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Saturday, April 09, 2005
SEDNA! We now have something new to worry about! If you are among those who have been unaware of the existence of Sedna , then you haven't been keeping up with your zodi-reacting lately and have allowed your cosmic whatever to waver a bit. There is now a brand new 1800 kw chunk of something out there in space we didn't know about until now and there is no way in the world of cosmic consciousness you can't possibly say or do anything to convince me that this is now going to work havoc with all of our charts and diagrams. How can I possibly keep such-and-such in conjunction with so-and-so with Sedna standing there in the way? It might even be true that this new Sedna thing... totally unique among recent additions to our catalog of cosmic hardware... is the long-awaited key to lottery literacy! Each of us has a duty to all other who think on the same level as we do to get in something of hurried mode so we influence the nature of this new discovery's attributes - real or fanciful -and add to the informational mountain which will grow recording its qualities, special powers and endless potential! We who have such knowledge of the workings of pour heavenly b bodies can work miracles in space, if we but get out act together and start working at our task! Learn all you possibly can about Sedna. It's not a planet. It's bigger than bread box and a bit smaller that the planet Pluto. If you know where Pluto is, Sedna is located about three times down the same road into space. It measures about 1800 kw in diameter. It is the most distant object know to be in orbit around our sun. The pattern is elliptical in shape,very much so, and the body comes around in just a bit over every 10,000 years or so. When speaking of Sedna, try to work in such terms as ."A.U", "Oort Cloud objects" and mention it is all "beyond the Kuiper Belt." You may wonder why Sedna always appears to be bright,too and may marvel at the fact that it does hoi even though we know so little about its composition. Other icy surface do not show as red. The real name of the new object is "2003 VB12", so keep that handy as we set out to learn more about our zodiac treasures. A.L.M. April 9, 2005 [c507wds]
Friday, April 08, 2005
ONE CENT! I can remember when a child who actually held a real penny in hand could feel himself to be rich. You could actually buy items with one penny and a combination of them you had saved - augmented by a new nickel or dime from Grandpa meant a kid could go shopping. The clerk at the grocery store who also was Lord and Master over the glass covered candy counter had to have a great deal of patience when dealing with such customers determined too get the best values in candy with their accumulation of pennies. Each copper cent often represented work time for the youngsters, too The soft drink companies of that same era had a more-or-less standing offer of paying two cents for the return of their bottles for refill. You can believe we each had our favorite places all mapped out for bottle collections. But times changed as they are still doing. The penny candies gradually disappeared and we came to live in an era of candy "bars". The usual price for a time, was five cents so the penny still applied quite well except we had to have more of them. most of the names have endured. "Tootsie Roll" was one of the very first and others I remember were different chocolate treats made by Hershey. "Baby Ruth" (which went through a time of legal problems because most us went right on pronounced the name "Babe" rather than "Baby." Scores of others were available, too, now that I start list a few of them: "Clark'"s, "Mars", "Almond Joy","Snicker's", " Milky Way","Butterfinger", "Three Muskateers", "Cracker Jack" and other such candied concoctions." Penny Candies have, I suppose, have the way of the Penny Arcade amusement machines. They continue to return from time-to-time in other dress and with different names but not at the same reasonable rate of exchange. A.L.M. April 8, 2005 [c435wds]
Thursday, April 07, 2005
EYE WITNESSES AND OTHERS Recently, I overheard a practicing Prosecuting Attorney say that he would rather not have an eye-witness of a crime in the court room. Truth, he seemed to feel, when properly used is a worthy co-worker, but not something which is at its best when blurted out or bandied about too freely. It ages awfully fast. Too often an eye-witness seems to think his status is above that of the lawyers involved. Such a witness, under proper control, can be very good to have around. Truth is best handled in small quantities with specific goals in mind. The attorney knows those points of specific need and concern and it is far better that he asks the witnesses to ladle out a small portion of the truth/gravy where it is most needed than to simply flood the contents of the tureen over whatever portion he thinks might be the mashed potatoes of the feast. Other than being prone to overdo their role during their "all too brief on stage or in the legal a limelight what other qualities may eye-witnesses have which may cause concern. We can use ourselves as examples. What do you see when you "witness" an event - perhaps a fender bender of some sort. What did you see? Tell exactly the way it all took place. You would be able to give good account of all g that occurred. You saw it happen. You are physical witness of every action which which took place. Wrong. Even as you tell it or, write it all down you remember looking aside several times to see if any flying glass particles had cut your legs or those of others in the crowd; you recognized a girl across the way and waved to as she helped the little kid to step back and away.
Wednesday, April 06, 2005
OUR SMARTZ We show worry from at times regarding the past, present and future of our national intelligence gathering services. Some critic have become so self-piously correct as to deny to right for such groups to even exist. It has become needful that we ask ourselves, when we profess to believe in an advancing social level if we can see any justification for allowing portions of the whole - even while declaring unified intent - to spy upon on another. Some few would contend that all information dealing with governmental activities what-so-ever all become, automatically, public information. Such a ruling might make a modicum of good sense in a pure democracy which we not even pretend to have in place. If we are to require that all information of such a nature be public, then we need to deceive ourselves and circumvent the intent of such grand proclamation - we need to set up laws concerning that which is public and that which is, in any way, restricted and to whom. Our intelligence gathering units are, are, admittedly, in sad array. It is not a new thing. Between wars we tend stop collecting information concerning potential foes and ignorance breeds more of the same. A prime example of how this laxity affected my life is to be found in that a good friend of mine who became a marine died, needlessly one might think, at Tarawa when he came and thousand of others found out they had to walk the last mile through waist high water. The charts of the islands on which the landings were based were all ancient fishing fleet charts. Our troops, walking through water on sand that was not supposed be there were shot as if they were ducks on a pond. We are shaken a bit when we find that our allies went right on spying on us even after they signed up on our side. Such safeguards probably proved to be wise, too, because there are many elements of human error to be found in clandestine operations and some might well demand some subtle relaxation of usual required regulations. Intelligence work, to be meaningful, often demands priviledges to work efficiently or, at times, work at all. In espionage terms as "blackmail", "ransom", and "backshee" - even when miss-spelled are quite common. The time for "accounting" is, often, left to history, and wisely so. Just suppose - if you doubt that - just suppose that we had been told at the time who "Deep Throat" actually was! Aren't you glad we have waited! Or, are you? A.L.M. April 6, 2005 [c489wds]
Monday, April 04, 2005
GONERS ALL! Do you miss all those people who were going to “leave the country” if George W. Bush were reelected? I don' t miss them at all. In fact, I find it rather difficult to miss people who haven't gone anywhere! And those people, who, during the later days of the election, were proclaiming loudly it was, their sworn intent to depart these enslaved shores for foreign havens of peace and security if George W. won over John Kerry. I knew two gentlemen who threatened to go to England. As their intent, it seems, to arrange for an address in Greater London and, then, continue the schedule they have maintained in recent years dividing their time on long visits to Las Vegas and Florida. One rather elegant lady who have proclaiming she would be going to France to live, told me she had b been forced to change her plans when, in the final days of our election, she heard for the first time, that during the tenure of George Bush in the White House that both the British and French fleets of super-sonic “Concorde”, flying-wing aircraft had – during the tenure of George W. Bush, and that neither of them had regular schedules flying to and from Europe. “ How, then was one expected to travel? By common steamer, perhaps, or by noisy, dirty and so much smaller an so much smaller aircraft named with just numbers, mind you ...there was one called the 7-4-7, I think rather than legitimate names with meaning, character and permanence!” I heard of two men who planned their post-election exodus to either Norway and/or Sweden. They happened to talk with a visitor from one of those socially advanced nations and mentioned what percentage of his income he might consider to be his very own where he lived. They took a vote among the two of them and decided to cancel their reservations. Entertainers – dabbling in political life are prime candidates for self-exile. Babara Streisand claimed to be one of them, but she is still with us according to rumors which work their way into the news now and again. TV, film, and Internet persons and personalities when pestered by promises of perfect places are eager to project their talents elsewhere when the exodus actually seems to be getting started on once again. Right now it seems to be at a virtual standstill. The “goers”, who seldom because actual “goners” are good for another three years or so until aroused by political factionalism. It may well be that some of them have, from time to time, made good on their promise or threat. Hence the overseas travel-term: “The Ugly American”. A.L.M. April 4, 2005 [c461wds]
Sunday, April 03, 2005
A PERFECT JEWEL
I have a copy of one of those giant collections of all sorts of literary miscellany which were so popular as to demand a place in the proper “Parlor Rooms” of thousands of America's finest homes during the later decades of the 1800's.
The 608 page volume, offering several hundred poems, musical scores, essays and terse aphorisms, was elegantly printed and sturdily bound. The book plate inside the front cover tells us it originally,belonged to R.E. Harvey. He, or she, purchased the heavy volume September 1, 1885 for $5.50 and a portion identifies this particular copy as being ”No. 279” in what one must assume was a Limited Edition, published in 1885 by Mills, Dodge & Pomeroy, Adrian, Michigan.
The collection - titled “Perfect Jewels” - was compiled by one William Ralston Blach, and credits are included identifying him as the author of eight books , two about James Garfield, A “People's Dictionary”, “Every-Day Encyclopedia”, and several on the mining industry in America. An exceptional feature of this book is that he does not parade a raft of educational honors either at this point or in the short “Preface” in the text of the book itself. The man who wrote the ”Introduction” - T. DeWitt Talmage identifies himself with a D.D showing he was Pastor of “Brooklyn Tabernacle” and Editor of “Sunday Magazine” His Introduction is dated “Brooklyn 1884” and the Preface by Blach is designated only as “Philadelphia, -1884”. The book itself is marked “Copyright 1884 by John Blakey”.
Typical of the oddity I find in this rather unusual “parlor book”, here in an item said to have been written by one Thomas Jefferson which I do not recall ever having seen before.
“A New Ten Commandments.”
Never put off till to-morrow what you can do to-day.
Never trouble another for what you can do yourself.
Never spend your money before you have it.
Never buy what you do not want because it is cheap; it will be dear to you.
Pride costs us more than hunger, thirst and cold.
We never repent of having eaten toolittle.
Nothing is troublesome that we do willingly.
How much pain have cost us the evils that have never happened.
Take things always by their smooth handle.
When angry, count ten before you speak; if very angry, an hundred.
Thomas Jefferson”
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A.L.M. April 3, 2005 [c401wds]
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