Name A Navy Ship After MOH Recipient Tom Hudner

***UPDATE - Secretary of The Navy Announces DDG 116 to be Named Thomas Hudner***After watching so many stupid names go on ships, this is a GREAT idea.




There is a movement afoot to name a US Navy ship after Medal of Honor recipient, Capt Thomas J. Hudner, USN (ret).

I can not tell you how pleased I am about this.  You can NOT name a more worthy candidate.

It's not political like naming a ship after John Warner.  It's not irrelevant like naming a ship after Gabby Gifford.  It's not outright stupid in the name of political correctness like naming a ship after Ceasar Chavez.  It's not offensive like naming a ship after John Murtha.

Capt Hudner is a Massachusetts native whose actions during the Korean conflict will really move you when you read them.  And I do encourage you to read the links I will leave at the bottom of this post.

I have had the great honor of meeting Capt Hudner on several occasions.  I've blogged about it, but I could never express how it makes me feel.

Please join  me in this effort and write to SecNav expressing your support.
Hon. Ray Maybus
Secretary of the Navy
1000 Navy Pentagon, Rm. 4D682
Washington, DC, 20350-1000

Read more about Capt. hudner at the following links

Valley Patriot of the Month - Hero in Our Midst
Captain Thomas J Hudner, Jr.
by Ted Tripp

Navy urged to name ship for living Bay State veteran
Written by Linden on April 15, 2012

Wikipedia - Thomas J. Hudner

Screaming Bloody Murder

This is a phrase commonly used in my family to describe someone yelling, screaming or even speaking out in protest.

Before today, I never really, really knew what it meant.

I was hanging with my pal, Griff.  We were strolling down Main Street and had to stop in our fav place, Zumes. 


As you enter Zume's, the counter is straight ahead, the back of a couch runs along the right and a little table with puzzles for kids is on your left.  So Griff goes right for the puzzles and I step up to the counter to order our cookies.  We aren't even two feet apart.  I am ordering cookies, but looking at Griff.  After raising that horrid Frankie, I know about escapees.

Suddenly, there is this horrible, incredibly piercing scream.  I have never heard anything like that.  It drilled right through me and I think for a sec I stopped breathing.  The clerk behind the counter looked completely shell shocked.  I was saying "Griff?  Griff?  What's wrong?".  Then I realize Griff is attached to my left leg.  I peel him off and lean down "Are you alright?  What's wrong?"  I thought he must have pinched something or something bit him.

But from the look of horror on his face.....I get it.  It's not him.  Griff didn't scream.  In fact, the scream is still happening but his mouth is not open.  Plus, he's just as afraid as I am, lol.  That's when we all see this baby who is on the couch three feet from us.  Maybe eighteen months old. incredibly, the baby begins to laugh.

I paid from the cookies with hands shakier than usual.  As we left Griff backed away, waving to the baby - "Bye, baby."  All I could picture was someone backing out of the tiger's cage "Nice kitty!"

Now, that was screaming bloody murder.

I Want You to Pull Out A Credit Card.....

.....and go to this website. Please throw a few bucks in the pot.

My niece Genevieve is participating in "The 2012 Relay For Life of Clark University" to benefit The American Cancer Society. It's tomorrow at 6pm out there in Wisstah.

This link takes you directly to her page.

Thanks.

Isn't she a good kid?

More Pudding Notes

I laugh every day in this house. I know it's hard to read, but this another of my father's notes and it says "This pudding is not for consumption" But my mother wasn't funny. Last night when I came home from P.F. Chang's and told her I had a few drinks she said "Well you won't lose any weight this week. You'll gain a pound."

And I did! She's so mean!

So It Might Be The Coconut Lemon Sours.....

...but I really want to punch Leon Panetta in the face.

U.S. troops posed with body parts of Afghan bombers.

After that, I'd like to take a swing at the assclown that released these pics. That soldier betrayed everyone he's ever served with. He lied about his motives. There was nothing honorable in this.

All this fuss over a suicide bomber. Boohoo! Someone took a pic of Achmed the Dead Terrorist.

Listen, if this guy wanted a nice burial, he should have stayed in his village on his prayer rug.

I Got Everything On the List!

Unfortunately, I made the list to go with my one priority errand - picking up my prescriptions.

I am really messing this up. I have already noted that I was behind schedule getting the "Grave's disease" medications.

It's a vicious cycle. I'm tired so I don't go get the meds. The lack of meds is making me tired.

So last night I went to bed at early, got up early and headed out.

Since I was headed downtown, I made a list.

CVS is between Downtown Crossing and NEMC. Check!

The pharmacy is in the Atrium, which is two buildings up from Dr. Miller in the South Building. I have some paperwork to drop off. Check!

There is a patient lounge for the oncology patients. The lounge has a computer & a printer and I have to print something. But the print4er is out of ink. What to do? Well there's a hotel across the street and I know where the business office is. Check!

The thing I needed to print was a Groupon for a haircut at Amaci. So off I go down Stuart St. Great haircut, nice stylist who had some experience with chemo hair. It is finally starting to straighten, but the ends are friend. Very happy Maggie leaves Amaci......check!

I head down Arlington toward the Public Garden. I get an ice cream from a truck on Boylston. I start thinking that I have just enough oomph to make it to Downtown Crossing to catch the 93 home.

And then I stop mid-lick.....I have no prescriptions.

Ok, well, we'll try tomorrow. We'll put it on the list.

Dear 98 Cents

Yesterday I published my thoughts on Hilary Rosen. I got two responses, three actually because my anonymous commenter had poor reading comprehension. The first was my friend Middleboro Jones & I published it. The second two were from the same hateful anonymous coward. He commented, couldn't comprehend the "comment moderation" response and typed out his hateful rant a second time.

I didn't publish either version. I don't mind disagreement. A quick search of the blog will find I have published opposing views. But only the reasonable ones. Not the hateful, nasty ones.

But I did leave a response -

"I thought long and hard about publishing your hateful comment. But that's the point of moderating comments and having your own blog - your hate has no place here.


For you to say that Ann Romney uses her MS as a "crutch" shows that you can't be reasoned with. Ann Romney didn't bring it up in this discussion, I did.

Frequent readers of this blog know that my sister was DX'd over 10 years ago. No amount of money makes up for her suffering. And I have cancer, not breast cancer, but cancer none-the-less. No amount of money could make up for what I have gone through.

You tried to drop a steaming pile here while you cruise the blogosphere with your baseless rage.
Thanks to comment moderation, you can't.

Go back to HuffPo and the other hateful Obama-bots."

My Two Cents on Hilary Rosen

So we've all heard by now that Hilary Rosen beclowned herself attacking Ann Romney.

Today on WTTK "Joe Ligotti Show" locals called in with their opinions.

One caller in particular was spewing such horrible envy. She went on and on, yelling over the host that Ann Romney had help. She had money to buy help. The caller stated she had ten children (which I didn't believe) and no one helped her.

What a stupid, stupid woman. Ann Romney has multiple sclerosis. If you have never been with an MS patient in the midst of an attack, you should STFU about Ann Romney. There's no help you can hire that can ease that pain.

Hilary Rosen should be ashamed.

Anyone who thinks they would trade places with Ann Romney because she is wealthy, should remember that life comes with breast cancer and Multiple Sclerosis.

As I am quick to say, if we all stood in a circle and threw our problems in the middle....we'd be quick to take our own back.

An Important Guest Post - "Respect For The Lost"

This is a guest post by Anastacia Visneski.

In March we lost 4 shipmates in the crash of CG6535. I wanted to wait a little while before posting this so to be sure it wasn’t anger and grief talking. Having given it some time, I think a discussion about social media when it comes to the loss of a shipmate needs to be had.

The day of the crash, a friend of mine expressed to me his anger over finding so many people posting on the Facebook page of one of the lost crew within only a few hours of the crash. I was- sadly- not terribly surprised that some people were posting that quickly.

Let me say it straight: Just because you, as a Coast Guard member, might have knowledge of who has died in a Coast Guard accident… posting on their Facebook page within a couple of hours of the crash that ‘you are going to miss them’ not only is a violation of policy, but makes you a bit of a jerk.

Coast Guard Public Affairs has a policy of holding names of members for 24 hours for next of kin (NOK) notification. Why? It is the time it takes to get the right people in place to tell the family members of the lost, to make sure they have the support they need from their Coast Guard family, to make sure those that need to know hear it from someone in person, someone in uniform, someone trained to break tragic news and provide support in the storm of grief that follows.

I am not going to say that grief and wanting to express your grief isn’t natural. I know that when the crash happened I was utterly desperate to find out who had been onboard. I did in fact find out before the NOK 24hr timeline and I was heartbroken. That being said, I did not go posting about it anywhere. As a matter of fact I waited until it had been released in the media and I had seen it in print on public sites before I said anything. Why? Not because of policy (though that played a part)… but out of respect.

So… to those of you posting on the Facebook pages of the missing members… who are you posting to? The deceased will not be reading that you are “going to miss” them (btw, the search was on and they were still only missing not declared deceased when many of these messages appeared). No, the people who are going to see your little heartfelt messages are the member’s girlfriend, or their cousin, their brother, heck possibly their Mom.

Is social media how you’d want to find out you lost someone you loved? That the one who holds your heart, that is your very joy, your everything… is dead? All because some person you don’t know wanted to be the first to post on their Facebook page? Is it a race to prove to everyone that you “knew first?” Can’t you wait and find a more respectful way of expressing your grief?

And now we have lost two more members in a shooting. I implore all of you to really think before you post. Are you violating policy… and more importantly are you breaking someone’s heart? If you really care about the lost crew member, if you really are their friend… it is your responsibility now as a member of the Coast Guard Family to look out for their loved ones. That is a far better way of showing them you care than posting on a website that their deceased loved ones will never be able to read.

Even When I Try.....

....I mess it up. I checked my calendar, I checked the bus schedule, I picked the bus before the one that got me there just in time. When I arrived in the Navy Yard I was sooooo pleased that I was there at ten past six for my six thirty event.

Unfortunately, it was a six pm lecture.

Last night was an installment in the USS Constitution Museum's War of 1812 series. For this lecture, Sidney Hart, Ph.D., Senior Historian at the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery came up from Washington, DC. He presented an illustrated lecture about the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery's upcoming bicentennial exhibition, 1812: A Nation Emerges, which will open on June 15, 2012 in Washington, DC.

It was very interessting and I might try to get down to DC to see the actual artwork.

Afterwards I said "Hi" to some people I knew as I made my way over to my friend Tom, from the Navy League. I was hoping he would be there because I had an 1812 calendar for him.

And Tom had something for me!

So How Are Those New Scripts Doing?

Oh, you mean my Propanolol & my Methimazole?

Well I wouldn't know.....I don't have them yet.

The endocrinologist prescribed them late Friday and I couldn't bring myself to go out and get them.

The pharmacy in NEMC is closed on Saturdays and Sundays.

And today......surprise.....there was ANOTHER problem with the health insurance. Another miscommunication between Commonwealth Choice and Blue Cross. Commonwealth Choice is a clearinghouse to help people buy insurance at group rates. I knew early on in my illness that I wanted something top drawer because of my illness. So I opted out of my employer's policy and went through the Commonwealth. It's not subsidized because I made too much money. Of course now I qualify for everything, lol.

Every month it's something. Every month.

I'm exhausted.

And of course it was 5:01pm. blue Cross was there, but not the Commonwealth.

Found A New Blog.....

....that's right up my alley!

The Boston Bakery Babe.

Her motto is - "Savoring Boston, one cake, pie, and dainty at a time..."

I'm in! LOL!

I think my first trip will be to Crema Cafe. The cupcakes looked fabulous. Crema Cafe is just outside Harvard Square. I'll pick a nice sunny day and hopefully grab an outdoor table where Griff and I can have lunch.......and cupcakes....

No Ice Cream For Breakfast

I pulled myself together and decided today was going to be an adventure.

My father said once that he'd really like to try knishes. So late last night I looked up "knish" on Yelp. The top three were in Coolidge Corner close to each other. I took the Green Line out to Coolidge Corner and my first choice, Michael's wasn't even a block away from the "T" stop.

They had four different types, potato, spinach, roast beef & pastrami. I got two of each.

I wanted to get some chocolates for my mother so I also picked a chocolatier from Yelp. The most interesting choice was Blue Tierra in South Boston. So there I went....into enemy territory. A Townie on the #9 bus riding down West Broadway.

Again, I was lucky and the bus stopped exactly across the street from the shop. The first thing I noticed was gold foil wrapped coins. I had to get that right away for my cousin Griffin. We watch"Jake and the Never Land Pirates". Jake and the gang collect "Gold Doubloons". So we have to have them! Then I say a chocolate Easter bunny pop. The solid milk chocolate bunnies were gone. Then I saw a bag of milk chocolate nonpareils. I picked those up for my mother. I saw a bag of beautifully colored malted milk balls. And finally I picked a few individual chocolates. One was shaped like a shamrock and had Guinness in it. Guess who that was for?

Then it was back on the bus to the Red Line to South Station. I was soooooo in the mood for a fruit smoothie and I like the place in South Station.

My final thing on the list was Easter cards. So I walked up Summer to CVS. I have their frequent customer card and my transaction spit out four coupons. One was for hair color. I walked up that aisle and picked my brand which was on sale. Then one coupon took $2 more off that and the $4 in "ExtraBucks" made it......FREE! Sure it's blurry, but you can see the total is $o.oo!

I walked up to the bus stop & didn't the 93 roll right up! It was perfect. I told the driver his timing was impeccable, I was tired & I only had a $1 left. He laughed and said "Thank you."

So everything is perfect, right? Not exactly. I signed my card for my parents and put it on the buffet with my Dad's bunny pop and my Mum's bag of nonpareils. My father walks out and asks who the non-pareils are for. When I tell him, he says "Mummy (this always cracks my up, we never called her Mummy, only he does when he talks to us) doesn't like them."

What?

I go in the living room and ask her. She shakes her head and says no. "But I get them for you a lot." I say. She replies "I know."

I Know I've Told You This Before....

......but eight and a half years after I stayed at the Taj Palace in Dubai, they are still sending me emails. I love them. It was the best vacation ever. And I need a boost, lol. Just got the official word on the results of today's visit with the endocrinologist and the blood work.

I have Grave's disease. Pissah.

Preliminary studies show a slightly higher incidence of Grave's disease in Multiple Myeloma patients. They are both auto-immune disorders.

I want ice cream but it's Good Friday. My mother pointed out that I am exempt if I want to be with all my disorders and diseases. But I declined. The point of the exemption is to make sure sick or weak people don't become more weak. Not so I can have ice cream.

Ok, The #Occupy People Got Me

They finally found an issue that I care about. They are focused on it and I hope they are successful.

And I will lend support.

Today the Herald reported on the "Occupy T Sit-in". Recently there has been a lot of attention on the "T" because they are running a deficit. The T Board has decided that their best options are to decrease service and raise fares.

Now this is not a problem for me. I live very close to downtown Boston on a popular route. And the fare is not a problem.

But the complete lack of foresight on this matter is stunning.

One of the most basic things that a person needs to survive is transportation. You need to get to your job, your home, your school.

People in this state are always wailing about helping the poor. They want them to have EBT cards and housing subsidies and all kinds of other entitlements.

Did you never hear that fish/teach him to fish story???????

Instead of giving people entitlements, why not give them a way earn their own food, house, degree, etc.?

Someone, the Governor or someone else needs to step in and make up that deficit. The "T" helps everyone. The "T" creates a level playing field.

Want to lower traffic? Support the "T".

Want less pollution? Support the "T".

Want an easy way to help people advance and get themselves out of poverty? Support the "T".

It's so glaringly obvious I want to shake them!

So for once #Occupy, good on you! You have an issue that's relevant. You've got a focus. You really are helping those less fortunate.

I Always Think....

that if I can just explain what I am thinking, the other person will "get it".

I tried this with my children. I resolved that I wouldn't punish, I'd explain. Then they would say "Yeah, I get it, I'll never.......(fill in the blank)....... again".

What I ended up with was two world class debaters. I'm not kidding, Tommy won awards in high school.

It hardly ever works and yet I can't give up on it.

Yesterday I was angry and posted something petty and small. Two people questioned it and I was ashamed and deleted it.

The first person made a joke. He understands we all make mistakes. I'm sure he hopes, as I do, that I try to do better in the future.