To my Trump-supporting friends

Please explain to me the President's conduct regarding the four American soldiers killed in Niger. Why do we have no information?
Also, please explain his phone conversation with one of the widows and her mother.
Lastly, what about the $25,000 check he gave to the family of a fallen soldier? Is this going to be his ongoing personal tribute to our KIAs?
I'm trying to be civil and curious, here; please respond in kind.

Stuff You Don't Know - About Cats Falling

(Caveat: I heard this on NPR; I was driving, so nothing has been fact-checked; it's my memory vs. Alzheimer's.)

In a study made by some professional-sounding organization (Sue me, I don't remember) in a given year in Manhattan, about 1,300 cats either jumped, fell, or were otherwise defenestrated from their respective perches. (Defenestrated? It's a real word - look it up!)

Not surprisingly (we all know about cat-like reflexes) falls from 1-to-5 stories are almost all survived, and  an amazing number of cats were unscathed in falls from even greater heights. The record? One cat walked away after plummeting 41 stories!

Here's the interesting part. The highest percentage of fatalities was achieved on floors 6 to 9! After that, all the way up to 41, survivability actually increased. Pick any high floor -- little kitty has roughly a 50-50 chance.

Why is that? I was pulling into the garage and lost the satellite signal. The last thing I remember was something about reaching an equilibrium between terminal velocity and wind resistance; I'm counting on you science guys to fill in the blanks!

(30)

The street-smart squirrel

   The New England Journal of Ruminants has recently published a two-part exposition paper that alleges the possibility that crazy squirrels appear to have gone extinct.  Increased observation has revealed a dearth of street darters and circlers, while  remaining millennial squirrels have acquired life-extending street smarts; they hit the pavement at high speed, racing on a straight angle until they've crossed safely. Some have even picked up on the inherent safety of  street lanes; others have been observed actually using crosswalks.

Biologists and other relevant scientists are excited. In a test facility outside Madison, NJ, they are attempting to discover whether squirrel road skills can be genetically transferred to other species. 

'We currently are working with a test herd of Jersey deer,' said one clinician. 'We think we've taught them to cavort - which would be a significant step forward - but that opinion is by no means unanimous.'
Look to this blog for any updates.

(30)

A Ford Adventure

August 1956. I had to report to my first Air Force assignment, Kelly Air Force Base in San Antonio, TX. I planned no route, but I couldn't really sight see; I had two days' drive time, and I didn't think being AWOL was a good way to start a military career.

Anyway, I was driving a beauty of a '49 Ford, and I quickly broad-brushed my route. West Virginia (heard it was beautiful and that turned out to be true) Nashville (Guitars and the Grand Old Opry) Memphis (The Sun Record company was making some noise with a guy named Elvis) and then down to the Louisiana bayou and across to Texas and Kelly AFB.

I never heard of the Texas/Louisiana border town of Beaumont, TX until I roared through it at 3AM. I think I exited Beaumont at about 3:10, and I honestly never expected to see or hear anything about it ever again.

Beaumont, sadly, filled my radar last month with the arrival of Hurricane Harvey.  And because I'd been there, however briefly and innocuously, I identified with them.  I felt their pain. It was easier to fork over a few dollars.

We should all do that - identify with people in trouble, people with problems, people with no hope - see yourself in their predicament. It shouldn't take a 60-year-old memory to spark some empathy.

                           (30)

Stuff we don't know ---

In Patagonia, Argentina, the Perito Moreno glacier is less than a 2-hour bus ride from the nearest town. The glacier is 20 miles long, 3 miles wide and as high as two football fields. Unlike most glaciers, which are retreating (melting) this big guy is advancing, sometimes 6 feet a day!

Top Secret Heros

The young girls came from all over the United States, volunteers all, wanting to help the war effort in any way they could. They headquartered and were trained in Washington, DC; sworn to secrecy and given Top Secret clearances, these 10,000 dedicated women formed the core of America's enemy code breakers.

They comprised 70 percent of the code-breaking operation, but as women in a male dominated society they walked without curiosity through the government's most restricted halls. When they were occasionally questioned, they gave innocuous - and successful! - replies: 'I sharpen pencils,' or 'I'm an assistant secretary for General so-and-so.' 

After the war many of these women used their experience to leapfrog into careers previously unattainable for females, but they always kept their war duties secret, so much so that only now have their exploits been uncovered. Read about them in 'Code Girls.'

A Blast from the Past

The Maxwell House coffee sign dominated the Hoboken, NJ skyline until the '90s. Ever wonder what's there, now?

The one percenters are moving in. The dockside city that Frank Sinatra called home, where Marlon Brando made his bones in the gritty film drama 'On the Waterfront', where the Hudson Tubes (If you're under 50, read PATH) daily shuttles thousands of Jerseyites under the river to Manhattan now can be yours in a spectacular condo complex called Maxwell Place.


For a mere million and a half you can own a one-bedroom, two-bath beauty with an unobstructed view of the Empire State Building. Get a ticket to ride the 14th Street ferry a couple of blocks north and you can be sipping coffee in your Wall Street office while the great unwashed are stilling humping it aboard NJ Transit.


Ain't capitalism grand?