That Song Stuck in Your Head

That Song Stuck in your head

    Originally written three years ago, I revisited this as I reflected on the death of Gordon Lightfoot, an artist and storyteller whose work I admire. Read it all the way, since I added short "coda."

    Ever have one of those days when you wake up with a song rattling around in your head and which just won’t let you alone? It happens to me often and is usually some classic rock song which has a great hook and catchy lyrics. Generally, the songs tend to be up tempo to the point that sometimes I find myself walking in time to the music in my head. This happens frequently when I’m walking alone at night to “get my steps in.”   If this doesn’t resonate with you, then skip the rest of this, unless, of course, you’re a history buff, in which case read on. Today’s ditty was, uncharacteristically, not a happy feet song. In fact, I’d be willing to bet no one’s ever danced to “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.”  Yeah, I know, whaaat? For whatever reason, while I don’t usually dwell on it, this song resonates with me.

        Of course, Gordon Lightfoot actually tells a real story, with very little embellishment, about real events. I also guess, for me, it’s a combination of being a bit fixated on history as well as having been at sea a significant portion of my life. Of course my ships were supposed to sink, (and surface later), but the Great Lakes are interesting to me and not a lot is widely known about the Lakes’ navigation and shipping other than those who do it. So……

        Right off the bat, even though the largest ships doing commerce on the Lakes are well over 700 feet long, longer than many ocean going vessels, they are limited to the “upper” four lakes. Lake Superior is at about 600 feet above sea level, and Huron, Michigan and Erie are only slightly lower and the lower three are connected by navigable rivers.  The largest body of fresh water in the world,  Superior is higher, but the Soo locks have allowed the large “Lakers” to transit from Erie to Superior for about a century.  Of course if one recalls their geography, that nasty falls on the Niagara River between Erie and Ontario are a problem. While there are locks in the Welland Canal, which bypasses the falls and lifts (or lowers) ships about 330 feet via 8 locks,  big “Lakers” like the Edmund Fitzgerald, are too long and wide for the locks, so a Laker is built, lives and, sadly, sometimes  dies on the upper four lakes.

       The Edmund Fitzgerald was the largest ship on the Lakes when she was built in 1957. She was built on order of Northwestern Life Insurance Company, which was heavily invested in metals related industries. At almost 730 feet in length, she was of 24,000 tons capacity. Essentially her entire career was devoted to picking up a load of taconite (low grade iron ore in pellets) in Duluth, Mn., and ferrying it to mills in places like Toledo, Detroit (principally), or sometimes places in Wisconsin. For reference, the Fitz was more than 100 feet longer than a modern Naval cruiser.

         As a modern vessel, the “Fitz” made the return run, empty, in record times. She was actually called by some Lakes men, the “Toledo Cannonball,” or “Queen of the Lakes,” and, ironically, since Lightfoot uses this nickname in his song, “The Pride of The American Side”  One of her early Commanding Officers, Capt. Peter Pulcer, aka the "DJ captain,"   fostered this fascination with the Fitz by piping music day or night over the ship's outside intercom system while passing through the St. Clair and Detroit Rivers between Huron and Erie. Usually While navigating the Soo Locks (Huron to Superior) he would come out of the pilothouse and use a bullhorn to entertain tourists with a commentary on details about Edmund Fitzgerald.

 SS Edmund Fitzgerald

      November storms on Superior can reach Tropical storm force winds with waves as high as 25 feet! Fully loaded, a Laker, like the Fitzgerald, is far from the most navigable vessel afloat. What is not well known is that in storm season, Lake Superior is capable of towering seas nearly as bad as the North Atlantic. At sea, sailing into the wind is the usual tactic.

         On the night of November 9, 1974, Fitz left Superior, Wisconsin, at 2:15 p.m. under the command of Captain Ernest M. McSorley, heading for a steel mill near Detroit. She was carrying 26,116 tons of ore pellets. About 5 pm, she was joined by another, slightly smaller, Laker, the Arthur M. Anderson, headed for Gary, Indiana. The weather forecast, not radically drastic for November, predicted that a storm would pass just south of Lake Superior by 7 a.m. on November 10.

        As it turned out, however, by 2:00 a.m. the National Weather Service upgraded the forecast “gale” to “storm,” forecasting winds of 40-50 mph. Until then, the Fitz had been following Anderson, travelling at 12.7 knots (about14.7 mph). About 3 am,  Edmund Fitzgerald pulled ahead . At 2:00 pm the Anderson had logged winds of 50 knots (58 mph), wind speeds again picked up rapidly, and it began to snow at 2:45 p.m., reducing visibility. At this point, Anderson lost sight of the Fitzgerald, which was about 16 miles  ahead at the time.

        Just after  3:30 p.m., Captain McSorley radioed the Anderson that his ship  was taking on water and had lost two vent covers and a fence railing. The vessel by now, due to the influx of water, had also developed a list.(leaning to one side)  Captain McSorley radioed that  he would slow Fitzgerald so the Anderson could close the gap between them. Just after 4:10 p.m., McSorley again radioed Anderson, reporting that his radar had failed and asked Anderson's, captain to keep track of her.  Fitzgerald, now essentially blind, slowed to let the Anderson come within a 10-mile range so she could receive radar guidance from the other ship. This "blind in a blizzard" scenario had to be absolutely terrifying for all hands on the Fitzgerald.

        For a short time, Anderson’s navigator directed Fitzgerald by radio toward the relative safety of Whitefish Bay. A short time later, still radar blind, Fitzgerald contacted the Coast Guard station in Grand Marais, Michigan, to ask if Whitefish Point light and navigation beacon were operational. These should have come into view in another 10 or 15 miles. In what has not been mentioned to any degree in either Lightfoot’s ballad or in the news at the time, the Coast Guard replied that their monitoring equipment indicated that both instruments were (inexplicably) inactive! While this probably would not have saved, Fitzgerald, since it was still some distance away, it all but guaranteed that it wouldn’t.  

Captain McSorley then desperately hailed any ships in the Whitefish Point area to report the state of the navigational aids, receiving an answer, that the Whitefish Point light was on but not the radio beacon. Some time later, McSorley radioed, "I have a 'bad list', I have lost both radars, and am taking heavy seas over the deck in one of the worst seas I have ever been in."

        The last communication ever sent from Edmund Fitzgerald came at approximately 7:10 p.m., when the Anderson notified Edmund Fitzgerald of an upbound (approaching) ship and asked how she was doing. McSorley reported, "We are holding our own." She sank minutes later. No distress signal was ever received.  Ten minutes later, Arthur M. Anderson lost the ability either to reach Edmund Fitzgerald by radio or to detect her on radar.

        There are several schools of thought regarding the loss of this vessel, but theories range from navigational error to mechanical failure of hatch covers (most likely, but, of course, vigorously denied by the Fitzgerald’s builder.) Sometime later a badly damaged lifeboat was found, but there were no survivors. Somewhat later, The Navy, Jean-Michel Cousteau, and several others dived the wreck site based on the Navy’s magnetic dipping sonar having located it. The ship’s bell and several other artifacts have been salvaged. One crew member’s corpse, still in a lifejacket, was found, but no other remains of the Fitzgerald’s 29- man crew have been located.

         It is worthy of note, that Lake Superior is “only” about 530 feet deep at the wreck site, but the lake is, In fact, the world’s largest freshwater lake in surface area and has depths of over 1300 feet. For a bit of perspective, Lake Superior at its deepest is 4 times the average depth of the North Sea, which can also get “a bit rough” in winter.  

                  

The wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald

 The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down

Of the big lake they called Gitche Gumee

The lake, it is said, never gives up her dead

When the skies of November turn gloomy

With a load of iron ore twenty-six thousand tons more

Than the Edmund Fitzgerald weighed empty

That good ship and true was a bone to be chewed

When the gales of November came early

The ship was the pride of the American side

Coming back from some mill in Wisconsin

As the big freighters go, it was bigger than most

With a crew and good captain well-seasoned

Concluding some terms with a couple of steel firms

When they left fully loaded for Cleveland

And later that night when the ship's bell rang

Could it be the north wind they'd been feelin'?

The wind in the wires made a tattle-tale sound

And a wave broke over the railing

And every man knew, as the captain did too,

T'was the witch of November come stealin'

The dawn came late and the breakfast had to wait

When the gales of November came slashin'

When afternoon came it was freezin' rain

In the face of a hurricane west wind

When suppertime came, the old cook came on deck sayin'

Fellas, it's too rough to feed ya

At seven p.m., a main hatchway caved in, he said

Fellas, it's been good to know ya

The captain wired in he had water comin' in

And the good ship and crew was in peril

And later that night when 'is lights went outta sight

Came the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald

Does any one know where the love of God goes

When the waves turn the minutes to hours?

The searchers all say they'd have made Whitefish Bay

If they'd put fifteen more miles behind 'er

They might have split up or they might have capsized

They may have broke deep and took water

And all that remains is the faces and the names

Of the wives and the sons and the daughters

Lake Huron rolls, Superior sings

In the rooms of her ice-water mansion

Old Michigan steams like a young man's dreams

The islands and bays are for sportsmen

And farther below Lake Ontario

Takes in what Lake Erie can send her

And the iron boats go as the mariners all know

With the gales of November remembered

               Enhanced photo of the wreckage of the Edmund Fitzgerald. Note that that it actually broke in half. 

In a musty old hall in Detroit they prayed,

In the maritime sailors' cathedral

The church bell chimed till it rang twenty-nine times

For each man on the Edmund Fitzgerald

The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down

Of the big lake they called Gitche Gumee

Superior, they said, never gives up her dead

When the gales of November come early

         

Gordon Lightfoot

1938-2023

The church bells at the Detroit Mariner's Church have been rung 29 times yearly, on November 10th, ever since, with one exception. On May 2nd, 2023, the bells were rung 30 times, The last peal was in memory of Gordon Lightfoot.

Nostalgia ain't necessarily so.

       As I have often said, (quoting Mark Twain) there are three kinds of lies:  lies, damned lies, and statistics. A friend recently sent me a series of photos, the lot of which were labeled “nostalgic.”  Nostalgia is typically characterized as "A sentimentality for the past, typically for a period or place with happy personal associations." The picture below was the first in the series.

        One’s first impulse might well be to say, “Boy those were the good old days. Gas sure was a lot cheaper, then.” That would be totally incorrect. What?  How can that be?  As we tend to do when comparing prices, then and now, we tend to forget that the cost of living has also changed. The simplest tool for comparison is to simply look at the Consumer price index then and now.

       No worries, I did the math so you wouldn’t have to. The increase in the CPI from 1939 to 2019 was 17.1. That “16 cent” gallon, in today’s dollars would cost $2.72 per gallon. My local station will sell me all the gas I can use at (currently) $2.26. categorically stated, gasoline is cheaper now than it was in 1939.

       But wait, it gets worse. The average 1939 Buick got a scintillating 12 to 14 mpg. So, to get the same 28 mpg I get on my SUV, I’d need about 2 gallons. For an equivalent cost of about $5.70 per gallon for the same mileage. 

Similarly, the below pic was also shown:

            Again, things are not always as they seem. According to U.S. Census Bureau data from 2018, the latest release, the median household income was $63,179.  After taxes, this works out to about $56,000 anually. Using even this “net” figure, and assuming the 1938 number was “gross” that’s an increase over time of 32.32 times more.

         Just using a couple of these examples based on the numbers shown above, that new car in today’s dollars (using the 17.1 CPI increase in the gasoline example above) that new car adjusted only for CPI would cost about $14,500, so  it is more expensive today, but again, wait! As noted, the average family income increased by far more than the CPI, so, using the 32.3 factor, the new car costs a weighted $27,778. Which isn’t far off from reality. This of course doesn’t even address the light years of improvement and the increased mileage of the car.  

        Today, similarly, using the average income increase, that 25 cent movie ticket costs $8.06, not that far off.  Using just the 17.1 CPI increase, the 3 cent stamp costs 51 cents, but using the income increase figure, to be equivalent to the 1938 three cent figure a stamp ought to cost more than 96 cents. The 1938 gas price is simply incorrect. It’s half of the real 1938 national “price at the pump figure” of 20 cents per gallon.

        As with so many of these memes, the figure one uses is the “per capita” income. This of course ignores the fact that cars and such other commodities are usually bought by households, not individuals. For example, that “average household income”, divided among two parents and two children amounts to a per capita figure of $14,000, which is, at best, misleading.

        The “food” figures are, likewise fairly deceptive I’ll do the 1938 figure in today’s dollars, adjusted only for the CPI increase to 2019. In plain language the 2019 numbers are what the price would be simply due to inflation.

                1938   2019 (with CPI increase)  actual price  

Quart of Milk: 50 cents      $8.50                       $3.27

Sugar 10 lbs. 59 cents      $10.08                     $6.47

Coffee 1 lb     39 cents      $6.67                       $6-7 

Bacon 1 lb     32 cents      $5.47                       $5.50

Eggs 1 doz     18 cents      $3.07                      $1.29

        Obviously, while coffee and bacon are about where they would be expected to be, based on the CPI increase, Milk, Eggs and Sugar are all significantly cheaper. This is without considering the average household income after tax increase which has exceeded the CPI.  As I said, nostalgia ain’t what it used to be.

Daily news and views 1/29/20

Daily news 1/29/20

       At the top of the news, two word “leaders” facing legal problems at home have decided to deflect attention from their own peccadillos by arbitrarily redrawing a contested border and telling thousands of Palestinians that they are tenants of Israel. 

      Trump, besieged by his own problems has joined with like-minded (and indicted) crook, Benny Netanyahu in declaring what was styled as “Trump’s Peace plan” for the middle East. So ya gotta like that, huh? Not necessarily. 

       Point by point the details are less sanguine. Primarily, all that the “plan” really does is pile US approbation on what is already de facto policy: Israeli settlements in disputed territory will now officially be on  Israeli soil. It should be noted here that Palestinians diametrically disagree. This really isn’t a “Peace” Plan, since that sort of implies mutual agreement between aggrieved parties. It is an executive fiat issued by Netanyahu, who is desperate to look like a leader, vice the grifter he is accused of being, and Trump, desperate to:  1) deflect attention from his impeachment trial and the horrors yet to come and 2) Appeal to American supporters of Israel, many of whom are true believers in almost all human rights causes save those of Palestinians.

       

      Secondarily, but just as obvious, is that the “Mideast” involves a hell of a lot more than Israel, but this plan addresses none of that.  The “Mideast” consists of 371 million folks in 18 countries, speaking 60 languages, covering 2.78 million square miles. Trump is skewing US foreign policy to benefit 2.3% of those individuals, who occupy .3% of the region. Don’t even start on the “but it’s Israel, WWII, The Holocaust, etc”  This is now about votes for both gangsters, Trump and Netanyahu, full stop.

For (a lot) more on the history involved read this blog post from May, 2018.

https://bubblehead1026.blogspot.com/2018/05/why-is-this-happening.html

        In a refreshing case of justice delayed but not forgotten, a 71 year-old man in Lake County (Fl) who has made a crusade of persecuting the parents of children killed in the horrific events at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012, was arrested yesterday. It is worthy of note that this lunatic had been a guest on the TV show of equally delusional conspiracy theorist, Alex Jones. His latest crime was apparently the dissemination of the private information of the father of one of the children killed. His constant claim, delusional NRA supporter that he is, is that the 20 dead children aren’t really dead, but that they and their parents were all willing participants in a “gummint” devised “false flag” incident designed to increase anti-gun concerns. The individual in question, one Wolfgang Halbig, currently resides in the lake county jail.

         Wolfgang Halbig, hoaxer and certified asshole

Halbig, 73, a former Florida public school security administrator (yikes!) , has sent hundreds of public records requests to Newtown and Connecticut officials, demanding documents that include photographs of the murder scene, the children’s bodies and receipts for the cleanup of “bodily fluids, brain matter, skull fragments and around 45 to 60 gallons of blood.”

        In a similarly gratifying example of justice continued, lifelong serial pedophile and  abuser, Jerry Sandusky, has had an appeal for reduced sentence denied by a higher court. Sandusky, enabled for years by the benign and willing indifference of Joe Paterno and other Penn State officials and coaches, was originally sentenced by a judge, and the appeal (denied) was for the decision to be either overturned or reduced.

        Sandusky, aged 75, remains under his current 30 to 60 years, 45-count, child molestation conviction and sentence. Sandusky was sentenced by the trial judge, but a Superior Court panel said that included the improper application of mandatory minimums.  “The Superior Court has agreed with our office that it was proper for the court below to reject Sandusky’s claims,” said a spokesman for the prosecutor’s office. “We look forward to appearing for the new sentencing proceedings and arguing to the court as to why this convicted sex offender should remain behind bars for a long time.” At 75, hopefully Sandusky will expire before his sentence does.

Bad wine reviews. Make them stop!

Stop.  Just stop!


"AROMAS FULL OF CRUSHED BLACKBERRIES AND BLUEBERRIES WITH FRESH MUSHROOMS AND SANDALWOOD. FULL-BODIED, VERY TIGHT AND FOCUSED WITH FABULOUS DENSITY OF FRUIT IN THE CENTER PALATE AND A LONG, FLAVORFUL FINISH. SHOWS STRENGTH AND, AT THE SAME TIME, FINESSE." (An  actual review from Wine Spectator”)

        Yep. fresh mushrooms are just what I demand in a good red! Also, strength, and yet some finesse. Pretentious much? I propose a new review system with standard terminology. Let’s use terms like "yummy," "fruity" "smooth" "battery acid," and keep the "dry to sweet" scale as a simple 1 to 10. (which, in fact, many wine vendors do, these days, in their store labeling).

        Ban the use of the following descriptors, all of which I have read in various snotty reviews: "insouciant" "leather" "tar" (yeah, really), ""bacon", flinty, "stone fruit" (very popular recently), "forest floor", "cat pee" (unless it actually tastes like it, in which case you have no business drinking it anyway), "iodine," "pencil shavings," "a petrol nose."  

      More extended, yet similarly ravings, include:   "flavors of “graphite mixed with pâte de fruit, hoisin sauce, warm ganache, and well-roasted applewood” or, “liquefied Viagra” (yeah, I know), seems counter intuitive, don't it. Also, even the thought of hoisin sauce in wine is nausea inducing.  

        Finally, for two final insults to decent writing on the subject:  1: "The wine tasted like St. Joseph children’s aspirin, the orange kind, dropped into a glass of Alka-Seltzer." (actually, although it’s hard to imagine,  the wine might have been that bad, I can almost imagine that flavor). On further reflection, while humorous, this is, in truth, not all that bad if the wine really had those flavors. At least, unlike "smashed minerals" or "rich loamy earth", one might imagine the taste.   

 OR

 2:"Deep purple color. Aromas of rich dark currants, nectarine skins, gushing blackberry, but lots of fragrant tobacco, rich soil, white flowers, smashed minerals and metal. Medium-bodied and saucy but racy acidity stabilizes the wine nicely with the robust tannins. Deep red currants and ripe cherries, laden with mocha, loamy soil, charred herbs, pencil shavings, roasted hazelnut. Dense like(???)  characters that make it perfect for cellaring, however it is drinkable straight away once you expose it to the earth’s atmosphere. This is a delicious Sonoma Cabernet! Has been matured for 24 months in 2-year-old 55% Tronçais and 45% Vosges oak. 95 points."  

"Gushing Blackberries?" "Smashed minerals," "Loamy soil", "charred herbs", really? It might be a superb Cab, but the review sounds more like a Chemistry experiment gone desperately  awry.  And has anyone ever turned down a wine because it was aged in improperly sourced oak? Finally, the use of "mocha" and "roasted hazlenut" makes it sound more like, perhaps, a "2016 Sonoma Nutella-Sauvignon."

How about “Raspberry Kool-aid laced with moonshine and Vicks Vapo-rub?” At least you’d know what to expect.

Are we winning yet?

Brain droppings (with a posthumous nod to George Carlin for the term)

        Apparently one of the new “hot films” at Sundance is an indie entitled “Some Kind of Heaven.”  It is set in The Villages, where we live, and is in some ways simply a poorly conceived pastiche of “Leisureville”, a scurrilous paperback of some years ago. In the case of Leisureville, the author found several oddballs and then extrapolated their behavior to the entire community, which is, I assure you, nothing like it is portrayed.

        The preconceived notion behind Leisureville is that the author believes retired folks should remain in their communities to be role models for younger persons. Of course, what he omits is any mention of the huge number of tutors and mentors, myself among them,  who live in the Villages and serve in neighboring communities in these roles. In point of fact, the spirit of volunteerism here is amazing. Similarly, this is the healthiest, and most active, senior community of its (or any) kind in the world. A Dutch author who spent several months here several years ago dubbed it, in her book, “the happiest place on earth.”
 

        And now to “Some Kind of Heaven”: The filmmaker begins by describing the Villages accurately (and positively), but then chronicles the issues of four residents (out of almost 150,000) whose life here is less than idyllic. See the problem yet? I guarantee that I can, in any group of similar size, find far more than .00026% of said group who have not had the life they wanted or envisioned. Truthfully, for these folks, destined and committed to being miserable, any situation would most likely be unsatisfactory in their estimation. Of course, the unstated reality in both the book and the film is the basic mantra we all tell critics, “If you don’t like it here, move” (almost no one ever does).

       Today’s paper chronicles the visit, yesterday, of Secretary of Stated Mike Pompeo, who spoke to a largely supportive group. What was odd about the speech was the constant reference to “winning.”  I have spent some time trying to decipher what he might mean by the term. It is reminiscent of Trump’s declaration that “We’re gonna win. We’ll win so much” (if he were elected). Obviously, the word “win” has, to Trump, Pompeo, et al, a slippery definition at best.

        Trump bragged about pulling troops out of Kurdistan to allow his Turkish allies free rein to attack Kurds, which they did. This troop withdrawal was publicly ballyhooed even as he was ramping up troop numbers in Afghanistan and Iraq. The same newspaper today acknowledges an additional 20,000 US military personnel being deployed to hostile regions of the Mid-East, even as I type. I hope they “win.”

        Farmers in the Midwest are also far from “winning,” with farmers facing soybean crops which are almost unsaleable because the prime market, China, has been dried up by Trump’s tariff war. China, formerly a consumer of 60% of US soybeans, has found Brazil eager to fill the void - without tariffs. The man who cried crocodile tears over the inability to get $5 billion for the “wall” his bigoted sycophants demanded, has a spent 5 times that much in extra agricultural subsidies (can you say "welfare?") to farmers, crippled by his tariffs, which he continues to claim are “paid” by China.

       An economic dullard, his tariffs are estimated to cost each American household an average of $2,031 this year and, if threatened or scheduled tariffs for next year are imposed, that figure will jump to $3,614 per household. Feel like a winner yet?

        But wait, there’s more. The same Donald Trump who promised to “reduce the deficit immediately and erase the national debt in eight years” (verified quotes) has, instead, increased the debt by about $3 trillion (so far) with a projected $9.1 Trillion increase if he were to serve an eight year term (Odin forbid!). Just as a point of interest, this deficit, unlike his predecessor’s, has been generated with no housing bubble collapse or Great Recession. His response as I have previously reported, was that, when the fiscal excreta hits the fan, “I won’t be here.”

        A winning team must pull together. Trump’s team has been decimated by firings, planned departures, unplanned departures, unfilled posts, indictments and apparently insane legal advice. To compound the debacle, he has alienated most of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, calling them “babies and dopes” while whining that we ought to be making a profit from wars.   

Here are just a few samples from Philip Rucker’s recent “A Very Stable Genius: Donald J. Trump's Testing of America”

“The ineptitude came from the very top. Trump cared more about putting on a show than about the more mundane task of governing. There would be no restraining the grievances Trump felt nor curbing the chaos he created. They could only be managed.”

And: “Addressing the room, the commander in chief barked, “You’re a bunch of dopes and babies.”  This was delivered to the Joint Chiefs Assembled and Rex Tillerson, then Sec. State, was the only person who dared to speak in their defense at the time. It was after this meeting that Tillerson described Trump as “a moron.”

And, in case you haven’t had enough “winning:” “Another senior administration official said, “The guy is completely crazy. The story of Trump: a president with horrible instincts and a senior-level cabinet playing Whack-A-Mole.”

       And finally, the characterization of head and other injuries suffered by some US troops in an Iranian missile attack as “Minor, not significant.”  Interestingly enough, Trump initially reported “No US injuries,” immediately afterward. A cynical individual might pose that Trump, already feeling some heat after assassinating an admittedly heinous Iranian general, was fearful that his Red Hat wearing deplorables might demand further military action.                   

Other than all that It’s a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

Corrupt? You Bet! (and other oddities)

Corrupt: (adj): “Having or showing a willingness to act dishonestly in return for money or personal gain.”

        We’ve seen this allegation of bad character aimed by the imbecile in the White House at the media (all of it except Faux News), all Democrats, ambassadors, several formerly friendly nations, and essentially anyone else who disagrees with Donald Trump. Even more troubling is that it has also become his go-to word when dealing with such things as statements of fact which are less than flattering to the man himself. He simply trots out “corrupt” as if his use of the word obliviates the truthfulness of statements which are derogatory towards him, his actions, and far more frequently, his propensity for bald faced lying.  In fact, an alternate definition of corrupt might well be “willingness to lie for personal gain in any circumstance.”

       Perhaps the most reliable source for analyzing this almost pathological aversion to the truth comes from Tony Schwartz, the journalist who ghostwrote “Trump: The Art of the Deal.” Yes, that’s right, what we all knew from reading Trump’s infantile Twitter spasms is true - He can’t write literate English. When Schwartz wrote “The Art of the Deal”, he created the phrase "truthful hyperbole" as an "artful euphemism" (sic) to describe what he later called Trump's "Loose relationship with the truth". This passage from the book, in which Schwartz quotes Trump, provides the context: "I play to people's fantasies ... People want to believe that something is the biggest and the greatest and the most spectacular. I call it truthful hyperbole. It's an innocent form of exaggeration—and it's a very effective form of promotion." Schwartz, in a later interview, said that Trump "loved the phrase".

       Schwartz, who, for the record, has since made it clear that he regrets his ghostwritten “sanitization” of Trump, said that "deceit" is never "innocent.  He added, "'Truthful hyperbole' is a contradiction in terms. It's a way of saying, 'It's a lie, but who cares?” Schwartz repeated this criticism on Good Morning America and Real Time with Bill Maher, saying he (Schwartz) "put lipstick on a pig".

        The real “corruption”, then, is apparently innate with Trump and began even before he inherited the Trump real estate empire.

       Daddy Fred Trump, himself chronically on the edge of legality, feared that anti-German sentiments during and after World War II could negatively affect his business. The solution was to claim Swedish descent. Donald repeated this blatant lie to the press and in The Art of the Deal, where he claimed that his grandfather, Friedrich Trump, "came here from Sweden as a child". In the same book, Donald also said that his father was “Born in the USA (New Jersey)” apologies to Bruce Springsteen. Trump later said, "My father is German. Right? Was German. And born in a very wonderful place in Germany, and so I have a great feeling for Germany." This is even more bizarre, since Fred Trump was born in the Bronx, New York.

         

        Consider: the man who chronically labels the media as “corrupt, and lying,” is on the record as claiming three different birthplaces for his own father. Time and space make documenting all examples of Trump mendacity a Herculean task, but the use of the word “corrupt” by Trump is clearly the most egregious case of “pot calling the kettle black” in recent memory.

     

Speaking of lies we’re fed on a regular basis:

      I saw a promo a while ago for a “new” (aren’t they all?) sleep aid drug, which portrays sleepiness and wakefulness as cats, one dark and restless, one white, fluffy and purring. After the pleasant and low-key hype came the sotto voce list of "possible side effects."  I was mildly interested right up to that point, but the list was truly frightening. Among the side effects were: Depression, suicidal thoughts, Inability to move immediately upon waking (really troubling, if what woke you was your bladder!), driving or working without remembering, and more. Try a cup of hot Cocoa, liberally laced with rum!

        Along the same line, another "new" drug offers the possibility of "ruptured spleen!" Now there's an offer that's hard to turn down, huh? This same drug's advert, as so many do these days, gives this sage advice, "Don't take (name of drug here) if you are allergic to "this drug." Wow! Would never have thought of that! But, one wonders, how the hell would I know I’m allergic to it until I take it? (oops, too late, call 911 and tell them to warm up a new spleen!)

And finally, but still weird:

       Recent and bizarre sign of the apocalypse: Vegan dog and cat foods! Look, I couldn't care less if you, as a rational omnivore, opt for whatever cosmic muffin induced reason, to go vegetarian or vegan. As I've often said, just don't tell me it's "natural" because it isn't. Your dentition alone tells that tale. but "Spot's Choice Vegan Garden Recipe Dry Dog Food"?? Really? Did your dog signal their unhappiness and deep-seated guilt over 50,000 years of canid meat consumption?  Next, you'll be saying they shouldn't lick their crotch, either, because you don't care to do it.

        An impartial dog food analysis organization rates this attempt at human conscience salving thus: (just a blurb of the entire article): "Below-average protein. Below-average fat. And above-average carbs when compared to a typical dry dog food."   It goes on to rate this expensive delight as two stars out of five on the dry dog food spectrum - well below average! If this wasn't sufficient insult to the dog, hold on to your wallet, because this garden cornucopia of yuck will cost you about $6 per pound! On the other hand, several “Five Star” dry foods cost about $2.20 per pound and are nutritionally complete.  So, starve yourself for meat protein if it makes you feel good, but trust me, your dog doesn't give a hoot in hell! Sure, they like sweet potatoes and need the beta carotene, but sometime ya just gotta sink your teeth into some meat protein.

        And I do believe that’s all I have to say about that.

Elemental oddities: (Why it Tin Sn?)

Element Oddities: 11 Confusing Chemical Symbols Explained

        Sometimes I just get to a sidetrack I feel I have to take. Here’s one stemming from a trivia question from last night. The question was “what is the common name for the element which appears in the Periodic Table (chart of the elements) as “Sn”?

        I correctly remembered from Nuclear Power School, over 50 years ago, that it is Tin. It was difficult to convince the other five team members, who thought the name had to begin with “T” but I persevered, they conceded, and we won the points. The reason they balked, was that the symbol isn’t really indicative of the word we use today. This prompted me to look at the other cases where we use a name which is seemingly not related to the thing it names.

        Not surprisingly, there are 11 Latin named elements, all metals. I say “not surprisingly” because metals were far more interesting, useful, and more tangible in most cases to early observers than, say, any of the gases or other less plentiful elements. Additionally, pure versions of some are, or can be, naturally occurring as elemental, volcanic or even meteoric sources, Silver and Gold occur in veins in rocks while others were observed as the unintended consequence of fire. So, ignore this if you don’t like science, otherwise, here goes.  

Sodium … Natrium (Na) Sodium's (Latin name, 'natrium', derives from the Greek 'nítron' (a name for sodium carbonate). Melts (boils actually) at 98F. Oxidizes, releases hydrogen, and usually explodes in air. Not good for any use in elemental form. In fact. elemental sodium is stored under oil to prevent interaction with air.

Gold … Aurium (Au) … melts at 1984 F, soft, malleable, good bling, lousy weapon.

Lead … Plumbum (Pb)… melts at 621 F.  A wood fire (not charcoal) burns as high as 1112 F, so Lead or Tin in earth near the fire would have melted and been left and discovered as a hardened bit soft metal in the ashes. All the other “weapons grade” metals would have had to wait for the advent of charcoal, which burns at 2010 F.

Potassium… Kalium (K) ...  melts at 146.3   very soft can be cut with a knife.   

Mercury … Hydrargyrum (Hg) Liquid down to minus 39 F! original Latin name was actually ‘argentum vivum’ (living silver), but Latin later borrowed from the Greek ‘hydrargyros’ (liquid silver). Looks like silver and was called quicksilver by alchemists.

Iron – Ferrum (Fe) ... melts at 2800 F, “weapons grade” hard but melt point is high

Copper – Cuprum (Cu) ...  melts at 1984 F, harder than Gold, still soft enough to be marginal as weapon material.

Silver – Argentum (Ag) ...  Melts at 1763 F, good bling, poor weapon.

Tin … Stannum (Sn) ... melts at 449 F, soft in elemental form, but when someone accidently mixed it into a melt of Copper, the Bronze Age was born.

Antimony… Stibium (Sb) ...melts at 1167, soft, malleable early use was ground up as medicine and as a makeup base (??)

Tungsten … Wolfram (W)  melts (if you can do it) at 6,192 F, hard, but difficult to fabricate, good light bulb filament, alloyed with steel, (iron and carbon) makes cutting tools for cutting other metals, would have made great swords but no one in the past could melt it.

        I was curious (as I occasionally am) as to the naming of Tin.  As it turns out, all of the metals were known at the time of Rome  and were given Latin names, and these were kept into the (relatively) modern, principally because snotty European “natural philosophers” (scientists) published in Greek and/or Latin. It was all metals (as you can see), because it wasn’t until much later that any gasses or rare earths were isolated, identified as elements and named.

        However, even when smelting copper, or gold or silver, other metals at other melting points were sometimes in the mix. Copper was probably the earliest, in a close tie with lead, because of their (relatively) low melting points.  Both were probably identified while smelting gold or vice versa. Copper and gold decorative items, (think small statues and pendants) dating as far back as 7000 BC, were made from elemental veins of both metals near the surface, probably as a result of ancient volcanic temperatures. It was the innovation of charcoal that revolutionized the use and availability of copper and then, soon after, it’s harder alloy, Bronze.

       The World’s earliest known (“known”, not necessarily the “first”) smelting site is in Serbia and dates to c. 5000 BCE. Early furnaces could only create a copper-rich slag which had to be further treated in a clay crucible, but with the development of charcoal-burning furnaces (sort of like brick kilns) and the use of bellows, 2190 F  (still below the melt point of iron) was reachable and copper and gold smelting became more common.

       As far back as 3500 years ago, in the Mid-east, those smelting copper (used for a brief period for weapons, although really too soft. ) found that  when tin was mixed in, even in small amounts such as 2 to 3 % of the mix, the resulting metal mixture, or alloy, became much harder. Welcome to the Bronze age! The Romans mined both tin and lead in Britain, and Romans even had some lead pipes in higher class homes.  Lead was one of the earliest metals discovered by the human race and was in use by 3000 B.C. The ancient Romans used lead for making water pipes and lining baths, and the plumber who joins and mends pipes takes his name from the Latin word plumbum, meaning lead.

        Iron would have been found from early on, and appears in very small Egyptian  beads or images, but is meteoric in origin, with nickel mixed in, not made on earth. By 1600 BCE, the earliest crude iron furnaces were being developed. These prototypical forced air operations were fed with iron oxide (think rust) in ore concentrations which were placed into furnaces of brick, layered with charcoal.             

      After several hours with a bellows forcing  air to boost the charcoal’s already high combustion temperature, the molten iron, chemically reduced to pure iron by the CO (carbon monoxide) in the furnace, would be drained via a plug in the bottom of the furnace into a stone trough mold, or similar container. Turning it into weapons still required reheating until it was malleable and then beating it into shape. Welcome to the Iron Age, which seems to have happened in numerous and divergent places world-wide, the earliest probably in the Mid-east.

         We know the Hittites, based originally in Anatolia (Asian Turkey), used iron weapons by 1200 BCE.  In Britain, prior to Roman conquest, iron was in use from as early as 850 BCE. Vikings used iron-rich, naturally occurring ore called “Bog iron” in their furnaces as well. Bog iron is so called because it forms in low lying poorly drained areas, which if they dry a bit are better known as peat bogs. What happens is that in areas like much of the UK coastal regions and Scandinavia as well, water draining from elevated areas rich in iron stagnates in these bogs. The bogs’ chemical constituents produce an anerobic bacteria which prevents oxygen from reaching the elemental iron so little or no oxidation (rust) occurs. These pure iron atoms cluster (“accrete”) in spongy clumps. These semi-porous clusters of iron, much purer than almost any mined ore, gave the Vikings and Celts a jump start in the smelting process. Rather than digging for iron ore, Bog Iron can simply be picked up.   

          The Celts, who had an iron culture in mainland Europe for centuries, brought Bog Iron, and the technology to smelt it, to Wales and Ireland (plenty of Bogs!) as they were pushed west by Angles and later Romans.  The Iron Age began in China during the Zhou Dynasty's reign around 600 BCE, however, earlier dynasties like the Shang first used iron during the Bronze Age, but it was rare meteoric iron. Being scarce, it was not used to equip armies until after the 600 BCE figure.

        India's Iron Age emerged in an era of transition known as the Vedic period (ca. 1,500-600 BCE). The period It gets its name from the Vedas, which are Hindu liturgical texts containing details of life during this period that have been interpreted to be historical and constitute the primary sources for understanding the age,much like some westerners refer to the Bible as historical writing. The Vedic period covers both the end of the Bronze Age following the collapse of the Harappan civilization around 1,400 CE and the start of the Iron Age.

        During this period of transition from Empire (Harappan) to smaller more concentrated local fiefdoms, the first Indian culture to start systematically smelting and using iron appeared. They are generally referred to as the “Painted Grey Ware” culture, after their characteristic style of pottery. Thriving from about 1,200 to 600 BCE along the Indus and Ganges river valleys, the Painted Grey Ware people began smelting and using iron for agricultural tools, domesticating horses, and re-organizing into more complex social and political units.

        In the western hemisphere there has been no reliable evidence in support of indigenous metallurgy beyond gold, silver and copper, (all lower temperature melts) although in an  interesting side note, beginning with the La Tolita culture circa 600 BCE,  Ecuadorian cultures mastered the soldering of platinum  (Pl, named in the modern period) grains through alloying with copper, gold and silver, producing platinum-surfaced rings, handles, ornaments and utensils. This was unknown technology to Europeans as late as the 1700s! These ancient uses of platinum didn’t consist of the pure metal itself, since Platinum melts above 3000 F! They likely were made from commonly found platinum mixtures (or “alloys”) that included palladium or iridium, probably of volcanic origin. A simple example of this reduction in melting point when a metal is alloyed is sen in common solder, which is an alloy of lead, tin and antimony. Lead melts at 621F, Tin at 449 F, and antimony at 1167 F, but alloyed into solder, the compound melts at about 350 F, easily obtainable with an electric soldering iron.

       There is an interesting recent possibility however for the “Iron saga” in pre-Colombian North America. Satellite images have shown what appears to be a Viking settlement of some size on the southern end of Newfoundland, far south of L’anse au meadows, which was once considered to be the only “permanent” (as in Vikings lived there) Viking site in North America. Excavation has bared what seems to be part of an iron smelter, where Viking settlers made iron, probably from melting Bog iron which is plentiful in the region. In addition to a stone hearth of Viking style, slag globules have been found, indicating the iron smelting process occurred there. This is probably the first iron “made” in the West, long after the Iron age began.

        Finally, just because again I find it interesting, there are things about metals which sometime defy what seems logical. For example, Steel is the strongest alloy in the world, but because of the carbon used in the alloy, it melts at a lower temperature than Iron. Steel – harder and stronger yet melts at lower temp. Wha? Or Aluminum, steel, and nickel, none close to as strong as Tungsten, yet, properly mixed – strength of tungsten, same weight! Another the odd effect, yet commonly used is the addition of carbon and nickel to iron. carbon is soft, smudgy soot, yet properly admixed it produces carbide, one of the hardest cutting tools known. Soft copper mixed with even softer tin yields bronze - harder than either. Go figure.

         These and other odd effects happen generally because metals have crystalline structures, meaning their atoms form or align in geometric (crystalline) patterns. This could be a 3-D cube (like a die)  with an atom at all the corners(8 atoms). It could also, depending on the metal and its temperature have another atom in the middle of the cube (9 atoms) or an atom in the center of each face of the cube (14 atoms),. It could also be several other more or less complex geometric forms with similar variations, even 3D hexagons!  These positions of the atoms in the crystal lattices of the same metal can even change as temperature varies. When a metal(s) is alloyed with another, however, instead of forming a chemical compound, the properties of the whole can change but the individual metal atoms, instead of chemically bonding with one another, simply form new integral (and different) crystalline structures (like an iron crystal with several carbon atoms in the spots iron once held) and probably 
 with new properties. 

       A Sodium ion bonding with a Chlorine ion in a chemical reaction  forms ordinary salt, which is not explosive like Sodium or deadly like Chlorine, but instead forms edible salt, essential to life. In alloys this doesn’t happen, atoms just occupy different geometries in the crystals sometimes with unexpected results. Metallurgists are about as close to Alchemists as exist in the modern era.       

 OK I’m done. This isn’t political or humorous, like most of what I write, but I think it is interesting, so there.