Little Known Facts In A Strange World

The Crusader Moth (photo taken outside my kitchen window in 2006)
They say if you see one, you are a powerful white light warrior against evil or
doomed to be crazy. (I'll take the white light warrior part, please.)

The Famous Campers

Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, naturalist John Burroughs, and Harvey Firestone used to go on camping trips along the eastern coast. They brought a cook and five servants. A heavy truck carried their camping equipment, a refrigerator, and food. They would wander through small villages where Edison would often get them lost, but they brought an entire new concept to the world of camping. I visited the Edison house in Florida. They had light bulbs there that had been used daily since 1910 and still worked. Makes you wonder what happened in the process of manufacturing light bulbs because some don't last two weeks now. Could it be, uh, making money?

Mark Twain quotes:

"I believe our heavenly father invented me because he was disappointed in the monkey."

"Familiarity breeds contempt and children."

Geronimo

The Apache leader Geronimo always brings images of a fierce warrior leading his tribe in uprisings and terror. But his original name was Goyathlay which means "one who yawns". The Mexicans gave him the name Geronimo, which is Spanish for Jerome.

Soul Train

Soul Train was fun to watch, especially, the bizarre outfits and dancing, and the early television efforts of acts lip syncing. The first white act on Soul Train was a guy named Gino Vanelli. That was a surprise. He wore Big Yank work pants, and I imagine everyone wondered who he was and why he was there. I still wonder if anyone knows how Gino pulled that off. On the old Arsenio Hall show, Gino was a guest one night, and Arsenio cut to a commercial right as Gino started to perform. When they came back from commercial his act was over. I was pissed because I stayed up to watch Gino Vanelli perform.

Heart Disease

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 39.5% of Americans are at risk for heart disease because of inactivity. The percentages of U.S. adults with other key risk factors are: obesity, 33.9%; high blood pressure, 30.5%; cigarette smoking, 20.8%; high cholesterol, 15.6%; and diabetes, 10.1%.

In 2006, 81.1 million Americans, or 36.9% of the population, suffered from some form of heart disease.

(and another strange fact is that no matter what I did the font and spacing came out different on this last line.)

Comments

Vietnam: The Liberty Bridge

(This entry has had a lot of comments, and I'm glad it can help bring Nam vets together or to help find each other. If you have a comment, please attach your name to the comment or from this point forward it won't be published. I've received many comments that are phony and obviously made up, submitted by anonymous submission. I do screen all comments. Click the photo to enlarge. Semper Fi.) This is the Liberty Bridge (click to make larger) in Quang Nam Province in Vietnam during July of 1968. Of the 14,000 Marines killed in Vietnam, 10,000 were killed in Quang Nam Province. (Figures in comment section show a little under 7000 KIA in Quang Nam.) This was late in my tour on July 2. The bridge had been blown once again by the enemy to isolate the Marine base at An Hoa. I was a 50 caliber machine gunner on a convoy to resupply the An Hoa Firebase. I called this the River Styx because it had a ferry boat. Once you crossed the river you entered a nightmare hell on earth cal...

The Jesus Moth

Photo taken through a window screen. I had just gone over the first print copy of The Bad Season on July 22, 2006. I walked over to the window and saw this moth on my outside air conditioner unit. It was the most bizarre thing I had seen in a long time. I retrieved my digital camera and snapped a picture through the glass and the window screen before going outside in a failed to attempt to capture the moth. I contacted a moth expert. He told me what kind of moth it was, but added that he had never seen one with a cross on its back like this one. I call it the Jesus Moth, the Crusader Moth, or maybe the Infidel Moth. The syndicates wanted me to give it to them for free. They said they don't take pics from non-employees because "we would actually have to pay you for it." Hmm, what a novel concept, getting paid for something. I offered to swap for a syndicated story about my book. They refused. So I copyrighted the entire pic (the one below is a fragment from that p...

The Old Corps: Marine Corps Boot Camp 1966

BLT 1/3 USMC 1967 Vietnam Boot Camp Hell I recently saw a video of what I assume was the current Marine Corps Boot Camp. It mentioned recruits reporting any abuse right away and the DI was trying to be tough (and he did sound tough to an extent), but underneath it all you could tell the old Corps was gone in the civilian desire (political desire by people who never served) to make things easier and less traumatic for the boots. They never mentioned abuse to us in 1966 because we were abused 24/7. I'm an old Corps Hollywood Marine (that's an inside Marine joke about the difference between boot camp in Parris Island or San Diego.) The boots in Parris Island claimed they had it rougher because they had swamps. The Hollywood Marines had mountains. I would rather walk in water than climb mountains so I disagree. I entered the Marine Corps on August 10, 1966. Marines had been in Vietnam for over a year. All of us would probably go to Nam. For some of us it woul...

Dennis Latham: Life, Fiction, and the Pursuit of Madness

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