Monday, June 11, 2007
Trust me, it's a wee bit unusual for a member of a state's congressional delegation to publicly smack a state's governor in media land. But that's what happened over the weekend when Democratic U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy let it be known in no uncertain terms here in "Freyne Land" that he viewed Republican Gov. Jim Douglas as "a cheerleader for the war and the administration all the way through."
We weren't going to let it fly without getting a response from the alleged cheerleader.
Checked his online "Public Appearance Schedule" and saw our governor would be making a 9 a.m. appearance at a national Conference of State Medicaid Directors at the Sheraton Burlington.
Hopped in the jalopy. Turned on the radio.
"At least five Americans were killed in Iraq yesterday, three in a suicide-bombing at a checkpoint that also injured eight."
Inescapable.
Meanwhile there's the bold leader who made it all possible, President George W. Bush, smiling on the TV screen from Sofia this morning raising his glass in a toast with the Bulgarian President Paranov. Bulgaria?
Anywhere but Washington is the place to be when you just set the all-time record for lowest presidential approval rating - 29 percent.
I know, some wonder how he could even be that high.
Gov. Douglas was his usual charming and witty self this morning as he welcomed the state Medicaid officials from across the nation to Vermont. Learned a few things from Gentleman Jim:
* There are 19 cities in the United States that are bigger than Vermont
* Vermont first adopted the name "New Connecticut"
* Vermont's the second healthiest state
* The second oldest state, and
* Has the second-lowest number of uninsured
Also learned from a National Association of State Medicaid Directors official that since the NASMD's last meeting in November, 26 out of 50 state Medicaid Directors have left their posts. That's a staggering 52 percent turnover rate!
Vermont's Medicaid Director, Josh Slen, however, has been in his post since 2003. A seasoned veteran, eh?
Anyway, Pedro, get to the point, dammit! What did Jim Douglas say about Pat Leahy calling him a "cheerleader" for the Bush-Cheney War in Iraq?
Well, I caught him in the hall after his speech. Just the two of us and the state trooper. Told Jim what Patrick had said - and what we had published in Freyne Land.
DOUGLAS: Does that make it so?
FREYNE: I don’t know.
DOUGLAS: I think we’ve covered this ground a lot.
FREYNE: I just want to get it from the horse’s mouth.
DOUGLAS: Well, I expect that the protesters are interested in the congressional offices because they [the congressional delegation] have something to say about it, whereas I don’t. They’re the ones who authorize military action, authorize the expenditures for that action. I think their concern is directed appropriately.
FREYNE: As far as I’m aware, your only criticism of the war policy was a few months ago when you called for an exit strategy. But I have never heard you criticize the policy or say it was wrong, a mistake. As you know, many people are saying that it was a lie about the ‘weapons of mass destruction’ and all that stuff. You’re a man [who is] very careful with your words, which we appreciate, but are you critical of the policy? Have I missed something?
DOUGLAS: Well, your question was about the protesters and I have nothing to do with the decision to authorize the use of force or fund it. Members of Congress do.
FREYNE: So you're drawing the line there? I’m not going to get past that?
End of interview. Douglas did a very smooth Pontius Pilate, washed his hands of the matter and off he went.
I've learned from years of experience that one is not going to get Jim Douglas to address a subject he does not wish to address, unless you've got a few other reporters, preferably with TV cameras, who are also interested in an answer to the same question.
Incidentally, here's the response we received last night from the Guv's spokesman Jason Gibbs to this question: "Given what we all now know regarding no Iraq WMDs, no link to 9/11 etc, does the governor have any criticism of the White House war policy or for leading us into this mess?"
Mr. Gibbs via email: The Governor has been crystal clear on this issue. He expects the Congress and the administration to stop pointing fingers at one another and get to work finding a real, responsible exit strategy that will bring our troops home as soon as possible.
Vermonters, and all Americans, are frustrated by the lack of progress in Washington and expect both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue to get their act together and find a way to bring this war to a conclusion.
You may have noticed neither gent was the least bit critical of the disastrous, dishonest Iraq War policy or of its architects.
By this time next year, I predict, there won't be many Republican pols left standing out there who won't be publicly critical of the Bush-Cheney War policy.
What do you think?
Sunday, June 10, 2007
U.S. Sen. Patrick J. Leahy told "Freyne Land" in an exclusive interview following his remarks to the state VFW Convention Saturday that his Senate Judiciary Committee is "about to subpoena a key person from the White House."
"Male or female?" I asked.
"A person from the White House," answered Chairman Leahy.
"Is that this week?" I asked.
"Don’t know," he answered. "Depends. And I’ve also got an agreement to turn over more emails. We’ll see what’s in them."
Yes we will.
"We’re going through thousands upon thousands of pages of depositions, interviews, emails," said St. Patrick. "This is not Perry Mason where you send somebody in and get an answer."
Fasten your seat belts, folks.
The investigation into the Bush administration's removal of U.S. attorneys for political reasons "will continue for months and months," Leahy told us. "The President said the other day that we seem to have ‘drug’ it out, to use his words.
"My response to the President," said Leahy of Vermont, "and I delivered it again yesterday, is:
answer the questions, stop hiding material and we’ll go a lot faster."
It was clear to this reporter who has covered Leahy since 1980 that his patience with the Bush-Cheney stonewalling has run out.
"You remember," noted Leahy, "they did this with the 9/11 Commission. They held back, as long as they could, the information that showed that the Bush Administration could have stopped 9/11 before it happened and didn’t."
We noted the Bush approval rating is in the toilet.
You may have noticed that last week the Pew Research Center found Bush's approval rating at an all-time low of 29 percent. Pew reported:
For the first time in Pew Research Center polling, disapproval of President Bush's job performance outnumbers approval by more than two-to-one (61% disapprove, 29% approve). Bush's job approval is down six points from April, and is three points below the previous low measured in November and December of 2006.
The decline in Bush's support is most notable among Republicans. Just under two-thirds (65%) of Republicans approve of the President's performance today, down from 77% in April. This drop is apparent among both the conservative and moderate wings of the party. The proportion of conservative Republicans giving a positive rating declined 12 points to an all-time low of 74%. The proportion of moderate and liberal Republicans giving a positive rating fell 11 points (to 52%), also an all-time low.
St. Patrick noted the poll that made the real difference was held last November when the American voter ended Republican control of House and Senate - effective one-party rule.
"They’ve had a rubber stamp Congress for six years and nobody did any investigations," Leahy pointed out. "Nobody asked any questions, No one had a voice to speak out, because it was controlled by the Republicans in the House and the Senate and they would not allow any investigations.
"Now, interestingly enough, as I go into these investigations, some of the same Republicans who were muzzled by the White House are beginning to speak out. And nobody tries to stop me from getting the subpoenas on the Republican side. This is a lot different than it was just a year ago," said Leahy.
Saturday, June 9, 2007
To tell you the truth, I think I was a horse in a previous life.
Now my horse-wagering chapter appears in the 20th Century past. Loved Saratoga in the 1980s & 90s.
Sure I liked the betting, but the best part was riding the bicycle around the backstretch, the stables, the Oklahoma Track, around 6-7 a.m. when there'd be dozens and dozens of big, frisky, young, four-legged, tail-wagging thoroughbreds going through their workouts under their exercise riders, jockeys and trainers.
Now, in the post-9/11 Age, as they say, some things have changed. We're more security conscious. Never know when the next band of Muslim terrorists will launch a suicide mission to blow up a prime American target, right?
That's why I can't ride my bike around the backstretch at Saratoga anymore. I could be a terrorist. The security guards started stopping me a few years ago.
Anyway, I want to go on record before the big bad Belmont Stakes today. I like the filly, i.e. the only girl in the race: Rags to Riches. And that's where I'm placing my bet - Rags to Riches to win.
I don't know, maybe it's a Hillary Clinton thing?
Post-time is 6:33 p.m. and it's live on ABC.
***UPDATE***
7 p.m.
What a horse race and the filly won!
First filly to win the Belmont Stakes since 1905.
Repeat: First filly to win the Belmont Stakes since 19-fucking-05!
Yours truly picked the winner [above], but unfortunately had no money on her over at NY's OTB.
Hey, who cares?
For the times, they are a changin'.
First filly to win the Belmont since 1905...since 1905...since 1905.
Friday, June 8, 2007
Walking down State Street in Montpeculiar yesterday around noon was I.
Bump into old-timer. Reminds me the Vermont ACLU is having a drug conference across the street at the Capitol Plaza.
Bingo!
Had seen a blurb on it. And the one and only "tell it like it is" Vermont prosecutor, Robert "Bobby" Sand, was one of the featured speakers. Been needing a decent picture of Bobby Sand for quite some time and I don't spend much time in White River Junction.
I was too late for the official remarks by Windsor County State's Attorney Sand, a courageous man, but caught him afterward for a little one-on-one:
SAND: I don’t blame the young police for enforcing the law. It’s a bad law. They’re taught to do that. 51 percent of high-school seniors in Vermont have used marijuana, so we have created criminal behavior for a substantial population of high school kids.
The current War on Drugs is not working and we owe it to ourselves to look for an intelligent alternative and an intelligent option. That’s not going to happen unless policy-makers and others are willing to have the discussion.
FREYNE: Are you seeing any signs that door is opening?
SAND: I think it’s opening a little. There were a number of legislators who were present here today.
FREYNE: How many? A dozen?
Tags: cannabis related , Web Only
Apparently one slightly paranoid Gov. Jim Douglas defender who hides here in the Freyne Land comments section behind the nom de plume "vermonter," rushed to misread the context of the Q & A in the "Temperature Rising" post below with Democratic Senate President Pro Tem Peter Shumlin. Kinda like a New York Republican would, thought I (who grew up surrounded by them).
The questions, you see, were not all mine. It wasn't an "interview." In fact, after Al Gore said good-bye and signed off in Interactive TV Land, there was an impromptu 10-minute Q & A. in the small, packed classroom-style theater. Mostly, but not all, from press types. Standing-room only, as they say, with the partisans from both sides filling the place.
Representatives/lobbyists from VPIRG and VNRC were there as well as Entergy Vermont Yankee's talented Statehouse lobbying team, plus their dapper, bow-tied PR Chief Brian Cosgrove (up against the blackboard), former PR Guy for the Vermont Republican Party. An "Irish Republican" on the Atlantic's left shore, god bless him. Plus other press, including Kristin Carlson from WCAX-TV, Terri Hallenbeck from the Freeps, Ross Sneyd from A.P. and Bob Kinzel from VPR.
As I indicated, Shummy was really "on" Thursday. "In the zone." Focused on the center. No beating around the bush. More than any other Vermont politician in a position of leadership, Peter Shumlin has accepted the reality of global warming and risen to take the challenge. Unlike Gov. Jim Douglas, he has seen the movie An Inconvenient Truth.
I've got to tell you, I was stunned when the Governor of the State of Vermont, James Douglas, candidly admitted at his Thursday presser that he had neither seen the movie An Inconvenient Truth, nor read the book. Stunned!
I've written earlier - last summer - about my own fears of seeing the movie. Of confronting that fear and then discovering how I had shared it with so many others, including died-in-the-wool environmental-types, who I also confronted.
But it's June 8, 2007 and the Governor of the State of Vermont still hasn't seen most important environmental flick of our time? Or even read the book? [Wouldn't be surprised if cowardly, in the GOP-closet, "vermonter" hasn't either, would ya?]
Busy people. How "inconvenient" the truth can truly be, eh?
For their convenience here's a little more from Shumlin's remarks to the packed room:
Thursday, June 7, 2007
So the Anaheim Ducks beat the Ottawa Senators last night to win the Stanley Cup. I didn't even watch. It's June, fergawdsakes.
I confess to growing up a devout New York Rangers fan. The memories of the old cigar-smelling Madison Square Garden on 49th Street will never die. Little Canadian guys, big bloody fights, no advertising on the sideboards. No helmets or face masks on goalies.
When John LeClair, the St. Albans Superstar, faded off into retirement (Hey, whatever happened to Big John, anyway?), I faded away from following the NHL.
Nowadays, in ice hockey as in so many other professional sports, they don't play the game, they sell the game. It's no longer sport. It's business. Of course the team from Hollywood, named after a Disney movie, is going to win. (Never saw the movie, either.)
Pictured at right are Kathleen Brown [left] and Helen Scott. Caught them taking down their table outside the Federal Building in Burlington yesterday, just after the 5 p.m. closing. Kathleen's a social worker by trade. Helen, Professor Helen, is an English professor at the University of Vermont. She's also from England.
Such a pleasure to hear her voice, an English voice, and it's "live" rather than coming from a program on Public Television.
They said they set up the International Socialists table for an hour every Wednesday. Said the response from folks passing had been "very favorable." Also were surprised, they told me, by how many Iraq War veterans had passed and expressed support.
That's been the untold story on this one - the ignoring of the voices of patriotic, loyal Americans who answered their country's call to battle.
Those of my generation will never forget the voice of the Vietnam War veterans. The brave, loyal and patriotic young soldiers whose voice could not be ignored. That's starting to change. One of those brave and patriotic voices is that of Bellows Falls native, Iraq War veteran and former Marine Liam Madden. Check this out from today's Rutland Herald:
Iraq vets to conduct bus tour for peace
A group of Iraq war veterans is starting a "Cookout and Speak Out" bus tour to national military installations as an act of protest against the war.
The tour is set to begin June 15 in Washington, D.C., and last until June 30, with stops at almost every military installation on the East Coast, U.S. Marine Corps Sgt. Liam Madden said. Madden, originally from Bellows Falls, is coordinating the bus tour. The tour will include up to 21 stops, extending as far west as Kentucky and as far south as Georgia and will end with a stop at Fort Drum.
"We're going to get 10 vets on a bus and have a dialogue and barbecue with the troops. There's no one better to relate to the troops than us. We're steering away from peace rallies and political panels because the troops tend to shy away from those," Madden said.
An active member of the group Iraq Veterans Against the War, Madden launched the Appeal for Redress, to which hundreds of servicemen and women who served in Iraq have signed their names to petition Congress for the immediate withdrawal of American troops from the war zone. More here.
From the Bush-Cheney Iraq train wreck, to the war about the weather.
Republican Gov. Jim Douglas has a regular-type weekly presser scheduled for 1 p.m. today. His veto of H. 520 the big Democratic global warming/climate change bill is now official.
And at 3 p.m. global warming/climate change activist, Oscar-winner and almost-president Al Gore will be speaking to the Vermont Democrat faithful via satellite in support of a veto-override!
The almost-president, the guy who won the popular vote in 2000, can be seen and heard at six Vermont Interactive Television sites. Unfortunately, Big Al, we're told, won't be doing much in the way of interacting.
No questions from the Vermont press.
Bummer.
Oh, and the above picture of Lt. Emmet Helrich on Church Street Marketplace "coffee duty" has nothing to do with global warming. The veteran officer had just asked the bicyclist to get off and walk. Seems to me anyway, that there are more two-wheelers out and about in the Queen City than ever. And more of them are riding on the Marketplace and the sidewalks than in the past. Also, helmets don't appear too popular with the expanded bike riding public.
Heck, bike riding has become chic.
Look at the bright side, Pedro. At least they're reducing their carbon emissions, right?
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
Over in that old-fashioned world of alternative weekly newspapers, this response from State Rep. Tony Klein [right] just landed in my inbox.
It's a straightening-of-the-record directed at our "Inside Track" item in which Douglas Administration utility point-man David O'Brien, Comish of the PSD, unloaded on Speaker Gaye Symington and the Democrats over H. 520 - the big Global Warming legislation that Gov. Jim Douglas will veto this week.
Apparently our audio-tape transcriber (me), incorrectly attributed a Klein quote to his committee chairman - Rep. Bob Dostis.
Apologies for the error.
Here's Rep. Klein's statement in its entirety:
Hi Peter
Just to keep the record straight. I made the statement on-air on The Mark Johnson Show about "don't count us out" and "it's too important a piece of legislation. But more important are the statements made by Commissioner O'Brien [pictured below] about breaking existing agreements with Vermont Yankee and upsetting employers such as IBM,GE and Ethan Allen.
The legislature is not breaking any agreements with VY. We have two signed MOU's with VY. One for the up rate and one for dry cask storage. Those are agreements and we aren't changing one thing in those agreements. The bill proposes a change in existing legislation. The legislature changes legislation all the time!
Just for the record IBM and members of AIV have opposed every piece of energy legislation passed by the legislature in the five years that I have now served. So that they opposed H.520 is no surprise!
I noticed the Commissioner never mentioned the companies that do support H.520 like our homegrown Ben and Jerry's, Green Mountain Roasters and NRG Systems among many others. These companies were created here by Vermonter's.
The Companies that O'Brien seems to only represent certainly weren't created here and certainly don't have their headquarters located within the boundaries of Vermont.
Thanks!
Rep. Tony Klein
Vermont Gov. Jim Douglas is "Mr. Get Out With the People" this week, bouncing back and forth over hill and dale with a busy schedule of public appearances.
Yesterday he popped by Lake Champlain Chocolates in Burlington. Just around the corner from yours truly's hacienda and I've never been inside.
Wow!
The Guv signed two bills that I confess I've never heard of:
H.229 – An Act Relating to Corrections and Clarifications to the Health Care Affordability Act of 2006 and Related Legislation, and
H.531 – An Act Relating to Ensuring Success in Health Care Reform. Go here for details.
Our governor, I learned, prefers the dark chocolate [which is the big seller at LCC].
Sorry, I prefer the lighter milk chocolate.
Guess that explains it, eh?
And I just discovered LCC has quite the website going! Bet you didn't know Flag Day {June 14} is an occasion for giving chocolate?
Today the Middlebury Marvel will be in photo-op heaven, sitting behind the wheel of one of them snowplow rigs at the VTrans Snowplow Roadeo in Barre over the noon hour. Other tough duty today includes:
4:30 p.m. Vermont Small Business Administration Person of the Year Award Celebration, Waterfront Park, Burlington
6:30 p.m. Vermont Association of Middle Level Educators Scholar Leader Awards Banquet, Norwich University, Northfield
Hey, did you catch him on VPR's Switchboard last night with Bob Kinzel?
KINZEL: It seemed in this first year of the biennium that there was more tension between your office and the Legislature than your previous four years. First of all, is that true? ...And if it is true, why did it happen?
DOUGLAS: I think there was a little more tension, Bob. I think that’s a fair observation. I might suggest that the old saw about not seeing sausages and laws being made, perhaps was more pronounced in its validity this year than in some others...
I think it’s fair to say, frankly, that the Legislature this term is farther from the mainstream than the Legislatures I’ve dealt with in the past. It’s not just a heavily Democratic majority, but a very liberal majority and I don’t think in some respects that it reflects the values of most Vermonters. So there’s been a collision of some ideological perspectives that we’ve had to work through, but in many key areas we did.
KINZEL: And you know their criticism of you is that they do all the heavy lifting. They do all the work on the legislation and then at the very end you come in and say maybe ‘yes,’ maybe ‘no.’
DOUGLAS: I guess I don’t understand that. I’ve put together some very comprehensive proposals at the beginning of the session and throughout the course of the Legislature my administration officials, cabinet and staff were in those legislative committees working alongside legislators and their staff trying to fashion these bills. So, it’s easy to have a throwaway line, I guess, but I don’t think it has any basis in fact.
Meanwhile, WGOP, er, WCAX-TV News ran a report of Democratic House Speaker Gaye Symington's appearance Tuesday morning in Essex Junction - part of her "listening" tour of the state. Small turnout. About a dozen and half looked like House members.
The Ch. 3 News report featured a woman identified as Kathy Finnie of Essex Junction giving Speaker Gaye some grief:
"I just hope the legislature can come together on issues that touch everyday Vermonters as opposed to global warming."
The WGOP report neglected to mention Ms. Finnie is the wife of a loyal member of GOP Gov. Jim Douglas' cabinet [left]- Secretary of the Agency of Commerce and Community Development Kevin Dorn. [The relationship was noted in Reporter Nancy Remsen's story in this morning's Burlington Free Press.]
The TV-News report also featured this exchange between Ch. 3 Reporter Kristin Carlson and da' Speaker:
CARLSON: There's been some speculation since you are going around the statewith these hearings that you are running for higher office - possiblyGovernor. Are you running for Governor next year?
SYMINGTON: My focus is on the legislature - that is not what this isabout. All of this is about listening to Vermonters and helping themunderstand what the legislature is up to.
Speaker Symington's next tour stop will be Randolph High School at 7 p.m. on Thursday. Should be a couple Douglas Administration spouses who can attend and give her some grief?
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
That's how the Seattle-native behind the counter at Uncommon Grounds described it. Cloudy, rainy, damp. Never been to Seattle. Nice of Seattle to come here, eh?
Hey, bet you didn't know Independent U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders took to ribbon-cutting with as much ease and comfort as Republican Gov. Jim Douglas, now did ya?
This shot was off WCAX's coverage of last week's official grand-opening of the new Missisquoi Bay Bridge.
They say that it's all in the wrist and the eyes and the smile.
That's Democratic Sen. State Sen. Dick "Red Corvette" Mazza to Ol' Bernardo's right and Gov. Scissorhands is two down to his left.
"Inside Track" day here at the keyboard. A few irons in the fire for Wednesday's edition of Seven Days.
Busy day for the Guv on the road today. Crisscrossing the state to hold two bill-signings and two proclamation-signings ["Correctional Employees Week" and "Make-A-Wish Day"]. Not bad for a guy who didn't have time to sign the historic gender-equity bill last week, eh?
Hey, didn't Leslie Wright's front-page piece in the Freeps this morning about the old days of the upscale men-only Ethan Allen Club on College Street bring back some memories?
Jeezum crow. I remember passing it every morning back in the early 1980s about 5:45 a.m., walking up the hill to do the morning drive time news at 1390 WDOT-AM with Big John spinning the records, yes, records!
Things change, in fact, they're always changing, aren't they?
Thank god.
******************************************************
***UPDATE***
4 p.m.
Got the Ol "Track" done and sent in to Pamster, excuse me, co-editor Pamela Polston. And Thomas Naylor from Second Vermont Republic called to tell us he'll be a guest on Bill O'Reilly tonight.
Cool.
A lot of interest sparked, said Naylor, by the Sunday Associated Press story moved by John Curran, the guy who replaced Chris Graff at the A.P.'s helm in Montpeculiar. Ran a lot of places, obviously, but not in The Burlington Free Press. It's also available on the organization's website.
Didn't have a picture of Naylor, but I did have this one of veteran Vermont journalist Steve Longchamp and his dog Barkley. Took it Sunday on Church Street. That's Steve on the left.
Just kidding.
This August, Mr. Longchamp the Photojournalist will mark his 24th year of being the guy behind the camera, holding it in all kinds of situations for Ch. 3.
Like yours truly, he's been spending a little time this year on Hospital Hill. Steve's bouncing back from a triple-bypass.
Looking good, too, eh?
I mean Steve, not the dog.
Tags: Senator , Bernie Sanders , Web Only
Monday, June 4, 2007
My neighborhood has a way with flowers and this is the time of year. Nothing like a good windowbox, eh?
I'm out the door in a minute for the Fanny Allen and the latest step on the "Cancer, You Ain't Winning" Trail - an MRI. The freshest high-tech pictures of where it's at. I'm getting used to the drill. Only clear liquids since 6:30 a.m. and when you get there they have you sit still for 45 minutes before you get in the big tube that performs the Magnetic Resonance Imaging. The pictures will determine if two more R-CHOP chemo treatments would be useful.
It's been an enlightening trip so far, eh?
Ah, life!
Speaking of enlightening, did you catch the story in the Times Argus about the Community College of Vermont graduation? And who was their celebrity graduation speaker?
Yep, the highly-regarded veteran bureau chief of the Associated Press bureau in Vermont - Chris Graff. The guy the A.P. unceremoniously dumped last year in the wake of the Judge Cashman/Fox News Hoopla for apparently getting a tough story right.
C'est la vie.
Hey, Christopher never would have written the book DATELINE VERMONT had it not happened. And for that, Vermonters will be forever thankful.
***CORRECTION & UPDATE***
4 p.m.
It wasn't an MRI, it was a CAT Scan [Computed Axial Tomography], also called CT Scan.
Sorry.
They've been around since the 70s. Invented in England by Godfrey Newbold Hounsfield [right] with research funds generated by the profits EMI made off the Beatles music. That's right, the Beatles. In fact, they were first known as "EMI Scanners."
Godfrey won a Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1979. He was neither trained as a doctor or a biologist, but rather as an electrical engineer. He grew up in a small villiage in Nottinghamshire. From his autobiography submitted to the Nobel Committee:
In a village there are few distractions and no pressures to join in at a ball game or go to the cinema, and I was free to follow the trail of any interesting idea that came my way. I constructed electrical recording machines; I made hazardous investigations of the principles of flight, launching myself from the tops of haystacks with a home-made glider; I almost blew myself up during exciting experiments using water-filled tar barrels and acetylene to see how high they could be waterjet propelled. It may now be a trick of the memory but I am sure that on one occasion I managed to get one to an altitude of 1000 feet!
During this time I was learning the hard way many fundamentals in reasoning. This was all at the expense of my schooling at Magnus Grammar School in Newark, where they tried hard to educate me but where I responded only to physics and mathematics with any ease and moderate enthusiasm.
Thanks, Godfrey.
Spent an hour downing these two Banana Smoothie's that contain the goods in the Men's Radiology Waiting Room (good thing I brought a New York Times, all they had were Sports Illustrateds). Looks like the drugs, er, smoothies are made in Canada.
Shocking!
Bet I won't be charged Canadian prices.
Shocking!