Ron G.

Andrew and I just returned from summer camp. We walked and sweated and walked and swam and walked and made things and walked and learned things and walked and ate camp food and walked and guzzled water and walked and slept and then walked some more.

At summer camp, I'm no longer just Andrew's daddy, but Mr. Ron the Scoutmaster of 4 boys. I'm not to give Andrew more attention than the rest. etc. etc.

I'll post some pics soon.

Did I mention that we walked a lot?

We are The Roadrunners Patrol of Troop 111 (This was our designation at camp...the rest of the time, we're the Roadrunner patrol, Troop 150)

By the way, did I mention we walked a lot...uphill and downhill...that may have something to do with why I'm spending the day in front of my computer.

Yes Garth, POLKAS.

As deeply southern as I am, I have to admit a closet yankeeness that involves polkas, horseradish, bratwurst, galumpka etc. shhh...don't tell anyone.

However, if you ever listen to a Mexican radio station (and I do when I can cuz I like the music and understand enough of the lingo to get by), they play a lot of polka music.

Okay, I like Dixieland jazz more, though.

Since I got my DirecTV Satellite system, I've found LOTS of high quality reality teevee that's very useful for both Me and Andrew.

The RFD channel offers up tractor pulls, antique tractor shows, ag "how-to's", lotsa good horse training info, Campfire Cafe that offers lotsa great dutch oven recipes for campfire cooking, Cajun Cooking,and for enterainment there's Big Joe's Polka show.

The Outdoor Channel has great hunting and fishing info.

Boom has old Popeye cartoons where Popeye still eats his spinach and clobbers Bluto, old Looney Tunes, old Tom and Jerry...not this new stupid politically correct crap.

Sci Fi has good stuff from time to time...especially old Twilight Zone reruns.

Penn and Tellers show called Bull****! is EXCELLENT!!!

It's there...ya just gotta look for it.

...And cops genuinely wonder why no one respects them anymore. The lifeguard union will be ****** off, also.

http://www.falfiles.com/forums/showthread....threadid=143780

Houston swimmer's rescuer ends up in jail

Associated Press

SAN MARCOS - A San Marcos man was arrested after rescuing a swimmer from the swirling waters near a restaurant on the San Marcos River over the weekend.

Police say Dave Newman, 48, disobeyed repeated orders by emergency personnel to leave the water. The police report does not mention Newman's rescue of 35-year-old Abed Duamni of Houston on Sunday afternoon.

"I was amazed," Newman said after getting out of Hays County Law Enforcement Center on $2,000 bail Monday morning. "I had a very uncomfortable night after saving that guy's life. He thanked me for it in front of the police, and then they took me to jail."

After being handcuffed and put in a Texas State University police squad car, Newman was taken to jail and charged with interfering with public duties.

Duamni, who said he did not see any signs warning swimmers of the dangerous currents, jumped into the water several times before the current caught him. He had just finished eating at the restaurant when he decided to go for a swim.

"I reached a point where I said, 'I'm dead,' " Duamni, who was visiting San Marcos, said from his Houston home Monday night. "There's was nothing I could do. I thought, 'That's it, I'm over, I'm gone.'"

After reaching Duamni, Newman said he swam with him under a waterfall and deposited him on the shore opposite the restaurant. He could hear law enforcement personnel telling him to come back to the shore by the restaurant.

According to the report, Newman smirked and seemed annoyed by officers' requests. He stood in the water for about 15 seconds before swimming downstream, to avoid the turbulence from the waterfall, and across the river to the officers, the report said.

"When he came across the river, the officer stuck out his hand like he's going to help him out of the water, and he put cuffs on him," said the Rev. John Parnell, pastor of St. Augustine Old Roman Catholic Church in Fort Worth.

According to the police report and witness accounts, the crowd that had gathered to watch the rescue was upset when they saw the police arrest Newman.

Parnell and another man blocked the police officer's path to the squad car while other members of the crowd yelled at the police, telling them Newman had saved Duamni's life and should not be arrested.

University spokesman Mark Hendricks said he did not know whether Newman rescued Duamni. Hendricks said it was his understanding that Newman was uncooperative with authorities.

When Duamni got out of the water, he saw Newman in handcuffs and asked who he was. "I said, 'What's the deal,' and the police said, 'He got you out,'" Duamni said.

San Marcos resident Bob Ogletree said he understood why emergency personnel wanted to clear the water, but didn't understand why Newman had to be arrested.

In 1999, Texas State University, which owns the dam and the land around it, erected a fence to prohibit access to that part of the river. Later that year, the City Council enacted a swimming ban on that portion of the river. But Newman led a successful campaign to get the fences around the swimming hole removed and the ban relaxed.

In April, 22-year-old Jason Lee Bonnin, and a Texas State University student, drowned after he and three other restaurant workers jumped from the eatery into the river.

What would happen if I pulled your finger?

(Note to Admins...Was that too political?)

This is a true story with names omitted. It will explain everything...

A fifty-ish woman was at home happily jumping on her bed and squealing with delight. Her husband watches her for a while and asks, "Do you have any idea how ridiculous you look? What's the matter with you?"

The woman continues to bounce on the bed and says, "I don't care. I just came from having a mammogram and the doctor says I have the breasts of an 18 year-old !!! The husband said, "What did he say about your 56 Year-old foot?"

"Your name never came up," she replied.

I noticed there's a basketball team called the Boston Celtics. I also noticed that not very many of them look Celtic.

Maybe it's just the owners.

Paul Winchell, Voice of Tigger Dies

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Paul Winchell, a famed ventriloquist best remembered as the voice of the irrepressible Tigger in the Winnie the Pooh series, has died, an associate said on Sunday. He was 82.

Winchell died on Friday in the Los Angeles area, according associate Johnny Blue Star and a Web site operated by Winchell's daughter, the actress April Winchell.

Winchell was a fixture in American children's television in the 1950s and 1960s in a string of shows featuring him giving voice to the sidekicks he created and made famous, the dummies Jerry Mahoney and Knucklehead Smiff.

But it was his voice work on a wide range of cartoons and animated features that captivated a later generation of viewers, including turns as Gargamel of "The Smurfs," Dick Dastardly of "Wacky Races" and Fleegle on "The Banana Splits Adventure Hour."

Winchell was most famous for his voicing to the hyperkinetic Tigger in a series of appearances in Walt Disney Co. Winnie the Pooh productions for over three decades beginning in 1968.

He won a Grammy in 1974 for "Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too," including the movie's signature song "The Wonderful Thing about Tiggers."

On the award-winning soundtrack, Winchell gives a throaty, bouncy rendition to the memorable lyric: "The wonderful thing about tiggers, is tiggers are wonderful things! Their tops are made out of rubber, their bottoms are made out of springs!"

Jerry Mahoney, who began with an appearance in a 1936 radio audition, was inspired by ventriloquist Edgar Bergen and his sidekick, Charlie McCarthy, Winchell said.

In 1986, Winchell won a nearly $18 million verdict against Metromedia Inc., which he claimed destroyed the only surviving tapes of his "Winchell Mahoney Time" children's show from the mid-1960s after a dispute over ownership rights.

Born in New York City in 1922, Winchell devoted energy in his later years to pursuits like publishing on Christian theology and promoting fish farming in Africa, said Johnny Blue Star, who collaborated in a screenplay based on the autobiography "Winch."

Winchell was also an inventor with a patent for a prototype artificial heart he built in the 1960s in the same workshop in which he created his ventriloquist dummies, Blue Star said. He also created an "invisible" garter belt, a flameless cigarette lighter and an early version of the disposable razor.

"He was more or less a self-taught renaissance man," he said.

(Reporting by Paritosh Bansal in Los Angeles)

© Reuters 2005. All Rights Reserved.

Since Mickey's gone, there can be no passing of the Mantle.

I'm disappointed. I thought this thread was gonna be about a new movie where Brooke Shields and Tom Cruise were going to square off and duke it out.

You know, like Alien vs. Predator or Jason vs. Freddy.

Oh well :(-->

I just noticed he's a Cub Scout, not a Boy Scout. At age 11, he must be a Webelos,

I'm a trained Webelos leader and he's required to have parental supervision at all times (if an overnighter)...ESPECIALLY doing something like rock climbing. He's to have a buddy at all times and a minimum of 2 trained Scout leaders watching at all times.

I don't have any "special needs" boys in my den so I've never had to deal with that. It's my last year as Webelos leader as next year I become Scoutmaster for the Pack. We do have some "special needs" boys there so I'll need some special training for that. I go to Scoutmaster training in July and Wood Badge in Sept, I think.

Anyway, the two deep leader rule and buddy system are universal throughout the entire Scout program, so now I'm starting to get curiouser and curiouser about how Brennan got lost in the shuffle like that.

I wanna know what went wrong so it don't happen to us.

(((((((((((((((excie))))))))))))))))

Trefor...

I don't wish to derail this thread and I mentioned the Mandans as an aside. Do a Google on them. Lewis and Clark discovered them. Many were white and their language included many Welsh words, phrases and constructs. Do a Google...you'll find it interesting.

quote:

And Ron G - can you justify stealing America from its native inhabitants etc etc? Your argument about Israel and its leaders can lead down a dangerous road...

There was no justification for that, although some say it was our right "by conquest" which I, personally, don't exactly accept.

I really think it should and could have all happened much differently.

Trefor...

Have you ever heard of the Mandan Indians? You might find that interesting if you check it out.

Read this. The boy obeyed his dad and stayed on the trail, avoided strangers and didn't respond because the family password wasn't used by searchers.

Interesting.

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

Scout's parents: 'Brennan continues to amaze us'

Boy says he feels 'good' after surviving four days in mountains

Wednesday, June 22, 2005; Posted: 7:56 p.m. EDT (23:56 GMT)

BOUNTIFUL, Utah (CNN) -- The father of 11-year-old Cub Scout Brennan Hawkins said Wednesday his son "continues to amaze us" after surviving four days alone in the Utah wilderness.

Brennan was found safe Tuesday by a searcher driving an all-terrain vehicle. He was taken to Primary Children's Medical Center in Salt Lake City, where doctors diagnosed him with sunburn, scrapes, bruises and some minor dehydration.

He was released early Wednesday morning and returned to his family home in the suburb of Bountiful.

His parents held two news conferences in their front yard and provided details on their four-day ordeal with a background of yellow ribbons and balloons.

Brennan Hawkins made his first public appearance at the afternoon session, surrounded by family and friends.

He said only that he felt "good" before sitting down at his mother's feet behind the microphones while his parents and four siblings answered reporters' questions.

His parents said the boy appeared to be fine but that he didn't seem ready to talk much about his ordeal -- at which point Brennan Hawkins shook his head.

"Brennan continues to amaze us," said his father, Toby Hawkins. "You know, his ability to deal with this initially, I made the comment that I thought that he was the most ill-prepared out of our five children to deal with it, and now I think he was maybe the best-prepared."

Brennan's mother, Jody Hawkins, suggested her son may have been avoiding searchers by following his father's advice.

"He had two thoughts going through his head all the time," she said. "Toby's always told him that 'if you get lost, stay on the trail.' So he stayed on the trail.

"We've also told him don't talk to strangers. ... When an ATV or horse came by, he got off the trail. ... When they left, he got back on the trail."

"His biggest fear, he told me, was someone would steal him," she said.

Brennan's uncle, Bob Hawkins, said his nephew may have been afraid to contact the strangers because they weren't using the password his family had adopted.

The family explained that Brennan was born prematurely and he is socially immature as a result.

"He doesn't have any disabilities; he's just immature," Toby Hawkins said.

'What a remarkable finish'

Brennan went missing Friday while camping at a Boy Scout camp about 80 miles east of Salt Lake City that is about 8,500 feet in elevation.

Toby Hawkins was asked how he felt. "What a remarkable finish and conclusion to this whole experience," he said.

"You go from incredible worry and concern. ... Then you go through the search process of not getting any clues. ...

"And then in just an instant, kind of flip of the switch, you go to incredible exhilaration and gratitude and appreciation for everybody's efforts that ultimately resulted in the successful rescue of Brennan."

Both parents' composure cracked as they described how they learned their son had been found alive.

Jody Hawkins said she feared the worst when officials from the Summit County Sheriff's Department asked her to get in a car because they had news.

"I, at that point, didn't think Brennan was still with us," she said. "I felt peace with the situation, but I didn't really think he could have survived that long in the wilderness. ...

"So when I was going to get into the sheriff's car I knew they going to tell me that Brennan was no longer with me.

"So I collapsed even before I got into the sheriff's truck, and when they told me that Brennan was still alive, ... my brain still cannot comprehend that."

Although Brennan hasn't given many details about his ordeal, he did tell his father that when he first realized he was lost, he said a prayer.

"I said to Brennan, 'Heavenly father has taken care of you,'" Toby Hawkins said.

As his parents spoke at their morning news conference, Brennan lay sleeping inside.

"His personality has not changed one tiny bit," said Jody Hawkins. "He was cracking jokes to us within 20 to 30 seconds when we saw him yesterday."

One of the first questions Brennan asked after he was rescued, his father said, was if the Pokemon cards he had ordered on eBay had arrived.

Found by ATV searcher

The boy was last reported seen around 5:30 p.m. Friday by a climbing wall supervisor who said he saw Brennan removing his climbing gear.

When the boy failed to show up for dinner an hour later, Scout leaders began searching.

On Tuesday, volunteer searcher Forrest Nunley driving an all-terrain vehicle came across the boy around noon (3 p.m. ET) about a mile and a half south of Lily Lake -- five miles west of where he was last seen, said Summit County Sheriff David Edmunds.

Nunley said he "turned a corner and there was a kid standing in the middle of the trail. He was all muddy and wet."

Nunley then dialed 911 on his cell phone. "He was a little delirious. I sat him down and gave him a little food," he told CNN affiliate KSL.

Volunteers had delayed searching the area where Brennan was found because they thought it unlikely that the boy crossed the nearby mountain ridge to get there.

Brennan told rescuers he'd had nothing to eat or drink during his ordeal.

After eating and drinking, the sheriff said, Brennan -- wearing the same blue sweatshirt, nylon shorts and climbing shoes he was reported wearing Friday -- "wanted to play a video game on one of the searchers' cell phones."

I just can't understand y'alls logic.

A scalpel will provide a good, permanent cure for what ails them. They can stay in society and pay their own way instead of being locked away, getting three squares a day and cable teevee on my dime.

I seem to recall LCM saying "The Jews are no more GODS CHOSEN PEOPLE than the apache Indians", but I could have been mistaken.

I won't deny the holocaust, but I have some questions.

1. Does it justify stealing Palestine from the Palestinians? (Wouldn't giving them a piece of Germany been more morally justifiable?)

2. Does it justify Isreali hegemony over the rest of the middle east?

3.Does it justify sending BILLIONS of American tax dollars, weapons and advisors to prop up a two bit terrorist dictator like Ariel Sharon?

Just curious.

It's so wonderful to hear GOOD news on the teevee for a change.

Chalk up one more for the Scouts!!

I can't understand why dowsing wouldn't have a logical, scientific basis.

When ol' Cliff did it, ne could not only determine the presence of oil, but the approximate depth and sulphur content using little vials of assorted grades of crude he had. He could also take small metal samples and determine what as well as where things were buried such as pipes, wires and other metal objects.

I don't know what was special about him, if anything. But then I don't know what's special about Michal Jordan that he can do what he does while others of similr height, weight and muscle development can't.

Some folks have it and some don't.

Since living here in the hills, I've learned to plant my crops, set my eggs and take care of other animals according to the phases of the moon. It's helped bring me good success, but then the tides are governed by the moon and that's an observed and documented scientific FACT. Why would the moon affect the ocean and not a potato?

Why would similar metals be attracted? Why would birch or willow or peach wood be attracted to water?

Why do tree roots seek underground water? They can't see, touch, taste, smell or hear it. At least not in ways we can understand or document.

I used to think that science and technology were the be all end all of human knowledge and the old folk ways were at best ignorant superstition and in some cases, witchcraft. Life was a lot harsher when I first came to the hills, but I was determined. Now, as I learn some of the old time ways and practice them, I've found life a lot easier and more comfortable.

Living in harmony with your surroundings is easier and much more fulfilling than constantly being at war with them and trying to subdue them.

Like the old Bob Dylan song, "I was so much older then, but I'm younger than that, now"

Other topic...

I've built on my property and helped others building on theirs. I/we always get a piece of PVC pipe, 6" diameter about a foot and a half long, fill it with trinkets, coins, letters, our names and other assorted stuff and cap it at both ends and place it somewhere in the structure...sealed in a wall or brickwork or something, and anytime something either falls down or is torn down, we always find something. It's a very old Ozark tradition.

In an old school building, the guys adding a wing, found a pint bottle of whiskey from 1910 along with some old coins, papers and some old tools.

It's always interesting to me to see old calculations, measure marks and plumb bob marks left by the builders in old buildings.

It kinda reminds us of the continuity from generation to generation of the building techniques and the people who used them.

I used to know a man by the name of Cliff Newland who lived in Crane, Texas. He used to dowse for Exxon, Shell and some other oil companies back in the 50's, 60's and early 70's.

They paid him well.

I was always very skeptical, but since I came to these hills and seen a few water wells doswed including my own, that skepticism has waned.

After I've lived in these hills a few years, and seen some of the old timers doing things their old time ways, I realize there's great deal more to this heaven and earth than was in my philosophy (to paraphrase Shakespeare).

The hills, the dirt, the rocks, the flora and fauna, the streams, creeks, waterfalls and wild things are always telling us something.

We have but to learn to listen.

I have some friends who occasionally try to get me into their "downline" for noni juice. They never talk much about the benefits of drinking it, just the benefits of peddling it.

I think I'll get a jug and try it out. I've seriously heard some good things from people that I trust who use it.

I need all the help I can get.

I recomend a nice goat. Andrew had one and loved him. They are clean, affectionate, readily trainable and won't hump your leg.

They'll keep the yard nicely groomed and fertilize as they go.

Long Gone...

I didn't mean that as a diagnosis or anything. It was just an observation. They said half her brain was atrophied...before the dehydration.

I ain't no doctor, although I did watch ER from time to time.

I was merely trying to find a lesson we could all benefit from in all of this.

As I am now understanding it, Cardinal Ratzinger was actually NOT the

church's first choice to replace Pope John Paul: their first pick,

interestingly enough, was Cardinal Hans Grapje.

Grapje was raised in a Catholic school in The Hague and, as a young man,

aspired to become a priest, but was drafted into the Army during WWII and

spent years co-piloting B17s until his aircraft was shot down in 1943 and

he lost his left arm. Captain Grapje spent the rest of the war as a

chaplain giving spiritual aid to soldiers, both allied and enemy.

After the war, he became a priest, serving as a missionary in Africa,

piloting his own plane (in spite of his handicap) to villages across the

continent. In 1997, Father Grapje was serving in Zimbabwe when an

explosion in a silver mine caused a cave-in.

Archbishop Grapje went down into the mine to administer last rites to

those too severely injured to move. Another mine shaft collapsed and he

was buried for three days, suffering multiple injuries, including the

loss of his right eye. The high silver content in the mine's air gave

him purpura, a life-long condition characterized by purplish skin

blotches.

Although Cardinal Grapje devoted his life to the service of God as a

scholar, mentor, and holy man, church leaders felt he should never ascend

to the papacy:

They felt that the church would never accept a one-eyed, one-armed, flying purple papal leader!

I saw it on the news.

The great lesson we can all learn from this is that a dehydrated brain weighs half as much as a normal brain...at least that's what they said.