You are currently browsing the monthly archive for December 2012.
(Avatar Magic, by Gerald Franquemont, is on Kindle and can be downloaded onto most computers or reading devices.)
I used to swim in a nearby pond with friends, we called it bare ass pond for about only one reason. It was a crystal clear body of water with a white sandy bottom with a shore line that was surrounded by heavy forest. For the most part the pond was only about 4 feet deep, but it supported a fine array of pan fish that were fun to fly fish for. And though any body of water in Florida may host alligators of various sizes, I felt secure swimming out into this pond, since the clear water helped a person see any gators that might be close by, and I always thought I could at least out swim a few others that were in the pond should trouble arise.
In fact, though plenty of people swim in cypress waters in Florida, water that turns a brownish color from the tannin found in the cypress tree leaves and stems that grow along any bank, I have always thought it nuts to do so. To me you’d have to be using air for brains to swim in dark, gator infested waters. But, I do have to say that I’m only one dive short from being in this same boat as I’ve often fished a swamp loaded with gators that have scared the bejeebers out of me. The only real difference between me and them tannin water swimmers is that I am me and they are nuts.
But to the credit of dark tannin water enthusiastic swimmers I have to agree that most gators are small, and they would rarely attack a human-like this one recently caught in Florida, south of Ocala:
whoops,,,,this one might have some size going on.
How about alligator wrestling this one?
but if you are me, I still wish this one had been left alone.
I don’t really understand why people feel they have to hunt down most large animals or reptiles. Sure, they don’t play chess and will never negotiate, but for how many years did this reptile struggle to survive, hiding out, carefully hunting and not mixing with people? I know, it’s hard to hug a gator. Reader John-thanks for the pics.
ON ANOTHER NOTE—–Here in Florida wood piles are nearly non-existent. Think about that all you Northern cousins and friends of mine!/!?!? Please enjoy these wonderful pics of wood piles sent to me by reader Mary–thank you so much for these Mary. Here’s a few run-of-the-mill wood piles- 
Have a wonderful, warm Holiday—–and come on down, but stick to the clear water when you swim!!!
Franque23
(Avatar Magic, by Gerald Franquemont, is on Kindle and can be downloaded onto most computers or reading devices.)
I can’t say how many times I’ve done displays or Bulletin Boards here in Florida that have had snow in them. It’s a safe bet that we won’t see snow this Holiday Season down here, though we did last year- flurries in a strong wind that dusted fields and blew the white stuff across the roads. But snow or not, I’ve always romanticized about kicking back and reading a good book during the Winter Holidays, and not just since I came to be a Library Specialist some 19 years ago. A good seat, a warm place with a cat sitting on the pages of your book, there’s nothing like it, especially if you add hot cocoa or hot apple cider with cinnamon sticks.
This board is a simple 3-d, using trees that I’ve used before, along with a few sketched figures, and of course using glitter-my present this year from work was a pepper shaker full of glitter. They don’t call me glitter boy at work for nothin’!!!
Please enjoy! Oh and be sure to click on the pics to find their ID page and then click again on that to make the pics larger; that’s the only way you can catch the squirrel reading in the tree:-)
Have the best Holiday this week, and I’ll be writing again this week (that’s a warning:-))
Grins; Peace, wouldn’t that be nice?!?!?!
Franque23
Avatar Magic, By Gerald Franquemont, is now on Kindle and it can be downloaded onto most computers and reading devices.)
In the wake of the recent school shooting we have a barrage of point counter point conversations going on in the media. This is not the time to ask the largest questions surrounding the issue of gun control. It is time to make the simple answers to our immediate problems come to light. Children in schools need our protection from anyone who might harm them. How to do that is straight forward, and perhaps easy to answer.
The first thing people do when they want to safeguard something they have is to lock it up.
All schools should issue passes to all people who legitimately will need access to a specific school ground for a specific year, or period of time. No pass; no entry. What we need is, when possible, to fence entire school grounds with entrance check points where cars or pedestrians will stop and show all their passes at an entrance inspection station. Once inside the fenced, or outside protected area, All people will pass through a metal detector that has security people standing nearby. These two actions will mean that we have only unarmed people, but for those safeguarding the children, who all belong in our school buildings. Thing is fences, as Mexico so astutely has shown , are made to be climbed, so cameras must video perimeter fences, or boundaries, of all school buildings 24/7 and transmit easily observed images on screens located in viewing stations that are at each school site.
Expensive? Yes, all this security will be very expensive, but our children will be safe in school. It is estimated that raising a child to 18 years of age in the Southern States of America cost $267,000.00 today, but of course a life is worth much more than that. It is not too costly to safe guard our children in school, but fool hearty not to do so. America’s budget pie is very large, and our public schools should get to take the first bite.
When you think about it, it hasn’t been very long since Mankind first began to realize that the tons of poison’s we put in the air as industrialized societies would ever come back down and cause us a world of problems. That’s odd, but we are a young people in the scope of the Universe, this has to be, for only us being a young people could explain our infinite lack of knowledge of the Universe as well as our faulty reasoning. In Time, the Earth’s people will learn as one people, but when will that time come? Some questions can never be answered; some questions befuddle people, and cause other answers to different questions that are readily available never to come to light. This is not a time for America to be befuddled as a country.
Put the most enthusiastic NRA people together in a room along with those who most want guns abolished in America and they still would all agree on at least one agenda today: we want our children protected in schools. And I suggest that the school shootings this past week have nothing to do with God’s plan, but rather that this act, and many others like it, represent Mankind’s folly at its worst. We can’t let our leaders add to our short comings while they debate the larger issues about mass shootings that may take years to hash out within the corridors of power. It’s time to solve the simple task of keeping our children safe in public schools.
Keep the question simple and the answer is clear enough.
No one lives alone on this Earth; we all stand together as one people. Americans need to think as one people. These are our children. Lets make it safe for them to learn how to live.
Franque23
Avatar Magic, By Gerald Franquemont, is now on Kindle and it can be downloaded onto most computers and reading devices.)
About the only snow I’ll see this year in Florida will be on my TV screen. But much of the Nation is bracing for Winter and for the snow that it will bring to their area.
There are some really good things about a heavy snowfall . First off, if you are a child in school, you might get the day off. These snow days were the point of most of my prayers as kid, and even the reason my friends and I once ran away from the bus stop proclaiming our own snow day on account of the depth of the white stuff around us. I did get a sinking feeling in my stomach when that school bus drove away down our street as we hid in the bushes, but that wasn’t the end of the world as I had expected it might be.
I spent restful moments up in my room at night watching the snow flakes drift past the street light that stood the corner of our driveway. There is a unique silence to a snow fall, and no matter if the flakes drive hard through the air or meander randomly with the wind, the ground accumulation these flakes cause always radiated a sense of peace from the yards and roads within our neighborhood. But each flake also meant possible employment to me as a driveway shovel man. The three to five bucks I could earn shoveling was no chump change back then, ( 1779 or so)but I hated getting taken by people who promised one price but paid another, or then there were those who enlisted me to shovel a driveway but apparently meant their walks and porches as well when it came to paying up. Sometimes us kids had taken enough of the sleight-of-hand verbal agreements and we’d throw snowballs at some garage doors in the evening just to get even for the flim-flam. We were a tough bunch back then huh?
And who didn’t love making snow angels in the newly snow-covered lawns? A fresh snow laden lawn that featured not a foot print in it was like finding gold. I’d run as fast as I could through the pristine white powered landscape, 
cutting my trail back and forth upon it until it was time to search for another clean snowy surface to flop in, or build snowmen in, or roll down slopes on or to build forts of various sizes and purposes on. Igloos built by me and my friends that featured amazing architectural designs often dotted our street; once inside these structures I couldn’t wait to get outside of them so that I might scurry back inside of them again. Not so much like this,…..
But maybe more like……
And there were so many hot mugs of cocoa full of melting marshmallows that miraculously arrived into our out-stretched hands from the kitchens of the stay home mothers; we’d stick the mugs in the snow to cool them off. BTW, stay home mom’s were another great feature of my life as a kid: who else could make sure that warm dry clothing awaited children as they returned home from a hard day of tumbling in the snow?
Once I grew older I’d go out at night when it was snowing to walk several blocks in order to listen to my footfalls crunch beneath my feet and to watch my breath puff out from my mouth as briefly appearing wisps of smoke.
I’d meet neighbors sometimes as I walked. ….
My sledding days were mostly over, and the peace that came with a nighttime snowfall somehow took the burden of growing up off my heart momentarily. I didn’t pray so much for snow days anymore as I had guy and girl friends to see the next day in school. I mostly spent my nighttime walks reminiscing about the days before my brother and sister had taken off to college, and about the carefree days I spent running amuck as a kid without a worry or agenda in sight.
Of course, I’m not forgetting how the freezing cold car seat stuck to my ass on those early school mornings, there were no seat warmers back then( 1790), and driving(okay 1963) to work or school through snow isn’t perfect. But the wonderful windowsill icicles, puffs of frozen breath, fluffy kicks of dry crystallized snow, the rosy cheeks of friends and warming mittens hung by our living room’s fireplace made snow worth the salted roads. I’ve got nothing, however, when it comes to days old, black, wet snow. That should be stopped, somehow, any way possible. Perhaps the best idea is to first buy stock in bleach and then suggest to Congress that we bleach old snow so it stays white, though that may not be such a Green idea? But snow is meant to be white right? I can hear the debate now.
I know from my lifetime friends who live in the Adirondacks that Winter gets long; it can be depressing by March. But when this kind of mood strikes, I hope some of my memories about snow might brighten your fluffy stuff, keep it white a bit longer, and warm your heart as well….Happy December.
Even dogs liked our snow forts.
Franque23
(This is an ingenious letter written in 1784 by the then 78 year old Ben Franklin. He sent this to his contemporaries living in England, and I found the tone of it exceptional in light of the actual contentious relationship he had with some of them. And of course, how educated the writing. Please enjoy the best post I could think to put out today.-Franque23.)
To THE AUTHORS of
The Journal of Paris
1784
MESSIEURS,
You often entertain us with accounts of new discoveries. Permit me to communicate to the public, through your paper, one that has lately been made by myself, and which I conceive may be of great utility.
I was the other evening in a grand company, where the new lamp of Messrs. Quinquet and Lange was introduced, and much admired for its splendour; but a general inquiry was made, whether the oil it consumed was not in proportion to the light it afforded, in which case there would be no saving in the use of it. No one present could satisfy us in that point, which all agreed ought to be known, it being a very desirable thing to lessen, if possible, the expense of lighting our apartments, when every other article of family expense was so much augmented.
I was pleased to see this general concern for economy, for I love economy exceedingly.
I went home, and to bed, three or four hours after midnight, with my head full of the subject. An accidental sudden noise waked me about six in the morning, when I was surprised to find my room filled with light; and I imagined at first, that a number of those lamps had been brought into it; but, rubbing my eyes, I perceived the light came in at the windows. I got up and looked out to see what might be the occasion of it, when I saw the sun just rising above the horizon, from whence he poured his rays plentifully into my chamber, my domestic having negligently omitted, the preceding evening, to close the shutters.
I looked at my watch, which goes very well, and found that it was but six o’clock; and still thinking it something extraordinary that the sun should rise so early, I looked into the almanac, where I found it to be the hour given for his rising on that day. I looked forward, too, and found he was to rise still earlier every day till towards the end of June; and that at no time in the year he retarded his rising so long as till eight o’clock. Your readers, who with me have never seen any signs of sunshine before noon, and seldom regard the astronomical part of the almanac, will be as much astonished as I was, when they hear of his rising so early; and especially when I assure them, that he gives light as soon as he rises. I am convinced of this. I am certain of my fact. One cannot be more certain of any fact. I saw it with my own eyes. And, having repeated this observation the three following mornings, I found always precisely the same result.
Yet it so happens, that when I speak of this discovery to others, I can easily perceive by their countenances, though they forbear expressing it in words, that they do not quite believe me. One, indeed, who is a learned natural philosopher, has assured me that I must certainly be mistaken as to the circumstance of the light coming into my room; for it being well known, as he says, that there could be no light abroad at that hour, it follows that none could enter from without; and that of consequence, my windows being accidentally left open, instead of letting in the light, had only served to let out the darkness; and he used many ingenious arguments to show me how I might, by that means, have been deceived. I owned that he puzzled me a little, but he did not satisfy me; and the subsequent observations I made, as above mentioned, confirmed me in my first opinion.
This event has given rise in my mind to several serious and important reflections. I considered that, if I had not been awakened so early in the morning, I should have slept six hours longer by the light of the sun, and in exchange have lived six hours the following night by candle-light; and, the latter being a much more expensive light than the former, my love of economy induced me to muster up what little arithmetic I was master of, and to make some calculations, which I shall give you, after observing that utility is, in my opinion the test of value in matters of invention, and that a discovery which can be applied to no use, or is not good for something, is good for nothing.
I took for the basis of my calculation the supposition that there are one hundred thousand families in Paris, and that these families consume in the night half a pound of bougies, or candles, per hour. I think this is a moderate allowance, taking one family with another; for though I believe some consume less, I know that many consume a great deal more. Then estimating seven hours per day as the medium quantity between the time of the sun’s rising and ours, he rising during the six following months from six to eight hours before noon, and there being seven hours of course per night in which we burn candles, the account will stand thus;–
In the six months between the 20th of March and the 20th of September, there are
| Nights | 183 |
| Hours of each night in which we burn candles | 7 |
| Multiplication gives for the total number of hours | 1,281 |
| These 1,281 hours multiplied by 100,000, the number of inhabitants, give | 128,100,000 |
| One hundred twenty-eight millions and one hundred thousand hours, spent at Paris by candle-light, which, at half a pound of wax and tallow per hour, gives the weight of | 64,050,000 |
| Sixty-four millions and fifty thousand of pounds, which, estimating the whole at-the medium price of thirty sols the pound, makes the sum of ninety-six millions and seventy-five thousand livres tournois | 96,075,000 |
An immense sum! that the city of Paris might save every year, by the economy of using sunshine instead of candles. If it should be said, that people are apt to be obstinately attached to old customs, and that it will be difficult to induce them to rise before noon, consequently my discovery can be of little use; I answer, Nil desperandum. I believe all who have common sense, as soon as they have learnt from this paper that it is daylight when the sun rises, will contrive to rise with him; and, to compel the rest, I would propose the following regulations; First. Let a tax be laid of a louis per window, on every window that is provided with shutters to keep out the light of the sun.
Second. Let the same salutary operation of police be made use of, to prevent our burning candles, that inclined us last winter to be more economical in burning wood; that is, let guards be placed in the shops of the wax and tallow chandlers, and no family be permitted to be supplied with more than one pound of candles per week.
Third. Let guards also be posted to stop all the coaches, &c. that would pass the streets after sunset, except those of physicians, surgeons, and midwives.
Fourth. Every morning, as soon as the sun rises, let all the bells in every church be set ringing; and if that is not sufficient?, let cannon be fired in every street, to wake the sluggards effectually, and make them open their eyes to see their true interest.
All the difficulty will be in the first two or three days; after which the reformation will be as natural and easy as the present irregularity; for, ce n’est que le premier pas qui coûte. Oblige a man to rise at four in the morning, and it is more than probable he will go willingly to bed at eight in the evening; and, having had eight hours sleep, he will rise more willingly at four in the morning following. But this sum of ninety-six millions and seventy-five thousand livres is not the whole of what may be saved by my economical project. You may observe, that I have calculated upon only one half of the year, and much may be saved in the other, though the days are shorter. Besides, the immense stock of wax and tallow left unconsumed during the summer, will probably make candles much cheaper for the ensuing winter, and continue them cheaper as long as the proposed reformation shall be supported.
For the great benefit of this discovery, thus freely communicated and bestowed by me on the public, I demand neither place, pension, exclusive privilege, nor any other reward whatever. I expect only to have the honour of it. And yet I know there are little, envious minds, who will, as usual, deny me this and say, that my invention was known to the ancients, and perhaps they may bring passages out of the old books in proof of it. I will not dispute with these people, that the ancients knew not the sun would rise at certain hours; they possibly had, as we have, almanacs that predicted it; but it does not follow thence, that they knew he gave light as soon as he rose. This is what I claim as my discovery. If the ancients knew it, it might have been long since forgotten; for it certainly was unknown to the moderns, at least to the Parisians, which to prove, I need use but one plain simple argument. They are as well instructed judicious, and prudent a people as exist anywhere in the world all professing, like myself, to be lovers of economy; and,from the many heavy taxes required from them by the necessitities of the state, have surely an abundant reason to be economical. I say it is impossible that so sensible a people, under such circumstances, should have lived so long by the smoky, unwholesome, and enormously expensive light of candles, if they had really known, that they might have had as much pure light of the sun for nothing. I am, &c.
A SUBSCRIBER
Source: The Ingenious Dr. Franklin. Selected Scientific Letters. Edited by Nathan G. Goodman. University of Pennsylvania Press. 1931. Pages 17-22.
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Avatar Magic, By Gerald Franquemont, is now on Kindle and it can be downloaded onto most computers and reading devices.)
From what World do GOP leaders come from? Their speaking points uttered by the mouths of the partying I suspect too hard rich class are from the outer reaches of The Great Beyond Oblivious Zones, ones that here-to-for were never thought to exist.
The most recent proposition from Boehner is an outrageous affront to voting Americans. For the second time in a little over 4 years the American people clearly, not nearly, approved of President’s agendas and positions. Some of these positions include raising taxes on the rich, or allowing the disastrous tax breaks for the wealthy scheme presented by Ex President Bush (very) Jr. to expire, and to leave the middle classes’ security nets alone, including Medicare/Medicaid and Social Security. These are the mandates Americans voiced their approval of by way of using their sacred voting right during the last Presidential election; these are the very same agendas and policy platforms the losing Republicans ran against for the second Presidential Election in a row. Duh, dumb and dumber is the recent, like today, move by the GOP to insist that their ideas are the ones that should be followed.
What clearly comes to mind when I think of ideas that are bogus is the GOP’s pretentious claim/ idea that our leaders should cut middle class Social Security Pension start dates, and gut Medicare and Medicaid benefits while not raising tax rates on the rich. These are wonderfully ludicrous ideas, and just another attempt by the GOP to obstruct any real progress that might otherwise be made if they would only stop insisting on being the hole in the dike of reason. Our Government is meant to be led by the WILL of the American People, the same people who ,once again , just re-elected President Obama AND his Platforms for a second time.
My letter:
Dear Mr. President
President Obama, these double talking, back stabbing, disciples of the rich like Boehner are jack-asses, so don’t let them make one out of you.There is NO movement from the GOP towards a middle ground in the proposals they presented this week at all. Period, end of story. We need a President who can stand above the slime and shovel away the horse shit that’s being slung around our Capital. Just today the GOP, the party who filibustered you during your last 4 year term more times than the filibuster has ever been used in all of American history combined, has again attempted to violate their public trust by creating yet another outrageous ruse of politik speak……..
Thank You Mr. President for not listening to the GOP; please listen to the voters.
Sincerely,
An American Voter.
End of my letter.
From a wire news source printed today:
“In a scathing attack, Republican leader Mitch McConnell said, “if the president is serious about joining us in an effort to reduce the deficit and protect the economy, he’ll get off the campaign trail, drop the left-wing talking points, and instruct his staff to negotiate a solution in good faith-based on actual written proposals. In short, he’ll begin doing what leaders do: Lead.”
Here’s a truthful answer to the above BS:
Mitch McConnell if you are serious about making an effort to reduce the deficit and protect the economy you’ll get off your jacked, lying partisan effort to thwart every bill our newly RE-elected President proposes; you’ll stop showing a total disregard for the Will of the American People as was expressed by the last election and stop babbling crap out of your pie-hole; you’ll instruct your staff to listen to the Will of the American People and negotiate a real solution to solving the current fiscal crisis(never was a cliff BTW) and stop trying to cut the workers of this country off at our chops. In short near-sighted GOP members of the losing party need to recognize that YOU JUST LOST the Presidential election for a second time in a row and for good reason. And as the losing , Losers AGAIN, party you should do what losers do: FOLLOW.
Did I mention anywhere in this post that the current GOP party leaders are mostly a bunch of dumb asses who do not put America first, but only care about what’s in their wallets? You know white men can jump, and my advice to President Obama is to step lightly over the so called fiscal cliff if these obstructionist GOP party members insist that the Will of The American Voters should not be followed. That way Democrats can hang yet another buffoonery jawing busting posturing disaster on the GOP and laugh while that party loses by many, many more votes in the next Presidential Election.
Here’s a list of the GOP members (some of them) who signed this weeks latest attempt by their party to bleed the middle class to death:
“Signing the letter was Boehner, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy and Rep. Paul Ryan, the chairman of the House Budget Committee and the unsuccessful GOP vice presidential candidate. Rep. Dave Camp, chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, Fred Upton, chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, and Cathy McMorris Rodgers, the Republican Conference chair, also signed the letter.”
Franque.
Franque23's Blog 