Are the ducks out yet?

In her New Lucy Show, Lucille Ball was trying to impress a new friend so she went duck-hunting with him one early morning. There, she discovered her talent to make duck calls to attract them.

Sometimes, we become sitting ducks to scammers.

Camp Dartmouth

This sign on a tee-shirt makes one think that sometimes we have to put to rest an overactive mouth.

Being Human Beings

"When asked to define his role in a community that was sometimes uncooperative with law enforcement, a sheriff didn't flash his badge or respond with the rank of his office.  Rather he offered, "We are human beings who work with human beings in conflict." (Our Daily Bread)

Could be a mediator speaking, too.

Greta Thunberg

She is geeting to be a youthful thorn in the side of those denying climate change's worst case scenarios.

Sometimes it takes the concern of the most affected would-be victims to bring out urgent solutions to problems we face.

Mediating Media

Diana, goddess of hunting, became the hunted, as pointed out by her brother.  But she hunted for the link to author Andrew Morton. Victims sometimes victimize too.

Crown in Glory 3

Prince Philip's uncle Lord Mountbatten forced out of military leadership was tapped by the Bank of England to head a coup. He outlined its requirements:
1. Control of media
2. Control of economy
3. Administrative target/s
4. Loyalty of the military

Sounds familiar again

Take a Number

Our Daily Bread reflected on "bad" days  when fate seems to be conspiring against us.

Better to settle conflict in mediation than count the number of years in a court suit.

Crown in Glory 2

When it was Prince Charles' turn to be invested his crown as Prince of Wales, he was forced to leave his budding drama career in Cambridge to learn Welsh for three months in a university in where else, Wales. There, he was welcomed by boos from anti- monarch nationalists, principally his tutor. The latter took pity on the lonely prince and invited him for dinner at his home. When it was time to tuck in their son, his wife was struck by the look on Prince Charles' face whom they had to momentarily leave at the dinner table. "His look was shattering," told the wife to the tutor, "He must've never experienced such." 

Crown in Glory

Back in Netflix, the Queen refuses at first to condole with the surviving coal mining families in Aberfan, Wales. She declares to the Prime Minister that the monarch doesn't put on a show. Later, PM Wilson confides that as an academician, he prefers cigars but uses a pipe in keeping with his Labor Party status.

Mediation is certainly not a show, but penalizes no-shows in sessions.

Bird Brain

Pardon the expression, but mayas are really small. One got into my room, so I opened one little  screen window to let it out. For several long minutes, this creature swung from one window to another before it finally found its way out.

Like some disputants.

Peach Season

For Trump now. Ex-Ambassador to Ukraine Yovanovitch is no bitch.

Dictators and Sports

Hitler started it with the 11th Olympiad in 1936.  Since then, despots have used sports events as a sign of progress.  Asean Games is coming to Manila.

Define Terms

America's Funniest Home Videos featured a child repeating, "It is fragile" while holding a breakable bowl which he quickly dropped into the toy basket.

You Again

Watched again this hilarious but painful account of 3 generations of bullying females.

Mediation avoids these reruns of conflict.

Use

"Mabuti pa kay Cayetano ang manok, kung pumutak, alas singko na."

Raining Rulers

Took awhile to reconcile the 5th richest family, the Chakris to be the Thai monarchy. Initially thought they were into conserving rainwater.

Typos are a no-no in Compromise Agreements.

The Hand of Comfort

Our Daily Bread reflection today relates the effect of a nurse's assistant whose hand reached out to a frightened patient.

Such is mediation too.

Woman's Job

Woeman, more apt as we pick up the mess left by men, is best exemplified by VP Leni who is faced with, but not fazed by accepting DU30's offer to co-chair ICAD. 

Traffic

It's global. Not only on the road, but involving human beings.  This woman in the Middle East paid a trafficker for fake documents to work in Spain as a farmhand.

She even made her hands rough to prove she was used to work the soil. But the recruiters checked her feet, which were trimmed and polished! Denied

Brothers

CinemaWorld's Lovely Louise was about a Greta Garbo-wannabee who left Hollywood and Bill, her son by a director and went back to another son Andre in Switzerland. Bill reunites with them, only to try and get some money. Reminiscent of Esau and Jacob!

Waiting

Zechariah and Elizabeth waiting for decades till God granted them a son. Sometimes, looking forward to a court decision is like that, with unpredictable results at that.

Second Opinion

Just as we seek another medical advice after seeing our first physician, mediation can be considered after consulting our lawyer.

Joy and Justice

Psalm 67 says they go together. Like after a successful mediation.

Details

Not only the devil is into it. Mediation requires accurate and exact conditions in the resulting Compromise Agreement- when, where, what time will payments be made by whom, to whom. Like Harry Potter's address of Cupboard under the Stairs of his uncle's home.

Tiny House, Big Living

In one of its eisode, they converted a schoolbus into a house extention on their lawn.

Mediation handles cases of big house, tiny living.

False Pretenses

Caught this European film on CinemaWorld. A female magazine researcher fell overboard a freight ship and was saved by a smuggler's boat.  Soon pirates overtook them and to protect the researcher, the smuggler claimed she was his wife. The pirate believed him and asked, "Why don't you buy her some clothes!"

Not so easy to get away from those alibis in mediation.

Divine Mediator

Our Daily Bread had this insightful reflection today.

"The One who had exhorted the crowds to 'Listen!' earlier in the day, uttered a simple, powerful command to the winds of nature- 'Quiet! Be still!'"

The first exhortation is used in mediation, and the second, when things gets rowdy, although these reminders are both given during the orientation at the start of the initial session.