Are You Out There?

If we were to find totally alien creatures who reason as well as we do then we would have to conclude that it is not reason that makes us human.

Bate
*************************
Hello Barrow, Alaska. May you soon have some warm days.
************************
Let us set aside for now the discussion of whether there is a Sasquatch or not and take up the argument about UFOs. Are there UFOs? Of course there are. A UFO is an Unidentified Flying Object. If you see it flying and you can't identify it it's a UFO, whether it's a Frisbee, a kite, a bird, a weather balloon, a fancy new piece of aircraft the military has come up with or a visitor from outer space.

Now I don't intend to treat any humorous topic seriously and I don't intend to treat any serious topic humorously (well, al right, yes I do).

There have been too many sightings, photographs and videos that haven't been explained not to be certain that such things do not exist as the "flying saucer" and not the one thrown by an angry housewife. There have also been a lot of stories of encounters, beginning with Betty and Barney Hill in 1961. There are two interesting details about that experience. One is that under hypnosis their accounts agreed with each other. Also, the Hills lived in New Hampshire. The incident happened in the White Mountains, where I used to live. I knew an artist up there. When the Hills came to visit him he asked them to describe the way the space creatures looked. He drew what they were describing and when he showed it to them they became quite upset. That picture has never been shown to anyone else and yet it resembles all the other pictures of the space aliens that have been made since.

There are a number of serious scientists investigating the UFO phenomena, some with the hypothesis that they don't exist and others that they do. They are all set out to prove their various theories. To date no one has been able to prove either side of the issue.

And now the question has arisen that if they are visiting us from Zeta Reticuli, or some other place, what do they want? One theory is, perhaps because we've only just discovered it ourselves, they want our DNA. Well, maybe, but I personally think that's as absurd an idea as saying they want our recipe for chicken soup.

That theory is partly based on the observation that they don't seem belligerent toward us. If they are so advanced scientifically they could probably do away with us in a moment, unless one wants to believe they are responsible for brewing up all the hurricanes, tornados, earthquakes and tsunamis, in which case they are playing a very nasty game and they're a bunch of bullies.

It's clear that no nation on this planet is strong enough to do battle with them if it came to that. We cold never blow any one of those UFOs out of the water (sorry, skies).

So what's left? Negotiation? Very difficult since they don't sit still long enough. Besides, who wants to negotiate with a bunch of shrimpy, bug eyed, skin heads?

I would truly like to meet one someday. I'd give him a beer, play him some Mozart or rock and get to know the guy.

YOU HEAR THAT, YOU, OUT THERE? COME VISIT ME. I WON'T LET THE NIGHBORS SHOOT YOU. I PROMISE.

DB - The Vagabond
*********************

SPRING QUESTION
(This is not a contest)

NASA has planned to send a two man mission on an 18 month trip to the planet Mars. It would take 6 months for the astronauts to get there and after 6 months of exploration another 6 months to return.

Should they do it and why, and if not, why not?

dbdacoba@aol.com

4 answers so far

I eagerly await your answer.

DB
******************

Catcher In the Wry

If you don't know where you're going you'll end up someplace else.

Yogi Berra
(Thank you Jim)
***********************
Hello Bechar, Algeria. The Vagabond wishes you great prosperity.
**************************
Some people are always ready to laugh at Yogi Berra as if he was a clown. because of some of the funny things he says, such as, "It's like deja-vu, all over again."

But Yogi Berra was catcher for the New York Yankees for many years. He was an excellent ball player and when I lived in New York and was a Yankee fan he was a hero of mine, as he was for many New Yorkers.

Yogi was a good catcher, one of the best. A catcher has to deal with every pitcher on the team and every player that comes to bat. He has to know their strengths and weaknesses. It's not a job for a clown.

He was also a good hitter. The story goes that when he tried out for the Yankees he stepped up to bat and the pitcher threw a ball that went wide of the batter's box. Berra didn't bother to let it pass. He stepped across the plate and smacked it into the outfield anyway.

He said "I never blame myself when I'm not hitting. I just blame the bat and if it keeps up, I change bats. After all, if I know it isn't my fault that I'm not hitting, how can I get mad at myself?"

Here are some of his other observation about baseball.

"In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is."

"If people don't want to come out to the ball park, nobody's gonna stop 'em."

"I think Little League is wonderful. It keeps the kids out of the house."

Yogi Berra was also an astute social commentator.

"It was impossible to get a conversation going, everybody was talking too much."

"I just want to thank everyone who made this day necessary."

"Nobody goes there anymore. It's too crowded."

"There are some people who, if they don't already know, you can't tell 'em."

His understanding of himself was clear and candid.

"I never said most of the things I said."

"If you ask me anything I don't know, I'm not going to answer."

His general advice to the world at large was just as clear and wise, if you consider the real meaning behind the unusual verbiage.

"You can observe a lot by just watching."

"If you come to a fork in the road, take it."

And, of course, the famous "It ain't over till it's over."

But of all the Yogisms my favorite is this one of undisputable clear headed logic and wisdom:

"The future ain't what it used to be."

Thank you Yogi.
---------------------
DB - The Vagabond
****************************

SPRING QUESTION
(This is not a contest)

NASA has planned to send a two man mission on an 18 month trip to the planet Mars. It would take 6 months for the astronauts to get there and after 6 months of exploration another 6 months to return.

Should they do it and why, and if not, why not?

dbdacoba@aol.com

4 answers so far

I eagerly await your answer.

DB
******************

I Am Astonished

I only went out for a walk and finally concluded to stay out 'till sundown, for going out, I found, was really going in.

John Muir
******************
Hello Afghanistan, may you have peace and freedom.
******************************
Yesterday I had a phone conversation with a technician from AOL. He was very good, knew his business and helped me out grandly. It was a friendly conversation which took about an hour. Toward the end of it I found out that he was in Manila.

Good heavens !! Young folks don't know. For a man born before there was TV, commercial jets, dial telephones, electric typewriters, space travel and computers, to have a simple phone conversation with a man on the other side of the Earth is astonishing. I like being astonished.

My physical life as a writer is very small and snug. Near my left knee is the computer, near my left elbow is a table with books, notes and about 100 pages of quotations from the wise and not so wise. In front of me is the monitor and key board. To the right is another table with the idiosyncratic printer below. It's a small world.

But it's far from lonely. With my email and journal friends it sometimes resembles a big, noisy party. I have to go on a couple of errands every week, but to just shut down the computer and go for a walk is a rare treat.

But when I go out I enjoy the fresh air, the sky. the river, the trees. I like to see the birds, the squirrels and the grand old buildings. My mind soars. My imagination swirls. I am reminded of the elasticity of nature and the tumult of ideas and I am astonished.

DB - The Vagabond
***********************

SPRING QUESTION
(This is not a contest)

NASA has planned to send a two man mission on an 18 month trip to the planet Mars. It would take 6 months for the astronauts to get there and after 6 months of exploration another 6 months to return.

Should they do it and why, and if not, why not?

dbdacoba@aol.com

4 answers so far

I eagerly await your answer.

DB
******************

Careful Chiseling

Man cannot remake himself without suffering,
for he is both the marble and the sculptor.

Alexis Carrel
*****************************
Hello Aland, have a warm and sunny day.
*******************************

"And a little child shall lead them."

It is said of Michelangelo that he claimed to see the statue within the block of marble and just chiseled away everything else until he revealed the pure work of art inside. I think it may be the other way around for the real human being.

It is heartbreaking to see a child's hopes broken and it's expectations closed up. Why? Because the child is still at the point of innocence about the world. People will say "Well, that's all part of growing up. That's life. C'est la vie."

But who really knows what la vie is? There are more books than you and all your friends and neighbors can read in a lifetime trying to explain it. Biologists with their diastole and systole can only go so far and simple phrases like Life is God don't hold one's interest for very long.

Life seems to be a conglomeration of things that keep getting added on from the moment we are conscious of our first hope being dashed, until we are surrounded and made up of all the ills, fears, angers, hatreds, failures and regrets as well as the thrills, successes and realizations of our days. But what did we lose along the way in this process of "growing up"? How many of us remember the joy of our first cupcake or our first balloon?

If there is a paradise to be found it may be that it can only be gained by remaking ourselves in the image of the pure, innocent being we were made to be, with hammer and chisel in hand to chip away, in sorrow and hard effort, all the accumulated dross that makes us think we are wise and adult, until we finally reach the pure, innocent self inside.

DB - Vagabond Journeys
********************************

SPRING QUESTION

NASA has planned to send a two man mission on an 18 month trip to the planet Mars. It would take 6 months for the astronauts to get there and after 6 months of exploration another 6 months to return.

Should they do it and why, and if not, why not?

dbdacoba@aol.com

2 answers so far

I eagerly await your answer.

DB
******************

Is This A Real Apple?

The world is indeed a mixture of truth and make-believe Discard the make-believe and take the truth.

Ramakrishna
**************************
Hello Buenos Aries. Have a happy day.
---------------------------------------
Years ago I was an actor in a beer commercial. The scene was a party where we were all walking around chatting and having good time. It took an entire day to shoot the commercial which is about average. We all had glasses of beer in our hands. Because of the truth in advertising regulations then in effect it had to be the actual beer being sold in the commercial. But because we were working we couldn't actually drink the beer. And because of the hot lights for the cameras the beer soon became flat. So every now and then they would come around with a big bucket and we would pour the beer into it and get a refill. For a beer lover like me it was heartbreaking to see all that tasty beer going to waste.

On the stage and films there is a lot of make-believe. If there is a bowl of fruit or a bouquet of flowers all of it is artificial or the bright lights would soon rot the fruit and wilt the flowers.

There may be a scene in which a character takes an apple from the bowl and bites into it. In that case the actor has to be very sure he picks the real apple and not the plastic one. On the other hand, during "Greetings" I had to throw a baked apple on the floor. The other apples in the bowl were real ones so I had to make sure I got the make-believe baked apple or there would be a mess on the floor for people to skid in..

It's the same with liquor on the stage. It's water, colored water or tea. If it was genuine we would never make it through the third act.

Now you might say, Well, everything on the stage is make-believe, isn't it? And the answer is More and Less. On the stage the kisses are real but we shoot blanks. A fight is choreographed and rehearsed but the rage that brings two people to fight is real. It's that combination of the wig and the passion, the portraying the real life of a human being through art, that makes theatre what it is.

That is a condition that exists in all the arts. When you look at a painting you may see outlines, colors and brush strokes, but is that really what the painting is all about? It could be the painting of a bowl of fruit or a bouquet of flowers. But they are not fruit and flowers no matter how realistically the painter has rendered them. They convey to the earnest observer the essence of fruit and flowers, or even more the essence of one's experience with nature. Huntington Cairns said "Art is imitation, not of things, but of the nature of things."

Real artists are always peering more deeply into the nature of things so they can cast off the make-believe and paint and portray the truth.

DB - The Vagabond
***********************

SPRING QUESTION

NASA has planned to send a two man mission on an 18 month trip to the planet Mars. It would take 6 months for the astronauts to get there and after 6 months of exploration another 6 months to return.

Should they do it and why, and if not, why not?

dbdacoba@aol.com

2 answers so far

I eagerly await your answer.

DB
******************

The Word Behind

Realists insist that there are truths beyond mental states, but only a truly enlightened person can know those with apodictic certainty.

David Putney
*********************
Hello Montgomery, Alabama. The Vagabond wishes you a joyful day.
***********************
25 years ago if anyone had asked me to search for realities beyond what I could see, hear and consider with my slightly above average but limited intellect I would have found the task boring and unimportant. Now, a quarter of a century later, I don't know if I can perceive the true reality behind things, but I do know there are enlightened people who know with certainly the true, self evident reality of things.

Human language is a great problem when trying to articulate and understand the unexplainable. We have to rely on the mythical, allegorical, metaphorical and parabolic that only point toward the reality. The ancient Greeks and Romans had gods for many natural conditions and many people worshipped those gods as real entities. And that has been a real problem throughout history, people worshipping the symbol instead of the reality behind it. But it is hard to see that reality, easier to anthropomorphize it.

A Jewish mystic wrote that if the universe is a tree then God is that which is behind the power which drives the sap. That light is not to minimize or even explain the divine, but to say that everything, the tree, the sap and the power are expressions, on many levels, of his God.

How many of us can look at a tree or a painting, or hear a piece of music and truly see and hear what is behind it, what it really means outside of seeing, hearing and thinking with human thought? Even the philosophy I love reading these days only leads to the door of enlightenment. And the truly enlightened ones speak to us in the clearest language of all, so clear that it is practically impossible to understand.

The way to enlightenment is to search for the invisible, look into and through everything until behind it you find the word that tells you with certainty what it truly is, the word that can't be spoken. "And the Word was God" Saint John said.

My vagabond journey goes on, and if I never achieve enlightenment I, at least, enjoy the scenery along the way.

DB - The Vagabond
*************************
The Ball Game
a story in 7 parts

Part 7

Jimmy played for the Hawks another few years and then was traded to Denver where he played for a while . Denver traded him to Tucson who traded him to Jacksonville for another few years. He played very well for all those teams, but he was now in a swapping game. When the Jacksonville season was over Jimmy was a free agent. On a hunch he called the front office of the Brooklyn Hawks and was delighted when they offered him a contract to come back. When he once again put on the Hawks uniform he never played so well.

The years wet by. Brooklyn won some and lost some. Jimmy was getting older, he just passed his 40th birthday and he was quite wealthy now. He bought a real house for his mother in a quiet neighborhood. At first she didn't want to move out of her apartment, but he fixed it up nice and hired some servants to take care of things, so she moved in.

Jimmy was thinking of retiring from baseball and taking some adult education courses, maybe getting the college degree he never got. Then he thought he might go into science as his father had done.

Speaking of his father, Jimmy hadn't seen or heard from the nice man in the lab coat and glasses for many years. Sometimes, when he was in a tight situation he would ask "Dad. What should I do?" But he didn't get an answer and had to cope with things on his own.

Then one year the Brooklyn Hawks came out on top of the league and entered the World Series against the Savannah Cougars. The series opened in Brooklyn where the two teams split a game a piece. in Savannah they also split one apiece, the Hawks barely winning the second game which went into extra innings. Back in Brooklyn the Hawks won the first game. It was now three games to two in favor of the Brooklyn.

When they battered up for the sixth game Jimmy was very concerned. They needed to win this game or it would be back to Savannah where anything could happen.

When they got to the top of the ninth inning the score was Savannah 4, Brooklyn 2. The Cougars got two hits, putting two men on base. Then a relief pitcher came in and held Savannah to two fly balls easily caought and one strike out, retiring the side with no runs.

Savannah also brought in a strong relief pitcher at the bottom of the ninth. The first Brooklyn hitter reached first base on a ground ball. The second batter struck out. On a pitch to the next Brooklyn batter the Savannah catcher bobbled the ball and the runner on first stole to second base. The next batter hit a clean short fly ball into the outfield which dropped in front of the outfielder, sending the runner to third base and giving the batter a hit.

There was a man on first, one on third, the score was 4 to 2 Savannah and one out when Jimmy stepped up to the plate. Eventually the count on Jimmy was three balls and one strike. The pitcher was waving of signals from the catcher while Jimmy swung the bat back and forth.

All of a sudden he heard the familiar voice "Jimmy." He looked around for the man in the lab coat and glasses but could see him nowhere. Just then the pitcher wound up and threw the ball. Jimmy watched it come directly toward him, slowly, gently, gracefully, like a bubble on the breeze. But it was too high and too far inside, well out of the strike zone. Jimmy thought if he let it go past him he would walk to first base, then the bases would be loaded for the Hawks best hitter and there would still be only one out. He let the ball float gradually to him and as it did he saw it dip toward the plate. When it reached him it was waist high and the catcher was already reaching for it. He stepped back out of its way and drove his bat into it with a mighty swing. He saw the ball warp slightly as it connected with the bat. Then it took off and flew at great speed into center field. The fielder backed way up the catch it but it flew past him into the bleachers.

There was an enormous roar from the crowd, The Brooklyn bull pen emptied out onto the field. The runner from third came in. The runner from first quickly rounded second and third and he came in for the tying run.

Jimmy tossed his bat aside and trotted around from base to base. Rounding third base he had a big warm smile on his face, because he was the winining run, because the Brooklyn Hawks had just won the World Series, because there was a mob of his teammates ready to pounce on him with hugs and hand shakes as soon as he crossed home plate and because he knew that his father still loved him.

The End

***********************

SPRING QUESTION

NASA has planned to send a two man mission on an 18 month trip to the planet Mars. It would take 6 months for the astronauts to get there and after 6 months of exploration another 6 months to return.

Should they do it and why, and if not, why not?

dbdacoba@aol.com

2 answers so far

I eagerly await your answer.

DB
******************

Fortune Telling

To have that sense of one's intrinsic worth, is potentially to have everything.

Joan Didion
*******************
A palmist can look at your hand and tell you things about your life. A Greek mystic can do the same thing with your coffee grounds. A gypsy mystic does it with a crystal ball. An astrologer will cast your life according to the stars. A Muslim mystic will draw a circle on the ground and make you see images in the circle. Or you can bypass the clairvoyants and cast I Ching or read the Tarot. In every case what you learn is something that is already in your own mind that you didn't know was there.

At some point in my life I have consulted all of those sources of esoteric knowledge in hopes of finding solutions to my difficult and troubled life. And did I get any solid answers? I don't know.

I grew up in a poor family. We became authorities on "making do." Making do is a tactic for survival. Making do requires struggle and sacrifice and is inevitably accompanied by some suffering. Millions of people in this country and others are making do while, ironically, billions upon billions sit in Swiss banks, billions owned by people who don't know what to do with it.

I saw my mother go off to typing jobs with her arthritic fingers. When I was old enough to take care of myself she worked in the evenings as a baby sitter.

When I was a teenager a neighbor gave an old bicycle. I fixed it up and took a paper route. I knew a rich guy who didn't need the money. His paper route was in a tenement. He just took an elevator to the top and walked down dropping papers at apartment doors. Mine was outside. There were winter days with so much snow I couldn't deliver the papers by bicycle, I had to walk them through the neighborhoods carrying the heave bag, in the freezing cold. I didn't complain much. I had a job. One summer day, while I was delivering the papers, our house burned down. Then we lived in a wealthy couples glassed in porch, with no privacy at all.

When you are poor you are automatically insulted by the rich, even when they think they are being compassionate.

From an early age I loved classical music. I bought a small $11 plastic radio so I could listen to the only AM station playing good music (a station I became an announcer for many years later). My schoolmates and teachers thought I was pretending, putting on airs, showing off, trying to make an impression that I was superior somehow. But I genuinely loved the music. So when the insults flew I just kept quiet and stayed by myself.

There is a point to this sad tale and it is that I finally got the respect I deserved when I stepped on the stage as an actor. Then and there I was where I was supposed to be, doing what I was supposed to be doing. I found there the answers to a lot of questions I never got from I Ching or the crystal ball.

Where did the artistry of my acting come from? Was it born in the great music I loved or in the struggle of poverty? Was I tempered by the freezing snow, taught to be comfortable being seen through the glass window of a porch? Was it all homelessness and the product of the mighty lesson of making do?

And did I carry the silent sense of my own self worth through all the troubled years of growing up, the sense that gave me permission to go on the stage and to be at last at home there? I don't know.

DB - Vagabond Journeys
***************************
The Ball Game
a story in 7 parts

Part 6

So Jimmy played for the Brooklyn Hawks for several years. He was a dependable third baseman, his hitting was improving and so was his RBI average.

When the Hawks were playing home games Jimmy stayed with his mother. It was a simple subway ride away. His mom liked to hear all about the games and the other players.

One evening after the game he was standing on the subway platform waiting for the train. Suddenly he heard his name called "Jimmy." He looked down and saw a man in a white lab coat and glasses, pointing and not smiling. He looked where the man was pointing and saw a baby carriage that had rolled to the edge of the platform tumble over onto the tracks. Jimmy heard the sound of the approaching train growing louder. He jumped down onto the tracks and saw the headlight of the train entering the station. He saw it coming toward him gradually and gracefully like a huge, bright bubble on the breeze. He grabbed the carriage with a crying baby in it and hoisted it up onto the platform into the hands of a panicked mother. The he threw one leg up onto the platform, then the other one and rolled out of the way just as the train came roaring and screeching into the station.

The next day there was his picture on the front page of the Sports section in the New York Times with a story about the event and a headline that read SPORTS STAR BECOMES SUBWAY HERO.

His mother was impressed. His teammates were impressed. So now he was a "sports star." He hoped he would have a chance to prove that some day.

(Part 7 tomorrow)
****************************

SPRING QUESTION

NASA has planned to send a two man mission on an 18 month trip to the planet Mars. It would take 6 months for the astronauts to get there and after 6 months of exploration another 6 months to return.

Should they do it and why, and if not, why not?

dbdacoba@aol.com

2 answers so far

I eagerly await your answer.

DB
******************

A Passing Comet

There are so many doors to be opened, and I'm not afraid to look behind them.

Elizabeth Taylor
***********************
Hollywood lost one of it's greatest stars Elizabeth Taylor was a consummate actor. But she was one of those for whom people had a mixed up impression. People could not tell the difference between her public life and her private life.

She had many husbands and led a flamboyant life. She was considered a sexy womanm even a sex symbol. And yet she said she never slept with a man she wasn't married to and asked how many women could make that claim.

Whenever she made a film, particularly in her later career, there was always a lot of publicity about her. That was her public life.

I almost met her once. We were working in the same community. I was doing a play and she was filming "Who's Afraid Of Virginia Wolf." I remember an incident in a local store. There was a front page picture of her on a magazine as Martha in Virginia Wolf, a dissipated drunken older woman. There were two ladies standing and looking at the picture, remarking how terrible she looked and saying it was because of the libertine life she led, having all those husbands. The face in the picture wasn't Elizabeth Taylor it was Martha in the film. And that's a big problem for actors.

Her private life was as an actor and that's where she really lived. That part of her life never made the magazines, of course. The only way one could know about it was to see her films, and you rarely caught her acting, or seeming to act, because she was such a professional that she did her job extremely well in her private life, behind the doors.

DB - Vagabond Journeys
***************************
The Ball Game
a story in 7 parts

Part 5

So Jimmy went off to play for the White Plains Aces for a few years. While there he improved his fielding skills and, of course, his batting. He became a valuable player.

Then one day the Brooklyn Hawks traded their short stop for a pitcher, moved the third base player into short stop and brought up Jimmy to cover third. He was so proud when he put on the Brooklyn Hawks uniform that he immediately had a picture taken so he could show his mother.

Jimmy did well at the plate, occasionally hitting a homer. And he did well fielding ground balls and catching infield flies.

A few years went by and he didn't see his father. Then one day during a tense game with the Wheeling Jets an amazing incident occurred. It was the fifth inning there were no outs. There was a man on first and one on third. There was a one and one count on the batter. At the next pitch the bat connected with a loud smack.

"Jimmy" he heard the voice and looked over to his right. His father was standing next to the third base coach. Then he looked at the ball and saw it gently, gracefully floating toward him like a bubble on the breeze. It was a sure hit, about to land short of the outfield, just past him. He stepped over and when it was right in front of him he grabbed it putting out the batter, flung it straight into the catcher's mitt putting out the runner from third and then stepped onto the third base bag, received the ball back from the catcher and tagged out the runner who had rounded second and was heading straight for him. A triple play.

Next day in the paper there was a picture of him and the catcher. They were called the heroes of the day. But Jimmy's heroics didn't end on the ball field.

(Part 6 tomorrow)

*****************************

SPRING QUESTION

NASA has planned to send a two man mission on an 18 month trip to the planet Mars. It would take 6 months for the astronauts to get there and after 6 months of exploration another 6 months to return.

Should they do it and why, and if not, why not?

dbdacoba@aol.com

1 answer so far

I eagerly await your answer.

DB
******************

A Tasty Dish

Philosophy is the greatest of the arts.

Socrates
*********************
As far as I'm concerned a person's philosophy isn't worth a dime if it doesn't have practical purpose, some positive effect on the world. It's the same with a person's religion. Jean Paul Sartre's philosophy certainly profoundly affected the French and others. Martin Luther's ideas transformed much of European religious thought. Socrates is still shaking up world thought.

It's fun, and probably therapeutic for some, to dream up fancy utopian ideas but what good are they if you can't put them into practice. "I will show you my faith by my works" wrote James, chapter 2. If it works, it's worthy of faith, if it doesn't work it's fruitless fancy.

Some may think I'm a philosopher. I don't think so. Many philosophers started out as mathematicians, or other scientists, some started out as priests. I wonder if there was ever a philosopher who started out as an actor.

Philosophy is certainly woven through the writings of the great playwrights from the ancient Greeks to Shakespeare, Moliere, Ibsen and Shaw. Pope John Paul II started out as a playwright and became a priest.

To consider myself a philosopher I would have to become familiar with all philosophers from Thales to the latest one to publish. And considering that my eyesight isn't as good as it used to be and I have to read with a magnifying glass, that would be a very tedious task.

And many of today's philosophers spend too much time arguing with each other over semantic gravel like borderlines of borderlines, theories of vagueness, implicatures and secondary said-content. Try analyzing a sentence like "Even, unlike Picasso, Warhol was famous." Good luck.

The greatness of philosophy is the greatness of art and the greatness of science. Imagination, ingenuity, intelligence and a sense of humor. Mix thoroughly. Serve. Season to taste.

DB - The Vagabond
************************
The Ball Game
a story in 7 parts

Part 4

Jimmy thought that after graduating from high school he would take a year off, find a job, make a little money and then try to enter City College, or maybe Brooklyn College, to study to become a scientist like his father. So he was very surprised when he got a phone call from the head office of the Brooklyn Hawks.

When he went to the appointment he met with a man who explained that they had been watching Jimmy for the past year and thought he would make a good ball player for the team. If he agreed he would be sent to the White Plains Aces, the Hawks farm team, for a few years and if it worked out he could move up to the majors. Jimmy never thought any one would pay him to play baseball. His Mom told him he should do what's in his heart.

When he went in to sign the contract he still wasn't sure. The man he had talked to before said that he would step out of the room for a few minutes and leave Jimmy alone to think about it.

Jimmy read the contract over carefully and sat staring at it. "Jimmy" a voice said. He looked up and sitting across the table from him was a man in a lab coat, glasses and a big warm smile. "Dad, what should I do?"

The man didn't speak, but just then a pen came floating out of a cup on the table, gently moved over to in front of Jimmy and hung there in mid air. He took it and singed the contract. When he looked up the man in the lab coat was gone.

(Part 5 tomorrow)
*********************

SPRING QUESTION

NASA has planned to send a two man mission on an 18 month trip to the planet Mars. It would take 6 months for the astronauts to get there and after 6 months of exploration another 6 months to return.

Should they do it and why, and if not, why not?

dbdacoba@aol.com

2 answers so far

I eagerly await your answer.

DB
******************

The Great Search

We don't receive wisdom, we must discover it for ourselves after a journey that no one can take for us or spare us.

Marcel Proust
***********************
How does it feel
How does it feel
To be on your own
With no direction home
Like a complete unknown
Like a rolling stone?
(Bob Dylan)

40 - At the peak of my virility and creative powers, I thought I knew things. Younger people looked up to me, trusted me and took my words as words of wisdom. I didn't know yet what I didn't know.

50 - Now I began to realize how much I didn't know. I had lived half a century and where was the wisdom I thought I should have accumulated. I had technical and creative ability and knowledge, but was any of that really wisdom?

60 - I was just beginning to realize what a gulf there was between knowledge and wisdom, and that wisdom was akin to enlightenment. Proust is correct, enlightenment is not given to us, it is pursued. A few years later I retired and set upon a journey to pursue it. I knew it would be a vagabond journey, wandering from place to place without any settled home.
From the age of 6 I never had a settled home, and my actor's career was one of wandering from place to place. Now it was a mental wandering and a journey of search and discovery, an explorer's life.

70 - I remained solidly on moving ground, the search continues through mists of feeling, the poetry of exasperation and thrill. Wisdom is only found by understanding myself. Wisdom is the knowledge of how things work, why they work and why they exist. Wisdom is the knowledge that shows us the invisible, the true existence of the seemingly palpable. I am at the cusp of separating the man from the figure, from the figuring.

Every journey is a journey back home, to the home I always had but never knew about and never lived in. The only garment we ever need to wear is freedom.

DB - The Vagabond
*************************
The Ball Game
a story in 7 parts
----------------------
Part 3

For the next three years Jimmy played for the Thompson High Tigers. He was very conscientious. He went out for practice every day. The coach started the team off with a run around the track. Jimmy increased his speed. He practiced catching, both grounders and fly balls, his throwing, fast and accurate, and of course his batting. By his senior year he was a good player. Not the best on the team, but very good.

The Tigers reached the finals and were in line to win the championship if they could beat Mechanics High from the Bronx. Mechanics was a tough team but they were evenly matched when they reached the final series.

When they were in the final game, played on The Tigers home stadium, it was the bottom of the ninth inning, the score was tied 4 all, there was one out and one man on third. Jimmy didn't know there were scouts in the stands looking for some baseball talent when he stepped up to the plate.

H e was worried. He hadn't hit off the other team's fierce pitcher all day. He could strike out as usual and there was still another Tiger batter up next, a good one, one of the best. But the situation was very tense.

The pitcher sent two balls flying at great speed, both in the strike zone. Jimmy swung hard at both of them but missed them. Two strikes. Jimmy stepped out of the batters box for a moment.

"Jimmy." He heard that familiar voice calling him and looked up to see his father's face just to the right of the pitcher. Jimmy stepped back to the plate and signaled that he was ready.

The pitcher wound up and threw. Jimmy saw the ball coming slowly toward him, gently and gracefully like a bubble on the breeze. It came to him about shoulder high. When it was right in front of him he grabbed both ends of the bat and gave it a push. The ball bounced quickly along the infield between the pitcher and first base. The pitcher made a lunge for it but missed it. Meanwhile Jimmy tossed the bat aside and headed for first base. He never made it there and he wasn't tagged out. The runner on third crossed home plate with the winning run and the ball game was over.

(Part 4 tomorrow)
*****************************

SPRING QUESTION

NASA has planned to send a two man mission on an 18 month trip to the planet Mars. It would take 6 months for the astronauts to get there and after 6 months of exploration another 6 months to return.

Should they do it and why, and if not, why not?

dbdacoba@aol.com

1 answer so far

I eagerly await your answer.

DB
******************

A Song Of Spring

The future starts today, not tomorrow.

Pope John Paul II
**********************
So it's Spring is it? Well, I won't bother with the bugs and the mud. Instead I'll enjoy the birds and the buds and

I'll dust those wintry bowers,
Wash them out with April showers,
Cover them with fragrant flowers,
Shine up the silvery moon.

(Powell, Samuels, Whitcup)

I bought a bird feeder and filled it with wild bird seeds. For about two weeks the birds paid no attention to it. I was convinced the birds just didn't like me as a neighbor and that was that.

I bought a gentle bamboo wind chime and hung it out in a secluded place where the strong winds won't send it swinging. Now it tinkles gently.

Call it my patient care and concern, call it the inviting tinkle of the wind chime or call it Spring, Friday I went out to check and found most of the bird seeds gone. I didn't eat them. I haven't seen any squirrels. And considering the high pitched twittering commotion that goes on out there every morning and evening it must be the birds. So I filled it with more seeds. One day soon I'll sit out there and see if they get used to me.

My first floor housemate has been fussing around in the front, raking up leaves and poking around in the dirt, so I expect to see some blossoms showing up there pretty soon if she has her way.

It was a hard winter here, as it was in most places, and we may still have a few nasty days left but no one is going to take them seriously if we do. It's Spring. Beginning time. Time to

dust of that wintry thinking,
wash it with springing thoughts,
cover it with happy wishes and
shine up the love of life.

DB - The Vagabond
***********************
The Ball Game
A story in 7 parts

Part 2

A few years later Jimmy started going to Allen Thompson High School in Brooklyn. In his sophomore year he decided to try out for the Thompson High baseball team.

The coach told the boys that were trying out that they had to catch one fly ball out of three tries, one ground ball out of three and hit the ball once out of three pitches.

Jimmy had no trouble catching the grounders. He finally caught the third fly ball. But when he stepped up to the plate he missed the first two pitches. His heart sank because he could tell he just wasn't good enough as a batter. The third pitch flew past him so fast he could feel the wind.

The coach said "Sorry Jimmy, You just can't hit. Maybe next year." He reached of the bat.

"Jimmy" a voice said. He saw the face of his father smiling at him just above and behind the coach. He said "Give me one more try"

"No, you've had your chance, give me the bat."

"Please, just one more. I know I can do it."

"Okay, but just one."

The pitch came fast out of the coaches hand and floated slowly, gently and gracefully toward Jimmy, like a bubble in the breeze. When it was right in front of him he gave a mighty swing and knocked the ball way into the outfield.

The coach turned and watch the ball flying through the air. None of the other boys had hit it so far.

"Okay" he said "you're on the team."

(Part 3 tomorrow)
*************************

SPRING QUESTION

NASA has planned to send a two man mission on an 18 month trip to the planet Mars. It would take 6 months for the astronauts to get there and after 6 months of exploration another 6 months to return.

Should they do it and why, and if not, why not?

dbdacoba@aol.com

I eagerly await your answer.

DB
******************

Forget The Hourglass

Contents:
Forget The Hourglass
Winter Question Answers
Spring Question
The Ball Game, a story, part 1

Live your life and forget your age.

Jean Paul
*****************
I just turned 72. That means I lived 36 years twice. I like that idea. It also means I lived to be 24 three times. I like that even better.

"Old rockin' chair's got me, my cane by my side" wrote Hoagy Carmichael.
"You're too old for that" says someone else. "Act your age" says another.

Ask President George Bush if he was too old to go sky diving. Ask John Glenn if he was to old to go into orbit again. A few years ago I understudied Douglas Campbell in a large and difficult role. He was 83. I never played it. He played every performance. Who gave George Burns permission to live to 100? Who told Irving Berlin to sign out at 101?

"They try to tell us we're too young
Too young to really be in love"
(Nat King Cole)

I know a young man whose girl friend is 15 years older than he is. She has no problem with it, neither does he. A person has to be at least 35 years old to be President of the United States. But Lafayette entered the American Revolutionary War as a Major General at the age of 19. The first human cannonball was a 14 year old girl called Zazel. Mozart was playing his own music on the harpsichord in public at the age of 5,

Life is about living, not about counting ages.

I can't do some of the things old folks do any more. I'm not as old as I used to be.

DB - The Vagabond
*****************************
WINTER QUESTION ANSWERS

What was the most significant event of 2010?
------------------------------------
BP Oil Spill
-----------------------------------------------
my answer: The Chilean miners were rescued.
A you tube video depicting the incident:
http://youtu.be/XGecqHnN2gQ
entitled:
Chile Miners Rescue Video: Joy as capsule raises trapped men to surface
--------------------------------------------
I remember the big oil spill
------------------------------------------
The most significant event of 2010 for me was penning my third book (which sadly I'm still in revision with). (Hugs)Indigo
------------------------------------------------
2010, most significant event... I would say the Haiti earthquake, followed closely by the BP Oil Spill and November elections.
----------------------------------------
The most significant event of 2010 for me, was the dawning of Jan. 1, 2011.
-------------------------------------------
Most significant event of 2010? My actually getting on a plane at John McNamara airport with a destination for Omaha...
-----------------------------------------------------
So many significant events happened last year, but my vote for the most significant is going to FIFA World Cup South Africa. The whole world focuses its eyes on soccer supremacy. Borders, barriers, language, culture, politics, religion wealth, age ------ all disappear in the name of sport. No game in the world has as much significance as soccer, or football if you prefer. Just for a few weeks every four years, people put aside their differences and focus on the game. It always amazes me that sport has a way of uniting the world far better than any politicians.


--------------------------------------

Most significant events of 2010: Globally, I think it was the Haitian earthquake and the world's response to it, and for the U.S., Wikileaks.
----------------------------------------------------
I think, after this country woke from a decade of international belligerence, and began to feel the future again, that was the year we realized how much we'd been hobbled and how far we had to go. 1st step on a long road.
----------------------------------------------
Thank you all.
DB
***************************************

SPRING QUESTION

NASA has planned to send a two man mission on an 18 month trip to the planet Mars. It would take 6 months for the astronauts to get there and after 6 months of exploration another 6 months to return.

Should they do it and why, and if not, why not?

dbdacoba@aol.com

I eagerly await your answer.

DB
******************

The Ball Game,
a story in 7 parts

Part 1

The first time Jimmy Login saw his father was at a stick ball game on a Brooklyn street. His father died when Jimmy was only 3. Jimmy doesn't remember him and only knows him from a photograph his mother has of a handsome, smiling man with glasses His mother said Jimmy's father was a physicist who was working on a top secret project when he died.

Billy Ferguson threw the ball with great force and it hit the step with a loud wallop. Jimmy held the stick firmly ready to hit the ball if he could. At that moment he heard a man's voice call his name: "Jimmy." He looked up and just for a flash saw his father's smiling face, just like in the picture. Then he saw the ball coming toward him gradually and gracefully, like a bubble on the wind, as if the whole game was suddenly in slow motion.

When it drifted right in front of him he swung hard and hit the ball squarely on. It flew up fast, bounced off the side of the building, went tumbling down the street and rolled under a parked car.

"Wow" someone said.

That was the first time Jimmy saw his father. But not the last.

(Part 2 tomorrow.)
**********************

A Spiritual Note

For the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish.

Psalms 1:6
***********************
This does not mean that all atheists are going to hell. It means all our ungodly ways, which we all have, will be wiped away, leaving our true righteousness clear.

DB
***************

The Sorrow

In sooth, I know not why I am so sad.

Shakespeare
**********************
Sometimes a great sadness settles over me like a cold, cloudy day. It happened to me yesterday, and I don't understand it because yesterday was a beautiful spring like day, a day in which I should have been happy to be alive, to be active and involved in things. I was busy and I did and saw many things that were joyful. Then why this anchor in my heart?

Certain things I know from experience, and one of them is that the feeling will not last. It comes and goes like bad weather and is usually based on nothing in particular or nothing important. The important stuff we deal with and solve. The unimportant stuff is stuff we don't know about or where it comes from.

On Thursday I bought a bamboo wind chime, it had some strings and a wooden weight to catch the wind. When the sales woman put it in the bag she said she hoped it didn't get in a tangle. I said if it did I would untangle it. Then I said "Life is a tangle." She looked up at me with a smile and nodded her head.

Part of my sadness is elemental, it's the sadness that knows there always is and always will be untangling to do, mine or someone else's. We are human, we make tangles. I could paraphrase Decartes "I make tangles therefore I am."

I enjoy writing and reading what others write on the Internet, but my systems present almost daily misbehavior and so many of my lovely free hours are spent on the phone waiting to talk to a technician in order to explain my current problem which is usually something they've never heard of. Knowing that I have to do that makes me sad.

Life is unfinished business. Accepting that some of that business will never be finished also makes me sad. I see the children down on the sidewalk going back and forth to the library. I remember some of my own childhood and how I had an unquestioned hope that certain things would surely take place in my life that never did. I feel sad knowing that those youngsters will someday suffer the same disappointments.

I live a reasonably safe and secure life, for which I'm grateful, but I can't help feeling sad for the agonies going on in Japan, Africa and the middle east.

I went into a very friendly family store a few days ago to buy something which was kept behind the counter. The woman said that sooner or later the whole store would be behind the counter because every day something gets stolen. I said "What a shame."

I'm grateful also to have a sense of humor and I know it will get me through the clouds of sorrow that beset me at the moment, but I also know how important it is to embrace the sorrows of life and untangle them.

DB - The Vagabond
*****************************
WINTER QUESTION
(This is not a contest)

What was the most significant event that happened in 2010?

dbdacoba@aol.com

Will you get your act together and answer this question, please?
Only 9 responses so far. Today is your last chance to respond.
Don't let the vagabond clock run out on you.

DB
********************

It's Not Bliss

Ignorance: the root and stem of every evil.

Plato
*************
One problem with ignorance is that there isn't a single individual on the face of the earth who isn't guilty of it. We are all ignorant of most things. Another problem with ignorance is that it is not simply a hole in one's knowledge. Ignorance can be a very complex and messy thing.

There's the ignorance of not knowing. There are things I don't know but I know they are there to know if I care to find them out. Then there is the ignorance of not knowing and not knowing that you don't know. That's a case where I don't know something but I don't know it's there to be known.

I know there is a great restaurant somewhere around here, but I don't knew where it is. Or, I'm hungry and I wish I knew if there was a good place to eat around here, but I don't so I'll settle for a greasy hamburger.

Then there are those who are ignorant and happy in their ignorance. That's a combination of ignorance and arrogance. A deadly combination. There is a joke that has been floating around lately. Question: What's the difference between ignorance and arrogance? Answer: I don't know and I don't need to know.

Then there is defended ignorance. That's when I resist the attempts on me to be educated about something. I knew a guy who refused to watch any educational or cultural program on TV. He hated them. He would rather turn it off and sit in the room drinking beer with his buddies than to learn something about the world at large.

But the worst kind of ignorance is ignorance that doesn't know it's ignorance. It's pot and kettle ignorance. It's based on opinion not fact, on reaction not reason and on emotion not thought. It's the kind of ignorance that says I'm right and everyone who disagrees with me is just plain ignorant. It's the kind of ignorance that's practiced with lightening speed and rapier effect by some members of our representative government these days.

The sane thing to do is to face our own ignorance, find out what we need to find out and not worry about someone else's thoughts, if they have any.

DB - The Vagabond
-----------------------------
WINTER QUESTION
(This is not a contest)

What was the most significant event that happened in 2010?

dbdacoba@aol.com

Will you people get your act together and answer this question, please?
Only 9 responses so far. Winter is almost over.
DB
------------------------------
What happened to old Jasper Fingerhut?

A murder mystery in 7 sections.

Section 1

The police came soon after Brett Salazar called them. He had called to report seeing a man floating face down in a quiet part of the Borden River. A police wagon soon arrived and they fished the man out of the water He was dead.

The man was old, barefoot, wearing large brown corduroy trousers and a tattered and torn blue shirt. There was nothing in his pockets. He had a large metal cross around his neck and on his left middle finger a ring in the shape of a skull with a small green stone in the left eye socket, the other socket was empty. No one recognized him.

Doctor Skinner, the Bordentown Medial Examiner, received the corpse to begin his examination. He was to determine time and cause of death and any other important information he could find about the mysterious dead man.

While this was happening Boris Klipton, Professor of Art History at Bordentown State Teachers College, was way upstream. Sitting by the river, he was working on his latest book. It was an account of recent unsolved art thefts.

During his interview with Detective Rice Turner, Brett Salazar, testified of hearing four gunshots in the distance long before he saw the body. When Detective Turner asked him what he was doing at the river, Brett answered that he was planning to fish but had forgotten his fishing gear and was about to go home when he spotted the dead man floating in the water.
----------------------------------------

Section 2

At around 3 p. m. Professor Klipton gathered up his papers, put them in his briefcase and got back in his car. He noticed some lint and bits of cloth on the seat, brushed them off on to the floor, put down his briefcase and drove to Sam's Place.

Sam Nevitt opened his general store and gas station about 25 years ago. It was on the outskirts of town, away from all the bustle, which is the way he liked it. He would get business from folks leaving Bordentown on their way home and others who were passing through. He did a good business.

Sam was a good man, but he had one nasty habit. He liked to go down to the river with his rifle and shoot birds.

When Professor Klipton arrived he found Hank, Sam's part time help. When asked Hank didn't know where Sam was but thought he was probably out shooting. Klipton filled up with gas, bought a few items for his dinner and drove home.

The dead man came to Doctor Skinner's office in a body bag. He and Ivan, his assistant, opened the bag and as they did Skinner immediately put a large towel over the dead man's face and upper body. Then he dismissed Ivan for the day and went to work.
-----------------------------------

section 3

Detective Rice Turner didn't speak often, he seemed to others to be bored with life. That was a mistake. He was very well educated. He had a PhD in Economics from Yale and a law degree from Princeton. He was Phi Beta Kappa and a Mensa member. He was looking forward to a career in government whn he discovered he had a genius for solving problems. That soon became criminal investigation. He settled.

Signing, he opened the report from the Medical Examiners Office. Reading through it he discovered that the dead man was between 70 and 75 years old, approximately. and in reasonably good health for a man his age. Doctor Skinner had removed three 22 caliber bullets from the body, one from the shattered right shoulder, one from the right ventricle and one embedded in the large intestine. All the bullets had entered the body from the right side of the back. There were severe bruises around his neck. There was water in his lungs and a strange substance in his blood stream which Skinner had suspected was poison. He sent it on to the police lab for analysis. Time of death was between 2 and 3 in the afternoon. Cause of death: strangulation.

Attached to the report was an advisory. Skinner thought the body should be buried as soon as possible. He didn't say why.

Presently the report came from the police lab confirming that the substance in the man's blood was arsenic.
-------------------------------------
Section 4

Detective Turner hated to look at dead people even though he had seen many in his career. Nevertheless, accompanied by officers Rourke and Minetti, he went to the morgue. The cadaver was laid out on a table. Dr. Skinner had done a sloppy job putting it back together but Turner could see that the man had been in his seventies. He had long hair and a long beard, very gray.

Officer Rourke said that they should locate the next of kin if there was any, but since they didn't know who he was it would be hard. Turner told them to take photographs of his face, front and sides, take them around town and see if anyone recognized him.

Turner lifted up the dead man's beard and uncovered two pieces of the puzzle. One, the bruises around the man's neck did not seem as severe as the doctor had said, particularly for one who had been strangled to death. And two, somewhere between the time he was removed from the river and this moment, the large metal cross had disappeared from his neck.

When Professor Klipton returned to his home he put his briefcase down next to his computer, checked his watch and took a shower. About an hour later someone rang his door bell. He opened the door. Without a word a man handed him a large, thick envelop, then turned and walked away. Klipton didn't open the envelop. He knew what was in it. Two hundred thousand dollars. His commission.

Sam Newitt leaned his unloaded rifle down against a chair and unbuttoned his shirt. Roy, his gay lover, was waiting for him in the bed.
---------------------------------

Section 5

Detective Turner reread Dr. Skinner's report. He looked in the evidence bag, found the dead man's clothes, a tattered blue shirt. underwear and corduroy trousers, no shoes or socks. He found a ring in the form of a skull, and a smaller bag containing three bullets, but no cross.

He made a phone call, then filled out a police form assigning the body to himself and went home for the day.

Early the next morning Sam left Roy in the bed still asleep, dressed, took his rifle and went off to open his shop.

The police lab had made about six copies of the dead man's photographs and some of the officers set out to interview anyone they could find who might recognize him.

When Detective Turner arrived at the police station he got Officer Minetti to help him get the cadaver back into the body bag. Then the two of them carried it out and put it in the trunk of Turner's car. He got in and drove to Farmington.

Professor Klipton had put the envelope with the money into his safe with the other envelopes and went off to his job at the college, two towns away. He wasn't home when the police came around with the picture of the dead man.

When Dr. Skinner arrived at his office Ivan was cleaning things up. Skinner said he would be gone for a while he was going to take a drive. But just at that moment they brought in two more bodies. The police wanted a rush job because thee might be a crime and if so there would be a third person involved. One of the bodies, a woman, was badly beaten. So Skinner sighed and went to work.

It was mid day when turner got back from Farmington. He drove to Dr. Skinner's office to ask him some questions. When he entered Skinner was at work carving up a cadaver. Turner noticed some mounted deer heads on Skinner's walls and asked if Skinner was a hunter. Skinner replied that most of the men around those parts were hunters. Turner also asked if Skinner knew anything about a large metal cross that was around the dead man's neck when they pulled him out of the water. Skinner said he had no knowledge of it. Turner believed he was lying.

Back at the police station Turner was informed that in the whole town there was no one who recognized the dead man. Turner asked how far they went looking and was told everywhere except Sam's. Who is Sam, he asked. They told him it was far out of town but had some local business. Let's go talk to Sam, he said.
------------------------------
Section 6

When Detective Turner and the officers arrived at Sam's place, Turner showed his badge and Minetti showed Sam the picture. He identified the man as old Jasper. Sam told them he lived way up in the woods somewhere, by himself Sam figured. He told them there was a dirt road about a mile further down the highwasy and that he might be in there.

Sam also said "Jason was a nasty character who kept telling me I was a devil and a miserable sinner and God hates me and I'm going to hell, because he knows I'm gay. He used to shout at me in some strange language I didn't know. I threatened to pop him one day if he didn't shut up."

"Did you pop him?" asked Turner.

"No. Why?"

"He's dead." Sam seemed genuinely shocked and surprised. At least Turner thought so.

Boris Klipton finished he morning class and went to his office. He made a note on some papers and looked them over. "One more" he said. All the evidence of his involvement had to be secured before he could wrap it up.

Ivan noticed that Skinner was unusually nervous as he worked on the first cadaver. He was impatient and was barking out commands to Ivan who was trying to do his best.

When Turner and the officers reached Jason's place the first thing they saw was a van with the windows painted out. Around the side they saw pens of chickens and rabbits. Turner knocked on the door. He wasn't expecting an answer. He tried the door it was unlocked. When he opened it there was a hissing noise and a large rattle snake was writhing on the floor ready to strike. Officer Minetti grabbed his pistol and killed it with two shots. He kicked it to make sure it was dead and threw it outside.

Jason's shack was two rooms with a barn attached. The furniture was simple but of good quality. In the corner they saw and glass case tipped over, where the snake usually lived, they thought. There was a table and on it an envelop addressed to Jasper Fingerhut After inspecting the rest of the room they entered the second room which was a bedroom. On the wall was a wooden plaque with writing on it.

"And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues. They shall take up serpents, and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them' they shall lay on the sick and they shall recover."

At the back of the room there was a curtain and behind it a large metal door which they thought led to the barn. There was no handle on the door but there was a large square hole at the side of it where a handle and lock should be.

"I've never seen a key hole like that" said Rourke. "Maybe we should get our locksmith up here to see if he can open it."

"I don't think that will be necessary." said Turner.

Back at the station Turner immediately sent out an arrest warrant.

Who or what killed Jasper Fingerhut?
---------------------------------------
Section 7 - The Conclusion

Professor Lipton was in his office when the phone rang. The call lasted about 20 seconds. He hung up, gathered all his papers together, put them in his brief case. canceled his afternoon class, got in his car a drove quickly to the Bordentown Police Station.

He had to wait because Detective Turner was with Judge Francis Warlock obtaining search warrants for the premises of various suspects. When he returned to his office Boris Klipton handed him a piece of paper which said the Professor was on special assignment for the FBI aiding them in an investigation of the International Art Theft Organization. Turner learned that Klipton was acting as a middleman between the theives and the buyers, that he was writing a book about the experience, that he is paid good commissions for his labors all of which he keeps in his safe to be used as eveidence when the sting operation takes place. He further leaned that Jasper Fingerhut was the receiver. On a phone call for Klipton he would release some work of art to the person who came to bring it to the buyer. It was thought no one would suspect a crazy old man who lived by himself in the woods, a religious fanatic, would have anything to do with art theft. Fingerhut also received a commission and thus could afford a comfortable life even in his hermitage. Turner was told that everything is kept in a barn attached to his cabin behind a thick metal door which is the only entrance to the barn. It has a secure lock that can only be opened by a special key and the key is a large metal cross that he always carries with him.

Turner thanked Klipton and promised not to blow the cover. Klipton left.

The evening was coming and all the parties involved were brought in for questioning, one by one. Brett Salazar reaffirmed that he definitely heard four gunshots that day and there was a cross around Fingerhut's neck when they pulled him out of the river and that he didn't remove it.

When asked if Dr. Skinner had done anything unusual when Fingerhut's body was brought in Ivan replied only that the doctor had put a towel over the face and chest, otherwise no. He was dismissed early but it wasn't unusual since he was a part time employee.

Hank said only that Sam had taken his rifle and gone out to shoot birds as he often did in the afternoon. He said he sort of knew where Fingerhut lived but he never went there.

San claimed that even though he took his rifle he did not go shooting birds that day bur went to visit a friend. When asked who the friend was he declined to say but he said the friend was not important to the investigatiom. He spoke again about Fingerhut being a religious fanatic who used to scream at him about how he was going to eternal torment because of being a fag and wouldn't shut up about it.

Detective Turner asked "Did you kill him?"

"No."

"Do you know who did?"

"No" he answered quietly.

Doctor Skinner came in a sat down. Detective Turner took a sheet of paper out of his pocket and said that he had taken Fingerhut's body to a doctor friend of his in Farmington and had him perform another autopsy. That doctor confirmed the three bullet holes in the man's body, found no evidence of Fingerhot having been strangled and confirmed the cause of death as drowing. Skinner seem to be surprised.

The Turner said "Now let me tell you what I think happened. You drove up to Fingerhot's place with a loaded 22 caliber rifle which we found in your home when it was searched this afternoon. The lab says these bullets" which Turner poured out on the table from the plastic bag "match the rifle. You should have kept the bullets Doctor. Them to make sure he was dead you took his body down and dumped it in the river. But he wasn't quite dead, was he? He died from breathing in water from the river. Then you went back to his place for some reason, discovered the door at the back with the strange key hole. You cleverly thought that the cross Fingerhut was wearing was probably the key to unlock the door. But it was too late to fish him out of the river. You went to your office and waited. When they brought him in you quickly covered up his face and chest with a towel so Ivan, your assistant didn't see the cross or the fact that there were no marks of strangulation on his neck and throat. After Ivan left you removed the cross, put it in a safe place, where we found it, performed a sloppy autopsy and sent him back in the body bag with instructions that we should bury him right away. You would have gone up there today if you hadn't had an accident case,with two victims to examine. Now there's only one piece missing. Why did you do it?"

"Because he deserved it."

"Why did he deserve it?"

"It's a crime of passion, Detective. He wouldn't lay off Sam. Sam was going nuts with the old man screaming at him every time he came there."

"Are you and Sam sexual partners?"

"We're lovers."

"That's not the only reason you killed Fingerhut."

"No. I knew he had a lot of valuable stuff up there I wanted to know what he had."

"How did you know that?"

"Hank told me. He said he overheard a conversation at the gas pump between two strangers about a rumor of a crazy old man who lived up in the woods and hoarded a fortune in stolen property. I figured it was Fingerhut and when I saw his barn I knew it was."

"Well, Doctor, did I get the story right?"

You left out one detail, Mister Clever Detective. Before I left Fingerhut's place I turned over the snake case so if anyone came to snoop they would go away fast."

"We killed the snake and snooped. Well, you're a lucky man Doctor Roy Skinner."

"How's that?"

"I have a warrant here for your arrest for the murder of Jasper Fingerhut. But it turns out you didn't kill him. The river killed him. But I'm sure we can change this to attempted murder and a few other charges. Kindly see the officers in the front to have yourself photographed and fingerprinted Thank you."

(Case Solved)
***************************

Top o' the day to ya

A sincere heart can make a stone blossom.

Unknown
******************
I've always wanted to visit Ireland, among other places. Ireland has a particular fascination for me. There is a mystery to the place, filled with strange and intriguing facts, myths and legends. There is some dispute about where the Irish came from. One theory is that they are lost tribe of Israel. If you look at the Book of Revelation in the Bible, Chapter 7, you will find that all the tribes are sealed for heaven except one, the tribe of Dan. What became of the Danites? Some claim they migrated northwest as far as they could go and ended up on an island which is now Ireland. Surrounding that story are many others of equal fascination.

Many of the Irish people are gifted poets, actors and playwrights. Yeats, O' Casey, Shaw and O'Neill, just to name a few. I once did a play with the actor and folk singer Tom Clancy of the Clancy Brothers.

The Gaelic language is a beautiful one, sung or spoken. It should be better known in the world.

Today is St. Patrick's Day. Saint Patrick is the patron saint of Ireland even though he wasn't Irish. He was a Briton captured by the Irish when he was just a teen and served as a slave for 6 years. Then he escaped, went back home. He got into the early church, eventually becoming a Bishop. He returned to Ireland and went about establishing Christianity in the country. Today Ireland is one of the most Catholic countries in the world.

He returned to Ireland because of a vision he had. He wrote about it.

"I saw a man coming, as it were from Ireland. His name was Victoricus, and he carried many letters, and he gave me one of them. I read the heading: 'The Voice of the Irish'. As I began the letter, I imagined in that moment that I heard the voice of those very people who were near the wood of Foclut, which is beside the western sea—and they cried out, as with one voice: 'We appeal to you, holy servant boy, to come and walk among us.' "

The largest Catholic church in New York City is Saint Patrick's Cathedral. It's on 5th Avenue, and today the Irish are going to march up the Avenue right past it. Some will go inside, others will go to the bar, drink a lot of beer and have a hell of a good time, as Irish people like to do.

DB - The Vagabond
***************************

WINTER QUESTION
(This is not a contest)

What was the most significant event that happened in 2010?

dbdacoba@aol.com

Will you people get your act together and answer this question, please?
Only 9 responses so far. Winter is almost over.
DB
****************************
What happened to old Jasper Fingerhut?

A murder mystery in 7 sections.

Section 1

The police came soon after Brett Salazar called them. He had called to report seeing a man floating face down in a quiet part of the Borden River. A police wagon soon arrived and they fished the man out of the water He was dead.

The man was old, barefoot, wearing large brown corduroy trousers and a tattered and torn blue shirt. There was nothing in his pockets. He had a large metal cross around his neck and on his left middle finger a ring in the shape of a skull with a small green stone in the left eye socket, the other socket was empty. No one recognized him.

Doctor Skinner, the Bordentown Medial Examiner, received the corpse to begin his examination. He was to determine time and cause of death and any other important information he could find about the mysterious dead man.

While this was happening Boris Klipton, Professor of Art History at Bordentown State Teachers College, was way upstream. Sitting by the river, he was working on his latest book. It was an account of recent unsolved art thefts.

During his interview with Detective Rice Turner, Brett Salazar, testified of hearing four gunshots in the distance long before he saw the body. When Detective Turner asked him what he was doing at the river, Brett answered that he was planning to fish but had forgotten his fishing gear and was about to go home when he spotted the dead man floating in the water.
----------------------------------------

Section 2

At around 3 p. m. Professor Klipton gathered up his papers, put them in his briefcase and got back in his car. He noticed some lint and bits of cloth on the seat, brushed them off on to the floor, put down his briefcase and drove to Sam's Place.

Sam Nevitt opened his general store and gas station about 25 years ago. It was on the outskirts of town, away from all the bustle, which is the way he liked it. He would get business from folks leaving Bordentown on their way home and others who were passing through. He did a good business.

Sam was a good man, but he had one nasty habit. He liked to go down to the river with his rifle and shoot birds.

When Professor Klipton arrived he found Hank, Sam's part time help. When asked Hank didn't know where Sam was but thought he was probably out shooting. Klipton filled up with gas, bought a few items for his dinner and drove home.

The dead man came to Doctor Skinner's office in a body bag. He and Ivan, his assistant, opened the bag and as they did Skinner immediately put a large towel over the dead man's face and upper body. Then he dismissed Ivan for the day and went to work.
-----------------------------------

section 3

Detective Rice Turner didn't speak often, he seemed to others to be bored with life. That was a mistake. He was very well educated. He had a PhD in Economics from Yale and a law degree from Princeton. He was Phi Beta Kappa and a Mensa member. He was looking forward to a career in government whn he discovered he had a genius for solving problems. That soon became criminal investigation. He settled.

Signing, he opened the report form the Medical Examiners Office. Reading through it he discovered that the dead man was between 70 and 75 years old, approximately. and in reasonably good health for a man his age. Doctor Skinner had removed three 22 caliber bullets from the body, one from the shattered right shoulder, one from the right ventricle and one embedded in the large intestine. All the bullets had entered the body from the right side of the back. There were severe bruises around his neck. There was water in his lungs and a strange substance in his blood stream which Skinner had suspected was poison. He sent it on to the police lab for analysis. Time of death was between 2 and 3 in the afternoon. Cause of death: strangulation.

Attached to the report was an advisory. Skinner thought the body should be buried as soon as possible. He didn't say why.

Presently the report came from the police lab confirming that the substance in the man's blood was arsenic.
-------------------------------------
Section 4

Detective Turner hated to look at dead people even though he had seen many in his career. Nevertheless, accompanied by officers Rourke and Minetti, he went to the morgue. The cadaver was laid out on a table. Dr. Skinner had done a sloppy job putting it back together but Turner could see that the man had been in his seventies. He had long hair and a long beard, very gray.

Officer Rourke said that they should locate the next of kin if there was any, but since they didn't know who he was it would be hard. Turner told them to take photographs of his face, front and sides, take them around town and see if anyone recognized him.

Turner lifted up the dead man's beard and uncovered two pieces of the puzzle. One, the bruises around the man's neck did not seem as severe as the doctor had said, particularly for one who had been strangled to death. And two, somewhere between the time he was removed from the river and this moment, the large metal cross had disappeared from his neck.

When Professor Klipton returned to his home he put his briefcase down next to his computer, checked his watch and took a shower. About an hour later someone rang his door bell. He opened the door. Without a word a man handed him a large, thick envelop, then turned and walked away. Klipton didn't open the envelop. He knew what was in it. Two hundred thousand dollars. His commission.

Sam Newitt leaned his unloaded rifle down against a chair and unbuttoned his shirt. Roy, his gay lover, was waiting for him in the bed.
---------------------------------

Section 5

Detective Turner reread Dr. Skinner's report. He looked in the evidence bag, found the dead man's clothes, a tattered blue shirt. underwear and corduroy trousers, no shoes or socks. He found a ring in the form of a skull, and a smaller bag containing three bullets, but no cross.

He made a phone call, then filled out a police form assigning the body to himself and went home for the day.

Early the next morning Sam left Roy in the bed still asleep, dressed, took his rifle and went off to open his shop.

The police lab had made about six copies of the dead man's photographs and some of the officers set out to interview anyone they could find who might recognize him.

When Detective Turner arrived at the police station he got Officer Minetti to help him get the cadaver back into the body bag. Then the two of them carried it out and put it in the trunk of Turner's car. He got in and drove to Farmington.

Professor Klipton had put the envelope with the money into his safe with the other envelopes and went off to his job at the college, two towns away. He wasn't home when the police came around with the picture of the dead man.

When Dr. Skinner arrived at his office Ivan was cleaning things up. Skinner said he would be gone for a while he was going to take a drive. But just at that moment they brought in two more bodies. The police wanted a rush job because thee might be a crime and if so there would be a third person involved. One of the bodies, a woman, was badly beaten. So Skinner sighed and went to work.

It was mid day when turner got back from Farmington. He drove to Dr. Skinner's office to ask him some questions. When he entered Skinner was at work carving up a cadaver. Turner noticed some mounted deer heads on Skinner's walls and asked if Skinner was a hunter. Skinner replied that most of the men around those parts were hunters. Turner also asked if Skinner knew anything about a large metal cross that was around the dead man's neck when they pulled him out of the water. Skinner said he had no knowledge of it. Turner believed he was lying.

Back at the police station Turner was informed that in the whole town there was no one who recognized the dead man. Turner asked how far they went looking and was told everywhere except Sam's. Who is Sam, he asked. They told him it was far out of town but had some local business. Let's go talk to Sam, he said.
------------------------------
Section 6

When Detective Turner and the officers arrived at Sam's place, Turner showed his badge and Minetti showed Sam the picture. He identified the man as old Jasper. Sam told them he lived way up in the woods somewhere, by himself Sam figured. He told them there was a dirt road about a mile further down the highwasy and that he might be in there.

Sam also said "Jason was a nasty character who kept telling me I was a devil and a miserable sinner and God hates me and I'm going to hell, because he knows I'm gay. He used to shout at me in some strange language I didn't know. I threatened to pop him one day if he didn't shut up."

"Did you pop him?" asked Turner.

"No. Why?"

"He's dead." Sam seemed genuinely shocked and surprised. At least Turner thought so.

Boris Klipton finished he morning class and went to his office. He made a note on some papers and looked them over. "One more" he said. All the evidence of his involvement had to be secured before he could wrap it up.

Ivan noticed that Skinner was unusually nervous as he worked on the first cadaver. He was impatient and was barking out commands to Ivan who was trying to do his best.

When Turner and the officers reached Jason's place the first thing they saw was a van with the windows painted out. Around the side they saw pens of chickens and rabbits. Turner knocked on the door. He wasn't expecting an answer. He tried the door it was unlocked. When he opened it there was a hissing noise and a large rattle snake was writhing on the floor ready to strike. Officer Minetti grabbed his pistol and killed it with two shots. He kicked it to make sure it was dead and threw it outside.

Jason's shack was two rooms with a barn attached. The furniture was simple but of good quality. In the corner they saw and glass case tipped over, where the snake usually lived, they thought. There was a table and on it an envelop addressed to Jasper Fingerhut After inspecting the rest of the room they entered the second room which was a bedroom. On the wall was a wooden plaque with writing on it.

"And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues. They shall take up serpents, and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them' they shall lay on the sick and they shall recover."

At the back of the room there was a curtain and behind it a large metal door which they thought led to the barn. There was no handle on the door but there was a large square hole at the side of it where a handle and lock should be.

"I've never seen a key hole like that" said Rourke. "Maybe we should get our locksmith up here to see if he can open it."

"I don't think that will be necessary." said Turner.

Back at the station Turner immediately sent out an arrest warrant.

Who or what killed Jason Fingerhut?

The conclusion, Section 7, tomorrow.
-----------------------------------------

The Elements

You are the land. The land is you.

Merlin Olsen
**********************
Is there any human being on this planet who doesn't feel the deep sorrow and compassion for the Japanese people? Oh, I suppose there might be some old fool who says they deserve it after what they did at Pearl Harbor, forgetting they paid for that with two atom bombs. But this disaster is not atom bombs, the destruction of the World Trade Center in 2001 or the bombing of Dresden by the Allied forces in 1945. This is not war. No, it resembles more the destruction of Pompeii by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79.

In ancient times philosophers defined the elements as earth, air, fire and water. To some extent that categorizing is still true, although modern scientists have discovered and named far more complicated versions of those four elements. But now, in their primordial form, those elements attacked the people of Japan and their land.

The earth shuddered and split apart, shattering buildings, tearing up streets, flinging trains and trucks around, frightening people and killing many. It didn't matter that Japanese people were accustomed to the occasional earth quake. This was something bigger than they ever experienced or expected.

Then came the water, the tsunami, a giant wave charging across the Pacific ocean like an invading army, displaced water seeking its own level, sweeping away all life and evidence of life on the shores of the nation, carrying houses in it's mouth, stirring up the earth, creating mud and havoc. Any one who saw that wave of mud quickly oozing across the land saw something that can only be described as gigantically sinister. Whole communities were struck down and carried miles away.

Up until the time of the quake fire had been tamed and contained in nuclear energy plants serving the people and the land with power to light and heat it. But soon that system was breaking down, the fire was let loose from its safe quarters and transformed into violent explosions. What had been the useful slave of Japanese energy providers soon became their enemy. Raging out of control it damaged some of the nuclear plants and caused the electricity to shut down for thousands of people. Without food, without power to light or heat themselves and with homes destroyed the people spent the long winter night alone and frightened. Many of them did not survive.

Then the last remaining element unaffected by the disaster, air, became the worst enemy of all as radiation from the damaged nuclear reactors began seeping out into the atmosphere. This is an enemy you can't see or smell. There are too many people who may have been affected with radioactive gas but they don't know it, and if they do, they don't know how much. Meanwhile the radiation is still coming, the fires are still burning, the mud is still covering homes and the rubble of broken buildings and broken lives is everywhere.

If you think this is the last great disaster and there will never be another one like this, think again. And if you think God sent this disaster to punish people for their sins you need to find a better God.

This is our planet, our earth, that has been wounded. This is our land. At this moment we are all Japanese. And if you can't go there to help them poke through the ruins, if you can't send money to the Red Cross or some other organization that is there to help, at least, from the heart of your own compassion try to find thoughts of hope.

Dana Bate
Vagabond Journeys
***********************

Winter Question & Murder Mystery

WINTER QUESTION
(This is not a contest)

What was the most significant event that happened in 2010?

dbdacoba@aol.com

Will you people get your act together and answer this question, please?
Only 9 responses so far. Winter is almost over.
DB
******************************
What happened to old Jasper Fingerhut?

A murder mystery in 7 sections.

Section 1

The police came soon after Brett Salazar called them. He had called to report seeing a man floating face down in a quiet part of the Borden River. A police wagon soon arrived and they fished the man out of the water He was dead.

The man was old, barefoot, wearing large brown corduroy trousers and a tattered and torn blue shirt. There was nothing in his pockets. He had a large metal cross around his neck and on his left middle finger a ring in the shape of a skull with a small green stone in the left eye socket, the other socket was empty. No one recognized him.

Doctor Skinner, the Bordentown Medial Examiner, received the corpse to begin his examination. He was to determine time and cause of death and any other important information he could find about the mysterious dead man.

While this was happening Boris Klipton, Professor of Art History at Bordentown State Teachers College, was way upstream. Sitting by the river, he was working on his latest book. It was an account of recent unsolved art thefts.

During his interview with Detective Rice Turner, Brett Salazar, testified of hearing four gunshots in the distance long before he saw the body. When Detective Turner asked him what he was doing at the river, Brett answered that he was planning to fish but had forgotten his fishing gear and was about to go home when he spotted the dead man floating in the water.
----------------------------------------

Section 2

At around 3 p. m. Professor Klipton gathered up his papers, put them in his briefcase and got back in his car. He noticed some lint and bits of cloth on the seat, brushed them off on to the floor, put down his briefcase and drove to Sam's Place.

Sam Nevitt opened his general store and gas station about 25 years ago. It was on the outskirts of town, away from all the bustle, which is the way he liked it. He would get business from folks leaving Bordentown on their way home and others who were passing through. He did a good business.

Sam was a good man, but he had one nasty habit. He liked to go down to the river with his rifle and shoot birds.

When Professor Klipton arrived he found Hank, Sam's part time help. When asked Hank didn't know where Sam was but thought he was probably out shooting. Klipton filled up with gas, bought a few items for his dinner and drove home.

The dead man came to Doctor Skinner's office in a body bag. He and Ivan, his assistant, opened the bag and as they did Skinner immediately put a large towel over the dead man's face and upper body. Then he dismissed Ivan for the day and went to work.
-----------------------------------

section 3

Detective Rice Turner didn't speak often, he seemed to others to be bored with life. That was a mistake. He was very well educated. He had a PhD in Economics from Yale and a law degree from Princeton. He was Phi Beta Kappa and a Mensa member. He was looking forward to a career in government whn he discovered he had a genius for solving problems. That soon became criminal investigation. He settled.

Signing, he opened the report form the Medical Examiners Office. Reading through it he discovered that the dead man was between 70 and 75 years old, approximately. and in reasonably good health for a man his age. Doctor Skinner had removed three 22 caliber bullets from the body, one from the shattered right shoulder, one from the right ventricle and one embedded in the large intestine. All the bullets had entered the body from the right side of the back. There were severe bruises around his neck. There was water in his lungs and a strange substance in his blood stream which Skinner had suspected was poison. He sent it on to the police lab for analysis. Time of death was between 2 and 3 in the afternoon. Cause of death: strangulation.

Attached to the report was an advisory. Skinner thought the body should be buried as soon as possible. He didn't say why.

Presently the report came from the police lab confirming that the substance in the man's blood was arsenic.
-------------------------------------
Section 4

Detective Turner hated to look at dead people even though he had seen many in his career. Nevertheless, accompanied by officers Rourke and Minetti, he went to the morgue. The cadaver was laid out on a table. Dr. Skinner had done a sloppy job putting it back together but Turner could see that the man had been in his seventies. He had long hair and a long beard, very gray.

Officer Rourke said that they should locate the next of kin if there was any, but since they didn't know who he was it would be hard. Turner told them to take photographs of his face, front and sides, take them around town and see if anyone recognized him.

Turner lifted up the dead man's beard and uncovered two pieces of the puzzle. One, the bruises around the man's neck did not seem as severe as the doctor had said, particularly for one who had been strangled to death. And two, somewhere between the time he was removed from the river and this moment, the large metal cross had disappeared from his neck.

When Professor Klipton returned to his home he put his briefcase down next to his computer, checked his watch and took a shower. About an hour later someone rang his door bell. He opened the door. Without a word a man handed him a large, thick envelop, then turned and walked away. Klipton didn't open the envelop. He knew what was in it. Two hundred thousand dollars. His commission.

Sam Newitt leaned his unloaded rifle down against a chair and unbuttoned his shirt. Roy, his gay lover, was waiting for him in the bed.
---------------------------------

Section 5

Detective Turner reread Dr. Skinner's report. He looked in the evidence bag, found the dead man's clothes, a tattered blue shirt. underwear and corduroy trousers, no shoes or socks. He found a ring in the form of a skull, and a smaller bag containing three bullets, but no cross.

He made a phone call, then filled out a police form assigning the body to himself and went home for the day.

Early the next morning Sam left Roy in the bed still asleep, dressed, took his rifle and went off to open his shop.

The police lab had made about six copies of the dead man's photographs and some of the officers set out to interview anyone they could find who might recognize him.

When Detective Turner arrived at the police station he got Officer Minetti to help him get the cadaver back into the body bag. Then the two of them carried it out and put it in the trunk of Turner's car. He got in and drove to Farmington.

Professor Klipton had put the envelope with the money into his safe with the other envelopes and went off to his job at the college, two towns away. He wasn't home when the police came around with the picture of the dead man.

When Dr. Skinner arrived at his office Ivan was cleaning things up. Skinner said he would be gone for a while he was going to take a drive. But just at that moment they brought in two more bodies. The police wanted a rush job because thee might be a crime and if so there would be a third person involved. One of the bodies, a woman, was badly beaten. So Skinner sighed and went to work.

It was mid day when turner got back from Farmington. He drove to Dr. Skinner's office to ask him some questions. When he entered Skinner was at work carving up a cadaver. Turner noticed some mounted deer heads on Skinner's walls and asked if Skinner was a hunter. Skinner replied that most of the men around those parts were hunters. Turner also asked if Skinner knew anything about a large metal cross that was around the dead man's neck when they pulled him out of the water. Skinner said he had no knowledge of it. Turner believed he was lying.

Back at the police station Turner was informed that in the whole town there was no one who recognized the dead man. Turner asked how far they went looking and was told everywhere except Sam's. Who is Sam, he asked. They told him it was far out of town but had some local business. Let's go talk to Sam, he said.

Section 6 tomorrow
-----------------------------------