CARGO

It makes a great difference if you are being transported as “cargo” rather than as a passenger.

My most recent occasion of being sent from one point to another largely because of someone else's choice was, I recall. my being shipped out on a road-bound ambulance back in l936 to a hospital in Roanoke, Virginia. I spent a month there before getting back on track. At least, I outlasted the hospital itself . It ceased to be at least fifty years ago. Then, I'd have to say the army and the air force shipped me around as unit number 33133235 for the World War II years. I was stowed away with thousands of other such packages. I had the old “Queen Mary” both ways across the Atlantic; numerous styles of wheeled machines and B-24's.

More recently the chopper took over. I had gone to the local hospital for some more-or-less routine X-Ray shots, and I was standing in a waiting room leafing through some old magazines, waiting for the x-rays to be “read. I was summoned to the desk area and it proved to be my doctor on the phone. He asked where I was. He interrupted to say. “Your x-rays have been “evaluated” and I want you to do two things right away. I have told the nurse beside you to get a wheel chair. You are you to sit in it - now.” I did so because one was pushed under me. He added instructions to get someone to wheel me to the Emergency Room “You've got an abdominal aorta that's about ready to pop! Do not walk ! Ride!” Looking back , I would say that I became, at that moment ,”cargo”.

A trio of doctors took over. They had decided to sen d me to C Charlottesville where a “Team” would be av available to deal with my condition. They showed me the X-rays and there was a tornado-like, dark blob at rest in the lower left side. The had always called a ”Pegasus” helicopter and the three man crew was packing me up for transport within the quarter hour.

I proved to be too long for the cargo area. I scrunched my toes up and held my toes back and made it.”You've done this before,” one of the crew member laughed. “No, all beds are too short for me.” The rotors started and we lifted up from the roof top ,heliport. We leaned [over the waters of Newman “Lake”,”Pond”,Lake”,”Pond,”Sinky”,”Puddle”or “Catch-all” on the James Madison University campus and headed East toward intensely blue range of mountains to the East

I remember lots of sunlight shattered by rotor shadows' and the steady thrump-thrump of the rotor blades chomping endlessly at the high, summer air; and then we were scaling slowly down the side of a high rise building seeking the ground level heliport at the University of Virginia hospital in Charlottesville. Moment later I was under the care of a fine team of medical people heeded by heart surgeon Dr. Nancy Harthun.

Working together, we worked some miracles. I say “together” because I was determined to get well and and convinced that Dr. Harthun and her assistants could beat the admittedly poor odds. We had other help, too, which I felt we all knew every step the way. Dr. Harthun fashioned a new abdominal aorta for me of Dacron ® material and her handiwork has been doing a good job every since..

All of that took place three years or so ago, and I just realized yesterday that no one ever told me about this phase of “cargo”: time which comes to us in later age. Since I don't drive, I am ferried about from place to place by friends and family on a regular basis.. I write things such as this keep me out of mischief and in the words of Minnie Pearl- I say: “I am SO glad to be here!”... at all.

A.L.M. April 29, 2004 [c684wds]

 
“GRAND OLD LADY“

One of our daughters, Barbara, will be attending a series of conference sessions this week-end at the Hotel Roanoke and Conference in downtown Roanoke, Virginia. Just a mention of the fine old building brings back a flood of memories for me.

During my growing-up years, I think,there were just four hotels in the entire Commonwealth of Virginia which I planned to visit. One was the nearby Hotel “Roanoke” ,and the others included the “Greenbriar” at Hot Springs, the “Jefferson”, in Richmond, and a newer one “The Cavalier” at Virginia Beach. Thus far, I have been an actual guest in only one of them - the dignified “Jefferson” in Richmond.

_Hotel ”Roanoke” was the first of all of them on my “someday” list. It was original built l882, out in a former wheat field and from the start was of the modified Queen Anne design – oh-so—English-like in the popular view of that day.

It was built by a man Fredrick J. Kimball and the town, at that time, was known as Big Lick, Virginia - the city of Roanoke existed only as a dream which Kimball shared with others. It was an era of expansion of railroads and Kimball combined two existing railroads as a new called “The Norfolk and Western Railroad”. He saw this junction point of his two railroad as a future hub city for transportation and founded the hotel to provide accommodation's for travelers and to enhance the railroad's involvement within the community it served. The original structure was small compared to today's hotels, but it was large for its time.

The town was, at that time,called Big Lick,Virginia but .,in time s the town came to be renamed Roanoke, the hotel took the name of Roanoke City Hotel. It's appearance changed somewhat by the addition of barn-like additions It became a rambling structure of three-dozen rooms. It continued to grow as did the city.

I remember well how the company showed confidence in our nation's future well-being when, during the depths of the Great Depression they
undertook a $225,000 Project to modernize the hotel. They,in 1931, added a totally new wing with seventy-five rooms, a modern sixty-car garage, and new hotel testaments.

In 1989 , as a direct descendant of the Norfolk and Western Railroad. The Norfolk Southern, decided that their primary business was rail service rather than room service and thus it came about that, after one hundred and seven years of ownership, they gave the entire project to the Virgina Tech Real Estate Foundation.

After being closed for four years, the “Grand Old Lady” s closed for four years. In 1993 she underwent a multi-million dollar restoration, renovation and remodeling program, funded by an unusual combination of private and public financing with the City of Roanoke and Virginia Tech.

From that undertaking the hotel gained a new appearance which was still, however, reminiscent of its former aspect. The Lobby was a haven of antiques furniture, including the original Chezk chandeliers and the “Regency Room”, home for the Grand Old Lady's celebrated “Peanut Soup.”

A new Conference Center area was added as well, with sixty-three thousand square feet of conference area to accommodate meetings of twelve hundred or more persons with adequate TV, A/V equipment and other such aids to a successful conferences.

Hotel Roanoke has been the site of the “Miss Virgina Pageant “for many years,home away from home for presidents and governors, movie stars and sports idols, as well as Mr. and Mrs. Average American.

“The Grand Old Lady” welcomes you, and your family,at any time.

A.L.M. April 28, 2004 [c620 weds]

 
MOO CARE

The European Trade organization points out, in a recent news letter, that the average European cow receives two dollars per day in government subsidy.

The same page also mentions that some two billion people are living on far less than that two dollar amount per day largely because of high trade barriers set by relatively rich people who are getting richer.”

The bulletins shows that “subsidies make the relatively rich richer also make the poor poorer.” The greatest single thing which could be done is to eliminate the excessive tariffs and other restrictions on shipping of foodstuffs would be to remove those barriers which prevent the shipment of foodstuffs. Most of the poverty exists in rural areas which is why the movement of agricultural products must have priority ... and soon

We, of course, can expect to hear very little about this and other worldwide needs during our election year. When that is over, and the residues of hate and distrust engendered by the excessive bickering are swept back under the national carpet, it will be too late for thousands of needy people around the globe.

Years ago the church used to step into this vacant area with increased or focused given to alleviate suffering. Other charitable organizations ,too, could galvanize increased or more direct giving to help solve problems left undone by government in transition. As government became welfare oriented to the extent we have come to consider to be normal, the other charitable groups, especially the church world-wide, has abrogated the task of dealing with such problems to government alone more and more as their responsibility. The concept of being a “missionary church” came to be something which smacked of paternalism and domineering colonialism in the mind and manner of many political and religious leaders. The more we have striven to set up mechanisms whereby church and state are separated the more we have each surrendered our capacity for beneficent giving to the needy here at home, and overseas to an even more marked degree. Such burdens are no longer shared for fear of being politically incorrect and arousing suspicions of being too closely associated one with the other.

Yes, there are churches which do contribute. Some have refused to go along with the changes of recent decades, and they continue to give but too often do so, in relation to the needs associated with crises of past generations and of the old century, rather than to the needs of today. Too often the major effort is to expand the denominational domains rather than to improve the lot of the needy people of the world.

We need to do a great amount of re-thinking concerning the manner in which we give or do not give to others. That two dollar subsidy for cows but less for human beings living in squalor and dire need should tell us something of the present system.

We need a free trade concept on ethical conduct in the worst way.

A.L.M. April 27, 2004 [c508wds]

 
BASSACKWARDS

At times, it seems, we are better off if we start at the wrong end of some things.

It is not at all unusual for people who live here in the spacious Shenandoah Valley of Virginia to seek to build havens apart called “summer camps”. Their intent is, as they put it “to get away from it all”.

None of the cities in the area have advanced to the state of such complex urban excess which would cause an individual to feel as if he or she was forced to live in a ghetto of some sort. Instead of escape, of getting away from it all – they are,
in truth,seeking to enjoy more of same in a privative, more fundamental, generic sense.

A friend of ours felt he had to have a “place in the country” to get away from the several acres of front, back and side yard and gardens they had in town. He found just what seemed to suit his desires about thirty miles west of town in the mountains. It was isolated. That was an attribute, at first, but came to be recognized for what it was in time.

He built a small house on that field in an open area on the side of a hill. It was a ramshackle sort of thing which like little Eva “just growed.” In time it came to be called “The Shack” within the family. It proved to be inadequate, so an addition was added and,in time came another extension to the shack. Year after year was added until the camp became too long and was turned back upon itself until it became a semi-circle of lumber and glass on the hilltop bristling awkwardly in bright sunlight. Time spent there became a drag.


After five or six summers of hard work,experience dictated that they abandon the you did-it-yourself summer place and buy a small log cabin, already built in high woods several miles closer to town with neighbors less than a mile way on each side. Other than air conditioning and a few other such conveniences, the cabin had all the comforts of home and they loved it and kept it for the rest of their lives. In truth, it seems, they found the cabin to be a welcome respite from the harsh rather formal, oh-so-proper lifestyle in the city city. As “professional” people - whatever that term means – they owned a large house in town, drove several fine cars. Basically they were “country kids”- both of whom felt uncomfortable in their advanced economic circumstances where they were thought to be living “the good life.”

Many of us need such “cabins”, I suppose. We cannot waste years building, modifying and re-building mis-matched retirement “escape” sites without serious intent and purpose.

The usual – even recommended methods of doing so are not always best for everyone.

A.L.M. April 16, 2004 [c489wds]

 
NEWLY-WED WOE

We will be rushing the season by about a month of so,if we talk about newly wed couples in this last week of April,but time is not of great consequence as we often seem to think it is. Newly weds are part of each of the seasons - not restricted in any way to the month of June.

Being married is, of course, one of those special moments in our lives and the memory of the early days after having made “one”, can be a tragic thing or a funny series of pleasant memories for many of us. Unusually such stories as related to those initial experiences are kept fairly secret and not recounted until the couple grows older, but some events involve other people and cannot be hidden.

Many of such stories are concerned the preparation of foods for the two some. One such couple, moved into the apartment next to ours. There were six other apartments in the building and back porches of that half dozen were shared.

We knew that a young couple had rented the unit next to ours and mother went over and introduced herself on the day of their arrival, when the furniture was being move in and placed. As Mom always did with newcomers, she made herself available and ready to help if needed.“Just call me.” She had no idea the call would come so soon.

After several evenings of dining out, the young bride decided to cook the evening meal herself. The fact that she had very little experience in the kitchen didn't bother her at all. She had books with recipes and beautiful, colored pictures which gave instctions.She had bought some chicken parts at the grocer's on the way home from the office one Saturday afternoon and had intended to serve baked chicken on a bed of fluffy, white rice which looked so appetizing in the cookbook's colorful illustrations.

Everything went well enough until it became obvious that the large pot of rice was going to boil over. She ran to our back door and screamed for Mom to come quickly and to bring extra pans, which, being newly wed she did not have, to hold the overflowing rice. On duty and alert, Mother reported at once. They rushed into the kitchen and Mom's first action was to turn the heat down under the now billowing pot of rice! And, just in time,too.

The young cook was, of course, crying openly and recounting how she had followed what the directions told her to do. “Put as much rice as needed in pan and cover generously with cold water. Boil.” She had done so. There was the empty rice carton to prove it all. She had poured in the entire contents of the box which, to her, looked about “right”. “I didn't know it would swell up like that!” she cried.

After turning the burner down beneath the roiling rice, Mom raised the original pot and placed in in a larger,metal basin; turned the burner back up a bit,and let the rice boil over safely.

Mom stayed to help the young bride bake the chicken, and, in general to show her how to do what had to be done to serve her husband a first-time, home-cooked meal. As far as I know he was never told of the incident of the rice volcano and how close their initial meal together came to being a domestic disaster.

I do remember we had rice at our table that night and for a week or more, as well.

April 25, 2004 [c610wds]

 
MERMAID MISCHIEF

You have to wonder how a human mind can sink so low as to purposely harm such an item as the petite little mermaid which graces the harbor of Copenhagen, Denmark. She has been the victim of vandalism of just about every type since she was placed there l913 - almost hundred year ago by Edward Erickson.

The life-sized copper figure is seated gracefully ona protruding rock just a few feet above the harbors crest and millions of visitors from all over the world make sure they see this symbol of Denmark's serene beautiful and sincerity.

I bring this topic up because we have the Statue of Liberty which sos of great importance to New Yorkers, to Americans, in general, and to many other people around the world who have a special love and concern for the principles of liberty which she symbolizes so well. She's a bit older than the mermaid in Copenhagen harbor, having been given to Americans by the people of France by the famed sculptor Frederic Auguste Bartholdi in l886.

Both are in danger today.

You may have read just this past week that the ban on visitors to the island on which Miss Liberty's likeness is situated, has been removed. The rule is still there, however, which forbids entrance of visitors to the base of the monument itself are still in effect. This might well prove to be a wise step because the Statue of Liberty would be a prime target for any terrorist group who might wish to harm such a sterling symbol of our national unity and strength.

The latest serious attack on the mermaid was on September 19, 2003 when some vandals tore her from her perch and , it seem explosive were used because the four heavy bolts which held her to the rock were bent. Over the years, even as recent;y as 1964, she has been beheaded, and she has had arms and arms amputated, two such holes in her legs and other punishments - for whatever reasons unrecorded. She has - six times - been splattered with gaudy, bright-colored paint.,

I know of no such attacks on the larger, less attainable Statue of Liberty. There must have been some such attacks or desecrations of the Statue of Liberty, but one such “attack” has been back in the news recently when, on the 1960;s - a gang of army fatigue-clad Viet Nam War protesters set in operation a plan to ”take over”:the Statue of Liberty using wooden guns. The actual attack never materialized. It seems almost laughable when you think of such a scheme. One of the leaders of that plan was a veteran of a four-month tour of Viet Nam recently returned to the states as an admiral's
aide. His name,was John Kerry. Ironically, he is the same man now campaigning to become President of the nation.

Vandals, it seems, have never voice reasons for mistreating the Mermaid of Copenhagen harbor. Imagine ,if sou can, what the reaction of the average American would be if our Miss Liberty were to be defiled in any way.

A.L.M. April 24, 2004 [c530wds]

 
RAINBOW CONSTRUCTION

When viewed from above, the rainbow is a full circle, not an arc. That means that what we think we perceive is an illusion and not a reality at all. It also gives the lie to the idea that the rainbow, since it is a circle has no end a which there rests a ever overflowing pot of gold.

It can be said to have no beginning, as well.

The rainbows which become apparent in our lives become apparent when they appear as detailed point of light up welling into being from the edge of differences in temperature and moisture. Sunlight feeds the illusion and we see a group of colorful sparkles as an arch, which is really a circle, we cannot control or modify by any direction of ours.

We all strive to construct rainbows.

We all try to do so from time to time. We don't call them by that term, of course, or even admit that we are doing so partial by partial by all the light of serious understanding penetrate our creative process. When we meet with difficulties we work seriously and intently to better our situation, to ward off the storm and to strive for a rainbow of confidence and assurance that the trouble has been thwarted. We work seriously at building for what we see as being improvements, changes, and worthy advancements, We like the soft, pillow-like structure of the rainbows composed of all shades and colors - every basic essential of creative attainment - as it occurs in the mind's eye long before it becomes apparent on the other side of involvement worktables. There is no better place to witness yourself building a dream to be real, than when you are in love with someone you realize is to be your natural mate and co-creator. If one follows that guide line of making children is bringing rainbows into being which meld the past and the future together. The child is a completed rainbow constructed in love by a man and a women. Too bring a child into the light is an act of bringing to all the gift of a colorful span which is truly a perfect circle seen often in part only in the world of man's understanding.

We all build rainbows. They are fragile, but the are essential to the enjoyment of the fullness of life. Tend yours with special care.

A.L.M. April 23, 2004 [c422wds]

 
A PERCHER

We laughed when a kid called Carl joined us in the community who insisted that his Grandfather was a railroad engineer. He was proud of the dis­tinctive fact that his Grandpa was a “percher” and to be of great importance to the success of the railroad. Without Grandpa on the job the railroad would be doomed. It would be forced out of business.

No one man is ever that important, we thought and, as kids we decided to find out how the little boy could be so stubborn as to insist on his Gram pa being of such worth to the railroad. One of our group asked the kid's mother what her father did for a living and she, too, prujdly told us he was indeed a railroad engineer. Furthermore, she added:”He's a percher, too! He's the only one they have, so they depend on him a great deal.”

In time Carl showed us photographs of his Grandpa standing on the bottom step leading up to the cabin of about the biggest steam locomotive ever built. It as a monster. Granddad was a small person under a big shock of white hair and he had a cheerful smile very much like little Carl, we realized.

It all turned out to be a dialect problem .Those folks were from across the mountain from us and they talked differently from people on our side. I think that was the first time I come to understand how such differences could divide basically kindred people from each other. Carl's granddaddy was , indeed, a true railroad engineer,a lifelong employee of the railway company, and in his semi-retired status was the engineer on an ancient but still powerful steam monster which was needed to push the cars of coal over the mountain grade. Carl was correct in claiming that Granddaddy kept the railroad going and when I got to know Granddad better myself, i learned to agree with him on that point. they are shared/ It was his job to wait on a siding and tag his engine to the rear end of the long coal train from the mountain's mines. He pushed the long row of cars across the mountain and waited on the flatlander side to help push extra long trains of empty cars -well over a hundred across the ridge to be refilled and sent back to the collier's waiting in Hampton Rhodes and the Chesapeake Bay area of Virginia.

Carl's family had some other strange word usages they used. We, in time, I now see, absorbed them as ours and they took ours over as their own.

It strikes me that might have been a good thing for all of us. It is good to have someone who can willingly take over our mistakes, help you us through hard times, be ready and waiting to help again and through the hard times, and be ready and waiting for anything which might come along to impede our progress. Rewards are more enjoyable when they can be shared.

A.L.M. April 21, 2004 [c517wds[

 
RACING CHANGE-A-ROO

In the time you and I will be sitting here talking about it, the very nature of Stock Car Racing will be changed!

I'll agree with you that's biting off quite a trackful,, but you have to you have to keep up with what NASA has been doing recently to realize how racing has been given a boost which may well change the very nature of the sport.

We have to learn to use a newly coined word..

Get used to this mix of letters: NiCrAIY. It is being pronounced as :”nick-CRAY-ly.” It is an alloy; a mix of nickel, chromium, aluminum and yttrium which has a boiling point of over 3800 degrees. Think of it all as finely powdered materials which, when mixed with just the proper amount of zirconia – a ceramic thermal barrier - becomes a gooey substance which can be sprayed on metallic surfaces.

NASA has developed systems of spraying that depart from the usual routines so the substance can be sprayed as ultra-=thin layers. The system, being called “vacuum plasma application”- makes it possible to apply numerous layers on metal surfaces. It is applied to the molds for for making the parts and product surfaces themselves reedy to take on excessive load of heat.

Oddly enough this innovative method has a strange advantage in that it it is not take anyhing away from Bernays th Agna way from the treated surface n or didoes add anything. It may BE SAID tha titinterpoosed something helpful to both sides. Normally there are sharp bounderies between coatings and the combustion liners. As the exceedingly thin layers of NiCrITY are sprayed it provides a cushioning effect between the two surfaces, smoothing the surface out rather than imposing anything between them.. Often there is a harsh exchange between such surfaces which creates heat. Less stress means less heat.

Of course, many factor will be found which may may well keep this advancement at a distance for some time, such as cost, but it is obvious that when it does arrive the nature of racing could change a great many ways. Cars will faster, be more efficient and demand less maintenance delay and expense,when engines can be made to run smoother, faster, longer and without excessive heat problems in sustained track action. It will. Not doubt, come to be used in automobiles of street use.as well with their six to eight thousand rpms, as compared to racing's 12-thousand plus peaks. Both can be better performers with coatings of piston heads and engine block cylinder heads with NiCrITY and with better combustion, higher efficiency and hence longer periods of use.

We shall see, If more speed results some of the nation's short tracks may face some new worries. If , however, greater efficiency is possible racing may become more reasonable for everyone.

It may be a dream, but the the cost at the gate can be made more realistic, perhaps, so more people can enjoy more days at the races.

A.L.M. April 21, 2004 [c504wds]e

 
SOME WILD IDEAS

I don't remember who said it this past week. It may have been a travel-minded lady on TV recently or there a dozen places in which I might have read it.

She lamented the fact that she had just a few years left in which to spend some time in the romantic and historical City of Venice. She said she was in a hurry to do so, because she wanted to see the city before we it “sank beneath the sea.”

Venice is disappearing but not at the dire rate her urgent wish might indicate. It is a double process, really, which recent studies indicate that the water level of Mediterranean's Sea, and hence of the Adriatic Sea upon which the City of Venice has been located for centuries is showing increasingly higher levels at times. It is not a constant factor, nor even a seasonal problem, but there are growing indications that the foundations of the city are being eroded and have been weakened by excessive immersion in sea water. It may well be, too, that modern maintenance practices are not so “personal” as those those undertaken by people seeking endlessly to maintain their family heritage.

This is no a new problem. I can remember it being discussed at great length many decades ago in magazines such a “Popular Science” magazine. It was urged by that publication that a system of siphons might be installed crossing the Atlas Mountains of Northern Africa which would take Mediterraneans Sea waters into the vast Sahara Desert area where it would create a new inland sea. prevailing winds would carry the moisture northwards and the falling rains along the Atlas Range would feed fresh water to those areas in so much need of it.. .making possible major social and economic improvements for large numbers of deprived people.

A crazy idea? Think about it before you classify it too rigidly.

The second idea which has come up the news this week is that of gravitomagnatism. You have to be a devotee of Dick Tracy comics to recall when that was a favorite subject under discussion and development. I don't recall the trick name of the genius Doctor-Somebody who developed magnetic power to power his fleet of space craft on the Dick Tracy comic strip. We can put a lot of the blame on him if wish to do so or you can get busy right away figuring out how you can reverse a ;Lazar beam focused on a black hole and in some way “pipe” the gravity fed power back to earth. So far all we can get is about ¾ of an inch sideways jiggle out of it. Find a way to tap the radiation at the black holes which seem to be a source of such a such a galactic source of power in tremendous amounts. Rig up things you think might do the job.

Get busy at it as soon as you can or someone else will come across the simple – why-didn't-I-see-that??? - set up that will do it. Get busy with your own untamed ideas. Such wild wish-I-could ideas may well be the basis of our future.

A.L. M. April 29, 2003 [c549wds]

 
STAGE STUCK

The celebrated bard, Will Shakespeare, was correct when he suggested that all the world is but a stage upon which we act out the individual role to which we have been assigned.

We lend unique qualities to that role, of course, so that
it seems to be not to be controlled by any force than our own. We act beyond self more than we realize, Shakespeare illustrated that point quite often as he depicted men and women acting out their “fretful hour” on stage. Much that we do, if we are to be counted excellent in our role, came from the writer, the director and, yes, from the willingness of your fellow actors to hear you out. They fit you into their lives, or, at least, accepted your presence upon life's stage with them as being just and good and logical.

I shall always be grateful for my short but memorable experience during my teen and post-teen years with the Radford (Virginia) “Little Theater.” group. Things I learned then about myself and others who acted out parts with me have stayed on as valued assets. The most prominent lesson among then, I think, might be that it was then I came to know that the most common actions we take are dramatic in a real sense. I came to find that concept of value in writing and have done passages in which I had little or nothing to do with other than serving as a funnel of sorts used to transfer the action to paper for others to heed, read and do.

Even now as I sit here typing these words, in a sense may well
be activating a role. I have wondered why Shakespeare did not differentiate between an actor and “ham” actor. The play - the drama of living - depends largely of what the individual makes of it.

A.L.M. April l9, 2004 [c330wds]

 
BY THE NUMBERS

That quantity which is now known as ”a baker’s dozen” and President Woodrow Wilson’s “Fourteen Points” have each played a decisive role in my life.

That, of course, does not even come close to what some crypto-zanies insist we live by some system of mumbo-jumbo numerical oddities.

All I am claiming, is that those two patches of numbered history have guided me in much of my life. I suggest that you might examine your life and see if you, too, have lived “by the numbers” from time-to-time.

I learned, as a kid, that the “baker’s dozen” of anythings came about in French Revolutionary times when “big business”of that day – the local bakers – tried to eek out a little more profit by counting “eleven” of anything as being “twelve” - one dozen. That was not too difficult to do when the buyers could not really count anyway, and even easier if you could keep them talking about other things while filling their grocery order.

Someone blew the whistle on the wayward dough boys and those running the country at the moment try let it be known that any baker found short-loafing the peasantry would lose his head at the next guillotine gathering.

Not only did the short-loafing stop but baker’s – to be sure heads stayed attached to their neck- started donating an extra loaf or bun to each full dozen. That became our “Baker’s Dozen” - which is about the only time we find thirteen posted on the good side of life’s ledgers.

Knowing that story taught to develop a sense of fairness u dividing the blessings my older brother and I shared. Then, nine years later, the arrival of three new siblings enabled us to teach them to so treat each other; teaching them to do the same with each other. Behind it all, of course was parental guidance and the potential of parental punishment if things went otherwise. I, for one never tested the the theory completely,but just enough to know such authority was there somewhere.

Concerning Woodrow Wilson's “Fourteen Poiints:

My Sixth and Seventh Grade education seems to have been fashioned on creating congresspersons because we did a lot of debating which was “in” at the time. Among the assigned subjects: - worked to death for these formal arguments was - “Resolved: That the United States Should Be a Member of the League of Nations”

I remember being assigned to be windbag for both pro and con sides of the argument. I became acquainted with Wilson's fourteen points enough to spout endlessly about the ones which were working out and those that were not developing as Wilson had thought they might. Such actions caused confusion with the debating enemy and we won more often than lost.

In political affairs today one an use such lists and compilations to advantage. Few opponents will be strong on all points of contention and one has to be ready to exploit that lack of factual knowledge concerning any weaker link.

Both tactics still apply to living today.

A.L.M. Apil1 8, 2004 [c518wds]

 
WRECK RACKETS

Advertising which offers you an opportunity to contribute to “your favorite charity” has been a marked area of fraud for many years now, but the offer continue to multiply which indicates that the scam is growing.

You have certainly see such ads, which encourage you to be generous by giving you old car to a church, orphanage, or to some other fund. drive. Evidence is abundantly available which shows that very little of the amount of money so raised ever gets to the charity it pretends to be sustaining. Ten per cent, at best, ever actually gets close to the target and the rest goes in to the pockets of the organizers. It has grown into a multi-million dollar fraudulent scheme.

It is so easy for an individual or an affiliated church group to see such offers as new way to give by donating used cars to those who will resell them and send the profits along to the charity of your choice. The “wreck” - which is the misleading name given so often to an old car - can be refurbished a bit and re-sold or it may end up in a “chop shop” where certain parts of a specific car will be removed and sold to advantage. Some particular; models will bring a worthy return on the used car markets in South American and other areas.

Numerous warnings have been issued concern this type of fraud, but the practice continues unabated and is even growing in some areas. The cheater who runs these frauds may, from time-to-time, actually make token gifts to certain genuine charity organizations from who they will then solicit words of appreciation, recommendation,and even written testimonials for their “fine work.” The opportunity can. then we extended to a new set of car-donaters to join in this modern way of giving to the needy.

This particular form of charity cheating fit the American personality well, too. Many Americans are “in love with the automobile” and this works to the charity cheaters advantage, We hate to part with our old car which has been ,in a sense, a member of the family: and has served us well. We don't like the idea of it being sold on a corner lot, or taken apart or sent to the scrapyard press jaws changing it to a chunk of metal for use in seaside landfill or pier project of some sort. It seems proper to many Americans that the way to part with such an old wheeled friend might well be to pass it along to others who do not have a car. If there are people offering do the actual work of physical transition of the vehicle to those in need one should make it as easy as possible for them to do so.

If you wish to sell your old car and donate the proceeds to your favorite charity, go ahead , but don't count on any crooked convoy to do the actual changing for you.

A.L.M. April 17, 2004 [c513wds[.

 
FAT TALK.

It has been calculated by someone who does such things that there will be twenty million purple shopping at Wal-Mart today. That would be pretty close to the number of people who will be , at some time during this day , also be talking about being:”fat”..
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Not that there is any real connection between the the two facts unless you are one of the millions among that group who cannot stay away from the confectioner's counter in the food departments.. If the store in your community is anything like those in our area, there is plenty of walking to be done and that should help in weight gain problems.

That seems to be the number one subject for talk these days. It is heard throughout the firmament in various languages an d lingoes, too. The prattle of the bulge is a cacophony of complaints, cautions and contrasting claims which reverberates throughout the firmament as a continuous subject of conversations. I'd even go so far as to claim it it is more prevalent than Andy Griffith re-runs.

The usual tactic is for the fat focused individual to assume a posture which lets him or her appear to be a eviction of the conscious acts of others, or the opposing extreme , in which he or she accepts full, personal blame for caloric excess and stand forth as being a martyr to the cause.

I sometime have thought there is a danger that fat talk is becoming a language unto it's own, spoken by people who are fat, people who think they are fat compared to some idiotic standard, people who are going to be fat if they continue their present rate of gastronomic input. Left uncurbed, it could become a dominant language of world cultures.

There is certainly enough free or compensated advice floating around in print, on the radio, the TV channels, on Internet pages and in every other branch or facet of the media serving us so well with information to show quite plainly that excessive in take results in ponderous outgrowth. It's the old “in-out” idea as applied to computers years ago. How the physical extension of our body structures comes about depends solely on the quality and quantity of the supplies we provide

While we are on the subject with so many people, how's your weight coming along? I lost five whole,pounds last month.

A.L.M. April 16, 2004 [c412wds]

 
ADVENTURE TO BE

There is one thing I have never had a clear opportunity to enjoy and the idea has been nibbling away at the edge of my mind all morning.

I have never consumed a lobster in proper style. I have enjoyed parts and pieces of lobster, of course, on platter's with fish-finder names but I've never hooked on to enough courage to order a whole one and some guidance about the p;roper use of the tongs, hammers and the other tools that go with the proper consumption of the edible portions of such a sterling treat from the sea.

The bits and pieces I have met with on the “Fisherman's Platter” or “Seafarers Delight”have held promise of enjoyment and I have to confess that it has been the the matter of the proper style of doing it all correctly, which has stopped me. I have long viewed such a gastronomical event as being the ultimate in enjoyment but that the need to do it properly was important, too.

I confess that I do not know the proper etiquette for doing away with a whole lobster. If and when I ever get to visit the State of Maine - it has always been Maine where they eat lobster the way it should eaten and still be socially acceptable. There are ways to go about using those mallets, tongs and tweezers properly but the style books don't spell it out for me i everyday landlubber's lingo. I do not wish to resemble Henry VIII working on a leg of beef in some of the older historic films. I'd like to be able to think that it was all even more worth doing because it was done in proper style and with class morsel upon morsel

I remember so well, eating Blue Crab from Chesapeake Bay, at the home of Buzz and Virgina Conway, Indian River Inlet near Warnock's, Virginia. Hat was a real treat unequaled by any fine restaurant more than I though possible. I feel that has fully qualified me to take on any Maine lobster in its entirety when and if, that special occasion ever comes about.,

In these days of so many television shows dueling with what they call “reality” maybe I had best modify my plans and visit the local “Red Lobster” restaurant. Maybe I could get a private room, or , at least , a curtained area, and sort of ad-lib a lobster ceremony for whatever time it takes to do so and still retain my dream of what a perfect lobster dinner could be.

I'd settle for that, Dream things seldom work out too well, anyway..

A.L.M. April 14, 2004 [c505wds]

 
WHO SAID WHAT

To whom, exactly, are people referring when they credit statements they are about to make to some vague “authority”.-”They say...?

At times, such usage seems to be outdoing the endemic ”y';know” or “See what I mean? questione we hear so often.

It seems to be an effort to lend authority to what they are about to say so you will not feel they are just concocting the idea at that moment out of whole cloth. Just what,.who or where this authority called :'They”:might happen to be is never revealed. That, I suppose, could be seen as adding a mystery to the message making it seem that one has searched all over the known world for the right words. The use of the expression tells the listener that the speaker is not quit sure of what is going to be said and wishes to under gird it with this,r sort of authority right at the start.

The concept is softened a bit when people quote entire groups of people.. They will start a sentence with: “The authorities all agree,”or ,perhaps “most Doctors think”. If the subject is political they will say :the “founding fathers believed”. This usage is met with in TV commercials at the turn of any dial: “Leading hospitals, doctors and nurses agree that our pill is not just better, but the very best any pill can ever be! They,.in turn, of course, are, quoting radio which voiced the idea a million or so times, having lifted it from print media which, itself, was quoting the old traveling medicine man as he urged people to accept blessings of his fine, natural elixir tom conquered whatever they thought plagued them at the time.

The entire home medical care system seems to have been founded on the “they say” principle.. “The old folks told us...” ”Your mother, great,- grand and great-greats and, so on back along the shady paths of history all said it.

It is also the very foundation of gossip, both the “over the back fence” variety and the segment of journalism which sells the same stuff so well these days. in print, on TV and on the Internet. It is becoming more and more difficult for us to tell legit copy from gossip, because the receiving end - readers and hearers – have become much more tolerant and seem to have reached a point where they accept good and un good; truth and falsehood, news and gossip, on equal terms. It is all set before them by TV's talking heads and every word is widely quoted and mis-quoted as “they say” material.

A.L.M. April 13 , 2004 [c451wds]-

 
WHAT WE WANT

Some would-be home buyers seem to think their new house will have to have all the comforts and conveniences of their family car.

Regard of where the vacant house is located they make quite a chunk of conversation pointing out how nice it would be if it were located somewhere else,. It is never in the right place. They run on at great length intending to show the reactor showing the place how they would buy it right away if it were located in half-a-dozen “better neighborhoods.”

After all they are driving an automobile which is priced a good notch and half or so over their actual income level. The want a 220K house settled amid a cluster of 600K homes.

Their car has ever thus-far-known, gadget to it until it has become useful to other ways than transportation. The item which used to be called “A cigarette lighter”is now marketed as “an appliance outlet.” Electric razors, baby bottle warmers, and various other electrical gizmo's and games can be used to enhance travel. They are considering adding TV in the back seat area. These people want their new house to be filled with every gadget imaginable and they plan it all in detail when looking at the empty rooms. They always need more outlets to be added to walls and woodwork. If their car has it, then the new house must have it as well - or better.

Financing the cost of the new home becomes a dramatic sequence set apart because the buyer of this types is devoted to a type of TV commercial which screams at him in sweeping, general terms:. “Everybody! If you have job and $88 – this car is yours!”Or, “Buy today! No payments due until one full year from this date! (Interest,Yes,..but Payments,No.) Or, if he buys right away, he becomes eligible either from the cash refund or the family can go on a full week's vacation to Disney world - all expenses paid. If car dealers can do it, and stay alive, so can the real estate seller.

This type of looker-buyer isn't too numerous right now, but they seem to be growing in number. Realtors are wise to their little act, however and can cope with it up to a point when exasperation takes over. It might be comforting to all such besieged agents to remember that ,somewhere, a funeral director exists who is selling pre-death interment plans.

A.L.M. April 13 2004 [c426wds]

 
TOO SOON

We need about two more years in Iraq of continued military presence in Iraq instead of two months.

We are obligated to leave the new governing council with a secure awareness of what continuing steps it must try to implement to establish a viable government after forty years of dictatorship rule. It is not something which takes place automatically even while the conflict is either ending or has been side-tracked into tangent political areas. We should know from previous ventures of this type that it takes years to do that job rather than months.

The planned intent, I think, was for the United State to maintain military presence in the country “as long as was necessary.” That concept has wavered from the start because of pressure from divergent religious to a degree, and also - even more apparent political pressures here in the United States. I have a feeling the Bush Administration would rather “stay the course” and assure a completion of the present plans to had over a strong, unified government to the Iraqi Governing Council they can use to rule their new nation effectively. Political opposition here at home has become stronger in vaguely articulated demands that we get out of Iraq at once. If John Kerry supporters continue to insist on withdrawal from Iraq in the hope that resulting the hope that resulting Iraqi might occur within the six months or so of election time remaining to give Bush a black eye on his Iraqi venture.

That sort of thinking, paired with a growing attempt to make the situation in Iraq to be “another Viet Nam” are a very real obstacle in the Bush path to re-election.

This anti-war emphasis may well grow and become dominant in the Kerry ranks based on his anti-war participation in anti-war protesting groups when he came home from a four months tour in the Mekong Delta area. Becoming anti-war oriented in the final days of the campaign could have a marked influence of the religious right voters.

The known facts about his known anti-war pretest marches and campaigns will become campaign fodder and it might well be used against him. If a faltering Bush can be presented as not being able to contain the Iraqi eruptions at all, and made out as being “a warmonger,” a great number of peace ctivists will be attracted to Kerry - Peacemaker for the future.

A.L.M. April 12, 2004 [c422wds]

 
STRIKE IOR HIT?

One of the most tense moments anyone can meet with is to be found in the rather calm game of baseball.

You are at bat and the ball is. at that very moment. In flight from the pitcher's hand to an area more or less above the home plate. It is moving toward you are as much as ninety some miles per hour and you are watching it intently. Will it continue straight? Or, will it drop just a few inches near the end of its flight? Maybe it will curve slightly away from you or in toward you - nearer to you and you must judge when it is at the exact point before you can activate the bat swinging eagerly above our shoulder. In a fraction of a second you must evaluate its position, decide what it is might do, and signal that portion of your brain which tells arm and shoulder muscles when to start the decent of the bat so that the ash wood bat and the baseball cover collide – each in transit – and you hear the firm, full sound of it all and know you have made a hit.

Tn that same second, the focus changes and you must estimate the ball's path. Is it low? Is it high – a pop up into the very hand of the fielder standing there awaiting its arrival? It could be an ankle-buster, a bounder, or even crazy skidder, a roller or a foul ball. Then, there is always that chance that it could be a homer far up in the stands. Having decide which it is, one runs for first... fast.

And all of this quick thinking is called for again and again in baseball. It is not a one time action and it happens each and every time any member of the team comes to bat; not to a few specialized individuals in one repetitive position. It happens every time a player comes to bat at least three times

This is i one reason I have long hoped that baseball would become better established in our high schools for both girls and boys. To me this is the quality which makes baseball a favorite training sport. In addition to good, healthful muscular movements, it teaches a person to think fast, with accuracy and attention to minute details or one suffers the consequences.

The next time you have the opportunity to watch a baseball game on TV , purposely try to let your brain go along with that of the players in this situation at bat. Compete with them if you can keep up such a pace of detailed concentration. You will find to be demanding.

Support local baseball among young people in your area, Give them a chance to become quick-thinkers while playing a game,

A.L.M. April 11, 2004 [c472wds]

 
MY PRESIDENT

During all the years of my voting life I have felt that when the people of the United States chose to place one specific man in the Oval Office,that,in addition to being President of the nation -"ours" you might say, he also – with just one exeption - became "my" president, as well.

My parents set me straight on that point many years ago, stating that after the fire and brimstone breathings of election months were over the man chosen became president of all of us - not just those of his own party. The man deserved a fair chance at doing a good job and he needed public support. One supported him in what he tried to do. One accords that man a certain amount of freedom, to show us what he could accomplish. If however, he falters,and consistently fails to do well, you, then, had a moral obligation to set about putting things right, eventually, by withdrawing your active support and preparing for the next election. Even at that point of departure, the man is still due recognition for holding the title he does.

It was not difficult to think of the nation's president as both as ours as well president of others. The intensity of such feeling varied a great deal in my case.'

I was a bit too young to get involved with Woodrow Wilson and or Waring G. Harding. I think positive thoughts concerning those two came with my reading of history of the World War I era. Wilson, being from my home state, would naturally be a favorite, but I do remember, some disturbing feelings as a kid concerning Harding being involved in the Teapot Dome Scandals, which I did not understand and still don't.

Herbert Hoover was, beyond all doubt, was the most vilified individul of them all. I fell sorry fo the man every time he was blamed for yet another woe. He was vey much "mine". We admired him for his engineeering background – non political - and as a leader in helping to send relief to the needy peole of Europe after World War I.

Calvin Cooigde was my presidentlargely because of his his folksy New Englander ways,I think. He seemed natural and easy to accept. Other .,not necesarilyin order,by theay – it me in a vbrious ways. FDR I came to like because I felt he had remarkable contorol of things during wartime.I admired Harry Truman because he realized he was not another FDR and wisely delegated power to others, and, unfortunatelyh, not alway making good choices. He was spunky ,too. He was mine ,for sure. Eisenhower was my former General just as FDR had been my Commander if Chief - so I went along with both of them.

JFK gave me some problems at first largely because of the Nixon trouble before him i which he played a role. I liked Richard Nixon until his inherent weaknesses began to manifest thmselves and make us vulnerable.I liked Johnson very much as a shrew organizer and ex-Senate whip who could move thing about with a few phone calls to the right people. Both he an JFK lost me to a degree with their repeated womanizing. The Viet Nam situation and the Bay of Pig incident seemed to make he feel better about at the time.Jimmy Carter struck me as a relief when he came along – a reguar guy in many and less of the political hack.

All of our Presidents have found favor in my eyes tosome degree,excpt one and my reasons for excluding Bill Clinton are vague and uncertain. For some reason, I have never quite seemed see him as being as being "presidential". He semed to be less and less worthy the more he tried to do the job. His obvious moral depravity was unforgiveble. If John Kerry becomes President, Bill Clinton will have company on the short side of my list.

A.L.M. April 10, 2004 [c601wds[

 
REASSESMENT


Have we, as a nation, reached a point where we find ourselves disenchanted with some of the novel features which made our country become what it is today - the ackowledeged leader of the world of free nations.

Do we still revere the trappings of our cultural growth enough to use them as a firm basis for continued groweh ,or have we reached a level at which we are pausing as if to catch our breath before we continue, to where ever it might be we intend to go.

The Commonwealth of Virginia will be observing its 400th Birthday in 2007, and a hint of what is being planned to celebrate that anniverisary date is already apparent in the form of a strip across the lower edge of the state's automobile licnse plates
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Each of the other states of the nation will,in time and in turn, mark the anniversay of their beginning and each holds a heritage which is different from all others. The astonishing variety of attitudes which formed this collection of individual states is a remarkrable thing to behold.Some settlers came seeking material advancement; some saw that success in the form of gold to be had for the taking without effort; oters saw it as a place where they could practice their religious feelings without restrictions. Some individuals, no doubt, saw coming to the New World as a means of setting up their own,private entity of extended land and ownership and dominent authority and power over large groups of people. Some few. perhaps, may well have come with some basic thought of living a life of absolute freedom from oppression of any kind and we can be assured that any of these reasons for coming were highly theoretical and far from being practical - certainly not easy.

It will be interesting to see what the first in line,the Commonwealth of Virginia devises as a proper means of remembering who we were and where we came from and for what reasons. Have we realized our dreams? Did anything work out the way it was planned? Or,are we still questing for change and improvement or modifications? Or are they diffeent from the way they were origianly planned? It might be logical for use to assume that Virginia, as the first of the states to do so, so, might celebrate its 400th year by leaning heavily on the treasure it as already has in the restored City of Willimsburg. This remarkable monument of our national existence will be in the background of each state's observance of it's annivesary for whatever year. It is a vibrant,living symbol of the early Colonial values which are still found to some degree in American life styles today.

It might be wise to refrain from overdoing the 400th celebrations. If so, what will we do when the 500th rolls around?

.A.L.M. April 9, 2004 [c480wds]

 
SAGE REMINDERS

The oft celebated Sage of Ccncord – Ralph Waldo Emerson – left us a wealth of maxims which we find, so often, apply readily to present-day events and circumstances.

One such use came to mind Thursday when Dr. Condileezza Rice was testifying under oath before the group of five Democrats and five Republicans serving as a board of inquiry concernig the causes of the September 11th debacle and a the possibilities that it could have been prevented.

Several factors kept me on edge throghout the entire session. A vaguly antagonistic attitude was seen in Democratic members who seemed intent on how they could estalish an illusion that President President Geoge W. Bush was reponsible for the entire affair and that he did not give the problem the importnce it deservd. They kept setting forth the idea that Bush was the sole person who could have prevented "September11th from happening";' that he had not done so because he was, they claimed, too preoccupied with a project to send troops to invade Iraq and ignored threats from the Al Quada.

Another point which worried me was that the questioners, at times, revealed their weaknesses and uncertain grounds by repeatedly and rudely interupting the speaker as she testified in reply to their questions. I felt that one particularly aggressive individual spoke to her in a tone of voice which was very close to condescending and addressed Dr. Rice as "Mrs. Rice" even though the proper desognation had been firmly established by common usage at the start of the procedings.

Where does Emerson fit into all of this?

In spite of promises that that it would not be so, the panel is defintely partisan which indicat that nothing can be expcted to come directly from it. However, it's actions may cause individuals to think through thematter ontheir own.

Ralph Waldo Emerson said: "What lies behind us and what lies ahead of us are tiny next to our awareness of what lies within us."

Dr. Rice, I felt, spoke with calm assurance. She exhibited quite well her qualificatins for her place in our govenment. Her questioners did not alway speak with such assurance. She took their blantant attempts to confuse and confound her without stopping, but continued to make her point over the obstacles. At times. Her train of thought was actually given emphasis by the fact that it surmounted their crude attempts at derailment. If one could listen to a tape of such verbal constrictions, it might sound more like a tape editor had "beeped out" unwanted words and phrases, but her thought goes on.

Considering what we have heard thus far in the hearing it would certainly suggest that Emerson's words will sum it all up for most of us when the panel has completed its charade.

L.M. April 8, 2004 [c479wds]

 
AIR WARS

I supposer it would be natural for anyone born when the Wright Brothers were still active in the aviation news of the day, to be somewhat addicted to reading everything available concerning flying. I read my share of them, I''m sure, and always felt they were the men who actually won the war against the hordes of Huns who were not exactly dummies themselves and often proved to be worthy antagonists in air battles.. I came across a novel approach to the old WWI flying Aces theme just recently - a novel called “Flight of Eagles”by Jack Higgins.

One would think just about every twist concerning the switching of twins had been worked by those who compound fiction stories, but here's a new and different one -.at least for me. It tells of the exploits of twin brothers who were war time aces - the one for the RAF and the U S Air Force and the other for the Luftwaffe. It all seems to make good, logical sense, too, and is not at all difficult to understand how sides were chosen and how each man acted according to his feelings.

There must have been a number of families during World War II who were divided in their feelings concerning Axis thinking and that of the Allied nations. This book deal with one particular case and does so with amazing temperance and without upsetting anyone violently. The love of flying which both boys exhibit - a trait inherited from their father who was a "fliyer" in World War I, overshadows the "reason" behind the war. The twins are almost robots in one sense and as they fly they express their views only in a secondary sense.

I think most readers will anticipate that, sooner or later, the brothers are going to meet each other and that they will be forced to make decisions about taking each others lives. They meet several times and, as one might expect, in unusual circumstances. Yet, they remain brothers in every sense of the word and somehow it works out well with several unexpected twists along the way and at the very end.

Those persons interested in the aircraft of various nations of the era - the Russians, Finns, British, Germans, and Americans will find this book of special interest. "Jack Higgins" also writes under the name "Harry Patterson." There are also some interesting sidelights on the personal feelings of many Nazi-like personalities of the time.

A memorable feature of "Flight of Eagles" is a small Teddy Bear dressed as an "aviator". It was an on-craft mascot of the father of the twins in WWI and a passenger on every flight he made. It was also the mascot of one of the boys in World War II. You will find it interesting to follow the adventures of the mascot bear "Tarquin" as a secondary theme of the overall story.

Question: how close did Dwight Eisenhower ever come to being killed? You find out when you read "Flight of Eagles" - and you'll wonder if it is fact or fiction. I'm still deciding.

A.L.M. April 7.2004, [c524wds]

 
KEEPNG TIME

There are many ways of keeping time.

A favorite way is to pat our foot tapping lightly on the floor when a popular tune is being played.. We have, obediently, changed our clocks each Spring and Fall but not any more That set chore has been taken over by a radio transmitter located in Colorado which keeps our clocks set and re-set as needed. We all pay attention to time.

My concern with time began I'd say rather early, when I was about to become nine years of age. If I had to put a date on it. I would set it as having taken place in mid-January 1924.

My older brother Al and I had received identical gifts that Christmas from our parents we often did in those Depression years. They had given each of us a bright, new, ticking pocket watch.. We were both proud of the fact that we owned , as personal property, fine, new INGERSOL watches and in the famed ”Buck”:model which I was later told was called that because it sold for one dollar. I don't know that to be a fact, but it would have been in keeping with budgets of those days. .We both thought of our watches baa being cut-down versions of London's “Big Ben” himself.

For the first time in our lives we had time at hand ,and it was a good,, grown-up sort of feeling, too/ We consulted them frequently and told everyone what time of day or night it was, even if they were not concerned about it all. One afternoon ,when Al was taking a nap, I chanced upon his watch where had placed it for safekeeping on Mom;s cloth covered ironing board. In those days a “Buck” style pocket watch could be heard ticking away at a distance of several feet.

A mere touch of the tip of the smallest blade of my pocket knife caused the back cover to snap off and to fall gently to the ironing board cover. That revealed to me a wonderful maze of clock works! More discovery! Then. when I slanted the case a but two small parts fell out and I knew I was in dee[ trouble/ I had no idea how to replace them. I put everything down and let the room.

I found refuge on the front porch sitting on the wooden swing . The rest of that hour was the longest period of time I have ever known in all my lifetime. I awaited my fate and I knew my time had come when I heard my mother's voice booming from deep within the house, She spoke my name. That's all.. But she said. my full name and each part of it with equal emphasis, which is always a bad omen, and she made use of that special tone of voice, available only to mothers when calling their children to task which reaches out and demand ,
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` My punishment. I had to give my watch to my brother. Mother brokered the actual exchange and said we were never to speak of the subject edver again. It was not something we could be proud of having in the family, It did show,she said we each had a bad streak of selfishness we ought to get rid of if we wanted to live worthy lives.

I have often wondered why I did not simply leave my watch on the ironing board; take the pieces of the other one and lose them somewhere and saved a lot of trouble ,but if I had done it that way, we would not have found out about this the selfishness thing,, would we?

Mothers work in wondrous ways.

A.L.M. April 6, 2004 [c631wds]

 
WHAT IS A SPORT?

Have you ever given any thought to what constitutes a “sport” now -.today during our 2lst Century?

You well be surprised by the number and variety of types of activity which are on such a list in the general category of “sports” It is far more than simply an activity which calls for participants to move a ball through a set pattern or course against opposition to his doing so.
The term “sports”:is confused with the word “games” especially with those demanding physical exertion because “sports”, to many people suggests physical actions called exercises thought to be beneficial to the human body both in maintenance and upkeep of the structure..

When we think of such activities we usually start with the old Roman and Greek concepts of what made a sport, The so-called Roman “games” come to mind as examples of brutal competitions devised to graphically show qualities of bravery, stamina, endurance and the earlier Greek Olympic games were, perhaps, less stringent and demanding on those involved with some,e exceptions Our sports heritage stems from both sets of rules to some degree and there has been a nationalistic break-down to include regional and other activities
Some are not generally accepted as being sports:at all. We have also included “games”which are merchandised to fit current fads.

Your list would, of course, would contain those which are potentially blood-letting. What would head such a list today Where do we start? Boxing? Wrestling. Diving? High or sky ?” How about Fencing? Football, hockey, soccer and others? Where do we place automobile racing? It thrives on disaster potential in the mind of many fans.

We are going to have to re-define what we mean by the term “sports”and what we mean by a “game” which is an exhibition played largely for the accumulation of statistics which set the participants apart from others. The English language has about a dozen or so meanings for this word “sport” and we need to limit our classifications of them to keep those which are of an athletic nature separated from those which are to be observed rather than played.

Another reform which should be taken seriously concerns the rising costs of participation in favorite sports, Referring once more to the ancient Greek and Roman examples ,both were free to the public and underwritten by government. We should pay our own way in sports and , it is logical that a fee be charged to sustain the costs of the operation which can be related to the amount of financial help available through commercial sponsorship by business firms. The cost of attending baseball, football and auto racing events is currently prohibitive for many people. If sports activity is to grow in America some serious attendance must be paid to keeping the cost of admission at reasonable levels. And, there has to be a better way of paying players for their services than the existing system of public bidding in millions of dollars for extended contractual agreements.

The sports world is a bit hazy with such things obscuring the very real and essential values of sports in the well-being of our nation. Reformation is badly needed from within to avoid disaster.

A.L.M. April 5, 2004 [c551wds]

 
TRAVEL TRAVAIL

If it is true that travel conditions have become so demanding, why don't more people opt to stay home more often?
In so many cases people don't have to travel as much as they do. Many do so because they do not trust others to do things on their behalf They know how they would do such favors and suspect other would be as negligent if one is not there as actual presence. Lots of people actually enjoy a degree of physical discomfort as a variant from the rather staid norm at home, too. The home life we used to laud so much slipped into a make-do sort of places to stay until; we can hit the road once more. A great many people would have absolutely no goal at all. They miove about to seek out new ways in which the can be insulted, demeaned, and physically or emotionally assaulted by craven commercialized citizens in the industries associated with traveling.

The constantly disgruntled traveler is often asking too much, I fear, They expect to find every little spoiled-brat feature they enjoy at home when they travel. No neat, clean and orderly motel bedroom ever going to resemble the trashed- out collection of spaces between walls many people call “home.”. And, far more people than you might imagine live is such haphazard surroundings, .On the road the pig seeks his sty

Travel today - aside from special precautions being taken during wartime emergencies - is about as convenient as it has ever been. .It may no be less costly, I will grant, but it is variable and there are levels for various economic demands. You pick and choose, and what ever some persons choose is never going to suit them in some small detail. And you will hear about it. When it happens to you - smile, in pity and understanding. Try not to smirk. When one meets hazards of this type avoid trying to solve their problems. Learn to take the bad with the lousy and go your way rejoicing that you are not part of such a problem.

A.L.M. April 4, 2004 [c402wds]

 
WE

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."

It is a designation of which we may be proud. It was said in and era when many world leaders were thinking and saying we were rather more like a mad dog, rabid and running loose intent on spreading alien ideas and concepts and ceaselessly ravaging the smaller nation of the world without mercy.

Look and listen to the varied voices speaking of us even now in our time of national election when we are going n thorough the cumbersome process of selection of a leader for the next four or eight perilous years. Some of us remember when we use to say such things about the English - describing them as a people who would "middle their way through" any b ad situation.

That was not a nice thing to say. It is not so easy to see the humor in the statement but I have witnessed the quality in the British people first hand - a quality which says they can endure, and face any dangers knowing that, in time, their rightness would rule. It seemed impossible during xhose hectic days and interminable nights. The more the Nazi bombs struck, the more stubborn Englishmen and women became; determined to see it through."muddling", you might say. When they were, backs to the wall, and in dire need. I came to feel that the "muddle through” term was the same as a term I grew with among the Appalachian mountain people in southwestern Virginia. The mountain folks spoke of "makin' do" - using what you had to do the best you could against wrongdoers.

I cannot forget those days. The city of Norwich, in Norfolk County, East Anglia, was hit for the first time at high noon just when the major manufacturing plants – shoe factories and a large chocolate plant and others - were sending thousands of workers out into the narrow, hilly streets. It all came upon them without warning and they became a new people dedicated. They hunkered down and did those things they had to do with what remained. Then , at long last, in came the tail-wagging Yanks who began upsetting chairs of tradition right away. We all, however, got along well with each other and, together, seem to have “muddled though” it all and helped to re-write some pages of history.

A.L.M. April 3, 2004 [c424wds]

 
ROMANTIC RATS

Very seldom. today, do we come across the romantic rogue type bad guy in today's novels – even the “romantic” ones. I met with such a lovable scoundrel recently when a neighbor dropped off one of several books she thought I must read./ It is a novel titled:”Homeport”,:written by Nora Roberts..
.
Dr.Miranda Jones, in the novel, of Jones Point, Maine, where they had long been a leading family, is an art expert and especially adept authenticating old art works of art and placing them where they rightfully belong. In this exciting novel, Dr. Miranda encounters art theft of a special kind and becomes romantically involved with a man who specializes in stealing art treasures for a price on order for art collectors. He is a thief, but a very specialized one, and also a young man who takes good care of of his extended Italian family - owners of a fine arts exhibit center of note - with his "earnings". His family - mother, father and others, including a younger sister, who is, oddly enough, a member of the local police force know about his unusual line of work. The next job" they seem to believe is going to be his "last one" which makes it all acceptable for the time being. With his accumulated earnings he has uprooted them from their old urban area which "was becoming dangerous" and bought them a spacious old farm home in Maine where they live in relative splendor and comfort. A happy family, too..

Dr. Jones' mother is also an art expert and runs the family studio and exhibit hall in Florence, Italy. A small bronze figure is found and Miranda is ordered by Mother to come to Florence at once to authenticate it. Thus begins a complicate story of art theft with many facets of romance, adventure and danger.

Mirnada, after a short study, finds the bronze to be the real thing and in doing so here reputation as an art expert will be greatly enhanced. It is placed on exhibit with special safety precautions, but "someone" manages to walk in; steal it and cause all manner of trouble. But, it seems, the "stolen" figure is indeed a fake and has been substituted for the real bronze somewhere along the line..

The plot continues with other thefts and leads, eventually, to murder, but it works out well for Miranda, her brother Andrew and Ryan Boldari - the consummate thief . It is a book to be read for enjoyment. The heavy layer of art is art not at all cumbersome and is not used in a stuffy or academic manner.

I enjoyed reading it . It was a welcome respite from today's mass mayhem mystery overload.. I'd even like to get to know the Boldari family better. The cover blurb called it "romantic suspense". It does well on both counts. Try it: Nora Roberts' “Homeport”. I would say it is one of the better examples of this genre in recent years.

A. L.M. April 2, 2004 [c505wds]

 
GENESIS

How DID all this get started? I've been asked why I do what I do'. Here's how it began.

There is nothing wrong with keeping a diary. I tried it when I was a kid, and quickly found it to be a record largely of weather conditions for the days, months and years, plus notes about incidents which had been forgotten and rightfully so. Those sections of diaries which endure and mean something worthwhile for the writer or others were. Thatt finished my diary keeping. I started calling it a ”Journal.”

As a journal it held a hint of being done daily and part of it was to keep a record of want I did, where I went, who I met, what we talked about and, most important, what I understood and thought and what I did about those things as they took place. Some people, especially those living along coastal areas, often take a nautical and call their Journal: a “Log” and make “entries” in their official Log Book as a duty of the one who is in charge and obligated to do so. Before too long you hope a new crew member will be told to take over the task.

I missed that nautical tangent which is an at-sea diary. and went from journal keeping to writing “articles”as they were called it in those days. I admired such successful writers of that time such as O .O.MacIntyre who wrote a syndicated week-days only “column” titled “Day By Day.”

I found myself gathering a stack of such writings - usually one sheet of single-spaced typewritten pages. I remember I made a cardboard binder out of an old cardboard suit box to hold what called ”My Nine Hundred Days.- Part I” .The makeshift binder closed with a string and it got stuffed in a drawer or another, larger box because because I had no file cabinet at the time. The idea was to put them aside in lots of three hundred with the avowed intent of taking one month off between each set. That hiatus never caught on, however. I was hooked, for sure.

Imagine my elation when I found the local weekly paper would use one now and
then - usually around holidays .A national church paper bought one called “Scrapbooks As Textbooks” paid me five dollars. Then, two others, as well. I keep a “scalp list” so eyer so often that list would encourage me to even up the tally of items given away and those which kept a tally to show me how many were the source of real money.. I made good use of my writing experience when I took off for the University in 1939. There I took on pen ames because I had two short stories in one magaine one month and they didn't want the same name every month thereafter eiuther. I have used six such nom de plumes over the years for various reasons. I left the University too start writing copy for WSVA, Harrisonburg ,Va.- commercial copy, program material, and PR releases. Ithen tookla ten year turn at writing sales brochures, installation and operating manuals for a major air-conditioning and heating manufacturer , as well as more PR work,.and a series of Incentive Travel scripts for reintroduction. I loved all of it, but the job moved to Hartford,Ct. and I chose not to go with it. I was welcomed back to WSVA-AM-FM-TV writing copy again and some on air work on talk shows. and I retired at age sixty-two to write.- which I'm still doing. During my earlier stay of eighteen years, I did, for several years , a five-minute thing for week-end use titled TOPIC which I recorded each Friday.. A newspaper editor who heard those programs, asked me to do an “under the cartoon “ editorial feature column in his weekly paper The Shenandoah “Herald”:which I did for three years. .During those years I sold to the “Post” in DC, the Dow-Jones weekly “National Observer”- may it rest in journalistic peace, and in other papers.

I have made use of them in teaching Sunday School, as well - first with teenagers, then with adults for forty-three years.. I have been encouraged along the way by some fine individuals and I promise to tell you about them another day.

A.L.M. April 2, 2004 [c729wds]

 
NATIONAL SPORT

You, too?

Have you been seeing some nosy surveys asking you to name our national sport? They seem to assume that bas ball no longer holds that place of honor among re-blooded Americans.. I hope you are with me in disagreeing with that premise,

It may well be true that, at the moment, the hold baseball has on the American people may appear to be less than it has been in the past, That does not mean it has been supplanted as the nation's favorite sport.. Sports, as with most things we do, are often led around by the nose by faddists - people who want to ry something different, and who, for a while, find some temporary satisfaction in doing something other than playing, watching or reading about baseball. It can be secondary in the off-season part of the year ,but now that it has started again for this year, we can expect a strong upturn in interest.

Baseball is competitive, these days,and vies with many well-financed sports activities.. Baseball demands, however, more individual and team skill than most of the others and they will fade as baseball ball is restored to its usual place.

Those who think baseball has ceased to be our national sport, are not secure in their understanding of why baseball has been the favorite for;so long. The number of hours a sport demands from a fan's day influences some, perhaps, and let;s face it; some who be disenchanted with sports in general because of excessive wages paid to players and ballyhooed excessively by a sometimes over-eager media.. The grassroots sentiment seems to be:“They aom't no man wuth 'at much!” That fan sees such cost as the reason for higher cost on tickets at the gate.. You can't judge a game by its gate. This is the same thing that has hurt the movie industry so severely. .Movie quality has steadily declined even as b ox office prices nave advanced to new peaks. Officials hold that they can determine the :best picture by a system which holds that the picture that brings in the most money is best.. Fewer people see movies today but they pay many times more than the admission prices set years ago when ”the best” film was selected by the number of people who came to see it....not how much they overspent tp do so. Sports is suffering the same agony of misjudging what the public accepts as “best”.

The biggest single factor for all sports today is television. It cannot be ignored. Radio is in there, as well. as an important ingredient. Radio engenders new, expanded interest in the competitive individuals and and among sports fans by constant talk
cencerning the competition's of individual and team actions which is laudable, including what we can only call “idol gossip”.It may often smell but it will sell well. Ring Lardner ,the sport writer of yesteryear, proved that amply enough.

What sport would appear to you as the main contender to vie with baseball to be our national game?

Football? Pro - or collegiate?. . NASCAR racing?? Stock Car, or Formula?
That's based the sheer number of people who turn out for such events. In what order do you place them? Basketball, Volley Ball, Golf.,Tennis,. Boxing. Soccarr, Wrestling, Field events and Gyumastics - add your own -.others and also-rans. Remember too there are some purists out there who do not consider car racing and pro-wrestling be sports at all..

In a wide sense, let's hope they all do well. Good exercise is a health and happiness builder for. all. Because it is has more sports meaning and demands more skill among players, teams of players, coaches and management staff members. Fans, too, have more in which they can become involved when baseball is their choice.

A..L.M.. March 31, 2004 [c652wds]

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