Reunion of Anna's Children - 2012

I want to share some pictures taken on the trip to Maine. Suffice to say I had a good time when I got there, but the devil was in the getting. I will never drive from Charleston to Maine again. It has changed 1000 percent from years ago when we used to make the trip and Mary kept a jar in the car for the boys to pee in so we wouldn't have to stop. Now stopping was a way of life. The traffic starting about 25 miles South of Washington is insufferable and I do not know what keeps New York people mentally sound. From now on I will forgive anyone who has lived there and has a "New York attitude." 

My siblings, Walter, Barbara and Carol, all looked fine and are in good health. Walter and Carol had their "Charlie drama" stories, which they can laugh at now but were not a laughing matter when they were lived. My only regret is that I could not have been of more assistance to them last year in Charlie's final days, but Mary was my first concern for a long time. I believe they understood then and now.

The Haven by the Sea in Maine was the same fine place we have been before. John and Susan are outstanding hosts. While we were there an association of B&B owners sent a check team in under cover and it was not until the next day they revealed themselves. Walter had saved the day the evening before when he showed the check man how to turn on the fireplace. He said John had told him how to do it. This was a very good sign as to John's efforts on part of his guests. The Inn received a rating of 198 out of 200 points. Two points were lost because of plastic glasses in the bathrooms. These are individually wrapped. John uses them because all the bathroom floors are stone and a broken glass would pay havoc with guests feet. He took the loss of 2 points with a grain of salt.

I enjoyed the trip and got to give my 2005 BMW a good workout. It performed most satisfactorily. This was the first time since I bought it last fall that I took it on the road any distance and wanted to see how it would perform. It rode silently and smoothly. A couple of times the speedometer was hitting 100 mph. I slowed down. The car just crept up on me without any exertion. Anyway, after a couple of those experiences I tried to keep it around 65-80. Many times others past me. I like the laws in Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, New York, and all the New England States. They prohibit trucks buses and trailers in the far left lane and this makes driving safer and smoother for auto drivers. All things considered, it was a good trip and it felt good to see my sisters and brother again. We are going to try and stay in touch a bit more in the future. All in all, a good reunion of Anna's Children. 

Family reunion

I am excited to be traveling to Wells Beach, Maine, this coming weekend to visit with my two sisters and brother. It has been a few years since we have been together. We will stay at Haven by the sea on Church Street. This is a delightful bed and breakfast where we have stayed before and is always a joy. Along the way I will visit with two sons in their homes. Will see you all when I return.

Essay: Yesterday's news today

The Post & Courier – Less news, higher price

The monthly price for daily home delivery of The Post & Courier (Charleston, S.C.) is rising to $20 from $17.50 effective May 1, 2012.

At the same time the paper has fewer pages per day than a year ago or even two years ago. It is going to cost more to have less news delivered. Example: the kid’s page in the tabloid section published on Thursdays is gone. The paper does not carry reviews of local theater and other performing arts. National and international news have been cut back gradually and it is difficult to remember when we use to get more.

According to the paper, some of the $2.50 price hike will go to the carriers, but we don’t know how much. It is a good bet most of it will go to burnish the bottom line and keep the owners eating regularly.

Circulation of the paper is about 82,300, according to Mondo Times (worldwide news media directory.) The on-line Wall Street 24/7, reported readership rates for print newspapers are falling across the board, and the country’s younger generation has abandoned the medium the most. 

As of 2010, only 7% of 18- to 24-year-olds reported having read a print newspaper the day before, according to the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press.

About two years ago a young man startled me with some off the wall views on a then current event. I asked him where he got his information. “The Jon Stewart” shows, he replied. 

The May 2012 Harper's Index reported $23.9 billion in ad revenue for the U.S. newspaper industry in 2011, while Google earned $36.5 billion. 

Newspapers are not the only part of the news media losing customers and revenue. The daily network television news broadcasts, local and national, are suffering the same fate.

The late George Carlin said the news media was “a sort of bulletin board and public relations firm for the ruling class – the people who run things.” He was not a big fan of television news outlets.

“On the ‘Five O’Clock News,’ they tell you about the ‘Six O’Clock News’; at six O’Clock, they tell you about eleven; at eleven, they plug the morning news; the morning man promos the noontime lady, and, sure enough a little after noon, here comes that empty-headed (expletive deleted) from the ‘Five O’Clock News’ to tell you what he’s going to do …on the Five O’clock News.”

Maybe the 18-24 year olds know something the rest of us don’t. Meanwhile, it is going to cost more to have the comics and obituaries delivered to your door each day. Tune in The Jon Stewart shows for the rest of the news.

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We miss you Mom

My mother died ten years today (March 30)  in Lowell, MA. Anna Mary (Wynn) Archibald was born December 16, 1909.

She had five children and cared for and loved us throughout her life - even in spite of some things she may not have approved of. We loved her back - in spite of some little things that didn't please us as we were growing up.  As we grew in that love, life's little irritations faded away and became too few to mention. 

May the Lord continue to enjoy your company Mom. We miss you!

Anna's Kids, Top circa 1940-41

Barbara, Walter, Francis,

Charlie and Carol

Bottom April 2, 2002

Walter, Francis, Barbara, Charlie, Carol

In memory of Trayvon Martin

I wear a hoodie on occasion but this is no reason to shoot me and it was no reason to fear or shoot a 17-year old African-American youth in Sanford, Fla. on February 26. The Grand Jury and/or the Justice Department need to get to the bottom of this. 

The art of talking...

"What makes a good conversationalist has changed little over the years. The basics remain the same as when Cicero became the first scholar to write down some rules, which were summarised in 2006 by The Economist: 'Speak clearly; speak easily but not too much, especially when others want their turn; do not interrupt; be courteous; deal seriously with serious matters and gracefully with lighter ones; never criticise people behind their backs; stick to subjects of general interest; do not talk about yourself; and, above all, never lose your temper.' But Cicero was lucky: he never went on a first date with someone more interested in their iPhone than his company." (Excerpted from "How to have a conversation," John McDermott, Financial Times -online, March 9, 2012.)

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A good friend has passed on...

Vivian G. Boyd, 96, of Hanahan, SC, has passed on. She was a good friend, always joyful, optimistic and showing concern for others. We often visited with her at church on Sunday and always left with a smile on our face. My late wife, Mary, and I were privileged to attend her 90th birthday party held in the Divine Redeemer Church hall and share a few laughs with her. She will be missed by family and her legions of friends. 

You're nuts!

In 1917, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders listed 22 psychiatric diagnoses. This is the bible of the mental health profession and strives to catalog every form of mental illness known to man and woman. A new edition due out next year will list 350 diagnoses. Despite the vast accumulation of knowledge and insight gained over the last 95 years there is one constant: If you talk to God, you're praying. If God talks to you, you're nuts.

 

What is happening in our world?

An article in the March issue of SmartMoney, a publication of the Dow-Jones & Company, Inc., (publishers of The Wall Street Journal,) detailed how in some families job hunting has become a total family affair. Parents of college-grad children are writing resumes for them, tracking them a couple of times a week on LinkedIn, going on job interviews, making follow-up calls (because junior is too busy watching Jersey Shore?). One new hire’s mother reportedly called to say her kid was working too many hours and she wasn’t happy.

In some cases where the parents are no more successful in helping the kid land a job than the kid is on his/her own, parents hire “job coaches.”

Some of this is undoubtedly desperation on the part of meddling, doting or desperate (or all three) parents: they want the kids out of the house and on someone else’s payroll. Twenty-two or twenty-three years of raising, feeding, nursing, clothing, hauling them to little league and ballet classes, and educating them is enough. They want to see some payback for the hundred and fifty grand they coughed up for some private college.

Nevertheless, it was an eye-opener to read some of the lengths to which involved parents go in the 21^st century to help junior or missy get a job. And think nothing of it. How was it I and others of my age missed out on this golden opportunity to meddle in our children’s lives well into their adulthood? It is difficult to believe this sort of obsessive parenting is only a logical evolution of life in America. Two hundred years ago artisans took their sons into the family business or trade and taught them how to earn a livelihood. In my adult experience, fathers and/or mothers – at the most, called old friends and former college classmates to ask for a job interview for their offspring. My parents did not do this for me, but I never held it against those that did. Within my own family, a suggestion, a nod in the right direction, or a discrete inquiry was to my mind enough.

About thirty years ago I suggested to my oldest son where he might apply for a job. I gave him a book written by a man recounting his experiences in that line of work. He read the book, applied for a job and a career was born. Another son regretted he had declined a job. He had second thoughts but was embarrassed to ask if the job was still available. I told him to call."If the job is still open, there is no embarrassment. If they tell you are too late, hang up. It’s over.” He made the call, and got the job at an increased opening salary.

Another son wanted to change careers and I asked a friend to give him an interview. He landed a job and today is a highly valued employee. A firm where I had done a piece of business opened a new location. I told them my daughter who was in the same industry wanted to relocate. “Tell her to send a resume.” She did and relocated.

My last child wanted to go to graduate school to enhance her opportunities. For a couple of years she and her son boarded in our family home two days a week and my wife absolutely loved caring for the grandson while our daughter went to school. Today she is doing well.

At the most I made two suggestions, had two short conversations, and enjoyed the pleasure of watching my grandson grow.

Accompanying kids on job interviews? Tracking them on LinkedIn? What has happened to our world? If this madness continues parents will be going daily to the job while the over-educated kids stay home and play the latest version of Nintendo?

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Electric shock for Limbaugh

Hardly anyone in the United States isn't aware of Rush Limbaugh's insult of a Georgetown law student for her testimony about insurance coverage for birth control pills. His ugly version is twisted 180 degrees opposite what the student testified about. Here is some information excerpted from The Loyal Opposition blog, The New York Times,  March 2, 2012: 

"Do the Right Thing

"By ANDREW ROSENTHAL

"Intolerance and character assassination are so ubiquitous in political discourse that it’s important to take note when someone calls out bad behavior, withstands it, or bothers to apologize for it.
*****
"The next person who deserves a bit of positive attention is Sandra Fluke, a Georgetown University law student.
"At a Congressional hearing in mid-February on the Obama administration’s new contraception rules, Ms. Fluke testified that birth control can cost women up to $3,000 over the course of law school. She also told the House Oversight Committee about a friend who was prescribed birth control pills as part of her cancer treatment (a common occurrence) but had to buy them herself because Georgetown’s health insurance did not cover it (also a common occurrence).
"She was eminently reasonable. But, this week, Rush Limbaugh attacked her repeatedly on his radio show. He twisted what Ms. Fluke said beyond recognition and claimed she was trying to get taxpayers to subsidize her sex life, which is entirely irrelevant to this conversation. Mr. Limbaugh called her a “slut” who wanted to be paid to have sex.
"(After he heard about Mr. Limbaugh’s comments, Mr. Obama called Ms. Fluke to thank her for backing his policies despite the onslaught, and to see how she was doing. I think he deserves praise, but he’s not one of the three because the effort cost him no political capital.)"

Earlier this week I expressed the idea of starting a fund to take Rush Limbaugh out for an afternoon of electric shock. Learning more details of how he twisted Ms. Fluke's testimony leads me to think a full day might be in order.

The beat goes on

Four years ago today I moved into an apartment at Franke at Seaside, Mt. Pleasant, SC. It was my first "PCS" (permanent change of station to those who never served in the military) in 44 years. My wife, Mary, preceded me to Franke by about seven months and lived in Assisted Living. The days went by faster than any other period I can recall. (It seems strange but the older we get the faster the days roll by.) Slowly but progressively I met my neighbors and made new friends from all parts of the country and all walks of life. The joy this brought was marred by the deterioration in Mary's health and her death in December 2010. Many in the Active Lifestyle Community have had similar down moments, but life goes on. For Mary and I the permanent physical separation came after 56 years of being together. During those years - in good times and bad - we shared a Kiplingesque expression and attitude that serves me well today: soldier on!

New friends (especially one very, very special friend) are a precious joy in my life. When I was a young boy, just entering my teens, living in Lowell, MA, I attended St. Patrick's Church. We had a change in pastor's in the mid forties. When the new priest gave his first sermon he dwelt on the theme and uttered the phrase, "my lot has been cast in friendly places." Since moving to Franke at Seaside, I often recalled that sermon and fully appreciate the heartfelt sentiment it expressed. And I am happy at this time in my life to say, "my lot has been cast in friendly places."

 

Mrs. Colbert and her son

Report: Colbert Stops Show for Mom

Oh where, oh where could Stephen be?! That was the question being hurled around by fans of comedian Stephen Colbert’s The Colbert Report after the show abruptly halted production this week “due to unforeseen circumstances.” The New York Post cited a source Friday that said the show was put on hold as Colbert tended to his ailing 91-year-old mother, who lives in Charleston, S.C. “They are a very private family,” the source told the paper of the Colberts. Stephen is the youngest of 11 children. Colbert told audiences on Monday that he had just returned from a week in South Carolina before the show was snipped later in the week. The show is said to return as early as next week, according to the source. (Source:The Daily Beast and The New York Post.)

Lost a friend - Ed Holcomb

A single red rose in a vase in the lobby of the main building at Franke at Seaside yesterday told us another resident had died. This was Ed Holcomb, who was somewhere in his 90s.

 

A couple of weeks ago over dinner in the dining room at Franke, the residential community where we both live,  Ed asked me to help him set up a wireless system in his apartment so he could use his Nook to download books he wanted to read. In a phone call a day or so later I recommended he buy a wireless router and we would hook it up. We talked again last week and he said he was ready to do the job. I went to his apartment where we chatted as he showed me the office he had created in a second bedroom. It held his books and desk and computer. It was a comfortable room and he said it gave him a lot of pleasure. We looked at the cable connection sitting on the floor and the wire running around the baseboard of two walls and speculated how it might be raised up and moved even closer to the computer. After a few minutes I asked him for the router and  he seemed surprised. Then he realized he was to have purchased one. He went to a day-planner and found the note to himself and said he had completely skipped over it.

We laughed a bit and talked a little more. He apologized for his mistake and I told him to forget it. I said it was a pleasure seeing his place and talking. We made plans to get together again in a couple of days.

Ed told me about his weekly calls via Skype with a son who is working in New Zealand. He was proud of this accomplishment using some of the latest free technology. Details of Ed's death and arrangements have not been publicized. I am sure contact is being made with the son to include his wishes.

The community has lost a good member. We will remember him fondly.

  

The Maltese Falcon

Came across this blog about one of my all-time favorite films: The Maltese Falcon. The last sentence says all that need be said: Nobody will ever make a better Sam Spade than Humphrey Bogart. 

01.27.12 

Guest blogger Angela Petteys 
(Note: Links not operative)

When you have more than one screen adaptation of a novel, usually one is more faithful to the book than the other. However, in the case of Dashiell Hammett's  The Maltese Falcon, it has two pretty accurate translations. The first version, released in 1931, stars Ricardo Cortez as detective Sam Spade, Bebe Daniels, and Thelma Todd, and it does a pretty good job of sticking to the source material. However, director John Huston's 1941 film, with Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, and Sydney Greenstreet, is an even more accurate representation. It doesn’t stick to the novel exactly, but most of the dialogue is taken verbatim and the key story elements are kept intact. (Editor's Note: There was also a very loose 1936 adaptation, with Warren William and Bette Davis, entitled Satan Met a Lady.)
Most of the differences are pretty subtle and probably were changed for the sake of pacing. For example, in the 1941 movie Sam finds out about the arrival of the boat La Paloma after he wakes up in Kasper (“The Fat Man”) Gutman’s hotel room and starts looking around the room. It’s a much more drawn out process in the book. In the book, Sam finds out Brigid O’Shaughnessy didn’t go to his secretary Effie’s apartment like she was supposed to. Instead, she had the cab stop to get a newspaper, then she asked to be brought to the ferry building. So Sam gets a copy of the paper in question to look for clues, but doesn’t figure it out until he starts snooping around Joel Cairo’s room and notices that the newspaper section with ship arrivals was of particular interest to him. Although there’s nothing wrong with the way that part plays out as written by Hammett, if it were filmed that way, it would have slowed the picture down. Another difference is that the character of Gutman’s daughter is completely absent from the Bogart movie (as well as from the Ricardo Cortez version, for that matter), but she wasn’t exactly a vital character in the book.
A lot of the other changes were definitely made because of Hollywood’s production codes. What’s interesting about that content is that neither the 1931 nor the 1941 version gets it exactly right. The 1931 film tends to be a bit more scandalous than the book was, but it does include things that were in the book that couldn’t be included in the 1941 remake. There’s no way director Huston could have gotten away with the scene where Spade strip searches O’Shaughnessy after noticing that $1,000 of the $10,000 Gutman promised him was missing, but it was in the 1931 version. The 1941 movie also really had to downplay the fact that Cairo and Wilmer were both supposed to be gay, whereas the earlier adaptation made that fact much clearer. In the book, when O’Shaughnessy finds out that Sam has been talking to Cairo--who is prepared to pay more money than she can-- she offers to sleep with him and proceeds to spend the night at Sam’s apartment. When it comes to that part in the 1941 version, Brigid can’t offer herself to Spade or spend the night, so Sam just kisses her instead. As for Spade’s affair with Iva Archer, his partner Miles’s widow, the 1941 movie actually depicts what went on more accurately than the 1931 version. The first film made that affair more salacious than the book described. First of all, the book made Iva Archer out to be a little past her prime, which Thelma Todd most certainly was not. There also weren’t any scenes involving Iva showing up at Sam’s apartment and finding Brigid wearing her kimono, nor were there any of Miles listening on the extension while Sam and Iva set up a tryst.
I really enjoyed reading The Maltese Falcon, and I think anyone who likes either movie version would, too. Like I said, what you see in the two screen adaptations is pretty much what you get in the novel. And since it’s not a terribly long book, either, I definitely recommend reading it. As for which movie I prefer, I think it goes without saying that the Humphrey Bogart version wins hands down. The Ricardo Cortez version is good, but it doesn’t have the flawless cast and direction that the later one did. I always loved the cast of the 1941 film, but while I was reading the book and got to read exactly how each character was described, I feel like that version had some of the most perfect casting of all time. Nobody will ever make a better Sam Spade than Humphrey Bogart.
Angela runs the blog The Hollywood Revue and is a classic film enthusiast from Detroit. To keep up with the latest from The Hollywood Revue, please join her on Facebook.

Selecting a candidate

I am sorry we won't have a chance to vote for Vermin Supreme in South Carolina's Republican primary on Saturday, nor later in the year. He was on the ballot apparently only in New Hampshire. He campaigned on such issues as "mandatory tooth-brushing, zombie preparedness, and federal funding of time travel research so he can 'kill Hitler with my bare hands.'" He also was going "to give free ponies to all Americans." Considering all the inane political rhetoric we are exposed to in this primary season, Vermin's platform has some appeal. Oh, by the way, did I mention he is a Democrat? 

Wikipedia to go black; death of a comedian

"Wikipedia, the popular community-edited online encyclopedia, will black out its English-language site for 24 hours to seek support against proposed US anti-piracy legislation that Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales said threatens the future of the internet.
"The service will be the highest profile name to join a growing campaign starting at midnight Eastern Time on Wednesday that will see it black out its page so that visitors will only see information about the controversial Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA).
"The information will urge Wikipedia readers in the US to contact their local congressman to vote against the bills. Other smaller sites leading the campaign include Reddit.com and Cheezeburger.
" 'This is a quite clumsily drafted legislation which is dangerous for an open internet,' said Wales in an interview." (Source: Aljazeera.com website, 1/17/2012)

In a nutshell this is the issue: If a website publishes intellectual property, be a movie or a song or something similar, without permission, the website would be forced off the air, even if the publication was incidental and unintended. If you did a search on Google, for example, and it turned up this second website that contained the unauthorized material, Google could be closed down. The present procedure is to send notice to the offending website and have them remove the property in question. If they fail to do so other legal remedies are available to the rightful owners. Hollywood and other backers of the proposed legislation say the SOPA and PIPA legislation is essential to protecting their investments against intellectual piracy, which is a problem centered mainly outside the United States.  Critics say the legislation goes too far and, as Wales put it, "threatens the future of the internet."

*****

In a new book Thirty-Nine Years of Short-Term Memory Loss: The Early Days of SNL from Someone Who Was There, by Tom Davis the author recounts how entertainers and  artists of all types tried desperately to get on the Johnny Carson show. In the 70s, an appearance on Carson was the key to success and good fortune. It opened doors everywhere for a performer. One comedian, Davis recounts, had a tryout and used his best material and gave it everything he had. He was rejected by the talent director and staff. Ten days later he jumped off the roof of a hotel and landed in the parking lot of the Comedy Club in Hollywood. He had note in his pocket with his name on it and three words: "I was a comedian." (Source: delanceyplace.com, website, 1/17/2012)


(Complete blog is here.)

The Good (?) Old Days

"A performer called 'The Human Fish' ate a banana, played a trombone, and read a newspaper while submerged in a tank of water." This is one example of the vaudeville entertainment that traveled around the country from about 1880 to 1930. This and other tidbits of that bygone era are highlighted for our attention in a recent book: American Rose: A Nation Laid Bare: The Life and Times of Gypsy Rose Lee by Karen Abbott (Random House.)

For almost five decades vaudevillians traveled the United States and Canada and sang, juggled, told jokes, acted out skits, swallowed swords and belched fire to thrill and entertain. They hung on in the face of silent movies, sometimes appearing on stage before a movie. When talkies came in it was the beginning of the end of "The Human Fish" and other weird acts: an old dowager, Lady Alice, kept audiences gaping as she performed with rats. One of them sat on her head blowing a kazoo while others paraded across her arms. Lady Alice's long kept secret: a trail of Cream of Wheat slathered on her neck and shoulders. 

Movies won out until the late 1940's when television was in its infancy and for a few years the vaudevillians were back. The respite was (mercifully) brief and they did not survive. 

I am indebted to delanceyplace.com for some of this information. 

(Complete blog here.)

Marsh Walk

(Click photo to enlarge)
I sat on the concrete bench provided and looked across the marsh bathing in the sun that flitted in and out behind wisps of clouds. The quiet beauty of the scene made the walk worthwhile and the memory would stay with me on the return walk to Franke at Seaside.
The Mt. Pleasant Waterworks has created the Marsh Walk just beyond the dog run behind their headquarters and plant on Rifle Range Road. It took about 40 minutes to walk to the scene but with the temperature about 65 degrees it was pleasant. (You can drive to this same area and park only a couple of minutes from the walking path.)
Along the path are numerous large oak trees. How long they have been there is anyone’s guess. Some hang over the trail and combine to block out the sun. Perhaps later in the day when the sun is higher in the sky it may break through the overhanging growth. Part of the walk is asphalted for convenience but it ends a hundred yards or so from the marsh. When I visited last year we could walk out into the marsh, but now there are small signs “ No humans beyond this point.” This is understandable and does not detract from the joy of the trip. At this point on the walk the view is gorgeous and celebrates the magic of the Creator. Sitting there for a few moments in silent contemplation renews the soul. I recommend this, at least once a year!
(The complete blog is here,)

Why do we laugh?

A man and a woman who have never met before find themselves sharing a sleeping car on an overnight train. After some initial embarrassment, they both go to sleep in their bunks . . . .But in the middle of the night, the woman leans over and says to the man: “I’m sorry, but I’m a little cold. Could I trouble you to get me another blanket?”

“I’ve got a better idea,” the man replies with a glint in his eye. “Just for tonight, let’s pretend we’re married.”

“OK, why not,” giggles the woman.

“Great,” the man says. “Get your own damn blanket!”

(Credit: Co-author Matthew Hurley of “Inside Jokes: Using Humor to Reverse-Engineer the Mind”)

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An update at Christmas

Following is an e-mail I sent to family members today:

Hello family members,
Last night I was feeling quite low. This will be the first Christmas in 57 years without Mary. I know that all of you miss her very much in different ways, especially Wynn and Martha. Daughters have a special relationship with their mothers that no one else can come close to equaling, no matter the relationship. I also talked earlier in the evening with Billy Rogers, the oldest son of Jim and Jo Rogers, family friends for over 50 years in Hanahan. Jim is not doing well. They will bring him home from the hospital on Friday and put a hospital bed in the master bedroom. Hospice will be in attendance. It is not a happy time for our dear friends. This information was not helpful to my psyche.
I tried to busy myself around the apartment, but there is only so much you can do in such a small place to keep busy. I tried the TV but nothing held my interest. Then I went to the few books I kept when I closed out the house in Hanahan (and gave almost 700 books to the Friends of the Library in Berkeley County.) I hung onto the few books about the Green Bay Packers, as I had been a fan since my teen years. Last night, I chose Mike Shropshire's sports classic, "The Ice Bowl," and opened the book to chapter 13. The early chapters discussed the Packers and Dallas Cowboys, the seasons they had and how they came to be playing on the frozen tundra of Lambeau field on this last day in 1967.
I remember that day as if it was yesterday. Frankie and James and I were glued to the black and white TV we had in the den at 1128 John Rutledge. Patrick was six and Martha was three. (Wynn was in the future.) They and Mary were elsewhere in the house. Mary was fixing Sunday dinner which we would eat in late afternoon, early evening, "after the game."
The sunrise temperature In Milwaukee, Wisconsin, reached the lowest December reading since 1924. At game time in Green Bay it was 13 degrees below zero. The field heating system failed. The Packers got off to an early lead but soon it disappeared and at halftime it was only 14-10 in favor of the Packers. On the first play of the 4th quarter, Dan Reeves threw a halfback-option pass to a wide open Lance Rentzel and Dallas went ahead 17-14.
The clock kept running and with 4:35 left in the game the Packers took over.They were 68 ice-choked yards away. Frankie, James and I saw there, watching, hoping, praying and probably biting our fingernails. We were not talking. We were as serious about that game as the players on the field. With thirteen seconds left on the game clock the Packers were 13 inches from their third straight NFL title. Starr called time out, the last one the Packers had, and went to the sidelines. Only much later would we learn what was said between he and Vince Lombardi.
And then Starr brought the Packers up to the line and was barking signals. Chuck Mercein, filling in at fullback for the inured Don Grabowski, expected to get the ball. He charged forward and saw Starr dive into the line clutching the ball in his arms and Mercein threw his arms up in the air as the referee signaled "touchdown." The boys and I were ecstatic, we hooped and hollered and hugged and brought everyone in the house to the den to see what was going on. It was the best afternoon the boys and I had ever shared together and today, 44 years later, reading about that day and remembering the shared moments lifts and brightens my spirits and gives me renewed energy. It was a great moment in Packers history but more important to me it was a great moment shared with two sons. To this day the memory is an enchanted moment you had to personally live to fully appreciate.
*****
About ten years ago, Mary and I went to Lambeau Field on our driving trip to Alaska. A docent took us and some others on a tour of that fabled stadium. When she got us into the stands she pointed to an end zone and asked, "Does anyone know what that is?" I was quicker off the mark than Jerry Kramer when he threw the block on Pugh to open the hole for Starr, "That's where Bart Starr dove to glory in the Ice Bowl," I said.
Everything in my life is going well. My health is good. I watch my weight, although I periodically have to seriously back away from the table. I am fortunate to live in a nice community surrounded by many fine people and enjoy a good reputation among them. I am optimistic about the upcoming new year, for myself, my country and hopefully all of you.
I pray and hope the Christmas season will bring happiness to each of you and that the coming year will be one of the richest in your life.
Love
Dad/Bud/Arch

Military-Civilian Gap

Pew Research has completed and interesting and informative study on the military-civilian relationship in America today. Their summary:

"The Military-Civilian Gap: Fewer Family Connections" (Click for full study)

"There is a large generation gap between older and younger Americans when it comes to having family members who served in the military. More than three-quarters of adults over 50 said they had an immediate family member who had served in the military. Less than six-in-ten adults ages 30 to 49 have an immediate family member who served, and the percentage falls to one-third for adults under 29. With the shrinking size of the military in recent decades, this trend has resulted in fewer connections between the military and the civilian world."

On this Thanksgiving Holiday I recommend reading the full study, and giving some thought to whether we ought to have mandatory military service in the United States. With due respect to the wonderful men and women who are serving, the current volunteer system says we can hire mercenaries to fight our country's battles. This does not speak well for the United States of America, nor for any country which aspires to lead.

(From my blog (click).

CarMax - A fine experience

October 25, 2011

General Manager

CarMax

712 Savage Road

Charleston SC 29414

Dear Sir:

Today was my first experience with CarMax and I was literally blown out of the water. Over the weekend I agreed to buy a car from a man in the neighborhood. We closed the deal earlier this morning. Later I went to CarMax to sell my 2005 Lincoln Town Car. I dealt with Elizabeth Humphries and Marissa Wright.

From the moment of reception till I walked out the door about 30 minutes later with my check the service was warm, friendly, professional, experienced and top notch in every respect. I have never had such a rewarding moment in any car dealership going back to the 1950s. I am so impressed, I intend to spread the good word about CarMax when talking with family and friends.

In the future, whether I am buying or selling, CarMax will be my first stop.

Thank you for making my day.

Sincerely,

Francis X. Archibald

Shem Creek Park - another recreational gem

Dedicated on October 18, 2011, this is the latest addition to recreational opportunities in Mt Pleasant. This is a magnificent site to visit, walk out into the marsh on a (lighted at night) 2200 feet boardwalk toward Charleston harbor, enjoy the fresh air and the magnificent view of marsh grass, working and recreational boats, birds, and the occasional tanker or cargo ship entering Charleston. The park can be accessed from Coleman Blvd. at Shem Creek. Parking is available and there are several restaurants within walking distance of the entrance to the park

Ten thoughts on turning 80*

1. I am happy to be here and able to write these thoughts.

2. When I was a child I wondered if I would be alive at 65. That age seemed so far away to a child in grammar school.

3. I have been blessed and or lucky in so many ways I cannot count them but I know them in my heart. 

4. Looking back our early family life was tough, but our mother kept us (five children) together and we persevered.

5. Joining the U.S. Air Force was the best thing I ever did. It gave me opportunity, training and set me on a career path for my adult life.

6. College and university opened new doors, but education is a continuing process through life.

7. Along the highways of life I met many men and women who helped; especially my late wife of 56 years.

8. My five children have turned out well, and have been on someone else’s payroll for years. (The dream of all parents.)

9. It is best to be liberal in thought, word and deed, especially to, with and for others who have less than I.

10. It is said we will live 15 years beyond our parents. My mother lived to be 92. I hope I am here writing another bog entry when I am 107.

*(Oct. 2, 2011)

What we (don’t) need

Under the heading of what we (don’t) need in life is a digital scale (Hammacher Schlemmer online catalog) that projects readings onto a wall for easy visibility. (Is it not depressing enough to look down and learn you have gained three pounds?)

A projection lens on top of the scale tilts to display your weight in easy-to-read red numerals at different heights on a wall. Adjusting the height of the lens projector also increases or decreases the size of the digits from 2" to 6" high. (A better product would be an invention that would decrease your weight.)

Where the old folks are and aren't

States with highest percentage of population age 65 and over:

Florida 17.3

West Virginia 16.0

Maine 15.9

States with lowest percentage of population age 65 and over:

Alaska 7.7

Utah 9.0

Texas 10.3

South Carolina: 13.7

(Extracted from AARP bulletin, Sept. 2011, original source: U.S. Census Bureau)

Carl E. Meynardie, Sr.

An Appreciation

By Francis X. Archibald

Carl E. Meynardie, Sr.

June 13, 1918 - September 2, 2011

The measure of a man can be found in the generosity of spirit with which he treats a stranger. (Anon.)

About 25 years ago, I bought one of those black cardboard boxes used to store five and a quarter inch computer disks and wrapped it as a birthday gift for my friend Carl Meynardie. Although we did not normally swap birthday gifts, I gave the gift as a way to say thanks for introducing me to personal computers.

Carl sold me my first computer, a Radio Shack TRS 80 Model III, a one-piece machine with a nine-inch green screen and 48KB of memory. When we added an additional 16KB chip and increased the memory to 64KB, we thought we had all we would ever need. Boy, were we very ignorant of what was to come.

No one was home when I went by Carl’s house so I left the gift in the carport near the door he and Grace usually used to enter and leave the house. Five days later, he called me and said he had just found the gift that day.

Our friendship today goes back over 50 years. When I moved to Hanahan in 1960, I thought to be engaged in the community. I attended a couple of meetings of the Hanahan Civic Club and spoke on a couple of issues. One night they were nominating officers and Carl got up, pointed to me, and said if he knew my name he would nominate me for President. Someone told him my name; I was nominated and served my term. This was my introduction to Carl Meynardie. Little did I realize at the time what a wonderful friendship had come my way and how much more I would enjoy it in the future.

As time went on, I learned how Carl and some other men had started a free weekly newspaper, The Hanahan News, to inform the community of local events. The venture was slow growing, time consuming and costly to produce. Carl was the active member who took on the responsibility of putting out the paper each week. The original sponsors lost interest in continuing to invest money and soon he gave up his construction business, bought them out, and turned to publishing the weekly full time.

Carl invited me to write a column of fact and opinion and I did so for almost seven years. I also helped in other ways, including putting out the paper one week when he and Grace went on vacation. The lead story that week was, “Meynardie’s flee the area,” complete with a picture of Carl and Grace. The story reported Carl had taken an earlier trip to the Pacific (and wound up fighting the Japanese). Carl’s mother, who received the paper in the mail, was still laughing at the picture and story when Carl dropped in on her home on the return leg of the vacation.

Carl introduced me to the Exchange Club and the great good they did for the community. In a tribute to his influence, I held several offices in the Hanahan Club, including being president when the Club won its first Big “E” award. Many of the men who served the Hanahan community through Exchange did so because of Carl’s persistent membership recruiting efforts. He was an indefatigable community supporter.

In the early seventies, Carl used the newspaper to endorse my campaign for Hanahan City Council and later applauded the city when they appointed me a city judge. In the eighties Carl was again in my corner when I ran for the State Legislature. He gave me a column in the paper again to keep my views before the public and to report on my stewardship of the office.

In more than five decades, my wife and I came to know Carl and Grace and their children. They are first class people whom we are proud to call “friends.” Through the years, the social and political turmoil of the ever-changing times, and the cycles of the business world, Carl kept The Hanahan News going. He struggled heroically to give the community a weekly newspaper where the ordinary citizen could learn what was happening in the community, where accomplishments – both of adults and of children –were recognized and saluted, where merchants successfully advertised their wares, and where an insightful, well thought editorial from time to time helped keep community leaders and events in perspective.

Time has marched on for all of us. Carl was 93 when he died this week. He continued to live with Grace in their Hanahan home for more than 50 years. In my lifetime, I have not had a friend as steadfast and loyal as Carl. I got much more out of this relationship than I had a right to expect.

If a man is measured by his generosity of spirit toward others, then Carl E. Meynardie was truly a great man who has shared his life with his fellow man and his community. God Bless him now and forever.

(The foregoing was delivered at Carl's funeral September 6, 2011.)

Only in America

Excuse me, but only in America could you have "Monday Night Football" on Thursday, ESPN, 8 pm EST, Channel 7 in Charleston, SC, area.

Perry ought to read the Constitution

Texas Governor Perry, running for the Republican nomination for president, said in Iowa yesterday that Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke would be committing a "treasonous" act by ordering the printing of more money in another round of quantitative easing in the money supply to help business and employers' efforts to strengthen the economy.

Well, the Governor ought to check Article AIII, Section 3, of the Constitution of the United States: "Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort."

Traveling with Mark Twain

Chuck Boyd, a good friend, sent a brief but interesting note about Hal Holbrook's decades long performance as Mark Twain. It is worth passing along as part of the growing renewed interest in the man most consider the greatest American humorist and commentator of the 19th century. I hope you enjoy.

Archie,
Thanks for the "heads up" that (finally) 100 years has passed and it's Twain autobiography release time.

When I was Director of Tourism for the state of Missouri, I quickly realized he was a major "draw." In fact, public awareness of Missouri centered on Twain, Jesse James and Harry S Truman. In that order. In the 1980s, I put together a business travel mission to London and Scotland to help fill seats on the new British Caledonia Airlines direct flights in and out of St. Louis.

We invited 300 travel writers and travel agents to a presentation in the US Embassy in London. I had brought along a young actor to portray Mr. Clemens. He was in costume and we took the hotel elevator on our way to the Embassy. Several older Brits got on the elevator, and without any surprise or reaction stated, "Good to see you again Mr. Twain. It's been a while." My actor drawled "It's good to be back."

In 2001. Hal Holbrook brought his MARK TWAIN TONIGHT presentation to Charleston and, as I worked at the Post & Courier, I was able to secure a backstage visit afterward. Mr. Holbrook was VERY surprised when I showed him two mounted pictures of him I had taken 50 years before at Camp Lejeune, NC when he had just started his TWAIN program.

"I remember that over-stuffed chair we used as a prop!" He also quipped that back then he was in make-up for several hours, aging himself for the role. "Now, I just show up, put on the suit and light a stoggie."

He signed one of the pictures with a Twainism: "Be good and you will be lonesome." On the other he scribbled "Camp Lejeune..so long ago."

Thanks again.

Chuck

(Earlier posts at www.archibaldinsc.blogspot.com)

Mark Twain - 100 years on

If you don't have anything special you want to do over the next few months you might start on Volume 1 of Mark Twain's autobiography. The first volume (three are planned) is out and it is a prodigious work, according to Lewis H. Lapham, editor emeritus of Harper's Magazine and the editor of Lapham's Quarterly. It runs to 760 pages, or as Lapham notes, 4 pounds. The publishers (University of California Press) promise Volumes II and III will be published sometime during the next ten years. It will probably take that long to read the Volume I.

Twain began writing his autobiography in 1877, but gave up when he realized it was easier and more enjoyable to talk and ramble while a stenographer took it all down. He got serious about this in 1906 and “talked” for the next four years until a few months before he went to meet his maker (about whose existence he had doubts) in 1910. Twain died before he could do any editing and the manuscript runs to some 2,600 pages.

To all of this talking/dictation he attached the caveat that the resulting work not be published until 100 years after his death. In this case Twain out-did the United States and England. It can take up to 30 years for information to be available to the public once it has been classified by the Unites States government. It England, some World War II data was held to be embargoed for 50 years.

Twain did not want to hurt anyone's feelings by revealing the opinions he held of men, their religion, politics and conduct. He believed that a person criticized deserved it and ought to be grateful for the time and attention he spent on developing the criticism. The 100 years quarantine was to ensure no one mentioned in the work would be alive to take offense, and he would be “dead, and unaware and indifferent.”

If you are too otherwise engaged (or for starters) you could do as I have and read Lapham's dissection and analysis which he calls “Democracy 101 Mark Twain's Farewell Address,” in the April 2011 issue of Harper's Magazine. I am only getting around to this now because I am seriously behind in my book and magazine reading. Other things seem to always be getting in the way, including watching foreign films, traveling abroad, a small amount of laziness.

I would probably have connected with Twain had we lived in the same era. He has deep understanding of the Constitution, that it is designed for the people, not the government; that when you protect the other fellow's liberty you are protecting your own. He rejected the idea that anyone should be able to tell him how to vote.

Twain was humorous, insightful and a great observer of the average American citizen. The slave and the common man fell under his gaze as did the rich and famous. He wrote of artisans, tradesmen, entertainers, politicians, government officials, and military heroes. He saw the freedom and good nature of the American spirit. “The scenes of foreign pomp and circumstance serve Twain as occasions to prefer the unpretentiousness of things American.” This benevolence towards his fellow citizens didn't close his eyes to the bad and the ugly he also saw in America. As a true recorder of the American scene he devoted his efforts to recording all he saw and experienced, and the 2,600 pages give testimony to his “authentic and unsuppressed voice, brimming with humor, ideas, and opinions.”

When I finish Lapham's essay, I may buy the 760 page version.

(More blog entries at www.archibaldinsc.blogspot.com)

A few good words from the FBI

Intelligence Note

Prepared by the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3)

August 9, 2011

FBI Officials Continue To Be The Target Of Spam E-mail

Various government agencies and high ranking government officials have been the target of previous spam attacks. In their attempts to lure victims, criminals continue to explore new avenues to obtain their goal.

A new version of the spam e-mail uses the names of FBI officials along with the names of specific units within the FBI. The e-mail alerts the recipient that two "Trunk Boxes" containing a large sum of money were intercepted at an international airport. The funds are allegedly from the Office of the Ministry of Finance, Federal Government of Nigeria.

The boxes contain documents bearing the recipient's name as the owner of the funds. The fraudsters advise an additional document called the "Diplomatic Immunity Seal of Delivery" is needed to protect the recipient from violating the Patriot Act. The recipient is required to contact the fraudsters, via email, for instructions to obtain the document. The fraudsters further inform the recipient of the consequences if they fail to comply and are told not to contact any bank in Africa, or any other institution.

Do not respond. These e-mails are a hoax.

Neither government agencies nor government officials send unsolicited e-mail to consumers. United States government agencies use the legal process to contact individuals.

Consumers should not respond to any unsolicited e-mails or click on an embedded link associated with such e-mails, as they may contain viruses or malware.

If you have been a victim of Internet crime, please file a complaint at www.IC3.gov.

For previous IC3 Alerts concerning e-mail scams targeting the FBI and other government agencies visit http://www.ic3.gov/media/2009/091027.aspx.

(Earlier blog entries at www.archibaldinsc.blogspot.com)

Reflection by FXA

Taken at Seaside Farms, Mt. Pleasant, SC, 2009

The Debt Ceiling: Is It Constitutional?

Here we are only three days from financial Armageddon for our country and elements in the Congress are not willing to work out a bi-partisan compromise. Every thinking person from New York to Santa Monica, from Seattle to Miami and all points in between has an opinion (ignore the quality of thought likely in such a diverse group) and judging by reports are sending those opinions to the congress in growing numbers.

I wondered how all this got started and found at Young Lawyers Blog.com an explanation of how we (the United States of America) got started down this debt ceiling road. It is illuminating reading, especially for those who slept through civics 101. In short, the 14th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America prohibits anyone from questioning the national public debt. We have to pay our bills, regardless of what the Tea Party and any other "no tax pledge" signers think.

Last night Mary Matalin, CNN commentator, said these congress people were not interested in re-election, only in cutting federal spending. You show me a congress person who is not interested in re-election and I will show you either a senile congress person or one who knows an indictment is coming down.

The Young Lawyers Blog makes sense out of a complex topic. It is recommended reading.

Met a man from Lowell, MA, in South Africa

No trip to South Africa would be complete without looking in on Nelson Mandela's house in Soweto, Robben Island prison and the mainland prison where he was released to jubilant, cheering crowds. So in 2003, when my wife and I were on a two month self-conducted tour driving around South Africa we visited all three places.

All this comes back to mind as we approach July 18, 2011, and the 93rd birthday of Nelson Mandela, one of the most powerful, historical figures of the 20th Century.

Unless you have visited Soweto you cannot imagine the poverty that existed in that suburban black community outside of Johannesburg throughput the 20th century. I don't have any current knowledge of conditions there since my visit but if I had to guess I would say it is not much improved.


FXA outside Mandela's home in Soweto, Feb. 2003.

When we arrived at Mandela's single story, small brick house, down the street from the home of Archbishop Tutu, we were admitted by a guide who explained that the great man had lived there from about 1946 to 1962, when he was arrested and sentenced to life in prison. He served 27 years and was released in 1990 and the rest of the story needs no further telling here.

As we walked through the tiny rooms the guide detected an accent in my voice and asked where I was from originally. We had already told him we came from South Carolina. "Yours is not a South Carolina accent," he said, as my wife laughed. She said he came "from Lowell, Massachusetts."


Mary Archibald and guide at Mandela's home in Soweto,Feb. 2003.

"You know Kearney Square?, he asked excitedly." Yes, I said, "It was the center of life when I was a young man." With great relish he told us his remarkable story. He had been in the African National Congress fighting apartheid and was forced to flee South Africa or be arrested. He came to the United States and made his way to Lowell where he lived and worked for more almost fifteen years. We discussed favorite places, and neighborhoods. Despite all he had been through in his turbulent life he was so happy to meet someone from Lowell which held many good memories for him, he said. When Mandela was released, our guide returned to South Africa. He had been working at the home in Soweto for a couple of years.

I told him of our visit to Robben Island, seven miles out in the Atlantic ocean, where we were guided by a man who was imprisoned there with Mandela for 18 of his 29 years in prison and now worked as a guide in that infamous place, (which has become a tourist attraction and big money earner for South Africa.) The guide showed us Mandela's cell and shared stories about life there; we also visited the limestone quarry where Mandela worked.

It was obvious our guide, whose years in exile had been spent in the city where I was raised, loved and respected Mandela. My wife and I came away with a healthy respect for this man who had been a foot soldier in the fight to wipe out apartheid - segregation based solely on the color of one's skin and prejudice. (I regret that I have lost my notes made on that trip and have no current record of the man's name.)

Out for a Sunday stroll

What in Hell were grown men, stripped to the waist, sweating like fresh pork on a barbecue, doing in the middle of King Street lifting weights and 20 and 35 pound bags of sand when the real feel temperature was somewhere in the nineties on a sweltering, breeze-less Sunday afternoon?

It was all part of the latest effort by Charleston, SC, officials to lure more people downtown to experience the city. The city closes King Street from Calhoun to Queen to vehicular traffic on Sunday from 1 to 5 pm. Shops are open, light dining takes place in the street under massive umbrellas to block the sun. Musicians strum guitars and literally sing for their supper. Local artists set up easels and paint. Families and couples stroll in the middle of the street, although this day a majority favor the right hand sidewalk because it offers a bit of shade.

All of this and more took place with the real feel temperature approaching 97 degrees. An slow and easy stroll down the street left me with a shirt soaked in perspiration. A bottle of water from a street vendor was a necessity. Practically every police officer I saw at the multiple intersections was sipping from a large drink container. The combination of the heat and the humidity had everyone walking slow, wiping brows and breathing hard. And then there was an exhibition to defy all reason.

This was all part of a Crossfit exercise, an exercise program and competition that has gained momentum in the last few years and is used by some military special forces as a conditioning program. Suffice it to say, I considered it to border on insanity during the oppressive heat conditions on King Street, Charleston, SC, on July 10, 2011.

(More blog entries here.) Comment to: arch@archibald99.com

Looking at good and bad

Mirror Image...
An image which is like a reflection in a mirror...everything is the same, except reversed.
Snapped this interesting picture in Seasides Farms, Mt. Pleasant, SC while on an exercise walk. (Click pictures to enlarge.)


And then there was this:



It is heartwarming that some Seaside Farms residents celebrated the birth of our Declaration of Independence with fireworks, but then they spoiled it by not cleaning up their explosive residue. I found this ugly trash scattered on the road at the end of Canyon Oaks Drive, while walking early in the morning of July 7. Someone ought to clean that up, I said to myself, and then I remembered: I was someone. I went home, returned with the box and a plastic glove, and cleaned up after these thoughtless celebrants.

An old fashioned parade

Brother and sister, Charlie Geilfuss and Joan Mills, with FXA, July 4, 2011, Franke @ Seaside, Mt Pleasant, SC (click on picture to enlarge.)

Over the 4th my third son, Patrick, journeyed to visit his brothers in the nation's capital and was on Constitution Avenue for the 4th of July parade. Patrick, an avid amateur photographer, took these pictures:
After linking up, click on Slideshow in the upper left corner to enlarge. Hope you enjoy!

A lighted faucet in your life?

Judith Martin, Miss Manners to the socially conscious, answered three questions in a recent newspaper column and began each answer with "Where were you...", as in Where were you during history class? Where were you doing civics class? and Where were you during posture class? My question is, Where was her editor when these three Q&As were being combined to form one column?

NBA owners followed the NFL owners and locked out the players. Will we be without professional football and basketball in 2911? I'm taking a peek at the Canadian Football League on TV. Don't know all the players yet but that's a small problem. I did see part of a game last Saturday night and uttered a big "WOW" at one spectacular pass play. I am betting the NFL lockout will end first. There is too much money on the table to be ignored.

Given inflation and the dwindling value of the dollar, I have not for several years bent over on the street to pickup anything less than a fifty cent piece, but just to cover all bets in case the national debt ceiling is not raised and the country goes broke, I bent over twice this week and picked up a penny and a quarter. I will miss that Social Security check but probably not as much as China and Japan who won't receive the interest payments on the American bonds they hold.

This is what America has been waiting for: "The VuPoint Temperature Sensitive LED Faucet Light (FL-IW1-VP) is a lighted aerator for your faucet that makes your water glow. When the water makes contact with the temperature-sensing metal pin in the unit, it will trigger the red LED light for hot water and the blue LED light for cold water. The intelligent sensor activates with hot or cold water, making it fun for all ages to watch the water change color. The light fits most standard faucets, and is easy to install."

(For other blogs click here. To comment e-mail: arch@archibald99.com)

Ernest Hemingway - 50 years ago

Fifty years ago today, July 2, I picked up the Sunday News & Courier (name prior to merging with The Evening Post) and read that Ernest Hemingway had killed himself with his favorite shotgun in Ketchum, Idaho. I was shocked by the act of suicide. It was against God's law and against Catholic teaching. Back in those days I was probably more of a practicing Catholic than Hemingway, although he was also born into the faith.

I was shocked and felt let down that this bigger than life personality would take a "coward's" way out. Nothing could justify suicide, I thought. It was immaterial that I knew him only through a study of his life and reading his books and articles and watching movies based on his work. He was a young man's giant; he lived the kind of life lessor men only dreamed. The news of his suicide was just that; a story written less than 24 hours after he was found dead. No time for details. No time to explore why, although there were vague explanations: accident, cancer, money problems. Only in later years did we learn he suffered from terrible depression the last few years of his life.

He was laid to rest a couple of days after his suicide in a graveside service. No Mass in a Catholic church; he had too many wives it was said. It probably had more to do with the suicide than his wives.

And the world moved on. Something and someone else took center stage.

Over the years I have softened my views of Hemingway's suicide and the man. Somewhere along the line I recognized none of us really know what lies in the heart of another man or woman. We do not recognize the personal demons. Deep understanding is ever more difficult when our personal connection is remote to say the least. We regret the inadequacies years ago in treating depression. Even today it remains a challenge for the patient and the doctor.

Several years ago I went to Key West and toured Hemingway's house. It is a beautiful place stuffed with leather chairs made from the hides of big game he shot and full of memorabilia of a life well lived. Books abound. Those he wrote and those he collected. (Years after his death his wife Mary had to take his library to New York for controlled storage and chemical elimination of pests and insects that threatened to destroy the library.)

There is an elevated walkway from the house proper to his writing workshop. This overlooks the pool. There is a penny embedded in the concrete walk around the pool. Legend is that Hemingway put it there while the work was being done. He told the contractor "You have all the rest of my money. You might as well have this.

I went to Sloppy Joe's, Hemingway's favorite bar, a short walk from his house. Here I drank a beer in mid-morning as he might have done and sucked up the atmosphere and thought good thoughts about the man. I still have those thoughts.

(For more blogs click here.

A moment in the life of a cat

This is not the cat I saw, only an example of the species.

On my morning exercise walk I met a woman walking two small dogs on long leashes. I don't know what kinds of dogs they were. I am not big on identifying dogs. I don't have anything against dogs. I just don't want one and don't care to know too much about them. I will tell you each dog could double for a lady's hand muff on a snowy day.

As the woman turned onto the concrete driveway from the road I saw a white (with a bit of black) cat near the point where a walkway to the house intersected the driveway. The cat was lying on the concrete, probably enjoying the cool feel on his tummy. He eyed the woman and the dogs as they approached and was slow to rise. What does a cat think in such situations?: No worry, this is the lady who runs this house and puts out a meal for me. I am bigger than those two dogs combined so they are not a real problem. But maybe I ought to get up anyway, just in case. Never know when a dog (and there are two of them) will go off his puppy chow. I can get back down again when they pass.

And he did.

(More blogs here.)

Where's the beef (crust)?

Bergen as seen from a mountain top lookout. (Click to expand.)


Once upon a time there was a fast food commercial that was co-opted into a political tag line: "Where's the beef?"
A similar question crust could be asked about "the crust" when ordering apple pie and ice cream in Norway. On a trip recently, my friend and I ordered this dessert and each time there was no crust. We were served stewed apples and ice cream, more of an apple dessert than the pie Grandma used to bake. The apples were tasty, being properly and correctly spiced but the lack of crust left us shaking our heads. After the second experience even seniors can learn a lesson so we chose alternate desserts.

(More blogs here.)