Gary Morse tagged posts

PLASTICVILLE-USA

THE HISTORIC SIDE…

Greek philosopher Plato is credited for uttering the old saying “necessity is the mother of invention”. Plato’s words have often come true, and when you get right down to it, it is this phrase that explains the beginning of TV.

Back in the day old Harold Schwartz was making a living selling chunks of real estate by mail. While it was perfectly legal, and there’s no indication that Harold was doing anything “dodgy” as they would say in England, but lots of others were and the Feds decided to step in one day and save the terminally stupid from those unscrupulous sellers who were promising cut-rate prices on ocean front property in Nebraska.

When this happened it left Harold with lots of acres in Florida and no easy way to sell them...

PLASTICVILLE-USA

IT DOES NOT FIT..YOU MUST ADMIT!

I have never made any bones about my complete dislike for Villagers. As a group they are the most spoiled, self-centered and obnoxious people that God ever deposited in America. On the other hand, while I am not in favor of what Gary Morse created, I applaud his genius for his ability to lay out such an amazing site and to anticipate the needs of his created community.

People in TV look at Gary as either saint or the earthly creation of Beelzebub himself. Gary’s father on the other hand, Harold Schwartz, is only spoken about in hushed tones as though he was the second coming of Jesus Christ. If there is anything bad to be said about TV it is ALWAYS said about that filth-foul-foul-filth Gary Morse! By the way....

PLASTICVILLE-USA

ON THE HUNT FOR LOOFA SPONGES…

In his book “Leisureville” Andrew Blechman points out the rather interesting swinger scene that takes place in TV. For those less “in the know” Swinging is known more crudely as “Wife Swapping”.  Blechman opens the door on this subject to the annoyance of The Villagers.

Unless you are calling for Andrew Blechman’s demise in the most hideous of ways, even mentioning his name among TV true believers will make them begin to snarl and foam at the mouth like rabid beasts. The book Leisureville pulled back the curtain on what is little more than a modern and non-fictional Peyton Place and they hate him for telling the truth.

Blechman published his book back in 2008, when Lake Sumter Landing had barely been built and Brownwood wa...

PLASTICVILLE-USA

AN HONEST MAN WITH SOME SERIOUS STONES…

Ed Wolf is my new personal hero. Ed is the long-time mayor of little Wildwood, Florida the small town that borders TV on its southwest side. In fact TV radio station WVLG is actually licensed to Wildwood NOT to TV. The reason for this is that unlike TV which is essentially a make-believe town, Wildwood is a real town, and the FCC does not license radio stations to make-believe towns. Of course the ONLY time you ever hear anything about Wildwood on WVLG is their top-of-the-hour ID which is REQUIRED to state the name of the town you are licensed in. Otherwise WVLG services the town of Wildwood not at all.

A couple of months ago the Morse machine came calling at the Wildwood Town Hall with a proposal in hand to buy up a parcel of l...

PLASTICVILLE-USA

THE DEATH OF THE VILLAGES…

In the 1980’s and 90’s there was a very popular radio format called “The Music Of Your Life”. Actually “The Music Of Your Life” is a trademarked entity originally designed by a former record company executive named Al Ham. The format was essentially a big-band, 50’s crooners radio format that was designed to reach the children of the great depression and World War-2. A number of competitors sprang up also offering the same sort of package to local radio stations, and in many ways “The Music Of Your Life” essentially became the generic name of the format no matter who sold the various packages, much like “Coke” has become the byword for any sort of cola product.

While the format was extremely popular with the 50+ age gro...

PLASTICVILLE-USA

WHEN LIFE HANDS YOU LEMONS MAKE LEMONADE

-BUT-

WHEN LIFE HANDS YOU A BIG FAT DEFINED-BENEFIT PENSION CHECK…MAKE WHINE.

What is now TV began as a solution to a problem that old Harold Schwartz had. Back in the 1960’s Harold was making a living from buying up cheap scrub land in Arizona and Florida and selling off parcels by mail. While there was never any evidence that old Harold was doing anything the Brits would call “dodgy” there were lots of others out there who were selling chunks of ground where “water front” property would be defined as land that’s covered in 18 inches of water in some fetid Florida swamp. Now why any half-sane person would buy land sight-unseen by mail from somebody you don’t know is beyond me, but Harold was making a go of it.

In...

PLASTICVILLE-USA

FOR THE GREATER GOOD???

Recently a thread popped up on my favorite web-board regarding a BBQ restaurant here in the area. The restaurant is located on the eastern end of Route-466A between TV and the little town of Fruitland Park.

The writer was upset that the restaurant wouldn’t agree to her request to wait 20 minutes after their closing time so her husband who was driving in from some place could pick up her order. The writer being a full-blast Villager decided to remind the restaurant that she was a VILLAGER and that she was of course entitled to her every whim being fulfilled.

The bottom line was that restaurant told them they were not going to hang around, and that they really didn’t care if she was a Villager and she could buy her ribs somewhere else.

This of ...

PLASTICVILLE-USA

A QUIET GOOD-BYE…

On October 29^th TV daily newspaper The Villages Daily Sun announced the passing of Gary Morse. Within the story it was noted that the Morse family would not be releasing the cause of death and that there would be no public memorial service. The Daily Sun acted as the clearing house for the Morse family for all the press contacts when other media outlets came calling. So unless an enterprising reporter wanted to do a little digging and expanding, the story in the Daily Sun was pretty much the same story you saw or heard whether you lived in Birmingham, Binghamton or Boise.

Some reporters did do some digging and some pieces of circumstantial evidence have arisen that indicate that Gary might not have been a well man for some time...

PLASTICVILLE-USA

THE MYSTERY OF CRACKER BAY…

There’s an old saying that says you know you’re old when the first page you read in the daily newspaper is the obituary column. Well..I guess I’m old. I started the practice of reading the obit page in my hometown newspaper a few years ago. I did it primarily to see if there were people my parents knew from their church or work who might have passed away and they would like to know about it. Over time I began to find names of people of my own age who were listed there. Never a good sign.

As you read the notices you can almost always tell how the person passed away. There are various clues whether it’s a request to donate to a specific medical organization or simply how the cause of death is spelled out...

PLASTICVILLE-USA

THE UTTERLY WRONG WAY TO SHOW RESPECT…

Like many people I was quite surprised to learn of yesterday’s death of Plasticville’s senior Wizard of Oz..Gary Morse.

While I never met the man, I admired him, thought that he was a genius, and would have loved to have had the opportunity to meet him and spend a half hour or more talking with him. I’m sure I could have learned a lot.

Without a doubt it is proper to show respect and honor on this man’s passing. However, I am OUTRAGED that the Morse organization has ordered the lowering of the American flag to half-staff on Villages property!

I’m sure someone meant well, and Gary was certainly a giant in a land of pygmies..but it is absolutely WRONG to lower the American flag on Gary’s passing.

This morning I had erra...