Saturday, December 09, 2006
STRANGE CREATURE In the extreme desert parts of the Earth you may expect to find one the world's strangest animals – available in two standard models - the one called Bacterium with one hump and the other - the Dromedary – with two such humps topside. Usually few people consider a camel pleasant or beautiful to have around. Body odors prevail it their midst and they are said to have a bad habits of spitting or each other and nearby humans. Many people insist that camels are best seen at a distance. They are said to have been designed by a committee; body odors are a part of their being and they spit on each other and humans when given a chance to do so. The “kamal”, also used primarily in the sandy soil sections of Earth, is a primitive type of navigational tool used by desert tribesmen roaming dessert tribes. All you need to make such a tool is a small piece of wood or heavy cardboard -perhaps the end of a cigar box; about two inches in height, four inches across and 3/ 4 of an inch thick with with fairly smoothed surfaces. You will just one other component and that would be a piece of string measuring the sane as your extended arm , plus another piece of similar string used to tie knots along the main piece. There will be fourteen such locations along the length of arm-long string on which knots will be tied. Knowing exactly where to place each of those knots is of vital concern. The stars will tell you.. Five of the knots are tight ones and four of them will be tight but with an half-inch or so of cord hanging loose. Start about four inches from the far end of the string. Run it through the board in a hole cut in the center of the control board because it will subject to pulling pressures. The first knot will be made in the series using small pieces of the extra string because they may have to be altered. Do not tie knits in the main string. There are three such tight knots to start with followed by one dangle type. They are an inch apart. Then, along two inches add one of each..then one single plus one dangle two inches further along the string. Two more inches and you tie a single; jump one inch and tie another like it – ten knots in all, thus far with five to go. From that ten-count spot move two inches and tie a dangle; then one inch more and tie a single, 2 inches more and tie a dangle following a single knot which will be tied four inches from the end of the extended string. By this time you may feel “fit to be tied” yourself, but remember once you learn how to use your own,individual kamal your are never going be a model for one of those arid figures crawling across hot desert sands seeking water. To use the kamal hold the board in one hand and extend it the edge of the night sky. Place the string between your teeth at the point the point where you tied you initial knot. Move the board along the sky rim at a level of about one inch above the horizon. As knots slip between your teeth , identify each with the star seen at that spot. That knot told the ancient Nabatean navigator how distant the star was – how many “isbas” it was above him. Then, using that knowledge he could deduce the altitude of the Pole Star, and even though he may not be able to see it, he knew where it was in the sky. Andrew McCaskey amccsr@adelphia.net 12-9-06 [c630wds]
Friday, December 08, 2006
EXIBITS There are several words which have mutated severely in recent years in the popular music world. The term "concert" has been cheapened in my view. We used think of a "concert" for example, as being a performance by group of musicians who appear together in a planned program of musical selections. Individual did appear in concerts, of course, but, to accommodate such a narrow,restricted view one must ignore th fundamental meaning of the term meaning: to agree,to unify,to bring about containment. It sounds much better to say one is going to sing a few songs between sales segment at a local furniture store or radio and TV commercials segments which could also be called "concerts" in that they all agree on varied means of gain some of some of your supposed wealthiness the musician himself speaks of as "the gig I'm doin' at..." gets blown into "a concert" by some strange reasoning. Many a parent of teen-agers feel better telling friend their kids are "taking in some,big concert in own tonight. Be late gettin' home ,I imagine." I dislike it when the morning shows on TV do "concerts" from such-and-such a nearby park. Such haphazard fillers are especially networks are doing the same economy routine by sticking a microphone or two out of their studio windows, more or less, so personalities can comment in laudatory profusion rating second-grade performances in profusion before audiences who are there for anything free. This is just a minor thing I realize but such small mental dust bunnies tend to pile up and viewers are lost. I had another such fault of such great importance in mind when I began this page, but it has been forgotten by this time. On the whole I am a TV regular which is one reason I don't stand around and do nothing when I see it hurting itself. Andrew McCaskey amccsr@adelphia.net 12-8-06 [c331wds]
Thursday, December 07, 2006
A DAY THAT WILL LIVE... Those words are still strong enough in the memory of all people who were living in America when the Japanese – without warning – hit Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, a principal naval base of the United States, with a devastating air raid. It was costly in terms of lives lost, persons injured, property destroyed, and a tremendous loss of sea power for our Pacific Fleet. There was loss of prestige which affected us more than any one thing and caused us to become outward, serious participants in the World War already in progress at the time, and not doing too well. It is of vital importance that we realize that there are thousands of citizens who do not remember or revere the memory of those who did that day in defense of the nation in which we live today. This is not the fault of theirs but, rather, of our own failure to provide an educational system which would pass along such essential information to new generations to provide an awareness of our national history. I made a dental appointment last year and when I thanked her for giving such an easy date to recall: “That’s good! I can remember ‘Pearl Harbor Day’.” Obviously puzzled, she looked and offered to change the date : “if you folks are taking a ocean trip!” Just this last week I was talking with a man born in 1981 We spoke of colonial Virginia travel and, at the age of twenty-five, he asked me what I meant by “Livery Stable?” The plight we are in concerning poor or inadequate study of our past will catch us some day. The event which took place yesterday at the White House commits us to a lead role in a conflict far larger than the war in which we are engaged at the moment. The prestige factor alone might prove to be rather more cost than we one would think. When Japan used just two hundred "Zeros"to cripple Pearl Harbor and our Pacific fleet many nations around the Pacific rim faced new and foreboding possibilities. We now have nations on what we might call the "Arabic Rim" who will be looking to us to right their understandable imbalance. December 7th- more or less - may well be given extended meanings for all of us soon. Andrew McCaskey amccsr@adelphia.net 12-07-06 [c402wds]
Wednesday, December 06, 2006
FINE DAY! Today is a fine one. Despite all the snow and ice pushing a cold hand into the mid west and northeastern states; yet another costly forest fire on the loose in California and that industrial explosion in downtown in Milwaukee...yes, in spite of all that, and more negative news from around the world, I see today as a special one largely because of the much-awaited report of the special Study Group placed before President George Bush this morning. [ I wonder how many American citizens realize what a tremendous task it must have been to have gathered together such a group of concerned, capable and willing leaders in such confused times as we have know in recent months. It was delayed until after the turmoil of the elections. It is readily understandable that such that a group could not have been formed under election-time conditions when divisions were the mood rather creative work toward common intents. Our president and our media personnel now have, in-hand, the book setting forth the Study Groups recommendations and suggestions. They propose a total of seventy-nine plans whereby they feel the troubles in the entire Arabic community of nations might be mitigated. For the first time, we are seriously looking at the total situation rather than a small fragment of the overall problems found in Iraq. We have already heard some hasty judgments concerning how certain suggested steps might work, and President George Bush, at this morning's gathering with the Study Group said his administration would cooperate in every possible way to implement positive action in making good suggestion into realities. That which come into being because of today's report will set the pattern for our lives for generations to come. That's your life and mine. So, pay attention as the plans are set forth and discussed. Andrew McCaskey amccsr@adelphia. Net 12-06-06 [c321wds]
Tuesday, December 05, 2006
IF I WERE... If I were a stand-up comedian getting my monologue materials in some sort of usable form for the next show, I would read and re-read...tell and re-tell these stories until they were each imbued with the juice of my so-called style seem “lanky and lazy”. I learned long ago not to be in too much of a hurry. People need time to get unhooked from the bustle of living. I like to allow folks of all ages to sorta be aware of shedding serious aspects of living today so we can tease each other about that which we seem, at times,to be. “Hi. Andy.- The worry wart. Have you been trying to keep up with all the complaining lately? People actually plan nasty things. The little boy next door was praying and his father happened to overhear him: ”Dear Jesus baby, the boy intoned. Thanks for forgiving me for all the naughty things I did today and also thank you,too,for all the things I have planned to tomorrow.” The apartment in which I live gets mighty cold these nights. Every time I open the front door the light comes on! Some kids are hard to please,too. My friend ask his son:”What do you think of your new baby sister?” “O.K" he said. “She's O.K. I suppose,but there are sure a heck of a lot of things we needed worse.” And we are not always fully appreciate our kid's amazing sense of inventiveness and and analytical skills. The Security Man in a large department store saw a small girl kneeling to close to the mechanism driving an escalator. She was examining each new step as it appeared. He rushed to her side saying: “Is anything wrong?” “Not exactly, she said without looking up: “I dropped my bubble gum and I'm just waiting for it to come back!” Kids are truthful today ,too! A boy was applying for new job applying for a job and one of the questions he was asked read: “Length of residence at present address”.It stumped him for a moment,but he a moment passed and he confidently wrote down the answer: “About thirty-five feet, not counting the garage.” Andrew McCaskey amccsr@adelphia.net 12-5-06 [c-388wds]
Monday, December 04, 2006
A MINOR THING There seems to me we have a tendency to place a great deal of trust, confidence and love in trivial aspects of our lives. Things often are used to replace rather than supplement possessions. One example might be that ever-present mark of modern living - microwave cooking. I often wonder how we survived as long as we did without it. The take over is complete now, but it was a long time getting here. I am not quite old enough to remember cooking out of doors by a wood-fired fueled fire. We did that, however, on occasion when, for some strange reasons known only to the whiz-kid genius of that era knew, our electricity supplies failed to flow, cooking gas tanks sounded "bo-o-o-o-m when kicked - the sound of emptiness or close to being nothing, or our kerosene storage can had sprung a leak we didn't know about until that time. That called for wood-axe use and chopping and we were fortunate to have a supply available in the patch of woods nearby. Other folks did not have that and we often had company at meal times when the power was off. We rather enjoyed the camping out for time but were glad to move back into the kitchen where the big, black "range" ruled. It ,too, in time, gave way to electric and gas-powered stoves and I can remember one worry the homemakers of the time held to rather firmly. The new unit were too dangerous. Electricity could kill you; escaped gas could, as well. The same objection caused many people to avoid putting any "electronic" creations in their home. But, once it took over, the microwave style of cooking advanced quickly. Today many people depend on microwave cooking - even when they "eat out" - because it has taken over large sections of the commercial cooking world, too. Once people are accurately informed and come to understand why a certain thing works to their advanatage they can be quick to adapt to the new way. More cooking methods are in the labs now, to replace microwave, and we will go through the cycle of fear again before it finds favor. Be ready. Andew McCaskey amccsr@adelphia.net 12-4-06 [c384wds]
Sunday, December 03, 2006
A TRIO FROM '44 When in England many American visitors feel a odd sense of affinity with man sight, sounds and sensations which they have known partially and are seeing at first hand. In September of the year 1944 rather dreary day an English person might have seen at the Bridge Westminster a bound note book in hand and stopping to write in at intervals. I was writing the following poem: COMPOSED UPON WESTMINSTER BRIDGE September Could Wordsworth see his silent city now Her sleep would seem - twice 'o'er -intense, profound. The timeless Thames still speaks his weighty sound. Beneath this span the Bank-bent depths endow The night with motion. Staunch renewing vow - This vein of England's seas doth now surround, With blood of mighty men - the captives bound - Past waves which wash not now Britannia's prow. The ships, the domes, the towers and temples, too. Open now to sea, to sky and air This night are shrouded - a sullen, silent view While fangs are bared in waiting, taut with care. O Poet! We need thy voice upraised anew To show the fighting Soul recumbent there! Andrew McCaskey, London, Sept 1944 The another time,when we were biking eastward along the road leading us toward Great Yarmouth and "David Copperfield country". It was a bright, sun-spattering day and children were at play along the roadside. That day I met with this: INCIDENT "Look! A piece of flak! " she said this little English child, as if she'd touched a common stone, and thought of other things. "Flak?" asked and took the bit of ragged metal in my hand. "It's from the planes, you know," she said and went about her play. a.l.m. Gt. Yarmouth Road, Sept 1944 NIGHT FLIGHT Yellowed fangs of flak stabbing up into the belly of the night. Big Dipper's cup abrim with thunderous Death in flight. green bits of Hell searing scab-like in the sky. And Dipper's ladle pouring molten streams of steel awry. Sept 1944 a.l.m Rackheath-Norfolk Country All wars linger on forever, in seems, in our literature and music. The memories grow and may, in time, become weighty enough to make us seek a better way to live. Andrew McCaskey amccsr@adelphia.net 12-3-06 [c384wds]
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