SOUP WX

The return of cold weather to the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia calls for soup in thick, stay-hot bowls. That's been the bell-weather choice for the season here at our house for many years. Soup signals the formal start of the new, winter season. Low temperature readings are used for conversation starters and good soups are an overture for a medley of fine gastronomic expectations to come with the advent of winter-time, indoor living.

The featured soup yesterday evening was potato soup with toasted cheese sandwiches. Oh, yes there is always something “with” the soup be it saltine crackers – today's super-market variations are reminiscent of the larger, thicker, tastier soda crackers we used to enjoy as children -. or, our cook – who also serves as wife, mother, stepmother, grandmother, great-grandmother as well as baker, candlestick maker and putter-on of Band-Aid patches as needed – adds such enhancements. She has a fantastic of cornbread repertoire - including my favorite which brings into our presence a platter of butter-eager corn sticks fresh from the iron griddle forms. Oh, yes there was a light skim of parsley, dill weed and maybe some basil floating mysteriously on the steaming surface, as if it were needed to augment it.

This soup season usually hits during Halloween week in October although it sometimes holds off into November just before Turkey takes the stage for few weeks.

This year, the Drought of '02 has been an exceptional. We have not had the overwhelming influx of fresh vegetable we usually find on our tables, on back porch and the garage floor at this time of year. Even though we have abandoned trying to “out out” a garden as we grow older and inept at all but eating, we still have friends, neighbors and relatives aplenty to bring in all of their “extra” or “overrun” garden vegetables, corn, beans, tomatoes, squash, cabbage, onion, okra, turnips, and other goodies unknown to all expect the rural-oriented segment of the hungry human race – such as a few rutabaga, some salsify or eggplant.

Some years ago, I personally, found a way to deal with that sudden surge each fall. I washed, sliced, peeled as need be, and otherwise prepared the harvest. I boiled them a bit and put the result into cartons and stashed them away in our freezer. The rather ignoble looking product became known as “Andy's Slurry”. It became the base for soup all winter and often into the spring simply by adding whatever was available. Due to the drought this year, I will have to forgo this facet of good living for a time.

I wonder if there is a federal government program taking care of such drought “losses.” Farmers are receiving such payments. Perhaps? No, they wouldn't do a thing, would they? Any way, it's too late to ask. Election day is next week; not enough time left to work up any political promises on the premise, is there?

I , for one, will remember the Great Drought of “02 and what it did to the soup tradition at our table.

A.L.M. October 30, 2002 [c525wds]

 

SLEEPERS AMONG US

It seems impossible for a person simply to willfully disappear these days.

I can understand how it could have happened in days long gone, before we were encased in a maze of electronic gadgetry and all sorts of equipment which could seek us out wherever we might hide.

Yet, individuals do so, it seems. Criminals escape the confines of prison and wander about the country side for many years without being apprehended even though searches are underway from the start. Other individuals can, it seems, for one reason or another, simply decide to withdraw from society as they know it and start all over again. They do it. They do so apparently with ease, too. How?

I would imagine it would be very difficult to cut of all communications with those you might have known.. You can't just walk out entirely on all that your have known and, perhaps, loved. To leave treasures behind is illogical. In the new locale one is sure to have some qualms and some painful reminders of what has been real before. Is there anyone, I wonder, who has not loved some one in their life ...who could pull up and leave everyone and everything?

If so, he or she must have a flawed character. People who have criminal records can move around the country live in towns and cities and do pretty much what they've been doing before. The recent serial killers in the D.C. Area were shown to have lived in Tacoma,WA, Montgomery, AL and other areas without a lurid past being suspected. Even with hindsight, some former neighbors find it difficult to see them as criminals.

It makes us wonder, doesn't it, who our next door neighbors might have been at one time. And, they might be wondering the same things about you. If a newcomer to town having lived a criminal life elsewhere, how would our recognize that fact?

The lessons we have learned from this sniper case, are, perhaps indicative of a problem we will face in the future. One of the most insidious ways in which our nation might become divided is suggested in the slow evolution of this sniper case.

We are a trusting lot, I suppose. We tend to accept people for what they say they are and actually seem to be. But we can be divided and made suspicious of each other in many ways.

We read and hear about unusual cases but they are rare. Most or us can live close to each other with understanding and compassion, but those who seek to divide us can do so easier than one might think. Special care must be taken to retool the old maxim: ”Love Thy Neighbor.”

Niches of religious variations, racial backgrounds, conditions of birth, comparative wealth, and cultural attainments can all be used – falsely and out -of- context, along with other factors, as means a means of division.

Divided, we can fall.

A.L.M. October 30, 2002 [c500wds]

 
TV OR NOT TO TV.

And now, a commercial break!” What do you think when you hear those words?

Do you groan? Or are you among those who say: “Well, it's about time!”

When a commercial intrusion becomes something special to anticipate and enjoy it suggests that something may be lacking in the program itself.

The very nature of the “commercial break” has changed over the years. It has changed in position, frequency, relation to the program content materials, length, complexities, cost and in it's intended purposes.

The term itself has a “plural” atmosphere about it, too. It has many parts now and it is now positioned much more freely. Older regulations required that the product or service be “mentioned” in a short opening and closing announcement of the program period. Two one-minute “messages” were allowed within each fifteen minute segment. That had been the pattern in radio and TV followed obediently since we were, very often, the same people doing both.

Radio, itself, underwent serious alterations when TV came into the entertainment scene. Network and local programming as such, ceased to be and the juke box mode took over in one manner or another - some even automatic – while others worked their way into highly successful all-news or all-talk stations,sometimes blended with sports emphasis or other specific turn.

At the same time innovations were taking place in the taping aspects in both radio and TV, evident in the switch from live studio work to radio and TV augmented. In radio it was evident in the switch from live, to reel,-to- reel taped spots, then, cassettes. Program content could be varied with many voices, with music as decoration, sound effects and more dimensions than it had ever had before.

No one, it appears, is ready to admit who started it, but commercials began he heard in packages. A bundle of them... or, a series “seeded” with bits of music, transitional bits on the weather, the time, road announcements, public service spots, chit-chat by personalities or, at times, a humorous item from the news machine. It became common practice to play a cassette commercial after every record played; do an intro for the next tune “coming up after this word!” Zing! Another message!

Be picky, if you like. Count the commercials. I've tallied up a dozen several times. Seven commercials mixed with promo spots and public service announcements is not unusual.

I am quite comfortable with it all as it is. It doesn't bother me too much because I was on other end for so many years and I see it working. It is by far, the best system evolved as yet when compared to foreign operations.
TV enjoyment, radio, for that matter, is a matter of individual selection.

Yes, I will agree. Some commercials are better than some programs. More money for production! All kinds of talent from the shows! But, I do wish they would not run the same ones so often.

And, stop complaining please, about the length of old movies shown. They might well have been new when the show started.

A.L.M. October 28, 2002 [c524wds]

 
A PHASE OF FORCE

We are currently dealing with a situation, as nation, which we have never faced before.

The reasons for our special concern are quite different from those met with in the past, hence our actions in response to them must also also be unusual.

In the past we have dealt with a visible enemy. We contended with many such enemies from time to time – the native American Indians, and the British, of course, several times. The French in the earlier days of our nation's becoming. We fought each other in our Civil War; Spain once more in the Spanish-American War , then Mexico. A major conflict was termed World War I,, when Kaiser Bill and German Imperialism upset everything; and that resulted, in time, in th rise of Adolph Hitler's threat to world order which brought a second war with Germany, Italy and a war apart with the Japanese. There was Korea and the Chinese, the North Koreans. There was Viet Nam. In our short history we have had a varied chronology of war. All, those and a number of others, as well. We have had minor skirmishes from time-to-time with petty dictators and chronic trouble-makers such as those in Cuba, Libya and various African nations. Most have been obvious enemies, real in appearance and with known objectives and methods of operation. Our military establishment has been styled to fit such needs as we have known in the past.

Suddenly much that we have is obsolete in the face o fa totally new type of warfare which does not abide by accepted rules. Mankind has taken sharp turn in uncharted regions situated beyond the bounds of reason and regulation.

Suddenly, we find ourselves in opposition to forces operating outside the usual conventions accorded international groups concerning fairness and reason. The usual methods prove to be inadequate. We are opposed and thwarted at every turn even by International tribunals formed to help reach solutions in such matters. We find ourselves opposed by ill-defined powers and forces of one type or another.

A main one is that which is called “Al Quida.”..which is the Arabic word for The Family” not unlike the Sicilian “Mafia” which also dealt in terrorist tactics. We are very much like British General Burgoyne marching against American Indians many years ago at that moment when he found that his enemy fired from concealment rather than in formal ranks. Everything had changed – suddenly - and completely The Jihad element is new to us as well ..a “holy war” which could pit us against the Islamic world.

We must have learned some lessons from the recent series of senseless murders in the suburbs of Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia. There are disturbing Muslim undercurrents therein which are going to prove to be even more puzzling as time goes on. Our enemy is unseen.

The almost inevitable conclusion insists that we must prepare for war. How? In what new ways?

How soon will it come? Who can say, for it does not follow conventional patterns. We must plan accordingly.

A.L.M. October 28, 2002 [c522wds]

 
PILL PRICING

Certainly, some government agencies must have become mixed in recent times. It seems as if NASA is pricing pharmaceutical products these days and coming up with some fantastic, barrier busting prices, too.

Well, maybe not NASA . There is much more common sense and acceptable reasoning in what they do, than in this matter of deciding how much drugs are to cost those in need.

If you wish to consider the matter honestly and fairly, you will not be crowded in doing so because not too many people seem to be at that location at the moment. Far to many of those who are interested have private axes to grind, too. We hear words of condemnations between election times from political voices which fade off into the distance when positive reductions in drug prices are considered. Critics will say that is because they are being lead around in obedient PAC packs. The leashes are, for the most part, often difficult to see in the overall picture.

How are drug prices fixed? It may be that I chose a faulty word there - “fixed” - but, on second thought, I'm not going to change it even though it does contain a slight suggestion that some hanky-panky - some “rigging” is going on somewhere when the prices are set on the drugs we have to pay for one way or another. The latest study I have read indicates that average - the “average” price, mind you, of a prescription is seventy-three dollars!

I've been through this oh-so-proper and business-like, price-setting routine myself – and I learned long ago not to put much trust in such business conclaves. We were dealing with a manufactured item and the actual cost of production was known to a fairly accurate degree. I would assume in the making of medicines it would also be possible to ascertain what materials used actually cost, as well. As rule those who, in any way dealt with the product, were called together in the General Manager's office. Such meetings were usually made up of twosomes; head of each department and an underling, male or female, who actually knew what was going on and could provide numbers and dates required. Such meetings were often called for “first thing in he morning”, coffee cups in hand , or just before quitting time in afternoon, again with sustaining coffee cups in hand. After hearing the reports of several of the departments concerning actual costs - their portion of it - repetitive dullness became apparent and the tally being kept on the budget easel up front was climbing rapidly. Discussion became the mode, and someone who had grown tired of the whole procedure did what I never dared do – and made a motion that “we price the item a few dollars over the price being asked by our competitors if we felt we could get away with it” price it a few dollar under the competitive price if we were not too sure of the quality or its marketing potential. The price decided upon had little or nothing whatever to do with the actual manufacturing cost. I'm afraid that' s pretty much the way drug prices are being set - with the accent on the “how much can we get away with”side.

The departmental envy problem was apparent in such sessions and that precluded any realistic price being set. A step-by-step analysis of actual costs is essential if prices are to be set at levels commensurate with assuring the drug companies of a reasonable profit and better prices to consumers.Drastic changes are needed in determining the extent of exclusive rights to product before it becomes generic in nature. Public awareness of the true situation must be strengthened, as well, because far too many people think that if insurance in some form “takes care of it” - even part of it – they are “home free”. In time, they pay for it in higher insurance rates and other ways of shifting costs around until the user meets the supposed cost thereof.

Profiteering pill pricing is a prime peril! And, the longer we wait to take corrective measures the worse it is going to become! We cannot expect the ill to continue to use over half of their monthly income to pay for prescription drugs.

A.L.M. October 26, 2002 [c727wds]

 

Y' KNOW

I must have been around eleven or twelve years of age, when I was severely put down by a friend for a speech mannerism.

His rather stern denunciation has remained with me all these years and I can be nothing but grateful for his having taught me to watch out for such a lapse in my own speech habits and the hear them in the speech of others.

My transgression was one which proved to have been endemic in my family. I would make a statement and then interject the words: ”See what I mean?”.

We were walking along the street one morning on our way to school when I said something and dropped that question at the end of it. I must have done it several times, because he stopped walking turned toward me and said in an exasperated tone of voice:” No, I do NOT see what you mean!” I can't until our find a better way to say it!” He was right,too. I knew that and agreed with his rather sharp analysis. We didn't say much the rest of the way to school that morning but I remember that verbal “put down” - gratefully.

The current “See what I mean”?

It is much shorter and it is ubiquitous and seems to go with all walks of life, most often among sports stars and entertainment people. I wonder if you say it - “Y' know?”

Sometimes is is with no question mark. It's just there, bare a ugly, between normal sentences and for no reason whatsoever. It is never said with the expectation of a reply of any kind, and, as with my expression of long ago. shows a very weak word power, an undeveloped vocabulary in the speakers experience.

The football player, being interviewed may say. “We come back out onto the field , y' know. Coach had said, in the locker room y' know. Y' know, how it was gonna to be rough out there y' know - like “do or die,” y' know! So I looked up and that bunch linin' up in front of us and they looked like a concrete wall they did, y' know and I say to the guy next to me, “y' know. This ain't gonna be easy!”

And those imaginary comments are not at all unusual, either. The number of “y' know”insertions is not exaggerated at all. Listen to some of the interviews yourself and prepare to be amazed at how often the “y know?” inquiry can be inserted.

Hold a conversation with just about anyone and you will hear the term “Y' know?” When I hear it I am tempted to turn on the sayer and do what Billy Arthur did to me that morning walking to school - turn to them and flatly an say: “No! I do NOT know!”

Check your own normal flow of speech. Is it interrupted by far too many “Y' know” decorations? By which you , of course, admitting you did not say whatever you were saying very well and you hope they understood your poor effort to do so.

You've got to watch this sort of thing, y' know. People will judge what you are and what you can do, y' know, rather harshly, too, y' know.

Think about it. Guilty or Not Guilty?


A.L.M. October 23, 2002 [c564wds]


493wds]

 
ALL OUT! HOW & WHEN.

As a youngster I remember we talked about “the end of the world”. When I was very young we thought of it in terms of World War I with trench warfare and diabolical gas attacks complete with ponderous, clanking tanks and flying mechanisms of all kinds, Balloons, multi-winged planes, dirigibles, zeppelins, anything that might conceivably attack from the sky. Such a giant would destroy the Earth as we knew it.

Then, also with wars, we always had dire threats of heavenly destruction which came to us through evangelistic movements with fiery preachers expounding upon visions of world-wide castigation by the Lord of all to was our sins away. That was always vague for me especially when it was expounded upon, usually with some plan of instant change. One sure thing,, however, was that the ruin of the world would be not by flood, nor famine but by fire!

It's been some time since we were told that . We faced a time of regret concerning wars and of our role in peace time. World War II was a worthy example - pretty close to making it all come true in our time. Out of that, however, came World War II and the Bomb which is now equated with the “fire” which will, someday destroy us all the same.

I remember one Science News Service items which I clipped and which I still have rotting away somewhere in my “files”. It plainly predicted, quoting no one in particular, that the imbalance between dry land and wet water would do us all in. Exactly what kind algae that was, I do not recall, but I'll let you know if I come across that clipping, so you can if that event has merely been delayed. As I recall, it was supposed to be depleted by the 1960's and the oceans were to be dead and useless without it with terra firma was to follow suit shortly thereafter.

It would be interesting to tally up how many thousands of people have gone in large groups to some mountain top, as a rule, to await the moment of total elimination of the world. So many thought of total ruin as being partial - for they would come down from the mountain top after everybody else had been destroyed to a newly created world of absolute purity into which they fit quite naturally.

One would think we would outgrow this death wish sort of thinking, but the idea of total of total elimination is even stronger and made more personal today because of our environmental proclivities. Dire disaster today faces mankind because of certain foods we eat; because of some quirky political stances; because of the foods we do not eat, and because some social segments seem to want it that way to “prove” their point.

This negative dream places some persons as rulers over wastelands, and, I suppose there is a bit of Sigmund Freud in it all, because some people see themselves and their ideas as being the only method capable of forestalling such a dire conclusion - once more.

We waste a lot of time out time thinking when or how all of this will take place. I have a feeling it will all be over at some point and none of need even know it has happened. In the cryptic parlance of the stereotyped Brooklyn-ite: “Not to worry!”

A.L.M. October 23, 2002 [c579wds]

 

GOOSED!
As far as I can remember, I have only eaten goose one time in my life, and that must have been enough because I don't seem to have any hankering after a goose dinner today.

It happened a good many years ago when we lived over on School House Road.

Our two boys came into the house just moment after they had gone out to play on a cold Saturday morning. “Granddaddy here!” they shouted as they came came at the back door with him. “'N he's got a big bird with him! Sure enough he had a big bird -a gray goose of exceptional size. I recognized a semi-pet Canadian goose which had come to his farm several years, fed with the ducks , liked the corn an stayed around eating until he grew so fat he could not fly. He became a permanent resident.
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“What happened to him?” I asked as we gathered around the limp, feathered corpse stretched out on the back porch table.

My father-in-law spoke softly which seemed right for the occasion and the boys listened intently.”Right after I finished milkin', I tossed a handful or two of shelled corn out on the bank there by the pond. Ole “Cannie”, here, helped the ducks clean it up right quick, as usual. Then, I don't know fer what reason he did it, but that goose ran down the barn bridge and took to the air. On a cold morning like this one, too!”

We all laughed gently because we, too, had seen the fat bird struggle into the air at times. He seemed to get an occasional urge to fly into the wilds. He flew most often in the Fall when the ducks migrated southward overhead, He gloried at their frequent visits to the pond, too.

“Did he fall down?” Andy Jr. asked “Is that what happened to him ? I' bet that's....”

Grand daddy blew his nose on a large handkerchief form his pocket, wiped his eyes a bit, too, and continued as he commented on how cold it was outside. It's freezin'!” ”No, he did not fall, Not that way, anyway. He got up in the air; made a wide run off to the south but, pretty' soon, I could see he was turning back just like he always does and he was headed for the little end of the pond He was comin' home. I was watching him come in. Well, sir, that goose came in across that pond 'n stuck those big feet of his down and splayed 'em out to brake his landing a bit - and that's what kilt him!”
Both boys: “Why, Granddaddy? Why would that hurt him?”

“Fact o' life,boys! You younguns', of course, don't know that birds like that can't tell froze-over water - ice – from regular summer-time water, so he hit that ice on those feet of his'n and slid, I swear he done forty feet or more in no time at all! Even then, he could have made it, but you know that old fence that used to stretch across the middle of the pound - that single old post stickin' up out there in the middle Well, sir! “Cannie”, here, slid on that ice,. outta control, and his wing...” He took the bird's wing in hand to show us; smoothed back the heavy, bloody feathers and thick down “his wing smashed right into that post! Oh, he was really movin', too! He slithered around toward the edge of the pond 'n just lay there, real still on the ice”.

Granddaddy and Dad went aside a talked about what he had found he needed to do, and we boys just stood there and looked at the bird. After a moment or two, we touched the broken wing which, we could see, had been ripped pretty much loose from his body He was brought to our house because we had an old “Warsh House” which was equipped with a giant iron cauldron - a witch's kettle - we called it, and that was about the only thing big enough to hold that bird. We fired it up and dipped that goose down in scalding hot water until we could pick feathers and such a mountain of them we had never seen! In olden days, Mom told us, they would have been dried out and saved for stuffing pillows, quilts and other soft things. Dad and Granddaddy butchered the big bird. Some of it went in the freezer and we ate goose for along time!

AW-RIGHT! I just knew there would be one smart-alec, know-it-all genius out there waiting to play the purist and remind me that a girl goose is a goose and a boy goose is a gander! Well, didn't I call him “he” all the way through this piece? Yes, I know where goslings come from, too.

A.L.M. October 22. 2002 [c824wds]

 

TONE TOGETHERNESS

I enjoy listening to, and watching good hand bell choirs.

Too often, I find, hand bell groups are tolerated and thought of as activity for children only. As a rule there is only shallow praise when such a group performs in secular or church setting.

The next time you have the opportunity, make the most of it and look and listen with special care to see the deeper values of this form of musical presentation.

Look where you will and it will prove to be difficult to find a better example of co-operation. Every member is dependent on all others.

That sense of dependency within the mind of all concerned engenders a measure of unity such as it seldom found in whatever together. You are depended upon to provide an exact note at a prescribed second and for a definite length of time. You built on what the player before you has provided and you serve as proper guide to the person who will sound the tone to follow yours. There is not room for error. Individual players perform as a unified amalgam.

Playing in a hand bell group demands close attention to the director. That is the source of expressiveness for such a group and by judicious use of subtle texture and density control, the skilled director can add enjoyment for the hearers.

The special niche required by musicians who under take to play in such groups is duel in nature. For the young beginner musician it is a discipline in time, tone and in taking direction, and for the accomplished musician it can be a reminiscent moment each time one does it recalling earlier efforts at attainment of varied musical skills.

The next time you have an opportunity to enjoy such music, make the most of it. Make it your own by genuine appreciation of the work the players are doing on your behalf.

I often find I actually hear far more than what is being done “before my very ears”. I have the bells play with pipe but that, as a rule, seems to become overbearing at times. I would like to hear a good bell choir with a concert harp as background.

I don't know why , but bells and harps seem to be compatible and commendable. It would sound heaven sent.

A. L. M. October 22, 2002 [c398wds]

 



FIRST TIME

If you have every done any sailing at all, especially in small craft, where you have complete charge of the sail, you know the special thrill of learning to move into the face of he wind. It is easy enough to fly before the wind, but to work upstream against the wind another matter.

You learn to use the wind against itself. You turn into the wind and angle off so you are tugged across the expanse of the river or bay and then, when you feel it just right you guide in other direction and tack across toward the opposite shore. Seen from above you would appear to be zig-zagging across the river, and each time you zigged or zagged you were further upstream than before – making constant progress against he flow of the wind.

Yes, it does take time,You don't go whizzing back up at the rate you came down before the wind, but you will be pleased to find you arrive at your upstream dock on time.

Of course, that is just one of the good things which come your way when you sail such small craft. Another is the illusion which comes to most people that they are moving at very high rates of speed. It is an illusion, of course but the sight of the slim vessel knifing into the waters just ahead and sending a glimmering swirl of water past your sides, creates a sense of movement that exhilarates and charms any sailor. And, another thing which will linger I in your memory is the absolute silence out there on the blue, save for the slapping of the water against the bow. That monotone, itself, repeated again and again, tends to salve and soothe any noises you may, otherwise, be aware of coming cross the active bay waters.

There are lessons to be learned from sailing, even in the amateur stage. We learn to meet with the winds of adversity. We can, of course, ignore the tempests and be swept before the wall; be carried away by the force within it. We can, if we choose to do so; decide try it, “batten down the hatches” as both real and fictional mariners used to say in stories of the sea - batten down; keep the bow into the wind and wait it out. If, however, we wish to make progress against the opposing force, we can make use of it's early force to help us tack across the wind and gain he safety of a protected haven before the full force of the storm hits. Only a fool challenges the storm at its worst, too. One learns that lesson, as well, having sailed.

Few do it alone. I was on military base when learned my first learned the basics of sailing thirteen-footers on the bay. My teacher was a man named Homer Fogle, from Shenandoah, Virginia, with whom I made several instructional trips prior to going “solo”. I shall always be grateful for his patient guidance.

Set your sails to suit your size. Seek out an objective on the distant shore and work toward it, across smooth or troubled waters, even against the wind, if need be.

A.L.M. October 21, 2002 [c544wds]

 

HOW DOES IT WORK?

A question or two, please....

When I read that we are economizing by closing various state government buildings one day per week, do employees lose a full day's pay? If not, where, then, is the great economy? That suggests we are just giving the hired help fifty-some day so of paid vacation time per year. Thus far I have not heard of anyone having lost a day's pay and one could expect a rather general outcry if such a thing actually happened. In like circumstances, I think I would be asking “why me?”

If such a loss is being sustained by employees, where is the Union voice protesting such treatment? Will it hit some individuals so hard, they will be forced to go out and seek second jobs to make ends met?

I'm merely curious. I'm not all sure what is happening but I have a strange feeling this is little more than window-dressing. If “merchandise” within the “store” remains at the same price, where is the great economy this is supposed to bring about?

Just think of the savings on utility costs alone, someone suggests.
A modern office, being closed on mid-week day doesn't save that much. Required service and maintenance workers will be on duty with wide scope of duty, perhaps. A day off provides a window of opportunity for equipment repair, testing or re-structuring crews to get necessary work done, And, I have yet to see a plant which did not have one or two dedicated individuals who insist they can get more work done on a day when the office is so crowded with people. They show up for an hour or two, do some paper work and leave when they feel their off day presence has been noted, by janitors and other off-day workers. Utilities savings are, at best, minimal.

I look askance at most such “economizing packages.”

So many of them concerning things we know we should have been doing all along. The rules – most of them - are common sense, housekeeping procedures by nature. They are already “on the books” but simply not followed.

I am convinced that our state, as swell as others, has revenue potential as yet untouched. This election year there is some interest being shown in tapping into some of these areas. One is our state (Virginia) tax on tobacco products. It is the lowest such rate in the nation, in the past been politically untouchable. It may well be considered this time around and about the only people who will object are tobacco farmers, tobacco products manufacturers, and those smugglers making profits of an estimated $25,000 per truck load of Virginia cigarettes moved north to be sold in he State of New York.

Will we do so? I wonder.

A.L.M October 2002 [c475wds]

 

GROUP COURAGE

In a time when we are faced with a serial killer running amok in our nation's capital; when we are also living under a threat of an even greater war than the one in which we engaged, not to mention an economy in the doldrums, questions arises concerning courage.

Where do we find such group courage?

The primary factor, no doubt, is concerned with ways in which we build individual stamina and the will-to-succeed. That may be a good a place to start as any.

Obviously, negative thinking can be the cause of much hesitancy and bitterness. No matter how bad any set of circumstances might seem to, or actually be, some basic goodness remains untouched. All is not lost. There is ,somewhere, a point on which to stand to re-build once more.

Our loved ones may die, but we have a legacy from each of them. Often, we may find it difficult to see how that might be true. We may not have felt “close” to many of them kinfolks, friends or even contenders or outright enemies. We make use of this heritage more than we may think we do.
In using such a fund of human conduct bequeathed to us, we often find life seems to be made up an almost endless “Do” and “Don't” list. In one way, it's true, but we make choices from all of them to help determine our path. We absorb every speck of courage they ever knew because they, too, made choices and have winnowed out the chafe.

Only after the individual nourishes and strengthens human Will can the group do so. It will manifest itself without our being aware of its existence. Cooperative awareness is one key to it all. We need to freely share our inherited treasures rather than to hoard them or, worse yet, to ignore them.

Courage will not be forced. Do not attempt to push it by means of showy heroics. Seek it with sincere dedication, just as you do the other good things in life, and it will be there when you need it. True courage comes as the need arises. There are no handy “On/Off” switches, handles or buttons.

More than one person who thought of himself or herself as being “timid”, has stood forth as a fine example of personal courage when the moment of need struck.

Be ready. Do that, and we will all be better off..

A.L.M October 19, 2002 [c412wds]

 

GO POWER

If a note of urgency is not evident, nothing gets done.


Think about that as you plan your day and your life. Every act ought to be the result of a reason, and nothing occurs without affecting future actions.

I am, indeed, “my brother's keeper” in that any shortcoming or misconduct of mine reflects undeservedly on his character, as well. After all, he, as my “brother”, and he is, therefore, to care for me in the same sense that I am compelled to think of his well-being at all times.

If we, as individuals, fail to do the very best we can and earnestly strive at all times to achieve perfection, we are robbing those around us. If we do not weed our section of life's garden, the unseemly infestation spreads and weeds we allow to grow, find their way into the sections tended to by others. If we fail to set up sturdy barriers to ward off predators in our area, they enter and will find their way to the realms of others.


If you feel you lack the quality of “go” in your life try starting a habit of setting a definite time by which a deed must be done. Be realistic about it, and be ready to modify that set time if you find you have misjudged your ability to arrive at that point as planned. The important thing is that a goal remains and that you are honestly attempting to reach it. Redefinition is needful at times.

A word of warning. Don't let urgency take over in your life. Use it. Do not abuse it. The office worker who uses a large, rubber stamp and pad to mark all of his outgoing memos as being “Urgent” deludes himself.

We are not to bind our creative selves with urgency in every move, only those which require prompt attention and completion.

At this moment in communities just a few miles north of us, a serial killer is haunting every hour of every day for thousands of wary people.
They, and we, as their kindred to the south, need prompt and complete action now, without delay. There are more less pressing needs in our lives right now, so urgency must be applied to finding that killer and bringing him, or them to justice and instilling in the mind of others the idea that such actions cannot and will not be permitted in the future.

If you think, as some do, that “not enough is being done to capture the guilty person or persons” - think this though for moment: How urgent has law enforcement been in our minds in the immediate past? Have we, in any sense, planned for such protection such as that we now require so dramatically?

If the process seems slower than you would like, remember that we have a great deal of catching up to get done before we can move forward.
Mystery writers can do that of their detectives with just a few pecks at a keyboard, but in real life, we must pay for past mistakes and omissions.

Notice, too, please, that is “we , rather than “'they”.

Point the finger if you must, but know that you stand, always, in front of a mirror of Truth and that you are pointing at yourself as well.

A.L.M. October 18, 2002 [c563wds]

 

DOODLE BUGS

As kids we used to search around the yard and garden for dry, sandy spots. If you could see tiny swirls of sand grains descending into the surface in neat little eddies you knew you had discovered the dwelling place of a host of doodle bugs

Exactly what a doodle bug looks like, I cannot say, because I have never actually seen one, nor do I know of anyone who has ever seen one, but the holes were drilled by some tiny critter, bug or beast and until I'm told differently, I will go on believing they are made by the curious little, mysterious and unseen bug called the doodle. To deny them would be like saying Santa Clause does not exist.

I wonder if we do might owe our universal tendency to draw little designs and non-sense objects on anything available as we talk on the telephone or wait for something to start or stop at the office or at home. So, bugs can doodle too, if it helps them pass the tedious times of the day.

But, when we kids mentioned doodle bugs we were usually making reference to the game of hunting their homes and to, by means of the spoken word in the form of various mystic charms to cause them to crawl out of their sandy hovels.

As I recall it, we had just one such incantation which we used to to try to get the bugs to come up to the surface, but I have since found that other children has various sets of words which might do the trick. That may be why I never got to see a doodle bug, and I also tend to distrust anyone who tells me he or she did! Our charm had an emergency quality about it which others seemed to lack.

To call up a doodle bug, you got your face down as close as possible to the sandy surface. Then focusing one of then tiny, eddied holes , you first whispered, then spoke softly or yelled, depending on who was watching, I think: “Doodle bug! Doodle bug! Your house is on fire! “ repeating as seemed necessary. Some times rhythm and rhyme were added ” “Doodle bug! Doodle bug! I ain't no lie-er! Come out quick! You're house is on fir-er!”
Very often, you saw immediate results, too!

Right before your eyes you saw a few grains of sand displaced and you could see them slide down the slope into the whirlpool where the bug lived! “He moved! He moved!” you might call out and the vibrations from your voice and heavy breathing, caused yet another grain or two to dislodge and cascade into the hole, taking others with them.. That was taken to be proof that you had awakened the doodle bugs (which were always sleeping, it seems) and he and his family were taking your warning seriously moving around, dressing, getting ready to ascend.

Once you realized you were making it all happen yourself, you no longer engaged actively in the charming of doodle bugs from their homes, but you continued to help smaller children to learn to do so.

It was sorta like summer-time Santa-thinking, wasn't it?

A.L.M. October 17, 2002 [c545wds]

 

ten BOOM

I remember when the book was first published.

It was 1971 and at that time I must have considered a book called “The Hiding Place” to have been just another book about someone who had been imprisoned during wartime.

That would have been in relation to “World War II”, in case you are in need of a reference point considering all that has taken place in the past half century. There were other books on the market at that time which gave accounts of life and death on the Nazi extermination camps, often detailed revelations of life under Hitler and of prison conditions.

I did not read “The Hiding Place” by Corrie ten Boom and (very much) with John and Elizabeth Sherrill. This writing couple - both of whom were Editors on “Guideposts” Magazine ...had other books on the stands in those days: “God's Smuggler”and “The Cross and the Switchblade”. Cornelia ten Boom, shared her memories and thoughts with them, and they skillfully made it into a readable and well-structured book.

Corrie ten Boom was born in 1892 which would made her old enough to remember some of the conditions of life in her native Holland during the time of the Kaiser and World War I. She was a mature woman when Hitler came along and that makes “The Hiding Place” a book differ from others of the era. I have a personal reference which stayed with me as I read the book recently. My mother was also born in 1892. Corrie ten Boom would have been, then, a mature woman and the time of Nazi ascendancy which gives this book a special meaning for me. She
spoke of life and events with a special, adult awareness, a quality so often lacking in many other books of this type.

Corrie's father, Casper, was a watchmaker, as had been his father before him. His father had opened a Clockmaker's Shop in 1837. Corrie, herself, the first and only licensed watchmaker in all of Holland in 1922. She organized Girls Clubs and one called The Triangle Club” became widespread.
In 1940 Hitler invaded Holland and her girl's clubs were banned. She and her family, unable to turn anyone away, soon found themselves with house guests attempting to escape Nazi. The methods by which they concealed their Jewish and other escapees is the backbone of the book.

As a middle-aged spinster at the time she continued in this underground system and their house, called “the Beje”, no doubt a shortened version of the long- named street on which it was located. In Haarlam, Holland. Quickly became a major cell in the entire Holland system caring for refuges placing them in “safe” homes,or arranging for escape. The
major portion of the book deals with these events and only the last few chapter deal with the prison conditions under which the entire family had to live for a year and half. Then, you keep waiting for the day of deliverance by advancing American troops and it does not come or page after page. When it does take place it is Canadian troops which show up.

The story ends quickly without any profound studies on why it all happened. Corrie had sworn to her older sister who died in the notorious Ravensbruck prison, that she would spend here life “telling people about
what had happened. She did so until she died in 1983 at age ninety-one.

“The Hiding Place” is a terse little book about day-to-day living under stress and the operation of a secret-room system moving Jews to freedom though the home of the ten Boom family. You will profit by having read it.
A.L.M. October 16, 2002 [w617wds]

 

NOT KNOWING

The subtle fear of not knowing what lies ahead, has come into the lives of thousands of people living in the DC area, the edge of Maryland and here in Northern Virginia.

If a person can see their enemy they can focus on some way of getting rid of the danger they are under, but if the force opposing them is unseen, totally invisible then, the situation is altered greatly.

I recall a time when I was a victim of such fear. I was not alone but with thousands of citizens of Norfolk and Suffolk Counties, East Anglia in England during the rocketry phase of World War II. That was about fifty -nine years ago, but I remember the feeling quite well. It is happening to many of us again now during the era of repeated murders in this area.

When the Nazi's first started lobbing V-1 missile across the North Sea, it took them several weeks to find the proper range which would place their new secret weapons with their particular band of packaged Hell in the London area. In the meantime, it seemed they lobbed them, somewhat indiscriminately, into East Anglia as if to prove to themselves they could do it.

The first ones came in under the cover of darkness, at about 2000 hours and we soon learned that another would follow in an hour at 2100 hours. Then, there might be one on the next hour, or their might not be, but the “anticipation” of that moment - we dared not call “fear” then, was overbearing. At twenty minutes before the hour people began to figit, laugh nervously, some becoming irritable but trying not to talk or think about it and what might happen – from out of nowhere, without warning and with no assailant either seen or heard.

That's typical of one type of fear which as come to be common among those who live in the current afflicted area. Facing unknown danger is never a time of comfort, but the unreasoned pattern of these killing makes its seem possible that we may be the next victim. This sniper has mobility so anyone living within a hundred miles of the specific area can see himself or herself as a potential victim.

I point this memory of fear out because this is a subtle kind of being afraid we do even admit to members of the family around us. We feel it, but we hide it from others lest we appear to be foolish, needlessly cautious or overly concerned about something that is not all likely to happen anyway.

At the moment, a total of at least eleven people might well have thought themselves to be unlikely victims, as well.

A.L.M. October 14. 2002 [c464wds]

 
WILLOWS

One does not, normally, trim weeping willow trees. Their tendency to hang down to ground in leafy fronds is a characteristic feature which makes them the special tree they can be. Nor, are all weeping trees, necessarily, willows. Others have been bred.

We have such a tree in our back yard. Had it been planted along the marshy edge of a small stream or pond, it might have grown to greater glory. In the dry. level place where it happens to be is adequate but not any showy specimen.

Members of our family take turns mowing the lawn and I find that some dislike mowing around “that crazy tree that hangs down”. I rather liked removing my cap first, then hit it lightly as if running into the face of a generous water fall. A moment of darkness, then I would burst out of the opposite side into the bright sunlight – replace my hat – and go on mowing.

Like weeping willow trees, some people have special characteristics which set them apart. Not all grown alike, either, because much depends on their situation and early life. Some are never valued for their special feature such as there ability to reach down to ouch and to join with the lowest elements of the landscape. You have known people who have that quality of outreach. They have the ability to associate with and get a closer look at the lowest of life around and beneath. They do so even as their head it held high; shoulders firmly widespread. The wind courses swiftly or softly through their leafy bulk as winds will do - unpredictably. The body holds firm and true.

When you find someone who is content in their particular environment, don't be too eager to feel you must change them to conform to your idea of what a proper environment should be. Many people where meant to be: “willows” - to ... ”look that way” – sad and weeping. It could be they they are neither weeping or sad, but merely questing downward to brush closer to the Earth which give them being and to be enriched by that closeness. Or, if you are mowing and you frighten a rabbit from underneath the shelter you get to witness how willows – trees or people – protect other forms of life. Notice, too, where your pet dog or cat comes from when you call them on a hot summer afternoon. Willows offer a special haven.

It is true willows do not fit the averages. Read your gardening books and you will find that, one after another, they will warn you not to plant more than one willow tree in your yard. along the creek or beside the pond. Two, too close, is too much. They tend, at times, to overshadow each other.

Respect willows for what they are. Don't attempt to redo them to be what they are not.

A.L.M. October 14, 2002 [c487wds]

 

PUZZLE

I am in need of a high tech answer in low tech terms.

I would like to know by what devious method television executives in conference conclaves set apart, with necessary underlings in attendance, of course, arrive at their decisions concerning taking certain programs of the air while retaining others.

What specialized, possibly cybernetically formulated and controlled, form of mathematics is used in such situations? Certainly, it must be rather complex and other-worldly in its cognitive elements, since its conclusions are so often at extreme variance with established facts about such subject programs.

To be honest with you, I doubt if I would understand any detailed explanation of such a complex process - if there is one - so I'll narrow it down a bit to what I actually need to know.

What I wonder about is how in the world they cancel only shows I like and retain those I can't stand! How do they know what my favorites are so they can kill 'em?

By what devious means do they find out which shows my family and I, plus friends and their families, enjoy as favorites? How do they know we actually look forward to certain nights and specific times so we can sit down and enjoy a favorite show – be it a mystery, a comedy, and old movie we'd like to re-live, or some up-to-the moment news or commentary. We even welcome a new show now and then, always willing to give new talent and new ideas a fair chance.

Not only have they developed ways of knowing which shows we like best so they can put and end to them, but they replace them with tired copies of shows running at that particular time on competing networks.

It cannot be said that the major networks are the only offenders. Some other networks and independents do welcome re-runs of many of our favorites, but too often in a five-and- ten format: five minutes of the show and ten minutes of commercials. A favorite episode can last for hours!

I'm going into our living room in just a few moments, when I finish writing this page, where I plan to sit and watch some television until bed time. I wonder if I should have installed blackout curtains over the picture window to thwart any network from observing what I watch. Maybe I'd best check high and low for hidden cameras or microphones. I have feeling they'll find out what I watch in some unfathomable way.

How they do it, I don't know, but I'm told that everything we do evolves, sooner or later, into some form of math, so what better place to start?

A.L.M. October 13, 2002 [c456wds]

 
BIG TIME
At the moment it appears that the Al Qaeda may have decided it is time to extend their terrorist attacks into new areas.

Either they have decided to go “big time” by hitting targets other than those specifically associated with the United States such as the attack on a French oiler last week off Yemen harbor, the series of bombings in Bali, in addition to the attack on U.S. Marines in Kuwait indicate two possibilities, either they have decided a show of power around the world is needed, or that they have lost control of individual and domesticated cell activities around the world which now act on their own.

This may well be a welcome crack forming in the basic structure of the Al Qaeda which will be well worth watching.

It is easy to see how zero in on one nation - such as the United States – might tend to isolate that nation and cause other state to hesitate to assist with any plans to change the course of events. This would seem to be a very poor time to alienate French, the Kuwaiti Emirs and the other nations; and, perhaps most of all, to launch terrorist attacks in the world's Muslim nation – Indonesia. To set off a series of blasts in a resort town at Bali would seem to be counter productive even though intended to kill or maim Australian and American tourists vacationing on the island.

Right now would seem to be the worst item to schedule such attacks .The UN is, even now, debating which side they will support and such acts against other than the United States are sure to drive other nations in to an alliance of some sort led by the United States.

Finland is labeling the recent deadly bombing in a crowded shopping center as a “terrorist” attack. A student is being held as a suspect but his identify and culural background has not been rev ales. The initial impulse, however, was to call it a “terrorist” attack.

The terms “terrorist” and “terrorism” now equate in the public mind-set with the benign work of Bin Laden and his cohorts, the Al Qaeda family or of random zealots expounding such ideas.

And, with the sniper killings continuing here in northern Virginia and the edge of Maryland touching on the District of Columbia, more and more people, in addition to those who already say so, are going to be thinking of them as Al Qaeda managed crimes against us ...a part of the larger picture.

Has the terrorist movement gone “big time”? Has it shifted to smaller, more specialized targeting in more places?

A.L.M. October 12, 2002 [c451wds ]

 
WANTED: GOOD READERS

Hindsight enables us to think wonderfully clear about things which were happening all around us years ago..

Now that the Soviet Union has broken up and other regimes of a like nature show some signs of doing the same thing, we realize we should have anticipated such things happening long before we did so.

When any state begins a series of repressive measures within its own area designed to strengthen their hold upon the people, we should look at such campaigns as an indication of doubts, as an improper assessment of our own actions, and a sign of weakness within the governing force of the nation. They are showing doubts by insisting on purification of basic tenets by which they hold power.

Such flaws can be seen in the current situations we now face, and, if we examine them carefully we can find out where the often “hairline” cracks exist and have a better idea of what the future might hold. Some of it is apparent on our side, too. Right now, we would be doing ourselves a favor if we would stop being impressed by watching both Bin Laden and Saddam Hiessen firing rifles and automatic weapons Those same two shots have been running on our TV screens for years and we have failed to see that the shooters are expressing bragadoccio. Neither shooter hits anything. Saddam fires at random into the air after having a few seconds of trouble finding the trigger, while Bin bangs away at unseen targets while onlookers show approval. Those two propaganda film excerpts are for their own people trying to depict their leaders as warriors of consequence.

Back in 1979-80, when Kosygin was Premier of the Soviet Union, he ranted at some length on how improvements could only be brought about by a more more diligent adherence to the, even then, old, threadbare Marxist-Lenin package. Later, Leonid Brezhnev was quite ill for a time and the power struggle taking place within the Kremlin at that time should been a textbook urging a closer look a the discontent among the populace as well.

I like to think two things took place at those times: One that our communications systems helped to make the people more aware of actual conditions within he Soviet Union.

The other is feeling is that I think we had some good , capable, qualified “Russia readers” in our State Department and other governmental agencies who were heard and respected by political persons who, far too often ignore this vital factor.

My fear, now, is that we either do not have capable, trained, experienced and fearless “readers” of Iraq, Iran, Arabic nations, and the Muslim world, or that their voices are being obscured or ignored because of narrow party-politics ploys.

A.L.M. October 11, 2002 [c470wds]

 


MAKE A KID LAUGH!

Maybe it helps if he is your grandson, but to see and hear a child really enjoy a good laugh, and a continued one, is a special joy for an oldster such as I.

Well over a year go ,when we were visiting the Crawford branch of our grandsons in Hampton, Va., William – the middle one of the three boys – about four years of age, I think, at the time, asked me to tell him a story.

One came to mind and, even as I started, I wondered that it might be too advanced for the kid. I’d best be ready, I thought, to explain it.

“Living here on the coast, as you do you see great many gulls flying about over the boats and the water’s edge, don‘t you?

They all look pretty much alike, don’t they?

But, they’re not. Long ago, thousands of them ...maybe more’n that gathered in a big cloud of gulls up over Pennsylvania, Maryland and New Jersey and flew round and round being joined by more and more birds, ‘till it looked like the sky was getting too full. The Chief Gull, told them to divide into two groups and which they did instantly .You know how fast gulls can move don’t you? And – when they did there was a huge fluttery sound: ‘Bah-rrooom!’ Oh, I tell you it must have been heard all, well most everywhere!

Now, when he told hem to fly south – half of them were to fly way out over the sea - the big. roomy Atlantic Ocean. The other flock was to fly all the way down over the waters of the Chesapeake Bay.

Half of them are called “sea gulls” - the ones that flew out over the open sea! And the other who flew down the Chesapeake Bay are what we call “ bay-gulls!”

Which do you like best “Seagulls” or “Bay gulls?”

Grandson William was right there with it and laughing up a storm: “You wanted me to think you were talking about gulls that fly and you were really talking about ones we eat! Bay-gull! ” (And, he seemed to pause and listen to the sound of the word as he repeated it )”...bay-gulls - bay-gulls - ba-gels!'

Don't underrate the kids! They know more than our might think they do. Just the other day, while visiting us here in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia – asked me, and I could see the teasing, giggle-glint in his eyes, if I knew where bagels came from.

We both had a good laugh together all over again, a full year after the foolish fact. Oh, its good to hear a kid laugh! It's good for an old man to laugh, too, along with the youngster. We will each live longer, and better because of it.

A.L.M. October 10, 2002 [c483wds]

 
STEP TWO

Re: Israel vs Palestine. The last time we talked about this continuing confrontation we mentioned the Allya of 1881, a time when there was a noticable movement of Jewish people from three places, in particular: Russia, Romania and Yemen to the area we refer to as the Holy Land. We have all had time to read up on that subject a bit so we have some basis for such a remarkable change.

My special thanks to Katie M., Los Angeles,CA for her prompt reply in suggesting a book which would offer an outline of events on the Palestinian side for essentially the same time periods about which will be talking.

Today, briefly, we move to 1892. That is year of publication of Judenstadt (The Jewish State) by Theodor Herzi. It is said to have founded The Zionist Movement . The idea met with mixed reactions at the time and was ridiculed by some. Those Jews residing in the western nations of Europe thought little of the idea and even ridiculed it. Those who lived who in the Eastern European nations were more serious and lived under outward manifestations of hatred and vilification.

The First Zionist Conference was held at Basel, Switzerland. Delegates attended from many areas and they left convinced that such a new Jewish state was essential.

It took years and it was not until 1916 that the pact called the Sykes-Picot Agreement was put together by France and Great Britain. That
was during he serious times of the first World War when there was a tremendous toll offdd human life The so-called “empire nature”of the two large powers urged them to make preparations for the future. They agreed on the establishment of a pattern for dividing the entire Middle East between them when the conflict ended. They set up zones of influence. It may seem heartless to us today to see them doing this when a war was in progress but it would not take affect until later, of course. This plan affected the Jewish homeland dream in the years which followed.
One year later came The Balfour Declaration which has been called “ a masterpiece of political obfuscation”. That document was written by the British Foreign Minister, Lord Arthur Balfour to Lord Rothchild of the World Zionist Organization. Balfour has been accused of “offering all things to all men” in the declaration. We would, even today, be advised to re-read the paper with special care.

He said: “His majesty's government view the establishment in in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish and will use their best endeavors
to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil rights of existing non – Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.”

Whew! Quite a diplomatic mouthful! Right? Small wonder, isn't it, that many people have taken exception to the Jewish state in recent years.

Next time, we will examine the “Fermentation Years”- 1917-1921.


A. L. M. October 9, 2002 [c556wds]

 

CAN WE TAKE CARE OF US?

I wonder at times, if we are as self-sufficient as we think ourselves to be.

The current strike clogging west coast ports will bring results in limited quantities and high prices of scores of products made in Asia. That covers a multitude of articles, too because our import status has changed radically in recent years. The elimination of shipments from China alone would be felt in every element of American society.

Even a short, local strike or works stoppage of any kind in our area can cause a shortages of many items in are stores. I have heard it said that we would be out of most food supplies within thirty days. I would imagine such a figure would vary a great deal in different sections of the country, with some suffering severe shortages in less than a month; others more.

We are far more dependent on our trucking industry and our highway network than we admit. With any delay or stoppage in the flow of food and medical supplies citizens become handicapped in performing their work. We are in need of a system – to be set up now, before an actual emergency need – which will alleviate some of the pressure. I think many of us would be taken aback if told how far away our points of supply are today. We fail to realize how trucks bring such supplies extremely long distances.

Isn't it about time we developed a network of distribution points which are closer to the centers of use for those essential handled by those points? Savings obtained by shipping directly from the point of manufacture
fade away quickly with any interruption in the sequence of supply. Replenishment stocks need to be closer to the point of retail sales to assure a steady supply being available in critical areas.

If we cannot fed ourselves are we as self-sufficient as we claim to be? And, what about our transportation needs? Gasoline and oil supplies, while see seem to have many stations nearby as well as sub-stations with additional supplies, it would be interesting if someone would figure out just how long out local supplies would last if the source was supply was cut off entirely for two or three weeks. And, what about our fuel oil supplies for home and workplaces, if such a need developed in mid-winter?

Especially in view of more terrorist attacks with more complex time problems, is it not time for us to consider new national programs of supply? Studies of essential food requirement should be made to determine which foods should be stockpiled and where to best serve major metropolitan areas, potentially targeted coastal cities, areas in which defense plants are located as well as military installations.

I would hope this is going to be one of a job to be undertaken by the new Department of Home Defense. Certainly it can be considered to be as important as inspected little old ladies for bombs at our airports. That new office has suffered a badly warped PR relationship in that the general public think that's all they are supposed to do.

Think about it, especially, if you are itching to “get on with it!”.

Can we take care of us?

A. L. M. October 7, 2002 [c556wds]

 

LABELS

Some noteworthy changes have taken place in recent years concerning the packaging of foods. One more is needed.

I can sing praises for most of them, but there's one general feature which leaves me wondering. How did they manage to make a small package of six peanut butter or cheese crackers so difficult to open? It used to be that I could get into them easily and some even had a little colored strip one pulled which opened on side of the see-through packet. No more, or maybe I have switched brands without knowing it. Now, they have sealed ends, and they are impossible to tear off, or to tear in two from the edge. scissors are the best and quickest remedy for the problem. If you are, by profession, a tailor or seamstress,and keep a pair of such occupational blades handy at all times for sniping wayward threads and performing other such sartorial maneuvers, you are home free. If not, I have found a good, sharp pencil will do. Insert the graphite point where you think the wrapper may be at its weakest and stab through the clear, plastic covering. Oops! I should have warned you first shouldn't I? That 's right. Never keep your finger behind the focal point of our stab effort. Sorry about that. A Band Aid will help and we can re-sharpen the pencil later. For now, tear the cracker package open and - as it is said: “Enjoy!

I think all the health statistics now required to be printed on the cartons are good features, too, and I also find them good reading, as well.

Line up the boxes of the various dry cereals you like best – your absolute favorite, among them and while you are munching away at a large bowl of our first and only choice, read the charts and compare the values. I don't know how they work it, but our favorite always comes out as he poorest choice of all! Than will be especially true if you are reporting aloud to the family.

Seriously, the facts required on food products we use are a good feature. There is one feature missing which I would like to see included some day in the future when the lawmakers find themselves with nothing to do one afternoon.

I would like to know – or, at least, be given a code which will let me find out, who actually makes the food I'm consuming. It's nice, perhaps, to know who distributes a particular food, but I want know made it; where it came from for them to be able to distribute it. It is not a trade secret trade that food manufacturers, like the makers of other products, manufacture huge quantities of he name brand products, under different or packaging.

Some makers of well-known products make as much profit on
making their product for others to sell. They have no advertising costs, no distribution costs and they realize other savings as well as being able to process a larger volume of the products with increased economy.

It can be in fine print, or available, only through their dot-com address only but it would be helpful if I could know where the food I'm eating was made rather than who distributed it.

A.L.M. October 7, 2002 [c557wds]

 
BUILDING BRIDGES

We have a ceramic hot mat on the table where we have lunch each day and thereon a simple green-blue and white expanse of evenly waved, stylized water with a single, white seagull riding an updraft over the expanse of blue water. Across the top and bottom of the tile one reads: ”Chesapeake Bay Bridge and Tunnel Opened April 15, 1964.”

The plate is , to us, more than just another souvenir piece, and it is seldom that we use it without thinking of Lloyd B. Rogers, my wife's uncle, who worked supervising a construction crew on that tremendous project for several years.

I had some interesting talks with Uncle Lloyd over about bridge and tunnel building and while he was with us, and I miss those talks. His memory lives on through his three sons who are also close to us in many ways. We see the Chesapeake Bay and Tunnel as a bit of Uncle Lloyd's life even though he was one of many worked to make it a reality.

I don't know when I first heard of a plan to build such a bridge-tunnel. It must have been about forty years ago because the project is now thirty-eight years of age, and doing very well, thank you. When we first heard of such a project we thought it was an impossible task. As young boys, my brother and I, had traveled the the ferry across Hampton Roads from Norfolk to the Hampton-Fortress Monroe area quite often. We traveled that route one year, I remember, in stormy weather following a hurricane which had hit the East coast.. The choppy waters instilled within me a new respect for the vastness and power of the sea and of Hampton Roads and the Chesapeake Bay, in particular. I suppose I thought of it as being much larger and deeper than it was or is, but it is large enough to make any bridge builders or tunnel diggers some second thoughts and the realization that such a thing was not just another trivial pursuit.

The project spans 17.6 miles from shore to shore and it is supported by five thousand piers. Four artificial islands were built, each with about ten acres of surface, to house the portals of the tunnel where the roadway dips beneath the water. The overall length is 89,760 feet;; the bridge portions are 79,200 feet of steel and concrete. The cost of this engineering marvel seems small today at $200 million.

It is a good for a man, or woman, to leave behind some such great work of engineering or art by which family and friends will remember him. All of us leave such a mark even though it may not be quite as large or impressive. That's what makes the doing of whatever we do so important .Not only are we getting a job done but we are building a memorial that will, some day, mark our having been here one Earth. We will be remembered by what we did well.

A.L.M. October 6, 2002 [c515wds]

 


October 6, 2002


H-TWO

I find it odd that we fear one element as being the potential killer of us all, and, yet, at the same time, consider it to be the possible savior of our way of life?

Isn't that the way we double-think hydrogen?

A great deal of the manner in which we think about the element today, was determined for us by the film depicting the demise of a German dirigible "The Hindenburg" at Lakehurst, New Jersey - how long ago was that? 1936, I think, and that newsreel clip which shows the huge structure of the amazing craft being consumed rapidly by moving lines of fire, is one that seems to be unforgetable. A few minutes, and it lies a crushed hulk of girders on the ground and we have vivid memories of a few desperate humans attempting to run from the burning prye.

Several theories have been evolved as to the exact cause of the disaster, but, in the puiblic mind only one culprit has long-since been established.- hydrogen.

The :"Hindenburg", on its trips from Germany to the Americas, was levitated by hydrogen gas pumped into it's fabric containers. On extended flights or in flying back to Germany a less volaitile gas - Helium - was added.

That disaster, understandably, established a public fear and distrust of hydrogen which endures to this day.

As we come more and more to need a new source of energy to keep our poliferating numbers of mechanisms going into the centuries ahead, we are increasingly turning to studies involving hydrogen - especially plans to extract such enegry from the tremendous fund of sea water available in all parts of the world.. Many see our future based on the development of ways to extract this tremendous source of enegry and to adapt it to the use of our systems.

We have a new generaton of scientists now, men and women who can work toward such a goal without such a fear of hydorgen. They have new understandings of its dangers and benefits which have been developed over the half-century or so since the violent few minutes at Lakehurst. We also have a new generaion of young people, too,.who will be faced with energy needs and who will have no strong memory of past disasters.. Many of the objections which people of my generation would deem to be worthy of special prfecautioin, are no longer valid.

The time has arrived for us to step into the future with positive plans to extract energy from seawater or from some other source of hydrogen. No doubt, our present involvments in war will affect plans for such egenry studies, but , remember, too, that major developments have come about in war time which would have been considered as impossible in times of peace and contentment.

Now may be the moment for action.


A.L.M. October 6, 2002 [c589wds]

 

GURKHAS REVISITED

We have all found the Gurkhas to be common in literature concerning East Indian affairs. I have always associated them with being members of the British army in India in Colonel times., as depicted in so many of Rudyard Kipling's fine stores of that era.

Actually, they have been, and are, much more than that, I have learned.

A neighbor of mine, Bob Kugler, who served in the China-Burma-India theater during World War II , gets a little magazine at regular intervals titled: “Ex-SCI Review” which he passes along to me to read.

I find, in reading that publication, that the Gurkhas are indeed soldiers but they are all that I thought they were, and more. The British first recruited them, that's true, to serve in the Indian Army, but they are now the armed forces of their native Nepal..

Generally small in stature, Gurkhas have always been good at using their small size to deceive enemies. It is backed by a good fighting spirit. They prove to be good soldiers and make up for any small stature with special qualities of stamina and cleverness.

They are a proud group, too – these Ghurkas. Depending on what Quartermaster supply has available, they like to wear neat uniforms, leggings and the seem to present an old-fashioned look about them which can also be deceiving. Much
that they used to wear, however, often resembled cowboy headgear for foraging and turbans for dress wear. That, of course, is all gone but the modern armed forces of which they are a part, .probably gloss over the romantic uniqueness of the group. I know less than nothing of today's armed force in Nepal. I would imagine, however, that the old men-of- war image remains pretty much intact.

The Ghurkas, we are told, was “all business” as a soldier and he was especially adept at guerrilla fighting. He was a master of techniques used in such fighting and could e sent out with a bag of rice and his traditional,curved-bladed knife to do whatever had to be done.
Japanese troops feared the Ghurkas. Their preferred way of killing was by total decapitation of the human head from the body, which they did silently and quickly with their deadly “knives”'.

Extant photographs of the Ghurkas seem to be rare. We see soldiers in mixed uniforms of yesteryear. The women of the Ghurka group are larger in stature and they tend to dress in bright colors ,red especially and have a “sportive one” as they tended to wear too much jewelry on their fingers, as nose rings as bracelets for both arms and legs as well as elaborate necklaces.. Beside them, the males look drab.

At this moment, when the armies of Pakistan and India are facing each other along the borders in the north, I have a feeling more than one Pakistani soldier is wondering if all of the Ghurkas went back to Nepal or stayed with the army of India

They served well as British mercenaries in Colonial days and are remembered as turbaned terrors by those who met them.

A.L.M. October 4, 2002 [c 525wds] .

 
RENOVATIONS

For sometime, now – it's been weeks -actually months that we have been “camping in” at our house.

We decided earlier this summer to make a few changes in the home where we have lived for ten years.

It all started off lightly. We were going to re-arrange the kitchen and dining room areas and put new vinyl flooring there and in the two bathrooms. The carpeting needed replacement in the living room,hall and two bedrooms,as well. The plan was to do what we could afford to get done at the time.

The mistakes we made were small,I suppose, but they came to be more than just bothersome. Events which followed may serve you well as a “How Not To...” text.

We decided to get some estimates. That,in itself, was a wise thing to do,but it went awry. After a few phone calls and visits it became apparent that all the carpenters and painters - as well as contractors in the area were busy building new houses and could not take on “renovation” jobs.

We did, however,get a few bids. One was sky high and totally out of reach,and one of the other was tempting but the idea was for the workers to moonlight,in a sense,and do the job in what they called “four week-ends”. That would mean a whole month of a torn up household! We were impressed with work he had done elsewhere, but we said “no” because of the “four weeks-ends” clause.

We were still confident we would find someone to do the job,and in looking ahead we found that much of the cost might be eliminated if we, and family members, could remove the old carpeting and padding, take up some of the linoleum floor covering dislodging glued-down wooden tile sections from the floor of the dining room kitchen areas. We kept telling ourselves how much we were saving by doing the prep work ourselves.

Some cuts were made. The idea of all new kitchen cabinets had crept into the plan from somewhere but that was eliminated in favor of simply painting the existing ones a fresh, clear white to brighten the area. So, the flooring was ripped up and hauled away; off came all cabinets doors, and the hardware put aside carefully for refinishing. Then, “to get ready for the painters” everything was removed from the cabinets, drawers, bins and from china presses in the dining room. Furniture, too! Out!

Everything packable was put in cardboard boxes as if we were moving to the comparative calm of somewhere in the Mid-East. The marked boxes were then consigned to one of three locations: the attic, our former two-car garage, or downstairs to the large rec room and utility area. The pool table became an overflowing mound of stuff and things and the old computer desk came to look like a yard-sale display table several layers thick.

Surprise! One painter showed up. He did most of the walls of the smaller bathroom and had to leave for a planned vacation trip. Later two painters showed up for two days. The second visit was largely to do a second coat and touch ups. They had previously contracted a church painting job and had to go to that job,which was agreeable with us. The irony of it all was that it was the Fellowship Hall of our own church which they were to paint.

It become evident, by that time,that we were not going to get the professional help we needed. Members of the family children, grandchildren, brothers, sisters, sons, daughters, great granddaughters, sons-in-laws - a former one and and one to be - some friends and, perhaps, a stranger or two did the painting, and cabinet restoration.

The brighter side! We had excellent pro help on the carpet and vinyl floor installation. It was marred by extended delays when they received two damaged shipments in a row from their supplier - rolls of vinyl broken in the center. They treated us very well, indeed!

The house is taking shape once more and we have often thought how nice it could have been if we had accepted that early bid of with only “four week ends” of camping in.

Camping out is fine! Yes.

Camping in? No!

A.L.M. October 3, 2002 [c717wds]

 
RUT RADIO

I soon tire of the same old fare being thrown my way by radio.

I wonder,at times,how people in the programing end of the radio business, as it exists today, think that upon playing a record of,let’s say, Irish Dance music, they are obligated for some strange reason, to follow with more of the same.

One reason it is being done,is because it is he easy way out.

With two turntables at your disposal you can get by with just two CD's or two larger discs to fill out the half-hour or longer time period if you like. The theory might be that if some listeners liked the first one -and no one called to say they didn’t like it – they ought to be good for few more of the same.

The same question of mine applies to “blues” tunes, Latin-American, Hawaiian, Uzbekistan’s latest rock favorites, or cool songs from Antarctica. Too much of any one thing is, as a rule, deadly. It can drive our radio listeners back o TV if you are not careful. We should try to offer listeners more variety. That gives them more reasons than ever
to like or dislike what we do.

Far too man radio people fall into this common rut.

People like variety in their entertainment. What’s the most common comment you hear about TV today? Right – that’s it’s all so much he same! Radio can offer variety faster and easier than television.

There was notable program in quirk in network radio yeas ago which had a world of bad repercussions. Maybe you remember when one of major radio networks of the era shook things up more than just a little but by letting it be know that they intended to program the week – each night featuring nothing but one type of show.

Tuesday evening was “Comedy”,I remember and I think Friday night was “Mystery” or that may have been Thursday, I don’t remember. Monday and Wednesday also had special overloads of their own!

The results are usually dismal.

The first comedian on Tuesday nights did very well, but he was a headliner and would have done well anyway.
The second funny man did not come across as sharp as he usually was, and the Third one, usually an also-ran anyway,had a real problem on his hands with people who had laughed for several hours and simply did not have much fun-loving urge left inside of their quake-shaken bodies.
Far too many radio stations are currently overloading entire hour to three-hour segments with the same type of music. They often seem to exude an aura as having been divinely designated to minister unto the supposed need of a narrow segment of hearers who have a special interest in promoting that phase of music.

Rut radio of today has need of persons who dare to be different.

A.L.M. September 29, 2002 [c486wds]

 
Last Words

We will never know what the last words of Albert Einstein were because the nurse attending him in his last moments did not speak or understand German.

I find it interesting that the one man who had probably delved more into the making of this world of ours than any other, spoke his final thoughts he was heard to do so,but not understood.

Imagine what ponderous thoughts might have been stated in those last words! Or, think ,as well,on how trivial they might have been. We will never know which they were nd we can think of ourselves as having lost a part of the famous and uniquely talented man's overall contribution too our society. If he made a momentous statement of some nature,then we have missed a valuable word of assistance which may have improved our lot. On the other hand,it may have been that he spoke in a less scholarly line of thought, then we have missed the subtle,intensely human side of the man we probably hurt in some way by taking him too seriously all of the time.

With hindsight, of course,it is easy enough for us to wonder why those in charge of the case did no specify that a nurse fluent in German would be present to properly assist the man in whatever he expressed his desires to be. Or,an interpreter could have been present.

Often, men of Einstein's caliber and reputation have made summary statements of their work or ideas as death came near. Some seemed see a bridge into a finer realm while others do not glimpse such a nirvana. Some have said things which are difficult to fathom and those are usually dismissed as products of a confused mind in those final moments. No doubt there have been some such quoted texts which are pure fabrications of people in the vicinity who heard what they thought the dying person may have said.

It may be that we take such death-bed utterances far too seriously,and in doing so, often bend the memory of the person to suit our own thinking and thus, I fear ,we lose a part of their real nature.

Albert Einstein, in addition to being a learned professor type,also exhibited a very humorous portion of his life and times, as well My favorite story is one that is told about his professorial duties at,I believe, Princeton. Was it not?

After a long day of teaching, Einstein is said to have left his classroom;stopped a shop where he purchased a large ice cream cone. He licked that cone of ice cream almost the entire way home. That alone would not have been unusual,I suppose,but he did all that while balancing on a single rail of the railroad tracks which led in the same direction as the street towards his lodgings. He teetered on the single rail in a tight-rope routine; his long coat fluttering; his shock of billowing white hair tossed about by the sunny breeze!

Einstein is best viewed, not solely from the dour atomic bomb-devotee theme, but as a human being. He experienced his share of family troubles about which we are seldom told. He lived a rather average life in troubled political times. Perhaps he did lean a bit toward the eccentric side for most of us, but when we ascribe too much seriousness to him the soft,humorous side of his nature we do him an injustice.

Of course,it makes little difference what he might have said in his last moments among us. If I were you ,I wouldn't worry too much about it.

But, I am not you. I am me. And, I will continue to wonder what he said.

My guess is that it was something of a wryly humorous nature and somewhat of “our-world” rather than a universe-shaking pronouncement. The roly-poly image of the great man sticks with me easier than the stern academic visage.

A.L.M. September 27, 2002

 
DO-DADS,THING-A-MAH-JIGS, AND WHAT-CHA-MAH-CALL-ITS!

The English language is a wonderfully expressive mechanism!

It has unbounded allocations of space for all possible lanes of learning to flow into it's welcoming warmth and fullness and bring with them, oft times, some uniquely devised expressions which are used to better understand subtle differences among culture son this planet Earth. English seems to welcome new words,whereas, so many other language attempt to repel the expressions pundits feel might dilute or destroy the imagined purity of their own spoken and written tongue.

Even “nonsense” language in English has special meaning for specific people of various ages. The current :rock” and “rap” age lingo terms often meaningless to those of us not yet initiated into the mysteries of modern music.
We grew up with a generous fund of such exotic words.

What,for example, was,or is, a “do-dad?” Or, how about a “thing-a-ma-bob(or,jig?”
And, there's one which seem to have come out of World War II language mutations – a “gizmo”.

If you have been busy at one task and then caused to do,another it may well be that you cannot remember,for the moment, the exact name of the tool you needed, so you might say “Hey! Hand me that what “wha-cha-mah-call-it” from the work bench! No, not that one! The other “do-dad” there!”The remarkable thing is that you will handed the proper tool - a “monkey wrench” or a “spanner” you intended to ask for - themselves, you see, at one time,lowly slang words.

Some such terms take on other meanings, as they mature. “Do-Dad” is used today in the medical field. It applies to a young father who experiences pains and change in his nature along with those of his pregnant wife. It' been happening for years,doctors agree,but he have finally decided that word to designate such a husband who echoes his wife's sufferings in such a personal manner is “doing” things,hence he is called a ”do-Dad.” as oppose, I assume to a non-do one,

So, don't expect today' slang usages to disappear. The may take on new, more sensible meanings as time goes by, but they will hold fast as part of our linguistic heritage used to express desires, emotions and and frustrations.

And,be patient. Try not to be too upset when the other person does not hand you the tool you asked for.
How is he or she to know you really wanted the other do-hickey?

A.L.M. October 1, 2002 [c413wds]

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03/25/2007 - 04/01/2007
04/01/2007 - 04/08/2007
08/05/2007 - 08/12/2007
08/26/2007 - 09/02/2007
11/18/2007 - 11/25/2007
12/09/2007 - 12/16/2007
12/21/2008 - 12/28/2008
01/04/2009 - 01/11/2009
07/26/2009 - 08/02/2009