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I used to work with a guy who was my peer but not at my technical level. Early in the decade I had resigned my position at the place where we both worked … and was engaged in other pursuits which happened to float my boat. As things happen I had thought he and I would get together and have a spot of lunch and converse as we had done so often while we were cohorts at work. I had never mentioned any notion of ever returning to the place in any way, shape, or form. I pulled into the parking lot at the agreed upon time and place — several minutes early because I didn’t want him to have to wait on me. Half an hour later he shows up 25 minutes late and claiming to have been unable to get away … though he had never had any such pressing business ever in the years we worked together. So we go to a local establishment and have a spot of lunch and chit chat about various things — then set out to return. As I was pulling into the parking lot to let him out he appeared to go into a seizure with this flailing of arms and head rapidly shaking to the left and right — and it was a scary appearance until I realized he was quite angry. It appears that he was under some misguided impression that I was supposed to come back to work so that everything would be as it was prior to my departure. It also appeared as though he thought he could chastise me at his whim and that it would matter. I’m afraid that returning simply had never been possible and his foolish outburst was purely amusing … though I did well not to bust out laughing in his face at his antics. His ‘psychotic episode’ (sic) was extremely disturbing at a level … and a little scary in that I thought I was going to have to throttle him. I didn’t understand the nature of the outburst nor did I even care to explore the wherefore or the why. It never occurred to me that there was some ulterior motive to lunch that day and really and truly the job was never anything to me other than a job and I didn’t ever want to work there again for any reason. I just didn’t think it would be a problem between us. Boy was I incorrect in that notion. These are some of the the risks one assumes when we fail to meet the expectations of others. I didn’t conform to his wishes and he wanted to exert … apparently what he thought would be “influence”. However, it’s all for naught when you assume that your needs are congruent with those of another. It’s a shame too. Though I thought we were such good friends in retrospect it appears that my only role was that of his “built in relief”. |
Archive for the ‘Places’ Category
The Day My Friend Went Psycho on Me
Friday, September 3rd, 2010The Legacy of Katrina
Sunday, August 29th, 2010
Hurricane Katrina devastated much of the U.S. Gulf Coast from Louisiana to the Florida Panhandle.
The storm killed in excess of 1,836 citizens and caused over 80 billion dollars in damage.
Disaster preparedness was inadequate.
Both local and federal response were incompetent.
Too many suffered.
Too many more died.
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The consequences of this sorry episode in the history of the United States continue. We could have and should have done better for those who followed the instructions of their local government and went to those appointed places to find nothing. What were we thinking? Whom did we entrust with the welfare of our citizens in this hour of profound desperation?
On this day please remember those innumerable stranded evacuees who suffered and watched their loved ones die on sidewalks and in wheelchairs at both the Superdome and Ernest N. Morial Convention Center and elsewhere.
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A Child of Fourteen …
Saturday, August 28th, 2010I wasn’t aware of the circumstances surrounding the murder of Emmett Till until many years after it happened. At the time I was rapidly approaching five months of age. Of late I recall several PBS and other documentaries on the subject of his brutal end at the hands of various honky thugs in the town of Money, Mississippi and the subsequent funeral and trial …
I remember thinking about the horrible ending this child met at the hands of ruthless adults.
I remember his mother and that which she endured to attain a level of justice for her child; though it took years and the toll upon her was great.
It made me think of my mother and her same level of unending love for me.
Emmett Louis Till
July 25, 1941 – August 28, 1955
aka “Bobo”
African American boy from Chicago, Illinois, murdered at the age of 14 in the delta region town of Money, Mississippi allegedly as the result of a wolf whistle made toward a white woman, one Mrs. Carolyn Bryant at a small grocery store where he and his cousins had bought some candy. Mrs. Bryant was the wife of the store owner, Roy Bryant.
Mr. Bryant enacted a terrible exaggerated revenge with an accomplice resulting in the vicious torture and murder of this child. The punishment was far greater than the intent — which wasn’t even a crime on the books. It was a perception of “place” in the pecking order of that particular locale.
The thing about the trial which offended me the most was the local law enforcement.
Sheriff H. Clarence Strider with his insulting flippant overlord attitude towards the legal proceedings and subsequent malevolent handling of the law whereby the 23 member all white all male jury acquitted both defendants in 67 minutes and laughed that had they not stopped for soft drinks the proceedings would have gone much quicker.
This was the nature of the law of the times and the place; being customized to the whim of a few rather than the resounding equalizer for the many as it should have been. This was not justice … and outrage of the masses became evident quickly and effectively.
First Siting of the Loch Ness Monster
Sunday, August 22nd, 2010In Ireland there were twelve monks known for introducing Christianity into the region when it was largely a collection of pagans rites and rituals.
Known as the Twelve Apostles of Ireland, these included Saint Columba who is known for miracles, prophecies, and the establishment of monasteries in the region.
His life is chronicled in a work known as The vita of Columba and contains a story that has been interpreted as the first recorded reference to an encounter with the Loch Ness Monster which happened this date in 565 AD.
According to Adomnán, Columba came across a group of Picts who were burying a “wretched fellow” who had been killed by the monster in the River Ness — which flows into the loch.
He also saved a swimmer with the sign of the Cross and the command “You will go no further,” at which the monster fled in terror. This amazed those Picts present who glorified Columba’s God.
Saint Columba
December 7, 521 AD – June 9 597
aka Colum Cille (Irish for “Dove of the Church”)
aka Calum Cille (Scottish Gaelic)
aka Kolban (Old Norse for “Black Bear”)
Gaelic Irish missionary monk who propagated Christianity among the Picts during the Early Medieval Period. He was one of the Twelve Apostles of Ireland.
His parents were Fedhlimidh and Eithne of the Ui Neill clan in Gartan (aka Donegal).
Columba was an outstanding figure among the Gaelic missionary monks and is said to have introduced Christianity to the Kingdom of the Picts during the early medieval period.
Ninoy Aquino Day
Saturday, August 21st, 2010Sunday morning, August 21, 1983. I was catching the morning news programs on the television when the discussion turned to the Phillipines and Benigno Aquino who was arriving home by plane after a period of exile.
I saw live footage of him rising, exiting the plane …
Then he was struck down by assassins who lay in wait on the tarmac with rifles. They killed another man there — claiming he had fired the shots and murdered Mr. Aquino. This accusation was later disproved after investigation. Thus began the end of the abusive regime of Ferdinand Marcos, who looted the country and was then allowed to move to Hawaii with all the booty and misgotten gains he could tote.
My thoughts at the time were ones of shock and disbelief. Someone who I had just witnessed speaking to the press lay dead of gunshot wounds scant minutes later. This was the height of impunity. This was that ability to be above the law.
This was a travesty which should have been preventable. The consequences of dying for one’s country were obviously worth the risk to Mr. Aquino. There comes a time when the abuses of government reach a critical mass beyond which no more can be tolerated. One of the results of his sacrifice was the declaration of
Ninoy Aquino Day
National non-working holiday in the Philippines. Observed on this date and commemorates the anniversary of the 1983 assassination of former Senator Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino, Jr., husband of Corazon Aquino, who was later to become Philippine President replacing the 20-year Marcos regime.
Regarded as a hero of democracy in the Phillipines, his assassination led to the downfall of Ferdinand Marcos on February 25, 1986, through the People Power Revolution.
In 2004, the commemoration ceremony for the holiday was held and events were attended by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and Fidel V. Ramos.
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Highest Step in the World: Project Excelsior
Monday, August 16th, 2010
I was well into my fifth year when history was made in the field of aerospace.
A man ascended to the edge of space in an open gondola balloon and then initiated a record setting free fall.
Whereas we on the Earth were mere mortals this man took it upon himself to control the physics of that region others could have never traveled without the creature comforts afforded by rocket engines and pressurized vehicles and thereby became both history and the stuff of legend.
Like the intrepid and able samurai who came long before him, this is no ordinary man.
Joseph William Kittinger II
Born July 27, 1928
Former Command Pilot and career military officer in the United States Air Force.
Most famous for his participation in Project Manhigh and Project Excelsior, holding the records for having the highest, fastest and longest skydive — and as being the first man to make a solo crossing of the Atlantic Ocean in a gas balloon.
He was a war hero who served as a fighter pilot during the Vietnam War, and was shot down then spent 11 months in a North Vietnamese prison.
On August 16, 1960, he made his last jump from the gondola of a balloon which was named Excelsior III from an altitude of 102,800 feet.
He towed a small drogue parachute to stabilize the free fall of four minutes and 36 seconds and a maximum speed of 614 miles per hour.
He then opened his parachute at 18,000 feet.
The pressure mechanism in his right glove failed causing his hand to swell to twice it’s normal size.
He set historical numbers for:
- highest balloon ascent
- highest parachute jump
- longest drogue-fall (four minutes)
- fastest speed by a human being through the atmosphere
Project Excelsior proved it was possible for an air crew to descend safely after ejecting at extreme altitudes. These remain current USAF records. However they were not submitted for aerospace world records to the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI).
Prometheus the 5000 Year Old Pine …
Saturday, August 7th, 2010On this day in 1964 a graduate student accompanied by the U.S. Forest Service cut down Prometheus, the oldest living thing on the face of the Earth at the time.
Prometheus
aka WPN-114
Designation given to the oldest known “non-clonal” organism, a Great Basin Bristlecone Pine Pinus longaeva tree growing near the tree line at Wheeler Peak in eastern Nevada, USA.
The tree was at least 4862 years old — probably 5000 or even more years of age when it was cut down in 1964 by a moron graduate student and equally culpable U.S. Forest Service personnel for research purposes. I fail to see the efficacy of killing an ancient tree to study it.
Prior to cutting down the tree the world-record age was unknown. Circumstances and decisions which lead to the felling of the tree remain controversial … with differing versions regarding the stupid decision and a general lack of corroboration of the facts afterward among those involved.
Now Methuselah, a tree from the same grove is the oldest living thing in the world. I wonder how long it will be before some idiot grad student convinces the Forest Service to allow him or her to cut it down due to some lost boring tool in the name of “research”.
As is our nature, we are compelled to destroy that which we don’t understand. If only we could bother to gather sufficient facts before we act. These people should not have been allowed to do this.
Boo!