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David Mitchell

Mike, 

I give up on you. I would have thought you woukd have had some semblance of awareness of your own childhood treasures.

"S-guage" is American Flyer.  

(Lionel is "O" gauge" - it's based on the measured spacing between the inside of the rails)

I think you should go back to writing essays.

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Mark,

Thank you for the tip. I have just been blindsided by a movie. Or to put it another way, I have just been            "Blinded By The Light"  Loved it !

Joseph D. McCarthy

Have any of our classmates been to Hell; literally.  I have been to Hell at least two times and survived. 

For all the classmates taking the tour of The Henry Ford Museum, take an extra day and "Go to Hell", or at least visit the city of Hell, MI located just NorthWest of Detroit.  The Other Hell I visited was Hell,Cayman Isands, Michigan is now much easier to reach than the Cayman Islands.  If nothing else, when traveling into Michigan on I-75, stop at the Welcome Center (approximately 10 miles across the border) and pick up the "Business Card" sized "Exit Visa" found among the rows of literature and maps.  It is Issued in Hell and Valid for Eternity.

Mark Schweickart

Dave -- glad you were Blinded by the Light. A terrific use of Springsteen's music if there ever was one, and a compelling narrative to go with it.

On the other end of the spectrum, here is an equally inspired-by, if maybe less than terrific, effort-- a cover I did of his song My Home Town. I love this song for two reasons: one it mentions being in high school in '65, so we can't help but identify with that, now can we? But mostly it is for the second reason, which is his amazing story-telling capability. In the space a few short verses he paints an entire lifetime--childhood, teen troubles, and adult struggles to survive, while simultaneously pulling at our heart, as we feel the pain of those displaced from their home towns due to the shiting economic winds. Granted Columbus was spared this sort of retrenchment, but we probably all have relatives in places like Mansfield or Youngstown who know exactly how this feels. 

David Mitchell

One of my daughters shared and article that just grabbed me by the throat. I just have to share it. Might be one of the most important articles I have read in a long time. It's long, but shockingly important. If you have pre-teens or teens with phones, you'll be frightened to death what they can see on their phones. PLEASE READ THIS WHOLE ARTICLE!

Google up "scarymommy.porn is not the worst thing" ......or something like that. I shared it on my Facebook page but not sure how to get it on here. "scarrymom" is an odd website that has a lot of rather liberal sounding stuff! (Duh, my daughters are not their daddy's political copy cats. In fact, the oldest is one of those "English (Lit) Majors")

* sorry for my original spelling error - it 's "scarymommy......." (as in mother)

The article points out frighteneing things they can see and do on TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram etc. that is NOT filtered. You will be amazed and horrified!

And the research that also explains how kids under 16 are not fully brain developed - rendering them prey to this psychological, emotional, social crap. She claims that sex, bullying, shameing, "cutting", and suicide, etc. are advocated - with detailed instructons - on something like 11,000 sites!

* Oh, And this ties in (loosely) to a really fascinating article from Colleen Cotter a few weeks back on Facebook about young kids needing less structure and regimentation in early school years, and more free play time. My medical doctor father (and three daughters(+in-law) who are/were all primary teachers would all shout AMEN!

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I also just got a terrific article from Bob Berkermer (who I think may be the most interesting and enjoyable guy I never really knew and don't always agree with) - "Going Home with Wendell Berry" from the New Yorker. (yes, I know, part of the Vogue Teen Magazine scandal). It covers a lot of ground in an interview form, but carries the underlying theme that "Limits" on life can bring a happiness not found in the "I want everything I can get" culture. Totally engrossing article! And ironically, lines up somewhat parrallel with my some of the principles of my Faith. (Oh c'mon, you knew I was itching to throw that in.)

** (I promise to finish it tonight Bob)

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AND just before that, a wonderful article on Facebook from Mary Ann (Nolan) about a Black American man added later (Eugene Bullard) who was a highly decorated war hero/pilot in France during WWI, (the first ever African-Americn military pilot) who lived in total obscurity back in the States after the War. We would have never known of this man except that when Charles deGaul visited the US in 1960, he asked to meet the "brave knight" who helped save France in the First World War. The White House had no idea who the man was, and had to scramble around to learn his identity and locate him - an elevator operator in New York. Wish she would psot that on the Forum.

Mary Ann must not get out much. She finds more damned fascinating articles to throw on Facebook that I can keep up with. Stuff I just cannot pass up - day in, and day out.

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Now then, on top of these, I see an unceasing barrage of the funniest, cutest, animal vidoes from Peggy Southworth, Bonnie Jonas, and some even from Mary Ann herself. Oh and prize winner from Mike McCleod now and then. All on Facebook.

My question, "How the Hell do you have so much time to find and then post al this stuff?

So, dammit, here is my plea, if this deluge of interesting and or irrressitble stuff keeps getting posted, sent, or forwarded, I will be forced to cave in to the pressure - - - - and learn to read!

I beg you, have pitty on an old man.

David Mitchell

"Oh Monday Mornin', you gave me no warnin' of what was to be"

Michael McLeod

Be careful out there all you cowboys and cowgirls!

WASHINGTON — Heat-related deaths have increased sharply since 2014 in Nevada and Arizona, raising concerns that the hottest parts of the country are struggling to protect their most vulnerable residents from global warming.

In Arizona, the annual number of deaths attributed to heat exposure more than tripled, from 76 deaths in 2014 to 235 in 2017, according to figures obtained from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Heat-related deaths in Nevada rose almost fivefold during the same period, from 29 to 139

James Hamilton, M. D.

Good advice, Mike, for those who live in hot  - especially dry - areas. Be careful, hydrate well and don't overdue out of doors. For as long as it has been there, Phoenix and Las Vegas have been two of the hottest places in  the USA in the summer. They have also attracted a lot of older citizens due to the mild winters and other nice factors. The elderly are, of course, more susceptible to heat related death than others are. So the increase of deaths is not surprising to me. Jeanine: be safe (a cold Margarita might help😁!)

Jim 

David Mitchell

When I first came to Savannah in 1968 - arriving from Primary Flight Shool in Texas, to begin Advanced Flight School, we arrived on a day that was something like 99 degrees and 90% humidity. The line to check in to our Company (Class) was organized in a very military way, and we each advanced slowly across a hot sunny parking lot, along a sunny sidewalk, and finally, inside our building, and then up a stairway to the sign-in desk. We could not just gather in the shade of the building and wait our turn to go upstairs. We had to line up, spaced apart at 5-yard increments, and stop and come to "parade rest", as each one got to the front of the line and we could advance.

(note to civilians: three of the things that the Army holds a patent on are 1) long lines - 2) even longer lines - and 3) ridiculously long lines!)

My wait had been about an hour, and I was sweating like a pig, soaking through the back of my dress khaki uniform shirt. I got about three guys from the front of the line when I just fainted. One of my "TAC Sergeants", a short, but very large (and strong) black Staff Sereagent, simply picked me up like a baby in his arms and walked me down the hall to the first barracks room (bedroom), layed me out in the shower floor, took off my folding cap, shoes, belt and brass buckle, and watch, and turned the shower on me full blast.

He was my gaurdian angel. (and he really was later on - a bulldog on the surface, but a gentle, kind guy).

Shortly after I first moved back down here (17 years ago), I expereinced a more serious heat exhaustion episode. I had been helpig a guy half my age unload a flatbed truck of a whole shipment of rough sawn lumber - in 103 degree heat with a "heat index" factor of about 113 (that's a term for the "effective" temperature with a humidity factor calculated in).

Eventualy, my legs went limp under me and I went down, incoherant as I lay there while they called an ambulance. At the ER they had to inject me with not one, but two "bags" of - was it a saline solution? They warned me that I had come close to being in serious trouble. That I was now "a marked man" (no, not my "Marked Men" retreats), and that having expereinced it once, I would now be more susceptible to future problems. 

Over the years I have had to give up golf with my younger buddies, and become more of an indoor guy. And this summer has been a rough one down here! It comes over me very quickly now and I am aware when it is comming on.

Last March, I got asked to be the guest speaker at our upcomming town Memorial Day service. I said yes - in March (cool March) - not thinkng about the date or the circumstances of the event. Come Memorial Day it was 105 degrees (not including the "heat index"). The event was to be outside, and coat and tie for those of us upfront on the panel of "guests". I showed up at the police station (site of the event) with my golf umbrella for shade, and bottle of water - and a bit nervous about the heat. Turns out the building had a bit of roof overhang for some shade, so I gave my umbrella to a lady in the audience, and the police were handing out cold bottles of water to the crowd. I also refused to wear my suit coat. 

So I managed to get through it all right. The whole thing was about an hour and my part was maybe 20 minutes. But about two hours later I started feeling dizzy and weak, and it lasted for two more days. 

For a kid who fainted 15 or 20 times on the alter, while serving Mass at OLP between 5th and 8th grade, I guess I haven't learned very much. 

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We had a guy who was one of our "Observers" in our "Loach" flying mission who told an intersting story from the Arizona heat. He was from the small town of Gila Bend Arizona, south of Phoenix, and had played high school football. He told us that state rules required that summer football practice (up to about November - I think?) was not allowed to commence before 9:00 pm. HIs practices lasted well past 11:00 at night, and that after a shower and change of clothes, he had to walk a great distance to his home. He said he rarely got home before 1:00 am. That's dedication.

Michael McLeod

This response has been a long time coming and it's directed to Mark for his astonishing and repugnant and wackadoodle - yes, I said it, wackadoodle! - remarks about Neil Young.

For starters: There is just something acute and astounding in his voice. 

I would guess it is a matter of taste but that alone distinguishes him among the rockers of our generation.

It's nasal yet compelling, lyrical -- I'm trying to thing of a classical instrument it reminds me of. Upper register oboe, maybe.

But to my point: You asked, in a snarky-snark tone I might add, how many songs of his have left their mark. Well. Prepare to be soundly chastised, my wackadoodle friend, because have I got a list for you:

Old Man Take a Look at My Life

Down by the River

Southern Man (trivia question: what song was written as a retort to this song?)

Cowgirl in the Sand

OHIO, fer cryin out loud

Heart of Gold!!!!!

Don't Let it Bring You Down

The Needle and the Damage Done.

And that immortal anthem with the deathless headbanger lyrics:

MY MY HEY HEY ROCK AND ROLL IS HERE TO STAY!

HEY HEY MY MY ROCK AND ROLL WILL NEVER DIE!

Mark: I don't even KNOW you anymore.

I was GOING to write about the tragedy of the rain forest burning and the various tragedies befalling the globe and the ongoing disinformation campaigns that monied interest are using to decieve the naive, and it does indeed feel like a long long time before the dawn in that regard, but I am obliged as a matter of honor to challenge you with regards to this critical and dare I say heretical remark about a dark god of rock and roll.

And remember: It's better to burn out than to fade away.

James Hamilton, M. D.

Dave M.,

Given your history of heat-related injuries, I am curious as to why you have chosen to live where you do. Granted, at our age, we are all pretty much staying where we are now, unless and until some change in our lives or health prompts us to relocate.

And while we are on this topic, how did we all end up where we are?  This might be interesting....

Jim 

Mark Schweickart

Mike – In the groveling spirit of a "sinner in the face of an angry God," let me say I accept your flagellating condemnation of my seeming heretical remarks about his holiness, Neil Young. I plead old-man, foggy-brained memory as my only excuse (and to paraphrase his worshipfulness, obviously this old man is not a lot like you). I see in your list of Neil Young songs that there were indeed quite a few that I didn't recall at the time of writing my post. However, I must still contend, that aside from Ohio, none of those listed, (although obviously hit songs and appreciated by me back in the day) had any sort of lasting impact on me personally.

And to answer your trivia question about Southern Man, I believe it was Lynyrd Skynyrd's Sweet Home Alabama.

In closing, let me just say that I feel my doodle deservedly whacked, and "Rave on curmedgeonly, Neil, rave on!"

Michael McLeod

I'm in Fla because the newspapers were livelier and more creative down here at the time.

Ohio rags seemed stodgy by comparison.

Now they're all in the same tepid soup bowl, save the giants -- Wapo and the NYTimes.

The Times in particular has made remarkable strides in presentation and new media and, contrary to he who must not be named, is not failing or fake but rather prospering and turning out some of the best journalism I've seen in my 50 years in the trade.

David Mitchell

Wow,

I am sooo glad that L.A. and Orlando are not in each other's back yard. At least that makes it kinda hard to throw pitchforks, or lob satchel bombs over the back fence. 

And I do realize we could be wasting our time discussing trivial matters - like the rain forest fires in Brazil, or the riots in Hong Kong, but it's refreshing to see that you two really have your priorities straight - - almost.

But what you two youngsters need to realize that it is not in fact, Neal Young that defined a generation, but rather, Donovan, Joe Cocker, and Van Morrison.  

I mean - really!

My advice to you is, as the Brits say,

"Keep Calm 

and take light doses of Tiny Tim before bed time every night."

(or does your chewing gum loose it's flavor on the bed post over night?)

David Mitchell

Jim, 

Okay I'll bite.

I landed on "planet Clintonville" becasue my mom and my dad fell in love at North High School around 1928 - and after a romance followed by a marraige, they decided to Choose Life, and take me home from the hospital and see if my big sisters could stand me. (a similar plight of my trusted ally, one John Jackson)

Later, I transfered to the "High Country" (Colorado) because there was a school that would accept me, and because it was located near of a "family of friends" by the names of Vail, Loveland, Steamboat, Aspen, Arapaho Basin, Keystone, Breckenridge, Copper Mountain, Winter Park, and Telluride. I regret that I have not been amongst them since many fresh powder snows ago.

There were stops along the way in Salzburg, Austria, and one quiet little cottage located conveniently between the banks of the muddy Mekong, and a dusty noisy runway.

Oh, and a return visit to the "Big -C" for 12 years.

But I am down here because a best buddy (from that same little Mekong retreat years ago) offered me a job with his homebuilding operation on Hilton Head, and he gave me (yet another) chance to get my life right side up in Bluffton. (when has it ever been right side up, you may ask?). I have lived in a small rental cottage in a sort of Shangri La location on the May River (Johnny Mercer's "Moon River") for 17 years - at the end of a private dirt, and I have two docks in front of the cottage where we chat and watch dolphins swim by in the evenings (that is, when I am home, and when the breeze keeps the mosquitos at bay). Fall and Winter are gorgeous. Spring can be nice at times. And Summers can get downright brutal!

And our "oystahs",  "shreeimp", and "Blue Crayab" are ta die fer!

(Jim, the real reason I landed here is because I was driving South, and I figured I'd better stop well short of Orlando, where all those crazy English Majors live - you know, the ones who don't seem to know their rock & roll music history from their hind ends -  and don't even know what "guage" their "American Flyer" was - - - Jeesh!  

Gives me the Willys - or the "Wackydoodles")

David Mitchell

I know some of you traveled the vast canyons from Clintonville to U.A.  and even Hilliard.

What about Espania!  

Or New Jersey!

So how did the rest of you get to wherever?

Michael McLeod

Don't be a dick, Dave.

Also learn how to spell gauge, gramps.

And apart from all that:

how you can possibly call yourself a patriot when you mock AMERICAN Flyer trains I'll never know.

David Mitchell

Nina is supposed to be doing my spell checking. I never got very far in our Spelling Beez. 'Sides, thoze dumm 6th-graid girls alwasy wun the gold ribonz.

I try to make up for it in long winded-ness. (is that a word? - you would know)

I just assumed that if I can bore y'all to tears, you won't notiss my spelling erors.

David Mitchell

Okay, so where has this been all my life?

("here, you drive. I need to put my blindfold on")

https://www.usatoday.com/videos/tech/2019/08/28/nissan-creates-self-driving-golf-ball-always-finds-hole/2138847001/

Mark Schweickart

As a matter of fact, Dave, as a child, my chewing gum did lose its flavor on the bedpost overnight, and unlike my rebellious little brother, who, when our mother said, "Don't chew it,"  would swallow it in spite. I did not because I feared it might get caught on my tonsils and wind up swinging left and right. But economic times being what they were back then, I deemed it wiser to let it rest on the bedpost overnight.

David Mitchell

Mark, 

Touche!  I see hope for you yet. I think there could be a song in there somewhere.

(BTW, You weren't one of those English Majors were you?)

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And Doctor Jim,

Do tell how your path led you to the "Garden of the Gods"?  

Or anyone? Class? Anyone?

Michael McLeod

Great. Another hurricane headed this way. 

Michael McLeod

In the meantime -- this is a continuating of the conversation/bitchfest Mark and I were engaged in: What songs and singers of our era had an impact on you?

I'll start with Paul McCartney. His sensitivity and his endurance as a talented but extremely humble, good-hearted, and well-balanced male has been an inspiration to me. One song of his I have come to love in particular is Let it Be, which as you may or may not know was based on a dream he had in which his mother, who had died years early, came to him in a dream and uttered those words of reassurance.

I don't know if you have ever had that experience of being "visited" by someone you lost in a dream. I have. 

It's compelling. It's a gift. 

That's what the music of Paul, and the other lads, will always represent to me. A gift.

I may write another time and relate the story about a Help album which was signed by all four Beatles and is now in the possession of my first wife, bless her heart. She managed to get John's and George's autograph while growing up in England; I got Paul and Ringo to sign it years later, here in the states. 

Michael McLeod

IS THERE ANYBODY ALIVE OUT THERE?????

LOVE THIS WEBSITE:

https://www.windy.com/?28.530,-81.481,5

David Mitchell

Mike, Tom, and Tess,

Looks like a fun Labor Day "celebration", doesn't it ?

David Barbour

Mike,  Thanks for the link

DB