%%USERNAME%%    %%ACCWORDS%% %%ONOFF%% |
 |  "Putting on the Game Face" |
  This blog is a doorway into the mind of Percy Goodfellow. Don't be shocked at the lost boys of Namby-Pamby Land and the women they cavort with. Watch as his caricatures blunder about the space between audacious hope and the wake-up calls of tomorrow. Behold their scrawl on the CRT, like graffitti on a subway wall. Examine it through your own lens...Step up my friends, and separate the pepper from the rat poop. Welcome to my abode...the armpit of yesterday, the blinking of an eye and a plank to the edge of Eternity. Note: This blog is my journal. I've no interest in persuading anyone to adopt my views. What I write is whatever happens to interest me when I start pounding the keys. |
| In my class, The Exploratory Writing Workshop, it is often difficult to convey the idea of multidimensional writing. The idea is so simple I fear insulting my readers, however, many of my students use only only a portion of the tools in a writer's tool box to the exclusion of many others. A writer must resist the notion that turning on the spigot and simply letting the words flow is going to result in a good chapter that will somehow magically integrate itself with those that follow leading mindlessly to a coherent manuscript. As in baking there is a recipe and the components of good writing require an artful blending of the ingredients. Writing a novel has a degree of complexity that requires some organization and while a smart writer might "hose" a good vignette they will come up short trying to use the same approach on a novel. There's more to it than writing 5K words a day. |
| It is snowing outside and I keep thinking of excuses not to go and fire up the outside wood stove. My class, the Exploratory Writing Workshop at New Horizon's Academy (Here on WDC) has two students so far. It should be a diversion from all the other things that are happening. My wife just postponed our Concealed Carry class to February on account of the Weather. On Monday I get the scope fitted to my new long range precision rifle. On Thursday I go in for two STINTs. It seems that when they did the first one they discovered two more blockages that need tending to. I'm currently working on a quarter-scale "Fly Baby" I got from Tony. As some of my readers know fixing RC model aircraft is one of my hobbies. Last night before "Indoor Flying" I stripped off the old coverings to the control surfaces (i.e. elevators, rudder, ailerons) and cut out the new fabric that will replace the old. It is one of those little subtasks that make recovering a model airplane such a overwhelming effort. Note: A great spelling exercise while doing a blog is to fiddle around with a "Red lagged" misspelled word until the red underlining disappears. So for now I need to get my lazy ass out of bed, go get the stove fired, take the garbage to the dump and finish up gluing and shrinking those control surfaces. More tomorrow. |
| Rehab Therapy is like going to the gym. You place 4 electrodes, two on your stomach and two on your chest, and hook them up to a receiver/transmitter that gets placed in a pouch hanging around your neck. Then you get on a treadmill and go for a walk, setting the incline and speed to a rate your body feels is somewhere between moderate and excessive. This is followed by some mild weight training, stretching and a half hour in the classroom. In all it boils down to an hour and a half. Since I ran for years there is nothing really new here. The guy next to me yesterday was a Track Coach at the University of Wisconsin. He had a massive heart attack requiring 4 by-passes. I had this incorrect notion that people who watch their weight and have a habit of regular exercise don't have heart problems. As I look around, most of those I see in rehab are not overweight. For Wisconsin they are for the most part, at a weight I would consider healthy. A couple of years ago I had what is called a "Pulminary Embuli. (Don't ask me to spell it.) My stomach and chest hurt and I couldn't get comfortable. I thought this recent episode was a repeat which it wasn't. Then I thought gall bladder, or appendix. Nope. The stress tests indicated a heart problem and I wound up getting a stint. If you don't feel right get yourself checked out. A heart attack, stroke or even a partial blockage are not to be trifled with. Percy Bob |
| So here I am in the hospital, the once immortal Percy Goodfellow This body of mine has held up pretty well, so far and I turned seventy (70) this year. I got reamed for a urinary flow problem a couple of years ago and while it represented a turning part in my life things have otherwise gone pretty well. Anyway here I sit in the hospital, which is kinda weird because the bed moves up and down like there's a dog crawling around underneath. My spelling has improved as a result of spell checkers,( You know the kind that pop up in the body of the text when you spell something wrong.) I treat the flagging like I'm playing a computer computer game and keep fiddling around with the letters until the flag (the red line underneath) disappears. If I can't solve the puzzle there is always recourse to the dictionary. Being a moderator for the Exploratory Writing Workshop in New Horizon's Academy has also helped with my writing. This month I bit the bullet and self-published my novel Habit of Despair. It cost me about a $1,000 but aside from the cost it seemed a reasonable approach for an unpublished author to take. My strategic thinking is that if it catches on, I might get noticed by a traditional publishing house. The Catch 22 to the traditional approach is that if you aren't already published you have to put up with a raft of inhouse bureaucracy and even if you comply and get an offer it will be a contract that gives the rights to the book and sends the message..."Be glad we even considered you." My operational thinking is that if you are already published and the public shows some interest, in your work you don't have to subject yourself to all the negativity that going the traditional route to publication has to thwart you.. Having a good book is proof that you can write, however, there are some important steps to consider in choosing who you pick to publish your "Work of Art." The first consideration is that your book could be absolutely horrible reading in anyone's eyes but your own. Forget asking a friend or somebody on writing.com. The friend will tell you how great you are and even an English Teacher could prove to be an unreliable source.. Before you even think about giving a self publisher $1k consider the following. Considerations: Read a favorite novel written in the genre. Then read yours. Which one do you like best. What specifically to you admire about your favorite author's style? Rewrite your novel with these considerations in mind Are you familiar with the tried and true components that go into writing a successful novel. For example does it began as your central character faces a life changing event? is it clear from the onset who your central character is? Does it contain a blend of exposition, backstory, dialog, interior dialog, foreshadowing, symbolism and repetition... (yes repetition, It tells the reader "watch my lips.) Does it contain three crisis (or more) that lead up to the climax. There is plenty more to consider and I suggest "The Idiots Guide to writing a Novel...." its by Ingersoll and somebody else.) I'll write another installment tomorrow with some tips on preparing to self publish. |
| I wouldn't think there would be many out there who give a "Rat's Pettoti" about what I write in my blog. This year has not been a good one for my blogging. First off I downgraded my membership and suddenly discovered my blog had been shut off. So I waited a year until it was time to renew and upgraded it. Still the blogging habit had been lost and now must, like any discipline, be practiced to make it habitual. At the present time I'm trying to devote more time to my spouse who has been a great friend for over fifty years. I am not a great one for small talk and we do most of our quality talking in the car driving to various places around Wisconsin. Then there is the work that needs to be done maintaining a home on a ten acre homesite that used to be my Grandfather's dairy farm. I call that doing the chores. Finally there is my hobby which is Radio Controlled model airplanes and quadcopters. For some reason I have a passion for doing that, now that some of my other passions have gone South. Like racquet-ball and running among others that have diminished over time. So that is what I spend my quality time on when I'm not facilitating the Exploratory Writing Workshop. There you have it as I sink slowly in a gradual descent towards the end of my life. |
| In the most fundamental sense all a novelist has at their disposal are 26 Alpha Characters. (A-Z) These they arranged into words, sentences paragraphs, and chapters. In the beginning there were story "Tellers." Our tribal ancestors sat around the campfire and someone more lucid than the rest started spinning yarns. (Telling) These story tellers had a big advantage over novelists because they had recourse to facial expression, gestures, voice inflection and all those aids which the novelist doesn't have at their disposal. The invention of writing led to further innovations that did a better job at showing. For example stage dramas (plays) and the silver screen were big into "Showing." The unfortunate novelist however, remained tied to those damned Alpha Characters. Still the better writers found ways to tell their stories and show what was happening without all the modern day enhancements. As a consequence the novel has remained a very popular means of entertainment and leads to the development of most plays and movies. A lot of things are happening in this world all at the same time. In its simplest form a novelist "Shows and Tells" by unraveling, one thread at a time from the overall context of life, and presenting it in a way that makes sense to the reader. Another name for "telling" is Narrative Summary. Many great novels include plenty and they don't seem any the worse for it. I can't think of an "Operative Word" for "Showing" that "Narrative Summary" is for "Telling." I would choose a word like "Vicarious Summary" if I were into that sort of thing. For Example: Narrative Summary: Tells what happened. "Lisa followed the mysterious figure down a side street and into a dark alley. Vicarious Summary: Shows what happenedLisa followed nervously, with mincing steps, down the side street, her high heels not suited to the cobblestones. Her heart pounded knowing where this impulsiveness might lead. The stranger turned into a dark alley. Here Lisa's fortitude seemed to evaporate. It was a dark service entrance, filled with dumpsters and the smell of decomposing garbage. Towards the end a door opened and a ray of light illuminated the darkness. The man stepped inside and the door closed. I'm sure that most readers can see what a powerful tool "Showing" can be for the novelist. It enables a writer to invite the the reader into the Central Character's eyes and mind and see the thread to the story unfolding as it happens. This is opposed to hearing the events clinically As I facilitate the Exploratory Writing Workshop, questions are raised and discussed that make great blog fodder. I'll be using my blog more to show and tell my readers what is going on in this interesting backwater of WDC. |
| Hello Everybody, I've been absent from the blog scene for a year, because I downgraded my membership and exceeded the allowable space limitations. This year I upgraded and intend to take up with my blogging where I left off. |
| On Wednesday I had breakfast with the guys in Wisconsin Rapids. We talked about the status of our flying club and model airplanes and that sort of stuff. Since the restaurant is close to the club's flying field I brought a couple of airplanes hoping one of the members would do the same and join me out there. Since it was windy and there was no interest I went out alone telling the guys I wanted to take a close look at the field for the upcoming Fun Fly we'll be holding. When I got out there it was even windier but I said, "What the heck," (To myself), I'll try taxiing The Gull around and see how the old girl responds. For those who aren't aware (and who would be?) The Gull is this big old antique gull wing flying model. When I was at the Flight School with Dave he checked it out and said it was underpowered and the ailerons didn't have enough surface area. So when I got home I called Heads Up RC and explained the problem, thinking I would get a recommendation on a larger electric motor. The Technician said it wasn't that the motor was too small but that there wasn't enough Oomph in the battery. He said if I went to a five or six cell it would produce gobs more power. So I ordered one to try. Another problem that Dave pointed out on The Gull was that the center of gravity (CG) was out of whack. The airplane was tail heavy. This is a frequent problem when converting a RC model from gas to electric. A gas engine and fuel load tends to weigh more. If you add instead an electric motor and batter than the tail is heavier than the nose and it flies like a dog with worms scooting its butt along the ground. I thought with the bigger battery up front that this would correct the problem but it didn't . As I was taxiing around the model lifted off and while I was trying to decided what to do it gained altitude. Suddenly I was past the point of no return and let it continue to climb past the end of the runway. I got it to turn and it scooted down wind dragging its tail and when I turned back into the wind it became a handful. I got it to align with the runway and chopped the throttle and it stalled and landed hard, doing damage to the wingtip, tail and right hand side of the fuselage. After repairing the Giant Big Stick the damage was minor. On the one hand I was happy that The Gull now had plenty of power but I had to do something to move the CG forward. So I extended the front end two and a half inches. That should make a huge difference by both shifting the motor further forward along with the heavier battery. In retrospect I should have just leveled the wings and let it settle back onto the runway. I guess the unexpected takeoff presented a problem that required more brain bytes than my processor had to offer. Well you live and learn. |
| Today Linda and I put the canopy up that covers the deck. Last summer I worked out underneath it on my model airplanes. Then I mowed grass and took a check over to Ronnie who mows the rural cemetery my relatives are buried in. With the chores finished I worked on the wing I reported in yesterday's blog. I cut out the ribs and glued them in place. Roger, who crashed the airplane, called and said he would bring the nose section when we have our weekly breakfast in Wisconsin Rapids. In early evening, while it was still light I, flew one of my Park Flyer Electric RC Airplanes. I did pretty good until it came time to land. I clipped the apple tree and will have to do a little repair work on the wing. Fortunately I am becoming an expert on wing repairs and it shouldn't take long. Wouldn't you know it but no sooner did I "prang in" when my friend Mark drove into the yard with his sister, or maybe its his girlfriend. He noted the damage and the first words out of his mouth were.... "Hey Bob, didn't they teach you how to fly at that $1000 school you attended?" Mark is not someone you'd want doing a review at WDC. "If I wanted an audience I'd go crash at the flying field," I muttered in disgust. |
| Today I worked on the RC Model Airplane that Roger Gave me. The fuselage was badly damaged and one of the wing halves had been shredded when he flew it into a tree. The repair job has gone well and the fuselage is nearing completion. While the glue cures I am currently working on the wing. That too is going better than expected. I've made a template and am in the process of cutting out new ribs to replace those that were shattered. This morning I did a review for one of my students. We are currently in the second week of class. Of the original seven only three submitted vignettes this week. Two are completed and only one remains for tomorrow. I have until COB Monday to complete them should have it knocked out by tomorrow evening. |
| A friend gave me a model airplane he crashed. It is called an "ARF" which stands for Almost Ready to Fly. It is called a Giant Big Stick and retails from Tower Hobbies for about $250. The model does not come with the motor, speed controller, receiver, servos or batteries. Adding all that in brings the grand total to easily over $500. As a consequence you can imagine how my friend felt when he flew it through a tree and it disintegrated. So he salvaged all the extra stuff and gave me the splinters. Actually it was more than splinters. One of the wing halves was intact as was the tail section. The other wing half was pretty badly damaged and huge chunks were missing. Still it was repairable and by doing a little each day I will have it completed in a couple of weeks. The hobby of flying RC model airplanes is a demanding one and for a free spirit like myself frustrating at times. For example I forgot that a 1.5 volt batter is used to charge the glow plug when starting the engine. By mistake I used a 12 volt battery and fried the glow plugs not realizing what I was doing. All I knew was the engine wouldn't start and I kept changing the plugs and burning them up one after another. I know, I know, it was stupid of me but its not the first time I've been gripped by a brain fart and couldn't figure out why things were falling apart. In addition to the glow plug issue I was encountering difficulties getting my charger to work. I entered all the parameters and it just sat there refusing to charge. Finally I took it back to where I bought it and the hobby guy showed me I had to depress and hold down the activation button for four seconds to make it start chugging. Then I asked him why my glow charger wouldn't work. He explained that it was charged but to show the state of charge it had to have a glow plug to ground to. That was when I realized that I had been burning out the circuits on my plugs and the device was not grounding. So it goes as I struggle with mastering my RC Airplane Hobby. One step forward, two steps backward. |
| I know that most in my "army of readers" think I'm a bit paranoid but believe it or not I use a reasoning process to reach many of my conclusions and don't pull them out of my "You Know What." In other words I don't just come up with something off the wall and paste it as a blog entry. My last Blog was entitled Son of Ultra and like most of what I write it hasn't attracted a whole lot of interest. I think it was a significant Blog because it explains the facts of Benghazi that are so bizarre they defy explanation. Consider this scenario. On that fateful night President Obama was getting ready to do some campaigning the following day. At about 5 O'clock he has a talk with Secretary Of Defense Panetta and following that he drops out on sight for ten hours. He refuses to say where he was other that he was "Disengaged." My hypothesis is now that Son of Ultra was connected with his undisclosed whereabouts. This is to say that he went to a Black Room where he watched things taking place that most people can't even imagine. It is a place where a President can literally watch things that are happening like a fly on the wall. It is a closely guarded Strategic Asset so profoundly revealing that the knowledge that is gained inside that room cannot be used for the remedy of tactical situations for fear of revealing its existence. When the Israelis complain about our eavesdropping and Merkel gets upset about our reading her emails we attribute it to some sophisticated form of intelligence gathering like telephone monitoring or electronic snooping. What we are talking about however, when we must confess advanced capabilities, is a cover story. It is like attributing how we know something to a hand held calculator when actually what we have is a Cray Computer. General Alexander said something profound the other night on TV. He said words to the effect that we have to balance the trust of the American People with keeping them safe. When President Obama refuses to say where he was many think the reason was for political purposes. However, what if the reason for his silence is National Security. General Alexander went on to say that there must be a balance between maintaining the trust of the people and keeping them safe. It could well be that President Obama is being unfairly maligned and unable to protect himself from his detractors (myself included) because his hands are tied. Think for a minute how unprecedented it is that over 200 CIA personnel have been required to sign nondisclosure statements and are being polygraphed monthly to insure they keep their mouths shut. I am not a big fan of Mr. Obama but then I wasn't one of Jane Fonda either. In both cases I have come to reflect that the facts had CIA written all over them. Finally General Alexander related that at some point disclosures will have to be made but they will come at the cost of making America a less safe place to live. How about them grits? |
| I wrote a series several months ago that Bengahzi was huge. It was the rocks upon which the ship of state for President Obama's second second term grounded and sank. The question of where the President was those missing hours have gone unanswered. The inner circle knows what happened. The second tier has been required to sign non-disclosure statements and is being polygraphed each month to make sure they are keeping their mouths shut. This means the secret is huge. As I listened to top leaders talking about more transparency and the fact that to achieve this there would be revelations that would make us less safe as Americans I was jolted by what is soon to be revealed. During WW2 there was a program known as ULTRA which broke codes and gave the allies insight into the deepest secrets of our enemies. It has been almost eighty years since those who knew the secret were threatened with their lives should they reveal it. Soon, "Son of ULTRA" will be revealed and it will show that while we knew things surrounding Bengahzi, we feared tipping our hands and let those four (4) Americans die for fear of raising the question of how we knew. The Whereabouts of President Obama is tied to this capability and its disclosure will make America a more dangerous place for our Citizens. |
| This past week I was in Shawano Wisconsin attending an RC Solo Course taught by Dave Scott one of the best RC pilots and instructors in the United States. It was a very intense five days that ran Monday through Friday. There were three students in the course... myself, Dick from Milwaukee and Steve from New Jersey. Four of the five days it was blustery with winds between 15 and 25 mph. It was the best course I have ever taken and I loved the adversity. Never again will I avoid flying because its a little windy. Linda went with me and hung out mostly at the Motel during the day and at night we had dinner and in the morning breakfast. On a typical day we would meet at the flying field at 9 AM, listen to a ground school and then fly until about 4-5 PM. It was good to get home, reunite with the dog and sleep on this wonderful King sized bed of mine. |
| In the Exploratory Writing Workshop I have a pre-exercise prior to the course starting. It is called a Favorite Author Chapter Template (FACT). What the student does is take a chapter from one of the works of a favorite author and identify the components that are used and the distribution percentages. The reasons for this are to show a deeper appreciation for their favorite author and why they liked their style... by peeling back the onion a layer deeper. When the students start writing their vignettes I hope they will try and achieve an inclusion of these components in something comparable to the distribution they discovered. For example the components include backstory, dialog, submerged dialog, exposition that moves the story along, foreshadowing, symbolism and others they might want to include. What I find is that its one thing to be able to diagram a chapter in this way and quite another to apply this understanding to the writing of their vignettes. One of the profound lessons I've learned in life is that just because I know something doesn’t necessarily mean I'll apply that knowledge to those particular tasks they relate to. For example a student might be able to regurgitate a litany of facts for a test and get an “A” for the effort, but when it comes to applying those to writing a vignette, that understanding will often fly right out the window. Hence, many just seem to follow their key-strokes in hopes these components will just magically materialize out of thin air. I used to scribble and doodle in class as I took notes showing relationships between the points the professor was trying to make. Writers need to do something along these lines when they begin to write, organizing the components they'll be using to give order and discipline to the fire hose of thoughts that fill the awareness of their imaginations. |
| Linda is in Georgia. Her father is sick and in the ICU. There have been a steady stream of calls today. First I had to figure out how to work the voice recorder on our new set of telephones. Once that was accomplished I brought my wife up to speed on all her local messages. There have been a steady stream. Several blogs back I was thinking about journalism and how things get reported. It seems that the protocol is that all the facts need to be scrubbed before a journalist submits something. This is well and good if the facts are available however, when they aren't are we supposed to sit on our thumbs until all the facts are finally gathered? A good case in point is the disappearance of flight MH 370. I wrote a number of blogs that used assumptions where the facts were unavailable. As long as the assumptions are clearly stated I see no problem in analyzing some of the possibilities. Assumptions have gotten a bad rap in recent years. A popular saying was they make an "Ass of You and Me." If you want to forecast the future assumptions are a virtual necessity. Anything with an element of futurity must be treated as an assumption since it hasn't happened yet. Then there are facts we have yet to establish and until they are discovered assumptions are one way of getting at the truth. For example Watson and Crick discovered the Double Helix playing around with a chemical model until all the pieces came together. Other scientists were taking a linear approach at the time, taking one fact at a time and the remarkable discovery they made was enabled by playing around with assumptions. Why we don't see more of this process used in journalism leaves me scratching my head. |
| Retirement is good. My wife and I don't have any serious health issues yet and we can do the things we always wanted but never had the opportunity to get into. For example I can work uninterrupted on my homestead, airplanes and cars. One of the things I do is blogging and I tend to write about whatever came to mind during the day. One is the recollection of memories. A blog can be a legacy to your children and grandchildren who might some day be interested in the life you led. I would love to read the blogs of my ancestors if they had taken the time to journal. Anyway a memory is always good for a blog's worth. Most of us I'm sure have a memory during the course of our day and why not jot it down? It might not seem like much but it could mean a lot one day to someone interested in your blog entries. I've had plenty of experiences in my life but only certain events seem to percolate up into my daily awareness. These are ideal candidates to write about in the evening before going to bed. Jotting them down in a notebook is a good way to dredge them up from deep memory later and remember what you were thinking about earlier. Some of my memories are not pleasant and it seems that recollections of that ilk are the ones that plague my dreams at night. My bladder has me up several times during the quiet hours and thats a good thing because, I don't have to suffer too long the bad dreams. At the VA they gave me a medication that takes the sharp edge off my "Dreams from Hell.". The worst are those that take a kernel of truth and blow it way out of proportion making me look like a much worse person than I actually am. For example we all say and do things we wish could do over. I'm particularly prone to foot in the mouth syndrome and while most don't amount to a hill of beans, they return in my dreams distorted far beyond what they ever amounted to in life. I'm sure those people I was insensitive towards have long forgotten what I said, but something inside me hasn't. Why I'm being subjected to these vivid and distorted of flashbacks is something I can't fathom. If JOB were still around I'd ask him. I'm sure he could shed some light on unmerited torment. |
| Several months ago at an RC airplane swap meet I bought this old antique gull wing flying model. It was in bad shape and there were holes in the covering and several previous owners had attempted modifications that did not turn out very successfully. The person selling it let it go for a ridiculously low price and for the past two weeks it has been in the restoration hanger (Work table) of my shop. Today I got all the control surfaces working. What remains is mounting the engine and recovering the sides of the fuselage, tail and rudder. When I finish this blog I'll be ordering the components necessary to finish up. I like antiques, and doing restorations on old things. In addition to my RC airplane hobby I like to work on old cars and trucks. I would have liked to have owned a garage but followed a career in the military instead. That has worked out OK and instead of fixing other people's stuff I can concentrate on my own. Linda bought a coffee maker into which you put those little round tub cartons and snap down the lid. It is nice to sit doing my blog while enjoying a cup of Joe. You can see that I don't know the proper name for the above coffee maker. It reminds me of a time many years ago in Germany when we had the family of a German coworker over for dinner. As we were eating the son, who spoke pretty good English, looked perplexed and finally said, "Please pass the bowl with the little green balls." He was referring to the "Peas" and didn't know the vocabulary word. Well thats how I feel right now about that darn coffee machine. |
| I dropped out of my blog writing cycle this week. The weather warmed up and it was nice enough to be outside and trying to catch up on the spring yard cleaning chores. After being inside all winter I'm a bit out of shape and when I get in in the evening I'm all pooped out. In the course of the day my mind tends to operate at two levels particularly when involved in some mundane repetitive task. Yard raking is a good example. Doing that is not particularly mind challenging and so there is a concurrent opportunity to think about other things. Today as I was raking I got to thinking about popular sayings. One that came to mind is an expression used to describe a young woman who is particularly well endowed by nature. The saying is ".... she's built like a brick ---- house. I'm sure the term is quite old and since there are not many outhouses left one would think it would have submerged by now into the vast ocean of unused terminology. However, during the Olympics one of the US female hockey players, in an interview, said her boyfriend described her as built like a brick house. The interviewer chucked and steered the interview into safer waters. As I grow older I sometimes wonder what all those lovely young ladies look like with fifty years under their belts. In Walmart while I'm waiting for my wife to do her shopping I like to sit down on one of the benches they provide and watch the people wander past. Every now and then I see an old lady and even though the years have not been kind can see that once long ago she must have been a real knock-out. One of the most poignant things I ever saw was a farm auction I took my daughter to when she was still in high school. We were staying at a lake where our family at large owns a small cabin and I was bored with looking at the water. In the paper I saw one advertised nearby and told the girls I was going to go and they were welcome to join me. My younger daughter volunteered reluctantly and off we went. It was a typical old farm house and the machinery the family had been farming with was on its last legs. In the process they had grown old and were moving into town. On the kitchen table that had been moved into the yard was a big pile of costume jewelry from the 1920s that included an amber string of flapper beads. My daughter had been patient throughout the day but as the auctioneer approached the table she said, "I want you to bid on the pile of jewelry with the flapper beads in it. As the bidding started I saw these three old ladies looking out the window with interest. My daughters eyes glowed. I didn't care what the bid was I just kept raising my hand until I bought the lot of jewelry. Christine went up and collected the box and put the beads around her neck and twirled around. The three ladies were watching and at first I felt an overwhelming sense of sadness but then I noticed they were smiling as my daughter celebrated her acquisition. Whenever I get the chance I ask my daughter if she still has those beads. " Sure do," she answers and her eyes sparkle once more like they once did... and I see again those old women watching through the window. |
| I have not done well with my bog the past few days. Even when I'm tired in the evening I try and write something but this week I've been in something of a slump. We report, you decide One of the tenants of todays Journal is exemplified in the Fox News Motto. However, I’m not sure that it should end there. I think journalism should go beyond the facts and more into the analysis of the facts. The reason I believe this is that most readers and listeners are not trained analysts and tend to latch onto whatever course of action that springs most readily to mind. I’m not trying to insult the intelligence of the average American but rather expressing what I have learned over a lifetime and continue to see evidenced from day to day. My wife and I were discussing this on our way home from Stephen’s Point today. I bought two ten foot lengths of PCV pipe and asked the clerk to cut each one into four pieces of equal length. This clerk seemed together enough however, I could see he was struggling once he measured the length of one of them. I am not happy to report that the lengths of the four pieces varied by as much as six inches. For the second piece I talked him through the process as tactfully as I could. In response my wife related to me something she had seen on TV. There is a journalist who goes out and interviews people on the street and gets some amazing responses. I believe it was the same guy (Jesse Watters?) who asked the question, “What do you prefer, Obama Care or the Affordable Healthcare Act.?” It was a trick question because both are the same thing, however the humor was in the distinction made by those being interviewed. Anyway Watters went to a Miley Cyrus concert with some placards of famous people and asked some of those attending who the person was. One was VP Biden. The other was John Kerry. One girl didn’t know who the VP was and speculated he might be a used care salesman. Another couldn’t identify the Secretary of State. When prompted with ”… he comes from Massachusetts…,” she replied “John Kennedy… “ then another girl walked up and said, “I know who that is… its Al Gore.” The point of citing these examples is to reincorce the contention ;made above. |
 Log in to Leave Feedback |
View Portfolio
Visit Notebook
Send Gift Points
Awards
Badges
Send Email
Community Newsfeed
General Discussion
Sponsored Items
Book of Trinkets
Static Items
Books
Groups
Interactive Stories
Audio
Campfire Creatives
Community Notes
Crossword Puzzles
Documents
Folders
Images
In & Outs
Madlibs
Photo Albums
Polls
Product Reviews
Quizzes
Survey Forms
Web Pages
Word Searches
Love it! Especially the safety measures for us homo sapiens...
