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David Mitchell

Okay John, I'll see your three (or six) points and raise you a couple.

1) Disagree partly - I hold a lot of stock in Janie's article (spoiled demanding American patients) because I sort of lived with it. I worked in Dad's office downtown and at his clinic at OSU during parts of my teenage years. And if that wasn't enough to overhear (over and over), we all got a steady dose of it at home over the dinner table. And an occasional comment from some of Dad's partners and his older Brother (the one-armed Doctor John Mitchell on Perry Street - inside the OSU hospital grounds - where we always had free parking for all the football games).

2) Agree -The managent of the system is a nighmare. So much paperwork (often different for each and every one of the hundreds of insurance companiy policies). The paperwork alone is beyong the capacity of small practitioners, forcing them to hire extra staff (added expense) or join a larger practice. This is one aspect of the difficulty for small towns to attract doctors (not the only problem, but one of them). My Dad's last partner, up on Worthington Galena Road, Dr. Bill Wilson (great guy and very caring man) finally had to close his practice because they could not afford to practice with paperwork demands so overwhelming, and medicare reimbursements so far below replacement cost that he went broke. 

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Previous topic - Societal issues (or did you call it "political prolems") You named climate and a few others - (sorry, I cannot find it quickly now)

I could cite a few issues that I beleive are a problemn but will stick to one political issue. I think this is at the root of so much of our dysfunctional political system. 

Campaign Funding! Years ago, John McCain and Russ Feingold (Liberal Dem.- MInnesota) attempted to write a bill addressng this problem. It was said to be not very well written (I tried to read it and got too bored in the details). It was a sincere atempt to focus attention of a real problem that dictates so much of how Congress "dys-funtions". And it failed. Mitch McConnell threatened the two sponsors with a lawsuit, saying it "vilolated his rights." (Gee, great help Mr. Dysfuntion himself.)

Our system of lobbying is so out of control that I beleive it alone is the single greatest impediment to proper function of the Federal Government. Added to that is the outageous Supreme Court decision of 2010 "Citizens United vs Federal Election Commission", which allows Corportions and Unions to make unrestricted campaign donations and political campaigns, just as individuals have always been able to do. This can have frighteneing results on various elections.   

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One last "political problem". I am so nervous about our dealings with Saudi Arabia right now. This new crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman is a ruthless and dangerous man. I think we are in bed with the devil!

David Mitchell

Just saw Tim's post.

been seeing some of the best photograhy I have ever seen for the past year of Bob's facebook page. But he told me he cheated. He took a course. 

p.s.

I'm still not seeing any checks in the mail frm you people for my "go fund me" account to buy myself a really nice Fuji X-system camera. Cash, checks, or gold doubloons are welsome. 

James Hamilton, M. D.

Robert Berkemer

Hello fellow Eagleites,  Dropping in on this forum from Mayberry North is usually pretty overwhelming for this old fart and as usual skimming down one page of posts reinforces how disconnected I am from the real world and reality in general but thats OK... ;-)  I want to congratulate Jim on his beautiful deer picture. Wildlife photography takes immense patience and skill. It is actually exactly like hunting except you just capture their image... Sadly though, deer pictures always follow the same neurological path in my brain to this animated movie I saw in 1969, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tAVYYe87b9w which is titled "Bambi meets Godzilla" You can catch it on YouTube and only lasts a couple minutes................... :-o  The picture that Tim posted was taken last week up here near the Canadian border in Northern Minnesota. I was facing slightly north east looking across a small stream that flows through a bog area. The light in the sky is from Thunder Bay Ontario which is probably about fifty miles away as the crow flies and it was around 1:00AM. The area is very sparsely populated so there is no ambiant light to block out the stars in fact this area has the darkest night skies east of the Mississippi. Anyway.... the picture picks up the upper end of the Milky Way along with a zillion stars and one slightly visible galaxy. How do I do this? Actually like most all things once you know how its a piece of cake but it has taken me some time and a lot of help from others to get where I am. If you have a Digital SLR (the cameras you can change lenses on) you have what it takes along with a tripod and a cable shutter release. The lens I used was a 10mm (width of view), 2.8 aperture (light gathering capability) manual focus lens. The camera was set at 3200 ISO which used to be ASA years ago and I set the camera so that I could take an exposure between 25 and 30 seconds. Thats pretty much it except that while the picture shows a beautiful scene, in reality I was in nearly pitch black darkness and couldn't see anything except the stars in the sky so setting up for taking pictures is a slow process made more exciting by the sounds of hundreds of frogs and occasional sounds in the forest like crunching noises (there are bears, moose and wolves here) on this particular night there were chewing noises in the pond behind me which were accompanied by an occasional slapping noise on the water which is what beaver do when they want your ass out of their territory. On the twenty miles back to my cabin along seasonal national forest roads I saw a bobcat and a fox crossing the road. One other technicality for Jim, I had my Astrotracer in the camera synchronized with GPS satellites like you can do with your K l. With a 10 or 15 mm lens I have taken nearly 50 second exposures with minimal star trails!!! So... there you have it.... thank you all for the kind words, Bob

Michael McLeod

I'd like to request that any future posts that make me jealous be relegated to the user forum. 

I'm looking at you, Bob. You and your drop-dead gorgeous vistas and your fancy damn cameras with different lenses, which is cheating as far as I'm concerned,  so I say poop, that's right, poop on you and all your beaver buddies up there because I wish they would slap your ass instead of slapping the water and you can take this picture parade next door because it's frigging hot down here in Florida and the freeways are jammed with tourists and I'm dyin' down here I tell ya, so I don't want to hear about it. 

James Hamilton, M. D.

David Mitchell

Mike,

I drove up to Charleston yesterday for yet another visit to my favorite hangout (the main regional VA Hospital). Comming out I nearly had a heat exhuastion episode in the parking lot (I have a history of that problem). The temp was 106 when I texted a photo of my odometer and temp gauge to my kids. A few minutes later it hit 111 for about one minute. Then I lost my AC for a few minutes - but it came back on. 

But at least I can brag that all of this trouble turned out to be for an appointment scheduled for JULY 24th!  I was just a smidgen early. (driving dos horas each way!) 

Bob,

I was with you al the way through the technical explanation until you mentioned an "autotracer". I take it that allows for the movement of the earth during such space photography - cool tool!  Years ago, spending my Junior year summer in Salzburg Austria, we did a bunch of night shooting out in the "Old City". During the "Mozart Festival", many great cathedrals, fountains, statues, and the old hilltop Castle (Schloss Hohenzollern) are all lighted up. We stood and used a tripod and shutter release cord, while guessing at three diffferent exposure times form 5, 10 and 30 seconds - "one one thousand, two one thousand," etc.

I was using my Dad's 1953 Kodak Retina IIa, (made in Germany) - a single lens "ranegfinder" with a Schneidar German lens that popped out on a small bellows that extended about an inch when you opened the lens cover.  This shot is typical of what we got. Not the best of focus but all the various times still turned out about the same - pretty decent exposures, every one. We didn't know the existence of an autotracer but then, but we weren't shooting stars either. 

Anybody remember these? You used a "hand-held" meter. A great way to learn how a camera operates.

- shutter speed dial on the lens barrel (1 second to one 500th) 

- focus ring (black band) and depth-of-field guide on lens barrel

- exposure number (film spools of 24 or 36) on camera top right dial - with film advance lever 

- (look close) film speed (ASA then - now ISO) setting - by film type name ! ("plus X" etc.) - on camera top left dial  

(remember those old films - all the way up to 200 ASA? And then they brought out 400 ASA - wow!  And then I disocvered AGFA german film with it's gorgeous "grainy" resolution. And later I fell in love with Fuji Film when they brought out ASA 1,600 film and I could shoot my daughter's indoor swim meets a John Carroll U. - fast motion and indoor lighting - amazing! 

Timothy Lavelle

But Mike, you're living in a state with an average age of 91! How can you not feel young and cool and you know, all that. The tourists could be a real problem but it is hard for Northerners to resist coming down there and see natives drive at 5 to 7 miles per hour...like a moving freak show, you know. The only real problem with Fla is those nasty crowds at Golden Coral Buffet at 4:00 PM each day. 

James Hamilton, M. D.

Dave,

Love those old cameras and your reminiscing about the days of film!

Unlike those in our class who collect stamps and coins, I have a small collection of only two things: slide rules and cameras. I never get rid of a camera and have inherited and been given a few old ones from my mom and some old friends. This picture displays some of those from two very old Kodak bellows-types with original leather cases, a couple of my more manual film SLR's, a Polaroid, three underwater cameras, my "Critter Cam", early digital point-and-shoot cameras, and more modern DSLR's. The one with the brown cover (3'rd from the left) is a Rolleiflex Twin Lens Reflex which uses 120 roll film and produces large 2 1/2 X 2 1/2 inch negatives which can be blown up to very large prints. That was one of my main cameras with which I "cut my teeth" doing landscapes in the late 1970's to mid 1990's. It is heavy and the ground glass vewfinder reverses the left/right picture you see as you compose the image. But the photos it produced were tack sharp and fantastic.

For those of you (like Fred) who have a keen appreciation of and a mind for history, there is a bust of a famous person on the back left side of this photo.  WHO IS THAT MAN? (Hint: he was not a photographer but optics played a role in his life.)

For those familiar with some Colorado art, the bronze sculpture in the middle is one of Michael Garmin's (entitled "Doc") of an old time doctor with his medical bag in his right hand and scratching his butt with his left hand. It was a present from our clinic staff upon my retirement.

Jim

David Mitchell

JIm,

I once had a collection of 6 or 8 of those very old "Kodak Brownie" cameras from the teens and twenties. I was fascinated by those big bellows that reached out a good 5 or 6 inches. And I love that Twin Lens - a very advanced camera for it's day.

I bought my first SLR in my tiny PX in Vinh Long in 1969, but also bought a Twin Lens Reflex on my R&R in Hong Kong - a Minolta Autocord - which I kept for years  I also had a very old 4X5 and a few other odd-ball cameras. I had to sell the bunch to raise some cash years ago, but I did keep three old "box" cameras (like below - similar to the first camera I can remember using at our house) - all different colors of leather cover - black, red, and tan.  

And finally, is that an Olympus SLR I see on the right? Can't quite read the name up on the pentaprism. 

Now at this point, I imagine the ladies are reaching a new level of utter and complete boredom. Out of respect to them, I suggest we turn this fascinatin' dialogue to someting more exciting - like telescopes or microscopes.  Or pre gas-powered lawn mowers. 

(Beth should be fascinated with that one)

David Mitchell

I was told a few years back by a Catholic priest that one of the most dangerous places on earth was the parking lot at the Piggley Wiggly Supermarket near Marco Island Florida. His mother lived there, so he had been an eyewitness.

He claimed that pedestrians often had to run for their lives as Cadillacs and Buicks travelling at approximately 3 to 4 miles per hour moved through the parking lot with nothing visible in the driver's seat except for pairs of wrinkled white knuckles on the steering wheels, and the tops of purple white wigs between them.   

James Hamilton, M. D.

Michael McLeod

Tim, Dave:

You clearly have not been driving in Florida recently and for that you should be extremely grateful. There are times when I miss those days when the biggest thing to complain about on the roadways down here was old farts creep-creep-creeping at snail-speed with their turn signals permantly on. That's quaint of you to think it's still like that down here and thanks for the brief nostalgic interlude. But I've watched the pace and the temperment of sundown state traffic change over the years and it has gradually shifted its personality, at least in the Central Florida 1-4 corridor, into criminal insane level at this point, meaning it is is either at a brooding don't even LOOK at me mofo standstill or whooshing along at a bloodthirsty take-no-prisoners pace that comes close to any craziness you encounter up north. Nothing like what I drove through -- ok, in all honesty, what my girlfriend drove through while I was curled up in the fetal position next to her, mumbling incoherently, on the verge of soiling myself, momentarily signing back on as a Christian and hoping they hadn't lost my paperwork -- when we had to go through a double-barrelled ok corral type scene in outerbelt DC and then through Baltimore a couple of months ago. But close enough.

David Mitchell

Mike,

Tit for tat - - try the "Dan Ryan" (Chicago) at rush hour. Or better yet, L.A. just about any time of day. Or still bettter yet, try the M1 north of London heading to Manchester - Oh boy, are we havin' fun now?

And as for "losing your papers", make no mistake, they've got a file on you s thick as your wrist. You're being watched. If you don't repent and mend your ways, you're gonna end up down there with them damn Baptists. 

Jim,

Very cool!. I bought my three kids Pentax K-1000's to teach them how to use a real camera. I had one myself near the end of my film days.

My progession went through three cameras and three manufacturers - After learning on Dad's old Retina IIa, I grabbed a Canon FTb in the little PX in Vietnam. Ther were two on the shelf one day and things in that tiny PX never lasted long. The other one was gone by taht afternoon. Years ater I had it stolen out of my car at a construction site in Denver. I got back in with a Minolta (FT-11 ?) and several lenses. Nice camera - loved it for a few years and then needed to sell it. Finally got back in with the Pentax K-1000. Sold it on eBay when digital came in.

But I din't like digitial ergognomics (symbols of ladies hats for portraits - man running for fast shutter speed, craggy line standing for a mountain for depth of feild - silly to me.) So I sat out the early days of "digital" with cheap point-and-shoots - lamenting the "good ole' days" of real photography. Now I really want back in, but I can't afford the one I want. Bob Berkermer is advising me to get in cheaper with something from "CaNikon". But I want one of those new FujiFilm X-series. They have combined new digial technology inside, with old fashioned "analogue" controls on the outside - like the fun of real photography all over again, but magnificent technology. And a terriffic range of "glass".

Now shouldn't we move on to lawn mowers or something realy interesting?

David Mitchell

No - I've got it - Hairdryers! 

Yea, that ought'a bring the ladies back into the conversation.

James Hamilton, M. D.

Mary Margaret Clark (Schultheis)

Oh Dave.....silly you!!!  

David Mitchell

MM,

You do know the difference between Men and Municiple Bonds don't you?

Municiple Bonds eventually reach maturity.

Mark Schweickart

Since Dave and Mike have resurfaced from our attempt at self-imposed exile, then perhaps it is okay for me to put my toe back in the water as well, and shout, "Hey guys, how about another song?" This is something I wrote after my wife Maddy's father passed away a few years ago. Who am I kidding, that was not a few years ago – I guess that was about ten years ago that I wrote this, and almost twenty years ago that he passed, and this song is based on something I heard some forty years ago, back in the mid-70s -- why do these things seem like it wasn't that long ago? Do others of you have this problem?

Anyway, back to the song – it  is sort of a “half-cover” song, if there is such a term. I started out thinking I would try doing a cover of Ronee Blakley’s song, “My Idaho Home," from the movie "Nashville" (like I said, mid 70's--what do expect from me, a cover of Taylor Swift?). However, I couldn't quite relate to the majority of  the lyrics, but I did find myself drawn to the affection expressed for the parents in her song, and it reminded me of my wife Maddy’s strong connection to her father. This lead me to rework the lyrics to fit Maddy's family’s experience. So the melody and about a third of the lyrics are from Ronee Blakley‘s song, and the rest are from my interpretation of Maddy’s family’s journey moving from upstate New York to Califorrnia when she was a little kid, and then more recently (relative term) when he passed. Hopefully this acts as a salute to a very special father.

P.S. For those who don't recognize the reference to "The Cremation of Sam McGhee," it is a classic comic poem by Robert W. Service set in the Alaska Gold Rush. It was one of her father's favorites and definitely worth checking out: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45081/the-cremation-of-sam-mcgee

Janie Albright (Blank)

Always enjoy it when more of you drop in. :) not to say I don’t love the regulars because I do. You are the backbone.

Apropos of nothing I just saw this piece and thought it a great bit of trivia.  Bennet Cerf, when was the last time you heard his name mentioned? ;)

 The Random House colophon made its debut in February 1927 on the cover of a little pamphlet called “Announcement Number One.” Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer, the company’s founders, had acquired the Modern Library from publishers Boni and Liveright two years earlier. One day, their friend the illustrator Rockwell Kent stopped by their office. Cerf later recalled, “Rockwell was sitting at my desk facing Donald, and we were talking about doing a few books on the side, when suddenly I got an inspiration and said, ‘I’ve got the name for our publishing house. We just said we were going to publish a few books on the side at random. Let’s call it Random House.’ Donald liked the idea, and Rockwell Kent said, ‘That’s a great name. I’ll draw your trademark.’ So, sitting at my desk, he took a piece of paper and in five minutes drew Random House, which has been our colophon ever since.” Throughout the years, the mission of Random House has remained consistent: to publish books of the highest quality, at random. We are proud to continue this tradition today.

Timothy Lavelle

Janie,

Bennet Cerf and ?Kitty Carlysle?...Killgallen?...was that "What's My Line?" or "I've Got a Secret" ? The first had a thin David Nivenish host and wasn't Gary Moore the host of Secret? Those early game shows were big at our house along with 64 thousand dollar question and Gun Smoke!

Mark Schweickart

Tim -- The show with Bennet Cerf was "What's My Line" hosted by John Daly, and as you mentioned featured other regulars like Dorothy Kilgallen, Arlene Frances, Steve Allen and Kitty Carlisle. Actually, Kilgallen was replaced by Kitty Carlisle after Kilgallen's mysterious death in 1965. Her day-job was that of a journalist, and was generally associated with fluff pieces about Broadway, but in fact she did more substantive investigative reporting as well. She died mysteriously (ruled a suicide) while working on her version of things connected with the JFK assasination, and, as conspiacy buffs like to point out, all of her notes also disappeared that night.  Strangely eneough, she had been out the night of her death with her reputed lover, none other than Columbus's own Ron Pataky, the film critic for the Columbus Citizen-Journal. For those of you who, like myself, may be drawn to the conspiracy side of the Kennedy assasination, there is an interesting book on Kilgallen's death by Mark Shaw called, "The Reporter Who Knew Too Much."

John Maxwell

James Hamilton, M. D.

For all you Southerners battling the heat and humidity in SC and FL, here is something to cool you a bit.

This weekend is the Pikes Peak Hill Climb "Race to the Clouds",an annual event here in Colorado Springs. The last couple of days have been practice runs up the Peak which have been well covered by the local newspaper. This photo appeared in today's issue. I reproduce it to show the snowpack that had to be plowed to allow cars to drive to the top. From down at the bottom the area above timberline looks to have just streaks of snow in a few areas but, in fact, those streaks are deep!

As I write this, the temp at the summit is 48 degrees with 38% humidity. Here below it is 91 with 11% humidity.

Also, for you skiers, Arapahoe Basin is now advertising July 4th skiing is available.

Stay cool,

Jim

Michael McLeod

Wait. If we're not allowed to talk politics here shouldn't wacko conspiracy theories also be banned? I'm just sayin. Word. Peace out.