Month: July 2023

 29 July ‘23 

Tuesday am  29 July’23  WU 68^o  WW 52^o  

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I told you I’ve been watching old stories from the original Twilight Zone.

I also told you I remember a few of them and I was waiting for the one where all the residents are either “embalmed” bodies posed as what they wish they could have been when they were alive or manikins created to “flesh” out the dead person’s final wish.  None alive including the caretaker, Mr. Wickwire, who was in charge of seeing they are posed correctly for their final wishes and of keeping them dusted; and who was actually a “robot”.

I finally got to see it again.  It was called “Elegy”.  It was #20 in season 1.

I will ask again … Do any of you remember the Twilight Zone and Rod Serling?   What were your favorite episodes?

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Recently read a note in “… Walking the Red Road” about a Mohawk woman named Pauline Johnson who was born to an English mother and a Mohawk Chief father in 1861 at the Six Rivers Reserve near Hamilton, Ontatrio, Canada. cHer first book  of poetry was published in 1895.  

However the woman named as the first American woman poet is acknowledged to be Anne Bradford nee Dudley.  She was born in Northampton, United Kingdom in 1612 into the Puritan family prominent as founders of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.  I have a copy of her first book of poetry published in 1650.

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My friend of long standing, Bill King, recently sent me this interesting information:

 “Came March 1941 when Americans were ordered to leave China; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C11gYQih8Xk;

then came Dec. 7 (or 8, in Asia time).  Some of us recall being ordered out of China in 1941 …  

“I could have been  a passenger, too – save I was born a King in the US in March, and not, still earlier, a son of Presbyterian missionaries to China,  – a Van Etten.”

And as Bill said … Here we go again.

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There’s a rose in my porch garden just outside the northwest corner window.   It’s called Joseph’s Coat.  I first saw one of them in the front yard of the house Mark owned on Maltby Street in Rochester, NY.  If you’ve never heard of them, or seen one, their blossoms come in varied colors.

My rose’s blossoms start with yellow centers and as they age the yellow becomes ringed with red petals and wind up dried pinkish before the petals start to drop.  The bees love them and even the hummers sometimes visit them.

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And another blast from the past … Presenting the Smothers Brothers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJfwMkO9h1o&ab_channel=CBSSundayMorning

Watch for the VietNam Joke (!)  

I still wear my Another Mother for Peace necklace given to me by the Founder Donna Reed because I was an initial member.  

Another time I’ll tell you about my interaction with the LAPD over that war.

I still miss the Smothers Brothers.  CBS made a big mistake when they allowed censors to fire them over their political opinions. 

American involvement in war in Vietnam lasted from August, 1964 until April, 1975.

Our older son would have been old enough for the draft in 1974.  That was the reason we made a trip into Canada to look for property in case we needed a place to go to keep our son out of the draft to go fight in Viet Nam.  We found a place and opened a Bank Account.  

Fortunately, the draft was over before it was needed.  

And here’s a bit of trivia … Did you know Tommy Smothers has one blue eye and one brown eye?

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I’m still reading The Gnostic Gospels by Elaine Pagels.  Pagels is an American historian of religion. She is the Harrington Spear Paine Professor of Religion at Princeton University and has conducted extensive research into early Christianity and Gnosticism. 

The Gnostic Gospels were found in pieces and went from owner to owner during translation of the Coptic so even though Pagels is listed as the author, actually she is a translator and a compiler of translations of the Gnostic Christian texts found over a span of years in Egypt at Nag Hammadi.

It is not an easy read.  However I am learning a lot from Professor Pagels. The first Chapter is titled “the Controversy over Christ’s Resurrection: Historical Event or Symbol?” 

My first note, which I wrote on the first page of the first chapter in The Gnostic Gospel, is, “What about Lazarus?”

I’ll probably be making notes and offering opinions in this blog as I read further.

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A chain started by a friend in re Mitch McConnell’s problem .. 

“Just wondering, .. whatever happened to the type of senior senators who really loved America, like, say, Hubert Humphrey?”

And others added …

“Or ran for president like Adlai Stevenson with the hole in the bottom of his shoe?”

“Or Jimmy Carter, who spent time preaching in his church, or teaching Sunday school, or building Houses for Humanity.”

“Or Harry –  on retiring –  back to his home in Missouri mowing his own grass?” 

“We’ve been robbed.  And now we are too stunned to weep.”

To Mitch et al … seems there was once a teacher who taught something about reaping what you sow …

Who would you add to this list? 

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Now to end this week’s blog with …

“We do not worship the Great Spirit as the white people do.  But we believe that the forms of worship are indifferent to the Great Spirit.”

Red Jacket (Sagoyeawatha) Seneca, 1811 

So ‘til next week …

Weather … HOT

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I’ve been watching old stories from the original Twilight Zone.

I sort of remember all of them so far (there are 36 in season 1) and I particularly remember a few of them … Where is everybody?, Walking Distance, The Lonely, and Time Enough at Last are just a few in the first few I’ve seen so far.  

I’m waiting for the one where all the residents are embalmed bodies posed as what they wish they could have been when they were alive.  None alive except for the caretaker who was probably in charge of keeping them dusted.

Do any of you remember the Twilight Zone and Rod Serling?  

What were your favorite episodes?

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Last week one morning I awoke from my midday nap with a chill and did a Covid test which came out negative.  So I decided it was just Summer punnies.  

Still I wanted to make sure the house was cool so I got up about 8 to open windows for ventilation.  I could feel the cool outdoors so went back to sleep without any covers.

The next time I woke up it was nearly 2 am and I felt very cool so I pulled up a sheet and went back to sleep.

Next time I woke up it was a few minutes before 5 when is the time I usually turn on the front porch light (more about that later) and watched the CBS morning show until a bit after 6, checked the neighbor’s front door light, settled in to watch the morning news until time to get up to make my morning cup of tea with some crackers.  

Then it was time to get dressed and do my outdoor watering chores and it was already 94 degrees.

Now about the front door lights at my house and my neighbors.  I am 93 and they are in their mid-80s, so we keep tabs on each other.  The lights are just a way of making sure we are still okay.

When I had the chill and wanted to sleep in I called them the evening before I went to bed to tell them I was sleeping in and wouldn’t turn on my light but they shouldn’t worry.  

Suzanne called about 10 just to make double sure.  

The woman who lived between my house and the Abbott’s just died about a month ago but it wasn’t a surprise.  She had a heart monitor, diabetes, and did overnight abdominal dialysis for her kidney failure.  

Once her family was gathered, Diane had them turn off the dialysis.  Until the snow last winter she used to make jam or jelly and shared it all around.  They were small jars but the jam or jelly was always good.

I’m in pretty good condition for my age and walk with a cane. Suzanne had a stroke before I moved in here and uses a walker and David walks with a cane so we three don’t expect any surprises any time soon.

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My younger grandson Paul (his birth name) Francis (his Baptismal name chosen for the Saint) is preteen and interested in baseball and swimming. 

Last year he played either right or left field on his TBall team.

He is also on the local swim team and won two medals in the multicounty meet last fall. Not bad for a kid who began being afraid to even jump into the kiddie pool a couple of years ago. 

He participated in a meet in Redding last week.  He got some individual firsts but their relay team didn’t do as well as  last year.  They’ll do better with a bit more practice.

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On Thursday the 20th it was already nearing 80 ^o  but my screensaver was a field of snow diamonds and the Mountain was snow covered.  Leftover photos from the days when we lived on the farm. 

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And now back to Pandora’s Box…

Page 32  Notes from Alex Cole’s biography of the first President, George Washington’s farewell speech … (notes begin here – actual word are in quotes) Cole writes Washington (Washington) was concerned we would be dragged into battles with nations when we would do better to be trading with all of them … his greatest concern was the prospect of an authoritarian ruler … “Political factions incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual.” … that leader would use “this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation, on the ruins of public liberty” … We must guard our inheritance.  If we allow sectional differences to eclipse national interests the republic will be in peril.”

The entire address can be found at https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-CDOC-106sdoc21/pdf/GPO-CDOC-106sdoc21.pdf

And back to the Smithsonian …

Page 36  “The growing impression is of a place curiously ahead of its time.” 

Starts with a face carved in a stone during the Paleolithic era more than 12,000 years ago which was recently found in Israel.

Page 66  “Magic in the Felt” … People staged a dance jumping on the wool to effect the transformation from fiber to felt.

Page 76  “We thought of the legend of Prometheus.  Of that deep sense of guilt in man’s new powers.  That reflects his recognition of evil, and his long knowledge of it”   Quote – J Robert Oppenheimer

Page 92  “Larry West has found a number of connections between the photographers, abolitionists, and the Underground Railroad.”

I always lived too far west for the Underground Railroad, but once when I was visiting Mark and his then family in Rochester NY they took me to see one of the stops on the Underground RR.  The hidey-hole was in the small attic space over the front porch.

Page 98  “In search of Willa Cather”  Her hometown Red Cloud, Nebraska was named for the famous Oglala Lakota chief, a Sioux leader and a fierce fighter.

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For those of you who know I am an avid reader, here is a list of what I’m reading now in addition to the two magazines, Smithsonian and Archaeology …

Jeffery Archer’s “Next in Line”

365 Days of Walking the Red Road … The Native American Path to Leading a Spiritual Life Every Day

The Gnostic Gospels by Eaine Pagels

Finding Arthur by Adam Ardrey

If you choose to read any of them, read closely, there might be a quiz later.

And finally from the Smithsonian …

Now after months of scanning a month’s issue, I’ll be looking more closely at coming issues page by page in anticipation.

A short list from the April+May issue includes articles about the Canadian woman who wrote Anne of Green Gables and much about Westminster Abbey, probably because of the Coronation.  

There is a picture of Reg Greenacre who is in charge of raising the flag of whatever festival, state visit, or other event is occurring in the Abbey.  

The picture of him reminded me of Admiral Boom who lived next door to the Banks family in the Mary Poppins movie and who fired off a salvo at 8 am and again at 6 pm.

There is also a wall carving in the Abbey of a memorialization dedicated to Shakespeare and which  guides often tell tourists he is buried there although he is actually buried with the family in the small local parish church in Stratford-on-Avon.

In the July+August issue there is a large article about a farm in New England which is turning the manure from 600 cows into enough methane gas using an anaerobic digester to create biogas which  produces renewable energy as well as vehicle fuel, organic crop fertilizer, construction materials and other useful byproducts. 

And information about how controlled burns help prevent large forest and range fires a practice known to indigenous peoples for at least centuries.

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If your reader’s brain isn’t on overload, the current issue for July+August has information about HipHop history; 

and big gun bunkers at or above beaches along the southern California coast aimed out to sea like those at Cabrillo Beach.  I used to go to the beach and look out through the aiming slits making up stories about the military men who were assigned to those posts during WWII watching for Japanese submarines.

Another was about the Los Alamos labs where atomic bombs were being developed.  My brother-in-law, a Physicist, worked there.  Los Alamos was much like being in solitary confinement in prison.  He couldn’t come out easily and security was tight on family coming in.

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Switching to Archaeology magazine … 

You can explore a sunken Roman city; a flushing toilet dated from 2400 to 2,200 years ago; a sphinx with dimples and a slight smirk circa AD 41-54; mid 19th century AD indigenous South Africans who stole cattle from colonizers to resist enslavement; a 6th century BC poet; and the defeat of  invaders in ancient Chicksaw heartland in the Blackland Prairie.

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And in the July.August issue page 120  — Someone asked “Why do chickens have wings if they can’t use them to fly?”

The answer was Chickens can fly, just not very well.  When humans started to breed chickens for meat they wanted heavier birds so wild chickens adapted to being ground birds who can stay aloft for less than 50 feet and some can do little more than jump.  

And now you know the rest of the story … 

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I’ll end with a quote from Rod Serling ..

“Being like everybody is the same as being nobody.”

And another quote …

“…the worst aspect of our time is prejudice… In almost everything I’ve written, there is a thread of this – man’s seemingly palpable need to dislike someone other than himself.”

So ‘til next week …

Weather is more like summer, cool mornings followed by warmer late mornings followed by heat, and followed by wind not hard but too much sun to get on the kneeler in order to weed.  Somehow I’ll figure out how to do that.

Am able to water the east side of the drive … asparagus, the basil, the rhubarb, and the wisteria start on one of the carport uprights, and sometimes the porch roses and tomatoes before the morning begins to get too hot.

Hummers have come back to the feeder seen out the north window in the living room … one bully and two others. 

None of the small birds are coming to the feeder outside the kitchen window after Blue Jays chased them away before I chased the Jays away.

Wait and they will come …

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My copy of “finding Arthur” by Adam Ardrey has arrived. As I said when I first opened it, the reviews said it is extensively footnoted. 

That certainly is true although I haven’t counted all of them. Ardrey seems to include Signe Pike as one of the authors among those who name Uther as Arthur’s father and affirm him as the Red Pendragon, the leader of the warriors who defended the southeast borderland of the Scots circa the 5th century AD. 

I don’t know how I’ll read Pike’s books, treating them as continuations of the Ardrey book or as stand-alone novels based in part on Ardrey’s book.

The Lost Queen arrived last Wednesday.

I’ll continue to look for an affordable (for me) copy of “finding Merlin” and report on my decision whether to pay the current price or wait until the price comes down.  I’d like to find the Merlin book to fill out the “King Arthur” collection, (although not all by the same Author).
Before I moved I felt I needed to find new homes for all of my books, including my Jeffery Ashe collection, not knowing where I would wind up living.  Of course, now I wish I’d kept at least those books.  

Oh well …

All I can do now is wonder what Jeffery (who was the primary expert on “King Arthur ” when I was at Glastonbury in the early 1990s) would think of Ardrey’s new research and Pike’s fictional  take on Arthur.

It could certainly make for an interesting tea with Jeffrey.

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Atara came to visit last Friday and brought me a menorah from Israel small enough to set in my north window.  She has a friend who got a similar one for his Mother and plans to add small electric lights to use instead of candles.

I’m going to check with Atara about the lights since I’m getting anxious about any lit candles in my house.  

We had a good visit cut short due to the high temps but she’ll be back after the holidays and a family wedding. 

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Everywhere around us the pines are dying of pine beetle infestations.  It is very sad.  But the forest is changing due to climate change.  

Pine beetles cause the trees to die beginning in the top and the tree dies from the top down. 

We had an infestation several years ago and the place where we lived at the time controlled it by topping the trees and/or dropping the infected tree and quickly burning it.

I’m seeing the same pattern all around here now.

Probably after I’m gone the forest of evergreens … mainly pines, cedars, and firs … will have been replaced by deciduous hardwoods.  

In a few years I’ll bet I won’t recognize the “forest” any more.

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Once when George and I were on a road trip the first leg of which was across the California/Arizona border at Yuma Arizona before there was a border crossing station there and I was sweating so profusely that salt was beginning to coat my skin.  There was a gas station with a restroom across the road so while George got gas, I went into the restroom to wash off the salt and cool down a little.  

Instead I nearly fainted and grabbed the door.  Both the station owner and George started running toward me.

I said “I’m fine.  Just a bit of heat exhaustion.” but the station owner said “NO it’s a heat stroke and I live just across the street.  We have to get her over there.  My wife’ll know what to do.”  

From then on all I remember is being nearly carried into the house and put on a couch and someone wiping my face and wrists with a cold cloth and someone else trying to make me drink tepid salt water and something about “Not exhaustion … Heat Stroke”.

That’s when I learned the difference between feeling sick and being on the verge of something much more dangerous.  Information which later became useful when I was an RN working in the Emergency Department, riding as an ASL responder with the Ambulance, and teaching a First Responder class at the local Community College.

Lessons come in strange places so don’t ignore what seems to be trivial, you never know when it can be life saving.

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 Another memory from the past is the classical pianist named Victor Borge who could always make me laugh. 

He’ll really turn you on to (or off of) Classical music.  You can hear him or see him on You Tube, or you can check on him at 5 hilarious videos from the funniest man in classical music

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And here’s a Sad story … 

Thurgood Marshall was the first “Negro” on the US Supreme Court appointed by Lyndon Johnson in 1967 and who died in1993 after retiring from the Court.

He sought to attend his hometown law school, the University of Maryland School of Law in Baltimore, but was told he would not be accepted because of the school’s segregation policy. 

Later, as a civil rights lawyer, Justice Marshal sued the school in 1935 over this policy and won. 

Once when waiting to catch a train, the Justice had to stand in the section of the station waiting area to enter the “Black Section” of the train  and because there was a sign on the toilet’s door saying “No Blacks allowed”, the Justice was forced to stand there and pee in his pants.

On 3 1964 July President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibited segregation in public places.

Learning more about that Brave and Honorable man is well worth the time spent to learn from him.

Too bad one of the current Justices doesn’t copy Justice Marshall …

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 I don’t think I shared this which I received from Mark, my younger son, but here is a sharing …

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPs1Jw8EKZc&ab_channel=CBSEveningNews

Cal Worthington’s commercials were almost more than just selling cars. They were entertainment worth watching, even if you weren’t in the market for buying a car, just to see what kind of pet he would have with him next time.

Have you ever been kissed by a camel?

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To close the week …

Words of wisdom from Chiricahua, a notorious Apache leader  1812-1874

“ I was going around the world with the clouds when God spoke to my thoughts and told me to .. be at peace with all.”

Taken from the entry on 2 July from “365 Days walking the Red Road”      

By Terri Jean

And so ‘til next week …