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David Mitchell

If anybody would likle to send a message, Carolyn's email address is;

carolyndrone@hotmail.com

Michael McLeod

Mary Clare:

I just found that Charles Schultz letter at random on Facebook.

It was recently discovered by the sister of the man Schultz wrote the letter to.

People who say you can't end a sentence with a preposition are full of crap.

.

David Mitchell

Mark,

Just think. Our grandkids will never know the joy of watching the Ed Sullivan show. It's sad.

James Hamilton, M. D.

David Barbour

Just one more thing about the NYT, they will send you an email called "In her words" which is currently

titled "Taking back 'HYSTERICAL' ."  Worth looking at .

Robert Berkemer

Picacho Peak State Park, Southern Arizona. Self Portrait

Robert Berkemer

Mexican Golden Poppies, Picacho Peak State Park

David Mitchell

DUCK AND COVER !!!!!

I hope you are all in a safe place. A nuclear (or nuculer)  bomb is about to go off in the Senate Hearing room shortly. 

Bill Reid

My favorite thing to do this morning ... and every morning. As a deacon, assisting Fr. John Nguyen at our morning Mass today, at St. Elizabeth Seton Catholic Church in Carmel Indiana. (I'm a bit taller than Fr. John!)

James Hamilton, M. D.

David Mitchell

Dock themes are in this year - right Bob?

This the May River and our community dock - about 50 yards from my front yard. May River is home to the cleanest oyster bed waters left on the planet (according to Jaques Cousteaus' son). It was also the inspiration of Johnny Mercer's Oscar winning song "Moon River" (He was from Savannah and had a summer home here in Bluffton). And the location for Pat Conroy's book, "Prince of Tides". He wrote it while living here in Bluffton.

James Hamilton, M. D.

A Pictorial History of the Rockrimmon Neighborhood in Northwest Colorado Springs

About Sixty Million Years Ago

Colorado was at the bottom of an ocean. As the waters receded limestone deposits along drainage planes formed into hoodoos, mushroom shaped rock structures, many of which are found throughout the Pikes Peak Region including Rockrimmon.

About a Hundred Years Ago

The Pikeview Mine (adequately named) operated from 1896 to 1957 and was the largest coal mine in the state. The mine itself is under the neighborhood at various depths and has caused some mine subsidence issues in the past. Our home sits about 400 feet above the mine and is fairly safe. (Everyone had to buy mine subsidence insurance in the 1980's.) The town of Pikeview itself was located along what is now the eastern border of Rockrimmon. The old buildings have long since disappeared but some mining remnants persist. For years I had assumed this oven was a "horno" possibly used by Ute Indians, but in actuality it is a coke oven in which coal was burned to produce coke ash and creosote oil. The ash was used in blast ovens of local steel mills in the manufacturing process of railroad rails. The Pikeview Quarry (from the same company) west of Rockrimmon, operates today but shaves off limestone instead of coal. It has been a source of an ugly scar on a couple of the foothills. I always thought that a line from John Denver's signature song, Rocky Mountain High, which mentioned "more people, more scars upon the land"  was a reference to this area. Reclamation is ongoing for these scars.

About Seven Years Ago

On June 26, 2012 the Waldo Canyon Wildfire crested the foothills at the western end of Colorado Springs, including Rockrimmon, and entered the city. That night 346 homes were destroyed mostly in the Mountain Shadows section of Rockrimmon. The first area to burn was the Flying W Ranch Chuckwagon Dinner and it's old restored western buildings and shops. That was located between the red rocks in the midground of this photograph and the foothills in the background. The "black toothpicks" which were once stately pine trees are easily visible when there is snow on the foothills.

Jim

Mary Clare Hummer (Bauer)

Sorry. Early dismissal today so I was busy with the grandkids. Closest I got to snapping a pic of the great outdoors was the view out my patio doors. We were very busy destroying my kitchen!! 

Clare 

Anna & Caroline  (Luke & Sean came in later from shooting hoops & added to the merriment!)

James Hamilton, M. D.

David Mitchell

Clare,

Are those two Cherubim, or Seraphim? 

I'm afraid your son or daughter will need to keep a nice baseball bat or hickory stick behind the front door in a few years.

David Mitchell

Joe M, and or Mark, Are you near the flooding?

David Mitchell

Same dock from another angle at sunset - out on floating portion at far end.

With crab traps hanging down - not in use.

Mark Schweickart

Dave – No flooding here. Thanks for asking, But an overcast day here yesterday did not inspire me to pull out my camera. Besides, the view in my neighborhood is not all that inspiring, although we are in the foothillls of the San Gabriel range (hardly Colorado Rockies), and because of all of the rain this winter, our surrounding hills are all green instead of the normal deserty brown color they nromally are. But because of the fogginess I can't get a good a good picture, so use your imagination.

So in lieue of that, here's a photo I like, taken awhile ago when Maddy and I visited..., well, it's obvious where. That's Maddy in the yellow, imitating Lady Liberty's pose, giving it a nice sense of scale. As I have mentioned before, a few years back I wrote one of my (still undiscovered) screenplays about the weird back-story about how the Statue came to be. Feel free to post your questions. The professor is available.

So class, here is a relatively easy multiple-choice question. Which of these was the term generally used during the time the Statue was hoping to be constructed, and the fund-raising efforts were slowly struggling on:

a) Lady Liberty Enlightening the World

b) The Statue of Liberty

c) The Bartholdi Statue

If you answered c) The Bartholdi Statue, you are corrrect,(especially used by those who were sick of hearing funding pleas, and would mutter, "That damn Bartholdi statue.") However, the actual name given by Bartholdi was a) Lady Liberty Enlightening the World.

Joseph D. McCarthy

First my favorite stop on return trips from Columbus.   A McDonald's Restaraunt in Evanston, WY

Joseph D. McCarthy

View from our bedroom this morning.

James Hamilton, M. D.

Timothy Lavelle

Joe, 

After watching the Today show this AM, it is great to see no flooding in your picture. Looks like a beautiful golf course out that window! Man, you guys have had a serious weather year. 

Jim, I think you got about as good a response as could be hoped for. Good idea.

David Mitchell

Mark,

I used to have a cool video from PBS (I think?) about the history of Bartholdi's statue - his concept, the history,  the construction - then the transport and assembly in NYC. I recall few details but it was fascinating.

Joe,

You have great taste in burgers. Reminds me of a Burger King at Kayenta Arizona. The Burger King is owned by the (very enreprenurial) Navajo tribe and the entire place is a historical monement to the famous "Navajo Code Talkers" of WW2. It's on the highway leading into the south entrance to my favorite place on earth, Momument Valley, where I think, God stood back after he created it and said "Wow, I'm good!". Also site of about 100 or so Hollywood "Westerns'. You remember, those colorful movies about the Old West with Cowboys and Indians - somethig our grandkids know absolutely nothing about.

David Mitchell

I want you all to know that I was really on my best behavior yesterday. I bit my lip and didn't go "political" all day, after watching about 1:30 of the 6 or 7 hours of "hearings" (quite a stretch of the meaning of that word in my opinion).

But I do have a certain question that I would like to pose. 

The question of a "credible witness" was only asked - or shouted over one another - about 400 times!

A very valid question. Can someone who has admitted to, and been convicted of criminal behavior offer "credible" testimony? Of course the two sides were in disagreement. I will even withhold my opinion of the behavior of "my party" (supposedly?) in that room. And I have to admit, yes, he did contradict himself several times - ("I Lied, but I am not a liar." -- "I have never been to Prague"  -- hmmm?)

The question (slightly reworded) that I ask, "Can a person have a change of heart, and be considered "credible"? - whether due to a guilty conscience or whatever? I'll present my question in the form of other examples;

1) Several thousand years ago a man named Moses (never did get his last name, sorry), was very loyal to, served under, and worked for a very evil man, who had a huge ego, lots of power, and treated the "opposition" in his country like slaves. Then that same guy, Moses, had a change of heart and decided to go against his former "boss". Was he then "credible"? 

2) Also a long time ago, a guy named David (no, not "Dave"), saw a hot married chick and decided to have the husband killed so he could get the guy's wife and committ adultery. Sounds like our modern day Mafia, maybe worse. But later David had a change of heart and decided to ask forgiveness, and turn on his old ways and go straight. Was he credible?

3) Back in the 30's in Chicago, a guy named "Easy Eddie" O'Hare was a lawyer and worked for a guy name Al Capone - a really, really bad guy.  Easy Eddie was Al's "fixer". For those of you unfamiliar, a term meaning that he "fixed" (usually with bribes or threats, or legal technicalities) all of Al's legal problems - like Murder, Extortion, Gambling, and just your every day run o' the mill Racketeering stuff. But Easy Eddie had a conscience (and a son he loved), and got worried about the legacy he would leave to his son. He too had a major change of heart. He turned states evidence to the FBI and got his boss nailed (and sent to Federal prison) for tax evasion. For that, he was mysteriously shot and killed while driving. Apparantly, the Federal Bureau of Investigation found him "credible" - even after all those years of lying and cover-up. 

(* Easy Eddie's story has a unique sequal - there is a little airport on the northwest side of Chicage bearing his son's name - - next post)

4) Just last week in New York, a federal grand jury convicted a vicious, sadistic Mexican Drug cartel leader named "El Chappo" Guzman. During the trial (which I followed as best I could in the news) the governement prosecutors paraded numerous witnessess before the court and gave "credibility" to their testimony for the conviction. They included murderers, drug dealers, liars of all sorts, and people who were - yes - being given various forms of amnesty and protection by the prosecution. (and BTW, some of the descriptions were so evil they almost made you sick). The court deemed them "credible". (yes, I heard that there may be a re-trial becaue some jurors watched the news coverage against the Judge's orders).

5) In the vast majority of our cases against organized crime, we give "Credibility" to all kinds of wicked, lying convicts. And yes, there are some mistakes and abuses (Whitey Bolger was a good example)

So here again is my question: I am wondering if the American people consider it more important to cling to a legal technicality, or to see the known facts for what they are?  Should "credibility" be the question? Or should the evidence?

The real "bomb" is still ticking in the office of the Attorney General of the Southern District of New York.

I await with bated (or is that baited) breath.

David Mitchell

Al Capone's attorney, "Easy Eddie " O'Hare had a son named Edward who had the nickname "Butch". O'Hare love this boy and could not bear the thought of leaving his boy with the legacy of a criminal. So he "flipped" on Capone and gave the FBI all they needed to convict him. Then was "executed" by some of Capone's men.

Butch grew up to become a Navy pilot. During a mission in the Pacific in WW2 he alone shot down severl Japanese bombers headed toward his fleet. I beleive it was by luck that he intercepted them. He was turning back on a mission because he was low on fuel and stumbled upon the Japanese bombers. He was also low on ammunition but used it effectively to shoot down several of the bombers. Later, on another mission, he was lost at sea, somewhre in the Gilbert Islands.

I beleive "Butch" O'Hare was America's first Combat Ace, and received the Medal of Honor, Navy Cross, two DFC's (Distinguished Flying Cross - or as we used to say "Duck For Cover" badge), and two purple hearts! 

I seem to recall the wondeful exhibit in his honor is located at O'Hare in or near the United concourse. I also seem to recall the exhibit makes no mention of his father.