I just heard that the weather was going to be "bad" tomorrow. Who said so? I really think we should get away from calling weather bad when it's severe, or not to our convenience, don't you? Of course if it's a tornado, or if it damages homes or people, that's another thing. But is it bad when It is just windy or snowing, or rainy or whatever? Some of my most intensely enjoyable times are when there is "bad" weather.

Others can have their "nice summer day for a picnic" or something as "good" weather, and I agree, but weather gets better than that for me. Some of these brutal humid hot days of Virginia summers where you had to cease all activity were not my idea of perfection, I can say that.

Picture with me a strangely gusty and dark afternoon, whatever the season, when you can hear and feel the wind blowing right through you. Just look at the low charcoal and silver clouds moving like layers at different speeds overhead, and the trees whipping and swooshing erratically. Your senses are on edge, feeling like there is something special going on --- and there is. Somehow images of Hardy's heath, or some Dracula movie, or some memory of wild dreams flash in your mind, and it is just exhilarating! Takes my breath away.

Give me a winter morning after a fresh snow, where the snow covers absolutely everything in sight, down to the twigs on the trees. It is so cold that the snow squeaks as you step on it. The snow has long since stopped falling, and you keep looking to see if anything will move, but it doesn't. Just everything is crystalline and spotless. It is so still that you think you could hear a snowflake fall. Just standing there at that moment, breathing it in, feeling like you are a part of it, just is a spiritual high beyond words.

It is odd how we people run from rain showers like it was acid falling or something. Of course we all have ingrained in us the civilized shell that wants to keep dry our precious clothing, purses and wallets, hair etc, etc. I am that way too when you have to look presentable or keep healthy. But I so often find myself in a different camp. I try to back up a little and enjoy the rain.

Two extremes of rain especially thrill me. One is when rain is so gentle and fine you can hardly see it. It's stronger than a mist, since it clearly is directional - the drops are intent on getting to the ground like thousands of little spiders descending on threads. That sprizzy rain, particularly when it is warm, just is one of those things in nature that makes me feel pleasure, how else can I explain it?

The opposite also grabs my attention. Think of a roaring, driving rain coming down in pounding, relentless blinding fashion, obscuring everything around you. If you are in the car, you pull over, knowing it is hopeless to proceed. If you are on a screened porch, you scoot back as far as you can, watching the torrents, knowing it can't last much longer, wondering how it kept it up this long. The power for a fleeting second reminds you of standing very close to the edge of Niagara river, just before the falls, peering into the strangely transparent green steel deep water moving at overpowering speed over the edge. I can almost recreate the feeling from memory. But although Everly Brothers tried to convince me otherwise years ago, you have to be there, you can't bring it totally back in a dream. All of these natural highs I'm describing here are special. The feeling of being overpowered by the beauty or the power is a key to it. I know I should be able to tie religion into this some way, but it is beyond my understanding to do that.

"Mondegreen"
Here is a topic I robbed from an e-mail from my sister Leah a couple of years ago. She was quoting an article by Jon Carroll, SF Chronicle columnist. It is a useful and fun concept. Send me an e-mail with mondegreens of your own. rgb@who.net

It seems that a writer named Sylvia Wright coined the word mondegreen. It is defined as a mishearing of a popular phrase or song lyric. However, an example defines it better: Have you heard an innocent child sing the Christmas Carol “Silent Night”, and sing of that man, Round John Virgin?

I was reminded of this when I sent my brother Scott the words to the old song Grass shack in Kealakekua Hawaii and he confessed his reaction to the line "I want to go back to my fish and poi". "I always thought this was "I wanna go back to my fishin' poi" and I imagined a fishin' poi to be some cool grass roofed deck where folks would stand and fish from", he said.

Wright coined the word mondegreen as the result a similar experience. As a child she heard the Scottish ballad "The Bonny Earl of Murray" and had believed that one stanza went like this: Ye Highlands and Ye Lowlands Oh where hae you been? They hae slay the Earl of Murray, And Lady Mondegreen.

Poor Lady Mondegreen, thought Sylvia Wright. A tragic hero and heroine dying together. It was poetic. She realized some years later that what they had actually done was slay the Earl of Murray and lay him on the green, Wright was so upset that she dedicated the confusion to Lady Mondegreen.

A few more examples are in order:

"Gladly, the cross-eyed bear" (Known to the rest of us as that fine old hymn "Gladly The Cross I'd Bear").

"There's a bathroom on the right," a mishearing of "There's a bad moon on the rise" from the old Creedence Clearwater song "Bad Moon Rising."

"Excuse me while I kiss this guy," actually "Excuse me while I kiss the sky" from the Jimi Hendrix song "Purple Haze." Mr. Hendrix was himself aware that he had been Mondegreened, and would occasionally, in performance, actually kiss a guy after saying that line.

The oldie song "Groovin" has a Mondegreen. In that song, the Rascals were singing "You and me endlessly," but many people heard "You and me and Leslie,"

The pledge of allegiance is a hotbed of Mondegreens. How about "I pledge a lesion to the flag, of the United States of America, and to the republic for Richard Stans, one naked, under god, individual, with liver tea and just this for all."

World War II was fought between the Zees and the Not Zees.

You won’t be surprised to hear that both Coke and Pepsi came in "cheerleader size." Sometimes called "two liter size."

You might be driving a "Jeep Parakeet," or a "Jeep Cherokee."

A rumor has it that a couple of lawyers in town just sat around on the weekend and “drank themselves to Bolivia”.

If you move breakable things up high when children are around, you are moving them "out of arm's sway."

Here are more from song lyrics: Remember on the East Side and the West Side when me and Mamie O'Rourke "risked our lives in traffic"? Remember that moment in "I'm in the Mood for Love" when the singer reveals his favorite nickname for his beloved? I'm in the mood for love, Simply because you're near me, Funny Butt, when you're near me ...

There was the Bob Dylan song with the refrain: "Dead ants are my friends, they're blowin' in the wind." There was the great Crystal Gayle song "Doughnuts Make Your Brown Eyes Blue." Some heard Jose Feliciano's famous recording of "Feliz Navidad" as "Police naughty dog".

A popular Spanish song, "One Ton Tomato."

Paul McCartney Mondegreens: The lines of French in "Michelle" were heard as "Michelle, ma bell, Sunday monkey won't play piano song, play piano song." "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds" lyrics "the girl with kaleidoscope eyes" could be "the girl with colitis goes by."

And of course the old Christmas carol, "sleep in heavenly peas."

Jose' can you see?

RGB

The LEGO company has offices in Connecticut, and recently there were statements that they are moving away soon. However in the interim they have a fascinating display of lego things in downtown Hartford. The figures are on the vaulted walkway bridge area from the downtown , over some roads, to the riverfront, leading to the Adrian's Landing area. Hartford is in the middle of a huge city improvement project beside the river, massive construction and plans for all sorts of things. It has been quite a success so far, and has private and public funding.

Anyhow, we took some pictures of some of these, and had some fun. Click this link to see a couple of pages of images. Don't miss the dogs and Martha's lego clone.

Here's an example of a lego lady who failed the audition to On-Q

I am going to see Meredith tomorrow, figuring it will be the last time in a while I will see her, and of course I don't want Grandma to go off without my making contact, hoping she will make the trip smoothly.

Leah mentioned her letters home to mom, and how they reflected a chatty side, not delving into real life. My letters in the same way were superficial, but I can't believe I wrote so many. The ones from college were more like little duty reports, but the ones from Vietnam were interesting, and reflected the really interesting circumstances that I found myself. I suppose we all get more invigorated and interested when the things going on around us are stimulating. I wonder why I often find myself shunning everyday situations that have unpredictable or exciting sides to them, rather than seeking them out, since it gives me such pleasure when I get there?

1940 was a little before my time in LeRoy, New York, and a little before my time anywhere, but here are two images from the archives:

Heim & McHardy Service Station, 55 Main St. Est. 1931

LeRoy Hardware Co. 12 Main St. Est. 1870

In fiddling with this Talcottville web site and getting interested in the people and history of the town, many interesting things have popped up. One of note is the story of Samuel Huntington, the first president of the United States.


Yes, you heard me. the first president of the United States. Let me tell you . . . .The rest . . . of the story.

Blackie Huntington , who lived in Talcottville in the 1930's I think, was a contractor, a house builder and apparently an all around "I can do it" guy who could do anything he set out to. He built several sturdy and lasting houses in the area that I know of. Anyhow, Blackie had two daughters, one is 79 year old Jean Monaghan, whom we know, and her late sister, who is the mother of Jennifer, a lawyer friend here in town. So much for the present.

Up the family tree, Blackie's father or grandfather,(not sure) was the brother of my subject character, Samuel Huntingon, of Windham CT., the first president . yadda yadda yadda. Samuel Huntington had no children, but he had many siblings.most of them had children. I bet the genealogy books are quite thick.

Samuel Huntington was a politician and an aristocrat, but he had come from modest beginnings on a rural farm as a boy. He was Governor of Connecticut something like 10 times, and was involved in the early colonial efforts to get free of English rule, back when the Boston Tea Party was going on an all that. On July 4, 1776, he was one of Connecticut's signers of the Declaration of Independence. The esteem with which he was held by Congress was evidenced by his election in 1779 to the first of two terms as president of the Continental Congress.

He proponents argue:.
1. He negotiated the signing of The Articles of Confederation,
2. While he was president of the Continental Congress in 1781, the Articles of Confederation went into effect
3. This was the first official time the words "these United States" appears in print.

Therefore, he was, technically, the first president of The United States.

Do you buy that?

Gordon got married July 20.
Gordon seems to be turning things around (I say tentatively and hopefully).
It's tough, but they both are working hard to make things work.
Sherry is great and has two cute boys that get along amazingly well with Gordon, too.
After 1200 or so miles, we're back home.
And miles to go before we sleep.

Martha and I just participated in the wedding of my friend Mike. I met mike in a computer class the first year I was here. He was then a 40+ bachelor, maybe even resigned to stay that way for a while. Mike is a great guy, and his friendship has meant a lot to me. In the last year miracles did happen. He met a girl (quite by chance) from Florida, visiting in his neighborhood. She had been a childhood friend of his until about 12 years old, then moved away, and was just back there looking at her old house. She also is a great girl. They hit it off, each made several trips and endless phone calls back and forth from and to Florida, then she moved here, and the rest is history.

It was a Catholic church wedding in a quite plain church, but the priest, out of retirement for this, was such a pleasant and fetching man, it was a wonderful rehearsal and wedding service. We were both in the wedding party, tuxed and dolled up for the first time in a while, and I'm biased, but we looked pretty good, and weren't the oldest nor the oldest looking. Mike is the embodiment of Felix in the odd couple in his neatnik behavior. He used to photograph weddings himself, and had been active in planning this thing. He produced the CD's of mp3's (napster style) for the reception, planning the timing down to the minute. He had printed instructions to the photographer, the caterer, and others. My best picture of the whole day, I think, that will be funnier to others than to him, was when we were rushing, getting in the car at his house to go to the church, at the last minute, he had to delay one more time to empty the tiny bit of trash in the kitchen basket, and put in a new plastic liner, of course.

Felix

Mike and Mona - (women in back corner were great singers - reminded me of Leah's voice)

Here's Martha in a silly picture of girls and mike

I cleverly got no pictures of myself.

Below I linked to some pictures of things, not people. Just to show you I do have a people side, here are 15 of my favorite people pictures, not all taken by me. I know the family has seen most of these, but the things didn't complain, so I hope the people are as forgiving.

http://members.localnet.com/~rgb2000/log/people/page_03.htm

I have always gravitatied to taking pictures of things,
not people. Martha would come back from a family thing and would have pictures
of the relatives, and I would have pictures of the trees or something. So naturally
in my few years of taking digital pictures, I have leaned the same way. I put
a link here to some of my pictures I have taken of designs and scenes that just
sort of yelled to me to take the shot. I should have ignored the call in many
cases, but I keep thinking I will do something with the images. Well here are
two pages of them, but PLEASE don't waste the time to look at all of them, just
let the thumbnails load, then laugh with me or at me at some of the pictures
I thought were worth taking .http://members.localnet.com/~rgb2000/log/page_01.htm

 

I am starting a website for our community group, Historic Talcottville Association that is more interesting so far for the residents, since I got started when I took pictures of the whole town to help with our Historic District designation. If you want to check it out, it is www.talcottville.org.

Roger Miller once had an album called "Sorry I Haven't Written for so Long" (or something like that), when he had been silent in songwriting for quite a few years. Well, I feel like I should say,"Sorry I haven't blogged for so long"

To make up for it, I bring you the latest hot news. I swear this came right off the AP wire! No kidding. Well, yes, kidding, but no kidding . . . oh, you know what I mean.

---

Saturday, June 15, 2002
Buddhist Funeral Rites Held for Ape

BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) - They flocked to his extravagant wedding, avidly followed his spicy love life and on Saturday came to bid farewell to Mike, Thailand's celebrity ape.

Thai fans by the hundreds arrived to take part in Buddhist funeral rites for the gentle orangutan who died Thursday at the age of 17 of complications from water in the lungs.

He is to be buried Sunday beneath his own statue in the Sa Kaew Zoo at Lopburi, 70 miles north of Bangkok, where he and his family were the star attractions for years.

``Mike has helped the province's economy a great deal. He attracted millions of baht (hundreds of thousands of dollars) and created lots of jobs for local residents. This is the best we can do for him to ensure his happy life after death,'' said Yongyuth Kitwatananuson, a local businessman who has promoted Lopburi as a haven for free-roaming monkeys.

Buddhist chants and a bathing ceremony, in which holy water is poured over the hands of the deceased, are to be held in the zoo.

Mike's wife Susu and offspring Lamyai will be present at the funeral, wearing black outfits provided by the zoo staff.

Every year, Yongyuth offers the monkeys a feast of their favorite foods laid out on tables. The event is popular with Thai and foreign tourists.

---

An Item I saw on townhall.com got me thinking again:

'Carnivore' at center of FBI email glitch.
Critics of the Carnivore program were vindicated yesterday when the FBI released a memo acknowledging that the Carnivore email wiretapping system was capturing emails of innocent citizens. Washington Post: FBI spokesman John Collingwood said yesterday that the case was a rare mistake that resulted from technical problems encountered by an Internet service provider, not by the FBI.

If you haven't focused on this subject, here it is. For a while, previously without public knowledge, the internet e-mail servers, chat servers, and much trunk traffic on the internet has been silently filtered and harvested by cryptic invasive software by big brother, aptly dubbed Carnivore. This is the way they have routed out predatory pedophiles and child pornographers, etc. certainly a goal that you can't argue with. But at what price to the rest of us? I lose faith in humanity periodically, but really, what percentage of Americans, or internet users, for that matter, are in that class? Just imagine the guy who e-mails his brother, let's say, and innocently types, "Bring the baby when you come to Phoenix, I want to get some photos. I can't wait!" This could light a big alarm at spook central, and he could get an unexpected visit from the FBI! Do we want this? (Honey, come down and bail me out! Don't worry, it was a mistake by the ISP, not the FBI so it's O.K.)

I guess we have to watch out that the institutions that we need to keep us civilized don't become a threat to ourselves.

Thomas Jefferson said: "When the government fears the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny."

When we were having so much trouble with Gordon in his teens, There was a point when we feared the social worker whom WE called to help, because they told us they were bound to report us in certain cases (implying that we were child abusers or something). Some help they were. {insert sarcastic emoticon here}

I need some help from the minds of the internet. I bought this thing at a yard sale - they call them tag sales here in CT. I only paid a buck for it, but it was marked " OLD TOOL" I puzzled over it for a while, then told the seller that I give up - please give me a clue. He said he thought he got it from his father, but he wasn't sure what it was! Dern. It is made of wood, clearly hand made for a very specific purpose. It was well-made from a single piece of maple, and the center piece was jigsawed free, and rivited so that it can pivot only an angle a little wider than 90. A spike-like thing is on a beveled surface on the but end, maybe a scribe or a centering point?
Here is my (very) rough sketch and a couple of pictures.

---

You may already have won the $25,000 prize for identifying it, if anyone has offered such a prize. I know I haven't.

Please e-mail me with me any guesses to the origin or use, however far out.

~~~I Gotta Guess~~~

<>--------------------------------------------------------------<>

No one to talk with; all by myself,
No one to walk with, but I'm happy on the shelf.
Ain't Misbehavin', I'm savin' my love for you.

I know for certain, the one I love,
I'm through with flirtin', it's just you I'm thinkin' of.
Ain't Misbehavin', I'm savin' my love for you.

Like Jack Horner, in the corner
Don't go nowhere, what do I care?
Your kisses are worth waitin' for ....
... Believe me ...

I don't stay out late, don't care to go,
I'm home about eight; just me and my radio,
Ain't misbehavin', I'm savin' my love for you!

<>------<> <>--------------------------<>

Do you dare to click here?

<>------<> ~ rgb ~ <>--------------------------<>

Raster is to Vector

as

MP3 is to MIDI.

~ rgb ~

Well, Meredith did it. I was blown away by a post of hers. Crepuscular Garden This one was a gentle story, told is such a way to seem like she was whispering it in my ear. What a concept! Your experience is to absorb and observe and participate to the maximum of your awareness at the time. But night turns silently into day in a secret process each day, whether you are there to take it in or not.

In a way, it is the proof to the age old debate about the tree in the forest on the desert island. Of course the scene is played out . . . at the dawn and in the forest. . It may be played in slo-mo due to your perception of it, or with the backdrop of your sighs or gasps, or all by itself in a natural process, getting along just fine without you, thanks.

I have additional thoughts of her use of the word crepuscular. This takes me back to high school to a friend who was my close friend but nobody knew how deep it went (but that's another story) . Mike had just come back from a special summer science program in Texas, showing me a bunch of fossils he had found there, and telling me all about his great time. I don't know why it stuck with me, but he told me that he had learned this new word crepuscular, that he told me, or I interpreted what he told me to be the look of the sun's rays bursting through the clouds - it was like that in the sky that day - sort of like the Sunday school books showed when god was beaming from the clouds. Years after, I looked up the word, but never found that meaning listed, so I had sort of thought I had remembered it wrong for all that time. But today, when I looked it up from Merry's post, I dug further. Crepuscular itself means 1. of, pertaining to, or resembling twilight; dim; indistinct. 2. Zool.appearing or active in the twilight, as certain bats and insects. But . . . crepuscular RAY was listed as "a twilight ray of sunlight shining through breaks in high clouds and illuminating dust particles in the air". Wow,1963 revisited.


I have to finish the Mike story - hey this is my blog - I can go on an on and on if I want to. Mike was Michael Pridgeon, my classmate who killed himself in a shocking way during senior year. As I said before, I was his close friend, but in a cruel twist of society nonsense, nobody seemed to care or know about that. I was mainly a loner. Mike was basketball star, class president, scholar, in the "in crowd" dated who he pleased, all that crap that evidently didn't matter to him in the end. We had been at the football game the night before, had been in the Marching Band, and we had some disturbing conversations that I can't go into. We talked about doing some harmless mischief, the worst of which was we almost got on the bus to the other school, Victor or somewhere - we didn't care where. We were very close to doing it, even though we would have been in trouble, and the adventure seemed a tempting thing. I kicked myself for not letting him talk me into it, because he shot himself the next morning. Of course I had no idea he would do anything like that, it was not even on my radar screen, as they say, but in retrospect, I know that he was desperate and unhappy, and knew things that would be at least interesting to his parents. Did anyone ask me if I knew anything about Mike? No. Did I even get invited to the funeral? As an afterthought. His big basketball buddies and self-appointed friends all were anointed as pall bearers and all that, and I was in the shadows. Please don't take this as a jealous or self-pity thing. I was then, and am now actually proud of my independence and separation from the mainstream, and it helped my character to be less dependent on the whims of others. But it is a strange thing how things play out, and you can't help but wonder about things that might have been.

RGB

This may not be ready for prime time, but it's strange what goes into these peaches.

If you want to gasp and ooooh and aahhh and cry, check out this image from space at night.

Click here for: Who left the lights on?

~ rgb ~

..

Both of my sisters have started posting on blogs. This is such a neat way to add to our communications. I guess it is a better forum to have open thinking since we are thinking of putting thoughts "out there", not to a specific person. I find it more natural to put posts of interesting stuff, rather than just a text message, but I am trying to do both, and I hope I don't run out of ideas.

I have always thought and observed that people have more ideas and creativity in them than they think they have. Or a better way to say it is that if an ordinary person is put into a think-tank mode, or is challenged by someone else to come up with something, they will do extraordinary things. The creative spot in the brain probably needs a goose every now and then. I suppose really creative people have that switch turned on by default.

I wasn't going to get fancy on this post, but I had to experiment a little.

Here's something that makes me laugh, but I don't know why.

I saw these mentioned on Conan's ( O'brien) show. These are REAL figurines, about the size of GI Joe or something, with Jesus helping kids at sports. There is Jesus Baseball, Jesus Soccer, Jesus Football, basketball, Ballet, Golf, Martial Arts, Hockey, Track, Biking/Rollerblading, Gymnastics, & Skiing. Conan's writers had actually made fake new ones. Now I am sure the intentions of these are fine, but Jesus! The site: http://www.catholicshopper.com/products/inspirational_sport_statues.html

By the way, I saw some old clips of Johnnie Carson the other day, at the award show he refused to do, and remembered how great he was. How did a guy like Conan make it? He would be a funny next door neighbor, but not the caliber of a Carson.

Pun alert, pun alert!

They were sorry the human cannonball at the circus quit because they couldn't find another man of his caliber. (or calibre for you Canadians and British)

My brother sent me a clip of some lyrics from a bluegrass song:
It proves that sometimes a few words are worth a thousand pictures.

The rocking chairs on the old front porch
Move from a sudden wind
It's almost like my Mom and Dad
Are sitting there again
My brother's voice is calling
From his fav'rite climbing tree...
. . .

The Legend of Andrew McCrew

by Don McLean

There was a mummy at the fair,
All crumpled in a folding chair.
The people passed, but didn't care
That the mummy was a man,

so tell me if you can

Chorus:
Who are you? Who are you?
Where have you been, where are you going to?
Well, Andrew McCrew must have lost his way
'Cause though he died long ago he was buried today.

Down on nightmare alley, where the shady people sway
a hobo came a-hikin' on a salty summer day
Well he hopped a freight in Dallas, and he rode out of sight
But on a turn he slipped, and he lost his grip
and he fell in-to the night.

Repeat Chorus

Well, Andrew had one leg of wood, the other leg was small.
And when he fell off the train that night he found he had no legs at all.
Well they found him in the thicket, and the undertaker came.
And they mummified his body for a relative to claim.

Repeat Chorus

But no one came to claim him, until the carnival passed through.
The carnies took him to their tent and they decided what to do.
Well they dressed him in a worn-out tux and they put him on a stand.
And millions saw the legend called the `famous mummy man'.

Repeat Chorus

Well, what a way to live a life and what a way to die.
Left to live a living death with no one left to cry.
Petrified amazement, and wonder beyond words,
A man who found more life in death than life gave him at birth.

Repeat Chorus

But what about the ones who live and wish that they could go.
Whose lives are lost to living and performing for the show.
Well at least you got the best of life until it got the best of you,
So from all of us to what's left of you
Farewell, Andrew McCrew.

Notes:
The song is based on an authentic case. Andrew McCrew toured with the carnival, posthumously, for about 35 years. He was buried in 1973.That was when Don McLean read an article about him and wrote the song. When the song came out, someone stepped forward and donated a headstone on McCrew's previously unmarked grave. The fourth verse of the song is carved on the headstone.

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Well, I'm probably dealing with an urban legend, but I saw this in the Wahington post, the AP wire, and CNN, so it probably is true. What has happened to the common sense in our society?

An 11 year old honor-roll girl was SUSPENDED for drawing a doodle stick figure of the teacher with an arrow through the head. She did not turn it in, it was in her binder - just a doodle! This is bad behavior, and the teacher should have scolded, given detention, called the parents, or had her write "I will not . . " 1000 times or something, but what did the school do? Called it "TERRORIST ACTIVITY" and suspended the little girl from school. What??

The only thing I have to add to the obvious stupidity of this, if we do have all the facts, is that I found the details on the superintendent who defended this as standard procedure, no big deal, he said, in effect.

Glenn Smartschan, Superintendent
Mount Lebanon School District,
7 Horsman Drive,
Pittsburgh, Pa. 15228-1107.
E-mail: gfs@bbs.mtlebanon.k12.pa.us

An e-mail or two might show our opinion.

rgb
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
HERE IS THE NEWS CLIP:

Girl Suspended in Doodle of Teacher

MOUNT LEBANON, Pa. (AP) - A school suspended an 11-year-old girl for drawing two teachers with arrows through their heads, saying the stick figures were more death threat than doodle.

Becca Johnson, an honor-roll sixth-grader at Mellon Middle School, drew the picture on the back of a vocabulary test on which she had gotten a D.

"That's my way of saying I'm angry," Becca said, adding she meant no harm to the teachers.

The stick figures, on a crudely drawn gallows with arrows in their heads, had the names of Becca's teacher and a substitute teacher written underneath. Another teacher spotted the doodle in the girl's binder Tuesday and reported it, prompting the three-day suspension.

Becca's parents, Philip and Barbara Johnson, denied the school's contention the drawings were "terrorist threats."

"She had done poorly on a test that was handed back to her. We've always told her that you can't take your feelings out on your teacher, so write about it or draw it, as a catharsis," Barbara Johnson said.

She accused the school of applying a zero-tolerance policy that "does away with due process and inflicts a penalty without a hearing or investigation."

The district said its zero-tolerance policy applies only to gun or drug possession, and denied that no investigation was done.

"All I can say is that when we have taken action related to the activities of students in the schools, we have done so after a thorough investigation," Mount Lebanon School District Superintendent Glenn Smartschan said.

2002-05-02 14:48:35 GMT

I feel terrible. I sent nasty e-mails (well at least rude, in retrospect) to two bidders who sniped (I learned that is what they call it) at the last moment and beat me at eBay auctions. They both were great when they responded, explaining in so many words in e-mail that they were just trying to bid and it wasn't personal. One was from Canada, and actually offered to let me have the item, and called the seller to see if they had another one! Of course I said it was not necessary, but it put me in my place. RGB

I am really upset with bidding on Ebay right now. I bid on a stupid part to fix an old banjo, just A $12 thing, and it was no big deal, but I had the high bid for like the last two days, and in the last 30 seconds some jackass outbid me. Out of the blue! And I didn't even know about it.

It has become too common a practice for bidders to steal bids like this. I have even heard that software can be used to automate this stealing process. I don't think that is in the spirit of the fair auction.

I'm not talking about the automatic bidding, if someone bids higher than necessary, and that automatically is entered for him. That is O.K. because he is willing to bid to that point. I'm talking about when one would be perfectly willing to bid another few bucks, but they don't get the chance! This is bad for the seller, too, since it stops the bidding at a lower price.

Now I have to admit, I have tried to do this last minute bidding myself in self defense, but I have realized that this is really not fun, and has sort of ruined Ebay for me. I have been selling and buying things on Ebay for years. Even before Ebay even started, I bought my Bach Trombone off the internet from a guy in the Midwest. I have had a lot of good experiences on Ebay, and funny ones as well, as have my relatives, but I think something has to change to make things fair and enjoyable again.

In an HONEST auction, the high bidder wins, not the scheming, fastest finger bidder. Right? The common good guys that made Ebay are not the ones who have the time to hover over the keyboards to steal bids in the last 30 seconds. If someone outbids me, or gets too high for my budget, FINE they get the item. But I have a bad taste in my mouth when auctions come down to robotic bidding, without my ability to bid higher even on lower priced items.

SO I HAVE A PROPOSAL that I will send to Ebay. The auctions should end ONLY after the highest bid has been uncontested for say 10 minutes. 10 minutes is not much to ask for in a 7 day auction! If somebody beats my bid, the auction is automatically extended another 10 minutes to see if I want to bid again. And if I do bid higher, they have 10 minutes to respond, etc. This way, it will go back to being an auction to the highest bidder, not the best timed schemer or luck of the fastest finger.

This would end the bid stealing, and you will not have to micro-manage your bid to the last second.

RGB

I've always been groaned at a little when I start with the puns, which of course is music to the ears of punsters. There is a branch of paranomasia (how 'bout that 25 cent word) that proposes names for people that may have a not-so-hidden meaning. Car Talk and Prarie Home Companion both have used pseudo-names in their credits, for example. Here are a few to say out loud:

Horrace Trader
Howie Doodat
Hugh Jankles
Ida Donemore
Iona dePlace
Isabel Ringing
Isaiah Prayer
Jerry Atrix
Jim Nazium
Joaquin DeDogg
Justin Tyme
Juliet Buggs (Julie, I told you not to)
Justin Tyme
Kay Sabere (not just a six pack)
Layne Downe
Linus Upp
Lou Dact
Luke N. Good
Lynn C. Doyle
Orson Buggy
Reba derchi (Audie Ohs?) (Cy Onara?)
Rhoda Dendron
Rocko Gibraltar .
Roland DeHay
Sid E. Lights
Mike Easter
Noah Count
Noah Vail
Trudy Votion
RGB

I was going to use this blog the way I heard that you were supposed to, keeping a sort of public diary, reflecting a side of you that you didn't mind sharing. Or perhaps just intending to put up all those nuggets of information and witty things that you have collected, written, or discovered. However, I find it is hard for me to do that kind of un-targeted posting. I am accustomed to knowing specifically who is listening, and tailoring my wit or lack of wit to the audience.

We all know people who will just keep on talking, even if it is not clear that anyone is listening. "I went to town yesterday", they might say, " and the traffic was terrible, and down there in the neighborhood where the Caseys used to live, you know, the Caseys that had the son Adam who went to Yale with our neighbor, and now lives in Arizona . . . .yadda yadda yadda" and your eyes glaze over, not knowing about or interested in Adam or the Caseys, but it doesn't seem to matter at all to the chatter. They will go on and on, until they are out of steam, it seems.


I think you have to have a little of that in you to blog properly, I guess. I always have been the type who immediately stops talking as soon as they stop listnenig. I have always sent a joke to a specific person, or responded to an e-mail with someone specific in mind, perhaps something you wouldn't want to send to someone else you know. I can see that your mentality definitely has to change for this kind of thing. You lay yourself bare for ANYONE to read, or maybe NOBODY to read. Sort of scary either way.
RGB

I always was fascinated by the repetitive, creative, interlocking images by M.C. Escher. I once read a scientific article on the computer analysis generation of such images. Here is an even more artistic and kind of unbelievable animated extension of this. RGB

tessellating animation

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RGB

Behold the duck
It does not cluck
The cluck it lacks
It quacks
It's specially fond of a puddle or pond
And when it sups
It bottoms ups

Ogden Nash


Get used to it, all posts don't have to meaningful RGB

I tried my hand at being in commissioned sales years ago. I came away from it realizing that most everyone has to be a salesman as part of living to some degree, having your ideas accepted, or "bought" by others, or other sales-like behaviors. However some people are more in phase with sales than I am. Some people actually get a pleasure out of the "winning" of a deal or coming out on top. I see the value in that, but never had it affect me that way. Any successes I did have, I perhaps found gratification in the money earned, and sometimes proud of the knowledge I brought to the table that made it happen, but not the actual sales rush that I have seen in some people.

However, I once met a man, Ira Hayes, who could have inspiration for anyone's doings in life, even though he considered himself a sales trainer, and champion of the sales types. He spoke to a conference I went to, and he is was a motivational speaker of national note, like Zig Ziggler, W. Clemant Stone, etc. Early in his career, he sold cash registers on the street for NCR, and he rose to management in that company. I won't go into the pitch, but I really loved his enthusiasm, and I still think about and use some his simple, no nonsense ideas. For instance, he said, when somebody asks you how you are, just say Great! That's all, Great! They don't REALLY want to know how you are. they have troubles of their own. It's better to be a listener than a complainer. It's hard for me to say something bad about someone without at least sandwiching it with good comments, even if a stretch. Although I do, and have done my share of grousing and whining, I truly am impressed by people who keep the positive attitude out in front, and I try to do the same. They're Great! I'm inserting here a scan of the Hayes dollar I have kept in my wallet for ?? years.

RGB

Here are some quotes I have saved:
............................................................................
The bamboo that bends is stronger than the oak that resists. -Japanese
proverb

............................................................................
The believer is happy; the doubter is wise. -Hungarian proverb

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Solitude, though it may be silent as light, is like light, the mightiest of
agencies; for solitude is essential to man. All men come into this world
alone; all leave it alone. -Thomas De Quincey, writer (1785-1859)

............................................................................
In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on.
-Robert Frost, poet (1874-1963)

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Folks:
I talk so rarely about Vietnam that I bet some people don't know I went.

I'm going to tell a true story about a day in my life that was extraordinary. It is particularly puzzling to me because I have never been one to believe in pre-destination, clairvoyance, ESP, numerology, astrology, or that kind of thing. As I have explained to people who may lean that way from time to time, though, I am practical, but open minded. Just because I have seen neither alien nor ghost, and consequently do not believe they exist here, does not mean that I have closed my mind to the possibility that they do, and with the proper evidence, I could accept those things as reality, since all we know is from faith, from logic, or from what we have experienced.

I have never been strong on remembering a timeline of my life, but figuring backwards, it was in 1982. I was employed in my first strange computer industry job, and was feeling lucky because I had to go on business to Washington D.C. from Richmond the day before the dedication of the so-called Vietnam Memorial Wall. I went to see it, but did not stay over to the following day for the formal dedication ceremony.

In 1967 when I went into the army, the only person I knew personally that had died in Vietnam was Gary Scott, from LeRoy. He was in my class, and I considered him a close friend, but I think everyone that ever knew him felt they were his close friend. He was that kind of a personality. I can still remember jokes he told me in science lab in 1963!

He died honorably in action as a lieutenant in the infantry just before I went over, but his death shaped the way I looked at the war, and indeed my time in the Army. But that is another story. Back to that day in 1982:

Since the dedication wasn't 'till the next day, signs weren't posted well or anything, I parked on the street and walked in the general direction on the mall where some people were grouped. I saw the monster black wall from a distance, seeing it gently sloping into the ground. Now this thing is 400 feet long, ten feet high (deep) in the middle, and has over 58,000 tiny names etched in it. The names and dates are almost invisible until you are right on them, being etched in the black granite. They seem endless and random, and only if you knew as I did later Maya Lin's design that names are arranged chronologically by death date. The first casualty is listed at the top of the middle, panels sequencing to the right on ever diminishing wall height till it disappears into the ground, then the names re-emerge on the left tip and end with the last name back in the center, to form a closure.

I would not believe this if someone else told me it happened to them, but I walked steadily and directly toward the wall until my face was inches from the wall and my eyes focused on the name GARY ARNOLD SCOTT. I went right to it! It is not even at eye level. To this day I still find it hard to believe. I visited the wall a few years later and even knowing generally where the name was, it took me five or ten minutes to find it again.

RGB

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blogger.com

I'm trying to decide on a base format for my blog, since I haven't learned the tags yet, so I am going to switch around a little to see what looks best. I have to find out what works best to do customization, too. I don't want another thing to be a slave to, so I'll try to get something I can leave alone, but that porobably is not realistic. I don't want to lose customizations and links and all, or have to keep reentering them all the time. I am not an expert at HTML from scratch, but like most things, I can modify templates and examples once I read the code, and find out how it is set up. This is saturday, and it is good enought weather to get out, so I will try to pry myself away from the computer. RGB

I tried to set this blog up in Opera 6.01, and it doesn't work. I found that Opera has a lot of things going for it, but you have to keep IE around for the incompatibilities like this. It seems a shame that MS has to have such a tight lock on things. Of course I'm not blazing the latest news here, but MS usually ends up pushing the little creative guys aside, maybe buying out one of the best, then giving theirs away, settling for the mediocre program because the incentive for competition, adding new features and one-upsmanship are gone. One of my pet examples is e-mail clients. I used to try out all sorts of them, both at home and in my role as computer administrator at a small company. There was the BAT, Pegasus, Netscape mail in the browser, geez I thought I could bring back amore names, but you get the idea. One would have a better address list, or be able to export things better, one would be good at formatting, or would ding you when you had new mail, and this competition would make everyone better. Of course this was shareware, so a lot of users wouldn't pay, but at least they had a chance of making it with a better mousetrap. Fast forward, Microsoft gives away Outlook Express with the Operating System, Bundles Outlook with business software, makes it hard for other things to work with Exchange, and stagnation sets in. Why should the others even be out there. Al monopoly questions aside, I know it is their right, and a competition driven thing to try to be the winner, and dominate, but is it really better for averageguy? There are some benefits, in the stability, the integration and the bundling, but that in my opinion is overshadowed by the lack of competition, and thereby the lack of new features and programs that the user really would have liked. Proving that this blog was actually headed somewhere, I will go back to Opera. Really a great browser. It has so many things I can do in it that beat IE and my previous champion (before they gave up), Netscape, and it's not MS. But do I think it can make a blip considering the situation? . . . RGB

On your mark. . .Get set . . . Go.