Don't Forget This

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In ancient Rome, a general, many to become emperors, presided over The Triumph (Triumphus), a victory parade through the streets of the city with throngs watching him pass by.  In a chariot he lead the parade, and heard the ovations of the masses. He wore a purple tunic, for purple was a rare dye only the nobility and powerful could afford.  Behind him walked all his army, his men and women captives, soon to become slaves, followed by his other spoils of war.  A slave held his golden crown, but the main role of the slave was to occasionally whisper in his ear,

Memento mori, memento mori.

Translated it means, Remember, you will die.

I dedicate this story to all politicians of power and high station.

Winnie The Pooh on Free Will

"If I hadn’t spent so much time studying Earthlings,” said the Tralfamadorian, “I wouldn’t have any idea what was meant by free will. I’ve visited thirty-one inhabited planets in the universe, and I have studied reports on one hundred more. Only on Earth is there any talk of free will.” (Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse–Five)

"There's a very large question here." (Winnie The Pooh)

The Woman Who Fell To Earth: Juliane Koepcke

"On Christmas Eve 1971, German teenager Juliane Koepcke sat next to her mother in the window seat of a Lockheed Electra. She had just graduated from high school in Lima, Peru, and was on her way to Pucallpa, where she and her mother would rendezvous with her father, biologist Hans Koepcke. But the plane never made it. The Electra hit a freak storm, and the 17-year-old girl looked out the window to see the right wing aflame. She turned to her mother, who said, "This is the end of everything." The last thing Juliane remembers is feeling herself whirling in midair.

She awoke three hours later, still strapped into her seat, in the Amazon." Wearing a torn miniskirt and one sandal she walked out of the Amazon jungle alive with bad injuries and a maggot infested wound. More can be found here, here and here

A Little-Known Story: Maria Leontievna Bochkareva, Who Met President Wilson

Of peasant stock, beaten by her alcoholic father, working since age eight, she married at fifteen and left her husband when he began beating her and swore to kill her. She married again, followed her husband to exile in Siberia but left him when he tried to hang her. In 1914 she fought for the Czar as the only woman in the 25th Tomsk Reserve Battalion, where fellow soldiers taught her to read and write. She was wounded twice, decorated three times for bravery, fought with frost-bitten feet, bayoneted German soldiers, and pulled fallen comrades to safety.

Some Sh*t to Read on Language Taboos Now and Then

Because of my age, I found an article by John McWhorter engaging.  I offer it as one way to understand some of the dynamics of modern society. I think only people of a certain age, whose long memories compare past and present, can truly appreciate this article. The young think today's language is as it has always been or don't think about it at all.

When i was growing up, my parents taught me the difference between belly and stomach, or tummy. To say belly was crude. The same went for butt and damn. Four letter words s*, f*, and c* were wholly uncivilized. To say Get screwed was a very graphic reference to intercourse and This sucks could only refer to fellatio, both phrases unacceptable in polite society. When a boy, I read a headline that shocked the nation: Truman Calls MacArthur SOB.

Josephine Baker's Rainbow Tribe

Taking French citizenship in 1937, Josephine Baker (1906–1975) was celebrated across Europe, especially in France, where she was known as La Baker. Treated as a "colored" woman in her native United States, she decided to adopt and raise children of various ethnic backgrounds. From all over the world she brought them to her Château des Milandes in France's Périgord region. They became her Rainbow Tribe. Of Japanese origin, Akio Bouillon was one of them. From Finland, Jarry Baker was another.

"On the surface, the children seemed to have a dream childhood. They were living in a castle, like children in a fairy tale.

Batman & Personality Disorder

Well, first of all, do you know anybody who wears tights with underwear on the outside? Think about it. That is a dead giveaway of something leaking inside his brain.

Seeing Through Self: David Bohm & Krishnamurti's Ego

Quantum physicist David Bohm (1917-1992) was a protégé of J. Robert Oppenheimer and liked by Einstein. So impressed was Einstein, that he referred to Bohm as his successor. As for Bohm, he had deep interests outside science. This led to the day when Bohm met J. Krishnamurti and began studying under him until the two men had a falling-out.

Lori Berenson at Middle Age

Outraged at injustice and inhumanity, the young, naive Lori Berenson made a comment in fluent Spanish to the Peruvian press that would change her forever. She became seen as a despicable, self-important gringa. Her father said, “Forty-four seconds, and it ruined her life. It doesn’t take much.”

E.Allen Petersen and Hummel Hummel: A Forgotten Story of Escape and Survival

Of all the true stories lost to popular history, this one is of a remarkable and dangerous escape in the prelude to WWII.