Hemingway & Evans

Today I viewed the Ernest Hemingway & Walker Evans exhibit at the Gibbes Gallery here in Charleston. The collection celebrates three weeks the two men spent in Havana in 1933 in close company meeting, talking, drinking and dining. Hemingway loaned Evans $25. He later forgave the loan. During this time Evans entrusted 44 photos to Hemingway who took them to Key West where they stayed in storage for years and passed to a friend after Hemingway shot himself in 1961. From that friend the pictures made their way to the Kennedy Library and eventually to this touring exhibit. Despite the thousands of pictures Evans – one of the great photo-journalists of the 20th century had published in numerous magazines these originals did not appear in any collections of his work.

Hemingway’s suicide by shotgun in Idaho was a severe disappointment. I recall that on the Sunday morning I read of his death I felt he cheated his family, his friends and his fans, of which I was one, and I took it as a personal betrayal. He had always carried himself in life and written as a man’s man. Suicide, I thought at the time when I was thirty years old, was a coward’s way out and unworthy of a man. Some forty-five years later I continue to believe suicide is wrong, but not necessarily “a coward’s way out.”

The exhibit is on tour and will move to another city in late February, early March.

Madden's Rules

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton, insisted that all 15 Security Council members show up to meetings on time: at 10 a.m. Asked recently by a reporter how this was working out, Bolton said, "I took a list of when they came in. We started just before 10:15. I brought the gavel down at 10. I was the only one in the room, though."

Bolton should have given them John’s (as in John Madden) Rules: Show up on time, listen and play like hell.

AXIS Information and Analysis (AIA)

AIA is an information agency that unites professionals having years of experience in collecting and analyzing information about Asia and Eastern Europe. AIA's main attention is focused upon those states that represent a threat to regional and international security, as well as upon areas of ethnic and religious conflict. At the same time, AIA follows the events in those countries that are going through political and socio-economic cataclysms.

I am adding AIA to my links page at my website .

Where the Ice Bowl was played

I read today in an AP story about how the pleasant winter weather around the country is coming to an end. The story reported that January past was the warmest on record in Green Bay, Wisconsin. No further details were given. I assume therefore – just based on the mere coupling of “Green Bay” and “winter,” the temperature was probably about 20-25 degrees Fahrenheit.

Shortest interval of time

Wednesday night as I watched the news about all the security precautions being taken in Detroit for Sunday’s Super Bowl, the thought occurred to me that if Osama bin Laden and his fellow terrorists want to see hell-come-to-breakfast on Monday they should do something stupid at the 40th Super Bowl.

Tuesday night while driving to a social gathering, I lived the immeasurable nano-moment George Carlin calls the “shortest interval of time:” that flashing moment between when the traffic light turns green and the guy (Carlin used a different term) behind you blows his horn. Our paths paralleled on the eastbound highway for less than a half-mile when the horn blower pulled his SUV off the highway to use an ATM machine.

The dog situation about which I have written earlier appears to have succumbed to a “mild solution.” A talk with the neighbor resulted in her promise to tether the animal when she lets him out in the morning (the city requires dogs to be on a leash or under control of the owner.)

Click to see the website: http://www.archibald99.com/

Wife, dog and Exxon

Those keeping up with us on the neighbor’s dog may be pleased to know today’s score. This morning Wife was adjusting a window when the neighbor’s dog, continuing his preference for our lawn over that of his owner’s, assumed the position to do the daily necessity. Wife opened the window and gave a shout as only a mother of five could muster and the dog took off for home. Score: Wife 1, Dog 0.

Most of us cannot comprehend the true meaning of the $10 billion dollar profit Exxon made last quarter, so today we rely on the Wall St. Journal to tell us it is $80,842 per minute during the quarter. Now, does everybody have that straight?

See earlier postings at www.archibaldinsc.blogspot.com on these and other provocative tales of life.

Exxon and the rest of us

I got two electronic alerts via e-mail this morning, both advising that Exxon had reported $10 billion profit in the 4th quarter, exceeding it’s own record profit of $9.2 billion in the 3rd quarter. These profits are from record high oil prices and come at a time when people everywhere, faced with higher heating oil and gasoline prices, struggle to make ends meet. In Massachusetts and a congressional district in the Bronx in New York, a non-profit organization and a Bronx Congressman cut deals with Venezuela’s anti-American leader, Hugo Chavez, to furnish heating oil at reduced rates to the poorest of the poor. What kind of national nonsense is this when the Emperor sits in Washington, his buddies in the oil business reap these kinds of profits, American communities everywhere suffer and an oil-rich dictator thumbs his nose at the U.S. and reaps favorable headlines? Something is wrong with this picture!

How to stop a dog from crapping on a lawn

This morning a neighbor’s dog came to my front lawn and took a crap. I saw him as he was leaving. My wife saw him yesterday but he took off before she could get out in the yard to rattle and chase him away. The neighbors let this fat white-with-black-markings dog out in the morning and he roams at will, pausing only to crap in my front yard. I said I would Google this problem and my wife laughed. I put the question “how to stop a dog from crapping on a lawn” and instantly Google returned a hundreds of references. I summoned the wife to view the computer screen and said, “Look.”
It seems our problem is one shared by thousands of people who don’t own dogs but live close to irresponsible dog owners who lack the damn sense to train and or curb their dogs. Some suggestions revealed by the Google search include the mild (talk to your neighbor, put out Crap Away; call the dog police,) to the mad-as-hell (shoot the dog with a stun gun*; tie a nicely wrapped box of dog crap to the dog and send him home; staple a small dog to the neighbor’s door and keep stapling larger and larger dogs until the neighbors get the message.)
Citizens who go through daily life in the suburbs without this problem are generally unsympathetic to the victim and take the attitude “better on your lawn than the bottom of my shoe.”
I will work on this problem and if I achieve a “mild” solution I will share it with you via another blog entry. If I have to go to the “mad-as-hell” basket of ideas, well that’s a different story and it will probably be best to take Ben Franklin’s advice: three can keep a secret if two are dead.
[*A policeman in Round O, South Carolina, used a laser gun this week to subdue a Billy goat.]

Update to revised blog

Update: If you care to comment on the revised blog you can do so directly at the bottom of the posted blog (i.e. click on :  http://www.archibaldinsc.blogspot.com/). Sorry I left that important point our earlier.

Revised blog - invitation to critique

This is an invitation to family members to examine my revised blog* and make suggestions/comments. This revision was accomplished over the weekend with help from Patrick. I am working on a mailing list to accompany the blog but I am not there yet. Patrick has set up the mechanics for the list, but, as usual, the devil is in the details. You may create a shortcut to this blog for your desktop so you can return from time to time. I would be interested in knowing if anyone in the family other than me and Patrick has a blog going. Many people put a lot of personal stuff on their blog but mine is tends to be less so.

My web site remains on-line at www.archibald99.com.

*Blog is short for weblog. A weblog is a journal (or newsletter) that is frequently updated and intended for general public consumption. Blogs generally represent the personality of the author or the Web site. www.bytowninternet.com/glossary

Repair or replace: a decision made

My all-in-one printer, scanner, copier (Epson Stylus Photo RX600), bought in April 2004, (you guessed it, warranty exhausted) broke last week and I tried the Problem Solving suggestions in the owner’s manual several times. The black and light cyan ink cartridges would not respond when I tried to print, and there were color variations in copying. This week I called Epson service and paid $9.95 for (flat-rate) technical assistance, plus the phone call charges. (A phone number in California was routed to a woman outside Toronto, Canada.) After almost 23 minutes of re-doing what I had been doing on my own nickel without resolving the problem, she gave me the names and numbers of two authorized repair shops, both more than 100 miles distance from Charleston, S.C. The first shop in Savannah, Georgia, had a customer-friendly rep that walked me through the costs of shipping each way (undetermined), assessing ($50, applied to repairs – if made), and repairing the machine (labor $90 per hour, plus parts). We talked over the low cost of a new all-in-one, improvements in the technology since 2004, and the uncertainty of final repair costs. “The numbers aren’t with you,” he said, “but you decide.” I’m going to get a new all-in-one (HP Photosmart 3210).

The Epson will be re-cycled to a local charity which has a special shop for computers and related gear. They keep a couple of workers on payroll who fix such items up and sell them. Maybe they will have good-luck with this all-in-one.

Movie Diplomacy

Has anyone else noticed that when Germans elect a new Chancellor and he/she makes the obligatory diplomatic call on the occupant of the White House, some American movie channel shows uncut, uncensored and uninterrupted re-runs of The Longest Day and Patton?

Remaking Blog Page

This is a remake of my blog page done on January 22,2006. The Archives on the right of this page cannot be search by the blogger search in the upper left-hand corner as they are from an earlier period when they were not entirely saved on this blogger.com server. They can, however, be examined by clicking on one of the monthly periods. You can return to this page by clicking on the Back button.

Dress Nice

I just saw the Presidents of Iran and Syria standing side-by-side at an airport. The best thing which could be done for these two is to send them on an all-expense paid trip to London or Rome and get them a tailor. Their suits are an embarrassment to management everywhere.
Have a nice day, and dress nice.
#262 (06-02)

The Hollywood Cowboy

Despite talk of Oscars for Brokeback Mountain and its actors, I believe that for millions of people like myself the lasting image of the Hollywood cowboy will be John Wayne sitting astride a big horse, six-gun on his hip, rifle laying at the ready across his saddle, pushing a herd of cows across the plain - not two lightweights on a sheep farm falling in love with each other.
#262 (06-01)

Syriana

If anyone can figure out how all the sub-plots and connivances in the movie Syriana fit together let me know. I saw it last night and did not understand it. This is an anti-CIA movie because you have the Agency targeting and killing a forward thinking Saudi prince just to keep an incompetent prince in power and protect the interests of American oil companies. The Agency would not do this. It would take too many case officers and technicians and the story would leak in a heartbeat.
#261 (05-52)

Note: This is the last posting for 2005.

"No" to Arnold

California voters said "No" to their Governor, Arnold Schwarznegger, by defeating four initiatives he had promoted and put seveal million dollars of his own money behind, in voting on November 8, 2005. The voters made it clear they would not dump on teachers and unions, nor did they trust any Governor to trim the state budget unilaterally or three retired judges to carve up the legislative districts. This ought to put an end to the talk of amending the U.S. Constitution so Arnold, born in Austria, would be able to run for President. He will face a tough re-election bid next time out.
#260 (05-51)

J. Palmer Gaillard Jr.

On the evening of October 19, a native Charlestonian, World War II naval aviator, successful businessman and former mayor of the city spoke at the Friends of the Berkeley Library meeting in Goose Creek.
See J. Palmer Gaillard Jr. under Columns Current - above - for a full report on this entertaining speaker.
#259 (05-50)

Q#1

Is Ben Bernanke's checkbook balanced?
#258 (05-49)

Quick off the mark

The Iraqis have fullfilled George Bush's dream. They learned, all too quick, about voting. Two days after the Nationwide vote to decided the future of a proposed constitution inquires are underway in several districts where the vote was 99% favorable. Such a vote would have made Boss Tweed and Mayor Daley cry in their beer. Only Stalin had a greater percentage of victory.
#257 (05-48)
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