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VIDEO ALERT

While incarcerated art home I found a jewel of a video from the brothers Coen.

It is composed of 4 short (But creative) stories, THE BALLAD OF BUSTER SCRUGGS

My favorite one is about an itinerant showman in the Old West (1850?) who is “Partnered” with a brilliant young fellow who is devoid of any legs and arms. We never know why he has neither, but he recites Percy Shelley’s Poem ‘Ozymandious’ and Shakespeares’s KING HENYRY V.exhotations to die with him to the thousands at Agincourt in France .  Although he doesn’t say but a few of the lines of each, I was intriged and can’t help sharing them with you.

  Ozymandius points out how we will not be known in the future, even if we are a King of Kings,

  King Henry’s exhortation to his troops is the ultimate cry for all to die in the service of the current King, and don’t ask the reason why. _Kenneth Branagh is pretty hard to top and luckily he is not around to help us in our futile wars around the Globe .

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Ozymandias  by Percy  Shelley

I met a traveler from an antique land

Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone

Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,

Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,

And  wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,

Tell that its sculptor, well those passions read,

Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,

The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.

And on the pedestal these words appear;

‘”My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:

Look upon my works, ye mighty, and despair!’

Nothing beside remains, Round the decay

Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare

The lone and level sands stretch far away.

ST. CRISPINS DAY from Shakespeare, Henry V

WESTMORELAND. O that we now had here

But one ten thousand of those men in England

That do no work to-day!

KING. What’s he that wishes so?

My cousin Westmoreland? No. my fair cousin;

If we are mark’d to die, we are enow

To do our country loss; and if to live,

The fewer men, the greater share  of  honour.

God’s will I pray thee, wish not one man more.

By Jove, I am not covetous for gold,

Nor care I who doth feed upon my cost;

It yearns me not if men my garments wear;

Such outward things dwell  not in my desires.

But if it be a sin to covet honour,

I am the most offending soul alive.

No, faith, my coz, wish not a man from England.

God’s peace! I would not lose so great an honour

As one man more, methinks would share from me.

For the best hope I have, O do not wish one more!

Rather proclaim it  Westmoreland, through my host,

Tat he which hath no stormach to the fight,

Let him depart;  his passport shall be made,

And crowns for convoy put into his purse;

We would not die in that man’s company

That fears his fellowship to die with us.

 This day is called the feast of Crispian.

He that outlives this day, and comes safe home,

Will stand a tip-toe, when rhis day is nam’d,

And rouse him at the name of Crispian.

He that shall live this day , and see old age,

Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbors,

And say, “To-morrow id Saint Crispin:

Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars,

And say “These wounds I had on Crispian’s day.”

Old men forget; yet all shall be forgot,

But he’ll remember, with advantages,

What feats he did that day. Then shall our names,

Famliar in his mouth as household words-

Harry the King, Bedford and Exeter,

Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Glouster-

Be in their flowing cups freshly rememb’red.

This story shall the good man teach his son;

And Crispin Crispian shall ne’er go by,

From this day to the ending of the world,

But we , we happy few. We band of brothers;

For he to-day that sheds his blood with me

Shall be my brother; be he ne’er so vile’.

This day shall shall gentle his condition:

And gentlemen in England now a-bed

Shall think themselves accurs’d they were not here,

And hold their manhoods cheap wiles any speaks

That fought with us upon Saint Crispin’s day.

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Since I am nearly convalesced from  my;      LAPARASCOPIC PARASOPHAGEAL HIATAL HERNIA REPAIR AND NISSEN FUNDOPLICATION  I may be able to get a Blog out once in a while . However, I am still dealing with OLD AGE (90).

A TOUCHING STORY

Ways of touching; Most of these may become obsolete?

USA                 Handclasp, shaken

                        High Five

                        Hug (worst)

French             Kiss Bot Cheeks

                        Say Chp\ou

           

Italian               Say Chou?

English            ?

Dutch              ?

Danish             ?

Russian           ?

Mexican           ?

Canadian         ?

 FROM MERDE.COM

I received his from a friend and had to pass it on. It seems the Brits have a beer understanding of words than we do.  Writer is named Nate White and this was posted on a blog-stite called MERDE,com. (mere means shit in French) This is a slightly biased view of our current World Leader (King Trump).

MERDE.COM. (Nate White)

A few things  spring to mind. Trump lacks certain qualities which the British traditionally esteem. For instance, he has no-class, no charm, no coolness, no credibility , no compassion, no wit,, no warmth, no wisdom, no subtlety, no sensitivity, no-self awareness, no humility, no honor, and no grace.  All qualities, funnily enough, which his predecessor Mr, Obama was generously blessed. So for us, the stark contrast does rather throw Trump's limitations  into embarrassingly sharp relief.

  Plus, we like a laugh, and while Trump may be laughable, he has never said anything wry, witty or even faintly amusing  not once, ever.  Don't say that rhetorically, I mean it quite literally, not once, not ever. And that fact is particularly disturbing to that British sensibility, - for us , to lack humor is almost inhuman.

  But with Trump, it's a fact. He doesn't even seem to understand what a joke is, - his idea of a joke is a crass comment, an illiterate insult, a casual act of cruelty.

  Trump is a troll. And like all trolls he is never funny and never laughs; he only crows or jeers. And scarily, he doesn't just talk in crude, witless insults - he thinks in them. His mind is a simple bot-like- algorithm of Peter-prejudices and knee-jerk nastiness.

  There is never any under-layer of irony, complexity, nuance or depth. , it's all surface. Some Americans might see this as refreshingly up front. Well, we don't. We see it as having no inner world, no soul. And in Britain we traditionally side with David, not Goliath. All heroes are plucky underdogs; Robin Hood, Dick Wittington, Oliver Twist. Trump is neither plucky nor an underdog. he is exact opposite of that. He's not even spoiled rich-boy.  Or a greedy fat-cat. he's more a fat white slug, a Jabba the Hut of privilege.

  And worse, he is that most unforgivable off all things British , a bully. That is, except when he is among bullies; then he suddenly transform into a sniveling sidekick instead . There are unspoken rules to this stuff - the Queensberry rules of basic decency - and he breaks them all. He punches downwards - which a gentleman should, would, could never do - and every blow he aims is below the belt. He particularly likes to kick the vulnerable or voiceless - and he kicks them when they are down.  

   So the fact that a significant minority - perhaps third - Americans look at what he does, listen to what he says, and then think " Yeah, he swears like my kind of guy" is a mater of some confusion and no little distress to British people, given that:

*Americans are supposed to. Be nicer than us, and mostly are:

*  You don't need a particular keen eye for detail topsoil flaws in the man.

   This last point is what especially confuses and dismays British people and other people too, his faults seem to pretty bloody hard to miss. After all, it's impossible to read a single tweet, or hear him speak a sentence ot two, without staring deep into the abyss. He turns being artless int an art form, he is a Picasso of pettiness; a Shakesphere of shit. Hi faults have flaws, also so on infinitude. God knows there have to be alwsys been stupid people in fact, if   Frankenstein decided to make a monster assembled from human flaws,- he would make a Trump.

120 BLOG BOOK REPORT

LOGITUDE  by Dan Sobel

1668  Surveyors and cartographers  figured out that you could determine your Longitude anywhere on the oceans if you knew the time back in Greenwich , England. This motivated John Harrison, a mere English woodworker, to begin his quest  to put together what we call a watch.

1610   A life pension I ducats by King Phillip III of Spain was offered as an incentive.

1707  After 2,000 men died on the Scillies rocks in Southern England, the search heated up.

1668 Tables printed by Domenico Cassini (U. of Bologna) .

But kind of sketchy at best .

1666  - Founded French Academies des Sciences w/ Jean Colbert to solve Longitude Problem.

                Imported Christian Huygens (Charter Member)

@ Paris Observatory, Danish astronomer Ole Roemer made his discoveries; the eclipse of all four Jovian satalites would occur ahead of schedule when Earth came closest to Jupiter in its orbit around the Sun.

This changed the concept of speed of light, to be measured by men.

   Takes a long distance to get the speed of light, not just from the next hill.

1675    Measured speed of light to be 300,000 kilometers per second (Only slightly underestimated).

Observatory @ Greenwich, England established to rectify and diligence of “Tables of Motions for care and diligence of “Tables of Motions of the Heavens” in order to find Longitudes.

  1637   Galileo applied the pendulum problem & plans for 1^st pendulum to assisting the navigator to determine his Longitude.

Huygens invented spiral balance spring as an alternative to pendulum for setting clocks, he patented it in France in 1673 Hooke was a surveyor & builder of steam  engineer,was ineresed in other things, cause of earthquakes, actions of springs.

An Idea!  Set up cannons at 600 miles apart, fire at particular times. Great idea if they had known that the ocean was 2,0000 to 2,459 fathoms deep, not just 300 fathoms.

1714  England offered rich prize for anyone to come up with the solution, about 20,000 pounds (Millions in today’s currency). For a accuracy of 3 sec/day which equals about  ½  degree or 2 minutes.

Flamsteed had ben mapping the heavens for 40 years & not released his data. (it was called “The Lunar System”)

John Harrison bult H-1 mostly of wood Carpentry (Learned from his father). John’s son took over after his father’s death.

1715   Jon  also built H1, H2 & H3 in 1715  1717

It it good to remember that the pursuit of Longitude was the great challenge of that time.

Harrison spent the nexr 5 years piecing together the first Sea Clock H1. It marked the first in a series of attempts, all wood, small amount of brass & balances. It  weighred about 75 pounds. And  4’ in all directions but it was virtually friction free!, no oiling involved.

He had a difficult time getting taken on board to make a trial use ,  the Royal Society thought H2, if it was a mechanisim was OK ,but it  did not pass muster with the builder, Harrison.

In 1731, two inventors, English & American,( created independently,) developed the Quadrent (or-Octant) and were able to find Latitude + Longitude, but it took about four hours time plus a knowledge of the tables soon to be published. (See Thacker). It defined the distance between  celestial objectts  (mostly at night?)  .  Flanmsteed had made about 30,000 observations!   They were started by Tyco Brahe of Denmark earlier.

1720-42   Halley moved to the Island of St. Helena to plot the moon & stars.  Rather difficult as the sky was usually overcast.

The user of the Lunar Method had to master Math and Astronomy or gain vast experience in the use of it.

1750  - H4  Harrisons Masterpiece  It took him 13 years to build ( It had 753 separate parts), mostly wood.  

H-3 was 2’ high, 12” wide,   H-3 could meet requirements   of ship shape.

Reverend Maskelyne was the “boogie man” here, as he supported the Lunar Method.

                                (Astronomy + Optics)

1761 – Harrison Works with Charles Mason & Jeremiah Dixon for 2 years before their famous Mason/Dixon line between Penn. & Maryland

Capt. Cook carried one of the Hs’ chronometers  one of his voyages as a test case (trial).

Harrison presented to the Board of Longitude in the summer of 1760. It lost only 5 seconds after 81 days at sea!

However, the Board needed more convincing  before giving out 20, 0000 pounds.

1766   He actually got the  OK for the last 10,000 from the
Board but not actually giving him the money.

I DON'T KNOW IF THEY EVER DID.

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                                                A CUT UP

You have not heard from me for three months as I underwent an operation on about Jan 30. I thought It would take about a month to recover but I got that wrong by about 3 months. I sometimes forget my 90 year old body doesn’t heal so fast anymore.  It’s proceedure is called called:

THE  LAPAROSCOPIC  HIATEL HERNIA REPAIR

AND NISSEN FUNDOPLICATION, TYPE FOURPOSTERIOR GASTROPEXY. (Four and one half  hours).   performed by Dr. Jonathan Carter and Team. (San Francisco).

 You can view a similar operation by Dr. Carter on YOU YUBE  (UCSF Dr. Carter hiatal Fundoplication)

It was called the Laparoscopic Hiatal Hernia Repair and Nissen  Fundoplication , Posterior  Gastoropexy;   It took 3 or four doctors about Four and ¼ hours to accomplish this and I am just recovering enough to get in my office for two or three hours a day.  The work was done at UCSF under the expert tutelage of Dr. Jonathan Carter and should last until I die, which is getting closer and closer each  day. This was the worst type, there fore called Type IV.

It took me a while to get a translation of most of the above, but what it all means is that they moved my stomach from the diaphragm area back to where it belongs, below the Diaphragm.  And here I thought I was in OK health for the last 12 yours. Except for a small heart Antri-fibrolation, but everyone has that nowadays, don’t they?

Believe this all began someplace in France, abiout 12 years ago, in a small city serving  a pretty good Pizza in Dinan, France, a wonderful old walled town near the coast.  Well,   soon we were in Brugge, Belgium, but finally the Whooping cough that I had contacted from our snot nosed, waitress in Dinan had caught up with us. We were cauphing  up a storm  in the town, and our small hotels’ bar had about 12 local beers on tap, but we were so sick we couldn’t  even taste one of them.  

Aside from all that, I am currently back in my Office after about 3  months for about 3 or 4 hours max. (I attribute that to my being semi-retired, and plus my  operation). 

      Go to YOU TUBEUCSF DR. CARTER   HIATEL  Fundoplication  It’s kind of a gory mess, but the results

For those of you who have a morbid streak, look into  stomach operation with my Doctor Carter via YOUTUBE  to see some really competent people manipulate an organ.

BOOK REPORT

                                             

  THE SINKING OF THE ESSEX

I  have just finished reading about the big news in early 1800’s, which involved the ramming and sinking of a the Whaleship, Essex and the long several months  d of deprivation of the crew in  3 small whaleboats for succor on the West coast of Chile. For those of you in need, it is a detailed survival of how to cannibalize a few of your crew-mates and barely survive for several months in a small boat on the  vast Pacific Ocean.    The book (In the Heart of the Sea) starts out  with  a history of Nantucket, the heart of the Whale industry.   While he rest of the U.S. in the early 1800‘s was in a precarious state, Nantucket was the  center of financial wholeness due the the economics of the frugal Quakers. That time, there were about 30 whaleboats in the Atlantic and  Pacific. (there were still a few whales left in the Atlantic.)  I haven’t mentioned that each trip to the Pacific would last for about  2.5 to 3 years. Maybe that’s why the wives took to Opium so much.( Opium was in the medical kit of all whale ships.)

I'm feeling better now so may get out another blog soon.   

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118                                   

Chernoble dome, 100 year life

                                                                                        

JUST FOR NO FUN

  You might see how far the international consortium has come building the largest  moveable object on Earth, The Chernoble Containment Arch, to last 100  years.

   If you’re interested in what is happening in Chernoble Nuclear Plant , See the NOVA short description of the progress on Netlix. The largest moveable object has been moved in place and the consortium is trying to figure how to do all the rest with robotics.  1.5 Billion Dollars  was collected from 30 nations.. Design &; construction was won by French companies who are way ahead of our lagging technology.

                                             

bUILD YOUR OWN

   

HOW TO MAKE YOUR OWN AR-15

  Do, you want to mow down your co-workers? Your kids’ school & teachers? Well, I just discovered how you can do it without any pesky government interference.

  First of all , you buy modular housing receiver , which is the only part considered a firearm as it contains the serial number, but you can buy it without any paperwork or government approval.

The AR-15 is a semi-automatic gun, fires only one round each time you pull the trigger and looks like a AK-47, . Now that’s not fast enough for a really sick person, so you buy this small metal box, then order all the components online and receive them thru the mail. Then snap on the barrel, stock, bolt and buttstock and you have a fully automatic machine gun!

  Once a shooter has the lower receiver he can build himself

  an almost infinite variety of guns without anyone knowing what he’s got.

  More than thirty companies manufacture AR-15 receivers – not only Colt  & Smith  Wesson, but tiny shops like Iron Ridge Arms in a space the size of a two car garage.

  BY the way, both the Aurora & Sandy Hook mass killings were done with AR-15’s, The piece we’re talking about here. But most killings in U.S. are done by hand guns. It is estimated that there are about 100 million guns in the US.

   I have a confession to make here. I was shooting and killing small game (rabbits, etc.)  when I was twelve years old .  But since then, I don’t feel the necessity of carrying around a gun for protection against rabbits with guns.

UTOPIA THRU THE AGES

Ea= no     topia = place  Eutopia = No Place?

A lot of writers  over the Last few milleniums have tried to describe “No Place”, but they all kind of end up in a Fascists country. The following is a partial list of a few who tried. 

INVESTIGATING  UTOPIAS

PLATOS REPUBLIC

Socrates 529 BC?       Since Socrates didn’t write down anything, it was up to Plato to begin   looking at Ideal countries AND ENVIRONMENTS.

In his Symposium, Platos’s discussion of the various manifestations of love , the ancient Geeks were nor prudish about it all. The ‘Symposium’ were placed on the Index of Banned Books by the Catholic church until 1966 !  It turns out Plato was a closet Facsist!

 UTOPIA     1516    SIR THOMAS MOORE       

            Beheaded in 1595 by Henry 8^th\

^{Invented an alphabet for his Island paradise? In those days, they separated the head from the body of those who used them too much. These days, we vote them in as Presidents.}

^{No  Philosophers allowed.  How do we get rid of those? (Behead them?)}

^{Equal property for all (abolish private property) Money not used. Money is the root of many crimes. (I’ve been working on that principle for years, plus always trading my design fees for half drink & food. )}

^{Maximum 50 Towns on the Island}

            ^{Send older citizens to annual meeting General discussion.   Each house gets citizens to live in for two years, then out to the farm to hone those skills for a while.}

^{Women & children, as well as servants(slaves) are considered as common property of the state .Every possible means has been taken to obliterate any possible hint of individualism or anything looked upon as private.}

^{As they say, Plato’’s grades should read  Aptpha-plus for philosophy. Camma-minus for politics.}

^{The  faschists of the modern era (Hitler, Stalin, Franco & Mussolini) probably didn’t spend a lot of time on philosophy, but they seem to have gotten it the Utopia thing right.}

^{Owens United States 1817  Tried to initiate an ideal Socialistic Society in New Haromony, Indiana . It lasted only a couple of years.}

^{Henry George English write 1879}

Edward BELLALAMY   LOOKING BACKWARDS ^{ING BACKWARD                     1884 BEGAN AS A Fairy Tale of “Social Felicity”,}

^{set in year 3000 at first, then HE  changed it to 2000 AD.}

^{Citizens work  a few hours per day, exploited by Nefarious Influence of Catholic Church.}

^{Industrial army – Single tax would open door to Utopia.  Suppression of the individual.}

^{THE DIOTHAS 1883 John Macnies}

^{NEWS FROM NOWHERE 1890  William MORRIS  ( Immersed in Bellamy,)   Morris had developed a small Utopia at his large estate in England which flourished for a while, but did not last for the next generation.              Artful Utopia   . Influenced by John Ruskins book.        A peaceful realm, devoid of State coercion., No compulsory Education, no conscription, no taxes, Jury duty or marriage licenses, no passports. Only labored at work they loved, (Multiple Occupations), Lived in beautiful buildings, surrounded by nature.}

^{TOWARDS DEMOCRACY 1883  Edward CARPENTERS’ Homogenic Utopia}      

            ^{If you are gay, this is he one for you.  All vegetarians, with cosmic consciousness.}

^{HERLAND 1920  Charlotte Gilmans   Motherly Utopia       If you are a Lesbian, this is the Utopia    for you.}

^{WOMAN ON THE EDGE OF TIME by Marge Piercy   More women stuff, I haven’t read this yet.}

^{THE DISPOSSESSED by Ursala La Guin,   Ditto.}

^{Designing a country is not as easy as it sounds, but a lot of folks have taken a whack at it. Personally, I never have, due to the fact that I am living in my personal Utopia, in Sebastopol, CA , surrounded by interesting people, not all perfect,}

^{HERE ARE MY SUGGESTIONS ON OUR GOVERNMENT}

^\

^·          

^\

^{HEALTH CARE}

^{This should be available for all, even before you get to be 62 years old. But we need to get real that most of us will be dying at some point and not spend all our resources on keeping us alive.}

^EDUCATION   

^{Everyone doesn’t need to go to College . about learning skills that could get you a job in the real world? like from a ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­Vocational School?  Rearn to be a carpenter, welder, car mechanic, etc.  We don’t’ build them like that anymoie.}

^{ENVIRONMENT           Maybe we don’t have to solve all our}

^{problems as fast as we thought.}

^{TAXES                         I guess there is no way we can add}

 ^{up all the income from the  IRS., Then draw}

^{up a budget that will reflect}

^{that sum, including our war chest.}

^{INFRA-STRUCTURE                 Large projects, such as ‘Fast Trains’}

 ^{can only by built & subsidized}

 ^{by the Federals.  Are grants the answer? NO . .How do they work??}

^{VETERANS                   When they lose arms & legs and}

                                    ^{their minds, maybe we could assist}

                         ^{t          hem more?, which should be part of the War chest.}          

^{AGRICULTURE             Lets delete old, worthless laws and}

                                    ^{pass new ones that will help}

                                    ^{our agriculture friends.  Can we help to feed the poor areas?}

^{IMMIGRATION                        How about allowing a certain percentage}

^{of immigrants into our workplace that}

^{are educated & have money, then the}

^{rest could be a work force that will do}

^{work even our high school kids won’t do.}

^{CIVIL RIGHT                I thought we had that all resolved.}

 ^{If not, lets keep up on it.}

^{FOREIGN POLICY                    We are not  (Or should not) be the}

 ^{World’s Policeman. Is it not apparent}

 ^{that when a small country is liberated}

^{and on it’s own it will set up a Communistic}

 ^{government for a while until things are}

 ^{sorted out, then they may be ready}

^{for a Republic (Democracy).}

^{WAGES                                    Everyone says  a $15/hour will give you}

^{a :living Wage.  Has anyone looked at}

^{the problem from the other end, like}

 ^{from a minimum  ($15/hr) budget concept?   I have,}

 ^{but it won’t work unless we can have a subsidized}

 ^{Child Care involved in the equation.(Instead of}

 ^{subsidized housing?)  Most working people have to}

^{get money ‘Under the table’ to make a living wage}

 ^{and get enough to eat..}

^{CLOBAL WARMING                 There does seem like enough scientific evidence that it is actiually happening and maybe we  should do something about it.}

  

117B CHRISTMAS MESSAGE

Add caption

 PEACE ON EARTH

Not from the Americans (USA). We’ve been at war for the last 80 years. It’s good for our economy. (The Phillipines, Puorto Rico, The 3^rd Reich, The Russian Communists, The Jihadists, etc.) Not possible when we budget 60%  for the Military. 

JOY TO THE WORLD

This can’t come from us.  We didn’t learn much from the Vietnam War, did we?, since we are duplicating that in Iraq and Afganistan’.

GOODWILL TOWARDS ALL MEN

Even to people who are not Christians? to Islamists?, Towards Jews?

We are still fighting the eleventh century war with the Mohammidans., but not really knowing why.

If we obeyed the above slogans, we would have to outlaw all religions.  Can’t we use these slogans at other times of the year other than our celebration during Christmas?

 Are we still making H bombs?

Lamont

117

AN ARCHITECT SHOULD KNOW HIS STRUCTURAL ENGINEERING

  My development of the modular system “ CONCEPT ENVIRONMENT’in the early 1960’s was gaining an understanding of a particular type of  truss system which was paramount in my modular system..

 

   RE-INVENTING THE ROOF TRUSS                  

My initial use of the truss system was for a motivated salesman for a large structural truss manufacturer. When we began drawings for the Lyster House on Diamond Street in Laguna Beach in 1960, We utilized what is called an attic Truss, A large truss that had a large enough area in the middle for a small room which was the bedroom. This was a large triangular truss that incorporated the entire roof of the house The owner, Tom, Wanted to preserve the old 20’s garden which runs thru with a small   stream. He also wanted a spec house on the site (which resulted in a bridge house,) which spanned the site and initiated the Truss house design, as we realized one could walk thru the truss openings if they were tall enough. I chose the Warren Type of truss as it had the fewer upright members.

   We wanted to do another spec home so I revised my plan and used the Warren Truss, 10 foot high, But combined it with a Vereendal Truss, which substitutes diagonal members with moment connections at all points. Since the diagonal loads are smallest at the center of the span, I substituted the Vereendal. Truss instead.  This avoided any door that was  needed on the center span.. But With 4 trusses I could span a parking area below , with only 6 points for bearing all loads with a 20’ cantilever on each end. This opened up a lot of possibilities for steep lots.

wood mosaic picture

ART DECO IN PARIS

  We had discovered the Bar at Hotel Lenox on the Rive Gauche (left Bank) which was a true mind bender as there were a few wall murals made of different woods of Satchmo (Louis Armstrong) larger than life,  , plus a Jazzquartet and then a large picture of a flapper framed behind the Main Desk (See right). There must be at least 20 types of hardwoods used on the work. Where did the craftsman find a white wood for Satchmo’s hanky?   But all the furniture and lights were in an Art Deco motive and  all done in excellent taste.  Not only that, but it was one of the few places in the early days  (1980’s) where you could be assured of an American Cocktail well made.  Harry’s bar was on the Rive Droit, near the Opera. I have an agent living in Paris who is responsible to investigate
purchase of the Hotel by a hotel line called KULT. I cannot believe anyone would destroy a Wood Mural work of that magnitude so keep tuned  and I’ll let you know if MJ is successful in her search for truth among the denisons of the Rive Gauche.

 

                                           The  Left Bank

MAP OF RIVE GAUCHE

  We always stay on the Left Bank of Paris so it was de rigueur for me to make my own map to remember where the boulangerie was. Each time we’re there I add a couple of places, like the market street where cars are not allowed. (Rue Cler).

  Our favorite sidewalk café id Le Fregate, which has an interesting history. The owner, a friend of alexander Dumas ( of Count of Monte Christo fame), Owned the building and it is a prime location      being on the end of the Pont Royal Bridge and looking across the river at the end of the Louvre building. Dumas convinced him that it would be a good spot for a Café.

BOOK REVIEW

 Tim Snyder – Gives us 20 LESSONS FROM THE THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

   This small book contains  bold connections between past and present.

“The Founding fathers tried to protect us from the threats they knew , the tyranny that ovecame ancient democracy, today our political order faces new threats, not unlike the totalitarianism of the twentieth century. We are no wiser than the Europeans who saw democracy yield to fascism, Nazism, or communism. Our one advantage is that we might learn from their experience.”

UTOPIAS

  I Can’t find  my book of history of most authors of Utopias, But I’m still trying to find someone who had the right idea.  I’ve looked again at Platos’ ‘Republic’, Found Sir Thomas Moore (1550), 1984 of George Orwell , even discovered H.G. Wellls got into the act.  I guess I’m not the first one to try and organize the perfect world. It is rather ubsettling to find most of these were based on a communist format but run by wonderful people.I’ll let you know when I find out more.

JUST FOR FUN

  If you’re a gourmet you might like a You Tube Video called ‘Le Petit Chef (by Skull Mapping).

You’ll find a tiny chef pulling food out of the table to cook on the Barbie, etc.

JUST FOR NO FUN

  You might see how far the international consortium has come building the largest  moveable object on Earth, The Chernoble Containment Arch, to last 100  years, is nearing completion afterabout 12 years.

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Bir Hakiem

          Paris Metro  -  You will find that several Metro and train stations are named for famous battles (Won !) such as Waterloo in London, Austerlitz and Bir Hakeim in Paris.  We’ve all heard about Waterloo (Brits/Germans won that one), Austerlitz (Napoleon won that), but Bir Hakeim was always a mystery  to me .  I researched a bit and found the battle was in North Africa in 1942  S-W of Tobruk. The French Foreign Legion (Le Legion Etrangier de France)  was holding the Old Ottoman Fortress ( meaning Old Man’s Well) and managed to hold it long enough to deter  the  Nazi from getting around it. It is one of a few Metro stations that are above ground, next to the Seine and also  a stop for the Tower Eiffel.

OFFENSIVE SPENDING

  We always claim it’s for defense but why have we gotten to be such Military/Industrial spenders, which seems to add up more than the next FIVE nations combined to an unbelievable 700 Billion a year?  They (We!) spent 6 billion recently just to find out how much money that the Pentagon needed to overspend  on items so drastically.  It seems that the Pentagon is “Too big to count”.  There seems no way for us to cut back on these items as both parties seem silent about each increase of billions every year. My miserable little theory is that there are too many people working in the Industry to cut it back any. How about Boeing,  General  Dynamics ?  And other industries like computers, etc. ? Just imagine how many workers would lose their jobs if we cut back on our military orders?

TRUMP WHO?

 I  try to stay aloof of politics but once in  while I just have to get my hands dirty and talk about it. I always wondered how someone like T. was so popular that he was elected by nearly a majority. I ran across a short article in the New Yorker that kind of threw some light on the great mystery. They claimed that his Television  stint elevated him to a position of competence that is not part of this real world. One of his contestants said of him “He is a poor persons idea of a rich person”.   Now I get it.

MEMORIAL DAY   

It’s more than a day off for Federal  Workers, it was supposed to reflect the death of many of our young people in the First War to End Wars.  John McCrae’s short poem regarding the loss is especially poignant in the last two stanza;

                ……………

                We are the dead, Short days ago

                We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,

                Loved and were loved, and now we lie,

In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe;

To you from failing hands we throw

The torch; be yours to hold high,

If ye break faith with us who die

We shall not sleep, though poppies grow

                In Flanders fields.

I guess we didn’t take their advice?

WHAT DOES ONE TRILLION DOLLARS LOOK LIKE?

  See Link above on You Tube : What does one trillion dollars look like? We hear these numbers bandied around but have not a clue how much we are imagining.  It's about as big as a building, solid with 100 dollar bills, new.

WE GOT OUR NEW TELEPHONE BOOKS YESERDAY

 Just for fun I looked up Architects in Sonoma county and found about one half a page listed. Then for more fun I looked up attorrneys and found 17 pages for them.

PROECTING AGAINST WHO?

    We seem to be  i n  a big brau Hau right now regarding whether having a gun is all right as we may be called on to fight our own government for control. At least this was written into our constitution in 1770’s when most men and boys owned a gun at the time and they actually used it to defend against the British Forces.  When they drafted the Constitution  Little did they believe that in a few hundred years a weapon will be a much different machine that could shoot hundreds of rounds without loading until you had killed that many people in one fell swoop.   It didn’t matter whether these dead were friends or enemies or just innocent folks in the wrong place with the right Karma. They said nothing about hand grenades as they hadn’t been perfected at that time.  Also, maybe we have forgotten that in those days it took about three minutes for an expert to load and shoot someone .  It would have been easier and faster to use a big knife or sabre to even begin killing folks around you.  

2010; ODYSSEY TWO

  I just finished Arthur Clarks’ sequel to 2001, written about 1982 and was always hoping someone would do a movie of it as they could probably simulate the destruction of Jupiter nowadays.   We all would like to know what happened to Dave Bowman his transformation into “StarChild” and what ever happened to the black monoliths out in space?  Why would HAL, a stable intelligent computer, kill the crew?( By the way, HAL stands for Hueristic ALgorithmics).  And whatever happened to the Spaceship Discovery?   Clark does answer some of these questions, while making it all sound very logical and possible.  Written during the cold War, most of the crew is Russian. 

STUMBLES IN THE MARCH OF HISTORY

 While sporting a rather dumb title, but a cogent  illumination of some of the major  problems in world Governments and Private enterprise managed and some kind of solutions that was not what always was expected.   The book, STUMBLES IN THE MARCH OF HISTORY, Beginning in the year 500 years B.C. (Does that still mean Before Christ?), and ends with the WMDS that the Iraqis never had, It covers a lot of ground..       

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LATEST FASHIONS

It happens very subtly and we almost miss it but there are two fashions that I have noticed recently to have occured.  When all your superstars (Millionaires) start sporting beards , It almost drives me to shave again so I’ll look like a teenager again. (Pretty unlikely).  But we are still  hung up on clean faces in the Political arena, except for a bit part in a pretty good movie “Madam  Secretary”  where one of her aides has a partial beard but even better, one of her female (black) aids has a very weird haircut. If only that filters down to our real world (as some of the other ideas of the series), life  could improve a bit.

   The other fashion is have you ever noticed that women are mostly wearing tights  instead of skirts anymore. This harks back to early Science Fiction illustrations where all women wore tights (and were not fat) plus their ever-present belt containing their  daily dose of anti-pregnant pills. Well,

I missed the pill time as well as the AIDS epidemic, and am thankful for it all.

                                             

BLACK KNIGHT MOVIE

  Being of a curious temper, I rented “Black Knight” as it has gotten so many awards. Wow, was  I ever surprised! What an absurd scene. Have our adults retroed to child-hood?  This was worse than I imagined.  The only thing missing were the white guys.  Who rates all these, twelve year old kids?

MONEY VERSUS TASTE                                  

  There seems to be a close correlation between the two as the more money someone has, their taste for Design & aesthetics declines. Or is it just me?

IF YOU’R DESPERATE IN Paris and need a Hot Dog  fix, get to Harry’s Bar and ask for a “Chien Choud”

(Shen Showd) And you will get a close facsimely  of one.  I don’t know where they get them.

   It’s like Cocktails. The French do not like to cloud up their Cognac with sweet crap and make it look pretty. thirty years ago the only place you could get a cocktail in France was a  Harry’s and a really large Hotel, but now , the French are getting perverted and you’ll find them all over. Just don’t ask for a ‘Martini’ as you will be served a glass of Sweet Vermouth, Martini’s.

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     PHOTO OF SMART VILLE

MORE ON THE SMART CAR

   Before production began the Diamler AG folks designed and built the innovative production plant near the German Border near Hambach, France, now called SMARTVILLE.   The central portion is a cross consisting of the assembly lines on the ground level wirh the upper three stories for offices and Labs. Most of the components are produced , assembled and guanteed by a plethera of sub-contractors.

These companies have mostly built adjacent plants where they produce various components and actually install them on a timely basis due to their close proximetry.  A few of the subs are: De Dion Tube rear suspension (He invented the Rear end for cars in about 1895 for steam Tricycles.), Siemens produces the entire cockpit, cable trees and batteries. Krupp delivers the propulsion unit, Tire sets are by continental. They produce about 750 cars a day. ( Thru a company-owned railway station.)

   But you are probably more interested in the safety of such a small machine.   See below.

                                                                

Since there is virtually no room for a crumple Zone in the front the car , it has is built in a cage of steel. An American Test using a five star rating gave Smart a four-star rating,(Front Impact) while it got a five star rating for a side impact. The real test was getting approval for the Norwegian “Moose Test” wherever  the car has to avoid an object at a certain speed and not tip over. Smart had to do a re-design to pass that one.

  My old Citreon 2CV (Due-shay-voh) or two horses), was also a three cylinder power plant but it only produced about 13 HP at the time(1966). However,  the Smart has a beautiful bundle of giszmos that are in the back that produces 88 HP in some models.  The radiator is in the front of the car.  But it will get up to 96 mile per hour, fast enough for me.

WHEN YOU’R FEELING DOWN….                                               

I’ve just come across a musician who is a real inspiration for us when we are feeling sorry for ourselves or a bit down. He as a pianist/Arranger who plays AROUND MIDNIGHT in a manner that is better than Monk  himself. If that doesn’t get rid of your blues, listen to his version of TAKE THE ‘A’ TRAIN, played with his outstanding side-men. His name is Michel Petrucciani, see him on You Tube, performing “Round Midnight” & “Take the ‘a’ Train”.  This small miserable dwarf can barlely move about on his little dwarf crutches, yet has managed to excel at Jazz piano as well as arranging same.  If you find life a little too hard, just play his clip and you couldn’t possibly keep feeling sorry for yourself any longer. His transformation is close to miraculous.

QUEEN OF THE DESERT

Gertrude Bell, an early suffragette (She did not support the cause),  was an early supporter  of the Arab cause, one of the first mountain climbers (Europe),  and instrumental in the first days of Iraq when it was originated in about 1925 by the British and the French.  How she was on the scene at the right time is described in a well researched book by Georgina Howell , “Gertrude Bell, Queen of the Desert, Shaper of Nations.”  She had a brilliant mind, from a wealthy British family, fluent in French, German, Persian, Arabic and versed in others as required.  She had her own caravans and traveled the vast deserts to meet most of the important Sheiks and Sherifs that would come in handy when Iraq was being designed.

This was all done when women were not to be seen at anything important.