It came in the mail

Today I received a canvass survey document from the National Republican Congressional Committee asking my view "as a Republican leader" on 20 questions ranging from Obama and Nancy Pelosi's alleged "soft-on-defense, reckless spending, higher taxes, and expansive Big Government policies" to whether or not I believe it important "to remove Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House."
It cost the NRCC eight-cents to mail this survey to me, although in the part where they asked for money they said it would cost $11 to tabulate and process my survey.
They asked for this amount and another $100 so they could mail 211 more survey documents to registered Republicans.
On the oft-chance they might have hit the mother load they also had a place on the survey where I could checkoff and send $1,000, if I was so inclined. And of, course, if I wanted to, I could put this contribution on my credit card, (and probably earn frequent flier miles and pay 18% interest on the outstanding balance.)
Wouldn't you know it, however, this survey arrived just a few days after I had planned to send the same $1,000 to Nancy Peolsi to help her continue her sterling leadership in the House of Representatives.
As to the policies of the Obama administration, they may not all be 100% right or perfect but in the past two years they have been a breath of fresh air.
This canvass survey is so loaded with pre-judged, anti-Obama, anti-Democrat, unfair and biased questions that I checked the box saying I supported Peolsi and sent it back to the NRCC in their postage paid envelope. It will cost them about 49 cents to open that envelope.
(From my blog.)

A grandson's note to grandma

Our grandson was graduated from high school in Myrtle Beach in June and like all grandparents we sent along a little something to commemorate the event. Our grandson then wrote the following note to his grandmother:

Dear Grandma and Pepaw,
I wish I could find the words to describe all of my emotions for the two of you. Since day one you have taken care of me and I will always remember that. When me and my mom would come and stay with ya'll that was when life was at its best. Everything was so simple and the only worry I had was when was grandma going to make dinner. I love you both very much and everything you have done will never be forgotten.
Love
Matthew

Clamp on Picnic Table Canopy

Every once in a while you see a great idea and say, "wow." I had a "wow" moment today while looking at the on-line Hammacher Schlemmer catalog. It is a picnic table canopy. Here is the on-line description:

The Clamp On Picnic Table Canopy.

This portable canopy clamps to any rectangular wooden table and provides up to 75' sq. of shade. The unit's adjustable bracket clamps latch onto picnic tables, the three-piece frame sets up in seconds, and the canopy simply slides over the frame. The canopy tilts 20º in either direction, adjusts up to 9' high, and locks into place at the desired position. Made from a durable polyester fabric, the canopy filters the sun's UV rays and provides reliable shelter from rain. The powder coated steel frame, high impact injection molded connectors, and rip-stop canopy ensure years of reliable use. The entire unit folds to fit into the included duffel bag. Minor assembly. Fits tables 4' to 10' wide. Open: 58" H x 90" W x 120" L. (27 lbs.)
Item 11679
$129.95
Please allow 1-2 weeks for delivery.

Makes me wish I had a picnic table out in my backyard!

Spare me your "mercy"

I believe most people today are like myself; poorly informed about gladiators. When I visited the Rome Colosseum a few years ago I found it much smaller than I had imagined in my mind. After all what I know about gladiators I learned from the silver screen and actors like Victor Mature, Kirk Douglas and Russell Crowe, all of whom vanquished large animals and brutes bigger than themselves, won their freedom and made off with some busty woman.
Thus, I was intrigued when I saw a headline in the local paper about a possible gladiator graveyard being uncovered in England. The article reported new forensic evidence suggests bones belonged to gladiators. It cited men larger than the average Roman, arm-muscle stress indicating possible weapons training at an early age, and carnivore marks on bones, all suggesting an arena connection. It was a shock to read that gladiators were often beheaded as an "act of mercy after suffering horrific injuries during their fights." You would hope they would have been given some hemlock or a tainted mushroom.

Get this message

(Published June 5, 2010)

Letters to the Editor
The Post & Courier
Charleston, SC

Dear Sir

It was inspiring to read about the 830 students who graduated from MUSC into the health care field last week. I wish them all a lifetime of career satisfaction as they attend to the medical needs of their patients.
I recently sent a one-paragraph to a doctor whose name I omit out of courtesy. If the 830 were smart enough to graduate, they ought to be smart enough to get this message:

"Dear Dr. Name Omitted

"Today, Thursday, May 20, 2010, I arrived at your office with my wife, Mary Archibald, at 10:35 for a 10:50 appointment. At 11:30 we were still waiting in the outer office with the prospect of being there at least another hour. Two other patients had gone into the inner office ahead of us and neither had come out. A third patient was also ahead of us in the outer office. During this wait a drug rep came, was admitted to the inner office and left after about twenty minutes. Another person came delivering three large bags (it looked like lunch). All this time Mary was in her wheel chair. I know when she is tiring and the likelihood of another hour’s wait was obviously going to be too much for her. (I had picked her up at Franke’s Skilled Nursing unit at 10:15.) We left."

Sincerely,

/s/ Francis X. Archibald

(From my blog.)

Where to play the game

Moderate weather fans were thrown a bone this week when the NFL announced the 2014 Super Bowl will be played in New Jersey.
On cue came the cries of the purists who believe that weather ought not to play a role in determining the outcome of the game. Since the first game was played back in 1968 the league has always chosen a warm climate – California, Florida, New Orleans, Atlanta - for the game.
The decision to play in New Jersey where the forecast for game day in 2014 is temperature in the low thirties, strong winds, and maybe snow, was in part a reward for the new stadium in New Jersey.
All of this is much ado about nothing. To really even things out for having favored warm weather teams these past 43 years the league should put the game in Green Bay.
Remember the NFL championship game between the Green Bay Packers and the Dallas Cowboys played on the frozen tundra on December 31, 1967, when the pre-game wind-chill was minus 70 degrees? By kickoff time knowledgeable weather men in Green Bay were on the plane to the Fijis. The stout-hearted were in Lambeau Field.
With a little over four minutes to play in the fourth quarter, Bart Starr started the Packers on a drive to the end zone 68 ice covered yards away.
Did the weather influence the game? Green Bay fans say, nah: ‘both teams had to play in the same conditions.’ Dallas fans respond: ‘that’s like saying the swimmer and shark were equal since they were both in the water.’
When Starr dove into the South end zone with 13 seconds on the clock his winning touchdown created one of the most memorable moments in NFL history for the Packers, Starr and the fans.
This is what football is all about. Regular season games are played in warm climates, moderate (for football anyway) places like New Jersey and Pittsburgh, and then where real men get tested: Green Bay, Wisconsin.
The Super Bowl ought to get the same billing.
(From my blog.)

Woody Woodpecker is alive and well

Yesterday while walking from the dining room to my apartment building I heard a woodpecker. I paused and look up in a tree but did not see him. I took a few steps and heard him again and I stopped and looked. I thought he wants me to see him. After a minute or so I spotted him about 30 feet up the side of a tree. He commenced his rat-a-tat-rat-a-tat-rat-a-tat pecking as I stood there watching and listening. Then he moved about 90 degrees to a new position on tree but hit a soft spot and though his beak was moving in and out, or up and down, there was no noise. He flew away and I walked on to my apartment.
(From my blog.

Matterhorn – A tale of courage and survival

It has been a long time since a novel was so compelling I hated to put in down and yearned to pick it up again as soon as I could. This is "Matterhorn." It has nothing to do with that fabled mountain in the Swiss Alps which attracts professional climbers every summer. It is a story about a hill in Vietnam that a company of Marines took, abandoned, and re-took in 1969.

 

I picked up this novel about the same time I was watching the ten-part HBO series "The Pacific," the heroic struggle of the United States Marines during World War II. I was struck by the similarities in both wars.

 

The author, Karl Marlantes, a graduate of Yale University and a Rhodes Scholar, served as a Marine in Vietnam. He was awarded the Navy Cross, the Bronze Star, two Navy Commendation medals for valor, two Purple Hearts and ten air medals. He brings to this first novel a wealth of first-hand experience about men in war. One wonders if Matterhorn is more auto-biographical than imaginary. In any event it ranks very high among the tales told of the Vietnam experience which I have read over the years. Marlantes says he worked on this, his first novel, for thirty years.

 

This gritty tale has been widely praised and nit-pickingly criticized. Some thought it over-written; others get hung-up on little things like explaining the military lingo in the narrative despite a glossary of weapons, technical terms, slang and jargon, in the back of the book. I did not find this distracting. To the contrary, it helps the uninformed understand immediately without having to flip back and forth.

 

The one thing I believe comes straight at you is the oft told tale about why men fight as they do in battle. They aren't fighting down on the ground in Vietnam for some noble purpose laid down by politicians back home (stop the spread of Communism) or by senior officers way behind the lines (body counts are a measure of progress); they are fighting for their lives and the man at their side.

 

The perspective of the "snuff" (a young Marine of low rank) is always going to be different from that of the career senior officers, "lifers" – quite often a derogatory term implying one who puts career, military rules and decorum above the welfare of the troops. In between these two groups are the young 2^nd lieutenants who live and die with the snuffs but are charged by their seniors to lead them to fight.

 

The battalion commander drinks too much for anyone in charge of troops and is quick off of the mark to find fault and suspect the worst. Marlantes gives us hope at the regiment and division level. The future is not addressed in the novel, but it is reasonable to expect that very shortly an officer's fitness report will put the battalion commander out to pasture.

 

In Vietnam this hierarchical system worked as it has for two-hundred years. It never is pretty, but the job gets done and young Americans rise to the occasion over and over again.

 

It is not going to happen but every American ought to read this tale and imagine himself in the First Squad, First Platoon. Matterhorn will not be a novel you will quit on half-way through. To do so would be deserting the boys in the sweltering mountains and jungle of Vietnam.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Why Youth Join al-Qaeda

The recent bombing attempt in Times Square has renewed questions about what motivates young people to join violent extremist groups. In a new Special Report, United States Institute of Peace Senior Fellow Col. John M. "Matt" Venhaus examines how the terrorist group al-Qaeda recruits young people, who signs up and why, and ways to prevent al-Qaeda from growing its ranks.
Read the Special Report
Click on the Download Now link beneath the image of the report (on the USIP site) or read the summary on the opening page.
(From my blog.)

Shopping at The Pig

In the days when Jesus trod the earth many men drank wine from goatskins. The richer ones had urns which they sometimes filled with water and we all know what happened at that wedding feast. Later on came bottles and real corks, most of which came from Portugal. Enterprising people took this a step further and introduced plastic corks. Time moves on and wine today is being sold in cardboard boxes equal to four 750 liter bottles. It is claimed the wine will stay fresh for a month after being opened. (I guess this is a natural progression to being able to have dog food delivered to our doors.)

If you pass on the wine in the cardboard box, as I did after picking up some apples and bananas at The Pig in Seaside Shoppes, watch yourself at the register, or better yet check the register receipt. I shopped on Saturday. My bill came to over $12. After putting the food away at home I looked a bit closer at the receipt and thought that was a lot of money for three items (I also bought some cow's milk). The apples cost $8.74. WHOA, wait a minute. I didn't buy that many. I got out the scale I use to weigh kilos of coke (that's an attempted funny, don't call the DEA) and had about 20 ounces of apples. Having learned elementary math at the hands of Miss Seed in the Hugh J. Molloy school, I returned to The Pig. The customer service rep weighed the apples and gave me a refund of $5.66. I asked what he intended to do about the scale and register where I checked out and he said "they are OK. The checkout girl probably leaned on the scale" and he would speak to her about it. And since my cash back was over $5 would I please sign the chit he put before me.

How the government spends some of your money

At one time or another we all wonder about how the government is spending our money. A portion of that money goes to maintaining and operating the FBI in Washington, across the country and in some foreign lands where we have embassies. One way to get an idea of what you are receiving for your money is to go to www.fbi.gov/ and look in the left hand column. You will find links to receive daily e-mail updates from the Bureau covering activities throughout the country and you can submit your e-mail address for press releases from the Columbia, SC, office (or other field offices in areas you are interested in). The daily e-mails come bullet-like with a summary of the issue and a link to the details. I have looked at these for a few weeks now and find them as interesting as any news magazine I read. One category of crime that surprises me is "public corruption" which gets much attention from the Bureau because of its effect on citizen respect for government, as well as betrayal of public trust for money or other favors. (Corrected copy.)

How not to dress for a flight

Michael Lombardi runs a financial investment in New York and threw a personal gripe into a recent e-mail that hit home with me and I want to pass it along:

“My gripe today may be a silly one, but I want to share it with my readers anyway.
“Back in the 1950s, 1960s and even for the majority of the 1970s, men would wear suits to work, women would wear dresses.
“(Remember The Dick Van Dyke Show or The Lucy Show. The men would come home from work in suits and wear them around the house until they went to bed, while women would wear dresses.)
“Putting work and the office aside, people originally dressed up to go onto an airplane. As a frequent traveler, I've become quite disgusted (sorry for the hard words) about how people dress on an airplane these days. I don't want to sit next to someone (male or female) who is wearing
“flip flops on a plane. Nor do I want to sit next to a man wearing short pants and an undershirt or a woman wearing a tank top, shorts and sun glasses.
“Sure, society has changed and dress today is much more casual. And while I don't expect people to get "dressed up" to go onto a flight, I do expect people to have respect for the way they present themselves and for their fellow passengers. I'm all for being ‘comfy’ on an airplane, but I have a big problem with people dressing as if the plane is a stepping stone to the beach or the gym.”

(From my blog.)

Sovereign Citizen Movement

Sovereign citizens "believe that even though they physically reside in this country, they are separate or 'sovereign' from the United States."They believe they don't have to pay taxes, can ignore the courts and thumb their noses at practically every organ of government federal, state and local. The FBI has released a summary of this movement in the United States and I found it interesting to say the least. They have even gone so far as to create their own license plates, some of which are shown in an FBI photo.
(From my blog.)

Madam Speaker…

Gavin Newsome, Mayor of San Francisco

According to news reports House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is the Republican Party’s top target, but the only way they can kick her out of the speaker’s office is to take control of the Congress in November.

Mrs. Pelosi got 72 percent of the vote in her District in 2008. San Francisco is her home base and the mayor of that city by the sea said on Bill Maher’s show a couple of weeks ago that his city already has a health plan in place which mirrors the bill passed by the Congress in March which has stirred up so much opposition in the GOP.

The main reason they have betting windows at race tracks is because people disagree on who is going to win. As of now, I believe Mrs. Pelosi will be with us as Speaker of the House in the 2011-2012 term. Political buffs stayed turned.

(From my blog.)

10 Ways Health Care may affect your taxes

This is a link to Market Watch, a respectable and reliable source of information concerning finances at all levels. It outlines how the recently enacted Health Care legislation may affect your and my taxes.
(From my blog.)

hh gregg – research before you go

Two or three times a week there is an insert in the local paper touting low prices at hh gregg, appliances and electronics. This may not always be the case. Today at the local store I bought a Free Agent/Go Dock to hold my external disc drive for $19.99.

A short time later I was in the Best Buy store and found the same product for $4.99. I bought one there also and later returned the first one to hhgregg.

I am not sure how you explain such a price differential but it obviously pays to have some idea of what something costs before you shop.

(See my complete blog.)

Cleaning the refrigertor

Anjali Athavaley wrote in the fourth section of The Wall Street Journal, February 24, 2010, (“Why Won’t Anyone Clean Me?”) about how most Americans clean their refrigerators only once or twice a year and how refrigerator manufacturers are trying to make their new appliances a weapon in the fight against dirty kitchens.
It came as a shock to me that most Americans actually clean their refrigerator twice a year. I have been in my Man Cave for two years and have not cleaned my refrigerator once. During the 55 or so years my wife and I shared a home I am sure she cleaned our refrigerator regularly, at least I never found reason to complain. Of course, when you have five children at home there not much food that lingers long enough in a refrigerator to resemble “science projects” or cause bacteria problems. (My wife now lives in a nursing home and I am in my second period of bachelorhood, the first being the time between when I left home to enter the Air Force and when I married.)
A cleaning service comes to my apartment weekly and does the necessary, but things like refrigerators are a special service and separate arrangements must be made. My good intentions to get this done seem to disappear in the time it takes to close the refrigerator and put the task out of sight. After reading Miss Athavaley’s article this morning I was determined to get in there and “clean and sanitize.” I put on some old pants and shoes and went to work.
First, I emptied all the food out of the refrigerator and stacked it on the counter and stove top in the kitchen. I don’t keep a lot of food as I take most of my meals in the dining room of the retirement community where I live, or I eat elsewhere. (Occasionally, falling back on “the kindness of strangers.”) As I pulled each item I gave it the smell test and looked it over carefully for signs of something that might cure the H1N1 virus.
Then I commenced to take out all the shelves, compartments and humidity controlled containers. I washed each of these pieces in the kitchen sick with hot water and detergent and as I did so I put them on towels I had laid out on the dinette table and leather sofa to air dry. It surprised me how easily all these parts came out and it later surprised me even more that they all went back in.
When it came time to restore the food I carefully noted the advice in the article and put the condiments on the door shelf (the warmest part of the refrigerator and not the place for the milk carton). I only have one potato, an apple and three oranges that are likely to spoil if they are still around on Labor Day but I put them front where I will see every time I open the door. I looked at the “use by dates” and chucked a couple of items into the trash.
All in all it was not a time consuming task, nor something beyond a man with only a Masters degree in international relations. I did the job in about an hour and took some pictures as I went along in case I am compelled to prove that I cleaned my refrigerator during the 21st Century. I suspect that when some congress person(s) read the article there will be an attempt to create a refrigerator police force. Such is the way of life.
(From my blog.)

Duke, we miss you

I can hardly wait for May to arrive. AMC and other movie channels usually run a month long tribute to John Wayne by showing his movies over again. The Duke died in 1979 so many of these films are dated and you know the outcome. The Duke is always the good guy and right away you can spot the bad guys. This desire for a nostalgic moment (or month of such moments) is propelled by the two last films I have chosen to watch.

One was Lorna’s Silence: the story of an Albania girl who enters into a sham marriage to a Belgian drug dealer to get Belgium citizenship so she can get a license to open a snack bar. At the end she is running for her life and hiding in a cold shack in a forest somewhere between Belgium and Albania laying on a simple wooden bench and whispering to the non-existent child she imagines is in her womb.

The second film is Shutter Island, the Scorsese film which took in the most money at the box office this week. In this one a US Marshal arrives at an asylum for the criminally insane on this island off the coast of Boston to investigate the disappearance of an inmate – or a patient, as the staff likes to refer to them – and winds up quietly heading for a lighthouse on the island where the doctor and staff will perform a lobotomy on him.

Let’s just say these films were not my cup of tea and I like the simpler world of the Duke.

  

Marsh walk, Mt Pleasant SC

This is a link to some pictures I took today at the recently opened Mt Pleasant marsh walk near the Water Works Department on Rifle Range Road. There is also a dog park which has two fenced areas, one for large dogs and one for small dogs. Along the way to the marsh we met some people and dogs enjoying the warmer weather and the great view from the marsh. Parking is close by the entrance to this site. It is on a driveway between the Water Works and the new Mamie Whiteside school under construction. It makes a nice outing.

(Click on the above link to see the pictures).

(From my blog.)

Health care died in 2010

The sweeping improvement to health care in America envisioned by the Obama administration a year ago is dead. Its lengthy life killed it.

 

President Obama and his advisors looked back at the fate of President Clinton’s health initiative. President Clinton sent his wife up to Congress with a detailed master plan. When it arrived it hung there like a piñata at a Cinco de Mayo festival in a Juarez saloon where three kinds of people waited to bash it: the nearly drunk, the drunk and those who couldn’t even hang on to the floor. To avoid a similar fate, the new administration’s reasoning went, let’s allow Congress to write a bill around some goals advanced by President Obama. Well, that hasn’t worked either.

Having taken over the government in 2009, the really liberal Democrats in Congress (who never face serious Republican challenges back home) drafted a bill with every wish and wet dream idea they ever had in it. The Democrats from states where they depended on Republican cross voting to get elected balked at some of these ideas, not that they weren’t good. They were just too risky for some Democrats. Meanwhile, the Republicans got together and decided they would not support anything – even a 21st Century version of the miracle of the loaves and fishes – not even if they could put their hand into Jesus’ side.

 

Over in the Senate the Democratic majority that could push a proposal through dithered too damn long and then the great Liberal Lion, Ted Kennedy, died. What could have been the strongest voice for health care reform was silenced. The one man who might have brokered a deal, as sick as he was, with a few Republicans was gone from the Senate scene.

Then the seat held by Senator Kennedy was given to a Republican by the Massachusetts voters and the chances for health care reform began to really slide down hill. In the end, the proponents wanted and expected too much, the administration plan to let the Congress draft the bill has turned out to be a mistake and the refusal of the Republicans in Congress to come to the table in any collegial manner finally scuttled the whole idea of imaginative health care reform. If anything comes out in 2010 it will be a watered down version of the great dream. The 35 million uncovered Americans will remain uncovered. There may be tinkering around the edges but in the long run insurers will make more money and consumers will pay higher premiums.

(From my blog.)

Goodbye Charlie, Thanks for your work

Charlie Wilson, a 12-term congressman from Texas, has died at the age of 76. While he was in Congress he was a one-man dollar resource assault team against the Soviets in Afghanistan. There is a book and later a movie, Charlie Wilson's War, which tell the story of how an obscure playboy congressman (Tom Hanks played Wilson) from Texas single-handedly got the Congress to funnel millions of dollars to the mujahideen and Afghan "freedom fighters" to fight and ultimately defeat the Soviets during the 1980s. Some say now that weapons funded by Wilson and the CIA are being used against us in Afghanistan, but that is Monday-morning quarterbacking. The fact is that Wilson's efforts led to the defeat of the Soviets and forced them to give up in Afghanistan. It had the unintended consequence of awaking dreams and visions of Islam, but that not ought to be held against Charlie.

If you haven't see the excellent movie it is available on DVD at most of the usual outlets and is occasionally seen on movie channels. With Wilson's death you might look for it to be re-run several times over the next week or two.

The book, written by George Crile, is similarly available at most of the usual outlets. It is a fascinating read. I actually saw the movie first and then bought and read the book. The story is that compelling.

Charlie Wilson is the only outsider ever recognized by the CIA as "honored colleague." He was truly one of the good guys.

Sanford saga

Letters to the Editor
The Post & Courier
Charleston, SC
Dear Sirs:
Drucilla Barker, director of women and gender studies at USC, hit the nail on the head regarding Jenny Sanford's book on her life, failed marriage and divorce from the governor.

This sadly miserable tale, like a few others involving rich celebrities in recent years, continues to play out only because of the wealth and resources available to Mrs. Sanford.

There are thousands of women, and some men, across this country who divorce every year because of infidelity and other reasons and we hear little or nothing from them or about them, only the statistics about the divorce rate.

Through the Internet, for example, I learned that for the 12 months ending in April 2009, 34 percent of marriages ended in divorce. Enough of the Sanfords.

/s/ Francis X. Archibald 

(Published February 10, 2010)

(This is from my blog.)

You’ve got mail

On a lark about six days ago I decided to count the pieces of unsolicited mail I received over the next week. Leading the way were 19 offers to sell me something, 13 requests for donations to charities and 7 offers to subscribe to publications. Clearly these 39 unsolicited mailings outnumbered the pieces of mail and magazines I already subscribe to.

My mail is not unusual, according to comments made in the lobby by other residents of my 35 unit apartment house. One lady said all she ever gets is “pay me, buy me, give me” mail and wonders how the senders got her name. I wonder the same thing. Did someone get a copy of the directory for our retirement community? If so, how? Holders of the directory are requested not to make copies nor share the contents with outsiders.

I have briefly considered writing “Return to Sender,” and adding either “Addressee deceased” or “Moved, left no address” but the next piece of unsolicited mail will simply be addressed to “Occupant.” I think I will just continue to toss the unwanted mail in the recycle bin and get on with my life.

(This is from my larger BLOG.)

God does not carry a 220 year old grudge!

The earthquake in Haiti is, according to TV evangelist Pat Robertson, God getting even for a pact Haitians made with the devil in 1791. Legend has it that 220 years ago some Haitians led by slaves revolted against French rule and made a pact with the devil to serve him if he got them out from under the French.

Haiti is the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere and possible anywhere in the world. Even an old testament vengeful God would consider this sufficient punishment for nine million people who today live in abject poverty and who have never known anything better. He would not have to send them an earthquake to make his point. On top of which none of these nine million souls were around when the alleged pact was made with Satan.

I do not believe natural disasters occur because God gets up one day on the wrong side of the bed and decides to even scores. It is not necessary to understand all the forces of nature which must come into play for disasters to occur. Suffice it to say they happen and they are called natural disasters, be they earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, plagues, landslides. These things are not, in my opinion, the messenger of the Lord.

 

Anyway, forget about the loony characterizations of the Rev. Robertson and find some way to send a bit of help to some charity trying to alleviate the terrible effect of this disaster in Haiti. The God I know will not punish you for being an accessory after the fact to a 220 year old pact with the devil.

(This is an extract from my blog.)

Some stars will be sadly added

Sometime later this year seven stars will be added to the CIA Memorial Wall honoring the men and women who died in Afghanistan this past week. Their bodies were returned to the United States on Monday, arriving at Dover AFB, the scene of the return of so many other Americans who have died in the line of duty. Following are some notes about the CIA Memorial Wall:

 

THE CIA MEMORIAL WALL – Langley, Virginia 
The Memorial Wall is on the north wall of the Original Headquarters Building lobby. This wall of 90 stars stands as a silent, simple memorial to those CIA officers who
have made the ultimate sacrifice. Above the stars, a simple inscription reads: "In honor of those members of the Central Intelligence Agency who gave their lives in
the service of their country." The Memorial Wall was commissioned by the CIA Fine Arts Commission in May 1973 and sculpted by Harold Vogel in July 1974.
Below the Memorial Wall sits the glass encased "Book of Honor." It lists the names of 55 officers who died while serving their country. The names of the remaining 35 officers must remain secret, even in death; each of these officers is remembered in the book by a star. This wall memorializes those men and women who served and sacrificed in silence.

Getting blog writer updated

This is an informational blog – I am using a new application to help craft blog entries and hope that you receiving this will not be an undue intrusion. I am including a picture taken in early December 2009 when one of our fine dining room staff was leaving to pursue her new career in nursing. Well done Tameka!

Archie

Life's little problems

On a Sunday I bought an overcoat in a large Southern chain store. Sleeves needed to be shortened a tad and the coat would “go to the tailor on Monday. Be ready after four on Thursday.” I could not get back on Thursday and Friday was New Year’s Day so I telephoned to see if the store was open. It was. And the lady answering the phone said she would check on my coat and call me back. Thirty minutes later she called and said the coat was ready to be picked up. “Come to the customer service desk.” I drove to the store and went to the customer service desk. My coat is not there and I have to go down the aisle, turn right and go to another customer service desk. Off I go. At this desk a clerk is closing a sale of three nylon panties to a rather large woman who wants 15% off as promised in some newspaper coupon she presents. That takes another minute or two and my mind wanders as to how this woman would look in those panties. I repress the image and present my claim ticket to the clerk. This is not the customer service desk that handles such and I must go back down to the end of the aisle. At this third customer service desk my ticket is presented again and the clerk disappears into the back room somewhere. Other customers arrive and want to check out but are dismayed to find the customer service desk not staffed. “She will be back in a moment,” I tell them reassuringly. “She went to get my coat.” The clerk returns empty-handed and says maybe it is in a fourth customer service station and she will go there and check. I say that I will do it and she should stay at her work station and help these other customers. (After all we are trying to cooperate with President Obama and get the national economy moving and every little bit helps.) On to number four I go. By now I have almost made a 360 degree sweep of the store. At number four a clerk is finishing up a sale and then he turns to me. I present my ticket and he ponders it for a moment and then reaches over to a large garment in a plastic bag tied in a knot at the bottom (a security measure so shoplifters can’t stick a second item in a bag). The ticket I presented matches the ticket on the bag and off I go with the sound of “Thank you, sir, and Happy New Year” ringing in my ears. I arrive home, hang the bag on a door hook and untie the knot at the bottom. I remove the coat from the plastic bag. I put on a casual sport coat and then don my new overcoat. Look at myself in the mirror and am pleased with the whole effect. After all, I got a greatly reduced price on fine coat. And then the perfect moment is shattered. The coat still has a plastic security (see picture) tag attached. This is supposed to set off an alarm if someone tries to leave the store with such a tag in place. But no alarm went off when I left the store. I examine the tag. It is a rectangular plastic tag on one side and a pin has been inserted through the garment and is secured with a plastic round button like tag on the inside. Tampering with this tag is guaranteed to ruin the garment. I tried to twist and pull the button off at the same time, which sometimes works but not for me. I thought about the problem for a minute or two and then reasoned there have been a lot of people between Adam and Eve and myself so this might not be a new problem. I Googled the question of removing clothing security tags and was shocked to find out dozens and dozens of people have had this stupid problem. There were young girls literally in tears who had prom dresses, men with suits, some who lived out in the New York suburbs and dreaded going back into Manhattan to get the tag removed. One earlier victim suggested wearing the garment with the security tag and starting a new fashion statement. People reported using hammers, flat head screwdrivers and pliers to deal with the problem, some of which resulted in damaging the garment. Another suggested going to a store close to your home and ask them to remove the tag. This approach is iffy because they might not have the correct tool and the explanation process could generate more questions and an extended hassle. So I returned to the store where I bought the coat to have the tag removed by the clerk who gave me the package in the first place. I was not a happy camper, not even when he apologized and informed me that the sales lady who sold me the coat last Sunday was the one who should have removed the tag.

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.