THINGS UNDONE

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 notifiable 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 if "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 and play 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, 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. I see other older men continuing to do such chores, but not for long. Om,e had to learn things the hard way and we do not all have the luxury of time in which to use trial-and-error methods. I know they are watching me, too. Every now and then we spot each other "showing off" by doing physical things we know, full well, are either forbidden or questionable.

Yet there is another aspect of it all, as well. Often 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 toward 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" living'; as "condiment" rather than "entre" and as a "dessert" rather than the "main course" of your intellectual meal.

A.L.M. March 30, 2004 [c504wds]

 
ONE MORE

, Mel Gibson's recent monumental and rather sensational merchandising of his R-rated movie “The Passions of Christ” set the ball a-rollin' and people are avidly searching for religious books to read or re-read. May I suggest one.. I re-read it a year or two ago after about fifty years or more..You will find it at your local library

Look for a small book:.HenryVan Dyke's "The Story of the Other Wise Man". Yes ,it is about Christmas time and Wise Men and who can deny that we have need of such learned men here in the Spring of 2004 during the days of worldwide terror.

The "other" wise man was named Artaban, in case you, too, have forgotten and his faithful horse for the initial phase of his long journey was named Vasda. (What a fine "Jeopardy" category that would make. A rider and his and his steed, either with other such steeds and riders or alone as the super-duper "Final Jeopardy" question. "Artaban and Vasda." Identify. The question, of course, would be : "Who was the Other Wise Man and what was the name of his Arabian horse?” Reversed, of course, in good “Jeopardy” fashion.)

Oddly enough, I find the “camel” Artaban used for the major portion portion of his journey has not named in the book.

The edition had was published in 1906, in New York, by Harper and Brothers. The original copyright date shows as 1895. The book is a serious examination of the Eastern faith called Zoroaster ism and is set in ancient Babylon, in part where the Three Wise Man - members of the Magi group - are watching for the special star to shine. They were called Castor, Melchior and Balthazar and and they had reasoned according to the Second scroll of a Hebrew book called "Daniel" that a Messiah was to be born who "would restore Jerusalem be the special appointed One, the Prince" and they had studied the event and the timing of it in detail threw Babylonian numerology practices and with the help of a local religious scholar named Abgarus. Artaban is to watch for the special star in the sky and they will wait ten days for him to join them from his home a hundred miles to the East.

The Oriental religious background may hamper the present-day reader because we are no longer conversant with such ecumenical thought - in spite of our pretended Oneness. The story will seem "used" too because so many writers have used the "plot" in the meantime. In his quest to take fine gifts to the new born Babe, he meets with persons in dire need and shares the gifts with them until he has nothing left to present to the Christ child. In his old age, we see him as one who has, after all, met the Christ in a very personal way through service to others even though he never actually found the Babe in the Manger or came to know Jesus in reality.

Before Christmas rolls around, make it a special point to re-read "The Story of the Other Wise Man " by Henry Van Dyke. You'll be glad you renewed literary ties with Truths from long ago.whch are useful today as swellheaded old world. hasn't changed as much as we like to think it by this time..

A.L.M. March 29, 2004 [c505wds]

 
DECOR

Why do some people get so upset about decor?

To me, it seems entirely natural that all we would want would be to have our our furniture, all of our many possessions available quickly and conveniently arranged..That would be proper. Any kind of decor idea beyond that practical, utiliitarian level can only be done with check book in hand and a well-fed bank account..

My idea of proper residential decor is wrapped up in the motto:? a place for everything and every thing in its place.? Neat, clean, ,inexpensive and easy to do. It is not a household problem about which people should worry, fret and double their trouble.

All too many people, out to equal or excel friends and neighbors start off with great enthusiasm and end up being so-so. Many a home which the owner's think of as perfect is really ?1943 Ho-Jo? at best. There are many types of home re-doers: There are the:?Granny's Attic? people who are happy with organized clutter. Others choose to excel ion some special way :Dan'l Boone-ers? may allow no Persian rugs in their home under the sturdy, solid wood and unpainted chairs, tables, beds and benches. Establishing n historical feeling or selecting a section of the nation as typical of the life style you enjoy.

I remember visitmg a home years ago which was owned by a husband and wife who ran a furniture store in a nearby city. They had funished their large house ?by the book?. It was a deadly place to visit. Every room - upstairs and down, looked like a display area in their store. It was not the placefor an entire week-end. I would have been better off in fheir store.. At least, it was what it was - iot pretending to be something it could hope to become

We have many type of decorators. You can build a Spansh home which may turn out to be more Mexican; an Oriental may conjure up more of a G&S Musical Comedy than ut does authenic Asian living. Or, you can always choose mod or futuritic. Be ready for the mod house to look like something out of a Buck Rogers comic book or prepare youself so se your futuristic home of glass, stainless steel, colorful plasfics and paints with elegantly reostated lighting tucked away in cracks and crevices.

.I think of one decoration job I saw many years ago which impressed me. The house was at the far end of our little town, but the railroad tracks; so close. In fact, that the house trembled when a train passed.. The small frame house was owne by a negro couple both of whom did odd job and house work for the town dwellers. In those days,.as a youngeter, I delivered the town's weekly paper. That family was one of my better and most appreciative customers. I always enjoyed my brief afternoon visits. The house was set within a wrap-around.white picket fence. A green grass lawn ws the only one in that end of town - bushes cllipped back neatly, too.. The four widows across the front of the house were,I remember one year, wore the most beautiful green drapes I remember ever seeing. .Imagine my surprise when I found them to be made of inexpensive crepe wrapping paper. A wide strip of the green tissue paper, attached to curtain rod at the top, fell down the sides of each window. They were gently tied back with a thin, silvery string and a white platsic harp was fixed to the string on the widnow I examined c losely. So much of the decorqtion of the house had a personal touch not that you thought of fhem as being home-made at all.

I ofen think of the couple's home and I think I find something which seems to keep telling me trying to tell me that so may of us go about this decor bit backwards.

The furniture, the decorations. the colors do not make up the real decor of a home,.Only the personal pretense of the living, loving people who dwell there and use and enjoy their holdings give the place a special aire, a unique aura, a rich, encrusting patina which bring it forth wearing a happy halo setting it apart from all others..You don't buy d?cor, you live it.

A.L.M.. March 27, 2004 [c735wds]

 
ESTIMATES

I am amazed at the statistics which come our way uninvited these days.

This past week, I heard a talking head interrupt his own freely flowing verbal listing of his reasons about the many things – what, when and where - which went wrong, and caused 9-11 to happen.

I suppose it, in his mind, at least, his words had something to do with the subject at hand because he paused long enough in his list of reasons concerning the causes of 9-11, to speak an aside, and, then to quickly repeat it when his panel associates did not seem to respond alertly enough to his statement which noted our relationship to eternity. “In relation to eternity,” I'm sure he said, “the average length of a human life totals about seven minutes.”

Just how he had arranged to have eternity to stand still long enough between it's unknown beginning and indefinite end, he did not not say.

Nor did he clarify exactly what strange system of math he used to arrive at his sensationally short seven minute life span for Man. minute. It would seem the element of time would be flexible since eternity, as such, must continue without end. That makes his statement invalid and of little use for any worthwhile purpose.

Where do we find these intellectual crackpots?

How can I trust any of his observations about any subject after he dishes up such fare as that? How many more of “them” are running around loose out there, awaiting their turn to contribute to television's tedious trail of trivia?

I find it easy enough to totally forget anything he might have said about the causes of 9-11, but that bit about man's seven minute life span has followed me around ever since he dropped it within my range of hearing.

The concept solves so many of life's problems, doesn't it? How about all those things we started and never quite finished? There must be a score of times when we would have done so-and- so, had we had enough free time! Think what a fine excuse we now have for ourselves. We don't have to start things if we know we will only be around for seven minutes or less ...because with eternity advancing the span is being shortened all the time. Why bother about anything? Now, even tomorrow, is too late..

I think many of us can agree with the fact, that in the Creator's eye we appear as small things. Certainly we are minuscule in relation to the proportions of other objects made, but to think we are of such little consequence in his overall plan is asking too much.

Seven minutes! That's about the total length of actual program time on television between every-growing blocks of commercials.

A.L.M. March 25. 2004 [c429wds] .

 
THE CHANGES OF TIME

Times do change and people need to change with them or risk being inundated with cumbersome leftovers from the past.

There is no need to carry excessive baggage if you wish to continue the journey as comfortably as possible. I think we have all done enough traveling to have learned that one travels best when one travels light., and with a sincere willingness to leave some of ;conveniences behind. Luggage which does not conform to the set requirements of the airline or these set by the designer of the family car, automatically, become “excess” and can be eliminated without serious inconveniences or discomfort.

I sometimes feel that things go along with greater speed now than they did a few years ago.. Fads are no more than introduced before they are declared to be “old hat” by some other segments of our rather complex social scheme. Young people seem to be on a constant treadmill of change even though it may well be a return to something they used to feel was different and, therefore, good. Changes come more quickly than before.

The extension of our capacity for conceptual planning should bring about some changes to better our way of living. Our record of using our discoveries wisely may not be the best, but there could be a chance that we may use this tremendous sweep of technical advances - once cw come to comprehend what it really encompasses - may, perhaps, learn how to better govern ourselves and to dwell in peace with others about us

One of the prime attributes of our present governing system is that it, too, is subject to change.. The modifications may no be imposing and may even go undetected but our government structure changes with each national election we hold.. Some such shifts, however small, will result in the relationship between authority and citizenship by the actions we favor.
common people of the nation to be drawn together for the common good.

We need to become more aware of the responsibilitywe hold. Can we bring about that strength which is found in unity?

We need to be aware of of aware that change will evolve. We align our lives with many change which take place in our work-place. We can't simply stand still there and progress. We have to go with the changes and see how they can best work for us. We should be ammendable to worthy changee, but not charmed by it into hasty acceptance of plans which are not examined with care. There are subtle things about the way we look at things from generation to generation, and some will differ with principles we have known for many years. There will be such changes in the future and we have to learn to see each as it is and follow the barriers of awareness as they are pushed forward. We need to be aware, too, that not all chance is presented in its true light.. Move toward change willingly, but wish extreme caution. Some “changers”,.remember, have not changed. Beware of that which does not change.

A.L..M. March 26. 2004 [c544wds]

 
ANYONE FOR “ MUMBLY PEG?”

Young children, boys, in particular, used to enjoy playing a game called :”Mumbly Peg” Remember?

I had forgotten about it, until just the other day I chanced upon a mention of the rather odd name and much of it came flooding back to me.
'
I say “much” because, in our family, at least, the game of mumbly-peg was not on the parentally approved list of past times suitable for play by young boys. Sometimes it was more “tolerated'” than recommended largely because neither of us - parents or children -were really aware of the actual rules of the game which was, at one time played extensively..

The negative votes usually came from the simple fact that parents did not like tube idea of their children tossing sharp knives around, which is .pretty much, what mumbly peg was very much about. As I remember it seemed to occur mostly shortly after Christmas as a way to show off how skilled we had become in the use of the new pocket knives so many of us got for gifts - oddly enough, often from our parents ..Some parents reacted strongly. Others watched the Display of such skills and, yet, could simply walk away while saying :“Boys will be boys!”or some other such evasive statement to remove themselves from any possible responsibility hook.

We played a cut-down version.. Actually, the game called for twenty-four different positions from which a knife must be thrown so that it dug in - point first - in a sod target of well-trimmed grass flat on the ground near the thrower's feet. At best, we used, perhaps, five or six of the suggested positions. The simple truth was we were afraid to try some of them and it also presented a wonderful opportunity to show how ignorance can, indeed, be used as an excuse.

No one for mumbly peg? Good.

A.L.M. March 15. 2004 [c326wds}

 
POLITICAL TEMPO

For several weeks I have been wondering about the current presiden­tial election campaign. I’ve had a strange feeling of concern about something being amiss, or of a change that is taking place of which we are not yet fully aware..

I have come to feel, more and more, that it has to do with the timing of the events sol the campaign. I was not the first to question how it came to be that the candidates are using materials which have been, traditionally, retained for use in the final days and hours of the confrontation when there is insufficient time for rebuttal against some of the campaign charges and counter-claims. Issues a personal nature are usually withheld until the late hours of the campaign, but Kerry; questioning George Bush's presence at his National Guard post during the Viet Nam war. Bush set forth official papers including medical reports, and Kerry has yet to do so concerning his wartime activities. He did this far too early in the sequence of planned events, some seem to think. It appears that Kerry’s post-participation in public activism with anti-war groups might well be held for use later on. To embark on that phase of the plans too soon would be risky and it would lose much of its potential value for the GOP.

Why would the campaign seem to get ahead of itself in this manner?

It is, I think, something which runs deeper in our society than the surface of political activities. It is affecting other segments of our national life, and we find ourselves beset with social issues such as “gay marriage laws” and “Under God” motto restrictions. We went at them without definitive investigation and such under study results have been “mixed” at best. It seems, to me, to be connected to with our exceptionally strong advances in the art of communications.

Television, alone. Has revolutionized our political life beyond our ability function well within the old tried-and-true – and often narrow – confines with which we currently have to deal. The use of television in our political campaign has made it totally meaningless for us to have more than a year ahead of the actual Election Day devoted to campaigning. Political actions are faster today.. Where candidates used to require months to get speak to even a small portion of the populace, he can now do in days. By cutting the excessive length of our election time we can avoid voter burn-out which has occurred this year with many voters turning their attention to other concerns such as the War Against Terrorism. Shortening the campaigning period could also help the media do an even more commedable job of reporting. The present elongated system encouyages repetition and the media has been awash in a sea of re-writes, re-runs and deadly use of the same old film clips and snippets.

Our national well being could be even more enhanced if we could be a assured of in depth reforms of our educational system to re-instate the teaching of the history of the United States of America. To secure our future we must have a new generation of qualified, youthful voters being prepared to be better citizens than many of us have been.

We have been alerting to our need for reform by a series of events taking place all around us.

How much longer do we dare wait?

A. L. M. March 24, 2004 [c586wds]

 
AS WE LIKE IT
.
So many people seem to be disappointed with TV shows these days. There are more complaints than compliments, and that is exactly the reverse of what it must become if we are to expect improvement..

So many people seem to think the best way to go about it is to attack. You peck at your keyboard and bat out a scathing letter to let them know how you feel - as if they cared.. To let them know you are disturbed by their actions; or irritated by some small detail that went against your beliefs., .What you have written is better known as a “hate letter” which usually contains a threat that you are not going to listen to or watch that show from that time or that you are canceling your subscription to the offending publication. You let 'em have it with both barrels, and you think you feel better having “done something about it.”

The letter gets to the address you selected`. It is then passed around and parts of it read aloud to show what “this nut said.”.They get your letter but you can't hear them laughing ,and :at “you - not “with” you, as they pass your:”hot”latter around as they make various comments on your mental state “Boy! , we really touched a nerve there,,didn't we!” “ Great stuffe. If one guy out there hates us that much, everyone who has not written must have liked what we did!”

I have worked on the other side I have witnessed just this sort of reversed situation in newspapers, magazines, radio and TV work places. Jobs in those fields are thought o be wrapped in an aura of glamor, but it doesn't take long to observe that such a thin veneer fades away and you have to face
reality.
First, to whom are you addressing your harangue? Certainly not to the star of the show, who is a hireling at best,as a rule. And not to station carrying the offending show. That's their living and very often they have to go with materials Th real, far-off owners make available to them, Why should they forward your nasty letter to wherever the main office might be? If you address your insults to any individuals you have whittled your point down to a tiny potentially legalistic danger point. The agency? The producers?

All of these are tuned to compliments, not to criticism. They will read your letter, laugh about it and say (whole searching for any punctuation or grammar error) “ Boyer really got his attention, didn't we!?” That which you intended to be an insult is a compliment in their eyes, because you have shown your weakness as one, lone individual who did not like what you did.”

A far better way to help control the waste of TV programming time by so many new production is to totally ignore them.

It is not easy to do so.

It is a small beginning. Watch diligently for something you do like on your TV screen. There must be something. If there is nothing, you are watching far too much TV and had better turn to some other facet of the media where you can waste your time just as well. Select something you like/ It may be just a feature within a larger show. Talk it up wish friends and family until you become committed. to what you are saying.. Then, write. If you do so,keep it honest and accurate. Keep it direct in a type fan club impoliticly and start by thanking the person for doing it.. It may take months for such a note to get to where it is intended but when it does arrive
it will be respected and appreciated..

Praise what you like. Modestly. Don't overdo it.

Ignore that which does not meet your standards.

If you like it, say so.

A.L.M March 23, 2004 [c659wds]

 
R R SMALLTIME

I once knew an old lady who used to proudly display a stock certificate in a railroad that never ran because it was never built .

Her father had owned the piece of paper in the fall of 1916. I remember that date because I came into being the same year and share the years with that little railroad that never got on the ground.

It was an interesting undertaking. It had the interest of a great many residents of the area but it seems to have been short-lived. It was named The “Radford, Willis and Southern Railroad:” It was to run from Radford, Virginia all the way to Willis, a total of, perhaps twenty-some miles. The word “Southern” was used because Th founders envisioned a time when it would be extended into the Carolinas. .

We can only guess at how the tiny railroad boom ended. Th half dozen men who set out to build the RW&S^Railway apparently had to face up to the financial realities of their time, but the lady who held the worthless bond and associated clippings form the Bradford “Record and Advance: cherished the dream they had set forth. She saw they as being the vanguard
of the hosts of great railroad men who were to expand their dreams to help make our nation the leading industrial; and commercial force the world had ever known.

Long before I became qualified by year to be an old person, I too became a collector of valuable papers. Just because something does not appear to have intrinsic value does not mean it cannot contain wealth as well. .Just because an item does not appear to have intrinsic value does not mean it cannot hold a treasury of memories and aspirations of these persons who ventured beyond the ordinary bounds of their time

A.L.M. March 22, 2004 [c338wds]

 
TWO PLACED

Have you ever had an interest in bilocation?

It may not rank very high in the world's list of most talked about subjects, but you and I have both wished, at one time or another, to be in two places at the same time.

That's what bilocation is all about. It has also been called “bi-polarization” but some dedicated bi-doers insist that term be reserved to mean one possible method of getting oneself into such a state of physical duplicity.

Sir Robert Peel and a friend were walking in the streets of London one aftenoon when they chanced to meet the poet Lord:Byron. They chatted and agreed to meet that evening. Lord Byron, at that time, however, was at that time far away in Patras, Greece and lying abed, seriously ill.

In 1896 in the city of New York, a man by the name of William MacDonald was being tried for burglary. When he was hiding his loot at a house on Second Avenue, he was apprehend by six witnesses. He put up a fight and, in the confusion of six men trying at get at him, he escaped capture. He disappeared into the darkness of the night.

The six witnesses testified in court that he was the man they had seen.. Each of them swore they had a good look at the man and they named William McDonald as the burglar.

The defense lawyers met the six witnesses with some of their own. Defense argued that the man before them had, at th established time of the crime and under a porphyritic spell cast by Professor Wein on stage at a Brooklyn theater, five miles from the site of the alleged crime. People who has seen him on stage at theater as well as those on stage with him at the time. They attested to the fact that said William McDonald was with them throughout the time designated.

Professor Wien was called to the stand. He testified that he had, indeed, hypnotized MacDonald as a part of his vaudeville act. He also voiced his opinion that it might be possible for a man to be in two places at the same time..

The jury did not accept the added comment by the Professor and acquitted McDonald of all charges.. They seemed to feel that all witness in the case had been speaking the truth a. When it was all over and MacDonald was free, someone asked him where he had been. He said he had not the slightest idea of where he might have been.

Now, there's a twist our modern courts have missed. Bilocation - a handy little factor to keep in mind. Don't knock it. You may need it some day.


A. L.M. March 21, 2004 [c469wds]

 
CONFUSED?

I should think that, by this time, everyone must have heard what frontiersmen Daniel Boone is supposed to have replied when someone asked him if he had ever been lost in the woods.

He denied it, of course, but confessed that there had been times for “several days at a time” when he had been “a mite confused.”

Y Young people today respond to that incident, I find. They like his sense of humor and admire his obvious ability to talk his way around a thing to make it appear to have been something entirely different. It is too bad they do not know who he was and what he did in our nation's early history.

Oh, yes, they will know the name, however, based on a fund of knowledge it will all appear to be romantic and sketchy. The source of their learning our history is based almost entirely on versions set forth by Golden's Books, Walt Disney productions, and kinetic constrictions which make up the work of the thousand-and- three creators and copiers of vaguely related drawings, re- creations and photographers. That is not an exaggerator's . If you check around a bit, even among some the people with whom you grew up, you will find it true in many cases that they haven't read a book for years. Some ,however, sincerely believe they have read specific books and know about our nation's great men and women. Or the most part , cal; to often. It becomes evident that their background came from watching tabloid treatments of the story in films, comic books and other such tabloid treatments of the story on film, in garishly colored “comics” and in other production areas. Seeing the film and TV versions, or, at best, reading the quick-time, condensed books version, which may give a withered view of the subject.

It gets a bit scary when you realize that the same young people and grown ups so nourished in the culture and affairs of our nation, are gong to be voting for future leaders of our nation this fall.. Those whose knowledge is questionable in both quantity and quality; people who don't
know Daniel Boone from Icabod Crane are going to decide who head our nation.. Most of them would seek and easy way out if asked about their voting presences. Few will admit having been a “mite confused” at any point when making their decision.

We need to re-tool our quest for knowledge to include the classic literature, history and human conduct. A well-known educator - Robert J. Hutchins – who was pushing the “100 Best Books” project at the time many years ago, said:

To destroy the Western tradition of independent thought it is not necessary to burn the books. All we need do is to leave them unread for a couple of generations.”

What time is it now?

A.L.M. March 20, 2004 [c489wds]

 
PROGRESS NOT PERFECT

Just because we seem to be leading the pack does not, of necessity, mean we are ahead of them. Progress can be, and often is, deceptive.

Hardly a week goes by in which I do not read of a business firm suddenly finding it must vacate its well-established location. The building, which they have used successfully for many years and maintained in top physical condition , is, suddenly, declared to be unfit for use by humans. The owners, often the very people who designed and built the building, are, in effect, evicted.

The situation has all come about, not because of any negligence on their part, but because, years before, they had taken advantage of the very latest construction techniques and installed asbestos materials throughout the premises to achieve the utmost insulation. fire protection and other supposed advantages deem to be essential to protect their property.

I have seen , in recent years, such displacements in just about every line of business and in public buildings inc including public schools, churches, Individuals and preen punctualities and others been cased great,unanticipatedly expense when ordered to remove the offending materials. There have been marked losses in real estate and undue hardships in the business world because of this unexpected factor. Those who cannot afford to make such changes are subjected to conditions
which cause they to have to sell their property and usually at a discounted price far be;pew the generally accepted values of the holding. This has been made to be even worse by some very questionable estimates concerning the costs of the removal under government scrubby inn keeping wish precise redirections of the moment.

One such building I have seen is owned by a small town. It was build as a private mansion. It has a large, circular tower at pond and then wanders off in a series of ells, wings and ad-ons. A lacy web of porches is wrapped around it all giving it an illusion of unity. The original owner died and his heirs willed the property to the town government to do with it as they wished. They decided to make it an inn and it became modestly successful with promise. The place is closed today awaiting the removal of asbestos materials. Notice, that is “removed” and not just “taken out”. It must be done by the book following precise instructions as if it were a surgical procedure and by qualified, fully-trained hazardous materials personnel only who are yet to be found.

Certainly we cannot deride the concept of attainment. Without advancement, we die. It does illustrate, however, that we, at times, tend to confuse that which we might desire to have with what we already have at hand

Make haste with hesitancy. Let progress assist rather than demand.

A.L.M. March 19, 2004 [c429wds]

 
EARY BIRDSL

Some people I find, are genuinely disturbed with the present state of our Presidential election. .They fear both parties have mistakenly jumped the gun on the use of the heavier types of material they usually reserve for the closing,, showdown weeks.

The displeasure makes sense, too. Some features of the election processes may well be out of sync with present-day truths. The so-called “rules” do nut apply for all of Time and can become obsolete. They turn with the times and the tides and with public sentiment, as well. They have always done so and the fact that they are now drawing objections will cause more people to wonder about the extreme length pf our political contests.

The long run made sense when the world moved as a slower pace. Candidates used to need months in order to get their views before their potential supporters. No more. TV has changed all that. Even when candidates speak to live, demonstrating crowds it is prime time TV fare for millions of viewers of all types., not just a narrow section which is already his anyway with the hope they that they might tell others outside the fold. In person site candidates may be speaking to fifty agreeable voters at each railroad yard stopover.

There is no longer a need for keeping such restrictive rules. Even now we are supporting such groups with six month to bingo which tactics used far ahead of time may atrophy once the spontaneity of verbal contacts will have diminished, and issues will be drained of real content and become a burden to bear. I think Jimmy Durante put it as well as anyone when he was asked to comment on having - after much delay done his first TV show: ”Twenty-five years of good material shot to hell!”

One subject has been missing from the campaign thus far and most people have not missed it at all. Some voters-to-be individuals may well bring “morality” to the fore if things get too dull on the long, lonely journey to Election Day. It could be based on a tabloid treatment of the anti-war activities of John Kerry's postwar anti-war protesting sprees by bring forth facts, figures and photographs and critical examinations of every possible jot-and- tittle concerning George Bush's management or mis-management of the current War On Terrorism.

The other plausible ingredient to fill the days of the long wait might well be for the Democrats, if things are not looking up, to hit the sawdust trail with an all-out “anti war” banners held high. If they can get the Mel Gibson “Passion” fans, they're as good as in. I have suggested this strange but likely turn of the war before as our “Worst Case Script” for our present, stretched-out election. Better shine up that old halo of yours, if you can find it. Be ready.


A.L.M. March 18, 2004 [c489wds]

 
GIFT

If you can possibly do so, plan to spend at least part of your Christmas holiday at Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia.

My wife and I did so many years ago as a wedding anniversary gift from one of our daughters and her family, and we have talked about and remembered so many memories from that short trip that it seems to have meant more to us hat other such settings. You will find, as we did, that there is something different about Christmas in Williamsburg.

There is a gentle quality in traditional observance of rites and rituals, and this subtle note is apparent in the decorations theme. Williamsburg stands alone in judicious use of nature to lend color. The plane is inundated with wreaths, garlands, kissing puffs, and long strands of evergreen foliage woven into seemingly endless strings of of yuletide lace/..The color bursts upon you ever so softly in the form of bight red apples... .tons of them, it seems – which form the overall essence of a decorations should be in complementing the structure holding it aloft. .When you see an ornament which is not apple-encrusted you may think of it as being out of place.

Lighting is a second feature so important to the Williamsburg Christmas. It, too, is soft and gentle. .The restored Governor's Palace, set amongst gaunt, black, leafless trees is a sturdy brick structure and glowing at every window there is a quiet candle;.in the upper level, festive lanterns. By daylight you will see another form of brightness which contrasts of light and dark areas darkness to the architectural niceties of the fantastic town. Much of this magic is brought about by a substance the builders did not have available in their time. We call it “paint”..

That protective, preserving beautification substance was not available to the founders such quality and discolors remember seeing Williamsburg before the restoration started. It was a rather drab and uninviting settlement.. War are seeing today the town the Colonial builders dreamed their village might someday become. We are witnessing the culmination of a dream.

Being in this colonial setting at Christmas time we are assured that much “is right with the world” which had seemed to have been askew.

A.L.M. March 17, 2004 [c402wds]

 
GAME TIME!

We are ever more a "game-playing" nation since the arrival of the computer with it's tremendous fund of real time-killers.

Some of our old games demanded mental agility and I see that element as being totally absent in so many of the newer games.They are, far too often, diversions rather than something to take the place of our established games.

We need a new term in our English language which would encompass the ever-widening range of what people call "games" now running on TV, erupting in a corroding cloud of noise and color in arcade settings of every description. Not only does TV have extended power over family life but it is doing so at all age levels. The rapid invasion of personal player units has added a reculsive element to family living rooms from which it has been free for many generations.

We are going to be forced to examine this phase of our current living patterns before too many years pass, but right now we are trying not to think of potential damage from excessive attention to these ever-growing abberations concerning our idea of what constitutes fun. For a time, such :games: were not considered to be addictive.

Think about that new word we need...a new term which will emcompss the growing group of now being called "games" alonmg with the traditional world of authentic games. We have made use of twisted meaning of the word in speaking of "spam" It currtently means unwanted commercial messages interlarded with TV and computer information. Most young people, and many older ones, do not know that it orignally demanded a capital "S" because it was the name of a widely know and used meat product made by Hormel,I think. It is still on the market and I am among those who still eat and enjoy it. I was sent to Europe during World War II and did not meet up with it, but those who were shipped to the Pacific area were, it seem, inundated,with rations containing and, probably,imitatations thereof. You know what familarity does. Many Vets came state-side as dedicated Spam haters.

The term has now gone generic as "spam"and we now also have "spim" as well, which is the same type of unwanted advertising junk turning up in Instant Message formats.

C[mon!. Help me find a word that describes the "non-game" games which are ruining legitiate games demanding skill, intellgence and physical actions beyond the mere touching of buttons.

A.L.M. March 16,2004 [c435wds]

 
VOTERS, EVERYWHERE

What actually happens when we vote?

It is not, as many seem to think, an act which proclaims that you have thrown the switch and that the magic you wished for is supposed to happen at once!

Spanish voters proved to be a very poignant example of this sort of namby-pamby "pass-the-problem" politics. The Spanish voters reversed what seemed to have been their intent just hours after the tragic bombings of rail terminals in Madrid. They
booted the ruling Populist Party and installed the Socialist Party in all offices. The people, over a few hours time, totally modified what seemed to be their intent and put the Socialists in charge.

The glaring spotlight has put tne newly named Prime Minster Zapatero and head of The Socliosts in a role which he is unaccustomed. His first statement was one and did take much time to frame. He promised he would have "all of the thirteen hundred Spanish troops" out of Iraq by the month of June." Note that he did, indeed, say 'thireen hundred";not the fifteen hundred troops the Socialists have been ranting about. He labeled "Bush's War" as being a "dismal failure.We can, I think,"expect other useful fiures to be modified as well.. The new leader appeared to be hesitant and rather vague in making the simple annoucement. He will have more to say as soon as his party people. decide what they might try do now that are in office... a place they had not intended to be so soon. Whatever they decide to do will prove to be anti-US, of course, and this is unfortunate because the Spanish people need encouagment rather than harsh ciriticism.

It is easy enough to see this flaw in the vote procedure of the Spanish nation might come to damage our own election which is speedily forthcoming. It is not at all beyond reason that segments of our American voters will do exactly as the Spanish voters have just done and turn the entire "mess" over to John Kerry as their miracle worker. One Al-Quida attack between now and November might well swing enough unthinking voters to make it happen that way again...here.

It couldn't happen here!

Don't be too sure of that.


A.L.M. March 15. 2004 [c402wds]

 
ON THE EDGE

I wonder when the nations of this world were ever in the situation such as that in which we now seem to find ourselves?

Spain; following the costly loss of life and property and the railway terminal bombings they have experienced this past week, and many people insist this shows every indication of taking the very path anicipated by the "enemy" whomever they may be.

Commiunications of some sort have, we assume, been inexistence long enough so that the offending parties may be quoted as saying it was all caused by the fact that Spain put some fifteen hundred troops into the field "to aid and abet the Bush attack on Iraq.". It is now being said, here in the United Sates, at least, that the "people" of Spain have been adamantly opposed to the war in Iraq in great numbers and that they have marched in great, overwhelming multitudes to show their contempt for all who would take part in a warf against the Iraqi people "

That is the picture we are being fed here; that Spain was warned to stay out the war and not having heeded that warning the Spanish must now suffer ham. They sent troops "to help Bush's invasion of Iraq" and, now they must cringe and be submissive to the wishes of the evil power whoever and whatever it might prove to be.

The danger to America?

Some will argue they do not recall and great Spanish opposition protests against the war.Other will go so far as to say we were prevented from hearing about it.

Some will prefer to see the whole attack as an attempt to influence the outcome of the Spanish election held tthis past week week. It did so, it seems. The Socialists had been lagging quite a bit behind, but they beat the Populists as being the party in power when Spain entered the war. The people, it has been said, "are punishing the Populist Party.". These divisions will be noted and they will become part of our own political campign illustating how our war-time "friends" are slipping away one-by-one and cringing obediently and fearfully before the terrorist agressors. We have enough confusing problems of our own to consider without adding any foreign ones

It may all be well and good for us to show sympathy and understanding but to sit around second-guessing the experts on whatand why it all happened is foolishness of the worst kind. And, any of it, being incorrect, could very well prove to be dangerous.

The pain in Spain is very real. Respect it as our own. We fight a common enemy.


A.L.M. March 14, 2004 [c455wds]

 
BIKES

I am not one of those men who can say that he grew up on a bicycle. Some did, of course, but I came along during the days of the Great Depression and we spent more time wanting bikes than riding on Them.

We did have two bikes, as I recall, but not at the same time so my older brother and I had to share them such as they were. One was painted a bright red, I remember, and the other showed evidence of having been blue at one time. Both were twenty-six inch wheel sizes ...ratherlarge. The red one came to us as well-worn hand-me-down from a distant cousin.; the blish one came from the community trash dump nearby which we frequented seeking just such treasures.

.Actually they were frames rather than bikes and I never remember them both having tires at the same time. Most of the time we rode them as run-on-the-rims racers around the dirt track we built in our back yard aound the edges of the garden.

The fact that the Wright Brothers worked with bicycles in the Ohio told us we were doing the right thing and as a grown man, after putting hundreds of miles on my bike while in England, I remembered working on the wheeled wrecks many years before.

The bicycle has fascinated mankind for a good years and we find conficting reports as to who invented and/or merely improved upon earlier designs to make them function as well as they do today. Generally, the modern bicyles seem to have had its begining with a small horse with a front wheel. Children could sit on it and propel it wih their feet. No pedals and the front wheel was fixed and could not be used for steering.

In 1816 Baron van Drais introduced a :bicycle which he called a "Draisenne" and it became the rage wih allhe speed-loving dandys in Paris. It consisted of two rather large wheel and the front one was steerable.. Still no pedals/. .it depended on foot-to-ground push-push power.

It was left for a blacksmith in Dumphies, Scotland to add the pedal mehanism.in 1839. His name was Kirkpatrick Macmillian and Scottish books list him as being the "inventor"of the bicycle while coninental publications say he improved on the earlier design by Drais.

It has been improved much more today and we are now at the point where the newer features are being minimized and we are going back to basic elements with up-to-date efficncency riding comfort and ease retined intact, of course.

A.L.M. March 13, 204 [c442wds]..

 
WAY TO GO!

You have a choice to make before you die. Do you wish to be buried in the conventional manner or cremated?

You can save relatives and friends a great deal of concern and care, if you, at least, make some reference to the subject and make your choice known before the time of need arrives.

This is not a subject which demands instant attention In fact, most of us would just as soon to forget it and leave the decision up to those who survive us. I don't know of any real complaints about having been put away by the wrong method, but I have found those survivors who, months llater let it be known that the deceased actually had wanted to be put way by the other method. That can cause ill-feeling among family members and needless worry and concern by others.

My rather limited inexperience in the field came about from being an newspaper reporter, though military service during war time, and through post-retirement employment by a funeral home. I have worked as an assistant in both procedures and neither method is pleasant. I have assisted in both embalming and cremation procures and neither one is pleasant. I would not seek employment neither field as a life work. In my limited view, I have “been there and done that” to a sufficient degree.

During World War II a friend of mine offered his mortuary capabilities to a firm in the English city near which were stationed. He was disappointed. He had no inexperienced in cremation, which was the predominant method used in England during those wartime

Take time to discuss the matter with family and friends if you have a preference in mind. Some people have some rather strange ideas about death and dying, and even stranger ones about the process by which the human body is changed in an attempt to make it more durable after death. Religious factor enter the equation with many individuals, and others take a nonchalant attitude which says, in effect,”What difference does it make?” If you have a special aversion to either form, let that fact be knows to those who might be called upon to see to your deathbed wishes and needs.

A.L.M. March 12, 2004 [c387wds]

 
LOOK AHEAD TO YESTERDAY

Like history is said to do, much of life, itself gets repeated.

What changes you make will set the stage for new ones next year, and both will be related to what has been done in the past. Life is a progression, not a series of new starts as some people seem to think it is supposed to be.. The "new" leaf you "turn over" is not so original after all, but rather a more defined translation of what you have experienced before, edited a bit, perhaps, amended to reflect the press of current circumstances an a more
awareness of our actual needs.

We are, then, very often, decided to do what we have done before.

We should all be made aware of this condition. Now that we are emmeshed in yet another national election. This is not a parlor game we are playing'. This is a time when we are actively setting the path we are to follow into our future. This is no time to be permissive and to allow errors to be made in the name of tolerance and so-called understandings of conflicting views.

Just about all of us have a time in mind which seems to have been better than that which we now know. We called such times as "the good ole days" and it sems to think we can wave a magic wand of words and bring them back for a re-run. We can't, of course, because we are seeing them as fueled by what has happened since that time, changes of circumstances since those halcyon days. The basis of need has changed far more than we might realize.

You can't go back to the rather ideal setting of your home town of which you have memories of being so happy and content. The village simply is not there in the same context. So it is wih our present locations. They are not what they seemed to have been just a few years ago. They have changed, even though they may appear to intact.

Nostalgia can be costly as many a person has discovered when he tried to restore the old home place to the condition in which he remembers it to have been during his youth. Political parties are not, and never have been flawless. No one party has a monooly on fairness and truth.

We have already had a few open-mike incidents in the present campaign and there will be more – accidental and staged – in which steet language will be used setting forth what many will consider to be the more accurate picture of events and of persons involved therein.

Brace yourself. This round shows promise of being a rowdy one.

A.L.M. March 11, 2004 [c466wds]

 
A BLANK

I, quite honestly, draw a blank when I try to picture what the next generation of automobiles might look like.

They have taken a host of impossible shapes in the past from glass display cases on large wooden wheels to sleek, little trundle bed designs - flat, feisty and fleet a-wheel And, curiously, each of them, in their time, was – or soon became acceptable – until such time as one manufacturing house decided to try something a bit different. When one did so, all save a few stubborn holdouts did the same.

It was only natural that early designers would created something generally reminiscently of of the buggy, wagon or some other beast-drawn,wheeled contrivance from their past. Over the years some deliberate efforts have been made change that bias. Some designed cars with ships in mind; others went overboard and swamped us with cars which had tails, fins and spoilers. They were long, streamlined shapes which could whiz through the air, dust, smog and rains from heaven with exemplary skill and the greatest of ease in all of their chrome-crusted beauty.

That must have been in the late 40's and early 1950's but since that era, car designing here in America, at least,
has been pretty much of an echo-oriented thing. All came to look pretty short, pudgy, generously colored little pods ...one was said to resemble a pregnant peanut... became pretty much standard until the strange times when we hit tupon thew Van craze and bounced into the SUV stage. That called for higher, boxy designs and now we see a tendency to blend limo body styles and more big car features with all the super-sturdy, and often clunky-looking, macho addtives of recent years.

We are, I suppose teetering on the very edge of yet another time co-called time of change. How modest or how violent such changes will be remains a deep mystery. Even those who do the designs have yet to flip the holy chrome wheel cover to determine which direction they will take this time.

To me, one of the most innovative body designs which comes to mind, which, as far as I know, has never been duplicated well in any other make, was the wrap-around hood feature of the sharp, sleek and sassy looking car called “The Cord”. The Cord was modern ahead of its time by at least fifty years or so, and I can remember wanting to have one when I became rich.

That never happened, of course, and I suppose must be content to remain cordless the rest of my days. Some critics speak of me as having been unplugged years ago.

A.L.M. March 9, 2004 [c459wds]

 
READINESS

Each day, I read in the papers the papers about our wonderful accomplishments as a nation among other nations of the world. I read of our envied role in business affairs, in commerce, social life, the arts and stellar living qualities on all sides assuring a glowing future filliped with grandeur and blessings for one and all.

I don't have to even change to another page. or shift to a different channel to read, even see, the stupid things we have done today. Very little of it makes good sense. Even when seen as comic relief from the serious tedium of many of the tremendous variety of our lives.

I read, for example, about the completion of the signing ceremonies of the agreement whereby there may eventually be a constitution written by which the people of Iraq may have a proper government. Just a day or so ago, that was, seemingly impossible because five religious leaders refused to sign. Either they simply reversed their view or some of their demands were met. We may never know why they changed,but that sudden turn shows how active the United States influence is for good. A better world for the people of Iraq means a better world for us, as well.

That item made me feel good about our role in world affairs, but on the same page, I saw an item from Covington, Georgia which explained a curious activity at the local Wal-Mart store. A lady made a purchase of $1,745, I think it was, and the credit card she offered in payment showed a balance pf $2.36 remained. Without hesitation, the lady opened her purse as if she intended to pay cash for the purchase. She held out some currency. “ Here” she offered,”can you cash a million dollar bill?”

The young clerk explained that she may nor be able to do so able to do so since no such bill existed in American currency. She alerted security people nearby who came over there when the lady set out to prove there were such notes She did so my showing two more she had in her purse...novelty store playthings deceptively authentic in appearance.

Such contrasts are quite evident in the news about our culture and our willingness to participate in world affairs. At the moment, at a time when our presidential election fever is getting near the boiling point, we have to wonder if charges, counter charges and accusations are anywhere near to actual facts.

I question our, oft times, rather eager readiness to rule others. It appears, far too often, that we have some home work still to be done.

A.L.N. March 9, 2004 [c453wds]

 
UNCOMFORTABLE

I find it almost impossible to believe that John Kerry would even try to run for the office of President of the United States.

He has a right to do so. I have no strong feeling along those lines. Anyone can announce his aspirations and look forward to having a hand in the nation's future attainments. It is a noble thing to feel a need to be of service to others.

There are few grounds for thinking that one man mightbe better than another at undertaking to do the job of managing the world's strongest nation in the troubled international community. And, especially so at this time in our national history when the world is troubled so deeply in so many unusual ways.

Certainly, by this time Kerry is assured of being the nominee set forth as the candidate of the Democratic Party. As one of our major political parties, this group has a history impressive parade of stalwart citizens who have borne the Democratic Party banner well and with some commendable results. His rise thus far has been steady. His tenacity is evident in limiting himself to repetition of points chosen to vilify the Bush administration from every possible angle regardless of how trivial or how instable such accusation might be. It has worked well for him. He has has been careful to stay within the set criticisms except for such moments as when he vilified the National Guard - now about our sole source of military personnel - as being ” a haven for rich men's sons” He warded off what proved to be a weaker than expected drive from South Carolina by another John and simply stood by as Howard Dean did himself in and scurried back to Vermont At this moment, just eight months before election day, John Kerry appears to be well-established for a run at the Oval Office job.

Why , then should I be “uncomfortable?”

That which is, as yet, going unsaid is danging all around. John Cheery, better than any one person, ought to be aware of the potential disaster which awaits him if his heavy load of past strange conduct becomes well known prior to Convention time. He is running a great risk if he chooses to believe the Republican party operatives will not use “personal” shortcomings of his past life - both military and and civilian - against him in the campaign.

Think again, John. Can you “out talk” the revelation of straight facts about your rather limited military career? Can you explain why you did not report the hundreds of a deadly atrocities committed by American troops which you “witnessed” during your four months stay doing eighteen missions from a vantage point of a river boat in Mekong Delta waters? After asking for and receiving discharge from the armed forces, he became a long-haired anti-war protector dressed in ragged army fatigues. They paraded, burned other people's draft cards and military awards and service medals and records. He actually led a march attacking the capital with toy guns. It's all recorded in newspapers and magazines as photographs and stories detailing the violence of the his group later singled out, by name, by a Vet Nam General who wrote a book about how the anti-war groups here helped them to win the war.

This is “refute or admit” time.

I am “uncomfortable” with someone else, too. Those who have failed to bring this flood of facts into the campaign. With such such hesitation to speak out against unworthy opposition, I find myself becoming concerned about the value of our system itself.

A.L.M. March 8, 2004 [c608wds]

 
WHAT ABOUT MARTHA?

When was the last time you made a mistake?

Are you sure about that?

O. K. I’ll accept that – having been there and done that ,but I continue to wonder why the erasers on the upper tips of the almost-like-new pencils you use lack two-thirds of their eraser quantity. I never realized before erasers evaporate if they go unused.

To tell the absolute truth, we all make mistakes. Most begin as small sizes, and in a wide variety of shapes and colors, as well.

Martha Stewart got caught doing so.

At the moment of being “found out”, she made a second one. Had she offered a prompt apology the mention may have gone unnoticed, but that was not an easy thing for her to do. As a business-woman and eager carpentry’s, an intense innovator, and a folksy all-round “Doer”, she had created a group of contenders along the way – some of them of the green-eyed variety.

There are some among us who insist that, had Martha Stewart leveled with everyone at the very start and told he truth all the way, she could have avoided much of her recent troubles. I hold, however, that her “contenders” - enemies – in a technical sense – enjoyed seeing her trying to explain everything. There is still a great deal more old-fashioned macho feeling out there against successful business women, as well.

Hers is a complex personality and those things which happen to her seem to be more complicated than they otherwise might prove to be. Yes, Martha Stewart deserves what is being called “selective” attention ...which might also be known as “compassionate” treatment.

Certainly, with the “shame” of it all, with the tremendous financial losses she has and will suffer in her business ventures, Martha Stewart deserves a “break”. She is meeting today with that person or, those people, who will act as her Parole Officers, which suggests any jail terms might be suspended. In all fairness, I would hope so.

If imposing a fine would help sooth those who want to “make an example” of her wrongdoing, then, set one. Her “gain” from the sale of stock seems to have been about $38,000. To , satisfy, to some degree,the “let's get her” crowd, make that the amount of a fine?

Then, one more thing. It might be a good thing for that same group if they start looking at others - those who are making millions at stock manipulations without any punishment or loss.

A.L M. March 7. 2004 [c439wds]

 
USED AND ABUSED

Often, I fear, the freedom we claim as a vital part of our lives, is being used against us.

I have serious doubts about the fact that suddenly, from out of the past, hundeds of New York firemen's widows have, overnight and seemingly on their own, found their tearful way into TV studios all over the nation voicing identically worded complaints about the nature of President George W. Bush's intitial campaign ad.

I can't quite bring myself to agree that such a coincidental arousal of weeping widow words might come about through chance and unnaturally prompt attention of widows to the artistic patterns and linguistic allusions made in a one minute TV commercial spot.

We listeners and viewers are being worked over carefully by experts at trickery and double-talk.

Some individul or small group of Bush-bashers, obvioously had prior access to the contgent of the commercial well in advance of distribution. Eager collaberators in the nation's communicaions industries, stood ready and eager to received the packaged propaganda release as if it were a legitimate "news" item.

We, the viewers, have once more been vicimized at the hand of such dishonest purveyorsof lies and planned deception. The same tactics were used the Clinton days when a WehiteHouse "spin: group did the same to new itxms for eek-pend release. Perhps you remember how Sunday TV' news and shows all worked the subject around to a set topic and actually used identical words sent out to all points by the staffer in the White House who had put the party spin on the item. That ls the way the word “gravitas” worked itself into the American language. A spin writer had said a certian individual had “gravitas” and all the panel personalities parroted it perpetually throughout each and every week-end “news” show.

We were taken for an informational “ride” then, and we are being “taken” again and again by such subtle, underhand manipulations of much of the news content of the day. No channel is free of such dangers.. radio frequencies, TV channels, cable connections, Internet pages, newspapers, magazines, newsletters,and columns we read and write on line.

The maxim seems to be:Don't believe anything you see, hear or read until you have checked it with your inner fund of common-sense

A.L.M. March 6, 2004 [c395wds]

 
LET'S GO!

We are looking for a new way to move from place to place; to move our belongings to a new location, and to get there faster than ever before,and to do so with the utmost comfort and as little trouble as possible.

We ought to have been satisfied by the horse years ago, perhaps, but that mode of movement but that form of travel has long ago become a matter of memory.

The very latest kind of energy usage is, I am told, using stuff called “anti-matter” or. it properties of push and pull. No one know, for sure, just what an anti-matter motor might look like. The idea is in the talk-only stage right now, but that means it is time we got ready to accept the soon to be be stated fact that we have been watching them work for centuries without knowing what they were. We have been duly warned by those fraidy-cat individuals who ooze out of the woodwork periodically to warn us that we “are messin'' with the makings”. We are, they say,”playing at being God,”- which is what they are doing in showing such absolute wisdom.

I have seen cars and trucks appear and supplant the horse and cart-wagon-carriage-van-cartridge-surrey- cabriolet etc . Notice, too, that dog sleds have disappeared in arctic climes, replaced in arctic areas by snow mobiles. Dugouts, in the tropics, are powered rather than paddled or poled. The whole world of man is on the move by some means or other and from time to time we realize we are going to run out of fuels which supply the modes of movement. Right now, the worry is that concerning supplies of coal and oil! One of these days theywillall bze spent and we will we need to find another way to move ourselves about. We have made good use of wind and water over the centuries but it is time for another look at them right now in anticipation of our future need for electrical power closely associated with most modes of movement.

In our space age times we have learned much of the values of being able to sling an object across the void . Sails and tethers have been adapted to move object into a nd through space. We are actively engaged in the making of an exotic heavy-metal glass fiber called “Zblan” which will need to be made under microgravic conditions. Their claims to future fame hold promise however. Then, we are never quite sure of what the next phase in computer technology might be, and some anticipate an acquired ability for computers to activate,manage and control objects in motion. meant. Elsewhere there are other working on Highways of Light upon which man may travel pretty much as a message does today on a beam of light.

Fusion is another possibility with special promise in thats it can use hydrogen made from common sea water .But, by that time, they all all be polluted, won't they? Or, boiling away from the greenhouse effect.

Maybe we had best go back to Dick Tracy's old idea of s powering everything with “magnetism.”

A.L.M. March 4, 2004 [c543wds]

 
ISZATSO?

Smile when you say "TV".

It is not all bad. Some? Right. How much?

Television sets in home use are bearing an inordinate portion of blame for all sorts of national ills.

The TV set is being used as whipping boy for all sorts of real and imaginary trouble by people who are prone to mishaps in almost anything they try to do.

It is not unusual for some people to blame anything new as being the cause of complaints they've been trying to get rid of for years. It is the easy way out. The more vague the association can be, the better, it sometimes seems.

Not too many year ago young people where being told to stop reading what werE then called "dime novels", which became, inflated from "the penny dreadfuls" pf the previous generation. In the 1920's[a publishers moved that sort of materiall – adventure, mystery, romance, detective store, and toward the end of the era – science-fiction into magazine called "the pulps".They were so called because they were printed on rough-textured paper rather than slick-surfaced paper adapted to increasing use of photographs and color - also branded as being evil innovations in their turn.

Cartoonists suffered other barbs of condemnation and when radio came along it, too, was vilified as an encroching evil poisoningv the very air we breath!

When you complain too obviously about all the shows on TV you say you never watch, you are building a picture of yourself which you would rather not be.

Having worked on both sides of newspsper, radio and television entities, I realized, long ago, that there is only way to "improve" any of them.

As a reader, as a listener, as a viewer there is only one way of bringing about changes for the better...causing the demise of poor shows and helping good ones succeed


It is so simple your first reaction will be to say that it will not work. But, it does. It works on both sides of the entertainment field, too.

Praise that which you consider to be good. Don't overdo it. Sincerity counts.

Ignore that which you do not feel meets with your approval. Totally. Completely. Absolutely.


A.L.M. March 4, 2004 [c379wds]

 
READY? HERE WE GO!

I am finding it increasingly difficult to understand how we can except to avoid serious conflict with a number of the strange forces haunting us as a nation today.

Some progress has been made.

We are fortunate to have a President who has strong standard of morality. Few Americans knew the depths to which we had fallen on that score alone. Even today, we prefer not to talk about it, but we are pleased with the fact that the problem has gone away. For a time, at least, the seamy side of White House living has been eliminated.

We are involved in election time at this moment which is going to tell us if we have, indeed, exorcised some of the qualities of decay which had become so obvious.

We are going into a national election which is going to be a rough exchange, and if the Democratic Party banner bearer, which now seems to be a “done deal”, the campaign is destined to be a rather weird one.

I was surprised to see John Kerry emerge rather early in the primary routine over some others who were not so regional in their political experience. John Kerry is known as a ”liberal” if we find it necessary to apply labels. Such tags do not tell, the entire story, however. He would have to be called a “Loose Liberal” because of his tendency to vote on both sides of many issues dependent on immediate advantages seemingly to be gained by such both-way voting. In the primary campaign it became quickly evident John Kerry could not run on his voting record. He made an error when he allowed his military experiences to be given hailing him as a “Viet-Nam War Hero”. He overdid it. He accused President W. George as having been AWOL from his assigned Air National Guard post on one occasion during the Viet Nam war. The charge was was met by publication of official military records for the date and time concerned This proved Kerry's charges to be false. The really, big mistake Kerry made at this point was to seem to vilify the National Guard as being a haven for rich men's sons and slackers. He seems to be totally ignorant of the fact that the National Guard, in absence of a national draft, is now and has been our main source - practically our only source - through several modern wars.

Other points of Kerry's military career will haunt him and hurt his campaign. He served a total of four months in his “tour” of Viet Nam and requested home assignment because he collected three purple heart decorations which gave him the privileged of requesting his return home. Only one of the purple heart decorations, involved more than primary medical attention and loss of time from work duty. Each time they are mentioned more and more veterans of all wars think of them as having been the “Band Aid” version, and an insult to all Purple Heart recipients. Kerry, upon coming back to the states, actively participated in anti-war demonstrations as a “peacenik” complete with long hair and rags and there are published lists of numerous American army atrocities he claimed to have witnessed during his stay in Viet Nam,but failed to report, deeds of theft, torture, murder, and rape of innocent civilians.. If this darker side of the Kerry background surfaces prior to the Democratic National Convention you can expect to see a new slate set before the American people.

That may well be the moment when a new personality will be called from the wings to save the Party and the nation - Hillary Clinton!

A.L.M. March 3, 2004 [c621wds]

 
VERBOO0M!

Where had it been?

Where was it going?

Would you think about that if you were in any way whatsoever concerned with the presence of of a sea-going tanker loaded with around three million gallons of ethanol on board?.

Wouldn't you want to know where it was at the moment and where it was headed? How about where it had been in last few days?

The Singapore registered, Philippine manned Oil tanker which blew up last week about fifty miles off Virginia an took the lives of all the crew except a half-dozen or so who were found adrift on a raft shortly after the explosion and sinking of the impressively large vessel was traveling more or less incognito.

News releases concerning fire and explosion conflicted in regards to where the vessel had been during the past week or so and of its intended destination. The second day after the sinking, some some papers where, if they said anything at all about that bit of information, said it was going from New York to Houston. Other papers were saying it was going from New Orleans to New York City with a full load of Ethanol.

That means that the explosive craft which shook a large chunk of the North Atlantic last week, had either been in New York harbor within the past few days or was due to dock there within a few days. It is important that we note the vessel was registered in Singapore.

All this takes on more serious meaning when you find such vessels flying the flag of a small African, Asian, of South American nations. Or, closer offshore islands are also in the business of selling such authorizations. The ship owners do so for economic reasons and much of the savings found through foreign registry comes about largely by minimizing or ignoring safety and fire regulations. Such rules are less stringent.

Imagine what would be if that tanker had blown up in New York Harbor!. It was either going there, or had been there – depending on which paper you read. Either way, don't you think we should know when such a potential time bomb is in our urban centers? Worse yet, suppose it were a suicide bomb rather than a regular hazard potential.

It is time to take new look a our law books concerning the use of our harbors by ships of questionable foreign registry. Do we have any restrictions concerning port entry of ships – especially those with flammable or explosive cargo which does not meet our basic standards of maritime safety?

Let's not wait until we hear a strange boom.

A.L.M. March 2, 2004 [c449wds]

 
OLD SALEM VISIT

“Old Salem” is located in North Carolina, rather than in New England as many people may suppose.

It is that part of the city of Winston-hyphen-Salem. Both ends have been leading cigarette brands over the years because that has been the root of culture in the area for many years.

The Salem section of the city dates from 1716 when members of the Moravian Church, having migrated from their homeland in that section of today' Czech Republic, worked their way south to the Carolina Piedmont area seeking a definitive location where they could carry on their traditions apart from others.

The restored area includes four distinct museums dedicated to different facets of living in the 1700' .There are restored dwellings and public use buildings to provide a good representation of the manner of living of the
Moravian people both here in America and of their European heritage. They have .been expanded to include those elements of Old South living as well - elements which became a part of the Moravian's new world culture in the 1700's.

My first visit to the area many years ago came through a chance opportunity to see the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts (conveniently shortened to “MESDA ) It is the largest of the four museums in the area.
The presentation there pleased all of us. It takes place in what I have been told was formerly a super-market site. It has been divided into a chronological series of rooms containing - not restorations or reproductions - but the actual, authentic furnishings of each room lifted up physically and relocated on the south edge of the Old Salem area. One room is a reproduction that of the Poindexter home in Virginia with its unique window glass feature. That is the one exception. All the others you see are “the real thing” physically transported to the present location intact. Many of these rooms have thus been preserved, some of which would have,long ago have, fallen to the auctioneer's hammer and been broken up and forever lost. The rooms you visit are the original in every detail - furniture items and “decorative arts”items. All represent the way people lived years ago; including those things they enjoyed, having with and about them. What you see is authentic in detail. historic evidence of good living from many years ago.

Your docent opens the first door leaving the Reception area and you step into the actual living room area of a log cabin from early settler days. Now that I try to set it down I cannot say how many such room one visits, but it is a complete study in reality - decade by decade - with rooms from historic homes in Maryland, Virginia, North and South Carolina, Georgia, Kentucky and Tennessee. The display concludes with a visit to a golden-era Dining Room in the ante-vellum days of Charleston, South Carolina.

Strictly speaking, is is logical that one would have to agree that the MESDA is not exactly a part of the Old Salem theme. It is, however an exceptional “bonus” to such a trip.. I get carried away when I think of it. It may be that we can talk more about “Old Salem” the next time we meet.

A.L.M. March 2, 2004 [c553wds]

 
TRIO

It seems odd that three musical events should suddenly come to mind yesterday afternoon when I was walking around the cul-de-sac turn-around near which we now live.

That's my daily trek location now during my eighty-eighth year - and it is not unusual to use it as think-back-when locale, as well.

During my walk yersterday I found myself thinking of a time when Ullyses S. Grant is said to have visited Staunton, Virginia - possibly on an electioneering junket, and who was to be entertained, quite logically, by their justly famed and respected "Stonewall Jackson Brigade Band."

When asked what tune he would like to hear them play Grant, without hesitation, replied: "Dixie!
"
Never was the piece played with such intensity an feeling. Grant had heard them play the song before, but in different circumstances and from afar in Wilderness battlefields.

Think what courage and depths of courage and understand to both make and to fulfill and to fullfll that request.

The second musical memory was of the same locale - Staunton, Virginia but half a century later, where, many years ago, a member of a trapeze troupe with a visiting circus was brutally murdered by another member of the circus. She was buried in Thornrose Cemetery in Staunton and eech year afterward on the anniversary of her death
surviving members of the circus band showed up at her graveside to play the circus tunes she loved. Instrumentation varied, of course, and to this date people don't seem to remember exactly when the graveside recitals ceased. It was comparativly recent when someone realized the annual event was no longer being observed.

The third incident I remembered happened in West Virginia, just out of Fayetteville.

When the engineering wonder which is the high span of bridge over the 800 foot-plus depths of the New River Gorge, was dedicated I, listened to the ceremonies on, I think, NPR. It was many years before I actually got to visit the site. When I did so, the music of the dedication of the bridge flooded over me as it does to this very day.

I don't know who the production genius might have been, but instead of featuring a large band, a full orchestra or marching batallions, or, perhaps modern dancers in frilly costumes – someone had the brilliant idea of having one ,lone harmonica player starding midway of the high span playing folk melodies which were electronically amplified and sent vibrating through the high moutains; moulding themselves to fit the contours of even the deep chasm which is the New River Gorge, as a natural part of their own heritage.

No one musical moment has impressed me so deeply. The sheer simplicity of it was an artistic triumph and whoever did it should be forever enrolled in a special place in whatever book records such musical milestones.

Take a walk and think about your musical treasures. It will prove to be time well spent.

A.L.M. February 29, 2004ll [c516wds]

P.S: Happy Birthday, Buddy Rogers, Swoope, Va., on your Leap Year birthday!

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