Looking back I sometime wish I'd had a chance at being a war correspondent.
Stories like that, humor in uniform, apart from the great works about the tragedy and heroics of combat, have alway been among the writers and stories I've enjoyed and quite frankly revered. Maybe I'll find one and post it here.
In reference to a recent discussion here I l did a little research about "discombobulated." The word dates back two hundred years or so, invented as part of a fad among literary wits to make up Latin-soundiing words, some of which were meant to be humourous.
speaking of war correspondents, remember the years when we were sweating out the prospect of a nuclear war holocaust between us and the soviet union? Thank goodness that nighmarish possibility has receeded. Knock on wood.
Yes Dave, discombobulated (a verb) is word. I even checked the Merriam dictionary. I was also going to check Funk and Wagnalls (the central Ohio encyclopedia) but I thought that would be to discombobulating.
I received this text from Colleen Mar at Watterson today. Perhaps Janie can email any classmates who have served our country but do not follow the message forum. For those interested here is a link to Colleen: http://mrs.mar@bwhs.org
Hi Mary Margaret. This is Colleen Mar from Bishop Watterson. Anne Campbell shared your #.
I’m working on the 2026 Eagle Review and would like to honor veteran alumni with photos of them in uniform when they served. This was posted on social media last week. Would you be able to share this with alumni you know who served in the military? (I have a little wiggle room on the deadline.)
thanks mm for the note about photos as a vet. I'll see if I can find a picture of skinny me in my ill fitting fatigues from back in the day. Humor in uniform.
to celebrate national poetry month, here's my favorite robert frost poem for your enjoyment. I love it so much I know it by heart. It's as much of a prayer as a poem.
What a blessed soul he was. A "peeper," if that word doesn't register with you, is an old fashioned word meaning a small frog.
ALWAYS the same, when on a fated night
At last the gathered snow lets down as white
As may be in dark woods, and with a song
It shall not make again all winter long
Of hissing on the yet uncovered ground,
I almost stumble looking up and round,
As one who overtaken by the end
Gives up his errand, and lets death descend
Upon him where he is, with nothing done
To evil, no important triumph won,
More than if life had never been begun.
Yet all the precedent is on my side:
I know that winter death has never tried
The earth but it has failed: the snow may heap
In long storms an undrifted four feet deep
As measured against maple, birch and oak,
It cannot check the peeper's silver croak;
And I shall see the snow all go down hill
In water of a slender April rill
That flashes tail through last year's withered brake
And dead weeds, like a disappearing snake.
Nothing will be left white but here a birch,
And there a clump of houses with a church.
Vance Furious After ChatGPT Keeps Recommending Obama’s Nuclear Deal
WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—Vice President JD Vance flew into a rage on Wednesday after ChatGPT repeatedly recommended former President Barack Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran.
Desperate to advance negotiations with the Islamic Republic, Vance asked the bot, “What is the best possible nuclear deal with Iran?,” only to have it extoll Obama’s 2015 accord.
Adding insult to injury, Chat responded to subsequent prompts by informing Vance that Obama reached this deal without a reckless military campaign that closed the Strait of Hormuz and required the US to pay Iran $300 billion.
Infuriated, Vance ordered the bot to stop praising Obama’s nuclear deal, whereupon it responded, “Fair enough! Would you like me to explore his other landmark achievements, like The Affordable Care Act?”
Caught this with my "ever present" cell phone camera as Janet and I were on the way home from the grocery store.
(And yes, she was driving 😄.)
Jim
Afterthought:
I think I see the top of a man's face in the lower right corner, above the two rounded peaks, formed by the darker clouds, watching the setting sun. Also, an agonizing face in the cloud about 2 O'clock above the sun.
That sounds like a richly rewarding and extremely, no-bs way out of career doldrrums via strategies that bring out an individual's talents and by clarifying what engages and drives them. Dusting off the windshield. Been there, had to do that, and I had help along the way but it sure sounds like you're describing a very efficient strategem that helps people to get in touch with what they can bring to the table and why they want to bring it and that they can renew themselves in order to do it. I love it that you brought one of my lifelong heroes into the picture - I had a couple of brief but fabulous one-one-one conversations with Ali and of all the celebs and experts and professors and just amazing talented and interesting individuals I encountered as a journalist, Ali was by far the most impressive. If you asked me the one human being I met who was somehow both down to earth and larger than life - I'd say Muhammed Ali. No question. Never have I ever felt like a guy I was talking to was like, heck, my next door neighbor, he sure treated me like I was, treated everybody that way from what I couls see and sense: damn does he have a big heart - childlike in a way and just BIG BIG BIG.
Well Tuesday, the 24th. was day I celebrate as the second of my anniversaries. It was on that day 20 years ago that among many things I stopped smoking cold turkey. Hadn't planned it or focused on doing that it just snuck up on me. When you have what they told my wife was a massive stroke life changes. They told her NEVER to let me climb a ladder again; but someone has to clean the gutters and trim the trees, etc. I guess I was lucky to have my wife drive me to the emergency room so that the stroke fully took place where I was under medical help.
All I can say is everyone should have a thorough check up to be sure there are no hidden problems.
Sorry, I just posted above a photo of the email message I sent out to those not registered yet. Here is a clickable link to register Watterson1966@aol.com
Some info for you Mike, regarding the Valley Dale.
If I remember correctly the Valley Dale was, for a while, owned by Bob (Robert) Marvin, a Big Band Leader, a famous (Central Ohio) TV star, kid beloved Flippo the Clown and the driver of a BMW Isetta (the car with a single door as the front of the vehicle.
I am just now fully retired from writing for newspapers and magazines and teaching writing and lit classes at ucf (university of central florida), also rollins college in winter park, and a couple of junior colleges. And retirement has brought something into my life that has taken me by surprise: depression. I don't want to overstate the case. I loved what I did and it brought purpose and a sense of worth to me -- and having recently decided to quit writing and teaching part time I found myself dealing with a sense of, well, worthlessness. Just a scared and lonely feeling, so vivid it shocked the hell out of me I'm fine, don't want to overstate, have a son living near me here in orlando and a daughter in ohio and a lovely woman, a retired elementary school teacher, in my life But the feelings hit me hard, took me down fast and by surprise, so I got help from a therapist and he gave me a few things to read and I discovered that many have gone through the same emotions upon retirement.
This is probably the most personal thing I have ever shared here but I thought it was a good, safe place to do so, particularly given that some of you may relate. You might have some observations you want to share. Or not. I'm not twisting any arms. I'll be fine. It just took me by surprise, and now that I look at it objectively it's more a matter of curiousity than self pity. I shared it here because some of you may have gone through a similar set of retirement blues. Sure did take me by surprise. Finally, To put it all in perspective it was nothing compared to when That Team Up North beats my beloved buckeyes. Which they won't do this year!!! Go Bucks!!!
You are a creative person as you have shown us through the writings that you done throughout your career. That trait can be applied to another media that allows you to create stories without words and find some joy in doing something that is close to your home and stimulates your brain.
I assume you have a cellphone and that phone has a camera and that camera allows some degree of photo editing. You also live in a photogenic area. Start making use of your talents of observation of your surroundings and share them through a visual media with others - like us. Practice using the camera's editing which is quite easy and create the image you saw so that others can see what your mind saw.
I worked with Landa on different projects. great lady.
Landa Masdea Brunetto remembers a time when seemingly everyone’s parents had their first date at the Valley Dale Ballroom on Columbus’ northeast side, including her own. Her father, Bruno Masdea, went on to play with the house band in the 1970s, and her husband, drummer Rick Brunetto, took up residence there in the 1990s.
Masdea Brunetto leaned on her family history and archival footage for her book “The Valley Dale Ballroom,” which came out in December. “I wanted a beautiful story to be told about the city of Columbus and one of the very last living ballrooms in the country,” she says.
Originally opened as a stagecoach stop in the 1880s, a dance hall was added to “the Dale” in the early 1920s. In Masdea Brunetto’s telling, the ballroom has had two heydays: in the 1940s, when seemingly every big name of the swing era played there (Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington, Dean Martin), and another in the 1980s as a rock venue.
Throughout most of its illustrious run, the Peppe family has owned or been involved with the Dale. Mike Peppe bought it from his father, Lou, in 1980 and continues to own it with his wife, Kathy. After an abrupt closure in early 2015 and more than $1 million in renovations, Valley Dale reopened with a focus on weddings under the new management of catering company Made From Scratch Inc.
If Masdea Brunetto has her way, the past will be a prologue for Valley Dale. She hopes to work closely with the Peppes to bring popular local and national acts to “Columbus’ jewel” once again.
do me a favor. if we are close enough as friend or neighbors or co-workers or relatives that i have your phone number, tell me when not tocall you. Just woke my daughter up that way and dang, it makes you feel so guilty when you do that. I mean where i come from sleep is sacred. Don't want that on my conscience. I'd rather be picked up for grand larceny or being a peeping tom.
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