Saturday, July 27, 2002
MAYBE NOT?
I realize it sounds impractical, doubtful and even impossible to many people, but I
still find that what we do for others is often more important than what we do for ourselves.
Much of what you do is done without the realization that you are thinking more of
others than yourself.
If you are a young man, let’s say, fresh out of college halls of learning and seeking a
job in keeping with your training, eager, ambitious and all that you met with in college
days. Several surprises await you in the real world, of course. Among them is the fact that
you will be called upon to choose a lifetime field of employment. You must make
judgments based, not just on the amounts of money the job will bring in and how soon.
You will be, I’ll bet, imagining times just ahead in which you can marry that special girl;
have children and be the one who steadily brings home the bacon in abundance and
working to keep the home fire burning in traditional ways. You will be working for
individuals and groups who do not even exist now, perhaps. Or, you may take the job
thinking of it as an opportunity for you to repay some of the small fortune your parents or
family members spent on your college years. They have been working on your behalf for
many years. Much of what they both did over the years often truncating their own
enjoyments, hobbies, avocations - with our well-being in mind. You can’t just turn your
back on them, although it does happen in hundreds of cases almost daily, I’m sure.
You will be better off if you are doing a job you like, too. So many individuals
condemn themselves to so many years of servitude after which they plan to “take it
easy” and “enjoy living.” It is important that your family respects what you do for a living,
too. This is often a difficult thing to comprehend, when one is young and filled with a zest
for living at higher and higher levels of showy prosperity, and even difficult to understand
when one grows older and it appears that you may have to give something up in order to
work for others. The time will arrive, however, when you see others doing so and you realize
for the first time that you have been doing some of it yourself unknowingly for years.
You are working for others when you create with your hands, mind, guidance and
spiritual influence upon those around you. It is not a matter of physically establishing your
presence among them. Many help from afar and do a commendable job Some like to do
their helping quietly and modestly.
Have you every wondered why people wait until they are dead before the share
their wealth? If you have good fortune, share it with family and friends while you live. Why
deprive yourself of the joy of giving, of sharing, or helping others?
It’s a natural thing to want to do.
A.L.M. July 25, 2002 [c518wds]
Friday, July 26, 2002
SPEED
Are we a nation obsessed with speed?.
Even our food has to be “fast”. We prefer “fast” colors in our clothing materials. We
take part in religious observations which including “fasting”. We like elevators which whisk
us up to the upper levels of our buildings at stomach-squeezing speeds. And, most of all,
we like our cars to be “fast.”
What are the highest numbers on your car’s speedometer? I can remember when it
was common to put readings of 150 mph, or more on such meters and many owners tried,
sometimes once too often, to see if the old rigs would do that on the road. We are “sold”
on the speed of the cars we desire. We want the fast ones and can ignore laws which limit
speeds we might use when we drive on public highways.
The people who make the new car commercials for TV know how to produce an
illusion of super speed which seems safe enough. The new cars are often shown traveling
curved highways in mountainous terrain. They are really moving along and, have you ever
noticed their is no oncoming traffic on the strange highways featured on TV commercials.
And, state police are totally absent as well. It may be they do their filming just after dawn
on Sunday mornings, or they get the police to block off a few miles for their use. The roads
are immaculately paved - not a pothole or patch in sight - and shoulders are mowed
and manicured, too, as a rule. The car of your dreams goes whizzing around the curve
and holds to the road beautifully. Another thing, you almost never get a chance to see
who’s driving. The writers and producers want you to feel you are at the wheel for every
tense moment! Often we are shown a rush of scenery slurring by the car windows - a
steady rush of blurred nature. I often wonder at such times if it is the car passing the
scenery or the scenery being rushed past the car window on film. The mighty cars dash off
into the desolate reaches of the mountains and appear again-and-again taking the
sharp curves with ease and assurance... and still no traffic whatsoever. You are doing it!
No people present to distract you!
.
Some spot producers prefer a desert location where their cars can scoot off in a
dramatic spilling of sandy dust into the crisp, clean air. Everything moves in a hurry,
including the talk about special sale prices, reductions, and, far too often, rebates of
many kinds. Special feature on a specific car are mentioned at times, but the main
emphasis is on speed visually and in the manner of presentation. Hurry! Hurry! Hurry!
If future drivers try to move along at the pictured pace, they will get packets of
speeding tickets in record time. Notice, to, that most producers use models with solid
wheels. Spoked wheels - of wood, metal sections or wire - still appear to be going
backward on side shots just like the wagons and buggies in the western movies used to do
when we were kids. One would think they would have learned too overcome that
camera hazard long ago.
It’s more often the speed factor that sells the car on TV, however.
A. L. M. July 26, 2002 [c560wds]
Thursday, July 25, 2002
WHAT IS NEEDED?
Think about it. What are people going to need in the future?
Make a list of ideas which come to you from time-to-time ... a list of gadgets the
average homemaker of the future will find useful once someone invents them.
Over the years I have kept such a list in these pages and written at length
concerning many such ideas. They occur to you more readily than you might think, too.
Writing them down is a good idea and a worthwhile exercise in writing, as well. Our writing
about an idea may be the spark that is needed to fire up the creative urge in some one
who can take the concept on step forward and make something useful of it.
Don’t be worried about who gets the credit for doing whatever is done, either. So
many inventions are evolved over the years in many minds and through trial and error
thinking and testing which leads to something that may resemble the original quest, but
not exactly. No one person invents anything, I’m convinced. Someone does claim and
get the credit eventually, and the profits from the idea. But the most important thing is
that a useful thing has been created which will enable society to advance and to live a
better life because of it.
Here a few of the things I have listed over the years:
We need custom made footwear. Customer’s visit an office location rather than a
“store”; see samples of the available styles in shoes. Computers then measure the foot of
the customer both standing and seated and provide a reading of the exact dimensions
required. That information, when sent to the actual manufacturing facility, becomes
template which results in a personal set of footwear designed specifically for that person
alone. I have read since setting the idea down ,that the Japanese have done such a
thing but it still demands a marketing promotional effort. I like one idea the Japanese
added. They actually make the buyer wait a full week for the shoes which were available
same or the next day after the order was sent in. They find that anticipation is one of the
most important factors concerning the acquisition of new shoes or of any such personal
item. O.K. I was late on that one...waited too long. There are some quirks to be worked
out before such a process could become readily acceptable in the United States.
Then, I have long had a theory of accumulated light in mind. If we can bend a
beam of light, if we can make a light bean go around a corner. why is it so odd, then, to
consider making a light beam which will pile up, accumulate as a glob or globe of
brilliance at a specific point... especially if it meets another beam coming from the
opposite direction? Imagine a bright glow in the upper center of a room caused by two
small, pencil-like units installed a fool below ceiling level on each side wall of the room to
cause steady, central glow. Or, imagine a football field with a globe of gathered light
above it, or an airport fogged-in but showing globs of light up through the fog at regular
descending levels from small units along the runway below. Think of highway alight from
such globes of accumulated or “stopped” light! We will see it some day.
Another idea has to do with reviving the once fertile Sahara desert in Africa. It’s an
idea which has been around for many years but has lacked the creative spark which will
make it a reality. The idea is to siphon water from he Mediterranean across the Atlas
Mountains. It will seek the lowest levels and form an inland salt sea from which prevailing
winds will take it north to fall as on non Atlas range. Then, in turn, it will
trickle down the slopes to irrigate now useless areas. Not my idea you see, but I have a
part in it and so do you Make your move. Make it work.
Or, how about a bellows arrangement fitted under my computer chair to exercise
my feet with varied pressures to keep them from going to sleep and to provide fan
advantages as well. I called it a “Robo-chair” when describing it here several years ago.
Or, in the kitchen, a simple rack I made which we used in the house in which we
used to live. Two strips of wood - actually those used in the bottom edge of old window
shades; four 6”x6: 1/4” plywood scraps . Slots are cut in the plywood to allow the stripes to
be inserted ...barely...two at the upper edge and three at the bottom end and one on
the keel area. The no-nail rig was used for storage of plastic lids of all sizes in order so the
proper size could be selected with ease. Tupperware could make the thing.
I have a back scratcher in mind which would be a product sold with a whimsical
touch. It is a bathmat with varied stubble, and suction cups on the back so it can be
fitted against flat surface... a wall, a closet door, a filing cabinet at the office . The chronic
back-itcher, and I find we are numerous, stands against it and scratches up and down, or
sideways, to suit his or her need. It could be made by Rubbermaid and it has a
mandatory shape. It would be sold as humorous novelty, called “An Angel’s Wing”. Ah,
blessed relief!
One more idea then, I’m outta here! And, you are on your own.
I have always liked to eat raw turnips right from the garden. So, I find, do others.
I think a Turni-chips would sell. A company in the potato chip business could blend turnips
and potatoes to a creamy state and press then into tasty new snack treats. Think what
that would do for the hard-pressed turnip growers of America as well!
They sound silly, don’t they? Most inventions are comical in their earliest stage of
development. I’d be interested in hearing about your zany ideas as well. Use the e-mail
link on the TOPIC home page and tell me about some of the things you would like to see
invented or improved.
A.L.M. July 25, 2002 [c1061wds]
Wednesday, July 24, 2002
THE EARLY F.B.I.
I grew up without any knowledge of the F.B.I. So did thousands
of others of my age. I was twenty-years old before I ever heard of the
F.B.I. for the simple reason that it did not exist until that time. It started
to become what it is today in March of 1935.
The investigation of crime was, in those days, largely a local affair.
City, county and state police looked in to such matters and, as I
remember, there were numerous private detectives for hire as well as
associations and agencies which offered, for a fee, often in the form of
a membership payment, protection of groups of the citizenry
from molestation by disreputable persons know as hoodlums and
gangsters.
When we thought of dealing with criminal violence we thought
of depending on individuals - the detective, who was “called in” to
”solve” the mystery or to catch the criminals. In the literature of the
time, the astute individual who could see thorough the Machavialian
meanness of the bad guys, came many sizes, shapes and
configurations. Very often, to keep him or her from being too perfect,
they were given some physical impairment or a quirky attitude which
also helped make them distinctive from others of their ilk. We were still
very much with the Sherlock Holmes, Doctor Watson way of doing
crime solutions.
The seed of the agency came from the fact that some members
of the Secret Service were “moonlighting” a bit and worked for the
Justice Department from time-to-time as special agents. Someone
blew the well-know whistle. We don’t know why or how, but it was
some one with clout, because the Congress quickly passed a routine
Civil Service bill in which it was stated that such agent off-time work
was a no-no. The fine for any such in infraction by a Secret Service man
was “two years suspension”. Then someone, with even heavier
influence, where it mattered most, modified it a bit to allow such
agency work on behalf of the Treasury Department and , then,
fine-tuned the legislation to say ”except in cases of counterfeiting”.
There was a need for a government-wide investigative body.
One was set up in July of 1908. It came to be called the B.O.I. - the
Bureau of Investigation which evolved. Later it became the D.O.I. - the
Division of Investigation. We did not, however, know them with the
familiarity which the acronym “FEB.” quickly acquired.
The B.O.I was not closed allied with crime investigating
authorities throughout the states. They were, to some extent, when
called upon to do so, helpful in a mild forensics sense, because they had
available laboratories and test facilities others lacked locally. Those
were B.O.I men on the scene of the Lindbergh kidnapping case in New
Jersey in 1932. A year later, the Congress set forth the kidnapping
legislation which grew out of that celebrated case and the B.O.I. was
also given a bloated designation, either B.O.I. or the U.S.B.O.I. They
came to be the ones who had to deal with the growing mobster,
gangster and violence which was working havoc in our large cities,
too. And, of numbers rackets, protection schemes, outright con artist
trickery and gambling infesting our small towns, as well. It strikes me as
an amazing fact that the Congress of this nation of ours did not deem
it necessary or proper for these guardian forces to be allowed to
officially arrest troublemakers nor could they bear firearms of any kind.
They could perform only what is called “people’s arrest”, which is a civic
function you and I can do today if we wish to get that involved in a
situation without even a pea-shooter or a sling-shot in our possession at
the time.
Future TV, movies and the print media would have been severely
deprived if someone had not invented the nick-name of “G-Men”
meaning government men or the F.B.I. It is widely said, but contested,
that the originator of that term was none other than “Machine Gun”
Kelly, The story has it that, when besieged by the U.S.B.O.I, he had
called out: “Don’t shoot! G-men, don’t shoot!”. That seems odd to me
since the said besiegers were not allowed to carry guns until a year
later. It is conceded that, since, Kelly was not exactly the
pleading-for-mercy type, that he probably may have used the term
“G-men” in a scathing, derogatory sense when being interrogated by
men of the U.S.B.O.I. or the D.O.I. Accounts differ as to name at that
moment.
‘Way Back in 1921, William J. Burns, head of the famed Burns
Detective Agency, was named Director of the B.O.I. and he took on
board a young man of twenty-two years of age, by the name of Edgar
Hoover, who was to become part and parcel of the department for
many years to come...even forever.
Read up on the history and exploits of our Federal Bureau of
Investigation and its accomplishments. Yes, and of its restraints, as well,
well as it has functioned in a democracy. We can all be very proud of
our G-Men. A.L.M. July 23, 2002 [c858wds]
Tuesday, July 23, 2002
CHOCOLATE, HOT
I have always liked a good mug of hot chocolate, especially in the fall and winter
days when there’s a natural chill about things and places. Air-conditioning hasn’t exactly
helped curb my yen one but, either.
I have gone though cycles over the years because for a time I am told it is good for
me to drink chocolate, then the environmental - health preservation pendulum swings to
the opposite extreme and I’m told drinking chocolate is not good for a person. Win or lose,
I always come back to it as a favorite drink.
Years ago I worked in radio with a mid-morning personality by the name of Russ
Gardner. He preferred the hot chocolate rather than the coffee which was available
from the vending machine . One morning there were cries for help from the corridor in
which the machine was located just outside the control room. “ I need cups! Anybody!
Bring me cups or glasses or anything to hold this hot stuff!” Help came by way of the
kitchenette nearby with a yard long “stick” of plastic cups. The machine had jammed in
some way and it continued to pour out hot chocolate without stopping. Russ had to get
back in the control room because his record onto turntable was finishing. We all had
plenty of hot chocolate that morning! One of the girls got a tray and delivered it to all
offices.
I have, as a rule, prepared hot chocolate by heating water or milk then pouring in a
“scoop” of mix... chocolate, cacao and powdered milk, with sweetener appended. The
scoop is subtle way of refusing to admit that you put at least two tablespoons of the
mixture. Stir a bit. Then, serve.
I have always thought chocolate originated with the Aztec or Mayan cultures.
When the Spanish took it back to Europe it became a fad food favorite among the
royalty of many nations.
I have recently come to know, through National Geographic studies, that I have
been woefully amiss in my preparation of the drink. The Aztec and Mayan peoples had
chocolate and used it, often to excess we are told. It seems to have originated much
earlier among the Olmec people, who preceded the Mayans at about 1500-500 BC. They
lived along the southern rim of the Gulf of Mexico. Both the words “chocolate” and
“cocoa” and “cacao” are Olmec words. Some sources say Nahutal or Uto-Aztecan.
Many early quaffers seem to have preferred their chocolate drinks thick and frothy.
The froth was deemed to be the best part, it seems, so they had a specific way to make
hot chocolate which I’d like try some time when the wife and kids are sure to be away.
The Mayans and others mixed their chocolate in a liquid and heated it. They then poured
a portion of the contents from a vessel held on high. It was poured from as high as
Mayan cook could reach. He or she held the one clay vessel high and poured the
contents down into a bowl on the ground or floor below. This was done, again and again,
aerating it and putting a fine head of it for royal consumption of a quality hot chocolate
drink.
See. We learn something new every day, don’t we? Well, maybe every other day,
perhaps?
A.L.M. July 22, 2002 [c566wds]
Monday, July 22, 2002
PAYING THE PIPER
It has been a while, now, since we have had a high school shooting and the lack
therof is somewhat disquieting.
Does the basic evil still lurk out there in our lesser the academic halls or was it all a
series of passing manifestations if a passing fancy for some easily excited individuals who
did their thing and have now been imitated by their peers and largely forgotten?
I have felt, just as many other have, I’m sure, that most of the incidents have
been copy cat versions of the “Columbine” School shootings with each attempting to
“improve” or “ “perfect” some element of the shootings.
The reasons for “Columbine” and others are still varied, of course, and highly
debatable in some cases.
I feel it to be grossly wrong for us to attribute any such actions to specific causes
and in this case many have condemned “television” violence as the cause. It may well
have been a factor in the problems’ growth but it is, by no means, the sole cause of
such emotional social collapse among teen agers. TV is a handy culprit to blame, but in
doing so - or in saying it was the violence movies of recent years - causes us to blame
such obvious elements and to stop looking for the real, underlying and much deeper
causes which might bring about such radical changes in the mind set of young people.
When such incidents occurred in times we think of as being long gone, the same
group of knee-jerk, self-appointed judges placed the blame on the dime novels the
youngster were reading. Each generation seems to have its favorite whipping boy on
which to blame shortcomings of their own which should be taken more to heart.
Think about it for a moment. Isn’t there a common thread through most of the
violent displays which points, again and again, to the area of parental negligence?
The failure of unified mother and father need to guide their children into socially
acceptable paths. Instead we see parents rearing their children haphazardly and, in
many cases, in accordance with changeable rules set by existing social cliques which
may be compared readily with crude improvisations so evident replacing diplomacy,
tact and conscientious dedication to service found so frequently in present-day politics
which are said to be “politically correct”. Such “socially correct” upbringing ideas often
emphasizes the wrong themes upon which children are expected to build their lives.
We can, if we wish, view it all as passing phase and make remarks about having
to pay the fiddler now and then if we wish to continue to trip the light fantastic. For
true solutions we must examine ourselves and make some changes in the manner in
which children are trained to be worthy of a place in adult living. We need to be
prepared to be shocked in doing so, at times, even hurt, but, in the long run, it should
work to our mutual advantage if we can make such alterations...soon.
A.L.M. May 27, 2002 [c513wds]
Sunday, July 21, 2002
MAY POLE
When did “May Pole Dances” go out of style?
I’ve just missed them, but I can remember when it was a great event of every
Spring time. It resembled the concept of debutantes being introduced to society with a
strictly controlled “Debutante’s Ball” held at the town finest facility.
As I remember it, the city actually installed several twelve or fourteen-foot used
telephone poles in the park area and at the various school grounds each spring to meet
the forthcoming need. All the young girls - pre-debs, I suppose they might be called - had
to have new, fluffy, long dresses made for the occasion and the bounds of color were
ignored. The May Pole dance was to be a bright, cheerful, gay dance and sometimes
they trucked in a piano which, with violin, at times provided the music. Most of the time,
however, the music was from a scratchy phonograph record with gaps of silence every
two to three minutes as the record was changed or reset at the beginning with a special
spine-tingling sideways scrr-aa-ttch!
The girls danced gracefully around the pole, each holding in hand a colorful band
of artificial paper, as we then called it, of a bright color. As they moved around the pole
the pole itself became then center of attention as a pattern began to appear when the
strands of colored paper were interwoven. School color predominated when it was
danced on school premises, but civic displays were a more colorful show. It was not as
easy at the might appear to have been, either. Everyone had to move exactly as
planned, weaving and interweaving - or the whole thing would be messed up beyond
fixing. In earlier times it involved both men and women and, often as teams of seven
couples, who took the steps needed, passing in front of or in back of the ladies as the
deign demanded. Many such shows completed the festive pole, then reversed the steps
and unwound the entire thing... all in celebration of the “Feast of Flora” as it was called in
England where it was all dedicated to the Goddess of Flowers.
Prior to the Roman occupation of the country the English contented themselves
with simple decorating tall poles with flowers and greenery of all kinds in elaborate designs
, but after the Romans left they became a dancing people at Pole time. The same sort of
thing grew in other nations as well usually among rural folk. The people in Switzerland
made it a three times per day affair. There was a staid, quiet version at sunrise, a less
formal show at noon and the evening consisted of dancing and merry making. A Robin
Hood character play an major role in some May Pole dances in England, as well.
Strict rules used to apply. The number of ribbons used must be divisible by four, for
instance. Try to do with less or more, and you’ve got yourself a badly botched May Pole
design.
A.L.M July 20, 2002 [c508wds]
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