Message From Benjamin's Heart

Noonday Creek Trail, Bells Ferry Rd to Kennesaw Mountain

This is not me biking.  However I have pedaled from the Noonday Creek Trail parking lot and huffed and puffed and got halfway through the office park before you get to Cobb parkway.  I think Jay Davee made this excellent video

I wondered what streets in the office park would take you to Cobb Parkway, and now I know without doing all that work huffing and puffing.  The ride didn't stop at Cobb Parkway, like I thought, but I enjoyed the ride all the way to the Kennesaw Museum parking lot.
Great ride!

HAPPY FAT TUESDAY!

SHOW ME YOUR TA TAs !

Happy FAT TUESDAY!

Sam's (1941-2013) Birthday

Sam, my best man at our wedding

My friend Sam Carslely would have been 77 today.  But he took his own life April Fool's Day, in  2013. 

From his experiences with his mother's decline with Altymizer disease he knew he had it and he did not want to put his wife Lita through the same hardship.

Sam and I knew each other since baby-hood.  We lived down the street from him in the Clay Homes and were lifetime close friends.  His father, Norman Carsley, born in Great Britian, joined the Navy when we got into War World II, and was killed on a ship by a Japanese Kamikaze plane.  My father tried to give special attention to Sam as we grew up, he knew every growing  kid needed a father.
Sam, although well educated and well salaried, lived a humble life.   He bought our house when shortly after Rocky was born and we needed a bigger house.  I don't think he made one change of the house, up until the day he died. 

He compulsively felt "don't have it if you don't need it".  He one time went to great lengths looking for a phone that did not have a dial on it.  The house we sold him, he used one room as an exercise room, he wanted a phone in that room in case he got a call while exercising, but he saw no reason the phone should have a dialer because he wouldn't be calling anybody from that room.

He was an expert photographer, which he introduced me to.  He was an aquired comic book collector and connesieur as well as science fiction books... which gave me an insight on my literature taste.
I could go  on and on and almost fill a book of Sam's compulsive behavior  quirkiness, kind heartedness, perfectionism,  and so on.

I  want to tell of two of our nerdy adventures when he was Georgia Tech student studying physical engineering.

Sam figured out that if you throw a paper air plain off the Allatona Dam on the Etowah Valley side a constant west wind that is always coming down the valley will like it always does, swoop up the high dam and if you so-happened to throw a hand-folded paper airplane off the dam on that side it will be launched upward.  We brought a stack of notebook paper to the dam and started making them and throwing them off and watching fly upward then downward, until it hit the updraft and it would sore upward again.  We did about 20 paper air planes and it was a crazy sight.  It looked like the planes were having cat fights, bumping into each other,  and all.  They showed no signs of landing when we suddenly left after we saw the sign not to throw anything off.

Another time he learned about inertia motion or energy which also has a simple version of Einstein's Theory of Relativity.  He used as a example standing in the aisle of a bus with the bus traveling.  If the bus suddenly stopped the person standing in aisle would feel a motion trying to thrust him forward.  Because you are moving at the same speed the bus is.  If you would jump up in the air when the bus suddenly stop you would keep moving, maybe ramming the dash of the bus.  Along that same time Sam had just  bought a used 56 green and white Chevrolet convertible in very good shape.  He wanted to prove the movement theory.  It was a nice night to ride around in a convertible with the top down anyway.  For some reason I don't remember we went to Paulding County, on a dirt road near the Dallas Drag Strip to do our experiment.  We were to get up speed, then when Sam said NOW! I was to throw a beer can I was holding straight up and at the same moment he was to stop.

NOW!  I threw the can up. The car stopped.

WHAM!  It landed on the car's  hood and left a bad looking mark.

My parents' 50th, Ed West, Mama, Sam (front row)

back row Barbara and Larry White

Sam and Lita Carsley

Our 50th Anniversary - Minus Us

Last December the 9th (2017) was our 50th Wedding Anniversary.  Our sons Rocky and Adam, and Rocky's wife Sabrina, and Adam's girlfriend Savvy made plans for a 50th Wedding Anniversary bash in a cabin in Helen, Georgia.

The reason Helen was decided on is that is where we spent our Honeymoon 50 years ago, in nearby Unicoi State Park.  

But the night before departure a big snow storm covered the area.  We could not get out of driveway.  However, the others had no problem.


Our power was out for almost three days.  Shivering.
On the other hand Rocky, Sabrina, Benjamin, Adam, and Savvy had a great time celebrating our Anniversary, frolicking in the snow, and building a snowman.

Savvy took these great pictures:

Today is National Inventors' Day

Today is National Inventors' Day (which coincides with Thomas Edison's birthday).  

These wacky inventions were created by cartoonist Rube Goldberg who became famous for his unusual inventions in a comic strip.

click on to make bigger and wackier.

SUNDAY FUNNIES!! MAD'S Slow Motion

Now that the 2018 Winter Olympics are at full bloom I thought Sunday Funnies, might include sports.  I did a lot of research looking for any completive sporting events, other than baseball or football and couldn't remember any in MAD comics.   But I did remember this, which is a study of slow motion*, which they probably will do a lot of that over the upcoming week.

It is the only way I could think of to get onto the bandwagon.

Of course you already know to click on each page to be able to read captions and see what is going on.

*MAD Comicbook #21, mid 1950s, story by editor Harvey Kurtzman and illustrated by Georgia's own, Jack Davis

Rodney Berg's post

Trump's Mental Illness Is Well Defined By Psychologists...

Click on to enlarge to read:

Warning! Nerds With Drones!

Drones Olympic Rings - CLICK HERE

Man!  During the Olympic Opening Ceremonies I was totally impressed by the hundreds of drones forming the perfect Olympic Circles.

Their engineering and drone-pilotingship is beyond what my mind can comprehend.  The only thing I can say is:

WOW!

During the ceremonies it was mentioned that playing electronic games has become an addiction and there are medical institutions in South Korea and China that specializes curing this addiction. 

I wonder should they?  I think the electronic compulsive gamers are probably the ones  did the impressive Drone-Olympic Rings Show.

And what is scary is these well synchronized Drones team could do tricks in war people have never dreamed of.

Cobb County Dog Lovers

Dog lovers:  Stephen, a dog park friend, told me near his house he constantly sees an old homeless dog.  The dog hangs out in a vacant area, next door to a bank behind Carol's Cafe, near the corner of Barrett Parkway and Bells Ferry Road.

Stephen said it is a gentle old dog.  He has left him food and treats.  Sometimes he sees the dog lying in the sun.

We were wondering why this dog is there.  Probably his previous owner dumped him  there.  And the dog, having positive thoughts about his master, is waiting for him to return.

That is just speculation.  I have no idea why it is  there.  But, I bet a new home would be nice.

No Testicles

If I created an institution for higher learning and took in a lot money and then a large percent of the tuition paid students demanded their money back and I had to settle out of court paying about $25 million I don't think I would not have the balls to call anyone else a crook.

Throwback Thursday, 1965 NY World's Fair

Throwback Thursday: 1965 NY World's Fair.  In the right of center, near the bottom are three lovely women:  My two sisters Bonnie and Frances Hunter, and my Mama, Ethel America "Janie" Petty Hunter.

The second picture is Mama at the China Pavilion haggling over merchandise on display in the true spirit of dealing with street vendors.

The third picture is Janie with the Hudson River and Bear Mountain State Park behind her - and to her right, which is out of view is West Point.
And Bonnie at the Metropolitan Art Museum on 5th Avenue, NYC. 

And that's me behind the camera.

I was stationed in Lakehurst, New Jersey.  Frances drove them up.  They met me and we drove Carmel, NY, about sixty miles above New York City to visit with Mama's brother Roy for a couple of days.

Then the NY World's Fair.

Then, the next day I gave them a whistle stop tour of New York City.

Two Quotable Quotes

1st person:  Today is Thursday.
2nd person:  No, today is Wednesday.
1st person:  No, it is thursday.
2nd person:  "Last night we watched THE MIDDLE.  THE MIDDLE is on Tuesday nights! (a slam dunk)".

and


Benjamin, "I am not silly, I am happy."

Philosophy From the Bench

From a UNCLE JOHN'S BATHROOM READER:

During Soccer's '06 World's Cup, Germany's heart-attack rate tripled on the Days the Germany team played.

Really?  I cannot understand that.  But, knowing how people get so worked up over the World Series and the Super Bowl, it is believable.

The "Why?" I just can't understand.

Back when I was on a baseball team I took it to heart when I overheard an adult say, "It's just a game."

But I sat on the bench all my two year Little League career.

Today In History: Feb 6, 1862

1862 Feb 6th  American Civil War: Naval engagement on Tennessee River, USS Conestago vs CSS Appleton Belle.
Which reminds me of my great-g-grandfather Jason Henderson Hunter.  During  the Civil War his unit that he was the commanding officer of, main function was to attack Federal ships on the Mississippi River, operating out Missouri.

Below  is an email I received from from a person who had did some research.  I don't know if he dropped dead or fail off the face of the earth shortly after he sent it, I tried several times to reach him with no success:

I had a chance to do some more research for my book at Tulane University's Special Collections Library (background on M. Jeff Thompson, who Jason Hunter served under) and also to visit the Confederate Museum. I'm amassing a lot of information on Jason's confederate military career both ashore and afloat and I know you will find this interesting. Brig. Gen. M. Jeff Thompson, Missouri's Swamp Fox, said Jason was both heroic and patriotic. I'm off tomorrow to Sikeston, Missouri (still on vacation, but still searching for Jason's history). Jason and his men did a lot of fighting around Sikeston and I'm hoping to get up to Marble Hill, MO (formerly Dallas township) in Bollinger County, where Jason as a Captain raised a company for military service. I found some information on Jason in the Sikeston library, but need to spend more time in the area.
     He was a representative from Bollinger CO in 1858. Also, according to the "History of Bollinger County: 1851-1976", Three companies of men were organized into a battalion of the State Guard troops under his command in early June 1861. In July, the battalion was joined with the Scoitt County Infantry Battalion into the Second Infantry Regiment, First Division Missouri State Guard, with the Bollinger County Battalion designated as the Second Battalion, Second Infantry. Brig. Gen. M. Jeff Thompson (the Missouri Swamp Fox) was the head of the First Division. : I agree with you that Andrew J. and John A. are one and the same. My theory is that at age 13 or 14 in 1860--14 and 15 during the civil war outbreak--he may have gone with his father's battalion as a drummer boy...and been killed somewhere along the way. Of course, during those times in Bollinger CO, it
was literally neighbor against neighbor. In Missouri, in certain counties like Bollinger where the sentiments were about evenly split between Union and Confederate, it was '"hell on earth" for civilians. Maybe Andrew J. or John A. was killed by one of the guerrilla bands that frequented the area. One other possibility: Maybe Jason sent the family further south for protection (many
Missourians favoring the South did so).
     My interest in finding out everything I can about him stems from a book I have been researching. The main character in my book (a Union officer) was first wounded in a skirmish with Jason and his men in Charleston, MO on Aug. 20, 1861. It has taken a lot of time just to identify Jason H. Hunter as the leader of the band. I started with a "Col. Hunter" and that was it! This was
complicated by the fact that Jason and his men were based at one time or another at "Camp Hunter" and "Hunter's Farm", two places owned by another segment of the Hunter family..
     I appreciate the info on Jason as a member of Co A, 1st Bat, Mo Infantry and the fact that he was later elected Captain and served as Inspector and Mustering Officer. This was after he was court martialed and broken. Prior to that he was a Colonel. After being broken he joined Col. William L. Jeffers' 8th Missouri Cavalry Regiment, CSA, and saw frequent action in Arkansas. (More
later).
     Bollinger CO. Marble Hill is the county seat, not Cape Girardeau. It was originally named Dallas and had that name during the civil war. Unfortunately I didn't get up to Bollinger CO on my trip to Sikeston, but plan to next time. I did find out that Jason was a Bollinger representative 1858-1860. Also the William Grimsley that was ruled against by the court along with Jason was a
storekeeper in Dallas who raised troops along with Jason. I think the court's ruling against the two was probably for alleged damages during the war and since neither was living in the county it was easy to dispose of their property.
     I am checking on William L. Jeffers, Jason's old commander in the 8th Missouri Cavalry. After the war, he returned to Southeast Missouri, settling in Clarkton, where he operated a hotel and served as the local peace officer. He then spent his remaining years running a hotel in Dexter, MO. It is said he was always interested in the welfare of the ex-Confederate soldiers, so I'm working on the hunch that he and Jason communicated. I also plan to check out William C. Grimsley (the guy who lost his land along with Jason in the Bollinger CO court). Maybe he settled near Jason or at least kept in touch. Who knows? Hopefully, I can track down more correspondence of Jason's.
     Yes, William Jeffers was quite a man. Some time after he died, his old comrades in arms raised money and erected a statue in Jackson, MO (his hometown) to honor him. It is still there. Some of the troops that rode with him were: the James brothers, the Younger brothers and Daniel McGee.
  -Excerpts from e-mail notes of Richard "Rich" Wright - 1998

Aloha From Florida

Aloha From Florida (Disney World)

Via

Howdy Y'all! from Georgia

Lord Bates and Me, We Are Just Alike

In the British Parliament's House of Lords member Lord Bates was tardy. Disgracefully, he resigned and walked out.  He said he held himself to a higher standard than that.

The prime minister had to coach him back.

That reminds me of me the one time I was late.

When I worked at the Atlanta Post Office in the time keepers' office.  Regardless of the weather, I was always at least thirty minutes early.

Occasionally someone would ask me how come I was always early.  I always replied, "What if there was a wreck or something with traffic backed up?"

And one time that is exactly what happened, a wreck.  Two lanes of traffic was blocked plus gawkers slowed my commute down.  I hit the time clock 5 minutes late.

The head of the data collection center (time keeping) wrote me up.  Although, legally employees had a 5 minute leeway to prevent congestion at the time clocks, he wrote me up and made a big deal out of it.

I asked him why, because some my coworkers were always running in 10 to 20 minutes late, complaining about the traffic.

He said, "I expect more from YOU!"

Which was a racist statement.  He and I were the only whites that worked in the office on that shift.

Today Is Boy Scout Day

HAPPY BOY SCOUT DAY!

1980s:  Brothers Rocky & Adam Hunter

1950s:  Troop 132. Our pack, I forgot our name.

That is me closest to camera saying "CHEESE!"

SUNDAY FUNNIES!!! Fabulous Furry Brothers, again

We haven't had the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers in SUNDAY FUNNIES in a long time.

Created and drawn by Gilbert Shelton (The same brought you WONDER WART HOG).

PPSSSt!  Besure and click on each picture so you can read the balloons and see what is gong on.

Who Needs a Proof Reader?

Throwack Thursday: This is my Daddy, Ed Hunter. This picture was taken at the Marietta Police Station when it was on Atlanta Street in the late 1940s. I think he was chief then. I remember it was taken to illustrate how a policeman should not dress. The badge is upside down and might be on the wrong side, and so on.

I put the above post on Facebook one year ago today.  Facebook allows you to get more mileage out of your posts, allowing you to post an anniversary post every day if you feel the need.

Today I re-posted the above.  The first thing I noticed was the very first word is plainly misspelled.

Darn!

I am my own worst proof-reader.

But at least I'm in good company, if you consider the President of the United States good company.
Here are a few samples from his tweets:

Lasting Peach (Peace)
Tapp (Tap) phone
No Challenge To (Too) Small

Covfefe.  People are still wondering what he meant by Covfefe.

Silent But Deadly

And then we were in a new/used bookstore browsing.

The only other person there was the employee, a young lady behind a high counter reading.

On each side of the store was a row of cubicles.  I think each cubical had books sorted to it of certain subjects.

I wandered towards the back looking inside each cubical.  In the last cubicle I let loose a silent fart.

As I moved up front I noticed the wretched fart smell following me.  It seemed to be clouding up the whole room.

As I rushed down the book cubicles I felt like Indiana Jones running from a giant sphere-shape boulder right on my heels.
I got to the front of the store and Anna asked did I "let air in there?"

Yes.

I hope we didn't leave the young lady gagging for air.

Throwback Thursday: Bus, Zelma, and Jerry Hunter

Throwback Thursday:   Tuesday I was given a copy of my uncle and aunt  Bus (1906-2005) and Zelma Ogle (1909-1999) Hunter .  In this portrait they look like they have already survived their son Jerry, a pilot, being shot down in Vietnam (1966)

Jerry was one month older than I.  Now, he is eternally 25.