Appreciate effort, Dave. Many's the time I started off posting a story and then gave up 'cause I'm all thumbs technically - and a part of me keeps saying "somebody ought to be paying you for this."
Unfortunately, I also know of some awful "bad cop stories".
I have one good buddy in my Vietnam group that I already mentioned way back on this Forum who is one of the world's nicest guys - but got caught in the web of a bunch of really nasty cops in his Atlanta Police Department. He and his (honest) partner in the Narc squad were following some dirty cops inside his department who were drug dealers - big time dealers! As I told before, he and 7 more good cops ended up making the arrest of about 8 other officers coming out of a bar one night, and as he handed the main guy the warrant (a senior ranking officer he had known for years), the guy pulled a pistol from his jacket and shot Bob in the chest - at point blank range. An all-out group gunfight ensued (a la OK corral) in the parking lot between about 15 or 16 cops - good cops vs. bad cops. And Bob still has the bullet next to his spine 30 years later.
But he went back to work full time on the force or another 10 years! What made him quit seems even more tragic. Bob was also in the "Crimes Against Children Dept." and Atlanta was going through a period with a serial killer murdering young Black boys. It got so political and racial, and the threats and accusations so great against the police department that Bob could not take it anymore, and quit the force. It turned out that an elderly Black man was the culprit after all.
I am righ now witnessing another tragic "Cop" story that is stressing me out like few tiems in my life. As I mentioned a short time back, I have a young froend from Rmania who is a Doctor in Germany. While visiting an old Romaina friend he go arrested in Clarksville Texas. It happends to be the county seat of Red River County (East of Dallas) - the well-documented "most corrupt" law enforcement in Texas.
Where I am going with this story is the part about Police "search and siezure" laws - widely debated and very suspicious practice that has become almost a "racket" for police departments all over the cocuntry. They sieze money, cars, valuables and property, intending to cripple the criminal operations financially. I once though it sounded like a good idea - stop the drug and crime operations by choking off their finances. But this has become a tool used by police eveywhere against anyone and everyone - guilty of not guilty.
A friend sent me an article about some reserach of this issue here in South Carolina, and it is frightening! They can take - and keep - assets from poeple and never give them back even if never proven guilty. In this last few weeks I have been sent seveal articles about this practice. I cannot find it now but there is an article writtne buy two journalists at tehGreenville SC newspaper about their 2-year investigatin and it is shocking! The article is titled "Taken" if anybody is interested.
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Sorry to go on so long but I am home with a cold and nothing else to do - not about to go out and scare the public with my surgical mask on. Got my mask the other day at the Naval Hospital in Beaufort (my second home - the nearest VA clinic). They were stopping everybody at the entry and asking "Have you been out of the country in the last 30 days? And have you been with anyone from out of the country in the last 30 days? Do you have a cold, cough, runny nose or a fever?
Okay, Okay, so I am using up my life-time Forum priviledges.
I mentioned once before that I had seen I.C. and St. Joe's graduate Mimi Rousseau (Susie's next oldest sister) as a backup singer on a PBS classic Pop music show.
Well, tonight, I just saw her as one of the main singers in another of those shows titled sometng like "Moments to Remember" from 2011. Its full of stuff from Rosemary Cloony, The Skylighters, the four Preps, a very old Frankie Laine etc.
So I went back to find one of her You Tube segments from back when she sang with the group "Spittin" Image" - very popular around Columbus bars and clibs in the 80's.
Low and behold I found (among many You Tubes segments) this segment (before she cut and bleached her hair) called "The Boy's a Dancer". This is not her best voice, but I swear there is a moment on the staircase with an actress posing as her mother that looks an awful lot like her home on No. Broadway, And later three scenes at the "wedding", that I swear looks like parts of the front of IC church exterior.
You I.C.er's might watch closely and see if you see what I think I am seeing.
0:27 Home stairway - then 2:05, I.C. Church entrance - and 2;25 inside at the alter + ouside.
I was living in Denver during her entire carreer. I never saw them play but friends tell me they were really big around Columbus for several years. I think they did 3 or 4 abums.
Just to save Mimi's reputation as a singer, I think I owe it to her to play this one too. Though most of you will remember her looks from the first video, This was her (new) look after the band got popular.
* (Added later: They actually did a song about Whetstone High School - not kidding)
** (Added even later - I had Mimi's last name mis-spelled. I have corrected it in the previous post)
Thanks for the encouragement. If you are referrring to my flying experience, I hear this from you and other classmates (Sheila McCarthy has been on me for years about this), and friends, and even my three kids.
I am terrible about time organization and staying on task.
Meanwhile, Do you, or Clare, Mary Margaret, Beth, Jim, or anybody frrom I.C. see what I think I see at about 2:24 in that first video? I''d swea(r) that is the front of your church.
And now, as the coronavirus closes in on us, here’s a bit of pre-St. Patrick’s Day escapism…
If you had to pick one dominant theme in Irish music, it would be emigration. The link below is to the song “City of Chicago” by Screaming Orphans, a group I just discovered. It’s a “girl band” if that’s an apt description of four sisters from County Donegal in the very northwest corner of Ireland. Interesting historic fact: since it is in the north (in Ulster), when the British partitioned Ireland in the early 20th century, Donegal should have been placed in northern Ireland except for the fact that its strong Catholic majority would have made Northern Ireland majority Catholic. So the Brits, in their infinite (and calculating) wisdom, kept Donegal in the Republic to the South.
The song is short and straightforward - Irish immigrants in Chicago pining away for the “hills of Donegal”. This version is perhaps a little more jaunty and upbeat than the song warrants (given the reference in the first verse to the Great Famine) but that’s OK since, aside from drinking songs, cheeriness is a precious commodity in Irish music.
But what I really like in the video are the roadside shots of stone walls. If you go to the west of Ireland, there are hardly any major highways and you're often driving on roads so narrow that you have to back up to a turnout to let an oncoming car by. But the walls (loose stone, no mortar) are everywhere and they extend up the hillsides as far as the eye can see. And, if you’re not careful, you can scrape your rearview mirror on them (much easier to do when you're driving on the wrong side of the road). Irish folklore holds that the walls are a natural part of the landscape (i.e., they’ve been there forever), but they were in fact created by generations of farmers who needed a place to put the rocks they dug out of their stony fields.
For any of you not by now saturated with this stuff, this second link is to a more haunting version of the song by Christy Moore, one of the great voices in Irish music
And if you’re taken by Christy Moore, check out his album “King Puck”, and especially the last track “Me and the Rose” a 13-minute stream-of-consciousness update of that old chestnut from our parents/grandparents’ generation, “The Rose of Tralee”.
For the the Irish life was in the great famine of Ireland and how cruel the English were youtube "Skippereen". Its a beautiful little town in County Cork
My Irish Catholic poet buddy Billy Collins has a rueful story about a flat tire, courtesy of a rough passage on those narrow county cork roads, on his last trip to Ireland.
It seems like every day more and more places that we frequent are closing due to the coronavirus pandemic. And I am sure that most of you are in the same situation. This is more restrictive than I recall after 9-11. Just about anywhere that people gather has become a hazard. State governors across the nation are ordering all kinds of closures and restrictions in addition to what the federal government is initiating.
My medical intuition tells me that this is one way to stop the spread of this plague and may be the best measure until an effective vaccine is readily available. Testing for one vaccine is actually supposed to begin today. But it may be 12-18 months before it - or other ones - are ready for mass deployment. I hope that process can be accelerated. I cannot fathom America or Americans functioning like this for a year or more.
Another side of me can't help but wonder if this is overkill.
Regardless, all of us are limited to some extent as to where we can go and what we can do. Life has changed once more as it did 19 years ago. Many of those changes after 9-11 became permanent. Aside from more emphasis on hygiene, I hope that the more extreme changes we are experiencing recently do not become the rule of life in this country.
In the meantime, while we are all partial shut-ins, instead of watching the stock market tank, wondering where we can find toilet (🚽) paper and Purell and listening to Irish music on YouTube (🎶), here is a suggestion: NOW IS A GOOD TIME FOR THOSE OF YOU IN OUR CLASS WHO HAVE BEEN AVOIDING POSTING ON THIS FORUM TO DO SO. We would love to hear from you on whatever topic you want to discuss (maybe save the really hot political topics for the User Forum).
So, here in remote-land, today I went to the market in the local small logging community of Morton. I was instructed to pick up certain items for Irish stew and soda bread. The market had most stuff but no Guiness and no buttermilk. So, if the shelves in your Kroger or Safeway are empty, try a small nearby town and hopefully you'll strike carbohydrate and protein gold.
But, Jim, I wanted to say that people in the market (and the five others I went to along route 12) were respecting the space of everyone else. But no matter where you live, you can't expect the supply lines to be completely normal. I believe everyone may run into shortages in one thing or another. Didn't see anyone with a cart load of toilet paper here so maybe people don't need bathrooms quite as much here...
But Jim, what caught my eye was your wondering if we are getting a bit carried away. I don't know either but I share your question. I am guessing though, that you share this view...we can always look back and laugh at ourselves for over-doing it, but until then, with how little we know, better to overdo the safety precautions than to drive to 6 markets looking for buttermilk and Guiness. Everyone should be smarter than yours truly. I washed the hell outa my hands when I got home.
One last thing. I don't know anything about cuts of meat. I was looking for Chuck Roast and was mystified. I asked an older guy also looking at meats, "Hey, do you know what you're doing?" The look he gave me requires that I advise you that beyond some of my classmates, this guy heads the list of people who do not consider me funny. Even after telling him I was looking for Chuck roast and would not know it from Bob or Ralph roast...my best comic stuff...he looked me like I was an example of what is wrong with the Earth. You gotta love that.
So using soap n water, hum, "Everybody (dance) Wash Now" while you all lather up.
Mike -- thanks for the Washington Post link. Let's hope it may be weeks rather than months before we reach the peak of the outbreak.
Tim -- I for one thought your "Bob roast, Ralph roast" joke very amusing. No telling what passes for guffaw-inducing up there in Mossy Rock, I guess. Just know you have fans here in lower 47.
And by the way, on your recommendation, I read "The Woman Who Smashed Codes" and enjoyed it very much. This was a look at a portion of our history I had never been exposed to before. Fascinating story, especially how her journey went from her apprenticeship to the foremost (and maybe nuttiest) scholar attempting to prove Francis Bacon wrote all of Shakespeare's plays, to then moving on to the heart of the story as she and her husband became leaders of the US code breaking efforts during WWII. Thanks for tip. Oprah. May have to watch her back. I sense a LaVelle Book Club on the horizon.
I think I suffer from a simiar dilemma. I could not remember whether I was looking for Flank Steak, or Frank Steak?
So much to reflect on while this story grows and expands. I almost said all over our tiny littel planet, but wait - I don't recal seeing any mention of the virus in South America - curious!
Just saw where a Bishop who was in contact with the Pope last week has been diagnosed with the virus. Whoever said "Hell hath no bounds"?
I am not sure whether people's greatest fear is now the health aspect, or the growing economic impact. Each day we see new virus numbers, and each day a new level of realization as to how far reaching this will hit the economy, employment, and the flow of capital and goods and supplies.
I can sit here with some time off work and hunker down with my TV re-runs, and cans of smoked oysters, while shopping on-line for fascinating items like solar battery chargers. But so many people are in day-to-day work situations that they cannot leave, while their small grade-schoolers are being sent home. Here in Beuafort County I jus saw where "they" (not sure who "they" are) are providing school families with the free breakfast and lunches that those kids would be receiving if they were in school. It's a drive-through distribution at school parking lots so moms can get back to work quickly.
The conundrum is that the very thing that will protect our health - self isolation - is the very thing that will wreak havoc in our economy.
Be safe. Go home. Stop everything. And sit and watch the world's economy unravel.
But having said all that, how normal it seemed to drive up to my nearby Target tonight and see about a third of the normal crowd milling around the aisles - clothing, toys, makeup -- but not paper towels or bread - they are gone! Or driving through little downtown Bluffton and seeing all the restaurants open (if nearly empty) - while a few miles away, up on the main highway, the restaurants are closed.
Maybe this will remind us we all need one another - that we are all in this together. This will certainly call for ocassional risky acts of unselfishness, where we may have to reach out and contact our neighbor, should they need our help.
Or we could all move to a safer ground - far from the "madding crowd" - yes, to Mossy Rock!
Since Jim suggested a few of us "lurkers" chime in, here's my contribution for today. I got up early this morning and went to our local Kroger grocery to be there when it opened at 7am. My thinking was that I'd beat the crowd. But no such luck; the store was jammed, with most shelves stocked fairly well but checkout lines 20 people deep. The surprise was the reaction of the crowd to the long wait. People were talking with one another, smiling, and peaceful. No one cutting in line or being nasty. Maybe it's because we have been sequestered in our homes and crave the social interaction. Or maybe in this time of crisis people are just being nice to one another. BTW, everyone was maintaining at least 6 feet distance from each other and there were wipes at the store entrance to wipe down the carts. I felt sorry for the store employees; they are literally on the front line of all this and I'd think they stand a fairly high risk of being exposed to the virus.
Let's all hope we "flatten the curve" sufficient enough to stay below our health care capacity. And having worked in the pharmaceutical industry for over 30 years, I know full well how long it takes to develop and produce a vaccine. That step won't come fast enough in this crisis but may provide some longer-term benefit (Dr. Jim may comment!).
Glad to have your voice back on the Forum! Tomorrow is our day to do the 7 AM trip to King Soopers (part of the Kroger chain) and probably experience what you did.
You are correct that vaccines take time to come on the market but with this one things seem to be moving faster. We will just have to wait and see. Some good news is that there is an investigational drug in the pipeline, remdesivir, being tested in the US (has already been used on some patients in the state of Washington) and China, which has shown some promise against COVID-19. It was originally developed for Ebola but has also shown activity against SARS, MERS and other viruses - sort of a broad spectrum antiviral agent. That may become available before a vaccine but, remember, it is a treatment, not a prevention. How effective it is and at what stage of the infection remains to be determined.
So, for the time being, the best approach is back to limited person to person interactions and good hygiene practices, just like the Bubonic/Pneumonic Plague of the Middle Ages.
Can't let this day pass without mention of one of my all-time favorite films. I have watched this film so many times I have lost count - maybe 20 or 25 times. It was one of my dad's favorite films, so I first saw it as a kid. One of many great films directed by the great John Ford (John Martin Feeney), who also directed "The Searchers" (which French film critics revere as the greatest American film of al-time), "Stagecoach", "The Grapes of Wrath", "Mr. Roberts", and another of Dad's favorites, "How Green Was My Valley" - about Wales). There are so many more it's hard to count. One of his last films was "Donovan's Reef", a fun film with John Wayne, Lee Marvin, a tender yet subtle message, and another great fist fight.
So here is the great fist fight scene that is the climax of this film.
If you watch the sequence in the video below - (at 5:33) - the old dying man, receiving the last rights in the bed is Francis Ford, the director's brother. And the young priest is Charles Fitzsimons, the brother of the female lead actress, Maureen O'Hara. I read somehwere taht many of the extras are cousins of Ford, who lived all around the area where the film was shot, I believe in the Connamara region, near the village of Cong (over towards Galway).
* I love the bit with the cops on the phone. "What'd he say? He said to put 5 pounds on Thornton."
A thousand pardons - it should have read "5 Pounds on Danaher's nose." - my bad
I am watching the same PBS special on 50's music - "Moments to Remember" that I referred to a few days ago (where I sighted Mimi Rousseau). She definately sang with the Skyliners as they sang "When I fall in Love".
But I learned more trivia tonight in my second go around with this re-run from 2011. (Lordy, I hope PBS isn't going to all re-runs during this "social distance" period.
The host is George Clooney's dad, Nick, the well known host of TCM. I knew that much, but he just mentioned his "sister" Rosemary and it suddenly dawned on me that they were family!
BTW, the latter part of the show he co-hosts with Patty Page - "The Singin Rage", and she is still looks great.
NOW - for those of you in the St. Mike's gang, you may know that Nick Clooney lived in Worthington and worked for about 2 years for Channel 4, before moving to Cincinnati and working for WLW, where I think, his career escalated as a newscaster. **(Fred?)
Somehwere I saw a St. Michael's class photo of the second grade (I think) with Father Burne(?) and the nun who was principal in each of the corners. I seem to recall it was a collection of individual portraits - instead of our group class photos. It had to be sometime in teh late 50's and includes a little blonde-haired boy named,,,,,,,,,,,,,,wait for it,,,,,
George Clooney
I think I heard somewhere that he went on to do okay on one of those TV shows about a hospital.
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I promise to let this thing go with Mimi Rousseau, but here she is as she appears (as she did) on the program I am referring to. Frankly, I think she was better suited to her original Rock & Roll genre, but I think this is when she had moved to L.A. to try to elevate her career. It never quite happened.
