Tuesday, April 4, 2023
SCAR TATTOOS
Tattoos are not only a fshion statement, a sign of affiliation to a group, two fingers to the parents and the world. In some instances they are used by people to cover, hide or incorporate scars. Here are some examples of the latter, some funny, some beautiful, some original . . .
Monday, April 3, 2023
POETRY SPOT
From the vault . . .
The Donkey
By G K Chesterton
When fishes flew and forests walked
And figs grew upon thorn,
Some moment when the moon was blood
Then surely I was born.
With monstrous head and sickening cry
And ears like errant wings,
The devil’s walking parody
On all four-footed things.
The tattered outlaw of the earth,
Of ancient crooked will;
Starve, scourge, deride me: I am dumb,
I keep my secret still.
Fools! For I also had my hour;
One far fierce hour and sweet:
There was a shout about my ears,
And palms before my feet.
Sunday, April 2, 2023
QUOTE FOR THE DAY
"Get that shit off the air !"
- Kerry Packer
Australia holds the honour for the fastest cancellation of a TV show.
In 1992 Doug Mulray, who passed away last week, hosted a one off episode of Australia’s Funniest Home Videos called Australia’s Naughtiest Home Videos. It contained sexually explicit content, including animals having sex, couples having sex in parks and a child grabbing a kangaroo’s scrotum. Kerry Packer, the owner of the Nine Network which was screening the show, was informed of the content by friends while having dinner and tuned in at the point with the kangaroo. Packer rang the station and angrily shouted "Get that shit off the air!" The series was taken off a few minutes later and replaced by a repeat episode of Cheers. The station told viewers “We apologise for this interruption. Unfortunately, a technical problem prevents us continuing our scheduled programme for the moment. In the meantime, we bring you a brief, alternative programme.”
In 2008, Bert Newton justified the broadcast explanation: "It's technically very difficult to keep a show on air with Mr. Packer on the phone, yelling at you."
The next day Packer told his management that he considered the program to be "disgusting and offensive shit." Mulray and many of the staff who were involved with the creation of the special were fired, and Mulray was banned for life from Channel Nine.
READER CONTRIBUTION
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Sent to me by friend and colleague Tony Z.
Thanks, Tony.
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1. HOW DO YOU DECIDE WHO TO MARRY?
(Written by kids)
You got to find somebody who likes the same stuff.
Like, if you like sports, she should like it that you like sports, and she should keep the chips and dip coming.
-- Alan, age 10
No person really decides before they grow up who they're going to marry. God decides it all way before, and you get to find out later who you're stuck with.
-- Kristen, age 10
2. WHAT IS THE RIGHT AGE TO GET MARRIED?
Twenty-three is the best age because you know the person FOREVER by then.
-- Camille, age 10
3. HOW CAN A STRANGER TELL IF TWO PEOPLE ARE MARRIED?
You might have to guess, based on whether they seem to be yelling at the same kids.
-- Derrick, age 8
4. WHAT DO YOU THINK YOUR MOM AND DAD HAVE IN COMMON?
Both don't want any more kids.
-- Lori, age 8
5. WHAT DO MOST PEOPLE DO ON A DATE?
-Dates are for having fun, and people should use them to get to know each other. Even boys have something to say if you listen long enough.
-- Lynnette, age 8 (Isn't she a treasure?!)
-On the first date, they just tell each other lies and that usually gets them interested enough to go for a second date.
-- Martin, age 10
6. WHEN IS IT OKAY TO KISS SOMEONE?
-When they're rich.
-- Pam, age 7
-The law says you have to be eighteen, so I wouldn't want to mess with that.
-- Curt, age 7
-The rule goes like this: If you kiss someone, then you should marry them and have kids with them. It's the right thing to do.
-- Howard, age 8
7. IS IT BETTER TO BE SINGLE OR MARRIED?
It's better for girls to be single but not for boys. Boys need someone to clean up after them.
-- Anita, age 9 (Bless you child!)
8. HOW WOULD THE WORLD BE DIFFERENT IF PEOPLE DIDN'T GET MARRIED?
There sure would be a lot of kids to explain, wouldn't there?
-- Kelvin, age 8
And the #1 Favorite is .......
9. HOW WOULD YOU MAKE A MARRIAGE WORK?
Tell your wife that she looks pretty, even if she looks like a dump truck!
-- Ricky, age 10
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Saturday, April 1, 2023
FOOTNOTES TO HISTORY
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The 1956 Olympic Games was/were (??) held in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, from 22 November to 8 December 1956, with the exception of the equestrian events, which were held in Stockholm, Sweden, in June 1956 (due to Australia’s strict quarantine laws).
Some comments:
- These Games were the first to be staged in the Southern Hemisphere and Oceania, as well as the first to be held outside Europe and North America.
- Melbourne is the most southerly city ever to host the Olympics.
- Due to the Southern Hemisphere's seasons being different from those in the Northern Hemisphere, the 1956 Games did not take place at the usual time of year, because of the need to hold the events during the warmer weather of the host's spring/summer (which corresponds to the Northern Hemisphere's autumn/winter), resulting in the only summer games ever to be held in November and December.
- Australia hosted the Games for a second time in 2000 in Sydney, New South Wales, and will host them again in 2032 in Brisbane, Queensland.
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The following footnote to the 1956 Olympics Games is a reprint of an item in the website Amusing Planet and may be accessed at:
The 1956 Olympic Flame Hoax
KausikPatowary
March 31, 2023
The 1956 Summer Olympics was held in Australia. As was the custom, the Olympic flame was lighted in Olympia, months before the games started, and the lighted torch was flown half way across the globe to Darwin, in Australia's Northern Territory. From Darwin, the flame was sent by airplane to Cairns, in Queensland, from where the torch was carried on foot by various torchbearers via cities along the East Coast such as Brisbane, Sydney, Canberra and finally, to Melbourne, the host city. Along the way, runners were troubled by heat, soaked in torrential rain, and the torch itself broke when it fell to the ground in Lismore. Then, in Sydney, something funny happened.
Australian junior mile world record holder, Ron Clarke, lights the cauldron in Melbourne to signal the beginning of the 1956 Summer Olympics. Photo: XVI Olympiad Melbourne 1956/Carrying the Torch
It was November 18 and the mayor of Sydney, Pat Hills, was waiting to receive the flame from cross-country running champion, Harry Dillon. After receiving the flame, Hills was to make a short speech and then pass the flame on to another runner, Bert Button.
A crowd of 30,000 lined the streets waiting for Dillon to arrive, and the press was out in full force with photographers and cameraman ready to record the historic occasion. At 9:30 AM, a young man appeared dressed somewhat bizarrely in grey trousers and a white shirt, holding a torch. A cheer went up from the crowd. The police shepherded him towards the mayor and the athlete thrust the torch into his hands. The torch bearer’s early arrival took Hills by surprise, and without taking a look at the torch, Hills went straight to the podium for the speech.
As Hills began to speak, for the first time, his eyes went to the torch he was holding. Hills realized to his horror that it was not the Olympic torch, but a crudely constructed replica. The stalk was a chair leg painted silver. On the top was a plum pudding can, inside of which a pair of kerosene-soaked underwear was burning with a sooty flame. The mayor looked around for the runner, but the man had already disappeared, melting away into the surrounding crowd.
The mayor regained his composure and addressed the crowd: “That was a trial run. Our friends from the university think things like this are funny. It was a hoax by somebody. I hope you are enjoying the joke.”
However, the crowd did not think it was funny. They became unruly. They started milling around the street excitedly because half of them did not understand what just happened. In the crush of people, women began screaming for the safety of their children. Eventually a police convoy had to be called up to clear the path for the real Harry Dillon.
Possibly the only surviving photograph of Barry Larkin carrying the fake torch.
The man behind the prank was Barry Larkin, a veterinary student at St. Johns College at Sydney University. Larkin and his friends conceived the prank as a way of protest against the torch relay, which they felt was being given too much reverence considering it was invented by the Nazis for the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin.
Originally, Larkin wasn't supposed to have been the bearer of the flaming underwear. Their plan was to have another student, dressed in conventional white shorts and a white top, to carry the fake torch. But the runner was making too much tomfoolery and the blazing underwear fell out. One of the students then gave the responsibility to Larkin, who wasn’t even prepared for the run, hence his casual attire.
Few people knew what the actual runner, Harry Dillon, looked like. When they saw a young man running with a torch, the crowd just assumed Larkin was the real thing, and even the police escorted him along the way. Larkin later recalled in an interview what the experience felt like:
The noise was quite staggering. There were flashes of photography. I felt very strange because I knew I was carrying a fake torch. The only thing I could think about was what do I do when I got there. I was helped by Pat Hills. I just turned around and walked back down the steps, through the crowd and onto a tram and back to college.
Back at his college, Larkin was given a hero's reception. Even the rector of the college congratulated him. Larkin went on to become a successful veterinary surgeon.
The fake torch ended up in the possession of John Lawler, a man who had been travelling with the relay in a car. He stored it for years beneath his bed, until it was thrown away when he was tidying his house.
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Some additional comments:
__________
Barry Larkin Olympic torch
Wooden chair leg painted silver as handle; plum pudding can as top.
Warehouse 13 Artifact Database Wiki
What the real torch looked like.
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Watch Ron Clarke light the 1956 Olympic flame with the real torch at:
Note that the lighting of the gas caused a flare which resulted in his arm being burnt and his having to take a step down.
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It used to be an Olympic opening ceremony tradition to release doves to signify the worldwide peace brought about by the two weeks of competition. That tradition was dropped pretty shortly after 1988.
At the opening ceremony of Seoul '88, the doves were released before the lighting of the Olympic flame, and came to nestle in the huge cauldron set up for the lighting. Three people lit the flame and, seemingly unaware of the birds nestled inside the cauldron, they ignited the flame and most of the doves were burned alive.
Though the occasional Olympics since Seoul have released doves after the flame has been lit, the doves are no longer a tradition.
See the lighting at:
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Not an Olympic torch moment but worth a look: the Queen’s arrival at the 2012 London Games by parachute with James Bond:
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Friday, March 31, 2023
PEOPLE
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SALVADOR AVARENGA
There are stories of triumph over adversity due to the strength of the human spirit, of people being unwilling to surrender to physical, psychological, emotional and spiritual depths . . . Helen Keller, Robert Stroud (The Birdman of Alcatraz), Alfred Dreyfus (sentenced to Devil’s Island incarceration despite being innocent).
Such a man was also Salvador Avarenga (1975 - ), who spent 14 months adrift on a small boat in the Pacific Ocean beginning on November 17, 2012. Imagine it: day in, day out, no food or water except what you could obtain or produce, the endless ocean stretching out to the horizon, nothing to break the monotony of each day’s sameness and extreme solitude.
His story:
Alvarenga was born in El Salvador and left El Salvador in 2002 for Mexico, where he worked as a fisherman for four years. He has several brothers who live in the US.
On November 17, 2012, Alvarenga set out from the fishing village of Costa Azul, off the coast of Mexico. An experienced sailor and fisherman, he was intent on a 30-hour shift of deep-sea fishing, during which he hoped to catch sharks, marlins, and sailfish. His usual fishing mate was unable to join him, so he arranged instead to bring along the inexperienced 23-year-old Ezequiel Córdoba, with whom he had not previously spoken, and whose surname he did not know.
Their boat was a seven-meter (23-foot) topless fiberglass skiff equipped with a single outboard motor and a refrigerator-sized icebox for storing fish,
Shortly after embarking, their boat was blown off course by a storm that lasted five days, during which the motor and most of the portable electronics were damaged. Though they had caught nearly 500 kilograms (1,100 lb) of fresh fish, the pair were forced to dump it overboard to make the boat maneuverable in the bad weather. Alvarenga managed to call his boss on a two-way radio and request help before the radio's battery died. Having neither sails nor oars, no anchor, no running lights, and no other way to contact shore, the boat began to drift across the open ocean. Much of the fishing gear was also lost or damaged in the storm, leaving them with only a handful of basic supplies and little food.
The search party organised by Alvarenga's employer failed to find any trace of the missing men and gave up after two days because visibility was poor.
As days turned to weeks, Avarenga and Cordoba learned to scavenge their food from whatever sources presented themselves. Alvarenga managed to catch fish, turtles, jellyfish, and seabirds with his bare hands, and the pair occasionally salvaged bits of food and plastic refuse floating in the water. They collected drinking water from rainfall when possible, but more frequently were forced to drink turtle blood or their own urine. Alvarenga frequently dreamed about his favorite foods, as well as his parents.
According to Alvarenga, Córdoba lost all hope around four months into the voyage after becoming sick from the raw food, and eventually died from starvation by refusing to eat. Alvarenga has said that he contemplated suicide for four days after Córdoba died, but his Christian faith prevented him from doing so. He related that Córdoba made him promise not to eat his corpse after he died, so he kept it on the boat. He sometimes spoke to the corpse, and after six days, feared he was becoming insane, he threw it overboard.
Alvarenga reported that he saw numerous transoceanic container ships but was unable to solicit help.
He kept track of time by counting the phases of the moon. After counting his 15th lunar cycle, he spotted land: a tiny, desolate islet, which turned out to be a remote corner of the Marshall Islands. On January 30, 2014, he abandoned his boat and swam to shore, where he stumbled upon a beach house owned by a local couple. Alvarenga's journey had lasted 438 days.
The length of his voyage has been variously calculated as 8,900 to 10,800 km (5,500 to 6,700 miles).
Alvarenga's vital signs were all "good", with the exception of blood pressure, which was unusually low. Alvarenga had swollen ankles and struggled with walking. On February 6 the doctor treating him reported that his health had "gone downhill" since the day before and that he was on an IV drip to treat his dehydration.
The implausibility of someone surviving so long at sea on a small craft led a number of commentators to doubt Alvarenga's story, though investigators were able to confirm some of the basic details. Initial questioning of Alvarenga upon his arrival in Majuro and found him to be truthful. Experts supported the fact of the currents, timing, ocean conditions, ability to survive and that Alvarenga’s story was consistent with the truth. In April 2014, Alvarenga's lawyer told a press conference that he had passed a polygraph test while being asked about his voyage.
After 11 days in a hospital, Alvarenga was deemed healthy enough to return to El Salvador. However, he was diagnosed with anemia, had trouble sleeping and developed a fear of water. In 2015, he gave a series of interviews about his ordeal to the journalist Jonathan Franklin, who published his story as the book 438 Days: An Extraordinary True Story of Survival at Sea.
Shortly after the release of Alvarenga's book, the family of Ezequiel Córdoba sued Alvarenga for $1,000,000, accusing him of cannibalizing their relative in order to survive, despite their pact that Córdoba would not be eaten after death. Alvarenga's lawyer has denied this accusation.
(I have not been able to find the outcome of the court case).
From Franklin's book:
Life on land has not been straightforward: for months, Alvarenga was still in shock. He had developed a deep fear of not only the ocean, but even the sight of water. He slept with the lights on and needed constant company. Soon after coming ashore, he appointed a lawyer to handle the media requests that came in from all over the world. He later changed representation, and his former lawyer filed a lawsuit demanding a million-dollar payout for an alleged breach of contract.It wasn’t until a year later, when the fog of confusion subsided and he scanned the maps of his drift across the Pacific Ocean, that Alvarenga began to fathom his extraordinary journey. For 438 days, he lived on the edge of sanity. “I suffered hunger, thirst and an extreme loneliness, and didn’t take my life,” Alvarenga says. “You only get one chance to live – so appreciate it.”
Today, Alvarenga lives in El Salvador, in a small town surrounded by land, as far from the water as he can get.
Alvarenga gets a haircut after rescue in the Marshall Islands, Feb. 4, 2014.
José Salvador Alvarenga after a shave, a shower, and some much needed recovery time in the hospital.
Back home in El Salvador. For months he was in shock, afraid of the water
The family of castaway fisherman Jose Salvador Alvarenga -- (L-R) his sister Fatima Orellana, father Jose Ricardo, and mother Maria Julia Alvarenga -- pose for a picture in their fishing hometown of Ahuchapan February 4, 2014.
Thursday, March 30, 2023
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