Video - Amazing Tricks

This four-minute video shows some amazing tricks.  What is about people that makes them want to do these things.  I note that none of them are over the age of 40!  Sent to me by my friend Denise in Florida.
https://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=A6XUVjK9W4o

Pechanga Resort and Casino - Sunday Column

Pechanga Pool

I'm not a gambler so there is always a little trepidation when I visit a casino.  Let's face it if you don't play the various games then what do you do?  Well, in the case of the Pechanga Resort and Casino in Temecula both S.W.M.B.O.* and I had a great time.  It's a wonderful place and you can read all about it at http://www.sbsun.com/lifestyle/20131012/the-game-is-always-on-at-pechanga-resort-and-casino
*She Who Must Be Obeyed

Right Track - Prophesy

My thanks to my friend Kevin for sending me this interesting piece of history.

H.L. Mencken (born 1880 - died 1956) was a journalist, satirist, critic, and Democrat. He wrote this editorial while working for the Baltimore Evening Sun, which appeared in the July 26, 1920 edition. 

"As democracy is perfected, the office of the President represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day, the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be occupied by a downright fool and complete narcissistic moron."

---H.L. Mencken, The Baltimore Evening Sun, July 26, 1920

Tirade - Produce Checks

On a return trip to California recently I had to go through a road check.  They are all over the entry points to the state and usually they are unmanned.  Firstly, what is the point of not manning them for what seems 90% of the time?  Secondly, when they do have a desultory civil servant in some type of uniform standing there what use are they?  On this occasion, a sheriff type was standing there looking incredibly bored. It's hard to tell what he expected to find in vehicles returning from the state of Nevada.  Apparently it's illegal to transport produce over the line, but why?  What threat does an apple entering California pose?  In any case the official had long since given up any pretense at looking in the cars and trucks - as for returning Harley Davidsons, not even a sneer. What a waste of money!  But I was forgetting we've got lots! Come on People!



Music Track - Delius

Frederick Delius was an English composer who died in 1934.  His music was always evocative and moody.  Here is his "On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring."  It's very English and so are all the photos, which were taken in the Peak District of England.  As we begin Autumn, it's good to realize that Spring is really not that far behind. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xHIhcstxUM

The Wall - part 1

Recently the replica Vietnam Memorial came to Big Bear.  It was here for four days and drew a lot of visitors.  The original in Washington DC is made of marble but this 80% replica is made of steel.  It is a sobering sight to remember so many who died.  Over 54,000.

Mechanics

I still think of mechanics tinkering with spark plugs and tuning up carburetors.  They use to call themselves wrenchers not so long ago!  But things have definitely changed.  On a recent motorcycle ride a friend decided he would have his machine "Dyno Jetted."  I'd heard about this but didn't know quite what it meant.  Well, his bike was strapped down inside a trailer and a long probe inserted into the exhaust pipe; a few wires attached to the leads, and the back wheel forced down hard on a rotating drum.  The machine was started and taken up through the gears.  At one point they raced it to 110 m.p.h. in fourth - the bike had five gears.  Everyone in the booth wore ear defenders and this went on for about half an hour in total.  The result was that the bike was diagnosed as running a little on the lean side and various adjustments were made to the laptop computer.  No wrenching at all, just adjustments to the bike's brain.  Amazing!

Video - Putting up the flag

I'm grateful to my friend Jim in Pasadena for this three-minute video.  He says it's been around before but I hadn't seen it.  I think there are more people still in this country who feel like this fellow than do not.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NvHy4aIoQXU

Norton Air Force Base - Sunday's Column

Before its closure some fifteen years ago, Norton Air Force Base was one of the biggest employers in the Inland Empire.  Today, it's site is the yet-to-be-opened San Bernardino International Airport.  But one small corner of this is given over to the Norton Museum, which celebrates the previous facility.  It's a compact museum with artifacts laid out neatly explaining the role Norton played in equipping the USA's military operations.  You can read the entire article at http://www.sbsun.com/lifestyle/20131005/norton-afb-museum-celebrates-a-key-landmark

Right Track - Blockage

Perhaps I'm getting so used to the ways of Washington and the methods of the main stream media that the shutting of the government and the way it's been reported no longer shocks me.  Frankly I see no way around this.  Representatives are elected by voters to stand up for the principles they have campaigned on.  Therefore as the left wants more and more government and the right wants less and less, there is bound to be a blockage.  One side has to cave in and at the moment, as usual, the left is better at the blame game then the right so they will eventually win and the country will move inexorably leftwards.  Elections have consequences!

Tirade - Toilets

It seems that Al Gore's greatest political achievement is causing some blow back.  He managed during his lengthy time in office to have the nation's toilet tanks reduced to cut down on the amount of water they used.  Now it seems that with the popularity of wet wipes, there is a lot of cloggage going on in the country's sewers.  Also a company out of Venice, CA, is promoting their new product called One-Wipe Charlies, which is being endorsed in TV ads by several hulking linebackers out of the NFL.  It seems we are headed to some sort of sewer crisis if this all globs together.  An absence of water in the pipes and an increase in wipes that although stated as being flushable, may not be too good once the initial first flush of enthusiasm has been carried out.  Obviously what we need here is a government committee to solve this rampant problem. Come on People!

Music Track - Ronstadt

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScOpzm-BYX4  Sadly Linda Ronstadt announced that she is giving up her singing as she has contracted Parkinson's disease.  She was quite something in the 70's.  I wonder if Governor Moonbeam up in Sacramento is having some moments of thought.

Ride

I was recently invited on a motorcycle ride with about six others.  My thanks to Yvon Martineau for the invitation.  It was a great ride even though we did 447 miles the first day, which is a lot.  Perhaps a stop halfway next time.

I left the group and traveled back on my own after a couple of days, which was an interesting experience with a night's camping on route.  Once again, I'm amazed at the reliability of Harley Davidson's.  The only bad experience of the entire trip was how cold it was.  It seems we're getting winter early this year.

Sunshine and Oranges

I've just finished reading a very disturbing book written by Margaret Humphries.  She is an English social worker in Nottingham, and she was contacted by a woman in Australia asking her if she could locate her mother as she had been deported from England as a child in the late 40's.  A resulting search uncovered a system where many disadvantaged children were sent away to Rhodesia and Canada, but mostly Australia.  These children had no idea why they were sent away and many of them suffered dreadfully at their final destinations.  The system began in the late 1930's.  Naturally there was no enthusiasm by the charities and the government authorities who were responsible for this scheme to explain what happened.  In the end Humphries began a trust to pay for finding many of the relatives of people, who up to then had believed themselves to be totally alone in the world.  She was eventually decorated by the Australian government and acquired a CBE from the Queen.  She found that a total of 10,000 children had been sent away; a practise that ended finally in 1967.  A very moving story, which was made into a TV film and a documentary.  The book was called Sunshine and Oranges, which is what many of the children were promised they would receive before they set sail to the other side of the world.