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David Mitchell

p.s. Mike, do you realize some of our readers may actually have something to do on Saturdays?

Michael McLeod

I'm a little addled and just trying to distract myself and not doing a very good job of it. I'll take it down, Dave.

James Hamilton, M. D.

As I have stated in the past, I vote on the basis of policies, especially policies that affect the people of America. I shall let God deal with who are the saints and the sinners. After all, " Let he who is without sin cast the first stone." 

Jim

Mary Freeman (DiNovo)

Mike, I seldom get on forum. I think the only time I did was when Toni Cardi died. But I wanted to find out if it was your sister who had passed. I am so sorry to hear that it was. Although I haven't seen Kate in a long time, when I heard Kate's sister had died, I had to let you know that you and Kate are in my prayers. Losing a sib is awful. 🙏❤️

Michael McLeod

Thank you, Mary.

I got to see Ellen a few weeks ago when she and Katie came to Orlando to celebrate my retirement.

Now she's gone, dead from head trauma after falling off her bike.

Her funeral is was in Arizona. We may have a memorial this summer in either Columbus or somewhere in wisconsin, where she worked for many years. She was a great advocate for disadvantaged women; that was her career. I'm retired and living in orlando after a long career as a journalist and professor at osu and ucf (university of central florida)

I keep trying to distract myself to avoid the grief.

It was so kind of you to track me down on this site.Your kindness cheers me more than any of the distractions.thank you.

I am sorry to bring such a heavy subject to this forum and I appreciate everyone's sympathy and forebearance.

Katie is still living in clintonville, close to campus, and not far from the home on east north broadway where we grew up. 

Mary Freeman (DiNovo)

"Grief never ends... but it changes.

Its a passage. not a place to stay.

Grief is not a sign of weakness. nor a lack of faith...

It is the price of love."
 

Mike this quotation hits close to home. Through your dialogue with our fellow classmates, I'm sure you have established, although long distance, some good friendships. And sharing with your friends, whether good, bad, or sad, is what good friends do. 

Michael McLeod

I'm getting my fatigues out of the closet and re-enlisting - gotta back up the prez now that we're at war with those evil oppressors up north.....

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada laid out more than $100 billion in retaliatory tariffs against the United States late Saturday, in a forceful response to President Trump’s decision to impose levies on a range of Canadian goods. But he made clear that Canada was doing so reluctantly.

“We don’t want to be here,” Mr. Trudeau said in a somber televised address from Ottawa that evoked the deep bonds between the two neighbors and close trading partners. “We didn’t ask for this.”

Mr. Trudeau spoke hours after President Trump hit Canada and Mexico with tariffs of 25 percent on all goods, with a partial carve out for Canadian energy and oil exports. Mr. Trudeau said that Canada would swiftly impose its own “far-reaching” retaliatory tariffs of 25 percent on 155 billion Canadian dollars ($106 billion) worth of U.S. goods.

Initial tariffs worth 30 billion Canadian dollars will start on Tuesday, when the U.S. tariffs go into effect, Mr. Trudeau said. That will be followed by tariffs on 125 billion Canadian dollars worth of goods in the next three weeks, a delay he said would allow Canadian businesses to prepare.

Before Mr. Trudeau’s prime-time address, Canada had indicated that it would tax Florida orange juice, Tennessee whiskey and Kentucky peanut butter — products from states with Republican senators. Mr. Trudeau said on Saturday night that Canada’s tariff list would also include products like beer, wine, vegetables, perfume, clothing, shoes, household appliances, furniture and sports equipment, and materials like lumber and plastics.

He added that more measures were being considered, including curbing or taxing energy exports that the United States relies on.

Mr. Trudeau addressed Americans directly, saying that the U.S. tariffs on Canadian goods would harm them, too.

“This is a choice that, yes, will harm Canadians, but beyond that, it will have real consequences for you, the American people,” he said. “As I have consistently said, tariffs against Canada will put your jobs at risk, potentially shutting down American auto assembly plants and other manufacturing facilities.”

Joseph Gentilini

Mike McL - I also want to express my condolences at the death of your sister, Ellen.  I didn't know she had passed. I have had two brothers of mine pass away, one passed at birth and I didn't know him.  His twin, my other brother, passed at 79 several years ago.  Leo's sister died a year ago and a brother last year. It is not easy.  Joe

John Jackson

Mike, let me add my condolences on your sister's death.  It must have been especially hard for you since it came out of the blue.

Michael McLeod

Thanks to all who extended sympathy.

I was honestly uncertain of how appropriate it is to discuss difficulties and wounds on this forum - while plenty of us, including me, feel free to cut loose with opinions, however inflammatory - so I did share that grief with a little trepidation. 

I had no brothers but three fabulous sisters - all of them better behaved than I. ,Two of them gone, now. I have appreciated them more and more as I matured - their devotedness to their children and their faith -- and their tolerance of me. If we had a black sheep I filled the bill.

Oh and yes, and thank you for noting that, John, it did come out of blue. But the blessing was I saw her, after several years, when she and my other sister came down to Orlando for my retirement party just a couple of weeks ago. Several weeks actually. Senility strikes. Mary, I especially appreciate the quote you offered. It is indeed a price that we pay, and I pay it willingly.

At least I had that blessing of a goodbye, though I didn't understand it as such at the time. I treasure it now.

Mary Margaret Clark (Schultheis)

Mike, thank you for sharing your pain at the loss of your dear sister. At our ages, losses and difficult health issues come more quickly now, and one of the avenues of finding our way through the grief and sorrow is to lean upon the compassion and concern of friends. You obviously have many here on the Forum and I am quite certain there are those among us who have reached out to you privately.

"Blessed be God the Father of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God."

2nd Corinthians 1 3:4

Janie Albright (Blank)

Mike, I think this a very appropriate place to talk about Ellen. I know it was on Facebook and I responded there but this is a more intimate place in my opinion, and although I did not, surely some of the IC'ers knew her. Was she class of '68? If so, my brother probably did. Regardless, we are a family here and she was your family. We grieve her and pray for the repose of her soul and know she is in heaven praying for us. God bless you too!

Mark Schweickart

Mike -- losing a sibling is excruciating, and at our age I am sure most of us have had to deal with this. But it being common doesn't make it any less painfull, so my heart goes out to you. As I mentioned on your Facebook post, I never met your sister, but judging from the comments made by others there, she must have been a very special person. 

Deborah Alexander (Rogers)

Mike, you have my deepest sympathy on the loss of your sister Ellen.  It is a blessing that you recently had time with her.  We never know what the future may bring, and I wish you strength to bear this loss.  I always say that no one ever really dies as long as someone remembers them, so I pray your memories will sustain you. 

Even though I don't post often, I am a faithful reader of the forum, and enjoy you guys and your back and forth.  I've loved your contributions from the beginning.  My daughter is an AP literature teacher at UA High School, and I have often shared your posts with her.  She has enjoyed them as much as I have.  Keep on posting and sharing your ideas with us.  Especially at this time in our lives, we need this connection with people who have known us the longest.

Mary Margaret Clark (Schultheis)

Regarding Post #14963

Anne Devaney (Wilcheck)

I miss the cackle 

Michael McLeod

(clears throat)

"HAW! HAW!"

It's not a cackle but it'll have to do if you're that desperate for amusement. 

Michael McLeod

when i can't sleep i read.

this is an old article but an interesting one

https://www.brookings.edu/articles/there-is-no-catholic-vote-and-yet-it-matters/

David Mitchell

Sailing Away

This morning I said goodbye to my local best friend, possibly for two years. 

He and his wife and another sailing friend set sale for what may be two years sailng on his 44 foot Catamaran.  My son I and were among about 15 guys who spent part of 8 years helping him build it in his backyard. I showed photos a few years back - will add some more below. 

They will go down into the Carribean for several months, then when the timing is right, they will sail across the Atlantic to the Azores (which they LOVE!) and then on to Portugal (which they - - and my kids also love). Then they will sail up to Ireland. He has also sailed other boats he has built to both places. They love Ireland too. 

At that point I think his wife wiil fly back here. But he and his crew mate want to sail down the coast of Africa.  It could be 2 years before he's back.

He is our age and flew my cover in his Cobra gunship 55 years ago in the Delta. He was the best Cobra pilot any of us ever knew.  We were both 20 and utterly opposites in evry way. I call him my foul-mouthed, anti-everything, left-wing, angry Bhudist BEST friend. He is the brother I never had.

He was the guy who built the ugliet house on Hilton Head - a $52 million (yes MILLION) house as well as many other gorgeous houses on Hilton Head. A gifted mechanical genius.

Hard to describe what his absence will mean to me.

This morning at the dock  - he and his son.

Some older photos - in his back yard (after 8 years almost ready to launch). Roof cover removed for launch

In the back yard (for 8 years). The Mast mostly all carbon fiber.

The launch ramp. Took the whole crew one full day to turn it toward the ramp.

the night of the launch. Read to cut the ropes just at High Tide while it hung over the ramp.

In the pilot house. Below - a Kitchen, shower, two double berths, plus more.

David Mitchell

This was my friend in his earlier "job". (He's the guy in the back seat - the A/C or Aircraft Commander)

Best Cobra Pilot in the unit. Then refused to fly the mission after seversl months (on crazy emotional night) and was (somehow) allowed to avoid discipline and became the best Maintainence officer anybody ever knew.              One stange dude!

Michael McLeod

"This morning I said goodbye to my local best friend, possibly for two years. "

Dave. Great lead, as we'd say in my trade -- that sentence that I copied above from your "sailing away" post down below this one.

You want your first sentence to have a personality, a funny one if possible -- it's like designing a nice inviting foyer in a house.I rewrote that previous sentence a couple of times, on impulse, just to make it flow just a little better. On the other hand my house is generally a mess. Go figure.

Typo alert: You're one "stange" dude yourself lol.

Speaking of houses and feeling stange, I I have been living in what feels like a masoleum for the past few days. They are painting my house - a concrete block, single story four bedroom two bath home with a big back yard and a fairly large swimming pool out back in a sprawling seventies neighborhood just north of downtown Orlando whose windows are temporarily covered up with heavy plastic sheeting so as I sit here inside it feels a little creepy. Everybody down here tends to go pastel so I feel like a bit of a rebel switching from baby blue and to go dark green but it rocks. I lucked into this place years ago when I fell in love with a florida gal and left a sweet job as the film critic at the cincinnati enquirer to work at the orlando sentinel. This was back in the day when newspapers reigned and the sentinel had a sunday magazine all its own so I started writing longwinded profiles and such.

anyway i mean it: the compliment about your lede, I mean. (I actually spelled it wrong up above, don't know why it's spelled that way in the trade -- as "lede" -- it just is. )

however you spell it, your lede is instinctively good -- short, funny, makes you wanna read the rest. does the job. can't get any better than that. sounds simple enough but that doesn't mean it's an easy thing to do on a regular basis. brevity is the soul of wit, as somebody a hell of a lot more important than i am once said. thank you mr shakespeare. i think that's who it was.

speaking of brevity sorry to be so longwinded but it's my writing engine just now running off a bit of residual fuel. What I am realizing is that when you write you never really retire. It's breathing to me. Won't surprise me if I pick up some freelancing work or pen a private memoir. Thanks for your forebearance in the meantime. And thank you all again for your compassion.

will post a "new house" photo later.

Mary Margaret Clark (Schultheis)

Is this report true?

https://x.com/bennyjohnson/status/1887147292412490111

Michael McLeod

well, you're in my backyard, mm#1, so here's another link that strikes me as being more accurate or at least more even handed.

I was more of a feature and arts writer as opposed to being a newshound, let along a newshound on the national/international front. So you're actually not in my backyard. You're in a backyard next to my backyard. Maybe even a couple houses down. 

This account that I'm sending you blames it on a technical error, but I can see it would raise eyebrows, particularly if you see the site itself or journalists in general as oppositional. 

In general, though, even if it's more than a technical error - and in the little reading i've done that charge in itself sounds a bit overblown at this point - calling it one of the biggest scandals in the history of journalism is taking it a bit too far.

I'll poke around a little and may report back. thanks for the post, mm#1. 

here's a link to an account that seems a bit more measured:

https://thedeepdive.ca/politicos-payroll-mishap-shinea-light-on-usaid-ties/

and here's a couple lists of the truly biggest scandals in the history of journalism. I'm no angel but I can't imagine doing what some of these writers did.

https://www.watchmojo.com/articles/top-10-most-shocking-journalism-scandals-in-recent-years

https://www.thoughtco.com/the-top-journalism-scandals-2073750

Joseph Gentilini

Mike McL, whether you end up taking a free-lance job or just continue to write your thoughts and feelings here in the Watterson66 spot, I enjoy reading your life, your feelings, your thoughts, etc. You become vulnerable and this is a human quality that too many do not have. You are blessed.  Joe

Michael McLeod

thanks Joe and thanks mm. Given that I'm recently retired I have some time on my hands and this politico thing is quite the quagmire and now I've been poking around a bit to find out what the heck is going on. I know zippo about it at the point but clearly It's journalism drawing on international governmental funding and that's a potential ethical quagmire, and it looks like Trump is pulling the plug on it, and given that its reputation is leftist by some accounts that would make sense....so....I'll see if I can get a clear picture of it and if I do I'll report back. It may take me a while. Here are the ingredients: a hard charging right wing administration in the u.s., a news organization that reports about international government issues and draws funds from the us government - again, I'm a feature writer and I have no clue about that mix of governmental money and journalistic responsibility to just tell the frigging truth, a mix which seems pretty - crap I can't think of the word for a mixture that is, let's just say tempermental and not reliable. In other words something that just might blow up, I'm sure there is a scientific world for it but I just can't remember it. Oh: "unstable."

intriguing as it is to me it's not as important as taking out funding that will leave milliions without h i v treatments if those news reports are accurate. and violating international laws, as trump is doing. I guess I should mention that.

President Trump’s pause on aid, and the gutting of the primary aid agency, could jeopardize the health of more than 20 million people worldwide, including 500,000 children, experts say.