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

GWN News: Washington Government Says Any Symptom Should Be Considered Malaria A new vaccine push was announced today by the CDC and Federal Government, with the release of 750 million doses of a new preventive Malaria shot named FU714B (Xzopholene  thermosis). The new shot has been given the nickname Big Sting because the needle is 7 inches long and the shot must be given in the hip or stomach to be absorbed.  Despite the fact that malaria is caused by a mosquito usually only found in extreme tropical environments and is not contagious and there are no reported cases in the United States except among refugees, the government and drug manufacturers claim that any symptom of anything should be considered to be malaria. "You can never be too sure," an unidentified source, not authorized to speak about it, said. "That skin rash or that sudden cough could possibly be malaria. That itchy eye or ear could be the deadly infection." The source also said the...

Greta can already see things I can't in the corner. The Ghost In The Corner Our dog, Scarlet, reacted the same way before she died.  She would often growl and bark at the same section of wall near the ceiling in our dining room. Now, Greta, our new Dobie does the same thing, only with more intensity. It took Scarlet years to accept the ghost in the corner. Greta does not like it and has yet to accept it. She did it last night several times. We were on the couch in the living room, and she had her head in my lap with a perfect view of the corner near the ceiling in the dining room. She suddenly jumped up and began growling and barking at the same spot.  I've long known that room has a lot of activity. It is the same room where I watched something I couldn't see tear down my Christmas tree in 2000. It had been my living room then. It is the same room where the lights would slowly dim out and then flash three times before going back to normal. There was nothing wr...

Neither the paper or the government gave any clue about what happened to David. The listing below from the Virtual Wall is for one of my buddies who was KIA in 1968, during an ambush where I should have been killed along with him. I was on the truck, but the company commander made me get off because I was too short (short-timer, not much time left in-country) because he didn't want to risk my being killed since I was just going along as an A-gunner for Chuck Searles in the back of the truck. Both Marines were killed that day. I made a comment on the wall years later, saying that I knew David and left my contact information. About six months later, I got a call from his older brother. His name was Walter. He wanted to know how David had died because no one in the government had ever told the family what had happened. So, thirty years after the war, I had to be the messenger. The convoy was ambushed. David's truck was dead in the road from being hit. Chuck was do...

(This is an article I wrote in 2007. Scarlet has since passed from cancer at age 10 and we miss her very much. This is sort of a tribute to her and helps us keep her memory alive in pictures. It also shows the importance of having proper grooming tools. So, following political examples, I take no blame for how much I goofed up while grooming the dog.) We have a list in our house of things I'm not allowed to do. I'm not allowed to touch the laundry. I can't cook, run the dishwasher, iron clothes, fix anything that breaks because I slam it or beat on it, and now I'm not allowed to groom the dog. Genetics made me a hunter-gatherer. It's not my fault. Like a male lion, I growl and stumble to the food, provide protection, and pretty much stay in a prone position. My wife likes it that way because objects remain intact. Last year we took our dog Scarlet (Australian-Shepherd mixed) to a groomer. They charged 70.00 and didn't do anything I ...

A rocket attack at Camp Books. Read comment below  from Mark Harms about this and other attacks. Near the finish of my Vietnam tour, I was with B Company 7th Motors at the north end of a small firebase called Camp Books. We were separated from the main base by water, pretty much isolating our group except for an access road. I had it good by Vietnam standards, compared to when I was with the grunt battalion. We had plywood buildings to sleep in when we weren't in fighting holes. Every other building had a bunker. The problem was I spent most nights in a perimeter fighting hole. While with B Company, I was on the receiving end of at least 300 rockets. The 122mm rocket is a killer. The enemy still uses it on our troops in Iraq today. You just don't hear about it much. The 122 is six feet long and carries a 40 pound TNT warhead up to six miles, fired from portable launchers. The 122 is unstable and cannot be set to strike a specific target. They aim it in the general ...

Dennis and Dorothy Marino (Latham) Our Big Band Show features swing, big band, some torch songs, and high quality vocals. Music Is A Lot Like Writing Fiction About eighteen months ago I decided to sing again, doing music I wanted to perform. I didn't care that I wouldn't be popular with younger crowds. Our market is the older crowd who remember the music. I blew chances to be a big time singer while a young man. I turned down offers that could have made me rich to stay with a road band because I thought we would make it in Nashville. When that all fell through, my window to the big time had closed and I quit singing for years. Now, I'm going to make the best of the remaining opportunity. My wife has a beautiful voice that is perfect for the difficult songs of singers like Etta James and Ella Fitzgerald. Real vocal talent is something you inherit. It can't be taught, despite what some voice teachers say. They make their living that way. But, you either have it o...

Three months after a benign bump was removed from my left parotid gland. I believe the stress on my immune system caused the shingle outbreak. Shingles       It’s been a bad year for me, or I should say the left side of my face and head. In April, I had the operation to remove a benign bump on the left side of my face, but they had to peel my face back to do it so the nerves wouldn’t be damaged. Then, my face swelled up for three months.   In August, I began to feel better and my face had pretty much returned to normal. On August 30, I had a headache that wouldn’t go away on the left side of my head and felt like I had a sty forming on my left eye or like I had something under the lid. (I never get headaches and I’ve never had a sty come out .)     Two days later, my left eyeball was bright red, my left forehead and scalp burned like a real bad sunburn when I touched it, and I had clusters of blisters on my left forehead and all through ...