it’s obvious that they were arranged specifically there many, many years ago. They’ve been there as long as we’ve live in this part of Florida which is now going on 22 years.

Anyway, feel free to visit my Panoramio.com account to view the photos and please leave comments.

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Both teams I root for that played today, Mississippi State and Florida State, lost. MSU lost to GA Tech by a score of 35-24 and FSU lost to Boston College 28-21. FAMU has an off week before playing the Miami Hurricanes next week. I hope the Saints win tomorrow so my weekend will brighten a bit.

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My wife and I have both commented on the lack of desire to ever try something called “chili cheese fries.” We joke about it by wondering if restaurants execs have some sort of contest ongoing to see who can come up with the most calorie-laden, cholesteral-overloaded, fat-filled food possible. A website called This Is Why You’re Fat took this concept and ran with it inviting visitors to participate by submitting photos of the most ridiculously overblown foods they could concoct. Even some of the names are revealing. For example, the four items in the picture are called (starting at the upper left and going clockwise) “Year of the Triple Bypass,” “Double Stuffed Pizza Fatty,” “Bacon Infused Onion Ring,” and “Dessert Lasagna.” Sounds simply yummy, eh? Check out some of the other items on their menu. I think I may have a coronary just looking at that mess.

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