I got a Kindle! I got a Kindle!

You know as a young pup I always wanted a special gift...watching it on the RCA on Saturday morning during Jonny Quest...was almost too much to bear as I dreamed of this plastic spring loaded very loud manifestation of American industrial might...
...There was a lot to like about Jonny Quest...heck Jonny had a cool dog...I mean, who wouldn't want to have a dog named "Bandit"...and a buddy named "Hadji"...shaping our little Ovaltine laced brains to look ahead to multi-culturalism...and his dad was a silver haired scientist Dr. Benton Quest with a personal bodyguard...WOW!...named Race Bannon...seriously...I still knew all of their names nearly 45 years later...although I can't remember what I had for dinner last night...

...anyway...so I asked Santa for a Kindle this year....since I didn't get it for my birthday...sniffle...but hidden in a big box with a couple of bricks and a ton of newspaper...sneaky ole Santa!....was a small brown cardboard box with this key to the knowledge of the world...or at least Amazon's version of the world...holding a Kindle!....how cool...

...for the sixteen of you in the world who have not heard of the Kindle...it is Amazon's E-Book...what's Amazon?...if I need to explain that you should probably stop reading now and return to your Guideposts and Readers Digest...anyway...the Kindle is an electronic book that downloads automatically books, mazagines, newspapers and other reading material to a very slender and lightweight device about the size of a small journal...

...now speaking as an aspiring bibliophile I initially was pretty skeptical of products such as the Kindle...as there really is nothing like the feel of a well worn leather bound volume in your hands...and I have frequently said that only two things tend to look better with age...leather and wood...and a vintage text is just beautiful and historic and exciting all at one moment...so you have to understand I tread towards the Kindle somewhat lightly...

...but a few months ago at my cousin Linda's house I picked up her Kindle sitting on the living room table...thinking it was some sort of a small logbook or journal...and was pleasantly surprised by its feel and possibilities...

...so I promptly downloaded several items and got cracking on this newfangled form of reading...the early verdict?...here are some observations...

*The wireless connection is amazing...easier to use than any cellphone or laptop...

*Trying out products for 2 weeks free or getting extended samples of book is brilliant...and a great marketing technique...

*Not being distracted by ads when reading a newspaper is wonderful...I had never thought about this until experiencing it...

*It is very simple to use and easy to read...even with old man eyes...and an old man brain...

*Navigating through the newspaper section is easier than I would have supposed...with a section guide that lays it out with the number of articles in a section...

*Reading in bed is as easy as reading a book...I would have thought there was a built in light but when I tried it a soft reading lamp worked just find...and when I fall asleep and it hits me in the face it doesn't hurt nearly as much as a book...

...so at this point I have to give it 4 stars...well done Amazon!...

....and what was the special gift of my youth?...that I never got?...

...maybe next year!

A Christmas Memory

OK it was 30 years ago today...exactly...December 25, 1979...and I was a long way from home...at the mouth of the Persian Gulf and not too far from Oman...

...it was dawn having stood another mid-watch...I try to now imagine working 8 hours on and hours off for 24/7 for a 7 month stretch again and it seems pretty impossible...but that is what we did...and I was tired as a dog and the radio traffic had fallen to near nothing because of the stateside holiday...while a small task force turned in a circle known as "Gonzo Station" for 92 days at sea...the USS Midway, USS San Jose, USS Jouett and USS Bainbridge as a I recall...I aboard the latter...you can probably figure out what I was doing there...

...what troubles me a bit is that few people seem to realize that a standing combat presence in the Mideast started in 1979...long before we ever heard of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney... but Idigress for that is not the Christmas tale...

...the mail service had long since fallen through with maybe 2 or more weeks since the blessed words "mail call" had rang throughout the steel home we had lived aboard for so long...and I was fairly bummed as the task force was scheduled to be in port the Phillipines long before Christmas...I and a bunch of my shipmates had booked flights stateside...as I recall the flight from Manila to Los Angeles was about $175 round trip...a princely sum...

...I had missed every Thanksgiving in my four years in the service...but had made Christmas several times...and was looking forward to the close of 1979 since it meant that I had but 7 months until discharge and my civilian life could resume...with plans to attend either UCSB or Fresno State...wasn't really sure at the time which but had applied to both...but Iran interrupted my holiday plans...never got my $175 bucks back either...

...after it sunk into us in early December that there was no way that another task force could be assembled to relive us for some months...and that all of the sugarplums that had been dancing in our heads had turned to powdered eggs and bug juice...morale was kind of low...and as I recall it was more of a result of not having any clue when we would ever come stateside again...more so than the fact of being stuck overseas...it was lack of leadership and indecision at the highest levels that bummed us out the most...

....so it was dawn over the Gulf...and I leaned against the bulkhead amidships...and for just a moment each morning the desert heat would break and you could feel a touch of cool...and so I recall that I had positioned myself near a vent that was blowing warm air from somewhere deep within the bowels of the ship...and with my fatigue from the night my body ached for rest...the caffeine from the tea I had drank a few hours before long since passing from my system...

...no other ships were in sight...or at least from my vantage...the Midway was probably just over the horizon ten or more miles out...and it was then that a solo helicopter flew nearby...in some kind of exercise or training...and I hope those guys weren't as tired as I was....but I thought it kind of peculiar this stray helo and no flight ops had been called....well go figure...the guys up in CIC knew what was going on...

...and then across the 1MC...throughout the ship...the order was shouted out to prepare to receive a helicopter...which for us was not really to land a helo but rather to be able to exchange supplies or passengers...which I had done multiple times to visit other ships to repair equipment for them...dangling over the sea at 25 knots...oh the things when we are young...a shot of adrenaline hit my heart and I returned to the radio shack to see what was going on...and what idiot called for a transfer on Christmas morning...

...I discovered that what was occuring was bundles of mail...boxes stuffed in canvas bags...letters long overdue from parents, spouses and sweethearts...await us...and the chopper dropped a large cargo net of mail on our aft flight deck...and soon cleared the ship and sped away back to the Midway...

...and in an hour or so shouts were erupting around the ship...from men in their khaki shorts and skivies in various states of dress...most not shaven just yet...the rules being somewhat relaxed in the tropics and gulf back then....

...and a sack of mail was delivered to the shack and a box awaited me...from my girlfriend of four years...a young lady at Westmont named Ruth...

...as far as trees go it was not much...a small plastic tree with some simple ornaments...and a "Care Package" to boot....and me and my buddies set it up atop a small table near the desk...and it cheered our hearts as we read letters, enjoyed some cookies and pretended even for a few moments that all was good in the world...

....now I know in the whole scheme of things that this is not a particularly profound moment...in the league of the prodigal son, a miraculous healing or appearance of an angel on Christmas day...but for me it was pretty special that the folks back home really did care...and that the unknown mail clerks and storekeepers and pilots had worked hard to make our ship a bit more cheery that day...before we returned to another 60 days at sea...before finally seeing land again...

...but I vowed then to not take Christmas for granted...and I have tried not to...and enjoy the family and friends that have been built up over the years...

...so I ask today that you appreciate those near you and give thanks for them...and to ask that you say a prayer for those in harms way...men and women we will never know but who sacrifice so we can have this time together...

...and my Christmas wish is that we appreciate one another...and pray and ask for peace in the world...life is not perfect but it is the only one we have.

Merry Christmas

here is the ship song that sent us on our way many a time...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvqB_go0ZIk

Reflections and a Prayer

A cold day today...having traveled north away from San Diego for the holidays...and of course the meetings that go with a complicated life...but actually left early to attend a funeral yesterday...

...What can one say when you attend a memorial service for a beautiful, bright, witty and outstanding young woman?...words seem to fail us in such moments...although her brother, a young man I have known and admired for many years...spoke with a poignant embrace of his sister and spark of hope in the midst of tears...leaving me at one moment in tears and the next with a smile...may all people have a sibling, friend or colleague who shares in such a way of their own passing some day...

....It brought back many memories...too many actually...because I think that I have attended 16 funerals of family members since my high school years...including my brother, father, all of my uncles, cousins, and of course my grandparents...and those who know me and my past recall Bill and Dave as well...brothers in arms...and while I cannot call them I can recall them...still...and miss them...reflections...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iE9TNG8IQNI

...For me one of the most difficult parts of staying while others go is forgetting their voice, smell, laugh and tone...I cannot now recall my brother's and father's voice...I try but can't...it has passed me and is now lost...nor do I even think I would recognize it if I heard a recording of it...and perhaps to do so would rob me of something...teasing me of what cannot be and the replaying would be a disappointment....



...I recall my grandfather's peculiar smell...of woodworking...Prince Albert tobacco...a well worn shirt kept too long from soap...whiskers...the unusual and unique combination of things that are in some sense as much of one's being as their DNA...and when I cleaned out his woodshop 20 some years ago I sat alone and wondered of his life...and had regret that while he had lived a long life that there was so much I did not know...of him and his own hopes and dreams and aspirations...of the victories and the losses...and some years later when I went to the grave in Hayward of his young daughter...the sister of my father...who had died so long ago...I wondered how he had felt that day...and how long the pain stayed...and when the smell of young Lucille too faded...away and lost forever...


...so I suppose that just a few days before Christmas I am struck with the loss of this young woman all the more...trying to make sense of non-sense...and I know that somehow I must make peace with this event...between God and I and all the rest...as I have had to do too many times before...and wonder if I am and have been a good husband, father, person and friend...and know that I have not...


...and I simply wish that I could somehow develop an appreciation and awareness that I lack....and yearn for but know that this side of eternity it will elude me...

...yet still I have hope...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zvKXaOVASs

Spending Green to Go Green to Bleed Red

Now I really have nothing against Elmo...although my youth preceded the rise of Sesame Street...I was kind of more of a Superman and Prince Valiant kind of a kid...although later I did think Veronica was hot when Archie hit the 1960's...yikes...but that is not the point of my attempt at generally speaking today...I want to talk about the Point Loma Nazarene University "Grass Vote"......No! Not that kind of grass!...silly people...no, the kind of grass you sit on...spread a picnic...relax...take a nap...enjoy its smell and the ambience and cool it provides...and that at my esteemed campus there is a debate and vote to remove more than thirty areas of lawn...replace it with "native" landscaping...kind of like "Phoenix at the Point"...

...You think I make this stuff up? Check out http://www.pointloma.edu/PhysicalPlant/Sustainability/The_Grass_Vote.htm



...To be fair the advocates of removing the lawns at PLNU may not necessarily be thinking such luscious alternatives such as cactus...yucca...and puncture vines...but "native" certainly doesn't mean the standard of beauty that we have become accustomed to in modern landscaping...which has taken over 100 years at PLNU to develop... I but for your reference I have placed the picture above and below as examples of San Diego area native landscape...

...."But the earth is dying and the penguins are drowning and we have no water and the farmers have pillaged the land and Uncle Albert has got it right and who will save Willy and I must do something and we have to save the earth and...and...and...and..."

News flash! Willy died!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElJFYwRtrH4

...Hold on while I wash my face after getting ill...

...So anyway... this got me thinking as I studied the Grass Vote at PLNU...and trying to examine the considerations of this issue...you know...that little process we used to call "analysis" of any particular topic...which has now been superceded by passionate cries of..."WE HAVE TO DO SOMETHING!!!!!!"...and shrill voices that have grabbed the microphones...or websites... are persuading our everyone...including our college students...that nearly everything is worth "kicking to the curb" in the name of sustainability, natural and renewable...something CS Lewis called "chronological snobbery"...worth the read if you are interested...

...but so sorry I have this little problem...I am afflicted with something called "common sense"...and also a desire for analysis before making important decisions...so I wrote a note to the person in charge of the "Grass Vote" at PLNU for clarification...so I will post below the questions I raised...

1) What, if any, is the potential impact on recruiting and admissions? As a parent prior to coming to PLNU as a faculty member, I know that the visual appearance of PLNU is a significant factor for many applicants. While some applicants may find dry-scape/native preferable, I would think a majority would prefer the campus as is.

2) What is the economic value in water savings to the campus? Was this quantified in any way or only that it will “save water?”

3) Is there any potential impact on our staff members in grounds keeping? If we reduce maintenance of lawn areas does this mean we are reducing staff? Have they been consulted? It seems to me that we have at least the potential to remove some of the hardest working and lowest paid staff members at PLNU.

4) What is the potential impact on student employment? I know that some students work at PLNU in grounds keeping over the summer to earn tuition. Has this been considered?

5) Are there other alternatives to native? For instance, I am currently considering new forms of artificial turf. This has been used extensively at military installations in the Point Loma area and new versions of this product are far superior to older versions. Certainly in some areas (shaded, rooted, marginal drainage, etc.) alternative turf may be superior to what we have.

6) What is the current effort at PLNU to reclaim water? Could water reclamation be a potential solution?

7) Is there any capacity at PLNU in the current budget situation to even consider alterations to the landscape? When faculty and staff wages are frozen is there potential backlash to such initiatives?


..So I guess my point is that I am asking for people to think before you tear up lawn...remove sprinkler systems...lay off workers...change PLNU forever...just think before you jump off a cliff, OK? ...Let's at least talk through all the issues before action...

...And the cool thing is that I have received a response on my questions! Tune in for coming posts!



...THINK!

It's a Dogs Life....

...So here I am eating the turkey and gravy and all of the trappings of Thanksgiving...discussing the merits of being an American in this day and age...including being able to buy 10 pounds of potatoes for .69 cents...crazycheapspuds!..and my lovely bride tells us about the lady in the Ralph's right behind her...with an opinion on everything...she must have a blog also...but anyway...old Ethyl starts to talk to the little lady...when she notices what does her new friend have in her shopping cart?...well besides 3 pounds of Velveeta, Del Monte fruit cocktail...some coffeemate and three jars of medicated Tucks...

She sees the old bow-wow in the cart! Isn't that just cute...no downright precious...ahhhhh....cute little poochy-poochy....smile...and warm fuzzies go up and down Ruthie's cute little spine...how thoughtful of her new friend to bring her little companion into the grocery store!...ahhhhhhh....how nice... anchors aweigh little buddy!

...Now before you go sending me a note about not loving dogs...make no mistake but I do indeed love the little fellas enormously...always have and I have a very tender spot for dogs...but dogs in a grocery store? Are you freakin kidding me!!!!..... dogs are dogs people! Not people, people! Persons peoples! arrghhhh!

...As someone who worked in food production for many years and has had to make significant changes in our company and handling practices for food safety, does anyone in their right mind think that bringing animals into the grocery store is a good idea? Can little muffy possibly survive in the big nasty car for twenty minutes when mommy poo needs to buy-buy some good foody for the wittle puppy? Can you say fecal matter and e-coli?

Can we all let our dogs be dogs? You know those things that protect us from bad people, chase cars, catch rabbits, lay on the porch and lick...well, you know...dog stuff....anyway let's let our dogs do the whole companion thing! But in being a companion do they have to become like us? Wearing silly clothes and taking trips with us? Have we taken this whole thing way too far with pets?

...The picture just above is from a site that explains why sometimes dogs bite people...I would have done more than bite my master if I was such a pooch...and again, I just love dogs...but they are not humans...

...This leads me to think that people are now using dogs to replace children...I know this is true in some urban areas...and I am all for that...provided that dogs can start paying Social Security...because that is likely the only way I will ever see anything that the government has taken from me...so maybe we can kill two birds with one stone...

...Let's train little poochie to pick up his...errr...well...you know....his...ummm....errrr....uhhhh...his...poopie!...and then he can have some earnings and pay Social Security and all the other taxes...then we have cleaners streets and a bigger tax base!...so I called Madam Speaker and she thought it was a great idea!...and as someone who can generate a whole bunch of stuff herself that needs to get placed in plastic bags with your nose held...she immediately saw the value and took a great photo with Leonard Nimoy!...


God Bless America!

Remembering Law School

...Hard to believe but it was 23 years ago today that I learned that I had passed the 1986 California Bar Examination...memorialized in the picture of me receiving the telegram from the Bar above...that shocked look on my face...and that is really how it happened...a simple little note from the State that said something like "We can't believe it but you actually passed the hardest bar exam in the country. We tried to stop you but somehow you got through. Good luck and don't screw up too soon."...

...I had actually gone up to the family cabin at Hartland...don't ask where that is because it isn't on very many maps...just somewhere up in the Sierras...and our family was celebrating Thanksgiving...well actually the day after Thanksgiving...and my dear sister in law Janet had decided to go by our home and check our mail...and she opened the envelope and read it! I am still shocked by that as much as actually passing!...

...so this was in the era before the internet and email so Janet saddled up and rode up to the top of the hill to let me know...that is her above in the photo with the bowler hat and dark mustache...well actually what she did was call the camp near where we were staying at let the staff know who then walked to our cabin...as we had no phone...seriously...and so a guy shows up and knocks on the door and asks for me...and tells me I need to call my sister in law Janet...which I did...on a payphone down the hill...

...and so it turns out that everyone in my study group passed the first time!...in a year when only about 1/3 of first time takers did so...here we are at our bar swearing in ceremony... that's me with the dumb look on my face...

...so all these years later what do I think of it? Well, besides that they made a clerical error and they actually meant to notify some other guy with a similar name...and that any day I will receive a latter saying "Hey, just kidding! We just found your exam and it really stunk it up! Cut the shingle up on your wall--now!"...well, besides that I mean...here are some thoughts about getting through something as tough as the bar exam...

*Study with your friends. I am eternally grateful for HP, DE, RL and KG and their help.

*Reduce complex subjects down to their essence, then build up from there. If you don't know the basics of something all the rest is nonsense.

*Stay calm. Everyone else is as nervous and scared as you are.

*Study out loud. Read your notes out loud. When your ear hears your own voice without interruption it sticks in your brain.

*Get away for a bit. Several times in my life on huge projects I got away for several days by myself. It helped.

*Have a supportive family and friend group. I tell students this all the time about grad school---don't tackle it alone. Make sure your support team is behind you.

...so I guess that's just about all I am going to say about that!...for now its off to Turkey Day...and time with family...and may you have a wonderful and blessed day!

Confusing Times for Schools...

"So here's to you, Mrs. Robinson...but only if she is a recruiter for a company that actually is looking for an employee...or two...well, maybe just one...the answer isn't so simple any longer...unless the advice to get into plastic is about using your charge cards to live on...so I have been thinking and reading about this issue a great deal...since I am a bidnez perfeser and all of that...

...so where has my inquisitive mind taken me? Straight to the venerable School of Business...the bastion of excellence and honor and scholarship and...well you get the point...ant there are plenty of critics and pundits and observers who have a plan...often it comes down to just blowing the whole thing up...

...I for one don't necessarily think that blowing everything up is the answer...but for the folks outside of Californye-yeah...perhaps you have missed what is going on with our famed public education system...with students at UC Berkeley below showing their "support" for the huge increase in tuition... (can you say over 30% increases in a single year? Sounds like a third world country)...but I actually think it is more about a collapse of government and leadership than anything else...

...So I have been researching about the University system for the past 18 monhts and now am writing about the Schools of Business for the past month...and almost done with a paper...but if you want to read about things from Harhvahd's point of view check out...http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/6053.html for a discussion of the future of the MBA...and while I think HBS is getting some things correct they are missing the point on some others...

...and that is the purpose of the paper I am writing...and hope to finish soon...because as strange as it may sound...I think part of the answer to what is ailing our Universities generally...and the School of Business specifically...can be answered by listening to...can't believe it...hard to say...errrr...ummm....listening to...lawyers! ...Yes, I think that if the Schools of Bidnez can incorporate a few things from law schools that things would improve...

...and I am going to start with the suggestion that we can start wearing the really cool berber rugs that Her Majesty's advocates get to don...and the great napkin around their necks...far more prestigious than our simple black robes...well, just kidding...but there are some things we could learn and apply from other professional schools...

...so in the coming days I hope to finish the article and post a blog copy sometime in the near future...which I am sure will lead to its publication in Harvard Business Review...or Mad Magazine...one or the other is just fine with me! Have a wonderful day!

My. How Things Have Changed...

...So I am driving down Rosecrans heading towards the Goodwill store...delivering bags of clothing...darn pants keep shrinking in the wash...can't quite figure that out...must be something in the new-fangled detergents...and I see the sign flashing over the corner drug store...and it got me thinking about the "good ole days"...

...No, silly, it wasn't for the pink strip club advertising "Join Us For A Gala Nude-In"...but rather the Walgreens at the corner of Midway and Rosecrans...actually a decent looking store which I have frequented on occasion...convenient...well lit...and if you can serpentine in and around the gathering of homeless folks on the corner...I nearly hit a Home Depot shopping cart full of plastic bags...overflowing like a black poly volcano....but anyway...

...Flashing prominently on the store sign on the corner...besided 1 gallon of milk for $1.99...a good deal so I had Ruth run in and get two of them while I idled at the light...then it flashed the message that triggered the old metallic tapes in the gray matter...reversing and spinning for a few moments while it searched...and a different era came to mind...when I saw the message OPEN THANKSGIVING DAY 24 HOURS...

...you see back about 35 years I was a stock clerk at the Payless Drug Stores at the corner of Kings Canyon and Clovis in Fresno...well, actually not a stock clerk because I actually worked at the "Back Wall" and kept the dog food and paper products and household cleansers and the....ummm...errr....the...well, I will just say it...the feminine hygiene products as well...a wonderful job for a 17 year old guy...and I can assure you that my dear fellow employees and cashiers never messed with me on that one..."Mr. Ataide. Price check on Maxi-Pads, 24 pack, checkstand 3!"...trust me it did no lasting harm...well, other than 2 1/2 years of counseling while in the US Navy...but I digress...
...you see as the youngest employee at Payless I frequently would be the person locked in to the store over the Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years Holidays...after all it paid double-time...and knocking down $4 per hour was really something...but to be inside of a huge store...for Payless was the size of a large grocery store or Target more so than a Walgreens or Longs Drugs...and I would have the run of the place for 8 hours...lliterally locked in with all the lights on...on a holiday...kind of a strange experience...

...what does one do in a locked in store? Well...start with turning on all of the stereos in the electronics department on the same radio station...I think it was K-FIG...the real rock station in Fresno in the 70's...getting a bicyle or two out for riding up and down the aisles while snacking on pork rinds or 5th Avenue candy bars...and I would do a little bit of work...stock a few shelves...sample a few beverages...eat a bit more...

...but what really sticks with me all these years later is playing pinball up at the front of the store...hearing the bells and buzzers sharper and clearer than one could do when the store was actually open...it seems so surreal and strange..and then people coming up to the glass front doors and seeing me and pounding on them telling me to let them in ...panicked no doubt because the "Operation" game they bought for little Chuckie needed batteries...or it was New Years and they forgot the champagne...Charles Krug...about .99 cents a bottle as I recall...and almost worth every cent...but they could never quite figure out why the store lights were on and here was this young guy with long hair playing pinball on a holiday...

...so I think we kind of have lost something with everything open 24 hours...not entirely sure what it is we have lost but perhaps it has something to do with the special nature of the holiday...time with family and friends...the town basically shut down...and I guess at times even after all of these years I am somewhat nostaglic for that era...and think that I too have pushed too hard and run the race too fast...I left for the US Navy from this job at Payless and never looked back...maybe I should have a bit more...

...so Payless is long gone...sucked up into the Rite-Aid leveraged buyouts of the 90's...and the old store and shopping center in Fresno is kind of unrecognizable...so this holiday season I would ask that maybe you not frequent the stores that are all open...perhaps with time stores will begin to close again on holidays...or if you do need to visit a store or restaurant on a holiday that you show a special bit of grace and consideration to the people who are working...

...because odds are they are not having nearly as much fun as I did when I work holidays all those years ago...

It Was Twenty Years Ago Today...and it had nothing to do with Sgt. Pepper!

Well I know that I have been ruminating in a somewhat light-hearted way the past few posts...although I am never certain that readers can discern the nuances of my strange mind...but today I want to remind everyone of the transformational events of 20 years ago...with the falling of the Berlin Wall and the end of the world...or at least the world that all of us born from the 1930s-1960's had known...

...It truly remains hard to believe how rapid the collapse came...and there are many well-written pieces (here is one that brings together the old and new pretty well: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/08/world/europe/08germany.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1 ) ...but it really was a transformational event in our history...


..For those of us who served in the military through the 1950s-1980's the power of the Soviet Union was the reality that we faced every day...it drafted my father into the US Army during Korea and 25 years later I would volunteer for the US Navy...and the efforts and energies of many countries poised against each other...nuclear weapons at the ready...was something we simply could not shake from our minds....even well into the 1980's our young men and women stood at the ready against "the godless red hordes of the east"...(just ask my buddy Mike Gallagher)...if any of you are interested in the USS Bainbridge CGN-25, my steel and nucelar powered home during those years...check out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEFT0wPQo0Y for some old film of the "Gray Ghost of the Orient"...almost two football fields long she was something in her day...


...it is somewhat crazy to believe that the ship I served aboard for four years from 1976-1980 possessed more fire power aboard than all of the weapons fired by all sides in WWII...amazing...and sad...and reminds me of the huge debt we owe to Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher, Pope John Paul II, Lech Walesa and many others known and unknown who brought this awful and wasteful stalemate to an end...even Gorbachev deserves some credit...at least he didn't line every one up against the wall like previous Soviet leaders...



...so on the plane home from Europe I watch a movie that gets **** from me...an excellent watch...well acted and in many ways prophetic...of not only the rise of the Wall but also its collapse and a warning for contemporary citizens of this global village...Brendand Gleeson gives a stunning performance of Winston Churchill...oh, WWII is so boring, you say?...well listen carefully kiddies to the dialogue in this film...for it speaks to us well...stirring my heart, my soul and desires for a better tomorrow...rent a copy of Into the Storm http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0992993/ ...and prepare to be impressed with the strength of those who we can hold no candle to.

I for one am quite grateful this date for not only Ronnie and the rest of the leaders of the 1980's but also the one and only Sir Winston Churchill. Hats off to all of them!

Que no mundo é isto?

So I think I am a pretty smart guy...right?...well I mean I have a online degree from the Cleveland Institute of Electronics and Television Repair...a certificate from Dalena's College of Beauty...and I also read National Geographic...well, at least I look at the pictures...but, anyway...as I was saying...I consider myself a real conneeesurrr of fine living, cultural sophistication and international stuff...so these questions should not perplix...purplix...plerpexx...I mean these things shouldn't be beyond my capabilities in figuring out!



...So I be skirting on down the highway in old Paree...heading on out of town with my confidence in and awareness of the Europe...with my Maurice Chevalier 8 track playing...and the little lady begins to inquire about some of the ummm....errrrr....uhhhh....well, you know...."the facilities" in France that we had experienced...especially one at a roadstop somewhere near Caen...and boy howdy, they were really eco-friendly with this particular sanitation portal...which we later discovered was known as a "Turkish Toilet"... and how wonderful this device was since it used no water...or at least in the version we used...so it must have been a very new model...kind of like the Falcon urinals I see around PLNU...water free...but I am thinking that there are some things that really do require the use of water... I also discovered that they also called these "squatters toilets"...must be something for the homeless chaps I guess...

...anyway I was talking about the facilities...which by and large are quite nice in Europe...well, except for the U.K....but that led us to a conversation about that other piece of porcelain that we kept on seeing wherever we went...and since we had never seen such a thing in either my National Geo or Popular Mechanics magazines...it led us to using our powers of deductive reasoning to get to the....ummm....bottom of things....

..So we set out to use the porcelain thingy in various settings to see what conclusions we could make....Was it:

*A Mini-Washer for the weary traveler? (travel light/travel right!)

*A convenient espresso maker? (one must not stray far from the coffee!)


*A footwashing basin? (for all the pilgrimages you could make in Europe!)

...So I must say we didn't come to any firm conclusion on any of our three possible solutions...except the only way I could see it being a footwashing basin is if no-one has size 10.5XXX feet like mine...I got my baby toe on my left foot stuck on the lip and nearly tore it off...So let me know what is your favorite or offer a new solution to this vexing question...

...But I don't want you to think that all of your confidence in me is lost...I mean after all this is now my third trip to France and fifth to Portugal in the last 4 years or so...so on the way back from Normandy I stopped by a little bistro and picked up some genuine French "chocolat" for a little "snackee"...which Ruth was so pleased with my selection that she snapped the photo below...

...boy were they good! Vive Le France!