Obituary for Common Sense

Today we mourn the passing of a beloved old friend, Common Sense, who has been with us for many years. No one knows for sure how old he was, since his birth records were long ago lost in bureaucratic red tape. He will be remembered as having cultivated such valuable lessons as:

Knowing when to come in out of the rain;

Why the early bird gets the worm;

Life isn't always fair;

And maybe it was my fault.

Common Sense lived by simple, sound financial policies (don't spend more than you can earn) and reliable strategies (adults, not children, are in charge).

His health began to deteriorate rapidly when well-intentioned but overbearing regulations were set in place. Reports of a 6-year-old boy charged with sexual harassment for kissing a classmate; teens suspended from school for using mouthwash after lunch; and a teacher fired for reprimanding an unruly student, only worsened his condition.

Common Sense lost ground when parents attacked teachers for doing the job that they themselves had failed to do in disciplining their unruly children. It declined even further when schools were required to get parental consent to administer sun lotion or an aspirin to a student; but could not inform parents when a student became pregnant and wanted to have an abortion.

Common Sense lost the will to live as the churches became businesses; and criminals received better treatment than their victims.

Common Sense took a beating when you couldn't defend yourself from a burglar in your own home and the burglar could sue you for assault.

Common Sense finally gave up the will to live, after a woman failed to realize that a steaming cup of coffee was hot. She spilled a little in her lap, and was promptly awarded a huge settlement.

Common Sense was preceded in death,

by his parents, Truth and Trust,

by his wife, Discretion,

by his daughter, Responsibility,

and by his son, Reason.

He is survived by his 5 stepbrothers;

I Know My Rights

I Want It Now

Someone Else Is To Blame

I'm A Victim

Pay me for Doing Nothing

Not many attended his funeral because so few realized he was gone. If you still remember him, pass this on. If not, join the majority and do nothing.

Anna Mae Dickinson

Anna Mae Dickinson was 8 when she lost her father and narrowly escaped death on the Titanic

She was 11 years old when she lost her Aunt Olivia in the torpedoing of the Lusitania

She was 31 when she lost her cousin Alfred in the Hindenburg explosion

She was 37 when she lost her nephew Thomas in the bombing of Pearl Harbor

And Ms Dickinson was 97 when her apartment was battered by the collapse of the Twin Towers.

Interesting, Obscure Facts

The "YKK" on your zipper stands for “Yoshida Kogyo Kabushikigaisha”.

The name Jessica was created by Shakespeare in the play Merchant of Venice.

Russia has a larger surface area than Pluto.

Hippo milk is pink.

The toy Barbie’s full name is Barbara Millicent Roberts.

The heart of a blue whale is so big, a human can swim through the arteries.

Not once in the Humpty Dumpty nursery rhyme does it mention that he’s an egg.

Armadillos nearly always give birth to identical quadruplets.

The unicorn is the national animal of Scotland.

A strawberry isn’t a berry but a banana is.

Mammoths went extinct 1,000 years after the Egyptians finished building the Great Pyramid.

Nintendo was founded as a trading card company back in 1889.

Alaska is simultaneously the most northern, the most western, and the most eastern state in the U.S.

Honey never spoils.

There are more stars in space than there are grains of sand on every beach on Earth.

And there’s enough water in Lake Superior to cover all of North and South America in one foot of water.

For every human on Earth there are approximately 1.6 million ants. The total weight of all those ants is approximately the same as the total weight of all the humans on Earth.

An octopus has three hearts.

You can’t hum while holding your nose.

It rains diamonds on Saturn and Jupiter.

There are more atoms in a glass of water than glasses of water in all the oceans on Earth.

Sand Under Microscope

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The 3rd of June ... Another Sleepy, Dusty Delta Day

Considering today was the 3rd of June, I only felt it befitting to share the story behind one of my favorite songs:

"Ode to Billie Joe" is a 1967 ode song written and recorded by Bobbie Gentry, a singer-songwriter from Chickasaw County, Mississippi. The single, released in late July, was a number-one hit in the United States, and became a big international seller.

The song is a first-person narrative that reveals a Southern Gothic tale in its verses by including the dialog of the narrator's family at dinner time on the day that "Billie Joe McAllister jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge."

The song begins with the narrator, her brother and her father returning, after morning chores on the farm, to the family house for dinner — on June 3. After cautioning them about tracking in dirt, "Mama" says that she "got some news this mornin' from Choctaw Ridge" that "Billie Joe McAllister jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge," apparently to his death.

At the dinner table, the narrator's father is unsurprised at the news and says, "Well, Billie Joe never had a lick o' sense; pass the biscuits, please" and mentions that there are "five more acres in the lower forty I got to plow." Although her brother seems to be somewhat taken aback ("I saw him at the sawmill yesterday.... And now you tell me Billie Joe has jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge"), he's not shocked enough to forego a second piece of pie. The brother recalls that while he was with his friends Tom and Billie Joe, they had put a frog down the narrator's back at the Carroll County Picture Show, and that he had seen her and Billie Joe together last Sunday speaking after church.

Late in the song, Mama questions the narrator's complete change of mood ("Child, what's happened to your appetite? I been cookin' all mornin' and you haven't touched a single bite") and then recalls a visit earlier that morning by Brother Taylor, the local preacher, who mentioned that he had seen Billie Joe and a girl who looked very much like the narrator herself and they were "throwin' somethin' off the Tallahatchie Bridge."

In the song's final verse, a year has passed, during which the narrator's brother has married Becky Thompson, and moved away ("bought a store in Tupelo"). Also, her father died from a viral infection, which has left her mother despondent. ("And now mama doesn't seem to wanna do much of anything".) The narrator herself now visits Choctaw Ridge often, picking flowers there to drop from the Tallahatchie Bridge into the murky waters flowing beneath.

Questions arose among the listeners: what did Billie Joe and his girlfriend throw off the Tallahatchie Bridge, and why did Billie Joe commit suicide? Speculation ran rampant after the song hit the airwaves, and Gentry said in a November 1967 interview that it was the question most asked of her by everyone she met. She named flowers, an engagement ring, a draft card, a bottle of LSD pills, and an aborted baby as the most often guessed items. Although she knew definitely what the item was, she would not reveal it, saying only "Suppose it was a wedding ring." "It's in there for two reasons," she said. "First, it locks up a definite relationship between Billie Joe and the girl telling the story, the girl at the table. Second, the fact that Billie Joe was seen throwing something off the bridge — no matter what it was — provides a possible motivation as to why he jumped off the bridge the next day."

The bridge mentioned in this song collapsed in June 1972. It crossed the Tallahatchie River at Money, about ten miles north of Greenwood, Mississippi, and has since been replaced. The November 10, 1967 issue of Life Magazine contained a photo of Gentry crossing the original bridge.

(Extracted from Wikipedia.)

Flemish Hunting Deck

The Flemish Hunting Deck is a set of 52 playing cards owned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It is significant because it is the only complete set of ordinary playing cards from the 15th century. Estimate ranges of manufacture are between 1470 and 1480.

The set of cards is a complete regular set of playing cards, consisting of four suits with a king, queen, jack and ten pip cards. The suits are based on hunting items, consisting of game nooses, hound tethers, horns, and dog collars. The shown figures display fashion of the era, with short jackets, shortly cut hair and pointy shoes.

The cards are in very good condition, indicating they were used very little or not at all. The Dutch name for the set is Hofjaren Jachtpakket which translates as Courtyears hunting set.

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This is what Memorial Day and America is all about! This is the story of how our National Anthem came into being — a story every American should hear!

Historical Trivia

Did you know the saying "God willing and the creek don't rise" was in reference to the Creek Indians and not a body of water? It was written by Benjamin Hawkins in the late 18th century. He was a politician and Indian diplomat. While in the south, Hawkins was requested by the President of  the U.S. To return to Washington . In his response, he was said to write, "God willing and the Creek don't rise." Because he capitalized the word "Creek" he was referring to the Creek Indian tribe and not a body of water.

In George Washington's days, there were no cameras. One's image was either sculpted or painted. Some paintings of George Washington showed him  standing behind a desk with one arm behind his back while others showed both legs  and both arms. Prices charged by painters were not based on how many people  were to be painted, but by how many limbs were to be painted. Arms and legs are 'limbs,' therefore painting them would cost the buyer more. Hence the expression, 'Okay, but it'll cost you an arm and a leg.' (Artists know hands and arms are more difficult to paint.)

As incredible as it sounds, men and women took baths only twice a year (May and October). Women kept their hair covered, while men shaved their heads (because of lice and bugs) and wore wigs. Wealthy men could afford good  wigs made from wool. They couldn't wash the wigs, so to clean them they would carve out a loaf of bread, put the wig in the shell, and bake it for 30 minutes. The heat would make the wig big and fluffy, hence the term 'big wig'. Today we often use the term 'here comes the Big Wig' because someone appears to be or is powerful and wealthy.

In the late 1700's, many houses consisted of a large room with only one chair. Commonly, a long wide board folded down from the wall, and was used for dining. The 'head of the household' always sat in the chair while everyone else ate sitting on the floor. Occasionally a guest, who was usually a man, would be invited to sit in this chair during a meal. To sit in the chair meant you were important and in charge. They called the one sitting in the chair the 'chair man.' Today in business, we use the expression or title 'Chairman' or 'Chairman of the Board.'

At local taverns, pubs, and bars, people drank from pint and quart-sized containers. A bar maid's job was to keep an eye on the customers and keep the drinks coming. She had to pay close attention and remember who was drinking in 'pints' and who was drinking in 'quarts,' hence the phrase 'minding your 'P's and Q's'.

SSG Barry Allen Sadler

Barry Allen Sadler was an American military veteran, author, actor, and singer-songwriter. He was born in Carlsbad, NM, November 1, 1940 to John Sadler and Bebe Littlefield. Sadler served as a Green Beret combat medic with the rank of Staff Sergeant of the United States Army during the Vietnam War. Most of his work has a military theme, and he credited himself as SSG Barry Sadler, although his music credits read SSgt Barry Sadler. He is most famously known for his hit song "Ballad of the Green Berets."

Sadler dropped out of high school during the tenth grade in Leadville, CO and enlisted at age 17 in the US Air Force. After completing airborne training, he volunteered for the US Army Special Forces. Following lengthy training as a combat medic at Fort Sam Houston, TX, he was sent to South Vietnam. During May 1965, while on a combat patrol in the Central Highlands southeast of Pleiku, he was severely wounded in the knee by a feces-covered punji stick. He developed a serious infection in his leg, and was flown to Walter Reed Hospital in the United States, where his doctors were forced to surgically enlarge the wound to drain it and to administer penicillin. While he was recuperating, he heard Senator Robert F. Kennedy dedicate the new JFK Center for Special Warfare at Fort Bragg. Sadler promised himself that if he successfully recovered from the infection, he would give away the rights to a song he was then helping to write, "The Ballad of the Green Berets."

Sadler recorded his now-famous song, "The Ballad of the Green Berets", a patriotic song, encouraged by writer Robin Moore, author of the novel The Green Berets, on the RCA Victor Records company label. The book had become a 1968 movie, The Green Berets, starring John Wayne, with "The Ballad of the Green Berets" arranged as a choral version by Ken Darby as the title song of the movie.

The song "The Ballad of the Green Berets" came out during early 1966 and became a fast-selling single, scoring #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart for five consecutive weeks from March 5 to April 2, 1966. It sold more than a million copies. He sang it for his television début for The Jimmy Dean Show. Sadler recorded an album of similarly themed songs which he titled Ballads of the Green Berets. It sold a million copies during the first five weeks of its release.



SSG Barry Allen Sadler passed away November 5, 1989.