Government replacing everything

Where innovation once led America, government now rules.

Modernized winter holiday songs

I saw Daddy Kissing Santa Claus

Illegally Occupied Town of Bethlehem

Judenfrei Night

In the garden of the Hemingway House

He was a well-off man, financially. He had enough money for houses in several places – Florida, Arkansas, Idaho, Cuba, probably others.

Sitting on a bench outside the house, shaded by bamboo, I realized: He didn’t have as much stuff as a 2016 American who lives below the Federal Poverty Line.

Hemingway House, Key West, Florida

Nice place, well-equipped for its time. Pictures of Hemingway, with Ingrid Bergman, with a Cuban in October 1960, on his boat Pilar.

There were no pictures of Hemingway with a dead lion or big horn sheep or elk, or any other animal he was known to have killed on safari or hunting trip. No safari pictures at all, and only one of Hemingway with a big marlin.

Several years ago I saw a short film of Hemingway on safari – Hemingway and his gun bearer at the right-hand side, a black-maned lion charging in a full-out run, intent on killing Hemingway and the gun bearer. Hemingway tracked the lion, shot it at around 20 feet. The lion rolled over, dying close enough Hemingway leaned forward and put a just-in-case bullet into it.

Now that would have been a good thing to show to tourists.

Illusions at sea

Three lights hung in the dark ocean sky, two reds and a white, three inches above the eastern horizon. On a clock face, the reds would have been at one o’clock and four o’clock, the white at 10 o’clock. After I had watched for less than a minute, all three lights began descending, each taking a 45-degree dive toward the ocean. The lights continued to descend long after they should have disappeared. It is understandable, why there are reports of lights going into the ocean – the Underwater Unidentified Flying Objects.

But the lights I saw did not reach the ocean; they just kept descending.

Won’t you let me take you on a sea cruise

That’s what my wife said, sort of. Several months ago she informed me she and three other wives were booking a cruise, and did I want to go? Other husbands had agreed to accompany the wives.

My only other trip on a ship was in early spring, 1965, Oakland to the Republic of Korea, on a Navy troop ship. The trip was uneventful and rather enjoyable. I had no duties, other than keep my area clean (a canvas hammock) and shave every day, as any soldier should. The ship stopped in Pearl Harbor, Guam, Yokohama, Okinawa and then anchored off Inchon, where we soldiers boarded an LCI (Landing Craft Infantry) for the trip to shore. Pacific Ocean, warm weather, lie on deck – what’s not to like? The ship even had a library.

So, 51 (not far from 52) years later, civilian ship, Key West to somewhere in Honduras to somewhere in Guatemala to somewhere in Mexico and return to Tampa. Food was OK, for the most part. The weather was fine.

We got back this morning.

Overall thought, as written by Chuck Berry: I’m so glad I’m living in the USA.

This should have made the list

of World’s Strangest Airports.

“Phuket International Airport (Thai: ท่าอากาศยานภูเก็ต) (IATA: HKT, ICAO: VTSP) is an international airport serving Phuket Province of Thailand. It is in the north of Phuket Island, 32 kilometres (20 mi) from the centre of Phuket City. … Phuket Island is a popular resort destination.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phuket_International_Airport

Bangkok, Phuket … What is one to make of Thailand?