BY CHANCE

Some wonderful changes appear to have come into being largely through the mysterious element of chance.

It may be that this continent on which we live was "discovered" by wandering Norsemen long before Columbus set off to find a route to the riches of India and, on the way, chanced upon the Caribbean Islands. There is also a theory now being talked around that we were also discovered from the other direction. It is widely held someone from China visited our Pacific shores, probably at about the same time as the Norsemen hit the eastern edges of what is now Canada. He, or they, may have drifted with Pacific currents which still bring us occasional reminders of Asia, or they may have been a bit later trying to find a new route to the markets of Europe.

No one knows because chance leaves no records on purpose. We find some by accident, however, and our intense studies are based on, yes ...on a chance of finding proofs some day ... somewhere.

Only when we get into the areas of religious concerns do we shy away from the idea of chance.

What is providential and destined by a deity vies with the very idea of chance happenings. I cannot agree with the Deist view that holds the Universe came into being due to more or less accidental circumstances prevailing at the time. It has been, it seems, set up as a giant clock-work mechanism of some type which has been ticking away and running down ever since. That would be chance, but it seems to me, to be a vaster concept which demands more than such a trite and trivial categorization.

When your child is in the process of being born at the hospital, you don’t want the doctors and nurses to be doing things by chance, do you?

Think about it from time to time. To put your reliance on chance is risky at best. If you lose a dollar of two on the lottery from time-to-time, trusting to chance, the loss may not be too great, and that should be the extent of such ventures for most of us.

To "bet you life" or any portion thereof, is foolishness.

Much in Mankind’s history which may seem to have happened by chance really came about from the concerted mental and physical efforts of scores of people in the past who contemplated and worked diligently trying to make their world a better place in which to live. We are doing it now in our space ventures and in countless other ways, and, in truth, we leave very little to chance.

We don't trust it.

A.L.M. May 30,2003 [c679wds]

 
THINGS WE DON'T DO

Very few days go by without us being reminded that we should have done certain things which we have left undone.

All of us are guilty, too without exception.

Let me tally up a few of them as examples of how lax we can become, and so easily, too.

Do you get enough rest, for instance? Do you sleep erratically? Can it be that your irregular hours do you noticeably physical harm? I have found, by experience, that if one keeps regular hours - getting up and retiring at more or less the same times each morning and evening, life proceeds smoother and without undo complications. I am not a harsh, demanding stickler for such rules because a change of pace can also bring some special benefits as well, if properly compensated for by a nap now and then or just a period of "quiet time" time during the active day.

We need to stay within a certain, pre-set framework insofar as foods, medications and routines of work are concerned. I know there are now certain physical acts which I can no longer perform, so I've got to temper my ways of doing so that I do not violate any of the warning signs which tell me - quite plainly I as a rule - when I am "overdoing it" or "showing off". Ego does play a role in much of this, too, in case you think my use of the term "showing off" too harsh or too playful. We learn it individually. I have come to know I can't do the outdoor gardening work I used to get done as routine. Our neighbor on the in back of ours, Mark had to learn it, as has our neighbor Bob, who lives across the street. Every now and then we have spot each other "showing off" by doing physical things we know, full well, are either forbidden or questionable.

Oft time we see older people slacking off on on mental activities at this special time when they should be increasing that sort of thing while eliminating physical work. The tendency to become what is now called a "couch potato" is a hallmark of our times with many people - far too many - with TV as the main (but not to only) area of concern. It is a mistake to cut down on one's reading, for instance. It is, perhaps, an error to turn to technology in the form of computerized equipment which intimidates us even more so than it does the younger people who are now compelled to make use of it daily. Use your computer as an "adjunct to"; as an "extension of"; as "condiment" rather than "entree”and as a "dessert" rather than the "main course" of your intellectual meal.

A.L.M. May 29, 2003 [c704wds]

 
A MAN NAMED MARSHALL

Who was Thomas Riley Marshall?

He was Vice-President of the United States in the year of 1916, the year I was a born , and he was popular enough politically to have been re-elected to serve to 1921. I should have remembered him but that's the way it has always been for Vice-Presidents. So many Veeps go unappreciated for years after their careers end or change radically.

But, Tom Riley Marshall is not among those totally forgotten at all. He has a remarkable niche in history because, he, in a short statement concerning the greatest need of our nation a that time. You, perhaps, are among the millions who have quoted him.

Thomas Marshall was born March 14th in 1854 in North Manchester Indiana. He graduated from Wabash College in 1873, was admitted to the bar in Indiana in 1875 and practiced law in Columbia City until 1908 when he was elected Governor of the State of Indiana. He is, of course, remembered by many for that service. His administration was an active one. He worked hard for new employer's liability laws, added child labor legislation by his efforts to give the state a new constitution a bit short in the legislature..

At the Democratic National Convention in Baltimore 1912, we was the favorite-son nominee of Indiana, but that was not to be. Woodrow Wilson was the nominee and Thomas R. Marshall was elected our Vice-President. As Presiding Office of the Senate he enjoyed great popularity and it was there that his sense of humor found expression.

Woodrow Wilson, by this time, by internationally occupied and Marshall presided over cabinet meetings during the President's absence to attend the peace conference re-hashing problems which had caused World War I switching them about as best they could at that time.

Later, during Wilson's severe and continuing illness, Marshall had to consider the possibility of naming himself as Acting President of the United States. Thus was a critical decision,and Thomas Marshall decided it would dangerously divide the nation at a time when unity was most urgent. Few men have had to face such a decision involving such drastic potential. I wonder what must have gone through his mind in the year until June 1, 1925 when he died. He must have thought at length and deeply concerning the fate of Wilson's League of Nations plans.

But, do we remember Thomas R. Marshall for that decision to refrain from naming himself Acting President of our nation? .

No.

Tom Marshall is best remembered as the man who stated before the U.S. Senate: “What this country needs is a really good five cent cigar.”

A.L.M. May 29, 2003 [c711wds]

 
PEEN PRESSURE

Every time I see a I see and hear the United States Senate being opened with prayer on C-Span, I wonder how we can be so confused and confounded as to favor of prayer in one area - a major portion of the Federal government for the lot of us in this case, and forbid it and condemn it in others!

Cervantes, the imminent Spanish writer of old who dealt brilliantly with attacking windmills' took the subject years ago when he said -in exactly what context I do not know :"“Pray to God but ply the hammer".

It amazes me how those old boys could handle English so well, and how they could face up to problems which seem to be so endlessly mind-boggling to us today - a few centuries later in our learning cycles -"circle" may be a more exact word because we seem to b e going around a level oval track as the years go along.

Cervantes seemed to have felt that one is not to pray and to expect magical results, some heavenly slight-of-handiwork which will alters the way things are to make them the way we want them to be. But, he would also remind u prayer does not, in any way preclude or suspend our need for hard work toward achievement of our gaols. Even when it comes to tilting with windmills - which is, you will agree, not too far removed from contending with some off today's politicians, one can pray that such and such a reform may come about but you have to keep digging to get the foundation deep enough to support whatever it is you hope to build.

Often, as a man or woman seeks the help of God prayerfully, they, in turn, feel a keener relationship to the problem a at hand and work harder to make it happen. Diligence in prayer is demanded and, along with a regular routine, one develops the means of making it all come about ...through God's intervening guidance - not with the events - but changes within our individual selves which make us work harder to make dreams become realities.

Keep our arm in shape. Don't be afraid to belly up to the workbench and don't set up a time-clock schedule. Work, and work some more to achieve modest goals. Talk with God , yes, but let's hear that hammer going as well!

The continuing presence of God among us brings it all about.

It is not the action which brings about the final changes. It is the reaction. It is our response to God's urgings which causes us to work toward our goals.

A>L>M> May 27, 2003 [c675wds]

 
THREE PEAKS

The writing life can be a time of many changes.

There are years when you write in a continuous flow and you do so without causing more than an occasional ripple in the lives of others. Then, there are times when you feel that things you have written have actually brought welcome changes to other people. You know it for the simple reason they tell you such has been the case. It males you feel better.

We – writers, musicians and artists - I suppose, for such genuine perks from time to time. It is common with anyone who writes consistently. There are high spots and I have hit three such times which have meant a great deal to me.

One came when I was just a kid. I had written a short poem which I submitted to our national church paper for young people. It was published in the paper which served as a program guide for youth groups. The minister's wife at our church helped gather program materials for inspirational programs at the weekly youth meetings. One Sunday evening she handed me a clipping to read to the group. I read it to them as it was including the initials “A.L.M.” by which it was signed . I never told her or my classmates that it was the poem I had written, but the experience encouraged me to write more.

Later, in 1970 it was my privilege to write the book and score for a musical comedy which was produced as the annual musical by the local high school music department. It ran for a week plus a Saturday matinee for grade-school kids bussed in from all over the county. All went well. The big thrill for me, playing string base in the pit orchestra, was on opening night when the house lights faded slowly and the roll of kettle drums and a slash of brass became the overture. It overwhelmed me - completely. What a thrill! All week long I saw and heard what I had written come to life before me!

The third incident is a puzzler.

While in the U.S.Army Air Corp. at Langley Field, Va., I had written a short article concerning the Woodrow Wilson Birthplace,located in Staunton, Virginia. My parent lived a block away on up the hill from the birthplace, and I walked past it almost every day I sold that piece to Christian Science “Monitor” for twenty dollars and, at about that same time, I was shipped overseas and wasn't state-side when it appeared in print. As the mail caught up with me, I received clippings from a score or more of papers which had reprinted the Wilson piece I had a letter from the Woodrow Wilson Birthplace asking me why I had not signed the guest register.

That was just a part of the surge. Years later, in 1978, a book was published “Woodrow Wilson in Retrospect” edited by Raymond F. Pisney (Library of Congress 78-51213) with an Introductory essay by Dr. Robert G. Hartje, Professor of History, Wittenburg University, Springfield, Ohio.

The kicker for me was, and is, that of the twenty-nine selections in the book – mine was the fourth. Just ahead of my comments are those of Franklin D. Roosevelt and I am followed by that of Colgate W. Darden, Jr. a Governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia and a President of the University of Virginia. Today, when I look at that book, I can't believe I was every among such an exalted company ...names like Wertenbaker, Stanley, Gaines, Sir Leslie Munro, Barkley, Stevenson, Dodds, Krock - governors, historians, publishers, writers, politicians!

In addition, on page three the esteemed writer of the preface chose to make use of two quotes from my tribute to Woodrow Wilson.

I know, now, a great deal of what artist Andy Warhol meant when he spoke of everyone's"“fifteen minutes of fame"

A.L.M. May 26, 003 [c978wds]

 
CURRENT NEEDS

Outright praise, encouragement and clear-cut examples are greatly needed today to help young people avoid peer patterns which are deceptively enticing and dangerous.

It is past time for older men and women to refute our self-protecting tendencies to condemn all young people for those actions in which a few of them choose to take part.

The recent high school"prom" hazing case in the Midwest is typical of the sort of extravagant conduct in which young people seem to think they can grow to be adults. Hazing has long been a means of establishing lordship among groups of people and it is claimed to be a means whereby ones maturity and virility is proved to be worthy of belonging to the group. Primitive tribes practiced it in some very harsh and life-endangering forms. Our today, except then influenced by the use of drugs in pill or liquid forms, and other such factors, is, generally, intended to stay on a less threatening level. It can become very easy for it to slip across the lines of decency and safety.

The Illinois case will go through a series of judgmental proceedure including legal court actions, semi-legal opinions and statements by nosey individuals, religious and social groups who sit in judgment of others and most trying of all – the court of public opinion trial by media by media presentation.

On of the most remarkable facets of this particular case, to me, was the fact that the entire thing was being videotaped. The frenzied filth flingers were certinlyy aware of that the camera was going with suitable lighting provided. Logic would have dictated that the gang turn on the camera wielder and give him or her the worst treatment possible. I fact, that they did not do so suggests they were actively fulfilling a leading role... even to cooperating with the video person in raising their beer cups and bottles in a pyramid over the slime cover bodies of the girls on the ground.

There is more than just"“hazing" involved. Role playing is apart of it all and they play those roles with which they are kept abreast of through our current entertainment levels.

Doesn't it strike you as odd that the doers of the dirty deeds, did not turn on the camera person and beat his or her into the filth about them? Instead, they chose to complete the roles they were playing.

The injustice associated with the entire story is that these were a few individuals apart from the the larger body of honest, decent, considerate and worthy young. To treat the participants in the prom as quasi hero idols is totally wrong.

Let's deal with the thing in a legal sense, then drop it. Put it away in the deepest landfill to be found and get on with the needed, more positive recognition of that which is good in our young people.

They need encouragement. A brighter road.

And, we need to be more alert to the precise nature of the examples we may cause to be placed before them.


A.L.M. May 25, 2003 [c827wds]

 
THE NEED TO KNOW

We learn through necessity.

We have to know what a problem is all about before we can deal with it. I find it disturbing that so many people - at least, those who express themselves concerning national defense planning tend to play at something so serious.

One can prepare for such things only to a degree. We must know what the problem is before we can prepare to meet it which leads up to something called"“common sense".

It may not be the best method, but examine our history and see how often we have been been saved by our ability to learn quickly from experience of our own and that of others. I find critics of our defense preparations who think too often in terms which are far too narrow and do not include many segments of our population.

All is not forecast by other ahead of time. We learn things as we go along. We often often from others and in ways we don't understand at the moment. Braddock's Red Coats were well trained in battle techniques -all of the accepted, standard, right way to wage war, but they had to adapt - and quickly - to the methods used by the American Indian. Those who did not, died. Simple as that. So much for drills.

A young lady was heard praising her aged grandfather: “I am so glad,” she said,..so very glad to see that you are finally learning to put your hand over your mouth when you sneeze!”

He looked at her and smiled" It's the only way I know to catch my teeth!”

We prepare for emergency by being aware of what might transpire in a time of stress. We prepare for war conditions by living a calm, well-adjusted life before the war threatens. The quality of our life style determine if we will be ready or not I have had more than one Englishman tell me that during the mad nights of the Great Blitz in London in World War II, they, too, were amazed at how well people rallied in the time of need. With fifteen hundred fires burning in the city at one time, large areas had to be ignored in order to save others. Thousands of citizens rose to the occasion, above petty personal feeling, and helped others even while their section was being eaten by flames. As families of citizens, they had to learn to us Bomb Shelters hastily dug in the garden or front yard. No amount of drill in peace time would have made them ready to endure the discomfort of such sleepless nights of terror.

People here are concerned about security at our airports while the vast majority of container ships come and go without inspection in a dozen seaports. Disaster practice demonstrations have been performed in Chicago and other areas, and a city-wide evacuation _- a mass movement of millions of people - the entire population of our nation's capital is planned. If you have ever witnessed "normal" rush hours from DC into Virginia and Maryland you may question such a grandiose exhibition in several common sense ways.

To think of and actually plan for such a farcical scenario, in the name of national defense, reflects poorly on the many people truly concerned and seeking to provide methods whereby the American people may be made more secure in the face of potential attack.

About the only point of merit I see in such a plan is that we would have with us in Maryland and Virginia ample hosts of Washington reporters eager to let us know what they think might be happening.

A.L.M. May 24, 2003 [c936wds]

 
DANDY GREENS

No too many years ago, the city of Vineland, NJ laid claim to being "The Dandelion Capital of the World" They qualified it by saying they raise more dandelions to be "“used as salad greens "than any spot on Earth!

I have, on several occasions when both front and backyard here became dandelion infested, I have been tempted to challenge that claim. But, we were not raising them primarily as salad greens - so the argument would have fallen flat anyway.

The truth is people do eat the things!

I have done so, but I can cite to a number of materials I had much rather have as my salad greens. It was not unusual for people to eat them during the years of the Great Depression of the Hoover-FDR years until WWII came along and zapped the recession. We ate more dry-land salad, or dry land cress as it was called, than dandelion greens because, they to, were plentiful in our area and much tastier as well as being easier to prepare.

I remember one dire situation in which I found myself in relation to this tiny, yellow flower. I was a visitor in the home of a family who had just recently moved to Virginia from Philadelphia. I did not realize it at the time of my visit, but they had just discovered that the dandelion were edible. They were very much “into” the dandelion routine. Being new at the fad, and ad-libbing freely in their enthusiasm, I found. They consumed the entire plant except the root portion. We, as a rule, dispensed with the flowers other than to see what one “tasted like” which usually made the final decision for you. They filled bowls with dandelion greens from their front yard and lathered on dressings of various sorts, to create a tastier treat. I accepted the salad offered and accepted as well, a smattering of sauce over it. I hesitated at one point when I saw a tiny, fat worm in mine busily engaged in getting his share. I folded a leaf over his plump little self and pretended he wasn't there. I survived. The fate of the worm sauce-smeared worm has not bothered me, but I do remember that moment when I was called upon to make a social decision. I felt I could not cause any disruption of the family's joyous celebration of their discovery of a totally new food and a food which was "“free"as well!

Dandelion wine used to be a favorite home-remedy for what ever ailed a person. There were also recipes for stewing pork in a bed of dandelion greens; others ground and plant into a form of coffee drink; some stewed the leaves for a laxative and remedial tea brew.

/ It is said to be a “storehouse of nutrients”. They are an excellent source of Vitamin A, some B and they contain proteins, calcium, iron, sodium, phosphorus and a some Vitamin C and potassium. They are very low in calories. Many people say a bit of dandelion is a good way to ruin scrambled egg, soups, sausage stuffing, fritters and even gelatin treats ....while others praise such ventures into the unknown, or say they do.

There are dozen more othe"“weeds"which can be eaten the same way, but I have avoided the ones which are sometimes said to be "uinsafe" unless skillfully gathered. I avoid them until I learn which types are toxic and which are safe. I've eaten chickweed, wood sorrel,, watercress, lamb's quarters but I've avoided nettles, common plantain, poke weed, and shepherd's purse. In England people have been known to brew a dandelion beer.

I am not searching seriously, I will admit. Dandelions look better on a lawn than on a menu.


A.L.M. May 23, 2003 [c993wds]

 

THE POLO TRIO

Being chronically nosey, I have long been among those who wondered from time-to-time how the famed Marco Polo got along so well on the road without credit cards - without plastics of any kind. Think about it. Primitive living. Not even colorful pieces pressed into neat, little cards with numbers on them.

Marco was a keen and accurate observe in this time. Whatever late innovations which might have been available in his time, he surely used to his advantage. We actually know more about Marco Polo’ s travels because records were kept detailed records of his travels.

Those records need some clarification, however. Marco was a lad of barely seventeen. He was more of a favored guest. Two other members of the group were merchant-nobleman-rich Nicollo Polo, Marco's Father and his well-established Uncle Maffeo Polo, his dad's brother. Both were old timers on the Silk Road. Both had been to China and back to Venice before - in 1260 or so. Each had become rich and famous; envied, perhaps, but not exactly seen as men telling the truth about their visits with and their peaceful meetings with Genghis Kahn. These three - Niccolo, Maffeo and Marco left Venice for a trip which would last twenty five years. Records, as far as I have read, do not say who stayed at home to keep the mansion fires going.

No “wish you were here cards” were sent along the way,” it seems, and after a complex trip to China the people of Venice were surprised to see them home one day a quarter of a century later - two old men and one one of about fifty – the ex-boy Marco, all wearing strange oriental clothing.

Once again the people of Venice took their tales to be more entertainment material and little else. The leading commercial city the West did not realize that the cartography of the world had been drastically modified. The Venetians were the best traveled people of their time and ,yet, it was beyond their ability to comprehend what the explorations of the Polo people meant to civilization as a whole.

Today, are we aware of travelers of our time are saying? Are we aware of the vast changes which have mutated our future since men have traveled to the Moon and to some other place in space? Have we truly listened what such travelers say? The authorities of ancient Venice could not understand what the Polos said they found in China. Do we ask the right questions of those who, today, are traveling in Eastern nations and in China? Are we interpreting what we do hear wisely? Or, are we misled at times, by subtle narrowness and prejudices?

Marco Polo was an “also ran” in a sense, and, while his contributions were worthy. we have, perhaps, overlooked, as did the Venetians, the informational treasures available form Nicollo and Maffeo. They must have spoken of the fantastic wealth of the Orient ...but were not believed... ignored by Venice merchant. Marco laid it on thicker it seems with the PR people of his time and gets credited with various things the other Polos actually may have done.

Are we talking with and listening to the right people today? If we are asking questions and seeking only those answers which we see as Truth, we could be in big trouble.
A.L.M. May 22, 2003 [c894wds]

 
MR.ROOP'S "HORSE"

Every Saturday morning, during spring and summer months, we kids knew Mr. Roop would be coming up our street bringing us produce from his farm.

He drove a neat horse and buggy rig and kept us supplied with all sorts of garden-grown produce, as well as chickens from time to time.

Most unusual for us was the fact that he called his horse "Horse"

"Horse" usually showed up around 9:30 depending on weather conditions up river from us. A little rain didn't stop them and he said Horse was part goose anyway. She was the only horse I ever knew who giggled - a tremulous, little neigh of approval and seeming joyfulness when he saw us run out to meet them. Heavy snow, downpour storms with high wind and deep freezes, meant they would not travel. Not that they felt in bad to cope with the weather at its worst, but the ferry they used to cross New River would not be operating if the river was too high or the wind too fierce, of if flakes and ice flew to plentifully anything that might pose a hazard for Horse Mr. Roop and Horse were good friends of long standing. They looked after each other at all times. There were blankets under the buggy seat - one for “Horse” and the other for Mr. Roop if the weather turned foul.

Mr. Roop, called his horse “Horse”; his dog was called “Dog” and he kept it that way because, as he told us one time, the love they held for each other piled up when a friend had to be replaced. “They seemed to like it that way,”Mr. Roop told us. “Leastways, I never had no complaints.” I found out later that he had “used up” two “Horses” and three “Dogs” since starting the naming system when reference was made it Dog-2 in conversation.

I never knew if Mr. Roop had any other customers. He sold all his produced to a friendly grocer downtown, but he always gave us “first crack at“ whatever he had on board any Saturday morning he came to town.

We always felt we had been privileged to have him call on us when he came to town and we enjoyed many good meals of farm fresh vegetables, fruits and other farm treats such as chicken, an occasional duck and sausage or side-meat as available. They had a long drive from Snowville,Virginia down to a settlement called Newbern, so named by its original Swiss settlers. He crossed the wide, fast-flowing New River at Ingles's Ferry, a three-car or two-wagon cable-connected flatboat poled across the stream by one man walking the edge of the craft and making use of the fast currents to speed the crossing. Once on the other shore, our town was five miles long, and we lived half way through it.

There came a time when Mr. Roop and Horse could no longer take such a trip. We missed seeing them ...Mr. Roop ...Horse and, occasionally, Dog , but we have good memories of them having been part of our growing-up years.


A.L.M. May 19, 2003 [c804wds]

 
WHA' HAPPEN'?

It is always good to read stories in the media concerning he development on new ways in which we may live more securely, more conveniently and more economically.

I came across a clipping in my old files from the Washington POST for Sunday, July 21, 1991 which makes the point that concerns me.

A small power plant serving the Sterling, CN area, was lauded for having discovered a way to cash in on some “Black Gold” to generate electric energy for the area. The unusual step was the fact that during the year they would burn - ten million used vehicle tires per year.

Environmentalist figures at that time were quoted as saying we had a 3 billion used tires stock piled around the country and that stock was growing by 280 million tires per year.

Tires have more energy content than coal. The same firm, certain that this change would prosper, had already invested one hundred million to construct a new power plant in Santa Rosa, CA which was, even then, was burning tires at a rate of 27,000 per day. That plant had been inspected at least once each week to meet pollution standards of the area and had never been closed down for air quality reasons.

Each tire is said to have an average of 2.5 gallons of oil in its structure which give it a thermal output of 13,552, said to be well above a comparable amount of coal. In 1989 annual report of the company owning these energy production plants anticipated using 70 million tires annually by 1995, which was about twenty-five percent of the stock then being accumulated..

Whatever became of these plants? Are they still in operation or have they fallen by the wayside for some reason? The tires are still with us in growing abundance. Some are being ground to use as road building materials, but that sort of use does not compare with the volume needed by the power plants built to use them to everyones advantage.

Wha' happen? Was the news story flawed? Has environmentalist fervor caused the demise of a seemingly worthy venture? It would seem wise for control authorities to take a closer look at what became of this plan to provide needed electrical energy while eliminating the scourge of used tires on our national landscape.

A.L.M. May 18, 2003 [c593wds]

 
FRAGMENT

“A single, monstrous wave has taken the bridge out completely. It is no longer there. Only the black pylons remain as ominous blobs of darkness within the swirling mass of water and wind.

We can no longer even think of making it to the mainland.

We must return to the hillside cave, hunker down, and await the end of the storm. The fight has gone out of us, with the bridge gone. That was the center of our possible survival. Instead we shall protect ourselves as much as possible as we work our way back up the slope to the relative security of the small cave. Beyond being there, we can plan for nothing else.

Many men, I find, can sleep, even during time such as this.

Not I. I nod, of course, but sleep does not come. Instead I sit here huddled against the wind and rain and, in my mind, string together the these thoughts of and for - even to you, almost as if I believed that, in the mere thinking of such things, I could transmit my thoughts, my love and my great need of your presence with me across the dark forbidding miles In a type of frustration, I find myself transforming my thoughts into Morse Code and tapping it all out on my knee which gives me a connective touch with you in a vague sense.”

Update.

I actually wrote those words June 11, 1988, and I was surprised to find as I re-read in almost-June of 2003 I was not doing fiction writing at all.

They were part of a seemingly confused time in my life which I no longer remember, when I realized anew how important it was a to maintain contact with others at all times It may have been notes from a dream, I don't recall. I do know and realize anew each day that, with the misfortunes which seem to haunt us today , it seems wise to considered how well off we really are whatever occurs. It is good to give serious consideration to the worst case scenarios which are so often placed before us.

We are disturbed by continuing patterns of suicide bombings in many areas and dread such occurrences regardless of where they take place. We think of such actions as being needlessly cruel, and demeaning to all who subscribe to such cowardly thinking. We think of ourselves as being a cut above such low standards of evaluation of human life and work toward period of enlightenment for all.

We have not chosen an easy road. There will be times of marked despair and we must prepare in advance for such moments. When our bridges to security are swept away, we must look to each other and make full use of the bridges we have to one another in love, admiration, respect and honor.

A.L.M. May 18 2003 [c730wds]

 
TEMPORARY PSYCHIC

Try this little stunt the next time you find yourself with absolutely nothing whatever to do.

Be your own crystal gazer; your own psycho adviser person or fortune teller and see things you've never seen before ...well, maybe.

It's kid's stuff on surface, .but it can be interesting to older kids as well ...even puzzling.

To begin: take a clean, clear water glass . Fill it with water almost to the brim and place it on a low table before you. Seat yourself comfortably on a chair so that you can look directly down into the contents of the glass from above. You are now ready. All you have to do is relax – refrain from movement of yourself or of the table. Now - look - stare, intently into the surface of the water.

You may have wondered what it might be fortune tellers feign to see or actually do see, in the crystal ball they use. You are now doing it. Make no attempt to adjust any lighting. If you see nothing - change to a different area more alive with light reflections.

Case #1: I saw along corridor which appeared to be flowing away from me in deep, sharper than normal perspective. The floor was hardwood strips. I had a feeling it was evening or night time. To the right was a series of long windows, curtained in white, long and slim extending almost to the floor along a full length hallway toward an existing light area. Ahead was a more intense light - tinted yellow. Ahead in a doorway, in that yellowish glow of light, a thin girl stood in the doorway and seemed to be removing a heavy, knit sweater and re-arranging her tousled, brown hair,which was exceptionally long. I could not see the person to whom she was talking, only a shadow passing the doorway now and then. I did not know the girl. She just stood there talking to someone and did not notice me at all. She she did not acknowledge my being there. I went on down the hall.

Case #2: utter darkness in the water to start with and a light developed in the foreground and divided into two sections - upper and lower to show me the inside of a church. It could have been the church we attend but larger and more ornate. I realized I was seated above and behind organ pipes. I was look sing between them into the sanctuary, the high pulpit ahead of me and I suddenly realized the organ pipes, installed along the edge of the balcony were moving. I discovered, too, they were silver on the outside and, as one could see at the slots, they were gold inside. I was alone. The organ was not playing. There was no sound. It had a fuzzy, dreamlike quality about it all and I wondered about the pipes being gold on the inside and why they were in motion as they were like the long neon signs on buildings which spell out the news headlines. They were not all vertical, either, I found. A few leaned over the edge of the balcony and I felt they needed repair right away.


Case #3 same session : Longer than the others. Nothing developed after several tries. Uneasy in my mind. I should be doing something else. Inability to concentrate on not thinking which is essential. I did see a dark area with the expanse ...like a darkened TV screen - an entire cube and some flickering gray bands at times.

I decided to give it all up. Wisely, too, perhaps. We psychic tire easily. It's hard work keeping your mind blank on purpose for a a twenty minute session.

Compare your notes with others who have done the same thing but do not like to admit having tried such a stupid stunt. Just imagine , however, what such trivial trial must have meant to man kind over the centuries. Oracle ...prophet ....fortune teller... you can be all of them yourself!

You may think this to be silly, but it makes a great deal of séance to a good many people.


A.L.M. May 18, 2003 [c1056wds]

 
END START

The end of anything can be the beginning of something better.

I can't go along entirely with the idea that everything must end, because it is obvious that some things do not terminate even when - or especially when - it appears they have done so. Some situations hang on in an altered guise, perhaps, to continue to affect our lives, of others about us and the lives stemming from us. That has something to do with the man's concept of “Hell", I , at times, suspect.

We live in an era of amazing contradictions as is. We kill thousands of our kind attempting to go faster in various systems of motion; we are careless in many matters of public concern, and we engage in wars and individual strife which are admittedly harmful. At the same time we develop medical marvels and find new and better ways to restore the human body as it is imperiled by disease, accident, poor diet, or plain old age, overuse and mis-use.

A war has just “ended”, but we don't really believe that, do we? The war continues, in a mutated form. It has different name, a different focus, perhaps, which exists with a slightly different texture and style. War is one of those things which never truly never ends. We make false plans for ideal associations in those times when the scourge of war seems to have departed. The basic causes remain in so many cases and they pop up now and again at the slightest instigation.

We, as individuals, face up to certain times in our lives when we experience genuine"“endings". They may come in the form of blessings or tragic loss but is those times of change that we find we can, indeed, start over once more an build a worthy life with values we admire and cherish for ourselves and for others about us.

We learn to look for new beginnings when such an event strikes our lives. What kid has not looked forward to the end of the formal school year? They do so in anticipation of dreams of summer-time freedom and enjoyment in the vast, unexperienced world of interesting things ahead. The very same child, sixty days or so later, plans for the beginning of a new school year with friends and the opportunity to do things ...ever learn something along the way.
Education, as well, then, is something which doesn't really end.

Whatever you are doing today determines what you will be doing tomorrow. That which occupies the mind at any given moment, often determines what our actions may well be. To be sure of a worthy future,learn how to put a genuine end to those elements in our life which have been working against your well being.

Work with the challenge of possible change in your life. Put an end to that which is hurting you. If you do not do so, you are merely extending your problem under a new disguise. Good, clean, clear endings make new beginnings possible.


A.L.M. May 17, 2003 [c801wds].

 
OUR YOUNG PEOPLE

'Tis the season for older people to speak to younger people about the blessings of Graduation Day from all levels of formal school training. It is important that young - and all of us - be reminded of how important that Great Day is in our lives.

Blue Ridge Community College, located at Weyers Cave, Virginia made a wise choice again this year in having Belle S. Wheelan as their commencement day speaker. She, with no attempt to be outstandingly different, chose the theme which kept telling graduating students :”Don't stop now! Learning is a lifelong process!”

Rachel Campise, a BBRC student speaker, who plans to continue her education at Virginia Commonwealth University, did what I like to call a commendable “warm up” just ahead of the words of the keynote speaker and she held the attention of the crowd of about eight hundred or so listeners reminding them of bike champion Lance Armstrong's motto: “Turn every negative into a positive!” Campise said she saw evidence of that sort of tenacity among fellow student at BBRC - “ Looking, seeking, searching always for something better - be ready to take that next step!”

When Belle S. Wheelan then stood before the same crowd more than few of us must have realized that she represented so well another type of the very same sort of personal dedication in order the get where she stands today. Belle S. Wheelan is Virginia's first black Secretary of Education.When tells young people today: “Don't stop now! Learning is lifelong process”. Her word rings with a sincerity which plainly states her own, individual gratitude for those elements of community involvement which have brought it into being for her and for all of us.

Secretary Wheelan has a sharp sense of humor, too.Older friends and family at the gathering, at moments shower swept and umbrella covered, heard her caution older people and, at the same time, alert some young ones, by saying: “Our children are our future!” There, she paused for a fraction of a second and her eyes twinkled brightly as she quipped: “They're going to pick our nursing homes.”

A.L.M. May 16, 2003 [c599wds]

 
A LARGER VIEW

An Englishman wrote the actual words many years ago, and by this time men and women in many nations have, no doubt had the opportunity to either hear them said or read them.

Right now, when we are beset with special problems associated with the durability of national entities, the seeming erosion of national symbols, and drastic changes in our standards of social and religious practices - culture, in genera, for that matter, the need is more urgent than ever.

That Englishman, Herbert George Wells wrote, or complied, what he called an "Outline of History.” He knew that our vast knowledge of mankind' s accomplishment, even in his time, were far too great to be considered other than in a terse, outlined form.

He took the view that we faced and era in which we wished to live in comparatively peaceful times we must realign our loyalties.

“Our true nationality is mankind.”

H.G. Wells, who exhibited special awareness of future possibilities, was a man who had a firm foothold in the realities of the past as well. His “outline” provides us with an amazingly accurate record of what man has done up to the point of publication in 1920.

It is plain to see , how much of the world's dislocation has resulted from our tendency to seek local, racial, religious, governmental, egocentrically oriented ambition, and attempt to befit one segment of society in preference to another. To me, in spite of its faults and shortcomings along way -always amply documented by critics – has, in truth, been one of the primary advocates of this larger concept of thinking of all us as Mankind rather than as small, narrow entities such as nations, political groups, isms” of various, religious amalgams and and all have manifested themselves dramatically at times in outbursts rapacity, murder, mayhem and monstrous mis-treatment of fellow member of society.

We have had leaders who had visions of such a time. I think Woodrow Wilson and others who favored a strong League of Nations, and , later, those who started the United Nations programs were forerunners in this concept of mankind being our true “nationality.”

Our restoration of Germany after two major wars. Or that of Japan, and our willingness to help other common people of Russia when the Soviet empire disintegrated. Even now we are field immense relief efforts to restore normal conditions to both Iraq and Afghanistan. We are also, I feel, displaying remarkable constraint in dealing with Fidel Castro and the eleven other dictators currently “at large” and mis-ruling large segments of our responsibility – mankind.

H.G. Well's prediction remains in out future We are not yet ready to make such a choice, But, I think that's where we are headed.

' "'Our true nationality is Mankind."

A.L.M. May 15, 2003 [c769wds]

 
LESS KNOWN SPOTS

Much is made of the history of well-known spas and springs which dotted the sprawling Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. Many were casualties of the Civil War, of course, and some just ceased to exist.

Wilson Springs was such a place, but instead of ceasing to exist during wartime, it prospered. It was located thirteen miles northwest of Lexington,Va. in Rockbridge County and, thus, not too far from the celebrated Natural Bridge of Virginia. It could be said to have been a strong contender among the smaller and less know spa locations. It was started around 1840.

The spring itself is an unusual one. It wells up from the middle of a small island in the Maury River . A Strickler family owned the site and they built a wooden footbridge from the river bank to the island so visitors could get to the springs. As with all springs in that era, it gave forth waters of medical excellence, although I find no evidence of any such claims being made. The Strickler's must have anticipated what could become of such a location, because they increased the size of their home to accommodate seventy persons.

A Wilson family purchased the 465-acre estate in 1843 and by the time the Civil War got underway records show there were at least thirty cabins nearby, in addition to the old house which became the Hotel center. Many of the cabins had been erected by residents of Lexington as “summer” places. Exact ownership was rather vague, records suggest, because all that was business transacted in a time when a man's word was the same, or better than, a written contract. Exactly who owned the cabins built on Wilson land was to be perplexing problem for many years.


Wilson Springs continued to operate until 1920. The old home then became a private home for many years a long, white columned building clothed in a growing cover of ivy covering upstairs and downstairs porches. Guests were few, however, and said never to have exceeded 250 during its best days. Many of the cabins were torn down when State Route 39 was cut through the area.. Those portions which remain are said to stand guard over the entrance to Goshen Pass.

As so often happens,, in 1857, a larger pavilion with more facilities was built down the road a few miles. It was named Jordon”s Spring, and later renamed Rockbridge Baths. After the war Gen. Robert E. Lee was a frequent visitor from Lexington and in 1875 a Confederate Army Doctor Samuel Brown Morrison, rented the place and used it as a sanitarium. In 1921 VMI held summer classes there, and in 1926, it followed the path of so many of the old spa hotels when it burned and was never rebuilt.

` Enough evidence is still seen to constantly revive memories of what it must have been like to visit the The Valley's “smaller places” each summer.

. A.L.M May 14, 2003 [c770wds]

 
FOOD? NO!!

Is it suddenly becoming hazardous to eat!

Almost daily, we are beset with a new threat to our choice of foods and warned that continued use of a specific food can only mean sure death.

Nothing, it seems, is exempt from being so marked.

The latest case to hit the news is the legal case in the courts in San Francisco. California at the moment seeking to forbid the sale of Oreo ® cookies to children. With that special limitation in place, it can't be long before we will be asked to show our age and ident details in order to buy some cookies for the kids.

Soon it will come about that just about anything you plan to eat, or to feed to small children , will be on the forbidden lists.

There seems to be no avenue of escape remaining.

The term “normal” no longer applies, either. Any use is said to be in excess. Parents, by and large, make the actual decision to buy a particular style or brand-name of cookies. To pretend that it is the child who makes the purchase is wrong. Playing the kid card is a favorite with foodfat chasers, it sees. That makes headlines, and shock bulletins on TV. There seems to be no state of “normality” one can seek.

Start with natural foods. Take the eight glasses of water we are supposed to drink each day. No! Don't! Far too, much! Critics point out that water leeches out the salt and minerals from our bodies and leaves us as stranded wrecks at the mercy of diseases. There are numerous cases of people dying from drinking too much water. Water “quality” ranges the entire gamut of taste and clarity The ideal ranges from special waters imported from Italy, France or Canada to cistern water from back porch roofs with bird droppings as a standard ingredient. It is said the eight glass routine was developed by persons selling bottled water. Many now pay more for bottled water than for gasoline with which to power their cars. We are now paying more for our garbage bags each year than eighty nations spend on everything for the year!

Breads ....beverages... veggies... desserts ...old favorites ..., eggs... untried novelties ...fast foods - slow foods ...refined or processed foods of any kind....baked, boiled or fried ! Restyled or genetically modified foods? Never! No!

It will be interesting to see what percentage of these “sued food” firms just happen to be properties of ”the big tobacco” companies. Check to see who owns the product being vilified. This may well prove to be a continuation of the nicotine war. Suit seekers
seem to have sensed some of those firms still seem to have money left in their other greedy pocket. Get it!

“Trans Fats!” is the latest battle cry being heard through the land.

A.L.M. May 12, 2003 [c750wds]

 
PIKE PROBLEMS

The construction of roads has not always been the responsibility of the government.

Egress to and from one part of property to another was more of the worry of the owners than the community. A man's road was
more personal than it is today. He used it and if anyone else wanted to do so they needed his permission. He built it; he maintained it. Our early history is filled with references to so-and-so's, road and very often such was the mark of a successful operation - firm, usable roads to all areas of the place. In many cases owners of new lands needed to have ready access and to help in keeping them passable they caused them to be closed to all comers and marked as “Toll Roads” the road and if you paid the fee and you were welcome use his road. With the fees the owner could keep the road in repair and a safer, surer, faster way was provided.

It was no accidental, however to find a stretch of road that connect fields to the grist mill came to have a Toll Road attached. Or, if there was an especially good spot at which to ford a stream, it too came to be served by a Toll Road. Sharp business practices in turn led to a need for the governmental element to move protect the needs of the common people. Small towns developed several means of access, extra roads which are still evident today and they can often be traced to trails which left the road cut across field and forest to avoid Toll Gates.

The Valley Pike used to have numerous toll gate locations. The last ones disappeared the late 1920's and early '30's. The Indian Road, or Trail, as settlements grew up along the way, was often called by the name of then next settlement. Later, when Tennessee and Kentucky opened up those traveling south called it The Knoxville Road, and those going north called it the Philadelphia Road. As a growing kid on the trail in the section of in southwestern Virginia, I remember seeing large, clumsy “Knoxville Wagons”, powered by ox teams, lumbering into the nearby Blacksmith's shop for rim and wheel repair. It was said they were adept at starting new, no-toll roads as needed. During the Civil War it became the Valley Pike and post war the Lee or Lee-Jackson Highway. Interstate 81 paralleled the route, bringing back the old Indian concept of a varied pattern of suitable trails, ironically. As government took over, state lottery funds were used to maintain the road, as well.

We take our highway system for granted today, and complain bitterly when potholes become a hazard. I remember when many of them were largely family obligations.

A.L.M. May 12, 2003 [c704wds]

 
U.S.S.ROANOKE

I read about a Navy cruiser named the USS Roanoke, and I like to think the vessel was named after the City of Roanoke,Virginia ,or, perhaps, after Roanoke Island off North Carolina.

Six hundred and eight feet long, sleek looking in the water the keep was started May 25, 1945 - that's fifty-eight years ago the week after next. The ship was “laid down”, as shipbuilder say, at the New York Shipbuilding Corp., Camden, NJ on that date. Two years later June 26, 1947 she was launched.

Th official record show she was the Fourth vessel in the US Navy to be named “Roanoke”, and I have been searching around a bit this afternoon for some facts about the other three, as well.

One has wide scope in which to seek such information - the Revolutionary War, War of 1812, Civil War, Spanish-American War and World Wars I and II. I have been led to continue my search as I wondered if any of them have been named after the City of Roanoke. Virginia. Some could have been named in honor of the Roanoke Island settle settlement 1558 or so , but there is a hint contained in facts about the USS Roanoke – number 4 - launched in 1947, which pretty well settles that point for me. The USS Roanoke - the fourth one so designated was a CL-145) vessel - a cruiser. The young lady who “sponsored” the ship was a named Miss Julia Ann Henebry and that is a distinctively local name for the Roanoke, Virginia community area in my memory The ship served 22.2 years and was decommissioned in October 1958. She was berthed for a time of a time at Mare Island and sold to a used metal company in San Jose, Ca. In 1972.

What an end? Certainly there was nothing dramatic or exotic about the career of the USS Roanoke She had extended deployment as a part of the 6th fleet Battleship-Cruiser force in 1950 50 and from that time on alternated between 6th Fleet placements and operations until the spring of 1952 when she was started midshipmen's cruises in Europe and The Caribbean. On September 22, 1955 she departed Norfolk,Va. for the Panama Canal and was home ported at Long Beach Ca. where she conducted a series of Naval Reserve Cruises and other duties.

Among the other ships named “Roanoke” was a “Replenishment Oiler”...659-feet long, 640 at the waterline... and a smaller “Science Ship” and there is another somewhere in the records which, thus far, has eluded me.


.A.L.M. May 11, 2003 [c677wds]

 
GALSWORTHY, JOHN

Is John Galsworthy read by many people anymore?

I suppose we could say he was “in”during the late 1020 and th early '30's. It was in 1932 that he won the Nobel Prize for his strong series known as “The Forsythe Saga”. I remember that, but, at that time, I was not in the mood, I suppose to read a three generational sweep of one families intricate relationships. Furthermore, the Saga as a thing spread out over a period of years. The first part I must have considered to be old-fashioned; the additions as topical, and the later ones - or Part II - a tack-ons. The overall struck me as being at about the same level as was soap opera writing for radio at that time.

That judgment was and unwise on my part, I find, because as I read portions of it of sequence it struck me as being more like a mixture of Thackerey and Dickens, two of my a favorite writers and also two Galsworthy was said to have studied in detail. He started series with a novel in 1904 called “The Island Pharisees” which he revised twice, once in 1904 and again in 1908. Other sections followed in l901, '21, '24 and 1929. The completed saga - gathered together over the span of all those tumultuous years - won the Nobel Prize in 1932.

The story, viewed as a whole, a tragic one based on the real life of his cousin Arthur Galsworthy and IK can understand my own hesitancy in accepted it earlier.

Galsworthy made good sensational copy, too. It is amazing tome, he was not featured more in the tabloid areas of writing. He married Ada Person Cooper and lived with her for ten years in secret because he felt his father would not approve of the marriage, she having been the somewhat battered wife of curious cousin Arthur. When Daddy died , son John became financially independent, you see.

John Galsworthy had some strong views about writing, too, which may well have kept some of us from from reading him with any enthusiasm. He felt that writing always had mission and that novels , in particular,were intend to point out to the world that something was amiss, but that they were not intended to come up with any solution for such problems ...only to call attention to them dramatically and to get others to start thinking what might be done to change things which were wrong. He was concerned often with the improper division of wealth and the treatment of poor people, he favored the coal miner's strikes, he spoke out strongly for for prison reforms. He wrote on anti-Semitism in ”Escape” in 1926. It was filmed a second time in 1939 starring Rex Harrison. He served as a Red Cross worker in France during WWI. He had a knack for making some steadfast, dedicated enemies, as well. Both D. H. Lawrence and Virginia Woolf did all they could to lower his reputation as a writer and to help its decline . He was accused of being too thoroughly involved in the very conditions of which he was so critical.

And, another thing which irked me over the years was the fact that we suddenly we were told he had written his earlier works under the assume pen name of John Sinjohn. I can understand a situation wherein a writer produces so much products that he finds it best to use a nom-de-plume for certain of his efforts to keep from cluttering the market place with his name and to keep cash flow steadier, but, this John Sinjohn ( I wonder how he arrived at that concoction!) suggests he was not too sure of his first literary efforts and that he re-claimed them and revised them only when it became profitable for him to do so.

A.L.M. May 10, 2003 [c999wds]

 
DIG IT?

I didn't know it was still lost, but I see in the papers that they have "found" what is thought to be the actual site of the village in which ought to be site from which Pocahontas' father Powhatan, held occasional sway over an amalgamation of twenty-some Early American groups.

I have been perfectly happy with the site we have been using for years. It is about twenty-three miles southeast of Richmond, Virginia as I recall and has long been considered to be the place at which the often told rescue of doomed explorer John Smith by Powhatan's sub-teen-aged (or, barely teen-ed, it is said) daughter. I have a feeling most of us agree the story itself has been romantically enhanced so where it is supposed to have taken place is moot. Some interpret the head bashing story as wrongful reading about what they say was a tribal ceremony or ritual in which an individual was being was being initiated into tribal secrets and as a friend and not an enemy.

The site called"“Wereowocococo" , was said to have been the main village form which Powhatan ruled over a total of , at best, fifteen thousand people. I have alway felt the name of that town would make a good tom-tom solo concerto. Sound it out a bit -WE-re-WO-co-CO-co!- three times in a harsh monotone and try to keep you feet still as you sing it

I have an idea they may have, at zeroed in on on some actual dwelling sites because the evidence is largely pottery shards extracted from the soil.. It is not too unusual to come cross surfaced specimens of arrowheads, beads, pottery shards and other such archaeological goodies almost anywhere in the area. Most people there have good collections of such Indian bric-a-brac.

This site has long been held to have been the eastern terminus of the trail westward. It crossed the Blue Ridge Mountains at what is now called Wood's Gap; came came down the west side of the range a bit southwest of where Grottoes is located today. It then worked it way southward along the edge mountains to find its western terminal at Beverley's Mill Place, which we know as Staunton, Va. The trail had a common-sense name. It was marked by trees along the trail being hit three times in horizontal chops with a sharp ax or hatchet. The name survives today as “Three Chopt Road” in the Richmond area.

Almost anytime someone sticks a spade in the soil of Tidewater,Virginia they seem to come up with a relic of some sort of interesting relic. Those of us looking to discover words have a good one in this particular dig. The name of the place is spelled and sounded as: We-ro-Wo-co-CO-co. Can't you imagine you hear the steady beating of a drum, maybe sounds of a flute carved from a twig, and lone voice singing:

”We-ro-Wo-co-CO-co!”

Sorta gets to you, doesn't it? Sing it again.

“We-ro-Wo-co-CO-co!”


A.L.M. May 8, 2003 [c749wds]

 
HOME!

Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy are coming home!

They have been living in Germany for several years since a media firm there bought The Muppet Company from the originator Jim Henson's estate.

They paid around $680 million in cash plus some stock goodies in February 2000 and, now in 2003 members of the Henson family – five his children, in fact, have bought what is left of the company back. “Sesame Street” has been sold off previously. The purchase includes: The Muppets, The Muppet Babies, the Fraggles, The Hoobs, Farscape and the Bear in the Big Blue House.

EM-TV the Munich, Germany Tv operation which went under, had sold the “Sesame Street: rights for about 200-million it seems. Brian Henson, a brother and three sisters make up the new Henson ownership.
It seems particularly right that Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy and their friends and associates will come back to the land of their birth. Our entertainment treasures have been going overseas at far too rapid a rate in recent years. It is refreshing to find - even a portion of such a firm – coming back to the states. The deal still has to be approved of by the EM-TV stockholders in Munich at a meeting set for July 20th.

Of that list do you even remember the names of those other than Kermit and Miss Peggy?And, of course,, the Muppets. I did not, but now they, too, have a new chance to become well-known. Watch for the Fraggles, Farscape, The Hoobs, and the Bear in the Big Blue House. They are former residents to be returning from Germany and ready to move into our hearts and lives to join Miss Piggy, Kermit and the Muppets .

Watch for them! Welcome them all - back home once more!

A.L.M May 8, 2003 [c460wds]

 
NUMBER TEN!

There are some very good reason for paying some close attention to what early candidates in the field are saying. They may be saying things in the early phases which they wouldn't repeat as weeks and months go by.

Senator Robert Graham, Democrat from Florida, dropped his chapeau into the the ring with others seeking the party's nomination for the Presidency ... that one man to be favored by party members to become President of the United States of America.

Senator Graham, you may have noticed, did not follow the script exactly. His exact words, before the crowd of relatives and friends responded to the applause, were: "I am running for the President!” Did he intend to say ..." for the Presidency ”or, maybe he should have read it: “I am running for the office of President”...or, even: “ I am running to become the next President of the U.S of A.”

Unless my hearing aids deceive me mightily, he did not say that. The words which came out, with just a flicker of hesitation and indecision, in the final syllables, created an unwanted image. He gave the idea, unintentionally, of course, that he was in the running now as the tenth candidate on behalf of the present holder of that title. He said: “President” not “Presidency” or “the office of..”

A small, embarrassing detail? Yes, little more that, I'm sure, but that sort of lapse is often found in pre-campaign campaign rhetoric. It can be interesting to tally them up and wonder if they were damaging.

It has been my observing in recent years since TV has come to play such an important role in presenting the potential candidates so far ahead of the actual race, that this is a time to listen to the candidate comment on what they believe. Later on it will be curbed, quartered, and cut to fashion as needed, but during the primary runs we get more honest statements.

I have also felt that the candidates who are most likely to “tell it like it is” ; to state problems and circumstances more realistically. They do so because they feel, deep down, they don't stand the traditional Chinaman's chance of being being nominated, much less elected. Since they can be relatively certain they are not going to be required to make good on such statements. They hold on to their existing friends and gain a few new ones by setting forth such ideas and thus force the others to take a position on which he can. ,in rebuttal, attach comments and questions.

I can remember being impressed during the presidential steeplechase portion of the last national election by a young man named Alan-somebody. He stood no real chance of being nominated and he must have know that to be a fact, The name was Freed, wasn't it? Allen or Alan-someone, anyway. And - he spoke “truth” 'ill it hurt. He did so knowing full well he would never have to back talk with action.

Listen to all ten of the incoming aspirants. By election time you may actually know how they stand as individuals and why. They are being “sifted” right now -”winnowed”, if you will - the valued wheat being parted from the tares, and the old adage applies: “It takes one to know one.”

A.L.M. May 6, 2003 [c892wds]

 
DEAD END

I thought I had heard all of the mortician's jokes, but someone asked me recently if I had heard about the young girl who was studying to be a mortician. She was asked why she had chosen that type of work?“Because",she replied,"I have always enjoyed working with people"”

It may be that my career has not been in the particular field to which that girl aspired, but in my army years I worked in the morgue at a military hospital long enough to become acquainted with he terminology and atmosphere associated so readily by many people when in the presence of Death. That was an odd experience to have in the army right after basic training days, but I have always been grateful for the opportunity which was mine for I was to witness Death many times in the years ahead.

It came about because the army suddenly found it had completed thirteen weeks of basic training for a battalion of infantry medics who were not needed. There was a sudden glut on the market for the type of medics we had been trained to be. More recruits were on the way. So, it seemed like a good thing to do might be to ship the maturing stock out. About six hundred of us were suddenly transferred from the U. S. Army into the U. S. Army Air Corp; trucked a hundred miles east toward the Atlantic coastline where we quartered in an empty aircraft hanger - all six hundred of us of us as one big, steel-cotted crew sleeping where fighter planes were warmed up every morning to help the sun rise.

Oddly enough, such illogical logic improved our lot, we felt.We would be needed in the base hospital area or in Air Corps cadre sent out to new bases from time to time. I responded to the situation and drifted into various jobs until my chance to ship out came up. More strange logic entered the picture when I was shipped out as a “Teletype Operator”. One buddy whom we had just taught to read and the write, who had a job of firing the hospital's coal-fired furnace was dubbed with a non-com rating, and shipped out as a"“ Surgical Assistant". He was about as experienced in his new work area as I was in operating a teletype machine.

Among my hospital jobs, I worked for a time in the hospital Morgue. It was really not that new. I had been in various funeral homes and morgues in my newspaper reporting days.

After the war I went into radio-tv and technical writing for some years and when retired I took a part-time job with a local undertaking establishment. I was a driver, as a rule, a "greeter”, I suppose you would say, at one of several parlors the firm operated, but I had not been there but a few weeks when the front office asked me what my"ffeelings" were concerning helping out in the morgue. They were often short-handed there and really needed help at times. So, back to the morgue once more! I was"working with people"”, just as I did when driving families from place to place.

I have been think about this all week, because the" front office" lady who asked me if I would object to helping out in the morgue for a few days, died the other day. She married into business, but, I think, she would have agreed with the young girl who was planning to be mortician. It may seem odd to people who have never done it ... been there.

A.L.M April 25, 2003 [c903wds]

 
URBAN PROBLEMS

Most cities have inherited some severe street problems.

. Many of such situations originated from the at-random growth from village to town to city

George Washington, has his share of such a problem, the city named after him which is now our national capital. George lived down river a few miles at Mt. Vernon , Virginia and he met an architect, born in France, who had joined and served as a private in the Colony's Revolution army. His name was Pierre Charles L'Enfant and Washington had seen what a fine job he had done remodeling the old New York City Hall to be the temporary capital of the new nation.

He was hired by the commission studying the need for a new national city which would be worthy of it's aspirations and promise. He had inspiring visions of what that new nation might become and with Washington's eager endorsement, the Commission hired L'Enfant to design a totally new city on the lands donated for that specific purpose by Maryland and Virginia. That was in September 1791.

The architect started work at once with great fervor and excitement. He laid out a wide, expansive city with broad avenues, long
straight streets as much as a hundred feet wide, parks and vistas galore. He named the long, spacious streets after each of the thirteen colonies.

The Commissioners and instructed the architect to number and letter his streets according to the simple system which has endured to our own day. They asked that he prepare a copy of it all for them. L'Enfant, it seems, was not the type of person who, once hired to do a job, can be “instructed” to “do” specific little things. L'Enfant refused tp give them a copy which he knew they wanted to use in conducting a public sale of lots. He let it be known far and wide that he would have no part in any scheme whereby “speculators might purchase locations and raise huddles of shanties which would “permanently disfigure” the city of his dreams. Without the detailed plats, the sale of lots was a dismal failure. The members of the Commission called on George Washington to smooth it all over and to “reprimand” the wayward architect.

For several weeks things went smoothly, until word reached L'Enfant that the largest landowner in the area was in the process of actually building his version of what a massive Manor House should be. He was building in the center of one of L'Enfant's most prized “vistas”.
The architect promptly sent word to David Carroll of Duddington. He was to demolish the structure a once. Carroll did not do so. L'Enfant did it for him.When the largest landowner complained to the Commissioners, they in turn, complained to George Washington and, together, they decided to send their architect packing. During his short tenure, the Frenchman had made enemies in Congress and a special foe in the person of Thomas Jefferson.

That was in January 1792. The previous builder was re-hired to take up the work of building the Federal city. L'Enfant was offered 600 Guineas - about $2500 - and a free lot near the site where the Presidential Mansion was the be built. He refused the offer and is said to have died in poverty in 1825.

We wonder what may have gone through he mind of those concerned during that period. His dream took shape., and it is evident that his plans influenced the growth of the city as it has grow to be one of the most beautiful of all capital cities.

Lest we think our treatment was too harsh. L'Enfant's remains were exhumed in 1909 and reburied with honors in Arlington National Cemetery [

A.L.M. May 5,2003 [c896wds]

 
DIT DAH KINDERGARTEN

I happen to be among those people who grew up during the days when a the telegraph was threatened by the development of radio.It was more of a fight than we might realize.

I remember quite well how we were fascinated by the clicking of the telegraph key at either the Western Union or Postal telegraph offices and, more dramatically, those at the railway station in our town where, on a hot, summer's day or night, a kid could sit on an unused American Express cart, on the station platform, and both watch and listen to the telegraph man as he sent coded signals on his shiny hand set. We could imagine the great feats he did by warning a speeding engineer that his train was about to go over a bridge which had been washed away in a flood moments before! It may have been he was asking the next train to stop at our small station ...perhaps to take a dying man to the hospital in the city miles away..

Whatever the actual message may have been about, it was known to be important if it merited telegraph service! The wires extended everywhere as the nervous system of our entire communications network. That was how we kept in touch with the rest of the world. All of our news of world events came in on the telegraph.

It seemed to be a strange world of mystery most of us. It seemed impossible that a man, seated before such a small apparatus could tap messages heard all over the world!

We came to know that it had all started during and after our Civil War time here in the United States. The code used by devised Samuel F. Morris and it has served us well in various forms.

We, as small children respected, admired and sometime, even feared, the men who could tap out coded messages. Many of us wanted to become “wireless”: operators when radio began to filter into the communications field. We wanted to learn how to send secret messages in code form. In some way, I suppose “wireless” sounded less expensive during Great Depression years, too, and in mixed innocence and ignorance, we learned how to handle it as a sight rather than a sound.

In the public mind the use of what was commonly called The Morse Code was complicated by the many ways in which it could be use. Our “Boy Scout Manual” manual gave us the basic knowledge required. We took to sided-issues such as learning to do semaphore messages waving small flags to the right or left in accordance with the dot-dash instructions in the Manual. A main reason for using flag was, of course, that they could be home-made, made while telegraph keys and the electrical apparatus needed to power them, were costly.

How many people people of my age learned the code from the Boy Scout Handbook, I wonder? I have long been grateful, as a ham radio operator of many years, for that kick-start assistance, but there is one flaw in that magic ointment of beginning which is that we learned it all as “dot” and “dash”. We have all have had to unlearn that visual concept and re-learn code as an aural thing. To get any speed and clarity ratings at all, we had to re-learn that the basic sounds are just that – sounds.

They are what they have always been: sounds - “dit” and “dah”

.- .-.. -- -- .- -.-- ....- ..--- ----- ----- ...--
A L M M A Y 4 2 0 0 3
[c902wds]

 
FOOT IN MOUTH

We have all had moments we would rather not remember.

Anyone who has said anything at all, is sure to have said something at one time or another which they now wish they could un-say.

This is not “show-and-tell-time” at all, because, I usually feel sorry for the victim who who's loose lips, disconnected brain or plain old big-mouth tendencies take over. I've done some doozies in my own time and cannot point to things others might have said and are forced to claim as their own faux pas collection. For example, this past week I placed our President George Bush aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln in the Atlantic Ocean instead of the Pacific.. I can say “Thank you” to those who have not told me about it, as well as to those who did so.

I feel that most offenders do not mean what they find others seem to have said. There are occasions when things come out like ketchup from a the narrow, mouth of a bottle. It was not intended to do that. It just “came out that way.”

I think we have been very unfair to people in the political area, in particular, where so much depends on what is “said” as compared to, or contrasted with, what they are really thinking and have been so careful top avoid saying. Dan Quayle has been much maligned in print and on radio and TV more than any other human being in modern history, and accused of saying things Joe Miller must have left out of his celebrated joke books books as being too commonly used to quote.

Few escape. People pointed French-frying fingers at General Charles de Gaulle when he was supposed to have said: “China is a big country, inhabited by many Chinese.”

Jason Kidd, when he was drafted by the Dallas “Mavericks” announced:”We are going to turn this team around 360 degrees!”

Bob Dole is reported to have said that “The Internet is a great way to get on the net” We assume he was making reference to the Internet Al Gore had said he invented when he was nine year of age or so down there on the tobacco farm in old Tennessee.

Some quote these saying because they think they see little seeds of wisdom within them.:

George Stephanapolis ,in the Larry King Show, said: “The President (Clinton) has kept all of the promises he intended to keep.”

Hillary Clinton raise a few hackles when she voiced her opinion related to a search for missing papers in the White House. “I 'm not going to have some reporters pawing through our papers .We are the President!”

Ike irked some with: “ Things are more like they are now than they every were were before.” And, there was one by Mayor Daley in Chicago years ago: “The police are not here to create disorder. They are here to preserve disorder.”

Each and every one of them ,no doubt, regretted saying what they did, if they, indeed, said it at all.

I have recognized more than one old clinker attributed to to a famous personality of recent times, some of which my Granddaddy used when he wanted to make someone appear silly or mis-informed. Ears, it seems, can be fine-tuned by incompetents so listeners can think they hear pretty much what that want the hear rather than what was really said.

A.L.M. May 3, 2003 [c846wds]

 
WHICH WAY?

How good is your sense of direction?

That can be important, because we will have difficulty arriving anywhere if we don't know in which direction our goal. It just saves time, too.

I had a friend years ago who displayed a remarkable tendency of not knowing which way to turn. When we lived in a hotel, he turned away from the restaurant at which we took our meals. When he was driving to work, he very often turned the wrong direction once he arrived at curbside from the garage. Once around the block and he became oriented well enough to get to work with minimum of wasted time.

He was aware of his difficulty and used to justify it quite earnestly by pointing out that even birds such as the celebrated, highly honored homing pigeons, very often took off and flew a few experimental circles about the point of departure before heading off into the direction their journey demanded.. Contending that his habit was really one which displayed a sense of caution which assured him of a longer, safer life through the use of caution and a better, safer life because of this tendency he called a “trait” - while we said it was a “quirk”.

Now, looking back at it, I find that he may have been more advanced in much of his thinking and actions than we were ,and have been.

His peer group is pretty well gone by now, either moved away or died. He, himself, is resident in the local cemetery, largely because ,when he became the intended victim of a common killer disease, he took the wrong road to an effective cure.. Just this week some medical authorities issued a statement telling us why women live longer than do men.. They decided it was because a man almost automatically refused to see a doctor when one was needed, whereas the woman does do so with a mere suggestion that something may be amiss.

I''m, truly, a bit ashamed to admit that we called him ”Tardy” a nickname we felt he had earned by a lifetime of delays. That was a cruel thing for us to have done, I will admit, and while I am in such a confessional mood ,I will also attest to the fact in all fairness, that it was “Tardy”, among us all, who choose the most loving and lovable wife of all, it was “Tardy” who took time to be with his growing children as much as possible, it was “Tardy” who settled those little neighborhood disputes we had by not jumping to any conclusions before the problem developed.

It may well be that knowing where you are going is less important than what you plan to get done once you get there.

A.L.M. May 2, 2003 [c697wds]

 
LOST!

Somewhere along the literary line, I miss-placed a favorite essayist of mine - Annie Dillard.

I remember her first book “Pilgrim At Tinker Creek”, many years ago. It has led me to marvel quite often on how Annie Dillard was able to see so much of genuine interest in tiny Tinker Creek flowing down, uneasily at times, from an odd-shaped Tinker Mountain, near Hollins, Virginia. She saw things and observed wonders in those waters which were never there for me when I lived in Southwest Virginia and occasionally walked along that same stream..

I followed her writing career from those days forward and my youngest son presented me with a copy of her excellent little book of essays dealing with how she went about writing. He, and others, knew that I was drawn to Annie Dillard when it came to reading, and I can remember being excited to find her writing pieces for The Atlantic Monthly. Such a union of two of of my all-time favorites joined together seem logical and predestined to occur.

She moved to New England, I think, at about that time and a subtle change had taken place in her life. She seemed more mature, older - not aged, at all - I don't ever think of Annie Dillard as ever getting old. She was still as reflective as every concerning the teachers which come to us as we communicate with Nature and read it's message. She seemed mellowed a bit by time. That is something which comes to all of us through added years of experience, I'm sure. I heard that she had undergone a unfortunate marriage relationship which probably augmented that which was happening all along.

Annie Dillard was looking at New England - close-up..

Now, a twist.

What does a person do to make upon for such a deficiency in his or her life? It could not be done a decade or so ago, but now-a-days we simply turn to a good search engine. I did that and after just a few seconds with google.com, I met with a wide and wonderful world of a totally new Annie Dillard! I now have some pleasant work ahead of me trying to catch up on all I have missed! She is now an adjunct Professor of English and Writer- in-Residence at Wesleyan University in CT...still writing and with a wide following in many fields of special interests.

Think about doing the same thing in your life. If there a void ...some person or some thing which has become obscure in your life, conside s “search”. You may be pleasantly surprised.

A.L.M. May 1, 2003 [c689wds]

 
TO ALL, IN TIME

During this first week of May 2003, President George W. Bush will be speaking to all of us from the deck of the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln. He will be somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean we are told too far from shore for the usual helicopter means of presidential transit, so a cable landing will be made on deck with an operational aircraft. He will tell us the war in Iraq is at an end.

In time a major war comes to all of us, and choice of this speaking platform on board a carrier returning to the States was a dramatic and wise choice. Some critics will, certainly say it is a bit of bravado to do such a speech from beyond helicopter operational range. The announcement that the conflict has come to its end – informally, that is, certainly is one in which the entire nation will want to see and hear. The epicenter of the war itself has been removed from our daily living place and word that it has come to an end can be best enunciated from such a remote, withdrawn spot.

Many will feel that the Iraqi War started here with the events of September 11th and we should be most thankful the rest of it occurred elsewhere.

We face the future with a newborn confidence in the ability of our military to defend the nation. We have seen evidence aplenty of the extremes to which a despotic power can extend, and we should be doing more concerning that which we must undertake to live in the face of continuing threats. The war may be “over” but proffered Peace is yet to be found.

It has been a difficult thing for some segments of our diverse society to decide if this has been a genuine war. To them, it has been a farce ...even a joke or trick played upon us by greed-driven leaders who were said to have secret ambitions to control Iraq's oil industry or, perhaps, corner the world market on Persian rugs. It is only now that many of these people among us will – suddenly without a “cause” to worship - begin to see the necessity of it all and to appreciate its value to our well-being.

No war is just. No war can be fair. Nor, can a war be “successfully concluded”. They come to a stopping point.

A period of peace is proffered for a time, but it takes time - many years, decades ...for the true meanings of a war to seep into the fiber of our national culture. Perhaps, it is fitting that the “end” of the war be proclaimed at sea.

A.L.M. April 30, 2003 [c672wds]

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