And a Merry Christmas to All!

Merry Christmas to all!

Here are some images from the way-back machine: Christmas at the Earle's house in 1949. Does anything look out-of-date about this picture compared to this year's Christmas at your house?


. . . and the 1949 "Earl-e Edition" Christmas card: The 1949 Annual Report of the Earles:

The Cover:

The annual report opened with a message from management and review of the year (click to enlarge each):
followed by a financial statement:

then an In Memoriam and Officers and Directors:

followed by a discussion of Inventories and Affiliates:

This brings back a lot of family memories.

The Man

I missed Stan Musial's 90th birthday on Sunday, but Paul Mirengoff at Powerline blog didn't. He cited this article "90 Things to Love About The Man" which outlines some of Stan's accomplishments on and off the diamond. I thought this was eyeopening:

#63 • We know where Musial ranks in assorted career hitting categories today, nearly 50 years after his retirement. But at the time of his retirement, he was first in MLB history in extra-base hits, first in triples, second in hits, second in doubles, first in games, first in at-bats, third in runs, fourth in RBIs, sixth in homers and ninth in slugging percentage.

I played golf with Stan at the Duke Children's Classic back in 1985, and I can attest that he is as nice a man as everyone says he is.

Two Great Hitters

Lil and Stan Musial

Instapundit is Wrong!

And so is physics.org. In a post about how cats drink, the Blogfather links to this article in physics.org. They are wrong. Here is how cats actually do it (well worth sitting through the commercial if it comes up).

A Veterans Day Thank You to "The Real Army"

I appreciate everyone who has expressed gratitude towards veterans today, but as a somewhat veteran, I'd like to take this opportunity to thank the army.

My active duty time in the army was a two-year tour at Aberdeen Proving Ground in 1966-68. I had first been introduced to the army in ROTC starting as a freshman at Clemson in 1960, and I had 4 years of ROTC "Military Science" studies at Clemson before getting my commission as a new 2LT in 1964. After a year of graduate school and a year working, I reported to Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md. in June, 1968. After a couple of months of army schooling at APG (where they tried to teach me to be a motor pool commander), I was assigned there for a year (I thought) before being re-assigned to a motor pool in Vietnam.

At Aberdeen I worked at what was essentially a civilian job in the Development and Proof Services of the Army Material Command. There were several other 2LTs and a couple of enlisted soldiers there doing basically the same thing as the various civilian engineers were doing, except we wore uniforms. I was in the artillery ammunition section and spent two years managing various test programs for new and improved ammunition components. Some projects were quite interesting: a test of the then-new "beehive" round for close-in artillery battery defense; tests to determine the cause of recent "in-bore prematures" (shells exploding in the gun barrel) in 175mm guns in Vietnam; and reliability tests on WW2 proximity fuses that had been in storage for 20 years and were being withdrawn for use in Southeast Asia. Other projects were more routine: testing new batches of artillery propellant for actual strength so propellant charges could be produced with consistent performance; and firing new types of shells to gather data so the army could generate "firing tables" at the Ballistic Research Labs at APG, one of the first uses of computers begun back in the 1940's.

But the real benefit of my army service wasn't the day-to-day work I did. It was the numerous "extra duties" the army assigned junior officers. Some seemed routine, but all were very educational.

While in school, I served as "duty officer" in one of the companies of enlisted soldiers being trained at Aberdeen for the Ordnance Corps. I served overnight and week-end duties when the regular officers were off duty. One memorable evening included one trooper returning from the enlisted men's club with serious wounds after a fight with broken beer bottles, and another young soldier half-heartedly trying to commit suicide by cutting his wrists (sort-of scratching them actually, but there was still a lot of blood).

Later, I was assigned duty as the Central Post Fund Custodian and supervised two civilian employees who administered all the funds for the non-appropriated recreation activities on post (swimming pool, golf course, bowling alley, movie theater, etc) with a budget of several hundred thousand dollars.

I served as host officer for several days for a group of Mexican Army senior officers visiting the post. That was a fun duty. (I may still have some of the bottle of tequila they gave me--I'm not much of a tequila drinker.).

I served as Survivor's Assistance Officer for a young pregnant widow in southeastern Pennsylvania whose husband had been killed in Vietnam. I attended the funeral with a bugler from the APG post band and then spent a day taking her to the various government offices to make sure she got signed up for all the benefit she was entitled and to ensure there were no problems with any the agencies (VA, SSA, etc.) It was very heartening to see the respect the folks in those various civil services paid to her and to my uniform.

The Army expects its junior officers to perform these extra duties with a minimum of supervision, but there was always someone available to make sure you didn't screw up too much. It was a level of challenge and responsibility that most 24-yr-olds don't get.

I don't know how I could ever have gotten that kind of experience anywhere else. For that I thank the army.

The Real Army

I never got those orders to Vietnam. I spent my entire two years at Aberdeen. I say I was defending Baltimore harbor from the Viet Cong and did a damn fine job. They didn't get within 8,000 miles of the place.

At the end of my army tour there were some two dozen of us Ordnance Corps lieutenants who had entered the army at the same time and had spent our full two-year-tours at APG. We decided to have a farewell party for our civilian co-workers and military chain of command, including the post commander. We arranged a nice cocktail party and dinner at the Officer's Club, and I think a great time was had by all. (There were some adult beverages served.) At the close of the evening, one of my cohorts, 1LT Tom Watson, (an engineer from Oshkosh, not the golfer from Kansas City) stood up and said he wanted to say something about the real army.

Tom said he'd been introduced to the army as a college freshman in junior ROTC. In one of his early classes a sergeant had told his class of cadets to enjoy their junior ROTC, because when they enrolled in senior ROTC and went to Summer Camp, they'd see what the real army was like.

Tom said he had enjoyed junior ROTC. He had enrolled in senior ROTC and gone to Summer Camp. There, on maybe the first night, a captain had gotten all the cadets together in one of the barracks to explain just what was going happen at camp. He told them to enjoy their six weeks there because when they got their commissions and permanent duty assignments, they'd see what the real army was like.

Tom said he did enjoy his summer camp experience, and when he was commissioned he reported to the Basic Ordnance Officer's School at Aberdeen. There, on the first class day, a Captain had told the new lieutenants to enjoy their basic and advanced training because when that was over, they'd get permanent assignments and see what the real army was like.

Tom said he did enjoy his schooling at APG and then got a permanent assignment there as well. Early in his Aberdeen tour he had made his requisite courtesy call on the post commander, as all officers do, and after some polite chit-chat the colonel told him to enjoy his year at Aberdeen because he was going to Vietnam in his second year, and he'd see what the real army is like.

Tom said he hadn't gotten those orders to Vietnam but had spent his entire time at Aberdeen. Now he was going home to Wisconsin, and he could just see it: In a couple of weeks he'd report to his new army reserve assignment. There, on the first night, the commanding officer would call him into his office, sit him down, and say, " I'm glad you're here lieutenant. We've got some work to do. It's just you, me, and 120 new guys out there, and you and I are the only ones who know what the real army is like!"

Is This What a Phish Looks Like?

Yesterday I got this e-mail from my bank.

I thought it might be prudent to check on my password (which I have stored in a password-manager program so I don't know off hand what it is). When I clicked on the suntrust.com link, my browser vomited:

I closed the link without going further and forwarded the e-mail to emailabuse@suntrust.com as SunTrust requests. I got an automated reply right back but haven't heard a real response yet. I figure it is some phishing expedition, but it did look real enough for me to take the first step to destruction. I hope Firefox stopped me appropriately.

I got a similar warning a couple of days ago when I clicked through on a link in a comment on Volokh.com to a www.freeople.com web site which I just abandoned. Does anyone know if Firefox is just being very picky, or might these sites represent real danger?

You Might Be an Intellectual If . . .

. . . you read a news article about a plane crash caused by an escaped crocodile and think the most remarkable thing about it is that it contains an ungrammatical sentence construction.
(Check out this item from the most recent World Wide Words e-magazine that Michael Quinion publishes every week.

• Peter Smith read an item on Sky News, dated 22 October (Laurence May found the same piece on Yahoo! News), about a plane crash in the Congo that killed 20 people, including the pilot, Chris Wilson: “Generally viewed as being in a chronic state of disrepair, Mr Wilson had apparently expressed concern about the Czech-built Let-410 before the crash.”

I enjoy the World Wide Words newsletter each week and recommend you subscribe. It's free, so the price is right.

Where Soldiers Come From: Setting the Record Straight

On Tuesday, Richard Florida with the Atlantic magazine posted an article commenting on a speech Secretary of Defense Gates gave at Duke last week. Florida wrote

"The social divisions of class and inequality have always run through the military. Fighting forces have long been drawn disproportionately from lower-income, lower-skilled, and more economically disadvantaged populations."

I believe this is absolutely wrong! An article from the Heritage Foundation published in 2008 says:

"Based on an understanding of the limitations of any objective definition of quality, this report compares military volunteers to the civilian population on four demographic characteristics: household income, education level, racial and ethnic background, and regional origin. This report finds that:

"1. U.S. military service disproportionately attracts enlisted personnel and officers who do not come from disadvantaged backgrounds. Previous Heritage Foundation research demonstrated that the quality of enlisted troops has increased since the start of the Iraq war. This report demonstrates that the same is true of the officer corps.

"2. Members of the all-volunteer military are significantly more likely to come from high-income neighborhoods than from low-income neighborhoods . . . .

" 3. American soldiers are more educated than their peers . . . .

" 4. Contrary to conventional wisdom, minorities are not overrepresented in military service . . . .

"The facts do not support the belief that many American soldiers volunteer because society offers them few other opportunities. The average enlisted person or officer could have had lucrative career opportunities in the private sector. Those who argue that American soldiers risk their lives because they have no other opportunities belittle the personal sacrifices of those who serve out of love for their country."

See the linked article for the parts that were omitted (the . . .'s) in the interest of brevity. There is plenty of data and a number of charts to back up the above conclusions. I'm wondering where Florida came up with his facts from.

I left a comment last night asking if the author could resolve the apparent contradiction between his statement and the linked study, but the comment isn't posted yet. I believe it is still awaiting moderator approval, so perhaps the Atlantic is preparing an answer for me. At any rate, I wanted to post a response to these commonly held opinions that don't seem to agree with the facts.

Fifty Years Ago--My Rat Season

One of my great adventures in life began 50 years ago this week: I left home for Clemson College. I don't recall the exact date, but I believe it was Saturday after Labor Day since colleges started later then. My mother and sister drove me to Clemson with what of my possessions would fit in the back of our car (I'd shipped a foot-locker of clothes by bus the previous day), and I began my journey to adulthood. (I hope I arrive sometime soon.)

My first surprise on getting to Clemson was to find my roommate was someone I didn't expect. The college had assigned me a roommate, but that fellow had found another roommate, so I had George Sidroney, a Yankee from Metuchen, NJ, but we got along great.

George before Rat Season Started

I knew only one other person at Clemson that fall, a high school classmate, Fred Cleaves, so everyone I met that fall and everything I did was new. Every day was a new adventure. Only for the first week or so in the Army have I had so many new experiences all at one time.

Clemson had a very active "Rat" program for freshmen back then. It began right after each student got his freshman picture made for the school yearbook and lasted, traditionally, until the Clemson-South Carolina football game. Every freshman got his head shaved and had to wear a Rat Hat (beanie) at all times when on campus outside the dorms. Further, each "Rat" could be called on by upperclassmen to lead cheers in the dining hall during all meals. Punishment for Rat infractions was meted out by a Rat Court and could include having a Block C being shaved in whatever hair had grown back on the offenders head since the start of Rat Season.

My Rat Haircut

Fred Cleaves and me in our Rat Hats

Rat Season traditionally ended after the Clemson-USC football game if the Tigers won (and lasted until Thanksgiving if we lost), but 1960 was a problem because that was the first year the Big Game was played at the end of the season (rather than at the State Fair in mid-October), so the 1960 Rats were not happy about the additional several weeks of Rat Season.

Getting Our War Paint on

Ready to defend the campus.

The last Rat tradition of the year was for all Rats to paint their faces and join a student militia defense force to guard the campus before the Big Game with USC. I did my Rat duty and joined in the defense, staying out all night protecting our honor, but I must admit that more than once that night the phrase "Snipe Hunt" crossed my mind.

In the retrospection of 50 years, it is easy to see the good that Rat Season did. In addition to building an esprit from shared sacrifice, it allowed all incoming freshmen to start on an even (bald) field with each other. Without hair as an influence it was much easier to get to know guys as they really were, rather than being influenced by hair style.

We all survived Rat Season. For most, our hair grew back (though for some it was a temporary process), but the spirit we learn in those three months was permanent. I kept my Rat Hat handy for 45 years. I could probably even find it today.

The Old Rat Speaks in 2004

Theoretical Physicst Joke of the Day

Werner Heisenberg is stopped by a traffic cop who asks: "Do you know how fast you were going?" Heisenberg replies: "No, but I know exactly where I am."

I don't know much about physics, but this made me smile. (From my IBFF, third item). More info here.

The Best Job in the World!

Jeremy Clarkson has the best job in the world. First, consider this:

"More powerful than a McLaren F1" (2:00); " . . . the fastest road car in the world." (2:30); "It's just a ton-and-a-half of testosterone" (5:14)

Then, there's this:

"Sweet Mother of God this is fast!" (:20) and "Faster than the top speed of an Apache helicopter gunship!" (2:30).

Do jobs get any better than this?

When President Reagan Visited Greensboro Printing Company

One of my favorite bloggers, Ann Althouse, had a post today about a recent visit President Obama made to her home state of Wisconsin. I was reminded of the time President Reagan visited Greensboro Printing Company (well, sort of). It was a short visit in 1986, lasting only a couple of seconds in each direction on his way between the airport to a speech at the coliseum, but the GPC folks enjoyed the break and the chance to pay their respects. See some old pictures here.

I just had to join the ranks of the infamous AlthouseCommentors.

The Answer is "Chickensh**". What Is the Question?

Yep.

Best Kicker Headline of the Day: "Of Ire and Brimstone"

From my IBFF, this: "Churchgoers, strippers protest one another".

Every weekend for the last four years, Dunfee and members of his ministry have stood watch over George's joint, taking up residence in the right of way with signs, video cameras and bullhorns in hand. They videotape customers' license plates and post them online, and they try to save the souls of anyone who comes and goes.

Now, the dancers have turned the tables, so to speak. Fed up with the tactics of Dunfee and his flock, they say they have finally accepted his constant invitation to come to church.

It's just that they've come wearing see-through shorts and toting Super Soakers.

Where All That BP Oil Is

There seems to be some concern about where all the oil from the BP oil spill/leak in the Gulf of Mexico has gone. ABC News's report is here. I have a thought: maybe there just isn't that much oil to find. I did some figuring this morning. The EPA tells us that the Gulf of Mexico contains 6.43 x 10¹⁷ or 643 quadrillion gallons of water. The spill is said to be 200 million gallons (200 x 10⁶ gallons). By my math, that comes to about three gallons of oil in every 10⁹ (billion) gallons of water. Let's say for the sake argument that the spill area is only a thousandth of the Gulf. That makes the concentration in the spill area about 3 parts per million (ppm). The current legal EPA limit for oil discharge into the ocean is 15ppm--five times this calculated concentration. It looks like there just wasn't much oil in the spill/leak to begin with, so maybe it isn't missing.

"The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo"

I finished the book The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo this afternoon. I enjoyed it, and it wasn't at all what I expected. I agree with James Lileks' critique:

What began as a book that was either banal in execution or banal in translation, or both, ended up as a book where these deficiencies didn’t matter at all, thanks to the headlong rush of the story. I also enjoyed the sheer Swedishness of it all, whatever that means.

It did take almost half the book before the plot really took off, but it was well worth the effort. The book does make one wish he knew more about Sweden, particularly the geography. Now to see the movie and see how close the two are.

Extreme Photographic Time Exposures

My Internet BFF today had an article about some lovely photographic time exposures. I don't do much with time exposures because they generally require a tripod, which is too much trouble to carry most of the time. These are beautiful photographs and you'll enjoy seeing them. For example:

Crematorium

By SergioTudela

This gorgeous sunset over the Mediterranean on Andalusia's Costa del Sol was captured on a Nikon D80 with an exposure of five seconds, creating the delicate fluff of the blurred waves and the deep colouration of the sky and clouds.

On Friday, John Nack of Adobe Systems linked to some time exposures of a different scale. These use a pinhole camera and have exposure times of up to several years.

When I attended the Nikon School thirty years ago, the instructors said the least expensive photographic accessory was film, so they advised taking a lot of pictures. I suppose that is not an option for someone taking a year-long time exposure.

With the cost of "film" today virtually zero, it is easy to take a lot of pictures. Now we must remember the Nikon School advice on the easiest way to be a better photographer: "Don't Show All Your Pictures". It does take some discipline to put the not-so-good ones in a separate folder and only show the good ones, even if they didn't take a year to make.

Always Wear High-Visibility Safety Clothing

Top Gear's Jeremy Clarkson shows why an older person (or even a younger one for that matter) should always wear high-visibility safety clothing when driving:



The real action starts about a minute in. (I particularly liked the image of the snail on the track.)

Radly Balko, My New Internet BFF

I first heard of Radley Balko several years ago when the Blogfather linked to several articles he had written in defense of a wrongly accused man, Corey Maye. I have followed a number of other Blogfather links to Balko's writings, primarily about bad police no-knock drug raids. It wasn't until Prof. Reynolds went on vacation recently and had Balko as a regular substitute blogger that I had noticed his primary blog, The Agitator.

Since then I have been checking by the site regularly and now stop by each day. He always has some interesting non-political links. For instance, several days ago he pointed out one reason the newspaper business might be in such bad shape: there seems to be only one prop newspaper in all Hollywood. Then today he followed up with the explanation.

Further, today there were these click-worthy references. The Agitator is my new internet BFF.

O, Henry

Last Saturday was the centenary anniversary of William Sidney Porter's death. Today's Wall Street Journal has a nice article about Greensboro's most famous writer: His Writers' Workshop? A Prison Cell. I wrote some time ago about my favorite O. Henry story, "A Man About Town", here. It tells the story of Porter's search around New York to learn just precisely what a "man about town" was. At the end of the story he is struck by a car on the street and sent to the hospital. The story ends:

A hospital nurse laid a hand that was not particularly soft upon my brow that was not at all fevered. A young doctor came along, grinned, and handed me a morning newspaper.

"Want to see how it happened?" he asked cheerily. I read the article. Its headlines began where I heard the buzzing leave off the night before. It closed with these lines:

"Bellevue Hospital, where it was said that his injuries were not serious. He appeared to be a typical Man About Town."

There has always been a little confusion between the name of the candy bar "O'Henry" and the writer "O. Henry". When the Grasshoppers opened the new stadium downtown they had an area called the "O'Henry" something-or-other, and I pointed out to them that was like Baltimore recognizing the great baseball player Baby Ruth. In short order and with a nod to economy, "O'Henry became "O, Henry".

UPDATE:
Here is a photo of O, Henry. Note the reused apostrophe.

Updated Update for 50th High School Reunion

Lynn Black and I mis-communicated and she didn't get my updated Bio for the Greensboro High School Class of 1960 Reunion booklet, but never fear, here it is for all of you who just can't wait:

After we all got together at high school graduation, I graduated from Clemson University in chemical engineering, married my high school sweetheart Ann Winchester, got a graduate degree from Clemson, worked for Procter & Gamble in Cincinnati for a year, defended Baltimore harbor from the Viet Cong for two years while in the Army, and returned to Greensboro in 1968 to work for Dow Corning Corp. In 1971 I joined Greensboro Printing Company and worked there until it closed in 2001. (We zigged when we should have zagged.) After a stint as a salesman(?) with a printing company in Charlotte, between unemployment and retirement, I attended the Fine Furnituremaking Course at Rockingham Community College, and then I officially retired in 2007.

Ann and I were divorced in 1977 with no children. (Ann passed away from MS in 2002). After 13 years of marriage and 13 years of single-hood, I remarried in 1900 to Brenda Brewer and acquired two teen-age step-children. Brenda and I were divorced in 2003 and I have been single since.

As to hobbies and interests, I have been interested in photography since high school and am currently trying to make the transition to digital technology. I have made furniture as a hobby for many years and particularly enjoyed learning how to do it right at the RCC woodworking program. I have traveled extensively in Ireland and Spain and made several other interesting trips to France and Germany, and one particularly memorable seven-day-two-night business trip to Israel in 1998. I have almost given up my dream of winning the US Open golf championship after never
getting my handicap below 15, but maybe there is still hope. And, let's see, seven more years of single-hood then I should be ready to marry again in 2016, if the 13-year cycle holds up.

I look forward to renewing friendships from a half-century ago. High school was a special time for me. (Actually, life has been a special time for me!), I hope we have a memorable reunion.