Quince, a fruit My week was one of those that is semi-busy. My weekend with my daughters here was wonderful, we got a lot done, including defrosting my chest type freezer, hanging curtains, vacuuming, etc., etc. My house was pretty spotless when they left, and there wasn’t a dish in the sink, nor a bed that had not been changed and made over, and all towels were clean and in the linen closet! Girls, your work was truly appreciated. I worked two days in the gift shop, as someone was out Not too busy and I always enjoy working a different day, and seeing different people. Since we had a shipment of merchandise in, I was able to help price and get it displayed, and everything is nice and neat with new fall merchandise and lots of things for October, Breast Cancer Awareness month. When I left Devine and headed home, I had to stop for gas in Pleasanton, and since I knew company was coming, a trip to the HEB grocery store was pretty close to the top of my list. When I got to the fruits and vegetables, one of the first things I noticed was a display of what I thought was Golden Delicious apples, instead, I was looking at a fruit by the name of “Quince”. I had heard of these in the past by never seen them, also, since I read quite a bit, I’ve seen them mentioned in different books, but knew nothing about them. Time for an article! People often ask me where I get my ideas…this was one of those times.
Category: Commentary
Tid Bits
Last week, Lytle P.D. officers managed 56 calls for service and conducted 82 traffic stops. Of those 82 stops, 33 resulted in citations and 49 were warnings. A lot more warnings than citations, there must be a “nicest officer” poll on social media somewhere and our staff is competing.
Only one arrest was made last week. Officers were called to the Outlaw Seafood and Bar & Grill for a report of an intoxicated male. A 68-year-old male was cited for public intoxication and released to a responsible adult.
Officers took reports of three property crimes last week. #1 – H.E.B. Plus reported that someone made off with a hanging basket and a tree with a total value of $55. I have learned through the years that for every item, no matter how big or small, there is someone out there who will steal it. #2 – A complainant reported that their wallet was stolen from their shopping basket. #3 – A complainant reported that $1,000 worth of tools was stolen. He had taken them out of the bed of his truck so he could drive his truck through the new car wash. When he came out somebody had taken off with them, imagine that! Lt. Dear and Ofc. Mendez had a vehicle description; would you believe while on patrol they saw the suspect vehicle at a house? They made contact and recovered the tools; the owner didn’t want to file charges.
I have included three messages from Mayor Ruben Gonzalez, this is some “good stuff to know,” so please pay attention:
Things & Stuff
In the last 68 days, Black Creek has been kinda dry, specially around the CasaVerde location. Only been able to catch 1.2 inches of rain during that period and that come on September 3rd.
Did some checking and found out that (as of last Monday) Medina County has 38,293 registered voters. Would be great to see a 50% showing in the final numbers of the November Election but, my guess is that it will be closer to 12-15 percent.
There will be an ESD #4 meeting on Wednesday evening at the EMS barn on Dixon St. If you are able, show up and learn about where your taxes are being spent. There is also a meeting of the Republican Party of Medina County on September 14th at the Medina County Annex across from Tractor Supply and I believe that they both start at 6:30 PM.
Gonna be a long road for the victims of hurricane Helene to recover. Sheriff Brown and a host of others are gonna travel to Yancey County in North Carolina and drag several enclosed trailers loaded with necessities to aid in the recovery effort and provide law enforcement support in the area. I don’t beleive that the $750 provided to the folks up there by the government will be worth anything,,,,but, don;t fret. Billions are being sent overseas to help in protecting the borders of a foreign country and assist the citizens there in their recovery.
READY OR NOT, HERE IT FINALLY COMES
Not that anybody at Casa Rosenauer has been counting, but as I sit down and write this Tale the 2024-2025 White Tail Deer Season is exactly one month away from starting.
While we had “pretty much okay” rainfall amounts in the Spring and Early Summer, things have sure turned off dry of late. Of course, it is nowhere near the first- and only-time things have not been ideal from a body weight and antler development year in La Brasada. And somehow the deer herd manages to keep on going.
On my own locations, I have put out cameras to begin general evaluations of the wildlife overall, and especially the body conditions and antler development for the deer. I don’t have a firm viewpoint yet. Except for the following key points.
- I have spent plenty of $ this year on feed to support the wildlife.
- I need to do some more tractor work and blind cleaning to get things in top notch order.
- I better hurry up and check my deer rifles one more time to make sure they are properly sighted in.
- I plan to be having a grand old time out in La Brasada, along with Family and Friends over the next several months.
I can confidently make the statements above because of one VERY Important Key Fact. That these things have been true for many decades when this special time of the year finally arrives! And Lord Willing, it will continue for a good while longer.
Jones BBQ and Foot Massage
“A person without a sense of humor is like a wagon without springs. It’s jolted by every pebble on the road.”Henry Ward Beecher
If you like to laugh, you need to meet Toby Jones, urban entrepreneur. WARNING -those without a sense of humor should stop reading now.
Toby is an interesting guy. Involved with many creative business interests, here is his personal bio - copied word for word from one of his many enterprising websites.
“Tobias R. Jones, ‘Toby’, grew up idolizing his favorite hood rapper Pokey Da Hot Spitta. He followed his idol’s life and gained employment as a Street Pharmaceutical Sales Rep in 2003. Toby held that job for a year before he saw his Distribution Manager get shot. Toby realized that the street life was not for him and wanted to become an MC. He entered a contest to try to get his lyrics heard on 88.5 WHKP. Toby won the contest but never got his lyrics published. He became a roadie for a rap group The Famous Boys, all the while trying to make a name for himself with other artists. While on the road, Toby learned about real estate auctions and decided to return home to try out yet another line of work. He found a large warehouse on the south side that was going up for auction the next week. Toby was able to buy that warehouse for $1.00.” And thus, Toby’s entrepreneurial pursuits began.
Toby’s first business was Jones Big Ass Truck Rental and Storage. He is also responsible for Jones Cheap Ass Prepaid Legal and Daycare Academy. He is most famous however for Jones Good Ass BBQ and Foot Massage.
Jones Good Ass BBQ and Foot Massage is obviously a fictitious business, but the video ad starring Toby Jones is arguably one of the greatest low-budget commercials ever created. To date it has garnered over 15 million views on YouTube. The video is an intentional parody of a hard-sell low-budget commercial that you might find on a local cable TV station. Toby Jones is portrayed by comedian and actor Robert L. Hines, and is the creation of Pedro and Romero Castro, core members of the Big Dog Eat Child sketch comedy group.
The Castro brothers had previously created a parody cereal commercial for YouTube, but another idea was percolating in their heads. They just needed “Graham crackers”
The one thing I really noticed during my trip to Devine, is that rain is needed in that area just as it is here. The only “green” that I saw was irrigated fields, everything else was sere and brown.
This past week has been busy to the max! I was in Devine part of the week, and had bunco, appointments and the usual things. Since I hadn’t seen some of the “greats”, we met at Castroville Regional Park for lunch Friday and had lunch together; salads were the order of the day for the grown-up and bean and cheese tacos for the smaller crowd. We had a wonderful time and the children were able to burn off excess energy running around and using the swings and slides. When I left there, I headed in the general direction of home with a stop off in Pleasanton at the HEB store since I already knew that some of the family would be there for the weekend, in fact, my one daughter and I both got to the house at almost the same time! The other two daughters arrived later in the day, and, yes, we had a wonderfully relaxing weekend. They are all such hard workers and my house is clean, beds changed, laundry done, etc, etc.
The following article is from a newspaper, possible from Chicago, (according to the movies listed on the back and the names of the theatres showing them), that was in a box of “stuff” given to me some time ago. I never had time to go through it and now have finally gotten to do so. There is no date anywhere on/in the article but judging from the condition of the paper, it could be from the ’50 or ‘60s. It struck me as interesting, as I had often wondered where ‘graham crackers’ and graham flour came from. It is being copied exactly as it appeared in that paper, headlines and all!
Lytle PD makes 2 arrests, searching for robbery suspect
It’s time for your weekly dose of Lytle P.D. activity … Officers responded to 49 calls for service and conducted 58 traffic stops. Of those 58 traffic stops, 28 resulted in citations and 30 were warnings. The “warnings” nudged out the citations by a mere 2 stops.
There were two arrests made last week, both were a result of the same traffic stop. Ofc. L. Diaz (assisted by Ofc. R. Garcia) stopped a vehicle on Main St. for a defective headlight. The driver, a 26-year-old male, had an active warrant out of Bexar Co. for theft. Officers were going to release the vehicle to the passenger, a 27-year-old female, but, when they checked her driver’s license status, she came back wanted out of Bexar Co. as well for a burglary of a building charge. We call that a “double play”, and both were booked into the Atascosa Co. Jail. The vehicle was released to the registered owner.
Three property crimes were reported last week: #1 – A complainant reported that their mini-storage unit (19200 N. Somerset St.) was broken into. They were unsure of what was taken, which is often a common denominator in mini-storage burglaries. #2 – A N. Prairie St. resident reported that an unknown person struck his fence, damage was estimated at $200. #3 – A complaint reported that an iPhone 14 valued at $730 was stolen from the Lytle I.S.D. fieldhouse on 9/26/2024 between 5 and 10:30P.
Continue reading “Lytle PD makes 2 arrests, searching for robbery suspect”
Fine Tuning to reach the Sweet Spot
Back in the Early 50’s on until nearly the end of that decade, south Texas had a severe dry period commonly referred to as “The 7 Year Drought”. Rainfall totals remained in the single digits for an entire 12-month period, year after year. Point being most of the folks I grew up knowing as a youngster were “bad broke”, including my family.
Johnnie Sr. would often have folks drop by the house in the evenings to have him work on their cars. This represented another income source for him and a savings to the vehicle owners. I remember him often telling me he was fine tuning that engine to find the “sweet spot” in terms of how it idled and ran.
My Grand Dad would also speak about giving just the right amount of throttle to his old John Deere Model B so that the plow or planter would run most efficiently. They likewise would both talk about getting their rifles set up just right so they could “hit the sweet spot” on the deer we counted on to help supplement our food supply.
World Polio Day isOctober 24, 2024
It wasn’t that long ago when polio was in our local news. The Hondo Anvil Herald reported on polio frequently in the late 40s and throughout the 1950s and I am sure the Devine News as well shared many polio stories. Articles ranged from talking about local polio victims or survivors to March of Dimes campaigns, spraying DDT for flies and insects in local communities and polio insurance ads to buy health coverage. A particular article I came across talked about the “dos and don’ts of polio”. Before polio vaccine was available, information was shared on what you can do to try and avoid it. Like, staying out of swimming pools, staying out of cold water, avoiding overexertion, only play with kids you know and avoid crowds. People were trying anything. This kind of advice was common during “polio season” which happened in the summer months. Polio was terrifying for parents. Polio symptoms could be mild, like fatigue or headache, or severe with paralysis or death. Some local data from 1941-1950 showed polio cases to be very low in Medina County in the years leading up to 1949 with only a few cases per year and one year not any. 1949 was a particularly rough year. Not far from here, one of the largest polio outbreaks in U.S. history started.
The Simple Cause of Dangerous Inflation
“Inflation is when you pay fifteen dollars for the ten-dollar haircut you used to get for five dollars when you had hair.”Sam Ewing
Recently I had to mail a letter. After waiting in line at my local post office and then stumbling to the front counter to purchase postage, my first-class stamp cost me 73 cents! I was shocked. I don’t often have to mail letters, but it seems like the last time I did, cost was not much more than two quarters. Chalk it up to dreaded inflation.
Not long ago, I needed some tomato plants. Three healthy tomato plants purchased from our local Home Depot cost me $25! I was dumbstruck. Every trip now to the grocery store ends in a gut punch at the register. Prices are 30%, even 40% higher than they were not long ago.
Pondering inflation prompted a recent visit to McDonald’s for research. I’m not a big fan of McDonald’s. I do love a good hamburger but am much more of an In-N-Out guy (In-N-Out -best burger chain on planet Earth). At McDonald’s my Big Mac meal cost me a few pennies under $12. Some quick online review revealed the average cost of a Big Mac meal just four years ago was $7.89. My rudimentary math skills tell me this is over a 40% increase. What the heck is going on? The simple answer is inflation. Or, I should say, stupid politicians who bring us inflation.
You might be asking, what causes inflation? It’s pretty simple actually. The great economist Milton Friedman perhaps said it best, “inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon.”
The primary cause of inflation is an increase in the money supply which results in the value of your dollar decreasing over time. Too many dollars chasing too few goods reduces the purchasing power of your money. If there is more demand than supply, prices rise.
We should go a bit deeper here though. There are actually two types of inflation. The first is non-monetary inflation. This is the result of external events. For example, if you have a hurricane in the Gulf that interrupts fuel production, reducing gas supplies for a time, prices at the pump will rise. Usually, non-monetary inflation is temporary. There are exceptions, however. The current war on fossil fuels (in its various forms) has increased the price of gas and diesel in this country. Because fuel prices affect the cost of everything we buy, fostering increased oil production could quickly bring some prices down. The increased cost of gas in recent years has simply added fuel to the fire of inflation.
The second, and primary, type of inflation is monetary inflation where your dollar loses its value when government policies increase the money supply. The money supply is increased to fund necessary, and often unnecessary, programs instituted by the talking head politicians.
Thanks to Richard Nixon, in 1971 the U.S. ditched the gold standard. Until then, every dollar was represented by physical gold held by the government. With the government tethered to the gold supply, there was a limited ability to increase the money supply. Once we discarded the gold standard, the government could increase the money supply as much as they wanted. Lacking a physical commodity to back our currency, we now have fiat money. With the ability to print money at will, the tendency is for our comb-over politicians to push high spending policies. One little known factor that is feeding this unbridled government spending is a popular concept known as Modern Monetary Theory (MMT).
MMT is increasingly evident within the bowels of our government. Adherents to MMT argue that countries that issue their own currency can never run out of money. Money is printed as needed, without regard to the money supply or inflation. This policy model is evidence of economic illiteracy, and I would argue, should be discarded completely.
Inflation has been a problem throughout history. Inflation contributed mightily to the downfall of Rome. During the American Revolution, the Continental Dollar was so over printed that the new country collapsed into hyperinflation. America was only saved when Alexander Hamilton, our first Treasury Secretary, linked the U.S. Dollar to gold. In the 1920s rampant money printing by the Weimar Republic in Germany caused hyperinflation, economic collapse, and ushered in the rise of Adolph Hitler and the Nazi party. Once prosperous Argentina has never recovered from the wild money printing that took place in the 1950s. Today the country of Zimbabwe, struggling under the weight of massive hyperinflation, issues a 100 trillion-dollar bill.
Inflation is dangerous and is usually the source of societal collapse. Maybe we need to go back to the gold standard. © 2024 Jody Dyer
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