My prediction November 4, 2008
Posted by Richard in : Politics , 1 comment so farWell, as you know, I was very wrong in my early prediction on who the candidates would be. I predicted Hillary and Giuliani. Crazy, huh? But, one must be bold in one’s thoughts, so here goes for tomorrow:
Obama: 338 electoral votes
McCain: 200 electoral vote
This election has been so very different in so many ways. If Obama wins even bigger, I won’t be shocked. If McCain were to somehow win Florida and Virginia, that would probably mean he wins some other battleground states and he could win. Very unlikely as we look at it tonight, but not impossible.
As my friend Ken always chides me, “what do actually think about this, Richard?”
Well, it’s actually quite simple: this was a race until Sept. 17th. You know what happened that week. the market meltdown. Panic set in, and most folks blamed the status quo, read “republicans,” and that was that. Obama is “not that” and we want “not that”. Now, could Obama have won without that boost? Absolutely; as I said, it was real race. But, now, we have to blame somebody for the meltdown, so who better to blame than the Republicans. It’s an easy out. The pendulum swings back and it will swing back again some day in the future.
Tomorrow, I’ll comment on our new President-elect.
Her name was Bernice September 9, 2008
Posted by Richard in : Morrison Observatory , 6comments
Her name was Bernice, though it seems many, including Carr Pritchett, spelled it Berenice, with an e in the middle. Is it pronounced the same? I don’t know; I assume so. I’m sticking with Bernice.
She comes from a time before the war, when Missouri had plantations and those plantation owners owned slaves. Those slaves tended the tobacco and hemp fields and that tobacco and hemp made Bernice’s grandfather very, very wealthy. That grandfather, known simply as “the captain” along with his wife Lucy raised Bernice from about the age of nine. Her mother had died when Bernice was just five and her father when she was just nine years of age.
Sara Catherine Swinney was Bernice’s mother’s name and she died at the young age of twenty-eight. I have done extensive research and have come up with literally nothing concerning the cause of the woman’s death. What I know for sure is that she was adored by her father. On her massive gravestone in Glasgow, in huge letters, just one word at the top: “Kate.”
[author’s note: I have created a page entitled “A Large Influence for Good” that you’ll see at the top of the blog. This entry that you’re reading now is the first installment of longer work that I’ve been researching for a while now. I will periodically use regular blog entries to write and then paste them into the page dedicated to the topic. Additionally, I will add directly to the page as I develop what I hope to be a magazine article.]
Two Couples July 1, 2008
Posted by Richard in : Annette, Blogging, History , 5comments
Two couples; both married on July 1st. The couple on the left in 1983, the couple on the right in 1916. Both married in the bride’s mother’s living room. The couple on the right, in Denver CO. The couple on the left honeymooned in…that’s right, Denver CO. Supernatural baloney? Supernatural, perhaps. Baloney? Perhaps not.
The Encyclopedia June 23, 2008
Posted by Richard in : Blogging, Morrison Observatory , 1 comment so farThese days, when you say “the encyclopedia,” everyone knows you mean The Wikipedia of internet fame. I think it’s a great resource. Do it have some issues? Sure, it does. Is it “as good” as, say the Britannica? No, speaking strictly of quality it doesn’t even come close.
First and foremost though, it’s free, and the others are not. I like that. Secondly, it’s much larger that the other encyclopedias. Try looking up “The Morrison Observatory” in a regular encyclopedia. It’s just not there. And, probably shouldn’t be. But, in today’s internet world, isn’t it great that there is a place where I can find such things?
Read this article…
WIKIPEDIA and other online research sources were yesterday blamed for Scotland’s falling exam pass rates.The Scottish Parent Teacher Council (SPTC) said pupils are turning to websites and internet resources that contain inaccurate or deliberately misleading information before passing it off as their own work. (read the rest…)
So, what to make of this? Well, you have watch out for accuracy. But, first, one must ask, how does this accuracy matter? I think this is where the internet generation may be weak. I bring a healthy dose of skepticism to the table when I read anything, anywhere. I don’t care if it’s in the daily newspaper or it’s on the internet. I want to know who wrote it, why they wrote it and what’s their angle? So, it’s not shocking when I learn that an article or even an encyclopedia entry is a bit biased. But, biased is different than inaccurate isn’t it?
The Wikipedia deals with “inaccuracies” by having hundreds or more people looking and editing the same article. Click on the Discussion tab of a large article sometime to see all the wrangling. But, having said that, it couldn’t possibly be accurate across the whole body of articles. A better word would by consistency. Now, if you’re the editor of the Encyclopedia Britannica, you can understand an attitude where inconsistency equals inaccuracy; plain and simple. I agree with that.
However, one should enlighten and encourage young researchers to look out for any “inaccuracies,” for they lay in wait in all sorts of source material. Secondly, you, yourself, may log on to Wikipedia and fix any inaccuracies that you find.
I have written one small entry on Bernice Morrison. I have added to and edited two others. One on the Morrison Observatory (including the photo) and another on Carr Waller Pritchett.
The other day I took a gander at the entry for Dwight D. Eisenhower and about cried. It was horrible. Horribly written. I would assign a letter grade of F to it. I am in the process of completely re-writing it.
You got to time to breath; you got time for music June 16, 2008
Posted by Richard in : Music, Entertainment, Mayberry , add a commentI was talking to an old friend from church the other day about Allison Krauss and bluegrass music. I asked her if she remembered The Darlings from the Andy Griffith Show. I was explaining to her how Bluegrass bands are always so serious or expressionless while they play. The Darlings (The Dillards in real life) made a joke of it in the show. I don’t claim to understand it; but I could listen to Bluegrass all day.
First the Darling Family:
And then a very young Allison singing Heaven’s Bright Shore:
Have we been keeping up with our reading? June 11, 2008
Posted by Richard in : Politics, Entertainment, Blogging , add a commentCamille Paglia’s latest: (read all three pages)
June 11, 2008 | Shuddering, lurching and stumbling, the 2008 general election has finally, mercifully begun. For a year and a half, U.S. voters have been flogged like a prison gang through the nine circles of media hell. The two dazed survivors of the primary process, John McCain and Barack Obama, are now warily circling each other, looking for an opening even as they try to shed the already hardened public perception of their character and motivation. - read the rest….
The Cruise June 1, 2008
Posted by Richard in : Family, Blogging , 3commentsI figure I’d better post some pictures at least before my family disowns me.
First, a couple of shots while we’re waiting to embark:
A view from the shady deck:
Our dinner table on formal night:
Our Servers:
Us later on Formal Night:
Ready to power snorkel!
A really big ship that pulled in next to us:
Us in Cozumel:
It’s official; we are both born hams. With all the highlights of a Caribbean Cruise what was the best part for us? Why, singing on stage, of course! With a live band backing us up. The crowd roared, I tell you.
Oh, yeah, there was some other talent there too:
Ralph & Sam’s House in Mobile, AL:
Girls love a man in uniform May 4, 2008
Posted by Richard in : Emily, Family, History , 2comments |
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I was scanning a bunch of pictures for a dvd that I’m making for Mother’s Day and when I came across the one on the left there it reminded of the one on the right.
On the left that’s my Aunt Lois, Uncle Russ and Mom (Alice) about 1942 I’m guessing.
On the right is Emily, bronze sailor and Maria. This is from one of our trips to the Pensacola Naval Air Museum. I just realized that this picture was four years ago when Maria was heading to college and Emily was heading into her senior year of high-school. Now, we just received an invitation to Maria’s college graduation and Em is heading into her last year of college. Yikes!
Check your pulse May 3, 2008
Posted by Richard in : Music, Entertainment , 2commentsIf this doesn’t take your breath away, check your pulse. (Hint if your connection isn’t the fastest: Hit play, and after a second or two hit pause.Then let the video load for minute or two and hit play again.)
This Week in South Side History April 24, 2008
Posted by Richard in : Entertainment, History, South Side , 2commentsBloody 1953 bank heist hit silver screen
Movie gave boost to then-unknown Steve McQueen
by Jim Merkel
At 94, Melburn Stein has been retired longer than he served in the St. Louis Police Department.Yet he still has dreams about April 24, 1953, when he was nearly killed more than once in what was to become known as the Great St. Louis Bank Robbery.
The sensational robbery at the Southwest Bank at South Kingshighway Boulevard and Southwest Avenue attracted a crowd of police officers and onlookers.
It ended with a police officer injured, two bank robbers dead and one robber injured. The getaway car’s driver eluded police but was quickly caught.
One robber took his own life, saying “They’ll never take me.” Stein killed the other one as the robber rushed to the front door using a woman as a shield.
The bank’s directors, who were holding a board meeting in a room in the bank, threw their wallets in a wastebasket and hid under a table until police used tear gas.
In the end, police recovered the entire heist - $141,000.
It was the stuff you’d see in a 1950s crime movie, and people in Hollywood agreed. In 1959, United Artists released a movie about it, “The Great St. Louis Bank Robbery,” starring a new actor named Steve McQueen.
The man who played Stein had a special knowledge of the part. It was Stein himself, ordered by the city police board to play the role.
“Frankly, I didn’t think McQueen was all that great,” Stein said, adding that McQueen was distant and self-contained.
Living in Creve Coeur and still spry enough to cut his own grass, Stein credits his Marine Corps training to saving him amidst the gunfire. It told him to bend down and become a smaller target.
Stein shot the robber holding the hostage after she passed out of his line of fire.
“It was a calculated shot,” Stein said. “I had plenty of time to think about it.”
The dying robber went for a .38-caliber revolver in his belt and almost shot Stein. Fortunately, Stein noticed what the robber was doing.
“I reached down and got the gun,” Stein said. “Just to think about it gives me the creeps.”
Stein stayed on with the city department and retired in 1973 after 31 years.
The officer who was injured, Cpl. Robert Heinz, didn’t do as well.
A bullet that struck him in the head lodged in the skull around the ear and was not removed. He lost his equilibrium and had to retire.
Last week, retired Southwest Bank President Ed Berra showed off the old vault that had held money stolen in the robbery. Now an advisory board member and a consultant to Southwest, Berra started with the bank in 1959.
After the robbery, the bank increased the numbers of armed guards or introduced them at branches that didn’t have them, said Berra, 78.
Pictures on the wall of the Southwest Bank office include a newspaper photo of the robbery.
“I can’t believe that’s over a half-century ago,” Berra said.
Note: I hope Jim Merkel will forgive me using his article as my blog entry. Jim, if you ever read this, just remember who made you famous as the Grinch.