Lessons From A Train

X as in Xenophobe

One of my favorite stories I like to tell from my time in Russia has to do with waiting for a train.  I used to travel from the city I lived in to a neighboring city twice a month.  I would leave by train at about 5:00 A.M. while it was still dark and get back into my town by about 8 P.M. 

One morning I was waiting in line to board the train.  It was January and about 20 below outside.  I lived in an area that had large populations of Russians of Korean descent as well as Chinese peddlers.  Both types of people were often looked down on by the "white" Russians.

On this particular morning, there was an Asian man in front of me who the train official   was haggling with for not having the proper documentation.  While I couldn't fully hear or understand their conversation it was clear by their manner the Asian man was not being treated with respect.  A second train official started getting into the act and then noticed me waiting and said
something like don't  worry about that foreigner go help that man he is one of ours.  By ours I was pretty sure she meant Russian because I was certainly dressed like one and as long as I didn't talk I sounded like one.  I got on the train.


Dictionary.com defines xenophobe as a person who fears or hates foreigners, strange customs, etc.  It always struck me funny that the Asian man was possibly a Russian citizen and at least no less of a citizen than myself , but it was I who was treated as the citizen because I looked the same.

West Wing

W as in West wing.

Amy and I are big Aaron Sorkin fans.

My favorite thing he has ever done is by far the West Wing. We recently borrowed my parents copy of the complete set on cd.

I was watching it tonight when I should have been working on my blogging and then it hit me West Wing starts with a W.

Here are a few more W's from the show.

Walking - The show seems to always feature scenes of walking often accompanied by talking. After watching a few episodes, I usually have to change shoes.

Will Bailey - When Rob Lowe left the show in the 4th season he was replaced by Joshua Malina, an Aaron Sorkin go to guy (Sports Night, A Few Good Men, and The American President.) Malina portrayed Bailey through the end of the series.

Walken. The name of the President played by John Goodman at the end of the 4th season and beginning of the 5 th.

Watchable - The show may be intense and sometimes it the fast paced nature of the show made it hard to comprehend in one viewing.  However, it was quality entertainment, with comic timing better than all but a few of the best television comedies ever.  Which is high praise indeed for a political drama. 

Re United

V as in Viral, Video and Vault

This is only my second time using an HSD rewind to get through the marathon-like paces of blogging from A to Z.  I say marathon-like, because if this were a marathon, we would need to stick an extra 1/5 of a letter at the end.

Today's post goes back to October 2010, when I was writing posts about labels something, I call meta blogging, something Amy calls wake me when it's over.  I wanted to share this post about the United Break's Guitar videos yesterday for U.  But it turns out V works just as well.

One of my most popular tags is videos (# 6 after initial 300 posts). There are 3 types of videos that I post here:


1) videos I have taken of my family


2) Videos friends and family have asked me or allowed me to post


3) Viral videos I have found on the internet or that have been reccomended by other blogs.


One of the videos from the third category that I found most compelling is actually a series of three videos by a group called the Sons of Maxwell fronted by Canadian Dave Carroll.

The incident that inspired the songs took place in my home town of Chicago as United Airlines mishandled the guitar of Mr. Carroll. The real tragedy took place as Carroll could not get United to fix the guitar. After going round and round with United, Carrol told the airline's representative that he was going to write 3 songs about the incident, record them, make music videos and post them on you tube. Carrol was as good as his word and he posted the following 3 songs:

United Breaks Guitars Song I

United Breaks Guitars Song II

United Breaks Guitars Song III

Now I haven't flown United since the incident. This isn't really much of a boycott as I haven't had flown anywhere to since July of 2001. I will continue to post cool videos like these though.

Meanwhile back in 2012

I still haven't flown in a plane (although the rest of my family has) since July 2001.  I have continued to post cool videos and will continue to do so.  Here is a video of J.J. Heller who we as a family saw in concert last Friday. 



They told us at the concert that the video had just reached  100,000 views on YouTube.  I am going to take credit for anything past that, so go ahead and share it with your pals.  And don't worry United didn't break her guitar, she has a tour bus, and she plays harmonica. 

Under the wire

U as in under

I had a post all planned today - A HSD rewind. The problem? Computer problems. So I am typing this in from my iPod. The HSD rewind will work for V as well. So tomorrow's shouldn't be so under the wire

T as in Toledo (Holy implied)

Holy Toledo! One of us gets sick, then like dominoes, the whole family falls, one by one. Back tomorrow with some health and something for U!