Disappointed at dinner

Last night I took a party of seven to the Outback in North Charleston and came away disappointed with the food. This was my favorite restaurant in the North Area for years. For openers the bloomin' onion was overcooked or fried in grease long past its shelf life. It was dark brown and hard, almost brittle, more so than I ever recall.

I ordered my usual - the New York Strip Steak, which is usually rectangular and anywhere from 7/8s to and inch and a half thick (depending on the quality of the restaurant) with a thin strip of fat along one side. (See picture from www.lacensebeef.com/shop/steaks/new-york-strip).

The steak I received was flat like a small pancake and about one-half inch thick, more like a sirloin or rump steak. I sent it back and several minutes later a woman supervisor brought me another identical steak. When I complained this was not a NYSS she told me it was and it looked as it did because of the way I ordered it: "medium well, with just a slight touch of pink in the middle". In 50 or so years of eating New York Strip Steak, I never heard this idiotic comment before.

Food probably lousy, but bombing?

A bomb exploded in the Iraqi Parliament's cafeteria in a stunning assault in the heart of the heavily fortified, U.S.-protected Green Zone Thursday, killing eight people including three lawmakers.
The attack came hours after a suicide truck bomb blew up a major bridge in Baghdad, collapsing the steel structure and sending cars tumbling into the Tigris River, police and witnesses said. At least 10 people were killed.

The little engine who could

In France the railroad set a record of 357.2 mph for a train zipping through the countryside from Paris to Strasbourg as Frenchmen cheered along the route. In Hanahan, SC, where I live, the total speed for the three to six trains a day plodding through the countryside doesn't reach 357 mph, as drivers wait at the crossing and file their nails. (The Japanese hold the record for train speed having reached 361 mph some time ago.)

As if we did not.......

As if we did not have enough distractions in traffic, now there is news of a cell phone on which the almost brain dead can watch any one of hundreds of inane offerings on some two to three inch screen. DVD players are already in cars, though usually for viewing by children in the back seat. There is a serious effort underway to take phones to the next level: real-time TV shows. For several weeks now when I stop at traffic lights I look to the left and right of me to see if drivers of other cars are on the phone. The vast majority of them are. I can hardly wait until they can watch some TV show. And how thrilling will it be for all of us when the mentally challenged speed across the Ravenel Bridge at 95 miles an hour while watching some NASCAR event live from Florida.

The ? of a pardon

After Dick Cheney resigns the vice president's office then President Bush ought to pardon Scooter Libby. We need a quid pro quo.

SecArmy and Walter Reed Commander fired

(Photograph postcard, ca. 1930s.)

The Army briefly stiffed wounded servicemen late this week but on Friday Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and President George Bush struck back and kicked Army Secretary Francis J Harvery out of office and fired the one-day temporary commander at Walter Reed, Lt. Gen. Kevin Kiley, who had been in charge there in the 2002-2004 period. Kiley recently put down the Washington Post revelations of horrific living conditions and complaints of veterans and parents and others about inadequate services to wounded servicemen returning from the battlefield as one-sided and inaccurate.
My earlier blogs on Walter Reed include: Feb. 24, March 1, and earlier today, March 2, on the shocking appointment of Kiley who veterans groups and others said had been told about some of the problems as far back as 2004.
All over America people are upset about the situation at Walter Reed. It's incredibly arrogant that Harvey and top Army generals allowed Kiley to be put back in charge of Walter Reed. Did these dummies believe Americans would sit still for such goings on?

Army to wounded - take this

The Washington Post reports in a front page story that the "appointment of Kiley, (Lt. Gen. Kevin Kiley, the commanding general of the U.S. Army Medical Command), who had earlier been the facility's commander (2002-2004), surprised some Defense Department officials because soldiers, their families and veterans' advocates have complained that he had long been aware of problems at Walter Reed and did nothing to improve its outpatient care." The Washington Post criticizes Kiley in an editorial: "The evidence compiled so far suggests that Gen. Kiley has been more complicit in the scandalous neglect of Walter Reed's outpatient facilities for longer than Gen. Weightman has been. It also indicates that the Army's reshuffle is really about projecting the appearance of accountability, not punishing those most responsible."

He's gone

The Army brass today (March 1, 2007) fired Maj. Gen. George Weightman as head of Walter Reed hospital in Washington, DC, after troops wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan were found to be living in shoddy conditions and struggling with a complex bureaucracy. Good. Now straighten the place out.

Heads ought to roll

It was absolutely mind-boggling ridiculous that The Washington Post had to turn its guns on Walter Reed hospital to get repairs underway on a building where recuperating GIs are housed. I cannot believe the senior military officers responsible for the terrible shape this building was in could not have seen it until the Post made an issue of it. This is another example of the Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld Department of Defense having enough money to shoot up three-quarters of Iraq, but not enough for the Army to fix up a rat and bug infested housing unit. Secretary of Defense Gates (who took over from Rumsfeld in December) ought to fire the senior officers involved. It would be interesting to know if the Walter Reed annual budget request to the Department of the Army included a line item for repairs to this disgraceful building and in what years and, if so what happened to those requests. If there were no such requests for funds made, then the General in-charge ought to be publicly sacked.

David Rattray, 48, dead - murdered by Zulus

David Rattray, 48-years old, master-storyteller of the Zulu War, died January 26, 2007, murdered by a gang of six Zulus intent on robbing him at his home at Fugitive's Drift in South Africa. Here is an excerpt from an article I wrote in 2003 after my wife and I completed an independent, self-guided, two month, driving trip around South Africa:
“At Fugitive’s Drift camp, a small isolated camp in the Karoo (bush country) that uses generators for electricity, we stayed with a dozen tourists, mostly from England and Northern Ireland. One asked Mary at dinner, “When did you book?” Mary said we had not booked, just drove up and asked for a room. (It was the last one available.) Our new British friends commented about “impulsive Americans,” and said they had booked seven months earlier.
“David Rattray, owner of Fugitive’s Drift, is a native of the area. The Anglo-Zulu war is a major event in the long history of South Africa, and Rattray’s lifelong interest. He lectures at the British War College on this subject. On a late Sunday afternoon sitting under trees in folding chairs at nearby Rorke’s Drift, we listened to him for more than two and one-half hours on how 135 British soldiers, on January 24, 1879, successfully held the small camp at that site against more than 2,000 Zulu warriors, some with guns, most with spears and long killing knives. The assault lasted from four in the afternoon until four the next morning. Earlier in the same day the Zulus had savaged the British Army at Isandlwana. Eleven Victoria Crosses were awarded the defenders at Rorke’s Drift, more than in any other single battle in Britain’s long history.” (see African Adventure-2003 )
The Economist (Feb. 10, 2007) said, “As his stories unfolded, battle-hardened generals would find themselves in tears.” Rattray was a voice for reconciliation in South Africa. Natives in the KwaZulu-Natal called him friend and a “White Zulu.” All the more awful, then, that he was killed by Zulus, who went away empty handed.

No Senate Seat for Bill

The speculative idea floating in some political circles about appointing Bill Clinton to fill the vacancy in the Senate when Hillary is sworn in as president is a waste of the man's talents. The country would be better served if he was Secretary of State in the new (2009) administration. This would apply even if Hillary is not elected, (are you listening Al Gore?).

One man's (blank).....Redux

Viewers added these to the catalog of One man's (blank) is another man's (blank):
One man's junk is another man's treasure. (2 nominations).
One man's right is another man's wrong.
One man's beginning is another man's ending.
One man's charity is another man's love.
One man's solution is another man's dilemma.
Does anyone know what you call these phrases?

One man's (blank) is another man's (blank).

A blog had this recently: “One man’s blog is another man’s message,” and it got me to thinking about this phrase “One man’s (blank) is another man’s (blank)” and I wondered how many such phrase’s are out there. Here are some I have heard (quote marks ignored):

One man’s terrorist is another man’s patriot.
One man’s meat is another man’s poison.
One man’s loss is another man’s gain.
One man’s addiction is another man’s profit.
One man’s woman is another man’s tryster.

If you have others please send them to me and we will add them to the list. If you don’t wish to comment here e-mail them to archinsc@knology.net and I will post them anonymously.

Letters from Iwo Jima

If Clint Eastwood's latest, "Letters from Iwo Jima" is such a hot film and collecting kudos all over the place, how come it is only playing on one screen in one theatre in the greater Charleston, SC, area? There are ten theatres with almost 100 screens in this area.

Pay attention

I guess it is my own fault, obviously paying too much attention to clipping my toenails or pulling lint out of my navel, to keep up with the Anna Nicole Smith story. My appreciation therefore to E Online for informing me this afternoon that: On Monday morning, the Tribune of Nassau published two front-page photos featuring Smith and Shane Gibson, the nation's chief immigration official, lying fully clothed in bed in romantic embraces. Gibson has been widely criticized for reportedly granting Smith special treatment in her application for residency and for allegedly speeding up the processing of her paperwork.

Drinking, judging and watching

Being a water conservationist and a dog owner can be a tricky balancing act. In a segment of the HBO series Six Feet Under a woman living in a cabin in the woods had a sign in her bathroom to wit: If it is yellow let it mellow, if it is brown flush it down. David Frei, in his 18th gig as the on-air commentator for the The Westminster Kennel Club's 131st Annual Dog Show, says that the dogs people see on the show drink out of the toilet.

Given the course of events in the Libby trial it is near impossible to believe the jury will exonerate. Of course that’s what most everyone believed in OJ's trial.

Was I ever wrong back in 1995. My wife and I were in a cinema in Paris (had to purchase reserved seats) and watched several commercials for various products before the movie played. It was a first time experience and I said we would never see this in American theatres. And yet ads in American movie theatres are showing surprising strength, according to The Wall Street Journal, and movie-goers are sitting through them; apparently preferring them to staring at a blank screen waiting for the flick.

Sex plays

A NEWSWEEK poll found 84 percent of adults said sex plays a bigger role in popular culture than it did 20 or 30 years ago and 70 percent thought this a bad influence on young people, especially girls. It is also an influence on older people, including, obviously, doctors. I have been in two different doctor's offices lately and observed seven drug reps making their rounds. They were each female, young, tall, thin, great hair, wide toothy smiles and dressed to attract the eye of even a blind man. I bet the caption over the employment office at their companies reads: Roseanne Barr types need not apply.

Who in their right mind...

A House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform is pursuing investigations of fraud and abuse by the federal government and its contractors in Iraq. Chairman Henry A. Waxman, (D-Calif.) said he found it remarkable that the Bush administration had decided to send billions of dollars of American currency into Iraq so quickly after the United States occupied the country.
The committee calculated that the $12 billion in cash, most of it in the stacks of $100 bills, weighed 363 tons and had to been flown in on wooden pallets aboard giant C-130 military cargo planes. “Who in their right mind would send 360 tons of cash into a war zone?” Mr. Waxman said. “That’s exactly what our government did.” (By the way, no one knows what happened to the money, where it went or who got it in the first place.)

Microsoft's Vista and its critics

I do not have the latest Microsoft operating system, Vista, installed on my PC yet, but I am amazed at the griping by so-called PC experts (who enjoy the privilege of magazine and newspaper columns), most of which involves the continued use of older programs, printer drivers, and the like. Such people certainly ought to be smart enough to recognize the responsibility of each product manufacturer to provide updated drivers to assure continuity of use with any new operating system. When the first system was put in use manufacturers wrote their drivers, why shouldn't they do the update? Program and equipment manufacturers have had more than a year to update their drivers to work with Vista and some have failed to do so. I've used the Microsoft operating systems since day one and am generally satisfied, even though I had to work on some problems. Over the years, I have had more bad meals in restaurants and problems with other equipment than with Microsoft. Some of the complainers remind me of the man about to be executed by firing squad who complained because he wasn't being shot with new bullets.

Gore and Favre - Coming back in 2007

Rolling Stones says that central to Al Gore's "newfound appeal is his impassioned environmental activism, which thanks to the success of his documentary 'An Inconvenient Truth' has made him into a surprisingly cultural icon," and some political strategists say he is biding his time, letting the front runners bleed each other, and will get in the presidential race. This type of scenairo played well for Richard Nixon in the '60s.

On the football front, Brett Favre is coming back in 2007 (for his 17th NFL year) with the Green Bay Packers, a team that may not make it to the promised land in this year - but will give football fans everywhere some exciting moments.

Political trifecta

The Presidential "surge" plan for 21,000 combat troops may actualy require 48,000 when support units are added to the mix; additional costs may be as high as $10 billion this year raising the total Iraq cost to $27 billion over the next 12 months...meanwhile prosecution witnesses continue to drive nails into Scooter Libby's legal coffin, the latest being an FBI agent who testified against the former chief of staff to VP Dick Cheney...Al Gore has been nominated for the Nobel Peace prize for his environmental efforts - a nice thing to have on his resume when he runs for President in 2008. (All of these matters being addressed more fully in daily news reports.)

A gallant lady has died

Remembering Molly Ivins
John Nichols
Washington Correspondent, The Nation, Jan. 31, 2007 (web only)
Molly Ivins always said she wanted to write a book about the lonely experience of East Texas civil rights campaigners to be titled No One Famous Ever Came. While the television screens and newspapers told the stories of the marches, the legal battles and the victories of campaigns against segregation in Alabama and Mississippi, Ivins recalled, the foes of Jim Crow laws in the region where she came of age in the 1950s and '60s often labored in obscurity without any hope that they would be joined on the picket lines by Nobel Peace Prize winners, folk singers, Hollywood stars or senators.
And Ivins loved those righteous strugglers all the more for their willingness to carry on.
The warmest-hearted populist ever to pick up a pen with the purpose of calling the rabble to the battlements, Ivins understood that change came only when some citizen in some off-the-map town passed a petition, called a Congressman or cast an angry vote to throw the bums out. The nation's mostly widely syndicated progressive columnist, who died January 31 at age 62 after a long battle with what she referred to as a "scorching case of cancer," adored the activists she celebrated from the time in the late 1960s when she created her own "Movements for Social Change" beat at the old Minneapolis Tribune and started making heroes of "militant blacks, angry Indians, radical students, uppity women and a motley assortment of other misfits and troublemakers."

The country has lost a journalistic treasure in the passing of this brave and beautiful lady. And that's my opinion.

Why I Blog

I enjoy the stimulation that comes with writing.

The brain is a muscle and, like more physical muscles, will suffer from overuse, misuse or under-use. Reading a book, doing a puzzle, playing card games, learning new songs, and writing are a few ways to exercise the memory and the brain. And all of these things can be done at home and cost next to nothing.

Writing my blog requires me to think about a subject, maybe do some research, learn something new, compose thoughts and put them in logical sentences and paragraphs. Doctors, scientists, and other practitioners in mental health, tell us this kind of mental exercise will help keep the memory sharp. Mentally active people, it is said, live longer and more meaningful lives than those who sleep-walk through the “golden years.”

Frequently people who read my blog agree or disagree and say so, often putting forth new thoughts or insights on the issue. I enjoy these exchanges with people, some of whom I know, others total strangers. Occasionally, a man (judging by the handwriting) from the Charleston, SC, area sends me an unsigned, no return address, letter and dresses me down in intemperate language, casting aspersions on my sanity, politics, and/or heritage. I always enjoy his scribbling and wonder what his room number is at the mental health facility.

Gay Sheep

Among the many things we know that we don’t know all there is to know about the subject is that there are gay male sheep out there and researchers are experimenting to discover why about eight percent of rams choose sex with other rams. Logically, it would follow if one can learn why; perhaps one can amend the reason and turn the rams into heterosexuals. This might lead to some sort of antidote for future moms having male children and wanting to insure they are straight.

(Which invokes memories of Brokeback Mountain: did the two cowboys give the rams some strange ideas or learn from the rams.)

You can learn more on this fascinating, albeit low priority, subject at the PETA (People for Ethical Treatment of Animals) website (they are against the experiments), or, for some lighter reading on the sex habits of rams see, John Cloud’s article, “Yep, They’re Gay,” (TIME, February 5, 2007, page 54.)

John says “Zoologists have known for many year that homosexuality isn’t uncommon among animals,” and his cat has raised suspicions ever since he tried to mount a male dachshund. Also, irreverent comedian George Carlin a few years ago sent out a Christmas card featuring a picture of his male dog trying to do the male cat. He called it “Piece on Earth.”

The fork in the language road

Yogi Bera is credited with saying, "When you come to the fork in the road, take it."

Jeff E. Schapiro, Richmond Times-Dispatch columnist, wrote about Virginia Sen. John Warner (R) on Sunday (1/28/07): "He responds to the whims of a state that in his 79 years -- he turns 80 on Feb. 18 -- has transformed from ducal agricultural backwater preoccupied with race to diverse suburban dynamo where, in some neighborhoods, one might hear 21 foreign languages."

This weekend former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, (R), a presidential candidate, pushed for English-only in educating the country's children. To be successful in this country kids "need to speak the language," he said. (The Post & Courier, 1/28/07, pg 16A)

I believe language is going to be one of the major issues of the 2008 presidential campaign.

A WOW feature

When reading an editorial in The New York Times I found this "tip" at the end of the article: -
"To find reference information about the words used in this article, hold down the ALT key and click on any word, phrase or name. A new window will open with a dictionary definition or encyclopedia entry. "
I tried it and it works. This is my first experience with this capability and for now it seems to be peculiar to the Times editorial. How far will this capability spread? What will it take to make it universally available? I consider this an amazing feature, worthy of at least one big WOW!

Can you believe this?

The Boston Globe (1/26/2007) reports "Vice President Dick Cheney orchestrated his office's 2003 efforts to rebut assertions that the administration used flawed intelligence to justify the war in Iraq and discredit a critic who he believed was making him look foolish, according to testimony and evidence yesterday in the criminal trial of his former chief of staff."

As the Charleston vapors lady would say, "Lordy, can you believe this?"

Say it ain't so

Can you imagine the White House making Lewis "Scooter" Libby the fall guy to protect Karl Rove so the president's advisor could be around to shepherd the 2004 re-election campaign? This is what Libby's defense attorney claimed in his opening statement. I imagine some Charleston matron with the vapors will exclaim, "Oh, my goodness." Stay tuned.

Press '1' for English

A Hometown Newspaper

Many years ago an observer asked Tom Landry, then coach of the Dallas Cowboys, what he thought about the Green Bay Packers having their own Hall of Fame. Landry said, "They might as well, they got their own newspaper." This came to mind today when Elsa McDowell replied to a critic of The Post and Courier who complained that The Citadel "does not have a hometown newspaper."
Back in the 1920's the publisher of the Green Bay newspaper told his staff the paper would always stand by the Packers' come hell or high water because if Green Bay ever lost the team they would never get another one. To this day this is the paper's position.
Elsa said the P&C recognizes The Citadel as significant but reports the news - good and bad.

On the obit page

Politicians (and I used to be one) cannot choose on what page the local newspaper will print articles about them. It has to be nerve-racking, however, when you are recovering from surgery and the paper reports it on one of the two obit pages - as was done with North Charleston Mayor Keith Summey today (The Post & Courier, Charleston, SC,January 17, 2007.)

Congressman votes against people's interests

All you South Carolina workers out there earning minimum wage or slightly higher ought to take a look at how your congressman in the First District of South Carolina voted this past week. And those in Medicare ought to look up as well. The people hoping stem cell research might some day lead to a cure to their debilitating diseases would also do well to look at his conduct.
It is not that he, Henry Brown, (R), Hanahan, has deviated from his first term promise to not vote against the (Republican) leadership. This past week he voted with other Republicans (whose leadership in the House was rejected at the polls in November) against the majority passed legislation to raise the minimum wage, to require Medicare to negotiate lower drug prices, and to promote stem cell research.
These are bread and butter issues to a lot of Lowcountry workers and one would hope their congressman would have their best interests at heart. Like other legislators who think we are asleep at home he voted for alternative GOP proposals he (and they) had to know were doomed to failure so he (and they) could cover their butts.

Ford neglects customer service

One of the reasons Ford is in the tank and close to being flushed down:

At the local Ford dealer I bought a replacement battery for a Ford Ranger ($89,00) I asked also to buy a clamp for the neutral (-) post to replace a rusted, broken one, estimated price $3.00. The salesman told me Ford doesn’t supply/sell these and I should go to Pep Boys or some such and buy one. At the local store the only available clamps required me to cut off the end of my cable, strip the wire, and attach the new clamp by compressing or soldering. All of which is, in my case, I considered unnecessary. I went to a second store and bought a clamp and my neighbor helped me modify it to work with the new battery and old cable without cutting the cable etc.

Attention to the little things made Ford great; inattention is going to help sink it.

Person of the Year

There is a dispute about whether a Web log is serious journalism. Those bloggers who simply report personal daily (or occasional) machinations are obviously not journalists in any sense of the word. They are diary writers who have taken to the keyboard much as Queen Elizabeth holds onto the pen and writes her thoughts in longhand. Some bloggers believe writing on current events or persons is a form of journalism if it informs, motivates, agitates, pleases, or simple wakes someone up. This is arguable.

There is the question of follow-up. Bloggers generally don’t. News organizations report matters and keep the public informed with additional articles until the subject peters out. The lost climbers on Mt. Hood are a good example of this. It is has been a daily staple since early December. Other continuing sagas will replace it by New Year’s Day.

Time magazine has given bloggers a shot of chest-pumping adrenaline by naming us (I write on-line, I qualify) “Person of the Year,” a highly dubious honor considering Hitler and Stalin were “persons” in the past. But as Bill Maher might say, “I kid Time” because many of their annual choices over the last 70 years or so have been men and women who truly made a difference in our world.

But does it make any difference to anyone outside our family if I report my wife of 52 years had a stroke complicated by a subsequent fall and is progressing in rehab? (Thanks for all the cards and well wishes; she is touched by the outpouring of love and support.)

Does it matter to anyone when I sound off on things that irritate the devil out of me, or are done in a way I believe could have been done better? What about the good people and accomplishments I encounter and enjoy commenting on? What about when I simply take pleasure in getting something off my chest? (The latter is probably most beneficial to my mental and physical health by lowering my stress level.) A local credit union representative told me earlier today, for example, that the government has ordered new internet security measures for people wanting to access their accounts on line. This trifling with my account happened last night and I was locked out (until this morning). Thousands around the country will likely have this experience in the coming weeks. Good luck. My immediate reaction was what else can you expect from people who screwed up the Iraq adventure?

To my fellow diarists I offer congratulations on being name “Person of the Year.” Let’s not take each other too serious though or let it go our heads in 2007. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Eating with respect

One day this week I had lunch in an upscale steak house restaurant in North Charleston with another person. A police officer of commissioned rank came in alone and sat down at a table near ours. He was in full police uniform, complete with gun, cuffs, radio, etc. and his commissioned rank on his collar. He had a salad, a beverage and an entree. A couple of members of the restaurant's managerial staff came to his table and spoke with him while he was eating. When he finished he got up and left. He was not given a check, he did not pay and so far as I know did not leave a tip for the waitress who served him.

Several weeks ago I was in a submarine sandwich shop for a bite and looking out the window while eating saw a policeman get out of his cruiser, come in the shop, order a sandwich, chips and a soft drink, PAY FOR IT, and then go back to his cruiser.

Which police officer do you believe I respect the most?

On being alone, temporarily

Around my house I make the coffee in the morning; that is I plug in the pot which my wife usually sets up the night before. This didn’t work on Tuesday because my wife went to hospital on Monday night (she’s doing better, thank you). I managed to find some coffee in a large blue can and made a pot that would warm a submariner’s heart. These past few days have been an eye-opener for me into what has to happen around this house to make it worth living here.

Take clean clothes for example. I looked high and low for the dark grey metal wash pot and scrub board and could not find them. I recall my grandmother and my mother had a set at one time. At the hospital I asked my wife where she kept these and she told me we did not use them because “We have a washing machine.” “How long have we had this?” I asked.

“About fifty-two years. Do you remember when we were on our honeymoon and after about two weeks you let me out of bed one day? Well, I went and bought my first washing machine that afternoon.”

This is pretty good piece of equipment. You have only to put the clothes in and close the door. Some powered soap goes in a small slot behind a little door and you pull the lever and it works automatically. There are no rollers nor wringer to turn. To top it off when the machine finishes you can take out the wet clothes and put them in another machine and it dries them.

Eating has been less of a problem, but also a learning experience. We often eat out in the evening at the cafeteria or one of the restaurants; (we tend to favor steak houses.) I am confident that in a reasonable amount of time my wife is going to be OK so I wanted to avoid the widows with casseroles circling the neighborhood. I went to the cafeteria for lunch one day was pleased to find them open for business. The food in mid-day is better than at night. I had a large, delicious baked salmon and some veggies. Being alone without an eating-habits critic on hand, I also knocked off a dessert; a delicious lemon meringue pie, fresh out of the refrigerator.

All in all it has been a pretty good week, my wife being in hospital notwithstanding. I can make coffee, do the laundry and find a meal in mid-day. I believe this is enough of domesticity for a man my age so this week I intend to concentrate on letting my fingers do the walking thought the yellow pages until I find Maids-Are-Us. Somebody has to do the dusting.

The family business

When the subject "a family business" comes up in polite conversation we ought not to overlook that concept in Congress. Representative John Dingell, D-Michigan, 80-years old, has been in Congress since 1955 when he succeeded his father (also John Dingell) who had served from 1933. Mr. Dingell will likely re-assume his old chairmanship of the House Energy and Commerce Committee (he was the chair from 1981-1994), in the next congress.

In related notes, Massachusetts (my birth state) holds a unique place in the House of Representatives. Among states with more than two Representatives only Massachusetts has a solid Democratic membership, 10 seats, and each incumbent was re-elected this week. (The state also has two Democratic Senators.) California has the most seats in the House, 53, with 34 Democrats and 19 Republicans; the Dems picked up one seat in the election. South Carolina has two Democrats and four Republicans, unchanged from the current term.

The American People Have Spoken

DATE: November 8, 2006

MEMO TO: New Democrat Leaders in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives; Democrat Governors in the majority of the States; Democrat Legislatures in the majority of the States, and all other Democrat office holders.

You have a fresh opportunity to govern. Don't f**k it up!

/s/Francis X. Archibald

A joke and no joke

During the final days of World War II, two Germans are in a bomb shelter and it is shortly before noontime. They have been there since mid-evening of the previous night as first British bombers and now American bombers pulverize Germany. One asks, “What will you do after the war?” The other answers, “I will go on holiday and walk around Greater Germany.” “And what will you do in the afternoon?”


In Latvia, the parliament has decided to postpone until March 1, 2007, releasing the names of Latvians who were collaborators (read: spies, informers, tattle-tales, and neighborhood snoops) with the KGB during the 51 years of Soviet occupation (1940-1991). The list, estimated to contain approximately 4,500 names, was to be made public on November 1 and published in the official government newspaper. Husbands, wives, children, extended families, neighbors, bosses, workers, lovers, teammates, drinking buddies, etc. are all waiting to see who was ratting on whom. Critics say the KGB in 1990 sent to Moscow the most sensitive parts of the archive and the complete list with the most important names will never be revealed. Some collaborators have left Latvia; some probably are hoping their files were among those sent to Moscow. Anyone on the list will not be eligible to vote nor hold public office. When similar lists were unveiled in Germany several years ago, it was reported there was much heartbreak, anguish, fear and anger. Some relationships were forever broken.

State of Denial

Letters to the Editor
The Post and Courier
Charleston, SC
(Published October 25, 2006)

The 2003 invasion of Iraq began while I was winding up a two-month tour of South Africa. South Africans I was in contact with, well educated, professional people, asked why the United States had invaded Iraq.
I recalled those early evening discussions while reading State of Denial, Bob Woodward’s 14th book since Watergate and his third book on the war on terror. This insightful, comprehensive and diligently pursued book full of first-hand accounts (and almost 30 pages of source notes) is a tremendous addition to the body of historical knowledge required to answer “why.”
It is even more valuable to understanding what we did right and what was wrong. This tragically incomplete adventure is still an on-going tale, however, and it leaves one wondering, at the end of 2006 and State of Denial, if we are facing a Vietnam-like-ending where it is crazy to stay in and we don’t know how to get out.
I believe, however, after finishing all 560 pages of State of Denial, that if the men and women in Washington at the highest political, military, diplomatic, and intelligence levels who were in charge of this Iraq excursion devoted half the time to solving problems as they did fighting and arguing with each other and buckling under to one man – Donald Rumsfeld – and being afraid to bring bad news to the Oval Office, a “Vietnam-like-ending” would not hang over us.

You've got mail - responses

Judging by the swift response to yesterday's blog by five friends mail is something on everyone's mind. Here are their comments:

(1) What an interesting undertaking! Sounds quite familiar, but I'm jealous of your personal correspondence. I receive very little any more, sadly. Mostly thank-you notes or invitations. I used to maintain voluminous correspondences with many people--but that was before e-mail. I still have most of those old letters--they're more precious by the year.

(2) Only 4 bills!!!

(3) With the exception that personal correspondence, other than the cards my wife and her sisters, some of Hallmark's most cherished customers, exchange, has been almost entirely replaced by email among our friends and relatives, I think that the proportions would be about the same here. And I really do get dismayed of thinking of all the mailing expense various charities and causes must incur and of how much better those funds could be used.

But at least you're not standing in the mud, dog excrement and cigarette butts that surround our neighborhood stanchion box cluster as you sort it out. as we once discussed before. My favorite mail delivery system was some years ago, when I lived in a small town that had curbside residential delivery and three times a week trash pick-up at the curb. I could scoop out the mailbox and then stand over my trash can without having to ever carry the majority of it indoors.

(4) I could get a hernia carrying out the throw aways.

(5) Archie, this sounds just like the mail I receive.

You've got mail

I've been wondering for some time about the breakdown of the mail I receive. The Postman who covers our street looks upon me as one of the stalwarts of his long-range retirement program. In September I decided to keep a record of what came and it held few surprises. There were 25 requests for donations of money to causes far and wide; 29 requests to subscribe or renew magazine subscriptions; 20 offers of new credit cards; 24 pieces of other unsolicited bulk (read junk) mail; four bills; and 18 pieces of personal correspondence. These figures do not include the various magazines and professional journals, weekly, monthly and quarterly which come regularly, nor the newspapers and catalogs which we have requested.

A courageous lady has died

The lady who two years ago declined an abortion despite the danger her pregnancy added to her heart has died this week. (She subsequently gave birth to the baby who is doing well.) In early September, 2006, she had a heart transplant and was struggling to survive.

See my early blog: For those who believe in the sanctity of life .

The funeral for Elizabeth (Lisa) Ramirez Fuerte, age 32, was held Thursday with an 11 o’clock Mass of Christian Burial at Divine Redeemer Catholic Church, Hanahan, SC. She leaves a husband and two children, among her large, loving family of survivors

Two photos tell a story

The two photographs in the Sept. 20 paper (The Post & Courier, Charleston, SC) on Page 11A speak volumes about our lack of "national smarts" in foreign affairs. One photo showed all the Iranian seats in the General Assembly occupied while President Bush addressed the body. The second photo showed all American delegation seats empty while the Iranian president addressed the same body.

Doesn't this administration realize what a political coup they have handed the Iranians who will show these pictures around the world and say, "See, the Americans won't even listen to us"?

The administration could have taken the high ground by listening and then refuting the speech. Sure, they could read the remarks or watch the Iranian president on closed circuit TV in their offices, but they would not have handed the Iranians a weapon with which to beat us over the head in talks with China, Russia, France and Germany; all of whom, by the way, have major economic deals in progress with Iran.

(Originally printed as Letter to the Editor, The Post & Courier, Charleston, SC, Sept. 25, 2006)

You can't read that...

If there are any two words at the beginning of a sentence which tick off Americans these are them: “You can’t ……..” We don’t like to be told we can’t do something. As a child, for example, being told we couldn’t go out and play in the rain, or as an adult being told we can’t read something. Which is why free-thinkers, liberal oriented people and a few true conservatives, will observe Banned Books Week, September 23-30. 2006.

The BBW, observed since 1982, serves to remind Americans not to take this precious freedom to read what we want, when we want, too lightly least it be taken away. The American Library Association has recorded at least 8,700 attempts to ban books since 1990, when it began to keep an electronic count. Not surprisingly, “offensive language” and “sexually explicit” lead the pack of challenges of what should be on the shelves in public libraries and schools and even bookstores. Political and religious viewpoints also generate attempts at censorship.

Recently we had a parallel attempt at censorship of a film to be shown on network TV dealing with the events of 9/11 and the language of New York firemen. The firemen cussed and cursed as they went about their duties during this horrific event, and this some Bible-belt moralists said made it unsuitable for other Americans to hear. A guest on the Bill Maher show asked why the critics picked on the fireman, “There were 8 million people in New York on 9/11 and every one of them said, ‘what the f**k?’”.

Banned Books Week is a special time for all of us to be vigilant and to resist censorship wherever it rears its ugly head. We are Americans and we can make most of the decisions about our lives and what is good and bad, and all will still be well in the end.

For those who believe in the sanctity of life

Two years ago, Lisa Fuerte of Hanahan, SC, had difficulties with her heart during her second pregnancy. It was at the early stages of this pregnancy where her heart became extremely weak. As a result of the complication she spent many days in the hospital. The doctors suggested to her that she consider aborting the child to alleviate the stress on the heart. Being a woman of tremendous faith she knew this was not an option. She put the situation in the hands of God and the child was born premature at twenty-six weeks. Father Edward Fitzgerald had the privilege of baptizing the baby in the Intensive Care Unit. Lisa had a heart transplant at Duke University Hospital in September. She has a long way to go to recovery. There are many expenses for this family and insurance does not cover everything.

Father Fitzgerald is running in Charlotte Thunder Road Marathon (26.2 miles) on December 9. He will run because he is a runner and to assist the Fuerte family. You can help by pledging so much per mile (results available in December) – or easier by simply sending a check to: Divine Redeemer Catholic Church, 1106 Fort Drive, Hanahan, SC, 29406, marked for the Fuerte family.

I have never before used my blog or web site to solicit funds for any person, cause or any thing else. But this is a great story for those of us who believe in the sanctity of life and faith in God and the needs are great and a dollar or more will be a big help. Checks made out to the Church are tax deductible (and marking it for the Fuerte Family will guarantee it goes to help them.) And I believe God will return the blessing to you in some way, some day.

More shower space

I increased the space in a tub/shower today by about 25 percent through the simple expedient of hanging a crescent shower curtain rod in place of the straight rod we have used for years. The extra space comes where you need it up around your torso and shoulders. (We recently experienced a tub/shower with such a rod in a hotel and were greatly surprised and pleased with the effect.) The tub/shower is in one of our bathrooms that is original to the old part of our house where the tub is the customary five foot tub. The rod I selected was made by Creative Specialties International, a division of Moen Company. The rod came complete with installation instructions and ample wall plugs and anchors. It can be fastened into studs, drywall or tile. There were several choices from different manufacturers found on the Internet, but the Moen allowed me to center the new rod wall brackets over the holes left in the sheetrock after I removed the old brackets. Thus repair of the sheetrock, including painting, was not necessary

Friendship

“Friendship is often an amusement, sometimes an education, at least a reprieve from loneliness, at best a human connection of the highest and grandest kind. Contradiction is implicit in the very nature of modern friendship. F. Scott Fitzgerald said that the sign of an intelligent person is the ability to keep two contradictory ideas in his head at the same time and still function. With friendship, the two contradictory ideas are these: first, friends can be an immense complication, a huge burden, and a royal pain in the arse; and second, without friendship, make no mistake about it, we are all lost.” Epstein, Joseph. Friendship – an Expose. (Houghton Mifflin Co. Boston-New York., 2006, 270 pages, $24.)

Sports Note

A guy whose wife ran off with his Mercedes, his best friend, the family dog, all the money, and all the booze and grass laying around the house has better prospects than the Red Sox.

The beat goes on at the Post Office

They are still at “it” at the local Post Office. “It” being a callous attitude toward customers, (AKA: citizens and taxpayers.) Back in June I wrote about this problem (On Improving the Post Office) and yesterday I visited the same place again to mail five flats and see if the service had improved. They were looking good when I walked in, but it all went to hell-in-a-hand-basket quicker than a bodice is ripped from a well-endowed Southern maiden in a romance novel. The line of customers had 12-15 people waiting. Four uniformed clerks were working, and one in street clothes announced a couple of times that if anyone was there to pick up packages or mail to come to end of the counter. She served a couple of people. Then it all broke down. With three people waiting, two clerks closed their stations and commenced to do some kind of paper work important, I assume, to the Postal Service. They did this without checking what the other two clerks might be doing. One was serving a customer with a big carton (it originally held ten reams of office paper) full of large brown envelopes, each one of which had to be individually weighed and a postage sticker printed and posted on it. The other clerk was doing her best to handle all the other customers. Within minutes the waiting line of three customers had swelled to almost 20. When I left the Post Office it was two clerks closed down for paperwork, one continuing to work the box of large brown envelopes and one soldiering on. The person in street clothes had disappeared. Why do they act like this? If they must close down and do that all-fired important paper work, they ought to go in the back room and not stand there ignoring customers. No cell phone usage was noted.

New Police Chief-Former OSI

Gregory G. Mullen, a former special agent with the Air Force Office of Special Investigations and Deputy Chief of the Virginia Beach (VA) Police Department, has been selected as the new police chief in Charleston, SC, America’s most historic city. Mullen was selected by Mayor Joseph P. Riley after a nation-wide search and consideration of 137 applicants. Riley interviewed Mullen three times before selecting him “as an agent of change” for a city recently gripped by gun violence.
Mullen worked in Virginia Beach for 21 years, starting in 1985 as a beat cop and working his way up to Deputy Chief. His OSI service preceded his long career in Virginia Beach. He retired from the Air Force Reserve in 2002 after 22 years of active and Reserve Service.

Under cover of darkness

After the sun went down and brought on the dark of night, 230 cheapies in the House of Representatives couldn’t do the right thing and simply increase the minimum wage for the first time since 1997; no these avaricious panderers had to crank in some tax breaks for the richest families in the United States and exempt all estates below $10 million dollars (for a couple) from taxes. The package deal increases the minimum wage to $7.25, up from $5.15. Not many individuals can live on that, much less support a family. (By the way, this same Congress recently voted themselves a pay raise of more than $3,000 annually.)

(The favorable vote included 196 Republicans and 34 Democrats. The “no” votes were Democrats 158, Independent 1 and Republicans 21. Twenty-two did not vote and one voted “present”.)

The estate tax changes will likely cost the treasury an estimated $268 billion over the next ten years, and diminish chances to lower the deficit which grows daily due primarily to costs associated with the war in Iraq. Three Republican members of the South Carolina delegation, Henry Brown, Bob Inglis and Joe Wilson, voted for the legislation. They will soon be home for the August recess and probably bragging how they struck a blow for the common man and senior citizens. They ought to be ashamed to masquerade as fiscal conservatives, which is how they campaigned. It is no wonder they waited until after midnight to cast their votes and slip out of Washington.

The legislation now goes to the Senate where it faces strong opposition from some committee chairmen whose feathers have been ruffled by combining the wage hike with estate tax and private pension reform (employers will have to more fully fund pension plans.) The allure of the minimum wage increase and the pension reforms may be too much for senators to ignore and a majority may hold their noses and vote for the House measure. The rest of us will have to tolerate the smell.

50th Anniversary of our Church

The official observance of the 50th anniversary of our church, Divine Redeemer Catholic Church, in Hanahan, SC, took place July 18 with the Most Reverend Robert J. Baker, Bishop of Charleston, celebrating Mass at 7 pm. Over 400 people crowded into the church and following the Mass went to the school auditorium for a reception. Father Jerome C. Powers was appointed pastor of the parish on June 15, 1956; early Masses were held in an athletic field clubhouse owned by the Paper Company (Westvaco) and later in a trailer donated by a benefactor. Ground was broken for the church on July 14, 1957 and the first Mass in the church was celebrated by Father Powers on February 23, 1958. Following Hurricane Hugo in 1989, the church had to be re-built, almost from the ground up and today continues its 50-year old role as the spiritual centerpiece of Catholic life in Hanahan. Father Edward W. Fitzgerald is the current and tenth pastor.

Representation by cheapos

A majority of our Congressmen and women have refused to raise the minimum wage again (the last time was nine years ago) but have agreed to take another 2 percent over their current $168,500 for themselves. Is there no shame in this Republican controlled Congress?

For a family of three, the (annual) minimum wage of $10,700, set in 1997, is now more than $5,000 below the federal definition of poverty. In that same time, a lawmaker’s salary rose $31,600— better than 20 percent — while the purchasing power of a minimum-wage earner deteriorated by 20 percent. (From The New York Times editorial, Earning That Congressional Raise, July 13, 2006).

A raise in the national minimum wage to $7.25 per hour would go a long way for the poorest of the poor who struggle daily in this great land of opportunity. In my opinion, the argument that such a raise would break the backs of the small businessman and woman in America doesn't hold water, except in, apparently, this Republican controlled Congress. It is an embarrassment to be represented by such cheapos.

The Room

The building at 34 East 62nd street in New York which was destroyed by an explosion on July 10 was built in 1882 and was once site of The Room, a secret hideaway complete with a mail slot and an unlisted telephone number. It had no full-time occupant. Access was limited to a select few successful, rich, powerful and patriotic Americans. These were friends, neighbors and confidants of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, both Republicans and Democrats, who kept the President informed on world affairs, carried out intelligence duties for him and delighted in playing secret agent man. It is easy 70 years later to laugh and dismiss these businessmen, bankers, lawyers, and publishers, but in the 1930s and until World War II the United States had no OSS, CIA, DIA or other national intelligence service. (The FBI’s overseas intelligence activities in South America would not come into play until after WWII started.) One of the early visitors to The Room was William Donovan, a Republican lawyer, and contemporary of FDR’s at Columbia Law School. He undertook missions for the President in the mid-thirties, served as Coordinator of Information, director of the Office of Strategic Services, and is remembered today with a life-size statue in the lobby of the CIA headquarters. Members of The Room, it has been reported, gave President Roosevelt, among other things, secret access to banking information and telegraphic communications – similar to two intelligence gathering efforts the current President is catching hell for.

The latest waterfall

Having tried to improve the postal service (see preceding blog), I turned my attention to my pond and its waterfall. Since I built the pond in March 2001, I've had a narrow waterfall in various configurations and earlier this year a daughter-in-law told me about a commercial spillway with a wide (18 inches) throat. This presented two problems: how to position it so the water would drop directly into the pond (and avoid loss of water into the rock and soil) and also camouflage the black plastic appearance. I could not achieve both objectives satisfactorily with the rip rap stone wall I preferred so I built a 20 inch wide spillway using cedar (which should eventually turn grey and blend with the rip rap). I positioned the commercial spillway in the rear of this to regulate the flow of water through the cedar spillway into the pond. The water is pumped from the pond through a Laguna UV sterilizer to suppress algae. To the rear of the pond I cleaned out the brush, laid in some weed suppressant cover and topped this with a layer of cedar chips. The waterfall offers a soothing sound both while sitting on the back porch or sleeping with the window open, and it helps to oxygenate the water for the more than 35 fish in the pond.

About the postal service: A supervisor called to say that signs (Please turn off cell-phones) are on order from Washington and another clerk will be called from the back room when the line builds in the service area. We will check on this and report back.

On improving the Post Office

Recently I visited the local branch of the United States Postal Service. This is one of those 38,000 beleaguered outposts of citizen service that our congress years ago in its infinite wisdom simultaneously put under the control of something called a Board of Governors and washed its hands of the only service in the United States that was (is) more hard-pressed than the DMV. (That is if you don’t count the welfare office in New York.)

Only two counter clerks were working and my wait time was between 20-25 minutes. The clerk who serviced me said another clerk was on vacation, something I could appreciate. What I don’t understand is why one of the 100,000 part-time workers who back up the 800,000 full-time workers couldn’t be pressed into service at our local post office. Look at the numbers: 38,000 post offices, 100,000 part-time workers, an almost three to one worker ratio.

And another thing. Every one of sound mind and body agrees that smokers do not have the right to pollute our air space. During my wait at the post office I had to listen to a blond haired woman in tight jeans and wearing high heels, about 50-55 years old, with a German accent, talk on her stupid cell phone to another female dimwit on the other end and dispense advice on to how to correct, improve and put up with some male dimwit who had the unfortunate luck to be connected somehow to these two female dimwits. She was two customers ahead of me and only stopped talking on the cell phone when she was next to being called to the counter. Cell phone usage in post offices by patrons should be outlawed until the wait time is reduced to two minutes or less.

I have communicated these views to the Postal Service and I am sure they will be on the agenda at the next meeting of the nine-member Board of Governors. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha!

Weather

Last night on the local news (Charleston, SC) we had a substitute weatherman who said the regular guy was on vacation and the weather would be good for a couple of weeks. This brings up two questions: Did the regular guy arrange the weather to accommodate his vacation schedule and if the weather is going to be good why do we need a substitute weatherman?

We miss you, Duke

Died: June 11, 1979
Born: May 26, 1907

Criminal Activity

When I was a city judge in Hanahan I had authority to issue search warrants and did so upon affidavits by sworn police officers which usually took up less than one page and often related to minor criminal activity. The judge who issued a search warrant on Congressman William J. Jefferson was given an 85 page affidavit from the FBI alleging major offenses. This is not an issue about the separation of powers, it is about possible major criminal offenses and no one - not even a Congressman - ought to be beyond the law. (Published as Letter to the Editor, The Post & Courier, Charleston SC, June 6, 2006.)

THE OPIATE OF THE PEOPLE

THE OPIATE OF THE PEOPLEIt is a source of wonder that rising five years into the AFGHANISTAN story, (21st century edition), we find that Allied soldiers lives and nations' treasure, are being expended in a country whose principal contribution to the world was to have been the base HQ and training centre to the terrorists of 9/11; which remains the world's prime source of opiates, and whose citizens are grouped into tribal and religious factions that hate each other - almost as much as they hate foreign soldiers on their soil. The end game from the point of view of the west is to stay until the fledgling democracy is secure, the terrorist threat is no more and, well, hopefully not until they all love one another. Is it just irony to observe that the Taliban government, (pre 9/11) in their final year 2001, under some persuasion no more, from the west, had reduced the poppy harvest to a mere74 tons? Last year with US and NATO forces in country, a new national army and all manner of inspectors and mercenaries tasked with destroying the crop in the ground, the harvest ran out at about 4,500 tons, just 2.4% down on the previous year. It is true that alternative crops have not been forthcoming and that the farmers just have no other crop. That problem needs bigger brains working on a permanent solution than seem currently to be deployed, because the billions squandered on a clearly failed mission might be better used in intervention purchasing to keep the farmers alive, whilst alternative crops are propagated. (Published by Newnations (a not-for-profit company) PO Box 12 Monmouth United Kingdom NP25 3UW Fax: UK +44 (0)1600 890774  enquiries@newnations.com )

Who gave...for the land

Today we pause to recall the sacrifice of all who gave their lives for the land we love and live in; for the men and women who have served and are proudly called veterans and for those serving in our Armed Forces around the world today.

Our family is proud to call Mom and Dad (USAF) and sons Frankie (USMC) and James (USAF) "Veterans." A grandson, Trey Turner is serving in the USMC.

Anne's Kids - Reunion 2006

On Mother’s Day I left my wife and mother of our five children behind and headed off from Charleston to Maine for a reunion with my four siblings. It wasn’t planned that way but my wife opted out of making the trip and I flew off totally oblivious to what was happening in New England. By Tuesday, after almost three days of rain, the papers reported the area was having the third worst rain storm since they began keeping records back somewhere in the middle of the nineteenth century. In our home town of Lowell, MA, about 3,000 people were evacuated from homes along the banks of the Merrimack River. Only the 1936 flood that caused the Merrimack to overflow its banks and put much of Lowell under water was worst than last week's rain storm.
We gathered in Wells Beach, ME, and had a grand time. One brother, coming by car from Staten Island, was unable to get to the reunion because of the weather. He was missed, and we told him by phone that we faulted him for all our youthful misfortunes. Somehow, although he was only three or four, we said he caused an older brother to fall off the top of a bridge across a canal near our home. Similarly, in his absence, he was at fault when a bus threw a board up from the street breaking a sister’s leg. He accepted all this with good humor, although I suspect when he got to yakking it up later with his friends we would be somehow responsible for his youthful injuries and ailments.
I had planned to stop in on a few friends and e-mail acquaintances unannounced but once on the ground in Maine the weather made all that impossible. Maybe some day soon.
This was the first time we got together since our mother died four years ago. Families get caught up in what they do and times passes ever so swiftly, especially, it seems, as people age. I suggested the gathering last December and it turned out to be a happy time for catching up, reminiscing, updating on the kids whereabouts and accomplishments, and discussing future plans. We ate a lot of fresh fish, especially haddock and lobster. Fresh cold water fish is the best eating, I believe, and difficult to come by in South Carolina. My sisters had some fig squares, also not readily found in Charleston, when I arrived and to take home with me. I ate them in the airports at Portland, LaGuardia and Raleigh Durham. None made it to Charleston.
It was a good time for all and although about 12 inches of rain fell on Wells Beach during the storm we minded it not a wit. After all, we four on hand had survived the ’36 flood.

Fantasy (or insanity)

In a moment of fantasy (or insanity) I was attracted to a car ad in The Wall Street Journal today by the price: $3,995 per month. This is for 35 months at 7.75% APR, one final payment of $215,000 with $42,648 down. The car: A Rolls-Royce Phantom offered by Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Miami. My wife came into the kitchen where I was reading the paper and sipping coffee and she broke the spell bringing me back to the real world, "the truck needs to be filled up with gas."

Why I'm in the Gulag

Ran across this old Soviet Union joke earlier today: Three guys in the Gulag are talking about why they are there. The first man says, "I came to work five minutes late every day and they charged me with sabotage." The second prisoner says, "I came to work five minutes early every day and they charged me with spying." The third, "I came to work on time every day and they charged me with owning a western watch."

Wal-Mart Parking Lot

Add this to your list of strange behavior in Wal-Mart parking lots. Someone apparently bought a pair of shoes, sandals, slippers, or some kind of footwear at the Wal-Mart in North Charleston, SC, and changed into them in the parking lot. Evidence: The saddest looking pair of beat up, worn out tennis shoes were set side-by-side in one of the shopping cart corrals. These shoes had more miles on them than hairs on a gorilla. My late mother thought wearing new footwear out of the store was gauche; what would she think of putting them on in the parking lot.

Red Sox Slugger Breaks Car Window; no arrest

Last night (May 6, 2006) at Fenway Park, Manny Ramirez broke the rear window of a sedan parked on a garage roof across the street from the Green Monster when he belted a tape-measure home run in the fourth inning of a game against Baltimore, according to the Boston Globe this morning. (Photo from http://www.RedSox.com)

A giant has fallen

“He remained optimistic about the ability of government to improve the lot of the less fortunate. ‘Let there be a coalition of the concerned,’ he urged. ‘The affluent would still be affluent, the comfortable still comfortable, but the poor would be part of the political system.’

“John Kenneth Galbraith, the iconoclastic economist, teacher and diplomat and an unapologetically liberal member of the political and academic establishment that he needled in prolific writings for more than half a century, died yesterday at a hospital in Cambridge, Mass. He was 97.”

(Excerpted from an obituary by Holcomb B. Noble and Douglas Martin, The New York Times, April 30, 2006, web edition. Photo from the obit is by Brian Snyder/Reuters.)

Other bloggers at work

I was roaming through some blogs this morning when I came across a recipe that began with "1 head of cauliflower" and I instinctively knew it was not for me; another blogger discussed job turnover and recommended management look at the supervisor of any unit with high employee turnover - he/she may be the problem; and then there is a web site HollaBackNYC where people can report and highlight street harassers. My favorite is the lady who was flashed on the subway and who had the chutzpah to take a video phone picture of the flasher, and later put it on the website. The flasher was eventually caught and he reportedly lamented that being reported to the cops was one thing, but being posted on the Internet was unfair.

Can take a joke

I certainly don’t want to get all the Catholics in the world, or even in Charleston, upset.

However, I saw a painting recently in the Charleston room at the end of the long hallway on the first floor in The Gibbes Art Gallery that has all the potential for an uprising parallel to the tumult in Islam over those cartoons in the Danish newspaper.

At first glance it appears to be a painting of the late Pope John Paul II, whom I had the supreme pleasure of seeing up close three times while he was among us.

At second glance it is a portrait that looks like the Piggly Wiggly pig. I don’t know what this school of painting is called and I failed to note the name of the artist, but she/he ought to be happy I can take a joke, and I believe John Paul would have smiled himself.

Of course he might have given a penance of one Our Father and one Hail Mary.

(Published as a Letter to the Editor, The Post & Courier, Charleston SC, Apr.5, 2006)

Full bloom

Our back yard is in full bloom today as temperatures soared to almost 85 degrees at noon in Hanahan, SC. "A beautiful day in the neighborhood," isn't that what Mr. Rogers
usually said? (Thanks to the half-dozen readers who correctly identified the source of the quote. I originally credited Captain Kangaroo.)

Water almost ruins bridge run

A four-foot water main (that’s what they call a big one) broke last night in Hanahan a couple of blocks from our house and for more than a couple of hours some 400,000 people in Charleston and the surrounding area were without water. This threatened to put a real damper on the crowd pouring into Charleston for the First Annual Ravenel Bridge Run this morning but the water people got it fixed in good time and all is well. The same people recommend we boil water at least through Sunday morning to be on the safe side. Personally, I have always found in my travels that a double Scotch is sufficient to ward off any contaminants in the local water.

The bridge run is the 29th running of this 10K spring event and the Ravenel Bridge (opened in July 2005) will be the third bridge featured. About 45,500 runners and walkers are registered, although more than half will likely not show, not run/walk nor finish if they do participate. I was an entrant in 2000 in the walkers division and although I enjoyed the experience I have not returned. There is no benefit in the second kick of a mule.

Shoes, runners and lawnmowers

I read recently in The Washington Post on-line edition about a girl who broke up with a guy who opined that her choice of (weird to him) shoes was not appropriate to wear for a job interview. The girl finished her sushi lunch, stood up and told the guy not to call her again. He never did.
In Charleston, SC, the first annual Ravenel Bridge Run (replacing the old Cooper River Bridge run) will be this weekend and some racers from Nigeria will undoubtedly be on hand. They have an unfair training advantage over local runners. The Nigerians train against leopards, the locals work out against guys they meet in bars or at the office.
What are the odds that the two lawnmowers you own will go belly up on the same day within minutes of each other? That happened to me yesterday and I walked up the street and contracted to have my lawn cut regularly during the season. I am expecting a potential buyer to come today and give me some beer money in exchange for the two lawnmowers.

"Complete security" - my view

A friend and former co-worker e-mailed recently that Hutchinson Whampoa Ltd. "is controlled by/part of the Chinese Govt/PLA and is now up for operating/running a US radiation detector at Freeport in the Bahamas. I also believe they operate 2 terminals at the Port of Long Beach, operate terminals at both ends of the Panama Canal, were involved with smuggling illegal weapons about 10 years ago at the Port of Oakland and operate terminals at other ports around the world. What are your thoughts about our 'security'?"

To which I replied: First off, M......, I would have to caveat that I have not been in the loop for 25 years. It has been a long time since I had responsibility for even a small part of the DOD/Air Force/Navy security programs. As a citizen-observer, however, I see "complete security" today as I did throughout my 28 years of investigative/security management service: Impossible to obtain and maintain in our great country with its freedoms, opportunities and challenges. I once told one of our commanding officers, Navy Captain (later Admiral) Dick Curtis, that security was about managing risks. He stood up from the chair in my office and shouted at me that he did not manage risks, he eliminated them. We never did hit it off completely during his tour. Security in a Republic is about risk management and despite some glaring gaffs from time to time, I continue to believe the men and women who do this job on a daily basis do commendable work and we ought to be grateful to them for it.

Russians in the War Room - Part II

"In 1989 and 1990, after the Berlin Wall fell, we all wanted to light candles and sing 'Kumbaya' and wait for the peace dividends to role in," said James Casey, chief of the Eurasia section of the FBI's counterintelligence division. "But things haven't changed as much as we thought they were going to change in 1989." (“Despite partnership, Russia spying on U.S.,” Douglas Birch, Sun Foreign Staff, The Baltimore Sun, originally published 3/23/2006.)

A friend e-mailed to say that “Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb” was “Absolutely my all time favorite movie. Scott said it was his all time favorite part. Only Slim Pickens was better in that flick!! -- He had the best part.” (Pickens, movie fans will recall, piloted the American bomber and rode the bomb down waving his cowboy hat after breaking it loose from the bomb bay.)

Russians in the War Room

A report out of Washington today reflects that Russians admitted to the American Central Command collected invasion plans data and passed it to Saddam Hussein before the war began. Because the Cold War has ended we have Russians in the heart of the American Command responsible for planning the Iraq War. The Russians told us early on they would not back any military force against Saddam, so why the hell were they still admitted to the planning rooms? Why were they and any representatives of other countries opposed to the war not asked to leave temporarily?

Hollywood got it right, why can’t Washington? For example, General Buck Turgidson said Russians are basically spies who cannot be trusted and was absolutely correct to express outrage to President Merkin Muffley about one being admitted to the war room.

In case you don’t recall Turgidson, he was the Air Force Chief of Staff (portrayed by George C. Scott, who morphed into Patton in 1970) in the 1964 movie, “Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.”

President Merkin Muffley (one of three characters played by the late Peter Sellers in the film) invited the Russian Ambassador Alexi de Sadesky (Peter Bull) into the American War Room deep in the bowels of the Pentagon to discuss ways to stop the American bomber wing dispatched to destroy the Soviet Union by an utterly mad U.S. Air Force Colonel Jack Ripper (Sterling Hayden, who commanded an OSS boat in the Adriatic Sea during WWII).

If Hollywood can get it right, why can’t Washington? Where are the Turgidson’s in this day and age?