Message Forum

Welcome to the Watterson High School Message Forum.

The message forum is an ongoing dialogue between classmates. There are no items, topics, subtopics, etc.

Forums work when people participate - so don't be bashful! Click the "Post Message" button to add your entry to the forum.


 
go to bottom 
  Post Message
  
    Prior Page
 Page  
Next Page      

05/28/19 02:07 PM #5431    

 

David Mitchell

Mike,

Talk about a conflict - It was the lead segment on last night's late news on Savannah Fox 28 News. A local affiliate of a network that I cannot stand to watch - HA!  

Serves me right.

What's that old saying? No good deed goes unpunished!


05/28/19 04:26 PM #5432    

 

James Hamilton, M. D.

Folks,

In keeping with the military themes of recent Posts, tomorrow is Graduation Day for the Air Force Academy. As usual, the AF Thunderbirds are here and they had their practice session this morning flying low right over our house. This year I tried to photograph them framed among our pine trees but that is difficult what with their speed and all but I was semi-successful in at least one of the 122 shots I took. Some of the others were reasonable keepers also.

Jim


05/28/19 09:46 PM #5433    

Lawrence Foster

Great photos of the Thunderbirds Jim - definitely a lot better than what I am about to post now.    Okay, you all have been warned.

Critters from my back yard and ... the back of my mind. 

While taking a break from some yardwork yesterday I looked down and saw this 8 legged critter - the white spider of Cincinnati!


I have also been experimenting in my art by sketching a picture on wood and then using a wood burner to "engrave" it.  I did a Rembrandt last week but this week I wanted to experiment with some other colored wood dyes so I did the image below.  It is from a photo a friend took of the entrance way to the Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia that opened in 1829.  (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_State_Penitentiary    This is one of two gargoyles that were above the entrance way.  I bet Edgar Allen Poe was inspired by this place.   

 

 


05/29/19 12:04 AM #5434    

 

Michael McLeod

I had a job at the Pensacola Journal, the city where the Blue Angels are headquartered.

Your photos reminded me of them, Jim. They were the Navy's showcase fliers, and Pensacola is a Naval Air Station. Now and then they would buzz the sugar-white Panhandle Beaches (the nickname of the area is "LA" for lower Alabama. It's gorgeous).

The sight of those precision formations in your photo that took me to a memory of a bar, Trader Jon's, where the flyboys would congretate  -- and so did a few journalists. It was the best newspaper bar of my career. Cincinnati came in second, Orlando third. Anyway one night in Pensacola there was a visit to Trader Jon's from several British flyboys, what they were doing at the naval air station I do not know, and a well-meaning friend of mine was drunk and started singing "God Save the Queen," and there was a British officer at the bar near me who was offended at the appropriation of his country's patriotic song, sung rather poorly, as I recall. He turned to another Brit and said: "They don't know what it means." He was clearly pissed off but too much of a gentleman to make an issue of it. So I got up my nerve, apologized, told him I'd handle it, and gently silented my drunken friend. 


05/29/19 01:11 AM #5435    

 

James Hamilton, M. D.

Dave,

I am sure you gave a great Memorial Day tribute to those who have given much and their all for freedom. You have captured us with your descriptions of what it means to serve and the price that must often be paid. It surely deserved news coverage. Too bad about the heat and humidity!

Mike,

The Blue Angels are a fantastic group of pilots and are the equivalent in expertise with the Thunderbirds. To just think about the discipline and dedication it takes to become so skilled in one's profession is humbling and makes one appreciative of our military. I seem to never tire of watching and photographing the T-Birds from my deck each year. (It's even more exciting than fawn season 😀.)

Larry,

White spider - very cool! At least you can rule out a black widow!

I used to lecture on snakes, spiders, scorpions and venomous lizards (beats giving another talk on cholesterol). So, here is a question for all: which spiders in Ohio are venomous?

Jim

05/29/19 01:17 PM #5436    

 

David Mitchell

We have an air show every spring up in nearby Beaufort (Mary Ann's home) and it includes a show by Blue Angels. Pretty amazing flying. They also suffered an unfortunate accident a few years back where one of the team crashed and was killed - no civiial injuries thank God.  It was on the final manuever of the show - a young Major who was new on the team. If I recall correctly, they think he may have blacked out during one of those "high-G" manuevers. What they do is not only highly dangerous precision close flying, but it places the body under extreme stress. 


05/29/19 02:16 PM #5437    

 

David Mitchell

News Headlines: (I'll stay off the main topic of today's main item)

The news is so crazy lately. Horrible crimes, weird politics, scandals, actors and athletes occupying the headlines about how important they actually think they are - - - - really?

 

A couple items really grab my attention;

That crazy congessman King from Iowa with another assinine statement about his racism and white supremacy ideas - wow! How can somebody be that sick in the head? - - and get elected !

On a less political story - have any of you seen the USAToday photo of the solid line of hundreds of climbers nearing the peak at Everest - and just stuck there - waiting for the others to come back off the peak. You can't move forward and you can't turn around and go back - at 29,000 feet!  And on the way up you have to step over dead bodies - crazy!  (you should view that photo to appreciate my question)

 

But mostly,

I can't help feeling how odd it is to be reading of the rain and flooding in Oklahoma, Arkansas, etc. while we here are suffering such broiling heat and drought. Wish they could pump the rain into rail cars and ship it down here.

 


05/29/19 03:08 PM #5438    

 

David Mitchell

This is the photo I was referring to. Look close at that line of people. And there is no room for two abreast - no room to step aside and pass someone. How do you get back down? Crazy!


05/30/19 09:11 AM #5439    

 

David Barbour

Hey, Jim,

I remember seeing the Thunderbirds in maybe 1958 at Lockborne Air base south of Cbus.

They were flying F-100's and towards the end of the show a single aircraft crossed the field, maybe

1/2 mile from the crowd 100 ft. off the deck.  In front of the stands he hit the afterburner and 

broke the sound barrier- very impressive to say the least.  They can't do that anymore, too bad!

There were four of us on the roof of the car watching the show, can't do that anymore either!  Oh well.


05/30/19 11:30 AM #5440    

 

Michael McLeod

Musings on weather from various perspectives, including an interplanetary one:

Sure wish things had worked out differently with Mars, which was, for billions of years, covered in lakes and rivers larger than any we now have on the earth, according to some fascinating new research. Lord knows we could have used a second chance at inhabiting a planet without ruining it, as we now seem intent on doing. Unfortunately Mars did not have a strong magnetic field, as we do, thanks to our molten metal core, and its atmosphere and water we stripped away by the solar wind.

Closer to home:

I got a text from my daughter in Dayton a few days ago -- she was in her basement hiding from the tornadoes. They made it ok but with severe damage around them. It has been bone dry down here and our two weather experiences are connected (as everything is when it comes to climatology). The moist air from the gulf -- which usually brings us afternoon thundershowers on a clockword basis this time of year -- was drawn up north in that weird weather system that created all the chaos.

Too early to tell if the system is part of the ongoing climate change predicament we're facing, but I can tell you that global warming is up close and personal in my life, having made Florida a much, much hotter place in the years I've been living here.  

 


05/30/19 12:45 PM #5441    

 

David Mitchell

Silly me. I thought it was because you lived so clsoe to that Pizza oven.


05/30/19 01:01 PM #5442    

 

James Hamilton, M. D.

Dave B.,

Yeah, those were the good old days when the sound barrier could be broken (probably along with some windows) near populated areas. By the way, I was wrong about the date of graduation: it is today (going on right now with the President speaking as I type), not yesterday. My Bad!

Anyway, today is beautiful and the usual afternoon rain will probably hold off until after the TBirds show and flyover with the traditional cadet hat toss.

Jim


05/30/19 01:04 PM #5443    

 

David Mitchell

As many of you recall, the world took a sharp turn towards the mundane a few years ago. In one same year we stopped hearing "Omaha, Omaha" being yelled out from behind the the line of scrimmage in Denver Bronco games, AND we saw the conclusion of Downton Abbey - the finest TV series - EVER! 

I have been recoverig from that double whammy ever since - filling many of my days with prayers for those of us who number ourselves among the "lost tribe of Elway" and wishing that I could just KEEP CALM, and let Carson manage all that matters in my life.

They say hope springs eternal!

Just this week God has answered my prayers for renewed life. 

First, It has been announced that "Downton Abbey" the movie will be coming to the silver screen

- Thankyu Jeesuss!!!

And there are numerous sightings of "The Peyton" wandering a golf course in a place called Dublin, OHHHHH.

Truly there must be a God!


05/30/19 01:07 PM #5444    

 

David Mitchell

However, I do have a friend who suffers from doubt.

He is a dislexic, agnostic, insomniac.

He sits up all night wondering if there really is a doG


05/30/19 06:15 PM #5445    

 

Michael McLeod

I was just thinking that we had some pretty racy girls in our class.

I mean, the kind of girls who wouldn't wait until an hour after they ate to go swimming. 

That's how wild they were.


05/30/19 07:50 PM #5446    

 

David Mitchell

Didn't that give you polio?

(I always thought it was two hours)


05/30/19 08:11 PM #5447    

 

Mark Schweickart

For all you grammarian comedians out there who love telling jokes that begin with "A (fill in the blank) walks into a bar..." here's some silliness:

A dangling participle walks into a bar. Enjoying a cocktail and chatting with the bartender, the evening passes pleasantly.

A bar was walked into by the passive voice.

An oxymoron walked into a bar, and the silence was deafening.

Two quotation marks walk into a “bar.”

A malapropism walks into a bar, looking for all intensive purposes like a wolf in cheap clothing, muttering epitaphs and casting dispersions on his magnificent other, who takes him for granite.

Hyperbole totally rips into this insane bar and absolutely destroys everything.

A question mark walks into a bar?

A non sequitur walks into a bar. In a strong wind, even turkeys can fly.

Papyrus and Comic Sans walk into a bar. The bartender says, “Get out — we don’t serve your type.”

A mixed metaphor walks into a bar, seeing the handwriting on the wall but hoping to nip it in the bud.

Three intransitive verbs walk into a bar. They sit. They converse. They depart.

A synonym strolls into a tavern.

At the end of the day, a cliché walks into a bar — fresh as a daisy, cute as a button, and sharp as a tack.

Falling slowly, softly falling, the chiasmus collapses to the bar floor.

A figure of speech literally walks into a bar and ends up getting figuratively hammered.

An allusion walks into a bar, despite the fact that alcohol is its Achilles heel.

The subjunctive would have walked into a bar, had it only known.

A misplaced modifier walks into a bar owned by a man with a glass eye named Ralph.

The past, present, and future walked into a bar. It was tense.

A dyslexic walks into a bra.

A verb walks into a bar, sees a beautiful noun, and suggests they conjugate. The noun declines.

An Oxford comma walks into a bar, where it spends the evening watching the television getting drunk and smoking cigars.

A simile walks into a bar, as parched as a desert.

A gerund and an infinitive walk into a bar, drinking to forget.

A hyphenated word and a non-hyphenated word walk into a bar and the bartender nearly chokes on the irony.


05/31/19 01:07 AM #5448    

 

David Mitchell

All Hail the king!  

(I think we have a winner - the Forum is closed. There can be no better post after that - - - except for this one)

 

Mark,

I think this may be the funniest thing I have ever read. I can't decide which one is the funniest, and, truth be known, there were two or three that I don't even know the meaning of.

 

(I cannot recall what a gerund is - nor do I know what a chiasmus is. But am damn sure they are both funny)

 

05/31/19 08:38 AM #5449    

 

Michael McLeod

I am so using this in class, Mark.


05/31/19 09:01 AM #5450    

 

Michael McLeod

Hey I looked up that swimming after eating thing. It was 30 minutes. My parents enforced it, I do remember. The theory, since disproved, was that your blood supply and thus your energy was diverted to your digestive tract so you'd have less energy to stay afloat. And Dave don't try to trick me you know damn well you got polio from eating ice cream.


05/31/19 10:43 AM #5451    

 

Mark Schweickart

Dave & Mike - so glad you were amused. To be clear, I certainly did not write this. I wish I had. It was just a facebook re-post that my wife sent me, but a damn wonderful one. And I too did not know what a chiasmus was. And I had to think about the last one for a while before I got the joke about hyphenated and non-hyphenated ("non-hyphenated" being the word with a hyphen, and "hyphenated" being the one without). Sorry, I know I shouldn't explain a joke, but I thought others might be scratching their heads on that one also.


05/31/19 11:12 AM #5452    

 

David Mitchell

Oh Mark,

I thought the hyphenated one was one of the best.

I would like to meet the person that wrote that.


05/31/19 12:31 PM #5453    

Timothy Lavelle

Was Sr Antonio the tall young one who taught geometry? That was a good class where I actually enjoyed learning something. Pythagoras, you wild man you.  She and Sr Gilmary are good memories for me. 

Mark, google "eggcorn". Intensive purposes. Your article is so good. Great choice to pass along. I honestly enjoyed diagramming sentences once upon a,  and the first thing was to identify the adjectives and adverbs and so on as you remember. Yeah, interesting...I loved the noun turning down the conjugation addicted verb! But a turkey flying in a strong wind...love that.    


05/31/19 12:48 PM #5454    

 

Michael McLeod

I'd say Mark's post was useful for all intensive porpoises. 

 


05/31/19 03:37 PM #5455    

 

David Mitchell

 Mike,

the ones swimming off the end of my dock are not so intensive. 

---------------

Tim's post reminds me of a conversation with Keith Groff some years back. Keith has taught English, Writing, and Lingusitics and I don't know what all, literally around the world. He was telling me one time about a period when he was a Prof. at Boise State.

(that was all before Eastern Oregon, Brazil, Egypt, Hungary, Philadelphia, and finally Franklin Univ in Columbus as their founding Dean of the new School of Arts and Sciences - you should see his C.V. !!) 

He was saying how often he received compliments from his own fellow professors (at Boise State), and was repeatedly asked how he became so good with grammar, sentence strucure, etc. And he told me he always gave the same answer; "I was taught by Dominican nuns".

 


go to top 
  Post Message
  
    Prior Page
 Page  
Next Page