The PROGRESSIVE SCHOOL OF PUSH-BACK

Ladies' Luncheon "Look Out Loretta!"  We've all attended them: the social gathering of girls who hate each other and need to purge those negative energies. 

We've gotta stay pretty, Coach. 

OK, we showed some ugly face when the O Brats gave us lip on the campaign trail.  My son would NEVER address me with such impudence, and I don't know about how the rest of you raised your children, but both mine are under control.  (at a price, I assure you we just don't get together until we get back to pretty)  It's the sons of the others of you I need to call out.   How could they be so separated from their home energies that they could doubt the essential goodness of this society.  Instead, they want to just toss it out with the old folks and start all over with something that makes it easy for them to succeed.  Are they discovering that a win at the expense of the rest is not a win"   ....Is not a winning way? 

So the Ladies gather to recognize the Courage of those who faced and fared strong in behalf of what was right.  Showing uncharacteristic Grace, Michelle Obama greets the group with acquired respect for the better way.  Be nice to the old girls: they've got "Push Back" you won't see coming til it knocks you off your pedestal.   Defense is a constantly layering project.  Never rest: never take any defender lightly.  Kids.  Women, geeks and other Americans of standing participate in the game.  As a free country, we let all comers in at some level, but our survival instincts condition us to structure access to our true powers.  Navigating the Paths to Power is a game of Tickle Bee.  Your bug moves along the corridors of the maze guided by your magnetic leverage.  In the "game" which is truly a Board Game for the Bored, ages 3 and up, you hold a WAND tipped with a magnet.  You play along with a screen that poses as the Scene, but is really designed to conceal the true paths.  Here we see flowers, streams and walkways painted on the screen.  Try to take your "Beta Unit" along that path, however: and you get Stung!  Remember "The Sting," the Redford-Newman fun fest set to Joplin Rag Time?  One Sting is never enough.  The venom pumps.  The predator repeats the attack like an electrocutioner, until the circuit is broken.  The Prey is held captive.  Thus the Alpha Unit, Massa, turns 50 and burns learning - taught the maze through painful, expensive experience.  The pain is shared through the magnet in a fashion not unlike the sensation in the wii control when your Mario dies falling off the path.  The creators of the GAME call it tickle, but we know it to be the complete take-over of Choice, sprinkled with some MOB Justice and a lot of pain for everybody connected in the TAKE DOWN.  Thus is the programming world of Defense. 

Ben Roethlesberger is OFFENSE.                                                          Dick LaBeau is an OLD Player.  Trench Warfare-wisened Hall of Famer from his playing days, silver and "Honolulu" Blue,  44's Defensive Schemes have inspired NFL and ESPN alike.  "Tickle the Old Guy if you can." say the Linemen.  In this game, there's a game you BELIEVE you're playing, a game in which you get caught, shot and plastered all over FaceBook, and a game of Survivor where your alliances can prove to be allied elsewhere at Tribal Council.  Many, many games all going on simultaneously.  What does it take to make it to the House and over the Goal Line and Survive to the end?  FRIENDS.  True, always-there-for-you friends.  People whose personal happiness, security and survival are directly tied to yours.  Success, for friends, is getting through the toughest times together.  Power is what we feel when we shake each others' hands over a Ladies' and Gentleman's agreement.  Oneness with the All, The Grace of the best within us coming together in the interest of making life worth living.  As kids in the 50's, threatened by nuclear extinction, we braced for fall-out in underground shelters.  What actually got us were those pesky asbestos tiles in our ceilings.  Who knew?  

Trust in the hand holding the magnet and live as though the power can be switched onto that magnet at any time.  Detached and seemingly "defeated,"

"Senator Clinton; er, Secretary Clinton...I almost said: "President Clinton :)" admitted Michelle.

  What went unspoken was the recognition of Hillary, a profile in Courage, who let the Push Boys dispose of her in favor of a young Lion touted for his leadership, and went into the maze to experience sting after sting after sting until she knew the ropes.  We of the P.U.M.A. were there with her for every one of them, absorbing and chanelling the pain while evaluating the threat.  We of Goal Line Stand play our super bowl where the action really is: at the luncheon.  We graciously hear our "First" Lady acknowledge our Former First Lady as President.  And that says "Peace."   Who'se really #44?  It's enough to know the Secret of Service to the Country. 

Back in the days when "Ozzie and Harriet" and "Leave it to Beaver" were all the rage, a little bee found its way into the mainstream and took the toy world by storm. Now, the buzz is that the bee is back!

Simple, yet challenging, the object of the game is to maneuver the magnetic bee around the plastic maze until it returns to the honeycomb. Using a magnetic wand, the child (or, adult for that matter) "tickles" the bee ... moving it in any direction. Look out though! If you get too close you might get stung. Get stung 3 times and you're out. 

http://www.boardgames.com/ticklebee.html