What a voice

Over 35 million viewers have seen this YouTube video of Susan Boyle but she is one of my favorite singers of the decade. I am passing on this link to a remarkable short video so that everyone can enjoy ( or re-enjoy) the moment. I bought several copies of her first CD in early December and sent them to each of my children and a couple of close friends. Ms. Boyle is currently touring Japan where I am sure she will be well received.
(This is from my blog.)

Looking back and forward

To say that 2009 was a tumultuous, momentous year for all of us is somehow not enough to describe how we are as we enter the second decade of the 21st century. Some good things happened in 2009, on a personal and family level and on a collective level with our fellow residents on this planet. Our family was accident free throughout the year, albeit we had our share of visits to doctors and hospitals. We are healthy and alive going into 2010, although the Matriarch resides in Skilled Nursing. We had some unemployment but this has been corrected as the year comes to an end. We had a small amount of success with investments, managing our money and meeting high costs in a tough economic year. The young people have done well in school and are growing in wonderful ways. We intensified friendships and fought off loneliness and discouragement; we have bright hopes for the future. Our search for pleasure and entertainment was satiated through good movies, TV and books, as well as associations with friends in group meetings, social settings and visits to local sites. We had some wins and losses in sports but we convince (or delude) ourselves 2010 will somehow be better. It is called living the dream. After all it took 85 years to win another World Series in Boston!
For our country, we inaugurated a new President and handed him a plate full of problems and opportunities. All things considered he has done well and his team steered the country through rough financial waters; the economy is picking up. The good people in the land have risen to the occasion and the naysayers have not carried the day. The nation remains at war in lands far away from our shores and thousands of brave men and women are out there defending us here at home. If there is a discordant note it is that these men and women are bearing the sacrifice, while at home we refuse to impose a war tax which would share the burden and reduce the debt. The New Year will see improvements in health care for most Americans; we cannot predict the final costs in terms of dollars but somehow Americans will muddle through. For more than two centuries “ican” has been a part of Americans.
In our state and local communities we face tough times and tough choices. Again, the resilience of our people will stand us in good stead. Major breakthroughs in job creation are already announced and spirits are on the rise. Practically everywhere men, women and children, are optimistic and looking forward to personal and collective opportunities and growth.
It is a good time to be alive in our family, in our country and in South Carolina.

They are at it again....

The prophets of doom and gloom who delight in knocking Congress and irritating the old people are out and about this Christmas season spreading lies and damn lies. The latest comes in an e-mail message, where the originator's identify has been stripped, claiming that the U.S. House and Senate have voted themselves thousand dollar pay increases for 2010 and social security recipients will not be getting a token cost of living increase. Furthermore, these false prophets said Medicare is going to $142.80 next year (currently $96.50).
I get so tired of this elder abuse so I checked this out. I went to Factcheck.com and learned "this claim is so far off the mark that it simply beggars belief. The claim is false. The fact is that Congress voted in March to give itself a zero pay raise in 2010. The language is in Public Law 111-8, the Omnibus Appropriation Act for the current fiscal year, which was signed March 11. Tucked away at the very end of the 466-page spending bill is the following language:

"It says quite simply that the automatic cost-of-living increase that might have gone into effect for members of the House and Senate in January "shall not take effect."

As to Medicare, I got a notice last week about my social security benefits for 2010 and it does not show any increase in Medicare costs for either my wife or myself.

I am off Twizzlers forever

I am thinking I should stay away from red licorice in the evening. Last night I had dinner in the Franke Bistro with a neighbor and her grand-daughter. It was a pleasant event as the grand lived in Geneva, New York, where I spent 1951-1953 while I was stationed at Sampson AFB. Later I watched the Dallas-New Orleans game and came away grateful that I am not into sports betting as I would have lost my shirt. Who thought Dallas, with several recent years of meltdowns in December, would beat New Orleans which was trying to go 14-0? During the game I chewed on three strawberry twists (red licorice sticks) and judging by the dream I had later I wonder if they were laced with LSD or did I pick up a package of peyote at the local grocers? You know what peyote is? That's what Tonto used to chew at night when he sat around the campfire drying the Long Ranger's underwear by hanging it on a stick over the campfire. When Tonto took an early retirement buyout and social security, he told Johnny Carson that after 30 years of cooking meals and washing the masked man's underwear he had enough. But I digress. Back to the dream. I was somewhere about 30 miles North of Charleston with my Lincoln Towncar. Some big bozo in a leather jacket was driving. I know not why. We were stopped and I was standing outside the car. A woman friend was there, but she eventually disappeared. A young woman dressed in yellow and nursing a baby came up to me and asked for a ride to Belvedere Court in a city where I used to live. I stared at her for a minute and saw she had a big clear plastic bag tied around her neck and draped over her breasts. It was full of milk and had a big nipple in the center of it. This is where the baby nursed. I wondered if she had any breasts but she and my lady friend told me this was the new age. Mothers pumped milk from their breasts and stored it in a bag so the baby could be nursed on its schedule without inconveniencing mom. I asked: "Where is this baby's father?" "He is in Iraq." "What is he doing there?" "He is in the army." "Ours or theirs?" I will pay you for the ride she said, and I said get in the car. I opened the back door and my oldest daughter was sitting there not saying a word. About this time my woman friend disappeared and a heavy set young lady showed up in the dream. She also wanted a ride. The car is big but this strange and large guy was under the wheel and I was taking the up front passenger seat. There is not a lot of room left I said. The heavy set girl started to cry so I told her to go around the other side and get in the back. So there we were going down the road. We were getting low on gas but I said we had enough. The next thing I woke up on a bed in the room I slept in as a young boy. The bozo was on the bed next to me sleeping. I don't know where my daughter, the nursing mother, the child, and the fat young lady were. The bozo woke up, embraced me and wanted to give me some investing advice; he was against a couple of Charleston investments I was considering. I shoved him away and told him to get off the bed. Then the early morning light was coming through the wooden venetian blinds in my room. That's when I decided no more Twizzlers (red licorice) in the evening.

Thanks for your prayers

Last night I had a discussion with The Big Guy. He came to me as I was dropping off to sleep and he sure was crabby. He called me a schmuck and asked, “What’s the matter with you?” And he didn’t give me a chance to respond before he continued. “All day long I’ve been bombarded with prayers, incantations, begging, beseeching, pestering, and soliciting - all up and down the east coast from Florida to New Hampshire and Massachusetts. I even heard from your sister in California. Some people in Northern Virginia took time away from their national security work to put in a good word for you. And then it picked up in Myrtle Beach and Mt. Pleasant. Mt. Pleasant alone was enough to cause a near meltdown in the heavenly computer center. All kinds of people who live near you, a lot of women and some men, children, black and white, all on my case on your behalf. Active and retired Lutheran ministers (and by the way I had you in the Roman Catholic catalog) got into it. Around noon Matthew came to see me. He was acting for Luke who is off in Brussels with those Microsoft people celebrating the European Union dropping the browser monopoly charges that have been on the front burner for a couple of years. I put Luke in charge of information technology because he is the best educated of the apostles. He was a doctor and historian, as I hope you remember from your bible study classes. You schmuck. At first I thought it was those other schmucks at Notre dame looking for a coach who could win ten games a year, five years running. I told Matthew I sent them a good Catholic coach from Massachusetts with a sterling record. Then he told me it was you. I was having a latte with Mary Magdalene and we were reminiscing over old times, especially that last supper where she was beside me on my right side at the table. Didn’t I put you and your health problems in one of the best hospitals in the eastern half of the United States? And didn’t I give you a world class surgeon? And then you still have all these people bothering me at the busiest time of the year. Matthew told me that if the pressure did not subside the system would overload and fail. He said that millions of children would not be able to get through with their requests for Christmas. Dreams of toys, dogs and jobs for dad would not be received. We put in a call to Luke and asked him for a recommendation. He said originally the surgeon was going to keep you overnight in the hospital because you got a pacemaker in October and he wanted to keep an eye on you. Luke said this was unnecessary, that your heart was in good shape and we should suggest to the surgeon that he send you home a couple of hours after the surgery. Luke stressed that we should only make this as a suggestion because doctors like to be in charge. Your Guardian Angel told me two of that brood of children you have were on hand to take you home and you would not have to walk from Charleston to Mt. Pleasant, so we planted the ‘send him home’ seed. Unless it is a real emergency I don’t want to hear from you again before Christmas, unless you want to send a “thank you” - that is always in order.”
(This is from my blog at http://archibaldinsc.blogspot.com)

How Warren Buffett helped me earn a dollar

About a month ago I turned on my computer early one morning and brought up the Scottrade ticker showing my stock interests. One of my stocks, Burlington Northern railroad, showed a pre-market price $20 higher than the closing a day earlier. (I had a few shores of this because Warren Buffett held a lot of shares). The higher price was a computer glitch, surely, and planned to call the brokerage firm but it was early so I did a news check. To my surprise, Warren Buffett had announced during the night he would buy all of BN that he didn't already own and the stock jumped like it was on steroids. I never had a stock jump $20 in one day. I sold it pre-market, took my profit and said a silent prayer of thanks to the Sage of Omaha. All of this only heightened the interest I had in a lengthy Wall Street Journal story today about Mr. Buffett. Mr. Buffett said, among other things, that in this past year of investing dangerously he had looked "into the abyss," and some of the best decisions he made were deals he didn't do. The small investor (and I am minuscule dabbler: i.e. smaller than small) can't touch a share of Mr. Buffett's stock ($99,000 per share for Class A and $3300 a share Class B) but you can look at him from time to time and smile when he does something that puts money in your pocket.
(This is from my blog available here.)

Roper ER

December 8, 2009

Administrator
Roper Hospital
316 Calhoun Street
Charleston SC 29401

Dear Sir:

I need to tell you about two of your nurses in the ER, Tiffen and Ashley, who worked as a team yesterday, December 7, 2009. From the moment I reached the ER by ambulance around noon-time I was given first-class treatment by everyone concerned, including Dr. Clarkson, who was as fine a caring doctor as I could hope for. He was not a man in a hurry to the next case. I was his case.

Tiffen and Ashley worked over and on me until after seven in the evening on a painful (not to be helped) and ugly necessary procedure. They never once complained and throughout were solicitous of my well-being. They were highly professional in every sense of the word, and exhibited such personal compassion and empathy toward me that I came home thanking God I had met them. Believe me they are the best ambassadors for Roper and I hope everyone there appreciates what they bring to the table of medicine in your ER. If you need an endorsement of the staff of your ER, I am your man.

Please convey my heartfelt thanks and appreciation to everyone in the ER and especially Dr. Clarkson, Tiffen and Ashley.

Sincerely,

Francis X. Archibald
(This is from my blog (htto://archibaldinsc.blogspot.com)

What are we becoming?

It is not enough that we can have pet food delivered to our front door but now we can send postcards from our iPhone and what's even more ridiculous is we can do for free. And if that is not enough my doorbell rings when my coffee maker is finished brewing my morning cup! (LOL).
What has happened to the colossus I grew up in. We went about our business growing peacefully and getting better and stronger all the time. When some SOBs attacked us we went to war and made things right in the world. There was a time when a young President said we will go to the moon in this decade and we did it.
Now look at us. We are sending more of our finest men and women off to fight in a country that is two centuries behind the rest of the world in human progress. They are chasing an enemy that is hard to find and even harder to kill. We are dithering in the congress over providing health care to almost all our citizens because some elected congressmen and senators are more afraid of the health care industry than the voters. We refuse to accept that the earth is warming, the icebergs are melting and alternative (to oil) sources of energy are in the best interests of all Americans and this country. We've got a congress that is so entrenched in all its trappings of comfort that we can't get past party lines and come together for the common good. I have never been in favor of term limits but when I look around at the dithering and procrastination in congress (and in state legislatures) I am coming around to one six year term for senators and one four year term for representatives. No re-elections to worry about, no need to curry favor to raise campaign money, no need to be beholden to the greed of the greediest. I am p....d o...
Damn, postcards from telephones! God almighty, what's next?

Buying from a catalog

Sometime in my youth I probably ordered a bumper sticker for my tricycle and it seems that since then I have been on the mailing list of every English language catalog publisher in the Western World - well at least in America.
And it pays to look and hesitate (procrastinate might be a better word) before ordering. Couple of cases at point:
The National Geographic catalog offers the Irish Donegal Tweed Cap for $62.00; Hammacher Schlemmer offers the identical cap for $49.95.
Hammacher Schlemmer offers 120 CD selector box that stores your CD and DVDs along with an index where you can make a choice and the desired CD or DVD pops up into your hand. Price: $149.95. You can get the identical product from the Herrington catalog for $89.95.
If you are in the market for a "learn to play Illuminated Fret Electric Guitar" you can get one of those for a $499.95 or for $179.95 you can order a "learn to play Violin and DVD of instructions."
There is no limit to the range of goods offered in these catalogs. Right now I am looking at the Vermont Country Store and a Large Brandy Plum Pudding. I will keep my readers informed.
(The foregoing is an e-mail version of a blog entry made this day. Click on the link for the complete blog.)

Praise for our daughter

Dear Mary and Archie
Had it not been for Martha, I don't know how our family would have coped with our loss of Steve in July.
Not only was she naturally professional in her duties, but she extended such a warm and personal touch that I wanted you to know how much we appreciate your lovely daughter!
It takes a very special person to do the job Martha handles so well, and I know you are all very proud of her!! We are!!
Rita Lucas
(Proud father's note: Martha is our fourth child and first daughter. She has been in the funeral business for 20 years and is currently Manager at Stuhr's Chapel on Greenridge Road, North Charleston.)

Let him out

I told a friend who has mental impairment and lives in a nursing home that I had gone to the Piggly Wiggly to get a flu shot. He responded, "Piggly Wiggly for a flu shot, I guess you'll go to the hospital to get your groceries."

Good decision in a post 9/11 World

New York Federal Judge Denies Request For CIA Secret Documents
By Carolyn Weaver - Voice of America
New York
01 October 2009

A U.S. federal judge has ruled that hundreds of documents detailing the Central Intelligence Agency's now-shuttered overseas secret detention program of suspected terrorists, including extreme interrogation methods, may be kept secret.

U.S. District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein on Wednesday refused to release documents describing Central Intelligence Agency terror interrogations, and the names of detainees or CIA contractors involved in the secret rendition program. He said he would defer to the CIA's judgment on the need to keep the papers secret in order to protect intelligence methods and sources.

Boston - Home of the bean and the cod

Had a busy weekend. Traveled to Northern Virginia and visited with two of my sons, went on to Boston with my second son where we met my sister and her friend and toured Fenway Park, ate a great dinner (real New England clam chowder, baked scrod and baked Alaska for desert) at Anthony’s Pier 4 and sat in Section 26 at Fenway as the Red Sox battled the Toronto Blue Jays on Monday night. Tuesday, we returned to Boston from North Chelmsford, where we spent the night at my sister’s home, normally a 40 minute drive even in morning traffic. It took 90 minutes to complete the trip on a grid-locked Route 3 and I-93 (cars moved so slow a twit in front of us read the paper and drove simultaneously). At Logan Airport my son and I jumped out of the car, I handed my bag to an airline representative, dashed to and sweated through Homeland Security screening and ran to the gate with my shoes untied. We arrived just as they were about to close the door. We boarded the plane, took our seats, looked across the aisle at each other and laughed. Great adventure!
A collection of my pictures may be found at Fenway Park (Click on link.)

I also updated progress on the Woodside Apartment project at Franke at Seaside with some recent photos. (Click on link.)

A great lunch, hot and delicions

I enjoyed a simple but yet great lunch here yesterday. It was so enjoyable I want to give them a plug. The lunch was on the menu as a weekly special and it was that and more: Fried chicken bites, French fries and a drink. When served, the food was so hot it practically burned my fingers to pick up a piece and I had to wait a few minutes for the food to cool. It is unusual to get food this hot in essentially a sandwich shop. The taste was outstanding. There are eight locations for Ye Ole Fashioned Ice Cream & Sandwich Cafe in the greater Charleston (SC) area and this one is in Mount Pleasant at 1502 N Highway 17 (near the I-526 junction.)

The start of World War II - A Memoir

Seventy years ago today, September 1, 1939, I was one month short of my eighth birthday. I was living with my family - father, mother, two sisters and two brothers - in a rented second story flat in a tenement house in the Lower Highlands section of Lowell, an old textile mill city about 25 miles from Boston.
The three-story tenement house had six flats in it. Today, fashionably, we would call it an apartment house with six apartments. If we owned instead of renting it might be called a condo. But in 1939 they were cold water flats and weekly rent was paid every Saturday night to the owner who never missed a collection day, rain or shine, sleet or snow. He was more reliable than the mailman. Three flats in the front of the house received the morning sun and the three back flats afforded their tenants a view in the late afternoon and early evening of the setting sun.
On a clear, warm September morning I was on the second floor back porch playing by myself like children sometimes do. The porch was square. On one side was the wall of the house and the kitchen door. To the right of this, at the edge of the porch, was a railing and to which our rotary clothes line was fastened. It was one of those iron and rope jobs and had four sides to it. Each side held five lines and these were inverted so that the shortest line was on the bottom and the longest on the top. The clothes line could be turned on its vertical axis by my mother as she hung out the wet clothes. When she had clothes on all four sides she used an attached long iron rod to push the clothes line frame out into the air and the sun. She hooked the end of the rod into an eye-bolt screwed into the railing so it held the clothes line away from the side of the railing and the house. Sometimes when it was windy the four-sided clothes line twirled around. This expedited the drying. When the drying was done she used this same metal rod to pull the clothes line close to the railing where she could lean over, reach out and take down the laundry. This side of the porch formed a right angle at the corner where it joined the far side of the porch. The railing continued along this far side and kept anyone from falling over the edge. The fourth (and last) side had a staircase leading up to the third floor and down to the first floor. I had draped a small rug over the railings where they formed a right angle and made a young boy’s version of a tent. I had some soldiers for toys and played there while my mother hung out the laundry.
The door bell rang and my mother put down her laundry and walked to the front door. She left the kitchen door open when she went into the house and I watched her walk through the kitchen, past the dining room on the left of the hallway and the living room on the right and then on by the three bedrooms on the left. At the end of the hall was the front door which opened into a three-storied hallway that gave each tenant access to the front stairs and the outside world. She talked for a few minutes with a man. I could hear their voices but could not make out the words. She thanked the man and closed the door and walked up the hallway to the porch. When she got to the porch she bent and picked some wet laundry out of the basket and resumed hanging it on the clothes line. I asked her what the man wanted and who he was. She said to me, without any emotion that I can recall, he told her a war had started in Europe and it was going to be terrible times again in Europe. My mother and the man were probably of the same generation and had been young teenagers during the First World War and now a second war had started and was likely to spread. I asked my mother if the war would come to Lowell, I had no idea of how far away Europe was, and she said she didn’t think so. With that I went back to my playing and my mother continued to hang out our laundry. Hitler had invaded Poland.

Woodside building being covered

The third apartment house at Franke at Seaside had its roof sheathed this week and some of this hard work under a hot South Carolina sun may be seen in these pictures: (click on link) and choose "Slideshow."

Senator Edward Kennedy dies; he fought to make America fair, equal and just

For almost fifty years Senator Edward Kennedy carried the torch for Americans who needed it the most. He never lost his enthusiasm, his optimism, his core belief that America's best days always laid ahead. He was the premier Senator of the last half of the last century. He died today, August 26, 2009.

He was a rich man's son who carried the torch for those less fortunate. He never had to work for a laborer's salary but he fought always for those who did. Until late in life, he was generally healthy and robust, and he relentlessly found time and energy to work hardest for those who were sick and who depended on government assistance. He had a top-notch education himself and yet he fought to assure that "no child would be left behind" in this great nation.

Any domestic legislation in the last fifty years that benefits all Americans bears his imprint somewhere in the details. Americans owe "Teddy" a huge debt that can be repaid if we work together and remember his words at the 1980 Democratic convention: “For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die.”


We will miss you Teddy. God Bless you throughout eternity.

Working our way through summer

The heat and humidity in the Charleston, SC, area have been typical of August in this part of the country. Oppressive and stifling. Work is progressing on the third apartment building at Franke at Seaside despite the heat. On a recent trip to Charlotte, NC, I took this picture of a solar powered combination telephone and parking meter. First one I've seen. Interestingly enough, last night on a segment of This Old House, I watched the installation of a small solar powered water fall in a garden. One of the drawbacks is that on a cloudy day (s) the water fall won't work. The industry, however, is studying how to incorporate a battery in these solar powered garden additions at a reasonable cost. I had a pond and a waterfall at an earlier home (see photo) and ran the waterfall pump on electric power. This was an added expense to install the power line close to the pond and, of course, to run it 24/7. Solar power is the way I would go in the future. (Click on photos to see large image.)

Julie & Julia - Five Stars

This is my first five-star film rating. I don't have any standing in the world to give movie ratings but in my own little corner of this world I am bestowing ***** rating on this wonderful film which depicts events in the life of Julia Child and Julie Powell, a young woman who sets out to cook all 524 recipes in Child's cookbook - Mastering the Art of French Cooking (now in its 49th reprinting) and write a blog about the whole darn experience. And, to do it all in one year.

Meryl Streep is the dot above the "i" in this this wonderful, laughing, tear-jerking at times comedy film. She has Julia Child dead-on center.

Amy Adams plays Julie Powell, a Queens housewife living in 900 square feet above a Pizza Parlor and cooking her way through Child's culinary masterpiece (when she isn't problem solving in a government cubicle in Manhattan).

Writer and director Nora Ephron interspersed joyful events in Child's life with Powell's trials and tribulations, successes and failures, joys and triumphs. It is a masterful blending of the past and the Internet age. If it were food it could take it's place in Child's cookbook. It really is that good.

If you only see one more film this year, make it this one.

Second story work in progress

Erection of the second residential floor (click on link for a slideshow of project photos) in the third apartment house at Franke at Seaside, Mt. Pleasant, SC, is underway. Pre-fabricated wall stud panels are being put in place and brick masons are working on the ground level. Utility work is also ongoing in the ground level garage area. The project is scheduled to be completed in mid-2010.

Leave gun laws to the states

The second amendment to the United States Constitution says "the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed." This is one of precious "rights" written more than two hundred years ago, long before the automobile, trains, airplanes and the Interstate Highway system. The founders could not have anticipated how easy it would be for people to travel from place to place; to travel long distances in short periods of time. Today, millions of Americans are on the road daily in a relatively free and safe atmosphere. So why does Senator John Thune of South Dakota want congress to make a law permitting gun owners to carry guns anywhere in the country without regard to the various states' laws?
Robert Morgenthau, the highly regarded district attorney for New York County since 1975, wrote (The Wall Street Journal, July 22, 2009) that Thune's bill would override the states' restriction on concealed-carry permits. Some states have more stringent laws than others. In Ohio and Missouri, for example, if you are not a felon nor been hospitalized for mental illness you can carry a gun. Under the Thune proposal the same carriers could take their guns into New York despite New York's more stringent rules.
Suppose a New Yorker can't get a permit in that state, could he travel to South Carolina, buy a gun and lawfully carry it in New York? And suppose, for argument's sake he was traveling by plane. Could he carry his South Carolina a gun on an airplane back to the Big Apple?
Years ago and probably still today servicemen being assigned to the Northeast have been cautioned not to carry weapons in their cars while traveling through Massachusetts. (It was suggested they include them in their personal goods shipments.) They have some strict rules on carrying guns in the Bay State. The folks in South Dakota might not like them but the people in Massachusetts do.
We hear a lot about states' rights and if these mean anything the right to regulate the carrying of weapons - concealed or otherwise - ought to be left to the states as they see fit.
Thune's amendment deserves to be defeated.

Understanding how your house is built

Work continues on the third apartment house at Franke at Seaside, Mt. Pleasant, SC. I find it enlightening because the third building is a copy of the second (where I live) and the first. Knowing how my house is constructed is helpful in many ways. I assumed my apartment had mental studding and that hanging large pictures and mirrors would be a challenge. But the construction above the parking garage starts with fabricated wood panels and studs. It is simple enough inside such an apartment to use a stud finder and hang whatever you want. Undoubtedly there is a tremendous savings in terms of man hours and dollars because all the walls have been pre-fabricated at some site, trucked to the job site and lifted into place. This week workmen started installing pre-fabricated floor joists to separate the first and second floors. Examples of this can be seen in the pictures (click on them for a larger view.)

Link corrected

The Walter Cronkite link in the earlier entry had a fatal error. It has been corrected.
Sorry.

Walter Cronkite

It is as if an old friend died. Walter Cronkite was that friend to millions of Americans. It has been written many, many times how he was 'Mr. Believable' and it sounds almost trite to write it here but no greater accolade could be laid on a newsman. I don't know of anyone doing the news today in whom I have as much confidence as I had in Mr. Cronkite. He largely disappeared over the last couple of decades and there are people today who were not even born when he was at the top of his profession as Managing Editor of CBS Evening News. But for those of us who remember that golden age he was the brightest star in the galaxy.

Swimming through life

I'm glad I did not go to the beach to swim as suggested recently by a friend. It has been a long time since I went swimming anywhere, so I went to the residents' pool where I live to check myself out. I was shocked to learn that while I know the mechanics, my body is rusty and swimming is not all that easy to jump back into as a pleasurable hobby or exercise. And getting back into a comfortable, safe and enjoyable swimming mode is very important safety factor.
All of us have seen stories, some as recent as the past week in the Charleston, SC, area, where people are swimming in the ocean and drown. Confident swimmers underestimate the currents, get caught up and, perhaps, over estimate their own capabilities. This is tragic.
Sometimes people drown when a boat they are in overturns, and it comes out after the fact that they did not know how to swim.
All of which says "be careful of the water." Swimming is a pleasure I have enjoyed since my early years. A trip to the lake was a good time. Swimming in the mill canals in and around Lowell, MA, was good fun in the summer to young boys, but in retrospect it was a dangerous stupid venture. The water was dirty, people threw all sorts of trash from tires to old bicycles to broken bottles and whatever in those waterways around the city. Periodically water power managers would shut off the water from the river and the canals would go dry. Looking into the bottom of the canal was an experience which should have told us: "Don't swim here, stupid." But, we were young and over confident, and as boys will do, we ignored the message. Those of us who did it and are still here to talk (write) about it had the good fortune to be watched over by a guardian angel who didn't take the summer off.
In my golden years I still enjoy the water, but I know and respect my limits. If it has been some time since you went swimming, check yourself out first in a pool with a buddy at your side. (Click on photo - taken at Isle of Palms, SC - to enlarge.)

Beautiful Waterfront Park Mt. Pleasant SC

I've added three new albums of photos at http://picasaweb.google.com/archinsc .
There are pictures taken at the beautiful new waterfront park beneath the massive Ravenel Bridge in Mt. Pleasant SC; some updates on the progress at the Woodside Apartment building at Franke at Seaside and a picture of decorating one of our tenants did outside his apartment door over the 4th of July weekend. Hope you enjoy some or all of these. (Click on pictures for full size image.)

A friend gets a well-deserved medal

Stephen M. Carney (right) is presented the French Legion of Honor medal by French Consul-General for the Southeast United States, Phillippe Ardanaz, in a ceremony Saturday, June 27, 2009, aboard the French schooner Belle-Poule, moored in Charleston as part of the Harbor Fest 2009 celebration. Carney was awarded the medal, France's highest merit for civilians and soldiers, for his service in liberating several French cities while serving as a member of General Patton's Third Army, in 1944-45. (Other photos of the event may be viewed.)
Carney is resident at Franke at Seaside, Mt. Pleasant, SC, and is a friend and down-the-hall neighbor.

Picture editing revisited

A short while ago two pictures (see last blog entry) seemed to be almost identical and I suspected one had the background grayed out. Not so it seems. A friend sent me a picture he took on the same occasion and says it was probably the angle at which each picture may have been taken than made me suspicious. As can be seen in the friend's photo the steps in the background resemble the background in the WSJ photo in the earlier blog. Thanks to a friend for clearing this up.

Picture editing interesting

Here are two images of S.C. Governor Mark Sanford taking the oath of office for the second time in 2007. The picture on the top is from The Wall Street Journal and the smaller one from The Post & Courier, Charleston, SC. It is obvious this is the same scene and the photos were taken within minutes of each other. Notice, however, that the WSJ image has grayed out the background group shown in the P&C image.

And we wonder if we ought to believe what we see in the newspapers or on TV.

BTW: Both pictures were used Thursday morning (June 25, 2009) in the stories about Sanford's absence from South Carolina for five days and his strange confession of dallying in Argentina with a woman not his wife.

Happy Father's Day to all Fathers

Some memories of father hood:
When our family was growing up my two oldest sons would sit at the supper table and swear on their mother's cheeseburgers and coke they would never be like their father and wear a blue pin-striped suit and wing-tips to work every day. Fast forward a decade or better and one of them met his brother at work one day and said, "Christ, look at us. We've become Dad - pin stripes and wing-tips."
On Friday I was exercise walking around six in the morning. I met a man pushing a stroller that carried a small boy. I told him I had to know: did he wake up the baby and take him out for a walk or did the baby wake him up? He laughed and said the boy woke him up.
Another of my sons used to take his son for a ride in the car in the early evening if the child could not get to sleep. A few blocks and the boy was off to lulu land for the night.
I hope all of you out there who are fathers have a nice day on this Father's Day, 2009.

500 Consecutive sellouts

When fans flocked to Fenway Park for Wednesday night's Interleague bout between the Red Sox and Florida Marlins, they did so as part of the 500th consecutive sellout at the iconic ballpark. A streak that began May 15, 2003 -- and surpassed the previous Major League record of 455 on Sept. 8, 2008, held by the Cleveland Indians from 1995-2001 -- continues to wade into unchartered waters.

Wanna buy a watch?

Watches have been on my mind for a couple of days so it was second nature to count the number of display ads for high-end, upscale watches in the first section of The Wall Street Journal today (June 16, 2009) and discover there were eight of them. Watches clearly outnumbered all other products. There was one half-page ad, two quarter-page ads and five smaller ads each averaging about a tenth of a page.
In this economy, it is obviously the seller of ad space to watch makers who is bringing home the bacon.
I did not go on-line and learn the prices of any of these watches. (The ads are not so gauche as to quote a price!)
Yesterday, I was in the local drug store for some dental floss and saw a pile of watches on the counter with a 75% off sign over them. I need a cheap watch (none in the Journal ads qualify) for when I walk on the beach to keep track of how long I am in the sun. I worry about the effect of sea air and sand on my good watch. I bought one that originally sold for $14.95 (wouldn't buy the box for those advertised in the Journal) and with the discount walked away for less than $5, tax included. So it only lasts through the summer, who cares?

Q-Tip's Birthday

It's Q-Tips 1st Birthday and you may see some pictures of him and his family - as well as some other groups of pictures taken recently. We have some beach scenes at Isle of Palms, and photos showing the progress on the third apartment house at Franke at Seaside. Click on the highlighted link, look in and enjoy!

Memories of the day

After yesterday's post regarding June 6, 1944, my youngest sister wrote: I remember going to church that morning. I do not think I really understood the big reason.

She was not alone. I remember the morning this way:

Dear Carol,

It was an early summer day, much like all the others. I went to St. Patrick's Boys' School and sat in my classroom; probably thinking about how many more days we had to go before school was over and the summer vacation would begin. Like you, I have no recollection of understanding the importance of the day, nor of the significance of what had started across the ocean on the shores of France. Then we were lined up and marched over to St. Patrick's church. All the students were there from the separate boys' and girls' schools. The boys shepherded by the Xavierian Brothers and the girls by the Sisters of whatever. We were in the lower church and it was crowded. There were some adults there as well. Probably from the neighborhood. Undoubtedly some had husbands, brothers, loved ones in the European Theater of operations and were praying for their safety. Our pastor Father John Meehan came out of the sacristy into the sanctuary and stood before the altar. Many of us in the back rows were too far away to have a good look at him but we heard his words. Then he knelt before the altar and began praying and all joined in responding to his prayers. When he finished he got up and turned to the rows of students and announced a school holiday. Some did not hear him clearly and "what did he say?" was heard throughout the crowd. Father Meehan responded that some of you didn't listen too well and he raised his voice and repeated his declaration of a school holiday. Did you hear that, he asked and there was a loud chorus of yeses. We left the church and went home and for the next few days followed the news in the paper about what was happening in France. I believe now it was several years before I came to fully appreciate what June 6, 1944, meant to all of us in America, and to the world and to history. In the movie The Longest Day, released in the early sixties, one of the characters (played by Rod Steiger) in charge of a large ship says we are on the cusp of a day that the world will still talk about long after we are dead and gone. How prescient he was.
Bud

Remember the Day

June 6, 1944

Something to think about

The "Kung Fu" actor David Carradine, age 72, was found dead in a luxury suite in a Bangkok hotel this week and police early on suspected suicide. It turns out the actor's death may have been accidental. He was found with a black nylon rope tied around his genitals and a yellow nylon rope tied around his neck. The two cords reportedly were tied together. Friends say he was in a good mood since his arrival to film a movie and would not likely commit suicide. Is there an explantion for all this?

Correction

In the last blog, the line beginning "France shared it with Israel and" should read "Iraq" not Iran.
In the next line, "Israel helped South Africa...
Sorry.

The road to nuclear club membership or how the hell did they get the bomb?

"Every nuclear power has been a secret sharer of nuclear technology", according to Bret Stephens at The Wall Street Journal.
Stephens' opinion essay appeared on June 2 and although in narrative form it reads like an organizational chart in any corporation.
In America our bomb was conceived by European scientists and built in a joint effort with Britain and Canada.
The Soviets stole theirs thanks to atomic spies, including Klaus Fuchs, a German scientist who worked in Britain and the United States.
The Soviets gave the Chinese a start in their nuclear program.
Britain gave the secret of the hydrogen bomb to France.
France shared it with Israel and Iraq.
Israel helped South Africa (which has since dropped out of the "nuclear club").
India illegally re-directed plutonium from a U.S.-Canadian reactor.
China gave early guidance to Pakistan, as did a Pakistani who stole sensitive centrifuge information from his employer in the Netherlands.
Pakistan helped Libya, North Korea and probably Iran get nuclear programs underway.
North Korea got into the "daisy chain" by helping Syria, and North Korea has hosted Iranians at its missile launches.
Stephens quotes an L.A. Times 2003 report about so many North Koreans working on nuclear and missile projects in Iran that a resort on the Caspian Sea is set aside for their exclusive use.

Want a new house? Only $49,500,000!

What makes a house worth $49,500,000? --- the asking price for a property in SW Miami featured in a well-known realtor's full-page ad in The Wall Street Journal today.
I took a peek at the web site and had a visual tour of the house inside and out. I don't know if what I saw is worth the asking price, and I don't plan on tapping my 401K to even visit - but it is mind-bending at this time to think someone has the faith in the American dream to ask this price and expect someone will come forward. Most likely a prospect will counter-offer and the price might drop a mil or two but forty-seven mil for a house? It does have a helluva view of the water!
By the way, more than 700 viewers had viewed the web site as of mid-morning!

John Wayne-May 26, 1907

Feedback Job Opportunities

June 12, 1979 OBITUARY 'Duke,' an American Hero By RICHARD F. SHEPARD In more than 200 films made over 50 years, John Wayne (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/bday/0526.html) saddled up to become the greatest figure of one of America's greatest native art forms, the western. The movies he starred in rode the range from out-of-the-money sagebrush quickies to such classics as "Stagecoach" and "Red River." He won an Oscar as best actor for another western, "True Grit," in 1969. Yet some of the best films he made told stories far from the wilds of the West, such as "The Quiet Man" and "The Long Voyage Home." In the last decades of his career, Mr. Wayne became something of an American folk figure, hero to some, villain to others, for his outspoken views. He was politically a conservative and, although he scorned politics as a way of life for himself, he enthusiastically supported Richard M. Nixon, Barry Goldwater, Spiro T. Agnew, Ronald Reagan and others who, he felt, fought for his concept of Americanism and anti- Communism. But it was for millions of moviegoers who saw him only on the big screen that John Wayne really existed. He had not created the western with its clear-cut conflict between good and bad, right and wrong, but it was impossible to mention the word "western" without thinking of "the Duke," as he was called.

"...post-World War II"

Thursday, May 21, 2009: "Led by a rebound performance from left-hander Jon Lester, who limited the Jays to one run over 6 1/3 innings, the Sox completed a three-game sweep of Toronto with a 5-1 victory before the largest post-World War II crowd in Fenway history (38,347)."(John Brown, MLB.COM)

Spring comes to Franke

The mild winter is gone and the new spring season has descended all around the Lowcountry. An example of this is the beautiful entrance to Franke at Seaside in Mt. Pleasant, SC, a continuing care and retirement community where Mary and I now reside. Hope you enjoy the view. (Click on photo to enlarge.)

What happened to "love thy neighbor?"

I found it interesting that regular church goers in America are more likely to approve of state torture than those who go less regularly. This data came out in a Pew Research Center (see The Religious Dimensions of the Torture Debate) survey released April 30. White evangelical Protestants are most likely to tolerate torture. People who attend church at least once a week are also more inclined to support torture. White non-Hispanic Catholics and white mainline Protestants agreed torture is often or sometime justified. Are these good people focused on the harsh messages of the old testament and missing the message of the new testament about loving thy neighbor and doing unto others as you would be done unto?

Some say that information gathered under torture is not reliable: people under torture will tell you whatever you want to hear. Another thought about all this is the application of torture only works if the victim is convinced he or she will be killed unless they talk. When you have "guidelines" known to the world, friend and foe alike, that prohibit killing, then the victim need only be trained to hold out. That the victim may not be able to stand up indefinitely to torture is probably most true. The Gestapo proved this during World War II. Their prisoners were told that if captured they should try to hold out for at least 24 hours to give others the chance to get away. This is probably true to this day. But Bill Maher, HBO's resident political satirist, joked recently that one of the terrorists at Guantanamo had been water boarded so much he was showing up wearing a bathing suit, carrying a beach towel and a Danielle Steele novel under his arm.

Garden, ducks and the worm

Giamumusso Yard, Franke @Seaside. (Click photos to enlarge)

Canadian geese visit Franke @Seaside.


The worm turns.

Ducks out of Water

The expression "ducks out of water" applied to these curious creatures as they explored Augsburg Drive in Franke at Seaside, Mt Pleasant SC. (Click on picture for enlarged view.)

Case solved - Print recovered

The celebrated case of the missing print (last blog entry) has been solved. It was returned to its place of honor on my alcove wall shortly before noon today. To save the culprit further embarrassment, we will not disclose additional details of the case. Let us just say it was an honest mistake. Members of the firing squad may stand down.

Print stolen - reward offered

On Sunday, April 26, 2009, someone stole a signed print by Robert E. Kennedy of Hemingway's favorite hangout in Key West, Sloppy Joe's Bar. I obtained the print while visiting Key West in 1993 and later had it matted and framed. The print was hanging in the alcove at the front door to my apartment since February 2008, when I moved to Franke at Seaside. The theft has been reported to the Mt. Pleasant Police. The print is today valued at $300. A reward will be paid for information leading to the recovery of the framed print. (This is a copy of the stolen print.)

Looking for trouble

This painter on Saturday (April 25, 2009, was just trying to do his job in the Seaside Farms community but unsafe - and possible life-threatening - practices are a major 'no-no'. He has no second man on the ground for support, no belt and he climbed to the extreme top of the ladder and reached above his head to put some paint on the overhang. It may have worked this time but this kind of reckless disregard for job safety is trouble waiting to happen. (Click on photos for enlarged versions.)

Walkin' on water

I caught this young man "walking on the water" at Isle of Palms on April 23. He was on a board and propelling himself with a paddle around seven thirty in the morning when the sun was coming up and there was only a little breeze. I don't know how cold the water was but I wore jogging clothes.

Up and at 'em early in the morn...

At 6:45 this morning I closed the door of my apartment and walked quietly down the corridor and descended the back stairs into the parking garage and out into the neighborhood of cottages and homes. Everywhere it was silent. There was no one out on the street. Newspapers had been thrown in front of many houses and still laid on lawns and sidewalks. In front of a friend's house I picked up the paper and tossed it to the front door and continued on my morning walk. When I crossed the property line between Franke at Seaside and Seaside Farms I met one woman walking and talking on a cellphone. She was dressed in nurse's whites and headed in the direction of the main road. Would she catch a bus? Is there even a bus on that road in the morning? Would she wait to be picked up by a car and driver and taken to work? Shortly after a car passed by with one person in it. Going to work? Seaside Farms is a residential community of private homes, small to medium lots and generally well kept lawns. Some automatic sprinklers were operating and I left the sidewalk temporarily for the road to escape the water. Like Franke at Seaside there was no activity to break the morning silence. Except for the major differences in prosperity the area resembled a community in East Germany that I drove through in 1989. No one on the streets. No sound from the homes. No evidence that anyone even lived there. Suddenly a small dog was at my heels and startled me. I stopped and faced him down as he circles my legs. A teenage boy came running after him with a leash in his hand and as he got close to me said, "Sorry." I continued on my silent walk until I encountered a lady walking two small dogs, one on a leash and one walking point unleashed. Both were friendly and well mannered. We exchanged "good morning" greetings - the lady and I, (not the dogs and me.) I completed my circle of the Seaside Farms community and re-entered Franke at Seaside, a retirement and continuing care community. I circled back by my friend's house where I hoped to scrounge a cup of coffee but the newspaper was still on the front steps and I concluded no one was up and about. I got a cup of coffee at the Franke Bistro and am back in my apartment from where I can see a couple of people walking over to get some breakfast and begin a new day. "Another day in which to excel," was how one friend put in last week. A phrase I had not heard since the Vietnam war era.

Forget it

The cartoon wasn't that funny. Twice it failed to post correctly.

An anniversary of sorts

Fifty-eight years ago today I went on active duty with the United States Air Force and never looked back. Along with many other young men, I left Boston's South Station on a train around seven in the evening headed for Geneva, New York, and Sampson Air Force Base (now a state park). Immediately prior to leaving I had dinner with two friends, Ed and Marie Quigley, my mother and my girlfriend, Peggy Early (all now deceased). It was the end of my youth and the beginning of my adult life. I was in the Air Force eight years, the last six as a Special Agent, USAF Office of Special Investigations. This service led to a wider future in the internal security field that occupied me for two decades and took me around the world. I gave up the girl who saw me off at the railroad station, met and married another one, Mary Frances Cooper of Georgetown, SC, and we had five children. Several years ago we achieved the goal of parents everywhere: all of our children are on someone else's payroll.

We had a dinner table discussion last Sunday, some friends and I, about compulsory service for young people. A couple of years of military service, Peace Corps, working as a volunteer, etc. I know I benefited from my years in the military service but I would not favor mandatory service for young people today. If they can be encouraged to do it (e.g. Mormons with their young men), or if they choose to do it, then fine. But the beauty of being American is you can do what you want (within limits of being law abiding) with your life and time. This is a precious right and privilege I would not take it away from any young person. (Naturally, if our country was at war then obligations would arise and everyone would be required to do their bit.)

Food - thinking about it

Recently I have been giving some thought - more than usual - to food. Perhaps this occurs because food, including the lack of sufficient food in parts of the world, is the recent topic of our Charleston area study group's bi-weekly discussion.

My thoughts, however, are more local in nature than the world-wide supply and demand. In recent weeks I have been to different places where food is being offered at reduced prices and in ways to attract more business. In an upscale downtown restaurant, sampler meals were offered. For $30, $40 or $60 you could sample one or more items off the appetizer, entrée and desert menus, along with some rolls and non-alcoholic beverage. A second place, a family style restaurant, offers prime rib for $9.95 on special nights of the week. The third venue offered two meals for the the price of one on three nights early in the week.

Another observation has to do with how much food is served, eaten and wasted. From the discussion group readings it is clear that people in many parts of the world do not have enough to eat either because it is not available or they cannot afford it. Recently in a restaurant the waiter asked if we wanted bread. I said "yes" and simultaneously my companion said "no." So he waiter brought four rolls to the table. I ate one and at the end of the meal asked what would happen to the three remaining in the bread basket. They would be thrown out, he said, unless you take them home. I took them home and ate two of them at breakfast the following morning.

In the dining room of the nursing facility where my wife lives the amount of food that is not eaten and goes into the disposal is troubling to me. The food is basic, well prepared and in most cases palatable. (I eat an occasional sample meal there to stay abreast of my wife's care.) Similar events can be observed in the dining room at the retirement community where I live. In restaurants I am often amazed at the amount of food carried away from tables. It appears to me that Americans waste a tremendous amount of food.

At the same time I understand restaurants serve large portions to attract customers, drum up new and repeat business and stay solvent. Skimpy portions mean dissatisfied customers who are not likely to return. What is about us that we will leave food on our plate and have it thrown in the garbage rather than settle up front for a smaller serving?

Perhaps your own experiences are similar. Perhaps not. Food is a subject too often taken for granted in America because we have so much of it. Should we look at it differently? I would like to hear your views.

E-mail me at arch@archibald99.com or comment on this blog.

Looking at Reagan - huckster or salesman of the year

No one really cares about the lives of the butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker. Former presidents are another story. Consider Ronald Reagan whose presidency ended in January 1989 and who died in June 2004. When he died it took seven days to haul him across the country from California to Washington and back to the land of fruits and nuts, to round up the usual fawning suspects to praise him fulsomely to the heavens before finally putting him in the ground. It is not unreasonable to suspect his early career in show business influenced his final bow on the American stage.

As time passes, however, it is possible to look at Mr. Reagan and consider whether he was the great savior of the Western World from the evil empire, the Soviet Union, or the "amiable dunce" as early critics labeled him. Or, perhaps he was something else, something in between the worshipers and the icon bashers. Two new books by Will Bunch (Tear Down This Myth: How the Reagan Legacy Has Distorted Our Politics and Haunts Our future, Free Press, 276 pages, $25.00) and William Kleinknecht (The Man Who Sold The World: Ronald Reagan and the Betrayal of Main Street America, Nation books, 316 pages, $31.00) will provide new insights.

Like the chameleon who changes the color of his skin to suit his mood or match his surroundings, Reagan flipped from being a Roosevelt liberal and union president to being a co-operator with the House Committee on Un-American Activities in outing Hollywood reds and a spokesman for General Electric where he honed his "Morning in America" image.

The one constant in Reagan's career from hawking light bulbs to occupying the Oval Office is that the rich got richer and the poor got poorer. The middle class got stuck with the resulting bill. Much is made these days about a small percentage of rich people paying all the income taxes. Well, hell, they got all the money they ought to pay the taxes.

These two new books aside, one political observer, Garret Keizer, a contributing editor of Harper's Magazine, suggests that a longer view of Mr. Reagan may be necessary. Perhaps twenty-years is not enough time to properly assess the man and the myth. In the April Notebook essay in Harper's, Mr. Keizer writes:

"Take for example, that 'arch conservative' Ronald Reagan, who from the perspective of a hundred years will be seen as the last of the California hippies, a man who told us that if we just let the markets run wild and the Magic Bus of juggernaut capitalism go barrel-assing down the road with its freak flag flying all would be groovy and out of sight. What was his 'Morning in America,' but a cover of 'Aquarius'; what was his presidency but the last act of 'Hair?' - preferable, I admit, to the helter-skelter criminality of Cheney and Bush. But to call either administration 'conservative' in its blithe overconfidence is to hold up a picture of your brain on drugs."

...hope for all the rest of us...

In Rochester, Pa. state food inspectors told some church ladies they couldn't sell pies they baked at home at the church lunch on Good Friday. Some state employees, obviously, don't have enough to do.

Closer to home state school administrators are struggling to keep their schools afloat and some 1,500 teachers on the job. Trouble is Governor Mark Sanford isn't doing his share. He has to date refused to release $700 million in stimulus funds that could be used for education. President Obama's team told the governor he could not use those dollars to pay down long term debt. The governor now says he will release the money if the legislature finds a matching sum in South Carolina revenue to pay down long term debt. As a former legislator I know if the legislature - acting for the citizens of South Carolina - had $700 million in revenue to pay down debt it wouldn't be looking to Washington in the first place.

The editorial staff of the local newspaper, The Post & Courier, has again taken the governor to task again for "his intransigence" in this matter. The paper accuses the governor of advancing his personal national profile in hopes of securing the Republican nomination for president in 2012. "There seems to be little doubt that Mr. Sanford is moving in that direction, and apparently his position on the stimulus money is playing better nationally than in South Carolina which is bearing the brunt of his refusal."

Three cheers for The Post & Courier. I've been reading this paper since I returned to South Carolina in 1959 and I cannot recall it ever criticizing a Republican like it recently has this governor. Maybe there is hope for the rest of us.

Two views on the Navy brig in Hanahan

Thursday, March 26, 2009
Letters to the Editor, The Post & Courier, Charleston, SC

Brig leadership

Post and Courier reporter Tony Bartelme has done a valuable service to the newspaper's readers with his story on the Hanahan brig. The professionalism of the brig's leaders and staff comes across loud and clear. I believe this story ought to dissolve a lot of apprehension about housing "war on terror" prisoners in the Hanahan brig.

When the brig opened, I was the public affairs director at the S.C. Department of Corrections. The brig leadership and staff at that time came to Columbia to learn some of the ways a modern, well-run prison system operated.

I remember SCDC personnel stressing with brig personnel that "prisoners are sent to prison as punishment for their crimes, not for punishment." Again the attitude of the brig's current leadership, as reported by Mr. Bartleme, makes it clear they still understand this, even if other officials in the Department of Defense do not.

FRANCIS X. ARCHIBALD
Franke Drive
Mount Pleasant

No to terrorists

I am grateful to The Post and Courier for letting me know that terror suspect Al-Marri was relaxed and smiled during his recent court appearance. I think our nation needs to remember 9/11 every day and watch the videos of the sacrifices that were made on that day and the days after.

It has reached the point that terror suspects have more rights than anyone else. Now President Barack Obama wants to remove them from Guantanamo and put them somewhere else. Our state could possibly be the one picked to receive them.

I say if President Obama wants to put them on American soil, let it be in his home state. We do not want them in South Carolina.

PEGGY NICHOLS
Quail Hollow Court
North Charleston

Moscow Rules

A movie review this week for "Duplicity," starring Julia Roberts and Clive Owen, calls it a smart, sexy, sophisticated film. Roger Moore, the syndicated reviewer, said the picture was shot, edited and scored "like a sexy, '60s caper picture - conga drums and horns, split screens," and spy jargon ("Moscow Rules"). (The Post and Courier, Charleston, SC, 3/1/9/09.)

What are Moscow Rules? Other than those who slink around dark alleys, boarded up warehouses, lonely apartments and rainy streets associated with spies and spy-catching who even thinks of such things? Some say there never were any Moscow Rules; that these were the figment of fiction writers' imaginations. Others swear that vastly outnumbered Western spies operating against Soviet and East German Stasi agents throughout Europe during the Cold War survived by following Moscow Rules.

Fact or Fiction, true or not, these are the Moscow Rules:
1. Assume nothing.
2. Never go against your gut.
3. Everyone is potentially under opposition control.
4. Don't look back, you are never completely alone.
5. Go with the flow, blend in.
6. Vary your pattern and stay within your cover.
7. Lull them into a sense of complacency.
8. Don't harass the opposition.
9. Pick the time and place for action.
10. Keep your options open.

And by the way. "Duplicity" has four (out of five) stars. Ought to be a treat for Julia Roberts' fans. Clive Owen - an up and coming action actor has a bright future. See you at the movies.

Touche...

A friend asked: Where did President Obama get the cardboard cutout of Francis Archibald? (See "Fresh Sights and Faces", below). I also stopped long enough recently to be photographed near the FBI building, on Pennsylvania Avenue; our nation's monument to the now-controversial J. Edgar Hoover.

Fresh sights and faces

When I visited Washington recently on some family business I enjoyed several new sights and met some interesting people...including this view taken from the rooftop of the Newseum on Pennsylvania Avenue and this familiar face.

...stronger than before...

"While our economy may be weakened and our confidence shaken, though we are living through difficult and uncertain times, tonight I want every American to know this: We will rebuild, we will recover, and the United States of America will emerge stronger than before." (President Barack Obama, Address to Congress, Feb. 24, 2009)