CODICIL TO LIVING WILL

A great many Americans may have a strange, school-time feeling of having just taken an important test and failed. Many of us developed strong beliefs about the situation of Terri Schiavo which was ended this morning in Atlanta when she died of starvation and dehydration.

In one sense, it is “all over”.

In another, the real problem, at the root of it all, is just beginning to be seen and felt among millions of average citizens who were previously ignorant of such terms and totally unaware of such.

Those who had been in hospitals or had surgical care in recent years might remember having been asked if they had “a Living Will” and possibly wondered if they did. We were often assured that such a statement of intent or a regular will and that additional papers were not needed. Now, we have it mind that it might be best to check and see if “Last Will and Testament” actually does include have such stipulations or that it just alludes to them.

This particular Florida case in which fifteen years of years of inter-family bickering had been woven into to the story including an element which is all too common in all sections of the country wherein a husband or wife is deprived by conjugal privileges by severe illness of partner. This factor needs attention by religious and secular authorities knowledgable in such matters that they may, in time, come forth with suggestion, clarification's, and guidance which are urgently needed to bring marriage manuals up to date with stern reality in which marriage relationships are severely warped.

It is of special concern where children are involved. To continue to follow the present method of allowing biological necessity to determine what the future path will be is totally wrong, unacceptable, unwise – even dangerous to us as individuals and to the nation at large.

A.L.M. March 1, 2005 [c325wds]

 
THAT OLD GEZER

At last, in 1871, an exploration group headed by C. Clermont-Ganneau decided on the exact spot where the ancient Canaanite-Israeli city called “Gezer” had to have been located. They selected one till among many – a “till” being acreage which had once been inhabited by humans. They did some digging that thirty-three acre plot of rocky land just northwest of Jerusalem,back a few miles from the Mediterranean Sea coast. The hill itself is a gentle slope from which one can look over the expanse of the famed Aijalon valley and the do a visual inspecting travelers on the road to Jerusalem to determine if they were friend or enemy. Gezer was placed back from the main highway. That added safety to their homes because not all of the users of the highway camed as friendly visitors. Some asked permission to pass; others demanded it and became highly disturbed if not permitted to do so. Gezer had one of the largest defensive towers of that time. Foundation examinations today show it was fifty feet square and there are no records to indicate how tall it might have been when the city was at its prime.

The founders of the city must have been subjected o a great deal of kidding and ”I told you so!” remarks but after two years of patient digging they found he marked rocks bearing the city's name in the foundations of the wall ringing the city. The main city gate was built in 1650 B.C. Of a mud brick and stone foundation, a heavy wooden door covered with bronze plating and it was placed within walls wall on either side which measured four meters wide with at least twenty five guard towers around it at strategic points. It all worked until Thutmose III invaded the place in 1477 B.C . and pretty much demolished the gates, the walls and the towers.


Another aspect of Gezer today is evident in its
fine water system. You don't, as a rule, expect to find such work done in that part of the world, but it is said to have rivaled that found at Megiddo, Hazor and at Gibeon. The main shaft is a circular opening measuring seven meter across and it goes down to the average water level. Then, there is a sloping, 45-meter tunnel. When was first located it was thought to have been work done in the Late Bronze Age at about 1500 to 1200 B.C. but further studies comparing it to installations at Megiddo and Hazor shift it to the Iron period about 1000 to 600 B.C.

An odd feature about the entire archaeological study at Gezer is that it is one of the few projects in which I find archeology workers – some, no doubt,known as “experts” being openly critical of work done by others in the profession. Alexander Stewart McAllister has been severely criticized by others for a “crime” they identify as “stratigraphy” or “non-control over the interrelations of o object and debris” Other scientists of the same group say: “The Gezer excavations suffered from the worst practices of the time...there was no control over stratigraphy...the interrelation of objects and debris was ignored.”

It seems have something to do with the actual final placement of a specific piece of debris o a salvageable object in the pile. Some insist it does make a difference such items are found. Macalliaster himself, in answer to his critics has said:”the exact spot in the mound where any ordinary object chanced to lie is not generally of great importance.”

His words are very carefully and wisely chosen. Such placement could prove to be critically important but as he says “generally” they are not. I find it true that some archaeologists tend to think “vertically”- up and down throughout the mound, while other think ”horizontally”- from side to side over the expanse of the mound.

Stop your bickering,boys. We need both of you.


A.L.M. March 30, 2005 [c672wds]

 
TRUE COLORS

It is not at all unusual today to feel a sudden tinge of redness flushing into your cheeks when you see a sign proclaiming the latest 9/10th of a cent rise in the price of gasoline. Up! Up! And away!

There was a time some years ago when gas was sold by color and red was a favorite with many of us. That was back in the 1930's, as I recall. It started suddenly, last a year or so and ran dry. It seems strange today, but a great many people favored one hue over another ready to prove their car operated better, longer, safer and actually with less service and repair work if their favorite color of gasoline was used at all times.

I think the brand then called “Standard” was a red. Pumps at local filling stations in those days had large, glass tanks atop their six-foot towers. Red gasoline spouted into that glass display area from a nearby or underground storage tank was an inspiring sight of fresh, green gasoline it could lend a Christmas feeling to year round happiness and joy.

Those pumps were hand-operated. The attendant stood erect between the tanks and worked the long handle to start the gasoline flowing from down under upward to the glass container above in a sudden flush of liquid color related foam... a soft, nursery pink if your car “ran better” using red gasoline.

Other product brands of the day shared other colors. There were green, blue, yellow, copper-toned, and I'm sure that, had we had a company based in Scotland, someone would have devised a plaid “designer” gas or a tartan toned type for kilt-wearing motorists. I don't remember exactly who had what colors, but there was a shade for Cities Service, Gulf, Sinclair, Texaco, and Sun Oil Company called their gas “Blue Sunoco”. So, me one, I think it was American chose to buck the trend; to battle the blues, golds, reds, tans, coppers and others with a perfectly white, absolutely clean, pure, untainted pollution-free gasoline to be had without a doctor's prescription. . A new brand “Atlantic” also went aggressively white.

Prices varied in those days, as well but I don't remember them doing drastic price stunts as they seem to do so readily today, allegedly responded to influence at the sources of crude ...events which hadn't even happened yet but may at any time in those volatile mid-east spots where entire nations have been sitting on crude supplies for centuries.

In my memory gasoline prices seem to have stayed in the 20-cent level; then it jumped to twenty-five and up to thirty-nine. We heard the very same comments we are hearing today. Today gasoline is selling for $2.50 in Texas; it was $2.14 in the Valley of Virginia is afternoon and I see a quote from California that a gallon there costs you $3.00. That's where we have five perfectly good refinery plants sitting idle and unused because of
environmentalist objection to their use. We do not have the capacity to refine supplies of crude currently being shipped from Valdez.

FOOTNOTE:

A strange event is taking place in our midst this very moment which might teach us a thing or two about our future. Now that we have advanced to the cultural level where we can legally execute a human being with mental and physical difficulties and physical irregularities by starvation and dehydration while, at the same time protecting known criminals from such a fate. We, having attained to such competence as that, certainly ought to be able to solve our petty power problems without any difficulty - and soon.

A.L.M. March 29, 2005 [c616wds]

 
REAL REALITY

During the weeks of the Terri Schiavo experience, what have we - the American populace - learned - if anything?

For one thing we should have found that reality in-the-raw, as it might be called, has very little to connection with to that which the clever TV producers have made it seem to be for thousands - make that “millions” - of men and women and worst of all - young people/children who have been to be lobo- lathed with a fantasy thought to be real because it is made to appear to be harsh and demanding.

The deeds which casually questing men and women are asked to perform on TV's versions of “reality” are carried out other than by the hidden means used to make it seem so potentially disastrous on film. You are not allowed to see the foamed cushion which breaks a victim's seeming “free” fall. You do not know what precautions have been in place when TV pictures individuals being gored by strange, forked horns of Mother Nature, nerds in herds or glamorous femme de fatale caricatures of all types of evil. True reality - of the type we have come to be aware of in recent weeks in Florida - endanger far more than life and limb ferreting out the innermost recesses of our consciousness of being alive. Choosing a wrong path; seeking a special advantage; stepping into the unknown, or unknowable, can sear the soul.

Fine men of good character, many with strong views one way or the other went “as far as they could” in favor of their particular choice. Governor Jeb Bush of Florida has been criticized for doing what he has done and also for what he has chosen not to do. He considers the suggested actions to be illegal while others insist it has been done before – which, to them, at east, make it legal. Jeb Bush, it seems, has decided be true to his oath as Governor of the State of Florida, to uphold the rule of law. Governor Jeb Bush ,of Florida, will probably be a scapegoat of many losers on both sides when all of this is ended by Terri Schiavo's death. Bush has been c criticized for that which he has done by some and others find fault with him for not following their suggestions.

We have learned, perhaps that it is never wise, as a general rule, to try to mix sentiment and politics. It is an oil-water situation and never the twain shall mix well.

The religious aspects of the standoff have been amazingly light. Final rites were said this morning (March 28th) and I have heard several people say that it was unfortunate that the Pope has been seriously ill in Rome and has been unable to comment on the situation in Florida. Prayer in the Protestant manner has been evident at the hostel demonstration area. The religious emphasis has ween from the so-called evangelical side of protestant groups rather than the “organized” churches.

I rather doubt we have learned any enduring lessons. Far too much information concerning the case was founded on a few home-TV clips showing the way the victim looked and acted in August of 2001, and in '02 and '03, but little or nothing of how she was doing at we were being told of her problems.

Straightforward truth may well have saved her life for a time.

A.L.M. March 28, 2005 [c577wds]

 
CHANGLINGS

You may not be acutely aware of the fact that this language we use to communicate with each other is in an almost constant state of change.

That may well be one of the main reasons why it continues to be a leading way of letting others know what we are thinking, feeling, doing or wishing we might accomplish some day. It is flexible and readily accepts change without loss of the older text meaning in most cases.

In regard to transportation terms used, for instance, I have witnessed the sweeping changes which took us from the horse and buggy era into that of the automobile then into the aircraft mode to travel. New terminology came into being with the development of the new method of movement. There was, normally, some crossover and even confusion, of course, when we used make-do terms to describe was seemed to be called what it was - a “horseless carriage” or a ” motor carriage.” Before too long these terms were consigned to use by comedians and story tellers seeking bits of fun by re-hashing “the good ole days.” Other had turned to speaking of “cars”or “motor cars” and advertising copywriters went through and elaborated phase of comparing their new car with the finest, most expensive carriage-trade, horse-drawn models . We saw droves of phaetons, barouche beauties, hansoms, landaus and Vis-a-Vis versions beyond numbering - some we had dreamed of owning some day.

Aircraft went thorough pretty much the same thing and its pace was augmented in 1903 when the Wright Brothers did their thing at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. That term “aircraft” which plainly compares a plane to a ship would seem to have been among the early terms but those days big boats were popularly know as “ships rather than fancier forms and arty sounding ”craft”. The people just a decade or so ahead of me used to drive me wild by insisting on saying “airships” and “flying machines” - even past W II . My father, of course, remembered the zeppelins the U.S. Navy used to send coursing though the Norfolk, Virginia skies in the 1920's . We all called them “airships”, then. My Father-in-law was a farmer and readily equated the things the Wright Brothers flew with his own machines favored the term “flying machines” - threshing machines or a hay binder with wings. Some of the earlier planes did look like contraptions - kites of a sort - and they looked a lot better once they learned to cover vital areas with doped canvas.

People always complain loudly when any a revised versions of holy scripture are set forth. Some need to be changed because their meaning has shifted while others have become obsolete. For example: a “leasing” use be a falsehood; “minish” meant diminish; “wot” meant “to know” and “poll thee” - thou needest to have thy hair cut.

Our wonderful English language! Revel in it!

A.L.M. March 27, 2005 [c495wds]

 
HARVEST AT RANDOM

I don't know what the connection might be, but since we have been
involved in the Terri Schiavo story, I have been led to think again-and-again of a novel I read many years ago. I remember where I was living at the time so it has to have been in 1941 – probably some month shortly before “Pearl Harbor Day” in December which was an event which reshaped our futures in so many ways.

The title was “ Random Harvest” and author James Hilton had , at that time, given us “Lost Horizons” and “Goodbye, Mr. Chips.” Both of those became films of note, but I can't recall a movie of “Random Harvest”.

The plot was somewhat quirky. It was sentimental,too, and I see now why I think of it in relation to the Schiavo story. The hero of the novel was just at the age when he was going off to Cambridge University when he was a drafted into the British Army and sent to the continent. Hilton put him through a series quickly-paced wartime experiences to show the Englishman's attitude toward war as he accepted commands and did things he would not, ordinarily, never have done. He did not like his life in the army; but he saw it all from almost a humorous viewpoint. I have an idea this view and sentiments expressed were largely those of Hilton telling this story from a rather strange angle as an observer of sorts including a climatic one said to be suicidal These were the years between the two great wars, remember - not exactly the steadiest of times for any of any of us.

As reader's we met the hero as a half-alive person seated on a lonely park bench in Liverpool, England. He sits there alone and desperately tries to remember anything. He recalls what he wanted to do before the totally blank portion of his wartime years. He remembers nothing whatever of that phase of his life yet wants to know! He will never stop attempting to bring in the random harvest of his lost week, months or years.

Events coming to an end today? ...tomorow? in Florida, will haunt us for many years to come... as a random harvest of ideals gone awry in ways we never expected could happen.

A.L.M. March 26, 2005 [c396wds]

 
IT IS NOT THE SAME

Every time our military forces are put to use they change. It is, at times, a call for improvement and it seems to come about when new troops are deployed to active areas of conflict.

We have become aware from actual combat experience, for example, that many of our units were too large. This has made transport aircraft our main need all others. Forces, when requested, must arrive promptly and be line-ready; fully operative for immediate action - not dependent on any “to follow” materials or personnel.

I think we all recall when we suddenly started hearing about American soldiers requesting more “body armor”. The Idea was misused by some politicians. Such requests were often vilified and set aside as complaints from poorly-trained, somewhat sissified soldiers who seemed to want an electronic “coat-of-arms” to wear when enemy fire started. It was, however, a sensible suggestion from people who, in actual experience, found the metal sheets making up the skin of their Jeeps, Humbees, weapons carriers and other such people movers had to be made thicker.
Smaller windshields and bullet-proof glass would help, too. In the actual war, enemy forces were focusing anti-tank weaponry on such carriers and using anti-personnel bombs along roadway edges.

There never was a person who flew in B-24's and B-17's during WW II who has not held a fifty caliber shell, in hand and compared its size to the thickness - or thinness - of the fuselage shell surrounding him for protection.

In short, our vehicles are out-dated; our combat units as worn. They need re-designing and replacement. In Desert Storm, in Afghanistan and in Iraq, our mobile forces were required to move faster, farther and under the most unfavorable conditions. They are worn out. The entire nature of war - making has, has changed and our situation is further complicated by the fact that there are now some legitimate questions as to the availability of adequate manufacturing facilities needed to re-fashion our military might. It remains to be determined if we have retained enough of our manufacturing

capabilities needed to re-build our defense force, at least It will soon become a major concern and most of the industrial plants which could be converted - are gone.

My carbine in WW II was manufactured by the Underwood Typewriter Company The foot lockers at Ft. Meade, Maryland were made at the Basic-Witz Furniture plant at Staunton,Virginia The vehicles we drove were put together at assembly plants with parts and pieces from our own foundry sites - most of which longer exist.

The Pentagon seems to be aware of the impending time of need. The media has not, as yet, been able to get with it. You can expect it to do so at any moment now. After their steady diet of Jackson, Peterson, Schiavo, Stewart and other star distractions, you can prepare yourself for a fantastic fact-finding frenzy generously salted with numerous “I told you so!” interludes concerning the present offshore nature of our manufacturing capabilities.

A.L.M. March 25, 2005 [c524wds]

 
THE AFTER MATH

When we get around to figuring out all that is now happening to us concerning our current dilemma concerning how best to deal with the problem of life or death for one Terri Schiavo, a Florida citizen. By and large, in spite of some fifteen years of illness of an unusual nature, she was virtually unknown to millions of people who now take every moment of her continuing tenuous hold on life.

The terrible decision to be made if that of depriving another person of life itself by starvation and dehydration. An even as authorities, many of whom we elect and view as our voice in the matter, and now being called upon to either restore the nutritionally loaded tubes to the patient's stomach so she may live.. She has been without such nutritive help for over six days. Just a few days ago we were being told she might last as much a week.

A few minutes ago, I now hear, the last resort action has now proved to have failed. The Governor of Florida has hoped he could get approval for assuming state custody of the patient; restore the tubes and more totally new evaluations of the case including new diagnostic ventures of her maladies and present condition.

When it is all over - and I fear it will be shortly, even as I type this foolish and find myself wondering what my part has been in it all ...it could be ended. After it is history we all have to deal with the math which always comes after such events. We must work with sets of accumulated facts and figures to come up with two answers - not one, but two. One will be: “Why? How did we allow all this to take place?” Second: “How can we prevent it from happening again?

I hope we can earnestly try to avoid merely working to place blame.
There are political, social, religious and ethnic questions which can cause such studies to go awry. I was tempted to include “occupational”, because it has become fashionable to blame the media for all such mis-steps. So much of the criticism of television coverage, in particular is unfair. Critics, so often, fail to realize that TV provides what people say they want.

Only one minor point bothered me in the TV's treatment of this story and that was the heavy use of film clips showing the patient's “actual” physical condition often without dimly visible dates printed in the upper right side of some of the the pictures. Those dates - still being run in today's (March 24th)2005 newscasts - were made August of'01,'02 and '03.

This miss-use of material designed to give a boost to hopes of recovery made the case a battle ground by building factions among viewers. The use of vaguely dated and weakly identified film clips built false hopes among many viewers and their use will,I think, be a major focal point in any serious studies of what went wrong.

A.L.M. March 24, 2005 [c512wds]

 
NICKNAMES

Nicknames, those terse, verbal caricatures which symbolize our personality as we are viewed to be by other people, come in a wide variety. Much depends on what part of the country you are in at the moment the tag is placed upon you.

Genuine nicknames are indelible, too. I find that, once applied, they are next impossible to get rid of. They seem to endure just as body tattoo artwork does.

When I first came to his Shenandoah Valley of Virginia I found that a great many people gave their children names which duplicated those of others with kindred surnames so many turned to the use of nicknames to avoid confusion everyday living, turned to the use of nicknames to avoid confusion in daily living. Many families shared common ethnic or religious backgrounds and each set forth a stock of folk heroes names which were passed on to the following generations.

It was not uncommon to find grown men still being called b y their toddler titles. “Lil' Bro”, or the full “Little Brother” was applied to men six feet tall and weighing double that of the person calling them by that name. Others in that group might be called “Runt”, “Littl'un”, “Chip”, “Nipper”,”Shorty”... even “Tiny”.

Others called their children by the first two initials of their real name. We had a “JW” nearby. “EC” was our rural mail delivery man for many years; retired now, and a ham radio operator known as “EC”. There was one ”OK” and “OB” owned the the farm just north of my father-in-law's family farm known as “ID's”. Years earlier I knew a family in Norfolk, Va in which both the mother and father hated the names their parents had given them. The chose to name all their children w
with just two initials - our playmates - for later use. The plan was for them to attain legal age at which time they could chose any names they liked starting with those two designated letters. Those initialed people have all, by this time, worked their way through the Social Security System - initials only - and found stones in some local cemetery - still as initials.

I vaguely recall having written on this topic many years ago. I have a feeling that I,digressed at this point to remembering nicknames but I think I will be content just remembering people's names which have meant a great deal to me. When you start listing the names the memories flow back and you begin to understand how those people it into your ...into my life .There have been hosts of Ozzies, Bessies, Dukes, Lonnies, Myrt, Ruffeys, Buds,Tiddy-Wa's, Bevs, Woodies, Bill's, Skeeters, Flattops, - hundreds of them!

These people who come back most easily through the nicknames by which you knew them are probably more important to you than you realize. You knew them beyond their solid selves – perhaps touching on the edge of make-believe.

A.L.M. March 23, 2005 [c498wds]

 
SCHIAVO QUESTION

All too often events, while important in themselves, trigger the massive change which mark an era.

The current concern for retaining a comatose patient on life support
systems in spite of her husband's insistent that she would have wanted it to be disconnected. However, however, think otherwise and they have supported keeping her alive artificially since suffered a stroke fifteen years ago. They insist she has a chance for recovery. Far too many facts about this case which has taken it before countless judges in Florida - some say eighteen – and caused it to become a topic for discussion for the nation. I hear constant reference to one point - cost. One news source suggested that it was too expensive to keep her alive in the manner which is now sustaining her. They mentioned a cost of “thousands of dollars per month's “ and lamented the fact that her husband could ill afford to have such expense for another fifteen years or more. One such account I heard simple let it be thought that the parents are absorbing the cost. One newscast bluntly said we cannot afford to keep her alive and longer “at public expense”.

In spite of recently oft-stated political desires “to protect the sanctity of marriage”, I have heard no one question the right of the parents of this young lady to go against her husband's to withdraw life support because that was what she would have wanted. What about parent's “rights” at such a time? When, in the marriage ceremony it is said the bride leaves her parental home and “cleaves unto her husband” doesn't that transfer responsibility for the young bride to the husband? Until such time when we can answer that question with straightforward honesty, the entire sequence of cruel actions brought upon the victim and her friends and family are moot.

Let's save the First and Fourteenth amendments for other uses . Go to any accepted version of the marriage ceremony, and it will hand you a key to the solution of the problem. Read that ceremony. Think about it. Is it not made clear that, at the time of marriage, a women is clearly told to leave her mother and father and then , to cleave ever unto the man chosen to be her husband? Had the plain directive been respected, we would not have this social blot on our memory, a time of our ignorance causing uncalled for suffering an distress.

A.L.M. March 22, 2005 [415wds]

 
PEOPLE AT PLAY

Most persons tend to self-sort themselves when at play.

Even though the actual, immediate reward may be small, we strive all the harder to win at play, it seems, than when at work.

So many of us refuse to think of leisure time activities as being merely a “game” set apart from the more serious, income producing aspect of living. We take our play quite seriously and with some justification, I think.

The diminutive tone in which the word “game” is so often voiced can be deceptive, too, activating an illusion which suggests the participant thinks of it as an extracurricular activity, an unessential addition which while it is to be enjoyed, is not required activity. short, many “players” do so strictly for enjoyment, pleasure and for esoteric enhancements.

Watch people as they play In so doing, you will learn a thing or two about the real person you thought you knew.

It starts early, too. The small boy or girl who, playing at Hop Scotch, for example, who, knowingly breaks stated, basic rules concerning his jumps to advance his score will, later on, try the same tactics in business deals. Quite often, playing against younger, less experienced competitors, he will seem to be successful by using such actions.

We must realize early life that the games we play,, be they vocational or avocational... work or hobby ...are all set to operate best by firmly set rules and modifying regulations. There are always those who have previous of gamesmanship who monitor what we are doing and try to set us on the right path. A child who ignore such guidance in early life, who is kept from given such authority due respect by jealous or otherwise unreliable parents or, in some cases, appointed administrative guardians such as baby-sitters and pliant grandparents, invites failure. There is, we are told, honor even among thieves and, in a real sense, that is true. Part of the punishment for having chosen the wrong way of life is a constant, unending awareness that you are to suffer for our poor judgments and your choice of desire over need. Courage is often founded in fear – of consequences if one departs for the set rules.

All participants in any game exercise expertise which is all is own. In a baseball game, a batter stands tense with anticipation of what the next pitch coming his way might be. Suddenly there it is! It is moving toward him at just under one hundred miles per hour and it is a few feet away!The batter reacts to rules of game and does what is required to the best of his ability, not to a series of cogitative thoughts about what might be done.

On the mound the pitcher is wondering how well he has followed the game's rules. He will know in a fraction of a second if he had made proper. Sound alone would tell him if he had achieved his mark or merely had another learning experience. He thought over the manner in which he had laced his long finger around the ball; where he had applied pressure; where he had lightened it; the tiny twist of the wrist delivery. “Strike!” Good.

What is your game? If you don't have one ...get one! Learn it well and people will be watching you some day.

A. L.M March 21, 2005 [c571wds]

 
THEY SAY

Perhaps I ought to have put that title in quotes, because I want to talk with you about the steady increase in the number of times the expression “they say” is used in our daily conversational exchanges.

It is spelled “On Dit” in French. I discovered that that years ago when I visited New Orleans. I didn't even realize the expression was being used in the French Quarter because those sometime rather strange people down there insist it be pronounced “ong de” with a long “e”', mind you. Got it? They say “ong de” when when we would be saying “they say”. It doesn't take long to pick up on the local lingo down there. After all two Virginians, they say, who were as you-all as they come, they say, bought that whole end the country without writing a book about it in French on dit.

Scholarly people often dress it up a bit and say: “...is reported.” and some credit at least three authorities: “Fingleberg, Wesson and Kernestgauffel tell us that... The rest of us seldom even try to identify who the “they” might be in the expressions we use in everyday talk. You choose the authority you respect the most at the moment. If you like, you may say : “lawyers say... or Indian chiefs, pizza lovers or trombone players. The idea is to lend authority and to add a gentry tone to whatever you are saying. The majority of the time the statement parrots something you heard on radio or television when they said what they said because some said they pay them if they said it. If at all possible, try to shift previous credit or blame to someone else know simply as “they”.

Many people are unaware they are using the expression at all - much less too much.”They say” has worked its way into the American type of English to the point where it just happens without effort, purpose, intent or meaning. It takes on deceptive disguises, too.- such as, they tell me, adding suggests, concedes, and other such terms – disguised by being surrounded by a welter of words which have actual meaning. It is best done with the brain in neutral while the speaking mechanism in on the way to other such means of trashing out our verbal heritage y'know” they tell me, is becoming more evident. They say, y'know is taking over, at least, that's what they're sayin', y'know. It has joined the pack of verbal wolves chewing away at our linguistic heritage.

Sports interviews on radio and TV will surely contain “y'know”, by both or all members of any group. Combine such uses with “localisms” such as “see what I mean?”, or “like what it is” and “Man, Oh Man!” and you might well think you have dropped in on a foreign language auction of some sort.

A.L.M. March 20, 2005 [c486wds]

 
SUPER SCAM

If you were among those critical folks who felt that the Scot Peterson trial took far too long, or that the extended troubles plaguing Michael Jackson are with end may I point out that it was in April of 2003 that we first had word from Kurds along the Iraqi-Turkey border which suggested that the money involved in the "Oil For Food" program was going in the wrong pockets.

The first accounts of gross mis-management in the relief program were by Claudia Rossett in the "Op Ed" column so the New York "Times". One year later columnist William Saffire called to our attention that she had said the program of "Oil For Food" had , from the start, been "an invitation to kickbacks, political back-scratching and smuggling done under cover of relief operations."

Other journalists took up the cry and it was soon being said,
very cautiously, that the program was compromised by Saddam “conspiring with bureaucrats in the U.N. Plaza.” It did not take too long for us to find that the scandal was a far more involved than we had thought it might be. It is not purpose to recite the evidence once again but, rather to say that it is time we admonish the U.N. To take some action on the charges. As it now stands the scandal involves the U. N. leadership and threatens the structure at its roots.

The fact that knowledge of this scandal surfaced during our election time was unfortunate because that was not a good time to consider such subjects, nor were the Afghan and Iraqi war times Our President spoke with respect of he U.N. leadership and I went along with his view along with his view at that time... peace during our election. No man is better qualified than President George W. Bush to speak out now that times have changed somewhat with clarity and confidence urging the U.N.,leaders to clean house and to do so promptly. They must set things right with then new Iraq in particular. They are the one who suffered most from this scandal and all of the U.N.'s varied membership should share the guilt of such unseemly conduct..

Let's not put it off forever. If and when Saddam is ever brought to trial the Oil-for-Food relief scandal is just one of the charges to be be brought against him.

A.L.M. March 19, 2005 [c415wds]

 
OLD TIMES, AGAIN

Every time I see stock car racers slide through a window opening on their backsides to gain access to the interior of their controls, I think of two things: one of the "Dukes" of Hazard who made such action acceptable, and it takes me back to the days of our 1924 Model Ford. It had no door on the divers side, front. What appeared to be a door just like the others, was really a swollen noodle of metal; a rounded-over line extruded out of the metal surface. There was no door there. You had to up-a-leg to enter.

It was not, as I recall, a line cut into the surface. From a distance it appeared to be a door not unlike the others. I have heard various explanations as to the need for such and purists like to say it was a "safety" feature placed there to keep a stray or clumsy foot from kicking the rig over the hillside. There were three pedals, some levers, handles and a steering column and wheel at that area. Those who know Henry a bit better know he was less concerned with safety that he was saving. If a "safety feature" printed-on front-left doors might cut costs - why not? Another "reason - the one we were given was that when you used the expandable luggage carrier which came as free extra with our car, covered the door anyway when mounted on the left side the accordion-like metal sections holding our suitcases and boxes covered the left, rear door as well. By that time he had
the company which manufactured batteries for his cars systematically delivered all batteries to his plants crated in wooden boxes, with several large slots cut at spots he specified. When unpacked, the crates were carefully taken apart and I doubt if the battery company ever knew they were making the floor boards - complete with holes for pedals - for Henry Ford;s new cars.

Henry Ford didn't worry too much about safety. In fact, he and other early innovators, never seemed to think of "motoring" as being as dangerous as some people liked to think it had to be.

His assembly line production methods was a real money-saver. In September of 1924, my Father bought Henry's newest Model T - with an expandable, all-metal luggage rack, a free a tire-repair kit and hand pump plus one "spare" tire... all for just a bit over $300.00! It even had a hand- powered windshield wiper, and if the driver wanted to know much gas he had in the gas tan k all he had o do was clear the front seat, pick it; insert the measuring wand - a calibrated stick - to determine, approximately, how much gas remained in the tank under the front seat.

I've often wondered if Henry Ford ever made any real money on his car sales. He refused to put in any system of cost controls whatsoever until his son Edsel sided with the Defense Department of the United States at war. If he wanted to manufacture B-24 bombers at his new Willow Run plant, built for that purpose, he had to start some way of knowing how much it cost him to build the them.

He did all right with the 1924 Model T for my Dad; and the B-24's I fly in during World War II were satisfactory. Thank you, Henry, wherever you may be.

A.L.M. March 18, 2005 [c590wds]

 
CATTON SUBJECT

In 1928, a young man by the name of Bruce Catton, who was later to become one of the nation's most successful writer of books about the Civil War here in America, was interviewing a worn, tired, little man who was perched on a rickety stool behind a counter top bearing a hand-drawn sign:"Information Desk" in the foyer of the "Detroit School of Trades". The irony of such a situation set in those glorious days just a year ahead of the Stock Market crash which was to create paupers aplenty held a cruel irony. The name of the older man was known world-wide and the fame of the newspaperman yet to be discovered.

The young man was there to find out how and why that menial desk job was being done by a man whom he had found not afford a telephone where he lived. He had already written the man name on his notebook page- "David Dunbar Buick."

He had come to America from Scotland at the age of two brought here by his father Alexander Buick who was actively engaged from the start in a plumbing fixtures which was going to bring him him wealth and satisfaction. He was inventive by nature and had found a process whereby he could, and did, heat-blend porcelain to iron to make, for instance, white bathtubs, sinks and other bathroom fixtures. His future seemed assured but he died within three years and young David's mother, from that time on, worked in a nearby candy store. The boy grew to be a plumber and worked at the Alexander Manufacturing Company making plumbing fixtures. He and a schooldays friend,William Sherwood took over the company in 1882. Some biographers credit David with the invention of the porcelain-coating process but most attribute that to his father. David, did, however, make a number of improvements on products and he invented a workable lawn sprinkler system. It is said that. had he stayed with plumbing business he and his and his friend might have done very well, but David, like so many young men of his era. Many seem to think "Buick & Sherwood", had they stayed with it, might well have earned a good living, but David was fascinated, as were so many young men of his era, by the combustion engine.

That began a series of events in his life which would bring him success and failure again and again. Sherwood told him to get with it or get out of the plumbing business, so David sold his half of the business to his partner. He put the one hundred thousand dollars into a new company to manufacture combustion engines. He planned to built marine and stationary combustion engines at his new "Buick Auti-Vim Company". He hired a gifted machinist by the name of Walter Lorenzo Marr. By August 1901 they had built their first automobile, and Buick, strapped for cash, sold the car to Marr for $225.

The following year the company - now the Buick Manufacturing Company - developed the "valve-in-head" engine which would become standard in the industry for power and efficiency and the Buick Motor Company was organized under terms he would regret for the rest of his life. His partner in the firm - Benjamin Briscoe - put up $99,700 of the $100,000 needed and David $300. David Buick was named as "President". Very shortly, Briscoe, decided he wanted "out". All he required was his money back. The Flint Wagon Works - the largest manufacturer of horse drawn vehicles in the country bought the firm with Buick as the firm's Secretary. He was alloted 1500 shares but would not receive the dividend until he paid his personal debts. Buick cars were in production in 1904 when carriage-maker William Durant took over as Manager. Buick sold his stock for mere hundred thousand when he, too, was squeezed out. He tried to design a new car in 1923 in California but produced only a single prototype model. He never held any bitterness against William Durant but witnessed him being squeezed out when General Motors took over. In the interview with writer Bruce Catton, Buick showed no bitterness or regret over his strange career which, despite mis-adventures, put his family crest on millions of the nations finest cars.

A.L.M. March 18, 2005 [c730wds]

 
155th COMMANDO SQUADRON

Not all U.S.A. combat area pilots in World War II were officers.

In the 155th Commando Squadron, formed to be exclusively a liaison unit, the rank of pilots ranged from that of Technical Sergeant, Staff Sergeant to Master Sergeant. "For some reason," writes Lawrence M. Holzapfel in the February issue of "Ex-CBI ROUNDUP "or oversight, they were the only pilots in the Air Corps who were not commissioned."

Although Holtzafel doesn't suggest such a thing, it would seem to me -after reading his notes detailing the groups special achievements - a belated bit of Congressional time and effort would seem to me to be very much in order ,any time now to confer due rank upon each and every 155th pilot in relation to the length of time served from the 1944 start date. All were volunteers. There were two other commando groups within the 2nd Air Command and, I assume, they too deserve such recognition - belated and overdue - but well deserved.

Hollywood has missed an opportunity in failing to film the exploits of the 155th forces group and TV producers missed a series which could have been outstanding as well as true. It is to not too late for Fox Network to get Oliver North to retell the story for all Americans to know. Contact: Dwight O. King, Editor of "Ex-C BI Roundup", 4810 Park #101, Newport Beach, CA 92660. The stories of the 155th deserve a far wider telling than the fine Holzapfel article in in the China-Burma-Indian nostalgia publication.

The 155th flew just three types of aircraft - the, low-fly L-5 reconnaissance, search planes, larger U-64's for troop transport and some C-47's. All planes were unarmed except for sidearms carried by the pilots. L-5 pilots were skilled at full flap landings over barriers, with limited runway lengths available they were trained to land with brakes full-on, on wet grass; slide until flip-over imminent and then release the brakes in time to settle the tail end down - just short of a flip flop end to end. They seemed to specialize in doing the impossible.

The squadron was organized and trained at Aiken, South Carolina in the spring of 1944, served in the C China-Burma-India war zone and was de-activated on Okinawa and reassigned to be members of the 157th Squadron in Tokyo. There were thirteen officers and sixty-sixty enlisted men and they were flown to Japan and assigned to the 157th Squadron in Tokyo. Among many other honors the small group had garnered forty-seven air medals with sixty-eight medal clusters and thirty-nine Distinguished Flying Crosses with eight associated clusters, as well as numerous letters of commendation honoring their superior flying feats.

A few of those combat conditions includes: during the March 11 to May 19, 1945 period alone their combat missions totaled 7,923 hours; over 2,869 casualties were rescued and evacuated from front-line positions and over two hundred tons of cargo delivered to countless operational sites, many in desperate need.

To which we add our words of appreciation.

Thank you, Sergeants - all!

A.L.M. March 26, 2005 [c534wds]

 
EVERY DAY SECURITY

When we place emphasis on any one type of security, we tend to subtract that amount of effort from some existing application. There is evidence that, all too often, simply move the protective shield from any area to one which is showing an urgent need to show how concerned we are about our defense.

The unbelievable series of events which took place in Atlanta, Ga. this week, certainly brings into view many instances security planning was inept as to caused even common sense precautions normally considered necessary, to be ignored. The fact that the criminal being moved to the court room was escorted only by a lone, female sheriff's deputy disturbed many viewers at the very start. Video shots show it was no problem at all for the unshackled to overcome the smaller female; take her weapon and use it kill her, the judge and others - I've forgotten the supposed sequence of the killings, but I did hear court officials saying that the reason there was only one guard - and that a small stature d female with the criminal. was that there was " a shortage on deputies" with a strong suggestion that they had asked for funding to hire more deputies and been refused, ignored or evaded. The illusion was given that they were not properly funded by tight-fisted officials.

More of us, sitting a home, watching all of this taking place -the miracle escape of the man down five flights of steps and across to a parking area; stealing a car and making off down the street. It all seemed to hinge on the fact that he had been inadequately guarded Viewers, taxpayers at home, had been subjected TV coverage showing singer-dancer-style-setter Michael Jackson arriving at his Southern California Court Room. He had b been accompanied every step of the way by, at least six, well-muscled men obviously alert, trained and experienced to function as a body guard for the celebrated star. Five or six such guards were visible and others had brought him there and would take him home. Six, or more, for Jackson; one for the one , unfettered Atlanta man. Such a comparison was obvious and millions of people saw it taking place. Some even wondered how such a thing could be happening.

For this reason, and others growing out of this area of crisis in Atlanta, many Americans are - today - feeling a bit uneasy about our much discussed and very import national defense program. Election shifts have a put us in a state of uncertainty as to exactly who might be running the national defense programs at the moment.

Many have been shocked to hear that, this morning, we had another anthrax scare in Washington, D.C. Two pieces of mail, were discovered to have a white powder on them and immediate closure of the U. S. Mail facility in Northern Virginia which handles all incoming Defense Department was closed employees started on a medical procedure to counteract any anthrax infection. The important thing which needs to be told more openly. The potentially dangerous white powder was discovered by machines installed several years ago. They are still working.

We must not let our interest and concern for defense measures to lapse. We have done much of what we have done - well.

A.L.M. March 15, 2005 [c561wds]

 
POP DUO

One of the celebrated Wright Brothers, of Dayton,Ohio - I think it must have been Orville, decided he was destined to do something a bit more distinctive than running a bicycle repair shop. He decided he wanted to learn to play the mandolin.

Part of that desire might well have been due to the fact that his brother Wilbur was already puffing out tunes on harmonica which they called a "mouth-organ. " The instruments seem to have suited their individual personalities. Wilbur choose a reed instrument - everything precut and fashioned and one had only to learn to regulate the proper flow of air over, upon and below the reed surfaces to bring forth a beautiful flight of melody. It is easy enough for us to imagine Wilbur experimenting with with several old tunes and tinkering with the tones until the sound were fashioned into recognizable songs.

My maternal Grandfather John Loeffort was, at about that same time playing what was really a larger harmonica placed in a box with bellows between to button-studded keyboard clusters. In that day it was called "Meloldian". He bought it in Butler, Pa ; he played it a number of sites in Ohio and a summer camp at Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan. It was made in Italy, a "Paolo Soprani, Castelfidardo, Italia". It is a kin to the concertina and even more closely to the small push-pull boxes you see and hear only in Cajun bands down New Orlan's way today. The melodian was the predecessor of the "Button" accordion which was supplanted by the piano key accordion starting in the 1920's.

Orville preferred mandolin with its double-strings to be tuned up and down, the pegs to adjust, frets to follow with studied care, musical chords which worked all sorts wonders when properly manipulated. His mandolin was the same as one played by Ida Amanda Lenz who was one-third of the "Lenz Sisters" singers, in ,Ohio. The according Granddaddy played is beside me in it's original nail-studded wooden case but Grandmother's old "egg-[shell" mandolin is long gone. The Sister trio sang and played at church socials and civic gatherings in the Ohio area just south of Sandusky. While visiting relatives in an adjoining county, it so happened that John met Ida they were married. They moved - mandolin and melodian - to Aspenwald, PA and then, later, with their two children, to Norfolk, Va.

It often strikes me as odd that I associate the famed Wright Brothers with music. Their sister Katherine wrote of her unpleasant times when Orville was taking mandolin lessons. "He sits around and picks that thing until I can hardly stay in the house!" She said her brothers practiced mainly "to get even" with neighbors who had practiced piano for years.

It's good to know the Wright Brothers were very much like the rest of us. And, largely because of the musical background - however trivial - I have always felt a kinship I could never have known in any other way. Lean back in that easy chair of yours and think about flying for a moment. Isn't there a moment of melody in your swift movement across the vast expanse of an unclouded sky?

A.L.M . March 14, 2005 [c550wds]

 
CASTLE SHADES

Old castles are traditionally supposed to harbor hosts of historically- -oriented ghosts to haunt the premises and to make the area more interesting to the tourist traffic. I found only rumors of some rather worn, somewhat vague sightings in the first authentic castle I visited - the old Norman Castle in downtown Norwich, England.

Not that I was disappointed in any way at all. The fine old fortification structure is all that a fine Norman castle was built to be around the eleven hundreds or so, carefully constructed and intended to endure for a few centuries, at least . Today it still serve well as a museum and as a focal center for artistic and cultural activities for all of East Anglia which it was built protect.

The amazing pile of stone and precise masonry shaped upon a sturdy rising mound "Castle Hill" surrounded by bright and well-groomed "Castle Gardens." Seeing it, one gets a feeling that it has always been there since the very beginning of Time itself. It, somehow, has qualities which make it seem to be more than merely man made.

The only ghost I ever heard anyone talk about in Norwich Castle was that of a "skull" which was said is said to appear initially in the "keep" area of the castle and then to wander into what are now exhibit halls for art works. The skull lees assumed to have at least a bodily representation of a torso and perhaps limbs as well but they are never observed because that area below the neck draped in soft, cloth-like folds which are said to "flow" with every slow movement of the skull. Feet, too, are concealed and the image remains always well above the floor level which the flowing cloth occasionally brushes. The apparition gives no signs of an special preference for a particular style or type of art work; no nod of approval or scorn. The colorful drapes suggest the ghost may be feminine and she has one bad habit: moving along the exhibits, she suddenly seems to take a corner which is not there and disappears instantly and completely as if she had slid into a vertical slot in the air just ahead of her. I have never heard of any sound associated with the skull art critic at the Castle.

What about witches? All castles have dungeon areas deep within their walls yet I have never heard a story about any dungeon inmate being tortured and becoming as ghost to re-live it all there. Norwich Castle tale-tellers claim they never participated in the burning of witches and religious heretics. Concerning one such recorded incident 1656 it is noted that she was burned in a "ditch" outside the castle proper.

I was surprised years ago when working for a time in a morgue and in the preparation of bodies for burial or cremation to find that people who do such work develop a rather strange sense of warped humor. A Norwich resident has been quoted as having said: "We did not take an active part in the burning of witches, heretics and the like. By the time the decision had been made to do them in by burning at the stake, we had all ready hanged them!"

A.L.M. March 13, 2005 [c556wds]

 
FASTER, P.T.!

Were P.T. Barnum, the celebrated circus and carnival tycoon, be saying "there's a sucker born every minute!" today he would find his estimate of gullible persons waiting eagerly to be fooled to be far short of his "wild"guess-timate made years ago.

He could, perhaps, discard use of the allusion to the hour hand on his watch and use the minute hand with sixty seconds as a better guide line in deciding how many numskulls are born in any time today.

The most evident sign of such ineptness on the mental state of the American public is the nature of the television programs watched; the nature of the news events followed so avidly in print and on the tube thinking all that is there to be important, and then, too, the warped values we tend to re­tain and accept as being laudable to form the basis of our everything living.

The farce being dragged before a world-wide audience today features a fading Michael Jackson in a loosely connected series of events which seems to have accomplished only one thing thus far - that being a modicum of success in making our judicial system appear to be a sham operated by a weak set of fumbling functionaries.

Jackson, by means of carefully orchestrated, council-guided actions has disrupted the court proceedings, caused costly delays and made tangently appended points to seem important.The court responds with some distant thunder, no lightning and no downfall of any kind.

Then, on the very day his accuse is to divulge this evidence against him, Jackson, the defendant, turns up an hour late, dressed in his pajamas with a coat thrown over his haggard , paid-racked body, as he steps gingerly into the courtroom area.

TV made full use of every foot of coverage showing that entry as runs and re-runs,. It threatened to become overdone, but out of far-off Atlanta, Georgia a new story of the murder of a Superior Court Judge and several deputies which served well as a replacement for the Jackson run on.
. No doubt, the networks would have had to revert to re runs of the Martha Stewart house arrest, an interruption for which Martha should be most appreciative. The Georgia story took much of the shimmer from the Jackson performance. His show had pretty well took over for the early part off the day and viewers found out what the accuser said on the late night summaries before Jay Leno took over. Georgia's murder story and twenty-seven hour man hunt which followed held off Jackson re-runs and this will give people time forget how forlorn the dancing star has become and to ponder what they mean by saying he is now on a "suicide watch" night and day. That's the angle to be worked tomorrow, perhaps, or is that too logical for the Jackson story?

We are witnessing just one of the many factor dictating the demise at home TV as we know it today. The Dan Rather departure is indicative of a move away from bulk handling of the news by designated pundits. Watch for "channels" to go next and "on order TV" will follow soon.

A. L. M. March 12, 2005 [c543wds]

 
AND MORE...

As if I were not sufficiently occupied being baffled by "matter", I now find I'm supposed to be concerned as to what "antimatter" might be!

It sounds simple enough. "Anti" means against, doesn't it? So - antimatter would be something which is opposed to matter, right? But, that sounds too much like a description of nothing - vacuity - and that wouldn't do at all, would it?

Antimatter is closely related to antiparticles, which might be easier to imagine. Think of things such as electrons and protons, to start with. They are identical, I'm told, except for the fact that each contains an electrical charge which is the opposite of the other. When such subatomic particles come in contact with each other, they explode and their collision produces a sudden spurt of energy.

And, somewhere along in there is where they lose me.

I will simply go right on accepting the stated fact that "Star Wars" gigantic space craft move from here to forever by such a handy-dandy means of propulsion. I will take geek-word terminology with a grain of saline solution and go right on wondering how we can expect go on slamming atoms against each other to keep our space fleet afloat without upsetting the equa-positive relationships needed to keep our Earth-cart wheeling along at its customary apple-wagon speed.

I find I am not entirely alone in this having some little doubts and questionings about the a few things our science-fiction writers scribble half-way into being for-real and, oh, so eminent. One panelist of the Physical Society of Maryland has been quoted as having said: "Anybody who tells you that it will one day power (our) space craft is trying to sell you something."

I feel some such word of caution are necessary in planning what our extravagant dreams might entail. I've heard older folks warn us that in using Nature's methodologies, as we are gradually learning to do more and more, we are, indeed, as they so quaintly put it: "... are messin' with the makin's!

We'd best move with care. In some way antimatter might matter more than we think it does... whatever it is.

A.L.M. March 11, 2005 [c373wds]

 
HIPPO HYPE

That ponderous pile of moving, gray leather, the hippopotamus, has been getting a bad press of late. The commonly shared shred of a twisted snippet in print of late, has, all of a sudden, bounced off at once by longer radio and TV versions: it seems to have been found that the hippo is the world's greatest killer of mankind.

It's not quite true. It appears to have started with a factual article in the "National Geographic" publications area where it was clearly stated that "in Africa"- mind that locale designation -"the elephants, rhinos, buffaloes and hippos, all widely viewed as rather gentle, well-mannered vegetarians - kill more people than better know man eaters." A quotation of that nature, repeated with no end in sight, gives way too much alteration as it is printed and re-printed, and even more so when it is said and re-said radio and TV.

So we had a sudden thought thrust upon us which said the hippo was a major offender. Logic tells, us that the meat eaters - lions among them, who kill to eat and stay alive, would be,far and away, more aggres­sive predators. They are the various cats which sustain the genre of jungle movies. The hippo, as with the rhino, is said to have exceedingly poor eyesight and that, together with it's rather ungainly posture and stumbling gait, it could well be that they, in defending themselves against poorly seen antagonists, might have leaned rather heavily on fragile offenders and mashed them into oblivion. There's more than one way to kill a a marauding biped.

As I looked back through the storm of recent references to the hippo as a major killer of Man, I found the current story seemed to have started from such a serious article. I think much depended on what stock photos are available at the moment and how to spell hippopotamus as opposed to rhino because because, to me, the rhino appears to be more vicious with that big horn at the ready in Wal-Mart size and style -"always".

I'm not planning to have any business with either one of them anytime soon, but, in case you come across upon that wayward story - take up for the maligned hippo. Goodness knowns the hippo has enough natural features to over-qualify for major make-over job from some generous zoo tycoon. Life is nothing but reality for any acknowledged veggies in this fast-food, carnivorous world of ours.


A.L.M. March 10, 2005 [c427wds]

 
THEN...
As a general rule people are very considerate and even hesitate a bit before asking older people - straight out - "how things were it the olden days?"

Most of us don't feel as old as we really are; or at least we don't like to be reminded of it. That's not because of accumulated years,either. We are, for the most part, glad we have lived so long.

We, when abruptly asked for an evaluation of years past are reminded of serious questions we have worried about for years. Among them, one that is very serious: "All those years!"( we are being told.) "All those years, and so little accomplished!"

It takes time for some people to realize that the past is now. It is not something you can package up or toss aside lightly. It is, rather, something you use and re-use even when you think it gone. We condense, meld, mutate and remeasure or re-evaluate those elements which were good and try to make up for those which were bad. There are no strict "cut off"ooints along the way. You will remain forever, what you have been.

So, when someone lightly requests that you share with them "how things were in the good old days" all you can do is tell them how wonderful life seemed to be when you were young; tell them about all the latest, newest inventions we saw come into being - so common now as to seem petty and even - many of them- worthless. You are, in a very real sense, parroting back to them exactly what they want to hear. If they think the olden days as being dull they will pick up on every quality you touch upon which strengthens their belief in that which they, themselves, are -at that moment- dreaming. They are seeking proof of you that their ideas are superior and trustworthy. They will look at your wishes, hopes and plans, and skillfully make them appear as mere trifles as they look into brighter than ever future of their very own. We worried about travel across the space between a town and a town ; they worry about travel across space between a planet and a planet! They are pretty much the same with a variation in distances involved, speed and them actual means of getting it done. I think most old people have moments when they look back over the lives as having been total failures. They look back at all the things which seemed to be an invitations for opportunity and advancement. They recall actions they took at the time, or did not take. They remember what they did about such challenges and wonder , if they had done otherwise, if things would have been better.

Think of this way with me. When young people ask for information about the "good old days,of just "the old days","when you were young", or pre-something or other - such as pre-War, pre-Depression, pre-Fast Food times, pre-TV -any such "mark" I try to tell i straight. Yet, even as I recount what we might have done, said or thought, I realize I am making a verbal line-drawing of it all and filling in with the colors - and with much of the substance - of my own youthful dreams, aspirations and desires.

As I said several paragraphs earlier: You remain, forever, what you have been.

A.L.M. March 9, 2005 [c579wds]

 
CONSIDERING...

It’s true.

Considering the shape they are in, most of the world’s the nations and states get along rather well together.

Italy, a sure attention getter, has always appeared to be enjoying having just given someone a good, swift kick in the rear end. Sicily, maybe? Could have been. When Italy was known as Rome, as in “Roman Empire”, and she she pretty well cleaned up on just about all the worthy nations of her time. In more modern time which some of us remember, Italy – with “Il Duce” Mussolini footing the boot’s power - tried kicking some smaller nations such as Albania, across a neighboring sea, and Hailer Selassie’ s Ethiopia-Abyssinia to the south on the African continent. They both kicked back.

Most of the world’s nations and smaller states appear to be more like blobs of real estate stuck out in the middle of nowhere but some seem to have a distinctive shape of their own.

Two of our states-unitedr hand guns of some sort. They each have historical backgrounds in which gun play was used to push some one else to agree, I'm sure. Take a closer look at that one l-l-ong county at the far western end of Oklahoma - the gun barrel portion It's called "Harris County", I think and you can't tell me that that strip of land wasn't a sore spot at one time. Look at it on the map; a long piece of geography sticking out between Kansas on the north and Texas on the south side, poking a nasty hole in the northeastern corner of New Mexico and scarfing off a passel of Colorado acres in a wide turn back to Oklahoma the solid hunk of OK land. I find it easy to imagine numerous incidents taken place in that gun barrel end of OK .

Michigan looks like a mitten. Some call it a glove; others like the term "hand". Surrounded, save on the south by Great Lakes waters. Mittens are worn when one is working and Michigan has long been a [productive state and will continue to be so. You may not have noticed that the hand is held high as if taking an oath of some sort.

My own state of Virginia as a triangle and it is true that part of it is missing. Only a triangle portion of the state remains stretched from the Atlantic Ocean to a western point which is farther west than Detroit, Michigan. Only Virginia lost land in the Civil War settlement - one-half or better of its total expanse. From Mannas as through Appomattox, Virginia was an active theater of operations. A triangle shape is fitting for designation of that which remains.

Read your outline maps. See what you can read into the shape of the world today.

A.L.M. March 8, 2005 [c498wds]

 
RIGHT ALWAYS

One cannot deal only in perfections.

There is no absolutely correct way of doing any act without allowing a single flaw in that subtle quality which sets the act apart from all others and devoid of error any kind. It has a flaw in the very fact that it has been set apart as being different and, hence, unlike the pattern on which it was supposed to have been built. Somewhere along the line, someone made a mistake and omitted something or appended something which made the result - however satisfying - vary from that which it was supposed to be.

Ideas, formulations, connectives, plans, ideas and entire programs planned with trained, experienced workers involving hundreds of men and women of all types, sizes, beliefs and racial backgrounds will incorporate that which each individual may have considered to have been true at the moment of involvement. They have as many versions of essential details as do many actual witnesses on highway accidents. Truth is often not in them. The truths demanded of such witnesses comes forth colored and converted. That which each witness thinks he saw take place is splattered all over the twisted, contorted fragments of memories for each fraction of a second of the time involved for them to exist. The precise truth demanded is fragmentary, at best and elements of haste, standards of morality, poor judgmental abilities, even physical and mental competency compromising may harm ones ability to make decisions and evaluations. Being designated as an actual, on-site witness may well cause some persons natural efforts guard against any future actions and detailed grueling on all possible variations. I just recently heard an attorney say at so many actual, on-site witnesses testify,largely, to what they are so sure they think they saw take place. At times it can be shown to be inaccurate; and, at best, it proves very little. We are, quite often, intent on parading our own veracity.

I rather dread the time just ahead when we will be seeing Saddam Hussein tried in a court of law. We will be subjected to a tremendous amount of first-hand witnesses testimony and much of it will be questionable. No two politically-oriented person have ever seen any war in the same light; as is evident by our continuing, post-election bickering here at home.

"Truth will tell" perhaps, but how can we be sure who is telling the truth?

A.L.M. March 7, 2005 [c415wds]

 
ON BEING BRAVE

The TV shows dealing with displays of bravery are, to me, sickening in their timidity. Imagine a grown person eating worms! Kids have done it for years - worms, bugs, and have been a big item with the aborigine outbacker Down Under - people who have, for centuries, have considered such items as a favorite take-out or fast-food favorite. Many of us have consumed more maggots in meat and mealy bug in flour than we would care to be think about... fried, baked, boiled perhaps , or souped or sandwiched!

What's demanding of persons as to be asked to consume a hunk of proteins in whatever form they may be presented? It' s all been done before and once you get your head pressures adjusted just right you can do it as well as anyone, that is - anyone who cares to do it.

Hairy human castaways on a mysterious islands are about as scary as yelling "Boo" at Halloween time, especially, when a staff seventeen camera men, gaffers, holders, lighters, dunkers, color changers, gofers, bulb and battery technicians, tweaker s of all types of, transportation people, makeup crafter and a mountain of equipment needed to film whatever the castaway are scheduled to be supposed to be doing.

Where is the man among them who could, in real life, do what man y face as daily work. I once knew a man named Thaddeus Frappes. He was not a large man, nor were his three brothers.. They were of average build and he was our local a smithy, did what fancier-named "farriers" do today - fitted horses with iron footwear. They required shoes after macadamized roads came into use. He, mainly work horses but some family one an d a few racing specimen. He worked mainly with work horses, a few family coach, cart,and buggy pullers expected to do well on either our regular or improved roadways. The had to wear iron shoes and all one had to do to fit such feet was to walk up to that mountain of muscle,hide and horsehair standing there with alert eyes rolling uneasily among strangers. The subject horse was taut, apprehensive. The man's job was simple enough: to step forward, turn his back to the questing eyes; pick the horse's front foot; tuck it between your knees with pads up an wonder if and when the animal's kick would come alive. The appendage you held fast was a muscled mussel.

Thadaeous sensed the movement of the muscles and held fast. He subdue the will of a horse and contrary to his actions muttered soothing word and other sounds of assurance as he did his work. He filed and scraped the hoof with heavy rasps and sharp goads. We believed it when he said it actually did not hurt the animal; more of the motions and grasping and as soon as the hoof surface was smooth enough, and any rock fragment picked out, the Smithy used tongs and fitted a hot iron shoe to the foot and hammered the iron to fit. He drove heavy nails though the soft and cooling iron shoe which was toe a part of the horse for a long time if he did his job well. Horses, as you know, have four legs so Thaddeus Eppes had to do that little trick three more times. He picked them up without pausing, did the others with his back toward the horse as he scraped and hammered away. Had the horse realized it any one of them could have sent most such blacksmith to iron shop heaven or hell with a single kick. The hind legs were the heavy artillery horses held for their end game. Any one of them could have sent Eppes to hardware heaven or hell. He never faltered, never hesitated, never showed the least sign of fear. He was a brave man. He went about his work, humming a tune, at times and often talking to, and I'm convinced with, the horses.

A.L.M March 6, 2005 [c677wds]

 
DEVELOPMENT

I now live deep within a housing development on land which was which used to be "our" family farm.

Many people seem to think that automatically, makes me a critic of all such developments, which is not the case at all.

It is quite true that there were others ways I would have liked to have seen developed over the years. The grand old twelve12-room brick house was bull-dozed to a three-pile mass of hand-made brick, plaster, and heavy timbers - some of them rough hewn. I would have liked to have found a way for someone to restore the house to its one-time 1845 glory but that was "not to be", as we say. It was "not destined to be" a future home but rather a place of memories which will, I'd wager become finer as the years go by and stories are told and retold. Many old homes, remembered, are far finer than what they actually were in their original state, I'm sure.

It was made of brick manufactured almost precisely where we now live; perhaps half a mile south from the highway which was a "development" itself of the ancient Indian trail traversing the length of the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia to the west of the Blue Ridge Mountain range. Even now the land drops off from the old trail and I remember quite well digging ditches and placing four-inch, terra cotta tile to drain excess water away. The fields sloped gradually in broken sections and clay gathered in the level areas. Today residents and builders wonder at the steaks of heavy clay they encounter and I have heard several workmen swear when running into strings of tile I helped place and replace sixty years ago to keep the upper fields drained and tillable.

I have found this to be true in so many case where family farms were sold and became housing developments. To see so many people prospering I have come to feel as l as I am sure my father-in-law would have come to feel to see so many families living happily; with children playing in the front yards; gardens blooming the backyards with, flowers decorating every niche and family groups enjoying home ownership. How can any one regret having provided the very substance of the land on which they live out an amazing variety of individual dreams and aspirations. My father-in-law - Irving Driver was born and raised on this farm, in that house which is no longer here.

I often wish the kids along this street of ours knew of the man to whom they owe so much!

A.L.M March 5, 2005 [c452wds]

 
WAY TO GO!

You, too, have met people who seem to thrive on misery and suffering. Being unfit to meet condition of every day existence, they seek and often find sympathy from someone who allows them to lean upon that person's stability for a moment. The more such help they find; the more they will seek.

Let one such complainer stub his toe on a file cabinet at the office and attention is focused on the rising costs of limb amputation and about the worrisome social affects of wearing an artificial leg in normal society. Let them see one developing blemish on their own or your skin - any slight imperfection - and it is time to prepare for an epidemic - world-wide, with no other warning of a dreaded, unknown tropical disease for which no cure has yet been discovered.

Charles Darwin, the eminent naturalist, who did so much to make the Gallapagos Islands a part of our known world is geneally thought to have lived a rather dull existence. His mother died when he was four years of
of age and he grew up among older people. He studied to be a doctor and switched to Cambridge University to become a Minister in the Church of England. A non-paying job as "naturalist" on a ship called "The Beagle" came to his attention. He applied and got the job and spent five years in the South Pacific not too far off the western coast of South America keeping tab on non-typical turtles and other exotic sea creatures of the island area.

Here's the statement I came cross the other day - written by this man Charles Darwin who gave us "Origin of the Species" and other such works.

"If I had my life to live over again, I would have made a rule to read some poetry and listen to some music at least once a week."

I found it to be of special interest that a man of such a complex mental capability as Darwin would see some things so simple and commonplace as being so important. He had missed much of this sort of "living", I suppose and spoke as have other learned men of the past - theologians, in particular - who have reminded us of how important it is that we "take time to smell the roses" that bloom alongside the troubled pathways of life. We have recently marked Charles Darwin's birthday - his 196th birthday - February 12th - which reminds us that we shall, very soon, be making he 200th - the Bicentennial Celebration - of his have lived among us -or off to one side of people of his day. He was never a complainer.

After two hundred years there still exists strong opposition to Darwin's views as to our being here at all. His enemies still exist and will show themselves at the 200th anniversary. Charles Darwin is one of the few men I can think of who are both admired and loved and yet distrusted and even hated at the same time.

Prepare for the Darwin 200. Read some good poetry - listen to some good music.

A.L.M. March 4, 2005 [c527wds]

 
TO MARKET! TO MARKET!

It is not too difficult to find instances of a prosperous, vibrant people seeking a way to market the fruits of their efforts. It is easy to find parallels in various sections of the world, and we can learn from seeing how such activities may be compared and contrasted, and we can realizes more advancements in our area economy.

Here in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia we have an historical pattern which is common to many geographical locations. As settlement advanced from the coastal areas and moved westward they met with a wall of ancient mountains.
We find it difficult to accept the relatively low, worn down mountains as such a formidable barrier as them seem to have been. We, today, need to remember, too, however, that the people of Colonial Virginia had only vague idea of what they might meet with in the western wilderness beyond the blue ridge of mountains. Piedmont Indian tribes living east of the range of mountains, perhaps, spoke of the excellent hunting grounds available to the west, but none of them were strong enough enough to take possession of the Valley. No one tribes ever called the Valley their own. None of tribes could make a claim and defend it.

The Valley area from what is now the upper edge of Virginia west of the Blue Ridge... north of Winchester,perhaps, to southwest of Roanoke using modern designations. To this day Indian tribes do not like the idea of being "weak" and a romantic tale is old by many that they "willingly shared the rich Shenandoah Valley as a common hunting ground." They visited the area for game and it is said they have purposely set fire to large area to burn off forest growth when they departed to encourage larger open acreage for Nature to pasture deer, buffalo and other creatures of value as meat and pelts.

English settlers used the Hampton Roads waterway and those rivers feeding into the Chesapeake Bay a mean of trading with the inner sections of the area up to the edge of the mountains. The James with serious efforts to start building canals to extend westward to the Valley and beyond. The Potomac River was used and in the area in which I live, the Shenandoah River was such a watery highway where it became "North", "South" forks with a river called "Middle" between them... barge ways which became active in trading of Valley goods to Baltimore and other Chesapeake Bay ports.

In England, centuries ago people from whom we are largely descended, used rivers and canals built to extend them from the North Sea coast from The Wash down toward the Channel and continental centers to send great supplies of East Anglia's variety of products into the London urban areas.

We, as did those early traders in England used our waterways -natural and man made - until such time as the locomotive was invented and took over as a faster means of getting the job done. They trains, in time, gave way to the lorry after a Scotsman by the name of John McAdam invented a process by which he firmed up the roads with crushed gravel . Macadamizing many old untended highways - including some Roman ruins and in America ancient American Indian trails - signaled the season of the semi, the time of the truckers, the count-up from 4 to 18-wheelers - now seen in many areas as strings thereof.

We face a new dilemma, even as we see aircraft taking over much of the trucking business in our longer United States trips. The newest sky monsters are set to carry seven semi loads, faster and safer. Where can we look in history of to find a solution for our new problems of inadequate highways and no remaining rail system of any consequence to augment our present choo-choo train pretenses.

One such action is noticeable here in the Valley. Merchandising itself is being sharply modified. We now have at least three major "distribution centers" in this immediate two county area. "Target","Best Buy" and "Marshall's".. with a massive new Wal-Mart distribution center taking gargantuan shape for next year. Several "warehouse" operations of manufactured goods would fit the same classification, and all are closer than ever to the Eastern megalopolis selling centers.

We are bringing "supply" closer to potential "users".

hA L.M. March 3, 2005 [c737wds]

 
SIT-COM STATUS

We are, once again, hearing opinion stated saying: "The Sit-Com is dead!".

Changed a bit, perhaps. But, "dead"? No.

Trick words such as this combination of "situational" and "comedy" are seldom trustworthy over a period of years. They are made to fit a specific time and circumstances which have, long ago, taking on new meanings or become obsolete. The term "realities" is suffering such such a buffeting now in TV-production land or,perhaps, more accurately TV's "lack of production" land.

It is quite true that we might consider the obvious fact that, at the moment the sit-com is not the favorite format in which, TV writers, directors, performers, editors,
agencies, production studios, agencies, station owners, PR persons - or viewers. You may protest that last group of people-viewers. You may contend that you still watch many of the "old timers" - and the designation "sit com" is rather broad thing today if you try to define it exactly. I am almost certain that someone in the world is watching an Andy Griffith show every hour of every day in some nation or nations around the globe. "Green Acres" Albert & Gabor, is a regular, "Leave It To Beaver", Happy Days", "Archie Bunker and his family, Bea Arthur and the other three women! You can build a long list and even point to imported sit-coms such as the so-called "Saturday Night Sillies" running successfully by PBS stations as low-budget BBC imports.

The reasons why you watch them are not all nostalgia related. You do so for the simple reason that you can't find anything of value to watch on the vast majority of channels available. You actually will find you are watching some of them for the first time around years ago. If your did not watch "Green Acres", "The Musters", The Adams Family" or other such treats, you are watching new stuff -a bit seedy with age; yesterday's gags and clothing and cars styles, but new to you since you have never seem them before. If you are one of those stuffy academic types who can still read Roman numerals in the credits rollover, you can get quick glance at how long ago it was that you had chance top see them first-hand.

You may wish to give some thought to how today;s favorite programs are going to look as reruns on TV of that era.

Maybe its a good thing that the concept of having TV "channels" is going out of style. In a few year every thing will be "on order". "What shows do we order up for tonight?"

I'd willing wager wide wads of mint-warm Washington wampum that some will ask for Andy Griffith every hour - everywhere! Sit-coms were folksy comments on living. They will always be with us in some art form. They are the best way "we" have to remember "us".

A.L.M. March 2, 2005 [c498wds]

 
DON'T FORGET TO REMEMBER

Hang on to your dreams!

You will need memories of pleasant times, pleasant things, and people as you grow older. It's all those "little things" which made childhood so enjoyable that we tend to look back and enlarge upon them as we add years to our age

Many such memories remain hidden away in the random wrinkles of our brains around a core of a holiday, a special event, a day of exceptional meaning to us, or a departure we once made from the seeming routine process of our young lives. Try to recall how the process of creation of such dreams and re-do a few of them for today.

Give some thought to those things which decorate our early dreams. Older people continue to want and desire things they don't really expect to ever possess. We, as little kids, certainly did not really expect to ever have most of the things of which we dreamed - such thing as as being able to fly through the air as does a bird; to swim under the wave-tossed surfaces of the sea like a fish or sit in your home and watching things happening on the other side of Earth. So many things we now accept as normal, were the raw ingredients of our dreams. We used to imagine we would someday hear voices and see pictures of other people all over the world, and we tried our best to solve the unwanted experiences of flood, fire, famine,strife, trouble and outright war - all those things which threatened us and the oldsters among whom we lived and grew.

Most memories, however, seem to have to do with people. The events which took place and cause us to remember for former times, we caused by people. In back of each and every one of those happenings we remember there were known or secret desires, needs, wants, or loves of individuals - people of all kinds.

In looking back upon our memories we in invariably associated events with certain people we knew at that time. In developing our own dreams now as older persons, we should, even must be concerned with people we know. They are living out their dreams and what they do - the events they cause now, today - however trivial they may seem to be - may well be the most important influence in your life - even the shorter one you are "finishing out". Their opinion of you as a co-creator of their own dreams is an indication of the way people will think and speak of you in years ahead.

Children seem to sense it. The way to build a good store of pleasant memories is to work sincerely in maintaining good friendships with good people you meet. In truth, you are both working on the same project.

A.L.M. March 1, 2005 [c480wds]

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