Category: Uncategorized

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Lightning Out of Lebananon

The American people have an amazing capacity to ignore the important while obsessing on the trivial.

I am not usually a big fan of Terry Gross or her NPR program, “Fresh Air,” but her show from yesterday was unusually good. She interviewed law enforcement expert Tom Diaz and journalist Barbara Newman warn of the presence of Hezbollah militants in the United States. They are the authors of Lightning Out of Lebanon: Hezbollah Terrorists on American Soil, who say the cells could potentially be more dangerous than al Qaeda, estimate Hezbollah has cells in 14 cities.

Give this frightening story a listen.

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See You Later, Sam Tanasso

Yesterday we learned that Sam Tanasso, long-time friend of the Wilcox family, passed away Friday at age 80.

Sam was the treasurer at our church when we lived in Massachusetts, and had been there as long as I could remember.

An online obituary is available here, including a Web form to send a note of condolences to the family.

I will have to write a bit more later.

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Skunks Do Not Always Spray When Surprised

[doug]Skunks don’t bother me. Really. I actually find the complex smell of the skunk scent to be pleasant, except when it is exceptionally strong. The other night (or morning, I have no idea of the actual time), Nichelle was conducting a late-night grocery procurement operation, and had the nerve to wake me up to help bring the groceries in.

As I walked down our back steps, I surprised a skunk, who made a fast retreat in the other direction; I was so sleepy I was already three steps away from the skunk before I processed exactly what had happened.

Now, I know it's possible to “tail” a skunk—pick one up by the tail—which will prevent it from spraying. It’s a risky business, especially as I have no idea how to put one down again. Maybe I can get my kids to try it.

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Farewell to Connie Nordahl

I am sorry to learn that Connie Nordahl passed on (as she would have said), on Sunday, September 5, 2004. Connie was the original owner of WordSmith, a transcription and typesetting service in South Weymouth, Massachusetts; as such, she was my first boss in Desktop Publishing. (Eventually, I bought out most of the business, which became WordSmith Digital Document Services.)

Working for Connie was very helpful to my computer career; indeed, working at WordSmith provided many skills and opportunities that became foundational to what I am doing today (Java programming and Web development). When I ever get around to my page to honor “people who have helped me in life,” Connie will have an important place.

A few weeks ago, I started writing an e-mail because I’d read my first book by P.D. James, one of her favorite authors. Unfortunately, I never finished and sent it. I will also miss having someone who always agreed with strict grammatical rules.

A memorial service will be held at the Lutheran House of Prayer in Hingham (916 Main St., Route 228), at 3:00 PM on Saturday, September 18, 2004.

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What If They Opened a Highway, and Nobody Came?

Yesterday the slowpokes widening Route 3 announced the first section to have all three lanes (and two shoulders) opened, which was Route 3 northbound, between Drum Hill (Route 4) and the New Hampshire border.

I was very pleased, as I usually go home by driving up to Drum Hill through Chelmsford side roads to get onto Route 3, rather than trying to go through the four-lanes-becoming-two-lanes nightmare currently at the 495 interchange.

So, I got the e-mail notice yesterday, but discovered that almost no one was actually using the newly-opened right lane. I guess that most people did not know the lane was opened, and definitely did not know that it was open all the way to New Hampshire.

In a related effect, we have been waiting all summer for the paving to be finished over the railroad grade crossing in Nashua that is on our way to church in Litchfield. The grade crossing was in such a bad condition that any speed over about 1 MPH would virtually guarantee significant damage to one’s vehicle. Well, a few days ago, they finally finished the top coat paving, making the grade crossing passable for the first time in months. However, people are so conditioned to driving over it at extremely slow speeds, that they are still doing so.

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Nada

Nada is now what happens when we turn the key on our 1994 Buick Century Wagon. It’s got about 160,000 miles on it, and has served us extremely reliably, and we aren’t quite ready to say goodbye to it. AAA is coming by later to deliver the car to our new mechanic.

At work on Friday just before leaving a great thing happened! I was modifying our demo application, and we needed to pass a parameter for a specific localization file to the right module. I coded it, cycled the server, and it worked, all in less than 5 minutes. Struts has not always been so easy, but it’s getting easier.

Naomi turned 5 months old this weekend. She is babbling more, and able to roll over now, and wants to get her hands into everything from what we’re eating for dinner to the computer keyboard. With 3 brothers, I predict her first words will be, “Mom, he’s bothering me.”

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Wild News from The Casa Del Menor Vida Nueva

10 New Children Have Just Arrived in the Tudors’ CareWe just received this message from Eldon and Connie Tudor, the missionaries who operate the Children’s home which our church has helped build, and to which most of our summer missions trips have taken us:

Dear Praying Friends,

PRAY! PRAY! PRAY!

Last night the police here in Constitución brought us 6 Oaxaca (pronounced wah-ha-cuh) children because the mother has been murdered and the police think the father did it. We bedded them down on mats in the living room floor. This morning the police brought us 4 more children as they think the father of these children helped in the murder of the woman.

The body of the murdered woman had been (as it looks now) hanged, then taken over across the road and thrown in the garbage dump. She has been there for 3 to 4 days, and the coyotes and other animals have been eating on her. When the body was found, they thought it was a boy at first.

The children think their mother has gone back to a town to visit relatives.

This morning the first thing to do was to feed them, and next we are going to have to delouse them.

All that they are used to eating is chiles and tortillas; they range in age from 13 down to 3 years.

We are sending a picture of them. Since the police brought them here, we do not know if the Mexican
child welfare will help us or not. We do not know what is going to happen when they find out that their mother is dead. One 12-year-old boy and one of the older girls say they are married, but they have not been together yet, the parents arranged the marriage, as it is a custom of their Indian tribe.

Right now, what we need the most is prayers!! We do not have enough beds, the children are all very dirty and need bathing, plus we are all concerned about getting the bugs
too!

We will keep you posted, just PLEASE PRAY!!!!!!!!

Eldon and Connie

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The War of the Worlds—65 Years Ago

The War of the Worlds—65 Years Ago

On October 30, 1938, The Mercury Theatre on the Air, starring Orson Welles, presented a radio version of H.G. Wells' novel The War of the Worlds. It became famous because many people (although not as many as the media later reported) heard only part of the broadcast, presented in the form of a breaking news story, and thought earth really was being invaded by Mars.

If you’d like to hear this historic broadcast (it’s also one of the best radio plays ever done, actually), you can stream via the link below.

Listen to The War of the Worlds broadcast (presented via streaming RealAudio).

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A Cool Word

The German language has some fascinating words, some of which have made their way into accepted use in other languages.

Schadenfreude: The pleasure one gets from talking about catastrophies; delight in another person’s misfortune.

I came across this in the short story “Thomas the Proclaimer,” by Robert Silverberg, published in his novelette collection entitled Sailing to Byzantium. (Thanks to Kevin Miller for the loan of the book.)