Blog number eighty-four 21 March 2007
I was watching Keith Olbermann (interesting guy) on television yesterday and one of his topics was this cube of gold on display in Japan, It was about ten inches cubed, sides rounded off, Japanese characters stamped on each side.
It was housed in a Lucite plastic domed cover with several holes large enough that visitors could reach in and pet the cube.
There was no alarm system, no guards, and the entrance to the "museum" was through a natural cave. Mr. Oberman's last words on the subject was, "You guessed it. It's gone."
Then today I'm reading a book about this mercenary in Java, and this sentence comes up, " ...he had always paid his bills with cash on the nail, usually small cubical gold ingots ..."
Java is in the Pacific Rim, Japan is in the Pacific Rim. Was this huge ingot on display in Japan just a large Pacific Rim "common currency?"
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
FUNNY GIRL
Blog number eighty-three 20 March 2007
I was just rereading my blogs and I ran across the one that describes my bout with vertigo. In that entry I wrote about asking my Dad what his stroke had been like, and I described how it had changed him. It reminded me of something I should have put in that entry but didn't think of it.
Dad was in watching television and I was out in the kitchen talking to Mom while she cleaned up. Out of nowhere she said, "I think Dad's losing his mind."
I thought she might be talking about how different he was, because it was dramatic - from a bombastic extrovert into an introspective silent thinker. But that wasn't it. Probably part of it, I think. It probably got Mom to thinking something wasn't quite right, though.
I asked her, "What makes you think that?"
She replied, "He asked me if I wanted him to wash the dishes. He never does that!"
She was serious.
*********************
One time earlier I was visiting right after getting married to Teresa and I was washing the dishes and one of my sister's kids saw me, and in a wondering voice said, "I didn't know daddies did dishes."
Monday, March 19, 2007
MY GOOSE WAS COOKED
Blog number eighty-two 19 March 2007
It's July 4, I'm seventeen years old. The city fathers are about to let a duck and a goose loose onto Emmetsburg Lake. Whoever swims after them and catches them gets to keep them. Good deal.
We're standing on the dock, poised to dive in. The city fathers are over to the left, by the edge of the lake. They let the duck go. We all dive in. The duck heads out toward the middle of the lake, then makes a right turn and goes toward the dock we left a few moments before. I am not a good swimmer, I am at the end of the pack. The lead kid finally catches the duck. We all go back to the dock to await the release of the goose.
When the goose is released, everybody dives in. Except me. I wait on the dock and sure enough, the goose follows the duck's path. He goes toward the middle of the lake and veers right toward the dock. Where I am waiting.
By the time he gets close to the dock, the rest of the kids far behind, he is tired out. I jump in and pick him up. Success! I got me a pet goose.
I take him home, put him in a pen I make out of loose boards left over from the pen I made for two kit foxes that escaped because I made the cage bigger for their comfort and inadvertently or negligently made the space between the slats large enough that the two kits could get out.
My friends come over and we leave for parts unknown. I don't come back until late the next day. I find out my Dad had killed and cleaned the goose, my mother cooked it and the family sans me, ate it. I never got a taste of my new pet.
It's July 4, I'm seventeen years old. The city fathers are about to let a duck and a goose loose onto Emmetsburg Lake. Whoever swims after them and catches them gets to keep them. Good deal.
We're standing on the dock, poised to dive in. The city fathers are over to the left, by the edge of the lake. They let the duck go. We all dive in. The duck heads out toward the middle of the lake, then makes a right turn and goes toward the dock we left a few moments before. I am not a good swimmer, I am at the end of the pack. The lead kid finally catches the duck. We all go back to the dock to await the release of the goose.
When the goose is released, everybody dives in. Except me. I wait on the dock and sure enough, the goose follows the duck's path. He goes toward the middle of the lake and veers right toward the dock. Where I am waiting.
By the time he gets close to the dock, the rest of the kids far behind, he is tired out. I jump in and pick him up. Success! I got me a pet goose.
I take him home, put him in a pen I make out of loose boards left over from the pen I made for two kit foxes that escaped because I made the cage bigger for their comfort and inadvertently or negligently made the space between the slats large enough that the two kits could get out.
My friends come over and we leave for parts unknown. I don't come back until late the next day. I find out my Dad had killed and cleaned the goose, my mother cooked it and the family sans me, ate it. I never got a taste of my new pet.
Monday, March 12, 2007
HINTS ABOUT WARFARE
Blog number eighty-one 12 March 2007
"When your plan of battle is proceeding perfectly, you have just walked into an ambush."
"All combat takes place at night, in the rain, at the intersection of four map segments."
"Never trust a recruit with a weapon or an officer with a map."
"If you can't remember which way the Claymore is pointed, it is pointed at you."
"It is inadvisable to parachute into an area one has just bombed."
"When your plan of battle is proceeding perfectly, you have just walked into an ambush."
"All combat takes place at night, in the rain, at the intersection of four map segments."
"Never trust a recruit with a weapon or an officer with a map."
"If you can't remember which way the Claymore is pointed, it is pointed at you."
"It is inadvisable to parachute into an area one has just bombed."
Sunday, March 11, 2007
I WANT THE WHOLE STORY
Blog number eighty 11 March (Has it been that long since I blogged?) 2007
I was watching the History channel the other night and they had the battle of Thermopolis, which was between the Persians and the Greeks. The Persians were coming to punish the Athenians for burning one of the Persian's cities along with an important temple in that city. The force of the Persians was three hundred thousand. The defenders numbered seven thousand.
Three hundred Spartans fronted the rest of the Greeks in a narrow pass where the Persians were at a disadvantage because of the difference in the way the two armies fought.
The first day the three hundred Spartans killed thousands of Persians. Now, it wasn't said, but from inferences, I don't think the rest of the Greeks got into the battle at all. The next day, same thing.
The Persians found a way around the pass so that ten thousand of them came up behind the Greeks, who were now surrounded. Six thousand of the Greeks were sent back out of the way before the ten thousand Persians completed the flank attack. All that were left to fight the hundreds of thousands of Persians were the remnants of the three hundred Spartans and a thousand of some other Greek city's troops. The Spartans and the other thousand Greeks were slaughtered.
Now here's the part I don't get. The ten thousand Persians came up behind the Greeks in the same narrow pass. Why didn't some of the Spartans go to the rear and fight those ten thousand just like they had been fighting the three hundred thousand in front of them? Why didn't the seven thousand stay and slaughter the Persians? From what I gathered, the front of the battle was the mirror image of the rear. Am I missing something?
I was watching the History channel the other night and they had the battle of Thermopolis, which was between the Persians and the Greeks. The Persians were coming to punish the Athenians for burning one of the Persian's cities along with an important temple in that city. The force of the Persians was three hundred thousand. The defenders numbered seven thousand.
Three hundred Spartans fronted the rest of the Greeks in a narrow pass where the Persians were at a disadvantage because of the difference in the way the two armies fought.
The first day the three hundred Spartans killed thousands of Persians. Now, it wasn't said, but from inferences, I don't think the rest of the Greeks got into the battle at all. The next day, same thing.
The Persians found a way around the pass so that ten thousand of them came up behind the Greeks, who were now surrounded. Six thousand of the Greeks were sent back out of the way before the ten thousand Persians completed the flank attack. All that were left to fight the hundreds of thousands of Persians were the remnants of the three hundred Spartans and a thousand of some other Greek city's troops. The Spartans and the other thousand Greeks were slaughtered.
Now here's the part I don't get. The ten thousand Persians came up behind the Greeks in the same narrow pass. Why didn't some of the Spartans go to the rear and fight those ten thousand just like they had been fighting the three hundred thousand in front of them? Why didn't the seven thousand stay and slaughter the Persians? From what I gathered, the front of the battle was the mirror image of the rear. Am I missing something?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
