The Baytown Sun (Baytown, Tex.), Vol. 89, No. 297, Ed. 1 Friday, November 13, 2009 Page: 4 of 12
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1
Friday, November 13,2009
THE BAYIDWN SUN
®HLER
Letters to the editor
Friday the 13th
Jim Finley is a retired managing
editor for The Baytown Sun.
Don Sanders
Baytown
Jay Odom
Baytown
Baytown resident Ray Wilson is a retired
Exxon process supervisor He can be
reached at rayehasen@msn.com.
Luke Hales
Assistant Managing Editor
M.A. Bengtson
Community member
Dave Rogers
Sports Editor
WRITE TO US
The Sun welcomes letters of
up to 250 words and guest
columns of up to 500 words.
Guest columns should include
a photo of the writer.
We publish only original
material addressed to The
Baytown Sun bearing the
writer’s signature. An address
and phone number not for
publication should be included.
All letters and guest columns
are subject to editing, apd the
RAY
WILSON
MISS YOUR PAPER?
You should receive your
Baytown Sun by 6 a.m. Tuesday
through Friday and by noon
Saturday. If you do not receive
your paper on time, call (281)
425-8066 by 9 a.m. weekdays
and 3 p.m. Saturday to ensure
redelivery.
CAREER
DAY
JIM
FINLEY
Federal
Barack Obama,
President
202-456-1111
Fax:202-456-2461
presidential
whitehouse.gov
Joe Biden,
Vice President
202-456-2324
Fax:202-456-2461
vice-president©
whitehouse.gov
Kay Bailey
Hutchison,
Senator
202-224-5922
71^653-3436
Fax:202-224-0776
Fax:713-209-3459
hutchison.senate.
govte-maWm
John Cornyn,
Senator
202-224-2934
713-572-3337
Fax:202-228-2856
Fax: 713-572-3777
comyn.senate.g
ov/contact/index
.html
How to reach us
Clifton E. “Cliff” Clements,
Publisher
cliff.clements@baytownsun.com
Dave Mathews
Managing Editor
dave.mathews@baytownsun.com
Sandy Denson, Business Mgr.
sandy.denson@baytownsun.com
Joshua Hart, Circulation Manager
joshua.hart@baytownsun.com
Gordon Gallatin,
Advertising Director
gordon.gallatin@baytownsun.com
NEWSROOM
sunnews@baytownsun.com
£fic tototen &un
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The Baytown Sun, 46180 is published
five days a week by The Baytown Sun,
1301 Memorial Drive, PO Box 90,
Baytown Texas 77522. Periodicals
postage paid at Baytown, Tx.
THIS IS
MY DAD AND
HE HAS A
JOB! y
I RED It \RTM \\
Publisher Emeritus
ITiO-ITM
State
Rick Perry,
Governor
800-843-5789
800-252-9600
Fax: 512-463-
1849
Ted Poe,
Dist. 2 Rep.
866-425-6565
866-447-0242
www.house.
gov/poe
Ron Paul,
Dist. 14 Rep.
202-225-2831
979-230-0000
www.house.
gov/paul
Gene Green,
Dist. 29 Rep.
202-225-1688
713-330-0761
281-420-0502
www.house.
gov/green
___
Opinion
4\
Sun reserves the right to
refuse to publish any submis-
sion.
Send signed letters to:
Dave Mathews, The Baytown
Sun, P.O. Box 90, Baytown, TX
77522; fax them to (281) 427-
1880 or send an e-mail to
sunnews@baytownsun.com.
Items featured on this page
are the views of the persons
identified with each submission
and do not necessarily reflect
the views of The Baytown Sun
or its advertisers.
Hearing stuff
an art form
Waffle House
Maybe it is time for Mr. Obama to
dispense with flowery rhetoric and
make a decision. He speaks in such
generalities that it is hard to peg him
down on anything concrete.
His strategy for dealing with
Afghanistan was supposedly crystal
clear in March and now it seems the
expiration date for his plan occurred
sometime in August when his hand
pick general asked for more troops. He
has yet to commit to anything and our
fighting men and women are in limbo
while he waffles. He can no longer get
by voting ‘present’. He has to make a
decision one way or the other. He has
yet to author any health care bill
though he pretends to have one.
To be fair, our President has zero
expertise in business, economics, mili-
tary strategy and just about everything
else. After almost a year in office I
can’t see that he has learned much of
anything. Someone said after his fail-
ure to lure the Olympics here that “The
Ego Has Landed”. I would say it
crashed.
For some people, today, Friday the
13th, is an ill-fated day, and they would
just as soon lock their doors, pull the
blinds, and stay in bed until Saturday
morning. However, for most individuals
this fear of Friday the 13th, akin to other
fears and superstitions, is illogical with
no scientific data to substantiate the
fears. Actually, there is some physiologi-
cal reason for the fear of Fridayl3th,
stemming from two separate phobias:
The fear of the number 13, and the fear
of Fridays. The phobia called
Triskaidekaphobia, (pronounced Triski-
deka-fo-bee-a) is the term for the fear of
anything associated with the number 13.
Paraskevidekatriaphobia (pronounced
Pair-uh-skee-vee-dek-uh-tree-uh-fo-
bee-a) is the phobia that people who
connect their fear of the number 13 with
Fridays have. Approximately 21 million
Americans, about 7 percent of the
American population, suffer from one or
both of these conditions. The medical
and physiological professions have no
clear explanation to the cause of phobias;
they do agree that they are a combina-
tion of genetics and experiences, but are
generally unsure how much is inherited
and how much is learned. Professionals
do agree that some of these phobias like-
ly developed from association with some-
thing unpleasant, painful, and/or demor- superstar Alex Rodrigue;
alizing. 1
No one knows for sure when people
began associating the number 13 with
misfortune, but a number of theories
exist, some with historical data to sub-
stantiate the theory, others nothing
more than speculation. The number 13
does have some foreboding for many
business and other enterprises. More
than 80 percent of the high-rise build-
ings in the world do not have a 13th
floor, and many hotels and hospitals do
not have a room numberl3. In addition,
many airports worldwide skip the 13th
gate, having 12B directly to the number
14. Some airline companies omit seat
number and row 13 from their planes. A
number of sports arenas and auditoriums
skip seat and row 13 and the U. S. Navy
will not launch a ship on Friday the
13th. The Italian government does not
use the number 13 as part of their
national lottery. Also, a number of people
with the fear of the number 13 point to
the near fatal Apollo 13 mission to the
moon as another example of how
unlucky the number is. They point to the
fact that the spaceship launched at 1313
hours CST from launch pad 39, the
third multiple of 13, and that the explo-
sion that damaged the craft occurred on
April 13. The flip side, of course, is the
crew and the spacecraft returned safely to
earth without the loss of life, so how
unlucky was the crew and the overall
mission?
There are people,
businesses, and our
government who
either consider the
number 13 lucky or
simply ignore any
negative connotations
associated with the
number. The
Fairmont Hotel in
Vancouver, British
Columbia reports that
room number 1313 is always occupied
and guests book it well in advance of
their arrivial. As far as the United States
is concerned, the number 13 has special
significance. Thirteen original colonies
formed the United States, and the origi-
nal flag had 13 stars and our present flag
contains 13 horizontal stripes, 6 white
and 7 red. The Great United States Seal,
to honor the original 13 colonies, con-
tains 13 olive leaves, arrows, and stars,
forming a triangle over the eagle with
the number 13 on each point, and the
reverse side is the pyramid with 13 lev-
els.
Although a large number of athletes
are superstitious, quite a few have worn
or still wear the number 13 on their uni-
forms, including football hall of famer
Dan Marino, basketball legend Wilt
Chamberlain, and present day baseball
..._—ai... n.
Filmmakers have used the premise of
Friday the 13th in several horror movies
to generate vast amount of box office
revenue. One of the biggest movie box
office successes is the horror movie
“Friday the 13th.” The original and
sequels had garnered millions of dollars,
from not only the film but also associat-
ed merchandise. The hockey mask worn
by Jason Voorhees, the film’s central
character, has become one of the most
recognizable images in popular culture.
The complexities of emotions felt by
those people that actually fear Friday the
13th are from both physiological and
personal experiences. We learn at an
early age to consider Friday the 13th as
an unlucky day; most of us grow out of
those fears, while others look for evi-
dence of the rationality of the legend.
For those that fear the date, the evidence
is not hard to come by, if something bad
happens on Friday the 13th, and even
though bad things happen every day,
those bad events verify their beliefs.
Therefore, if a person is expecting bad
luck today, they will probably find it.
However, how bad or unlucky can
Fridays be, when for many its payday and
the end of the workweek? Those facts
alone make Fridays a special day. V
Who’s in charge?
Who is in charge of Baytown's red
lights?
On numerous occasions I called the
person in charge of the red lights in
Baytown to complain about the light at
ElChaco and 146.1 was told parts are
ordered. Three months later the light
is still on a timer, creating a huge traffic
jam in the mornings. Will it ever get
repaired? These parts could have got-
ten here by now on a slow boat from
China.
I also told the traffic light man that
coming off Massey Tompkins onto 146
takes way too long. No adjustments.
Why does the traffic at Rollingbrook
and Garth have to stay red so long for
the cross traffic? Try coming of Hutto
onto Rollingbrook just after it turns
red. Long wait. More air pollution from
emmissions sitting and waiting. With
the influx of expected new residents to
this town, it is time to implement one
way traffic on Garth and Main Streets.
A little inconvenient but easier travel-
ing and safer as well.
Traffic lights all over this city have no
reason for the the length of time it
takes for them to change. Why are
there motion detectors on the light
poles if they do not work or are dis-
abled?
I encourage all residents to call the
traffic light department and write a let-
ter to the fine editor of the Baytown
Sun.
I do believe I’m undergoing some
sort of hearing loss. I'm told this
comes with age, but that's no com-
fort. Look, I’m still vibrantly young
of face and heart, as I’m sure you've
noticed. (See attached column pic-
ture.)
Today, however, I’m a few decibels
down in my right ear. “Old Lefty”
still seems fine. (As a right-handed
batter, hearing better out of the left
ear is OK because 1 can still hear the
whiz of the baseball coming towards
me, although 1 can’t always see it like
I used to. Don’t know why.)
I noticed this hearing thingy at
night a while back. Thinking it
would go away, I
shrugged it off.
Now, someday
(like in four years
or so), I may have
to visit my per-
sonal physician,
Luis Fraga, M.D.,
to check it out.
Perhaps the
problem is a
buildup of trou-
blesome wax. Or
possibly grout. Or maybe it's because
I sleep on my right ear at night and
the pillow is blocking out sound and
stuff.
Wife Margie, with whom I’ve dis-
cussed this problem, is skeptical. She
claims I’ve always had a hearing mal-
function. Says I’m no worse than I’ve
ever been. She wasn’t cheerful when
she offered this diagnosis, either.
As a precursor to setting up a visit
with Luis Fraga, M.D. - probably in
late 2014 - Wife Margie took a look
inside the offending ear. Other than a
buildup of what she called “Grandpa
Hair,” she said everything looked
fine.
“I can even see all the way through
to the other side,” she chuckled.
Funny.
Guess I can understand why she
feels that way. She’s the love of my
life and we’ve been married for 49
years (we started off really young),
but we’ve always, it seems, had com-
munication problems.
Like the other day - and this is
true - she announced, 1 thought, that
she was “going to help Robin [our
daughter] paint."
This puzzled me. Huh?
You’re going to help Robin paint? I
queried. Paint what?
“Are you deaf?” she asked. “1 said,
‘In a minute, I’m going out to water
the plants.’”
Oh.
I’m thinking it’s my right ear. She’s
thinking I'm not listening.
Sometimes, when I’m in the Bat
Cave, my Real Newsman Office,
doing much-needed literary contri-
butions, she’ll holler at me down a
long hallway. It sounds something
like this: “Groldcvh. E am gnorh ty
tinx stpmaz.”
What? Hl shout back. I have no
idea what you just said. Please repeat
yourself, Wife Margie!
Walking closer to me, she’ll shout,
“Good-bye. I’m going to Hobby
Lobby.”
Oh.
“You need to have your ears
checked,” she’ll say, not smiling. “You
don’t listen.”
Then there’s the TV. 1 like it loud.
She likes it low and peaceful.
But I’m listening to and watching
the NASCAR race or the Cowboys
or Texans. I need to know what’s
going on, even though, admittedly,
most sports announcers are - pardon
me here - idiots.
Wife Margie, too, enjoys athletics,
particularly when the Razorbacks or
Texans are playing. In the old days,
she kept ogling the Texans’ David
Carr. (David is a beautiful a person, I
guess, but an ugly quarterback, and
that’s what counts with me.)
“Do you have to have it blaring?”
she’ll inquire as I watch NASCAR
drivers go around in a circle. “I don’t
need it that loud to watch Jeff
Gordon.”
Finally, though, I’ve figured it out.
This is in direct correlation to her
general viewing habits, which consist
mainly of watching soft, boring
HGTV all day. Let’s face it, you don’t
need a lot of volume to see programs
on Chippendale chairs, fake flowers,
or armoire thingamajiggies.
Hear this. After further review, I’m
probably OK.
EDITOHIAL BOARD
Clifton E. “Cliff” Clements
Editor/Publisher
Dave Mathews
Managing Editor
Jay Eshbach
Community member
Jim Finley
former Managing Editor
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Clements, Clifford E. The Baytown Sun (Baytown, Tex.), Vol. 89, No. 297, Ed. 1 Friday, November 13, 2009, newspaper, November 13, 2009; Baytown, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1193218/m1/4/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Sterling Municipal Library.