Time to Get Packing!

 

by Pa Rock

Weary Traveler

It's Saturday afternoon and my week in Salt Lake City is careening to a close.  Tomorrow morning I will check out of my hotel which borders on Temple Square and catch the Green Line Tram to the airport.  My flight is at 10 a.m and I should be back in Kansas City by 1:30 in the afternoon.

It has been an eventful week in some respects, but there were a few fizzles along the way.   I learned, for instance, that my ability to get around on foot had decreased markedly during the six years since I was last in the capital city of Utah, but, on the upside, this time I became very proficient at using the tram system.  

One of my "goals" this year was to watch the weekly rehearsal of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir in the Tabernacle (something I enjoyed six years ago), and I even went there early in the week to make certain that I had accurate information about the event.  A couple of very nice older Mormon volunteers told me that it would be Thursday evening at 7:30.   I showed up at the appointed time and was swept into the Tabernacle by masses of people who were entering and leaving and strolling around the beautiful outdoor holiday lights.  Once inside two more volunteers told me that there was no rehearsal this week because of the large and extravagant multi-choir performance - community and school groups -  that was happening next door.  I could, if I so desired, get on the waiting list for the possibility of a ticket to that.  I declined.

I did stop and drop two dollars into a can beside a very cold panhandler on my way back to the hotel.   He was sitting on the sidewalk wrapped in a couple of ragged blankets - next to his faithful dog who was also bundled up against the cold.   My feelings of grandiosity were quickly tempered, however, when a lady stepped up next to me and handed him a folded bill that looked like a twenty.  "Merry Christmas," he said to each of us.

I don't understand why there is such extreme poverty in America.  I just cannot comprehend how people wind up sitting on sidewalks on cold winter evenings, begging for survival, in the heart of the richest nation on earth.

On the plus side of the equation, my week in Utah did include some real positives.   I finished a couple of small writing projects which have been in the hopper for too long, and I slept soundly every night - and now feel rested for the first time in a very long time.  The trip was worth the expense just for the physical rejuvenation effects alone.

And I also had some positive results with the library research.  "Family Search," the library's new name, is under the control of a group called Family Search and appears to be a part of the Mormon Church.  Family Search maintains a site on the internet that is very similar to Ancestry.com, the place where I maintain my "official" family tree.  Six years ago I opened a free account with Family Search and made just a very few entries in a family tree which I started at that site.  My tree had grown a massive amount over the past six years with information that Family Search had collected from my personal research at that site, but also through the research of others who had connections to my tree.

Early this week I took a long and detailed look at my family tree at Family Search, expecting to encounter many errors due to sloppy research by others, but, for the most part, the information in that tree seemed to match the one which I have done completely on my own at Ancestry.com.

But I did come across one branch where I felt my information was better than what had been affixed to the Family Search tree, and I sat down with one of the many library volunteers to discuss it and to learn how to challenge information on the tree.  Our conversation and some subsequent work together led to my most significant find of the week.    Together the very nice lady and I managed to unearth a probate document that had been filed in Ohio in 1892 that not only added to my knowledge of my great-grandfather, whose family past even his children were unaware, but also showed that the information in the Family Search was accurate.  I now know quite a bit more about this particular ancestor than I did when my plane landed in Salt Lake last Sunday.

Another discovery that I made this week as I was researching at the library was that the library was printing large (24" X 36") family tree charts and handing them out to individuals.  They were in full-color and I assumed would be quite pricey.  On Thursday as I was visiting with another library volunteer regarding another problem, I asked about the charts.  It turns out there were 9-generation fan charts - and I have several lines that go back nine generations and even further - and it also turns out that they were free, one to a customer -  and we printed mine right as I sat there!   It was gifted to me in a sturdy cardboard tube for a safe flight back to Missouri.

(For my Missouri kin, a nice poster frame would be a very appropriate Christmas gift!)

Time to get packing - literally!  It's been a very good week in Salty City!

Two Daddies - and We Ain't Seen Nothing Yet!

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Billionaire do-badder and tight crony of the in-coming President, Elon Musk, has been in the news this week as he forcefully moved to derail a plan to fund the government for three months.  House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican, had worked tirelessly to piece together  the proposal that Musk blithely dismissed.    Johnson, who barely has control of the House, even on a good day, had to work with Democrats to bring a plan together that he hoped would draw enough votes from both parties in order to pass.  Musk, who has no official role in government other than apparently playing step-and-fetch-it for wobbly King of Mar-a-Lago, did not like the plan that Johnson proposed and said so.   He encouraged Republicans to vote it down.

The once and future President who had been relatively silent on the matter (for him), suddenly appeared to have been sidelined by his country club guest, and now felt that he had to get into the fray for his own ego if for no other more substantive reason.   He and Musk helped push Speaker Johnson into offering up a "Plan B" bill that offered far less to average citizens - yet cost even more than the original plan, the plan that Co-President-elect Musk had swiftly tanked.

Last night that plan failed when all of the Democratic Representatives voted a resounding "hell no," and 38 Republicans ignored a threat from the other in-coming Co-President (the orange one) to primary them if they voted against his approved plan for keeping the government open past midnight tonight.

Now Musk and his political partner are saying that the government will just have to shutdown and stay closed until the new President(s) is/are inaugurated on January 20th.  They are also begging the general public to remember that Democrats brought this crisis upon the country - but most Americans are smarter than that.

There is talk on the internet today that perhaps there is too much leadership coming from the Republican Party and that Americans may be confused as to who is really in charge and what the party's agenda actually is.

Is the billionaire who actively and obscenely purchased his way into a position of influence running things, or is it the guy from Florida whose name was actually on the ballot?  And if we do wind up with de facto Co-Presidents, will it make for enhanced leadership - or just more chaos.  So far the "chaos" horse seems to be leading by a couple on lengths.

Speaker Johnson is likely to lose his gavel when Congress reorganizes on January 3rd.    That opens the floor to another Republican meller-drama like the one we witnessed fourteen months ago when Johnson was finally elected (out of desperation) as Speaker.  Good times!

Some are even suggesting that Elon Musk should be elected Speaker of the House - since the Constitution fails to stipulate that the Speaker has to be an actual member of the House.  Elon might be a good choice for that position since he would be able to quickly reward members for backing his favored legislation with something much more lucrative than committee assignments or good parking spaces.

Or perhaps Mr. Moneybags would prefer to be the shadow President, because as John F. Kennedy famously said, the presidency "is where the real power is."

But is America ready for two Presidents - one who wages war on the poor with wild, false claims of improving government efficiency - and the other who golfs by day and posts blithering nonsense by night?  Can we survive in a household with two egomaniacal daddies?

It's Friday, December 20th, and the federal government could shut down tonight and remain closed for at least a month.  For those who think we can function without a federal government, get ready for a big surprise.  It's going to be a long and very hard row to hoe.  And then to try to emerge from a month of no operational government and be faced with two father-figures who are each trying to run the household for their own benefit.

To quote Colonel Kurtz, "The horror!  The horror!"

Or, to misquote Bachman Turner Overdrive, we probably "ain't seen nothing yet!"

Gosar's CRap Poll

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

I haven't lived in Arizona in over ten years, and when I was there I never lived in Paul Gosar's congressional district, but somehow I landed on his email newsletter list,  I should ask to have my name removed from the list because Gosar and I agree on absolutely nothing, but some depraved part of me gets a kick out of his never-ending fount of nonsense.  The right-wing extremist Republican is often hysterically funny when he solicits comments from his readers and then skewers them unmercifully for their views.

This week Congressman Gosar was banging on about the proposed continuing resolution to fund the government up into next March, something he is quick to let his readers know that he vociferously opposes.  But, he would also like for his readers to give him some props on his position by answering a poll on the matter that Gosar and his staff have prepared.  Gosar's poll is biased to the point of being comically deranged.

He begins with an explanation of the continuing resolution, one that expresses it clearly through the congressman's own point of view.  Here is his introduction to the subject:

"Shortly, Congress will vote on a 1,547-page continuation resolution (CR) to fund the federal government until mid-March.  I personally think the CR is chocked full of a bunch of garbage that I cannot support.   It's more big government, more massive spending, includes a pay raise for Members of Congress, and is loaded with Big Pharma giveaways.  Do you agree with me?       Before I cast my. vote, I want to hear from you.  Do you think Congress should pass the CR?"

And for those who are still unclear as to how to vote following that sterling introduction, Gosar drops a couple of more hints in the way he prepares his ballot, first with the title, and then with the wording of the choices:

"CRapnibus

_____  Yes.   I want more spending and government.

_____  No.   It's a loser for the American people.

--------  Unsure"

Congressman Gosar is probably going to get the answer he is begging for, but he won't get it from me.  He clearly is not truly interested in what his constituents think if he has to tell them what to think.   It's actually disrespectful.

Occupy Mars, Elon, or Repatriate to South Africa

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

The world's richest human, Elon Musk, seems to be attached, at least at the wallet, to the incoming President.  Musk, a native of South Africa who allegedly began amassing his obscene fortune while living in the US on an expired student visa, donated somewhere north of $277 million to the President-elect's presidential campaign, making him not only the largest individual donor in this year's election cycle, but also giving him near total access to the man who will be controlling the government that pumps so much money into Musk's businesses.

And the incoming President, a man who takes care of himself first and then spreads the leftovers from the feast around to those who bolster his ego and his bottom line, rewarded the cagey billionaire with an appointment to head a new White House-centered effort to weed out waste and inefficiency in government.  

Elon will have the ear of the Big Man with the long red tie when it comes to cutting programs and eliminating positions.   Many fear that he will propose cutting programs and benefits to the working poor and those on fixed incomes, such as retirees, while keeping in place or enhancing those that feed into the bloated corporate welfare system.

There will be several billionaires directly involved in our government during the next administration, but none will have anywhere near the proximity or level of access to the boss that Elon Musk seems to be currently enjoying.

But it is still December and while Elon is busy fetching drinks and giving foot-rubs at Mar-a-Lago, Congress (well, some of Congress) is trying pass a continuing resolution (CR) to keep government open.  Without the CR the government will shut down this Friday night - just five days before Christmas, laying off thousands of federal employees during the holidays and interfering with untold amounts of government services.

Mike Johnson, the Speaker of the House, has put forth a resolution that will keep the government operational for three months at which time the new administration can handle the mess, but Johnson, a Republican, is facing stiff opposition from his own party in Congress and will need a lot of Democratic support to get his plan enacted - and he may not be able to come up with enough votes to keep the government operational.

Enter Elon Musk, a man who believes he has just purchased a presidency.  Elon issued an opinion today stating that the CR should be rejected and Congress should pass no more bills until his President takes office on January 20th.   That would be a full month of the federal government being shut down.  Elon could certainly live with that, but could we?

Elon probably sees a long-term shutdown as being a nice fit with the austerity measures that his new, freshly created, position with the government will entail.

Of course he does.

Give Americans a good taste of hard times, and then when he and his sidekick, Vivek,  really start slashing it won't be such a shock to the system.

A billionaire buys a position in government where he can promote his own self-interests while curtailing programs that only help normal people - things like education, health care, housing, and social security - the social safety net - and we're supposed to be fine with that?

Not at my house, we aren't!

Occupy Mars, Elon - or at least go home.  If you want to be a political player, go play in South Africa.  I hear that Pretoria is lovely this time of year!

The Man Who Damned Near Never Returned

 

by Pa Rock

Stranger on a Tram

I left the library early today and took the tram to the center of Salt Lake to try and find a reasonably-priced lunch and buy a few groceries to bring back to my rooms.  The tram ride was only a few blocks and I got to where I wanted to go without incident - though when I got off I still had three or so blocks to go on foot.  (And the blocks in Salt Lake City are insanely long, with avenues so wide that I cannot get across before the lights change.  Some pedestrians literally sprint across the busy streets.)

Old man, hobbling along while struggling to keep his blue jeans pulled up.  Walk a hundred yards, sit on a bench to catch my breath,  get up and walk another hundred.   Eventually I made it to the mall food court and from there took a tunnel beneath a major street and came out at the multi-story grocery and deli.  Thirty minutes later with two bags of groceries, I exited the store via a different door and facing a different direction from the way I had entered.

The double grocery bags had paper handles, so I had a pair of grips in each hand - and my right thumb was hooked through a belt loop to make sure that I didn't accidentally flash downtown Salt Lake City.  It took quite a bit of walking - twenty minutes or so - but eventually I came across a tram stop.  One arrived in less than five minutes, and I managed to get aboard - so far, so good,   But the car that I entered was crowded and I had to go up a step and then a ramp to take a seat in an elevated section at the back of the car.

These SLC trams are automatically controlled without drivers, so there is no one to hold the train if a traveler is having trouble getting to the door.  I stumbled toward the automatic doors when the tram arrived at my stop, but reached them just as they were closing.  A very nice lady stepped up and told me that I could get off at the next stop and quickly catch a ride back to my stop.  This time I didn't take a seat but hung onto a pole right in front of the doors.  When we arrived at the next stop, the lady came up to me again and pointed out where I should stand.

I carried my grocery bags right to where she had directed me and stood and waited.

But, the areas where the trams stop are very lengthy affairs, and the trams are shorter than their boarding zones.  The next tram was only three cars long, and as it passed by I was quickly aware that it was not stopping - at least not stopping near me.  When it finally did stop, the last car was about thirty feet up the tracks from where I was standing.   I moved as fast as I could, carrying my bags and struggling to keep my jeans from falling down - and got to the tram just as the last car's doors were closing.  

Curses, foiled again!

Not surprisingly I was starting to hear the refrain of the Kingston Trio's "Man Who Never Returned" in my head.    Would I ever see my hotel room again - or Rosie - or my little home and piney acres in the Ozarks?

I finally made it on the third try.

Charlie was a nickel short on his MTA fare because of a rate increase that he hadn't known about - and the conductors would not let him off of the subway without the extra five cents.

"Well did he ever return, no he never returned

And his fate is still unlearned 
He may ride forever 'neath the streets of Boston
He's the man who never returned!"

 

Molly Files, All Smiles at Forty-Eight

 

by Pa Rock

Proud Papa

My only daughter, Molly Miranda Macy Files, turned forty-eight yesterday (December 17th), and her father forgot her birthday.   Molly, my excuse is that I am out-of-state and completely lost track of time - and I am so sorry!

(I have backdated this post to December 17th in case someone tries to find it someday.)

Molly is a "stay-at-home" mother of three who is on the road more than most over-the-road truckers.    The kids are all teenagers, and somehow she and Scott manage to get everyone to school, practices, events, work, and the hundreds of commitments that confront modern families.

Molly arrived on a cold December day at a hospital in Joplin, Missouri.  Her visitors on that first day included her maternal grandmother, Aggie, and great-grandmother, Sofia Wiederkehr Doerpinghaus - and her paternal grandparents, Garland and Florine Macy.  Molly's grandmother Florine went on an on about "our baby's beautiful red curls."

Molly has always been an independent spirit, and in the late 1990s she moved to Phoenix on her own where she held a variety of interesting jobs.  That is where she met Scott, who had also grown up in the midwest.   They have lived in Salem, Oregon, for more than fifteen years.

Molly, happy belated birthday.  I hope that your big day was special and that you were able to sit for awhile, catch your breath, and bask in the love of your family.  Enjoy the chaos of an active family because it goes by far too quickly!

I will see you in the spring.

Monday Finds Utah Open for Business!

 

by Pa Rock

Busy Tourist 

It has ben a very active day for this weary traveler as he relearns how to get around in Salt Lake City.  A few observations:  

• People here are very nice, almost to a fault, and when an obvious tourist needs needs directions or help, someone is always quick to step forward and help.  That is especially true at the Family Search Library where the "staff" seems to be mostly Mormon volunteers.  This morning I was having some tremor issues with my hands - and old malady - and a very nice volunteer sat down next to me and started helping with typing and showing me the library's resources and how to access them.  Lola was wonderful!
• There is some obvious poverty and mental health issues in the community, but it is not nearly as apparent as the poor and mentally impaired that I encountered on the streets of New York and Chicago earlier this year.  I stood inside of a store at lunch time while waiting on a tram, and used my time there watching a young man on the sidewalk stop and visit with a woman in a wheelchair who had a small dog resting on her lap and a cardboard begging sign in her free hand.  He squatted down to her level, something new teachers are trained to do, and spoke to her at eye level.  It was obvious they were both engaged in the friendly conversation.  Finally he pulled out his phone and took a selfie that included her and her dog - and then he slipped her a donation.  The interaction came across as cordial and heartfelt.
• I did encounter one young lady with obvious mental health issues.  She was wearing a knee-length fuzzy winter coat with a hood, but she seemed intent on keeping the coat open and revealing her halter-type top and a long portion of bare stomach - on a very chilly day.  I stepped around her and into a "Johnny Rocket's" for lunch, and a few minutes later she entered and sat at the counter.  It was warm in the cafe, but there was no chair back at the counter to hang her coat on, and she eventually decided that her best option was to lay the coat out on the floor - which she did.  The busy waitresses were careful to step around the garment, and no one questioned her or requested that she move it.  Keep the customer satisfied, I suppose.
• There are some large American cities where the public is concerned about running homeless and mentally impaired people off of the streets and out of sight, but Salt Lake City seems to be intentionally showing a great deal of humanity.  The city is basically very clean and neat, and I felt completely safe walking around by myself last night even though, as I hobble along, I am an obviously easy target.
• Salt Lake City. was laid out by Brigham Young who insisted on very wide streets.  I can't get across during a light change, even though I really step it off in a hurry.  Jaywalking is a rarity, whereas in the Big Apple it is a way of life.  There are some rental scooters about, but again it is nothing like the ones infesting Chicago and New York.
• Salt Lake City is clean and neat, even with a great deal of construction occurring.   It is safe and inviting, a good fit for those of us who are past our fighting prime!

Tomorrow, back to the library.  Thursday night I will be attending a rehearsal of the famed Mormon Tabernacle Choir in the Tabernacle.  I did that on my last visit and it was a highlight of the trip.

Welcome to Utah: Closed on Sundays

 

by Pa Rock

Traveling Fool

It is 7:00 p.m. Utah time.   I made it safely to Salt Lake City early this morning, leaving the new Kansas City multi-story shopping mall that also serves as an airport at 6:30 a.m. and arriving in the Utah capital promptly at 8:00 a.m. local time - and once there caught that tram which has a downtown stop right in front of the hotel where I am staying.  The tram ride of several miles was only $1.25 with my senior discount, and I learned this evening - after walking to dinner and back - that rides are free all over downtown.  Tomorrow I will use that knowledge to explore!

I flew via Delta, a carrier with whom I am still pissed over the price of a Kansas City to Boston round-trip ticket that the airline stole from me during the pandemic.  But, it is what it is and sometimes I must fly when I would much rather be on a train, and sometimes I have to fly Delta, so I suck it up and fly Delta.

To the airline's credit, they did show up at the departure gate with fruit juice, egg nog, and small pastries this morning just before our flight left - much appreciated - and the flight was flawless, leaving and arriving right on schedule.  Thank you for a pleasant morning trip, Delta.

This has been a record-setting day for walking.  My departure gate in KC was about halfway to Salt Lake City, and the arrival gate in SLC was about halfway back to KC.  Then, after getting settled in to my hotel room, I went out in search of breakfast and put a lot more wear on my comfy sandals.  Utah closes on Sundays, but I eventually found a Starbucks where I was able to enjoy a nice breakfast sandwich and a large cup of milk.  But it was a good long walk from the hotel.

This evening I walked even further to one of the two downtown malls - the other completely closes on Sundays.  Both malls are meandering, multi-level outdoor affairs, and there were very few eating options even in the one that had remained open in defiance of God and the ghost of Brigham Young.  But I finally stumbled into a very noisy Dave and Buster's where I had a messy, but very good, sandwich amid the noise of football games blaring from a variety of big-screen televisions.

My pedometer says I am currently just shy of 14,000 steps for the day.

The hotel where I am staying, The Plaza, sits next door to my research destination, The Family Search Library - aka The Mormon Library.  It, too, is closed on Sundays, but I will be there when the doors open in the morning.  My hotel room is on the backside of the 6th floor and looks out over the rooftop of The Family Search Library.  I also have a nice view of the Utah State Capitol which sits on the side of a hill several blocks away.  I walked to the Capitol building when I was last here six years ago and learned quite a bit about the state's interesting history - which has much of its genesis in my own state of Missouri.

All of today's walking was very tiring.  I suspect that I will sleep well tonight.  It will be nice to experience Utah when it is open for business tomorrow!

Kansas City Holiday Tradition is Back Better than Ever!

 

by Pa Rock

Patron of the Arts

A stage version of Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" is once again being performed to perfection by the Kansas City Repertory Theatre at the University of Missouri at Kansas City's Spencer Theatre.  This year marks the 43rd time that the KC Rep has put on this fine production.  The Roeland Park Macy's and Pa Rock have been attending since Olive was four - and she is thirteen now!

Each year I leave the theatre proclaiming that the current production is the best ever, and yesterday, as we left a matinee performance, I was back to beating that same drum.  There are a few changes made to the production every year - and the result is that it not only stays fresh, but also keeps getting better and better!

If you are in the Kansas City area and looking for some great holiday entertainment, look no further than Ebenezer Scrooge and gang at the Spencer Theatre on the campus of UMKC.    Performances run through Saturday, December 28th.  The show is so good that you may choose to return year after year - like Olive and Sully and the other Macys - the old ones!

It's a grand tradition with strolling carolers, chained and unchained ghosts, fog, snow, and glimpses inside the shops, and homes, and hearts of the denizens of Victorian England as recounted by one of the world's most beloved storytellers.

Don't miss this show.  You'll leave singing!

Mystery Drones Over the Ozarks

 

by Pa Rock

Nocturnal Watchdog

There have been numerous stories in the national news this past week about mystery drones being sighted over New Jersey, very close to the financial, commercial, and cultural hub of New York City, as well as over a large part of the east coast. Groups of drones have also been reported over Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia, with some in close proximity to the nation's capital.   Drone's "the size of cars" were supposedly filmed flying over Bowie, Maryland.  Mystery drones flew in formation over Langley AFB for 17 evenings in October.  Langley is located in an area where the US military has many important assets.

People are beginning to get rattled.  The President-Elect went on his social media platform, Truth Social, Friday night and posted this gem of paranoia and bravado:

"Mystery Drone sightings all over the Country.   Can this really be happening without our government's knowledge.  I don't think so!  Let the public know, and now.  Otherwise, shoot them down!!!  DJT."

There are obviously public safety concerns connected with randomly shooting down drones (especially drones the size of cars) in tightly packed urban settings.

According to an article in Newsweek, the FBI has received over 3,000 reports of mystery drone sightings, most of which have occurred at night, and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has issued temporary flight restrictions in New Jersey over a military base and a Trump golf course where nocturnal drones have been recently sighted.  Thank Allah the incoming President isn't a petty tyrant who would use the military and powers of government to protect or enhance his personal property!

The White House is downplaying the spate of drone sightings.  John Kirby with National Security Agency (NSA) said, "We have no evidence at this time that the reported drone sightings pose a national security or a public safety threat."  He added that it now appears that "Many of the reported sightings are actually manned aircraft that are being operated lawfully."

The FBI is stating that the drones are not the property of the US military, nor do they belong to foreign governments.  (How do they know that?)

Yesterday as I left West Plains heading toward Kansas City, I listen to a local area newscast which said that lately there have several sightings of mystery drones over southern Missouri and northern Arkansas. In the report on Ozark Radio News, a lady from Gainesville, Missouri,  reported that she and her husband had seen a large group of at least twenty-five near their home.  Area sightings have reached across Howell and Ozark Counties in Missouri - stretching toward Branson, and also in Baxter County, Arkansas.  The news cast quoted another woman who said that some of the drones were as large as cars.

So that's the mystery drone news.  It seems to be real - and spreading - and somewhat somewhat fly-by-night.  Could there be a link to Missouri's new constitutional amendment making the use of recreational weed legal for adults?  Enquiring minds want to know!

West Plains Native Rescued from Malibu Fire

 

by Pa Rock

West Plains Scribe

Renowned comedian and actor Dick Van Dyke was born ninety-nine years ago today in West Plains, Missouri, a small town to which his unmarried and pregnant mother-to-be had been banished to live with relatives until her baby was born. 
 
That’s the official story, the one that Van Dyke himself shared one evening on “The Tonight Show.”   Pearl Clutcher and the old dears from the Happy Daze Retirement Resort out behind the Senior Center  here in West Plains tell a different version.   Their accounting of that happy event is included in our new information booklets that were specially printed for this past year’s “Eclipse” celebration.  Pearl and the girls say that Mr. and Mrs. Van Dyke were living in West Plains nearly a century ago when their first child was born.  Mr. Van Dyke’s business suddenly hit the skids (some say he was a traveling salesman), and the young couple took their infant son and returned to Illinois to be closer to their extended families.
 
The actor’s own version is more interesting and far more likely to be true.  Girls were suddenly moving away to live with relatives forty years later when I was in high school, and probably still are today.  And when they returned a year or two later with an infant or small child, life resumed as if nothing happened.   Nobody gives a rip, except, of course, Pearl and the girls at the Happy Daze.
 
In addition to turning ninety-nine today, Dick Van Dyke has been in the news this week for another reason. The well-heeled entertainer has a home in the hills around the ritzy beach community of Malibu, California, and this week he and others were forced to flee their homes ahead of the advancing Franklin Fire.  (As of yesterday morning that fire was only 7 percent contained.)   Van Dyke had problems getting out and had to be rescued by his neighbors.
 
Dick Van Dyke said that he has been in the path of four previous wildfires and knew what to do and how to get away, but this time, he admitted, he was not prepared.  He said that he has a firehose that operates out of his swimming pool and shoots a 75-foot stream of water.  That is his primary protection against the wildfires.
 
 As the smoke started thickening a couple of days ago, he went to the pool to get the hose working and found that it was lying on the ground tangled - exactly the way mine is lying tangled today outside of my back door today.  Van Dyke said that he was lying on the ground trying to get the big hose untangled when he could suddenly see the flames coming over the hill.  He was crawling toward his car when three neighbors arrived and carried him to his car and then returned to the house where they also collected his wife, Arlene, and all but one of their pets.  After rescuing the family, the neighbors then went to the Van Dyke guest house which was on fire and put out that blaze.
 
Van Dyke credits his selfless neighbors with being heroes.  He said that he and Arlene – and presumably the rescued pets – spent the night at a hotel in Santa Monica, a place where he had been paid to entertain in 1948.  Damage was limited to their small guest house.
 
Also temporarily displaced by the Franklin Fire were a pair of two-time Golden Globe Award-winning actresses, Jane Seymour and entertainment legend Cher.  Cher has also received an Oscar for Best Actress.
 
(I will know I have “arrived” when I can afford to buy a house in Cher’s neighborhood!)
 
Happy 99^th birthday, Dick Van Dyke.  When your big party starts to wind down, take the guests out to the pool and have them help get that hose untangled!
 

Another Road Trip

 

by Pa Rock

Traveling Fool

It seems like I do a lot of traveling, but even so my little car still has less than 60,000 miles on the odometer, and it had around 18,000 accumulated miles when I bought it three years ago - and a very big chunk of the ones that I have put on it since then were from one trip across much of Canada last summer that rolled up over six thousand.  I make several trips a year to see doctors in Mountain Home, Arkansas (a little over 100 miles round trip) - and Springfield, Missouri (a little over 200 miles round trip) - and a half-dozen or so to Roeland Park, Kansas to see my son and his family (nearly 600 miles round trip).  Beyond that, there are stretches of days at a time when I don't even get in the car and go anywhere.

Herman the hermit.

Getting out and about seems to be more difficult as the years pile on.  This year I have pushed hard and am about to make my fourth major trip of the year.  (A major trip is anything that takes me beyond Roeland Park, Kansas.)   Rosie and I are packing today - clothes, research materials, dog bowls - and heading for Kansas early tomorrow where we will enjoy a couple of days with the Macy's of Roeland Park, and then on Sunday I will be flying to Salt Lake City for a week of family research at the Mormon Library.   Rosie will be vacationing with Tim and Erin while I am away - and she will be spoiled rotten and cuddled unmercifully by Erin.

I began this year with good intentions of not flying anywhere, and did manage to make one long trip by car and another by train.   But flying in America is a necessary fact of life because our government refuses to pursue any viable alternatives to cars and planes and oil and gas - and will not until the last drop of fossil fuel is consumed and its poisonous fumes farted into the atmosphere.  

Secretary Pete was such a disappointment.  

High-speed rail now!

I have packed my pick and shovel, and in a couple of days I will be digging up dead relatives with wild abandon - and the political horrors that await us beginning January 20th will be far out of mind.

Stay positive, that's what I always say - and if you can't stay positive, pack a bag and go somewhere!  But just remember if you would like to check that bag and avoid the hassle of dragged it around the airport, it will cost at least an extra thirty dollars.  And if you would like a decent seat, that will be extra, too.

End junk fees now!

Murder in Manhattan! (Episode 5: "The Howling")

 

by Pa Rock

True Crime Fan

The murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson took place one week ago this morning on Sixth Avenue in Manhattan.  The victim was shot twice in the back and once in the back of the leg as he approached the Midtown Hilton Hotel, his destination for the morning.  The shooter, later identified as 26-year-old Luigi Mangione of Baltimore, Maryland, managed to escape the scene on foot and then on an electric bicycle before finally catching a cab and making his way to New York City's major bus terminal where he hopped on a Greyhound and fled the city.

Mangione, who quickly became the subject of a nationwide manhunt, was captured five days after the shooting by police in Altoona, Pennsylvania, as he was sitting in one of that city's McDonald's dining on a hash brown and working at his laptop computer.  The young shooter was found with a three-page, hand-written "manifesto" on his person, and his fingerprints have been matched to those at the crime scene.  He is facing some minor charges in Pennsylvania and has been indicted on a second-degree murder charge in New York.  The states of New York and Pennsylvania are cooperating in trying to extradite Luigi Mangione back to New York where he will stand trial on the more serious charge, but the prisoner is fighting the extradition effort.

The motive for the murder seems to have been what one Altoona policeman referred to as Mangione's "ill-will" toward corporate America, and in particular his disdain for the health insurance industry whose business model increases corporate profits when services to customers are limited or denied.  Mangione  seemed to have an interest or fascination with the crimes of the Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski.  (A copy of the "manifesto" which Luigi Mangione had on him at the time of his arrest is available on the internet homepage of journalist Ken Klippenstein - it is easy to find and an insightful read.)

The thrust of this drama appears to be over, at least until the culprit is brought to trial, probably several months from now.   There is some fallout from the shooting, however, which is still reverberating through society and bears examination.  The shooting resulted in the death of a human being, and that is tragic, but on another level, it tapped into a surprisingly potent current of societal anger at health insurance companies and their perceived lack of compassion and fairness toward their customers.  Literally within minutes of the news of the shooting in Manhattan, social media posts started going up relating very personal accounts of how average people had been mistreated and cheated by their health insurance carriers.  People were attributing the deaths of loved ones to cruel and arbitrary decisions made by nameless bureaucrats ad autocrats hiding in the corporate labyrinth of giant insurance companies.

One meme that blazed across social media after the murder of the CEO of America's largest healthcare insurance provider was "Thoughts and prayers are out of network," a clear slap at a standard health insurance  excuse for denying care and service.  Another social media user posted this piece of insurance-related snark:  "If you would like to appeal the fatal gunshot, please call 800-555-1234 with case #123456789P to initiate a peer-to-peer within 48 hours of the fatal gunshot."

Cenk Uygar, a host on "The Young Turks," may have exposed the root of the public outrage with this post on X last Thursday:

"Shooting the UnitedHealthcare CEO is a terrible thing to do.  It's deeply immoral and solves nothing.  At the same time, 76,000 Americans die every year because of the health insurance industry.   I also mourn for them.  And I don't see any press coverage or concern for their deaths."

The gunshots in Manhattan last Wednesday were ricocheting across America - and insurance companies were having to duck and cover.

Stocks of major health insurers fell an average of six percent during the last week, and UnitedHealthcare (UNH) was down eight percent.

The McDonald's franchise in Altoona, Pennsylvania, also took some public abuse over the part it played in the capture of Luigi Mangione.  There was a sudden onslaught of bad reviews from customers on the internet, some of which referenced totally false things like rats in the kitchen.

Angry people were wanting the world to know that Brian Thompson was not the only victim.

Whether Luigi Mangione had intentionally created a diabolical design to become a folk hero or not, many seemed to be elevating him to that status.  He had been a lone wolf howling in the wind, and long-suffering Americans heard his wails and began seeding the winds with their own painful howls.  Maybe this time they will be heard.

Murder in Manhattan! (Episode 4: "Last Bus to Altoona")

 

by Pa Rock

True Crime Fan

Altoona, Pennsylvania, was one of the regular stops that George Burns and Gracie Allen made on the vaudeville circuit in the early twentieth century, and after the couple moved to television, George continued to reference the small Pennsylvania city in his comedy shtick.  One of his several books, in fact, was entitled "Living it up, or They Still Love Me in Altoona!"

Yesterday morning the city of Altoona (pop. 42,788) was back in the news when local police responded to a tip from an employee at a McDonald's and confronted a young man who was seated in the restaurant wearing a medical mask and working at a laptop computer.  After the young man complied with a police request to remove his mask, one of the policemen then asked if he had been to New York City recently, at which point the person being interviewed reportedly began to shake.

Today Luigi Mangione is being held without bail in Pennsylvania as he awaits extradition back to New York City where murder charges have already been filed.

Luigi Mangione is a 26-year-old native of Baltimore, Maryland, who grew up in a life of privilege.  His grandfather was a wealthy real estate developer, and his parents own country clubs.  He has an uncle who is a Republican politician and a member of the Maryland State Assembly.  Luigi attended a very exclusive private high school for boys where he graduated as valedictorian.  He attended the University of Pennsylvania, an "Ivy League" school, where he majored in computer technology and earned both a bachelor's and a master's degree.  He is an intelligent young man, financially well-heeled, and politically and socially connected.  His attorneys will not be from Altoona.

(Patty Hearst's lawyers weren't from Altoona, either.)

Luigi Mangione was detained as a person of interest in the New York City shooting death of Brian Thompson, and later in the day was arraigned on a charge of second-degree murder.  Mangione reportedly had a "ghost" gun in his possession that matched the description of the weapon used to kill the insurance company CEO, as well as several fake ID's and a three-page hand-written "manifesto" that expressed what one of the policemen who made the arrest referred to as "ill-will toward corporate America."

Mangione's manifesto as well as some of his past postings on social media indicate that he was to some degree a fanboy of Unabomber Ted Kaczynski. The Unabomber also expressed "ill-will" toward corporate America.

Josh Shapiro, the Democratic governor of Pennsylvania, the state where the arrest was made, was quick to grab a microphone and the spotlight and use his political pulpit to caution Americans against making Luigi Mangione into a folk hero.   Governor Shapiro, a man who aspires to one day be President, also used his time with the microphone and spotlight to offer some compassion and understanding to Americans who have suffered loss and harm through the neglect and malice of insurance companies.

Murder is wrong, and politicians understand the importance of "backing the blue" and supporting law and order.  But they also understand that when a nation is outraged, as ours currently seems to be regarding the autocratic crap that health insurance companies have been foisting on us for generations, it is prudent to listen to what people are saying and to respond as if you are actually hearing them.

Luigi Mangione committed a heinous crime, and for that he may pay dearly.  But he seems to have been motivated by a desire to get a message out to the public regarding the greed and unethical practices of health insurers - and he has gotten people talking - and sharing their stories - and expressing their outrage.  The historically powerless are suddenly roaring and making a great noise.  But will they actually be heard?

Brian Thompson was buried yesterday.  Luigi Mangione stepped into a cell yesterday and heard the door slam shut behind him.  

Josh Shapiro implored us not to make Luigi a hero, and in the very next breath he told us that our leaders are listening and they do hear our outrage at the way we are treated by insurance companies.

Is he right?   Is the great noise being heard?

Time will tell.

Protesters Raise Stink in Capitol Restroom

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Last month Republican Representative Nancy Mace of South Carolina decided that the transexual community would be a good vehicle for her to use to draw in some campaign donations, and she set about vilifying the already extremely marginalized minority group.  To make her point (and monetize her efforts) Mace targeted a new member of Congress, Democratic Rep. Sarah McBride of Delaware, the first openly transexual member of Congress.  Mace declared in a  highly self-righteous snit (or was it a tweet?) that people using the restrooms in the nation's Capitol building be permitted to only use restrooms which matched the gender to which they had been born.

Not to be outdone, foghorn Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican (aren't they always!) jumped on Mace's bandwagon by telling a closed GOP conference meeting that she would fight a transgender woman who tried to use one of the ladies' restrooms in the House.  Marge, of the "bleach-blonde, bad-built, butch body" Greene's, apparently fancies herself to be a scrapper.

For her part, Representative McBride said that she was in Congress to serve her constituents and that members of the GOP were trying to "manufacture a crisis."  Well, duh.

House Speaker Mike Johnson quickly issued a House Rule that backs up the position of Mace and Greene saying that biological males have to use male restrooms and biological females must use female restrooms.  The procedures for genitalia inspections were not outlined in Speaker Johnson's rule.

Last Thursday a small group of fifteen or so  transexual women protestors showed up at the Cannon Office Building and made their way into the ladies's restroom just outside of Speaker Mike Johnson's office.  They were promptly escorted from the building by Capitol police and arrested.  There is no word yet on whether the incoming President's plan to pardon Capitol protesters on "Day One" of his administration will include them or not.

Well known transgender rights and government accountability activist Chelsea Manning was a member of the protest.  Manning, who was arrested in 2013 for sharing more that 700,000 pages of government secrets on the information-sharing site Wikileaks - and then pardoned by President Obama nearly four years later, was quoted in the press after the mass arrest last Thursday as saying:

"I'm here today because every person deserves dignity and respect, both in daily life and in more symbolic places like the US Capitol.  As someone who has fought against similar rules, I know what it's like to be pushed aside and erased.  But I also know the incredible power and resilience our community has.  I'm not here as a leader or a spokesperson, but simply as another member of my community who shows up unconditionally to support my siblings in this fight.  I will stand beside them no matter what.  We didn't start this fight, but we are together now." 

While I am generally a person who eschews fisticuffs, perhaps Ms. Greene has a point.  Maybe a cage match between Mean Marge Greene and Transparent Chelsea Manning would be as good a way as any to to decide who can use which toilets in the US Capitol.  

My wager will be placed on Chelsea Manning because brains will out - especially over bacon grease and grits!

Murder in Manhattan! (Episode 3: "Escape from New York")

 

by Pa Rock

True Crime Fan

The young man who gunned down Brian Thompson, the CEO of the insurance division of United Healthcare, in front of the Hilton Hotel on Sixth Avenue in Manhattan last Wednesday morning has apparently escaped from New York.   The suspect, whom police are referring to as a "person of interest," was photographed inside of a New York City cab about 45 minutes after the shooting, and the cab reportedly dropped him at the city's main bus station at the Port Authority on 178th Street.  He had arrived ten days earlier at the same bus station on a bus whose route had originated in Atlanta.  

Where the young man went after boarding another bus on Wednesday following the shooting seems to be anybody's guess.  The FBI has taken over the search for the killer and is conducting it on a "nationwide" basis - a fairly significant "upgrade" for a New York City street crime.   

New York City had posted a $10,000 reward for information leading to the suspect's arrest, and the FBI has now added to that with a $50,000 reward.  At this point there have been no reports of rewards being offered by either the victim's obscenely rich employer, United Healthcare, or his family.

In related news, New York City police found the shooter's backpack where he discarded it in Central Park.  The backpack contained a Tommy Hilfiger jacket and some Monopoly money.  ($50 for the purpose of getting out of jail?)   Police have reportedly also searched a pond in Central Park.  Some news reports are saying that police have DNA samples which are being analyzed and will be run through available crime databases in search of a match - which will take a couple of days. They are apparently also in possession of a "smudged" fingerprint taken from the suspect's new water bottle, the one he had purchased at Starbucks earlier on the morning of the shooting.

Yesterday New York City Mayor Eric Adams revealed that authorities know the name of the suspect but are not releasing it at this time.  They also have copies of the photographs generated by the cab company.

The murder weapon was not in the backpack which police found and is still missing. That is likely why the pond in Central Park was searched.  One news report referred to the gun as "distinctive," and another described it as being a "B&T Station SIX" pistol.  It is not believed that the young shooter was a professional hitman, but he was familiar enough with his weapon that when it jammed while he was shooting, he was able to immediately clear it and continue firing.

With all of that accumulated information, an arrest should be imminent.

As I stated at the outset of this series, the murder of Brian Thompson is one that WILL BE solved.  Nobody guns down a white millionaire on one of the classiest streets in the Big Apple and gets away with it.  NOBODY!   Enjoy you final hours of freedom, young man, because Big Brother is coming after you!

(The entire thrust of this story is rapidly changing from one of a street murder to a tale of national outrage against large, heartless insurers.  Ultimately what happened last Wednesday morning in New York City may be remembered not for the victim whose blood stained a prestigious sidewalk, but for what drove the young shooter to essentially forfeit the rest of his own life by killing a fellow human being.  Episode four will focus on the evolving public reaction to this crime.  Stay tuned.)

There Was an Old Woman Who Fell in a Hole

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Elizabeth Pollard, a 64-year-old grandmother who lived with her husband in a rural community southwest of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, was reported missing at about one a.m. last Tuesday by her family.  Mrs. Pollard had taken  her car out on Monday evening just as darkness was approaching to search for her cat - and she never returned home.  Mrs. Pollard's car was later found in a remote area with her 5-year-old granddaughter asleep in the backseat.  

The car was near a small opening in the earth where the ground had collapsed into an abandoned coal mine that had last been active about seventy years before.  Local authorities made the assumption at the outset that the missing woman had likely inadvertently stepped into the hole and fallen more than thirty feet to her death.  Locals referred to that phenomenon - where the earth caves into an existing hole or mine - as a "sinkhole."

Cameras on cables were dropped into the hole on Tuesday to begin a search for Mrs. Pollard, but with no success.  Then crews began the arduous task of digging.  It was first termed a "rescue" effort, but as the days drug on, the project started being referred to as a "recovery" effort.  Finally yesterday afternoon, Friday, the body of Mrs. Pollard was recovered after four long days of searching.  She was reportedly hauled from her temporary place of peaceful repose and taken to a nearby hospital for an autopsy.

I have not heard any news regarding the fate of her cat.

A few thoughts:

Sinkholes are relatively common in south-central Missouri, the area where I live.   Usually they are places where the ground has collapsed into one of the region's many caves.  There are areas where mines were more prominent, like the one that claimed the life of Mrs. Pollard, and they, too, can lead to cave-ins that form sinkholes.

I once owned a home whose entire backyard was a sinkhole - twenty miles north of where I currently live.  It was a perfectly formed bowl or crater that had been in existence long enough that large trees had matured along its slopes.   The realtors referred to the sinkhole as an idyllic valley.  Neighbors close by had their own sinkhole whose vortex was still open.  They claimed that a pair of oxen had once disappeared into their sinkhole.  I didn't have any good stories to share about mine.

Around forty-years ago the city where I now live had its large sewage lagoon collapse into the earth beneath it, which unfortunately was surrounding the aquifer for the area's water supply.  Local residents had to boil their drinking and cooking water for months before engineers and work crews finally were able to get the mess cleaned up and corrected.

As a general rule it's sad when a person dies, but we all do eventually, and I can think of worse ways to go than suddenly being swallowed by the ground beneath my feet.  (Lying in a hospital room being hooked to an array of hoses and beepers with morose people standing around constantly sneaking glances at their watches, as just one example.)   Mrs. Pollard had what some of us would regard as a "grand exit," one that will long be remembered in community lore.

Should I have the good fortune to stumble into a similar grand demise, I would appreciate my heirs and debtors throwing a few good mystery novels into the hole, and then, instead of flowers, pouring in bags of discount store topsoil - and perhaps even some composted manure.

If perchance I don't get swallowed up by a sinkhole, my plan is to be composted.  Interested parties who would like a bag of Pa Rock for their flower beds or cherry orchards should contact my son, Tim, and he will hook you up.

Rest well, Mrs. Pollard.

Murder in Manhattan! (Episode 2: "Deny, Delay, and Depose")

 

by Pa Rock

True Crime Fan

It's now been a few hours over two full days since Brian Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealthCare Insurance, was gunned down on bustling Sixth Avenue in the heart of New York City, a crime committed in broad daylight in front of a Hilton Hotel!  Much more has been learned about the killer and his heinous crime, though the culprit still remains at large.

Mr. Thompson was shot on the sidewalk three times from behind, with one of the 9mm bullets striking him in the leg and two in the back.  He was pronounced dead less than thirty minutes later in a nearby hospital.

Police had several "clues" with which to work almost immediately after the shooting,  They were apparently able to access the GPS of the rent-a-bike that the killer hopped on shortly after the shooting. He was seen entering Central Park on the bike, and undoubtedly ditched it soon after or he would have long since been in custody.  The police also were reportedly in possession of a water bottle and phone that they believe the culprit lost while fleeing.  News reports indicate that he had bought the water bottle at a nearby Starbucks just prior to the shooting.    If the cellphone did belong to the shooter and he had used it, that too should quickly provide information which would lead to his identification and arrest.

Police have also released two photos of the young suspect that were taken earlier on the morning of the shooting at the hostel in Manhattan where he had been staying.   According to one news report a lady working at the hostel had flirtatiously asked the young man to "let me see your smile," and he had dropped his mask and flashed his pearly whites.  

Police have also let it be known that the shooter likely is not a New Jersey resident as they had earlier thought, and they now believe that he came from Atlanta to NYC by bus a couple of weeks ago.  They are trying to locate his boarding information, and Greyhound says it is cooperating with law enforcement in the matter.

But the biggest clue to emerge by far in the past day speaks to the possible motive of the assassin.  The words "deny," delay," and "depose" were written on the three discarded shell casings that were found and placed into evidence immediately after the attack.   As soon as that was announced, people who follow the incessant outrages of the insurance industry were quick to point out that the words were almost verbatim to those used in a 2010 book entitled:  "Delay Deny Defend, Why Insurance Companies Don't Pay Claims and What You Can Do About It" by Jay M. Fineman.  The book is described as revealing how insurers increase profits by "delaying payment of claims, denying valid claims in whole or in part, and defending their actions by forcing claimants to enter litigation."

The shooter, it would seem, could be someone who was himself wronged or has family or friends who were wronged by an insurance company - perhaps the one headed by Brian Thompson - UnitedHealthcare.  Could the young man with the infectious smile be seeing himself as a modern day vigilante bringing justice to a corrupt system, or maybe even Robin Hood with a 9mm?

At some point this will all be fodder for a most interesting trial - and writers at Netflix and Amazon are undoubtedly already at work forming up each company's own miniseries.  "Law and Order" is said to already have a version of the same plot in an episode they filmed several years ago.

Social media was on fire yesterday with citizen commentary regarding this New York City street crime - with a majority of the focus not being on the shooting, but rather on people's feelings and recollections about the ways they have been mistreated by the nation's largest healthcare insurers.

And then, coincidently, it was also announced yesterday that Anthem Blue Cross-Blue Shield is backing off plans to quit covering extra anesthesia that is required on some lengthy surgeries.  The move immediately will benefit Anthem's customers in New York, Connecticut, and Missouri where the policy had beenset to go into effect.

The level of piss among a pissed-off public appears to be on the rise!

Still, however, highway robbery is no excuse for murder.

Murder in Manhattan!

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

There was a murder committed on Sixth Avenue in New York City early yesterday morning that, unlike many modern homicides which occur in America's largest metropolitan areas, will be solved.  The victim in this instance was a relatively young (50-year-old), very rich (and thus very powerful) white businessman - and as such neither the police nor the press will be able to look away until the horrible crime is solved and the shooter and any others involved are brought to justice.

And that is good because society definitely does not want people who lack qualms about killing others walking streets which are already mean enough.  

The shooting in which UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was fatally gunned down from behind by a masked villain did not occur in some seedy, rat-and-drug-infested-back alley late at night as the bars were closing.  It happened in Manhattan, in front of the Midtown Hilton Hotel, in broad daylight. The killing was an affront to decent people everywhere, particularly those who were rushing along to get to work - or to school - or just to breakfast.

The police are calling it a "targeted" shooting, a premeditated act.

Senseless murders happen every day, often in crowded and bustling cities, but those killings usually happen to those people, in seedy settings, and with other crimes feeding into the immediate situation - hookers, and druggies, and gangbangers, and society's other refuse in the absolute worst places imaginable - not some obscenely rich white guy on a busy street in a better part of town - in front of a Hilton Hotel!

All of the major news sites carried the story and are still updating it, and it remained the lead story on my NPR station just a few minutes ago.

Police are fully engaged and releasing statements, and the governor, both US Senators, and the appropriate congressman from Minnesota, the state where the deceased lived, have all issued statements of condolence and outrage.  His widow has made multiple press statements, and his teen sons are presumably somewhere being "protected" from the press feeding-frenzy.

As stated above, this is a case that is very likely to be solved, and solved quickly, not because that is a routine outcome in urban murders, for it historically and clearly is not, but rather because of who the victim was and where the heinous crime occurred.  There are two standards of justice in this country, and there is no point in belaboring a point that we all understand.  But even so, none of us want killers walking the streets - so if one gets caught based on who and where he killed, that makes all of us just a bit safer regardless of the fact that others are still walking free also based on who and where they killed.

This morning the young man who shot Brian Thompson three times in the back and leg yesterday with a nine-millimeter weapon, is still at large.  There is a relatively clear photo of him from street cams that shows him to be young and white, although one national news source referred to him as "light-skinned."  He was wearing an olive-colored pullover garment with a hood, and a black mask across his nose and mouth.  He also is wearing a gray "distinctive-looking" backpack.  The young man had apparently been staking out the location from an alley and stepped forward as his target exited his vehicle in front of the hotel.  After shooting his victim, the assassin fled on foot and was last seen entering Central Park on one of the ubiquitous "e-bikes" that race around the city like rampaging termites and are the constant bane of New York residents and tourists.

Mr. Thompson was in New York for a meeting of UnitedHealthcare investors which was to be held at the Hilton later yesterday.  He had been the CEO of the insurance branch of UnitedHealthcare for four years and had an annual salary of $10.2 million including bonuses and stock options.  He was a resident of Maple Grove, Minnesota, and the company is headquartered in Minnetonka, Minnesota.

It will be most interesting to see who is ultimately behind this crime, because who could possibly harbor a deadly grudge against a healthcare insurance executive?

War Novels: "The Naked and the Dead"

 

by Pa Rock

Reader

Journalist, dramatist, filmmaker, and novelist (and two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize) Norman Mailer served in World War II as a cook in an American combat unit that was actively trying to retake the Philippine Islands from the Japanese.   It was jungle fighting under very brutal conditions.  During the time that he served with that unit, Mailer made notes on a hundred or more of the men with whom he served, and he later used those notes and his personal recollections of what it was like to fight and survive in the jungle to write his fictional epic account of a unit fighting its way across the islands of the Pacific.
 
Modern Library published a list of the best one hundred English-language novels of the twentieth century, and “The Naked and the Dead” was fifty-first on that list.
 
I read this novel somewhere around forty years ago, and while it does tell a gripping tale of jungle warfare, it is not something that I would tackle again. Mailer, for the uninitiated – like I was – requires a great deal of concentration and effort on the part of the reader.  He knows his craft, a fact that he makes clear, especially in this novel, with long, meandering sentences that sometimes take up entire paragraphs, and paragraphs that can cover multiple pages – and all of that in fine print.   While I like to read and have always been an avid page-turner, the spell of the work gets broken by having to go back and reread sections in order to decipher what the author was trying to communicate.
 
There were more than a few times while reading this war novel that I felt as though I was hacking my own way through a jungle with a dull machete.
 
But for those who would like to have a feel for what it was like to be fighting across the island jungles of the Pacific during the Second World War, this novel draws upon actual people, places them in settings faithfully recalled by the author, and inflicts unromanticized horrors of war upon them.    “The Naked and the Dead” presents war in the jungle as it really was and undoubtedly still is:    tense, dangerous, sweaty, ugly, and very, very real.  The war of Norman Mailer’s retelling certainly had the feel of what the experience must have been for himself and those with whom her served.
 
Mailer’s novel of World War II is a good literary vehicle for bringing the Pacific portion of that war to contemporary students of history, but, for me at least, one reading was plenty.    It took me there, and I was able to feel the war on a very personal level, but the way the story was told was, at times, too difficult to fully comprehend - just as war is.

 

Trees and Weeds

 

by Pa Rock

Collector of Dead Relatives

Two weeks from today I will be in my second full day of immersion at THE (Mormon) Library in Salt Lake City.   The famed Mormon Library (officially the "Family Search Library" and formerly the "Family History Library") is owned and operated by Family Search, the genealogical arm of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, aka, the LDS - and it contains the world's largest collection of family history matter.

In anticipation of my upcoming week at THE Library, I thought this might be a good time to start getting my head back into the world of genealogy, a passion that I have ignored for the past couple of years.  Somewhere there is an hourglass with my name engraved on it, and I suspect that it is just about empty - so if I am going to wrap-up my family tree projects, it's time to get busy.

As a way of getting my head back to where it needs to be for this upcoming trip, I aim to focus today on degrees or levels of cousinhood, something which I studied and mastered in just a few short hours many years ago. Today there was an article on the internet explaining how some famous celebrities are (or were) related to Presidents of the United States.  One of the pairs that the article cited was actor Tom Hanks and his third cousin, four times removed, Abraham Lincoln.

So, just what the heck is a third cousin, four times removed?  If you'll stick with me for awhile, I will try and get you there.

Most of us grew up with cousins - the children of our parents siblings.  Any natural children of siblings are generally known as cousins, or first cousins.  When those children mature and have children of their own, those children of first cousins are known as "second cousins" in their relationships to one another, and if those second cousins reproduce their children are third cousins to the children of their parent's second cousins - and so forth on down the line.

Another way of looking at it is this:  first cousins share a set of grandparents, second cousins share a set of great-grandparents, and third cousins (such as Tom and Abe) share a set of great-great grandparents - in this case probably the "Hanks" grandparents of Honest Abe's mother, Nancy HANKS LINCOLN).  If Tom Hanks had been born in the early 1800's like Lincoln - instead of a century-and-a-half later - he and Abe probably would have been third cousins, end of story.

But it didn't work out that way, and Tom's line kept extending way on past his presidential relative,  That doesn't mean that all of those who came later in Tom's line were not related to the famous President, for indeed they were, but as Tom's line kept extending, the famous relative remained parked in the 19th century - and that distance between one relative who is a fixture and another relative whose line has kept descending, is measured differently.    Those in the later generations beyond the key figure (Abe Lincoln) are measured in generations of removal.

Abraham Lincoln's "third cousin" in the Hanks line would have been one of Tom's g-g-grandparents, making Tom's generation four times removed from the generation that contained Abraham Lincoln.

And the common ancestors connecting the two lines would have been Lincoln's g-g-grandparents and Tom Hanks' g-g-g-g-g-g-grandparents.

As a simpler matter, that same article on the internet today stated that actor Brad Pitt and President Barack Obama are ninth cousins, which would mean that they shared a set of eighth-great-grandparents.

If all of that sounds like gobbledygook, blame it on the messenger.  Some people learn better from charts and visuals than they do from long-winded diatribes.  There are several really good cousin charts on the internet, including this one from FamilySearch.org:   

https://cms-b-assets.familysearch.org/0d/57/4849a9a744ab85ca337cf2a06dac/cousin-calculator-3.pdf

Most people as they begin researching their family history focus on building family trees which in turn focus on establishing who their grandparents were as far back as possible.  The grandparents form the "branches" on the "family tree."  However while climbing around in those trees, one should also focus on the children of each generation of grandparents - the cousins - because that's where some of the most interesting tales are waiting to be discovered - and that's where the outlaws are most likely to be hiding out.  So far I have dug up two cousins buried beneath my family tree who were murderers - and one kidnapper.   They weren't royalty, or even famous celebrities or politicians, but they did leave their foul marks in the world and will be remembered for their villainy.  

We didn't choose our families, and they didn't choose us.  But we can carry family stories forward, and to do that properly we should be able to explain relationships and exactly how they came to be.  Genealogy is more than just trees, it's weeds, too.

Judah at Fifteen (Too Old to Party?)

 

by Pa Rock

Proud Grandpa

My youngest Oregon grandson, Judah Files, is fifteen today.  Judah was born in Oregon, where he still lives today with his mom and dad and older brother, Sebastian, and younger sister, Willow.    I moved overseas for two years not long after Judah was born, but we did manage to meet a few times before I pulled up stakes and left the country.

I wish that I knew my Oregon grandchildren better, but I have never lived close enough to make more than a couple of visits to their home a year - and now I am lucky if I can manage one a year.  I do know that Judah is an inquisitive young man who has an interest in figuring out how things work. Like most young people his age he also enjoys spending time computer-gaming.  (Judah, Pa Rock never made it across the The Oregon Trail!)

Judah has had a strong interest in cars since he was a toddler, particularly those from the Disney movies and NASCAR, and today I would guess that his collection of cars is nearing four figures.  He has cars, and tracks, and transports, and garages - a most impressive collection.  I found a birthday card for him this year with a sculpted muscle car glued to the front of the card, and then mailed that card with muscle car postage which I got from the post office.  I hope that he enjoyed receiving the card as much as I did sending it.

Judah's school has a student-run store, and he has always been active with that.  He learned to operate the cash register and make change while working at the school store, and I understand that now he collects eggs at a local form which are then sold individually at the student store.  (Judah, Pa Rock has collected lots of eggs in his day and has filled many an egg basket!)

A couple of Judah's other interests are tornadoes and the Titanic, and he has an extensive knowledge of both of those subjects.  The last time he was in southern Missouri (the summer of 2022), Judah and his family visited the Titanic center in Branson - and I know that he found that experience to be awesome.   I understand that he is also developing an interest in ghosts an the supernatural.  (Judah, you get that from Uncle Nick.  Your uncle is also an expert on UFO's and space aliens!)

Judah's mother told me that he is taking treats to school today to share with his friends, but that he didn't want a party.  (Judah, if life offers you a party, take it.  Trust me on that!)

And trust me when I say, Judah, that I hope your fifteenth birthday is the absolute best ever.  I'll see you in the spring!

Dodgy DOGE: The McCarthy Era on Steroids!

 

by Pa Rock

Taxpayer

When one of your big campaign promises is to cut the cost and size of the government, what is the best way for a wily politician to proceed?  Why, I know!  How about creating an entire new government department and give the job to them?  Establish another top-heavy government bureaucracy within the executive branch to weed out the top-heavy bureaucracies along with their legions of bureaucrats and replace them with your own.  Erase their deep state and install one more in sync with the incoming cult.

The President-elect seems to be doing just that.  He has announced an all-new "Department of Government Efficiency" (DOGE) whose mission is to cut waste in government and make it run better, and he has appointed a pair of rich men to run the effort.  Elon Musk, the world's wealthiest human and  the man who has appeared to be physically attached to the next President ever since Election Day, has indicated that he can cut national expenditures by a third, from $6 trillion a year down to $4 trillion - or a savings of $2 trillion per annum.

Of course to do that, Elon has also indicated that regular Americans are going to have to tighten their belts.  Not the hogs, like Elon, who have been at the government trough for years, but regular Americans, the ones who pay taxes and the ones whose very lives depend on government programs like Social Security, Medicare, and having hospitals and emergency care available in their communities.

Elon's co-director of the new DOGE is Vivek Ramaswamy, a GOP politician and pharmaceutical magnate who is worth somewhere close to a billion dollars, clearly enough to live on while he dedicates his time to screwing with our lives.

As both of these clowns are busy cutting things that make our lives more bearable, they will also be looking to enhance their own positions in line at the government cash machines with more and better subsidies, product orders, and general corporate welfare, of that you can be certain.  The only "waste" in government is money that benefits those who really need it.

It is still unclear at this point how the new "Department" itself will be funded.  Elon put out the word on X (one of his possessions) that they were seeking resumes from "revolutionaries" with high IQ's who will work 80 hours a week with no pay.  Clearly those among us who could not afford to work without pay need not apply, but that was the intent all along.  They are to be the managers, and we are to be managed.

The fact that only Congress can create or fund a government "department" has been roundly ignored by all parties involved.

But Congress, or at least the House of Representatives, is playing along with the dodgy new DOGE.  House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer has announced the creation of a DOGE subcommittee for Oversight, and committee member Marjorie Taylor Greene has announced that she will be the chair of that subcommittee.  Rep. Greene, a Republican from rural Georgia, recently made news when she wasted the government's time by publicly commenting on the "fake eyelashes" of a fellow member of the Oversight Committee, demonstrating that Marge falls somewhere short of being all business all the time.  Greene had this to say about her new assignment:

"Our committee will work to expose people who need to be FIRED.  The bureaucrats who don't do their job, fail audits like in the Pentagon, and don't know where BILLIONS of dollars are going. will be getting a pink slip."

(Marge, when you're rooting around looking for those missing billions, be sure to check in the Space X an TESLA accounts.)

Even if Elon does manage to find a battalion of neo-fascists who can afford to put in 80 hours a week at no pay, the new "Department" will need office supplies, equipment, staff, and space - and none of that is likely to be free, and the new congressional subcommittee will also require space, staffing, equipment, and supplies - and a gavel, Marge will damn sure need a gavel!

Musk, and Ramaswamy, and Greene - oh my!    It sounds like the McCarthy Era on steroids!