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02/10/20 09:35 AM #6806    

 

Michael McLeod

wow to all the images. thank you. speaking of beautiful skies, venus is so close these days I saw her in daylight, well before sunset in the western sky. First time I can remember seeing a planet in daylight.

 


02/10/20 10:56 AM #6807    

 

Michael Boulware

On Mondays, in the Columbus Dispatch ; in the Life & Arts Section, there is a column labeled "To Your Good Health". The Message Forum is way ahead of the Dispatch with our own "Dr. J." Column. As a matter of fact,I prefer Dr. Hamilton's answers to Dr. Roach's.


02/10/20 11:44 AM #6808    

 

Michael McLeod

No contest.

Doctor J. rules.

I'm his first patient, so you can trust my testimonial.

Ok sure, I'm brain damaged, so you do have to take that into account.


02/10/20 01:14 PM #6809    

 

David Mitchell

Dammit Janie!

A couple weeks in Mejico and you've gone all astologist on us. 


02/10/20 08:13 PM #6810    

Timothy Lavelle

I have a book report. As someone who was trained to break codes in Th'Army, you can imagine that I have since been interested in secret writing. I have to admit, when first informed back then that I was to become a cryptanalist, I thought I was going to be digging up bodies...

A gift card for Barnes and Noble is like a free book. You don't have to buy that stuff on Napoleon you always read...you can branch out! So, ladies, there was "The Woman Who Smashed Codes" by Jason Fagone. National best seller, it says. It is the true story of two people I have never heard of, Elizabeth Smith and William Friedman. A love story that will leave tears on your cheek but also an astounding account of two of our country's very (Effing VERY) best code breakers, a totally secret activity, from before and through WWII. Generally, codebreaking stories are hard for almost anyone to really understand from the very nature of the subject but Fagone does an excellent job of describing the efforts of these two magnificent people. And, damn, did they ever love each other. But please underline this is the story of a incredibly capable woman who got little credit at the time. I believe some of you would truly enjoy the read.  Party on.


02/11/20 10:27 AM #6811    

 

David Mitchell

Took ya' long enough to remember the "code" to this Forum.

 

I wasn't aware we allowed people who can read on this thing.


02/11/20 10:53 AM #6812    

 

Frank Ganley

Tim, does completing the daily cryptograms and crytoquip?


02/11/20 11:03 AM #6813    

 

Michael McLeod

Dave: She's got a flight scheduled. Two weeks. Sent us a photo of the polluted Beijing sky - it looks like LA used to look. 


02/11/20 02:53 PM #6814    

 

James Hamilton, M. D.

Janie,

You caught the supermoon in a clearing surrounded by interesting clouds creating a nice, spooky effect! Perfect shot for Halloween if you could Photoshop in it a witch on a broom in front of the moon.surprise

 

Bull and Mike McL.,

Thanks for the confidence in my medical musings!

Our local newspaper here in Colorado Springs also carries Dr. (Keith) Roach's column a few days per week (other days, Dr. Oz's and Dr. Rozien's) Dr. Roach is an Internal Medicine specialist (my specialty) which we consider to be "Doctors for Adults". I find his advice columns to be quite good. There are several "TV docs" and "Advice Column docs" who are reasonable and others who are not.

One of the topics which I am trying to put togrther for a future Forum Message Post is Dementia. This is a subject that I think may be on our minds as we age and/or have family members or friends that have some form of it. And there are many forms from mild, age-related forgetfulness (I believe that includes me) all the way through the worst forms of Alzheimer's and other severe neurodegenerative disorders. Once I get this into a succinct and understandable format, I shall post it.

Frank,

Your comment in Post #6828 regarding cryptogram games resonated with me in that several decades ago studies showed that working crossword puzzles helps keep the mind sharp and may slow down some of the memory loss that aging persons can experience. I suspect that this applies to most "mind games" that are in newspapers and paperbacks we see in grocery store check-out lanes.

Use that mind or lose it!

Jim

 


02/11/20 03:19 PM #6815    

Timothy Lavelle

"Frank and Dave"

Now, why does that name grouping make me imagine two toothless hicks sitting on a porch overlooking the Chattahoochie while the theme from Deliverance plays in the background? 

Don't know...just does.

Mike, I was in Bejing in 95. Short stay. Skies during the day so blackened by soot and ash from  coal fires it made Mordor look like a roadside rest stop. 


02/12/20 04:13 AM #6816    

 

David Mitchell

I thought cryptogram was a brand of toothpaste (er, cereal maybe?) 

And I tried the banjo as a teenager. Didn't have the stick-toit-ivness to make it work. I just go to movies instead, and eat popcorn with what few teeth I still have left.

(BTW, add "Little Women" to my reccomended list - Excellent!)

 

Sudoku anyone?

 

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

p.s. Doctor J,

I finally went out and bought me one of them thar little Fuji X-series camrys. A tiny little used, discontinued X-70 on eBay. Fixed lens - 28mm equiv. And did I say tiny? Lordy, I've been away from this a long time. I may need a damn cryptologist to figure all this digital stuff out. Only 6 or 7 different function buttons, hundreds of "menu" choices, and about a zillion control choices.  

*&h%dv"+q@!!!     You and Berkermer got nothin' to worry about. 


02/12/20 11:22 AM #6817    

 

John Maxwell

All this talk of codes reminds me of untying knots. This is, by default, the age of code breaking. But, why? You ask. What are we trying to hide? Apparently nothing with all the code breakers out there. I was watching the squirrels today and one really chubby fella was hiding his stash of peanuts in a hollowed out knothole in a dead tree, and another squirrel was watching. Ultimately the observer made his way down from his perch and snuck up to the other squirrel's stash, gobbled up all the peanuts hidden there and split. Later the squirrel who hid them so very carefully came back to find his nuts missing. Guess he needed a more secure password. I put out more nuts but the deer came in and ate everything. Just bad timing. It's anarchy out there.

02/12/20 12:32 PM #6818    

Timothy Lavelle

Overheard recently :

1st deer, mumbling thru a mouth full of peanuts, "You know what's really sad"?

2nd deer, "A squirrel with his nuts cut off"?

 

Jack, untying knots is really pretty good picture of breaking a code...just imagine the thread was really tiny, your fingers were arthritic and someone was whispering in your ear "men will die, men will die". 

What I was trying to pass along is that this Elizabeth Smith used a pencil and paper to break machine encrypted codes. A feat like that would be equivalent to climbing Mount Everest. 

Naked.

She should have been lauded but others took the credit.  


02/12/20 12:40 PM #6819    

 

James Hamilton, M. D.

Dave,

Welcome to digital! As for those menus just get familiar with the few you will use for 99% of your photos and then try a new one out infrequently. Take some shots of those May River sunsets and any dolphins and manatees that swim by and post them here on the Forum. Those are critters that I don't have in my backyard and Jack probably doesn't have around his home either. 😁

 

And, Jack, here in Colorado Springs it is illegal to feed wildlife; don't know if that is true where you live. If it is, your secret is safe with me.

Jim 


02/12/20 08:37 PM #6820    

 

David Mitchell

I know this. If I were a squirrel, I would just hate to come back and find my nuts missing.

 

----------

Dr. J,

I will do my best to follow your "digital prescription". 


02/13/20 08:23 PM #6821    

Lawrence Foster

Below are the source photgraph which I used to make the two images that follow.  A friend has a butterfly friendly backyard and she took the photo.  I made a painting of it and then I used some of the leftover scrap wood that Al Judy gave me from one of his cabinet making projects.  That was a wood burning and staining process.  Spring Is Coming!

 

 


02/13/20 09:19 PM #6822    

 

Mary Margaret Clark (Schultheis)

Amazing Larry!!

 


02/13/20 10:11 PM #6823    

 

Mark Schweickart

Like our friend Tim, I too have dropped off the forum these last few months. Sorry about that. But since Valentine's Day is upon us, I thought I would share a video of a song I recently put up on YouTube.  I wrote this for my wife a while back (probably 8 or 10 years ago, I guess that's a while), and it recounts how we met  (also a while ago, about 19 years – hence the younger-looking picture of ourselves.) We had both been taking swing-dancing lessons, and although I knew her slightly before, we hadn't spent any real time together, until one day I ran into her when I impulsively, at the last minute, decided to attend a week-end swing-dancing event happening over on Catalina Island, (which is about a half-hour ferry ride from L.A.) – an impulse I am forever grateful for making. That's when we met more seriously, and as the song says, "When Everything Changed." So for all of you young lovers out there, don't forget to give your partner a smooch today!




02/14/20 12:30 PM #6824    

 

James Hamilton, M. D.

Larry,  

Very realistic painting, almost photographic! But that wood one is my favorite - truely artistic. 

Mark,  

Nice tribute to your honey! A great memory of that event. 

 

Jim 


02/14/20 01:57 PM #6825    

 

Donna Kelley (Velazquez)

Beautiful work, Larry. So much talent in this group! 

Happy Valentine's Day, everyone!heart

 

 


02/17/20 03:38 PM #6826    

 

James Hamilton, M. D.

Hellooooo out there!

O. K., three days without an entry on this Forum must be a record. I'm still pondering the dementia thing but, in the meantime, here is something totally off the wall to discuss (or maybe disgusting):  "Skills our grade school or high school friends possessed that we envied back in those days that we were incapable of doing". Here are my entries (for the sake of not embarrassing anyone, I won't mention names but they know who they are):

-One grade school/high school friend could spit through his nose. 

-One high school friend could palm an undrilled bowling ball. 

​​​​-One high​​​​ school friend could wiggle his ears. 

-​​​​​One grade school friend could flip (evert) his upper eyelids. This is a skill which, with the aid of a tongue depressor, I finally learned in med school to check for foreign bodies under those lids. CAUTION: DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME! 😁 

Donna is right, our class had a lot of talent! 

 

Jim 

​​​

 

 

 

 


02/17/20 05:20 PM #6827    

 

Janie Albright (Blank)

I've been super busy with guests the last two weeks so I guess I didn't notice, Jim. Crazy!

Lorraine Heitchue and her husband Roger Fox came in on a cruise ship and had lunch with me and some of our PV friends saturday. 
 

Now I can't remember if I posted the picture from 2 weeks ago when Jeanine Eilers and husband Lance were in off their cruise ship. I was waiting for Lance's photos of Jeanine and I but will show you mine of them. They were here long enough and on the right day thst we could go on the IFC Home Tour that the organization I belong to in Puerto Vallarta sponsors to raise money for their cleft palate clinic. 
 


02/18/20 09:53 AM #6828    

 

Mary Margaret Clark (Schultheis)

heart the pictures Janie......Jeanine and Lorraine, by your happy smiles, you must have had great trips!

 


02/19/20 12:16 PM #6829    

 

Joseph D. McCarthy

Okay.  For the last time, NO POSTING OF PICTURES OF PEOPLE ENJOYING EXOTIC LOCATIONS.  At least while the rest of us are suffering in places such as Northern California and Washington.  Oh yeh, we should probably add Michigan and possibly Ohio, BUT NOT South Carolina.

Dave, to respond about the Columbus Bank note.  They are part of a series of notes issued by the federal government, with this one being the last series (1929) that was issued during the Depression.  The Government started recalling (if it was turned into a bank, they were to return it to the government and not re-issue it) in 1935.  However, many of them could still be seen in circulation into the 1960's and 1970"s.

Joe


02/19/20 12:35 PM #6830    

 

Michael McLeod

Couldn't agree more, Joe!  Had to write to back you up on your call to cease and desist with all the pretty pictures of people in gorgeous places while others have to huddle around their space heaters and suffer in frostbitten silence. Bad form! We weren't taught that way, were we, Joe? I just saw you message while I was sitting here in my office in my t-shirt and shorts, having just come back from skimming the swimming pool in my back yard, where the gorgeous bouganvilla bushes are in bloom -- fuschia, mostly. The vine wall is colorful as well, dominated by what they call "flame vine" down here - just a lovely orange-red bloom that comes out this time of year, and looks pretty as the dickens in the sunshine. Trimmed the palm trees yesterday - pain in the butt, that job.  Today the birds are chattering in the oaks, which drop their leaves this time of year - weird, right? Down here, I rake leaves in the dead of winter - well, of course, I use that word, "winter," loosely, since our winter is more like an extended indian summer. Meanwhile squirrels are running back and forth along the top of the backyard fence, little lizards about the size of a pencil are sunning on the pool deck, hawks are circling waaaay above in the thermals. Light breeze. Just checked the temp: 75 degrees.  Anyway where was I? Oh, your message about not posting pictures. How rude! Do people really do that? The nerve. No class. Just. So. Tacky. 


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