“What’s your dog’s name?”

   The Chihuahua lapped up beer from a bowl on the bar. Beer is not good for dogs, but the dog’s owner looked as testy as his pet. I was disinclined to criticize. Also, the bar was a few doors down from a place into which I recently had moved. I was a stranger to the regulars there. I always would be, as it turned out, but that is beside the point.

   “His name’s Tojo,” the man, who looked to be in his late 60s, replied.

   “Are you a veteran of…

   The “person on the street” was setting was cliche. A student at Texas Tech was on-camera someplace on campus where the student pedestrian traffic was brisk. The day was sunny. She began to stop and ask students, one at a time, questions.

   The first question was: “Who won the Civil War?” One of the students asked, “Is this a trick question?” Only one of about a dozen students answered correctly and said, “The Union ...The North.” Two students said, “The Confederacy.” The rest failed…

   “Birdman” stars Michael Keaton as an actor who, years before, played a superhero—Birdman—and stages a Broadway play to show he has talent.

   I had not read any reviews of the movie before seeing it. I only have read a couple of blips since. One there appears to be Keaton is a washed-up actor, Reggin Thompson, who seeks to rejuvenate his career by adapting for the stage, starring in, and directing the play. Perhaps that was how the movie was pitched, but the plot I caught was…

   There was an 8-track comedy tape in the 1970s (of course the 1970s; that was the abbreviated time of 8-track tapes) called “A Truck Stop Is the Best Place to Eat.” Most of the material on the tape was offensive, but one item was expressive of a truth. One joke on the redneck (questionable) humor-filled tape involved “Big Moe” who was a visitor in a town and was on a quest for sexual gratification. He said to and asked a bartender: “I’m Big Moe. Where can Big Moe get f****d?” (There were…

   The people of Marion County who reside within that political entity called Indianapolis formally are on notice as to what many suspected would occur for the past several months: Greg Ballard will not seek re-election as Mayor.

   Ballard courageously announced his support for the Republican candidate for Marion County Sheriff a day or two before the election.  Now, one foot almost on the jetway for a flight to Berlin for whatever purpose on the dime of the Indianapolis taxpayers,…

   If you have questions about where to vote in Marion County, Google Marion County Election Board—no, I still do not know how to “link” a page—and you can type in your address for the location of your polling site. You also can call 317.327.VOTE, but experience as a poll worker in elections past tells me the line is pretty busy on Election Day.

   Whatever your predilections, you should vote. Even if you enter the poll and turn in a blank ballot, (1) your vote will count as a vote for…

   Several internet headlines, on the same topic, caught my eye yesterday. One, from townhall dot com, read “Oh My: Study Reveals Significant Number of Non-Citizens Vote in US Elections,” by Guy Benson, a conservative writer with a bachelor’s degree from Northwestern..  

   The “study” to which the articles refer was published in 36 Electoral Studies 149-57 (2014) and was written by  professors (Jesse T. Richman, Gulshan A, Chattha and David C. Earnest) from Old Dominion University and…

   Patrick Lockhart will be our guest today as “Civil Discourse Now” streams live from The Coffee Brake, 6215 Allisonville Road. Patrick is the Democratic Party candidate for Indiana State Representative from District 91. His opponent is Republican Robert Behning. District 91 covers parts of Marion, Hendricks, Morgan, and Johnson counties. Patrick is the youngest candidate for the Indiana House of Representatives in the general election this year.

   As always, Kimann Schultz will…

  In Georgia, a State that appears to be “purple”—to use the popular parlance of color to describe party affiliation as a spectrum between one extreme of red (pure Republican) and blue (pure Democratic), and the shades of magenta, violet, and purple between—a voter registration drive was held this year. Ninety thousand (90,000) voters were registered. Shortly after the deadline for registration passed, the office of the Secretary of State somehow “lost” 40,000 of those registrations. New…

   In the middle of the night, as I flushed my contribution to the White River and prepared to return to bed, I was startled by two sharp raps on the bathroom door. From behind the door, a gruff voice said, “Boss wants to see ya.”  In my jockey shorts, I opened the door and was face-to-chest with the specter of a large, rough man. “I said da Boss wants ta see ya,” he repeated.

   “I heard you the first time.” A glow came from around the edges of the door to the Study. In that room,…

   The absence of a declared Republican Party candidate for Indianapolis Mayor got me to ponder last night about tossing my Cubs or DePauw University baseball cap into the ring for that slot on this spring’s ballot.

   First, I wish to set forth the main points of the platform on which I would run.  Second, I shall address questions of logistics. Finally, I shall set forth the political philosophy I embrace and my qualifications.

MY PLATFORM

   1) The process by which any…

   Remember, today, October 18, and tomorrow we shall stream live from the Body Mind Spirit Festival, held this weekend at the Indiana State Fairgrounds. We will interview exhibitors who are involved in the holistic movement. Other exhibitors will stream from our channel—7bitsofinfo on Live365—through the day. Also, Kimann Scultz will join us with her "Fashion News and Muse" and Tyler Rayl will give insight on Sports.

   ADVISORY I have to issue:  The views of the exhibitors do not…

   As I wrote on Monday, the Body Mind Spirit Festival will be held this weekend, Saturday and Sunday, at the Indiana State Fairgrounds. We will stream live from the festival and interview exhibitors who are involved in the holistic movement. We shall be there from 11 am to 1 pm. There will be folks at the festival, however, who will continue to stream live after The Show is off the air.

   This is an advisory I have to issue.  The views of the exhibitors do not necessarily reflect those…

   Several items in the news yesterday seemed to interplay.

   First, of course, was the media-driven frenzy over Ebola hemorrhagic fever.

   Second is the mention of Congress’s failure to even vote on President Obama’s nominee for Surgeon General of the United States.

   Third is the mention of cuts Congress has made to the budgets for the Centers for Disease Control and the National Institute of Health.

   Fourth, and only sort of a footnote, was the National Rifle…

   This is the second year we have been privileged to cover the festival. I simultaneously am skeptical of and welcome to approaches to reality and healing arts outside the dominant paradigm for such matters in our society. This contradictory attitude reflects splits of other types inherent in human thought and existence.  I had the opportunity, in 1976, to talk with Ken Kesey, who wrote “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” “Sometimes a Great Notion,” and was the central figure og the Merry…

   We shall talk election predictions today.

   The 2014 midterms only are three-and-a-half weeks away.  Some have perceived, here in Indiana, a lack of enthusiasm about these “mid-terms.”

   Indiana’s Congressional districts have been gerrymandered. Whether the creative carving of districts is by members of the Republican Party—as now in Indiana—or Democratic Party—as was the case in the past—gerrymandering, the drawing of district lines to favor one party, is wrong. The Republican…

   “That bastard Royko!” the voice croaked from behind me and nearly caused me to spill the beer sipped. I set down my cigar and turned around. I recognized the voice.

   The ghost of the Honorable Mayor Richard J. Daley, who ran the City of Chicago from 1955 to 1976 was an ethereal presence a few feet away.

   Hizzoner looked around the basement for a moment, then at the table, laptop, and mini-fridge, as well as the 19-inch Hitachi color TV I bought new in 1985. “You sit down…

   In Sunday’s edition of the daily newspaper of the City of Indianapolis, columnist Matthew Tully and Opinion Tim Swarens wrote “two views” about whether Mayor Gregory Ballard should seek a third term.  Tully’s side of the dueling columns—big surprise—was “Mayor should pursue another term.”

   The opposite view, written by Swarens, would be a delineation, one would infer, of the “down” side of Mayor Ballard’s first seven years as Mayor. Such an inference would have been invalid.…

   Once in a while, a person has to take a breather.
   We have been on the air every week with a new Show since June, 2012, according to my calculations.
   We shall be back on the air with Civil Discourse Now next week, October 11.  This week, however, is a time to rest a little, tweak the gear, and gather thoughts for the October 11 elections preview show and then, on October 18, the Body, Mind, Spirit Festival.

   In the 1960s, most touchdowns in the NFL seemed to be celebrated by fans with little show from players. A player might toss the ball to the ref and be greeted by a couple of teammates on the jog back to the bench. In the 1970s, TD celebrations by players became more prevalent. Billy “White Shoes” Johnson was most notable. With time, the celebrations became almost choreographed. The NFL had to intervene with rules to limit what had become a time-suck for the viewer at home.

   One type…