An Olio of Miscellancy, Part 3

Worry:

Worry is paying interest on a debt that may never come due.  (I heard that one from a Marine-officer-turned-tour guide in Arizona.) 


Transparency:

Everybody wants transparency of everyone except themselves. Seldom is anybody satisfied.

The Fairmont (WV) Police Department was involved in a fatal (to a civilian) car wreck a couple of weeks ago.  Kudos to Chief Steve Shine for having the accident investigated by the Sheriff’s Department of a different County. 

Oh, folks will continue to complain, that’s just what they do. But this shows a conscientious effort to get a neutral opinion.


Safety:

Try to avoid depending on a single piece of equipment when - if it fails - it might be fatal.

In the last week, there have been two detectable earthquakes in Southern California. They recently found a person who may have been an earthquake victim. He was working on his car and had "safely" jacked it up.  Authorities theorize that he was under the vehicle when the earthquake hit and the jack collapsed.

The moral: plan on the equipment failing and take steps that a failure does not kill you. When you jacked up a car, use jack stands or cribbing.  They are less likely to fail than the $.25 jacks automakers put in vehicles.

I remember Astronaut Sally Ride as a member of the Challenger Commission asking, “You mean you didn’t back up a Criticality One condition?!?”   (Criticality One = it fails, you lose everything.)  She’s also the one who figured out that the O-ring material that failed was brittle in cold weather.


D. B. Cooper:

A former paratrooper died this week. He has long been “a person of interest” in the 1971 hijacking pulled off by a guy whose nom d'guerre was D. B. Cooper. Nobody ever knew for sure who did it, the hijacked ransom may or may not have been partially recovered and the parachute may or may not have been found.

Folks are calling on the FBI to investigate this claim and solve the crime.

The crime is 48 years old. Give it a rest. It does not matter. Vishnu on the stove top, we have better things to do.

D. B. Cooper, drop in some time.


The more things change, the more they stay the same Dept:

Wednesday, November 4, 2020.  Biden-Harris-Swalwell-O’Rouke-Etc. Elected. 

“Not my president” rallies are held.

History doesn’t repeat itself, but it rhymes.  (Not sure where I got that phrase from - it’s not original to me.)

To quote Sen. Manchin, for a state to succeed, whoever is president needs to succeed.  Goes for Trump.  Goes for Biden.  Goes for Harding.


Jim Beam Company - A bit of class

Jim Beam Distillery had a huge warehouse fire recently.  They just published an open letter thanking the many firefighters who fought the blaze.  Firefighters deserve at least a “Thank You.”


“Olio of Miscellany”

I’m trying to remember where I first saw that term. I think I saw it in writings of my late friend and brother, Oce Worthington Smith, Jr.   He taught me his  very unique style of writing. He wrote in the first person plural (“we believe that…”), and had a masterful command of the English language. When he wrote his newspaper column, sometimes he just had a few things to say, none of which would fill up a 1000 word column. So he would just call it an “Olio of Miscellany,” and wrote down what he had to say.

Also, I end these Dispatches with the word “Mizpah!”  That was also Oce’s signature sign-off.  It come from Genesis 31 and symbolizes brotherhood.  "The Lord watch between you and me, when we are absent one from the other.”

Mizpah!