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- November 10, 2021
- USMC Birthday 2021
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I recall the Marine Corps League and how it took my best friend, the late Dewitt Casey, away from me.
Whereas prior to this time we were boon companions and virtually unseparable; when the Marines retook him he was lost to me forever by and large.
Once a marine always a marine. He was happy to belong and participate fully.
Innumerable times I would stop by his place in Red Bank, South Carolina for a visit to find him out and about. Later I would learn of his latest escapades with the Corps like trips to Paris Island and such.
Then one fateful day a few years into his discovery of 'the league' he spent the night at the VA Hospital and came back around six pm with the news that he had several blocked vessels in his heart and was 'inoperable'. Very soon afterwards he returned from a Christmas visit to Sambo and Sharon's house in Lancaster and was gone the next day having passed on Cedarcrest at the wheel of his automobile while returning from local errands.
He was buried in the cemetery at Lancaster, SC where we spent considerable time over the years in that Marine Corps League uniform he so dearly loved.
The United States Marine Corps Birthday is celebrated every year on November 10th replete with a traditional and formal ball and cake-cutting ceremony.
On this day in 1775 the Continental Marines were established.
So as the adage goes 'once a marine always a marine'. The devil dog Dewitt Casey is in heaven, likely still dressed in that uniform he took me all over the place while in pursuit of the various pieces from which it is comprised. I have missed him sorely over the years.
Rest in peace.
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- November 9, 2021
- World Freedom Day 2021
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Now I've never been one to involve myself in international affairs. This is primarily a function of my international travels and always attempting to mind my own business.
One of the longstanding issues of World War II was the divvying up of various nations by the victors as if they were spoils of war and I have always frowned upon what I view is forced alliance to some bully nation just because they think they can have their way with you.
Same holds true for bully incompetents running IT departments for incorporated municipalities. I have a low tolerance and separate myself from them and their stupidity.
Today we have another World Freedom Day.
It was created to annually commemorate the fall of the Berlin Wall after World War II.
On June 12, 1987 in a speech then President Ronald Reagan admonished
at the Brandenburg Gate referring to the Berlin Wall in West Berlin.Mr Gorbachev, tear down this wall
I caught the speech on the news at that time.
I feel this was the impetus for the act which followed on November 9, 1989 when the Berlin Wall was torn down.
World Freedom Day is a United States federal observance declared by President George W Bush to commemorate the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of communist rule in Central and Eastern Europe.
It began in 2001 and is celebrated each November 9.
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- November 8, 2021
- A year without Alex Trebek
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Mom is a fan of Jeopardy. For years she watched Canadian-American Alex Trebek host the program as she sat and posed questions to the various answers displayed on the game board.
He received the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Game Show Host eight times for his work on Jeopardy.
Mr Trebek passed a year ago on November 8, 2020 at the age of 80 after a 20 month battle with stage IV pancreatic cancer. Mom, like so many others, was hoping he would beat the diagnosis.
George Alexander Trebek was born July 22, 1940 in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada and grew to be a popular television personality and game show host from 1961 through 2020 and was a beloved figure to the fans of Jeopardy all over for 37 seasons running 1984 until his death in 2020.
Born in Canada, he became a naturalized US citizen in 1998. He also served as host on a number of other game shows, including The Wizard of Odds, Double Dare, High Rollers, Battlestars, Classic Concentration, and To Tell the Truth.
He also did cameo appearances as himself in various films and television series.
Alex Trebek continues to be missed. Rest in peace.
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- November 7, 2021
- Dr Billy Graham's Birthday in Heaven
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Billy Graham was an American evangelist, an extremely prominent evangelical Christian, and an ordained Southern Baptist minister.
William Franklin Graham Jr
November 7, 1918 – February 21, 2018
When I was a kid Billy Graham was one of those who ministered to my mother via his television ministry called television 'crusades'.
They were a frequent part of my evening television during my elementary school years as my mother was devout in the finest tradition of believers and spiritual persons.
Over the years I became able to name the various others in the Billy Graham Crusade and could even predict various moments such as when he would call the participants down to accept Christ as their personal savior.
During that period in my life my ideas regarding Heaven, Earth, and Christianity, were not as evolved as I feel they are today.
Therefore I was wide open to him and his ministry whereas in later life I may have had various controversial attitudes which I typically keep to myself to avoid conflicts.
I watched his life progress over the years and monitored his decline as he approached his end which happened at Montreat, North Carolina on February 21, 2018.
The world is a sadder place for me personally without Dr Graham and his wife, Mrs Ruth Graham with whom I also communed at various times over the years on the airwaves of television.
I rejoice in his faith for it was him who said
I know who I am, where I've been, and most importantly, where I'm going.
Rest in peace.
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- November 6, 2021
- National Saxophone Day 2021
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The saxophone holds the distinction of being the only brass instrument in the woodwinds family.
It has a dynamic range which exceeds many other instruments and it's sound can be either soft and melodious or powerful and driving depending on the skills of the one playing it.
November 6th brings us National Saxophone Day.
It is held each anniversary of the birth of Antoine-Joseph ‘Adolphe’ Sax, the inventor of the saxophone.
One of my favorite musicians was the late great Clarence Clemons who played the saxophone for the East Street Band and various other solo endeavors.
He passed this worldly existence on June 18, 2011 but prior to that time gave the instrument a power and range uncommon on the world stage.
The saxophone is utilized in both classical and jazz music and it imparts it's imprimatur on each and every piece in which it is utilized.
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- November 5, 2021
- Bank Transfer Day 2021
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I used to be a customer of the local credit union. Business with them was totally unsatisfactory. First of all, they think they own you and have this requirement to treat you like an irresponsible child though you earn much more than they do.
Secondly they incorporate this insipid stance of treating the "customer" like some "member" subject to any rule they capriciously make up on the fly.
Needless to say I left in a huff never to return.
I see these poor smucks on television doing ads for the credit union and think how utterly sheeple these low end earners appear bragging about their nothing relationship with a valueless institution.
I'm left feeling that my fellow humans should be bitch slapped like the credit union's bitch they appear.
Today is Bank Transfer Day.
Initially formed as a consumer activism movement whereby persons were beckoned to switch from their commercial bank to a so-called not-for-profit credit unions with an imposed deadline of November 5, 2011.
While I view a lot of the fees imposed by banks as ridiculous and their customer service abysmal with outsourcing to compensate for incompetent IT departments, the credit unions are just as bad with a different set of violations to shove up your ass at the drop of a hat.
Can you say CUNA Mutual, boys and girls?
Needless to say the recurrence of Bank Transfer Day has neither inspired me to return to the godforsaken finances of Credit Unions and I'd just as soon never see some of the lamer infantile officers in those institutions ever again.
Give me the title of "customer" over "member" any day.
Boo !
See also:
Bank Transfer Day 2019
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- November 4, 2021
- The Wizard of Oz first televised 65 years ago
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When I was a kid I used to catch The Wizard of Oz starring Judy Garland, Ray Bolger, Jack Haley, and Bert Lahr at every opportunity — and it was a thrilling time for me personally.
It had one of those magical moment connotations in my mind like many of the holiday specials I used to watch and it excited me to realize the treat I was about to enjoy.
The film The Wizard of Oz from 1939 aired on television for the first time in 1956 and was seen by an estimated 45 million viewers.
That viewing was 65 years ago and would make the anniversary a year younger than me. Suffice it to say that my viewings ocurred years later because these are memories of the time I was in elementary school in Virginia Beach, Virginia.
Over the years it enjoyed repeated airings on TV and these helped make the movie the enduring classic. I used to watch each and every one I encountered while sitting before the tube.
One of those things about it I recall is just how endearing it became in my lifetime and how I could stop everything for the duration of it's showing.
Now, I just flip the channel. It's sad to note how my brazen tastes have devolved over the years — and I think it's a function of CGI and that inability to shock me like those special effects of days gone by did so well.
Ah, to go back and do it all over again.
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- November 3, 2021
- My Sister had a heart attack
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Smoking is hazardous to your heath. My sister smokes and ended up in the hospital.
She said the trouble began last Thursday. She ended up in the hospital when the pain became too much to bear.
This was Saturday. She toughed it out until she her pain tolerance broke down. She said that the administration of a nitroglycerin patch during initial treatment provided virtually immediate relief.
They did a heart cath lab procedure and she ended up with a stent to treat an almost totally occluded coronary artery to the tune of 98-99% blockage. One of the coronary vessels was characterized as "collapsed" and was judged untreatable.
It seems that her denial regarding smoking ALL THESE YEARS was not believed by her heart.
When you have a 4 vessel bypass it is not a good idea to continue smoking.
It's a sad notion that her home situation is not conducive to a healthier lifestyle.
Sadder still the fact that you walk into a house and are overwhelmed by the thick second hand smoke permeating the entire living space.
I am reticent to enter the place now. You take your life into your own hands just trying to be socially aware.
It is a difficult matter to make your feelings known regarding this blatant disregard for healthy lifestyle choices.
My family seems to fight me tooth and nail when I decline to both ignore and condone these activities.
I'm left feeling that I am simply to remain complacent and just let her finish killing herself off.
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- November 2, 2021
- Procrastination strikes again
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Sunday I was installing my new SSL/TLS certificates which I had received a couple of months prior to that time ...
I don't know what I'd been doing but it's far more fiscally responsible to place a credential for which you pay money in effect at the earliest moment feasible.
Suffice it to say that waiting to install a certificate loses you that time it covers while uninstalled. This may be multiplied by the number of certs purchased which in my case was four.
The install went well on the web server, so I thought.
The web stuff worked like gangbusters but the rdbms detected the new cert and reconfigured itself on the fly at that point in time.
This resulted in a load failure of the rdms at boot and I scratched my head then pondered a moment.
So ... I did a deep dive into the configuration files and manually fixed them.
The only linked stuff there was the demo mess supplied with the distro which I terminated with extreme prejudice and the errors went away.
The mail server was somewhat more convoluted without an apparent problem per se but appeared to be a file translation error that inserted some extraneous nonprinting character affecting the nested file logic. I couldn't "see" any error; but the command string interpreter was balking anyway.
So I copied the file from a backup location and edited it with the current cert data and voila it too straightened up and flew right.
The moral of the story is never put off something that needs to be done until you've forgot a lot of the specifics — which will have to be rediscovered on the fly.
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- November 1, 2021
- All Saints Day 2021
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Unfortunately my life has been far from saintly. Whereas I would like to say that I've been good my entire life, I haven't really attempted 'goodness' as an activity of daily living until relatively recently in my existence.
Luckily, my faith teaches me that the straight and narrow isn't so much a requirement as repentence and making the attempt to do better.
Such it is with me, imperfect but forgiven.
All Saints Day aka All Hallows Day aka Hallowmas is the day after All Hallows Eve aka Halloween.
It is a feast day celebrated on 1st November by Anglicans and Roman Catholics.
It is said that one candle is lighted near the tomb of a loved one as an offering for their soul to escape purgatory and enter heaven.
It is an opportunity for believers to remember all saints and martyrs, known and unknown, throughout Christian history.
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- October 31, 2021
- Happy Halloween 2021
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- October 30, 2021
- Mischief Night 2021
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There was a time in my younger years when I engaged in vandalism.
Unfortunately those consequences I was made to suffer as a result created a reticence in my personality for anything resembling a repeat performance.
Typically, I find vandalism and vandals abhorrent and will chastise and shun them.
Today is the vandal holiday known as Mischief Night. It is sometimes observed on November 4th or May 1st.
Typically the evening finds children and teenagers engaging in various pranks and yes ... even vandalism under the cover of darkness.
It is aka a variety of names including Devil's Night and Gate Night among others.
The observance goes back to the late 1700s where it is said to arise from the encouragement of a headmaster at a school play.
It hit the US newspapers around the 1930's and 1940's.
Here, the observance of Mischief Night is generally recognized as primarily a New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Michigan phenomenon but they certainly don't have the only pranksters and vandals on the planet.
I have a long list of things to do on Mischief Night but decline to share these in an effort to suppress the ideas.
I view the entire notion as an excuse for the poorly behaved to act upon their less than civil impulses.
See also:
Mischief Night
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- October 29, 2021
- National Cat Day 2021
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Not a cat fan. Had to become cat tolerant because I was driving my neighbor crazy with the catching of cats in traps.
I decided when I caught hers to cease and desist so I let it go in her yard, apologized, and never caught another to take it to the animal control office on Ball Park Road in Lexington for euthanasia.
Sometimes you have to try to get along.
Today is National Cat Day. The observance is aimed at raising awareness about the needs of rescue cats all over.
The present count of local area strays and ferals needing rescue is in the thousands.
The day also emphasizes the need for spaying and neutering cats in an effort at populaton control.
Stats indicate that in the US about 3.4 million cats are taken to animal rescue shelters each year. 1.4 million of these end up being euthanized.
National Cat Day was created by pet activist Colleen Paige in 2005. It is held each year on October 29th.
I try to be more cat tolerant in honor of my neighbor Janet. We get along much better than we used to I feel largely because of this adjustment in my attitudes.
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- October 28, 2021
- National Chocolate Day 2021
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Cacao nibs are a favorite snack of mine. They provide a smattering of antioxidants which neutralize free radicals (thank you Denham Harman) and prevent subsequent oxadative stress.
They also contain polyphenols and theobromine which are cholesterol regulators and provide for the raising of the high density lipoproteins (good fat) while not affecting the low density lipoproteins (bad fat).
Cacao is the source of chocolate and there is a direct correlation of what cacao does to the effects of chocolate on the body.
There are compounds and minerals in chocolate which reduce insulin resistance and inflammation and the dark variety in particular is thought to improve brain function and diminish degeneration of the nervous system. However, one should be consuming the dark, less sweet varieties to abstain from the heavy sugar load of the milk chocolate so many of us eat ...
The addition of dark chocolate to your diet indicates a need for moderation and watching the high in fat and calories it contains.
October 28 finds another National Chocolate Day in the US. Not to be confused with the globalist knock off World Chocolate Day which is on July 7 ... this is a US construct for we who live in the United States.
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