Blah blah

No dating apps in his day.  He had to say, "Hey, good-looking!" in person.

I was reading some comments men made about on-line dating services, naturally bad-mouthing them because that's what everybody does about everything on-line.  I don't have much experience with those apps, but one time I did start to fill out a profile on OKStupid or whatever it's called, but I got stymied by the personal profile.  What did I like to do? Hmm.  What should I write?  Geez, I dunno.  There are all sorts of things that I like doing, but when faced with writing a few of them down, I couldn't think of anything.  I guess because there are too many contingencies involved.  Do I like to read?  Depends on what it is, and what my mood is, and what else there is to do.  Ditto just about everything else. Plus everybody writes the same dumb things -- long walks on a moonlit beach, dinner at a cozy Italian restaurant.  Blah. Blah.  So I never bothered to finish.  I guess if I had been serious about it I might have, but I was just curious. The thing is, in meat space as they used to call it, you never talk about stuff like that, you just interact, chat about this and that as you get to know and either like or not like a person.  Would you go for a walk on the beach or go out for dinner with someone you didn't like?  It would be unpleasant and you'd just want to get it over with.  But being stuck in rush-hour traffic with someone you are crazy about might live in fond memory forever.  But you would never write on one of these dating apps that you love being stuck in rush-hour traffic.

Up until the Tailhook blowup in 1991, the Navy and all the armed forces are supposed to have been take-no-prisoners sexist.  But my grandmother was a Navy nurse and my mother was an Army nurse and they never had any problems with sexism, at least that I have ever heard about.  And both married naval

aviators.  And stayed married to them.   In retrospect, from what I have learned, that episode was really an attack by the black-shoe surface Navy against the brown-shoe Navy, which, along with the bubbleheads and SEALs, always got the glory and headlines -- and funding.  Still true.

Anybody who has been in the service has gotten a boatload of inoculations.  When it is time to do medical evaluation the first week of boot camp, recruits line up with their sleeves rolled up. The injections are given in both arms and are often done simultaneously.
You take a step, receive your first round of injections before stepping to the next round of shots. Often, recruits hold a gauze pad in each hand to press over the injections sites before sitting down on the floor in case they pass out.
What shots do you get? Measles, mumps, rubella, flu in season, and, of course, tetanus. Plus, depending on service and assignment, yellow fever, adenovirus, meningococcal, diptheria, varicella, polio, hepatitis-A and hepatitis-B. 
Oh, right, and the infamous bicillin shot in your rump which is injected with a monster needle and is so thick that it seems like forever to all go in, and then it leaves a painful lump that lasts for days.  Many recruits pass out when they get this shot. So many, in fact, that the room where the shot is given has padded floors.  And also these days the shot and boosters for Covid.  So all the armed forces must be dead or dying, right?  All those vaccinations.  All at once.  Has to be.  Right?*  (I've had them all and then some and I'm still here, stomping at the Savoy -- figuratively speaking!)

I was listening to a cache of news broadcasts from WOR New York aired in 1976 and found out that there had been an outbreak of swine flu (influenza A virus subtype H1N1) at an army base and in response the Ford Administration decided to rush a vaccine into production with a plan to immunize the entire population of the country.  But not long after people began getting the vaccine reports began to appear of those inoculated coming down with Guillain-Barré Syndrome, which is associated with paralysis, respiratory arrest and death.  People began refusing to be inoculated despite assurances from the powers that be that the vaccine was safe.  Nobody bought the assurances, saying to Uncle Sam, "Tell it to the Marines, pal!" and in response the government said, "Okay fine, we'll end the mass immunization program.  If you want to get the stupid shot, feel free, if you don't, whatever, man."  About a quarter of the population got the shot, but nobody else bothered, and life went on and no disasters occurred.  Democracy in action:  the government proposed and the people disposed.  What a contrast with today.  Now the government tells the population to stop complaining and do what it is told.  Or else.  No disagreement, no objection, no refusal allowed.  The government is right and the people are wrong.  Period.  What happened in 50 years?  Where did democracy go?  How and why did the government become so arrogant and unresponsive to the will of the people?

I make my own tonkatsu sauce.  I like Bulldog brand, but I usually can't find it.  That's why I started making my own.  The secret is to use mirin, a type of Japanese rice wine.  Mirin is harder to find than Bulldog tonkatsu sauce, but once you have a bottle, it lasts a long time.  Anyway, I found some Bulldog sauce in a Chinese grocery the other day and used it on a croquette dinner I prepared, only to realize that my own tonkatsu sauce was far better.  Others agreed.  When they wondered why my sauce was so good, I said it was because the secret ingredient I put in every drop was love, but actually it's mirin.

 

 

 

*Vaccines typically administered to US military personnel (plus Covid)

Population segment	Vaccine	Vaccine type	Routine schedule for troops*
Trainees	Diphtheria	Toxoid	Single dose
	Hepatitis A	Inactivated	Two doses
	Hepatitis B	Subunit	Three doses
	Influenza	Live or subunit	Annual, seasonal
	Measles	Live	Single dose
	Meningococcal disease	Subunit, conjugate	Single dose
	Mumps	Live	Single dose
	Pertussis, acellular	Subunit	Single dose
	Poliovirus	Inactivated	Single dose
	Rubella	Live	Single dose
	Tetanus	Toxoid	Single dose
	Varicella†	Live	Two doses
	Yellow fever†	Live	Single dose
Routine during career (both active-duty and reserve components)	Diphtheria	Toxoid	Every 10 years
	Hepatitis A	Inactivated	Two doses
	Influenza	Live or subunit	Annual, seasonal
	Pertussis, acellular	Subunit	With Td‡
	Tetanus	Toxoid	Every 10 years
Individualized on the basis of deployment or travel to high-risk areas (both active and reserve components), various alert forces	Anthrax	Subunit	Multidose series
	Hepatitis B	Subunit	Three doses
	Japanese encephalitis	Inactivated	Three doses, boosters
	Meningococcal disease	Subunit, conjugate	Single dose, boosters
	Smallpox	Live	Single, every 10 years
	Typhoid	Subunit or live	Dosage varies
	Yellow fever	Live	Single, every 10 years
Individualized on the basis of occupational or personal needs	Haemophilus influenzae type b	Subunit, conjugate	Single dose
	Hepatitis B	Subunit	Three doses
	Meningococcal disease	Subunit, conjugate	Single dose
	Pneumococcal disease	Subunit	Single dose
	Rabies	Inactivated	Three doses, boosters
	Varicella	Live	Two doses

*

Assumes that the basic immunizing series was received earlier in life. Booster doses may be required at appropriate intervals to sustain immunity. Derived primarily from references 8 and 9.

†

Immunization policy varies among military services on the basis of specific needs.

‡

Td, tetanus-diphtheria toxoids (adult strength).