WC 050422

 

OOPS, I posted wrong and doing a makeover.

My best mother in a book or movie is Eliza Birdwell from Friendly Persuasion.

For and Indepth review of this movie, check out Berthold Gambrel's blog. 

The story is about a Quaker Family during the civil war. Eliza is a Quaker minister. This is misleading as the movie doesn't explain that all believers are considered ministers because of "Priesthood of the Believer."

Throughout the movie Eliza is the glue that keeps the family faithful to their beliefs. When they go to a fair she's finds her daughter dancing, the younger son at a shell game, the older son and husband are in an altercation. She sets them straight.

Jess, the father takes Josh the elder son on his sales trip and a nurseryman. When they get back a man shows up with an organ. Jess bought it at the fair.

Eliza is appalled, a musical instrument is not allowed in their faith. When she tells him if the musical instrument goes in, she goes out to the barn. Jess moves the organ in and Eliza and her pet goose Samantha head to the barn. Samantha is a major character of the film. She's a pure pet. Jess doesn't like her because she eats his strawberries and Little Jess is constantly fighting with her because Samanta sneaks up on him and bites him.

That evening Jess joins her in the barn, the next morning they've compromised that the organ goes to the attic and no playing on First Day (Sunday).

Rebel Raiders are reported heading their way. Josh sees the damage they've caused and decides to join the fight. This is huge. Quakers are pacifists, nonviolent. At first as he's leaving, she turns her back on him. This is an expression of shunning. Because he's leaving the faith, he's dead to her and all other Quakers. Eliza turns around and hugs him, she can't go through with it.

The horse that Josh left on comes back alone. Jess then rides out to find him.

Eliza and the children are alone when a band of raiders come riding in. She greets them, tells them where the food is and even offers them a cooked meal inside.

While she's serving inside and the raiders are rounding up the livestock one spots Samantha, and decides they'll have roast goose tonight.

Eliza hears the squawking of her pet and runs outside just as the man is about to ring Samantha's neck. She grabs a broom and clobbers him about the head, he turns around and she tells him, "Samantha's a pet, she's a pure pet."

The man shakes his head and says, "I wish I'd known that sooner ma'am." Samantha walks about shaking her displeasure.

The raiders leave and Eliza is stricken with guilt. She resorted to violence.

Jess returns with Josh who's been wounded but is also agonizing about the men he killed.

Eliza is mortified when Jess finds out about her whacking a Reb. As they're leaving for First Day, he puts him arms around both and says, "Come along, veterans."

Wednesday Challenge 042722

 

Today's challenge is book, movie or TV show you can't wait to see.

 This is a fascinating Science Fiction series. To move through long distances of space requires sailing through dark matter like old time clipper ships.

Dark Matter was included in a number of Star Trek series and comprises around 90% of our universe.

A young woman becomes a midshipman and want to advance through the officer ranks. Naturally the top brass is against any woman as an officer. Alex Carew has to fight misogyny, surly crewmen, hazardous shore leave, and taking on the complexities of sailing through dark matter. The science is top rate, and the stories are compelling. It would be well worth a studios investment to create a series to compete with the Star Trek universe. If done right the galaxy is the limit on this. 

My latest novel about the Father of Oceanography. Available as e-book and paperback.

I Maury: Life and Times of a Rebel - Kindle edition by Prescott, Patrick. Literature & Fiction Kindle eBooks @ Amazon.com.

WC 042022

 

Today's challenge is one meal everyone should try.

Teppan Yaki.

You are seated at a table with a stainless-steel cooking area. There are spaces for eight people. They seat eight people most will be strangers. It is communal dining. You can choose to ignore them or engage them in conversation. The experience is best if you get to chat with people while dining.

There's a large plate and cloth napkin with silver ware and you can ask for chopsticks. There's the option for alcohol or soft drinks and tea, hot or iced.

The menu has appetizers, I prefer sea food tempura: shrimp, crab meat, scallops, and Calimarie fried in a light batter. It comes with a ginger sauce for dipping. You can also order sushi if you're into that.

Entres consist of chicken (some places use breast others use thigh meat, I prefer thigh meat it's not as dry), steak (sirloin, filet mignon, New York strip), shrimp, sea food and oriental vegetables either as tempan yaki (only soy sauce) or teriyaki, a tasty saki flavored sauce. You can mix the chicken and steak or sea food.

It comes with fried rice, or you can opt for a bowl of rice or if diabetic skip from the meal.

After your drinks arrive you get a salad with a soy dressing that's quite tasty, then a bowl of soup with slivers of mushroom and chopped chives.

The cook comes out with a tray and all the food. He (I've never seen a female cook at any of the places I've tried.) usually comes out drips oil and lighter fluid on the cooking top and then lights it sending a whoosh of flame. Small children will either laugh or cry. He then prepares the rice by cracking a couple of eggs, dollops of butter and mixed vegetables. While that's cooking, he'll lay out the chicken, steak, and sea food on the side, he'll ask those who chose steak how they want it cooked.

He mixes up the rice until it browned and then with a spatula measures out a portion and places it on the large plate in front of everyone. Next, he'll take an onion and form a volcano out of it and fill it with lighter fluid then light it on fire. He might then take out wooden paddles that resemble large salt and pepper shakers and do a routine of drumming on the cooking top, twirling them around and going around his back and over his head.

Tackling the entre he spreads out the chicken to cook, then the steaks and with shrimp he'll place them in a line on their sides then cut off the tails, slice them down the middle and cut them in half, he might even flip one of the tails onto his high white chef's hat. He cuts the meat into bite size portions separates the servings that are tempan yaki and places them on the plates, then he pours teriyaki on those servings and places them on the plate.

Next comes onion, zucchini, and bean sprouts which are cooked up and delivered.

After cleaning the cooking top he'll bow to the customers, who usually give tips and leaves.

This is not just a meal, but an experience meant to be as savored as the food, which is always excellent.

Japanese Kitchen was the first teppan yaki restaurant in Albuquerque nearly forty years ago, now there are a number of other places. The only disagreeable experience I had was when the cook mixed soy sauce and teriyaki sauce in the rice. They do not mix well. I think the place got the message and they didn't do that the next time we went.  

There's a fast-food place in town called Teriyaki Chicken Bowl, that sells bowls of fried rice with chicken in teriyaki sauce. It doesn't have the experience of tepan yaki, but is quite tasty.

Wednesday Challenge 041322

 

Today's challenge is what's on my TBR list?

From this month's First Reads off Amazon is Druid by Jeff Wheeler. I can get two books a month free, but 95% of them are women's romance and I pass.

Amazon Unlimited has LOTR all three books in one e-book with the latest version.

I went to the main library here a few Sundays ago, twice a year in the basement they let you fill up a shopping bag of books for only $6.00. I got the hardback of Tom Clancy's John Ryan book 8, The Bear and the Dragon, and six other books. I can't read paperbacks as the prints too small now and I got only hardbacks. This book sells for $28.95.

I'm at the office and off the top of my head can't remember the other books.

I just finished publishing I Maury: Life and Times of a Rebel, and with some free reading time got through all 1,028 pages in two weeks. I've now bought e-books 9-13, Red Rabbit, Dead or Alive, Locked On, Threat Vector and Command Authority. At nine bucks each on Amazon I'm not sure number 8 was such a bargain, and the books number up to 24 or 25.

A book we're studying in grief group at church (mother passed away,) What Loss Can Teach Us: A Sacred Pathway to Growth and Healing, By Beth Taulman Miller. 

A friend from church recommended The Righteous Mind by Jonathan Haidt.

Wednesday Challenge

 

Today's challenge is: What is my unique talent? Analysis.

To this I give credit to Mrs. Jamar, my American and World literature professor at Wayland Baptist University. May she rest in peace. She worked my ass off, and all of her students in analysis. This helped me while teaching history, as it's the purpose of history to analyze the present with similar situations in the past and be able to predict the future. (Think banks requiring credit history which tells them your credit future). It helped me teaching literature and getting students to discover the theme of a story, not just the plot.

It has helped me as a writer to analyze my own work and make it better.

I Maury: Life and Times of a Rebel - Kindle edition by Prescott, Patrick. Literature & Fiction Kindle eBooks @ Amazon.com.

Wednesday Blogging Challenge, I'm back

 

I've finished my novel, I Maury, and am now back to share with my blogging friends.

Today's challenge is "What Mythological animal would you like as a pet?

A Little Fuzzy, the before there were Tribbles, there were Fuzzies. They would be great to have and let them call me Pappy Pat.

I Maury now in Paperback

Book is now available in paperback at Amazon.com

When I started writing I Maury

This is the post when I announced I was writing this book and why it was important to me.

 Family and Friends blog: Pathfinder of the Seas (pmprescott.blogspot.com)

Newest Book: I Maury Life and Times of a Rebel

 My latest novel is now an e-book at amazon, free on Unlimited only &2.99 to buy.

I Maury Life and Times of a Rebel.

Matthew Fontaine Maury 1806-1873 was the Father of Oceanography, Meteorology, The U.S. Naval Academy and much more.

Maury explains tariffs

 

Writing my book on Matthew Fontaine Maury I came across a paper he wrote after the war explaining why he chose to fight for the South. His most compelling argument was about tariffs, I'm copying it here. Bold face in emphasis mine.

A Vindication of the South and Virginia

By M. F. Maury

IN consequence of the Berlin and Milan Decrees, and the Orders in Council, the embargo and the war with Great Britain which followed in 1812, the people of the whole country suffered greatly from the want of manufactured articles, many of which had become necessaries of life. Moreover, it was at that time against the laws of England for any artisan or piece of machinery used in workshops to be sent this country. Under these circumstances it was thought wise to encourage manufacturing in New England, until American Labor could be educated for it and the requisite skill acquired for the establishment of workshops. The Southern statesmen took the lead in the passage of a tariff to encourage and protect the manufacturing industries of the North. But in course of time these restrictive laws in England were repealed, and it then became easier for New England to import than to educate labor and skill. Nevertheless, the protection continued, and was so effectual that the manufacturers of New England began to compete in the foreign markets with the manufacturers of Old England. Whereupon the South said “Enough. The North has free trade with us, the Atlantic Ocean rolls between this country and Europe; the expense of freight and transportation across it, with moderate duties for revenue alone, ought to be the protection enough for these Northern industries. Therefore, let us do away with tariffs for protection. They have not, by reason of geographical laws, turned a wheel in the South; moreover, they have proved a grievous burden to our people.”

Northern statesmen did not see the case in that light; but fairness, right, and the Constitution were on the side of the South. She pointed to the unfair dispensation among the States of the Government favor and patronage, and to the fact that the New England manufacturers had gained a firm footing and were flourishing; therefore, protection had accomplished its purpose. Moreover, peace, progress, and development had, dictated Free Trade as the true policy of all nations. Our senators proceeded to demonstrate by the example of hardships of submitting any longer to tariffs for protection. In their arguments they quoted examples to this effect:—The Northern farmer clips his hundred bales of wool, and the Southern planter picks his hundred bales of cotton. So far, they are equal, for up to this state the Government affords each equal protection in person and property. But the Government would not stop here. It went further—re-protected the industry of one section and taxed that of the other; for though it suited the farmer’s interest and convenience to put his wool into his wagon and to send it to a New England mill to have it made into one hundred bales of cloth, it also suited in the like degree the Southern planter to put his cotton in his own ships and send it to Old England to have it made into one hundred bales of Calico. And now came the injustice and the grievance. They both, so the case was made to run, preferred the Charleston market; each with his invoices of one hundred bales, to the Custom House. There the Northern man is told he may land his hundred bales duty free, but the Southern man is required to leave forty of his for the privilege of landing the remaining sixty. It was in vain for the Southerner to protest, or to urge, “You make us pay bounties for Northern fishermen under the plea that it is necessary for the seamen. Is not the fetching and carrying in Southern ships as much a nursery for seamen as the catching of codfish in Yankee smacks? But instead of allowing a bounty for this, you exact taxes and require protection of Northern fellow-citizens at the expense of Southern industry and enterprise.” The complaints against the tariff were, at the end of ten or twelve years, followed by another compromise in the shape of a modified tariff, but which the South again gained nothing, and the North everything. The effect was simply to lessen, not abolish, the tribute-money exacted for the benefit of Northern industries.

Fifteen years before the war, it was stated officially from the Treasury Department at Washington, that under the tariff then in force the self-sustaining industry of the country was taxed in this indirect way in the sum of $80,000,000 annually, none of which went into the coffers of the Government, but all into the pocket of the protected manufacturer.

Thus, dealt by, there was a cumulative dissatisfaction in the Southern mind towards the Federal Government, and the Southern men began to ask each other, “Should we not be better off out of the Union than we are in it?” Nay, the public discontent rose to such a pitch in consequence of the tariff that nullification was threatened, and the existence of the Union was again seriously imperiled. Dissolution might have ensued had not Virginia stepped in with her wise counsels. She poured oil upon the festering sores in the Southern mind and did what she could in the interests of peace; but the wound could not be entirely healed: Northern archers had hit too deep.

The Washington Government was fast drifting towards centralization, and the result of all this Federal partiality, of this unequal protection and encouragement, was that New England and the North fattened upon the tribute forced from the South and prospered as few people have ever done.

Golden Eye: a review

 

Berthold Gambrel has done a review of Goden Eye. You might want to read it before coming back to mine...

Are you back? 

Growing up in the Sixties, Bond movies were as close to what would later be called an R rated movie. They were full of double entenderes, smart alec remarks, action and after From Russia With Love, nude silhouettes in the opening credits, not to mention Dominoe's black swimsuit with a sheer cutout cleavage in Thunderball. I wasn't that infatuated with Ursula Andress's bikini in Dr. No. She didn't compare to Annette Funicello in the Beach Blanket movies.

I also loved the henchmen. Odd Job in Gold Finger with his deadly top hat comes to mind, the gadgets and other things. It was a golden age of spy movies. The rip offs like In Like Flint or I Spy and The Man From U.N.C.L. E. on tv were also fun. Things haven't changed too much since then. It seemed like every week or every movie they're trying to keep a nuclear bomb from exploding. Now with The Sum of all Fears they actually explode, and the spy has to keep the politicians from Armageddon.

After, by far the worst, Bond movie ever made, A View to a Kill, ended Roger Moore in the role. The studio wanted Brosnan for the part, but he was on contract for his Remington Steele tv show. They settled on Timothy Dalton who was horribly miscast. He could look grim, look real while stuntmen did all the heavy lifting and failed miserably giving the punch lines. In License to Kill I wish when he set Sanchez on fire he was engulfed too. The only redeeming aspect of the movie was Cary Lowel running around in a loose bodysuit.

Okay enough preamble. To Golden Eye.

I was elated when Brosnan got the part as Bond for Golden Eye. He looked like James Bond, he had good running form, he was deft at giving clever lines. My wife's heart would beat faster in his love scenes and sometimes that translate over to me, except in Goden Eye. 

Love scene? What love scene! 

It came at the end of the movie while they're talking around a campfire. The Bond car? The studio chose a BMW sports car. You see Q telling Bond about the gadgets and then at the end of the movie he drives to the beach and the CIA guy drives it away. At least Timothy Dalton's Bond car, a late model Astin-Martin, had a laser that burned through a police car separating it from the chassis.

Izabella Scorupco as Natalia was shrill and irritating. She screamed at Bond when they were tied up in a helicopter to wake him up, that was understandable. From then all she did was scold Bond and lectured him. There wasn't much to be romantic about. 

Question, how did Natalia get from the destroyed Goden Eye complex to a city in a Russian winter on a dog sled wearing a skirt and light sweater?

Famke Jansen is one of my favorite Bond villains, squeezing men to death with her legs. The sparks and quips flew between Bond and Onatopp. Best parts of the movie.

The opening stunt. Bond bungy jumps from the top of a dam onto the secret complex. He meets up with another 00, Trevelyan, no idea how he got in, mayhem ensues, and he sets everything on fire. Bond flees jumping onto a fighter jet taking off over a cliff and you see the complex blow up. One big problem. No dam! Show the fireball to let the audience know the place blow up, a model of a building blowing up without a dam behind it ruins the suspension of disbelief. The entire opening stunt was bogus.

The chase scene through the center of town while he's in a tank, smashing through a truck full of cans of water and having a statue of a mounted knight fall off when he goes under a bridge was pure vintage Bond. After a few viewings over the years when all the cans start rolling around, where's the water?

A good ticking bomb trope as they're trying to escape being locked into a train let Bond use his laser pen to get them out, and a belt with a built-in escape wire comes in handy when earlier he was trapped in library.

Sean Bean as Trevelyan comes off as too overfriendly and cocky. Did he really escape the place exploding in the opening sequence with only a part of his face burned? Bond sums up what he's trying to do as only robbing a bank. True on a grand scale, but Golden Eye, basically a giant EMT device could be used to greater gain than this. The revenge angle was rather weak.

Okay, I'm done critiquing the movie. No Bond film is without it stretching the viewers suspension of disbelief to the max. Moonraker was by far the worst for this. Still every winter my wife and I do a Bond marathon either starting with the first going in order, or from last to first. It's a time capsule of technology through our 60+ years of life and something to do on cold winter days and nights around our electronic fireplace.

My Twin

 Freshman year in college I met Pat Penny. We became friends and loved chess. While doing intramural chess everyone we played was confused on who they would play because our names were so close. We laughed about it and decided we must be twins.

We were both history majors being in many classes together and by our senior year were both married to different partners. She was pregnant. The daughter she bore now works at the Smithsonian in Washington D.C.

After graduation we lost touch. At our 20th reunion another friend who had kept in touch gave me her address and phone number, we've been in contact now for 25 years.

She changed her name to Anne Littlewolf upon becoming an artist. At the time she lived in Gunnison, Colorado, now she's in the village of Tijeras in the Monzano mountains not far from Albuquerque. For many years we've met and shared a meal at local restaurants every couple of months. 

I own two of her oil paintings making me in the illustrious company of John Denver and Ricky Skaggs who boasts the same.

Her husband died of an aneurism. She wrote and illustrated a children's book. I desktop published it and have sold over a hundred copies. I talked her into doing it in a coloring book and she did that as well. The last copies of the book I gave to the hospice nurses when my mother was in care, and they were appreciative of the copies.

The book Friends Forever is about two fish who are good friends, one dies and the other mourns and gets angry at the new fish in the tank until she decides to make new friends. It was catharsis for her loss.

Her last e-mail mentioned an aggressive cancer leaving her weak and with little time.

It's that time in my life where all I went to high school and college are ending up in the obits. Getting old sucks.

Here's a few frames from the book. I plan to publish it at a local printer to give out at her funeral.

Coming up for air

 Wow, last post was September. I've been writing furiously on my autobiography of Mathew Fontaine Maury. I'm doing a proof of the entire skeleton at present. I have some fleshing out on the times part of the life and times, which requires me to do more research. 

Thanks to Berthold Gambrel who has been a great friend and has given some good advice after reading portions of the book.

Berthold did a review of Isaac Asimov's Foundation today. Did it ever bring back memories. Asimov was a giant in my life. I read the Foundation Trilogy in 9th grade, a year after Lord of the Rings. 

I read everything I could get my hands on of him at used bookstores, Science Fiction Book Club, Isaac Asimov's essays on science in Amazing Science Fiction magazine, and libraries. I subscribed to the Isaac Asimov magazine. I've barely scratched the surface of his prodigious writing well into the grumpy old man stage. 

Science and Religion 1860

 

For the laying of the cornerstone for the University of the South, on 10 October 1860, Matthew Fontaine Maury gave this speech before 8 bishops, 200 clergy and 4,000 laymen concerning my personal belief in religion as the basis for any comprehensive understanding of the natural world.

 

Physical geography makes the whole world kin. Of all the departments in the domains of physical science, it is the most Christianising. Astronomy is grand and sublime; but astronomy overpowers with its infinities, overwhelms with its immensities. Physical geography chars with its wonders, and delights with the benignity of its economy. Astronomy ignores the existence of man; physical geography confesses that existence and is based on the Biblical doctrine that the earth was made for man. Upon no other theory can its phenomena be reconciled. …

Here, the schools which are soon to be opened … the masters of this newly ordained science will teach our sons to regard some of the commonest things as the most important agents in the physical economy of the planet. They are also might ministers of the Creator. …

I have been blamed by men of science, both in this country and in England, for quoting the Bible, they say, was not written for scientific purposes, and is therefore no authority in matters of science. I beg pardon: the Bible is authority in everything it touches. What would you think of the historian who should refuse to consult the historical records of the Bible because the Bible was not written for the purposes of history? The Bible is true: and science is true … they are both true; … and when your man of science with vain and hasty conceit announces the discovery of disagreement between them, rely upon it the fault is not the Witness or His records, but with the “worm” who essay to interpret evidence with he does not understand. …

As a student of physical geography, I regard earth, sea, air, and water as parts of a machine, pieces of a mechanism, not made with hands, but to which, nevertheless, certain offices have been assigned in the terrestrial economy. It is good and profitable to seek to find these offices … and when, after patient research, I am led to the discovery of any one of them, I feel with the astronomer of old, as though I had “thought one of God’s thoughts,”—and tremble. Then as we progress with our science we are permitted now and then to point out here and there in the physical machinery of the earth a design of the Great Architect when He planned it all. …

Had I time I might show how mountains, deserts, winds, and water, when treated by this beautiful science in our schools, and even before man had endowed it with a name, saw and appreciated its dignity—the for each one has its part to perform in the great concert of nature. …

What have we heard chanted here in this grove by a thousand voices this morning?—A song of praise, such as these hills since the morning stars sang together—the BENEDICTINE of our mother Church, invoking the very agents whose workings and offices it is the business of the physical geographer to point out! In her services she teaches her children in their songs of praise to call upon certain physical agents, principles in this newly-established department of human knowledge—upon the waters above the firmament; frost and cold; ice and snow; night and day; light and darkness; lightning and clouds; mountains and hills; green things; fowls of the air; with beasts and cattle—to bless, praise, and magnify the Lord!

MFM information

 

More information about Matthew Fontaine Maury.

In 1853 Maury coordinated the first international conference on wind, currents and meteorology on the seas. He got England, France and Russia to send delegates to Brussels for the conference during the Crimean War. The conference resolved to send data to Maury at the National Observatory on wind and currents, even in time of war. In return the U.S. would provide updated Wind and Current Charts to all participating countries. By 1858 over 186,000 vessels were floating laboratories reporting to the Observatory. In recognition for his work he was given the following awards:

 A member of the Imperial Academy of Sciences of Russia.

A member of the Imperial Academy of Sciences, Letters and Fine Arts of Belgium.

An associate of England’s Royal Astronomical Society.

And a member of some forty other learned societies in the United States, Europe, and the Orient.

The Emperor of Russia made him “Knight of the Order of St. Ann”.

The King of Denmark made him “Knight of the Dannebrog”.

The King of Portugal, “Knight of the Tower and Sword”.

The King of Belgium, “Knight of the Order of St. Leopold.”

The Emperor of France, “Commander of the Legion of Honour.”

At the request of Alexander von Humbolt, Maury received the Great Gold Medal of the Paris Universal Exposition.

A Great Gold Medal from the Emperor of France.

The Great Gold Medal of the King of the Netherlands.

The Great Gold Medal of Arts and Sciences from the Emperor of Austria.

The Gold Medal of Sardinia.

The Gold Medal struck especially by the order of the King of Sweden and Norway. 

The Pope sent a complete set of all the medals which had been struck during his pontificate as a mark of his appreciation of Maury's services in the cause of science.

The Czar of Russia and Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian of Austria sent jeweled pins to his wife, Ann. 

Most of these awards are on permanent display in the National Museum of the United States, Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C.

Up top date on MFM

 Still working on The Autobiography of Matthew Fontaine Maury: Life and Times of a Rebel.

I've written from his genealogy to the Civil War based on one biography that was a concise version of his life. I used it for the skeleton of his life, nut and bolts. I'm using another biography that has much more about his family life and longer quotes from his letters and speeches. This gives the story much more of a "In his own words," feeling.

Wikipedia isn't helping me with a particularly important person in MFM's life. William Lewis Herndon is referred to in most biographies (there are six so far I'm using) as MFM's brother-in-law. It's a family jumble of similar names and close cousins, normal at the time period where a married couple would have from six to fourteen children and giving them common first names.

MFM married Ann Hull Herndon. Her mother was Elizabeth Hull married to Dabney Herndon. Ann's parents died when she was 13 and MFM's elder sister, and mother of Dabney, also named Elizabeth, took Ann Hull and her brother, Brodie, in and raised them as her own.

MFM's uncle, Edward Herndon and aunt, Elizabeth were parents of William Lewis Herndon and others. 

This made MFM and William Lewis Herndon second cousins. MFM and Ann were fourth cousins. If MFM and WLH were brother-in-law then Ann would be MFM's first cousin. A big distinction today, not so big in 1820's.

Wikipedia counts Ann Hull and Brodie as children of Edward and Elizabeth Maury Herndon. It is confusing, but they should try to get this right.

I'm using a Maury Family Tree by Sue C. West-Teague, that spells this out in a confusing and absolutely impossible chronology.

I've still a bit of fleshing out to do with what I have on the skeleton before tackling the Civil War and MFM's return to the United States. He was under a death sentence far stricter that for Jefferson Davis, Alexander Stevens and Robert E. Lee! I'll explain in the book.

William Lewis Herndon was the captain of the steam ship Central America that went down in  a hurricane with millions of dollars worth of gold in 1858. It was recently discovered off the North Carolina coast. North Carolina, the U.S. and the salvagers are still fighting over what today is billons of dollars in gold coins. 

WLH had a daughter and she married a New York politician named Chester A. Arthur. MFM gave her hand in marriage as this was after her father died. It was Chester A. Arthur who pulled the political strings to get MFM back from London and to Virginia. 

Elizabeth Herndon Arthur died before Chester became Vice-President and later President of the U.S.

Memorial Service

 

My mother passed away last September. With Covid raging my brother couldn't make it out here from Oklahoma. He contacted me a few weeks ago and said he and his wife could be here the end of the month. I set up a memorial service for next week and plans were set.

He called me last night. His daughter, fully vaccinated, has come down with the Delta variant, she's a teacher and was setting up her classroom. She came down with before students were present. Her husband, fully vaccinated, also came down with it. Right now he has his two grandsons in his basement and his wife in quarantine as she has a compromised immune system, fully vaccinated, but not taking a chance.

This leaves him alone to watch the grandchildren, see them off to school and when they get home. He's staying masked around them. The oldest is vaccinated, but the youngest is seven, he had a fever last year and tested positive, but the fever only lasted one day, so it was the older variant that didn't bother children as much or a false positive.

Obviously he can't come any time soon, maybe next year at this time unless there's a new variant to fuck things up again because of superstitious morons afraid of a needle.

Memorial service will go on as planned, but it would have been nice for my brother to be here too. It will be zoomed.

It was a fight

 It was a fight, but I'm back on my blog. Google has made it impossible to log in.

WC 070721

 

I've been on a blogging vacation for a month, but I kept up with WC posts. I decided to contribute this time.

My best autobiography is the Autobiography of Malcolm X, As Told to Alex Haley.

This book had tremendous impact on me while I was in college. It affected lots of white, middle class Americans. It was a brazen window into the life of an African American and the troubles he faced, his conversion to the Black Muslims, becoming a spokesperson for them and after his Haj to Mecca the change in his faith, which caused his assassination.

Alex Haley did a masterful job of presenting his words and ideas in a relatable manner. 

The movie did not do it justice, but then they never do.

Blog Vacation

 I'm taking a vacation from blogging to focus on my writing, don't know when I'll be back.

Friday Five 060421

 

Today is a twofor. Life got in the way last week so I'm doing both weeks in one post.

Resource, food, extinct, address, tumor

Image, bar, express, redeem, privilege

 

Shanika put her return address on the letter she was writing home. Word came to her that the doctor found a tumor in Mom’s breast, and she was going to have a lumpectomy. They’d talked over the phone for over an hour last night, but she wanted to express her deepest thoughts, things that couldn’t be said over the phone. The mental image of losing her mom kept her crying all night.

Placing the letter in the out box in the dorm mail room she headed to the dining hall. The food was normally tasteless, but today it was like sawdust. Trying to get her mind off this she went to the library looking for resources for the term paper due in two weeks.

The term paper was on how different varieties in a species fail to adapt and go extinct and others adapt and survive. Looking through the biology books the librarian came to her, “Is there anything I can help you find?”

Normally she tells the kind lady she prefers to do research on her own, but today she needed it. “If you don’t mind?” she said.

With a smile, “It would be my pleasure, why I’m here.”

She told her, “I need to find information on the Saber Tooth Cats and modern cats.”

“Doctor Moser’s biology 101,” she nodded. Going over to a cart off to the side, "You’ll find everything you need right here, but they’re restricted to the library for the other classes.”

“Thanks, you’ve saved me a lot of time,” Shanika said.

Two hours of taking notes later she left for the snack bar in the SUB, she had a coupon to redeem that was in the last Traveler, the school’s newspaper.

WC 060221

 

Casca is the Roman soldier cursed by Christ in AD 32. He can't die. He goes through the centuries traveling all over the world as a mercenary. 

This is a series of books now numbering over 50. It would make a great TV series where every season could cover one book. History Channel or SciFi Channel would work. Might be good for CW or TNT.

It would take a young and upcoming actor to start w current young actor comes comes to mind. It would actually be best to have an unknown. Supporting cast would change from season to season as they'd be in different times and locations.

I don't think they'd make good movies over the long term. Think Conan movies. One or two and then they stop. A series would be better.

WC 052621

 

My fantasy vacation

This is a package offered to teachers over summer vacation a few years ago. Not in my budget then, but I would still like to take it. Still not in my budget.

Fly from New York to Rome, spend two days in Rome, bus to Venice, Florence, Genoa and down to Naples, two days at each stop.

Get on cruise ship and sail to Syracuse then to Athens and a week visiting different Greek Islands. Fly back to NY from Athens.

2nd fantasy vacation. A month seeing the sights in England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland.

3rd fantasy vacation visit the Louvre, Versailles, Fountaine Bleau.

Friday Five 052121

 

Publish, loss, dragon, result, pest

It was a long bus ride home. It was their first loss of the season. Karen expected it, but it still stung. They kept the game close and were only down five points with a minute to go in the game when Shanika fouled out and the result was Tennessee scored six points and put the game out of reach.

They beat UNM by ten points in the consolation game, but it was little comfort to know they were that close to the top ranked women's team in the country and fell short.

Shanika was in the back brooding. She fowled out on a bad call. It was a clear charge and the ref called her for blocking. She needed consoling.

Going back and sitting next to her she said, "You played two great games, why so glum?"

Shanika spat it out, "That ref called me for blocking three times and I established my position every time. We was robbed."

"That's the dragon you'll have to slay during every game," Coach said. "No ref ever decides who wins or loses. Bad calls are a part of the game and you have to find a way to win regardless."

"What should I have done differently?"

Sighing, "It's partly my fault. We've had so little real competition I haven't focused on avoiding fouls. On that last one you had a choice, gamble on getting a charging call or fouling out of the game. What was more important?"

"You mean I should have let her score?"

"Yes, it was only two points. The ref already called you twice why risk your last foul like that? You're no good out of the game. You were hitting three pointers and so was the rest of the team. We could have traded two pointers for threes and won the game."

She hung her head, Coach hugged her. "We went toe to toe with the best of the best and held our ground. Sometimes you learn more from a loss than a victory. Hold your head high and don't be ashamed of losing."

The rest of the team was gathered around so Coach Karen decided to do some teaching.

"You all know about the Flying Queens of the 1950's. They won a hundred and thirty one straight games, seventy-six of them under coach Harley Redin. Of everything published about those teams it's what Coach Redin said on the night of their first loss after that run. 

"Calling a time out shortly before the game was over and they were going to lose, he said, 'You held your heads high for four years with grace and dignity and you are to do the same after losing as you've done winning.'"

Going back to the front of the bus, Karen thought, now what do I have to do to get that pest of a ref fired?

My freshman year at Wayland was the last year the Harley Redin coached. He was a truly great man and coach.

WC 051921

 

Recent topics I've googled.

I'm currently writing the autobiography of Matthew Fontaine Maury. This is one of the five biographies I've purchased as well as the many sites I've googled on this man's life.

It's been an experience channeling this extraordinary man's life and writing about him in the first person. I cite Robert Grave's I Claudius and Margret George's The Autobiography of Henry VIII as the vehicle to make an historical figure come to life.

There is more to this man's life than the fact he sided with Virginia in the Civil War.

Friday Five 051421

 

Ban, Cane, Angle, Firm, Mind

This was the first real test of the Flying Queens. They play in the NAIA and this weekend they're going to be playing NCAA powerhouses. Their first team on tonight is Tennessee and if they win that they'll play either Texas Tech or New Mexico.

Tennessee won the championship before UCON became the perennial powerhouse.

Tech won the championship under Marsha Sharp, a former Flying Queen and assistant coach. UNM hasn't won the championship, but always fields a competitive team.

Coach Spain spent sleepless nights getting her game plan ready for all three teams. She was leaving nothing to chance. Tennessee and Tech had a center two inches taller than Shanika and more experienced. UNM didn't have a tall center, but three power forwards made up for it.

She sat in a cane chair in the motel visualizing Shanika against Janet McClusky. Shanika would use her hook shot a time or two and when the forwards moved in to stop her she'd pass to Sasha for a three pointer. When she went under the basket if she was blocked another pass to Vicky and when they closed in to stop that she'd move out for a three pointer. There was always an angle open for a clear shot.

It was time to get on the bus and face the music. She banished any negative thoughts. Today Wayland would reach the heights of women's basketball that they had in 1978 when they made the final four of the NCAA tournament.

The buzzer sounded for the opening tip off. The team gathered around her. They linked hands, "Be alert, be firm, be sure and kick their butts."

WC: My favorite indulgence

 

Today's topic is: My Favorite Indulgence.

I'm a chocoholic. Diabetes be damned I'm going to have my chocolate.

I try to get as high a cocoa count as possible. 70% to 80% and I limit myself to one level a day when I'm being good. I tried 100% one time, like eating saw dust.

It's easier now I'm on a medicine that's only one shot a week. It gives me a mild case of sea sickness (how I describe it) my stomach is queasy all the time. 

When I was on insulin I craved sweets like a ravenous dog. Mounds bars, Almond Joy, Three Musketeers, Milky Way, chocolate covered raisins, hot chocolate, chocolate milk, ice cream with chocolate syrup, chocolate milk shakes.... Need I go on?

With this new medication I've lost thirty pounds in six months. I can finally bend down and pick up what I've dropped without busting a gut. 

First Friday 050721

 

Exchange, first-hand, friendly, jump, trick

 

Coach Spain was worried. They had a Thanksgiving tournament in Houston in two weeks. The team got by the mid-terms with everyone having a 2.5 GPA or better. She had first-hand knowledge that this tournament could make or break the season. Going into it undefeated was a liability. So far none of the teams they’d played put up a real challenge. They would be walking into a buzz saw against the three other teams in the tournament.

She had scrimmages with the men’s JV team three times the previous week to get them in shape. Shanika was turning into a first-class center and the other six players had perfected their jump shots getting lots of three pointers. It kept the other players from crowding Shanika on the inside.

Tony Adams was impressed by their play. His players upped their game the past few weeks. They were much better defensively against three-point shots. Ray picked up the jump hook after getting burned by Shanika with it. At first the scrimmages were friendly, but as the girls got better his guys realized they needed to take them seriously. It was turning into a good exchange of training for both teams. Next year when this group of freshmen and sophomores replaced his seniors, he’d be much more competitive.

Karen purposely kept Shanika from shooting three pointers to this point in the season. After regular workouts the tall woman kept practicing her outside shots, but it was important to perfect her inside game. The last scrimmage against the men she turned Shanika loose and let her rain down three pointers. They beat the men by ten points.

“That was a dirty trick,” Tony said shaking his head after the game.

“I know,” she said. “I hope it works well in Houston. Shanika won’t be the tallest player against those teams.”

WC Fictional Characters

 

Fictional characters I'd like to meet.

I decided to narrow this to ten female characters I'd like to meet. Can you figure out in what story they're from?

1. Cassandra, to ask her about always knowing what's going to happen and not being taken seriously.

2. Penelope, was Odysseus worth waiting for twenty years? 

3. Shahrazad, ask her to tell me more stories. 

4. Dulcinea del Taboso, what it's like to be loved by a lunatic?

5. Lessa, what's it like to talk to dragons?

6. Mina, now you're not a vampire, what's next?

7. Katerina, where you really tamed?

8. Ophelia, was suicide really your only option?

9. Lisa Kelly, can I be your slave?

10. Peggy Olsen, was it worth it to succeed in a man's world?

TTT My Last Ten Reads

 

I'm currently writing a novel about the life of Matthew Fontaine Maury and am researching through five different biographies. I've decided to re-read some of my favorited authors to catch up for the next book in their series due to come out this year. They're like curling up on a couch in front of a fire and having a chat with old friends.

I just finished the 54th book, The Killer, in the Casca Eternal Mercenary series. Tony's written now 30 of them. In this one he's fighting in the Algerian Civil War during the 1950's for the French Foreign Legion. I'm not re-reading the other thirty books, they're stand alone.

There are currently five books in the Dark Elvin series: Dark Blade, Heir of Gorridan, Okra's Tower,Faerown's War, The Mountains of Butchock. A new one is due out this year. The last few books Roberts has unleashed Faerowen's sensual side.

The Kastania Chronicles are by far the best fantasy series I've ever read, even better than Tolkien and C.S. Lewis. They now comprise Prince of Wrath, House of Lust, Patch of Pride, Throne of Envy, and God's of Gluttony. I can't wait for the next one coming out this fall.

All told there's many more than ten books here, but I count each series as one extended book.