What Would Jimmy Do?

According to legend, when an elephant senses its impending death, it leaves its herd and travels to a barren, bone-filled wasteland.
So do dying elephants actually separate themselves from their herd to meet their maker among the bones of their predecessors? Explorers have spent centuries searching for these so-called “elephant graveyards.” but none have ever been found.

Elephants are unique in a lot of ways. One of those ways is that, unlike most mammals, elephants have a special relationship with their dead. Researchers have found that elephants show noticeable emotion — from actual crying to profound agitation — when they encounter the remains of other elephants, particularly the skulls and tusks. They treat the bones with unusual tenderness and will cradle and carry them for long periods of time and over great distances. When they come across the bones of other animals, they show no interest whatsoever. Not only can elephants distinguish the bones of other elephants from those of other animals like rhinoceroses or buffalo, but it appears they can recognize the bones of elephants they were once familiar with. 

Probably the biggest argument against an elephant burial ground can be found in the way elephants treat their elders. An elephant wouldn’t want to separate itself from the comfort and protection of its herd during illness nor would a herd allow that behavior. Elephants give great respect to older member of their herd, turning to them as guiding leaders. They usually refuse to leave sick or dying older elephants alone, even if it means risking their own health and safety.

So where did the idea of an elephant graveyard start? It may have started as a way to explain the occasional discovery of large groupings of elephant carcasses. These have been found near water sources, where older and sickly elephants live in close proximity. And when an entire herd is wiped out by drought, or disease, the bones are often found all together at the herd’s watering hole.
There are a number of other explanations for large collections of elephant bones — pits of quicksand or bogs can trap a number of elephants and poachers have been known to slay entire herds of elephants for their ivory, leaving the carcasses behind. 

One of the more interesting theories for mass elephant corpses comes from East Africa — the elephant deaths are thought to be the work of the mazuku, the Swahili word for “evil wind.”  Scientists have found vents in the earth’s crust that emit carbon monoxide and other toxic gases. The poisonous  air released from these vents is forceful enough to blow out a candle’s flame, and the remains of small animals and birds are frequently found nearby, but these vents aren’t powerful enough to kill groups of elephants — but, tales of the mazuku continue. 

Today, the elephant graveyard isn’t any longer considered a destination for elephants — it’s more of a figure of speech that refers to a repository of useless or outdated items.
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A day or two ago, the topic was Hitler — and you often hear the “Third Reich” associated with his rise to power. It was the official Nazi designation for the regime in Germany from January 1933 to May 1945.
Why the Third Reich? Reich is German for “empire.” The Holy Roman Empire, which united much of present-day Germany and Italy was the First Reich and lasted from 800 to 1806. The Second Reich, the German Empire, lasted from 1871 to 1918. Hitler’s Third Reich was supposed to last 1,000 years, but it lasted only 12…..
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The Point Lookout Lighthouse is located in St. Mary’s County, Maryland — it’s situated where the Potomac River meets the Chesapeake Bay. It was built in 1830.

Point Lookout Lighthouse has been called America’s most haunted lighthouse — maybe because it was built on what later became the largest camp for Confederate prisoners of war. The camp was built in marshy surroundings and had tent housing in close quarters, all a dangerous combination. Smallpox, scurvy and dysentery ran rampant. The camp held more than 50,000 soldiers and between 3.000 and 8,000 died there. 

Park rangers and visitors to the lighthouse report hearing snoring and footsteps, of having a sense of being watched, and feeling the floors shake and the air move as crowds of invisible beings pass by. A photograph of a former caretaker shows the misty figure of a young soldier leaning against the wall behind her. And a bedroom reportedly smelled like rotting flesh at night until the odor was publicly attributed to the spirits of the war prisoners. 

Some of the more famous ghost encounters include…..
In December of 1977, ranger Gerald Sword was sitting in the lighthouse’s kitchen on a stormy night when a man’s face appeared at the back door. The man was young, with a floppy cap and a long coat, and peered into the bright room. Given the awful weather, Sword opened the door to let him in, but the young man floated backward until he vanished completely. After a bit of research, Sword believed he had been face-to-face with Joseph Haney, a young officer whose body had washed ashore after the steamboat he was on sank during a similar storm in 1878.

One of Point Lookout’s most frequent visitors is the apparition of a woman dressed in a long blue skirt and a white blouse who appears at the top of the stairs. She is believed to be Ann Davis, the wife of the first lighthouse keeper. Although her husband died shortly after he took the post, Ann remained as the keeper for the next 30 years, and according to inspection reports, was known for clean and well-kept grounds. Caretakers claim to hear her sighing heavily.

One former caretaker reported waking in the middle of the night to see a ring of lights dancing above her head. She smelled smoke and raced downstairs to find a space heater on fire. She believes that the lights were trying to protect her and the lighthouse from being consumed by flames.

Point Lookout’s reputation drew the attention of Hans Holzer, Ph.D. — a renowned parapsychologist, who tried to capture evidence of ghostly activity at the lighthouse. Holger and his team claimed to have recorded 24 different voices in all, both male and female, talking, laughing, and singing. Among their recordings, the group heard male voices saying “fire if they get too close,” “going home,” and more than a few obscenities.

The lighthouse was decommissioned in 1966, after 135 years of service. In 2002, the state of Maryland purchased it, and it is now open for tours and paranormal investigations. The lighthouse still has a steady stream of visitors — a lot of them are still alive…..
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There’s been lots of comparisons between Donald trump and Adolf Hitler. Most of the comparisons that I’ve read, compare Hitler when he was leader of the Nazi movement and Trump during his presidency. 

But they certainly didn’t start out with anywhere close to the same lifestyle….
When Hitler was young, his parents wanted him to go into the Austrian civil service like his father — but young Adolf had other ideas. He wanted to be a great artist, and he went off to Vienna to make his fortune. 

He applied twice to the Academy of Art, but they wouldn’t accept him as a student. He liked drawing buildings, so they advised him to try the school of architecture instead. But — he hadn’t graduated from high school, and so he was refused entry to the school of architecture, too. The money from home ran out, and Hitler was on the street. In his autobiography, Mein Kampf (“my struggle”) he described his time in Vienna as a period of study — that wasn’t true. 

Hitler did some house painting and other odd jobs occasionally, but most of the time he was flat broke. He stayed in a hostel for homeless men, and while he was there he developed his skill at public speaking.

At the hostel, he met an older “tramp” who found out that Hitler knew how to draw pictures of buildings and encouraged him to paint postcards of Viennese street scenes, which the older man would then take out and sell. They shared the profits from this “business venture.” The two set up their workspace in the hostel’s large dayroom but not a lot of work got done because Hitler could never resist an audience. The old man kept trying to persuade him to sit down and concentrate on the postcards, but Hitler kept jumping up to make passionate speeches against the Jews. His audience was the other bums or tramps who were sleeping off their hangover or sitting waiting for their free meals — but they would cheer him on as he worked himself up into incoherent ecstasies of nationalism. As time went on, he became a kind of bum celebrity.

Hitler moved to Munich just before the outbreak of World War I. There his life changed forever when he joined the German army and reached the rank of corporal and won an Iron Cross. 
His success as a leader of the Nazi movement in later life relied mainly on the unique and passionate style of public speaking he had developed during those years in Vienna. 
Charlie Chaplin always maintained that Hitler’s trademark mustache was copied from Chaplin’s “Little Tramp” character, and that Hitler adopted it to make himself more popular with the masses.
Adolf Hitler learned, more than any other political leader, how to get through to the people who lived on the bottom rungs of society — and that’s where he found his first, and best. supporters. 
So some similarities may exist between Trump and Hitler, but Trump hasn’t bragged about being a bum….. yet.
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I’ve been fortunate to have done a lot of things over the years. Years ago, I attended a bullfight in Spain. It was quite a spectacle with lots and lots of enthusiastic fans. The matador was dressed in mighty fancy duds and, of course, was equipped with a big red cape. 

I don’t think that I’ve ever seen a movie, or even a picture in a book that the bullfighter hasn’t been swinging a bright red cap to incite the bull into a spectacular rage. I’ve heard that the phrase “seeing red” is thought to have originated from the fury that the color red seems to provide to the bull. So why does the color red tick the bull off so much?
Actually — bulls are at least partially color blind and from what I’ve read, don’t respond to the color red at all. Apparently using a red cape is just for the spectators — just like the bullfighters fancy suit. 

I’ve heard that the color of the cape doesn’t matter — it’s the motion of the cape that infuriates the bull, but a little of my extensive research seems to shoot that theory down. Actually, nothing that the matador does makes the bull angry — the bull is already in a bad mood before he enters the arena. The bulls used for bullfighting are selected because they exhibit violent and and aggressive behavior. By the time they show up in the bullfighting arena, just about anything will majorly annoy them. So it seems to be the bull’s personality… the color red doesn’t make them angry — everything makes them angry.
Of course, if I had a bullfighter trying to plunge a sword into my neck, that might annoy me little bit too…..
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My neighbor’s hobby is visiting various breweries — locally, and wherever he might be while traveling. Usually a few times a week, we get together in the late afternoon and discuss things in general and often solve some of the world’s problems over a couple of beers. Recently, during those sessions, he’s been drinking iced tea. I didn’t think much about it for a while, but I asked him why no beer… he told me that he was trying to lose some weight and he was cutting out beer for a while. 

I’ve alway heard that drinking beer will give you a “beer belly.” I’ve never thought much about it, but I know some beer drinkers that definitely have a beer belly. But — I know beer drinkers that definitely don’t have a whopping waistline. So, I figured this called for some extensive research. After all, it is an important topic. 

The Czech Republic is the world champion in per capita beer consumption. In 2007 a team of Czech researchers studied 2,000 male and female beer drinkers. They found no direct link between obesity and the amount of beer one consumes. Obviously, that doesn’t mean that beer can’t make you fat — it can. Beer contains plenty of calories, but beer on its own apparently isn’t the culprit.

In 1992, Swiss physiologists determined that alcohol in the bloodstream can slow the body’s ability to burn fat by about 30 percent. That means that high-fat foods become even more powerful when combined with alcohol. And if you think about it, in a room full of beer drinkers, a plate of salad doesn’t get much attention but bowls of potato chips and cheeseburgers usually disappear pretty fast.

I also found a recent study in Italy that suggests that some men are genetically predisposed to develop a sizable midsection — doesn’t matter what they choose to eat or drink. 
So, the (my) conclusion is that beer can play a role in the development of a beer belly — but, it’s not a requirement to get one.
Not sure my neighbor will agree with my findings……
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Happy Birthday, Menoi,
I talk about you a lot and tell stories about you and all the fun things you did. I’ve come to the realization that you were the “fun” in the family. Without you around I have to work a little harder to entertain myself.
I hope you know that I’m trying each day to be better — I gave up on any idea that I could ever be as good as you were…. I’m not sure anyone could.

When you went to Heaven, not only me, but a lot of people lost their best friend. I don’t know how you managed to have so many best friends. I can never fill that role, but I’m trying to stay in touch with many of them. I don’t think they expect much from me, so maybe I’m living up to their expectations. 
Every minute, every single day, and every night, I think about you. You are the one who gave my life meaning and helped me face my worries. You helped me learn a lot of lessons and things to believe.
The best day of my life was the day you came into it, and the worst day was the day you departed. When you last let go of my hand was when all my joy vanished.

It will never be the same without you here — I miss you so much. But today is about you — and I intend to celebrate. Since God chose to bring you back so soon, He better be throwing you a big party.
I love you.
Happy, Happy Birthday!!!!
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When out daughter was about 2 or 3 years old, she went to a pumpkin patch with some friends. She came home with this huge pumpkin. I asked where she got it and she said she won it. I asked her how and she said she guessed how many labels it was and she came the closest and she won.
I was a bit confused and asked her again, and she told me she guessed how many tables it was and she won the pumpkin. 

The friends had a pamphlet advertising the pumpkin patch and one of the attractions was to guess the weight of this big pumpkin — the one guessing closest, in pounds, would win the pumpkin. When I looked at the brochure, it said, “Guess the weight — closest guess to the No. of lbs. wins the pumpkin.”

So I figured out where the “labels” came from — but when I tried to explain to Kelly (2 or 3 years old) that lbs. was the abbreviation for pounds, she looked at me like I was stupid and just went on about her business like 2 or 3 year olds do. 
I didn’t try to explain to her that the abbreviation “lb.” comes from the Latin word for pound, “libra.”
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Oliver Cromwell was an interesting character.
Probably the one thing that made him the most interesting to me is this:
He was hanged and decapitated in 1661. He died in 1658.

Ok — I probably have your attention by now.
Oliver Cromwell was best known for being Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland after the defeat of King Charles I in the Civil War. He was one of the main signatories on Charles I’s death warrant. After the execution of King Charles I, Cromwell led the Commonwealth of England. 

Oliver Cromwell died on September 3rd, 1658. His death was due to complications relating to a form of malaria, and kidney stone disease. Cromwell appointed his son, Richard, as his successor. But Richard was not as successful at leadership as his father and in May 1659, just 9 months after his father’s death, he renounced power. 

King Charles II was restored as King of England — this was known as the restoration. Charles decreed that Cromwell be disinterred from where he was buried in Westminster Abbey, and that he be “executed” — despite already being dead — for regicide (killing a king.)

Cromwell’s body was removed from his grave and hanged in chains, before being beheaded. His head was placed on a spike above Westminster Hall.
During a storm in 1685, his head apparently fell from the spike and was thrown to the ground. According to various stories, since then the head has been reported to be in various hands, in various private and museum collections — it’s even supposedly been put on display numerous times. Eventually it was buried at Sydney Sussex College at Cambridge University. 
As you can imagine, there are several versions of this story, but they all agree that Oliver Cromwell was removed from his grave to be executed…..
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Two or three years ago, there was a presentation at our church discussing the differences between the Koran and the Bible. I thought it was very interesting and the intent was to give both “sides” a better understanding of each other. I’m really not sure that it accomplished that much, because as usual, neither side listened with an open mind.

But anyhow, I thought that the story of Mohammed, the author of the Koran, was pretty interesting in and of itself….
Arabia, in the sixth century A.D., was in a pretty disorganized state of affairs. There were multiple tribes always fighting and stealing from each other. And in between wars, men mostly passed the time with drunken orgies and gambling.It seemed like the prevalent attitude was to live for pleasure today, because tomorrow you might lose everything.

That was the state of Arabia when Mohammed was born in 569 A.D.. He was always serious and as he grew up he thought more about spiritual things. One night (in 610 A.D.) while Mohammad was asleep in his cave, the angel Gabriel showed up and told him that he — Mohammed — was a messenger of Allah (the Arabic word for God.) At first, Mohammed thought it was just a bad dream. But the vision kept coming back, and always with the same command: to become the prophet of his people, and to bring them a new religion that would end the fighting and bring people together — it was to be called Islam, from the Arabic word for “peace.”
So Mohammed started preaching and made a few converts, but he also made dangerous enemies, especially among the wealthy upper classes, who didn’t like being told that no one was better than anyone else as far as Allah was concerned.

In 622 A.D.,a group of citizens from the city of Medina visited Mohammed. They were looking for a strong leader and Mohammed accepted their invitation and moved to Medina with 200 of his followers. That migration is called the Hijra and is so important in the history of Islam that the Muslim calendar starts numbering from that year.
When Mohammed rode into Medina, every family begged him to stop and make his home near them. But Mohammed didn’t want hurt anyone’s feelings, so he said he’d leave it up to the camel he was riding. Where the camel stopped, that’s where Mohammed dismounted and built his home.

Mohammed often used his talent for diplomacy when dealing with Medina’s hostile neighbors — and when that failed, he was equally screwed in running military campaigns. Over about a ten year period, using Medina as his home base, he gained more and more converts to Islam, defeated his enemies, and brought the tribes of Arabia together into a single nation.
He was, and remained, a modest, down-to-earth man. Even after his victories brought him great power, he lived a simple life. He usually did his own chores, and was often seen mending clothes, milking goats, or shopping in the marketplace for his family’s dinner. 

Over a period of 23 years, a little at a time, Mohammed wrote the Koran, the holy book of the Muslims. They believe it continues and completes the stories told in the Old and New testaments. In response to the comments that it was a great miracle that a book like that was written by a nearly illiterate man, Mohammed said that the book was dictated to him by Gabriel.
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