Wednesday, December 31, 2003
BLOTTERS
I had spilled bit of coloring on the desk! I needed a blotter, and said so.
My fellow worker, young and innocent, in the ways of office routine, looked puzzled and quickly replied: "What you need is a paper towel!" She turned away and promptly returned with several paper towels and hurriedly wiped way the stains.
"There!" She said proudly. "Like new! You didn't hurt a thing. It won't show at all." She glossed over the area with a clean towel and held it up as to reassure me.
I had no idea she, and most of the other young workers in the area, would not know what I had meant when I demanded a "blotter."
I, suddenly, realized they were gone! Blotters no longer exist in offices anywhere today.
Not too ago the blotter was an essential part of the office setup, along with rubber bands and thunb tacks. We used pen and ink for many office jobs before typewriters and, then, ball point pens came into style. The blotter was usually about the size of a dollar bill - which was a tad larger than than today, as well. Most would have been, oh perhaps 8-1/2 by 4 inches, as I recall, They were mainly made of a thin sheet of very absorbant paper covered with a slicker sheet on which advertisements were printed. Most town had small print shop which specialzed is such advertising, match book covers, calanders, key chain tags of heavy cardboard and a stock of signs for utility purposes.
I have seen the working side of some blotters take on a design of reversed writing in blue, red and black which formed a pattern such as Jackson Pollock, the painter, might well have been proud, But the use of the blotter went out of existence with Penmanship, I suppose. The pencil, for some reson, was always there and it has been vastly improved butthe fact that its work could be so easily erased and edited made it useless in keeping company books and other records.
Occasionally,the stained blotter would turn us as clue in detective stories. The slueth could hold the used blotter up before a mirror and present a written confession from the vile crimial..
There must be, somewhere, a museum of blotter designs. They had other not-intended uses, as I remember. I have used them as bookmarks and know of others who have done so. Some of those must be available today and treated as curiousities more and more as the yers go by.
A.L.M. December 30, 2003 [c433wds]
Tuesday, December 30, 2003
THINGS TO COME
So often, at this tag end of the calandar, many people take stock of the posessions we have which help to make life more easier and enjoyable.
This is a good thing. Not only does it remind us of our many blessings, but it also causes us to list those things we don't have but think we need.
This, you see, changes the old maxim somewhat. "Need", rather "necessity" has become the "Mother of Invention".
Now that the fantastic SST fleet of superairliners has been retired and generously given to gawk gallieres worldwide, that era is being used as a good exmple of how we make mistakes in building things we don't need. We her in the United States, however, pointing out that SST "preying mantis" aircraft undetaking from design through application. It inferred that the real, underlying problem was one of proper management rather than a lack of demand for such an aircraft generation.
With such thinking rather well set in the public mind, we are continuing with plans for our pnderous flying wing MACH II passanger plane.
A leading avation magazine predicts it will be operative in this century. The same editorial breath shows us a "photograph" - air-brushed - to show what the future personal air car for individual use will look like not too far ahead. Imagine a small car, with a bulb-like, helicoper probosis area. To each side - a hint of a wing. There is a tail assmbly more like a jet ending.. The craft has no overhead rotor.Instead what appears to be the top the heat pump imstallation you see ,on top of your back yard heat pump installation. The whole rig lands, it seems, on a single skid in the center of its rounded belly.
I must be getting close to my actual age, because I did not thrill to the promotional copy that went with the picture of the just-aouund-the-next-cloud air car. The gist of the spiel was that this car would put an end to the ravaging of large parcels of the nation's best farm land for super highway construction.
When I first read the item, I kept thinking of how such an air car might bring about in the parking lots of any of the four Wal-Mart Super Stores in our area. Maybe by that time we can have reinforced roof strustures to sustain elegantly layered, valet-staffed air parks. But, who knows what Wal-Mart itself will look like that far the future?
The rate at which inventing things moves along today is much faster than it has been. Either one or both of these advances could be a reality long before this century wanes.
A.L.M. December 29, 2003 [c462wds]
Monday, December 29, 2003
BEHOLDEN
Appalachian mountain folks, among whom I grew up, used to make use of the term “to be beholden” a great deal.
Most of them,though somewhat lacking, perhaps,in the physical trappings that,so often accompany formal religion, were intensely religious. One of the first things they seemed to feel was that they were “beholden” to God for life itself and all the riches of family life in a land so rich with blessings, challenges and potential.
Once that basic sense of gratitude is established we can, as they did, turn to individuals who have meant something special in our lives. Our initial step in this direction is to remember what our parents did without on our behalf. We appreciate the goodness of favorite school teachers, aunts, uncles, cousins, relatives of all sorts - a whole “tree” full of them. And,from time-to -time outsiders, almost total strangers, have influenced our lives, particularly in relation to our career potential.
I have added a new member in my group of people to whom I am “beholden” in my declining years. One never gets too old to do so,I have found. I am most grateful to at young lady who is a Heart Surgeon at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, who headed up a team of skilled and dedicated fellow doctors and technicians who provided me with additional years of living.
Moments after being unloaded from the “Pegasus” helicopter which brought me in, I felt the soft touch of her hands across the affected area where my abdominal aorta was on the verge of bursting. At that moment when her fingers touched me, I knew I had found the right person - among all people - who could bring me through it all. I was even more convinced later on when I had an honest, factual talk with her. She told me, very plainly what had to be done and what my chances were. I knew I was right where I was supposed to be at that moment in my life. That ls been several years ago, and I am more than ever beholden to that amazing team of doctors and to Dr. Nancy Harthun, in particular. She fashioned for me a new abdominal aorta out of,I understand, Dacron(R) material and, aside from being a bit pot-bellied on my port side I have been doing very well.
To help keep myself out of mischief, I started this daily TOPIC column on the Internet. And, thus it is that I am now “beholden” to each and every one of you who have helped me feel it has been a successful venture.
Thank you.
A.L.M. December 28,2003 [c647wds]
Sunday, December 28, 2003
JUNQUE
Don't count on it!
Just because a thing has been constant for many years does not mean it is going to be here tomorrow.
Quality is not the main thing in many cases, no is deception forbidden.
Entire categories of foodstuffs which used to be marketed by the pound or by the dozen are now available in same-sized packages or larger of eight or ten units. The price remains the same or is actually higher.
.
y Never pull your car into the empty full-service bay at your local gas station and say “Fill 'er Up!” as you once did so casually and with confidence and pride, With gas in the present low range or $1.35 per, you will find trusted nostalgia a bit too readily.
Some people I understand, actually they read the nutritional charts on the packages of food they buy. What they mean to say is that they read one once while waiting for their toast to burn. Some of those charts have tiny footnotes below which explain why the carton is a bit less than full. They blame it on gravity. The box was full when they packaged it. They never explain how fluid containers on the next shelf and never subject o such natural shrinkage. Apparently it does occur because if you place a light behind a plastic or translucent glass container will often appear that he fluid level is somewhat below the plug than up there where it ought to be. They are legally correct, if course, but you bought the bottle which was a full inch higher than the puny thing beside it... You get a bigger bottle, box or carton, but the same amount of product.
The nutritional charts are flexible, as well. That fact has recently been dramatized effectively by the TV commercial for one bowl of cereal preparation which is contrasted to many bowls of competitive brands of like products and the number of bowls needed to equal their product in some, specifically named ingredient found in the competing product in a smaller amount.
Have you noticed how magazines have been downsized.? We used read big,, floppy, center-stapled issues of “The Saturday Evening Post” or “Life” which could be folded over and read in columns. No-more. They all look alike on the kiosk and other than the gallery of over models, they all bear all bear a price tag of around $2.00 or more per copy.
Nutritional charts are not printed on newspaper and magazine enrichments we get today. Check the actual reading material and compare it to the whole sections of Classified Ads, unclassified ads and just plain ads and if you find more than twenty percent reading materials you are lucky. The very first thing I do when I get a new magazine is to tear out all the cardboard inserts so the pages stay put when I turn them. In one popular home magazine this month,. I removed thirty-two such cards and heavy-paper inserts..
The concert of changed quality applies to so much of living today. Things are not what they used to be at all, and you cannot find anything which remains the the same..
And - in spite of my critical tone - I am not opposed to such modifications as they constantly evolve/ Such changes are indicative of growth and improvement. That's the only way we can stay above the level of generational debris. We will know we are near the end when all new homes are constructed solely of attics, basements, two-car, car-less garages, extra storage buildings in the back yard and paid-up membership cards to several nearby storage cubicle installations.
If you think everything is being sold on e-bay, think again! They have made but a small dent in the American treasure trove. They have merely made it movable - shifting it about - from one part of the country to another.
A.L.M. December 27, 2003 [c665wds]
Saturday, December 27, 2003
FOG BOUND
In times if discouragement, or in those vague moment when I am awakening from a deep sleep and seeking directions as to which way to turn to find complete consciousness, I am reminded of a time, years ago, when I was on Chesapeake Bay in Virginia. I was in a small boat veteran waterman Buzz Conway “helping” him check his crab traps spread out over Indian Creek inlet.
The fog had settled in thick about us on the shore jutting out into the water and I would not have been able to get anywhere without the guidance of a man who had lived and worked all his life - he and his brother Pat - who lived in a house perhaps a hundred yards down the pine-shrouded shoreline.
During the hour which followed I witnessed navigational expertize I would not have thought possible. He was seated in the stern of the boat at the tiller. I was seated on a board about midway in the craft. After pushing gently away from the wharf, Buzz kicked the motor to life and we slid off into the enveloping mist. Even the motors sound was muffled by the padded fullness of the fog.
I lost track of the number of stops we made.. We would be scurrying right along with that false sense of high speed I feel when skimming open water. Buzz would cut the motor Buzz would cut the motor cut the motor, and work his way forward a bit as the craft drifted and stopped at a spot where he would dredge up yet another cage.. We dumped the contents of each trap in the boat at our feet,closed the trap and lowered it with a sense of trap into the boat at our feet; closed the trapdoor and placed the crate-like cage it over the side to sink to the depths below ready for more blue crabs. Each trap,I felt, was carefully placed in the water - never thrown. There was solemnity about doing so. No doubt crab men have done it for generations, I think, as a physical expression of gratitude as well as a prayer for continued blessings in future catches.
The sun did poke through before we finished the round of trap sites, and the jelly fish patterns floating atop the water were an artistic display all their own. The pleasure schooner was still anchored in the channel where it had been the night before, but I had new knowledge of an unseen world of crabdom populating the bottom of the inlet which I had never known before.
Ashore, Buzz Conway schooled me in ways tell a perfect blue crab and I learned to select them from others and to place them in tank-trays he maintained for culling the take.. The less developed crabs were placed in other tanks and undesirable items bucketed to be returned to the Bay from the edge of the wharf.
Looking back on that morning spent with Buzz Conway, there on Indian Creek inlet just a few miles east of Kilmarnock,Virginia, tells me that to fully under stand a person you have to work with him or her as what seems to be a task to many but which is really a way of life and an enjoyable hobby-like activity one lives rather than does.
A.L.M. December 26, 2003 [c569wds]
Friday, December 26, 2003
TIME OF DISCOVERY
It is a rare occasion in life when you realize you have made a discovery. You wonder what you might do with your new-found knowledge. Should you hold fast to it as your very own, or should you share it with others - with everyone. I believe the later view is the proper one, because it reflects more on the genuine quality of your find. Few original finders of anything worthwhile, it appears, truly understood what it was they had come upon. It is only as others developed his or her concept, that it becomes truly a manifest blessing for Mankind.
I had such an innovative experience this Christmas Eve.
On that chilly night of December 24, 2003, That evening I chanced upon on the most impressive Christmas service I have ever attended. It would seem that such a special occurrence would have happened in some far-off, exotic locale, but it was in our home church. I have, due partly to illness, been an occasional member for a year or more, but something urged me to attend the traditional Christmas Eve service this year.
It did not strike me as unusual that I found a new realization of the simple fact that the small church has been singularly blessed with a wealth of creative talents in its staff and membership . I find the choirs to be exceptionally mature by usual standards of attainment and by their intense response to skilled, vibrant direction.
The Bell Choir is directed by Mary Wilson and her efforts have brought about a group using bells and judicious use of related percussion instruments to produce varied repository which far exceeds that of the usual bell-clanging group They do not tip-toe through a routine service timidly, with special restraint and softness. They assert themselves audio ably as a vibrant part of the worship theme.
Now, for the three-fold discovery.
The printed program included a titled: “Special Music - ' At The Manger ' arr. by. Christopher Bono. Sonja Dillard, Violin”, Those and the Bell Choir.
The discovery is containing in those two lines. Both violinist Sonja Dillard, a visitor for the evening , and the Christopher Bono Choir dire tor and organist of the church, deserve special acclaim and recognition in the music world for their work. Not only did Christopher Bono arrange the violin and piano as credited in the but he also written the piece itself “especially for this occasion” as the minister of the church, Rev .Mark Stanley announced verbally.
Others heard them as well. I was not alone, but I felt at that moment that something should be done to let the rest of the musical world know about Christopher Bono, composer, organist and choir director and about Sonja Dillard, violinist and the work they played this past Christmas Eve called “At The Manger.” The world needs to share in this wealth of talent as well as the Mary Wilson's Bell Choir.
A survey or about a year ago of TOPIC reported it as being read in eight different nations around the but I have no idea what the present circulation might be today. Anyone who wishes to do so, may drop an e-mail comment to TOPIC at the prime page mail slot.
Do you know of any talented persons in your community who might be in widespread need of praise and acclaim.
A.L.M. December 25, 2003 [c571wds]
Thursday, December 25, 2003
CHRISTMAS OVERSEAS
When, in the days of World War II, I was among those shipped to England from Virginia by way of Florida, Camp Shanks, N.Y. and New York City's busy Pier 90 on the Queen Mary, we all realized it meant Christmas of that year would be away from home.
Ours was a small group bound for England, we found. We number one hundred an nine and we were formed as specialized units for the distinct purposes of making new airbases operable or in re-establishment of air bases which had been bombed out bringing them back for use by our own bombers and other aircraft.
They were called “Station Complement Squadrons”and they were usually formed on a basis of four qualified persons for each of various types essential needs: communications, for example, with people such as telephone operators, switchboard mechanics, linesmen, etc. Typists, teletypewriter operators ( my niche) and mechanic for everything associated with the work to be done; code-qualified people and and transit equipment operators, mechanics, supply personnel and supplies as well as others needed to put the base in operational order. More than once I was amazed at the flexible nature of some of the work those men were called upon to do.
Our Christmas arrived in the First week of February. I visited Norwich Cathedral on my first visit to “town”.It was there that I felt the presence of the Christmas spirit. We observed it officially on February 2nd when our duffel bags - both “A” and “B” arrived at the same time following us from the states. We also received our first real mail, which that for the Christmas season. My box from home contained a one-foot crushable Christmas tree mounted on a solid wooden base, which we set up in the hut for a week. One cold, damp night when our strictly rations one bucket per week of precious cake for the dinky, little stove was gone we sacrificed that tree to the flames. It, as a symbol, brought us warmth we welcomed and needed.
The next Christmas was different, I remember. .By that time we had English family friends and we visited their homes or joined them at the neighborhood pub and joined in their celebrations.
Looking back, then, I find that I have missed only one Christmas out of my eighty-seven, which is not bad at all. Some have been under rather odd circumstances, but with friends - new and old which, to me, is the part of Christmas seasons we remember.
A.L.M. December 24, 2003 [c461wds]
Wednesday, December 24, 2003
VIOLENCE
What an odd time - Christmas Eve – to be thinking and writing about the violence which is so apparent in our lives today.
We hear a great deal about violence stalking though every nook and cranny of our environment - natural and socially evolved - and yet I sometimes wonder if we are fully aware of other than the brutal, physical aspects of the crippling scourge. Do we overlook, even totally disregard , violence of a more subtle nature done to our ideals, ideas, concepts and accomplishments?
I do not know that violence is any more pronounced in the present time than it has been in the past. Because we feel we have been inept in finding any ways to deal effectively with it, we conclude it must be more widespread than it used to be. Just a brief look back though the pages of our history will be enough to show that man has always turned to violence in seeking to equate himself with others or to place himself in the ascendancy where can rule over others.
Different groups of people see violence in different ways. The concept of the Dominant Male does violence to our entertainment ideas. A Rambo-type creature, part human, part robot, fueled with envy, greed and unrequited need- a fantasric recreation, perhaps, of the celebrated Knights of old who worked wonder is their time.. The theory of The Dominant Male has obscured much evil conduct in our time. His rule , we so often have been led to think, means that his shoulders, his guile, his stamina and his inventiveness will bring us freedom from all wrong. We make films of his deeds and urge our children to accept that as the way life is. They are not considered to be violent.
On this Christmas Eve think how trivial some violence can seem to be.. You will hear violence being done to our English Language - even during the Christmas season - when people you know seek to embellish it by inserting profane or obscene words and terms. That is violence of our heritage. You will see and hear people disparaging others by race, by creed, by land of origin and all this does violence to our the worthiness of our culture.
Look and listen to a small, warning voices. How often do we participate in continuing such “minor” violence? Is it cumulative?
People often hurt others by thoughtless acts of violence of a petty nature.. Until. we can successfully deal with these affronts of local nature, we have little chance of curbing the larger evil.
A.L.M. December 23, 2003 [c440WDS]
Tuesday, December 23, 2003
IMPROPER ACTIONS.
We are hearing more more about abuses of legal rights in recent years?
Defintions seem to change more often so that many of those actions of few years ago which were considered to be questionable are now being seen as commendbale. What things which used t be thought of as being on the "shady" side are now in the limelight as the greatest ecnomic advancements of the century.
The right of Eminent Domain seems to be one of the greatest economic concerns of our time, and the "abuse" of this regulation appears more and more in the news. The pattern of alleged abuse is being found in many sections of the nation by those persons who take time to be concerned about the steady erosion of individual rights. It is a re-occuring topic for discussion of a number of radio talks shows.
So often, the critical point of disagreement in each of these cases seems to be an exact awareness of just what the original intended. The term "in the public interest" is the apex of much of the discussion.. It will be found in the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States In no way does it forbid the "government" from takng possession of property. It says only that, when it becomes necessary for government to take over property the only requirementis is that the owner be "duly compensated for his loss." There is no restriction whatever on when and how government is to decide if any change is in "the public interest ".
If you are concerned about this suble bit of evasion in an instance of which you have recently become aware, it may be wise to redefine what you mean exactly by those whom you term to be "government" in the transaction. Usually this strange responsiabilty finds its way downward to a level of officials name, perhaps, City Counilmen and women or the Board of Alderman men or women, who are elected officials charged with doing what is best for your commuiity in a regulatory sense. If they see a chance to increase the income from a piece of real property simply by changing its status from private ownership to public, they ought to do so in allegience to the pledge they gave you when you helped elect them to office. If they know how to accomplish a gain for the community as a whole by changing a piece of property from a status of private to public ownership, they are doing their job - the work you elected them to do.
While it may be true, that you could have elected in individuals to the job who had a stronger awaeness of human undertanding.love, comapssion and other such values. They are not, generally, high among the qualities we look for in electable persons. So, where does the true "blame" for any so called "wrong": done to individuals during such cases?
Some falls mighty close to home.
A.L.M. December 22, 2003 [c583wds]
.
Monday, December 22, 2003
COMPASSION
Compassion is, in modern times, an exceptionally complex term.
It is relatively easy for man to give sincere consideration to the rights of others and to expect the same treatment in return, but the concept is not universally understood. Many of us feel we are under special obligations to think tiwce before acting in compassionate giving.
At the present moment of our history, when we are both ending and continuing a "war" of a worldwide nature, we are cofused as to the nature of our giving. If strikes us with more force durign this Christmas season of the year, too.
How had we best go about donating food and fiber to those who are, obviously, in need? Should such giving be done through governmenal channels? Religious or social groups? Or, individually, perhaps? Each system seems to have faults of its own, too, so the choice is not always easy. Care must also be taken to see that such materials as are made availabe to he needy are of a nature which allows them to be used rather than sold. Shipping a burlap sack of hundreds of pounds of barley grain will prove to be of little use to the native who has never eaten barley and has no way of preparing.it. Such a gift will probabilty end up at cattle or bird feed or at the equivalent of the local brewery. There is a definite group of givers who give only what they don't want themslves, or that which happens to be available in excess at a given time. Such surplus or cast off charity can be harmful in that it takes the place of more sincere giving.
Clothing and household needs are needed, too. Relief is not all food. Nor, is it all money, either. True giving must seek to transfer a portion of what we call ":the good life" we enjoy to others. We give of ourselves and way of living in some strange, mysterious ways. Simple gifts can become treasures at some spot around the world. Find the manner of giving which seems most logical and efficient to you, and give systematically in relation to your income and your willingness to share your blessings.
Worthy charity is seldom a matter of sitting back comfortably and throwing money at a problem. That is often a problem with govrnbmentl bodies and oganized charities. Reflect rather on the times when you have been in need - however slightly. In th final sense, show compassion for others by letting your past guide your present and future.
We are all that which we have been.
A.L.M. December 21, 2003 [c441wds]
Sunday, December 21, 2003
WIND FARM ALOFT
The new building - “Feedom Tower� - which is to rise high above Ground Zero at the site of the World Trade Center in New York City has one innovative feature which ought to be emulated in other such high-rise construction.
Above the sixty floors planned for occupancy there are levels which are be set aside as a “way up there� wind farm!
It's about time some one has come with a sensible reason why we want to go so high. And it is past time for such buildings to be designed to help to some extent with the cost of operation and maintenance. I have no idea what amount of electrical energy such wind farm as can produce. If it is capable of supplying even a small art of the energy needs it will prove to be worthwhile. Imagine, if you can, a city in which a number of such tall buildings exist with such capabilities and the advantages are obvious. Distribution of electrical power, as presently set up, could be modified and made much more efficient, less costly and far betterr prepared to supply additional power, if and when, emergency circumstances may demand.
This is not the first time a power producing rotor has been mounted on a tall structure., but this is the first formal break the system has had from an architectural standpoint. It is time to follow up on this encouraging forward step with studies to see how effectively existing buildings can be modified to accomodate such wind farm additions. Do you remember the lone flagpole which used to be on top of tall buildings before the need for radio and television towers?
There are a dozen other communications installations up there, as well, now. They have been of immense assistance in making such buildings profitable for owners. The majority of skyscrapers are only partly finished on the inside. If you doubt that, look at almost any night time photographs of big city skylines and notice how huge sections of windows are generously lit - by banks of floodlights within cavernous, unfinished areas - while windows in occupied areas are often dark. Managing a skyscraper successfully is not one of the most attractive jobs in the world. Any new feature feature which will make it more profitable would be welcome.
New York City will be the leader, it now appears, but Chicago, with its well-known nickname as “the windy city�, may well move into first place soon.
. A,L.M. December 20, 2003 [c422w ds]
Saturday, December 20, 2003
DEEP DOWN
Why, of all places, would a man such as Saddam H. choose to be placed in a hole in the ground?
Even under the most dire circumstances, it would seem that such a choice would be about the last one on the list. The fact that he, apparently did so, should tell us a great deal about this curious man.
For what weird reasons would a person deliberately accept being confined to a hole dug six feet or so into the earth. It cannot seem good even with such luixuries as a breathing tube leading off to the side and a shelf dug to one side on which one might lie down to await whatever happens. Such a man would have to have a tremendous amount of trust in the group of soldiers let topside. To save their own hides, they could easily make a quick pass over the area with a bulldozer and eliminate all chances of being captured with “Number One�on their hands.
Men and women of medical areas dealing with mental processes determining what the human mind might attempt under stress, must be having a field day with this case. He was man who must have felt lost, alone, very insecure - unshaven and disheveled. He will be seen as a man seeking the security and comfort of his pre-natal state. His fetal position on the cramped, short shelf might suggest that view..
This is, surely, not the stuff from which maryters are made. If he had hoped to leave his nation a heritage of strength, dominance and fortitude, he could have chosen no worse way to make his exit from world affairs. He had guided scores of suicidal men and women to their deaths, yet chose to hide like an animal in a miserable hole in the earth when he faced immediate danger. It is, perhaps, best for all of us that it happened in this way because, had he gone out of the active picture in a blaze of firey glory, fighting to the very last, he would have "earned" maryterdom in the eyes of many people.
What happens to him in the months ahead is an unwritten page in history. It could take some amazing turns.
A.L.M. December 19, 2003 [c384wds]
Friday, December 19, 2003
MODELS
It is now more important than ever for us to be aware of how people see us picture by our outside appearance.
If you happen to look “Arabic� or “Mid-Eastern� in your coloring, the texture, style and coloring of your hair, and the territorial overtones you confirm by the way you wear your clothing. - all make you suspect:- in a general sense - at so many points in the daily of a security conscious nation.
A few that concept would have seemed wrong.. To judge someone so severely by their outward appearance would have been an infringement of private rights in a legal sense and unacceptable in a commonsense sense, as well
No more. The immediate thought is often that you may not be what you appear to be. And, furthermore, that basic idea has mushroomed into a tidal wave of suspicion which now includes the idea that you may be what you are eagerly pretending not to be.. People showing any eccentricities in conduct, bearing, or manner of speech ...even in what is worn as clothing.. Such are potential suspects. Any variation from the accepted norms of different areas make every individual personal potential suspect at one time or another.
We might all be helpful to each other if we, during this stressful times of suspicion , if we dressed honestly, and stop to trying to be something we are not. The dowdy woman dressed as a Hollywood star,remains in the eyes of many a dowdy woman dressed in what she thinks of as being Tinseltown garb, A teen ager by who is trying to give an impression of being natural but wears his baseball cap properly with the bill forward can cause suspicion, especially if he takes if off when indoors night or day..
We might dress for comfort rather than for style, too. A comfortable person is nicer to be around. Style changes are fine; nothing wrong with with the fashion trends which reverse themselves periodically like a pendulum on a clock. Skirts go up and down';trousers are pleated, then, plain; Lapels are narrow or wide, necklines shift about, shoes go from near nothing to ponderous pods being checked as potential bomb storage areas at our airports. with good reason. The style shifts seem to be endless .but certain qualities tend to go with times of national peace and prosperity while others go with times of war and disunity.
A.L.M. December 18, 2003 [c415wds]
Thursday, December 18, 2003
GROUP NAMES
Among your treasured musical memories, I would think you might find an awareness of a time when musical groups had sensible names.
We called them “orchestras,� or “dance bands� or so-and-so' “Trio,� “Quintet�, or “Combo� if they were smaller units. They were, most often, named for the instrumentalist, vocalist or composer who who led them. Oh, yes – we had a few “stick wavers�, as we called them, who were not musicians in a true sense. They were usually movie stars at various levels of stardom on their way up or down, with an occasional or occasional Hollywood “had-been� seeking a new career in a promising field.
Today's musical groups suffer needlessly under an unmerited burden of strange, often derogatory names, which, purposely, I'm sure, have little or nothing to do with music in any way. I have often wondered for a long time how much longer they can keep digging up such degrading designations.
Do you remember when we used to speak of “Guy Lombardo and the Orchestra� and most people around you knew who you meant and thought, immediately, of the ultra-sweet, soft, melodic tunes that group featured. You may or may not remember they were also known as “The Royal Canadians� but that was not their salient banner.
What about a band called “Barney Rapp and His Orchestra? They were a popular band for college proms and featured a bright girl by the name of Ruby Wright. I remember so well her singing of a song called “Rain� and did well in the movie “shorts: name bands made for theater use in those days. That band was also known by another name but it was kept in the background and used to give the group a regional idenfication. You may remember seeing posters advertising “Barney Rapp and His New Englanders.�
The “Big Band Era� brought scores of such bands and here was amazing variety among them. Some offered sweet music, but it was easily to identify the difference. Dancers knew how the Lombardo Brothers, Jan Garber, Jan Pearce, and Wayne King differed.
There were other bands which featured loud, faster music but they could all do what the other did on occasions if demanded.
That may be one of my troubles in giving to total acceptance to today's pop music. It is all too much alike. One press of noise is much the same as the other. The only distinction is to be found in the strange name of the record label.
A.L.M. December 17, 2003 [c429wds]
Wednesday, December 17, 2003
ROCKS IN THE ROAD
Our present day highway system � in spite of many shortcomings you might bring up - is nothing short of a massive miracle.
People give me a stage look when I mention that I remember quite well when all of historic U.S. Route 11, the �Lee Highway�, the �Valley Pike� of early American expansion westward was unpaved. A few wiseacre skeptics have asked me if I saw them sink the �Maine� in Havana Harbor, as well.
I'm old, but not quite that ancient.
During the decade of the 1920 we traveled on dirt roads. Some of them where covered with layers of crushed rock. Very often the rock was dumped on the path in the form of large boulders which were, then, beaten into small piece ;even embedded in the base of mud, to form the road bed. The notorious prison inmate �chain gangs� were used to do this work to a large extent at that time for road building. A new type of highway construction was being introduced at that time invented by a man named John McAdam. His plan called for the construction of a road bed raised a few inches above the terrain level. This level bed was, then, covered with layers of rock. His �Macamized� road had not covered. Traffic alone packed it down and unevenly so quite often. His process was quickly improved upon by adding tar to a covering mixture of small stone and pressed into place by rollers. The English devised a term for the new process. They call it �Tarmac�- a perfectly logical combination of terms still in use today, but that expression did not gain ready acceptance in the United States where we know it as an �asphalt� road.
That's what Route 11 and many American roads became in the 1930's and during the following years. There were, paved sections which usually ended at the town limits forming the small ones among the thousands of miles of twisted maze of arteries and veins reaching to and from every corner of our complex country today.
In rural areas local landowners maintained the public roads which passed through or near their property I remember such work parties among local farmers well into the days of the Great Depression. The practice was done to death by the W.P.A., the C.C.C., the N.R.A, the AFL/CIO and other alphabetical groups of the Roosevelt Era.
A.L.M. December 16, 2003 [c-411wds]
Tuesday, December 16, 2003
POPPY CROP
How can it be that a nation, which is of producing enough food and fiber for domestic needs, can usually far short also ranks as the leading producer of the opium poppy?
The basic reason this happens boils down to a matter of profits but it would seem that those nations who assist by sending agriculture assistance in the form of products, services, and equipment might well consider examining their assistance programs. Into who's hand do such donations go? How does that nation define the term agriculture? Does it go beyond essential food and fiber to include such products as the opium poppy?
This, of course, is not the sort of study which can be made by mailing out a questionnaire form. In fact, no established method of coming into possession of such information is available, save those used in the investigation of other criminal activities. The primary need is for local government to re-define the meaning of the terms and to punish violations as rigidly as the do other transgressions of the law.
In so doing we may well learn a great deal more about ourselves, too. We are a gullible people by world standards and often ready to take their expressed needs of to be dire emergency when that is not always the case. We react though government programs at both national and state levels. We join in church and social club in-gatherings of aid and we, as individuals, often give to groups of unknown merit.
This is not the time to cancel such giving. Far from it. It is now more important n ever that we set forth the image that is so natural to the America public to be willing- even eager - to give to help other in times of genuine need.
Or image around the world is not at its best around the world today because large numbers of people have been mis-led by those who would do us harm to think our motives for taking actions are questionable. In truth, some of our own people, ally themselves with more from what may be called learned-idiocy than any other single reason.
Give. But examine why and where your do so with a bit more care. Try to make sure your gift gets where you intend it to go.
A.L.M. December 15, 2003 [c398wds]
Monday, December 15, 2003
PLAY SOME OLDIES
The United States Senate can be a dull place.
C-Span is about our only connection we have with the active and inactive affairs of the Senate of a steady basis. The lackluster lulls which are so often a part of the day's “business” are dragged before us on C-Span. They also provide sotto voce background notes, included from time-to-time as public service announcements, pointing out that these slack times, offering silence and solitude, are a normal part of the senatorial day. We are thus assured the members are working harder than ever in “committees” “commissions”, “boards”,”caucuses”, and things prefaced by the Latin term “ad hoc”- something-or-other, assuring us that something must be getting done some where.
C-Span might do well add some sparkle to the viewer's day, by inserting taped recordings of previously delivered speeches by some of the Senate's “old timers”.
Several such senatorial showmen of a time long-gone era are still at it and they are available at the sound of mike being clicked on.
Robert Byrd, of West Virginia. Would be among my favorites. Teddy Kennedy, from New England ,is good at it as well, and there must be others with whom I am not acquainted.
Men and women of this diminishing breed used to be trained and tutored by methodology and example by experts in the of talking without saying anything in particular.
The stance, the posture, the insinuation of eagerness to get started, and the vast sweep of the forearm and wavering hand which draws in some special wiffledust from above to polish up a specific idea. They are part of the show and what is being said in words is not all that important. Informative,yes; but not critical in what is to be accomplished - a change in the hearer's viewpoint.
The orator uses passions - from pink all the way to purple, if need be, It is there as a gossamer web which he applies deftly on the spur of the moment and often only in passing. The sight of his slumped shoulders can make his hear feel the burden of his heavy words. Adroitly the can snap his fingers, wave his wand-like hands and create an opposite feeling of elation and youthful joy The speaker remains at ease and moves about naturally knowing as well as a film editor what his “best side” might be. Good orators are never nervous “bobbers” or “weavers” at the lectern. An experienced orator will step away confidently yet stay put on camera, he may sidle, shuffle or sashay. He does all those subtle little things others think are the job of the person monitoring him on two or three cameras set at different angles. He selects what is best for the precise moment. If there something which demands being voiced in a whisper? He can do that loud enough to budge a banquet hall, an give an illusion of having passed a juicy bit of gossip over the back yard fence.
Actors! Actors one and all! A dying breed.
A.L.M. December 14, 2003 [c528wds]
Sunday, December 14, 2003
TV OR NOT TV?
Aspirants seeking political office need to realize early in their careers that precise, controlled television coverage is essential to any modern political campaign. It replaced the railroad's rear car platform of long ago.
It is a definite technique which must be learned and the sooner the better.
Far too many might-be political leaders take the wrong path at the start and it is a difficult, even hopeless, to correct the error.
Proper use of television cannot be a haphazard thing. It must be a well-planned activity sustained and guarded against it from other media. And, it can be over done in the wrong places.
“More” is often “less” in the use of TV. The concept calls, not grabbing at each and every opportunity to be on the air, but rather in precise placement of demographically prepared material professionally produced for maximum results. The campaigner who grabs at every street corner camera opportunity to be on TV reaps a quite harvest. He is shown at his average or worst, rather than at his best ...with all warts, wens, and wrinkles plainly detailed rather than rendered minimal by makeup discretely and professionally applied.
TV has become so common among us that it pays to pick and choose with special care which aspects of it are going to be used and which ones will be refused. A chance mention on a news show can be more harmful to the campaign than one think, being, usually, out of context and tinted with dangers of being mis-understood or mis-applied.
The Ross Perot campaign some years ago, clarified many aspects of how campaigning should be done. For the first time, on a major scale, we saw how each niche can be made to work wonders. We also saw examples of where and how one might easily go astray - usually through a lack of innovative attention to many details. Television is still growing. It is not yet a definite solidified, in-stone entity. It can be risky but it a politician's best avenue to high office available today. Neither,is it sacrosanct. It does not stand too well alone and it often the skill with which it is balanced with the use of other media which reaches the required voters.
A modern campaigner ignores television at his own peril. It can also be wrongly used if one thinks of it in a limited sense of being a mere entertainment form. There is a vast difference between appearing as emcee on “Saturday Night Live and in being a guest on “Meet The Press”.
Few of us in the voting public, really understand how deeply television has affected our lifestyles. The changes have been profound. We need to reflect on our voting practices more than ever before.
A.L.M, December 13, 2003 [c474wds]
Saturday, December 13, 2003
RE-DATES
One of the best ways to identify the date on which the old TV re-run show you are watching was produced is to learn all you can about automobiles.
If you would rather not be reminded of how long ago that was - the first time it was shown on TV – then, forget
I ever mentioned any of this.
I, myself, like to know. If there's something I remember from, say, thirty-five or forty years ago, then I say “more power to that section of my memory.”
Only a true dyed-in-the-chrome automobile buff can be trusted to do this identification work well, however. They have to know, for sure, what year the so-and so-model off what car had such an such a gizmo on it that other cars did not have and, probably, did not want.
There was time when TV producers used cars or horses to move characters around from one staid setting to another. Maybe you recall, when color TV was just catching on, how producers realized they had an economy device at hand. Our horse-seated hero, on his way to the next scene, wandered though the canyons, past the high waterfalls, across the plains and into the dense forest ... a five minute travel interlude until the action got started again. Urban themes demanded a chase of some sort and the automobiles took over. The written script could be shortened by several pages by watching the car weave in and out of traffic with either the hero or the heavy at the wheel.
Watching TV with an auto nut in the co-pilot's set can be an advantage within itself. They can tell you, almost to the day, when the film was made by the cars used, what extras they had and how they responded to a skillful driver's every whim They know what years cars had high tail fins, when they had low ones, when stabilizers were in or out, what year such-and-such a brand of gasoline, oil or air came in the market and how little they cost then. They know that TV producers, eager to save a few bucks, made trade-out advertising deals with car dealers and distributors to use their models on TV.
You find out, promptly, when your TV re-run was originally filmed, but you also find you have stopped watching and become all wrapped up, instead, in “talking cars.”
Someone ought to tap the car expert's capability of forecasting the future by being so adept at past-casting what has been for so many years. The car expert could be our secret weapon in international plans to out guess everyone else's plan for the future.
A.L.M. December 12, 2003 [c467wds]
Friday, December 12, 2003
GORED
Albert Gore hurt himself and at least three other people recently when he announced he was supporting former Governor Harold Dean of Vermont for the Democratic nomination.
As should be obvious, he lowered his personal ratings by a noticeable notch by utterly and callously ignoring his former running mate without even the courtesy of a telephone call. Leiberman, who, himself, had delayed entering the campaign until he made sure Albert Gore was not going to seek the nomination is a serious person. This thoughtless act must have irked those who felt the Gore-Leiberman ticket should have read the other way around. Lieberman drew a worthy group of voters to Gore's side and this was no way to think him for his loyalty. Certainly this this was a poor way for Gore to say thank you for loyalty by a former running mate. Furthermore, this incident will excite rumors that all was well in the Gore-Leiberman camp during the last election which Gore still still insists was “stolen” - a charge about which we hear nothing voiced by Senator Leiberman.
The harm which might well come to Howard Dean by this close association with the likes of Al Gore are less apparent and my be stayed for a time. Lieberman touched on them when he noted that he was amazed that Gore could support Dean who favors a host of measures Gore campaigned against. Gore, as usual, is getting on the band wagon of the favorite early, perhaps without noticing the exact baggage the wagon was hauling. Such deviations from principles might well appear later. I think Professor Gore can work his pressing educational duties in well enough to keep the Dean campaign going. I do not foresee any real difficulty between the two men until an announcements make known, publicly, that celebrated Vermont Maple syrup was originally created by Al Gore in those years before he invented the Internet.
Yes, I do think the situation might well become that ludicrous in the weeks and months ahead.
In the political arena, “to be gored” is a most unpleasant hazard.
A.L.M. December 11, 2003 [c362wds]
Thursday, December 11, 2003
THE OTHER WHITE MEAT
Annually – usually around budget crunching time - far too many of our elected officials turn chicken on pork
The list of pork barrel projects funding with taxpayer money by our Congress grows longer and meatier year by year.
You will know when the list is first available because that ls the day your local newspaper will devote at least a portion of their editorial page to boxed display of the rather impressive list. I have often wondered what enterprising newspaper editor will feature the list as just another comic feature striped in with the rest of in the funnies in their proper section.
The long list usually presents the cost of the project, the exact location, and few words making it sound unnecessary and usually without additional critical comment. So often the sole editorial comment is in the terse headline: “T'sk, T'sk! Or, some have been known to head it all up with the words: “For shame...”
It all makes good breakfast talk,for a day or so – largely because the local radio and TV shows look forward to the coming of the pork list each year and dwell on it at great length – as it relates to other areas than their own.
A prime concern this year is fifty-million dollars to go to the founding a giant, indoor rain forest in the State of Iowa. It is needed as an educational tool, it reported.
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio, will get $200,000 of your money.
The Senate Office Building in D.C. will get a new exhaust fan for their kitchen thanks to your gift of $108.000.
You may never be aware of the fact that when the Luveme, Alabama needed new sidewalks and street furniture you helped out a bit by giving them one hundred thou.
Elsewhere, $6.2 million went to “Wood Utilization Research”. A cool million was spent for a DNA sampling studies of bear in Montana.
These, and many others, are to be found in the annual omnibus spending bill. They are listed every year in hundreds of our nation's newspapers, on radio and TV and nothing whatsoever is ever done to try to prevent others from being added in the future.
A.L.M. December 10, 2003 [c381wds]
Wednesday, December 10, 2003
MUSIC MOMS
We have heard a great deal about “Soccer Moms” in recent years. What about “Music Moms,”, or to be more specific - “Band Moms?”
There are more bands in Middle Schools and High School, I'd say, than soccer teams and a Band Mom is on duty both day and night. The band has strong ties to each of the major sports and does not have a respite interlude in which devotees may rest and recuperate from a football season, a baseball season, track, gymnastics or or whatever.
Only a few of our exalted Halls of Edification take soccer seriously to the extent of fielding and supporting teams, but just about all of them have a band or orchestra of some sort. It is usually an add-on, too, not fully supported by the school authorities and left more or less to members and parents of those who play an instrument. It is not unusual for parents of band members to perform a taxi-bus-van routine with the family vehicle to transport the band and their instruments to scheduled football games. Often it is up to moms to provide the means of getting there and home. Band Moms and ,sometimes, Band Dads urge their musically oriented offspring to develop their talent and they also function as purchasing agents for all sorts of related items: buying reeds and double reeds for woodwind players, buying strings for stringers, slide oil for trombone players; mutes for trumpets; a set of new brushes for the drummer and fancy, electronic tuners for whatever instrument their talented tooter, tweaker, toucher or thwacker may play - or hold.
A great deal of parental care and concern goes into this phase of teen-growing. Their work is not always appreciated.
Parents, while cleaning up the attic many years later will come across an odd shaped case. They will open it and both mother and daughter will open it and laugh. Mom will say: “Well, would you look at this! Here's that long, black, wooden thing you used to blow on an make sqeak so much!”
The daughter will take the old clarinet in hand, jiggle the keys a bit, and somewhat wistfully comment : “It might have worked out better if I had gone out for football instead.”
A.L..M December 9, 2003 [c389wds]
Tuesday, December 09, 2003
NICK NAMES
I happen to live in and area where, for some strange reason, people have long called each other by some of the oddest nick names every created.
Part of the reason for such a tendency might be found in the fact that our community is a bit ingrown in the sense that we have about a score of family names. That is changing rapidly in modern times, and I would be willing to bet the nice naming will change with it. At least, it will change to a more,multi-lingual tone because, in one area town, the Hispanic population now totals 3600 or about nine per cent of the total population.
So the fine art or crafting freaky nicknames may be on the way out . When I first, moved to this Valley area, I was puzzled when people spoke of “Skeeter”, “Wink”, “Snuffy” and “Flim”. There were others, of course, and, in time, I came to know each of them as people rather than as marks setting them apart from others. Some were associated with first names of the individuals such as:: “Bessie”, “Bev”,“Theo,”,”Oz ,” which served well until you found their first names to be some entirely different. There were others who were know by their two initials from the day of their birth until they were pushing up daisies when people learned their real names by reading the inscription on their tombstones.
I knew one family which carried this initials-to new limits. Both the husband and wife disliked the names they had “been saddled with” all their lives so they decreed that each of their children would be given initials at birth with the privilege of choosing their own name, using those letters as the base of their self-chosen name.
Towns in our area have nicknames, too. They are not intended to be so, exactly but they came into being a short form or quick led used to identify the town. I had a bit of trouble finding “The Cave” until I came to realize people were speaking of the town named “Weyers Cave.” Others, who were not going to the Cave were, instead going to “The Draft.” I found I had two choices but the larger – the town of Stuarts Draft in the southeastern side of the county took precedence over “Ramseys Draft” west of the county seat. A third town was called “Gus-Spirnz”. That one took me a while but it finally hit me that people mean they were going to or coming from “Augusta Springs, Virginia”.
Combined with native dialects, nicknames can be a problem at times. When they bother you, think about your own area and the strange names you find there. No place escapes the nick name entirely.
A.L.M. December 8, 2003 [471wds]
Monday, December 08, 2003
US
The British historian Arnold Toynbee once described America as bring "a large, friendly dog in a very small room. Every time it wags its tail, it knock over a chair."
You can't really argue against such a statment, can you? Would you want to do so?
I, for one, do not wish to contest the description because there is so much, good-natured Truths contained there in.
It is so accurate to see the United States - us , that is - "us" - as if we were, indeed, a large, wooly, big-boned, rather akward dog earestly seeking friendship and comradely associations -not only with other dogs, but with do the dogls enemies such as cats et cetera. Most of all the big, happy, tail-wagging dog seeks comfort and alliance with its master or peers and other human beings with whom he comes in contact even casually.
The trouble is often that the big friendly by his expressive eagerness comes on a bit too strong at times children, women and grown men shy away from him or her as being too blustery and far too eager to please. The very size of the critter scares people away.
Certainly that can be said of much of our dealings with other people both here at home and overseas. We often rush in when even the angels are biding time outside other people's lives. We can see the idea in our relations in Iraq at the pressent time. We have undertaken a number of educational and social reforms, many of them probably radically different from Iraqi methods, on the assumption that we knew what is best for them. In eagerly "wagging our friendly tails" we may well have tumbled chairs and tables on which their system has long rested. We have been guilty of doing the same sort of thing here at home: we set up programs to train young girls and older women for jobs which do not exist.
Just down the block from a church I used to attend, a family owned a large dog. It was not a St. Bernard, fluffy and soft; not a sleek Great Dane, but a big, rusty-red, short-haired, slack-jawed and clumsy monster of a dog. He was gentle giant, but stranger did not know that and when he turned up and church socials on church's small lawn, he got everyone's attention. He wagged his tail with unending vigor, went rapidly from one person to another seeking attention. He welcomed every morsel of foodstuff tossed his way and accepted them with bounding shows of gratitude by begging for more. He was just the size that would not fit under the usual card tables used at such lawn socials...so down they would go and chairs next to them, as well. If he liked you, he leaned against you to be scratched. Small children and old persons were literally bowled over at times.
Such a cheerful visitor was not welcome. A phone call tothe famly would bring a member of that family to give one call and a whistle and he was gone...but not forgotten.
Perhaps we should temper our presence in Iraq and elsewhere; try not to fighten the natives by being too friendly and upsetting things they find bring them comfort and confidence it their future.
A.L.M. December 7, 2003 [c-432wds]
Sunday, December 07, 2003
WHY SRI LANKA?
The old name “Ceylon” suited me just fine. Why did they have to change it to “Sri Lanka”?
There has been some talk about conspiracies in recent years and I think one might exist in this field of nation-name-changing. Someone out there be they on the Right. On the left, at the Center or Vertical, for that matter, in politics out to make me and my generation appear to be dumber, we have appeared to have been dumber, on occasion, than we are.
Sri Lanka is a nice name. It is from the Sanskrit language and it means “beautiful land” which is about as trite as you can get in naming a country. Just about all nations must have been called “beautiful” land, place, spot, swamp or hillside at one time or another. Anyone finding a new place in which he might live will think of it as being the most beautiful spot in the entire world, until he moves in and finds out what the tax bill is going to be.
For the old name of “Ceylon” always meant good, high quality tea and fine cinnamon. It was changed to Sri Lanka in 1972, and has had several other names down though the centuries. Among those those names, for a short time, the island about the size of our State of West Virginia, was called “Serendipia”. We get our mysterious word “serendipity” from that name and certainlky this island was a treasure with a topicl setting an d yetwith mountains reaching up as high as 2700 feet in the south central portion..
Serendipity is the art of the act of finding a treasure when you are not looking for it. The small island was indeed a treasure in many ways to early settlers there and worthy of the mysterious term. Very little is known of the remnant of aborigines (Vedda) who inhabited the island prior on the coming of tribal groups from Northern India and, later, the Portuguese, Dutch and British.
independence was won in 1948. For the past two decades the predominant group the Sinhala (74%) has been opposed by y seperatist group in the south called the Tamil Kingdom. In 2001, Norway .
Saturday, December 06, 2003
POMP?
I watched the formal opening of the English House of Lords on C-Span this week.
I was most impressed.
Others, I found, were not so moved. They were of the opinion that it was all a mess of pomp and circumstance which was meaningless to anyone in touch with the modern world. One harked all the way back to early Red Skelton days without realizing how old it sounded, saying “That's about as interesting as watching paint dry, isn't it?”
There is quite a bit of ceremony included in the observation, but if one considers it in an historical sense, each little thing has special meaning. Even the heavy robes some were wearing. If you have ever been in cathedral type building for hours you know how cold it can get. Nature's caverns maintain a steady temperature-what is is? -fifty-seven degrees, but man's architectural “caverns” call for robes, long johns or coats of some sort. I have never heard it mentioned, but it is logical that the wearing of wigs and headgear may have stemmed from the same natural condition. A bare pate is uncomfortable and a wig covering or a head gear unlike a crown would be appreciated.
In context,you will find that the majority of the people parading are wearing modern business suits. A tradition is apparent there because all the men wore fore-in-hand ties of blue. I saw one exception, a rather rotund man wearing a blue suit and a blue suit covering much of his front but with a tie of faded fire-engine red with some brown decorations. Who knows? That one man may well have - in expressing his individualism - started a whole new tradition for the ceremony which opens the House of Lords.
C-Span does a commendable job in bringing us programs of this nature. Another outstanding example was recent address by Tom Brokaw at a Press Club gathering honoring him. One would think that public radio and public television might lead the way in such programming, but they seem to be set in favor of re-running of old U.S. and British shows with commercial positions filled with emotional pleas for funds.
This heritage thing, for another moment....
British traditions are very much a part of our own. It may be because I have always lived in Virginia which was very much Royal Colony and part of the British Empire at one time, that I am more aware of our English heritage than many may be. I have lived and visited in England, as well, which make it my logical home away from home.
A.L.M. December 5, 2003 [c447wds]
Friday, December 05, 2003
DOERS
There are many men who want to see a thing done and one among them does it.
What makes such a person take action? What is special about his, or her, make-up that would cause them to differ from others about them?
I have often wondered about great inventions and discoveries; about the fact that many other men must have had the identical idea; actually thought of it years before, but never did anything about it. Certainly. Columbus was not the first to imagine there could be a way to the other side of wherever he was at the moment. He was not the only one to have some idea about the world being round ...certainly not flat. The idea returned again and again to his mind until he did something about it. He acted, even though he did not understand, it now appears, and, furthermore, never really came to know for sure that he had discovered a totally new continental expanse rather than touching on the edge of Orierntal lands others had told about having visited.
Could it be a quality that touches on the supernatural? I rather doubt that, because everything else we do is - except having life within us - can be plotted out in a logical, understandable manner. It could be a quality often called being "stubborn" which is, usually, viewed with scorn, but which could have a redeeming value if it is the spark which enlarges into a flame of dedication to get a thing on the road to development and completion. There may also be a link with another word which was, I think, devised from scraps of languages H. W. Fowler had left over fifty years ago when he did his thing of taking the English language apart and sorting the pieces of it in to linquistic bins and shelves for our better use. That word is one my mother used to urge upon us when we were lazy. To get along in this competative world, to meet both educated and non-educated smart-alecks you're going to come up against you must have, she decreed, something called "stickability"...or "stick-to-a-tive-ness"- the common guts which enable you to stick at a thing until it is absolutely, stone-cold done!
Very often simply little ideas come to us and are dropped without see the gold they contain. Think how often ancient man must have noticed that the cockleburr type of vegetation affixed itself to his clothing before someone took that simple idea and made a paper clip for office use and Velcro cloth for disappearing act magicians and now for everyone. Somebody watched a beaver build a dam. Someone with a glint in his eye and grease in his elbows saw the basic principle of ou labor saving evises in Nature and emulated such action mechanically.
This is about the time I usually kick myself! Here I am writing about it, instead of doing some of it myself!
Your case could be just as hopeless...sitting here reading about it.
Do you realize we are both holding up the advancment of civilization?
A.l.M. December 4, 2003 [c599wds]
Thursday, December 04, 2003
IN CHARGE
One of the truly great thrills which comes to most American boys and girls is the official certifiation allowing them to take over the sole control of a bucket of bolts on a public highway and to be repectively called a "driver."
Until one acheives that level in society, he or she is still a kid.
In some marvelous manner that little piece of plastic made into a card to be carried about and displayed, a name, an address and some statistics can set one apart from all others.
I think most of us remember those days when we were lerning to drive, but not quite to the exam point. It was a job my father undertook with both of us older boys and, then, by the time my younger brother and two sisters became of driving age it was a subject taught in high school. For various reason - some of them sound and others based on fears of failure - parents did not want to be the one required to teach their children to drive. Little Junior, smart as he was, of course, never seemed to be "mature" enough to take on responsibiltiies associated with driving. That applied to the family car and even more so to the jalopy he wanted so urgently.
Farm kids, I always felt, had a special advantage, because their driving skills were put to use at a far younger age. The farm was commonly low on hands to do all the work required, and it seemed completely logical that the young boys and girl present could be the one to sit on the tractor and keep it going at a slow pace which other necessary work was being done by the farmer. Pretty soon it seemed just as logical to ask the kid to "bring the truck around" from wherever it had been parked. I knew farm kids who were driving tractors, cars and trucks before they were in school. Of course, much of that might be said to have been "against the law", but legal law and common sense ae both often twisted into some odd shapes when focused by need.
My Dad instructed me. He did a good job, I have long realized he did so with a calm confidence which was remarkable. His comments were always positive , he never scolded or yelled as I have seen and heard others do. After all these years, I have realized how he was able to do it all so well.
Skip back a few decades. It was in the Fall of the year 1924 that Dad bought his first car. That was the year he was thirty-four years of age. It was a Ford "touring car", black, of course, because that was the only color of car Henry made in those days. It had a printed door on the driver's side with a "luggage" rack on the outside running board to hold tools and a tire patching kit with glue.
Dad bought the car. The saleman showed him how the things worked; they drove the car across town and back to the garage where the sales person dismounted and Dad drove the car home for us to see. Others, I find, learned to drive in pretty much the same way by trial and error during the next few weeks.
A.L.M. December 3, 2003 [c720wds]
Wednesday, December 03, 2003
CHOICES
I rarely have to search for a topic upon which to write.
I devised a system years ago which keeps me supplied with a regular supply of partly written column ideas.
Initially I worked it in small notebooks but,in time, they became cumbersome because used notes remained in place. I switched to a loose leaf arrangmwent of half-sheets of used copy paper fitted to a small clipboard. I keep three such boards in active use at all times. One is at bedside and used most of all. There is another which I keep in the side door shelf of the family van for travel time and waiting use. The third clipboard is mobile inthe sense that it is sometimes at my workplace, other times it moves to the dining room, near the TV set, or to the bathroom on occasion. Sharpened pencils are with each clip board and I always keep a pencil or pen nearby.
The clipboard system worked well for me me but it does have some drawbacks. One is that I have trouble reading my own handwriting after it "cools" a bit. And,the stack of notes gets taller and taller,and it becomes difficult to seek out any one from all the others for re-working or additions. So, I have recently,extended the system to include "Notes To Me #1,2,3 etc" in the form of small floppy disks. They are filed as "idea - tobacco juice"...."idea-Onion skin..."idea - supersonic silliness" etc. They are earlier to bring up a page and add a bit to them as time allows. I set aside a portion of my work week simply to search and revise such starter stuff. If one gets fat, or if I simply feel I want to write about that subject, I move it to my desktop and write from there.
I also have a stack of scapbooks I contrived many years ago plus three or four yards of shelves holding large post binders filled capacity with thousands of pages such as this. Oh, yes...one more thing. Be sure to include the family in all of this. The writing pads I keep at those places are for family use, as well. The response has been affirmative for me. They are used by the telephone for notes; they are in demand when the grandchldren visit and need paper on which to draw or color, even used to make up grocery lists and,more recently as christmas gift lists - left at a spot where others will be sure to see it.
By encouraging others to use the clip boards they have gained family approval as acceptable clutter around the house.
A.L.M. December 2, 2003 [c461wds]
Tuesday, December 02, 2003
WIND WOES
Power from the wind!
It is a wealth we keep putting off.
For as long as I can remember, science has been setting forth the rather sensible idea of using nature's winds to produce much needed electrical energy supplies, and, after after a sudden, encouraging spurt of activity and even the construction of some rotors at likely sites, the chronic protesters come out of wherever it is they lie in wait. They put a stop of such projects before they can be completed.
The environmentalist freaks have successfully curbed all wind
power generation development by insisting that the spinning wheels might kill migratory birds. They refuse to even consider the fact that the bird population of Earth has survived the existence of thousands of windmills which have existed previously.
The eco-no-no persons are not alone in opposition. There seems to be a rather general malaise among many of the public at large and especially among politicians. They refuse to believe that any plan as simple as the development of wind power lacks glamor and pizz-zazz which they associate with grand concepts.
Our future is “ blowing in the wind.” As of now, we continue to falter an d shy away from taking any serous steps to bring such changes about to benefit . On the land, and at sea opportunity awaits us. It may well be that a stray albatross, sea gull or humming bird might collide with one of our windmills having just narrowly missed a tall ship and a jet airliner .There are scores of people who now operate windmills and sell power to their local power producers electrical firms in addition to meeting their own needs. The idea has been proved in what my be called “back yard”operations. It is past time we develop it to our mutual advantage it nationally.
A.L.M. December 1, 2003 [c318wds]
Monday, December 01, 2003
FRAMED
Invitation for us to try to “play that Hollywood role” are awaiting us in the seemingly infinite selections of eyeglass frames now showing at our local mall.
There was time, and not too long ago, when you wore glasses with a thin wire binder around the glass and over the ears; celluloid frames were av available, or you could pay a bit more and wear rimless glasses with gold or silver ear grabbers.
Now, they are yours in a splendid array of all shapes, sizes, colors and materials including metals, plastics, alloys, precious metals studded with jewels, as well as the plain old nothings. You have a choice of colors, too - the entire known spectrum plus some designer creation choices. Holiday motif glass frames are yours, too, such as two orange colored pumpkins for Halloween wear – clear glasses for day wear at the office, and smoky lens ones for evening wear when you let the kids go along while you trick-or-treat throughout the neighborhood and try to appear discretely incognito.
One curious aspect of frame selection is one which closely associates with acting careers, either on the big screen or on TV. If you are in such a situation. you must choose the right glasses to keep people from recognizing you in public while you pay press agents and publicity experts to get more people to recognize you on sight.. This usually demand extra dark glasses – the darker the better.
Glamor glasses have increased in size in some areas. There are now circular or per-shaped lens glass or plastic lens styles which start at the hairline, and descend to the upper lip on each side of the nose. Lever-like strips reach for the the general area of the ears for support.
“Granny “glasses are popular with some of the older hippie types featuring lower half lens and simple wire frames. One wonder when the pince-nez style will return with metal pincers to hold plain glass in place an a colorful ribbon dangling down to be affixed to lapel or dress fringe. Much depends on the the revival of the twang the human voice acquires when the nose is pinched shut tightly while speaking. That is a style, as yet, untouched by the frame fashioning folks, but, in time, it , too, will be included.
After all, it is just good, common sense for us to take good care of our eyesight, is is not?
A.L.M. November 30, 2003 [c421wds]
|
