This Week I Learned...

My Mentors

2011-08-29T23:35:00.001-07:00

Perhaps you've seen the ad below for Apple Computers before. I have seen it several times and each time, it make me think about the people in my own life who have made an impact on my future - my own personal mentors - who may or may not have meant to make an impact on me at the time. I am sure that each of us has been effected greatly by another, just as those in the ad have effected many.

Apple - "Crazies"

My Mentors

Other than my parents, there was Mrs. Sprawls, my elementary teacher who took it upon herself to take me to church on Sunday - even giving me my own bible, which I still have some 60+ years later. There was Everard Jean Hinrichs (the artist Eric Sloane) who taught me that art was all about simplicity. My long-time friend and fellow artist, Sam Yeates, who saved my life a few times with his sanity. The author, James Michener, who "interviewed" me (and convinced me to stop working for the man and make something of myself) as we sat together at a private performance of Willie Nelson. I owe a great deal to Bruce Cameron, another writer (Eight Simple Rules) for instilling in me the desire to become more prolific in my writing. My friend, the acerbic Kinky Friedman taught me about doing my own thing and not caring that others may think me crazy and by all means to have fun in life. And most important of my mentors is my best friend and partner for the past seven years, Barbara, who shown me what acceptance is.

If you could make your own advertisement for your life, who would you choose to include? Perhaps more importantly - why would you include them?

The Guy in the Glass

2011-06-06T19:18:00.000-07:00

I received a phone call just the other night from my younger cousin. When we were young, our mothers lived in separate states and thus we saw each other only infrequently.

Since the passing of our mothers, we have reached out to one another, as many do when faced with the fact that neither are getting any younger. We have renewed our relationship and friendship over the past few years, usually by telephone calls during the evening hours. It gives me great pleasure to spend hours on the phone with her, discussing family and remembering things as they once were.

A few years ago, she found this column and started reading it. She immediately called to explain how much she enjoyed reading them. In our most recent call, she gave me grief over the fact that I had been lax in keeping up the column and wished that I would find time to write more of these stories. I made the excuse that I had busy on other writings, but promised that I would get back to them.

I didn't sleep well that night, as I tossed and turned, thinking that perhaps there were others that missed the writings as well. Then yesterday, a new friend, Jim Lenau of Sacramento, California called and said almost the same thing, chastising me for being lax in my writing. I took this an omen that I should make a renewed attempt at keeping up with the column.

So this column is dedicated to my cousin, Gloria Webber, who has been a faithful follower and who has played the role of most appreciated muse. Thank you, Gloria!

I collect things! Okay, so maybe I am a bit of pack rat. I try not to be and I do discard or give away most things after I have enjoyed them. I am a giver! I enjoy writing for the same reason. It gives me great pleasure to write words on a page and share my thoughts with other. If my writings are read and appreciated by a few, I am pleased.

I write every day, often arising at 4:30 a.m. to do so, long before others are awake. Sometimes, I spend the entire day writing. It seems that the closer I get to that "Blue Tunnel of Afterlife" that Kurt Vonnegut mentioned in his novel Galapagos, the more I write, if only to get all these thoughts on paper.

I have saved a bit of prose for over 50-years. It has had a very personal meaning for me since I was a preteen. For many years, I have mistakenly hoarded an altered version to the original. Of course, it was very close to the original and not knowing that my version was changed didn’t alter the profound effect that it has had on my own thinking and behavior over all these years. And, yes, I have written about the poem before, but now for the rest of the story as Paul Harvey Aurandt used to say!

Today, with the advent of the Internet, I was able to find the original version and discover the author, whom for all these years, I thought was only anonymous. Knowing the story of the author now only brings more value to the poem. It seems that besides the one poem, we also had a lot of things in common.

He was a writer, not just a one off poet, but a writer of books. We both had two children, a boy and a girl. We both worked in the newspaper business, and both owned our own newspaper. We have both been plagiarized many times by others. And, he like I, obviously both care a great deal for others. His name was Peter "Dale" Wimbrow, Sr.

Dale’s son, Peter Dale Wimbrow, Jr, recently wrote that his father always told him that Peter could find his own way if he only wanted to. My father had given me much the same speech and I passed this along to my children as well. But, to paraphrase, he also stated that one must find things for themselves without the guidance of other men, as it is within us to find our own way if we truly search, find and understand. I have devoted my life to searching for the answers and attempting to understand all that I can about what it is that I do. My search today is stronger than ever.

Peter "Dale" Wimbrow was born June 6, 1895, in Whaleyville, Maryland. He studied at Western Maryland College until World War I.

Wimbrow's early career was in music and radio. Under his own name and as Old Pete Daley of Whaleysville, he became known for his records and radio performances with orchestras.

Wimbrow married Dorothy Livezy, a radio writer and producer in her own right. The couple had two children, Sally Dale Wimbrow and Peter Dale Wimbrow, Jr..

Wimbrow established the Indian River News newspaper in June 1948.

Wimbrow died in January 1954. He was interred at Dale Cemetery in Whaleyville, Maryland. His wife continued to publish the newspaper after his death until September 1966. Dale Wimbrow Park, in Roseland, Florida, is named in his honor.

His published works include; A Sardine and A Cracker (Washburn Printing Co., 1931), Swamp Cabbage and Angel Wings (Stuart News, 1953).

His songs include; Country Bred and Chicken Fed (1926), Every Moon's A Honeymoon (1929), The Good Old Eastern Shore, Old Fashioned Locket (1927), Oshkosh, Roll Off'a My Green, Sleepy Town, So Long North (I'm Headin' South), Wife O'mine.

Peter "Dale" Wimbrow Sr. wrote the poem "The Guy in the Glass in 1934. It was published in the American magazine at that time and the copyright was assigned to him. The poem has become also known, incorrectly, as "The Man in the Glass" or sometimes, "The Man in the Mirror", but the thought is the same, the message clear...'you can fool the whole world down the pathway of years, but you can't fool the guy staring back from the glass'.

Since he wrote the poem in 1934 and it was published, it has taken on a life of its' own and is usually seen as anonymous. The poem became a popular clipping passed between people, and the author's credit was often dropped, leading to inquiries as to the author in newspapers as early as 1938. Sadly some people have even taken to putting their name on it as their own creation.

His children wrote on the website, http://www.theguyintheglass.com/ that, "It escapes us as to why someone would falsely take credit for a poem about being honest with your self. One fellow in Salt Lake City, Utah said he wrote it in 1946 and the list goes on. Others have badly misquoted the poem, substituting the word 'self' for 'pelf', 'man in the glass' for 'guy in the glass' and others have left out other parts. Each word was chosen by him carefully and has special meaning."

Ann Landers printed the poem in her column on October 5, 1983, incorrectly attributing it to an anonymous man who died as a result of struggles with drug abuse. Landers received numerous letters that attributed or claimed different authorship of the poem, but only one of the letters published in her December 5, 1983, column correctly identified the author as Wimbrow and it was credited by Ann Landers as the true author.

And, so it with much ado, that I present to you in its original format "The Guy in the Glass," courtesy of his children; Sally Dale and Peter Dale Wimbrow, Jr.

The Guy in the Glass
by Dale Wimbrow, (c) 1934

When you get what you want in your struggle for pelf,
And the world makes you King for a day,
Then go to the mirror and look at yourself,
And see what that guy has to say.

For it isn't your Father, or Mother, or Wife,
Who judgement upon you must pass.
The feller whose verdict counts most in your life
Is the guy staring back from the glass.

He's the feller to please, never mind all the rest,
For he's with you clear up to the end,
And you've passed your most dangerous, difficult test
If the guy in the glass is your friend.

You may be like Jack Horner and "chisel" a plum,
And think you're a wonderful guy,
But the man in the glass says you're only a bum
If you can't look him straight in the eye.

You can fool the whole world down the pathway of years,
And get pats on the back as you pass,
But your final reward will be heartaches and tears
If you've cheated the guy in the glass.

In grateful memory of the author Dale Wimbrow 1895-1954

It is my hope that, like me, you will copy this short poem and keep it with you as you traverse through life. It will do you good to consider it's meaning now and then, as I have. But, please keep Dale Wimbrow's name attached to it. He, and his work, deserves to live on.

There is justice...

2011-01-13T20:10:00.000-08:00

Frank Morris (in the apron and visor) is seen standing in front of his shoe shop in Ferriday, La., in the 1950s. He was killed when the shop burned down in 1964. Until now, the case has gone unsolved.

This week I learned that there is justice, just not in the judicial system.

January 13, 2011 (NPR) - In December 1964, Frank Morris' shoe shop was set ablaze in the middle of the night. Still inside at the time, Morris was severely injured; he died four days later at a nearby hospital in Ferriday, La. Like many Southern crimes against blacks in the 1960s — an era of racial strife dominated by criminal activities by the Ku Klux Klan — the incident went unsolved, despite an FBI investigation at the time.

Now, 46 years later, Stanley Nelson, the editor of the Concordia Sentinel newspaper, says he has found information that may implicate a man as a member of a Klan "wrecking crew," which is said by sources Nelson has interviewed to be responsible for burning down the shop.

Nelson is a member of the Civil Rights Cold Case Project, a group of journalists, filmmakers, law schools and other organizations created in 2008 by Paperny Films in Canada and the Center for Investigative Reporting in Berkeley, Calif. With the help of FBI documents Nelson received through Freedom of Information requests and from the Syracuse College of Law Cold Case Justice Initiative, and extensive interviews with those who knew Morris or about the case, he was able to piece together the story, ultimately naming a person suspected of being involved: Arthur Leonard Spencer, 71, of Rayville, La.

Nelson published the story Wednesday morning outlining the the allegations against Spencer. In an interview with Nelson, Spencer denies those allegations. So far no charges have been filed. The Department of Justice and the FBI say they are conducting ongoing investigations into the Morris case.

"We are actively, as we speak ... involved in this investigation. ... Our effort here, as it is everywhere, is to try and uncover the truth. We know that Morris was the victim of a brutal murder and we want to figure out who did it and we want to figure out why they did it," Tom Perez, assistant attorney general who runs the civil rights division of the Department of Justice, said in an interview last week.

Cynthia Deitle, the chief of the FBI's civil rights unit, sent the Concordia Sentinel newspaper an e-mail with this response:

"I am convinced that there are individuals alive today who know who killed Mr. Morris. If they can summon the moral fortitude and courage to contact the FBI and tell us what they know, they will be heroes who will change history."

About The Civil Rights Cold Case Project

The Frank Morris case is just one of many civil rights era cold cases that journalists like Stanley Nelson and David Ridgen are investigating as part of The Civil Rights Cold Case Project, which is an unprecedented collaboration of journalists from across the media spectrum, created in the aftermath of the trial of former Klansman James Ford Seale.

Ridgen, a filmmaker from Toronto who reported this story, helped to spearhead the project with Vancouver-based Paperny Films, and the Berkeley, Calif.-based Center for Investigative Reporting. In 2007, Ridgen published a documentary for the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. that led to the federal trial and conviction of Seale, for the 43-year-old murder of African-Americans Henry Hezekiah and Charles Eddie Moore, two 19-year-olds from the Meadville, Miss., area.

A month after Seale was indicted in January 2007, the FBI announced a new cold case initiative and published a shortlist of about 100 civil rights era cases that it planned to reprobe. In October 2008, Congress passed the Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act, to provide the Department of Justice and FBI millions of dollars to investigate these cases.

The Rest of the Story...

The project reporters have already produced information in high-profile cases that prosecutors have used to build criminal cases against killers and conspirators who had walked free for more than 40 years. To date, every civil rights murder case that has been reopened and successfully prosecuted was the direct result of an investigation initiated by a journalist.

A Test of Right Thinking

2010-11-30T18:36:00.000-08:00

A Test of Right Thinking

I had never been much of a joiner in my life until one day a good friend, Dan Vasquez, owner of Texas Printing in Austin came into my office and invited me to attend his North East Austin Rotary Club meeting as his guest.

It was a thoroughly enjoyable lunch and the guest speaker was entertaining in sharing his knowledge with those in attendance. But it was the last 24-words of the meeting, just before the club president adjourned the meeting that hit me hard. That moment was some 20-years ago, but one that I will never forget. Nor, will I forget those 24-words that were the Test to Right Thinking or The 4-Way Test.

I have spent every moment of my life trying to live by those words and even though I thought it would be difficult in the beginning, I have found it surprisingly easy. Those 24-words have changed my life and can change your life in a very profound way. Let me tell you the story...

From the earliest days of the organization, Rotarians were concerned with promoting high ethical standards in their professional lives. However, in 1943 a Rotarian in the Chicago Club, Mr. Herbert J. Taylor (a successful businessman and philanthropist) shared a story with his fellow Rotarians how just 24 words changed his life, the life of his business and could potentially change the world. It was simply called "A Test of Right Thinking" at the time. Rotarians in the Chicago Club passed the little test along to others and it eventually made its way to Rotary Headquarters where it was officially adopted as the "4-Way Test and thus it became a vital part of the Vocational Service Programs of Rotary International.

In 1954-1955 Mr. Taylor served as President of Rotary International. This was Rotary's 50th Anniversary year and Mr. Taylor made the cover of Newsweek's February 28th, 1955 issue. He and his wife Gloria traveled all around the world that year. One trip alone involved over 25,000 miles of airplane travel. They visited 38 countries. During their travels they pass along the “The 4-Way Test” and it was accepted by all that read the 24-words. People of all countries and in all types of businesses universally accepted it.

This 24-word test for owners and employees alike to follow in their business and professional lives became the guide for sales, production, advertising, and all relations with dealers and customers. Today, “The 4-Way Test” has been translated into more than a hundred languages and published in thousands of ways.

The “The 4-Way Test” is an instrument which when used builds respect and understanding among peoples throughout the world. Herbert J. Taylor, author of “The 4-Way Test”, has suggested that you first memorize “The 4-Way Test” and then formulate the habit of checking the impact your thoughts, words and actions may have with it. It is a guide to RIGHT THINKING. If memorized and applied to relations with others it will make a definite contribution towards more productive and friendlier relationships.

Today “The 4-Way Test” is used productively around the world in business, government and schools as an effective measuring stick for conduct. But, allow me to let Herbert Taylor tell the story.

STORY OF “THE 4-WAY TEST”

By Herbert J. Taylor

Back in 1932 I was assigned by the Creditors of the Club Aluminum Company, the task of saving the company from being closed out as a bankrupt organization. The company was a distributor of cookware and other household items. We found that the company owed its creditors over $500,000 more than its total assets. It was bankrupt but still alive.

At that time we borrowed $6,200 from a Chicago bank to give us a little cash on which to operate. While we had a good product, our competitors also had fine cookware with well-advertised brand names. Our company had some fine people working for it, but our competitors also had the same. Our competitors were naturally in a much stronger financial condition than we were.

With tremendous obstacles and handicaps facing us, we felt that we must develop in our organization something, which our competitors would not have in equal amount. We decided that it should be the character, dependability and service mindedness of our personnel. We determined, first, to be very careful in the selection of our personnel and, second, to help them become better men and women as they progressed with our company. We believed that “In right there is might.” and we determined to do our best to always be right!

Our industry, as was true of scores of other industries had a code of ethics -- but the code was long, almost impossible to memorize and therefore impractical. We felt that we needed a simple measuring stick of ethics, which everyone in the company could quickly memorize.

We also believed that the proposed test should not tell our people what they must do, but ask them questions which would make it possible for them to find out whether their proposed plans, policies, statements or actions were right or wrong.

We had looked in available literature for such a short measuring stick of ethics, but could not find a satisfactory one. One day in July 1932, I decided to pray about the matter. That morning I leaned over my desk and asked God to give us a simple guide to help us think, speak, and do that which was right. I immediately prick up a white card and wrote out “The 4-Way Test” of the things we think, say or do as follows:

1. Is it the Truth?

2. Is it Fair to All Concerned?

3. Will it Build Goodwill and Better Friendships?

4. Will it Be Beneficial to All Concerned?

I placed this little test under the glass top of my desk and determined to try it out for a few days before talking to anyone else in the company about it. I had a very discouraging experience.

I almost threw it into the wastepaper basket the first day when I checked everything that passed over my desk with the first question, “Is it the Truth?” I never realized before how far I often was from the truth and how many untruths appeared in our company’s literature, letters, and advertising.

After about sixty days of faithful constant effort on my part to live up to “The 4-Way Test”, I was thoroughly sold on its great worth and at the same time greatly humiliated and at times discouraged with my own performance as president of the company.

I had, however, made sufficient progress in living up to “The 4-Way Test” to feel qualified to talk to some of my associates about it.

I discussed it with my four department heads. You may be interested to know the religious faith of these 4 men. One was a Roman Catholic, the second a Christian Scientist, the third an Orthodox Jew and the fourth a Presbyterian.

I asked each man whether or not there was anything in “The 4-Way Test” which was contrary to the doctrines and ideals of his particular faith. They all four agreed that Truth, Justice, Friendliness and Helpfulness not only coincided with their religious ideals, but that if constantly applied in business they should result in greater success and progress.

These four men agreed to use The 4- Way Test in checking proposed plans, policies, statements and advertising of the company. Later, all employees were asked to memorize and use “The 4-Way Test” in their relations with others.

The checking of advertising copy against “The 4-Way Test” resulted in the elimination of statements the truth of which could not be proved. All superlatives such as the words better, best, greatest and finest disappeared from our advertisements.

As a result, the public gradually placed more confidence in what we stated in our advertisements and bought more of our products.

The constant use of “The 4-Way Test” caused us to change our policies covering relations with competitors. We eliminated all adverse or detrimental comments on our competitors’ products from our advertisements and literature. When we found an opportunity to speak well of our competitors, we did so. Thus we gained the confidence and friendship of our competitors, too.

The application of “The 4-Way Test” in our relations with our own personnel and that of our suppliers and customers help us to win their friendship and goodwill. We have learned that the friendship and confidence of those with whom we associate is essential to permanent success in business.

Through over 20 years of sincere effort on the part of our personnel, we have been making steady progress toward reaching the ideals expressed in “The 4-Way Test”. We have been rewarded with a steady increase in sales, profits and earnings of our personnel.

From a bankrupt condition in 1932 our company has paid its debts in full, has paid its stockholders over one million dollars in dividends and has a present value of over two million dollars (February 1957). All of these rewards have come from a cash investment of only $6,100. “The 4-Way Test”, and some good hard working people who have faith in God and high ideals.

Intangible dividends from the use of “The 4-Way Test” have been even greater than the financial ones. We have enjoyed a constant increase in the goodwill, friendships and confidence of our customers, our competitors, and the public -- and, what is even more valuable, a great improvement in the moral character of our personnel.

We have found that you cannot constantly apply “The 4-Way Test” to all your relations with others 8 hours each day in business without getting into the habit of doing it in your home, social and community life. You then become a better parent, a better friend and a better citizen.

In 1959, Herbert J. Taylor, founded the “The 4-Way Test Association” as a non-profit organization to continue the promotion of the use of The “4-Way Test” around the globe.

Members of his family, friends, Rotarians and business associates have served on its board. The Association in the past has sold promotional materials, gift items, and instructional materials and provided speakers.

In 2004 the Association created a website at 4waytest.org and today is is viewable in 7 languages; English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Spanish and Traditional Chinese. The purpose of the website is to link people around the world who are using, promoting and benefiting from use of the Test so that they can share ideas and learn from each other. The site provides assistance with materials and new ideas that can help make a difference in any community.

BIOGRAPHY: HERBERT JOHN TAYLOR 1893 - 1978

Herbert John Taylor was born in Pickford, Michigan on April 18, 1893. He grew up in what was a mostly rural, small town community in the logging territory of the Upper Peninsula -- the third of Frank and Martha Ellen Taylor's seven children. He had a typical boyhood -- public school, chores, fishing and church. His industrious father practically ran the town. Frank Taylor established the telephone company and the electric company as well as ran a lumber-supply firm, a bank and a dairy. Herbert was encouraged to work. By raising sheep, selling the wool and later the sheep themselves, he was able to save enough money for his education. He also sold advertising for the dairy. When he was 16, at a revival service, Herb Taylor made a life-changing decision -- he went forward and he accepted Christ as his Savior.

Pickford had no high school, so he moved to Sault Ste. Marie, a small city 25 miles north of Pickford, where he boarded and earned his way through school. Here he worked for Western Union as a telegraph operator. His next stop after high school was Northwestern University in Chicago. He chose Northwestern (rather than the University of Chicago where he had already been accepted) primarily because of the friendly reception he received from the Beta Theta Pi Fraternity. He continued to work his way through school selling typewriters, working for a telegraph company, and writing sports news for two Chicago newspapers (using the telegraph to wire his stories) so his arrived first! He was also business manager of the college yearbook, responsible for selling advertising space.

His formula for success was organization. He set up a tight schedule that allowed him about six hours sleep a night, and he stuck to it even when courting the girl who would become his wife, Gloria Forbrich. Gloria was 14 years old when they met on a blind date (not with each other) at the elevated station in Rogers Park. She was a knock out and he had competition. He also had to break up with a lovely girl, the campus queen, in order to date Gloria. He knew he got the right girl for him, though!

When Herb Taylor graduated from Northwestern in 1917, he volunteered to work with the YMCA in France. The United States officially entered World War I and he immediately signed up with the navy. When the war ended in November of 1918, he was asked to remain in France with the YMCA, which he did for about a year. He returned home to Chicago in the spring of 1919. He and Gloria were married about a month later.

Before year's end they moved from Chicago to Paul's Valley, Oklahoma, where he took a job as assistant manager for a pipeline station the Sinclair Oil Company had under construction. Within a year he was in business for himself as a lease broker for oil exploration and as an insurance salesman. Their first daughter Beverly was born here. It was in Paul's Valley that Herb Taylor first became involved with a Rotary Club. He helped found it!

By 1921 Rotary International (which was founded in Chicago in 1905) was 16 years old and had 758 chapters that spanned the globe. Returning to Chicago in 1924, Herb joined the Chicago Rotary Club in 1927.

In Chicago he was hired to be an executive in training with the Jewel Tea Company. He began as a traveling salesman and by 1926 was an assistant to the president, M. H. Karker. (Karker had been his commanding officer in the navy.) In 1928 he became a vice president and director. He also published 2 booklets on office management with the American Management Association. That same year, he and Gloria moved to Park Ridge, a suburb of Chicago. Their second daughter Ramona was born. He and Gloria lived at 300 North Ashland Avenue for the rest of his life.

In late 1929 Continental Bank persuaded Jewel Tea Company to offer Club Aluminum Products Company the services of Herbert Taylor for a period of three years on a half-time basis to help keep the bankrupt company afloat. He was made President. It quickly became apparent the company was in horrible shape. Jewel Tea Cop any wanted him back full time. Instead, Herb Taylor chose to stay with Club Aluminum. He borrowed $6,100 against he Jewel Tea stock and cut his salary from $33,000 to $6,000 -- a level it stayed at for four years. His innovations and the dedication of all members of the company working together using The 4-Way Test (which he wrote in 1932) became a success story.

The late 1930's brought the threat of war in Europe. On the home front, Herbert J. Taylor was elected president of the Chicago Rotary Club 1937-1938. He, Gloria and the girls took part in Rotary's global outreach.

Of course, December 7th, 1941, changed life in the United States drastically. World War II brought new challenges. Club Aluminum was informed that no aluminum for domestic production was available. It was needed by the federal government for the war effort. One plant was overhauled to make weapons. The company diversified into flameproof glass coffee makers and table games made out of fiberboard and plastic for the duration. Frowning on discrimination, he had Club Aluminum hire Japanese workers forced to move to the Midwest because their loyalty was suspect. He joined the War Department's Price Adjustment Board as a "dollar-a-year" man becoming its vice chairman under Maurice Karker's leadership.

One of the reasons Herb Taylor chose to stay with Club Aluminum was because he felt the Lord had a plan for his life which involved becoming enough of a success in business that he could use his extra time to work with youth. In 1940 he set up the Christian Worker's Foundation. With the foundation's assistance and Herb Taylor's personal commitment, five Christian organizations with emphasis on reaching youth were pioneered, nurtured and expanded in the USA -- InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, Young Life, Child Evangelism Fellowship, Pioneer Girls and Christian Service Brigade. Through his efforts, large tracts of acreage in Colorado and Michigan were bought and assembled. These would become camps for youth used by each of these organizations. In all, more than 200 youth oriented organizations were recipients of gifts during his lifetime.

Since the early 1940's Rotary International had used The 4-Way Test as part of its Vocational Service Outreach. In 1946, Herb Taylor became a vice-president of Rotary International having served as a district governor and director over the past several years. In 1954, while serving as president of Rotary International, he formally shared The 4-Way Test's copyright with Rotary. Because of its use by so many Rotarians, the Test was already making its way around the world. Several communities in Japan even put the Test on umbrellas offered free of charge as loaners at their rail stations during inclement weather.

In 1959, he founded The 4-Way Test Association to aid its spread into communities worldwide. In fact, over the years, The 4-Way Test has been the cornerstone of labor contracts, adopted by state governments such as the Florida legislature in 1980; promoted in community-wide campaigns: Daytona Beach, FL; Dallas, TX; Pittsburgh, PA; Long Beach, CA; Grosse Point, MI; Oshkosh, WI; Memphis, TN; and introduced into middle school to college level classrooms throughout the USA and abroad.

Mr. Taylor has received many awards for his philanthropy, including one from his alma mater -- Northwestern University's highest awards, its Alumni Medal in 1957. He is also the recipient of four honorary degrees from other universities. Always on the go, despite health problems, he was instrumental in encouraging Billy Graham to hold the first Greater Chicago Crusade in McCormick Place in June of 1962 and served as Chair of its Executive Committee.

A serious illness -- eventually diagnosed as undulant fever -- incapacitated him for a good portion of 1947. It was traced back to some unpasteurized milk the Taylors had purchased in Oklahoma some twenty-five years earlier. This illness and the medications required over the years caused diabetes and migraine headaches. Yet, he was a man who smiled, enjoyed people, always on the go. You would not know to look at him how much he suffered at times.

In 1975 he was struck low by a stroke, which resulted in aphasia. He lost almost his entire vocabulary, though his mind functioned clearly. It did not affect his personality, which remained friendly and outgoing. Even disabled by aphasia, his warm personality, faith and energy shown through to family and friends who often visited him. He died on May 1, 1978 with few regrets. "He had followed God's plan for his life as best he understood it."

The legacy of Mr. Taylor’s The 4-Way Test continues to spread its influence around the world.

Biographical Notes and Sources: God's Man in The Marketplace by Paul H. Heidebrecht 1990; The Herbert J. Taylor Story, his autobiography 1968; Paul Harris and His Successors Profiles in Leadership 1997; personal papers from The 4-Way Test Association.

A Stop Sign is a Stop Sign

2010-11-30T10:35:00.000-08:00

Here's a just plain old odd-but-fun story to break up the day. Cranston, Rhode Island is a small town of about 80,000 people in the smallest state in the Union, but the town has about 1,050 stop signs!

Officials state that although the signs have been up for years, they have just now became aware of the fact that only 350 of the stop signs are official stop signs. It seems that the other 700 may have been installed by citizens of the community in a gesture of goodwill and to keep others safe.

The State Department of Transportation officials have said their workers were responsible for about one-third of the signs. The other two-thirds? A spokeswoman for the Cranston mayor says many may have been installed by city residents.

Most of the signs installed by citizens are where a street meets the highway, which seems like a great idea. And there is a law in Rhode Island that says when you are on a street and come to a highway, you must stop whether there is a stop sign or not. So, while the signs may not have been authorized they are proper by law.

The caution from the mayor's office that "Drivers should not take this as a free pass. A stop sign is still a stop sign."

Marshals Saved 35,000 Naked Photos of Citizens?

2010-11-17T17:07:00.000-08:00

This week I learned that the privacy of individuals is not as big a deal to the government as they make it out to be.

At the heart of the controversy over “body scanners” is a promise: The images of our naked bodies will never be public. U.S. Marshals in a Florida Federal courthouse saved 35,000 images on their scanner.

A Gizmodo investigation has revealed 100 of the photographs saved by the Gen 2 millimeter wave scanner from Brijot Imaging Systems, Inc., obtained by a Freedom of Information Act request after it was recently revealed that U.S. Marshals operating the machine in the Orlando, Florida courthouse had improperly - perhaps illegally - saved images of the scans of public servants and private citizens.

So much for not being able to store, print, transmit or save the image. Did they really expect us to believe that? If you believe that, then how did Gizmodo.com get the image that you see below? Well, the U.S. Government gave them the images. And, they are available to any one who files under the FOIA. And, that employees of that news agency could have access to them for whatever purpose they want to put them to.

Here’s an example of the images stored:

Note: Notice in the above image how the scanner manages to scan the guy in the
background - how much energy are these scanners giving off?

If you think that the persons on the right side of the image above could not be recognized, then why did Gizmodo put that black box over the faces? Because the camera is capturing two images of the person, one a high resolution photograph and the other a scan. But you should note that the second person, even though a good distance away from the scanner would still be absorbing radiation from the scanner!

And, at the same time, it is worth noting that the gen-2 millimeter wave scanner doesn’t output as detailed an image of the human body as the scanners currently in use at airports. For comparison, the image below shows the sort of output from an airport scanner. How much radiation are they using to capture all that detail? And, do you think your admirers couldn't recognize you from a detailed body scan as that below? Think again.

Whether you’re pro scanners or not (and putting the potential health risks aside), the idea that images can be stored for later viewing is disturbing. If the mechanism is there to save an image, then it’ll be used, and even if that mechanism doesn’t exist, it’s not hard to record an image that’s displayed on a screen using a cell phone camera.

How happy are you to use these scanners? What about your significant other? Your children?

Can you trust the government to know what's right for you?

Think about all the recalls on food products. There are on-site government inspectors responsible for the processing of all foods in the U.S., and yet there are recalls almost nightly on the news.

First, they licensed the production of carbonated alcoholic drinks and now they are saying that they are not safe to consume.

What's next! We are going to hear that millions of travelers have received overdoses of radiation and are now dying. What are we going to do? Send them to Chernobyl?

Take a hint from the Pilots Union and the TSA employees that are worried about the health risks and asking for a waver on being scanned.

And, please don't get me started on this new full body pat down procedure. Like the one guy at the airport that told the TSA employee (who was explaining what he was going to be doing during the pat down), "You touch my junk and I am going to have you arrested!" Of course that guy wasn't allow to get on a flight. It's still not clear if they dropped the charges of threatening a government official (is that terrorism?) or not.

Feel Better - Be Healthy

2010-05-22T09:08:00.000-07:00

17 Reasons Why Having Sex Is Good for Your Health

Sex seems to be more than a hormonal discharge and some short moments of pure pleasure. Scientists show that sex is extremely beneficial for our health, while the lack of an active sex life might have negative effects. But too much sex, can also be harmful: more than three times a week it can weaken the immune system, making us vulnerable to infections...

1. Our mental and emotional health balance is clearly influenced by sex. Abstinence is known to cause from anxiety to paranoia and depression... In fact, in case of light depressions, after having sex the brain releases endorphins, that decrease stress, inducing a state of euphoria.

2. Sex can be a beauty treatment. While having sex, a woman's body doubles the estrogen level, and this makes her hair shine and the skin becomes softer.

3. A 10-year research carried on 1,000 middle-aged men at Queens University in Belfast, Ireland, showed that sex on a regular basis increases the humans' lifespan. For the same age and health, those who had orgasms more frequently had half the death rate of men who did not have such frequent orgasms. This could be due to the plummeting stress hormones, reaction that installs after we have sex.

3. Sweating while having sex cleanse the skin pores, making the skin brighter and decreasing the risk of developing dermatitis.

4. Sex can make us lose weight. You burn all that fat and carbohydrates from the romantic dinner. Quickies of 20 minutes weekly mean 7,500 calories annually, that's as much as you consume on 120 km (745 mi) of jogging. A sex session can burn about 200 calories. This is like running 15 minutes on a treadmill!

5. Sex strengthen our muscles. You can imagine the effort made by your muscles through those pushes and flexions. It depends on your stunts in bed, of course. And it's clearly a lot more fun than running for miles.

6. The more active your sex life is, the more attractive for the opposite sex you are. High sexual activity makes the body release more pheromones, chemicals that attract the opposite sex.

7. Sex sharpens our senses, at least smell. Following the orgasm, a rise of the hormone prolactin makes the brain's stem cells form new neurons in the olfactory bulb, boosting a person's olfactory abilities.

8. Sex is also a pain reliever, ten times more effective than typical painkillers: immediately before orgasm, levels of the hormone oxytocin rise by five times, determining a huge release of endorphins. These chemicals calm pain, from a minor headache to arthritis or migraines, and with no secondary effects. Migraines also disappear because the pressure in the brain's blood vessels is lowered while we have sex. So now we see that actually, a woman's headache is rather a good reason for having sex, not against it.

9. Kissing your partner daily means less visits to dentist. Kissing stimulates salivation, which cleanses food left between the teeth and lowers the acidity in the mouth, the main cause of the tooth decay.

10. A good sex session can be a good remedy against a stuffy nose, being a natural antihistaminic that helps combating asthma and high fever.

11. Having sex regularly drops the cholesterol level, balancing the ratio good cholesterol: bad cholesterol.

12. The hormones released while we have sex helps both men and women; estrogen protects a woman's heart but on the long term, it can be efficient also against Alzheimer's disease and osteoporosis while testosterone strengthens the bones and muscles.

13. Sex is beneficial not only for the heart, but also for the blood circulation, especially in the brain, because of the increased heart rate and deep breathing.

14. The sexual activity lowers the risk of getting colds and the flu. Having sexual intercourse at least on a weekly basis produces 30-percent higher levels of the antibody immunoglobulin A, that spurs the immune system.

15. Sex leads to a better control of the bladder, by strengthening the pelvis muscles that control the flow of urine.

16. After orgasm, especially in the evening, we become sleepy. This is the effect of some good sex: it increases sleep quality. Following an orgasm, the body of both males or females becomes completely relaxed, so they may have a good deep sleep.

17. Sex fights cancer! Various researches have shown that a high ejaculation frequency and sexual activity are linked to a lower risk of prostate cancer later in life. A study found out that men who ejaculated 13 to 20 times monthly presented a 14-percent lower risk of prostate cancer than men who ejaculated on average, between 4 and 7 times monthly for most of their adult life. Those ejaculating over 21 times a month presented a 33-percent decreased risk of developing prostate cancer than the baseline group.

Running Out of Time

2010-01-30T22:49:00.000-08:00

Inside the Urban Design Center, Kashiwa-no-ha, in Kashiwa Japan is a small and wonderous little café. The Orori Café seems innocent on first look, but patrons at the café are in for a surprise as they approach the counter to place their order. Upon reading the menu board, they are informed of the rules of the café – no matter what you order and pay for – you get what the person before you ordered and paid for and the next person receives what you order and pay for.

Think about that concept for a moment. Knowing the rules of the Orogi Café, would you choose the least expensive thing on the menu, the most expensive or order what you wanted, knowing that you would only receive what the person before you ordered and paid for? You could choose to be a generous benefactor, giving a gift to those that came after you, perhaps not even aware of whom they might be. You could choose to take what the person before you ordered and only order and pay for a small appetizer or drink, knowing that you might reap a higher reward than you paid for. The Orogi Café might be an anomaly. It might not be everyone’s cup of tea.

At http://www.mysterygoogle.com, the site that was forced to change it’s name to Mystery Seeker in lieu of the parody on the popular Google search engine, people enter a search term only to be directed to the results of the person before them. Similar? Of course, but there is no payment in terms of financial obligation, other than perhaps an undesirable visit to a site that you may not have intended to ever visit.

Both of these instances appeal to the sense of adventure and suspense in some people. Others will find them slightly entertaining and others will find them annoying. But, as in all things there is always a silver lining in that both of these encourage interactions in a unique manner.

I was born at a time when people did interact with one another. There were conversations that lasted for more than 2 minutes and didn’t include the words, “real quick” or “what ever”.

We actually spoke to each other over the phone without being interrupted by an incoming call from another, supposedly more important person, and have to tell our friends, “Just a minute, this may be important!” before putting them on hold only to find out it was a solicitor. This never happened, because solicitors didn’t call you on the phone.

We had to learn to spell correctly, because writing was a social grace and grace wouldn’t be graceful unless it was, well graceful. Now, we get brief text messages that we must interpret, “b 4 U cum, b sur 2 txt rob abt 2 nite”.

We are forced to limit our text to 140 characters in length because a guy named Jack Dorsey decided that this was about as long as he could spend reading anything from his friends. In August 2006, Dorsey launched Twitter because as he stated, “I grew interested in the simple idea of knowing what my friends were doing and wondered if there was an opportunity to build something compelling around this concept.” That was 139 characters because Dorsey apparently only speaks in 140 character sentences or less.

Simplicity has played an important role in Twitter's success. It seems people are eager to connect with other people but not too much connection. Twitter makes that simple. Twitter asks one question, "What's happening?" Twitter is about sharing and discovering what’s happening right now, anywhere in the world, albeit very brief and often cryptic half sentences.

Makes me think of Bill Thompson, who in 1951, as the voice of the White Rabbit in Alice in Wonderland stated, “I'm late / I'm late / For a very important date. / No time to say "Hello." / Goodbye. / I'm late, I'm late, I'm late.”

Given that most people try to avoid interaction with others, the world is becoming more distant each day. I see this as a problem. Will we be removed from our mother’s womb and hermetically sealed into a pod of our own with not interaction from parents or siblings? We will never leave our pod as we will have everything necessary to survive? Will we all resort to distance based learning and work from home? We will grow our own vegetables inside our pods and drink from sterilized rainwater.

Goodbye, I’m late, I’m late, I’m late!

Oklahoma Yard Sticks

2009-11-20T10:16:00.001-08:00

I received a rather cryptic email from my younger brother who has recently moved back to his native state of Oklahoma and is living in a rural area in the eastern part of the state. He apparently has a considerable amount of yard debris and is looking for help in his beautification plan. His email is as follows:

OKLAHOMA YARD STICKS

Be the first in your area to own one of these great collector items. Sales are up so we are showing our gratitude by dropping the price.

Each Oklahoma Yard Stick comes complete with a certificate of authenticity. We know them to be an authentic Oklahoma Yard Stick because we found them in our yard near Calvin, Oklahoma.

Scientists have determined that 1.8 million people in the state of Oklahoma now own at least one of these highly collectable Items, so we expect that you will want to get yours before they are all gone.

I remember my grandmother had a rather large collection. And, imagine our surprise when we visited Graceland recently and noticed that Elvis had a very large collection, as well.

Proper use of your stick is important. You can use it in a multitude of ways…

1. As a measuring device
2. To stir paint
3. Play fetch with your dog or children
4. To beat your drum
5. Or to beat your kids when they misbehave
6. Fire kindling
7. Defend against snake attack
8. Beat around the bushes ( or bush )
9. A unique conversation piece
10. Saw in half for a pair of chopsticks
11. Replace a broken shovel handle (large size required)
12. Tent stake
13. Replace fence post
And many other uses.

Because of Oklahoma state regulations the Oklahoma Yard Sticks cannot be shipped and must be picked up at our location. Don't worry, we will save some for you. We are in the process of manufacturing more sticks as we speak. Quantities do not appear to be limited, but don’t let that deter you from placing an order immediately for several of these highly collectible Oklahoma Yard Sticks. They make great holiday presents for everyone in your family and for your friends. And, for your enemies and especially those who lack in beauty – we are now offering the Ugly Oklahoma Yard Stick – just the thing for that subtle hint.

Because we are so sure you will love your Oklahoma Yard Stick, there will be a no return policy. Ya’ll come get ‘em now, ya hear?

If you'd like your own Oklahoma Yard Stick (or several) send an email to shood11678@prodigy.net right away and we'll put them aside for you.

R.I.P. - Bill Narum

2009-11-19T21:36:00.000-08:00

Austin’s own incredibly laid-back, soft-spoken, and most famous counter-culture hero is gone.

Bill Narum passed away last night, November 18, 2009, while sitting at his studio art table at his home studio east of Austin. He had apparently suffered heart attack and passed peacefully. He was 62 years old.

Narum, was born into an artistic family in Austin, before moving to Houston, where he grew up. He began his professional career during the 1960s and early 1970s as part of the growing counterculture in Houston.

Having discovered his talent for art at an early age, Narum told the Austin Chronicle in an interview, “In the fifth grade, I’d been drawing girlie cartoons from Playboy in a notebook, and I left it in my desk after class. The next day I was reprimanded for disrupting class because they were passing around my notebook. The teacher called my parents and turned it over to them. My mom looked at it and said, ‘I have one thing to ask you: Did you trace these or draw these?’ ‘I drew them.’ I told her. ‘Well, okay. That’s good,’ she said. ”

In the late ’60s, Narum co-founded Houston free-form FM rock station KLOL and worked as an illustrator for Houston’s underground newspaper Space City News. It was while working at Space City News that he became friends with a young musician named Billy Gibbons and girlfriend Mickey Phoenix. Billy was in a band that had recently rechristened itself ZZ Top and Billy recognized Narum talent and asked him to design their first gig poster.

Phoenix, now owner of Calico Tees in Houston, remembered Narum for his creativity. Narum had worked with Phoenix in his early days in Houston designing T-shirt art.

“He was a wonderful man and we will miss him and all his creativity. I am so mad, sad, and bummed. What a drag.”

Their relationship endured through the years and Narum became ZZ Top’s house designer, creating more gig poster, T-shirt designs and album covers. Narum is well known worldwide for his many album covers he designed for the band, such as “Tres Hombres” and “Fandango”, as well as his staging created for ZZ Top.

Narum was recently recognized for his 1976’s Tejas to epic murals for the band’s fleet of semis and the famous cactus-and-cattle-skull stage design for the trio’s legendary 1975-76 “Worldwide Texas” tour. His murals were depicted on the sides of the band’s tour buses and fleet of semi’s. He was officially known as the fourth member of the band.

In the early 1970s, Narum returned to his hometown to work with other artists that had created the counterculture in Austin; Micael Priest, Guy Juke, Danny Garrett and other helped found the famous Sheaunough Studios. Garrett, who is currently living and teaching in New Zealand remembered Narum:

“Bill Narum was a friend, colleague, role model and mentor. In those heady days at Sheauxnough he, along with Guy Juke, Micael Priest, and the other talents there, gave me my remedial art education. I’m stunned. It is hard to imagine Austin without Narum.”

Continuing his work with ZZ Top while working at Sheauxnough Studios, Narum took on additional work for the various music venues, including the famous Armadillo World Headquarters, and he also did work for the Austin Sun. Bill Hood remembers that during his term as Art Director, the Sun did a center-spread, double-page tribute to Narum. Narum wanted to only reproduce his pen and ink drawings from his sketch book and the Sun wanted to show a retrospective of his music art. Hood remembers:

“It was my first meeting with Bill. We had seen each other at art events and music shows, but had not spoken. When we began discussions about the Sun tribute, I remember being in awe at how well Bill argued his point in his soft-spoken, laid-back manner. He was a true Texas gentleman in every sense.

“A week and a half ago, we were at the Austin Sun Reunion party at Dave Moriaty’s and we spent a good hour engrossed in conversation. His intense blue eyes sparkled as he told me about the studio he was constructing on his property east of Austin and about his plans to release the Armadillo video soon. He was, as always, very upbeat.

“I was saddened when I first received Margaret Moser’s email informing me of Bill’s passing. I am still in shock. We are fortunate that we have memories of Bill’s life in a tremendously creative treasure of art that he has left us.”

In the mid-1980s, Narum dove into computers, experimenting with computer graphics, animation and film. He grew to become an accomplished multi-media artist. Narum opened his own GOGO Studios, which created album covers, gig posters, and T-shirt designs for a host of record labels, music venues, solo musicians and groups, such as Stevie Ray Vaughn, Doug Sahm, Nanci Griffith and others.

It was his work done on the Continental Club that led to the 1988 Austin Poster Artist of the Year in the Austin Chronicle’s People’s Choice Awards. The posters became some of the most desired gig posters among collectors.

In 1993, Narum was awarded a Certificate of Appreciation by the City of Austin for providing a valued and distinguished service to the public through his work as an artist.

In 2005, he was elected president of the board of directors of Austin folk-art storehouse the South Austin Museum of Popular Culture around the same time his 40-year retrospective, “You Call That Art,” opened at the museum.

Speaking of Narum’s many achievements, SAMOPC director Leea Mechling told the Austin Chronicle:

“He’s a major contributor to the cultural dynamics of not only Austin, but Texas, the United States, and the world.”

Fellow Armadillo Poster Artist, Sam Yeates, had this to say upon learning of Narum’s passing:

“We have lost one of the most talented and generous members of the art community. He set the bar for the rest of us with amazing artistic abilities, incredible design sense and seemingly boundless technical knowledge. If you knew Bill was involved in a project it was going to be done exceptionally well and he inspired everyone involved to be at their best.

“My first introduction to Bills art was the classic ZZ Top album covers and the monumental sets done for their concert tours in the 70s. If that wasn’t enough, he created some of the most compelling concert posters from that time as well. When he wasn’t experimenting with video, photography, painting at his easel he was living a fiercely brave adventurous life. If we ever had a Renaissance man in our midst, Bill was that guy. I wish I had told him all this to his face when I had the chance.”

Information on services and a memorial are pending.

www.billnarum.com

www.samopc.org/narum/index.html

http://www.myspace.com/billnarum

Feel Like a Million with Just $100

2009-09-20T15:01:00.001-07:00

Whether or not we experience prosperity in our lives is a simple matter of whether we approach life from a place of scarcity or a place of abundance.

No doubt, you could come up with a list of justifications for your feelings of scarcity and lack. Certainly the evidence is all around you: bills, debt, taxes, poor job market, and inflation. You can be as right as you want to be about your feelings of poverty. Indeed you can spend your whole life - like many people do - in "survival mode".

The problem is, you've been surviving just fine all your life. You're alive, you have a roof over your head, a warm place to sleep tonight, food in your belly…heck, you've even got an internet connection. How much more evidence do you need that you've long ago mastered the art of survival.

What you're looking for now is not a way to survive. You have that. You're looking for a way to thrive. And to start making that shift, here's an excellent little exercise.

The $100 process is simple. From your savings or your next paycheck (or, if need be, from the accumulation of little bits taken out of several consecutive paychecks), go to the bank and get yourself a $100 bill. Put that $100 bill in your wallet.

Then, as you go about your daily life, start to notice the various things you spend that $100 on. When you pass a favorite storefront window and see a coveted item calling you there, imagine yourself going into the store and buying it with that bill. Don't actually do it, now. Just imagine yourself doing it. Remind yourself that you could, if you really wanted to, have that item right here and now.

Do that as many times as you can throughout your day. Imagine yourself taking a cab (or a limo!) across town, instead of the bus. Imagine eating lunch at a fine restaurant instead of fast food. Imagine yourself in that new outfit you want. Imagine yourself buying a thoughtful gift for a loved one.

The more you imagine yourself spending that $100 in your pocket or purse, the more you align yourself with the vibration or energy of abundance. And because you have an actual $100 in your pocket or purse, it's more than make-believe, more than playing pretend. Because you actually do have the funds to pay for each of those things right here and now.

The fact that you choose not to spend it, rather than feeling forced by your financial situation into denying yourself, simply reinforces that feeling of abundance. It puts the power of having and not having in your hands, where it should be, rather than in the hands of fate and circumstance, where it does not belong.

In this way, you visualize yourself spending several thousand dollars a day, all the while maintaining a crisp $100 bill on your person. It makes you the decider of your fate, not some illusory life circumstances. And the more you practice doing this, the more and more aligned you will become with having all that you desire.

Prosperity and abundance - like scarcity and lack - are a state of mind. Approaching life from a place of prosperity and abundance is as valid and right and true as approaching it from survival mode. But just as evidence of your perceived poverty can be found all around you, so can equally unequivocal evidence of abundance.

Practice the $100 process and start making the shift now to seeing, and ultimately experiencing, the abundance all around you. Pretty soon you'll feel like a millionaire and you will still have your $100!

Karma Voting?

2009-09-07T11:08:00.001-07:00

The use of the Karma button on a website is simply another sign of a delusional belief that we have the elitist right to judge another individual. I do not believe Karma is a good idea when used in the way it is being used here.

Karma is nothing more than moral causation. It was “invented” in India and later explained by the Buddhist as a perception of a totally ill-balanced world. It speaks to the inequalities and manifold destinies of individuals and the many grades of those individuals.

In the context of message boards, karma “voting” satisfies the need of lower class individuals to attempt to even out these differences, to seemingly give themselves some measure of importance and equality. It is a race for superiority, a false belief of the measure of the individual. It is used by the uneducated in a false attempt to increase their own mental, moral and physical qualities over another. The more karma one achieves, the more virtuous and holy they are, while demeaning others as poor, miserable individuals in spite of their own honesty and piety.

In truth, no individual can alter another person's karma. Karma is a natural occurrence. There is nothing in this world that happens by blind chance or accident. Strictly speaking, nothing happens to man that he does not deserve for some reason or another, and the act of another individual cannot change ones true karma. Anyone who attempts to alter another person's karma is falsely acting as a god of sorts. And, who among us would believe that anyone who acts as a god is not delusional? Or an elitist?

Who among us has commanded water to seek it’s own level, that fire should burn or that the sun shall give life? These are intrinsic characteristics. Karma is neither fate nor predestination imposed by another. It is one’s own doing reacting on oneself, and only the individual has the power to divert the course of their own karma to any extent.

No, the use of karma on a message board is nothing more than an illusion, a lie to those who are led to believe that it will make some difference in the scope of things. And, yes, someone, perhaps more than one of the 252 users of this board believe in this false karma. I believe it is laughable and an insult to the intelligence of others on the board.

I have attempted to show the absolute idiocy in the choice of this “feature” as a “tool”. It does nothing more than feed the idiots who believe that it is a truism and ends up destroying what is claimed to be a community. In a real community, individuals strive to come together as equals for the common good, hence the word “community!”

If one really wants to create harmony in the community, they will strive to pull people together, be honest in all that they do, help others even at the cost of their own well-being and be a good person!

You have to question why anyone would want to put into place a tool that works against the very community that they have tried to create. Anyone with a shred of intelligence sees that this is counterproductive. Or is it really just a form of reverse karma? And, if so, it is pure genius?

Reverse karma has been associated with the sages and prophets over time: The sun being the center of the solar system and the world being round and not flat are two concepts that were immensely unpopular at the time of their first suggestion. In the spectrum of life: it is sometimes the unpopular 2-percent of opinions that change worldview.

Bottom line: I don't care about judged karma. I absolutely know that I am in control of my own karma and it cannot be altered by others.

Why are Hospitals Cold?

2009-08-31T06:41:00.001-07:00

This week I learned why the temperature is kept so cold in hospitals. In the mid 1800s there was a dominant idea that bad air quality caused disease. Therefore in order to treat sickness, an American physician and humanitarian, John Gorrie, built a refrigerator with the purpose of cooling air. Gorrie's refrigerator produced ice which he suspended from the ceiling in a basin.

Strange how an idea can stick with us over all these years.

While we are on the subject of ice I have recently been studying ice cubes for a project that I am working on. Specifically, I was researching the white flakes that can be found at the bottom of a glass of ice water after the ice has melted. I found that that as the ice cubes melt they precipitate white flakes, commonly known as "floaters". They are calcium carbonate, which is present in many water supplies and is completely harmless in small quantities.

Calcium carbonate is a chemical compound with the chemical formula CaCO3. It is a common substance found in rock in all parts of the world, and is the main component of shells of marine organisms, snails, pearls, and eggshells. Calcium carbonate is the active ingredient in agricultural lime, and is usually the principal cause of hard water. It is commonly used medicinally as a calcium supplement or as an antacid, but high consumption can be hazardous.

An interesting characteristic of commercially made ice cubes is that they are completely clear, lacking the clouding found in the center of domestically made ice cubes. As it turns out, cloudy ice cubes result when water is frozen quickly, or ice is allowed to form on the surface of the water.

When water is cooled to its freezing point, and ice starts to form, dissolved gases can no longer stay in solution and come out as microscopic bubbles. However, as ice floats in water, once there is enough ice to form a layer on the surface, the ice layer traps all bubbles within the ice cube. Ice-makers use a flowing source of water to make ice with cooling elements at the bottom, allowing the bubbles to be washed away from the top as the cube grows.

Ice Cube Trays

In the winter of 1928, Lloyd Groff Copeman was collecting sap for maple syrup on his farm. As he walked through the woods, he noticed that the ice flaked off of his rubber boots and an idea came to him. After studying this phenomenon he designed and patented different types of ice cube trays. The first was a metal tray with rubber separators, a metal tray with individual rubber cups, and even a tray made completely of rubber.

The first flexible stainless steel, all-metal ice cube tray was created by Guy L. Tinkham in 1933. The tray bent sideways to remove the ice cubes.

Down on the Ground!

2009-07-28T09:19:00.001-07:00

Most of us have never heard those words and hope that we never do. Such was the case of Mark Ledford and his girlfriend Asia Ward when they were ordered to do so by members of the Austin Police Department early one evening in front of their home.

Three days earlier, on a Wednesday, Mark, who works for a real estate firm, came home to find a green Honda Accord parked in front of his house in an upper-class neighborhood of Austin. As he walked by the car, he noted that the windows were rolled down and the keys were in the ignition. He assumed that the car belonged to someone visiting his girlfriend, but when he entered his house to find only his girlfriend home, he thought, “Oh, well, their probably visiting a neighbor.”

The next morning, the car was still parked there and he assumed that someone was visiting from out of town or had simply slept over. Mark continued on to work at the real estate firm and forgot about the little green Honda parked in front of his home. But that night, the car was still there, apparently unmoved.

The young couple became concerned about the car, specifically what had happened toe driver of the car. Mark knew most of his neighbors and had never seen the car in the neighborhood before. He decided to see if he could locate the owner to tell them that leaving the keys in the ignition and the windows rolled down was not a good idea. He went door-to-door in the neighborhood but no one knew anything about the car. Neighbors expressed concern over the car and why it might have been abandoned in front of their homes.

Finding no owner and no one who knew anything about the car, Mark decided that maybe the car had been stolen and abandoned in front of his home, so he did what most of us would have done - he called the police. Two police officers showed up after a while and when Mark asked them, “isn’t it strange that someone parked their car there with the windows rolled down and the keys in it?”

The police responded with, “It’s parked legally. What’s the problem?” After seven minutes of conversation, the police officers left without so much as looking at the car or it’s contents. Mark and Asia thought this was strange, that the police acted like they didn’t care about whether the car was stolen or that the driver had disappeared. But they had done all that they could do.

That morning as Mark left to go to work the car was there and when he came home that evening he grew more concerned. He and Asia begin to worry and they could only imagine the worse. They knew that if their car was stolen and someone found it setting on a residential street they would want it reported. But the police had not written up a report on the car. So there was no record of the car and it’s location.

They also worried about what has happened to the driver. Mark and Asia went out to look at the car and noticed what appeared to be a top to a woman’s bikini in the back seat and the key ring hanging from the ignition certainly looked like they belonged to a woman. But, as they walked around the car, they became increasingly worried. The drivers side rear window had been broken and there was shattered glass on the seat. There was also a pair of men’s work boots and some rope in the car.

While on the surface there was nothing there to tie the car or the missing driver to a crime, it did worry Mark and Asia. Perhaps from watching too many cop shows on television or reading too many murder mysteries the couple had questions. Who had left the car there, and why? What if something strange was going on? Shouldn't the police investigate?

On Saturday night the couple went out to rent a movie and buy some ice cream. They noticed the car and their worries returned. When they returned to the house, Ledford went back outside and starred at the car for a long time. He knew that something had to be done. He went back in the house and told Asia that he was going to look in the car to see if he could locate the owner. Maybe there was some mail, a bill with the owners name and if so, all he had to do was call them and tell them that their car was parked out front of his home. Problem solved.

However, with their overactive minds and because of the broken rear side window, the couple still considered that the car might have been involved in a crime. The couple consider that they had reported the car to the police and they did nothing. It was time to get to the bottom of this. Ledford decided to put on a pair of gloves thinking, if this is a crime scene he didn’t want to leave any fingerprints.

They walked down their drive to the parked car and opened the door. They were searching for something that would lead them to the owner of the car. With no flashlight handy, Mark used his cell phone to illuminate the interior of the car to inspect the car’s interior. Not finding anything, he took the keys from the ignition to check the trunk, but the trunk lock was jammed. Still nothing. Mark put the keys back in the ignition and as he and Asia stood on the sidewalk thinking about what to do, a police car with flashing lights sped around the corner toward them. Police officers jumped from the car as it rolled to a stop behind the Honda and begin yelling, “GET ON THE GROUND, NOW!

Mark tried to explain that he was the homeowner and that he was simply inspecting the car to identify the owner. The police only kept waving their guns and yelling for the couple to get on the ground.

The couple were handcuffed as they lie on the damp ground. The police read them their rights and they waived their right to a lawyer. Finally, Detective John Spillers showed up and they explained their story to him. Neither Mark nor Asia had ever been arrested and had no criminal record. The police eventually took the cuffs off of the couple and released them.

Shaken, but glad to have survived the incident of having police wave guns in their face, the couple went into their home, ate their ice cream and watched a movie. Later, they were still angry at what had transpired. How could they have done the wrong thing? They were only trying to help. The couple went to bed that night thinking the ordeal was over and that perhaps they should think twice before trying to be good Samaritans.

But the ordeal was not over for the young couple. Not by a long shot. Sixteen days later, on Asia’s birthday, the police knocked on their door again. In lieu of drawn guns they came with an affidavit and arrested the couple on a charge of burglary of a vehicle, a Class A misdemeanor that carries a penalty of up to a year in jail and up to a $4,000 fine. The affidavit, written by Detective John Spillers, notes that Ledford was wearing gloves to avoid leaving prints, and both he and his girlfriend "admitted that Mark had tried to get in the trunk."

Of course, as it often the case with arrest affidavits, it did not mention both sides of the case. It did not state that the couple had called police to report the car or that the car was parked in front of their home for three days with the windows rolled down and the keys in the ignition. Nor, did it mention the broken rear window and the shattered glass on the rear seat. Any one of which would have caused a reasonable person to become suspicious and look in the car.

Detective Spiller stated in the affidavit that the defendant’s actions constituted more than mere curiosity or trying to locate the owner’s information. And is always the case, Detective Spiller nor the prosecutor, Assistant County Attorney Vicki Ashley, are commenting on the case.

Mark and Asia say they were offered deferred prosecution, which would waive any penalties as long as they sign a confession and don't commit a crime for a year. But they refuse to confess to an offense they say they didn't commit.

"If they want to charge us with trespassing, then fine, we’re guilty," Ward said. "But we did not burglarize a vehicle."

But wait! This is not the end of the story. The affidavit did not tell the whole story nor did the officers involved in the incident. Remember, those two officers who responded to the initial call to investigate the parked car? As it turns out they knew exactly why the Honda was parked in front of the couple’s home.

Remember how quickly the police came speeding around the corner when Mark and Asia were looking in the car? They were in on the deal too. You see the car wasn’t stolen or had it been involved in a crime. The police themselves had purposely left the little green Honda Accord parked in front of Mark’s home.

The Honda was a “bait vehicle,” armed with video surveillance equipment, GPS tracking system and an alarm, which notified the police that the vehicle had been tampered with. The Austin police have been using the bait vehicle program since 1997 and have up to nine cars parked at any one time on the streets. They simply park the car, leave the keys in the ignition and wait for someone to take the bait. The GPS tracking units make the cars easy to find and because the entire episode is captured on videotape, a conviction is easy to secure. The trunk of the car is filled with equipment and that’s why the trunk is secured.

Sergeant Oliver Tate with the Auto Theft Interdiction Unit, which oversees the bait car program stated that the bait car program produced 70 warrants or arrests in 2008. That’s right they don’t always catch the person who tampers with or steals the car. This year they have had only 13 warrants or arrests, down considerably and there is a push on to make more arrests to keep the program alive. They refuse to say how much the program costs, but in 2007, the City Council received an $85,287 one-year grant from the state for the bait car equipment alone.

The bait car program is being used in police departments throughout the United States. The police state that the program is not generally considered entrapment because the police don’t actively encourage people to burglarize or steal the vehicle but only provide the temptation. Although police are not talking about the number of convictions that have resulted from the arrests, they do admit that the youngest person arrested was only 13 years old.

Perhaps the police departments don’t think this through clearly. While they are stating the purpose of the program is supposed to act as a deterrent to auto burglary and theft, they are actually promoting the acts of crime. This doesn’t make sense to most people. We have been made to believe that the deterrent is supposed to be the penalty for a crime - you steal a car and you go to jail.

Sergeant Tate states that they look at the past auto burglary and theft cases and attempt to set up similar scenarios to match. They often leave a car parked in front of a convenience store with the keys in the ignition with the engine running in an attempt to get someone to steal the car. Or they park the car in a high crime area, leaving the keys in the ignition and the windows rolled down. He stated that the police attempt to set up the most tempting situations to make as many arrests as possible.

The police are not acting alone in this. The cars are often supplied by insurance companies, which supposedly have a stake in reducing car burglaries and theft. But, even this is flawed. The insurance companies only make money if people have the fear that their vehicle is burglarized or stolen. If the crimes went away – so would the billons of insurance money. No business purposefully runs themselves out of business.

And what about that slogan on the side of the police cars – To Protect and Serve? Who are they protecting and serving with the bait program? It would seem that there are better ways of protecting and serving the tax payers than by tempting the unsuspecting 13-year-old children into going for a joy ride. And, speaking of joy rides…

It seems another neighbor also called the police department after observing the car sitting there for days. Again, nothing was done about the report and the police continued to leave the car in place. The neighbors spoke about the car and why someone would just leave it there for days. They came to the conclusion that someone had broken down and abandoned the car. A young man visiting with the neighbor that called police, decided to see if the car was broken down. He drove the car about 50-feet and then backed up and parked the vehicle in the same place it had been setting.

That joy ride netted the young man, who had no prior criminal record, an arrest. He was charged with unauthorized use of a motor vehicle, a felony offense. The charge was later reduced to a Class A misdemeanor, and the young man was given deferred adjudication and is now serving an 18-month probation. The test drive cost him dearly. Now he has a criminal record that will haunt him for the rest of his life. He is also out the $5,000 lawyer fee to get released from jail, and he has to pay $190 a month to his probation officer for the next 18-months.

All of this could have been avoided if the police had simply informed the citizens in the neighborhood that the bait car was being left there and asked that they cooperate with the police department. If the police had told the concerned callers that tried to report the car the truth, three arrests of innocent people could have been avoided.

But is leaving these bait cars on the street really a good idea. These are working cars, with a full tank of gas and with keys in the ignition. What is to keep a child of any age from crawling into the car and going for a joy ride? This particular car was left near McCallum High School with lots of school kids walking by each day. It would surely have tempted some kid to dare another kid to take the car for a joy ride.

We have all seen the car chases on the 10:00 p.m. news, which endanger lives and property as the Keystone-like cops chase the car around town at high speed, sideswiping bystanders, driving down one-way streets, and across yards where small children are playing. And, we all know how the chase ends – usually when the car hits another car or the front of a home.

During these chases is a total disregard to protect and serve anyone other than making the arrest, which ultimately puts money in the coffers of the police. And, yes, arrests are about the money. Crime seems to pay more to the police, lawyers, court systems, jails and prisons than it does the criminals. Of course, the criminals shouldn’t reap benefits from crime, but still.

Sergeant Tate states that he hasn’t heard of a police department being held liable for what happens when a bait car is driven away. As far as the police department is concerned, he said, it doesn't matter whether it's a hardened auto thief who takes the bait or an opportunist who does so simply because a vehicle is there for the taking.

"Let me ask you something: If you see a car with the keys in it, would you take it?" Sargeant Tate said. "There are hundreds of people walking by these cars, and they make the choice to keep walking. The bottom line is this: If you see a car that doesn't belong to you, don't take it."

But, maybe the police department be worried about liability. Maybe they should be worried about their responsibility to the public and to the safety of all involved. Maybe they should be concerned with morality. Because if they are not, then who will protect and serve us?

Meanwhile, Mark and Asia said their arrest has had a huge impact on their lives. Ward said she suspects she's already been turned down for two jobs and a volunteer position because of the criminal charge against her.

The experience has made them both more cynical, both about law enforcement and the ability to make a difference in the world by doing the right thing. "To hell with being a concerned citizen," Mark said. "You hear stories of someone getting mugged and no one gets involved. Now I see why."

The couple will be in court tomorrow to explain their story to a judge. They are hopeful that right will prevail and that the judge will be clearheaded enough to see the injustice of the incident. Good luck with that one!

The Divine Calling of Neda

2009-06-23T22:25:00.001-07:00

Inside the small home in a middle-class neighborhood east of Tehran, Iran, a family of four has lost their middle child. She is a victim of the internal war between the people of Iran and the oppressive government.

Neda Agha-Soltan, 26-years old, was a student of philosophy and religion at the Azad Islamic University. While she was studying religion, Neda was more spiritual than religious. She was a happy, positive person who loved music, having studied violin and recently piano. Neda had just purchased a piano and was awaiting delivery.

Neda’s disposition was typically composed, even tranquil. She did have a quirky, lively sense of humour. A friend recalled that once, when Neda was visiting her friend's house, she picked up a white Teddy bear, took off her big, purple-studded earrings and put them on the bear. Then she removed a necklace from around the neck of a friend and put it around the bear's neck, taking delight in the bear's transformation.

She liked to travel, having visited Turkey three months ago with a tour group. And she, like most Iranians, was concerned about human rights in an era when the government of Iran seems to be taking away the civil liberties of the inhabitants of that country.

Neda was shot and killed as she stepped from her car with a friend at an anti-government demonstration in Tehran on Saturday, June 20, 2009. She was not there to rally against the government, but was simply taking a break from the heat of her small Peugeot 206 subcompact car with a poorly working air conditioner. She left the car with a family friend, a teacher of music and philosophy, near the demonstration to get some fresh air. Her murder was captured in video from a cell phone held by someone in the crowd.

Under Iran’s strict gun-control laws, private citizens cannot carry firearms. This has led to speculation that government forces were involved in the murder of Neda. She was taken to a nearby hospital and, within a day, she was buried at Behesht Zahra, the city's largest Muslim cemetery, on the outskirts of Tehran. It is extremely unusual for the body of a victim to be released and buried so quickly and this further supports the theory that the government forces were responsible for Neda’s death.

Since Saturday, the Iranian government has sought to minimize the impact of her death and have prohibited all public displays of mourning for Neda. A gathering of about 60 friends and family at a mosque was broken up by members of the Basij pro-government vigilantes blamed for much of the violence against the demonstrators.

While Neda, whose name means Divine Calling in Farsi, was an unlikely candidate to become a martyr, she has emerged as a powerful symbol of opposition to the Iranian government. That a young woman who embraced life in so many ways, was never involved in politics and yet was chosen from a crowd of thousands and shot by a sniper would effect so many is telling. Perhaps it is aptly just that her death will bring about just the opposite effect that her murderers meant to bestow.

A person’s life has been taken – her entire existence reduced to just a few seconds of powerful – if grainy, video. But it is this very video, shown worldwide within minutes to the rest of the world that injects life and context into the trials of the Iranian people by an oppressive government.

Neda's family has not been allowed to post a black banner of mourning outside the family's house. Under Muslim tradition, the seventh and 40th days after someone dies are devoted to mourning and reflection.

Neda's death begs the question of what is the real atrocity in the world. To paraphrase writer, Rachel Lee, "Is it what is happening in the oppressiveness of Iran today? Or is it that many of us, especially those of us who live in the United States, enjoy the luxury of relative peace and stability, ignoring the pain and fear and death that stalks so much of the world? We cannot give into the greed and hate of the world. If we do, everyone loses. And we lose far more than our sensitivities. We lose our souls."

Please do not allow Neda’s life to go unremembered. Do not allow her influence to be diminished. Speak out against oppression in our world by corrupt governments and help to bring peace and prosperity to all.

This Week I Learned Reports

2009-06-09T20:38:00.001-07:00

This Week I Learned has been published since mid-1995. In the beginning it was an email sent to a list of friends, who forwarded it on to their friends. A few years later we started accepting subscriptions and it started to grow. At one time the email list reached 40,000 subscribers and we were forced to place This Week on the Internet to take care of the great number of readers.

We have since expanded to 622,599 individual readers since 6 October 2005, when we begin seriously tracking our readers. In the last 26 days, we have had our heaviest concentration of readers from the following countries:

United States
Ireland
Mexico
Canada
United Kingdom
Hong Kong
Belgium
Denmark
Switzerland
Japan
India
Brazil
Netherlands
Chile
Argentina
Sweden
Russian Federation
Germany
New Zealand
Philippines
Republic of Korea
Greece
Belize
Cote D'Ivoire
France

Happy Birthday Donald Duck

2009-06-09T20:22:00.001-07:00

Donald Duck is 75-years-old today. The Walt Disney Productions' animated cartoon and comic-book character is a white anthropomorphic duck with a yellow-orange bill, legs, and feet. He usually wears a sailor shirt, cap, and a red or black bowtie, but no pants (except when he goes swimming or wears a towel when stepping out of the shower). Donald's most famous trait is his easily provoked and occasionally explosive temper.

According to Disney canon, particularly in the 1942 short "Donald Gets Drafted", Donald's full name is Donald Fauntleroy Duck.

Donald's birthday is officially recognized as June 9, 1934, the day his debut film was released, but in "The Three Caballeros", his birthday is given as simply "Friday the 13th". In "Donald's Happy Birthday" his birthday is given as 13 March.

Donald's voice, one of the most identifiable voices in all of animation, was performed by voice actor Clarence "Ducky" Nash up to 1983. It was largely this semi-intelligible speech that would cement Donald's image into audiences' minds and help fuel both Donald's and Nash's rise to stardom. Since 1985, Donald has been voiced by Tony Anselmo, who was trained by Nash for the role.

Happy Birthday, Donald!

Don't Mess with Texas Law!

2009-06-09T19:15:00.001-07:00

Even those in other countries have heard the phrase, "Don't Mess with Texas!" Well, I have a new one for you, "Don't Mess with Texas Law."

For years, the Austin (Travis County, Texas) Police Department has been called on the carpet repeatedly for police brutality and unjustified shootings. We just buried a young man last week that police shot when the young man reached to pull up his baggy pants. The police officer that killed him stated he thought the young man might be reaching for a gun. The officer will likely go free as the law gives him the same rights as it does any other citizen to defend himself with deadly force if he believes that his life "might be in danger."

Sometimes things can get a little out hand. Back in May a Travis County constable used a Taser on a 4-foot-11-inch, 72-year-old grandma, who the officer stated was belligerent during the traffic stop.

Deputy Constable (and Taser instructor) Christopher Beize used his Taser on Kathryn Winkfein after she became confrontational when he pulled her over for going 60-mph in a 45-mph construction zone. She had driven the highway each day and stated that she simply did not see the construction zone signs and thus did not know to slow down. The construction signs, are left up 24-7, even long after the workers quit work.

When Grandma declined to sign the citation, the officer stated that she was under arrest, opened the door and dragged the woman out of her truck. As the constable dragged Grandma from her truck, she called him some choice names. But, she also told him to give her the citation and she would sign it. She reached for the ticket book and the officer pulled out his Taser and used it on Grandma.

Grandma fell to the ground in pain, and when she tried to get up, the deputy constable shot her again with another Taser.

An ambulance was called to evaluate Winkfein, and she was not found to have any irregularities, according to court documents. She was arrested, taken to the Travis County Jail and charged with a Class A misdemeanor of resisting arrest and detention, punishable by up to one year in jail and a fine of up to $4,000.

Sgt. Maj. Gary Griffin of the constable's office said the deputy constable acted properly in a dangerous incident in doing the right thing in dealing with a subject who refused to be arrested and put them both in harm's way. "Her actions were inappropriate," Griffin said of Grandma.

Frankly, I believe that the deputy constable should be embarrassed that harsh words from a 4-foot-11-inch, 72-year-old grandma could cause him to lose his cool and act with such violence. I hope he doesn't get reprimanded by his own grandma for forgetting to wipe his shoes after playing in the back yard.

Really now, how difficult would it be for a trained deputy constable to physically restrain Grandma. Unnecessary force? I think so!

Another mark against law enforcement. Score one for Grandma! Elect that woman Governor of Texas!

Law School Site Sued over Web Access Issues

2009-06-09T10:57:00.001-07:00

It seems that a website must be built in such a manner that vision impaired and blind individuals can access the site without problems. Albeit, those with vision problems use special tools that allow them access to the sites, it would seem that the problem is not one of individual sites, but with the software choices necessary to "read" the site.

However, since the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) pre-dates the Web as we now know it and was intended to deal with physical structures. This can make it problematic to apply to a virtual presence such as a web site.

The Unruh Civil Rights Act requires any business establishment of any kind to be accessible if doing business in California so this seems to have the wider scope that might be needed for a successful lawsuit.

There have been a couple of ADA successes - such as the Ramada, Priceline cases and, most recently, the Target lawsuit - I don't understand how the US National Federation of the Blind can keep bringing these lawsuits against individual business and affect a change with the Web. It would seem that they are only in it for the money that can be won by contesting the issue. I believe a better solution lies in the creation of software and standards that will allow all individuals to traverse these sites and the Web.

This is an article found on the Web:

The US National Federation of the Blind; its California affiliate; and a blind law school applicant, Deepa Goraya, filed a lawsuit on February 1st 2009 against the Law School Admissions Council (LSAC).

The complaint asserts that the LSAC, the body that administers the Law School Admissions Test (which most aspiring law students must take) and provides other services to law schools and law school applicants, violates the California Disabled Persons Act and the Unruh Act because the LSAC web site and LSAT preparation materials are inaccessible to blind law school applicants. The plaintiffs did attempt to meet with the LSAC to resolve the matter, but the LSAC canceled a planned meeting.

The lawsuit claims that the LSAC web site contains a number of accessibility barriers including improperly formatted online forms, tables and charts that cannot be read by screen access software, and faulty keyboard navigation support. These access barriers make it difficult or impossible for blind people to use the site to register for the LSAT, amongst other things. The site is also the only avenue for people to apply online to any law school accredited by the American Bar Association. However, blind applicants cannot submit their applications without sighted assistance because the application forms are improperly formatted. In addition, none of the LSAT practice materials, which include previously administered versions of the test that sighted people can obtain on the LSAC site, are available in accessible electronic formats.

“The Internet is extremely useful to blind people, as well as our sighted peers, when Web sites are properly formatted according to well-established guidelines; there is no good reason for any Web site offering goods and services to the public to be inaccessible to blind people. For too long, blind people have experienced barriers to entering the legal profession, despite our long history of demonstrated success in that field. The National Federation of the Blind will not sit quietly while the LSAC willfully refuses to provide the same services to blind people seeking admission to law school that it does to the sighted. The LSAC is engaging in blatant discrimination against the blind and we will not stand for it.”

Dr. Marc Maurer, President of the National Federation of the Blind

“Trying to use the LSAC Web site made the experience of applying to law school a nightmare when it should have been as easy for me as for anyone else. I had to select and rely upon a reader for over fifty hours to complete my law school applications. Also, none of the practice tests available on the Web site were accessible. I want the process of gaining admission to law school to be easier for all blind people who are interested in entering this noble profession, and I hope this action will achieve that goal.” - Deepa Goraya, a law school applicant and named plaintiff in the suit

Three Monkees

2009-06-08T09:17:00.001-07:00

There's an old Haitian proverb that goes: A monkey never thinks her baby's ugly!

Of course, man didn't descend from the monkey, and what a shame we didn't. Consider this little prose:

THREE LITTLE MONKEYS

Three little monkeys, sat on a coconut tree
Discussing things that are said to be
Said one to the other,” Now listen, you two,
There’s a terrible rumor that can’t be true
That man descended from our great race,...
Why, brother, the idea’s an awful disgrace.
A monkey never beat his wife,
Harmed her children and ruined her life.
And other things, you’ll never see
Is an ape who’s drunk, and on a spree
Welding a gun or club or knife
To take some other monkey’s life...
Yes, man descended,...The ornery cuss...
But brother, he never descended from us.

That Warning!

2009-05-22T06:29:00.001-07:00

If you watch television, or you are on the Internet a bit or have an email account, you have no doubt been seeing advertising or receiving SPAM about these drugs for erectile dysfunction. I mean, really, how many men do you know that have the problem? Okay, so maybe it doesn’t come up at the Friday night poker game, but really now!

I usually write about things that I have personal knowledge of, but there are always the exceptions. This is one. I have yet (of course I am only 65 years old) had to worry about erectile dysfunction. Knock on wood! (no pun intended … well okay maybe it was a pun!).

I have always found that the warning near the end of the commercial strangely comical. I'm sure you've all heard it:

In the rare case an erection lasting for more than four hours, seek immediate medical attention.

I am sure that this is a carefully crafted statement meant to entice men who don’t really have an erectile dysfunction to purchase the drugs for this side effect. Personally, I would probably have a heart attack long before the four hours were over. The malady, yes it is a malady, for a unwanted prolonged erection is called priapism.

But, seriously priapism is no laughing matter. And here is where the story turns serious. In most cases, there is no defined cause for priapism, but it can be associated with may systemic diseases, including leukemia, multiple myeloma, tumor infiltration, spinal cord injury or anesthesia, amyloidosis, spider bites, carbon monoxide poisoning, or malaria. There are many medications that can be associated with this, including psychotropic medications, cocaine or marijuana abuse.

According to the Cleveland Clinic, one of the top ranking care centers in the world, Priapism is a persistent, usually painful, erection that lasts for more than four hours and occurs without sexual stimulation. The condition develops when blood in the penis becomes trapped and unable to drain. If the condition is not treated immediately, it can lead to scarring and permanent erectile dysfunction.

It can occur in all age groups, including newborns. However, it usually affects men between the ages of 5 to 10 years and 20 to 50 years.

There are two categories of priapism: low-flow and high-flow.

1. Low flow: This type of priapism is the result of blood being trapped in the erection chambers. It often occurs without a known cause in men who are otherwise healthy, but also affects men with sickle-cell disease, leukemia (cancer of the blood) or malaria.

2. High flow: High flow priapism is more rare than low-flow and usually less painful. It is the result of a ruptured artery from an injury to the penis or the perineum (area between the scrotum and anus), which prevents blood in the penis from circulating normally.

What causes priapism?

Sickle cell anemia

Some adult cases of priapism are the result of sickle-cell disease and approximately 42% of all adults with sickle-cell will eventually develop priapism.

Medications

A common cause of priapism is the use and/or misuse of medications. Drug-related priapism includes drugs such as Desyrel used to treat depression or Thorazine, used to treat certain mental illnesses. For people who have erectile dysfunction, injection therapy medications to treat the condition may also cause priapism.

Other causes of priapism include:

Trauma to the spinal cord or to the genital area
Black widow spider bites
Carbon monoxide poisoning
Illicit drug use, such as marijuana and cocaine

In rare cases, priapism may be related to cancers that can affect the penis and prevent the outflow of blood.

How is priapism diagnosed?

If you experience priapism, it is important that you seek medical care immediately. Tell your doctor:

The length of time you have had the erection

How long your erection usually lasts

Any medication or drugs, legal or illegal, which you have used. Be honest with your doctor, illegal drug use is particularly relevant since both marijuana and cocaine have been linked to priapism.

Whether or not priapism followed trauma to that area of the body.

Your doctor will review your medical history and perform a thorough physical examination to determine the cause of priapism. This will include checking the rectum and the abdomen for evidence of unusual growths or abnormalities that may indicate the presence of cancer.

After the physical exam is complete, the doctor will take a blood-gas measurement of the blood from the penis. During this test, a small needle is placed in the penis, some of the blood is drawn and then it is sent to a lab for analysis. This provides a clue as to how long the condition has been present and how much damage has occurred.
How is priapism treated?

The goal of all treatment is to make the erection go away and preserve future erectile function. If a person receives treatment within four to six hours, the erection can almost always be reduced with medication. If the erection has lasted less than four hours, decongestant medications, which may act to decease blood flow to the penis, may be very helpful. Other treatment options include:

Ice packs: Ice applied to the penis and perineum may reduce swelling.

Surgical ligation: Used in cases where an artery has been ruptured, the doctor will ligate (tie off) the artery that is causing the priapism in order to restore normal blood flow.

Intracavernous injection: Used for low-flow priapism, during this treatment drugs known as alpha-agonists are injected into the penis that cause the veins to narrow reducing blood flow to the penis causing the swelling to subside.

Surgical shunt: Also used for low-flow priapism, a shunt is a passageway that is surgically inserted into the penis to divert the blood flow and allow circulation to return to normal.

Aspiration: After numbing the penis, doctors will insert a needle and drain blood from the penis to reduce pressure and swelling.

If you suspect that you are experiencing priapism, you should not attempt to treat it yourself. Instead seek emergency as soon as possible.

What is the outlook for people with priapism?

As long as treatment is prompt, the outlook for most people is very good. However, the longer medical attention is delayed, the greater the risk of permanent erectile dysfunction.

So, what to do if you have an erection for more than 4 hours? Some say that conservative measures like walking up the stairs (to promote an arterial steal phenomenon) as well as ice packs to the penis and perineum can help. If not, then its off to the ER.

Medications like alpha-blockers, methylene blue, and terbutaline have been used with varying success. If these don't work, then injection therapy should then be considered as well as a urology consult.

So, next time you wonder about the "erections lasting longer than 4 hours" mentioned at the end of those erectile dysfunction ads, wonder no more.

That Warning!

2009-05-22T04:51:00.001-07:00

That Warning

If you watch television, are on the Internet a bit or have an email account, you have no doubt been seeing advertising or receiving SPAM about these drugs for erectile dysfunction. I mean, really, how many men do you know that have the problem? Okay, so maybe it doesn’t come up at the Friday night poker game, but really now!

I usually write about things that I have personal knowledge of, but there are always the exceptions. This is one. I have yet (of course I am only 65 years old) had to worry about erectile dysfunction. Knock on wood! (no pun intended … well okay maybe it was a pun!).

I have always found that the warning near the end of the commercial strangely comical. I'm sure you've all heard it:

In the rare case an erection lasts for more than four hours, seek immediate medical attention.

I am sure that this is a carefully crafted statement meant to entice men who don’t really have an erectile dysfunction to purchase the drugs for this side effect. Personally, I would probably have a heart attack long before the four hours were over. The malady, yes it is a malady, for a unwanted prolonged erection is called priapism.

But, seriously priapism is no laughing matter. And here is where the story turns serious. In most cases, there is no defined cause for priapism, but it can be associated with may systemic diseases, including leukemia, multiple myeloma, tumor infiltration, spinal cord injury or anesthesia, amyloidosis, spider bites, carbon monoxide poisoning, or malaria. There are many medications that can be associated with this, including psychotropic medications, cocaine or marijuana abuse.

According to the Cleveland Clinic, one of the top ranking care centers in the world, Priapism is a persistent, usually painful, erection that lasts for more than four hours and occurs without sexual stimulation. The condition develops when blood in the penis becomes trapped and unable to drain. If the condition is not treated immediately, it can lead to scarring and permanent erectile dysfunction.

It can occur in all age groups, including newborns. However, it usually affects men between the ages of 5 to 10 years and 20 to 50 years.

There are two categories of priapism: low-flow and high-flow.

1. Low flow: This type of priapism is the result of blood being trapped in the erection chambers. It often occurs without a known cause in men who are otherwise healthy, but also affects men with sickle-cell disease, leukemia (cancer of the blood) or malaria.

2. High flow: High flow priapism is more rare than low-flow and usually less painful. It is the result of a ruptured artery from an injury to the penis or the perineum (area between the scrotum and anus), which prevents blood in the penis from circulating normally.

What causes priapism?

Sickle cell anemia

Some adult cases of priapism are the result of sickle-cell disease and approximately 42% of all adults with sickle-cell will eventually develop priapism.

Medications

A common cause of priapism is the use and/or misuse of medications. Drug-related priapism includes drugs such as Desyrel used to treat depression or Thorazine, used to treat certain mental illnesses. For people who have erectile dysfunction, injection therapy medications to treat the condition may also cause priapism.

Other causes of priapism include:

Trauma to the spinal cord or to the genital area
Black widow spider bites
Carbon monoxide poisoning
Illicit drug use, such as marijuana and cocaine

In rare cases, priapism may be related to cancers that can affect the penis and prevent the outflow of blood.

How is priapism diagnosed?

If you experience priapism, it is important that you seek medical care immediately. Tell your doctor:

The length of time you have had the erection

How long your erection usually lasts

Any medication or drugs, legal or illegal, which you have used. Be honest with your doctor, illegal drug use is particularly relevant since both marijuana and cocaine have been linked to priapism.

Whether or not priapism followed trauma to that area of the body.

Your doctor will review your medical history and perform a thorough physical examination to determine the cause of priapism. This will include checking the rectum and the abdomen for evidence of unusual growths or abnormalities that may indicate the presence of cancer.

After the physical exam is complete, the doctor will take a blood-gas measurement of the blood from the penis. During this test, a small needle is placed in the penis, some of the blood is drawn and then it is sent to a lab for analysis. This provides a clue as to how long the condition has been present and how much damage has occurred.
How is priapism treated?

The goal of all treatment is to make the erection go away and preserve future erectile function. If a person receives treatment within four to six hours, the erection can almost always be reduced with medication. If the erection has lasted less than four hours, decongestant medications, which may act to decease blood flow to the penis, may be very helpful. Other treatment options include:

Ice packs: Ice applied to the penis and perineum may reduce swelling.

Surgical ligation: Used in cases where an artery has been ruptured, the doctor will ligate (tie off) the artery that is causing the priapism in order to restore normal blood flow.

Intracavernous injection: Used for low-flow priapism, during this treatment drugs known as alpha-agonists are injected into the penis that cause the veins to narrow reducing blood flow to the penis causing the swelling to subside.

Surgical shunt: Also used for low-flow priapism, a shunt is a passageway that is surgically inserted into the penis to divert the blood flow and allow circulation to return to normal.

Aspiration: After numbing the penis, doctors will insert a needle and drain blood from the penis to reduce pressure and swelling.

If you suspect that you are experiencing priapism, you should not attempt to treat it yourself. Instead seek emergency as soon as possible.

What is the outlook for people with priapism?

As long as treatment is prompt, the outlook for most people is very good. However, the longer medical attention is delayed, the greater the risk of permanent erectile dysfunction.

So, what to do if you have an erection for more than 4 hours? Some say that conservative measures like walking up the stairs (to promote an arterial steal phenomenon) as well as ice packs to the penis and perineum can help. If not, then its off to the ER.

Medications like alpha-blockers, methylene blue, and terbutaline have been used with varying success. If these don't work, then injection therapy should then be considered as well as a urology consult.

So, next time you wonder about the "erections lasting longer than 4 hours" mentioned at the end of those erectile dysfunction ads, wonder no more.

The First Root Beer

2009-05-17T00:43:00.001-07:00

I laid in bed, tossing and turning. I couldn’t sleep, so I arose and came to my computer to work on this column. When I fired up my Mac, and opened Firefox, my Google home page gadget, “Today in History” touted - May 16,1866: Charles Elmer Hires invents root beer.

As a lover of root beer since I was old enough to remember, I decided to research the story a bit and see what I could learn this week about root beer. As it turned out – quite a bit. First I learned that Charles Elmer Hires (August 19, 1851 – July 31, 1937) was an early promoter of commercially prepared root beer, but hardly the “inventor” of root beer.

At the age of 12 he worked as a drugstore boy. When he was 16 he moved to Philadelphia and worked in a pharmacy, saving his money until he had nearly $400. Using this money, he started his own drugstore. Later, he would attend medical school and he eventually became a pharmacist in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

I did learn that although various websites state that “Hires Root Beer was created by pharmacist Charles Elmer Hires on May 16, 1866,” this is doubtful. First, no documentation is given on any of the websites as to where the date came from. And second, given that Hires was born Aug. 19, 1851, that would mean he was 14 years old. The 1866 date is rendered all the more doubtful in light of the lore that his recipe for root beer was based on one for an herbal tea which he secured from an innkeeper in New Jersey while he was on his honeymoon. All very strange.

Hires is one of many brands owned by the British giant Cadbury Schweppes. Their brands include Dr. Pepper, Seven Up, A&W Root Beer and many others. The company states that:

“Hires Root Beer, America’s original root beer, is more than 120 years old and the oldest continuously marketed soft drink in the United States. Created by pharmacist Charles E. Hires, it began as a delicious herbal tea made of roots, berries, and herbs. After perfecting the recipe in his drugstore, Hires decided to call his drink ‘root beer’ because a friend thought it would be more appealing than ‘herbal tea.’ ”

Other stories tell how Hires “discovered” root beer on his honeymoon in New Jersey where the woman who ran his honeymoon hotel served root tea. Hires was originally going to call his drink "root tea" also but thought that "root beer" would be more appealing to the working class.

Another story states that Hires was a young medical student at the Jefferson medical college when a friend, the Reverend Dr. Russell Conwell, founder of the Temple university, asked Hires to assist in concocting a beverage for sale to Pennsylvania miners in the interest of a temperance movement. With two other professors, they made the drink out of root, bark, and berry ingredients.”

The drink was slow to catch on, but Conwell persuaded Hires to present his product at the 1876 U.S. Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. To make it stand out, he called his drink "The Temperance Drink" and "the greatest health giving beverage in the world". Because of his role in the temperance movement it is believed that Hires wanted root beer to be an alternative to alcohol.

What is known is that Charles Hires began marketing “Hires’ Improved Root-Beer Package,” a powdered substance from which a consumer could make root beer in 1877. Hires was packaging the mixture in boxes and selling it to housewives and soda fountains. They needed to mix in water, sugar, and yeast.

The wording use of “Improved Root Beer” is key here, because root beer had been established for at least 40 years before Hires began marketing his product. American colonists drank root beer - sometimes slightly fermented, sometimes not - which was then called “small or short beer.”

Published references of root beer as a drink were plentiful as can be attested by these newspaper articles:

July 28, 1840 - The Southport (Wisconsin) Telegraph: “The editor of the Rahway [N.J.] Herald spent the fourth [of July] in the following manner:—Forenoon, feasted on cherry pie and root beer; afternoon on root beer and cherry pie; evening partook of both. Nothing like variety!”

October 13, 1843 - The Milwaukee (Wisconsin) Democrat, published a report from New York reflecting on “celebrating the ‘glorious fourth [of July],’ in parading the dusty streets, rejuvenating in the oyster shops, or in drinking root-beer (that abominable compound) in the Park....”

July 14, 1847 – Watertown (Wisconsin) Chronicle: “While in New York, President [James K.] Polk visited Fulton market, and was presented with a pine apple, a glass of root beer and a paper of tobacco. He received them all with a ‘low bow.’ ”

June 15, 1849 – The Star and Banner (Gettysburg, PA): “Five persons have lately died at Blairsville, Pa., by drinking root beer, made by mistake from wild parsnip instead of roots of sweet myrrh and sarsaparilla, and some 16 or 18 persons are still suffering from ill effects.”

June 22, 1849 – Milwaukee (Wisconsin) Sentinel and Gazette: An ad titled “Temperance Beverage” read, “You that are thirsty—and who is not, this hot weather?—go and drink Hopkins’ Root Beer and Sarsaparilla Soda manufactured by him at the corner of Martin and Main Streets. We drink it daily and think it nothing inferior to the nectar of the gods.”

June 11, 1853 – Hornellsville (New York) Tribune: An ad for Dr. Green’s Celebrated Root Beer ran stating it was manufactured locally and “furnished to village and country dealers on liberal terms.”

September 18, 1858 – New York (New York) Times: “Fair Haven oysters, ice cream, and the more substantial fares of roast beef and boiled are to be had in plenty, and may be washed down with pop, root-beer, or soda-water, at one’s pleasure.”

September 4, 1869 – Port Jervis (New York) Evening Gazette: “The fashionable drinks in Boston just now, are root beer, New England root beer, old fashioned root beer, Ottawa beer, Chippews beer, and several other kinds of beer.” It added: “Lager beer [is] prohibited by the prohibitory law.”

Prior to “inventing” root beer, Hires was selling an herbal tea, a cough medicine and cough drops at his pharmacy in Philadelphia. It’s been speculated that the serving of the root beer at Hires’ drugstore stemmed from carbonated water at the soda fountain being added to Hires’ herb tea. This is unlikely, implying as it does the chance discovery of something new, while root beer was by then a common beverage.

The most reliable source lists 1895 as the date when bottled Hires Root Beer went on the market. According to a 1932 United States Board of Tax Appeals decision, it was in 1895 that the Charles E. Hires Company “added to its former products carbonated root beer put up in bottles ready for consumption.”

Those “former products,” according to the decision, were “Hires’ Improved Root-Beer Package,” inaugurated in 1877, which was “a dry preparation known as from which root beer was obtained by a simple process,” and “Hires’ Root-Beer Extract,” introduced in 1878, “from which, by the addition of water and yeast, root beer was easily made, ready for consumption.” Neither product constituted a “root beer”—they were the makings for root beer.

Whichever date is right, it was much later than May 16, 1866. There were carbonated soft drinks in bottles in 1885, but Hires Root Beer was not listed at the time. And soft drinks in cans didn’t come about until 1938 when Cliquot Club Ginger Ale first appeared in tin containers.

So, there you have the “rest of the story!” For my money, I prefer A&W Root Beer as a drink!

How Loud is "Too" Loud

2009-05-16T10:44:00.001-07:00

How loud is "too" loud in the bedroom when engaging in intimacy?

If you live in the United Kingdom (not Marlin Perkin's Animal Kingdom, which is altogether a different animal, so to speak), being too loud could land you in jail. Yes, while it is hard to believe that being too noisy while being intimate with your husband means going to jail, surely there are worse crimes being committed in the UK?

Caroline Cartwright, a 48 year old woman in the UK was previously charged with an Anti-Social Behaviour Order due to the amount of noise she made while having what was described as "marathon romps" with her husband Steve Cartwright. The order prevented her from "making excessive noise" while engaged in intimacy anywhere in the UK.

But Caroline, who obviously couldn't get enough of Steve, breached the order three times. Having been reported by neighbors numerous times, (including one neighbor who is partially deaf), Caroline was arrested by the police, and has been remanded for as long as 2 weeks while awaiting trial.

Yes, Caroline has requested a trial by jury of her peers. This is going to get very interesting. You see the last time that she appeared in the courts, her neighbors produced 23 separate recordings of Caroline and Steve "doing it". They had placed recording devices on the walls. So maybe the neighbors are just audio-erotic.

One neighbor, who is obviously celibate, stated in court, "I heard sounds....they were really loud, and there was a lot of moaning and groaning and screaming as if in pain. It wasn't just the her, it came from both of them."

I'd suggest a simple solution. Be happy that Caroline and Steve have such a wonderful relationship. No one complains when Frank Sinatra, Tom Jones or Mary Black sings about finding love. No one seems to be complaining about the hip hoppers blasting their vulgarity from their cars with the windows rolled down.

I think what's happening is that the neighbors are jealous that they are not in a such a wonderful relationship like Caroline and Steve. Just like the people that complain about Bill Gates having all that money, there will always be complainers. I'd say give this couple an award for being happy and vocal about it.

One Billion Applications!

2009-05-14T21:36:00.001-07:00

Just nine months after the revolutionary App Store opened, Apple Computer today announced, Connor Mulcahey, a thirteen year old from Weston, CT, downloaded the one billionth app. By downloading Bump, a free contact swapping app created by Bump Technologies, the teenager became the grand prize winner of Apple’s one billion app countdown contest and will receive a $10,000 iTunes gift card, an iPod touch, a Time Capsule, and a MacBook Pro.

While other companies are going bankrupt, Apple Computer is showing a net quarterly profit. “We are extremely pleased to report the best non-holiday quarter revenue and earnings in our history,” said Peter Oppenheimer, Apple’s CFO, in announcing the company’s March quarter financial results. In its fiscal 2009 second quarter, Apple posted revenue of $8.16 billion and a net quarterly profit of $1.21 billion, or $1.33 per diluted share. Gross margin was 36.4 percent, up from 32.9 percent in the year-ago quarter.

Blogs and Social Media

2009-04-17T09:29:00.000-07:00

Blogs are not the definitive educational experience that most believe. Social media comments are not creating a positive outcome. Most are nothing more than negative comments about life and it’s dull boring existence for that individual.

Blogs are usually short, just a few paragraphs or at most the length of an article in a general purpose magazine – about 750 words at most. Social media comments are usually no more than 6 to 10 words.

A blog cannot capture the real essence of an idea, a technique or give purpose to life. A social media comment normally captures nothing and few understand why the comment was made or what it really means. They do present ideas, but seldom follow through with any real solutions to solving the mysteries. All too often they are a rant, an argument, or they pose a question but never gives the answer. They are little more than a sounding board for the masses – and the masses have far to much to say and little to contribute to the overall good of society.

Blogs and social media comments are little more than gossip, about one’s favorite restaurant or how the kids did in the school’s relay races. They are the short patches of conversation with readers clicking on to the next page like attendees at a cocktail party jumping to the next group in hopes meeting Mr. Right or hearing about a better job that is being offered.

Okay, so this is a blog, but what differentiates this blog from the ones that I spent the previous four paragraphs putting down? Simple, I present an idea, but I give a solution, or solutions, to make things better. Or, at least that is my mission.

I started publishing an Internet column, a precursor to this blog in 1993. It doesn’t seem all that long ago, but in computer years it is a age ago. I had this idea to write a column about the things I learned along life’s way and to make people think. This was pre-blog days. Blogs didn’t really exist at the time.

My blog, This Week I Learned, presents solutions to common every day things, such as how we look at others. I have written about the homeless living under a bridge near my gallery in Dallas, Texas, to the famous bondage model Bettie Page. I have written about my childhood in relating stories about growing up in a small Texas town some 60 years ago. There have been stories about junkmen, writers, artists, and more. In each, I have attempted to help others understand the people that I write about and create a better understanding of how we can be different yet live together in peace and harmony.

This is not an easy concept for some to understand, as we live in a world that thrives on both being as different as possible and also blending together. There are, and have always been, those that thrive on religious, race, and cultural differences. Far too many place a greater emphasis on difference than is necessary. They believe that there is only one true God – their own. They believe skin color determines a person’s ability to be honest, or in their ability to hold a job, or know love. They believe that one’s upbringing often creates impossibilities for one’s future. Of course, none of this is true.

What is the solution? I would ask each of the more than 112-million Bloggers, as well as other writers, artists, and creative types to learn to think and also to think to learn. I would ask each to be responsible to their readers in presenting solutions to make the world a better place through creating environments of peace and harmony. Think about it and learn.

Sometimes Life Hands You a Sack of Potatoes

2009-04-14T21:02:00.000-07:00

This week I learned that sometimes things are not always what they at first seem.

This is a story that my friend John Mark Benton told on his Facebook page. It was just too good to not share.

John Mark lives down in San Augustine, Florida. You couldn’t ask for a nicer guy – very laid back and very likable. I met John Mark when he attended my School of Screenprinting in Austin two years ago. He wanted to learn how to print T-shirts to supplement his income from his landscaping company. After three days in Austin, John Mark decided that he really liked screenprinting – more than landscaping. He also realized the income he could derive from printing T-shirts was a lot more than toiling in the baking sun pushing a lawn mower around the expanses of yards. The number of grass blades far outnumbered the hours that he was willing to invest.

John Mark went back to San Augustine to convince his wife that they should sell the landscaping equipment and go into screenprinting full time. The problem was that they are just starting their life together and had two small children. But, somehow he convinced his wife that they should go for it. Now, two years later they have more business than they expected and are doing quite well, even with the economy taking a nose dive in the middle of their growth.

Now, don’t get me wrong, John Mark works hard for his success and every now and then needs a day off. His in-laws have a lake house over in Putnam County and every once in while, John Mark likes to relax down there. This last Saturday, about midnight, with the kids in bed, John Mark decided to stroll down to the dock to finish his beer and check out the solitude of the lake. The lake was quiet – the only sound coming from a bass that hit something on top of the water every now and then. Ah, peace and quiet, a cold beer and a moonlit night. What could be better?

About then John Mark heard a couple of people talking on another dock about 500 yards down the shoreline from him. He turned and notice that one guy was looking at something in the water, pointing and the other guy was … right in mid thought it hit him – BLAM!

Something racked him hard. It felt like someone had swung a sack of potatoes on a rope at the side of his head. A brilliant flash of white went off inside his head, blinding him for a few minutes.

If John Mark had not been sitting in the deck chair, he would have fallen in the water. As it were, he ended up slumped over the side of the chair in an awkward position. He yelled at nothing. There was nothing or nobody to yell at. His thoughts ran from a shotgun blast to a potato gun. He sat up and moved his hand to his head, half expecting part of it to be missing. He felt blood, but luckily all of the parts present before the hit were still there and intact. The side of his head and especially his ear were hot with blood and began swelling immediately.

With what had just happened, John Mark had let his emotions of anger and confusion take over. His attention moved to the only other people on the lake, the guys down the shoreline, to which he began yelling, “You mother...!!! They looked in his direction and run off of their dock, obviously scared out of their wits.

He thought about taking a boat down the shoreline to confront the boys down on the next dock, but the only boat available was one of those pedal boats and he quickly realized how ridiculous he would look pedaling up the shoreline and screaming at them.

He tossed the beer bottle and walked back to the house, where he cleaned himself up and went to bed – still angry.

The next morning in the mirror he surveyed his head. There were two scratches that started on his cheek and temple and proceeded back past his ear. On the back of the ear were several more scratches that began as puncture wounds. Obviously, this wasn’t a sack of potatoes that hit him. The general consensus from the family was that an owl had swooped down and tried to grab his ear. Ouch!

The mother-in-law did provide her own source of empathy in stating, “Well, you shouldn’t have been out there in the first place.”

This article is copyrighted by Bill Hood of This Week I Learned (http://thisweekilearned.com) and may not be used without the express written consent of the author.

How to Be a Star

2009-04-13T03:23:00.000-07:00

Have you been to a concert? There are usually two acts. The opening act and the star. The opening act has got to be the toughest gig there is. Long before the opening act goes on stage, they were offstage, listening to the crowd grow restless. The crowd is chanting for the star of the show an hour before he goes onstage. Hardly anyone is there to see the opening act. No matter how great they are the audience is there to see the star of the show, and usually they paid the big bucks to see the star, not the opening act.

When the opening act goes out on stage, they are met with a audible letdown from the audience. The opening act can hear it, they feel it, and it is tough to not acknowledge that they are a second to the star of the show. Yet, they walk out onstage, full of enthusiasm. They perform flawlessly, even flat out, to an audience who isn’t there to hear them. They smile and give it their all and yes, sometimes they get booed off the stage, no matter how good they really are. It isn’t their fault. They are just in the wrong place at the wrong time. They are playing at someone else’s party and are the unwanted guest.

They are there in hopes of attracting a new following. Perhaps a few of the audience will buy their music from iTunes or at the music store. Perhaps someone will like them well enough to become part of their posse and tell others to listen to them, “Hey have you heard so-and-so? They are really great!”

On the other hand, the star of the show, has the audience in their hand. People paid to hear them play. The applaud the star when the band members walk out onto the stage. They sing along with the star’s every word. When the star holds the mike up in the air and points it to the audience they finish the lyrics.

Two years ago, I met a beautiful young woman at a coffee shop in Austin, Texas. As I sipped my café latte I watched her enter the front door and step to the counter to order. She was dressed as a rock star and she exuded star quality. She appeared to be in her early twenties and I wondered how anyone so young could be so self-confident. Austin is the Live Music Capitol of the World, and there are a dozen musicians in every coffee shop in town. Six of them are working as the baristas and the other six are there to put their postcards on the community bulletin boards in hopes of snagging a few audience members from the assembled patrons.

As the young woman turned away from the counter, she had a smile on her face. As she walked across the room she noticed my obvious stare and held her hand out as she stated, “Hello, my name is Kimberly Freeman with One-Eyed Doll.” I hadn’t realized I had been staring. Actually, lost in thought was more like it. But, Kimberly was not going to allow this to get in her way, she was a star and acted like it. Entering the coffee shop was like going on stage for her and the patrons were her fans even though she had never met them. She pulled me into the crowd of her fans and embraced me as a long lost friend or perhaps her next biggest fan, which I was to eventually become.

I repeated the name of the band as a question, “One Eyed Doll?” Kimberly didn’t waste a moment to give me her elevator talk. It was a two-person band, her (the One Eyed Doll) and her drummer, who played heavy rock and would be performing at Club Elysium that evening at 9 pm. She reached into the bag slung over her shoulder and produced a professionally printed color postcard, which showed a photo of her onstage, on her knees with her Fender Stratocaster in hand. I promised I would be there. Kimberly seemed a bit shocked as my white hair gave me away as senior citizen and obviously not a regular at Club Elysium, a punk, goth and heavy rock dance club in the Sixth Street Entertainment Zone of Austin. When she asked if I knew where the club was, I acknowledged that I had been there before and would most certainly be looking forward to her act.

That night, I went to the club early and sat at the bar having a drink while I waited for Kimberly to go on stage. As the moment neared I moved to the front row so that I could enjoy the show without having to crane my neck to see around the crowd that was starting to fill the club. Most of the attendees were milling around in the back of the club even as Kimberly walked out on stage. She was met with about twenty people sitting in the front rows of the perhaps 100 chairs. The other eighty people were still milling around in the back talking and drinking.

I realized that Kimberly was the opening act. As she started playing, I was blown away by her expert guitar playing, but it was her voice and the words to her original songs that excelled. This girl could write and her voice was mesmerizing. By the third song, the crowd at the back had grown in size and in volume. The twenty of us were actually turning our heads to see if we could get their attention and embarrass them into being quiet.

Kimberly noticed our discomfort and before she started the next song, she sat down on the front of the stage with guitar in hand, she leaned over and spoke in a soft voice, not unlike the storyteller at a children’s book reading and said, “Don’t pay any attention to those people, I am singing to you guys. You are my audience and I am going to give you a very special concert tonight.”

And she did!

During the South By Southwest (SXSW) show a few weeks ago, Kimberly was a headline act. She was the star onstage and wowed the audience with her own songs and attitude.

The questions to be asked is why are some individuals stars and others opening acts. What differentiates the star from the opening act? How do you get to be a star?

Its simple!

1. Be very, very good at what you do. Educate yourself – gaining the knowledge to be the very best your community, if not the world.
2. Market yourself to a very small audience that views you as a star – not the opening act.
3. Grow that audience through continuous marketing efforts.

I became an instant fan of Kimberly Freeman’s One Eyed Doll. She is not only the best songwriter I know, but she is a star. She exudes knowledge of her craft and it shows on stage and off. She doesn’t try to be an opening act. Bottom line – she is a star and I bought it.

Be a STAR – not the opening act!

About Kimberly Freeman

One-Eyed Doll is the Austin, Texas based power-rock-duo led by guitarist and singer Kimberly Freeman. Freeman's wild stage antics, theatrical presentation, tough guitar chops and acrobatic moves have earned her unprecedented recognition in the world's live music capital.

The duo is backed by drummer PJ Evans: AKA NUMBER THREE. Previously a career movie actor, Three joined shortly after the production of the January 2007 release, "Hole".

From 2007 to 2008 with the release of the debut album, Freeman's community cult following exploded into a global fan base, setting a new standard for the modern guerrilla DIY business structure.

The duo released their most prolific and decidedly popular work to date, "Monster" in November 2008, once again under the precise hand of veteran producer Jason Sewell. The new album debuts, to the triumph of their inherently eccentric following, Kimberly's signature dark and heavy hits, "Fight" and "Monster" blending seamlessly with radio pop style ballads like "Brief Candle" and "Pretty Song".

Rumors have another album being planned for production, alongside several solo releases by Freeman in 2009. Visit her website online at http://www.oneeyeddoll.com.

Urban Legend Come True

2009-03-28T09:33:00.000-07:00

This week I learned that sometimes Urban Legends take a turn for the worse.

According to Barbara Mikkelson’s Snopes.com, urban legends are those stories that circulates widely, being told and retold with differing details or in multiple versions and are believed to be true by most people. Whether the event actually occurred is irrelevant to the classification as an urban legend. They may be true in some cases, and the details may have been embellished upon, and the details have been altered over the years, i.e. where it happened, when it happened, the identify of those involved, the reaction of the tale.

We’ve all received urban legends though the email or posted on the company bulletin board, warning us of impending dangers that do not, in reality, exist as told. Our intelligence, if we possess any, most often tells us that the tale couldn’t be true, but our imagination runs way at times and we begin to believe that perhaps, just maybe, the common fallacy, misinformation, old wives’ tale, strange new story, rumor, celebrity gossip or other similar item might just be true.

This morning (Saturday, March 28, 2009) in the Austin American Statesman there was a story (http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/03/28/0328shootout.html) that very much reminded me of an old urban legend. The story as reported in the Statesman is not funny, as the original urban legend was perhaps meant to be. This is a case in which one individual twists an old story and attempts to make the urban legend become true. The results in this case were disastrous to the victim, who lost a leg and months of imprisonment. But let me tell the story and you can decide for yourself if perhaps urban legends are at play here.

David Lozano, 50, and his wife, Rosemary, were having marital problems leading up to an incident on March 11, 2007, according to a police affidavit.

That night, a man with whom Rosemary Lozano had had an affair threatened David Lozano just after midnight in a phone conversation. Then that man, Miguel Salazar, told Lozano he was coming over to the Lozano home 1205 Silverton Court in Northwest Austin. Salazar then called police and reported a domestic disturbance at the Lozano home.

Police officer Roger Boudreau, a four-year veteran of the Austin Police Department, responded to the disturbance call at Lozano’s home. The police officer was alone and did not call for backup. He arrived in the dark of night, dressed in all black as other policemen, since it is thought that 1) black is an intimidating color and helps police in overpowering individuals and 2) the black color blends into the dark preventing them from being observed, which allows them to move about unseen, like Ninjas in the night.

The officer had the video camera in his car running to record the incident, as well as a small lapel microphone. As he knocked on the front door of Lozano’s house, he distinctly heard someone chamber a round into a gun through the door and immediately moved off of the porch.

Lozano, thinking it was Salazar knocking on the door had intentionally made the sound with the gun to scare Salazar away. Not hearing anything more than the knock on the door, after a few minutes, Lozano looked through the peephole and seeing no one there, he opened the door with gun in hand.

For those not familiar with Texas law, I should explain that in Texas individuals have the right to protect their family, home and property with deadly force. Trespass has it’s consequence in Texas and often ends in a deadly mishap. Police have often been shot at, wounded and even killed when trespassing onto a person’s property at night without properly identifying themselves properly, as was the case this night.

With the video in the police car and the lapel microphone recording all that happened, it was obvious that police officer Boudreau never identified himself as a police officer, not did he say anything aloud. When Lozano opened the door with gun in hand, Boudreau responded by firing two times at the silhouetted Lozano and then ran around to the side of the house into the dark to protect himself from the light pouring from the opened front door.

Perhaps Boudreau acted in fear and simply forgot to state he was a police officer. Perhaps out of fear of being shot with the gun in Lozano’s hand, he failed to state, “Stop or I’ll shoot!” or some other warning that should have been made before firing. This is not necessary if the police officer feels that he is in immediate danger of his life.

Lozano, still believing that it was Salazar that knocked on the door and shot him, followed the dark figure around to the side of the house. Another shot was fired, and recorded on the audio portion of the video tape in the police car and over the lapel microphone worn by the police officer.

Lozano was wounded in the leg by the gunshots from Boudreau. Lozano was arrested and three months after the confrontation, a grand jury indicted Lozano on charges of attempted capital murder and aggravated assault by threat. Lozano’s wound was far worse that first thought, and eventually his leg was amputated while he was in jail awaiting a hearing on the matter.

Lozano, spent 13 months in jail before he was released on bail in 2008. The release came after the Travis Country Assistant District Attorney Steven Brand admitted, "We believe that Mr. Lozano maintained a reasonable belief that on that day and time he was defending himself, his wife and his property," something that the defense had suggested from the very beginning.

The dismissal came after a series of expert witnesses for both the state and defense cast doubt on whether officer Roger Boudreau told the truth about the confrontation, according to attorneys in the case.

Since Boudreau's patrol car video camera was on during the incident and he was wearing a lapel microphone, which recorded the audio, expert witnesses analyzed the recordings and the crime scene. There was no doubt that the police officer never identified himself and in fact had fired the first three shots in the incidents. The men had different caliber weapons that could be distinguished from each other on the recording.

This led prosecutors to dismiss the initial charges and they also acknowledged that there were a number of inconsistencies in the actual evidence and in officer Boudreau’s account, implying that the officer lied about the circumstances.

But the Police Chief, Art Acevedo stood by his police officer and brought charges up again in July 2008. The second grand jury indicted Lozano on a charge of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, a second-degree felony punishable by up to 20 years in prison.

Again, further analysis by expert witnesses found that Boudreau fired the first five shots. In recent weeks, state experts had independently determined that Boudreau fired at least the first three shots, prompting prosecutors to abandon the case once again.

But, wait! That’s not all.

An APD News release by the Public Information Officer of the Austin Police Department dated Wednesday, March 21, 2007 at 12:11 a.m. concerning the officer involved shooting, tells a completely different story than what eventually came to light. The press release read:

At approximately 12:11a.m., Northeast Area Command patrol officers responded to a 9-1-1 call of a family disturbance at 1205 Silverton Court. Upon arrival at the scene an officer approached the residence and could hear a verbal disturbance coming from inside the house.

Officer Roger Boudreau knocked on the door to make contact with the individuals inside the residence. Officer Boudreau heard what he believed to be a round being chambered into a gun as the suspect approached the front door from inside the residence. The suspect immediately opened the front door and began to fire at Officer Boudreau. Officer Boudreau sought cover as the suspect pursued him. Officer Boudreau returned fire striking the suspect. The suspect retreated inside the residence. After a brief period he returned to the front of the residence and surrendered. He was taken into custody by responding officers without further incident.

The suspect was transported to Brackenridge Hospital where he is listed in fair condition. The suspect has been identified as David Lozano, 50 (DOB: 04-16-56). Lozano has been charged with Attempted Capitol Murder, a first-degree felony. Bond has been set at $300,000.

Officer Roger Boudreau, a four-year veteran, has been placed on restricted duty pending the outcome of the investigation and the presentation of the case to the Travis County Grand Jury. This is standard procedure when an officer uses deadly force.

This was the third officer involved shooting in a 2-week period. The Austin Police Department, which has undergone a Federal investigation for excessive force in the past, decided that Boudreau not only acted in his best interest by firing the first three or five shots and running away, they awarded Boudreau the Medal of Valor, the department's highest honor, for displaying exceptional bravery in the incident.

Last week, Lozano filed a federal lawsuit against the City of Austin, Boudreau and Boudreau's supervisor, Sgt. Stephen Deaton, claiming, among other things, that he was a victim of excessive force and that his civil rights were violated.

The citizens of Austin are in an uproar about the incident, and are demanding that the officer be fired for using excessive force, his Medal of Valor be returned, and that he be prosecuted for attempted murder of Lozano.

Now, for the Urban Legend story that I was reminded of.

The Anger Management Urban Legend

In a fanciful tale of revenge that began circulating on the Internet in January 1997, we hear a similar story. Perhaps the instigator in the above true story had read the tale and decided to use it to his advantage in some sick and twisted manner, but then again, maybe not. It could be a simple case of circumstance. It is called the Tale of Revenge:

A man comes up with an inventive way to get even with two rude fellows.

Now get this. I was sitting at my desk, when I remembered a phone call I had to make. I found the number and dialed it. A man answered nicely saying, "Hello?" I politely said, "This is John Jo and could I please speak to Robin Carter?"

Suddenly the phone was slammed down on me! I couldn't believe that anyone could be that rude. I tracked down Robin's correct number and called her. She had transposed the last two digits. After I hung up with Robin, I spotted the wrong number still lying there on my desk. I decided to call it again.

When the same person once more answered, I yelled “Jerk!" and hung up. Next to his phone number I wrote the word "Jerk," and put it in my desk drawer. Every couple of weeks, when I was paying bills, or had a really bad day, I'd call him up. He'd answer, and then I'd yell, ''Jerk!" It would always cheer me up.

Later in the year the phone company introduced caller ID. This was a real disappointment for me, I would have to stop calling the Jerk. Then one day I had an idea. I dialed his number, then heard his voice, "Hello." I made up a name. "Yo. This is Telly with the telephone company and I'm just calling to see if you're familiar with our Caller ID program?" He went, "No!" and slammed the phone down. I quickly called him back and said, "That's because you're a “Jerk!"

And the reason I took the time to tell you this story, is to show you how if there's ever anything really bothering you, you can do something about it. Just dial 823-4863 and tell the guy he is a Jerk!

But, wait, there’s more…

The old lady at the mall really took her time pulling out of the parking space. I didn't think she was ever going to leave. Finally her car began to move and she started to very slowly back out of the stall. I backed up a little more to give her plenty of room to pull out. Great, I thought, she's finally leaving.

All of a sudden this black Camaro come flying up the parking aisle in the wrong direction and pulls into her space. I started honking my horn and yelling, "You can't do that,.. I was here first!"

The guy climbed out of his Camaro completely ignoring me. He walked toward the mall as if he didn't even hear me.

I thought to myself, this guy's a jerk, there's sure a lot of jerks in this world.

I noticed he had a For Sale sign in the back window of his car. I wrote down the number. Then I hunted for another place to park.

A couple of days later, I'm at home sitting at my desk. I had just gotten off the phone after calling 823-4863 and yelling, "' Jerk!" (It's really easy to call him now since I have his number on speed dial). I noticed the phone number of the guy with the black Camaro lying on my desk and thought I'd better call this guy, too.

After a couple rings someone answered the phone and said, "Hello."

I asked, "Are you the dude with the black Camaro for sale?"

"Yes I am,” came the reply.

"Can you tell me where I can see it?" "Yes, I live at 1802 West 34th Street. It's a yellow house and the car's parked right out front." I said, "What's your name dude?" "My name is Don Hansen." "When's a good time to catch you, Don?" "I'm home in the evenings." "Listen Don, can I tell you something?"

"Yes." "Don, you're a “Jerk!" And I slammed the phone down. After I hung up I added Don Hansen's number to my speed dialer.

For a while things seemed to be going better for me. Now when I had a problem I had two Jerks to call. Then after several months of calling the Jerks and hanging up on them, the whole thing started to seem like an obligation. It just wasn't as enjoyable as it used to be.

I gave the problem some serious thought and came up with a solution.

First, I had my phone dial Jerk #1. A man answered nicely saying, "Hello."

I yelled "Jerk!" But I didn't hang up.

The Jerk said, "Are you still there?"

I said, "Yeah.."

He said, "Stop calling me."

I said, "No."

He said, "What's your name, pal?"

I said, "Don Hansen."

"Where do you live?"

"1802 West 34th Street. It's a yellow house and my black Camaro's parked out front." "I'm coming over right now! You'd better start saying your prayers."

"Yeah, like I'm really scared, “Jerk!" and I hung up.

Then I called Jerk #2.

He answered, "Hello."

I said, "Hello? Jerk!"

He said, "If I ever find out who you are..."

"You'll what?"

"I'll kick your…!"

"Oh yeah? You just wait right there. I'm coming over right now, Jerk!" And I hung up.

Then I picked up the phone and called the police. I told them a big gang fight was going down at 1802 West 34th Street. After that I climbed into my car and headed over to 34th Street to watch the whole thing.

I turned onto 34th Street and parked my car under the shade of a tree half a block from Jerk #2's house. There were two guys fighting out front. Suddenly there were about 12 police cars and a helicopter. The police wrestled the two men to the ground and took them away.

A couple of months go by and I get a call for jury duty. I was picked to be on a trial of two guys charged with disorderly conduct. As luck would have it, it happened to be the same two guys. I might have influenced the jury, because when they announced the verdict, they said, "We the jury find the defendants to be guilty, and a couple of Jerks!"

Barbara Mikkelson, in her Internet site, Snopes.com, tracked down the many different versions of the story and deems it an Urban Legend.

She states that the hero's name is variously given as John Jo, Patrick Hanifin, Patrick Hannifin or Steve Sims. The name he makes up when posing as someone asking about Caller ID is Telly or Herman. Depending on which version you encounter, the miscreants are labeled by different names, sometimes using profanity and at other times not, depending on the person who passes along the story. Just as I have eliminated the offensive language in the tale in order to tell it on my “family friendly” site.

Mikkelson states that the original version was not possible as it gave the first phone number as 722.4822, in which the last two digits could not have been transposed. Later versions gave the phone number as 823.4863, which shows that someone was paying attention and changed the number to make the story more believable.

Dead Man Jumps from Taxi

2009-02-17T03:51:00.000-08:00

This week I learned that dead men can jump. Either that or the headline writers at the Austin American-Statesman are trying hard to get their paper mentioned on the Jay Leno television show for his Stupid Headlines skit.

Of course, this begs several questions:

1. Can a dead man really jump?

2. Did the other passenger "help" the man out of the taxi?

3. Did the door accidentally open as the man leaned against the door handle?

4. Who was the other passenger and was he questioned?

5. Why would the deputy have released the other passenger without questioning him and getting some form of identification?

6. Does the cab driver not know where he dropped the other passenger off?

Call me inquisitive, but shouldn't someone have asked these questions. I think what should be investigated is the police officers' investigation. The world is indeed a strange place.

A Bit of South Korea in Austin, Texas

2009-02-04T13:11:00.001-08:00

In 1996, Austin, Texas became home to South Korea's Samsung Semiconductor Corporation, which is one of the largest private employers in Travis county. And, just as all things are bigger in Texas, the 1.6 million square foot building--as large as nine football fields is not only the largest building in Austin, it is one of the largest single semiconductor facilities in the United States.

Samsung Austin Semiconductor produces Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM) chips - most commonly used in personal computers, workstations, servers. The US-chartered company is owned by Samsung Electronics, the giant $60-billion Korean high tech company, and is Samsung’s only semiconductor manufacturing facility outside of Korea.

But many do not realize that almost 20 years before Samsung moved to Austin, we had already imported one of our most beautiful landmarks from South Korea.

The Pennybacker Bridge in Austin, Texas bridges Lake Austin to connect north and south Loop 360 highway, also known as the "Capital of Texas Highway." The road is widely considered one of the most scenic urban drives in central Texas, in large part due to this arched weathering steel bridge and the rolling hills that flank the road.

The contract for the bridge was let in late 1979 and major structural steelwork was finished by July 1982. The bridge was dedicated officially November 29, 1982.

The bridge is named for Percy V. Pennybacker Jr., who designed bridges for the Texas Highway Department and was a pioneer in the technology of welded structures.

Pennybacker worked for the Texas Highway Department in the early 1900s designing bridges. He earned his civil engineering degree from the University of Texas at Austin. He served as a captain in the Army Air Service during World War I. After the war, he worked in Kansas and Texas. During World War II, he became interested in welded construction as an alternative to rivets. By promoting the use of welding for heavy stress bridge design, he is credited with saving the state of Texas millions of dollars. When he retired from the Texas Highway Department, he worked another three years for the city of Austin as a civil engineer.

Like his father, Percy suffered from diabetes. After spending a year in the hospital, he became one of the first patients treated with insulin. The family moved from Tyler to Austin in 1900. He married Mary Alice. A life-long and faithful Episcopalian, he helped found St. George's Episcopal Church in Austin.

The steel bridge has a uniform weathered rust finish allowing the bridge to blend in with the surrounding hills and lake. The 600,000,000 pounds (272,000,000 kg) of steel for the bridge were produced in Japan.

The bridge structures were fabricated in Ulsan, Korea by Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI). Yes they are the same Hyundai that produces the Kia automobile (they are the fifth largest auto maker in the world, producing 1.6 million cars per year). The Hyundai logo, a slanted, stylized 'H', is said to be symbolic of two people (the company and customer) shaking hands. Hyundai means "modernity" in Korean.

Hyundai Heavy Industries is also the world's largest shipbuilder company, headquartered in Ulsan, South Korea. Chung Ju-Yung founded the Hyundai Engineering and Construction Company in 1947.

But, I digress…

The steel structures for the Pennybacker Bridge were shipped on the Jundale freighter to the Port of Houston and then trucked to the bridge site. The bridge was erected by Bristol Steel of Bristol, Virginia. The roadway surface is built from 3,400 short tons (3,000,000 kg) of concrete. The finish was sandblasted to ensure even weathering for an amber patina. The construction was coordinated by Clearwater Constructors of Denver, Colorado. The bridge cost US$10 million to build.

The bridge is constructed such that no part of the structure touches the water 100 feet (30 m) below. The bridge is 1,150 feet (351 m) long with a 600 feet (183 m) central arched span. This design keeps Lake Austin free from support columns because the recreational lake (really a dammed stretch of the Colorado River) is popular with boaters and waterskiers. The untied arch suspension span is suspended by 72 steel cables. At the time of its construction, it was only the second bridge of its design in the world.

The bridge has four lanes, two in each direction, separated by a middle barrier wall. The bridge also has a six foot wide bike and pedestrian lane. The bike access on the bridge is one reason for Loop 360's popularity with cyclists. The south approach provides a turnaround under the bridge along with lake access for public boating.

The bridge won first place in the 1984 Federal Highway Administration's Excellence in Highway Design competition. In 1992, the Austin members of the Consulting Engineers Council of Texas were surveyed and selected the bridge as the most innovative example of Austin architecture.

And there you have the rest of the story.

Remembering Bettie

2008-12-25T14:35:00.000-08:00

When I was a young boy, growing up in a small North Texas town, I had a dream of becoming a photographer. I was inspired by a single photograph on a calendar that would haunt me, along with millions of others around the world. The girl in the photograph would also be haunted the rest of her life.

My dad was having his truck repaired at Buck Hayes’ gas station/garage in town. Hanging above a workbench, in great contrast to the overwhelming smell of grease, gasoline and rubber tires was a calendar graced with a photo of Bettie, exuberant, possessing a wide-eyed innocence. She appeared confident, and yes, almost aggressive. She was the most beautiful woman in the world. Not only did I think so, but also to millions of others, whose cravings for this woman made her the most photographed woman in the world.

The year was 1950 and pin-ups were all the craze. A pin-up girl or pin-up model is a model whose mass-produced pictures find wide appeal as pop culture. Although pin-ups are usually relegated to the back room of a garage, the girls themselves were often as not well-respected glamour models, fashion models, and actresses.

The practice of publishing photographs of beautiful women in magazines dates back to the 1890s. However, the term pin-up was first attested to in England in 1941. The photos of pin-up models were cut from the popular magazines and newspapers of the day and pinned up on the walls of millions of garages, lockers of service men, and in game dens around the world.

By the 1920s, a number of famous women were made even more famous by their pin-ups. Among them were, Mary Pickford, Greta Garbo, Clara Bow, Joan Crawford, and Barbara Kent. Most of the celebrities posing for pin-up photos were considered sex symbols of their day, but likely as not were simply stylized versions of what some thought a particularly beautiful or attractive woman should look like.

In the 1930s, the pin-up craze found more acceptance and pin-up calendars were being found on display at the neighborhood pharmacy. The list of famous women who would pose for these provocative photos grew to include; Josephine Baker, Joan Blondell, Marlene Dietrich, Dolores del Rio, Jean Harlow, Sonja Henie, Ruby Keeler, Gypsy Rose Lee, Carole Lombard, Myrna Loy, Sally Rand, Ginger Rogers, Barbara Stanwyck and Mae West.

The 1940s also saw a plethora of famous women jump in front of the camera as they became aware of the marketing value of having their image mass-produced and put up on walls around the world. Among the most famous were; Lauren Bacall, Ingrid Bergman, Yvonne de Carlo, Ava Gardner, Judy Garland, Rita Hayworth, Lena Horne, Veronica Lake, Hedy Lamarr, Dorothy Lamour, Ann Miller, Donna Reed, Jane Russell, Ann Sheridan, Lana Turner, Esther Williams, Shelley Winters and who could forget the extravagant and beautiful Carmen Miranda.

Often the word “cheesecake” was used to describe the pin-up photos. The earliest documented print usage of this sense of cheesecake is in 1934 as slang for “photography of sexy young women.” The word probably started as the photographer's word, c1930, to make subjects hold a smile, “Say Cheese.” Although there is some thought that the term “to make cheeses,” which was derived from the schoolgirl practice of c1835. The girls would wheel rapidly so that their petticoats blew out in a circle (exposing their legs for boy’s amusement), then dropping down so they came to rest inflated and resembling a wheel of cheese. Some say that the phrase is much older, and originated when a man would say of a pretty girl, “she’s better than cheesecake.” By the 1953, there was a magazine called Cheesecake that had a young Marilyn Monroe in a yellow bikini on its cover.

If there was one person who brought pin-up calendars from cheesecake to the standing of fine art, it was Bettie. Her calendar adorned the walls and locker doors everywhere. Of all the pin-up models over the years, none was more photographed or well known than Bettie. More than 20,000 photos were reproduced, often in the millions onto magazine covers, calendars and posters. Vanity Fair praised her as “our Uber-pin-up.” The New York Times wrote, “her star shines more brightly than it did in her brief heyday from 1950 to 1957.” In a recent TVGuide.com poll, Bettie was voted the “ultimate sex goddess,” outscoring others such as Marilyn Monroe. Playboy Magazine immortalized Bettie as one of its inaugural centerfolds and recently named her “the model of the century, yet she remains one of its best kept secrets.”

Although, Bettie was known for her work from 1950 to 1957, a span of only 8 years, her presence is as strong today as it was back then. Moreover, the work would haunt her for the rest of her life. The majority of people have no idea who Bettie Page was, but almost 3/4 million people visit her website, bettiepage.com, each day on average, making it one the most visited sites on the Internet. The site has had as many as 25 million hits in a single day.

Bettie Page continues to be a timeless legend, but was bit of a conundrum, even to her.

Who was Bettie?

Bettie was the sweet, smiling legendary 1950s pin-up queen with killer curves and coal-black bangs. Her popularity as an underground, guilty pleasures phenomenon has continued to soar despite the fact that the reclusive Bettie disappeared almost a half century ago, leading many to believe that one of the most photographed individuals of the 20th century was dead. This was far from the truth, which was that Bettie had simply changed her choice of lifestyle. However, lets get back to the beginning of Bettie’s life.

Born on April 22, 1923 in Nashville, Tennessee, Betty (she adopted the spelling Bettie which resulted by a typesetter misspelling her name at the beginning of her career) Mae Page was the second child of six born to Walter Roy Page and Edna Mae Pirtle. Growing up very poor resulted in frequent moves when the rent came due. As the oldest girl, Bettie found herself in the role of mother to the younger children, while her parents tried to find work during the depression era. On several occasions, the children were removed to an orphanage.

Her parents were avid churchgoers. Thus the children were raised in a church atmosphere, and Bettie was a devoutly religious person all of her life. Life for the family was hard even though her parents were extremely good looking and intelligent, traits that Bettie inherited from them. This came with a mixed blessing as her mother was jealous of her and did not want her as a daughter. Her father molested her at an early age.

Bettie and her two younger sisters were movie fans and often acted out scenes from movies that had just seen. “I’ve been a movie hound my whole life. That’s how I started learning how to pose, when my little sisters would ask me to mimic photos of movie stars we had seen in the magazines and newspapers.”

At an early age, Bettie learned to sew out of necessity of being too poor to buy store bought clothes. She often made her own costumes, lingerie and bikinis to wear during photo shoots. She was the program director of the drama club, secretary-treasurer of the student council, co-editor of the school’s newspaper and yearbook, and voted “Most Likely to Succeed” by her classmates. She was the salutatorian of her high school graduating class.

She earned a scholarship to Vanderbilt University, but her mother refused to let her go, probably to keep her at home to care for her brothers and sisters. She did go on to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree in education from Peabody College in Tennessee and tried teaching school for a while. However, her great looks made it difficult for the students to concentrate. “I couldn’t control my students, especially the boys!” she would say with a wink. Two decades later Page returned to Peabody to work on her master’s degree.

After giving up on teaching, Bettie moved to San Francisco where she worked in secretarial jobs. She also worked as a model, but was more than fully clothed as she modeled fur coats. She married a young man Billy Neal, who was in the military and leaving for a tour in the South Pacific. His absence caused trouble early on in the marriage due to his jealously over the beautiful wife that he left behind.

There wasn’t anyone, anywhere, quite like Bettie. She thought for herself. She chartered her own course. She was independent. She was completely self-made, bore no prejudice of any kind, and recognized no barrier to personal fulfillment. Although Bettie was completely oblivious to her good looks, everywhere she went, whatever she did, people were distracted and dumbstruck by her looks -- the beguiling smile, the raven hair, the flawless figure.

Finally, in 1945, a business contact arranged for a screen test at 20th Century-Fox. The screen test was a total flop, although of no fault to Bettie. The hair and makeup staff were the first problem, says Bettie. “They did my hair and makeup so that I looked like a caricature of Joan Crawford,” she recalled in the Southern drawl she never lost, and which Hollywood frowned on. “It was awful. They ran the test for me; I hardly even recognized myself.” She actually ran away from the lot when one of the producers offered a lucrative movie career in exchange for a romp on the casting couch. “I didn’t like his looks,” Bettie would later say. “I wouldn’t have gone to bed with him anyway. He was a creep. He drove off in his big car and scolded me, ‘You’ll be sorry.’ I wasn’t.”

However, she was in Los Angeles and word spread quickly about the enchantingly beautiful movie star wannabe. Studio boss, Jack Warner approached her about doing a second screen test. He was very apologetic about what had happened during her previous screen test and offered to handle the next one personally. With her husband, Billy, returning home from war in the South Pacific, Page was focused on trying to save a collapsing marriage. She said later that she never answered his telegram and that it was the one mistake that she most regretted in her life.

The flamboyant filmmaker, aviator, inventor, and photography buff Howard Hughes, pursued Bettie as well. Hughes phoned and had his staff phone her many times, summoning Bettie regularly on the pretext of wanting to photograph the delicious looking model. Bettie thought that he was only interested in adding her to his list of paramours. She declined his offers every time. “I never returned any of his calls,” said Bettie. “I guess people will say I made a mistake. But sex is part of love, and you shouldn’t go around doing it unless you are in love. I certainly didn’t.”

Bettie’s marriage with Neal collapsed after his return from the war and filled with wanderlust she moved to New York in 1947. One day at the beach, Bettie met a police officer named Jerry Tibbs. He was interested in photography, noticed the beautiful Bettie frolicking in the surf, and asked if he could take her photo. Tibbs was black, and although Bettie was raised in the South, she was not a racist and not only accepted the chance to pose for Tibbs; they went on to become good friends. It was Tibbs who recommended that Bettie adopt her trademark bangs and he assisted her in developing her first pin-up portfolio.

Tibbs suggested that Bettie do more cheesecake type modeling and it proved to be a major success for the beautiful women with all the right curves. Tibbs also turned out to be quite the marketer and soon the young model’s face and figure were everywhere. She was in just about every men’s magazine at the time - Bare, Beauty Parade, Chicks And Chuckles, Eyeful, Gaze, He, Jest, She, Sir!, Stare, Sunbathing, Titter, Vue, Wink and dozens of others. Men carefully removed her photos from the magazine and pinned them up to their office walls, locker doors, and in garages around the world. Her image was appreciated everywhere and soon Bettie had gained international attention and notoriety. “You couldn’t walk by a newsstand without seeing a picture of this gal on one magazine or another,” said Hillard Elkins, who for a time represented Bettie on behalf of the William Morris Agency.

The acclaimed fashion photographer Bunny Yeager had heard the buzz about the alluring beauty and came calling. Bettie was thrilled at the prospects of getting more serious work than the cheesecake pin-up work and quickly accepted the offer from Yeager. Perhaps it was her looks or as some would attest, her ingenuity and dominant personality, but Bettie always seemed to command the photo sessions and no matter who was behind the camera the view through the lens was always the same. She was just too damn sexy for her own good.

Years later, Bettie remembered that she “was generally happy posing, and that seemed to shine through in the pictures” “Nobody knew this, but I used to imagine the camera was my boyfriend, and I was making love to him. I had fun teasing the guy with the camera until he was in sync with whatever mood I was in.”

She did a skit on television with the star of The Jackie Gleason Show. Bettie remembered disliking him from the beginning. “Oh, Gleason was a tyrant,” Bettie remembered. “That man was inconsiderate of everyone around him, including Art Carney, Joyce Meadows, the director, I do mean everyone. I never saw such screaming and yelling. Some people think I’m crazy! You should have seen this cad in action”

Bettie studied acting at the renowned Herbert Berghof Studios in Manhattan. “I wasn’t trying to be an actress at that time, but I wanted to see if I could really act or not.” Her pronounced Southern accent was not accepted well, especially in New York and with no desire to return to Nashville or any other part of the South, she gave up acting.

Although Bettie never worked as a dancer or stripper in clubs, she did appear in three burlesque films, which made many think that she did - STRIP-O-RAMA (1953), VARIETEASE (1954), and TEASERAMA (1955). “I was terrible,” Page laughed in recalling these low budget grind-house efforts. She also performed for the camera in countless 8 and 16mm so-called “film loops” exhibited in peep shows and sold through the mail. Running only minutes long, many of these were staged and issued by the brother-and-sister team of Irving and Paula Klaw of Movie Star News in New York.

It was for the Klaws that Bettie gained infamy posing in bondage. “It was all pretend,” she explained. “According to my arrangement with the Klaws, you had to do an hour of bondage poses in order to get paid for the other modeling work.” Seeing such photos in recent years (now they seem almost tame), she would laugh and comment, “Oh, I look like a meanie here. But honestly, who could take any of this seriously? I never understood how anyone believed those poses were sexy. To be tied up? I don’t get it.”

In 1954, Bettie was approached by Hugh Hefner and asked to become his Miss January 1955, wearing a Santa hat and nothing else. This catapulted Bettie to a new level of notoriety that perhaps spelled the upcoming end of her career. Hugh Hefner stated recently that the appearance of Bettie in Playboy Magazine was a milestone for her and the magazine, and that “she became, in time, an American icon, her winning smile and effervescent personality apparent in every pose.”

Bettie never imagined the consequences of posing for the cheesecake images on any conscious level. However, eventually Bettie found that her provocative images violated all manner of sexual taboos at the time. Finally, a United States Senate Committee investigation into pornography began. Bettie was subpoenaed to appear in a Capitol Hill courtroom presided over by Senator (and presidential hopeful) Estes Kefauver, yet was never called upon to actually testify.

In 1958, perhaps fed up with the scene and now knowing the probable consequences of the modeling she had been doing, Bettie disappeared. The exceptionally beautiful pin-up queen who was at the height of her career simply vanished.

No one knew where she had gone or what might have happened to her. Her disappearance only fanned the flames of her notoriety. Like Amelia Earhart – gone without a trace. The rumors flew and for decades, her fans searched for her to no avail. The investigative television program 60 Minutes tried to find her for a story and although the story aired, Bettie was nowhere to be found.

With Bettie’s disappearance came an even bigger interest in her modeling. Marketers took advantage of the disappearance and the more than 20,000 published images to create a growing industry of her celebrated image. Over the years, countless old black and white photos of Bettie Page have continued to stimulate tributes in the form of books, websites, fan clubs, documentary films, and countless other products - playing cards, cigarette lighters, calendars, T-shirts, action figures, key chains and all sorts of memorabilia.

Everyone from fashion designers, to Madonna, and others have copied the fetish behavior, the bangs and the bullets bras. Dave Stevens, a most devout fan of Bettie, created a comic book titled “The Rocketeer,” with a love interest clearly depictive of Bettie. Disney adapted the comic as a big budget, same-named motion picture starring the Oscar-winning Jennifer Connelly.

The erotic pin-up artist Olivia, clearly inspired by Bettie and others pin-up models has been painting facsimiles of Bettie for more than 25 years in art books, for Playboy, and even producing limited edition posters, which sell out quickly.

It became all the rage for actresses and supermodels to pose as the naughty and nice Bettie. They include Madonna, Shalom Harlow, Uma Thurman, Janice Dickinson, Dasha Astafieva, Jenna Jameson, Dita von Teese, Farrah Fawcett, Eva Herzigova, Demi Moore, Laetitia Costa, Christy Turlington, even Renee Zellweger, and others.

Pop culture critic and author Mikal Gilmore has characterized the appeal of Bettie Page in this way: “No matter how much you stare or dream or pray, you could never get enough of what it is that her face and body seem to promise.”

It would be forty years before Bettie would be seen in public again and the truth of her disappearance was revealed. Bettie had simply become overwhelmed with guilt and her own inner demons. She moved from New York to Florida, where she became a born-again Christian. She tried and failed at a second and then third marriage, worked for a while with Billy Graham’s Ministry and others, and worked in the field of homeopathic medicine and nutrition, which had always held an interest for the young beauty. During her spare time, she read books, enjoyed classic movies and in general became a very reclusive person. Many times she told friends in Florida who were unaware of her past life, “My long term goal is to live a healthy hundred years.” Whenever someone approached her to ask, “Aren’t you Bettie Page?” Bettie would always reply, “Who’s that?”

After the failure of Bettie’s third and last marriage in 1978, she went through a black period of mental instability and violent mood swings. As a result, Bettie got into some trouble with the law. The word leaked out, all the sordid details were chronicled in the tabloids, and books were written. She was finally diagnosed a paranoid schizophrenic and hospitalized at San Bernardino’s Patton State Hospital. He left the hospital in 1992, out of her dark period and back to the old Bettie.

Bettie moved to a home in Los Angeles and was content to live in quiet seclusion. As a recluse and born-again Christian, Bettie was oblivious of the memorabilia, the great number of fans searching for her, or even her own impact on the fast-changing sexual mores of society and pop culture.

Dave Stevens, got in touch with Bettie and asked her to escort him to a private screening of “The Rocketeer,” to be held at the Playboy Mansion. It was at this time that Bettie became aware of her enormous market popularity. During a discussion with her old friend Hugh Hefner, he talked her into meeting with attorney Mark Roesler who was the founder of CMG Worldwide. Roesler is credited with establishing the merchandising and licensing business opportunities for several hundred famous personalities, most of whom were deceased, such as Marilyn Monroe, James Dean, Babe Ruth, Malcolm X and others.

Roesler quickly turned the reclusive beauty and her notoriety into a “brand” recognized around the world. Once armed with the exclusive contract for Bettie’s image, Roesler quickly turned all the illegal Bettie memorabilia into licensed products.

Bettie was back and it was Bettimania. Clothing lines that featured the “Bettie Page” brand sprung up, as did a store called “Bettie Page” on the Las Vegas Strip. Bettie became increasingly popular not only here in the United States, but throughout the world.

Her website BettiePage.com has hundreds of millions of registered hits and is extremely popular with young women. “Young women write me untold numbers of letters,” Bettie explained in 2005. “They look up to me. They thank me for helping them see how they can be themselves or how they can reinvent themselves, assert themselves, lose their inhibitions, and come out of their shells. Of course just posing for pictures I never intended to do any part of that, but I am gratified to see that what I did so long ago has meant something to so many.”

Despite having worked with only a few photographers, having thousands of her photographs destroyed following the congressional hearings, and despite so few existing original photos (most are nothing more than inferior copies of the originals) the transcendent beauty and playful yet dangerous personality of Bettie Page trumps all else and continues to inspire documentary films, designers’ fashions, artists’ fetishes, and fans’ fantasies.

Bettie Page died December 11, 2008 of pneumonia at a Los Angeles, California hospital. She was 85 years old. She suffered a heart attack a week before and never regained consciousness.

Her attorney and agent, Mark Roesler was at Bettie’s bedside when she slipped away peacefully. Bettie Page, the sweet-smiling legendary 1950s pin-up queen with the killer curves and coal-black bangs is truly gone now, but she will not soon be forgotten.

WeeWeeChu...

2008-12-17T17:51:00.001-08:00

The night was beautiful with a full and romantic moon. Pedro and Maria were sitting on the front porch of their small home, having put the kids to bed for the night. Pedro looked over at his lovely Maria and his heart was filled with joy. They had all that they could ask for - their health, happiness, a full life with two wonderful children.

"Maria, mi corazon, let's do the WeeWeeChu!" Pedro told his lovely bride.

Maria did not immediately reply, as she was busy admiring the stars in the sky and thinking of the children tucked safely into their beds, and the wonderful life that she and Pedro had. Finally, she turned to Pedro and said, "Pedro, I love you, but no, not now. Let's just look at the moon and the stars for a little while.

It had been some time since Maria and Pedro had done the WeeWeeChu and he had his heart set on it tonight. He had waited a long time. "Oh, come on, Maria. I love you so much and I want us to do the WeeWeeChu tonight. Especially with this full moon and the sky filled with stars.

Maria wanted to be the dutiful wife to her precious Pedro, but she really wanted to just relax and watch the moon. She had been busy with the kids all day. They were just two and three years old and were more than she could handle at times. It had been a rough day and she only wanted to relax. "Pedro, can't we just sit and hold hands for a while?"

Pedro was adamant about his stance and had his heart set. "Please, mi corazon, just once, do the WeeWeeChu with me?

Maria looked over at Pedro and could see the excitement in his eyes. She really wanted to please Pedro, who had worked hard all day to earn a decent living for his wife and family. He was the perfect companion for Maria and so she relented. "Ok, Pedro, we will do the WeeWeeChu!"

Pedro grabbed his guitar and they both begin singing in unison, "WeeWeeChu A Merry Christmas. WeeWeeChu A Merry Christmas. WeeWeeChu A Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year."

And along with Pedro and Maria, I WeeWeeChu A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Bill and Barbara

Why you should vote today.

2008-11-04T03:42:00.000-08:00

To paraphrase a popular saying, “Today is the beginning of the next four years.”

I am not going to endorse anyone in this column. I am not going to tell you how to vote. I am not going to repeat statements by any of the candidates. What I am going to tell you is to simply VOTE TODAY!

We all know that the popular vote, i.e. how you and I vote is not going to elect the president. The Electoral College Vote will decide who gets to sit in the office. What is the Electoral College?

The Electoral College is a set of electors who are empowered to elect a candidate to a particular office. Often these represent different organizations or entities, with each organization or entity represented by a particular number of electors or with votes weighted in a particular way. Many times, though, the electors are simply important persons whose wisdom, it is hoped, would provide a better choice than a larger body. The system can ignore the wishes of a general membership, whose thinking need not be considered.

The United States is the only current example of an indirectly elected executive president, with an electoral college made up of electors representing the 50 states and one federal district. Each state has a number of electors equivalent to its total Congressional representation (in both houses), with the non-state District of Columbia receiving three electors and other non-state territories having no electors. The electors generally cast their votes according to the winner of the popular vote in their respective states, but are not required by law to do so.

The Electoral Collage was created at The Philadelphia Convention (now also known as the Constitutional Convention, the Federal Convention, or the "Grand Convention at Philadelphia"), which took place from May 25 to September 17, 1787, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to address problems in governing the United States of America, which had been operating under the Articles of Confederation following independence from Great Britain.

The changes were made by The Philadelphia Convention for several reasons, among them, as a safeguard against the possibility that a small group of individuals who met together regularly might sway the election through their cohesion. Another reason was for the independence of the Office of the President. However, there was speculation at the time that the largest concern was that the general population at the time was simply far to uneducated to make the final decision about how this country should be ran and by whom.

Do not believe that the Electoral College will vote along the lines of their constitutes. They are not required to vote for the people. A few examples:

1824: John Quincy Adams received more than 38,000 fewer votes than Andrew Jackson, but neither candidate won a majority of the Electoral College. Adams was awarded the presidency when the election was thrown to the House of Representatives.

1876: Nearly unanimous support from small states gave Rutherford B. Hayes a one-vote margin in the Electoral College, despite the fact that he lost the popular vote to Samuel J. Tilden by 264,000 votes. Hayes carried five out of the six smallest states (excluding Delaware). These five states plus Colorado gave Hayes 22 electoral votes with only 109,000 popular votes. At the time, Colorado had been just been admitted to the Union and decided to appoint electors instead of holding elections. So, Hayes won Colorado's three electoral votes with zero popular votes. It was the only time in U.S. history that small state support has decided an election.

1888: Benjamin Harrison lost the popular vote by 95,713 votes to Grover Cleveland, but won the electoral vote by 65. In this instance, some say the Electoral College worked the way it is designed to work by preventing a candidate from winning an election based on support from one region of the country. The South overwhelmingly supported Cleveland, and he won by more than 425,000 votes in six southern states. However, in the rest of the country he lost by more than 300,000 votes.

2000: Al Gore had over half a million votes more than George W. Bush, with 50,992,335 votes to Bush's 50,455,156. But after recount controversy in Florida and a U.S. Supreme Court ruling, Bush was awarded the state by 537 popular votes. Like most states, Florida has a "winner takes all" rule. This means that the candidate who wins the state by popular vote also gets all of the state's electoral votes. Bush became president with 271 electoral votes."

Also, you should understand that you are somewhat protected from whomever is elected President of the United States today by the Senate and House. Most presidential decisions must go through an extensive voting before the action is approved. Very little happens in Washington without a majority approval of a great number of individuals and thus the President has somewhat limited power. For this reason, even if you do go out and vote for what you believe is a good 3rd party candidate or an Independent, the Senators and Congress of the United States will ultimately decide the actions that the government takes or doesn’t take..

The bottom line is that the Electoral College decides who sits next to the Red Button in Washington and not the popular vote. And, no matter who gets to sit in the President’s Office, they will be ruled by the Senate and Congress. So why should you vote today?

Your vote is important as it spreads the word to politicians as to what the people of the United States believe in. That’s all it does, but this is a powerful message given to us by the Constitution of the United States and is the only method in which you can voice your opinion. It is your right and obligation as a citizen of the United States to vote and let the powers in Washington know how you feel about the issues.

As Margaret Mead, the great anthropologist, and coincidentally who was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, once said, “Never underestimate the power of a few committed people to change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”

So, please, educate yourself about the issues and be committed to change by voting today!

If you have not registered to vote as of today, you can still vote. There is such a thing as "Provisional Voting" for those persons who did not register but want to do vote in today's election. Simply go to any polling place today and tell them you "want to cast a provisional vote." By law they must allow you to vote. You will need your driver's license or other form of identification and once you vote, you must then register so that your vote will count.

If you are too young to vote, but feel strongly in your opinions, you can still speak out for the constitutional right of those who are old enough to vote. You can hold a sign, make calls to your elders and help in so many ways.

Do not be swayed my friend - VOTE TODAY!

My Sister Mary

2008-09-07T17:59:00.000-07:00

My sister, Mary Rosalind, left home on January 4, 1961. Forty seven years goes by pretty fast, but I have not stopped looking for her over the years.

Just today, after many years of typing "Mary Rosalind" into various search engines without success, I found an updated genealogy record of a Mary Rosalind. This girl fit the birthdate of my sister and was married in Reno, Nevada about 1963. She passed in 1966 and this could explain why I have never heard from her.

I have written the individual who put up the genealogy chart and hope that they will be able to put me in touch with a son from that marriage, who might have some information or perhaps photos of that Mary Rosalind. I know it is a long shot, but one must have hope. Believe me, after forty seven years, I have learned to live on the hope that once day I will find my sister.

The information on my sister and family history is presented below so that anyone knowing of a Mary Rosalind can help me get in touch with my sister. Obviously, she has changed names, perhaps married and has children. If any of this story sounds familiar and you know of a person who fits the information, please get in touch with me or at least ask the person who fits to contact me. The story is written in the third person grammatically.

INFORMATION ON MARY ROSALIND

Mary Rosalind was born on July 13, 1940, in Lewisville, Denton County, Texas. Her Birth Certificate is on file in Volume 14, Page 241, of the Birth Records of Denton County, Texas. Mary's Father was Woodrow (Woody) W. Morgan, who was born in Denton, County, Texas. He was 22 at the time Mary Rosalind was born and was a laborer. Mary's Mother was Eloyce Pearl (Polly) Powell, who was a 22 year old homemaker from Oklahoma. They were living in Lewisville at the time Mary Rosalind was born. Woody and Polly divorced soon after Mary's birth. After the divorce Polly and Mary Rosalind moved to Dallas, Texas.

Once in Dallas Polly found work as a messenger at Dallas Love Field, which at the time was an Army-Air Force Base. While working at Love Field, Polly began dating a co-worker, Thomas Burlon Hood.

Tom was born in Duncanville, Texas on July 7, 1911. Tom grew up and attended school in Cedar Hill, Texas. In February 1934, Tom married Erma Lay in Cedar Hill, Texas. Tom and Erma had a baby boy, Kenneth Ray on August 14, 1934. At the time Tom was working for Dallas County at the District 4 Shop. Tom and Erma divorced in 1942.

In 1942, Tom went to work for the 5th Ferry Command at Dallas Love Field. Love Field was an Army-Air Force Base at the time. Tom worked in the paint department. He painted the numbers on the planes and occasionally picked up extra money by painting the pilots names on the side of the cockpit.

Tom and Polly married on December 28, 1944. Tom, Polly and Mary Rosalind lived in the Hudnall Hotel on Maple Avenue in Dallas. After the war, Polly's parents told them about a job. Tom accepted the job of managing a Magnolia gas station in Snyder, Oklahoma. In 1986 the gas station had become a grocery store. While in Snyder, the family lived in the old jack Brown House. On October 12, 1945, Polly gave birth to George William (Bill) Hood at the Hobart General Hospital in Kiowa County, Oklahoma.

On January 1, 1947, Tom accepted a job as a deputy county sheriff for the Kiowa County Oklahoma Sheriff's Department. Tom, Polly, Mary Rosalind and Bill moved to Hobart, Oklahoma where they found lodging in an apartment in the basement of the County Courthouse. Tom worked as a jailer during the day and made extra money crafting and hand-tooling leather belts, holsters and other items for the other deputies. Tom and Polly had another son, Monty Ray Hood, born on February 2, 1948, at the Hobart General Hospital in Kiowa County, Oklahoma.

With three children and a wife to care for, Tom began searching for a better job. In January 1951, Tom moved his family to Lawton, Oklahoma where he worked for Osham Wholesale Grocery (now Sooner Products). The family lived in a house off Fort Sill Boulevard.

A year later, in 1952, Tom moved the family to Cedar Hill, Texas where he accepted the job of town water-meter reader. Tom's late-brother Shorty offered Polly a job as manager of his restaurant, Shorty Hood's Barbecue. Mary Rosalind worked as a server at Shorty's during her teens. The cafe, located on Highway 67 at Belt Line Road has been demolished due to the expansion of Highway 67. When the family first moved to Cedar Hill, they lived in a rent house on Houston Street for a while before moving to the old Brandenburg house on Brandenburg Street.

Mary Rosalind attended Cedar Hill High School and it was there that Mary Rosalind met fellow student Dan Stewart. Dan and Mary Rosalind married in Cedar Hill on July 22, 1955, when Mary Rosalind was 15 years old. Dan had just graduated and had a job at the Chance Vaught Aircraft plant in Grand Prairie, Texas. Dan and Mary Rosalind lived at his parent's farm on the outskirts of Cedar Hill. After a few months they moved into a small rent house in town. The marriage lasted only a short time and they divorced on November 15, 1957.

Mary Rosalind moved in with Tom and Polly while continuing to work as a server at Shorty's cafe. Within a few months Mary Rosalind deciding to attend Neilson's Beauty College on Jefferson Street in Dallas, Texas. Mary Rosalind received her Operators License in 1958 from the Texas Cosmetology Commission. Mary Rosalind worked at a beauty shop on Forrest in Dallas, then at the Balboa Beauty Shop on Balboa Street in Oak Cliff.

While attending beauty college in 1958, Mary Rosalind began living with Sheeney Bailey, of Cedar Hill. Family members have been unable to find a marriage license. Sheeney was 20 years older than Mary, born about 1920. Sheeney did not have a job during the brief marriage and earned his money as a gambler. Sheeney and Mary Rosalind had troubles from the start. Sheeney drank heavily and would be gone for days. He spent most of his time gambling in various clubs and back rooms near the Dallas/Tarrant County line and in Grand Prairie. Sheeney would come home drunk frequently and physically abuse Mary Rosalind in a drunken rage. The couple lived in his mother's house on the outskirts of Cedar Hill.

On August 5, 1958, Mary Rosalind had a daughter and named her Tammy Sue Bailey. The attending physician was a Dr. Hess, who had offices on Edgefield in Dallas. Tammy was born at the Stevens Park Clinic in Dallas.

In late 1958, Tom and Polly decided to separate. Tom moved back up to Hobart, Oklahoma to work for the Sheriffs Department. Polly moved into a rent house on Hood Drive in Cedar Hill with the boys, Bill and Monty.

After Tammy was born Sheeney spent less and less time with his family. Mary Rosalind and Tammy spent many nights staying with Polly in her house on Hood Drive. Sheeney's drunken rages and extended absences compelled Mary Rosalind to move her 13-year-old brother, Bill, to her house in an attempt to counter the attacks. Bill lived with them during the fall and winter of 1959. The presence of another person in the house prevented the regularity of the abuse but not the severity.

Polly went to work for Rockefeller's Restaurant on Edgefield Street in Oak Cliff (a suburb of Dallas) in the summer of 1959. Polly moved into a rent house on Glenfield Street in Oak Cliff. Shortly before Christmas of 1959, Mary Rosalind took Bill to Dallas to live with Polly. Mary Rosalind had asked Sheeney for a divorce often and Sheeney let her know that he would never allow her to divorce him.

By July of 1960, Mary Rosalind was tired of being a beautician. Mary Rosalind asked Polly to give her a job as a server at Rockefeller's Restaurant on Edgefield Street in Oak Cliff where Polly was the manager. The Social Security number that Mary Rosalind gave at the beauty shops and to Rockefellers differed and Polly doubted that either were her actual number. Polly gave these numbers to a private detective in Dallas who was to have looked for Mary. Polly lost contact with the detective and the social security numbers.

While working, Mary Rosalind would leave Tammy at the home of Nove Carroll in Cedar Hill, Texas. Sheeney would frequently drop in at Rockefeller's and accuse Mary Rosalind of flirting with the customers and attempt to start fights with some people. Mary Rosalind decided to leave Sheeney to avoid the jealous rages and beatings. Mary Rosalind knew that Sheeney would find her in Dallas County and that the only way out was to leave the state. A mechanic at a service station across the street from the restaurant agreed to help Mary. He wouldn't have any part of taking Tammy or the 1960 Chevrolet that was in Sheeney's name as both were illegal.

Mary Rosalind apparently told no one about her decision to leave. Early in the morning of January 4, 1961, she left Tammy with Nove Carroll. Mary Rosalind did not inform Nove of her intentions for fear of Sheeney finding out. Mary Rosalind drove her car to a 7-11 store at the corner of Hampton Road and Illinois in South Oak Cliff. The store had not yet opened as she sat in the car waiting for the mechanic who would help her escape. On the back of an envelope Mary Rosalind hastily wrote a note to Sheeney informing him of why she was leaving and of her intentions to return for Tammy. Mary Rosalind left the car in front of the store and drove away with the mechanic. Later that morning Mary Rosalind wrote a check for some clothes at the House of Nines in Haltom City, a suburb of Dallas.

In late February or early March, Mary Rosalind called her father Tom Hood, who lived in Hobart, Oklahoma. Mary Rosalind wanted to come home and asked Tom for money to buy a bus ticket. Years later, Tom and Polly disagreed on where Mary Rosalind had called from. Tom stated that Mary Rosalind had called from Texarkana, Texas and Polly thought that it was from New Orleans, Louisiana. Tom sent the money to Mary Rosalind and though she obviously received the money, she did not return home.

In March of 1961, Mary Rosalind mailed a postcard to Polly. The card had a Coca Beach, Florida postmark with a picture of the beach in Coca Beach on the front. The message was short, stating that she was well and would be seeing Polly soon. There was no return address.

The man that Mary Rosalind left Dallas with returned to Dallas in April of 1961 without Mary, stating that he left her in Florida. The man gave the family members as much information as he could at the time. He worked at a service station in Dallas for a while, but family members have been informed that he is serving time in the Texas Penitentiary.

Mary Rosalind wrote a letter to Polly in May of 1961, from Salt Lake City, Utah. Sheeney apparently took the letter from Polly's mailbox. In July of 1961, Sheeney brought Mary's daughter, Tammy, to visit with Polly at her home on Glenfield Street in Oak Cliff. Mary's brother, Monty, and Tammy were playing in Sheeney's car while Sheeney and Polly visited in the house. The letter fell from the back of the glove box onto the floor. Monty noted Polly's name and address and the return address. He kept the letter until Sheeney and Tammy had left and then gave the letter to Polly.

The following day, Polly and Mr. Glasscock, the district manager of Rockefeller Restaurants attempted to get in touch with Mary Rosalind in Salt Lake City. Mary Rosalind had given the name and address of Mary Boyes, 167 South Main, Salt Lake City, Utah. The address was that of the Little Hotel; located in the downtown area of Salt Lake City. The manager stated that Mary Boyes had lived at the hotel, before leaving unexpectedly. The manager did not have a forwarding address for this Mary Boyes. Family members are unsure if this Mary Boyes was another woman named Mary that Mary Rosalind has befriended or if Mary Rosalind had assumed another last name. Mr. Glasscock failed to ask for a description of Mary Boyes, as he assumed it was our Mary Rosalind.

By July 1962, Mary's brother Bill had joined the Navy and during a leave went to Salt Lake City in an attempt to find Mary. The individuals Bill spoke to at the hotel stated that they did not know Mary Boyes and were generally uncooperative. Bill went to the Salt Lake City Police Department to request some assistance. The police informed Bill that as Mary Rosalind was of legal age there was nothing they could do. The City of Salt Lake recently demolished the hotel as part of a downtown revitalization project.

It is possible that Mary Rosalind somehow changed her name to Mary Boyes and could have used this name to establish herself somewhere. Of course she would have to had identification with this name. There are no clues that are known why Mary Rosalind would have picked the name Boyes, if she did.

Polly asked Sheeney about the letter and he denied having ever seen the letter or knowing how the letter got in his car. Polly did remember that Sheeney had disappeared for a week during May of 1961. This would have been during the period that the letter was to have arrived. Sheeney would never say where he had been during this time.

After Mary Rosalind left, Sheeney asked Nove Carroll to keep Tammy full time. Nove treated Tammy as her daughter over the years and even made Tammy her beneficiary in her will. When Nove died, Tammy inherited the house and continues to live there. Tammy married and divorced Clay Paramore of Cedar Hill, Texas. Tammy has no children.

Sheeney Bailey eventually remarried. He lived in Fort Worth, Texas, with his wife for sometime. Sheeney Bailey passed away from natural causes (heart problems) in 1992.

In late summer of 1961, Polly got in touch with the Social Security Administration and requested help in locating Mary. They informed Polly that without a Social Security number they could not do much. They did agree to forward a letter if they could find Mary. Polly wrote the letter and mailed it to the Social Security Administration. Months later the letter came back to Polly marked "Moved, Left No Forwarding Address"; with a Venice Beach, California address. Polly was unsure that the Venice Beach Mary Rosalind was her daughter or another woman with same name.

Over the years, Bill wrote many letters and called many women listed as "Mary R.” in the Salt Lake City telephone directory. In May of 1986, Bill found a listing for Mary Boyes in the Salt Lake City directory. Mrs. Boyes had moved to Salt Lake City recently with her husband and knew nothing of our Mary Boyes. Mrs. Boyes wrote a letter to Bill and it is in his files. Her name is Mary W. Boyes and her husband is John M. Boyes. They live at 5340 Armenta, Salt Lake City, Utah 84117.

In January 1986, Bill went to the Texas Department of Public Safety Driver License Division located in Austin, Texas. Bill was told that the Department only keeps records on file for two years after the expiration date of the current license. Records from 1960 were on paper and have been destroyed.

On February 23, 1986, Bill wrote to the County Clerk in Denton County, Texas where Mary Rosalind was born. Bill was in hopes that Mary Rosalind had requested a copy of birth certificate for legal reasons and that they might have an address in their files. On March 5, 1986, Bill received a letter from Mary Jo Hill, the County Clerk of Denton County. Ms. Hill stated that they did keep copies of requests for birth certificates but in checking they found no record of Mary Rosalind having ever made such a request. They even checked the voter registration list in Denton County.

In May of 1986, Bill checked with the Texas Cosmetology Commission in Austin, Texas. Their records show that Mary's Beauty Operator License expired in 1961 and that she never renewed her license. Mary Rosalind could have transferred those hours or license to another state and since that was before microfilm or computers it would not show on their records today.

In July of 1986, Bill contacted the Austin offices of the Social Security Administration about the possibilities of them forwarding another letter to Mary. A Mr. Zuckro agreed to forward the letter, but he would need as much information about Mary Rosalind as possible to help him in finding her. After four months Mr. Zuckro wrote back, stating that with so little information they were unable to locate Mary Rosalind in their computer.

During July of 1986, Bill contacted the Stevens Park Clinic in Dallas in an attempt to locate Mary's Social Security number. He learned that all records are at the Dallas Family Hospital. He spoke with a Ms. Carol Stanford in Medical Records. She informed Bill that all medical records are strictly confidential and could only be obtained by court order through an attorney's request.

Bill has contacted various information sources with computer databases in an attempt to locate Mary Rosalind. Among these are Friendfinders International, Information Sources, Information Resource Service Company, National Data Research Center, Information on Demand, Database, Inc. and Infosearch, Inc. While all of these databases are able to search by Social Security Numbers, none of them could help without the number or Mary Rosalind's current last name.

Bill contacted Mary Rosalind's daughter, Tammy Sue Bailey-Paramore in 1992 and flew her to Austin to meet and discuss strategy concerning the finding of Mary Rosalind. Tammy has conducted some investigation and thus far has been unsuccessful in her attempts.

In 1993, Tammy married Gerald Lee Dowdy in Las Vegas and now has a son Christopher Dowdy. She lives in the Dallas, Texas area.

Mary Rosalind has blue eyes, brown hair and is approximately 5' 7" tall. She has no birthmarks, but did receive a scar on her right forearm as a teenager about 1954. This scar is crescent shaped and measures approximately 3 to 4 inches in length. A Dr. Crawford at his office in Cedar Hill, Texas treated the wound.

Mary Rosalind has used the following names: Morgan, Hood, Stewart, Bailey and perhaps Boyes.

Full Name: Mary Rosalind (Morgan, Hood, Stewart, Bailey, Boyes)

Gender/Descent: Female / Caucasian

Vital Statistics: Born 13 July 1940, Lewisville, Denton County, Texas; Social Security number unknown

Physical: 5 ft. 7 in. tall, weight unknown, blue eyes, brown hair, glasses, crescent shaped scar 3-4 inches in length on right forearm received as teenager about 1954.

Last address: Cedar Hill, Texas 75104 (1960)

Education: Cedar Hill High School, Cedar Hill, Texas. Neilson Beauty College, Dallas, Texas, Received Beauty Operators License from the Texas Cosmetology Commission in 1958.

Occupation: Unknown. Last employed as beautician (1959) and waitress (1960).

Organizations: Unknown

Religion: Raised Methodist

Military: None

Licenses: Texas Drivers License (1960) number unknown

Hobbies: Art, drawing and painting

Subscriptions: Unknown

Possible Location: Utah, Colorado, Nevada, or California

Finances: Unknown

Law History: No arrests prior to 1/4/1961

Bank Account: Unknown

Politics: Unknown

Credit Cards: Unknown

Mother: Eloyce Pearl Powell (Married Names: Morgan, Hood, McGee, Putman)

Date of Birth: 1-11-1918 Oklahoma, Date of Death: 7-5-1991

Interred at Restland Mausoleum, Abby Chapel, Dallas, Texas

SSN: 443-12-0051

Father: Woodrow (Woody) W. Morgan

Date of Birth: Unknown, Circa 1918, Denton County, Texas

Deceased:

Adopted Father: Thomas Burlon Hood

Date of Birth: 6-5-1911, Duncanville, Texas

Deceased: 29 Dec 1997

SSN: 450-30-5914

Daughter: Tammy Sue Bailey

Date of Birth: 8-5-1958, Steven's Park Clinic (became Family Health Clinic), Dallas, TX

Current Address: Dallas, Texas

Her brother, Bill Hood, is keeping a file of all information on Mary Rosalind. If you have any information to add to this file please send to:

Bill Hood
131 Frederick Street
Austin, Texas 78704
bill@billhoodconsulting.com

New 411 Service

2008-08-23T06:11:00.001-07:00

This week I learned about a new 411 service that works exceptionally well. It comes from our friends at Google. You know the great search engine company that grew up.

Google's new 411 service is free, fast and easy to use. Give it a try now and see how simple it is to find and connect with local businesses for free.

Simple dial 1.800.GOOG.411 (1.800.466.4411), state the location and business type that you are looking for (Saint Louis, Missouri - Hotel) and the voice will begin to read a listing of hotels in the area. You say which one you want and you are connected for free.

Why is it that the phone company can't do this for free, but Google can?

Protecting Our Children

2008-08-16T10:04:00.001-07:00

In this morning's paper there was yet another story about a child dying in a hot vehicle. This is totally unacceptable and entirely avoidable with a little thought.

The story told about a Houston, Texas mother who left her 3-year-old boy in a car seat in the back seat of a pickup truck in 90-degree heat as she worked her shift at a hospital. The boy died after wriggling free from his car seat, climbing into the front seat and apparently trying to start the ignition or open the windows with a key found in the center console of the truck. The key was not the ignition key and thus the child was unable to get out of the truck or release the hot air from the truck.

This was the second child to die in a locked, hot vehicle in the Houston area within less than 24 hours. Temperatures reached 94 degrees Thursday.

Police said the boy's mother found him unconscious when she returned to the truck after her shift at North Cypress Medical Center about 3:30 p.m. She broke the back windshield and called for help, but the child was dead when she brought him into the hospital emergency room. Authorities said she used a rock to break the windshield because the remote door locks with a key already in the ignition.

The woman had meant to drop the child off at day care but had forgotten he was in the truck. This happens all too often when parents arise early in the morning to go to work. They are half asleep, placing the child into a car seat where the child goes back to sleep and is quiet and of course, unnoticed.

There are ways to avoid, or at least attempt to avoid this from continuing to happen to others.

1. Since all day care operations are state licensed and controlled, they could be required to contact the parents of any child who is not at day care by 8:00 a.m. The parents, being properly notified, could determine where the child is. This not only solves the problem of children being left in cars, but with children being taken by a spouse or other family member who was supposed to drop the child at day care.

2. Car manufacturers should design a low power ventilation system that removes the hot air from the inside of all cars when the inside temperature reaches a certain point.

3. Seat belts should have an alarm built into them that is activated if the key is removed and the seat belt is still engaged. This would prevent anyone from being inadvertently left in the car.

Of course there are most likely other ways to avoid overheating the inside of cars, leaving children, disabled persons or animals in a parked car, or simply avoiding potential life endangering problems from occurring. If you have other ideas, send them to me. Better yet, write the automotive manufacturers and your state legislators with solutions.

Who Protects Us?

2008-08-08T05:07:00.001-07:00

Yesterday, we received a call from a State of Texas agency on our voice mail and returned the call. I can state that in all likelihood we were speaking to someone at a state agency. The person identified herself as an investigator and commenced to ask all sorts of private medical questions that are illegal to ask unless one is a licensed medical doctor. She also asked for other information that cannot be legally requested. This was further complicated by the fact that she had presented herself as an investigator.

We tried to go along with as she needed the information in relation to a state license, which we certainly don’t want to lose, but when the questions became all too invasive, we questioned her need for the information and was told it was simply for their records. We stated that we didn’t really see how an illness that occurred five years ago, was treated by a doctor and resolved, should be a part of any record in their coffers. Finally, we stated that we did not want to continue to answer the questions without being represented by an attorney and ended the call.

My next call was to the State Attorney General’s office, where after a very long wait, I asked to speak to an attorney representing the people of the state. After another very long wait, I was connected to a person who stated that she was not an attorney and could not really answer any legal questions. She suggested that I explain things to her and she would make a determination as to where to forward my call.

I explained that a person had called me from a state agency and presented herself as an investigator, but admitted that she did not hold a license to act as such. I explained that a license is required in Texas if one wishes to act as an investigator or to gather information in such a manner. She stated that she did not know the laws of the State of Texas, but that all state employees hold titles and that there are many state agencies that conduct investigations on a daily basis. I explained that under state law, the Private Security Act, prohibits this activity without a license, to wit:

§ 1702.101. INVESTIGATIONS COMPANY LICENSE REQUIRED.
Unless the person holds a license as an investigations company, a
person may not:
(1) act as an investigations company;
(2) offer to perform the services of an investigations company; or
(3) engage in business activity for which a license is required under this chapter.

Acts 1999, 76th Leg., ch. 388, § 1, eff. Sept. 1, 1999.

The person at the State Attorney General’s office stated that since they are the lawyers for the state agency in question they could not give me legal advise against that state agency. I asked who is supposed to protect the public from state agencies who are committing crimes against the public and the state. She suggested that I contact a lawyer and have them work with the Travis County Attorney’s Office. When I asked what power the Travis County Attorney would have over the state, she replied that there was nothing that they could do as they are not able to bring a case against the state.

When I pressed a bit further, she suggest that I contact my state legislator who controls the budgets of state agencies in hopes that something would come of my complaint. I tried to explain that this was a crime that was being committed and had nothing to do with budgets.

Obviously, this conversation wasn’t going anywhere, so I decided to end the call.

Now, I am still questioning who protects the public from government. The state sets the laws, but then goes about their business without regard to the laws, as they cannot be responsible should they break the law.

It seems that everywhere I turn, I am faced with other examples of this phenomenon. Police officers driving too fast even when the law states that when they have their lights and siren on they are still limited to driving no more than 10 miles over the posted speed limit. They park on the median, burning the grass with their catalytic converters, dripping oil onto the ground, and making trenches in the ground with the weight of their cars. They make illegal turns, park illegally and well you get the idea.

If you want to start a business in the State of Texas, you must first register with the State Comptroller’s Office in order to meet other requirements. Even if it takes a year or more to get the business open with all the permits required, you must file a statement of income with the state each month. If you have no income and forget to file, the state will send you a bill for estimated taxes due based on other businesses similar to yours along with a fine for not paying the taxes that they believe you owe. Yes, you are being charged for something that you never had and being fined for not paying the charge.

In 2003, the State of Texas passed a law (SB 439) that makes it illegal to alter or obscure the letters, numbers, color, or original design features of the license plate on your vehicle. This includes anything that interferes with the readability of the letters or numbers on the plate. This means that every pickup truck with a trailer hitch is breaking the law. Every car with a license frame installed by the dealer for advertising purposes is illegal if it covers only a very small part of the word Texas at the top of the license plate.

Because, this includes vehicles driven into Texas from other states the Department of Public Safety positions patrol cars on all major highways coming into Texas from other states as a cash cow. They stop and issue $250 tickets to the unsuspecting motorists visiting our state. Welcome to Texas - now pay up!

This brings up a lot of questions, but none can be answered by the various state agencies. The Texas Department of Transportation states that they only issue license plates and do not interpret the state motor vehicle laws. The Texas Department of Public Safety which will write the ticket for violations can only state “the language effect license plates brackets, borders or frames if they interfere with the “readability” of the state where the vehicle is registered” and they also note that “DPS policy and interpretation are not binding on law enforcement agencies around the state.” In other words it is up to every local police department to interpret and enforce the law as they see fit. The Department of Public Safety says the only way that any definitive interpretation of this law must come from the Texas judicial system. In other words, we passed a law that may be illegal and we will let the courts sort it out if anyone wants to spend a fortune on lawyers to fight it. Meanwhile, everyone keep paying the $250 fine for that advertising that the dealer placed on your license plate.

Another state law states that all vehicles must have a license plate visible from the front of the car, even though some cars to not have a place to mount such a plate. A few years ago, when returning from my father’s funeral in Oklahoma I was pulled over immediately after crossing the Texas state line by a Department of Public Safety officer for not having a front license plate. I was issued a $250 fine. Lesson learned? You bet! Bad law? Probably.

Recently, I was returning from Mexico where you must weld your license plates onto your car to keep them from being stolen. The front license plate came loose and not having a way to secure it, I placed it in the front window where it was quite visible. About twenty miles into Texas I was pulled over by a Department of Public Safety officer for not having a front license plate. When I pointed out that the plate was indeed visible as stated by law, he became irate for being ignorant of the law and argued that the plate was not mounted in the proper place. I pointed out that there was no proper mounting on the front of the vehicle that I was driving. Still, I got the ticket and paid the fine. Bad law? You bet!

All too often, police officers make arrests based on whether they judge a law is being broken. The person is arrested, taken to jail and booked for an offense. Then the offense is studied by the lawyers for the community to judge if the offense is really illegal and the person is guilty. Then and only then does a proper judge make a decision about the guilt or innocence. If the judge states he believes the party to be guilty, then if the person has money, they can request a trial (which by law, they were granted in the first place) where they will be judged by a jury of their peers. Innocence is only available to those with money and time to spend. Is it no wonder that the jails and prisons are full of the poor, while the wealthy go free no matter what the crime.

It seems that the law enforcement agencies haven't looked at the mission statement recorded on the door of their patrol vehicle, which states - To Protect and Serve. Law enforcement has become a cash cow for the communities they are suppose to protect. Am I worried about repercussions? No! Obviously, police officers can't read.

I could write a book about the inadequacies and ambiguousness of the government, but still I wonder who to complain to. Who does protect us.

Shotgun

2008-07-13T08:53:00.001-07:00

When I was a kid, we lived in Cedar Hill- a small north Texas town of perhaps only 3,000 people, and that would be counting the families of the ranchers and farmers who lived within a ten mile radius. The town was about as close as one could get to Mayberry, RFD made famous by The Andy Griffith Show television show (TAGS) without having to go to Culver City, California where the show was filmed. It was never surprising to hear someone whistling the theme song to TAGS almost daily. Although, no one whistled it quite as well as Earle Hagen, the show's music composer who whistled the opening them song on TAGS.

Horny Toads

It was a wonderful place to grow up. Whenever we weren’t In school there was lots to do – exploring the creeks and woods, in search of horny toads. We built little cars from used matchboxes with buttons for wheels, which were pulled by horny toads. We’d have races in the driveway and the loser had to help wash the dishes after dinner.

For those uninitiated to the horny toad, it is a small horned lizard. It is commonly called a horny toad, horned toad, or horned frog because it’s rounded body and blunt snout make it resemble a toad or frog. It actually has horns on its head, which are true horns with a bony core. The largest-bodied and most widely distributed of the U.S. species is the Texas horny toad.

One unique feature of the horny toad is that it squirts blood from the corners it’s eyes up to about three feet. Worse yet, it actually takes aim at the eyes of the person or animal that is trying to catch it. I don’t know this for a fact, but supposedly the blood tastes pretty bad to cats and dogs, but seemingly has no effect on predatory birds. Nothing seems to rankle a grackle.

In many states, the horny toad is considered threatened and given state protection, though none are on the federal endangered species list. The Texas horned lizard has declined in about 30% of its range, though there is some indication it may be making a comeback. The decline is usually blamed on development and destruction of the horny toad habitat, the spread of non-native South American ants, which compete and war with the harvester ant, which is the horny toad’s principal source of food.

The Ride

Each evening after the loser of the Great Horny Toad Race had finished washing the dishes, my father would load my brother and I in the family car and we’d drive into the countryside. It took a while for us to learn that the drive was a ruse just to wear us out. There was nothing better than an evening ride through the North Texas countryside to wear one out. Of course, that was back when gasoline cost only $0.15 a gallon and was cheaper than warm milk, which cost $0.80 a gallon.

Dad would drive out into the countryside where it was dark enough to see the Milky Way decorated with millions of twinkling silver stars in the midnight blue sky. Sometimes we’d catch a glimpse of a shooting star that left a trail as it swept through the sky.

It was night and there was nothing to see in the dark. For that reason we couldn’t bring along a book or a game. We would crawl into the floorboard and rest our heads on the transmission hump, where the vibrations of the road were enough to put even those with severe cases of Attention Deficient Disorder to sleep in no time at all. Only, there were no kids with ADD when I was a kid. I suppose this was because Ritalin had not yet been invented and there was no need to diagnose a problem for which there was no cure.

The Better View

There was a rule in existence at the time about who would get to ride in the front seat with Dad. This was the choice seat with an excellent view of the sky and all that lie ahead of the car’s headlights as we drove through the darkness. In B.C., that’s before cars, when people used wagons and stagecoaches for their travel, the driver would hold the reins and concentrate on handling the horses. With both hands and mind full with the team of horses, he and the passengers on the wagon or stagecoach would be susceptible to attacks from bandits and Indians. To thwart this, another person would ride alongside him with a shotgun to fend off attacks. The position was known as “Shotgun.”

Though, for the most part, the bandits and Indian attacks are no longer a threat, but the “Shotgun” position is still with us and as much a part of the driving experience across the country and in other parts of the world as well. I have experienced it in Japan, Australia and even in India, where the front passenger seat is a second honor only to the driver of the vehicle. All other positions in the car are relatively lower in statue to the Shotgun position.

Calling Shotgun

Calling “Shotgun” is the act of claiming the position of Shotgun. It was created as a fair and equitable means of acquiring the most coveted position. Any person approaching a vehicle in which three or more people are about to go for a drive can call “Shotgun” and will have the honor of riding in the passenger position.

As with all kids, my brother and I would get into an argument as to the proper manner in which to call “Shotgun.” So our Dad made rules up as we went along to “settle” the differences between my brother and I. It was a given, of course that you had to say the word “Shotgun” to make claim. It not only had to loud enough for my brother to hear, but my Dad had to hear it as well, in order to make the decision should a disagreement occur.

There was a time frame, as I found out one Sunday evening early on. I was always trying to beat the system in my youth and thought I had it all figured out when I attempted to call “Shotgun” for that night, as we were eating lunch. My Dad explained that you could not call “Shotgun” in advance. We had to wait until we were outside of the house and on our way to the car. As I finished my lunch, I devised a plan for that evening that I thought would surely work.

As we were leaving the house, I made sure that I was the first to exit the door to the house and as I did so yelled “Shotgun” with an extreme amount of exuberance. My brother yelling “Shotgun” as he passed through the doorway immediately followed my own call. My Dad stood his ground, hands on his hips, explaining that the rules were that all parties had to be outside the house. Since my brother was physically inside the house when I yelled “Shotgun” my call didn’t count. But my brother who I had thought was a little late had waited until both he and Dad were outside was awarded “Shotgun” for that evening.

Back to the Drawing Board

As with everything else in my life, when I am not successful at some endeavor, I spend some time in deep thought to revise my plan to overcome the obstacle that got in the way. “Shotgun” was not going the defining moment in my failure to grasp the rules of life. I was determined to figure out a way to always come out on top. I had, by that time mastered Tic-Tac-Toe and surely “Shotgun” was not more difficult.

The next day, was we left the house, I was the first to exit. Turning quickly, I waited until both my Dad and brother were just stepping through the threshold and quickly yelled “Shotgun.” Beaming proudly, I headed to the car, which was parked in the driveway on the side of the house. As turned the corner and the car came into view I admired my coveted driver’s side seat. My excitement lasted only a brief second as I heard my brother, just a few steps behind me yell “Shotgun.” I thought, what the heck? Did he not hear me call “Shotgun” as we exited the house. I looked at my Dad, who was shaking his head. He explained that there was a rule that the car had to be in sight before “Shotgun” could be called. When I had made the call at the front door, we could not see the car, so once again I lost my seat – so to speak.

This went on night after night, as I learned more rules about calling “Shotgun” than I thought were necessary for such a simple game. Some people make things far too complicated. Or, was I trying to make a complicated game too simple?

One evening we were getting ready to go for a drive and my Dad said let’s go. He and I walked out the door and then I realized that my brother was not with us. He had actually gone ahead in anticipation of the drive. As soon we turned the corner of the house, I noticed my brother standing beside the passenger door of the car with his hand on the door handle. I, of course, called “Shotgun” quickly and was surprised that my brother never said a word. As he made no move to actually let go of the door handle, I turned to my Dad to make a decision. Again, he just shook his head. Yes, there were more rules.

It seems that “Shotgun” cannot be called after someone has put his or her hand on the door handle. My Dad explained that calling “Shotgun” at this point would be redundant. It seems that if someone was already in the seat or had their hand on the door handle they had already staked their claim and could not lose the position.

More to Learn

I was sure that I had finally figured out the game, when the next night, I went out to the car several hours before we were to leave and sat in the passenger seat waiting for Dad and my brother to arrive. Once they go in the car and we were about to leave, Dad turned to my brother to ask if he needed to go to the bathroom before we got started. I had been sitting in the car for several hours and the mere mention of the bathroom made me consider that perhaps I might go before we started. Since I already had “Shotgun” I decided to take advantage of the moment to go back in the house to relive myself. As soon as I exited the car, my brother made The Move. It seemed to be a single movement, in which he opened the rear door, slid out and just as I had exited the car, yelled “Shotgun.” Again, I turned to my Dad, wondering what he would say. He just shook his head, explaining that by leaving the car to go back into the house, I had abandoned the position of “Shotgun,” making it fair game.

The only way that my exit would not be considered abandonment would be if I had exited the car on behalf of the driver, like opening the gate or pumping gas. Yes, I learned this a few nights later as my brother exited the “Shotgun” position when we stopped for gas and he jumped out to pump the gas.

One of the most important lessons about “Shotgun” that I learned was that Mom always got “Shotgun” no matter what. The one and only time I inadvertently called “Shotgun” when my Mom was traveling with us, you would have thought I had committed the most mortal sin. Actually, I might have in my parents eyes. Just so you do not make the same error – all significant others get automatic “Shotgun.”

Oh, and just as close is the rule that the driver or owner of the car automatically gets “Shotgun” if someone else should take over the driving. Don’t make that mistake either!

The Truth Emerges

I suppose some readers may have figured out what was happening to me as I tried to maintain a constant win at “Shotgun.” It seemed that no matter what happened, I was spending a lot more time in the back seat than my brother. It took some time before I finally realized that my Dad had been coaching my brother in advance of the rules and teaching the little snit how he could beat his big brother.

That week I learned to be leery of the advisory with a better mentor.

The Edcuation System is Broken but Fixable

2008-04-26T15:42:00.001-07:00

This week there was an article in the local paper about closing Johnston High School, due to the failure of the administration and staff being unable to meet target graduation rates and goals on the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS).

The state law says such schools must formulate campus improvement plans. Schools that miss targets for two years must develop plans to redesign how they operate. After three years, those schools must open under their redesign plans, and the state may appoint a monitor or conservator. Johnston has gone through all those steps.

After five years, state law says the school must close or open under alternative management.

If the school fails to meet the standards, board members said, they hope that the state will put Johnston under alternative management similar to an "in-district" charter school arrangement, something that Austin has not tried but is common in Houston and San Antonio. At such schools, an outside entity, such as a charter school operation, would act as the principal. But the district would still finance day-to-day operations and salaries.

Such arrangements can take different forms and have had varying degrees of success. In some cases, the in-district charters have been formed by groups that wanted to keep schools with dwindling enrollment open; others offer unusual programs such as dual-language education. Still others serve specific populations such as only boys or students at risk of dropping out. Though considered to be in the public school district, the schools use different instructional materials and a different curriculum.

If they decide to close the campus altogether, all teaching would stop. The district could apply for approval to reopen the campus, but it would need to get approval from the commissioner, open the school under a new name and have at least 75 percent new staff members and 50 percent new students, or it would need to serve different grades than it previously did.

Trustees concede that scores on benchmark tests and attendance rates are up slightly but not enough to save Johnston from closure. As of last month's district transfer deadline, 41 percent of Johnston teachers had applied to work in other schools next year.

Resources are being spent only to perpetuate more resources. In Texas, students are being trained only in how to pass the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills. It is the Holy Grail of education today. Every available resource is dedicated to having students pass the test so more money can be allocated to the school, the district, the administration and to building more schools.

Under the state's accountability system, schools are rated "academically unacceptable" if they don't meet target graduation rates and goals on the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills.

The law says such schools must formulate campus improvement plans. Schools that miss targets for two years must develop plans to redesign how they operate. After three years, those schools must open under their redesign plans, and the state may appoint a monitor or conservator.

Pushing students toward graduation should not be the goal. Pushing students toward achievement of social responsibility should be the goal.

Throwing money at ill-conceived plans is not going to improve the plan. Raising salaries of administration and teachers is not going to improve the quality of administration or teachers. Building more inept schools is not going to improve education.

What should count is the education of students to become better citizens. Teaching reading, writing and arithmetic is important, but how do you teach these to individuals who have no respect for the system? You don’t! Respect comes first. Respect has to come from above first and filter down to the student. The administration must work to gain the utmost respect of the community. Showing concern for the students, their future and that of the community is the first step in gaining that respect. All the rhetoric in the world is not going improve the situation.

I have heard the "parent/guardian accountability" thrown back from every teacher/educator/administrator that I have ever met and it has gone on for far too long. I refuse to believe that there are not more good parents of students at Johnston than there are good teachers, and yet it seems as though the problems of education only get worse. We are not going to solve the problem of education by blaming parents/guardians. Everyone is going to have to work together if we intend to make a difference.

This "parent/guardian accountability" goes out the window when you study education across the district, state or nation. There are poorly ran schools failing in all communities, not just the poor and drug infested communities.

Let's stop blaming the parents/guardians and embrace their problems as well as the problems of education by coming together to make the difference needed to excel as a community. We have a program in place that moves the bad apples from the school and places them in a special school to allow the remainder to not spoil. Does it work? No!

Closing Johnston, or any other school, is not going to change 1) the accountability of parents in the area, 2) the makeup of the community in the area of drug dealers, prostitution, graffiti, gang members or the sex offenders, or 3) the student choices that they make in life. These problems are not going to go away simply by closing the facility.

If we are to make a real difference we must clean the house. Change the morals and values of the community. Change the responsibility of the community. Change the makeup of the community. And especially change the way in which education has sunk to passing the TAKS (correct spelling okay with everyone) and not on teaching a curriculum that creates the idealistic goals of TAKS. Let's stop the teaching by rote until they pass the TAKS and start concentrating on getting students properly educated.

It takes a whole village to raise a child. No matter how trite that may sound, there is a kernel of truth to the adage. The schools have the students longer than the parents and if they really are all that great at leading by example, then where are the great results?

In todays economy, both parents are working to make ends meet. I don't agree that it should be that way, but it stated when we declared WWII and it has only become worse. Parents are not home until 6:00 pm or later. There is a quick rush to have dinner and then the students are expected to complete 3 hours of homework (regardless of the district restriction on 45 minutes of homework) leaving little if any time for parents to do much more than ask the kids how there day went.

The education system must accept some of the responsibility in "educating" the students and this means instilling and excepting some core values from the students - Honesty, Respect, Love, Justice, Mercy, Courage, Peace, Serenity, Discipline, Control, Moderation, and more. But, the most important value is the ability to accept the consequences of ones behavior. The behavior of the administration and the staff, not only at Johnston, but all failing schools has long been a problem. Let's accept responsibility for the problem and work together for a solution.

We are not going to solve any problem by throwing blame on other factors. This is about the failure of the administration and staff at Johnston to turn the school around. Let's accept that premise and work on it. Stop blaming the parents/guardians.

The fact that 41-percent of the existing teachers have applied for transfer tells us that the problem is severe at the school. There are not 41-percent of the students seeking transfers or 41-percent of the parents/guardians moving away from the community. The problem lies with the staff.

After five years, state law says the school must close or open under alternative management. What happens to the students that were educated at the school while it was failing? Don't we really owe them more than this? We are talking about thousands of students who have received an inadequate education while administrators and staff waited to see if things would get better. It didn't and the only ones who suffered were the students. What a shame!

The plan is to replace at least 75 percent of the staff members and 50 percent of the students to turn things around. This is not my plan, but the plan that AISD and the TEA have outlined. Will it work? We can only hope!

Old Luckie School House

2008-04-09T03:01:00.000-07:00

Charles W. Luckie Elementary School - circa 1909

The Luckie Elementary School, located at 1004 Palmer at the McKinney intersection, served African-American students as a part of the Harrisburg (the original name of Houston, Texas) Independent School District.

Named after Charles W. Luckie, a prominent African-American educator who served on the Huntsville Texas school board and as an English professor at Prairie View State Normal and Industrial College (now Prairie View A&M University), this school was established in 1909. It was replaced after a fire destroyed the original structure in 1917. The school closed in the early 1940's.

If you go looking for the Old Luckie School House you’ll drive a few blocks east of downtown Houston on McKinney Street where the East End and the Third Ward overlap. Turning right onto Palmer, you’ll find the New Luckie School House still standing strong since it was rebuilt in 1918. And inside you’ll find Mickey Phoenix’s Calico Print Company, where she has been printing T-shirts for the music scene and other folks since 1992. For over a dozen years before that, Mickey was hard at work printing over in the Fifth Ward off of Taft. She is the owner of the oldest T-shirt shop in Houston and now the owner of the only school in Texas named after a prominent African-American.

The building that Mickey operates her business out of is the former Charles W. Luckie Elementary School. The two story building is in need of restoration – a project that is near and dear to Mickey’s heart.

Mickey purchased the building in 1992 for $65,000 because the old maintenance barn next to the building was a perfect location for her burgeoning screenprinting shop. At first, she didn’t know what to do with the giant two story schoolhouse on the property. A few years after buying the property and tiring of the long drive each day, she decided to move into the building to be closer to her work. However there were two problems.

First the ground floor was flooded with six inches of water and all of the original wood floors were in decay. Not one to be told that she can’t do something, Mickey went to work draining the building and tearing out the water-logged wood. After a considerable amount of work, money and time, the first floor was once again usable.

The second problem was that the rest of the building, all eight rooms were full to the ceiling with plumbing supplies, which the previous owner had left behind. As the building had been abandoned for thirty years, the plumbing parts were outdated and could not be used under the current building codes in Houston. Always the benefactor, Mickey called a plumber in East Texas, where the building codes were more relaxed, and offered him the whole load for free, including 50 porcelain toilets.

Even after unloading the plumbing parts and the rotting wood, she still had to haul 17 large dump truck loads of trash accumulated over the past 30 years out of the building, which kept her screenprinting crew busy for weeks.

During the renovation Mickey begin to inquire around Houston as to the history of the building and discovered that it was the Luckie Elementary School, one of the first schools to serve African-American students as a part of the Harrisburg School District. Armed with this information, she set about to find out who Charles W. Luckie was, and why the building was named in his honor.

She found that the Luckie School was the first Houston school named after a prominent African-American, at a time when schools were traditionally named after the street they were built on or for the surrounding neighborhood. She wondered why someone other than her had not moved to restore the old building long ago. The fact was that she had great difficulty in finding out who Luckie was, further convinced her of the importance of the historical significance of the building. She is still saddened by how quickly the community has forgotten one of its most prominent leaders.

Today, the area around the old Luckie School is undergoing an extensive redevelopment. The historical buildings are being torn down to build fashionable apartment buildings. The original Coca-Cola building was recently demolished, as was the Borden’s Milk Company building.

Mickey has watched them tear down building after building in the area. Soon, there will be nothing left of Houston’s historical downtown industrial area. But, if Mickey has her way (and she usually does!) the old Luckie School will still be standing. With all the development in the area, the taxes on the Luckie School have escalated rapidly and it has become an expensive project for a single person to endure.

Mickey has sunk every penny she could scrape up on the restoration of the building, replacing the plumbing, sewer, restoring the original cypress windows, replacing the original floor downstairs and much more. The 7,600 square foot building sits on a 28,000 square foot lot. There is an adjoining structure which originally served as a maintenance building for the school district, which houses Calico Print Company.

At some point, Mickey will need to consider retirement and must consider what to do with the building. She would like to ensure its place in history by selling it to a individual or corporation interested in preservation. The building would make a wonderful African-American History Museum if the right group could find the funding for the property and its restoration.

Wake up, Houston! Wake up, everyone! This girl needs some help over there. Where are the grandchildren of those who attended Charles W. Luckie Elementary School? These are the people who should be interested in preserving their heritage. Mickey stands alone in her goal to restore this building not just for the sake of history, but to preserve a little of Houston that the city and the community needs as an anchor. Help stop the wholesale destruction of Houston’s past and do something.

For more information on the old Luckie School House, visit http://luckieschool.com, make a donation to the cause no matter how small and then contact Mickey Phoenix via email at mphoenix@swbell.net. It takes a whole village to save a school house, folks. Get involved - even if you can only donate ten dollars - it will help!

Charles W. Luckie Elementary School
Luckie School House
1004 Palmer
Houston, TX 77003

Calico Print Company
Mickey Phoenix
1004 Palmer
Houston, TX 77003

Tours by Appointment
713.225.4268

Charles W. Luckie Elementary School - 2008

Friendly Favors

2008-03-31T06:48:00.001-07:00

In 1999, my friends Sergio and Gaye Lub, jewelers in Martinez, California had an idea of putting people together. They started an online group called Friendly Favors. Today they have over 54,071 members, living in 186 countries.

I found Sergio through his daughter, Sonya while I was visiting in Pondicherry, India. She was volunteering at the Sri Aurbindo village, named Auroville. Two things stuck out about Sonya; 1) she was well educated and soft spoken, a trait not usually found in todays youth and 2) she wasn't tied to the concept of making money fist over fist. She was half way around the world from her home in California volunteering to make a difference in others lives, with no personal return other than feeling good about freely giving herself to others. Granted it was a life-changing opportunity for the young girl, barely out of her teens.

In the course of one conversation, I asked about her parents. Sonya wasted no time in proudly recounting the adventures of her parents. Her mother is an artist, her father an artist as well, but they are so much more. Her father, born in Argentina and educated in Buenos Aires, is also an architect and jeweler and both are creative relators - as it were. She explained that their vision was a world where everybody freely gave others the help they needed without immediate reciprocation - sort of a "Pay It Forward" concept, but yet different - quite different.

The group seemed to have a life of its own. Growing out of conversations that the couple had at the 1995 State of the World Forum in San Francisco, they sought out others to assist in the undertaking. Internet web master Victor Grey, author of "Web Without a Weaver" built the site, creator of the Euro (Europe's new currency) Bernard Lietaer came up with the idea of using complimentary currency as a way of tracking the favors given. Others freely gave their time and energies to help expand the concept and today it is going strong.

Sergio and Gaye host meetings at their home in Walnut Hills, where a diverse assortment of guest speakers lecture on ideas of great interest. Mahatma Gandhi's grandson will be speaking on April 15, following his appearance at the Napa Peace Table. Aerial photographer Chuck Feil will be featured at a reception at St. Supery Winery June 13. At St. Helena High School in March, the group cosponsored a free lecture by John Falchi titled "Transforming Education for the 21st Century." Yes, diverse speakers, but no more so than the members of the group.

While I was visiting in Mazunte, Oaxaca, Mexico earlier this year, Sergio and Gaye came to the area to meet with a long time Friendly Favors member who lives in the area. They visited India while I was there as well. Our paths seem to keep crossing in a number of ways - pulling us closer together as though some divine intervention.

The concept of Friendly Favors is as simple as people coming together to freely give to others, but can be quite complicated to some - but, never mind, it works and it continues to grow. The site is much like a centrally located cyber-Roladex - a collection of "business cards" where members update their own information constantly. Members fill in a simple form giving as much personal information as they desire, a photo of themselves, telephone numbers, email addresses, and listing their special skills and interests. Sound like MySpace? Not at all! This isn't about promoting ones own self - it is about giving.

Members understand that they accept a favor, they give a favor for someone else. When a member does a favor, they receive a "Thank You". When the number of "Thank You's" is depleted it is a reminder that the member needs to do a good deed for another. The concept is much more than this simple explanation and deserves a visit to the site and a good look-around. I know that many of the 30,000 members of my This Week I Learned are potential members of this group. I wasted no time in joining Friendly Favors and you shouldn't either. Visit the site today and let me know your thoughts. I'd love to hear from you. Almost everyone I have told about Friendly Favors has become a member.

Visit the website at Friendly Favors - http://favors.org

Grabbing Screenshots in OS X

2008-03-23T06:59:00.001-07:00

For those of us lucky enough to have decided to go with Apple Macintosh, there is a much underrated tool available for grabbing screenshots. The shortcuts to take screenshots in OS X are:

* Apple + Shift + 3 - Creates a screenshot of the entire screen
* Apple + Shift + 4 - Allows you to draw a window around the area on the screen you want to capture
* Apple + Shift + 4 + Spacebar highlights the active Window. Then simply click the mouse for a screenshot of the active window

This comes in handy to make a screenshot of your art created in any design program and email it to the client for quick approval. Very easy and absolutely free screen capture from the fine folks at Apple Computer. Enjoy! - Bill

Viva Mazunte

2007-12-23T09:23:00.001-08:00

The towel had that fresh air scent that only comes from having been hung in the sunlight to dry. I could smell the fresh ocean breeze in the nap of the cloth and I instinctively felt warm and at peace. The shower was refreshing after the bus ride that took us from Austin down into the Rio Grande Valley to Brownsville and across the border to Matamoras, Mexico. There we would take a bus to Veracruz, then to Oaxaca City and then south to Huatulco and Pochutla.

The route was scenic. No, it was much more than scenic. It was one of the most beautiful drives that we have experienced. As the bus drove through the flatlands, we could see huge mountain ranges on either side. The visual stimulus of the layer upon layer of the receding mountains, each becoming paler and more diffused as they receded had a most ethereal effect. The raptors would soar along as if seemingly following the bus. They would turn here and there as if to show off their giant wingspans to the bus passengers, like dolphins following a ship at sea.

Soon the bus would begin climbing up into the mountains on winding roads that allowed passengers on both sides of the bus to admire the panoramic vistas. And, panoramic they were, stretching for hundreds of miles. Giant cactus sprouted from the craggily rock of the mountains, creating silhouettes against the sky. Almost too quick, we began our descent toward the Pacific Ocean and Pochutla.

As we stepped from the bus in Pochutla into the cool early evening air, it felt invigorating and refreshing. In no particular hurry after the bus ride we stretched our legs as we waited for the other passengers to retrieve their luggage from the underside of the bus.

After retrieving our own bag, we were greeted by a dark skinned man with a smiling face asking us if we needed a taxi. After giving him the name of our destination, we were off for a short 10-minute drive down the highway to the Mazunte turnoff. We drove along a winding road with trees creating a canopy over the road at times. Within a few minutes we entered the small, but bustling village of Mazunte, slowing for the people and dogs strolling up and down the narrow street. With the taxi window rolled down to enjoy the cool evening I could smell the scents of the many small restaurants serving up local dishes of fresh fish and shrimp. There were huge cauldrons with soups and the smell of fresh tortillas being flipped on grills.

At the end of the small village, we turned up the road to our destination. Ishmael was waiting for us as we entered the gated property. He greeted us by name as he introduced himself with a warm handshake and wide grin. He called up to the balcony above and another smiling face peered over the railing and down into the parking area. It was Janet, the manager, who also greeted us by name and quickly came down the stairs to show us to our room.

We climbed down yet another flight of stairs to arrive on a private covered and columned patio complete with hammock, chaise lounges, and coffee table. Janet opened the glassed French doors leading into our room. It was quite spacious, with an armoire for our clothing, a huge bed, air conditioning, and overhead fan. There was even a small refrigerator and stovetop for preparing ones own meals.

As Ishmael and Janet left, we stepped out onto the patio and were greeted with the most beautiful sight. In the bright light of the full moon, we could see the waves crashing onto the beach below. The tranquility was immediately obvious and we felt as though we had entered a dreamscape all of our own. Below us are two beautiful beaches - Playa Mazunte and Playa San Agustinillo

We had arrived at Mazunte at the southernmost point of Oaxaca. We quickly unpacked and fell into the bed, falling asleep to the faint sounds of the waves lapping at the beach.

Visit Viva Mazunte on the web at http://vivamazunte.com.

Stretching 22.5 hours into 38.5 hours

2007-12-09T15:14:00.001-08:00

Turbulence bounced us around like ice cubes in the glass of a traveling salesperson stuck in a hotel bar, alone and bored. The Boeing 777 is a huge jet, but still it is not a match for the turbulent winds high over South India. Although the flight is full, we are seated between people who don’t speak English and as our skills don’t include the ability to speak Tamil or Hindi, we are also alone. Alone but with each other, so we are happy.

The taxi had picked us up at 10:30 p.m. for the three-hour drive to the airport in Chennai. The street in front of our home was quiet, and even as we drove through the downtown parts of Pondicherry we saw relatively few people. As always there were the all night coffee and tea vendors who each had a smattering of clients who thought more of socializing than getting a good night’s rest and improving their lives the next day with some worthwhile endeavors. The raised median held the homeless, with their shawls and veshtis pulled over their heads to keep the mosquitoes away. This was a marked difference between the very busy crowds present in the daytime.

The road to Chennai was busy with trucks delivering goods to the city from the more southern parts of India. Typical of Indian drivers our taxi driver is following the Indian rules of the road to honk three times when passing. As he approaches a truck he honks to let them know that he is behind them and wants to pass. Then he honks to say thanks as they pull over to the left to allow him to pass. As he passes he honks again as if to say thanks once more. Of course, he also must honk as he passes every pedestrian or cow on the roadside.

Dogs are different, as the drivers never acknowledge the dogs with their horn, nor do they swerve to miss them. There is the mindset that dogs are somehow smarter than people or cows and would never move into oncoming traffic. There must be some truth to this, because during my time in India, my driver has accidentally sideswiped several pedestrians and one cow, but has never hit a dog. The dogs seem to have an innate understanding that cars are larger and don’t swerve.

We arrived at Chennai airport at 1:45 a.m., which was well within the imposed two hour arrival prior to departure time. The airport is surprisingly busy with perhaps a thousand people waiting for loved ones and friends to arrive. There are so many people waiting outside the building that they spill over into the street and thus the drop-off area is nowhere near the departure entrance. It is good that we are traveling with just our backpacks on this flight; least we would have worn ourselves out having to carry our bags to the entrance. Security is very relaxed at the Chennai airport, but in order to enter the building, we must first secure our boarding passes.

Inside the airport the story is not much different. There isn’t a seat available anywhere and we find ourselves sitting on a ledge for two hours while we wait our departure time. This is a short wait considering that the flight time to London is just a little over 11 hours.

The weather is warm and humid and growing antsy, I wonder around the airport. Noticing a Rotary International pin on the label of gentleman, I begin a conversation. As it turns out, although originally from India, he currently lives in Rhode Island, where he owns several hotels and convenience stores. He also owns a data company selling routers and computer peripherals. We had a very pleasant talk, mostly about Rotary and ended with a promise to attend the others club when we next found ourselves in the other’s city. That is the really great thing about Rotary – you can always find a friend in just about any remote part of the world. Just two weeks earlier I had been invited to join the Central Rotary Club of Pondicherry

Eleven hours later, we found ourselves debarking into the coolness of London Heathrow. Even though it is December 1, the weather is not all that cold, although I am glad I have my Burberry coat to knock down the chill of the air conditioners in the airport. We really don’t have time to worry about the coolness as our flight to Chicago leaves within the hour. We have just enough time to stretch our legs as we make our way to the correct terminal.

The nine-hour flight over the Atlantic on our Boeing 747 is quite smooth and most uneventful. We are seated next to a couple from Cedar Park, Texas who are returning from Kenya. There are hoping to move to Nairobi in five years with their two small girls. It seems that wherever we travel, we meet others who are fed up with the United States and seeking to find a better life somewhere else.

As we approach Chicago’s O’Hare Airport we see the snow through the clouds. The snow and cold seem so alien to us coming from Pondicherry, India. As we get closer to the ground, we see holiday lights throughout the city and realize that the holiday season is once again upon us. We had just celebrated Dawali (the Indian New Year) in Pondicherry and now we were going to celebrate another years’ passing in the U.S.

As the cockpit doors were opened at O’Hare Airport we were greeted with a blast of cold air. As we stepped off of the plane we were greeted with slush and even colder air. No matter, we thought, we will be in Austin’s 72-degree weather in just another 7 hours – 4 hours of layover and a quick 3 hours of flight time – or so we thought. As the flight time approached, I wondered why the flight was not posted to the board. Finally, I went in search of an attendant and found that the flight was cancelled due to the weather. We were put on another plane that was leaving just an hour later, when the weather warmed up a bit.

We boarded the next plane only to be told that we could not leave until the freezing rain stopped. The bad news was that we were told that we could not leave the plane, either. Several times during the next three hours people were asking to leave the plane as they were getting claustrophobic or wanted to change their travel plans until the next day. They were simply not comfortable sitting on the plane that might take off in bad weather conditions. While this may be some policy of the airlines, this surely must be akin to kidnapping. Many of the people were almost in tears due to their fears of being trapped or unnecessarily killed by a greed driven airlines

As we sat at the gate for the next three hours, the plane was de-iced three times in preparation for leaving until finally we were told that the plane would not be leaving and that we would have to catch a plane in the morning. Although, the airline personnel were very good about booking us another flight the next morning, they explained that since the flight cancellation was weather related, they were not responsible for our hotel rooms or transportation cost to a hotel of our choice. Of course, our contention was that if they had allowed us to leave the plane when they first encountered the problem, we could have made other travel plans or acquired a better hotel room for the night.

Because of the late hour, we were stuck with a room in a hotel in a seedy part of Chicago, delivered there by a driver who either didn’t know his way around the airport area or wanted to fleece us of another $20. As I watched his GPS devise and the landmarks, it became obvious that were making a large circle and when I brought this to his attention, he finally admitted he was indeed lost but would get us to the hotel. I noted the meter was still clicking away at $0.30 a 1/4 miles regardless of whether we were lost or even headed in the right direction. No problem, as I kept telling him he was lost and I wasn't going to pay the meter. We ended up settling for 1/3 of the meter. After I got into the hotel lobby, I asked what the fare should have been and according to them I came out $5 ahead. Did I tip? No!

After a semi-comfortable night in a hotel room and a hot shower, we were once again on our way to Austin. The brief 3-hour flight seemed like nothing in comparison with the previous two days of travel. When the plane dipped down into the Texas Hill Country and we caught site of the green hills and blue water, we knew we were just brief minutes from our own bed and comfort of our home in Austin. What a wonderful feeling to be at home, again.

We had purposefully booked our flight to only take 22.5 hours instead of the normal 30 or more needed to get from Chennai to Austin. Little did we know that it would turn into a 38.5-hour trip. Tomorrow, we leave for our home in Real de Catorce, Mexico. It is a brief 12-hour drive, with no cancellations.

Welcome to enjoy our home and life.

2007-12-09T15:06:00.001-08:00

The movement along the wall caught my eye and even in the darkness I could see the small lizard. It was almost indiscernible from the light green color of the wall and if he had not moved he would have most certainly been invisible. I smiled at the fact that he had come to bless our new home in Pondicherry with his presence. As with all living things, he was welcome to enjoy our home and indeed our lives. And, thus it was the first happy moment in our new home in Pondicherry, India.

We had arrived here a few months previously when I was retained as a consultant to assist in helping a client become a world-class screenprinting operation. Previously, we had stayed with the owner of the business in a very nice apartment in Euroville, the name we had given the old French Quarter of the village. Most of the local inhabitants refer to the area as White Town, but this did not set well with us. At one time the area was home to a number of French settlers, but today it is occupied by a great diversity of people from the world over with residents from England, Germany, Switzerland, Italy and other parts of this planet. And yes, there are a smattering of expatriates from the United States, small but present.

During the past few months we have fallen in love with India, and especially Pondicherry. So much so, that we decided that we would move here. We contacted a real estate agent that surprisingly is an expatriate from upstate New York. Kasha Vande spent a day showing us a great variety of available apartments around Pondicherry. One after another we shook our heads negatively. Most were too small as we enjoy entertaining and wanted a place large enough for our cocktail parties and gatherings of friends, yet with room to move about in groups to have multiple social conversations. Finally, at the last apartment, we fell in love. The space is absolutely wonderful. Situated on the third floor it is quite large with multiple levels of outdoor space, some covered and others allowing a full, unhampered view of the stars at night. Located on a quiet street, it is in the old part of town just across the canal from Euroville and yet close enough to walk to the beach and restaurants.

As I write, we are sitting on the covered patio, which shields us from the bright sunlight, but has a gentle breeze from the Bay of Bengal. The crows, which are quite noisy as they greet the morning, have quieted in the afternoon heat. The patio is comfortable with three distinct seating areas. A wicker loveseat and three other wicker chairs with colorful cushions surround the glass-topped coffee table. The glass-topped dining table has four or six chairs depending on the grouping and is covered with a colorful cloth. There is a small glass-topped occasional table has another two chairs. There are shelves covered with transparent silk that has large three-dimensional silk flowers attached. There is a bar with lockable storage that will come in handy for entertaining as well. Overhead are two fans and hanging lamps made of colorful silk. The patio opens up onto the balcony overlooking the street below.

Between the covered patio and the apartment there is a small sunlit patio, which gives a great place for plants and enjoying the view the sky. The tops of palm trees swaying in the wind surround us. There is a stairway leading up to the upper patio, which is quite large and open. It is the same size as the entire apartment below it and will serve as a great place to entertain those guests who want to enjoy conversations, dancing and drinks under the stars.

The apartment is quite large, with a long, narrow living area. There are two bedrooms off to the side of the living area. Both rooms are well appointed with four-poster beds. They have windows that open up at night and with the overhead fans one does not need air conditioning to enjoy a comfortable and restful sleep. At the rear of the apartment is a nice-sized kitchen with generous shelving for our pantry.

The only concession, which can easily be resolved, is that the shower does not have hot water. There is a small hot water heater available, but needs installation. This will be our first home improvement project.

Tomorrow we will be returning to the U.S. and Mexico to sell off our material possessions and return to India. But for now we are sitting on the upper deck enjoying the last night under the stars in India.

Every few minutes we feel an increase in the breeze and upon smelling the sea in the cool air, we look up at one another and smile, knowing that this is almost heaven and could not be much better. We are happy.

Be Still...

2007-11-24T21:05:00.001-08:00

This week I learned to be still.

When I was a child, I spent Sunday mornings watching cartoons on the then new fangled device called television. I remember Bugs Bunny being hunted by Porky Pig, who would say, “Be very still” as he sneaked up on Bugs. My young brain didn’t understand the full significance of that statement at the time. Nor, did I understand that comics and cartoons were actually feeding my brain with bits and pieces that would eventually control my thinking processes decades later.

As followers of This Week know, I am currently in India seeking some bit of spiritualism. My mentor is Jayaraman Seetharaman, although I am also studying Sri Aurobindo, The Mother and even Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba to some degree. During one of our frequent spiritual moments, Seetharaman told me about Sadhu T.L Vaswani.

Vaswani was born on November 25, 1879, in Hyderabad Sind, India and although he shed his mortal body in 1966, he is today 128 years old. He has devotees the world over and his name is synonymous with reverence for all of life. He had his first vision when he was only 9 years old and became a great guru in India.

In 1909, at the age of 30, Vaswani was invited to attend the Welt Congress, the World Congress of Religions, in Berlin as one of lndia's representatives. His speech there and his subsequent lectures in different parts of Europe aroused deep interest in Indian thought and linked many with him.

Vaswani had not traveled from India before and thus needed to acquire a passport, which would mean having his first photograph taken. As he traveled across town on the way to the photographer’s studio, his devotees followed and waited outside as the young man had his photograph taken. This was at a time when few people in India had seen a camera. When he left the studio, his devotees wanted to know what it was like to have a photograph taken. Vaswani, smiling, stated that the photographer had greatly enlightened him in a most profound and spiritual manner.

The devotees were a bit taken aback and asked, “How can this be? You are the most spiritual and profound person we know, yet this photographer has touched you in such a way.”

Again, Vaswani simply smiled and stated that the photographer had said, “Be very still or you will blur!”

Vaswani was the living embodiment of a faultless love that knows no bounds, an all-embracing love that included all mankind, animals and all creation. He cared about the birds of the air and the animals of the earth; protecting them whenever and however he could. His heart bled at the cruelties inflicted upon animals day after day, for food. "Take my head," he pleaded," but pray stop all slaughter!'

This deep awareness of the need for reverence for all life, in whichever form it is manifested, formed a very essential part of Sadhu Vaswani's teachings and has been propagated by the International Meatless Day Campaign. For the last several years, devotees have been observing November 25, Vaswani's birthday, as Meatless Day and Animal Rights Day expressing their shared commitment to the ideal of Reverence for all life. Please celebrate Meatless Day and Sadhu T.L Vaswani by not eating meat and in being very still!

Sometimes things should be reconsidered entirely

2007-10-15T00:10:00.000-07:00

This week I learned that if you want something done right and proper – reconsider it entirely.

I am currently living in Pondicherry, India. I have traveled here with a number of polo shirts which although worked quite well at my home in the high desert area of northern Mexico where the temperatures range in the mid-seventies. Here in Pondi the temperatures are much higher and being located on the east coast of India the humidity is almost as bad as New Orleans at this time of year.

I decided to avail myself of the excellent prices on cloth and tailoring to have some choice shirts made to order for myself. Last Saturday, I ventured down to Nehru Street and upon the recommendation of my colleague I went straight to the Raymond Shoppe. My colleague had been having clothing made here for the past two years and was extremely pleased with the quality of the cloth and the tailoring.

One problem he mentioned was the single eccentricity of the tailor, whom no matter what you told him would not be done. This seemed a good reason to take our business elsewhere, but my friend stated that this was the best shop in town and they had the very finest shirting cloth at the best prices. So off we went.

My friend had purchased a half-dozen hand made shirts at the store a week before and we were going to pick them up when I ordered my own. When we arrived, my friend inspected the shirts and sure enough, they were not as he had ordered. The order form plainly stated that the shirts were to have a button down flap on the pocket with a pen hole where he could store his pen. The shirts had no flaps and there was no hole for his pen. He had asked for French cuffs and the shirt had regular cuffs. He had asked for button down collars and received standard collars. The tailor apologized profusely and they even had a good laugh over the incident, as it had become a running joke between the two.

Since the shirts were going to have to be remade (at the tailor’s cost) my friend decided to try on the shirts to see how the fit was. It turned out to be a good thing as the shirts were ill fitting. The shoulder seam was a good inch down the arm from the shoulder and the length of the sleeves was a good two inches too long. My friend also complained of the fit through the chest being a bit large. The tailor made a mental note of the changes, but my friend made him record them in the computer to assure that the measurements were a permanent part of his record at the store.

We next moved from the tailoring department to the shirting area where there were bolts after bolt of every imaginable color and pattern of shirting material. There was surely over a thousand choices along the long wall. There were plaids and checks, vertical lines and horizontals (I suppose to add weight to some thin person, although there are not that many thin people in Pondicherry). I asked for 100-percent cotton and was taken to an area at the end of the wall where there was a good array of 100-percent cotton fabrics. I admired many of the patterns as the tailor pulled the bolts from the display and explained the weave and attributes of the particular fabric.

In the back of my mind, I thought about the tailor and his inability to make things in a proper manner and being a particularly anally retentive personality, I decided to not fully jump into the situation with both feet. I decided instead to have a kurta and pajamas made first. This would be a reasonably low cost experiment and I wanted a kurta to wear around the house. I chose a beautiful blue and white checked material for the kurta and some wonderfully soft and luxurious off-white cotton for the pajamas.

When the tailor took my measurements, I was very explicit about certain things. I wanted pockets on my kurta, which are not normal in India for a kurta made from thin shirting material. I also wanted the pants legs to not touch the floor, which for some reason, the Indians prefer a pant that is four inches longer and bunches up on the tops of the shoes. Since we do not wear shoes in the house, leaving them outside the door instead, I asked specifically for the length to be shorter.

I chose to purchase some ready made shirts at another store, Rajendira’s, just down the street from Raymonds. I was able to find some shirts that were extremely well made, in 100-percent cotton, and in beautiful patterns. I purchased four dress shirts and headed home.

That night I took the shirts from the packaging and inspected the quality. It was exactly as I had wanted and I was very pleased with my purchase and especially the price.

On Monday morning I attempted to give the shirts to the maid to be laundered and was told by my colleague that they would have to be soaked overnight before laundering. I asked why. Once again he gave me an excuse that reminds me that old Indian word, which comes forth in everyday life in India – TITWWHADI – an acronym for That Is The Way We Have Always Done It. I cursed under my breath as I had wanted to wear the shirts sooner. That night I soaked the shirts in water in the supplied bucket in the shower stall.

On Tuesday the maid washed the shirts and took them to the roof to hang them for drying. When I arrived home that evening, my driver went to the roof to gather the clothing for pressing the next day. I inspected the shirts and found that they were stained terribly with large brown spots. As the shirts were hung under a canopy on the roof, I knew it was nothing airborne, but decided that I would check the next morning to see what was happening on the roof that would cause this staining to occur.

I soaked the shirts again, hoping that the stain would come out. The water turned brown as I dropped the shirts into the water. I changed the water several times and added soap to the water to help remove the stain. Wednesday morning I checked and the shirts were indeed clean again.

Before I left for work, I went to the roof and found the reason for the stain. There on the roof, under the canopy a neighbors clothing and some sheets hung. And under the clothing were four boys who were sanding and staining some doors for another resident of the condominiums. Over to the side were some finished doors from the day before and it was obvious that the lads had a good time splashing the stain on my expensive shirts. Of course, there was nothing I could do about it and decided to chalk it up as a lesson learned and to not hang my clothing on the roof. Not wanting to experience the staining problem again, I suggested that the shirts could be hung on our patio instead of the rooftop.

That night when I came home I was told that there had been another problem. The clips that were used to hold the shirts were not strong enough for the weight of the wet shirts and they had slipped to the patio floor and were stained again. No problem, I thought, I will just soak them again and they will be ready for the maid on Thursday to hang again.

The series of what was becoming comedic errors continued until this morning, Sunday. Once again the shirts needed soaking to remove stains and I had yet to wear them. My partner, Barbara, said that she would soak them for me and I accepted her offer. She disappeared into the shower to put them to soak.

When we returned to the house this evening, Barbara went to retrieve the shirts from the soaking bin and hang them on the patio once again, so that they could be taken to be pressed on Monday morning. She emerged from the shower with a very sad look on her face. When she decided to soak my four new dress shirts for washing she added a new shirt of her own that she had bought in Pondicherry. It was a beautiful white damask material with an ornate embroidered purple design on the platened front. I only mention the fact it was new and purple to help you understand what had happened. You may have guessed already. The water was a light but bright rose color from the purple embroidery thread color that was released from the shirt, but having a slight rose color would not have been so bad as the fact that the embroidery thread had been sitting directly on the dress shirts for the entire day and had permanently stained the shirts with bright purple spots here and there. The shirts were totally ruined.

Eight days after I purchased the shirts they had to be thrown in the trash bin. Next time I will send the laundry out!

Oh, I almost forgot. Last night I went back to Raymond’s to pick up my kurta and pajamas. I was in a bit of a hurry to get home as we were having dinner with friends visiting from Mumbai, so I sent my driver into the store to pick up my things. Upon returning home from a wonderful night spent dining on the rooftop of the Promenade Hotel with the ocean breeze lightly whisking across our skin and the sounds of the waves crashing onto the rock strewn beach, I slipped into my new professionally tailored kurta and pajamas.

Yep, you guessed it. The pant legs were six inches too long. The sleeves a full four inches too long and the kurta was far too tight around my chest. Monday, I will have to return to the tailor and hope that he can get it right. I do take some solace in not having had a half-dozen shirts made by this guy.

Ballet and the Carnival

2007-10-10T22:34:00.000-07:00

This week I learned that life can be both a ballet and carnival ride at the same time.

For the past two weeks, I have been living in Pondicherry, India. I am here as part of my consulting work for a large multinational company. I will be here until December 15, but my three year contract calls for me to return often and thus we have moved into a flat near the beach.

Pondicherry is a lovely place, but as we have discovered totally unlike most of India. Sure, it has it places around town where one might believe what resembles other parts of India, but the city has an air about it that reeks with otherworldliness. It is not India, not French who originally settled the city over 200 years ago, not British who controlled most of the country for the past 200 years, but a city that has come into it’s own.

Pondicherry has gone through a great many changes over the past 300 years. For over 2,000 years the city sat quietly sprawled out along the seashore. When the British moved into India and ruled the country some 300 years ago, they allowed the French to have a small part as they have in most of their outlying territories. The French choose this beautiful and tranquil beach area that is just two hours drive south of Madras to claim. The Indians originally named the city Pudicherry, but the Europeans changed many of the names of the cities throughout India and thus Pudicherry became Pondicherry just as Chennai became Madras and Mumbai became Bombay. Having gone through as many name changes as it has rulers, today the city is affectionately referred to as Pondi by the inhabitants and those who visit often.

The architecture is a beautiful blend of French colonial, albeit most in the old town near the beach. Some people still refer to this part of Pondi as White Town as it was where the lighter skinned French and other Europeans built their beautiful homes with sprawling courtyards and two storied homes with large columned balconies both front and back. The homes are walled and gated, from whom no one is quite sure. Surely this was not from the Indians as they are the most peace loving and tranquil people in the world. Perhaps it was from one another or merely as a symbol of their opulence.

The center of White Town consists of the very large Government Park, which is surrounded for the most part by large impressive government buildings. Unlike other parts of Pondi, the old colonial part of the city is laid out in a grid of streets running north to south and east to west. The streets are wide, clean and shrouded by trees that arch over the streets shading them from the harsh sun. Even today, one can imagine the gentle Europeans strolling about the streets with their long dresses and parasols.

Past the first block surrounding the park and government buildings one finds beautiful colonial homes dating back to the 18th century. Today, some of the homes have converted a bit of their property to allow a small boutique shop or restaurant to open here and there. However, for the most part, White Town is still very residential and quiet compared to the rest of the city. White Town is also home to the famous “Sri Aurobindo Ashram” where one can find great spirituality in a totally peaceful and tranquil space.

Everywhere one turns; there are monuments in Pondi. The Aayi Mandapam in the center of the Government Park is the most well known of the monuments. The French Consulate accepts visitors and is very impressive. Nearby one finds the Foyer du Soldat, built for war veterans of the French Army. There is also the French Institute, the Alliance Francais and the Ecole Francais d'Extrème Orient among the many other cultural institutes in the city.

Pondi is a favorite shopping destination of the southern metropolitan cities. It is known for its traditional doll making, textiles and silks and also world-class brands in leather, pottery, aromatics, fashion and handmade paper. A new trend is the proliferation of exquisite boutiques offering lifestyle products and export quality antique furniture galleries. Our flat is decorated in fabulous French antiques that are easily almost 200 years old.

Pondi, perhaps because it is on the beach and is a tranquil place, is a slow moving place. Getting things done here is not much different than at our home in Mexico, but in India they take "manana" to a much higher level. It took us a week to get a shower curtain hung and then it was 12-inches too narrow and 3-inches too short. It has been a week and a half and the Internet connection is still not installed at the condo. A few days after we moved into our flat, we asked for the maid to come wash our clothes only to be told that she would be delayed for a day because we must soak our clothes overnight in water so they can be washed. We have no idea why – that is simply the way it has always been done. And so, it takes three days to wash clothes. On the first day they must soak, the second day they will be washed and hung on the roof to dry and on the third day they will pressed. Unbelievably, they press everything – socks, underwear, sheets and all will be ironed with great care.

Just past White Town, heading away from the ocean, one finds a completely different feel about the city. Just a mere dozen blocks from the ocean, the city becomes a sprawling metropolis with small mixed purpose shops and narrow streets made even narrower by the multitude of bicycles, motorbikes, pedicabs, cars, trucks and buses. On either side of the narrow streets are parked thousands of bikes and motorbikes, which presumably belong to the shopkeepers and their clients. These are interspersed with the occasional cow lying contently at the side of the street watching the traffic speed by with only a slight half-smile of indifference and amusement. At times she will arise and amble across the road in direct conflict with the traffic to sit at the other side of the road. As she slowly moves across the road the traffic comes to a complete halt to allow her to cross and then starts up again as she drops her mighty body down into a new and presumably more comfortable part of the street.

The factory in which I am working is on the far opposite side of the city from White Town, where our flat is located. My driver, Kalyana arrives each morning at 8:30 a.m. to take me to work. Several times a week, he brings the maid with him. While I am at work, she will clean the small two bedrooms, wash the clothes and linens, sweep and mop the marble floors and tidy up the flat. Kalyana picks up my briefcase and hurries down to the car where he turns on the air conditioning (he prefers to not use the convenience of air conditioning until I am to enter the car), places a perfectly pressed white cloth on the seat onto which I am to sit and then goes about dusting the outside of the car. The car is actually a Toyota SUV, which for Pondi standards is quite large. As I approach the car, Kalyana rushes to open the door for me and as he does he stands at attention and watches for approaching traffic.

Kalyana is dressed in a white uniform, which contrasts nicely with his rich dark chocolate skin. He is perhaps only 30 years old and is married. His voice is so high pitched that is one is not looking directly at him; you would not be able to distinguish his voice from that of an 8-year old girl. Until I learned his proper name, I referred to him as H.P. for High Pitch.

Kalyana drives with great care, maneuvering his way though the narrow streets with a combination of steering, braking and a considerable amount of honking. Everyone honks their horns constantly. The bus drivers will simply keep one hand constantly on the horn as they speed through traffic. People move for the buses much the same as they might for an ambulance in other parts of the world. The horn has taken on such significance to driving in India that most vehicles have a sign painted on the back that states, “Sound Horn,” presumably stating that if you want them to move over you should honk your horn at them. Other cars will have a sign that states, “A/C – No Hand Signal Given” and of course they will not use their blinkers either, which gives them a presumed right to simply turn at will.

The drive to work is about 20 minutes and I try to not look ahead as we drive. To do so will put one in a constant state of alarm. Each of the vehicles coming toward us are constantly jockeying for position to get ahead of the vehicle in front of them. In order to do so, they pull to their right and into the opposing lane to see if they can do so safely. The centerline become quite invisible as the great number of vehicles cross over it, if indeed the centerline is even visible to them as such. The view out the front window can take on the look of a beautiful ballet of motorized dancers moving in and out of the middle of the road or it can be a frenzied carnival ride that hurls you forward toward some opposing obstacle only to jerk you back just prior to impact.

When we finally arrive at the factory, Kalyana honks with a rhythm that signals the guards on the other side of the solid metal gates to open for us. The guards are dressed in French uniforms, much the same as the Pondi Police are. They swing open the gates and hold them back for our vehicle to pass. As we drive through, the guards stand at attention, and as my window passes they jerk up, click their heels and make a proper salute to me. I am always impressed and acknowledge them with a nod of my head. We drive down a long drive with a high wall on either side. Both sides are landscaped with beautiful flowering green shrubs, which contrast nicely against the dark yellow washed walls. At the end of the drive, Kalyana parks the car and rushes around to open my door for me. He then grabs my briefcase and rushes ahead of me to place my briefcase on my desk. Moments later, he arrives back at my desk with a cup of the most fabulous South Indian Coffee. And then, as now, I must begin my work for the day.

We hope to be able to visit Auroville, the international City of Unity in the next few weeks, as well as the Gingee Fort, the holy temple towns of Kanchipuram, Tiruvannamalai and Chidambaram, the heritage sculptures and magnificent rock temples of Mamallapuram, and the cool and lush hill stations of Yercaud and Kodaikanal. We are planning on taking a weeklong holiday while here to travel about Southeast India and get a better feel of the outlying area.

Using Knowledge to Help Others

2007-10-01T01:33:00.000-07:00

This week I learned the power of using knowledge to help others.

Just now I am in India using my knowledge as a screenprinting consultant to help one of the largest screenprinting companies in India become more successful. I am training their 750 employees in screenprinting and I am learning much from them about the way in which things are done differently in India, while I am also learning about India.

I have learned that in India, quality is a motto, a religion, and a duty that brings prosperity to the individual and the business. They believe that the customer is their God and that they will only offer the best quality and service to Him.

The company that I am working for is making a difference in the lives of those who work for the company, through free medical and dental care, free lunches, and transportation via the company buses. The also have an organization they founded that brings education to has works with poor and orphaned children around the world, irrespective of their religious background, by providing them with free education.

I am very pleased that I can work for such a great organization and that I can use my knowledge to help them.

When I was a very young man - not the same young man that I am today to the 95-year olds down at the nursing home, but much, much younger – I worked at the Huntsville Texas Item Newspaper. It was one of two things that I did to put myself through art school at Sam Houston State University. I also ran a screenprinting company producing T-shirts and posters for the local businesses. My father had been a screenprinter and I knew the business intimately, but it was the newspaper that excited me most at the time. I had always read the paper, but when you work at a newspaper, and get to know the writers personally the articles take on new meaning.

When one of the writers (my friend Vicki Clark) decided to write a story about me. I thought to myself, “Who would find what I do interesting enough to write about it in the daily newspaper?” I was pleasantly surprised when the article came out and I was the talk of the town for about two weeks. The article covered the entire front page of the Lifestyle page with lots of photos that my friend took during a day of shadowing me around the countryside. When the article was published, I was treated to free coffee at the local coffeehouse and everyone shook my hand and smiled much bigger and brighter than before. My fifteen minutes of fame stretched into about two weeks and then it was over for the most part. Sure, a few people continued to recognize me for a month or more, but eventually life and my hat size returned to normal. But, oh for a while I felt like I was much more important than my previous self.

The article and the difference it made in me encouraged me to begin writing and write I have. I have since authored several books and hundreds of articles for the screenprinting industry, as well as a few other books of a more general nature. I found that I enjoyed writing much more than simply telling the story, although those that know me well will say that they find it amazing that I could stop talking long enough to write anything.

I left college with enough knowledge to become an artist. I was an illustrator, graphic designer and fine arts painter, but quickly found that these skills, while they looked great on paper, would not support me in the lifestyle that a young man would find suitable. I stumbled through a lifetime of jobs in those first few years. I’ve been a security guard, dishwasher, busboy (though I suppose today this would be a “busperson”), waitperson (there, that was politically correct!), carnival ride operator, door-to-door portrait salesperson, and well a lot more. While, it was screenprinting that I did best and I seemed to always have a screenprinting company operating somewhere in my garage or a rented space, I enjoyed writing and wrote often. Small stories, sometimes short and often shorter.

By the early 1990s, I had begun writing an internet column which was at first distributed as normal email and later as a subscription-based Internet column. It was called This Week I Learned and consisted of a single thought usually in one sentence of something important that I had learned during the previous week. I begin sending the column to my family, friends and any one unlucky enough to have been included in my address book for some reason or another. I asked people to pass along the column to others that they knew and the list of subscribers grew daily.

Most email accounts are limited to sending a single email to only a few people. I was actually kicked off of one Internet service provider in the early days for sending the same email to a dozen people. They assumed that it must be SPAM and stated that they were only trying to make the world a better place by insisting that they had a right to decide whom I would be allowed send email.

About 1995, I ran across W. Bruce Cameron, (http://wbrucecameron.com) who was also an Internet columnist. At the time there were so few of us doing this that you could count the Internet columnists in the world on your fingers and perhaps your toes if you were willing to remove your shoes and socks for such. Although, I had always been an early riser, I learned that Bruce arose each morning at 4:30 a.m. in order to write his column before going to work at his day job. I decided to do the same and was amazed at how quickly my writing improved and the quantity of words increased. I also learned about subscription-based services from him, so I wouldn’t get shut down by an Internet Service Provider – thank you, Bruce!

My friend Shannon Wheeler of Adhesive Press ran the column in his magazine, Too Much Coffee Man, (http://www.tmcm.com). Apparently my writing and coffee go hand-in-hand as the list of subscribers grew dramatically after Shannon was kind enough to publish me. The fact that he devoted a full page to the column didn’t hurt either.

It was at Shannon’s suggestion that I contact an agent and he made a recommendation. The agent thought that the column should be either a cartoon thought or a full column. He suggested that I might want to expound on the single thought and thus the column was expanded. Today, I try to write at least one column a week and often more. The column is widely read by over 30,000 subscribers and I often hear from readers around the world who enjoy the column. It brings me great satisfaction to be writing and even more to have made a difference in another.

One recent email came from a fifth grade school teacher in California. She uses my column to teach her students to think differently about the world around them. After reading several of my columns to the students, she proposes that they write their own column in which they explain something that they have learned about humankind. With so few young people writing today and even less thinking about making the world a better place, I was thrilled to know that I was helping in my own way to make a classroom of youngsters in a California classroom better world citizens.

What have you learned this week and how did you use this knowledge to help others?

You can read and subscribe to This Week I Learned at www.thisweekilearned.com online.

Good Endings

2007-09-23T09:22:00.000-07:00

This week I learned that some stories end on a good note.

I am not a newspaper reader. Oh, I might read a headline visible from a rack at the airport, but I seldom buy or read a newspaper. I get most of my news online in my Google homepage, with excerpted headlines from Google, NPR, CNN, and my local paper. They seem to present me with all the sad, poor news that I can stand in my life. Like the story from the Laredo, Texas paper a few weeks ago.

It seems that there is a U.S. law in effect that states that all Mexican truck drivers who drive more than 20 miles into the U.S. to deliver their products must be able to “speak” English well enough to correspond to law enforcement authorities and understand the traffic rules in effect in each state that they may pass through. The law has been on the books for years, but has only been enforced since 9/11. Recently, a truck driver was cited with a warning for not being able to speak English as he passed through the checkpoint outside of Laredo. The headline of the English-written Laredo newspaper read: “Mexican Truck Drivers Must Talk English!”

This morning a headline on my CNN reader caught my attention. “Smokey the Cat Found After Three Months!” Like most people I like a good story and decided to click on the link and read the story.

On June 7, 2007, Wanda Ploeger was at work when a tornado hit her mobile home in rural Riverview, Wisconsin (near Green Bay). Her mobile home was destroyed and her belongings were scattered for miles around. When things settled down, and Wanda was able to check on her home, she realized that her cat, Smokey, was nowhere to be found.

Homeless, Wanda moved in with her ex-husband while waiting for the insurance company to help her get back on her feet. Knowing that Smoky was out there somewhere, Wanda would go out late at night after working all day to look for Smoky. Wanda had a feeling that she would find Smokey or that he would come back. And he did!

After three months of looking for Smokey, she found him. On September 15, Wanda was driving down the highway about 2.5 miles from where her trailer used to be. She saw a white streak on the side of the highway and instinctively knew that it was Smokey. By the time she stopped and turned around, the white streak had gone over a hill, so Wanda crouched on the side of the hill and called for Smokey, until he finally appeared over the hill and slinked up to her.

Smoky had lost about half his weight and had an open wound that had to be treated, but otherwise he was no worse for the wear. Smokey and Wanda are back together and living at the ex-husband’s house for now, but Wanda is going to buy another mobile home and put it back in the same place.

A word for Wanda, cats may have nine lives, but it is “lightening” that doesn’t strike twice in the same place. Move the trailer to a new place!

This story reminded me of a cocker spaniel, Molly, that we had when I was a young boy of about 9. We lived in a rural area south of Dallas, Texas at the time and were driving to Oklahoma to visit grandparents. Much to my father’s consternation, we had convinced our parents to allow us to take Molly with us in the car. She was only a few months old and couldn’t very well take care of herself for the days we would be gone.

About 100 miles north of the house, my father had all that he could take of Molly whining and having to stop for puppy pee time. He finally pulled over, put Molly out on the side of the road and drove on. I don’t have to explain the scene that took place in the car from both my mother and my brother and sister, but let’s just say that it was a lousy vacation.

On the way home a few days later, we watched the sides of the road for signs of Molly, but she was nowhere to be found. We made the long trip home without a word spoken by anyone in the car. When we pulled up to the house and begin unloading the car, lo and behold Molly crept out from under the porch of the house. She had apparently found her way home a full 100 miles down the highway. My father was speechless, but he knew that Molly was indeed special and accepted her as a member of the family after that.

I love stories with good endings!

The Value of Two Dollars

2007-09-13T12:23:00.001-07:00

This Week I Learned... that $2 right now is more valuable to some than the potential to make thousands in the future. Let me explain...

Today, we decided to have lunch at Habana, a restaurant in our neighborhood. We have dined at Habana many times and taken many friends there for the first time. The food is really quite good and they are never crowded. We really enjoy one of the dishes, but it is quite large and my dining partner wanted the dish but couldn't eat it all. Since I had intended to order another dish that wasn't quite so large, I volunteered to eat my dish, but also share the other dish.

The waitress pointed out that while the servings were quite large, there would be a $2 charge for sharing a plate. When we inquired as to what the $2 was for, she couldn't really explain it. Instead, she said that while everyone complains about the charge, management has informed her that she would lose her job if she didn't charge for the sharing of a plate. She pointed out that it was written in small lettering on the bottom of one of the eight pages of the menu.

When she returned to take our order and asked if we had made a choice, we stated that we were actually deciding whether we wanted to pay the $2 or go elsewhere. She stated that she didn't blame us as she thought the charge was outrageous as well. We asked if one of us ordered the dish, but the other did not take a bite, would there be a surcharge, to which she replied no. We asked if we ordered the dish to go and took it to our home to share if there would be a $2 charge, she replied, "Well, of course not!"

We are still not sure why there is a $2 charge for one person choosing to share a bit of food that they own with another person sitting at the same table that had ordered a dish as well, but it didn't sit well with us and we decided to go down the street to the Garden District Coffeehouse for lunch, where they have great sandwiches, Mexican Cokes, great music and free WI-FI.

But, wait there is more to this. I know some people are going to say, "Welcome to America, where we have choices!" Others are going to state that the business owner has the right to charge what they want to charge for anything they want. But, let's look at what this petty $2 charge is really going to cost Habana Restaurant.

Although, we like the food at Habana we probably won't go back. We used to eat at Habana about once every two weeks, spending about $60 a month for the two us. We take friends there on the average of once a month, spending about $75 or more for food and drinks. And, we recommend the restaurant to others who state that they enjoyed the food. These recommendations are worth about $60 a month to Habana. Hopefully, you are beginning to see the bigger picture of how much money our business is worth to Habana. Since they are not just in business for one month, but hopefully will be around for years to come, this amounts to at least $1,000 a year, if none of our friends never tell another soul about the restaurant.

The waitress commented that most people complained about the charge, so we have to assume that others have decided to not return as well. If only one person per day decides to not return, this amounts to about $375,000 a year. Not a small amount of money to a restaurant that had only three other tables when we walked out. Not only did they lose 25-percent of their lunch run, but they are continuing to lose money that they don't even know about.

When we explained that we were going to leave, the waitress asked if we wanted to talk to the manager. We asked why she could not simply explain the situation to the manager. She explained that the manager hears the story from them several times a day and doesn't believe them. She wanted us to tell the manager so that he would believe her. I explained that if the manager had been hearing this over and over and didn't act responsibly, I certainly wasn't going to invest my time and effort speaking to someone so foolish.

No, I am not naive about restaurants charging for split checks, a table charge for those just having drinks, or yes, even sharing a plate, but this was two people having two dishes for lunch. I find it unbelievable that a business owner could act so irresponsibly in charging a client to eat their food in a manner that they find enjoyable. Perhaps if I brought in another person who didn't want a bite of my meal, they would pay me $2. No, that probably isn't going to happen.

If anyone knows the manager at Habana or perhaps the owners, perhaps you can pass this blog along to them so that they can see the damage they are doing by being so petty with their $2 charge. Remind them that there are in excess of 30,000 people who subscribed to this blog and I am just one of the people that found fault with their practice.

Rumors of My Disappearance

2007-09-13T12:16:00.001-07:00

The rumors of our disappearance are true, but we are not fully gone quite yet. We have been quite busy with a number of projects, which have consumed an enormous amount of our time and thus we have been unable to keep up with some things – like This Week. We are now trying to get back on track and hopefully you will see more updates in the near future. For those who are not close, here is an update on our current projects:

Economic Spring Foundation

We created the Economic Spring Foundation to help ensure the future economic viability of villages throughout the world as self-supporting entities. Although no small task, like a good many things they start with a grass roots effort and grow.

Economic Spring arose from a conversation with a fellow Rotarian, Awad Abdelgadir in 2001 about the village of Kolomiseed (Az-Zawrat), a beautiful and peaceful village on the bank of the Nile River in the Nubian region of Sudan. Awad was born in this village but left as a young man to become a lawyer and after many years of hard work in Khartoum and in Libya, Awad eventually came to the United States to practice law.

It was during a meeting several years ago that the discussion turned to the creation of a health clinic in the village of Kolomiseed. The thought was of working together to approach medical entities to volunteer and donate to building the clinic.

During the course of the conversation we began wondering how the clinic could become self-supporting. There was no industry in the village, and the only electricity was from a few solar panels. The village school is taught in the shade of adobe buildings and the only income is from farming. The average Sudanese earns about $1900 USD a year, but in Kolomiseed the earnings drop to about $100 USD a year and the village is in severe poverty.

We were traumatized by the level of poverty we witnessed not only in Kolomiseed, but in villages worldwide and wanted to do something. We had an idea for bringing industry to the area by building a screenprinting business in the village to help sustain the project. We felt that we had a solid idea of making not only the health clinic in Kolomiseed self-sustaining, but also of ensuring the future economic viability of other villages throughout the world as self-supporting entities as well. We decided to help, but to start we choose Real de Catorce, Mexico for two reasons – 1. It is close to Austin, Texas and 2. it has the need for sustainability.

Our decision to help the people in small remote villages is nothing new for us. We have always had a philanthropic soul, and although we have always had difficulty in making changes to ourselves, we learned early on that we can always change the world around us. I have enjoyed my role as a relater, in that I put people and projects together where others seldom see a possible connection. I have traveled extensively and love finding new places and meeting interesting people. Because of this I have made friends throughout the world.

Together with our international friends, we are betting on the success of Economic Spring to make a difference not only in Real de Catorce but in other villages as well. We will be traveling to India in a week and while we are there we will be seeking another village to work with, as well.

The foundation focuses on building enterprises in parts of the world that lack sufficient direct foreign investment. It also makes bold, but calculated investments in situations that are fragile and complex. Economic Spring acts as a network of affiliates with separate project companies, whose common goal is to improve the socioeconomic viability of certain areas within this world that are in need of an industry that will allow them to become self-sufficient.

We will use our background as a veteran screenprinter with over 50-years of experience along with our School of Screenprinting to make a difference in the lives of others. Together with Economic Spring we are committed to building screenprinting operations in remote villages. The purpose is to bring industry, other than limited farming or tourism, to the regions. Economic Spring is seeking manufacturers, suppliers and private donors for funding the purchase of the necessary equipment and training to begin this operation. The residents of villages will be trained in the production of screenprinted items that will be sold in the market place, with profits from the venture going into a foundation that will support the improvement of existing programs such as better health care, clean drinking water, electricity, ongoing educational programs in the villages, and the alleviation of poverty.

Economic Spring seeks futuristic thinkers and committed individuals to assist in meeting the goals of the organization. For more information about Economic Spring and how you might help with the effort, visit our website at http://economicspring.com on the Internet.

Real de Catorce

To work on the Economic Spring Project, we have moved and are living in Real de Catorce, which is located in northern Mexico, high (at an altitude of 9,000 feet) in the Sierra Madres. This is an extremely small village of about 1,500 people. You may have heard or at least seen some of Real as the movie The Mexican (aka the Pistol) with Brad Pitt and Julia Roberts was filmed here. Also, The Banditas with Salma Hayek and Penelope Cruz was recently filmed in Real de Catorce, as were parts of The Treasure of the Sierra Madres with Humphrey Bogart.

The town is very popular with a large number of famous people who come during the week, when the town is less populated with tourists. Actor Matthew McConoughy enjoys running in the mountains during the week, which he states is an exhilarating experience. At 9,000 feet in altitude most of us require at least a few days for our blood to adjust to the height before we don’t get winded just walking two blocks up the steep cobblestone streets to reach the Quemada Internet Café.

To get to Real de Catorce, one must travel 11 hours south of Austin, Texas – through San Antonio, Laredo, Monterrey, and Saltillo before heading south down Highway 57. Driving in Mexico is extremely safe and the roads are in much better shape than those in the United States. You will have a choice of taking the toll road (Quota) or the free road (Libre) and I would suggest that you pay for the toll road. The difference is that the toll road has a passing lane that will allow you to maneuver around the many trucks that can only move at 5 miles and hour up the mountain highways. Taking the toll road means that you can drive at 60 miles an hour the entire distance. It is not uncommon to see women driving down to San Miguel de Allende or San Luis Potosi by herself or with a girlfriend. The roads are that safe, although you should only drive during the daylight hours, as there are no fences and cattle, goats, horses and burros often cross the road at night.

A few miles northeast of Matehuala, Mexico you will notice a small sign on the right directing you down Highway 62 towards Real de Catorce. You will notice the Desert Hotel and the last Pemex gas station before arriving at Real. It would be a good idea to fill up your tank at this point, just in case you must leave late at night when there are no gas stations open. If you arrive here late at night, you can elect to spend the night at this motel before traversing the mountain, which can be tricky at night. Also, the tunnel is not manned at night. Yes, there is a tunnel cut through the mountain that one pass through to arrive in Real de Catorce.

You will pass through the village of Cedral before continuing another 25 kilometers to the cobblestone road to Real de Catorce. Turning left on the cobblestone road you will notice that the roughness of the road will shake your car until you think that every bolt must surely be working it's way loose. As difficult as this is to believe the faster you go, the smoother the ride will become. Experienced travelers will find that a speed of 40 miles an hour will be much smoother than driving at 20 miles an hour. The word smooth is a relative term, as there will be nothing smooth about traversing over a cobblestone road, but you can certainly make the ride more comfortable. If you choose to drive at speeds of less than 40 miles an hour, keep an eye on the rear view mirror for approaching drivers who do not expect you to be in their way. You will need to move far to the right to allow others to pass, but be careful to not get off of the cobblestone road. If you drive faster than 40 miles per hours, you risk sliding on the smooth rocks around the curves.

As you drive down this road, you will see many Joshua trees, various Agave plants, and Century plants. Be aware that while you may pull off of the road at some points to take photos, you may not take any vegetation or rocks from the desert. The Mexican government has recently began posting signs (in Spanish) warning of heavy fines for the taking of any natural resources from the desert.

After Cedral, you will pass through the old towns of Potrero and La Luz before rising steeply up the mountain side. There is no guardrail on the mountain, but you must keep to the right and keep your eyes on the road ahead. It is not uncommon for other drivers to come flying around the corners and be on the wrong side of the road as they are watching the view instead of the road. When a large delivery truck or bus is coming down the slope and you are on the outside edge with no railing to keep you from falling up to a mile down the side of the mountain, it is best to stop and allow the bus to maneuver past your parked car. Do not get too close to the edge of the road as the rocks and dirt may give way and you car will spill over the side of the mountain. The views from the mountain road are breathtaking, but wait until you arrive at the wider sections of the road where you will find small pull-off areas where you can take photos. If you must, you can walk back down a ways to get photos of the ancient Indian pueblos in the mountain side.

Near the top of the mountain you will arrive at the Ogarrio Tunnel. The tunnel is 7,546 feet (2,300 meters) long. The tunnel is narrow, allowing only one way in and out of the city. At each end of the tunnel a guard uses a call box to alert the guard at the other end of the tunnel to hold traffic. The guard will collect a $2 fee from visitors to drive through the tunnel.

Just inside the tunnel you will find the Cathedral de Dolores (Our Lady of Sorrows) which was constructed into the right side of the tunnel to honor those miners who lost their lives in building the tunnel. The tunnel is lit with bare light bulbs overhead, but still require the use of headlights. Drive carefully, as there may be people walking through the tunnel on foot or riding horses. The narrow tunnel has been widened in places, however occasionally someone will lose a side mirror against the wall of the tunnel. Keep your windows rolled up as the carbon monoxide fumes are quite strong and dangerous.

About half way through you will notice that the tunnel makes a sharp turn to the right. Driving slow with your lights on will help you notice the turn and keep you from crashing in the tunnel wall. At the north end of the tunnel is the town of Real de Catorce.

There are a number of hotels in Real de Catorce and a few very good (but colonial) restaurants, which mainly serve Italian food, due to the influx of Europeans in the village. We have an eclectic mix of Swiss, Italian, Slovenian, German, and Americans in the village, who own hotels, restaurants and boutiques.

For now, we have rented the apartment above La Luna Gift Store on the southwest corner of the Plaza Hidalgo. From our balcony we enjoy the view of the plaza and all of Calle Langazorta. We have brought our cat Lilly (or Lillian when she acts obstinate!) down and she is really happy. No fleas!

The apartment is quite large with a foyer, bath, kitchen, long and wide hallway lit with skylights. A large bedroom but like all houses in Mexico, no closets. There is a super-size living room with four sofas, and two large chairs, two double doors leading out onto the small patio overlooking the plaza. We open the doors and allow the sounds of the village to fill our senses with all its beauty.

We are considering the purchase of some property for a home in Real de Catorce. We have located several options. One property is centrally located in town and would be perfect if it had plumbing, but alas there are no pipes or sewage, and building a bathroom and kitchen would be a bit costly. We also found some ruins to buy that are very promising. The ruins would require digging it out, building a retainer wall and starting from scratch to build. But, it is beautiful and has lots of promise for a huge terraced garden and a separate guesthouse.

Viva Real de Catorce Website

I know, one more website! We now have a little over 300 websites that we build for our own ventures and others. We have created a website for Real de Catorce that surpasses all that was here. The others did not give complete listings. Previously an owner of a local restaurant did the best site, but he only listed his restaurant and the hotel owners that he liked. Our website is continuing to grow daily as we find time to work on it. You can see it at http://vivarealdecatorce.com. Please let us know what you think. The writing and photography (other than the old photos) are a shared responsibility between the two of us.

Real Galeria de Arte

We also have opened an art gallery in Real de Catorce – the Real Galeria de Arte. It is a small gallery that hopefully will grow. We have a local couple running the gallery for now. Poncho is a silversmith and his wife, Theresa does handicrafts that she sells in the mercado in Real de Catorce. You can see our newest works at http://realgaleriadearte.com online.

Bill Hood Photography

The photography studio is still open and thriving. We do product photography, architectural, portraits, headshots and more. You can see our work at http://billhoodphotography.com online.

Screenprinting Endeavors

The Screenprint Store – This is where we sell our various products for the screenprinting industry, which we are heavily involved in. We have recently began selling Brown Manufacturing equipment and supplies, as well. Visit http://screenprintstore.com for more information on our store.

School of Screenprinting – we offer instruction for those in the screenprinting industry or for those who are thinking of getting into the business at http://schoolofscreenprinting.com online.

Solutions Journal - Those in the screenprinting industry find solutions here – http://solutionsjournal.com online.

Screenprint Answers - We answer questions for screenprinters at http://screenprintanswers.com

Screenprint News - We present news of the industry at http://screenprintnews.com

Writings - For those in the screenprinting industry, you may know that Bill writes for various publications, including Images Magazine in the United Kingdom. He has also written a number of books. Additionally, Bill has written over 600 technical articles on the screenprinting process. If you are in the screenprinting industry you should find these articles quite helpful in bringing control to the process while improving your productivity and profits. You can visit http://screenprintstore.com for many of these articles and books.

Bill Hood Consulting

Consulting with small businesses, mostly in the screenprinting and graphics industry but certainly not limited to them. This is responsible for a great deal of our traveling to cities in the United States, Mexico and abroad. If you are in business or thinking about getting into business give us a call.

Real Coffeehouse

We love coffee in all its forms. We hope to open a coffeehouse in Real de Catorce after the first of the year. We will have a complete line of coffees and other drinks as well free Wi-Fi, an open mike and other live music entertainment. Check back with us on this!

Deep Ellum Online

We design and build web sites for others and then host them inexpensively. Take a look at what you get for a very low cost at http://deepellumonline.com online.

The Elephant Dance

This is where intellectuals come to share their thoughts. Submit something.

Quest Wellness Center

We are in the process of opening the Quest Wellness Center in Real de Catorce. We will be working with Alex Magna from the Eucalipto Restaurant who is a trained psychologist, Cecilia Aquina from Chata Eschina who teaches palates, and others trained in a variety of health practices. From the brochure:

It is the goal of the Quest Wellness Center to enlighten select individuals on the mastery of their brain’s unique neuro-modulatory power to heal the mind and body and thus achieve the highest levels of personal and professional performance. Barbara is a medical physician with specialty training in Neurology, Movement Disorders, and Pain Relief. She has designed the Quest Wellness Center’s curriculum to allow others to unlock their brain’s ability to promote healing, enhance intelligence, and refine the body. Participants will find that empowering their brain to achieve a healthier lifestyle and a more intricate neural network will alleviate or heal many resistant medical problems including chronic headache, back pain, neck pain, high blood pressure, obesity, diabetes, fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue. This program will reduce the dependence on physician based medical care and virtually eliminate the need for many prescription medications.

Getting well is a pleasure with the expert staff at the Quest Wellness Center in Real de Catorce, Mexico. Interactive classes and creative workshops on intelligence building, stress relief, nourishment, body refinement, conquering negative cravings and time optimization are offered to help you increase your efficiency at work as well as feel more energized and yet relaxed in your personal life. There is a particular emphasis on the development of sensory-based creative tools such as art, music, dance, poetry, cuisine preparation, and massage to induce new body – mind feedback circuits and neural networks.

The Quest Wellness Center believes that both intercultural respect and the synergistic integrative trilogy of mind, body and spiritual enhancement are necessary to allow each person to exceed their previously supposed potential for Wellness and to achieve a state of Wholeness. In order to induce reflection within each individual of their own spiritual philosophy, our staff includes a spiritual healer from the local Wirikuta Indian tradition. This Shaman will share the stories of his people’s spiritual journeys and display the intricate string art formed from the ritually induced dreams of ancestral origin. The presentation of this distinctly different cultural spiritual philosophy will encourage participants to use their own newly developed creative sensory tools to advance on their personal spiritual journey toward Wholeness.

We will have a website up soon on this venture. Visit http://vivarealdecatorce.com for more information on the Quest Wellness Center.

Vehicles

We have purchased a Jeep CJ-5 with four-wheel drive and standard transmission for Real de Catorce. The Jeep Grand Cherokee will stay in Austin for now. The transmission has already gone out on the Cherokee once and is still not pulling the hills here well; so back to Austin it must go.

We are selling the BMW, so if anyone would like a great little car let us know. It is a 2002 BMW i44, with a Dinan Performance Package (the full works!). The car is a four-door black on black and is beautiful inside and out. We are asking $40,000, which is $20,000 under the investment cost. The Dinan Package was $40,000 alone.

India

We will be leaving for India on September 20th and will return to Austin on December 1. We will be doing consulting with a very large textile manufacturer in Chennai on the east coast of India. Our contract includes a three-week holiday in which we will have a car and driver to take us to the high mountain tea growing areas, and into the wildlife areas to photograph the animals. While we probably will not get up to Delhi, we will be all over central and southern India. We are very much looking forward to the trip, although this is during the Monsoon Season and the chance of a tidal wave looms menacingly over us.

Austin

For now, we must return to Austin once a month to teach classes at our School of Screenprinting. We have a two-year commitment in Austin, but hopefully will eventually move entirely to Mexico. We still have a home in South Austin where we camp out for few days at a time. You will often find us at the Garden District Coffee Shop on South Congress checking our email and working on our websites during the day.

Our plans for the future as of today are:

1. We will continue to work with Economic Spring to help ensure the future economic viability of villages throughout the world as self-supporting entities. You can help by going to http://economicspring.org.

2. We will maintain the Real Galeria de Arte, which will hopefully bring in enough income to support our lifestyle in the very laid back Real de Catorce. We hope to exhibit the works of others in Real in the near future. We will have classes in life drawing, painting and serigraphy in the studio attached to the galleria. Visit us online at http://realgaleriadearte.com and help support our efforts. Of course, we will still continue to paint and produce serigraphs of landscapes, which you can view at http://galleryeklektikos.com online.

3. We will continue to teach classes in screenprinting when we return from India. The classes are in our studio in Real de Catorce and we have already put them on our website at http://schoolofscreenprinting.com, which also covers our school in Austin, Texas where we hold a monthly class. We are contemplating opening a screenprinting equipment and supply business in Matehuala, Mexico as there are a few screenprinting shops there now and the town could support several more such shops. We have a young woman in Matehuala who looks promising as a manager.

4. We hope to open the Quest Wellness Center in Real de Catorce in the beginning of this coming year. By this time, we should have everything in place. If you would like to help in this effort as a guest speaker or as a participant, please let us know.

5. We hope to open the Real Language School in Real de Catorce, in which we will present immersion classes in Spanish for foreigners. We will also present classes in English for the residents of Real de Catorce. If you are bi-lingual and would like to join us in this adventure as an instructor in Real de Catorce, we’d love to hear from you. This would, of course, require a move to Real de Catorce.

6. We are in the midst of the final edit on our new Guidebook to Real de Catorce, which is the first guidebook to be published in Real since 1985. It is a much needed guidebook, which we hope will sell well. Keep your eye on the website at http://vivarealdecatorce.com for more information on this upcoming book.

Real News

For those who have been to Real de Catorce in the past, we offer this update on the happenings in the village:

The village has purchased a large quantity of 10-foot by 10-foot metal buildings and placed them into two giant squares by the tunnel on the village side. They moved all of the vendors into the buildings, which the vendors will eventually rent from the city. There was quite a scene when they first told them that they would have to move. The Mexican Army, State Police and village police came in to help facilitate the move. There was a lot of shouting and pushing and a few fistfights. The village authorities started tearing down the vendor shacks as the vendors simply left them in place. Although, the move has it’s pros and cons, the truth is that the vendors paid nothing to the city in the way of taxes and spent nothing in the city. They came from Matehuala or other villages each morning on the bus and left at the end of the day with their money. Now, with them moved down to the new Real de Catorce Mercado, the buildings that were behind them can be utilized and taxes collected on the businesses there.

The Casa de Moneda has finally been remodeled at a cost of 1.3 million U.S. dollars and is open as the new Real de Catorce Cultural Center. We attended the grand opening in which the Governor of San Luis Potosi and other dignitaries attended and spoke. There is a tremendous amount of art – paintings, sculpture and photography. The opening included several hundred photos depicting the life of Frieda Kahlo and Diego Rivera, an exhibit of paintings and sculpture by well-known Mexican artists and a photo exhibit on the San Diego Wall that separates Mexico from the U.S. that has been the subject of a fantastic collection of art painted on the metal wall. Charly Tomorrow of Gallery Vega m57 has been appointed Director and should do well in this position.

They have stopped much of the parking in the central parts of the village and it really makes the village look so much better. There are barricades in front of Plaza Hidalgo to keep visitors from driving up towards the town store and visitors are not allowed to park by the benches on the backside of the plaza, as well.

Visiting

If you get a chance to visit Real de Catorce, please look us up. If we are not off traveling in Southern Mexico or India, we’d love to show you around our new home in Real de Catorce. Ciao for now!

JustStolen.net and GadgetTrak Combine Forces

2007-09-12T19:02:00.000-07:00

JustStolen.net and GadgetTrak have recently collaborated to provide consumers with a powerful, effective method to retrieve their lost and stolen items.

As a victim of several thefts over the past few years, I was very happy to find JustStolen.net who can help recover some stolen items. Now, they have improved their service and the odds of getting your stuff back. Check them out!

Based in Portland, Oregon, GadgetTrak provides a unique patent-pending solution to the rising occurrence of gadget theft. These gadgets, including iPods, USB flash drives, digital cameras, SD memory cards, MP3 players, GPS systems, cell phones and other hot items have become targets for thieves worldwide. Through GadgetTrak's unique system they are able to provide subscribers worldwide a proven means to recover devices in the event they are lost or stolen.

The patent-pending GadgetTrak system enables gadget owners to track missing or stolen devices. The GadgetTrak agent files are installed on the storage device and then triggered when the user attempts to access the drive from a PC. When the agent is triggered, it initiates communication with the GadgetTrak server immediately and transparently.

If the device has been reported stolen, GadgetTrak collects information regarding the system the device is currently connected to. When the data is delivered to the server, a report is generated with the time, username, computer name, internal network address, location (country, state/region, city), ISP (Internet Provider Information) and other data that relates to that connection instance. In the event the device has been stolen, GadgetTrak personnel will follow up with you to assist in the recovery of your device and can assist law enforcement with technical support as needed.

The JustStolen.net team is excited to be collaborating with GadgetTrak. This union will help consumers across the globe retrieve their property quickly and effectively.

Furniture to Love

2007-05-28T14:44:00.000-07:00

This Week I Learned that a sofa is more than just a place to sit.

Anyone who visits our home in Austin is blown away by the hand-painted furniture, which was created by Iowa-based Sticks. The company makes a wide range of furniture painted in bright colors and incorporating text. It is the ultimate in family-friendly art. Each Sticks piece is a little bit different, but incorporates themes and icons from a list the group has put together. There are also several color families.

The process involves constructing the furniture from scratch out of regulation lumber, and then a sequence of drawing, wood burning, staining and painting the designs. Last come the final touches such as hand painted knobs and a final coat of polyurethane. Designs are derived from a series of themes, icons and color palettes that galleries or clients may choose from, making Sticks furniture easily customized. Customers can also add their own text or image ideas to custom orders. Because of their ability to deliver joyful, custom-designed pieces, Sticks furniture has become a national phenomenon.

Sticks origins date back to 1985 when Founder of Sticks, Sarah Grant-Hutchison, an abstract painter and college art instructor, was commissioned to design a wooden nativity set for Better Homes & Gardens Decorative Woodcrafts® magazine. At the time, Sarah’s artistic background was solely focused on drawing and painting linear surfaces, and this project challenged Sarah to incorporate her artistry onto a 3-D surface.

On a weekend excursion to a friend’s antique store, Sarah came across some etched wooden furniture from the twenties and thirties. She was inspired. Sarah’s father, John, assisted her with carving the wooden structures for a nativity set, and she experimented with etching her designs onto the wooden set. She found this technique was an effective way to realize her designs.

Decorative Woodcrafts® magazine purchased one of Sarah’s nativity sets, and her mother, Carol proudly claimed one of the “practice” sets to display in their home. Sarah was soon inundated with requests from family and friends for nativity sets and small holiday items. She began a small company called “Origin Art Forms” to supplement her income.

In December of 1991, Better Homes and Gardens® featured a story about Sarah and her company “Origin Art Forms” which elicited a large national response and an influx of orders. Sarah incorporated the company as Sticks, Inc. in 1992, and the company has evolved to offer a distinctive line of furniture, accessories and object art. Each piece is handcrafted and designed within Sticks award-winning design studio in Des Moines, Iowa by a staff of nearly 150 craft artisans.

Sticks has received national recognition for their exceptional line of furniture, accessories and object art. Sticks’ furniture and artwork is currently displayed in over 100 galleries nationwide. Sticks’ business has also evolved to include interior installation projects for hospitals, libraries, schools, restaurants and hotels.

The company is more than happy to create special orders, which allow you to incorporate family information, pictures of your family pets, or even color matches to existing decor. You should check out the Sticks website to view their work and to place an order for your own home.

Sticks Inc.
3631 SW 61st Street
Des Moines, IA 50321
515.246.8361

MySpace and Sexual Predators

2007-05-15T06:41:00.001-07:00

It seems that police officers are becoming the priests of this decade. Where it was once the priests who were arrested for assaulting and raping young children, today police officers are being arrested for these crimes. What's up with that? Most often it is really about having access. If the sexual predators were not given access to the children it would greatly reduce the number of assaults. For years, parents have allowed priests unsupervised access to their children and thus the problems occur. It is not really any different than the parents who allowed and even encouraged their children to sleep over at Michael Jackson's Neverland Ranch home.

In North Carolina last year, a former sheriff's deputy was sentenced to 15 years in prison after being convicted of molesting a 15-year-old boy he met on MySpace, and a Boiling Spring Lakes police officer was charged with the statutory rape of a 14-year-old girl whom he communicated with on MySpace.

For years, I have tried to explain to friends that have MySpace pages that I cannot visit them because I am boycotting the site. I tried to explain that MySpace, which is owned by the huge media conglomerate News Corporation, allowed children as young as fourteen (and possibly much younger) to become members and encouraged them to share private information such as addresses and telephone numbers with other members, which includes sexual perverts. MySpace will not allow others to read your posts without becoming a member, so that they can gain access to your email address, which they then sell to others for SPAM purposes. I believe that the site is only interested in making money and does so with great risk to their users. Go ahead, MySpace, sue me if you must for my beliefs. I don't have any money or property. And as a retiree, I have no real future income so all you will win is my silence. Ahem - Free Speach!

Today, I read in the headlines that law enforcement officers from eight states (North Carolina, Connecticut, Georgia, Idaho, Mississippi, New Hampshire, Ohio and Pennsylvania) are seeking an injunction against MySpace to turn over the names, email address and street addresses of registered sex offenders who use the social networking Web site.

MySpace (and other social networking sites) allow users to create online profiles with photos, music and personal information, including ages, addresses, the name of their school and grade they are in. Users can then send messages to one another and browse other profiles.

In 2006 the media reported almost 100 criminal incidents across the country involving adults who used MySpace to prey or attempt to prey on children. MySpace hired Sentinel Tech Holding Corporation to compare a database with information on sex offenders in the United States with the MySpace membership list. MySpace was told that the data from Sentinel revealed that thousands of known sex offenders were confirmed as MySpace members. Although, MySpace has had this information for over a year, they have yet to do anything about it. At the very least, they could have removed the sex offenders from the service or they could have informed their members that there are thousands of sexual offenders on the site. While this would have been morally right it would have lowered the membership base and thus advertising revenues for the company and thus MySpace did nothing.

MySpace is the largest social networking site and as such they need to be the standard bearer for changes that need to be made on the Internet in regards for protecting their users from not only the known sex offenders but from all harm that might come as result of using services such as MySpace.

The endangerment of the lives of others by MySpace is idiotic and morally reprehensible. It is like introducing cancer into an individual and then choosing to not allow them the option of diagnosis and early treatment. Or like promising a home owner interior decorating services, allowing termites to freely come into the home, and then simply watching as the house sustains irreparable harm without informing the owners. The negligence in knowing of the situation but continuing to accommodate and promote its existence is proof of their own voyeuristic culpability. MySpace is as guilty of wrong doing as that of the sexual predators they support by allowing them free access to children.

MySpace is a playground for predators of all sorts, but the combination of sex offenders and children is a recipe for total insanity. MySpace operates without any responsabilty for their behavior. If you have a MySpace account, if your children have a MySpace account or your friends are on the site, please encourage them to at least remove all personal information from the site for their own protection. Better yet, visit MySpace, click on the Contact link and let them know what you think of them for their behavior or lack thereof!

Got iPod?

2007-04-09T12:55:00.000-07:00

Apple computer has just sold its 100 millionth iPod! Wow, how impressive is that for an experimental project that no one was sure was going to work or not? And, not only has Apple accomplished this huge feat in only five and a half years, they did it at a time when the United States (where the largest number of iPod sales have taken place) was reeling in turmoil from the attacks of 9/11. A time when others were running scared from expansion and that many businesses have since blamed for everything from their bankruptcy to plaque and the failure of the post office to deliver mail. My hat is off to Apple for its accomplishment.

Apple has succeeded in spite of the fact that there has been an almost daily barrage from every electronics business in the world releasing knockoffs of the iPod. This cost Apple much of their marketing and expansion funding while Apple’s lawyers were fighting infringement cases in court. They also had to fight off environmental issues of the discarded batteries and electronic waste, the legality of downloaded music and the ability to play this music, and a hundred other issues.

It is hard to believe that it has only been a half decade since Steve Jobs introduced the iPod - an "MP3 music player... that plays all of the popular open formats of digital music, MP3, MP3 VBR, WAV, and AIFF," a device that changed the consumer electronics industry forever. And, no, iPod wasn’t the first digital music player on the market, but it has made history in that they created a generic name like Kleenex, which the others guys are gonna need to wipe away those tears of exasperation that they were not as successful as Apple. Today, people are clamoring over the purchase of an iPod, not an MP3 player.

The iPod has even helped save at least one life. Kevin Garrad of the 3rd Infantry Division, serving in Iraq, got a new lease on life when the iPod in his pocket got in the path of a bullet fired at close range, slowing it down enough that it didn't pierce his body armor. Kevin didn't even know he was shot until he fished around for his Pod and found a mangled piece of white and chrome instead. He did mention that he missed having his tunes on tap for the battlefield rituals, while he certainly didn't mind it lessening the blow of a bullet to his body.

While Apple gets a hearty slap on the back for its accomplishment in delivering its ubiquitous little jukebox sans speakers to an initially-skeptical but music-loving audience and for defending its (and our) rights, it might not have done so without the support of the many third-party accessory companies.

Companies as diverse as Belkin and Nike have created products around the iPod, which make it very warm and fuzzy. Nike has even made their entire shoe line adaptable to the iPod. Others have created fireplaces that are equipped with an entire sound system built around the tiny iPod and then there is the iRocker for Grandmother. How cool is that?

Now those who know me personally, understand that I am a bit of a gadget freak – okay, I am obsessed with gadgets. But, I need these things to make my life complete. But I digress. We have three iPods in our home. We have an original Shuffle in white, a 4G White, an 80G Black. These units have performed quite well and are in constant use. We have taken them on holiday to Cuernavaca Mexico, which made the 24-hour bus trip almost enjoyable.

Additionally, we have an FM transmitter, which sends the signal the older radio in our BMW auto, and a cable, which sends it the newer radio in our Jeep. This is an absolute necessity on long trips where the conventional stations fade in an out or perhaps are not available at all in some distant areas.

We have our computer address book synced on our iPods, which in my case is over 5,000 individuals. We have our calendars, movies, and even photos synced with our iPod. As an artist, I can keep photos of my paintings on my iPod to show to potential buyers. The list of things that can be stored on the hard drive is endless.

But the absolutely best third-party add-on that I have found for an iPod is the new AIPTEK Fidelity MIST I Portable Speaker. This unit is really small, fitting in the palm of your hand while delivering out-of-this-world sound. It uses a common 3.5mm audio jack, which makes it an ideal solution not only for iPods, but PSP, MP3 Players, CD Players, and DV models, all without having to bother with headphones.

It is a battery-powered unit, using 2 x AAA batteries (rechargeable if you prefer) to supply enough power to drive the two 20mm full range speakers delivering 2 watts of stereo sound. The batteries will give you an estimated 8 hours of continuous play.

But, wait - there is more great news. You don’t need the batteries to listen to the speakers as they work with the power turned off. The batteries are only to power the drivers for really loud sound. If you and your friends are sitting at a table studying or enjoying coffee, you can hear the sound quite well over the speakers with the power turned off. This means that you never have to buy batteries or worry about draining the battery on your device. If you want everyone in the coffeeshop to hear your downloaded copy of Mexicali Blues by the The Grateful Dead, then simply flick the power switch and you can play the song (and others hopefully) for up to eight hours.

“$19.99 Suggest Retail. There is also a much larger Mist II, which is a desktop set of speakers for your iPod. These retail for $44.95.

I purchased my unit at Circuit City, but I have found them online as well. Check out Academic Superstore or use Google to look for “Mist Portable Speaker.”

http://www.academicsuperstore.com/market/marketdisp.html?PartNo=791369

Now, for the rest of the story. If you rush out to buy this little device so that you can listen to your iPod without earphones and share your sounds with your friends, just be sure that you are doing so with the cooperation of everyone within earshot. It simply isn’t cool to crank up your sounds in a public place as not everyone will want to listen to your music, or music at all. Some of us are trying to carry on intelligent conversations with one another without having to scream over the screams of your favorite band.

My partner adds that some would welcome the music rather than the bland, uninteresting conversational drivel that they are sometimes subjected to (present company excepted, thank you very much!) or the cell phone conversation of the fat guy with the back hair creeping up the neck of his shirt and his butt crack showing at the next table, while he attempts to explain why he prefers Budweiser over Miller to his buddy on the other end of the phone. Can you say – run on sentence? Or perhaps this is just a perfected, stream-of-consciousness on my behalf. You don’t get to be the judge. Just read and try to make sense of it all, folks.

Bill Hood is a freelance writer living in Austin, Texas. His syndicated Internet column, “This Week I Learned” is read worldwide each week and is available at http://thisweekilearned.com. He is also the author of a dozen books including, “Charlie's Secret: And Other Eclectic Thoughts” available on his website.

A Great Idea?

2007-04-08T17:54:00.000-07:00

Sometime ago, I published an Internet article about the Book of Days Burglaries and the murder of 28-year-old Michael Cahill on Friday, April 13, 1979 in Austin, Texas. The television show, America’s Most Wanted, did a story on the murder and burglaries last night and I have been receiving some email about my past article.

You can read more about the story and how you might help solve this crime at http://www.amw.com/fugitives/case.cfm?id=44215

One woman wrote to me with a great suggestion. She suggested having eBay check all their archives to see if anyone has sold one or more of the stolen cameras or Michael’s Guild guitar over the years. I’d say let’s take this one step further and rule that all items being sold through online services such as eBay and Craigslist must be identified with serial numbers. All items would require a photo showing the item with the serial number displayed in the photo. This would eliminate the million of stolen items being sold every day on these services.

eBay, Craigslist and other online sellers would set up small kiosks all across the country where sellers could take items to be photographed with the serial number being logged. Each seller would have to show valid photo identification as well. Let's put a stop to the wholesale trade in stolen goods.

In 2005, I had two burglaries at my studio and lost computers and cameras both times. The police were no help and in fact, it took them over 5 weeks to simply call me back to get information on what was stolen. When I tried to give the police the serial numbers I was told that it wouldn’t do any good, as the thieves don’t sell these stolen items anywhere that the police could find them. They sell them to unsuspecting people on eBay.

How about this? Am I the only one who thinks having to record serial numbers on these online services might be a good idea? Here in Texas, the pawnshops are required to record the serial numbers along with a complete description of the items being pawned or sold. The list is then sent to the police who used to cross-reference it with stolen merchandise. The process was so effective that the thieves stopped selling the items to pawnshops and now sell the stolen merchandise on eBay and Craigslist. Let's require the same thing with eBay and Craigslist as we do with pawn shops.

The thieves are even helped by the services in many ways in that their identity is masked online, so that no one will know who they are. It takes a court order to get any of the services to give up the names of the thieves.

Let’s say you have a Nikon camera stolen and someone wants to sell it on Craigslist. This is not far fetched as there are a great number of stolen items sold there every day. It would be simple if you could search all of the boards at one time for a Nikon D50 Camera with a 50mm lens, but you can’t. You have to log out of one city and into another to search. Then you may ultimately find a camera similar to yours being sold in Vancouver or Mexico City, but you won’t know where the seller is located, so you can’t determine if it is your camera. If you write to the seller to get more information and you don’t write from an address in Vancouver or Mexico City, you will be tipping them off and they will simply say that the camera has been sold.

I say, let’s put some responsibility onto these online services to make it impossible for the thieves to sell stolen goods online. Let’s require serial numbers to be shown on all items.

On another note, I know quite a few people who have turned eBay into a cash cow. One guy in San Antonio grew up on a couple of sections (a section is 500 acres for you city folks) of land near Boerne, Texas. The land is inundated with limestone rocks that rise to the surface about as quick as one could haul them off. These rocks are also known as "Holey Limestone Rocks" because of their naturally occurring holes. The scenic Texas Hill Country is an area of ranches where the limestone rocks are a hindrance to cattle, horses and other animals raised by the ranchers as well as the tires on their vehicles.

The limestone has long been used in decorative aquariums throughout the world. As most aquarium owners know, the Holey Limestone Rocks serve as a buffer to help maintain water hardness and alkalinity. Its "solvency" in water through the eons accounts for the varied sculpturing this rock has undergone in nature, thus the presence of holes, caves and crevices.

Not all Texas limestone exhibits this Holiness! Only in certain areas or "pockets" of terrain can the holey limestone be found, and, even then, the number and size of holes vary greatly. Many holey rocks are too large for aquarium use; others break while being pried from the ground. For each "aquarium-worthy" specimen of holey rock, there are hundreds or thousands of pounds of limestone which are not usable. But, when a suitable rock is found, it is quite valuable to the aquarium owner.

Many rocks are superb, highly unusual specimens perfectly suited for decorating "show" or "display" aquariums and can range in size up to 4-feet or more in length. The rocks often resemble works of natural art. Many of the pieces have extreme contours and crevices that seem to disappear into the rocks. Others have large or small holes that may penetrate all the way through the rock leaving a "window" through the middle of the rock.

These Holey Rocks can sell for $1.50 a pound or more and some are unique enough to command pricing in the thousands of dollars. A rock with dimensions of 10" high x 10" wide x 10" long (30 inches of combined dimensions) usually weighs 25 pounds and would sell for $37.50 plus $0.50 a pound for shipping and a $5 packing / box charge for a total charge of at least $55USD.

Now comes the best part. This guy goes up to his father's ranch on the weekends. He takes a couple of 5 gallon buckets of water and a brush with him in the back of the truck. He finds a good looking rock, washes it off a little and positions it just right. Then he takes a digital photo and records the position of the rock on the ranch. He might take a hundred photos on a Saturday. Once back home, he posts the photo and a price on eBay and waits for someone to purchase the aquarium rock. When someone buys the rock, he sends his dad an email with the location of the rock with a name and address. The old man goes out to the rock and loads it in the truck, takes it back to the house, packs it up and ships it off, complete with the dirt on it. The guy and his dad split the money 50/50 and each can pocket $1500 a week or more in profits. Plus, the old man gets his land cleared.

Great idea, don't you agree?

Bill Hood is a freelance writer living in Austin, Texas. His syndicated Internet column, “This Week I Learned” is read worldwide each week and is available at http://thisweekilearned.com. He is also the author of a dozen books including, “Charlie's Secret: And Other Eclectic Thoughts” available on his website.

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The Yellow Rose Mystery

2007-04-07T18:36:00.000-07:00

This morning I listened to ‘The Yellow Rose of Texas’ as performed by Mitch Miller in 1955. As I listened to the lyrics, I was amazed to hear Miller pronounce the name of the Rio Grande River as ‘Rye-oh Grand’ instead of ‘Ree-oh Gran-de.' On closer listening I became aware that Miller had changed other phrases and wondered why. As it turned out, the Miller version was arranged by Don George and recorded for Columbia Records. The version was tailored to the tastes of the dancing audience at the time and he eliminated some of the folk elements from the song. Perhaps he did this to find favor of the predominately upper middle-class audience that found his music appealing. We may never know the real truth why the phrases were changed, but let’s review a bit of little history of the song.

The manuscript of a poem, The Yellow Rose of Texas, was first written about 1836. It was signed “H.B.C.” The original manuscript, now in the A. Henry Moss Papers at the Barker Texas History Library, The Center for American History at The University of Texas at Austin. The handwritten manuscript was dedicated to E. A. Jones. There has been some speculation that this is a reference to Edward A. Jones, who was the first Black to graduate from an American university - Amherst College, in 1826, however any connection between the two is unknown.

The original version, possibly written around the time of the battle of San Jacinto, tells the story of a black man who yearns for his sweetheart. During that era, "yellow" was used to describe people of mixed-race origins, especially mulattoes, and the rose was a common symbol of young womanhood.

There is also some speculation about the origin and authorship of the original poem. The poem was poorly written and had spelling errors that would lead some to believe an uneducated person could have composed it. The words indicate that either a Black who referred to himself as a ‘darky’ or someone pretending to be Black wrote it. This has been debated because of the use of the three embellished initials presented in script on the original manuscript that would have been worthy of someone more well appointed at the time.

It would also appear that the author might have been from Tennessee, as he knew something of the ‘belles of Tennessee’ as mentioned in the poem.

The Yellow Rose of Texas
By H. B. C., Circa 1836
From the handwritten transcript stored in the archives at the University of Texas, Austin

There's a yellow rose in Texas, that I am going to see,
No other darky [sic] knows her, no darky only me
She cryed [sic] so when I left her it like to broke my heart,
And if I ever find her, we nevermore will part.

[Chorus]

She's the sweetest rose of color this darky ever knew,
Her eyes are bright as diamonds, they sparkle like the dew;
You may talk about your Dearest May, and sing of Rosa Lee,
But the Yellow Rose of Texas beats the belles of Tennessee.

When the Rio Grande is flowing, the starry skies are bright,
She walks along the river in the quite [sic] summer night:
She thinks if I remember, when we parted long ago,
I promised to come back again, and not to leave her so.

[Chorus]

Oh now I'm going to find her, for my heart is full of woe,
And we'll sing the songs togeather [sic], that we sung so long ago
We'll play the bango gaily, and we'll sing the songs of yore,
And the Yellow Rose of Texas shall be mine forevermore.

[Chorus]

The first published edition of ‘The Yellow Rose of Texas’ was by Firth, Pond and Company of New York on September 2, 1858. This edition states that the song and chorus were arranged and composed for vaudeville performer Charles H. Brown by someone with the initials of "J. K. " The lyrics are almost identical to those in the handwritten manuscript.

More than 25 years later, during the Civil War the song became popular with Confederate soldiers, though some of the lyrics were changed. "Soldier" replaced "darky." And the first line of the chorus, ‘She’s the sweetest rose of color this darky ever knew’ was also changed to read, "She's the sweetest little flower, this soldier ever knew.’

A version sung in 1864 by troops under the command of General John B. Hood, later recorded in The Dell Book of Great American Folk Songs, added a reference to the Gallant Hood of Texas.

‘And now I'm going southward, for my heart is full of woe,
I'm going back to Georgia, to see my Uncle Joe.
You may talk about your Beauregard, and sing of Bobbie Lee,
But the gallant Hood of Texas played hell in Tennessee.’

Some versions have the third line changed from Bobbie Lee to General Lee, - an obvious reference to the Confederate General Robert E. Lee.

The song remained relatively unchanged throughout the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In 1930, Texas composer David W. Guion transcribed the song from memory, inserting his own distinct melodic effects while taking care to preserve the song's character. Guion's version of "The Yellow Rose of Texas" became popular, and a second transcription of the song was released in 1936 to commemorate the Texas Centennial and was dedicated to Franklin D. Roosevelt, who ordered a White House performance of the song.

By World War II the former "Black folksong" had become a standard, and was popular with military personnel serving overseas. The song became even more popular in 1955, when Don George rearranged it and Mitch Miller recorded it for Columbia Records. This new version was tailored to the tastes of the dancing audience at the time. Miller retained some phrases from the original song manuscript, but eliminated some of its folk elements.

From the 1955 Mitch Miller rendition…

There's a yellow rose in Texas, That I am goin’ see,
Nobody else could miss her, Not half as much as me.
She cried so when I left her It like to broke my heart,
And if I ever find her, We nevermore will part.

[Chorus]

She's the sweetest little rosebud That Texas ever knew,
Her eyes are bright as diamonds, They sparkle like the dew;
You may talk about your Clementine, And sing of Rosalee,
But the YELLOW ROSE OF TEXAS Is the only girl for me.

When the Rio Grande is flowing, and starry skies are bright,
She walks along the river In the quiet summer night:
I know that she remembers, When we parted long ago,
I promised to return, And not to leave her so.

[Chorus]

Oh now I'm gonna find her, For my heart is full of woe,
we'll do the things together, we did so long ago
We'll play the banjo gaily, she’ll love me like before,
And the Yellow Rose of Texas, Shall be mine forevermore.

[Chorus]

In 1956 John W. Schaum arranged a boogie-woogie transcription. This version of the song was suitable for elementary piano students, and, over the years, its appeal extended to people of all ages.

The poem that became a song might have slowly disappeared from the public’s attention if it had not been associated with a real woman, albeit in jest. Read on…

There has been much speculation about the song and that the “Yellow Rose” was indeed Emily D. West, also known as Emily Morgan, who supposedly helped win the battle of San Jacinto, the decisive battle in the Texas Revolution, on April 21, 1836.

According to legend, Emily was a mulatto slave owned by Colonel James Morgan, of New Washington, Texas, who was kidnapped by soldiers under the orders of Mexican General Antonio López de Santa Anna. She was reportedly brought to Santa Anna's tent, where she entertained him sexually throughout the day of the battle. The distracted general supposedly failed to put his troops on alert, and when the battle began, the Texans caught the Mexicans by surprise.

In fact, however, "Emily Morgan" was a free-born black woman named Emily D. West, who worked as a housekeeper at the New Washington Association's hotel. There is absolutely no evidence to support the story of her tryst with Santa Anna, nor is there any evidence that the song was about Emily West.

So how did the story of Emily come to be? It was quite simply the manufacture of two amateur historians, a professor and a public willing to accept the written word as fact. The first, Francis X. Tolbert, a prolific journalist, wrote in his ‘The Day of San Jacinto’ in 1959 that Emily was a "decorative long-haired mulatto girl. . . Latin looking woman of about twenty. " No footnote documents this description or the author's statement that she was in Santa Anna's tent. Tolbert also presumptively identified Colonel Morgan as the informant.

Henderson Shuffler, also a journalist, became a publicist for Texas A&M University in the 1950s. He wrote historical articles for the Southwestern Historical Quarterly, and made speeches while working at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at the University of Texas in the 1960s.

On one occasion Shuffler gave what some considered a humorous speech in which he said Emily was "the M'latta Houri" of the Texas Revolution, a "winsome, light-skinned. . . slave of Colonel James Morgan. " He added that she was a fitting candidate for the identity of the girl in the then-popular Mitch Miller version of "The Yellow Rose of Texas. "

Shuffler credited Tolbert for bringing Emily's story out into the open and then manufactured more fantasies, including the whim that "her deliberately provocative amble down a New Washington street was the most exciting event in town. " He added that her story was "widely known and often told. . . in the 1840s. " In closing, he jokingly suggested that a stone might be placed at the San Jacinto battleground "In Honor of Emily Who Gave Her All for Texas Piece by Piece. "

The story might have ended as a joke at that point, if it were not for a college professor of mine when I attended Sam Houston State University in the 1970s.

In 1976 a professor of English at Sam Houston State University, Martha Anne Turner, published a small book, The Yellow Rose of Texas: Her Saga and Her Song, an outgrowth of a paper she delivered in 1969 at the American Studies Association of Texas. She credits Shuffler's speech and adds even more undocumented details before tracing the roots of the song. Thus the story was full-blown for the journalistic frenzy of the Texas Sesquicentennial in 1986. Turner later admitted that much of the information, which largely supported the myth, was based upon a speech she heard and on other facts that remain undocumented.

Even more strange is the official certification of certain women in Texas that have given to their community or state. They receive an official document signed by the Governor of the Great State of Texas declaring them an “Official Yellow Rose of Texas.” History is indeed strange.

Bill Hood is a freelance writer living in Austin, Texas. His syndicated Internet column, “This Week I Learned” is read worldwide each week and is available at http://thisweekilearned.com. He is also the author of a dozen books including, “Charlie's Secret: And Other Eclectic Thoughts” available on his website.

What Have You Done?

2007-04-06T06:46:00.000-07:00

Freelance journalist Josh Wolf, who spent more than seven months in prison for refusing to comply with a subpoena, was freed Tuesday after cutting a deal with prosecutors. Josh emerged from a federal prison in Dublin, California soon after U.S. District Judge William Alsup vacated the previous contempt-of-court order.

On July 8, 2005 a protest was held in San Francisco’s Mission District against the Group-of-Eight (G8). The G8 is an international forum for the governments of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States. Together, the eight countries represent about 65 percent of the world economy. The group's activities include year-round conferences and policy research, culminating with an annual summit meeting attended by the heads of government of the member states. The European Commission is also represented at the meetings.

As the annual summits are extremely high profile, they are subject to extensive lobbying by advocacy groups and street demonstrations by activists. The most well-known criticisms center on the assertion that members of G8 are responsible for global issues such as poverty in Africa and developing countries due to debt crisis and unfair trading policy, global warming due to carbon dioxide emission, the AIDS problem due to strict medicine patent policy and other problems that are related to globalization. G8 leaders are therefore pressured to take responsibility to combat problems they are accused of creating.

During the G8 Summit protest in San Francisco, a police officer attempted to restrain a protester and was injured during the scuffle and a police car suffered a small bit of damage when a foam sign was set afire near the car. Josh, a 24-year-old freelance videographer and news blogger from San Francisco covered the protest. The police officer is shown in the video holding the protester on the ground in a chokehold while calling for backup. A group of protesters had gathered to watch the arrest take place. Unbelievably, when the backup police arrived they pulled out their pistols and threatened to shoot the protesters if they did not back up.

Granted there were some protesters or wannabes who caused some damage such as using paintballs at the windows on the Pacific Gas and Electric building and moving some newspaper racks into the street after police cars moving at high speed almost ran over some of the protesters. This is not about the mischievousness of a few of the protesters or even those who did break the law, if indeed they did. It is about a citizen’s right and the rights of all Americans.

Like most journalists, Josh shoots copious notes and shoots copious footage when covering an event. As a journalist he then decides what is fit for publication or broadcast and usually backs up the remaining footage and notes for future research. Josh aired a segment of the video he took that evening on his blog and that should have been the end of our story.

Eventually, word got around to San Francisco prosecutors that Josh might have more tape that wasn’t uploaded to the blog – that might include images of the person or persons responsible for subduing and causing harm to the police officer. Armed with a search warrant, they paid a visit to the young journalist, to retrieve his video and any notes he had of the event. Pleading his First Amendment Rights, Josh refused to relinquish the video or to testify as to what, if any, knowledge he had of the event.

Then the local police took it one step further and asked a federal grand jury to acquire the video as part of its investigation into the protest. The feds claimed jurisdiction because the squad car was paid for, in part, by federal funds. California has a state shield law for journalists, but the federal government does not.

During the course of the saga, Josh has repeatedly offered to allow a judge to be the arbiter over whether or not the video material has any evidentiary value. The federal judge ruled that it was all or nothing and had Josh arrested and imprisoned unless he turned over the tape to the San Francisco police.

Josh has spent nearly 7 1/2 months in prison for not turning over the unpublished footage of the San Francisco protest. Josh, who spent more time behind bars protecting his source materials than any other American journalist in history, agreed to turn over the tape to a judge, who will likely then hand it over to the feds, something that may not even be necessary as Josh posted the entire video on his blog.

Swearing in a new court document that he neither took part in nor could identify those responsible for the car's damage or the officer's injury, Josh extracted a promise from prosecutors that they won't use the existing subpoena to compel his testimony before a grand jury. They can however acquire a new subpoena at a later date if they so desire.

At a press conference late Tuesday afternoon on the steps of San Francisco City Hall, Josh said the deal was "a good decision" since it freed him from having to testify - which he said was long the sticking point with prosecutors.

"This has never been about a videotape," he said. "It was the testimony which I felt to be the most egregious affront on my rights as a citizen and a journalist. This leaves my ethics intact."

Society of Professional Journalists President Christine Tatum, whose organization supports Josh, voiced "mixed feelings." She's glad he's free, and she understands the strategy of making the material public rather than giving it only to prosecutors, something major media organizations have done in similar circumstances.

"But it's unfortunate that Josh can't keep his work product to himself, it's unfortunate that prosecutors are able to go on a fishing expedition to get information that I think should be in the protection and possession of the journalist," Tatum, a Denver Post assistant business editor, said. MediaNews owns both the Denver Post and the Mercury News.

National Press Club President Jerry Zremski, a Buffalo News reporter, agreed it's "a partial victory" and "an imperfect compromise." Putting the video on the Internet is "far better than putting it just in the hands of the prosecutors," he said.

But Zremski said he's "queasy" about Josh being compelled to air the footage at all. "I feel very happy that Josh is out of prison, I think he obviously has suffered greatly for his willingness to take a stand here, but it is similar to a print reporter giving up all the notes he or she has for a story."

Josh, who said he was treated like "a human being" while incarcerated, likened his time in prison to being "in a dorm."

Still, it wasn't easy, he said.

"One of the things about being incarcerated is your voice is cut off," he said, his voice catching. "No one can hear you."

Now, that might have been the end of the story, but when Josh posted the video to his website many people decided to make comments about the video and Josh’s refusal to turn over the tape. Of the 137 comments posted in the first day, only two people understood the significance of the event. Most of the comments were from uneducated people who really don’t understand the rights of American citizens. The individuals who made written comments about Josh and the way in which he handled the situation were completely out of line by presuming much about the individual or the circumstances as to why he did what he did, other than what he stated was the truth.

In the United States we have the ‘shield law’ in many states, including California, that give ‘reporter’s privilege’ to keep sources confidential. It has been ruled that unless the prosecutors can demonstrate in advance that the reporter’s records would provide the information of criminal wrong doing that the reporter is not required to reveal their source, their notes or video.

Journalist shield laws have been enacted in most states, but not at the federal level. However, those state laws vary widely but generally do not provide absolute protection and journalists may still be compelled to testify if they have been witness to a crime or if there is no other way for the court to obtain the evidence.

Judge Ralph K. Winter Jr., of The Federal Appeals Court in New York wrote: “No grand jury can make an informed decision to pursue the investigation further, much less to indict or not indict, without the reporters’ evidence,” in the similar case against reporter Judith Miller. This was because Miller had exclusive evidence of a crime against the nation, i.e. the leaking of a CIA operative by Lewis ‘Scooter’ Libby, Vice President Dick Chaney’s Chief of Staff, who was later convicted of the crime.

This is not the case with Josh, as there were lots of video cameras, still cameras and arrested individuals who could identify those involved in the police car damage. To single out Josh was an illegal move by federal authorities.

It has been stated that the federal prosecutor argued that Josh does not meet the statutory definition of a journalist (under California law) or a common law journalist’s privilege based on the Federal Rules of Evidence. Further, they argue that even if he did, the protections afforded to journalists would not cover his activities in this case because he merely observed the incidents he recorded in a public place. He did not prompt them, nor did he offer anyone anonymity or confidentiality.”

There are others who believe that Josh is a reporter, albeit young and self-employed, but still a reporter. The fact is that many of the reporters for major newspapers have been laid off in the past few years due the loss of readership with the advent the Internet and 24-hour television news programs. The fact is that they are still out there doing freelance reporting and can’t meet the federal, state or common law definition of journalistic privilege. If being employed by a major news outlet is the constitutional definition of being a ‘reporter’, then soon we will completely lose freedom of the press.

Josh asserted his right to be a journalist. Josh believes that the federal government should not grant privileges to employees of major papers that it won’t grant to it’s own citizens. Josh is a journalist, he was reporting news and he has a right to be protected under California’s shield law. Such a narrow definition of journalist/ journalism will ultimately perpetuate a state run media. Media that relies on press releases does not serve the public need.

Take a look at Fox News, which is in fact a state run media outlet. Is that what the majority want? I don’t think so. Protecting Josh’s right to be journalist, thus granting him the protections afforded to journalists under California law is protecting free speech, the cornerstone of our democracy.

Whether you agree with the law or not is irrelevant. Josh did not agree with the law and set about to make a change using the legal system. This is the way changes in the law should be made. Josh didn’t resort to violence, he went to jail for his beliefs and asked that the government prove their case. Say what you will about Josh, but he has done more to help ensure democracy and freedom of speech than anyone in government today.

This has a lot to do with John F. Kennedy’s stance, ‘Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.’ After reading about Josh and what he has done, you have to ask yourself, ‘What have I done for my country?’

Bill Hood is a freelance writer living in Austin, Texas. His syndicated Internet column, “This Week I Learned” is read worldwide each week and is available at http://thisweekilearned.com. He is also the author of a dozen books including, “Charlie's Secret: And Other Eclectic Thoughts” available here on this site. He lives in Austin, Texas.