The Other Letter, Inc. Endorses Kamala Harris for President


The Vice Presidential Debate: Who’s honest?

They disagree, they tell different versions on every point of fact.  Who should the American voter believe?  Walz is more honest, and he edged out Vance by a slight margin.  Walz is a saint, Vance isn’t.  Unusual point: Walz saying that he is a knucklehead at times.  Vance has the extremism in evidence with Trump.  Trade protectionism won’t work, drill, baby, drill, won’t work.  Trump is ahead in the polls on the economy.  Go figure.

Interesting point: Will the loser of the election step down graciously, or will there be another January Sixth, 2021?  Vance is the carnivore, yet Walz believes in 2A, as do all four candidates.  Hypocrisy a plenty on both sides, on what to do at schools to prevent massacres.  Argh!  Repeal 2A!

Walz is being viewed as nervous, when he just looked intense, like the debate mattered very much to him.  Vance looked too cool and collected, as though the debate was not of importance, that he was above this.  10/01/24.


Democrats have a Winner in Kamala Harris

Vice President Harris, as formidable a candidate as she is, has one major weakness to her run for President, and that is guns.  Harris may not be NRA, but she does own at least one gun.  If I were her, I would concede that guns are a major liability, and distance herself from endorsing them as instant justice.  Firearms do one thing, murder people, it’s sad that she won’t surrender her security blanket.

I definitely won’t vote for Trump, but I”m considering not even voting for Harris, and leaving the ballot blank for President.  All the pro-gun votes are casting their ballot for Trump, I don’t see what she gains by not renouncing firearms.  I will probably just resign myself to the Mick Jagger philosophy, here in American politics: You can’t always get what you want, but sometimes, you get what you need.  9/15/24.

Vice President Kamala Harris is the better candidate for United States President than former President, Donald Trump.  Unfortunately, this does not mean she’ll make it to the White House.  The best candidate does not always win in America (and probably, in other nations as well).

Harris is more sensitive, brighter, more nuanced, and informed about the issues, especially Constitutional ones, and would make a much better President.  Trump has a deserved reputation as a hothead, one who is divisive, and attacks opponents, or moreover, enemies, that he has learned to cultivate.  Unless you’re a billionaire, the choice is clear: Kamala Harris for President of the United States.  9/14/24.

The second Presidential debate, this one pitting the former President against the Vice President, went much worse for Trump than the first one against Biden.  Trump never looked at Harris, and seemed uncomfortable, reminding me of Nixon, to some degree.  Kamala had him on the run for much of the debate.  Harris looked incredulous throughout the debate, as Trump delved into his favorite topic, immigration, and even said how Ohio residents are having pets eaten by hungry migrants.

Vice President Harris did an excellent job discussing reproductive rights, while Trump faltered claiming that women can now have end-of-term abortions.  She also excelled in explaining Obamacare, which was a foundation that she would improve.

Trump focused on the Afghanistan airlift, which may have been botched, but Harris did not play a role in it.  Trump also talked about the border, and how there isn’t enough people patrolling it.  Harris countered by saying that Trump pushed blocking a bill that would have staffed the border, doing so to make the Biden administration look incompetent.

Trump has been out of office for four years, and it seemed to show, as he did not have many concrete policy details, and Harris did.

Harris pointed out Trump’s very poor record on racial relations, reminding him of his Charlottesville’s comments about both sides being right, the White supremacists, and the non-Whites.  She also pointed out that Trump put a full-page ad in the New York Times urging the execution of five Black youths who were accused of raping the Central Park jogger (all were later exonerated).

The former President had a strong closing, but it was too little, too late.

The Vice President won this debate, and perhaps the election, tonight.  Trump may drop out of the race, it didn’t go too well for him.  Ms. Harris did fall short on one mark, though, she is not anti-guns, and neither is her choice for the second in command, Tim Walz.  Trump is, of course, pro-guns.  9/10/24.

Ms. Vice President, Kamala Harris, is not a lightweight.  She may be much more of a heavyweight than people realize.  She has long experience as both the District Attorney of San Francisco (2004 to 2011), and the State Attorney General of California (2011 to 2017).  Harris is noted to be tough on crime — and she hails from Oakland.

The Trump Organization has had six bankruptcies.  Trump counts as a major success, perhaps his most stellar, the rebuilding of Wollman Rink in Central Park.  The only problem I see with a far more progressive, Kamala Harris-Tim Walz ticket, is that like Trump-JD Vance all candidates own guns.  (Originally a dump-Trump conservative, Vance is even against childlessness.)

Tim Walz is the governor of Minnesota, so that may explain if he owned a gun for hunting (for venison that is not eaten, in a State that is largely wilderness).  Still, I could not find the exact reason why he owned a gun.

Harris makes Trump rather uncomfortable.  Trump wants the Presidential debate rescheduled to Trump-favorite Fox on September 4th, instead of with ABC on larger-audience September 10th, as originally scheduled.  Harris essentially said she will be in ABC studios, on September 10th, she hopes Trump shows up.  Hopefully, Trump will not beg off, and they do face off in a debate, September 10th, 9pm EDT.

(In American politics, you stay on your side of the aisle, and stick with that side, right or wrong.  I do not subsribe to that view.  I do have favorites, as anyone would, but the other side may offer at least a little of value.  Is this an atypical op-ed?  Is this un-American?  Is this Canadian?)  8/06/24.

Donald Trump has these defects of character: He is conceited, arrogant, power hungry, and occasionally despicable.  45 entered politics to advance his tax reform agenda for billionaires, and to enjoy the biggest power trip on Earth.

Trump had four years to advance any executive agenda, and he did very little.  His predecessor devised Obamacare, and his succcessor had many policy initiatives.

Trump reminds one of Ronald Reagan, very little interest in the nuts and bolts of governance, only interested in delegating a near-Fascist, Proud Boys-friendly regressive, discriminatory policy.

Like Joe Biden, Trump should step down because of his age, and even, because of a lack of any new ideas.  This is a sad side to Ameican politics, but he also should step down, because he might get shot again, he is very divisive.

Trump is Wonder Bread, Kamala Harris is both African American, and Asian American.  In addition, Trump is very aggressive, mean really, and petty, always picking fights.

May the best woman win.  (Psych-out!  Remember psych-outs?  I should say, may the best man win?)  7/24/24.

[Anyone can tell that The Other Letter is leftist.  I am not divisive, I am preaching to the choir.  Op-ed articles like all the letters in The Other Letter are never “fair and balanced,” they are meant to concisively change opinion, and to offer “insight found nowhere else.”]

Kamala Harris for President, Biden is stepping down for health reasons.  Looks as though we’re stuck with another four years of Trump: The end of reproductive services; the end of environmental protections; the end of Medicare; and the end of a kind and gentler America.  Oh m*th*rf*ck*r, no!!

The good thing about politics (or American politics at least), is that there are term limits that prevent leaders from doing permanent damage.  Trump has all the makings of a demogogue, appealing to the electorate’s prejudices, Charlottesville being just one example...

Maybe Harris will win, maybe I am short-changing her from the get-go.  After all, Kamala is currently in the White House.  She must have plenty of ideas from her present work, and from the new generation, especially ones to continue President Biden’s legacy.  Harris is the only one vying for the front office under seventy-eight years of age.  Ms. Harris is an African-American, and Asian-American woman, she covers all the bases to counter intolerance.  7/21/24.

Biden’s slow start to the debate, left many thinking that President Biden cannot handle a second term, yet he is doing well with his first four years.  The economy is doing well, job numbers are up, inflation has been squelched.

The problem I see with Trump is his lack of honesty during the debate.  The former President was very fast and loose with his facts.

Another disconcerting facet of Trump’s psychological makeup is his aggressiveness.  He will stop at very little to get what he wants: Witness the Capitol rally he assembled on January Sixth, of 2021.  Trump clearly lost the election, but he tried to swing the vote his way by mob rule.

Most disturbing is the fact that the investigations against him have centered on marital infidelity, not this rally, which verges on treason.  7/9/24.


Trump Instagram post on January 5th.

Who caught the Presidential debate tonight?  Analysts seemed to suggest that Trump won, at least on presentation.  Yet Trump was evasive most of the way through, and focused on his favorite, hatemongering topic, immigration reform.

Biden did a better job with the facts, Trump would not survive any serious fact-checking.  Biden really fumbled through the first seven minutes, as it appeared his age would really work against him.  It was later revealed that he had a cold, not COVID-19 however.

One garnered the impression that at the core of Trump’s plank was tax reduction for the wealthy, although the moderators and Biden couldn’t pin him down exactly on his exact policy, if he actually had one.  Biden was significantly less hesitant to offer details on his initiatives such as his plan to expand tax credits for child care.  Trump said he would consider exiting NATO, of which Biden vigorously disapproved.

Trump criticized Biden on three policy issues: the Afghanistan airlift; border management; and inflation.  Trump claimed that Biden will not fire anyone, whereas the former President would fire anyone, just like on his reality game show, The Apprentice (remember his contestant-ending cry, “you’re fired!”)

Biden criticized Trump — essentially calling him a racist — on his equivocating on Charlottesville, where one side had made a protest, a Klan rally.  Biden also took Trump to task for mishandling the epidemic — the economy had to be jumpstarted with government spending, that is, fiscal policy, which was very inflationary.  Biden challenged Trump to be more honest, and to not be fast and loose with his facts.  6/27/24.


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Are you a shut-in?

Need something to do involving the outdoors?  Then you’re in luck.  Take a trip around the world without leaving your PC.  Shut-ins welcome.  Let’s hear it for shut-ins.  Raise your hands, shut-ins.


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T.o.C. & Addendum from the Editor-in-Chief

Here is a Table of Contents for the current Other Letter:

Hi, there.  Welcome to The Other Letter, my friends.  It is not perfect — yet, but will be fairly soon.  Let us get underway, shall we?  Let us build a world we can believe in, one we can call our very own.

(As an aside, I am near violently implored to make this safe for teens, but not write to attract teens.  Oh, my, my, attorneys are drooling...)

This is a blog.  I am its founder, and EiC.  From Boise, Idaho, to Beirut, Lebanon, the New York Times would be hard pressed to find a more dedicated, more involved, press corps.  I have editors covering the political scene, writing columns on world affairs, I have a divinity editor, along with a staff of columnists solely covering Hollywood and famous actresses.

As you would imagine, the production values are phenomenal, as are the costs of producing just one issue.  Yet, the entire squad long ago agreed we would never charge a penny (no heckling, please), so we are deeply in hock.

Just kidding, I am the sole writer, coder, and researcher.  I wear many hats.  If you like this blog (I really hate that word, I’ll tell you), tell a friend.  If you don’t, please do not hire — never mind...

Every facet of religion and politics is covered here.  Just kidding, but I do raise some unusual points.  If you are not an adventurous reader, or you are a Republican, you may want to read something else.

In my book, The Other Letter is the best value over any website worldwide.  This is not an unsubstantiated claim: I do not accept advertising, I do not represent special interests, unlike the U.S. Congress, and I do not charge any fee to read my ideas.

Call it what you will, but I have been doing this since 2004, and as a retiree, this is my vanity project (although I did have hopes for this to be an author’s platform, as this blog is incorporated).

I get fifteen readers every day.  That’s not many, I know, but if I get one person to think more clearly about the World, and one’s just and righteous place in it, I have succeeded, wouldn’t you agree?

I will say this: I do such a concise job expressing the Progressive viewpoint, dispatching many sacred cows, that many Right wingers are all over me, all day, every day.  To quote Celine Dion: “Regarde-moi.”

The Other Letter has a new hyphenate, forwarding domain, other-letter.com.


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Don’t be fooled.  Adolf Hitler was Satan incarnate...

There are still a few crazies out there who think Adolf Hitler was a master leader, especially one righting the sinking ship of the German economy.  Any leader that requires slave labor, ones starved to death, to make an economy work, is obviously an extreme failure.  Hitler was not John Maynard Keynes, the famous British economist who mathematically formed the foundation of fiscal and monetary policies.

Germany did suffer greatly from hyperinflation, from 1922 to 1923.  They blamed the Jewish bankers for this, yeah right, Chase and J.P. Morgan were Hasidim.  Hitler wasn’t an economic hero, he wasn’t any hero at all.  Der Fuhrer was Satan, pure and true.

His Final Solution exterminated millions of Jewish mothers, fathers, sons and daughters.  With a thousand concentration camps, working with German efficiency, Auschwitz, Buchenwald, Bergen-Belsen, Dachau, et al, were death factories, gassing and cremating Jews by the thousands daily.

(Six million Jews murdered divided by [six years of WWII x 365 days] equals 2,739 murders of Jews daily.  With a thousand extermination camps, six million Jews murdered seems to be a death count greatly underestimated.)

Hitler was an abject failure who catapaulted himself to tremendous power, which he used to ultimately defame his own people.  Just as a for instance, my family, eighty years after Auschwitz was liberated, will never buy a German car.  Hitler got full national support.

[I have seen photos inside the camps, and they are all of men.  Where are the women?  Are women strong enough to do factory work?  Just saying.  One photo has a son asleep in a bloody attic of a camp, beside his dead father.  It was a secret to not cremate the father, as his son’s comfort.  Or worse: The father died the day before liberation, and the son thinks he’s still alive.  Rings a bell with my situation, and the SCPD not letting me see my nonagenarian dad living next door.]


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Very Brief Primer on Monetary, and Keynesian, Policy

When the Federal Reserve (“The Fed”) loosens monetary policy, the result is “easy money,” or lower interest rates.  Lower interest rates lower the cost of borrowing, which lowers the cost of business expansion, and this spurs the economy.  Too much loosening of monetary policy, then too much money chases too few goods, and as a consequence, inflation ensues.  The way the Fed loosens monetary policy, is by buying Treasury bonds with its immense store of cash (from the reserve requirements of member banks), swapping their cash liquidity for fixed-return, income-earners.

Tight monetary policy — to cool off, an overheated, inflationary economy — is implemented with easy money, or more precisely, expansive monetary policy, in reverse.  Bonds are sold in the open market, via Open Market Operations, and the larger market, has more illiquid, but income-earning bonds.  Yet, the Fed now has more cash.  Interest rates rise, as liquid, borrowing funds are less available.  Then, with the intersection of the classic supply and demand curves, supply of capital decreases, and demand likely stays constant.  The result is increased cost of borrowing money.

These monetary policies do actually work, they do fuel or slow the economy, but they cannot redirect ships of state heading towards the rocks.  Witness the 2009 economic collapse from robo-signed mortgage junk paper; or the 1989 stock market crash from over-leveraging (profiting from money with little backing collateral) junk bonds.

Fiscal policies work as well: Also known as Keynesian economics, these poliicies employ government spending to help fuel the economy.  This is due in part to a multiplier effect.

As an example, a TVA worker gets a fiver, he or she spends $4.50 on food, saving 50¢.  (TVA is the Tennessee Valley Authority, a key New Deal program during the Great Depression.)  The grocer takes this money, and spends $4.00, and saves 40¢, and on and on, until there is not a dime left to re-spend.  This is a 90% multiplier, with a 10% propensity to save, that generated $50 in overall revenue with a $5 government expenditure ($5/(1.0-0.9)).

Fiscal policies, if mis-administered, can be inflationary.  Too much money chases too few goods.  Yet, Keynesian economics ended the worst economic downturn in history, the Great Depression of the 1930’s.


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Novus Ordo Seclorum to a Modern-day Utopia

“Novus Ordo Seclorum,” or new world order, as seen for ages on every one dollar bill, to a Valhalla of equality and prosperity, via more cogent thinking on goods and services distribution, perhaps without the abstraction of paper currency, without a trinket-exchange economy.

A trinket exchange economy requires continuous exchanges of trinkets, money for goods, to stay afloat.  Just as a shark must always swim to stay alive, the economy must constantly exchange, or trade, to keep going.

The problem with take what you want, leave the rest behind economics, is that people are motivated by self-interest.  That, and there are gradations of quality in a product.  Who gets the best stuff?  You could make everything global, best-in-class, but there are designs that require prohibitive levels of resources.

The alternative to full goods equality, and economic inclusivity [see, the Aspen Institute], does not mean flawless economic engine, and regime.  Currency, paper bank script, can be a huge obstacle to economic endeavor.  The Great Depression is one example where global quality-of-life completely deteriorated to poverty by financial mismanagement, and economic failure (over-leveraging in capital markets, et al).

There can be very real instances of a better life without the abstraction, and restriction, of goods changing hands only after abundant paper script is produced.  In other words, Star Trek’s Captain Kirk, and the rest of the United Federation of Planets, did not carry wallets, and someday, neither shall we.

Si no quiere que su hijo lea esto, existen aplicaciones de control parental para bloquear sitios web.
Si vous ne souhaitez pas que votre Junior lise ceci, il existe des applications de contrôle parental pour bloquer les sites Web..
If you don’t want your Junior to read this, there are parental control apps to block websites.
Plu noot gruw den ulda tak den noot eur grav pic, noot prud, noot nakt cee est de wist.
White flowers, aka Biltmore Hawthorne.

If only the genius of the living world, could be reproduced
at an economic level, with goods distribution.
That would be utopia.


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Practices of Living Spiritually

Here are a few of Christ’s adages, the teachings of Jesus the Christ.  Love one another, was repeated thirteen times in the New Testament, and was a major teaching.  While he promoted love, love already existed — families, and marriages existed prior to his ministry, as in the Old Testament.

And here are some of mine, competitive with other spiritual inspiration:


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Jesus the Christ was not Crucified

(©2017, The Other Letter, Inc.)

One thing I do appreciate about the Christian Church is that they value life, above all else, above money, above prestige, and stature.  The homeless, the downtrodden, have value, and why might that be?  Jesus the Christ was effectively homeless, he did not have a permanent address.  (I am not the Jewish hardliner, many may think I am.)


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Astronomy for Anyone, Terrestrial or Celestral

Do you know anyone from outer space?  I thought so.  Any travelers reading this today?  Well, anyhow, here is the days until Spring (the Vernal Equinox), and the percentage of days with daylight hours less than today’s number of daylight hours (for the hemisphere having summer time).

September 23rd is the first day of Autumn this year, in the Norhtern Hemisphere.  It is the first day of Spring in the Southern Hemisphere.  On this day, every place on earth has an equal duration of sunshine.  If you can imagine the Earth tilted, then at this time of year, the Sun’s rays are not angled any different, anywhere on the planet.  During any other time of year, different latitudes have different heating effect of the Sun’s rays.

For instance, in Winter in the Northern Hemisphere, the Sun’s rays strike the Earth at an oblique angle, and are cooling, while in the Southern Hemisphere, they are far more direct, and are heat-producing.

Fall has become the predominant name of the season in America, while not very often in Britain, who generally call it Autumn.  9/21/24.

“Left alit is last.”  The moon revolves past a full moon, then it goes towards the sunlit side of Earth, to become a last quarter moon, next a new moon, unseen on Earth.  In this interval, from full moon to last quarter to new moon, the moon is alit on its left side, not its right side, as it does from new moon to first quarter to full moon.

In the Southern Hemisphere, left side and right side is reversed.  Australians are essentially looking at the moon upside down.  Left side alit is new moon, first quarter, full moon.  Right side alit is full moon, last quarter, new moon.  7/26/24.

The summer solstice is fast approaching.  This year it falls on the 20th of June.  This is when the earth has its maximum tilt towards the sun.  The longest day of this year in the Northern Hemisphere is June 20th, in the Southern Hemisphere it’s December 21st.  In the nations of Europe, the summer solstice is known as midsummer, in others such as our own, it is known as the beginning of summer.  6/14/24.

Earth Day is April 22nd.  Why not celebrate with a non-biodegradable clamshell lunch container, farmed seafood, and a dairy cow burger?  Mother Nature just winked at you, it’s on the house.  Be a litter bug, we dare you...  4/17/24.

Even though Mother Nature has been suffering of late (who hasn’t noticed climate change these days?), we can all do our part to reverse the decline.  Take public transportation, don’t drive a gas-guzzler, drive a low or no pollution car, eat sustainable food, and never litter.

Support political candidates who back the same principles as you, ones that recognize climate change as a real issue that can be remediable by legislative restrictions on pollution.  4/20/24.

Moving path of totality is determined by Sun, Moon, or Earth.  Well, the Sun doesn’t move, and the moon doesn’t move appreciably over an hour, it revolves around the earth once in twenty-eight days.  The Earth revolves on its axis once every twenty-four hours, so the Earth accounts for the path of totality, the traciing of the shadow...

There were more planes flying overhead than usual, probably because the best place to see the eclipse would be by plane, at least if the skies were overcast, because you would be flying above the clouds.  Fortunately, they were not so overcast on Long Island during the day of the eclipse.  4/8/24.

Long Island had two mild earthquatkes today.  The most recent, eleven minutes ago, at approximately 6PM and twenty seconds.  God has a schedule to keep?  The first centered in Lebanon, New Jersey, and registered 4.8 on the Richter Scale (did the second originate from Jersey at exactly 6:00PM?)  Someone on the radio remarked about the eeriness of a full solar eclipse preceded by an earthquake.  4/05/24.

There will be a full solar eclipse of the Sun by the Moon, on Monday, April 8th, 2024.  The path of eclipse totality begins in Dallas at 2:42PM (adjust scroll bar of link for time and path of totality), and continues through Eastern Canada around 3:38PM.

I remember the last solar eclipse, in August of 2017.  The air cooled off temporarily — with the sun’s rays blocked, that can be expected; and birds suddenly flyed around, as if confused.

Please do not view this solar eclipse without glasses specifically manufactured to view solar eclipses (like astronomy company, Celestron, sells — I do not get paid for any Other Letter recommendations).  3/12/24.

A saros is the periodicity of a solar eclipse (an eclipse cycle), or when a full solar eclipse returns to a single location.  The Sun, Moon, and Earth, return to the same location after one saros.  This duration is eighteen years, and ten, eleven, or twelve days.  3/15/24.

2024 is a leap year.  This February has 29 days, not the usual 28.  Every four years is a leap year, every hundred years is not a leap year, and every four hundred years is a leap year.  Everyone got that?  Good.


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An Other View of the Cosmos and Nuclear Power...  “Huh?”

[This is a reprise of an article I wrote several years ago.]  The stars comprising the Winter constellation, Orion’s Belt are Alnitak, Alnilam, and Mintaka.  These stars are 825.7, 1,359.0, and 918.8 light years from Earth, respectively.  A light year is the distance light travels in one year at the speed of light (186,000 miles per second).

In other words, when you see Orion in the night sky, the photons that your retina senses, left the Constellation of Orion in Medieval times, in the years 1,199AD, 665AD, and 1,106AD, respectively.  In a sense, you’re seeing history, cosmic history, before your eyes.

This is not really refutable — the extrapolation is simply based on well-established numerical constants — although almost impossible to believe.  If those three stars were much closer, say 50ly away, then the light photons would have left in 1974, which sounds much more plausible.  As a light source emanates from a point, it spreads wider, eventually dissipating in lumninosity.  Radial light diminishes in intensity (to darkness) over distance traveled, doesn’t it, yes?

The point being, these stars might be much closer than the 4,839,199,200,000,000 miles of the nearest one, when Alnitak distance from Earth is computed to be:

825 light years X 365 days per year X 24 hours per day X 60 minutes per hour X 60 seconds per minute X 186,000 miles per second = 4,839,199,200,000,000 miles
as determined by a light year of 186,000 miles per second.  This makes space travel to distant civilizations much more possible.

Of course, I might be wrong about the stars being closer than thought before, but I don’t see how.  The Inquisition tried to prohibit Copernicus’ conclusion that the Sun did not revolve around the Earth, but vice versa.  I just hope there isn’t an auto-da-fé in my future for judging a conclusion about the Heavens as heresy.

This is a seperate conjecture: How did Einstein arrive at 186,000 miles per second as the speed of light, before there were even refrigerators, let alone sophisticated astronomical equipment.  I turn on the light to a room, and I can sense that the light from the light bulb cannot travel anyhwere near that fast.

I am probably wrong, but his estimate for the speed of light sounds far, far too fast.  If Einstein’s determination of the speed of light is overestimated, and the light year determinations are held constant, than the constellations are much closer than originally perceived to be.

Speaking of a new, scientific possibility judged heresy, is nuclear energy even possible?  Can the most fundamental unit of solid matter like uranium be split in two?  Are there vast amounts of energy in small amounts of matter as the mass-energy equivalence maxim would dictate?

Yet only uranium could be used to harness the potential of this property, not potatoes?  Potatoes also have atoms.  At room temperature, you’d think that they possess similar kinetic energy.  A hot potato maybe hotter than uranium, yet I digress.

When Einstein wrote his Generalized Theory of Relativity, WWI, the war of the trenches, was well under way.  The casualties were catastrophic.  If a petrifying, super-weapon existed, there would be no more war.  Annihilation would be certain.  This mass-energy equivalence implied the existence of this horrifying super-weapon.  Otherwise, Hiroshima and Nagasaki amounted to Dresden fire-bombing.

Regardless, if atom-splitting is possible, then Long Island’s Shoreham nuclear power plant should have easily been built.  My theory, is that if you connect a light bulb at the output line of a nuclear plant, it will stay dim.  Nuclear energy projects are boondoggles.  One more point, Russia has the nuclear bomb, what is stopping them from leveling the Ukraine.  All’s fair in war, or are there gradations of war?  But what do I know, I just write a blog that gets ten readers a day...

One more aside, before the men in white coats (or navy blue jackets) arrive, endeavor today is predicated on money, making a buck.  Could Einstein have created wild theories, in part, to publicize his findings, and thus buttress his career in academia?  This may sound so disingenuous, and heartless, but hey, ultimatley, aren’t we all in it for a buck?  Economics is called the dismal science, see why?  Guess what I majored in at the Brook?


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The Wholly Unexpected Success of Oh, Carl

Movie Business Case Study: Oh, Carl.

Year of Release: 1992.

Genre: Regional Fare.

Locale: Upstate New York in a town called Whiteness.

Premise: An office secretary named Doris Deuce works at a car dealership, and dreams of getting back at her Jewish bosses for telling her to work the occasional weekend when the African American calls in sick.  The Black woman, who will work weekends, without pay differential, is named Ebony Honey.  Honey is an equal opportunity hire from Western New York.  Staff calls her the “import.”  After Doris meets Carl (he would often just drop into the dealership to chat with staff) they both plot to end all Jewish ownership in Whiteness, and beyond.  Doris becomes Mayor Deuce in a landslide promising the return, and upgrade, of old-fashioned upstate values, such as much greater availability of maple syrup in restaurants, groceries, and package stores.  The film ends with Doris and Carl, Nazi-saluting a stand of maple trees.

Credited Screenwriter: Doris LaDeuce, who was in fact a Nazi, ran for the Governor’s office in Montana, but did not win.

Film Commentary: Oh, Carl was a bit odd in that it showed Nazism in a very favorable light, with the Black character actress getting fired — after a campaign by Deuce — for looking at Doris menacingly; and the entire staff of the car dealership applauding as Ebony left for the last time.

Business Commentary: This movie, whlle never winning any awards, did much more than modest business across the Midwest, where, in limited distribution, it opened to 700 screens in forty markets.  Gate exceeded $50 million.  First Release: July 10th, 1992.  Re-release: November 23rd, 1992.  Cable: HBO carried this in moderate rotation, for eight weeks from January 2nd, 1993 to March 4th, 1993.


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These Say it Best

These are not dictionary definitions (although I did borrow from Dictionary.com and Merriam-Webster), these are just words that are not often heard, and they have unusual connotations.


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Parents, porn is the real problem...

Attribution: Although I am trilingual (actually quadrilingual, I speak Navajo),
the four translations here, are provided by translate.google.com.
The Other Letter, Inc. gets fifteen visitors a day.  The only ones worldwide, privvy to the truth.

Si no quiere que su hijo lea esto, existen aplicaciones de control parental para bloquear sitios web.
Si vous ne souhaitez pas que votre Junior lise ceci, il existe des applications de contrôle parental pour bloquer les sites Web..
If you don’t want your Junior to read this, there are parental control apps to block websites.
Plu noot gruw den ulda tak den noot eur grav pic, noot prud, noot nakt cee est de wist.


I am an adult, and although I write for adults, this may or may not appeal to those not yet adults.  This is not my responsiblity to police who reads my blog (all fifteen of you, according to my web host).  You want me to write this in a way so it becomes a teenager’s webzine.  That’s not going to happen.

I keep hearing that there is a hypothetical, freak-out teen, who reads this and grows hair on his palms.  If this is your teen, you dropped the ball in not blocking my website with parental controls, not me.  If I were you, I would clamp down, I mean seriously clamp down, on teens reading pornography.  There is some awfully perverted sh*t out there, but you don’t give a damn, you only want to give me an unbelievably hard time...

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...This Webzine Probably Deserves a MPAA PG Rating
If you don’t want your Junior to read this, there are parental control apps to block websites.

Some of the articles in this web log of personal experience are G-rated, some would be R-rated by certain cohorts, but mostly this is PG, without parental guidance, the site may be too adult for teenagers.  There is never any porn, although I have posted pictutes of cleavage in the currently out-of-commission Panthoen of Hollywood Women.  I do not approve of substance abuse, I am a child of the Sixties, I have seen the damage done.

I will say from the outset, Republicans may not like this site at all, because I am a registered Democrat, and I want my party’s candidates to be elected to office.  I have complimented Republicans, but not nearly as often as Repulbicans reading would hope.

Christians may not like this website as well, because I have a literal interpretation of the Bible.  I have discussed this in detail before: The Gospel According to Saint Luke, Chapter 24:39,41, states that Christ is “of flesh and blood,” and asking, “have you here any meat,” post-Crucifixion.  Jesus the Christ is not a spirit.  This does not sit well with many Christians, even though this is straight from the Holy Bible.  In my estimation, Christ is a good philiosopher, but not an immortal.  That’s my belief, you have your belief.

Anyhow, read something else, if this is not your interest.  You can block your teenagers from reading any website with parental controls.  Parents should have parental controls anyhow to block pornography, which is far worse than reading about Trump’s Muslim ban.

Sexy trumps sex here, tawdry just sucks.


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Verses and Chorus

Joni Mitchell is so on the money in her songwriting, so incisive, and enjoyable, one wonders why there aren’t any more Joni Mitchells out there, why no one can further advance her jazz-rock styles, melodic phrasing, themes, and lyrical brilliance.

In several ways, Taylor Swift is significantly different from Ms. Mitchell.  Of late, Taylor has been defining herself on stage, as a performer, instead of simply as a musician.  Ms. Swift is the queen of country-pop, while Joni is know for jazz and/or folk rock.  The only difficulty that one might find of Ms. Mitchell is that her lyrics can skew indecipherable, but with further listening, one might have a greater appreciation of what she’s really saying.

Taylor is more country charm, to Joni’s urbane sophistication.  I’ve never seen either of them in concert, so maybe I’m not qualified to offer an opinion, and perhaps I’m in uncharted territory, yet I have listened to much of each of their musical catalogs.

(Is Taylor now in a country glitz-blitz phase, still courting the rest of her demographic, males?)

There’s a joke about that Eric Clapton song, I shot the sheriff, but I did not shot the deputy.  It doesn’t matter that you didn’t shoot the deputy.  You already took out the sheriff.  Your life is over.

All hail rock and roll!  Or is it: Long live rock and roll!  Either way, get out the fizzy water and have a listen...

Taylor Swift dodged a bullet, almost literally.  Her Austria shows were canceled when a plot was discovered to cause great harm to her and her fans.  It’s very disgraceful, that in today’s world, some are so sick, twisted, and violent, that they want to commit terrorism against a popular musician (the most popular today, really) at her concert.

I know Taylor has been stalked to her home, there was a mass-murderer near her concert two weeks ago, and now, terrorists are out to do grave damage to her.  Despite Ms. Swift’s hundreds of millions of dollars, and doing what she loves, this songstress does not have an easy life.  8/08/24.

After you have listened to a substantial amount of music, your opinion of certain popular music groups diminishes considerably.

There should be a RIAA, Recording Instustry Association of America, fund to benefit all the musicians that suffered greatly with the introduction of streaming — first, Napster, and then much more legal services such as Spotify, and Pandora.  I would pay my obligation, say a dollar per song, that I shared on Napster.  I’ll chip in my five-dollars, how about you?

David Crosby of super-group, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young (CSNY), was asked who were his favorite singer-songwriters.  He said that the two Pauls, and Joni, were.  That’s Paul Simon, Paul McCartney, and former busker, Joni Mitchell.  Of those three, his favorite is Joni Mitchell.

“Play some Dead...  Which Dead?  Friend of the Devil...”

Led Zeppelin is perhaps the band played most often on radio in America.  Admittedly, Led Zeppelin has a deep catalog, but so does The Who, The Grateful Dead, Pink Floyd, and so on and on.  Has payola, pay to play, been eliminated in US radio?

Great Britain never had a payola scandal.  Is this because there, music like cream, rises to the top, without adulteration, without payouts from record execs?  And Britain does have a bigger music scene than America.  Every major act from the Beatles to the aforementioned Zeppelin and The Who, to Traffic and The Kinks, Yes and ELP, U2, the Pretenders, Elton John, and Cream, were founded in the UK, in the British Isles.

To quote Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones: “What can a poor boy do, ’cept to sing in a rock n roll band?”  Not to cast dispersions on the English economy, but America tends to be wealthier, and more into wealth, leaving poor boys like Jagger with little to do, except sing (and write) for the Rolling Stones.

Opening credits roll: Two deejays, jauntily-dressed saunter into Beezlebub Radio studios.  They are local legends of headbanging rock radio.  “A and N wants more Hindenberg,” as their secretary offers a small tin.  “Not today as to latter.”  The dynamic duo, the hit-makers take their seats.  “First caller?  No first caller.  Okay.  Hey, what is this, hey, hey...”

Rock stars have been known to do some really outrageous things on stage that critics have tried to crack down on.  Elvis Presley, for instance, shook his hips on stage, and this was considered very corrupting of youth.

Jim Morrison of the Doors took off his pants on stage.  To wit, David Crosby of Seventies super-group Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young, said along the lines: If you need to do that to maintain audience attention, you don’t have much music to play, your act is more than weak, it’s anemic.

Alice Cooper, early 70s rock star, was said to have eaten a bat on stage.  Shocked concert-goers were later relieved to learn that it was not a bat, but a vole.  Mister Cooper’s biggest hit was School’s out for the Summer.

The song was banned on many school cafeteria PAs, because of the line “school has been blown to pieces.”  While reflecting the sentiments of the entire staff and student body of many lower learning institutions, it was considered to be just too much.  [Editor’s note: Alice Cooper ate a live chicken, Ozzy Osbourne was the one who ate a “live” bat.]

Speaking of music promoting juvenile subversion — and who doesn’t these days — there’s Brownville Station’s Smoking in the Boys’ Room.  And do not forget Led Zeppelin’s Black Dog with this infamous verse:

Ah, ah, child, way you shake that thing
Gonna make you burn, gonna make you sting
Hey, hey, baby, when you walk that way
Watch your honey drip, I can't keep away

Mr. Plant, Zeppelin frontman and lyricist, if you are reading this today (and I know you are not), what did you mean by that second line, let alone the fourth line?  Shaking, then burning and stinging, from what?  And are you referring to a child metaphorically, and not literally, as we hope?  I’m surprised this song was never banned on rock radio, by the FCC.  Just saying.

There are a few Billy Joel albums where one senses he is at the end of a recording contract, and just wants the record to be within spec, or acceptable entertainment.  I would say that Nylon Curtain is one that is somewhat lackluster, as is Storm Front, and River of Dreams.  The approach is more mechanical, and lacking genuine truths about the human condition, as well as being less inspired.  Ones that I feel Billy Joel truly shines are: The Stranger, 52nd Street, and The Bridge, in that order of musical excellence.

Jerry Garcia, the main creative force behind The Grateful Dead, had this to say about his band’s success: “Not everyone likes licorice, but the people who like licorice, really like licorice.”

While mostly potheads,† the Grateful Dead had the worst reputation in Seventies music, worse than even the Rolling Stones, and Led Zeppelin.  Mr. Garcia received a death threat, likely in response to his band’s reputation for bacchanalian decadence.

I don’t know, everyone seemed fairly polite to me.  I went three times to see the Dead, but I knew two guys from the third grade, who saw them over eighty times.

†Searching for the Sound, My Life with the Grateful Dead, by Phil Lesh, the bassist of the Grateful Dead.  He eventually settled in Twelve Step for alcoholism.  Near stage, was “the Phil Zone,” near his monitors, where you could really pick out the bass.

(I don’t get any kickback for appreciating this band, or any other band, but did you ever wonder if payola is gone for good, no more Alan Freeds?)

My alma mater, Stony Brook University, has a very unusual history as a concert venue.  Before The Who, The Doors, and the Grateful Dead filled arenas, they filled the theater at the Stony Brook Union (a short walk from anywhere on campus).  Yes, that’s right, every major act played The Brook: Jackson Browne, Linda Ronstadt, Jefferson Airplane, Yes, Jimi Hendrix, Joni Mitchell, Chicago, Beach Boys, Allman Brothers, as well as Simon and Garfunkel.  Every act played The Brook.  They all did.

Both my mom and I attended Stony Brook.  I kinda missed out on this, I was a decade too late.  My mom was an upwardly-mobile housewife, who also get an SBU degree (in the early 70s), but who was not attending college to go to Dead shows after class...  Just saying.


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Taylor Swift is Interviewed by Satan
Si no quiere que su hijo lea esto, existen aplicaciones de control parental para bloquear sitios web.
Si vous ne souhaitez pas que votre Junior lise ceci, il existe des applications de contrôle parental pour bloquer les sites Web..
If you don’t want your Junior to read this, there are parental control apps to block websites, including pornography.
Plu noot gruw den ulda tak den noot eur grav pic, noot prud, noot nakt cee est de wist.

“Have a seat.”

“Where?”

“Is the one behind you okay?”

“Taylor, I have issues with you.  First off, we all know you as the b*tch that could.  You’re the darkest cat in all of music.  Mean and hungry.  You’re unflappable, too.”

“Okay, we’re off to a fast start.  Shoot.”

“Your latest album, I cannot even remember the name of it.”

“Tortured Poets Department?”

“What gives?  I don’t get it.  Who’s tortured — poets, why?  Why are poets being tortured, and I don’t know about it?!  Why!!”

“Well, it’s my invention.  That’s why you haven’t heard of it.”

“So you’re tortured?  Be more explicit, please.  You’re throwing everyone off with this title.  Who’s torturing you?  Is it someone I know, or should know?  I do like torturing everyone.  I may start torturing you.  And Department, who’s running the show here, in this department, you or me, Mephistopheles?”

“Well, I thought of the title, and we ran it by a focus group, and they liked it as well.”

“I’m really not interested.  Now, the reviews have been middling, no, awful, may I quote?”

“Okay, go—”

“‘Worst Swift album since your debut, Taylor Sings Lounge Crooner Standards.’”

“I never dropped that album.”

“Let’s cut the crap.  Your job is to stay in the limelight, is it not?”

“I try to keep a good public image.”

“Then, here’s what we do.  We tie one on.  I mean epic tie one on.  I mean near stomach pump from alcohol poisoning.”

“Who’d want that?”

“You would.  Now, I did my research.  You drive a Continental.”

“Yes.”

“Let’s go drinking.  You wrap that beauty ’round a tree.  Come out of the wreck, staggering, but with a smile.  That photo of that moment makes the cover of every newspaper in the World.  Then, you give some little spiel about drinking, and driving, to the press.  What do you say?”

“I say no to you, drinking to excess, even going out drinking.  I’m not much of a drinker anyhow.  And I’m not a paparazzi seeker.  And, and, I wouldn’t emerge smiling from a car wreck.  You’re a madman.”

“Hands over your head, Swift!”

“Huh?  I just worked out — too stiff.”

“I said, hands over your head.  I am Satan, I enjoy telling mortals what to do.”

“I am Taylor, I have free will.”

“I am Satan, I bully, interrogate, boss everyone around, bait, ride, taunt, make life extremely difficult.  I confuse.  I obfuscate.  I instigate.  I agitate.  I terrorize.”

“That’s some rap sheet.”

“No, this is where you’re so wrong.  That’s some curriculum vitae.”

“That’s not a C.V., Satan, that’s bad karma, at best.”

“Let me tell you what you’re doing wrong.  Everything.  Let’s start with your catsuit on stage, tramp wear, I call it.”

“This is what dancers wear in the theater.”

“Who do you think you are — a dancer?”

“You’re giving me a major headache.  My manager said this interview would give me a new, market segment.”

“Wrong again, has-been.”

“I’ve had tough crowds before, but—”

“Mephistopheles has you under his spell.”

“No, you really don’t.”

“Swift, I have you cornered — hmm, you didn’t flinch.”

“I still have home field advantage.”

“Play Eruption.”

“Who plays that?”

“Van Halen.”

“Oh, that one.  I don’t play any Van Halen covers.”

“Okay.  Does not play Van Halen covers.  And you still call yourself a musician?”

“I do.”

“Calls herself a musician.  Hmm.”

“I’ve been practicing most of my iife.”

“I shall riddle you this, Batgirl.””

“Hmm?  Oh, okay, if you insist, I’m Batgirl.”

“Okay, Batgirl.  My son, Damien, is in the audience.  He starts convulsing, because he’s just playing a joke on you.  Now, you don’t realize it’s a joke.  Do you stop your show, and come to his aid?”

“Yes.”

“No, you didn’t hear me, he’s Damien, he’s the son of Satan.  He wears all black, cornrows, smoking a joint.  Do you come to his aid?”

“Yes, I would.”

“No, you wouldn’t.  You’d spot an usher.  You’d point to Damien with your index finger, and throw your thumb over your shoulder.  Understood?  Again, this is what you would do.  You would not stop the show, and seek medical attention for Damien.”

“No, I would seek medical attention for Damien.”

“BUT HE IS THE F*CKING ANTICHRIST OKAY?  YOU LIKE EVIL THEN, ADMIT IT, YOU LIKE EVIL!!!”

“But he came to see my show.  He is a fan of mine, Satan.”

“You let evil enjoy your show?”

“Well, my music doesn’t cater to evil.”

“Go to hell, Swift, go to hell!!  You’re EVIL!!!”

“That was a loaded, trick question, wasn’t it?  But if someone gets violently ill, I would stop the show for them, your son, or anyone else.  If they were faking needing an ambulance, the crowd would get so P.O.’d the attention-grabber would have to leave early, and forfeit a three-hundred-dollar ticket.  A good time is had by all, Satan.  I’m SRO—standing room only.”

“Okay, the deal is this.  I have a business proposition for you.  Join me on the dark side, and rake in not only money, but power over pop-lovers everywhere.  And I do not have the time for pop nonsense, pop queens, got it?  Change your name to Petunia Mellowstock, because [ring, ring] — get this call — where’s my cell phone?  Oh, holy—yes?  Who the—”

“I am God, you leave Taylor alone, do you hear me?”

“No, I’m deaf.”

“Check the caller ID.”

“The.  Caller.  ID.  Hmm, eh-oh.  My phone says the caller is G.O.D., God.  Is this some kind of wicked joke?  If it is, I want in.  Who the—”

“Go back to your den, Beelzebub, devil in chief — now!”

“No, no way.  What are you going to do about that, God?...  I’m on fire!!  Knife attack!!  Drowning!!  Oh, mother of GOD!!!  AGH!!!!  Swifty, I am outta here.  Better luck next time, with your streaming content.  I’m burning alive!!!  STOP IT, YOU IMPOSTER!!!!  GOD?!!!  NOT HAPPENING—”

“Satan, don’t forget your cape.”

“You’ll hear from my lawyer, and so-called God will, too.  You’re a tough nut, Swift.”

[Door slams!]

“That was a close one.  You’re God?”

“Well, kinda, maybe, sorta.”

“You’re awfully humble for a God.”

“Staying in good form, I guess.  Well, I’ll get going.”

“You can stick around, if you’d like.  I made some chocolate chip cookies.”

“I’d like to, but I have to be somewhere.”

“Upstairs?”

“Upstairs?  Oh, no, I have to run by the grocery, and pick up some stuff.”

“Are you British?”

“I’m a little bit of everything.  How about you?

“I’m Scottish, and English, mostly Scottish.”

“Bagpipes and kilts.”

“No, guitars and cardigans.”

“Sorry.”

“No, you’re good.”

“Well, gotta run along.”

“And save Gotham?”

“Hmm, kinda.”

“Maybe, sorta?”

“Good night.”

“Are you married?”

“No...  You look really good by the way.”

“Thanks for saving me from Satan.”

“You’re very welcome.”

“But that was just some trick, and Satan did some messed-up drug, right?”

“Yes, um, right.  Let me give you a call.”

“Huh?  Okay.”

“Hi, Taylor.  Guess who?”

“Oh LORD, Satan got the same caller ID!!!  Caller ID says GOD!!!  You’re GOD!!!!!!!”

“Have a good one.”

“Cookies?  Chablis?  Pop a cork?  Veuve Clicquot?  Stay—”

“It’s late, maybe we’ll meet again.  I want to take advantage of the traffic going home.”

“Hey, please, you can check out my ride.  I drive a Corniche.”

“That sounds expensive.”

“It was a quarter-mill.”

“A quarter-million dollars?”

“That’s right.”

“Must really move?”

“Well, yeah.  What?”

“Your Corniche must be fast.”

“Takes off like a jackrabbit — the salesman said one-fifty-plus.”

“Over one-hundred-and-fifty miles an hour?”

“Yup.”

“How fast do you go in it?”

“Fifty-five, I’m Taylor Swift, and there’s alot riding on my tires.”

“Okay, if you keep it at fifty-five, you can take me on your cruiser.”

“Let’s go.”

“Where are we going?”

“There’s beach-front I own.  I have a blanket in the trunk...”


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Selling Bitcoin Short (Versus Buying and Holding Long)

[The following is an op-ed.  I write op-eds, letters to the editor, for the Other Letter; and I do have an MBA, a Master of Business Administration.]

Everyone understands the bitcoin market for digital assets?  Sure, a company becomes a bookkeeper, a registrar, for bit (zeros and ones) coin, without the underlying faith and credit of any principality.  Bitcoin is money, or more realistically, a hopefully liquid substitute for money.

Most know by now that a bitcoin marketmaker is not much different than a casino in Monte Carlo, glamorous, yet only about the money.  Bitcoin is speculative “fun,” if gambling is your fun.

If you ask for the opinion on bitcoin of a market maker on the NYSE trading floor, people who live and die capital exchange, I would bet they have a negative view of bitcoin.  Paper currency used to be backed by silver, Silver Certificate issues.  That was abandoned in favor of backing money by your confidence in the full faith and credit of the U.S. Treasury.

I would take silver, but I’ll accept a U.S. government voucher, you won’t see me putting money into bitcoin.  Trump has stayed on the sidelines, even though he goes where the money is (if he could be brutally honest, and he cannot, I bet he would say the entire enterprise is frothy).  Senator Elizabeth Warren said today that laissez faire bitcoin markets need to be regulated just as any other financial market.

The acid test for a currency is, is it a store of value.  Hopefully, bitcoin is exchangeable for green bank script by the market maker specialist, or an investing, bit player.  Well, if I had a million dollars of bitcoin, I still could not buy an ice cream cone with it.  By the same token, if the dollar bill were to fail, we have reached the end times.  Bitcoin buyer beware: Too much paper profits, too much Monopoly money, and not legal tender.  Just saying.


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Madge and Dougie Review Steely Dan’s Aja

Madge and Douglas are sitting in a somewhat spare kitchen in Peg, a suburb of Chicago.  There’s a video camera in front of them.  They’re wearing matching “Madonna, Madonna, Madonna,” t-shirts, his in red, hers in green.

“I’m Madge—”

“And I’m Douglas—”

“And we’re here to discuss the secret meanings behind Steely Dan’s Aja—”

“For all our Youtube friends—”

“Followers—”

“Yes, followers.  You complete my sentences.”

“Yeah.”

“We’ll come right out and say it—”

“We lost our jobs at a big tech company.”

“We tried to unionize.”

“C’mon, Dougie, our last day, we tried to set the employee cafeteria ablaze.”

“After our unionization efforts failed.”

“With our unemployment running out, we have branched into music appreciation Youtubes.”

“That’s right, Madge.  Okay, got my notes.  Let’s begin.  Aja was Steely Dan’s best album.  Can I say that, Madge?”

“You just did.”

“The Dan begins: ‘Up on the hill.’  Which hill is this?  The hill of Damocles?  Edinburgh has seven hills, maybe the Dan means one of those.”

“Dougie, it’s the Sword of Damocles, not the hill.  Sword overhead, peril at every turn?  I keep forgetting, you’re coding, not English lit.”

“Peril at what?  Do you remember we worked on the Milkgate Proposal?  I brought over the spec, but we both had trouble with the nutritional labeling.  Remember that?”

“Yeah, I do.  And what was the gate in Milkgate?  Sure it was a dairy, but it was about linear programming cheese.  That’s the notes I got from you, linear programming cheese.”

“Madge, Mayhock Industries—”

“I remember them, we worked there twenty years—”

“They needed us to maximize Milkgate’s cheese recipe for flavor and profit.”

“That’s right, it was over priced, it was skim milk, and the profits were skimmed by local farmers, mind you.  Not a popular target, local farmers.”

“We opened the floodgates to Milkgate’s Milkgate, Dougie.”

“Wasn’t it like Watergate, kinda, wasn’t it?”

“It was.  It was, Dougie.”

“Too bad, all this we thought was under the table, was legal.”

“The local farmers were all legit.  So we got fired for scandalizing the cheese at Milkgate.”

“Hmm.  [Looks at notes.]  Angular banjoes, do you get this?  You read Ulysses.”

“Angular banjoes, no.  Give me another one.”

“Why do the people on the hill just don’t care, Madge?”

“They are on the hill, they are the chosen ones.  Got anything else?”

“Why Aja, and not the continent?”

“You mean, why not Asia?”

“Yeah.”

“Aja is a woman.”

“Quit while we’re ahead?”

“Yes, I got some food stamps left.  Can dinner be just soup broth?”

“Sure.  Youtube followers, see you next week for—”

“I think we said we’d do Stairway, talk about Stairway to Heaven.”

“Is that Beatles?”

“No, I think that’s Bread, Bread, the group, not the appetizer.”

“Bread is an appetizer?”

“Sure, c’mon, Dougie, before a meal?...”


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The Royal Cambridges Handling the Sprocketeers

Katherine, Princess of Wales, and William (Bill to his friends), often mingle with the townies far afield from Kensington Palace.  One recent Royal parade, this time to low-tech center Sprocket Shire, brought up a conflict they have faced.

There is a pocket or two of poverty (as there is anywhere else) in the far, far, North of Wales, near the Shire of Mopsweep.  The Royal parades are not always so happily greeted by the locals.  At Sprockets (its nickname, they drop the Shire), a few parade-goers did not embrace the spirit of Windsor greatness, that Kate and Bill evidence.  They pelted the Royal second-in-line to the throne with tomatoes (think Spain’s Tomatino Festival at harvest).

Said the ever so diplomatic Kate: “They did this to us last year, we enjoy Sprockets, but a few Sprocketeers don’t quite enjoy the celebration as much as others.  Before we returned to Sprockets, we set out pamphlets outlining proper appreciation of the Royal motorcade.  At Sprockets, we don’t leave the motorcade, we stay inside the limousine, and wave.”

Said Prince William, always the gentleman: “Most cities, we’re greeted warmly, but I don’t know, the Sprocketeers really don’t like these British pride events.  I’m saddened, we try to bring good will, visibility, and commerce, we’re ambassadors, but it’ll be good to get back to home base in London.”


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Trail Mix

“Most appreciated, Ma’am.”

“You ain’t ’round these parts, are you?”

“I’m up from Mayheco, by Texas way.”

“Is that so?”

“That be right.  What ’bout you?”

“Outta Cheyenne.”

“That’s a time getting here.”

“Sure was.  Injun territory.  Don’t appreciate cattle folk.”

“You don’t look like no wrangler to me...”

“I’m seeing, you is a dead man without a guide.  But this serves.”

“Stay along water.  Keep to the water.”

“I’d ask.”

“Ask what?”

“I travel well. Want to go along?”

“Where?”

“Canada.”

“I heard mighty cold far north. Can you find a town?”

“What year is it?”

“Hardly matters for me these days.  I would hash mark my bedpost.  1840 something.”

“I saw tracks and a coal burner.”

“Coal burner?”

“Moving up the line.  That’s where to be.  The towns by the rails.”

“Sure, the railway.  Where did you say you’re from, you new to railways?”

“Mayheco via Texas way.”

“To Nebraska?”

“Nebraska?”

“You got to Nebraska.  Right chere.”

“I just follow the empty towns.”

“There’s ghost towns all the way?  You got sheriffs through there hunting for bounty.  The only thing preventing them pulling the trigger on an out-of-towner is the specter of baby Jesus condemning them for blood money.  So, get through the Plains?  Think so?”

“See if I can make it.  Need a safe house for more than a night, good eats on the table, too...”

“Whatcha say you did for a living?  Wrastled cattle?”

“Ran the chuck wagon.  Also was a target-shoot carny, when the fair pushed through.  Then, I taught at a school for young women, the farmers’ daughters, in Wichita, although the students came from as far away as Omaha.”

“Like Bible reading?”

“Like that, spreading the word of the Lord, and how to sew, and cook.  Although, it was a finishing school, Wichita Finishing, not a church.  How to marry well, how to marry up, how to stay in his will, keep the farm.  The headmistress liked me, said I had a way with the students in my class.”

“I see why...  Did you have books, for your school?”

“No.”

“I’ve been to Hell, is Heaven possible?”

“Pardon — possible?”

“Is Heaven—”

“Where are you from?  No one gets to this part of the Niobrara Trail, the Missouri even, without a pack, without companion.  Who are you?”

“Just looking for a better life.  Heaven?”

“Huh?”

“Is Heaven possible?”

“Well, yeah, certainly.  I mean, if you live a just life, you spend eternity in Heaven.  Well, do you believe in Heaven?”

“I do.”

“Where is Heaven?”

“Right here, right now...  You know how to be nice to people...  Hmm.  Poker stare.  Much ado?”

“What the heck!  That’s William Shakespierre.  Who are you?!”

“I am your neighbor.  I’m just an Injun, as you say.”

“Oh my god!!  What about, “up from Mayheco”?”

“If I say I am Cherokee, that is trouble.”

“But you know European—”

“I’ve learned your ways, your life.  What am I now to you?  I am a Cherokee.”

“Damn, that changes everything, but changes nothing at all.”

“You smile rarely.”

“I’m happy now...”


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Contraception and Sugar Hill

The Other Letter, Inc. gets fifteen visitors a day.
The only ones, mature enough worldwide, privvy to original, wild, storytelling..

Si no quiere que su hijo lea esto, existen aplicaciones de control parental para bloquear sitios web.
Si vous ne souhaitez pas que votre Junior lise ceci, il existe des applications de contrôle parental pour bloquer les sites Web..
If you don’t want your Junior to read this, there are parental control apps to block websites, including pornography.
Plu noot gruw den ulda tak den noot eur grav pic, noot prud, noot nakt cee est de wist.

Preface: This story has both immolation, and a great Mom as the hero.  If this sounds like something that would offend you, read The New York Times, instead.

My Mom had read a Look magazine article from 1957 that showed a Long Island youth on fire, on a hill.  The problem the caption explained, was that “Long Island is suffering from over-population, and this has to be squelched, by any means necessary.”

That hill is where I live today, and is known as Sugar Hill, because there was a festival of fire staged there to reduce over-population.  There were not any contraceptives, rubber plantations were only situated in Viet Nam, we had no rubber to make rubbers.  There wasn’t any contraceptive pill.  To make matters worse, the church was against contraception until around 1970.  What to do?

That Look magazine photo told volumes.  Ignite the kids in a fiery “festival” of fire (institutionalization came in a distant second to combat over-sized families).

Youth from out-of-State, and super-sized families, would be shipped to Sugar Hill.  Typically they were poorly nourished.  The festival organizers would throw sugar so the kids would not stand still, and have a chance of survival.

My earliest memory is looking out the window of our family’s kitchen, and seeing a child escaping from the woods on fire.  My harried mom grabbed the fire extinguisher and saved the kid’s life.  I asked her why he was on fire.  She looked around, then told me: “He ate too much sugar.  When you eat too much sugar, there’s a chance you’ll catch fire.”  I poured sugar from the sugar canister onto a spoon, one after the next.  “What are you doing?,” she shouted.  “I’m seeing if I’ll catch fire.”  My mom took the spoon from me, and rolled her eyes.

Neil Young sings a song called Sugar Mountain, where their contraceptive festival had one balloon in Manitoba, ours on Sugar Hill had dozens, Sugar Hill was such a draw, Mom would tell me, until she stopped the entire apocalyptic nightmare.  The Expressway only went onto Exit 55, now it goes all the way to Riverhead.  Once the contraception festivals ended, it was safe for out-of-State tourists to visit without witnessing the abject horror of the “festivals.”

How did my Mom stop the “festivals of fire”?  My mom waited until property adjoining the festival was on sale, and she and my father bought it.  Then, she filmed Sugar Hill, with my Dad capturing sound.  These were sent to Kennedy’s White House, and got their immediate attention.

When I was five years old, the festival organizers lured me and my neighborhood friends out of our homes, for the final go of the festivals against over-population.  Even though neighborhood youth had a few grudges against one or two others, we would not pour the ceremonial gas cans on each other.  We were good kids (with one or two exceptions, but they were not pyromaniacs, if you don’t count lighting ants on fire).

[Kick the can is a game that actually comes from the “festivals,” and kicking the gas can to get the flames ablazing.]

The reason for the Viet Nam War was to get rubber supplies for contraception, stem over-population, and stop starvation in very large, American families, with fifteen and more siblings.  Henry Fonda and Lucille Ball touched on this in the very topical, Yours, Mine, and Ours, but without the “festivals of fire,” just twenty offspring.

By 1965, the “festivals” were hardly needed, except they kept going further East, by say, Western Moriches.  My mother’s home movies stopped the entire festival trade.  The home movies are buried under a mountain in Zurich, Switzerland, they are that heinous.


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Medical Advice from a Layman

Can we talk about health?
Attribution: Health Jade.

Body-mass index chart

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Indispensable Other (Got It, Flaunt It)
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America’s Cataclysm, the War in Viet Nam...

The War effected American music, as well as its cinema, and Zeitgeist, with a very hard, acerbic edge.  France was making effervescent, Jeune Filles de Cherbourg, while Stateside, there was gritty, Midnight Cowboy...

 


Ultimately, the Doves Won, the Hawks Lost Big

The War in Viet Nam was unwinnable, so said the Pentagon, in the Pentagon Papers.  America attempted to convert a nation into a capitalistic system of democracy, over a people’s communist one.  I have heard this said before, and I agree, that capitalism is for countries with a long history, and communism is for one with a shorter history, and fewer national resources.

Given that North Viet Nam did not have an interest in becoming a Western-style capitalistic democracy, why was the war, one which cost the United States 58,220 lives, entered into in the first place?

The major reason was the Domino Theory, that Southeast Asia would collapse as Laos, and Thailand, and then India, and the Middle East would fall into communists’s hands, one by one, domino by domino.  Anyhow the Pentagon was right, the war was unwinnable, and the Domino Theory was wrong, Southeast Asia and beyond did not become Communist.

The Vietnamese War was a colossal political blunder, that soldiers seeking college funds from the Montgomey G.I. Bill, were instead sent home in black, body bags.  If they had fought for their country, they were sadly disappointed by the non-existent American support of a war against government self-determination.

The War in Viet Nam was nothing like World War Two, there weren’t really any heroes flying home to towns enthralled with their service.  Some were spit on, there weren’t any parades awaiting them.  The entire years of American involvement from 1964 to 1973, were marked by endless campus protests, of those who did not have any interest carrying machine guns through a steamy jungle, shooting anyone that moved.  By 1975, Saigon fell to the Viet Cong.


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The Kennedy Assassination and the Vietnamese War

John F. Kennedy gave the war positive lip service, but in the October before his November, 1963, assassination, he pulled out 1,000 American military personnel from Viet Nam.  As he said, “They are the ones who have to win it [South Viet Nam].”  Kennedy was soft on fighting there, Johnson and Nixon were not.

Four days after Lee Harvey Oswald shot JFK, LBJ wanted troops back into Viet Nam.  Lyndon Baines Johnson, a Democrat, was gung-ho behind the war, as was Richard Milhaus Nixon, a Republican.  LBJ declared, just two days after his boss’ assassination, that “before a small group including Henry Cabot Lodge...  ‘Get back to...  winning the war.’”  [Karnow, 1997, p. 339.]

There were unusual rumors that Johnson would not have been picked as the Vice President of any JFK second term.  Where was Lyndon Johnson in the motorcade?  LBJ seemed to be given short shrift in a significant campaign rally.  LBJ was in the motorcade, but not in JFK’s limosine, LBJ was two cars behind the President.

A not-incredibly rattled LBJ took the oath of office at Dallas Love Field, two hours and eight minutes after JFK was assassinated.  He was in town, in the motorcade, but it is worth reiterating, he was two cars back.  In the Air Force One photograph, LBJ’s sentiment seemed to be, ‘Jackie, we have to stop communism.’  Jacqueline Kennedy’s head is tilted towards LBJ, as in, ‘I can never say aloud what he did.  Our new president took out my husband.’  Albert Thomas oddly has his head tilted as well, as if to emphasize Jacqueline Kennedy’s symbolic pointing of her head towards LBJ.  Albert Thomas died two years later, at the age of 67.

Was this a well-orchestrated LBJ coup-d’état?  If removed from the Presidential ticket, he would have nothing to lose here.  Well, at least this required some doing of any conspiracy, Jack Ruby, murdered the fall guy, Lee Harvey Oswald.

The only one alive today who can further clarify LBJ, JFK, and Jackie Kennedy’s relationship, is Caroline Kennedy.  She is sixty-six-years of age, and I am sure she would love to talk about her mother’s relationship with LBJ, all day, every day, but she would rather get root canal instead, and Johnson died in 1973, the year the Vietnamese War he had touted, ended in defeat.  (LBJ died on January 22nd, at the age of sixty-four; the War ended March 29th, the day that the last combat troops left.)

Truth be told, the Kennedy assassination: Got America full-scale into Viet Nam; gave the Presidency to Lyndon Baines Johnson, who was about to be pulled from the Democratic ticket; and boosted the war economy.  NSAM 273 of Novermber 26th, 1963, the day following JFK’s funeral, outlines the post-Kennedy strategy, including:

“...develop as strong and persuasive a case as possible to demonstrate to the world the degree to which the Viet Cong is controlled, sustained and supplied from Hanoi, through Laos and other channels [such as Russia and China].”  (We’re going to war, folks...)

By the time 1972 rolled around, the alternative to a second term for Nixon was George McGovern, who even lost his own home state of South Dakota in the vote for President.  By 1974, Nixon resigned in disgrace for burglarizing the psychiatrist’s office of an adversary, Daniel Ellsberg of the New York Times.  Ellsberg uncovered the Pentagon Papers, which declared the War unwinnable.


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Kennedy was soft on Viet Nam, though Oswald was with Castro

An aside about Lee Harvey Oswald, he got a job as a temporary worker at the Dallas Book Depository five weeks before the assassination.  The motorcade was to go through Dealey Plaza, by the Depository.  Oswald fired three shots from the 6th floor, 81 meters, or 265 feet away.  That’s almost a football field away in distance.  Seeing the Zapruder film of the assassination, where were the crowds?  There were few in attendance to see Kennedy — one-deep for JFK , and Camelot?

Oswald bought the murder weapon on March 13th, he got the job at the Depository on October 15th, and the route to the motorcade was finalized five days before the assassination, which occurred on November 22nd.  Oswald got the Depository job along the motorcade route, psychically knowing it would swing by the Depository, a month after he got the job?

Another consideration is that the route makes a right turn away from Main Street, to Houston Street, and then to Elm Street, where the motorcade swings by the depository.  It was as though the route was directed to travel by Oswald, yet was this smokescreen for someone within much closer range?  265 feet away, was Oswald that good of a shot?

Oswald fired three shots from the sixth floor of the Book Depository.  The problem being, the windows on that floor are curved, can they actually be opened?  (Actually, they can’t, except for the corner window, which can be opened.)  Before an itinerant Oswald was gunned down by Jack Ruby, Oswald claimed he was “a patsy,” a pawn, in some much larger conspiracy.

Case closed for most, after Oswald was gunned down (at the age of twenty-four), by a night-club owner named Jack Ruby, who was not legally in the station-house were Oswald was shot.  He would have needed a press pass, which he did not have.

Then, what was Oswald”s supposed motivation: He was very pro-Castro.  So pro-Castro that Oswald leafleted public areas for him.  Not too many juvenile delinquents campaign for communism at the age of twenty-three, and get on local radio debating their cause (Oswald supposedly went to twelve grade schools, he was thought to be that much of a behavioral issue — although only three schools, not twelve, are mentioned in his interview).  A transcript exists of a debate, with only partial supporting video tape extant.  Oswald didn’t have any name recognition, yet he was being grilled on a radio station, WDSU, New Orleans.

The Warren Commission does not hold up: Oswald got his job at his Depository lookout five weeks before the finalization of the motorcade route; and the sixth floor of the depository had curved, not retractable windows, except for the corner one.  Which window did he shoot from?  The corner one, 265 feet from the passing motorcade.  In addition, his rifle was from 1891, a Carcano bolt-action, how accurate could it be?  Plus, why wasn’t LBJ in JFK’s limousine?  LBJ was in the motorcade, two cars back though.

[Youtube (parent corporation, Google) does not have the Zapruder film in its vast inventory.  Youtube has also blocked me from adding videos to my playlists, they don’t like my politics.]

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Very Few Big in Politics then, Served in Viet Nam

Very few U.S. presidents, and presidential candidates, of that age, fought in the Vietnamese war, just John McCain, and John Kerry.  John McCain served five years as a POW in the Hanoi Hilton, with an untreated, broken leg.  Unbelievably, Donald Trump said he liked war heroes that weren’t captured...  Anyhow, a few facts about that war, for anyone interested.

PresidentPartyDid they serve in Vietnam?  If not, why not?
Joseph BidenDemocraticNo, excused because of asthma.  He was a lifeguard.
Donald TrumpRepublicanNo, excused because of bone spurs in his heel.
John McCainRepublicanYes, spent five years in the Hanoi Hilton with an untreated broken leg.  In the 2016 presidential campaign, Trump had the audacity to complain that he liked war heroes that didn’t get caught.  Talk about service to your country, above and beyond the call.
John KerryDemocraticYes, he captained a swift boat.
George W. BushRepublicanNo, he joined the Texas Air National Guard.
Bill ClintonDemocraticNo, educational deferments.
Mitch McConnellRepublicanNo, eye issue, optic neuritis.
Mitt RomneyRepublicanNo, Mormon missionary work exemption.

Important government phone numbers, courtesy of the American Civil Liberties Union (the ACLU):

White House Switchboard(202) 456-1414
U.S. Senate(202) 224-3121
U.S. House of Representatives(202) 224-3121
ACLU National Office(212) 549-2500

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Just Saying (or Meditation Rallying Points, You Decide)

Attribution: Although I am trilingual (actually quadrilingual, I speak Navajo),
the four translations here, are provided by translate.google.com.
The Other Letter, Inc. gets fifteen visitors a day.  The only ones, mature enough worldwide, privy to the truth.

Si no quiere que su hijo lea esto, existen aplicaciones de control parental para bloquear sitios web.
Si vous ne souhaitez pas que votre Junior lise ceci, il existe des applications de contrôle parental pour bloquer les sites Web.
If you don’t want your Junior to read this, there are parental control apps to block websites, including pornography sites.
Plu noot gruw den ulda tak den noot eur grav pic, noot prud, noot nakt cee est de wist.


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Who won?

 Ginette Reno leading the Canadian National Anthem.

Ginette Reno leads the Canadian National Anthem before a Montreal-New York hockey game.
(Attribution: Sports Net, ©2017.)

Ask Siri, or its equivalent, when was the last time Canada won the Stanley Cup.  You’ll see that it was in 1992.  Canada lives for ice hockey, it is their national sport.  The majority of hockey players in the National Hockey League are from Canada.  They export hockey players by the hundreds, but 1992 is the last time a Canadian hockey team won.

That team, to this day, is also the winningest team in all of the NHL, the Montreal Canadians, aka the Habitants, or Habs.  The owner of Madison Square Garden, Tex Rickard, in 1924, saw the “H” in Montreal’s uniform, and said it meant that they were habitants, or farmers.  Those farmers can sure play hockey, eh?

[I am half Canadian.]


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