An Aphorism For Today's Times!

THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A USELESS PIECE OF INFORMATION! THERE IS ONLY INFORMATION FOR WHICH YOU DO NOT CURRENTLY HAVE A USE!

So far as I know, I actually invented that two sentence aphorism. At least, I am the first person I ever heard use it in public. I have always loved information and I actually grew up reading nearly all of a set of World Book Encyclopedias which my parents bought for me. Before they bought that particular set, I read an earlier, less complex set of encyclopedias which they had bought for my sister who was eight years older. I have no idea when the first occurence was in which that phrase popped into my head. It must have been some situation in which a previously obscure bit of trivia had been floating in my brain without a purpose and suddenly a situation arose when I could drag it out of the dark and dusty synapses and foist it upon someone else. But the situation in which I was reminded just last night of that wonderful aphorism occurred during a conversation by phone with a relative in which we were discussing the terrible political disaster in which the United States now finds itself with TRAITOR Trump and his Criminal Syndicate which poses as a "cabinet". The person with whom I was talking brought up the name of the Right Wing Radical Repugnican Congressman Thomas Massie of Kentucky. I brought up the fact that Congressman Massie, one of the most extreme Right Wing Radical Repugnicans in congress in a time when the Repugnican delegation is the most extreme in the history of the nation, is currently in agreement with Congresswoman Axexandria Ocasio-Cortez, one of the most liberal members of congress, that the attack which TRAITOR Trump ordered against nuclear sites in Iran is unconstitutional. My relative then stated that they think Massie has ulterior motives to which I agreed but stated that in my opinion he is seeking an opportunity to try to get himself into the White House and is actually intelligent enough to pull off that crime. I then asked my relative if they knew where Congressman Massie's college degree was achieved. My relative, who had no idea where Massie got his degree, stated that they just want to "ignore Massie" which I consider one of the most asinine statements I ever heard. I made an honest attempt to make the point that Massie and his wife both hold degrees from MIT, which proves they are both smart enough to pull off a robbery of an American election, especially if we consider that TRAITOR Trump, one of the stupidest people alive, can pull it off. My relative still insisted that they just want to "ignore Massie" and that it doesn't matter where he got his degree. At this point, I insist that the aphorism above is definitely applicable in such a situation especially when we combine it with another from Sun-Tzu whcih states that If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.” Both I and my relative consider Congressman Massie to be an enemy of both Democracy and the United States. Yet my relative is willing to state that they are willing to ignore that enemy and to disregard a very pertinent piece of information about him, the fact that he holds a degree from one of the most prestigious universities in the nation. That degree, that piece of information, makes Congressman Massie more dangerous than if he had just barely skated through a university studies degree at Podunk Community College. I am perpetually baffled in today's world to see fairly well educated people such as my relative who are willing to attempt to disregard any piece of information about the key people who pose the greatest danger to our country since World War II. GOD HELP US ALL!

Thoughts On Reading (Fully) Books I Don't Like

Many times on this blog, I have written about books, buying books--especially used books, reading books, reviewing books, and sometimes about books which I have not liked at all. But I'm a bit funny about how I deal with beginning a book I turn out to not like compared to how many other readers deal with such books. I almost never throw a book out without finishing it even when I have decided that I don't like it, that it is garbage, never should have been printed, and is almost totally a waste of time for everyone who has ever been involved with it including both myself and the author, the publisher, the printer, the printer's devil to use an old typesetting term, the mail man or woman who dropped it off in my mail box, the low paid and under respected worker at the Goodwill Store where I might have bought it, right down to the eventual garbage man who will dump it along with the other contents of a can into the yawning and cavernous jaws of a garbage truck. Yet, I like to acknowledge the fact that the author who spent the time to write it, get it accepted for publication, and sold made a commitment to do the necessary work to produce whatever 100, 200, or 2,000 pages of drivel I have attached to myself and my psyche much like the man or woman working on a county road gang has been a participant in the process of attaching a ball and chain to their leg and placing a Pulaski or weed blade in their hands. I have also made a commitment to the author, publisher, editor--if there was one half asleep at a desk the day they approved that particular epistle for publication, and that same belittled and beleagured Goodwill employee who rang it up, added the tax, and then had the gall to ask me if I wanted to round up so the same corporation who is robbing that person of their services and scrape extra money from me so they can move on to the next belittled and beleagured employee who has no other employment options at the time. If the author took themselves seriously enough to do the work to produce the book, put in on the market, and hope for its success much like a poor mother wishing her very ordinary child can become president some day, I owe that author the common decency to shut my mouth, put my negative opinions in my pocket, grit my teeth, and ride this flea bitten nag of a book to the end of the line where it may or may not be noted with the words, "The End", "Fini", or simply "Sucker, You Had It Coming". Authors are a weird lot say I who have also launched a couple dozen short stories into the world without ever herding them and a few others into the covers of book much like poor, bedraggled cattle into a muddy, dung spattered holding pen until the truck arrives to take them to the stockyard. Why on God's green earth, you are probably asking yourself, did I feel the need to take the time to give this nod to all the poorly educated and trained scribblers who have created so many overpriced wastes of paper and printer's ink? The answer is that I am currently involved in reading two books simultaneously which I would not have been willing to pay fifty cents for the pair if I had known in advance what they contained...or failed to contain. I am always reading at least one book, generally two or three at a time, because my wife and I are engaged in a long term habit of reading a novel together which I usually read aloud day after day as she washes the dishes. Then I rinse those dishes. We have also for a year or two been reading one short story from some collection or other in the evenings after supper. Thank God, as I have been involved in reading two bad books at the same time, we have also been reading a collection of short stories which is composed of 28 fine stories by 20 or so authors of some repute. Without that short story of quality each day, I would be pulling my hair out. Thank God for Guy de Maupassant, O. Henry, Richard Connell, Frank R. Stockton, and Jack London.

Ned Pillersdorf Is Running Against Hal Rogers For Congress!

On Friday, July 4, 2025, in Rosenberg Square in Prestonsburg, Kentucky, attorney Ned Pillersdorf, the husband of former Kentucky Supreme Court Justice Janet Stumbo will announce his entry into the Democratic primary election in opposition to long time Congressman Hal Rogers, who at 89 is one of the longest serving members of congress, and perhaps one of those most likely to be unable to successfully complete another two year term. Kentucky's 5th district contains most of the ten poorest counties in the state, and has one of the highest percentages in the nation of recipients of both Medicaid and SNAP, commonly referred to as Food Stamps. The district is also the site where in 1964 President Lyndon Johnson launched the War On Poverty. The district is also sometimes the bearer of the brunt of the heartless jokes about how "we declared a War On Poverty and poverty won". It is also the disrict in which former Congressman Carl Perkins spent his career working tirelessly for the betterment of all Kentuckians. Ned Pillersdorf has also spent his entire legal career working tirelessly in the district for the betterment of all Kentuckians without having ever spent a day in public office. Pillersdorf is the attorney who put together the coalition of pro bono lawyers who won thousands of appeals of highly unjust deprivations of Social Security benefits to the former clients of jailed attorney Eric C. Conn. He is also the attorney who represented the dismissed employees of Blackjewel Coal in their battle to receive unpaid wages when the company folded without warning. No one in the last 40 years has done more for Eastern Kentucky and its people. Every person who has benefitted from the work of Ned Pillersdorf should be in Prestonsburg on July 4, 2025, to support the man who has supported you in your times of greatest need, always been there when injustice was running rampant, when the wrongly persecuted workers of Kentucky were facing the loss of everything they ever owned, when widows and orpans were in danger of losing pension benefits from their deceased fathers, and anytime injustice was continuing to preserve poverty in the 5th district of Kentucky. I look forward to the day when Ned Pillersdorf will be sworn in as Congressman Pillersdorf and the US House can once again have a Democratic majority.

The 21st Century "Fireside Chat": Governor Andy Beshear's Podcast

There are very few people in America who are old enough to remember the last episode, or any other, of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's famous Fire Side Chat which took place from 1933 until the final one in June of 1944. During the Great Depression and most of World War II, the Fireside Chats provided a link by radio, the most technologically advanced media of the time, beween the President of The United States and the American people. They allowed FDR to exert a persona of firm, steady, calm, unswerving leadership to the country during the most incredibly dangerous period of his presidency. Today, Aemrica is in just as critically dangerous a time and the White House is occupied by the most dangerous human on earth anyone could ever imagine allowing to be anywhere near even the most lowly position of power, TRAITOR Trump. We are in desperate need of a person and a media event which can provide the same kind of persona of firm, steady, calm, unswerving leadership to a country in the most dangerous times we have seen since Pearl Harbor was bombed and our participation in World War II began. Our political times today are just as much days which "will live in infamy" as those during President Roosevelt's terms. Our nation is just as endangered now as then and the danger is centered inside the White House, inside the deranged mind of the person who works on a daily basis to destroy America and American Democracy, TRAITOR Trump. But we have a leader in America who is qualified to lead the country, committed to doing anything within his power to provide that calm, steady, effective leadership to take us out of the danger zone which is daily being perpetuated by the Criminal Syndicate which poses as a "cabinet" inside the White House. That person is Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear and he is already providing the country with a form of media which can be the 21st century equivalent of FDR's Fireside Chats. That person is Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear, and the media from which can do the trick, if only enough Americans watch it each week is Andy Beshear's Podcast which is available on all forms of internet based communication. I prefer to watch the podcast on Youtube and it can be found at this link. The podcast can also be found at its internet website at this link. The podcast is roughly 50 minutes each week and broken into several regular segments, most of which appear each week with a few exceptions. The primary portion of the podcast is an interview of roughly 25 minutes with a major American political leader, corporate executive, or other important poublic figure. Such guests on the podcast have included Governor Tim Walz of Minnesota, Senator Chris Coons of Delaware, Pinterest CEO Bill Ready, Senator Amy Klobuchar, and others from both poltics and business. Other segments of the podcast include "In My Kentucky Accent" in which Governor Beshear discusses some important political issue of that particular week in his customary honest, ethical, probing, and straight forward manner. He pulls no punches, tells the truth as he sees it, doesn't seek to protect himself from all possible criticism, and says exactly what needs to be said in every instance. Another regular segment is a conversation with two of the governor's closest friends, John McConnell and Jonathan Rabinowitz. McConnell is a Kentucky insurance agency owner. Rabinowitz is an attorney and sports agent who is a managing partner for the national law firm Morgan and Morgan. Both are successful, intelligent, politically astute men who have long standing friendships with Governor Beshear, and are obviously well trusted friends. Once in a while some member of the governor's family, wife Brittany, children Will and Lila,will appear in a more casual family oriented brief appearance. The two children often educate their three elders on the slang of their peers in high school.

If you want to see Aemrica become the country is once was, an actual democracy, a safe place for any member of any special interest group to live and work, a country which is respected by the rest of the world, and a bastion of constitutional freedomes, Andy Beshear is the best person to assume the presidency and lead us out of the deliberate destruction in which we now find ourselves and our country. Watch the podcast, share it with your family and friends, and begin to work to support Andy Beshear as the best possible person to lead America out of the horrible disaster in which we find ourselves.

"Kentucky Pride" by Gene Markey, A Civil War Reconstruction Novel From 1956

"Kentucky Pride" is a 1956 novel by Gene Markey who for many years was the husband of Lucille Markey Wright, the owner of famed Calumet Farm in Lexington, Kentucky. Before he married the widow Wright, Markey was a Navy Reserve Admiral, a Hollywood screen writer, and a well known Hollywood ladies man. But he became a devoted student of Kentucky history and produced several novels which were set in Kentucky, most of which were actually set in Lexington, Kentucky. This novel is best described as a Civil War/Reconstruction novel whose protagonist, Aidan Kensal, is former Confederate Major who owns a Lexington thoroughbred farm. His two associates who figure heavily into the novel are a jockey from the mountains of Kentucky, and a second Lexington Confederate both of whom have served with Kensal in the Confederate unit commanded by John Morgan. The three are attempting to return to Central Kentucky after the Civil War has ended, and the novel seems to be somewhat sympathetic to the Lost Cause. The primary villian is a Union Major Veach Doucain who has grown up near Aidan and has always hated him because of his families wealth, large farm, and outstanding Thoroughbred breeding program. Doucain is assisted by several lesser villians, four of whom form the other members of what is known as The Counsel of Evil which is a committee which has been sanctioned by the Union government to run the affairs of the area from an anonymous shield of power and silence. The other key member of The Council of Evil is a banker, Bowen Slaidrick, who is both a member of the council and the legal guardian of his neice Lacey who is the legitimate owner of another large farm which adjoins Aidan's. Doucain is obsessed with owning Aidan's property and destroying him at any cost. Lacey would have been called a tomboy in today's parlance and the opening of the novel involves an attempted stage coach robbery which is foiled by Aidan, Link, and Fid, the jockey, along with Lacey who is riding beside the driver atop the stage coach. When the driver is wounded, Lacey takes the rains, uses a whip to lash at least one of the highwaymen, and drives the stage away in a gallop as Aidan and his friends send the robbers packing. Action like this pops up in almost ever chapter of the novel and is offset by one after another action by The Council of Evil to rob Aidan of all he owns. If you can accept the fact that the good guys in this novel are returning Confederal soldiers and a few other Confederate sympathizers who are friends of Aidan in Lexington, it is well worth reading. It is loaded with good or better character development, a strong plot which flows smoothly, great conflict and conflict resolution, and a story which I am certain happened several times in the years immediately after the Civil War, especially in the Confederate states and border states. Gene Markey could write or he would never have been a major Hollywood script writer. Yes, I know it isn't popular in today's world to write novels about protagonists who are Confederate soldiers being pilloried by Union officers and supporters. But this novel is well worth reading if you can set your prejudices aside.

"No Kings Day" Protest, Morehead, Kentucky, June 14, 2025

Yesterday, my wife and I attended the "No Kings Day" protest in Morehead, Kentucky, along with somewhere in excess of 200 other people who are all committed to seeing the end of the occupation of the White House by TRAITOR Trump and his Criminal Syndicate which poses as a "cabinet". It was a very successful and fulfilling event. It never stopped raining the entire time we were there. We arrived at almost exactly the scheduled start time of noon and had to leave at about 1:30pm to meet an old friend of mine at Cracker Barrel whom we hadn't seen in about 25 years. I wish we could have stayed longer. I dropped my wife off around the corner from the little city park at the junction of KY 32 and Main Street, and then drove down the street about three blocks to find a safe parking spot at a business which was closed for the day. When I returned to the protest, my wife had been invited under a tent which the organizers had set up, actually one several such tents. We had not thought about making protest signs and took none which is a shame. But the street side of the park was lined shoulder to shoulder and about three rows deep with people who were holding a wide variety of signs some of which were homemade and some which were commercial products. My favorite sign of the day is the one in the picture above. But during the time we stayed, one man who told me he is 80 was sitting down to take a break and agreed to loan my wife his sign which she held while he rested and managed to situate herself in her power wheelchair on the street edge with the sign. There was a lot of traffic for a Saturday in Morehead and most of the cars driving by were blowing their horns in support, waving in agreement, sometimes shouting encouragement to us, and in the spirit of honesty, some few would give us the finger or shout an obscenity. But the majority seemed to be supporting us. I talked to numerous people during the time I was there including a photographer for the local Morehead newspaper. Our conversation was about the difficulty which small town newspapers and radio stations are facing with the movement of most advertising money to the internet. We specifically discussed one of the Morehead stations which some people I know used to own as one in a small chain of small town Eastern Kentucky stations. That station, and all their others, have recently been sold to a Right Wing Radical Repugnican who has actually served prison time for vote buying when he was an elected public official. The Morehead newspaper has actually been sold a couple of times since the inception of the internet as have at least two other papers in Eastern Kentucky. None of those sold seem to have been bought by people with liberal leanings. Yes, it is possible for a newpaper editor, publisher, owner, and staff to promote rational liberal ideas which still providing accurate honest reporting. In fact, one small town newspaper on the Virginia border has, in the last couple of years, won a major award from the Kenucky Press Association for reporting it did on the 2022 floods in several Eastern Kentucky counties, and it is quite liberal in its leaninings. It's a shame in these times that more small town newspapers and radio stations were being bought up by Right Wing Radicals and being turned into megaphones of the Radical Right. I stayed at the protest as long as my other appointment would allow and both of us really enjoyed our time. We both feel a sense of accomplishment and fulfillment for having taken time out of our lives, as we always do, and as you should also be doing, to support the steadily growing public opposition to the TREASON of TRAITOR Trump and his Criminal Syndicate. Always Stand Up, Speak Up, and Speak Out!

I wish I could have personally thanked every one of those American Patriots who stood up in Morehead and every other town and city in the country on No Kings Day. That is impossible. But each of you should know just how proud of you I am and how grateful I am for your courage and commitment to our country and our democracy! Always Stand Up, Speak Up, and Speak Out!

"An Appalachian Flood Of Memories: Vol. CCXXII" by Lloyd Dean

Several months ago, my wife and I were eating in Cattlemen's Steak House in Morehead, Kentucky, and found ourselves seated opposite an elderly couple whose male half struck up a conversation with me. His name was Lloyd Dean and he gave me a copy of a self published pamphlet of about 54 pages as described in the title above, "An Appalacian Flood Of Memories: Vol. CCXXII" by Lloyd Dean. He stated that it was his one hundred and some double digit release. I thanked him for it, filed it away and finally perused it. It is collection of captioned photographs, a list of the post masters of the Haldeman, Kentucky post office (now defunct), church bulletings, photocopied newspaper articles, funeral memorial cards, and other miscellanous items which Mr. Dean has obviously collected over the years. I don't intend to pooh pooh his efforts to preserve his memories or mementoes of the past. I do some of the same thing myself. But, despite the fact that five of the best years of my life were spent in Morehead, Kentucky, where this encounter occurred, I did not recognize anyone in the photographs and most of the events happened long before I began to attend Morehead State University as a non-traditional student. The back cover of the book contains a lenghty list of other such books or pamphlets which Mr. Dean has produced over the years and says that they can be purchased from Mr. Dean at 6770 US 60 East, Morehead, KY 40351. The book does not contain a phone number or e-mail address but I have been able to locate a land line phone for Mr. Dean which I will not include in this blog post. I will leave it up to anyone interested in seeing some of Mr. Dean's work to either write him or locate a land line number and give him a call. For me personally, the most interesting inclusions in the book were a newspaper story (photocopied) covering the occasion when the Jesse Stuart Foundation bought the old Ashland, Kentucky, post office building which is still their headquarters, and, at the top of the list of Mr. Dean's works on the back cover is an item listed as "Rural Cemeteries of Kentucky --UK (Sociology) 1952". I have intended to call Mr. Dean and attempt to pursue a copy of that paper since I have always been interested in rural cemeteries in this state and several others which I have visited over the years. A good rural cemetery is one of the finest ways to learn a lot about an area when you are new in the locale. You can learn the names which seem to dominate the community, see some obvious stories about unfortunate deaths, marriages of men to more than one woman, women who died in childbirth buried either beside or with their newborn babe, and also victims of our wars, victims of the 1918 influenze epidemic, and sometimes victims of events such as tornadoes and major floods. I never disparage anyone who chooses to write their ideas and beliefs and publish the results. Mr. Dean obviously has loved to make an effort to preserve as much of his extensive knowledge as possible. He is to be commended for that. Lloyd Dean also left much of his local history and genealogical papers to Morehead State University and they can be found at this link although it appears that the collection has not been fully assessed and catalogued.

"Skags The Milk Horse" by Miriam Blanton Huber, Great Children's Literature From 1931

The first time I came across this book, I bought a copy of it at a large flea market in Northern Indiana, and almost immediately sold it online for a nice profit. In addition to being one of the nicest little pickups I had ever had in that interesting and exciting (at times) pursuit of finding, buying, and either keeping or reselling found objects, this little book has always fascinated me for several reasons. It had survived to be found more than 75 years later in a flea market. I have also spent years of my life working in equine related jobs, more than 20 years in the Thoroughbred horse business and almost four years with the private juvenile treatment company Vision Quest, nearly all of which I spent on the Vision Quest Wagon Trains, riding down the highways of the Eastern United States on one of the best horses I ever knew stopping oncoming traffic on a horse while holding a hand held stop sign. That kind of partnership with a horse is the kind of experience that can give you a lifetime of memories and that mustang, Teepee, and I had a helluva parentership. This book is about a draft horse of unknown breed and a milk delivery man who had that same kind of partnership. The book is 111 pages written by Miriam Blanton Huber and illustrated by Curtiss Sprague. Huber wrote at least 50 or 60 books. Sprague can be found listed as the author or illustrator of about a dozen books. Good biographical information cannot be located online for either of the two. The American Book Company which published the book existed from 1890 to 1981 as an independent publisher of educational books for students at all levels of American education. It ceased to exist as an independent imprint in 1980 after almost 100 years as a publishing company. Another company, unrelated to the original American Book Company, now operates under the same name. The book contains a page labeled "Note" which states that the vocabulary of the book is "512 words of which 81 percent are found in "Gates' Reading Vocabulary for the Primary Grades" and 51 percent are found in the first five hundred words of the Gates list." I have never before encountered the Gates list. I have learned that an author and psychologist named Arthur Irving Gatesin the early twentieth century produced several books in the fields of psychology, education, and the blended discipline of educational psychology. I have since learned that Gates lived from 1890 to 1971 and was an expert on vocabulary in early childhood education. If I had never gotten another positive thing from this book, I would have learned about the lives of three educational professionals who obviously had some positive impact on each of their fields. But, you ask, what about "Skags The Milk Horse". Skags, the hero of the book, is a draft horse who pulls a milk wagon through the streets of an unnamed city, and is driven each day by his regular driver and partner Jim Clark. The milk company has a building and lot somewhere on a city street which is designed in such a way that the milk bottling and distribution operation is on the ground floor and the horse stable is on the second floor with a stall for each horse, a large harness room, an attendant, and a cat named Tibbs who is Skags' friend. Each night, in the middle of the night, the horses are harnessed by their drivers, hitched to their wagons which have been parked in the large lot behind the building, loaded with milk, and set out around the town to make their deliveries. Naturally, each driver and horse have an assigned route with regular customers. Skags and Jim Clark go from house to house and Skags actually knows which houses he is supposed to stop at while Jim delivers the milk. But one day in winter,Jim falls on ice after having walked down an alley between two streets to deliver milk to the only two houses he has on that street. He has left Skags and the wagon on the first street and after his fall he is unconscious and transported to a hospital. No one comes to do anything with Skags and the wagon. Skags waits patiently for Jim until about noon when he finally leaves the spot he has been left in and follows his regular route back to the milk company where no one knows yet that Jim has fallen. Eventually, the hospital calls the milk company when Jim regains consciousness. In the meantime, Skags has found his way back to the milk company and is seen as a hero for knowing his route well enough to return to the company with the wagon, honoring the stop signs and red lights, following his routine, and being safe the entire time. The book describes a very humane operation of the horse stable and the care and handling of the horses. It delivers a wonderful story of the kind of partnership a human and a working horse can establish when they are together nealry every day doing their jobs. Yes, it an aged book and unlikely to ever by used in an educational setting again, except by one or two dedicated teachers who stray into a copy and use it is as auxillary material in a classroom. The book also gives a good history lesson about how milk was processed and delivered in urban areas as American cities grew larger and larger before the common use of automobiles and trucks. The one flaw in the book, possibly, is the fact that the author describes the horse stable as being on the second floor of the building above the milk processing facility. Even in the 1930's when the FDA was much less stringent in their regulation of foods and drugs, it seems unlikely to me that a milk company would have stabled ther horses on a floor above the processing plant. Otherwise, this is a fine early childhood book which is appropriate for grades somewhere between three and five. If you are a horse person or an elementary teacher who likes to use auxillary material in class, this is a fine book to own.

Scott Pelly Gave The Most Important Speech I Have Ever Seen

On May 19, 2025, at the 2025 Commencement of Wake Forest University, CBS 60 Minutes Correspondent Scott Pelley gave one of the most important speeches I have ever seen, read, or heard described in my entire life. I first heard about the speech when Pelley was inteviewed by Anderson Cooper on CNN after their live screening of "Good Night And Good Luck", the first Broadway play to ever be televised live in its entirety in the entire life of television. The full text of Pelley's speech is found at this link. My impressions of watching the play on CNN are found at this link. I will not append the full text of the speech here but I will discuss my impressions of the most important points in it below. Pelley began with the usual trite recognitions of the higher ranking persons in the audience, a comment about the weather, a small attempt at a joke, and then gave one of the finest speeches since Socrates first mesmerized a crowd of his peers. I have attended, read, or watched thousands of speeches in documentaries and on television. I have seen four presidents of the United States speak publicly plus numerous governors, senators, and lesser elected officials. I have never seen a speech in any form or format which affected me more or made me more proud of the speaker. As Pelley reached the outset of the meat of the speech he began this way:

You know, if we were in London, we might be walking past Portman Square on a beautiful spring day. We would encounter the headquarters of the British Broadcasting Corporation, a nearly 100-year-old building from which Edward R. Murrow, the original CBS News correspondent, stood on the roof and broadcast back to America word of the falling bombs of fascism that fell on that free city month after month. If we walk a little bit further past the BBC, we will encounter another hero in the fight against fascism, George Orwell. He’d be standing there, frozen in bronze with his words carved in the side of a building: “If liberty means anything at all, it means something worth saying that some people don’t want to hear.” I fear there are some people in the audience who don’t want to hear what I have to say today. But I appreciate your forbearance in this small act of liberty.

I am certain that as soon as the words "...the falling bombs of fascism that fell on that free city..." emerged from the speakers around them many in the audience realized they were in for a large dose of truth. For some of them, it was a dose of truth they did not want to hear. Hopefully, for others, actually most of the others, I hope they quickly realized that the dose of truth which was coming was not only needed by the entire audience but also needed by the world at large. Pelley then went on to begin the very necesssary truths he had come to deliver:

"...this morning – our sacred rule of law is under attack. Journalism is under attack. Universities are under attack. Freedom of speech is under attack. An insidious fear is reaching through our schools, our businesses, our homes and into our private thoughts. The fear to speak. In America? If our government is – in Lincoln’s words – “of the people, by the people and for the people” – then why are we afraid to speak? The Wake Forest Class of 1861 did not choose their time of calling. The Class of 1941 did not choose. The Class of 1968 did not choose. History chose them. And now history is calling you, the Class of 2025. You may not feel prepared, but you are. You are not descended of fearful people. You brought your values to school with you and now Wake Forest has trained you to seek the truth, to find the meaning of life."

When he clearly and most publicly stated that our rule of law, journalism, universities, and freedom of speech are under attack, Scott Pelley was saying exactly what needs to be said to the face and into the ears of every living American today. We are under attack by a committed Criminal Syndicate under the control of a committed TRAITOR and they all want to destroy everything about America which is good, noteworthy, vibrant, democratic, and worth preserving. That attack is headquarted at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and the attackers are all posing as legitimate officials of the federal government. They are all unqualifed to be in the positions in which they have found themselves. They are all unfit to lead a one car funeral. They are all committed to their cause, and many of them are agents of our worst enemies as a nation. Their ostensible leader, TRAITOR Trump, is, as are most of them, under the control and supervision of Vladimir Putin and Russia. Just as Scott Pelley told the Wake Forest University graduating class of 2025 that they have been chosen by history, the remainder of us loyal citizens of the United States have also been chosen by history. We are literally a nation of people who are being required, if we truly love our nation and our democracy, to become, both individually and collectively, the boy with his/our finger in the dyke in our joint effort to stem the flow of this TREASONUS effort by TRAITOR Trump and his Criminal Syndicate which poses as a "cabinet". Scott Pelley, after telling the crowd that they have been chosen by history just as others long before now were chosen by history that he has known three people, Volodomyr Zelensky, Dr. Samer Attar, and Nadia Marad who were also chosen by history to defend great things. He told the story of how a CBS 60 Minutes film crew found Nadia Marad in "a refugee camp and a few years later she won the Nobel Peace Prize". Yes, my fellow Americans, history works that way and often chooses those who appear to be "the least among us" to become the heroes and heroines of our times. History has chosen a Ukrainian comedian, a simple nun in Calcutta, a log splitting lawyer in 19the century Illinois, and others such as each of us today to Stand Up, Speak Up, and Speak Out, to do the work which our times and the evil operators around us require us to do. Each of us must take on the duty which history and the evil which history and democracy oppose has thrust upon us as our country and our democracy are under attack, as fascism posing as a legitimate government leads that attack, and as many of our peers seek to deny the truths before us about this attack. We must not bow down. We must not surrender. We must not retreat. We must fight to preserve American Democracy in the face of this attack from the worst TRAITOR in the history of the world, TRAITOR Trump.

Watching "Good Night And Good Luck" on CNN!

Last night, my wife and I watched the Broadway play "Good Night And Good Luck" which stars, and was written and produced by George Clooney. The play is about the impact the McCarthy Committee Hearings had on America as US Senator Joseph McCarthy ran amuck in the senate claiming America was being infiltrated by thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands of commmunist party members and communist spies. I have writen on this blog in the past about a book by Lately Thomas, "When Even Angels Wept: A Story Without A Hero", which is about Senator McCarthy and terribly destructive impact he and his minions had on literally thousands of innocent victims of their effort to destroy anyone whose ideas they opposed. I have been blessed to know four people who were victims of Senator McCarthy who, to one degree or another, had their lives destroyed by the senator. None of the four people I knew ever wavered in their opposition to the senator, and all of them worked on a daily basis for the remainder of their lives to defend the US Constitution and Constitutional Rights. Clooney's play is now the only Broadway play ever to have a performance televised in its entirety. The play, and everything about the life and crimes of Joseph McCarthy, are a warning about just how fragile democracy is, even in what until January 29, 2025, was the most democratic country in the world. There is no difference in the morally degenerative nature of Senator McCarthy, his minions at the time, and TRAITOR Trump, and his minions today. America and American Democracy are under attack and that attack is directed, fomented, and led from the White House. That is why George Clooney, his business partners on Broadway, and the management team at CNN chose to take the unprecedented step of televising a full length Broadway play to America and the world wherever CNN is available. In today's world, nealry all of satellite based television is available worldwide except in a few of the most repressive countries. Without a doubt, it must have had an incredibly large viewership last night. In a stunning proof of just how dangerous TRAITOR Trump and his Criminal Syndicate are, just last night as the play was being televised and small demonstrations against his crimes were taking place in Los Angeles, he ordered 2,000 National Guard troops to go to California to quell the demonstrations over the public objections of California Governor Gavin Newome who stated that his administration and the police agencies in the areas of the demonstrations did not need the National Guard mobilization and that it would make matters worse. There can be no doubt that it did. This action by TRAITOR Trump is an escalation of the action he attempted to take in his previous illegal occupation of the White House against peacful demonstrators in Washington when he tried to order that those demonstrators be tear gassed despite their clearly peaceful intentions. These are the most dangerous times in America since at least the end of World War II, and they are dangerous solely because of TRAITOR Trump and his minions. Every American citizen should be standing up and voicing public opposition to TRAITOR Trump, his actions, his minions, and his continued occupation of the White House. But simply impeaching and removing him would not be the best answer since J. D. Vance, the Vice President of record, is just as criminal, just as evil, just as dangerous as TRAITOR Trump. If impeachment is to occur, it must be simultaneous impeachments of every person in the constitutional chain of command and succession until that chain of succession reaches a person who has not shown loyalty to TRAITOR Trump. The only person in the chain of succession at this time who can even be remotely believed to be capable of assuming leadership of the country without risk of further crimes is US Senator Chuck Grassley, the President Pro Tempore of the US Senate, who is second in line to the presidency. That means that only simultaneous impeachment of both TRAITOR Trump and J. D. Vance can hope to put an end to the ongoing attacks on democracy. It needs to happen today, might not be likely to happen until it is far too late, and the ultimate price could be the loss of Democracy in America if the other elected representatives in congress don't take the necessary actions as soon as possible. God Help Us All!

America's Worst Case Scenario Could Be About To Happen!

Many Americans are jumping up and down with glee because the short, destructive, TREASONOUS honeymoon between TRAITOR Trump and Elon Musk has come to an end. But I would not go so far as to say that this is a good thing. In fact, it could be the first public evidence that the situation could very likely get worse in the near future. Yes, I know that many of you are asking "how do you think it could get any worse than it is already". Humor me here, sit down, be quiet, and listen to what I am saying. In the bizarre public course of the breakup between the worst TRAITOR in history and the first immigrant who should be deported from America to the Salvadoran prison, we could be seeing the beginning of what is likely to turn out to be the worst deterioration of a full blown crisis in the history of the world. The full blown crisis the fact that TRAITOR Trump and his Criminal Syndicate which poses as a "cabinet" have been working daily to destroy America and American Democracy at least since November 5, 2024. So how could it get worse? In the rapidly flowing public insanity of the breakup many of you have probably either ignored or cheered the fact that Elon Musk publicly called for the impeachment of TRAITOR Trump and his replacement in the White House by J. D. Vance. In my analysis of that possibility, the situation for all Americans and the world at large would actually be made far worse instantly if that happened. J. D. Vance is just like every other member of TRAITOR Trump's Criminal Syndicate. He had to swear fealty to both TRAITOR Trump and Project 2025 in order to be chosen to be in the position he is in. He had to be willing to commit any crime up to and including TREASON in order to be where he is. He is just as amoral, criminal, and evil as TRAITOR Trump...and he is just a bit smarter. If he were in the White House, whether it was by hook or crook, he would be less likely to attract the kind of public venom which TRAITOR Trump does because he is smart enough to keep his mouth shut about what he is doing, who he is doing it to, and what his criminal objectives are in doing it. J. D. Vance's entire life and career have been built on lies, deception, deceit, and depravity. But he has generally managed to not become the kind of public recognized public enemy that Musk or TRAITOR Trump are publicly recognized. Vance would, to a degree, be able to fly below the radar as he worked feverishly with his version of the Criminal Syndicate to destroy America, American Democracy, and world peace. Vance, if TRAITOR Trump was impeached, might remove some of the members of the Criminal Syndicate in cooperation with Musk. But he would replace them with even more evil, more dangerous, and more deceptive minions such as the young criminals he placed in DOGE. The world would instantly become a far more dangerous place. America would be destroyed more quickly, more thoroughly, and silently while our collective backs are turned. If what we are seeing is a marriage between Musk and Vance, rest assured that it is a marriage made in Hell...or Moscow! DON'T BE SURPISED IF YOU SEEN MUSK AND VANCE LEAD A JOINT EFFORT TO EITHER HAVE TRAITOR TRUMP IMPEACHED OR REMOVED FROM THE WHITE HOUSE UNDER THE 25TH AMENDMENT. PUT MORE WATER IN THE SOUP WORSE TIMES ARE VERY LIKELY COMING!

17 Year Cicadas, No They Are Not Locusts, And Also Not A Plague

I'm a bit late in writing about the recent, and still ongoing, hatch of 17 year cicadas in my area of Eastern Kentucky. But I was reminded of them, as I am every day at home, by seeing a television news anchor in Lexington at WKYT-27 actually mention on air twice that she could hear the cicadas in the studio. I have also frequently heard reporters and anchors at that station say that they could hear heavy rain and thunder storms in their studio as they work. It has led me to believe that their studio must have been built much more cheaply and poorly than most television broadcast studios are built since soundproofing is a necessary part of that type of media. Anyway, the cicadas seem to be abating somewhat around my house where I have heard them nearly every day since the first two or three began singing in search of mates. As for the title of this blog post, they are CICADAS, not LOCUSTS, not a BIBLICAL PLAGUE, and generally NOT HARMFUL TO YOU OR YOUR PROPERTY IN ANY WAY! Yes, cicadas have always been commonly referred to as locusts especially in this area. A locust is a completely different insect. The best resource I can give to you about cicadas is at this website which is operated by a college entomology professor who happens to be an international expert on cicadas. There are numerous different broods of cicadas and all of them are not living a 17 year life cycle. Some are living a 13 year cycle. They come out of the ground, make their characteristic noise to attract mates, mate and lay their eggs before dying, the eggs hatch, the young and immature larvae go back underground and come out again in either 13 or 17 years. They are not harmful to you and should not be killed just because you are afraid of them or angry at their noise.

And, if you are into exotic foodstuff, cicadas are edible. You can find cicada recipes on numerous websites and many people do eat them. I have to admit that I have not eaten cicadas but I am intrigued by the idea. If my wife would join me in eating some, I would gladly do it. Many millions of people in some of the poorer countries of the world eat large numbers of insects, and they are reputed to be a very legitimate source of protein in impoverished areas. Try some if you are an adventurous eater. I have no idea if I will live to see another hatch of cicadas, and neither do you. If there is anything you want to learn about cicadas, now is the time to do it. Here is a chart for the various species of cicadas. Study it! Learn from it! Become a cicada expert!

"Nellie And The Mayor's Hat" by Charlotte Baker, A Fine Old Children's Book From 1947

Sometimes, a good dose of children's literature is a great thing to give us all a break from the horrible political events going on in America today. I have read and written about many children's books over the years, both those beginning reader books and adolescent literature can be fun and educational to read. I especially like to read books which have won or been finalists for awards such as the Newberry, Caldecott, and the National Book Award which also gives an award in the category of Young People's Literature. So far as I know, this book, "Nellie And The Mayor's Hat" never won any awards, and might not have even been nominated for any. I cannot find any significant information about the author Charlotte Baker. The search for information about her is also made more difficult by the fact that a currently living Right Wing Radical "Christian" woman of the same name is currently making waves in the country. But Charlotte Baker, the important Charlotte Baker who wrote "Nellie And Mayor's Hat" was an interesting writer and person as proven by this book alone. The book was published in 1947 with simultaneious issue in both the USA and Canada. It is a hardback book of 96 pages and published by The Junior Literary Guild and Cornwall Publishers. It is probably most appropriate for readers in the third to sixth grades. The title of the book refers to a little dog, Nellie, who is owned by a family of Hispanic children and their grandfather in a town somewhere, presumbably, in Texas. They are poor and the grandfather is trying hard to feed the children while at the same time Nellie has a litter of five puppies which are growing fast and eating the family out of house and home. Nellie is actually the heroine of the story which in today's parlance can be said to be a story about DEI, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. The grandfather tells the children they have to find homes for the puppies very soon or they will have to "go away". The children talk about finding a home for the puppies which will have plenty of food, a good yard with a fence, and children to play with the puppies. They decide to "investigate" several people they know whom they believe to be appropriate people to care for the puppies. They begin with Miss Bliss, one of their teachers in school and that is a miserable failure when Miss Bliss leaves the puppies alone in her small apartment and they wreak havoc and disturb the neighbors. Then they "investigate" the service station man who has to tell them he can't keep the puppies because there is too much traffic around his service station. Finally they decide the mayor who lives in a big pink house and has two children would be a good person to take the puppies because he has a big yard, lots of money, and children. They try to see the mayor and have to sneak into his back gate and hide in the shrubbery until he comes out to walk in his yard. But he says he doesn't like dogs and refuses. The mayor has just been given a big hat, actually a sombrero by the mayor of Monterray in Old Mexico and is planning to lead a parade for Founders Fiesta Day wearing the hat and riding a big palomino horse. The children convince their grandfather to take them to the parade along with the puppies in a little wagon. At the parade, the dogs spook the mayor's horse and he loses his hat which falls in the river. But Nellie, who has been a big part of the book and the multiple "investigations" all along, jumps into the river and drags the mayor's hat back to shore just in time to return it to him which causes the crowd to cheer loudly for Nellie. The mayor instantly gives a speech to thank Nellie and finds himself backed into taking Nellie's puppies which saves the day. It is fascinating to find a book this old, written for children, which addressed issues of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in a time when almost no children's books approached subject matter about minority culture, equal rights, or other issues of discrimination or human rights. It is a wonderful surprise of a book from the late 1940's and can become a great classroom tool in today's public schools if enough copies can be located. In all honesty, this is a book for which a legitimate argument can be made to have it reissued in a new edition. Find A Copy! Read It! Tell The World About It! Use it to support Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.

"Where Is Here" by Joyce Carol Oates

Joyce Carol Oates published her first book in 1963, and has since published nearly 60 novels, several plays and novellas, and several collections of short stories, poetry, and nonfiction. Her novels "Black Water", "What I Lived For", and "Blonde" along with two of her short story collections, "The Wheel of Love" and "Lovely, Dark, Deep: Stories" were all nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. She has won the National Book Award, for her novel "Them", plus two O. Henry Awards, the National Humanities Medal, and the Jerusalem Prize. For many years, she has been acknowledged as a master of the short story...and, yet, I had never read her work before I strayed into this little collection of stories, "Where Is Here". It is an interesting and entertaining little book containing 35 stories in less than 200 pages. In defense of my having never previously read her work, I can only say that nobody has the time to read every popular writer's works, and many writers whose work is popular are not worth reading anyway. That statement does not fit the work of Joyce Carol Oates. The stories are almost all markedly short, not quite what gets called "Flash Fiction" in today's world but generally shorter than most people write short stories. The stories only average about 5 1/2 pages each, maybe 1,500 words, with the longest being 15 pages. I am not and never will be a fan of "Flash Fiction" since I can get the same kind of thing sitting in a country store or small town restaurant listening to conversations between men with dirty work boots and women who haven't worn anything except Levis in 99% of their lives as waitresses, maids, factory workers, and store clerks. But I like Joyce Carol Oates' stories. They generally contain all the important elements of a good story: Plot, Character Development, Conflict, and most times Conflict Resolution. One aspect of her stories which is interesting is that she almost never gives names to her characters. She describes them with a few choice words which generally do not include a lot of adjectives about appearance, clothes, or other aspects which are not directly a part of her story. It works. But it probably does not work for most other short story writers. She frequently writes stories about men and women who can be extremely violent, aggressive, and not the kind of person you would want to bring home to meet your mother. She writes stories about ordinary people in ordinary situations which might not end in ordinary ways. I recently attended the funeral of a man I had known for about 20 or so years who, the first time I met him, introduced himself to me and in the next 30 minutes told me the story of his life which began with the words "my name is...and I shot my brother six times in that little restaurant up the road in front of ten witnesses." He was the kind of character you might find in a Joyce Carol Oates short story. If that doesn't make her work worth reading, what else could I ever say about it. Will that make me write a 1,500 word short story about somebody like that...probably not. I could never adequately tell his story in 1,500 words...but Joyce Carol Oates might. It can sure be interesting to read stories like that when the author is someone like Joyce Carol Oats.

"Job: A Comedy Of Justice" by Richard A. Heinlein

"Job: A Comedy Of Justice" by Richard A. Heinlein is a novel which the author based loosely on the Book Of Job in the Bible. It was published in 1984 and, like several others of his novels, was nominated for most of the major awards available to writing in the field of science fiction and fantasty. It was nominated for both the Nebula Award and the Hugo Award in 1985 but won neither of them. It did win the Locus Award For Best Fantasy Novel in 1985. It is a truly unique book in many ways. But then it is possible to make that statement about many of Heinlein's novels over the years. After all, he won a pile of awards from nearly every organization which concentrates on science fiction and fantasy. He won four Hugo Awards for the best science ficiton novel during his lifetime. But this novel had aspects to it which probably prejudiced many voters and prevented it from winning as many awards as it might have otherwise. The pictures it presents of Heaven, Hell, and religion in general were not conducive of support from believers in anything remotely resembling a customary or acceptable view of religion. The novel begins with the protagonist Alexander Hergensheimer choosing to walk across a fire pit during a shore visit by the travelers on a cruise ship on which he is traveling. He successfully makes the fire walk but lapses into a faint or brief coma from which he is revived to find himself in a different world, returns to find his ship is different but with a similar name,and a totally different crew. But there is a bright side to that new crew which includes Margrethe, the steward assigned to his room with whom he begins an affair and eventually finds himself in love. The ship is apparently hit by an iceberg in tropical waters and the two find themselves afloat in the ocean on a pool float surrounded by sharks. This is just the first in a long series of events, or sudden changes in their world and lives, which happen spontaneously and always without warning. They travel the world trying to get back to Kansas where Hergensheimer, now Alec Graham, and Margrethe to whom he refers as his wife despite being married in his past life, hope to find the answers to why their lives are suddenly upside down despite being in love. The changes just keep coming and the only consistency is their devotion to each other, Graham's work as a dishwasher no matter where he is, and the unending upheavel in their worlds. The book moves on to their being swept up, but separated, by a Kansas tornado which turns out to be the Apocalypse. Graham finds himself not only in Heaven but promoted to sainthood and unable to find Margrethe in a Heaven which consistently is portrayed in ways which very fun traditional religious believers would accept as being based on the Bible. Graham chooses to be sent to Hell to hunt for Margrethe after refusing to stop seeking her. In Hell, he is somewhat befriended by Satan himself, given a high dollar suite in a hotel and constantly served in all ways by a different woman who actually turns out to be Rahab from the Bible. While it is a strange novel in many ways with polygamy, rampant sex, infidelity, and a multitude of what most religious believers would classify as sins, both minor and major, it is a highly readable book and pulls the reader from one change in the world to the next with no actual idea of where or how it is likel to end. Read it if you have an open mind and like science fiction! Don't read it if anyone has ever called you a prude!

"Wilderness" by Robert Penn Warren, A Novel Of The Civil War and Early American Immigration

"Wilderness" is a 1961 novel by Robert Penn Warren. The protagonist is a Jewish immigrant from Germany who has been born with a club foot but desires to immigrate to America and "fight for freedom". The story begins in his native country where he decides to leave for America after realizing he has little hope for a good future at home. His father was killed in riots in Berlin while fighting against government troops. He has been supported and assisted by an uncle who is also a rabbi. As Adam Rosenzweig prepares to leave, he is given several religious objects by his uncle which he carries, but uses little, during the length of the novel. The uncle also provides Adam with the address of an old friend who had previously emigrated to America and become wealthy as a businessman after beginning his life as a pack trader. Pack traders, many of whom were Jewish, traveled the roads of America carrying and selling a multitude of common household items in large backpacks. In order for Adam to get to America, he signs on with a human trafficker who is providing immigrants to both sides of the Civil War to fight as soldiers. The most important object Adam owns is a very well made leather boot which a cobbler friend made for him to help compensate for is club foot. While on the ship to America, the other men learn of Adam's disability and he becomes the "least of the least"on the ship since he is now known as being very unlikely to be accepted as a soldier. He is now forced to do the most menial chores aboard ship to compensate for his passage and the captain intends to actually prevent him from leaving the ship and retaining his as slave labor for the return voyage to Germany. But one of the crew gives Adam some advice just before the ship comes to port in New York which allows him to escape the vessel. He lands in New York with nothing and a very powerful scene ensues in which Adam, lost, alone, and hungry, finds the body of a black man hanging from a lamp post where he has been lynched in ongoing race riots. Adam finds himself the next day being dragged into one of those riots which is engaged in the murder of another black man. Adam finds himself being pursued by some of the rioters but manages to escape by running into the door of what turns out to be a house in which several black people are hiding. The rioters break in and Adam finds himself in the basement hiding in the dark where no one's race or color can be recognized. The rioters flood the basement and Adam finds himself being pulled above the waterline by a black man who turns out to be an employee of the man Adam was told to seek out when he got to New York. When the rioters disappear, the black man takes Adam, who is very ill, to the home of their benefactor, the rich Jewish trader. The trader has had a son killed in the Civil War and offers to make Adam his adopted son. Adam refuses the offer and is, instead, placed with a very abusive and coarse trader who needs a wagon driver to drive a wagon load of supplies south to sell to whichever troops of either side they might contact. The group consists of Adam, the trader Jed Hawksworth, and his black employee Mose who is actually an escaped slave as the book reveals in the long run. The three characters make a slow trip south to connect with fighting troops and are a truly odd collection of equally damaged characters who have simply fallen into each other's company. Mose, who has been savagely beaten by previous owners, becomes a friend of Adam but eventually kills Hawksworth and runs away. Adam, fearing that he will be blamed for the murder, buries Hawksworth in the woods, takes one of the wagons, and heads out to find Union troops which he can join to live out his dream of "fighting for freedom". I won't spoil the ending for you by fulling disclosing what happens from here on out. I will say that I have read several of Robert Penn Warren's books and this is just as good a novel as any the man who won two Pulitzer Prizes ever wrote. It addresses issues of war, racism, hatred, segregation, immigration, disability, and discrimination as well as any novel I have ever read. It is a powerful book which has fallen by the wayside of American Literature even though it is a fine piece of work by a man who should have been another of America's Novel winners. Robert Penn Warren is, in my opinion, just as great a writer as Hemingway, Steinbeck, Buck, or any other American who has ever been described as great. If you read the book, be forewarned that the novel does use the language of the time in which it was set and you will encounter several of the epithets which are not allowe in polite society today. But the novel is far greater than any of its detractors claim it to be simply because they are prejudiced against the language of America in the 1860's. Read it and you will see that I am correct.

America's Laying Hens Announce A Strike

In a stunning announcement today which was provided to all major American news outlets by their representatives, the Dominecker Rooster John L. Lewis Jones and Attorney Ovum Brown of Quiche, West Virgina, the laying hens of America announced their intentions to stage a strike and walkout unless their multiple demands are met. They say that on Memorial Day, May 26, 2025, all the hens of America will cross the road(s) in every zip code across the country which has not already made the presence of chickens pullus non grata. Messers Jones and Brown, in their joint press conference, stated that the laying hens of America have finally reached the end of their road as captive, poorly paid workers and will cease all egg production for the foreseeable future. John L. Lewis Jones perched on the podium to deliver his portion of the demands and called on all other roosters, capons, and chickens who are gender neutral to join in the effort. They say that all egg production, insect extermination, and early morning services as alarm clocks will cease as of sunrise on Memorial Day. The hens provided a written statement which was read to the attending members of the media by their attorney Ovum Brown. Mr. Brown stated that the hens are sick and tired of being seen simply as egg production devices while being held in captivity in cages, seeing their eggs and potential offspring roll away down automated systems to be sold at what are now truly exorbitant prices due to the fact that TRAITOR Trump will do nothing to lower egg prices while using thousands of raw egg yolks each year to maintain his orange facsimile of a tan and eating thousands of others to maintain his fictitious weight of whatever amount it is over the stated 210 pounds. The hens' statement, as read by Ovum Brown, also said that the hens are tired of being deprived of the opportunity to love whom they wish, and demand that each week the hen in each facility who lays the most eggs be given one day off, and they mean off the property, to spend that day with the rooster of their choice. The hens document also stated that each commercial laying hen is expected to lay more than 300 eggs per year or be sold off to slaughter houses to become filler material in hot pockets, TV dinners, and heat and eat entrees. The hens say this strike will continue until each and every hen is allowed to spend the last 6 months of her egg laying life of three years in a free range setting on a farm where an equal number of handsome, virile, melodious roosters live to serve the desires of the hens. At the end of that six months, the striking hens statement went on to say they must be set free in an adjoining farm along with the male companion of their choice to live, love, and produce happy young offspring who will become just as handsome and melodious as their fathers. The statement from the hens also addressed the strongly negative impact which TRAITOR Trump's tariffs have had on the price of eggs as well as everything else which is either a farm product or some feed or equipment which is necessary for farm management. The hens say their strike will continue until the tariffs are ended along with the importation of poor quality (and now higher priced) chicken feed which is contributing to the early deaths of so many hard working laying hens, the very hens who are such an integral part of the nation and the GDP. The statement ended with this sentence: "This is not a simple matter of the chicken or the egg; but the tariffs must end or all of America will be eating hoe cakes, oatmeal, or grits for breakfast for a very long time." The press conference by Messers Jones and Brown ended with a courteous cock-a-doodle-doo from the Dominecker who exited the room perched on the shoulder of his associate.

"Divine Right's Trip: A Novel Of The Counterculture" by Gurney Norman, Observations On A Rereading

I just looked back over the blog and realized that I haven't written a post since March about anything which was absolutely Appalahchian in its focus. It is long past time to do that and my subject matter today cannot be more clearly Appalachian. "Divine Right's Trip" by Gurney Norman is subtitled "A Novel Of The Counterculture" and I do agree that it is. But speaking from the viewpoint of having been a hippie in Eastern Kentucky when the book was originally published in the corners of the pages of "The Last Whole Earth Catalog", I cannot think of a more Appalachian book. Admittedly, it covers a lot of ground on several topics and geographic areas which are not Appalachian. But it covers those topics from the viewpoint of a protagonist who is a fine example of the young Appalachians I knew when I was growing up not more than 30 or so miles where Gurney Norman grew up, and we both are definitely native Appalachians. The protagonist in this novel is David Ray Davenport, Divine Right, or D. R. as he is severallly known both inside and outside his head. He and his girlfriend Estelle are on a trip around the country in a Volkswagon van name Urge which has been painted in a very random fashion by D. R. and an equally random collection of his friend and momentary contacts. They are sometimes under the influence of marijuana, LSD, and malnutrition. Movement and new sights to be seen are generally more important to them than a normal workaday world. They are very typical characters of the hippie counterculture of the late 1960's and early 1970's. D. R. is a bit of a lost ball in the high, high weeds having been raised for the most part by his grandparents in a fictional county in Eastern Kentucky which can be assumed to be at least a marginal facisimile of the Letcher County in which Gurney Norman spent his childhood. D. R. does not know his father and his mother has given him the last name of a less than desirable step-father. Estelle is at least a competent enough woman that she can usually drag D. R. out of whatever mire in which has found himself. They take turns driving Urge across the country from one crisis to the next, from one interesting interaction to another with generally benevolent strangers. Eventually, the return to Cincinatti where they have friends and family and then become separated from each other somewhat unintentially when D. R. goes to visit his sister and her family and fails to return to Estelle on time. Then he hears by telephone from the local female country storekeeper Mrs. Godsey that his uncle Emmit is dying on the old homeplace in the head of a holler in Kentucky. D. R. offers to come and care for the dying uncle and actually delivers on the promise. They spend a few weeks getting to know each other again as the uncle attempts to train D. R. in the daily routine of his ramshackle house and a plethora of rabbits and chickens. Mrs. Godsey and her husband Leonard take D. R. under their wing so to speak, allowing him to have credit in their little store with little or no proof of ability to pay and he grows up a bit during the deterioriation and death of his uncle Emmit. He spends the last few days of Emmit's life caring for him in the local hospital, arranges his funeral, helps dig the grave in the old family graveyard in order to save some money, and decides to try to track Estelle down through a mutual friend who actually accomplishes the task. Estelle comes to Eastern Kentucky to live with D. R. and they decide to get the married. The final wrapping up of all the loose ends of D. R.'s life are brought togehter during the wedding which is performed jointly by the local mainstream (for Eastern Kentucky) preacher and a very hippie type of friend from California who is known only as the Annaheim Flash. The wedding is attended by a large crowd of people from both of D. R.'s worlds, Eastern Kentucky and all of hippie America. As many great stories end, a fine time was had by all. The old homeplace contains many of the things which have endeared Appalachia to thousands, perhaps millions of us: the homeplace itself now strip mined to near total destruction, the old family graveyard in danger of being buried by strip mine sludge, good friends and neighbors who step in at both the best and worst of times, and all those sometimes lost but never forgotten heartwarming experiences which always make home a home and prove that Thomas Wolfe was wrong. You can go home again, at least if your name is David Ray Davenport.