Monthly Archives: January 2017

Obama was “our president” too…

An illustration of Karma – where the term “Trumpism,” might be substituted…

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Well, it didn’t happen.  On Inauguration Day we didn’t have another “deja vu all over again,” in terms of a Hard Hat Riot like in May 1970.  (Or – five years earlier – of Hell’s Angels Attacking a Peace Protest.)

That is, on Inauguration Day 2017 we didn’t have history repeating Itself.  (As I feared in the last post, or at least not to the extent of the Hard Hat Riots of 1970.)  And BTW:  The caption for the photo at left reads:

Hard hats on cabinet table after Nixon meeting with supporting construction trades group (05/26/1970) less than three weeks after the New York City Hard Hat Riot.

Meaning this:  A few weeks after hard-hat construction workers beat up peace protesters in 1970 – with lead pipes and crowbars – President Richard Nixon invited them to the White House.  Which leads to this question:  If either “Hard hats” or Bikers for Trump had started beating up protesters on Inauguration Day 2017, would the Donald have invited them to the White House for a similar “victory lap,” like Nixon?  Fortunately, we didn’t have to find out…

Also incidentally, within four years of the Hard-hat riot, Richard Nixon resigned under the threat of impeacnment.  See also That OTHER “Teflon Don,” which wondered back in March 2016 whether – if Donald Trump did manage to get elected – “he may well be the first president in American history to get both impeached and convicted.”

On other hand, that post also noted that Trump might just surprise us, like that “other Great American Showman, P. T. Barnum.”  (That is, though often called the Prince Of Humbug, Barnum later ran for office and turned out to be a quite effective “public servant.*”)

Which brings us to certain Facebook exchanges in the days after the inauguration.  A Facebook friend (“FF”) wrote, “Donald Trump is now our president.”  (Which of course included an unspoken addendum:  “And so we should all support him even if we voted for Hillary.”)  That led to a couple of thoughts.

First, “Obama was our president too,” as already noted.  And second:  “Where the hell have you been the last eight years?”  But I didn’t respond with either of those thoughts.  As to Trump being now our president I replied, “So was Lyndon Johnson, and we ran his ass out of town!”

The “FF” caught me at a bad moment.

35But that led me to go back and review the moment – in 1968 -when then-president Johnson shocked the nation by saying, “I shall not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as your President.”  (Caricatured at left.)

Ironically, he did so to help “guard against divisiveness and all its ugly consequences.”  He added, “I should not permit the Presidency to become involved in the partisan divisions that are developing in this political year.”  (Which led to this thought: Oh, for an hour of Johnson…”)

That in turn led me to two other web articles:  1) Specter of Lyndon Johnson haunts Trump as President-elect, and New president should remember fates of LBJ and Richard Nixon:

Trump has been elected precisely because most people, including even many people who did not vote for him, understand that the country has declined during the Obama administration – that living standards for the majority are eroding, that the touted national health insurance legislation has only made costs explode without covering everyone, and that the country’s standing in the world has diminished…

Which could lead to this response by “Bizarro Trump.”  (Discussed more fully in the next post and as shown in the bottom image.)  Bizarro Trump would say:  “If America has ‘declined’ over the past eight years, it’s all the fault of those right-wing traitors in Congress!

Luther Martin - Hulton Archive / Stringer/ Archive Photos/ Getty ImagesTo extend that thought:  They’re the ones who refused to deal with Obama; who refused to compromise.  In doing so they violated the spirit of American politics, going back to the Constitution itself.  (See U.S. Constitutional Convention:  Key Compromises, and also Why the GOP Became the Party of No.  That article – from 2012 – detailed “the Republican plot to obstruct President Obama before he even took office.”)

Incidentally, Googling “the party of no” got me some 8,890,000 results.

And that brings us back to karma.  My theory is:  If you put together Exodus 22:28, Luke 6:38,  Hosea 8:7, and the concept of karma, you come up with this:

Donald Trump can’t do what he’s done and say what he’s said – especially as a candidate – without karma coming back and biting him on the ass!

And that brings us back to Trumpism, as illustrated in the top image, a political cartoon from 1918.  (Another BTW:  Googling “Trumpism” got me 606,000 results.)  By substituting “Trumpism” for the term “militarism,” you get the idea that people generally reap what they sow, and that those who live by the sword shall die by the sword.

All of which led me to the idea of a post on a new parlor game, “Bizarro Trump.”  (Based in part on Bizarro Jerry and Bizarro Superman.)  The tentative caption for the lead image below:  “Does this guy look familiar?  (At least metaphorically?)  BTW:  He ‘debuted‘ in November 2016…”

That idea – of Americans using Trump’s tactics against him – will be explored more fully in the next post.  In the meantime, Democrats should probably hone their skill at gutter politics

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Bizarro-statue-620

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Notes:

The upper image is courtesy of Karma – Wikipedia.  It accompanies a segment on the suggestion that the term is “akin to ‘Christian notions of sin and its effects’ …  that the Christian teaching on Last Judgment according to one’s charity is a teaching on karma.  Christianity also teaches morals such as reap what one sows (Galatians 6:7) and live by the sword, die by the sword (Matthew 26:52).

 “Note” also that an asterisk in the main text indicates a statement supported by a reference detailed further in this “notes” section.  Thus, as to P.T. Barnum turning out to be an effective politician:

Barnum supposedly coined the phrase “There’s a sucker born every minute,” which sounds like classic Donald Trump.  On the other hand, he served two terms in the Connecticut legislature, then got elected Mayor of Bridgeport, CT, in 1875, where he “worked to improve the water supply, bring gas lighting to streets, and enforce liquor and prostitution laws.”  He also favored the abolition of slavery and worked hard for “African-American suffrage.”

Barnum hull image2.jpgSee That OTHER “Teflon Don.”  As to the “Prince Of Humbug,” that link refers to one musical number from Barnum, the Broadway play “based on the life of showman P. T. Barnum.”  The original Broadway production opened in 1980, and was later revived “at the Chichester Festival Theatre from 15 July to 31 August 2013.”  (Which leads to the question:  “A century from now will there be a Broadway musical based on the life of Donald Trump?”) 

Re:  Karma.  It refers to the “spiritual principle of cause and effect.” Wikipedia:

[The] actions of an individual (cause) influence the future of that individual (effect).  Good intent and good deed contribute to good karma and future happiness, while bad intent and bad deed contribute to bad karma and future suffering.

Re:  “Oh, for an hour of Johnson.”  The original phrase was “Oh, but for an hour of [Andrew] Jackson.” See History for Kossacks: Election of 1860 – Daily Kos, which – speaking of the interlude between Abraham Lincoln’s election and his actually taking office in 1860 – noted:

Lincoln found himself armed with nothing but words to stop the South from seceding before he could even take office…   President James Buchanan, nearing 70 … looked at the Constitution and saw his hands being tied by a lack of specific instruction.  The cry went up from frustrated members of his own party: “Oh, but for an hour of Jackson!

The image to the right of the paragraph “the ones who refused to compromise” is of Luther Martin, the Founding Father who promoted the Great Compromise that made the Constitution possible.

Re:  The Bible citations and karma.  Exodus 22:28 reads, “You shall not revile God, nor curse a ruler of your people.”  (As to the last eight years, see “more honored in the breach.”)  Luke 6:38 holds that the measure you use will be the measure you receive.  (In the ISV, “you’ll be evaluated by the same standard with which you evaluate others.”)  Which arguably nullifies the mandate of Exodus 22:28, as to those people who failed to observe it.  And finally – on this point – there’s this gem from Hosea 8:7, “They that sow the wind, shall reap the whirlwind.”

Re:  “Trumpism.”  The noted “606,000 results” included Donald Trump and the Causes of ‘Trumpism’ – The Atlantic.  Those eight causes included Newt Gingrich, Rush Limbaugh and Roger Ailes – among others – contributing to “raging populism; coarsened culture; bitter, invective-laced politics; demagoguery and nativism.”

Re:  “Gutter politics.”  The link in the text is to Cruz Condemns Trump’s ‘Gutter Politics’ – The Daily Beast.  See also Trump campaign blasts Clinton’s ‘gutter politics,’ and Cruz defends Huckabee, accuses Obama of ‘gutter politics.’

The lower image is courtesy of kotobukiya created a statue that the bizarro version of jerry seinfeld would totally get on board with … dailydead.com:  “Standing eight inches tall, this Bizarro anti-Superman statue is based on DC Comics’ New 52 version of the popular villain and will be released in November [2016].”  (Which is actually kind of appropriate…)

The original “lower image” was going to be the painting at right, of “The senators encircl[ing] Caesar,” and referring to Roman senators literally stabbing Caesar in the back.  (Not merely metaphorically, as has been the case for the last eight years.)  That image would have been courtesy of Julius Caesar – Wikipedia, with the caption:  “The senators encircle Caesar, a 19th-century interpretation of the event by Carl Theodor von Piloty.”  The event is detailed further in Assassination of Julius Caesar – Wikipedia, which includes a similar painting by Vincenzo Camuccini, “La morte di Cesare.”

On Hard hats, Hell’s Angels – and Inauguration Day 2017

Are we in for another “deja vu all over again,” on Inauguration Day, 2017?

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Inauguration Day Clipart | Clipart Panda - Free Clipart ImagesInauguration Day is coming up on January 20.  And here’s a news flash: I Googled “trump inauguration protests” – and got over two million results.

Here’s part of the grab-bag:  Trump rips John Lewis as Democrats boycott inaugurationThe Anti-Inauguration 2017‘Bikers for Trump’ to Form ‘Wall of Meat,’ and The Gathering Storm of Protest Against Trump.

Which leads to the musical question:

“Are we in for yet another “deja vu all over again?”

Kent State massacre.jpgIn this case we can go back in time, to see if history will repeat Itself.  That is, back some 47 years before the upcoming January 20, 2017.  Back to New York City and “a sunny spring day in May 1970.”  There, over a thousand peace activists started a march to protest – among other things – the shooting of 13 Kent State students.  (Four of them died, as shown in part at right):* 

As the Manhattan peace protesters made their way … 200 white, middle-aged, construction workers in hard hats and carrying American flags barred their way and chased the young hippies through the streets beating them with lead pipes and crowbars.  Policemen stood by passively and watched.  More than 70 protesters were injured, and 20 hospitalized.  A few days later president Nixon met with the “Hard Hat Riot” members at the White House to turn a patriotic victory lap. (E.A.)

See Anger Redux | The Huffington Post.  Which – in turn – brings to mind a recent web article: Angels, Protesters and Patriots: What a Long-Ago Skirmish Says About Love of Country.

That article went back to 1965, when a group of Hell’s Angels also staged an attack on an “antiwar protest in Berkeley, one of the first of countless such protests to come.”  (For an ironic note, see “politics make strange bedfellows.”)  But there was a difference:  The president didn’t invite the Hell’s Angels to the White House for a “patriotic victory lap.”

Instead, the president of the Oakland Hell’s Angels decided to end to all future attacks.

That is, on October 16, 1965, a group of Hell’s Angels from the Oakland chapter “attacked a Get Out of Vietnam demonstration at the Oakland-Berkeley border.”  The first clash came at the Oakland Army Terminal, a “shipping point for men and materiel bound for the Far East:”

The Angels attacked…  The existential heroes who had passed the joint with Berkeley liberals [now attacked] the same liberals with flailing fists and shouts of ‘Traitors,” “Communists,” “Beatniks!”  When push came to shove, the Hell’s Angels lined up solidly with the cops, the Pentagon and the John Birch Society.

The protesters had planned to hold another demonstration the following month.  But – fearing further attacks – in the interim a number of liberals including poet Allen Ginsberg – at left – worked to keep the Angels from attacking again.  (Thompson, 244-53)

The result?  According to Angels, Protesters and Patriots, “Oakland chapter leader Ralph ‘Sonny’ Barger … called the protesters a ‘mob of traitors.’”  Nevertheless, he promised to forego further attacks against protesters.  He did so – he said – based on the Angels’ “patriotic concern,” after which he “read a telegram he claimed to have sent to President Lyndon Johnson, volunteering the Angels for behind-the-lines ‘gorrilla’ [sic] duty in Vietnam.”

The article pointedly noted that the “Angels, at first blush, seemed unlikely patriots.”

Which leads to another question:  If the “Bikers for Trump” – shown above – or other Hard hats start beating up Inauguration Day protesters – with lead pipes, crowbars or otherwise – will the new president invite them to the White House for a similar “patriotic victory lap?”

Samuel Johnson by Joshua Reynolds.jpgAnd speaking of patriotism:  The wise – and oddly prescient – Samuel Johnson once said, “Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.”  But it should be noted that he wasn’t condemning either true patriotism or patriotism in general.  Instead he condemned “false patriotism:*”

What he’s calling attention to is that scoundrels, when challenged, will often use false patriotism in order to shut up their opponents.

Which brings us back to Richard Nixon.  (The sitting president who feted the construction workers who beat up the offending “peace activists” in 1970.)  In his case, Nixon had – only two years before – committed an act of treason to get elected president.  That treason resulted in the death of 18,506 members of the armed services in Vietnam.  What Nixon had done was scuttle the Paris Peace Talks,” in October, 1968, solely in order to get elected in  November.

That was the point of last November’s Deja vu all over again?  And the point at issue – that Nixon committed treason to get elected – was conceded by as “arch” a conservative as George Will.  (See George Will Confirms Nixon’s Vietnam Treason.)  

A black placard with white text reading: "KTO NIE PAMIẸTA HISTORII SKAZANY / JEST NA JEJ PONOWNE PRZEŻYCIE" / GEORGE SANTAYANA / "THE ONE WHO DOES NOT REMEMBER / HISTORY IS BOUND TO LIVE THROUGH IT / AGAIN" / GEORGE SANTAYANABut we digress.  And I’m not necessarily saying that Donald Trump committed treason to get elected in 2016.  The point here is that – sometimes to a frightening extent – “History Repeats Itself.”  (Or as Santayana put it, “Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”)  

But in this case, let’s hope not.

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That is, in response to actcs of violence by some of his supporters, Donald Trump has told them to “Stop it.”  But Sonny Barger actually got his “supporters” to stop their attacks.

As Hunter Thompson noted, in the weeks leading up to the second planned march on the Oakland Army Terminal, a group of liberals including Ginsberg and Ken Kesey’s “Merry Pranksters” tried to persuade “Barger and his people not to attack the marchers.”  For one thing, Ginsberg delivered a long speech – in the form of one of his famous poems – at San Jose State College on November 15, 1965.

Barger had second thoughts about attacking a march that Ginsberg “obviously considered a right thing.”  But still – referring to the Vietnam Day Committee – “Sonny considered them all chickenshit – and that was that…  So it came as a surprise when,” on the day before the scheduled second march, the Oakland Hell’s Angels held a press conference.

At the news conference, Barger repeated his disdain for the marchers’ planned “despicable, un-American activity.”  Nevertheless, there would be no further attacks, he said, for reasons including that “any physical encounter would only produce sympathy for this mob of traitors.”

Or, as noted in What a Long-Ago Skirmish Says About Love of Country:

Barger, who would go on to survive cancer and prison … never changed his views.  Those “left-wing peace creeps,” he declared in his autobiography, deserved every bruise they got.

All the same, the Angels never attacked another protest.

Wouldn’t it be nice if Donald Trump could do the same thing with his supporters?

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“The Prez” – Sonny Barger (middle) – saying the Hell’s Angels would no longer attack protesters.

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Notes:

The upper image was courtesy of Hard Hat Riot: Tea Party of yesteryear – Daily Kos.  (Which has since been “removed.”)  The caption refers to two prior posts from this blog:  Last May’s Is this “deja vu all over again,” and last November’s repriseAnother “deja vu all over again?”  See also Hard hat – Wikipedia, as to the literal meaning of the term, and the Collins Dictionary, as to its cultural implications; i.e., “characteristic of the presumed conservative attitudes and prejudices typified by construction workers.”  (See also, Hard Hat Riots.)

“Note” also that an asterisk in the main text indicates a statement supported by a reference detailed further in this “notes” section.  Thus, as to the 13 Kent State students, see Kent State shootings – Wikipedia, which included the image to the right of the paragraph.  The caption:  “John Filo‘s Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph of Mary Ann Vecchio, a 14-year-old runaway, kneeling over the body of Jeffrey Miller minutes after he was fatally shot by the Ohio National Guard.”  A further caption reads: “Mary Ann Vecchio gestures and screams as she kneels by the body of a student, Jeffrey Miller, lying face down on the campus of Kent State University, in Kent, Ohio.  On publication, the image was retouched to remove the fencepost above Vecchio’s head.”

The “inauguration day” image is courtesy of Inauguration Day  … Clipart Panda – Free Clipart Images. As to January 20, 2017, see Weather forecast for Trump’s inauguration looks gloomy.

The Allen Ginsberg image is courtesy of classics allen ginsberg american …hellopoetry.com.

Re: Samuel Johnson.  For some of his sound-bites on “the real deal,” see The Samuel Johnson Sound Bite Page: Quotes on Patriotism.  Re: the false patriotism quote, see What does this quote by Samuel Johnson mean: ‘Patriotism,’ etc.

Re: 18,506 service-members killed in Vietnam after Nixon “scuttled the Paris Peace Talks” in October and November, 1968:  US KIA in 1969 – 11,616, 1969 in the Vietnam War – Wikipedia;  US KIA in 1970 – 6,081, 1970 in the Vietnam War – Wikipedia;  US KIA in 1971 – 0, 1971 in the Vietnam War – Wikipedia;  US KIA in 1972 – 641, 1972 in the Vietnam War – Wikipedia;  US KIA in 1973 – 168 1973 in the Vietnam War – Wikipedia.  (Total = 18,506.)

A green brick wall with a white sign reading "Wer die Vergangenheit nicht kennt, / ist dazu verurteilt, sie zu wiederholden. / (G. Santayana 1863–1953, Philosoph)The “history repeats” image is courtesy of George Santayana – Wikipedia.  The caption: “Santayana’s famous aphorism ‘Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it’ is inscribed on a plaque at Auschwitz concentration camp in Polish translation and English back-translation (above), and on a subway placard in Germany (below).  The “subway placard” is shown at right.

Re: Donald Trump and his “violent” supporters.  I Googled “trump ‘stop it,'” and got some ten million, seven hundred thousand results.  (10,700,000.)

The Hunter Thompson image is courtesy of Kentuckian Hunter S. Thompsonjohncoxtalks.com.

For another post on Trump vis-à-vis the Angels, see Donald Trump and the Hell’s Angel.

The lower image is courtesy of Angels, Protesters and Patriots: What a Long-Ago Skirmish Says About Love of Country.  Re: Barger as “Prez,” see Thompson’s Hell’s Angels: A Strange and Terrible Saga:

In any gathering of Angels … there is no doubt who is running the show:  Ralph “Sonny” Barger, the Maximum Leader…  To the Oakland Angels he is Ralph.  Everybody else calls him Sonny[,] although when the party gets wild and loose he answers to such names such as Prez, Papa and Daddy.

1999 Ballantine Book edition, at page 10.  (Thompson added that Barger was – by turns – a brawler, a fanatic, “a shrewd compromiser and a final arbitrator.”)  See also Hunter S. Thompson – Wikipedia, and On the wisdom of Virgil – and an “Angel,” in my companion blog. 

And finally, this proviso:  “Any resemblance to actual persons” – that is, and comparison to other actual persons – “living or dead is purely coincidental.”  See Any Resemblance to Actual Persons, Living or Dead, is …, and/or All persons fictitious disclaimer – Wikipedia.

Finally, for a more in-depth treatment of the negotiations leading to Barger’s decision to “stop the violence,” see Thompson’s book, Ballantine edition, at pages 244-53.  Six of those ten pages are taken up by Ginsberg’s poem, “To the Angels,” delivered at San Jose State on November 15, 1965, “before students and representatives of Bay Area Hell’s Angels.”  These pages included two ironic notes, the first that for “reasons never divulged, [President] Johnson was slow to capitalize on Barger’s offer and the Angels never went to Vietnam.”  (To engage in “behind-the-lines ‘gorrilla’ [sic] duty.”)  Also:  

The Angels … are rigidly anti-Communist.  [Which adds a third note of irony, given the events of this last election.]  Their political views are limited to the same kind of retrograde patriotism that motivates the John Birch Society, the Ku Klux Klan and the American Nazi Party.  They are blind to the irony of their role [as] knight errants of a faith from which they have already been excommunicated.  The Angels will be the first to be locked up or croaked if the politicians they think they agree with ever come to power. (E.A.)

Note that a knight-errant was a “figure of medieval chivalric romance literature.”  Such a knight would “wander the land in search of adventures to prove his chivalric virtues.”  The plural would be Knights-Errant, as seen in Sparkler Monthly. 

Some highlights from 2016…

Seeing a “naked lady on the Yukon” – symbolized here – was one of my highlights from 2016…

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It’s New Year’s Day, and so a good time to recall some highlights from 2016.

Johnny Mercer, New York, N.Y., between 1946 and 1948 (William P. Gottlieb 06121).jpgThere was of course the Election From Hell, but the less said about that the better.  I prefer to “Accentuate the Positive.”  (Referring to the 1944 song with lyrics by Johnny Mercer, shown at left.)  And seeing a “naked lady on the Yukon” certainly qualifies as one of those positive 2016 highlights…

Back in August my brother, nephew and I met up in the town of Whitehorse, in the Yukon Territory.  From there we drove to Skagway, Alaska.  And from there we hiked the Chilkoot Trail in four days.  (The “meanest 33 miles in history.”)

And here’s a news flash:  There’s a good reason why they call it the “meanest 33 miles in history.”  Mostly it’s because “the Chilkoot” is not a trail at all, but just one big pile of rocks after another.  But it was a man-against-nature venture, and fortunately the “manly men” won. (Though not without some bruises and blisters that lasted for weeks…)  

After that my nephew had the good sense to head back east to begin classes at Penn State.  However, my brother and I proceeded on to a twelve-day canoe trip “down” the Yukon River.  We ended up in Dawson City, also in the Yukon Territory.  But the most “poetic” part of the journey involved two days paddling on Lake Laberge, at right.

Most people know it better as “Lake Labarge,” thanks to the famous poem,  “The Cremation of Sam McGee.”  But that’s only because “Laberge” doesn’t rhyme with “marge,” meaning “shore” or “edge.”  (As in “edge of a lake.”  And further as in the poem’s narrator hauling McGee’s body to the “marge of Lake Lebarge.”)

I figured there was an object lesson there, somewhere…

All in all my brother and I spent five weeks driving up to the Yukon – from Utah – then doing the two “man against nature” adventures, and finally driving back home from the Yukon.  But by far the more traumatic of the two was hiking the Chilkoot Trail.  It was so traumatic that I had to do two blogposts on the subject:  On the Chilkoot &^%$# Trail!, Parts 1 and Part 2.

One of the highlights hiking the trail came as we three were approaching the summit of the Chilkoot Pass.  (My brother and nephew were way out in front.  And at left is the good part.)  

And what with my lack of depth perception – from having only one good eye – going over “one big pile of *&$% rocks after another” was like negotiating a minefield.  I wore heavy hiking boots, but they felt like ballet slippers.  Every step was sheer torture, and brought new pain to each aching foot.

So anyway, I had just taken one of many missteps – causing severe pain – and thus let loose a string of pungent epithets.  Then I looked behind me and there – climbing behind me – was a sweet young lady hiker.  Sheepishly I apologized, noting that I had “no depth perception.”  But she went ahead and passed me.  (And probably rolled her eyes in the process…)  A short while later I had another misstep and loosed another string of epithets.

Again I looked behind me, and again there was a young couple, including another “sweet, innocent young thing.”  So I said to myself, “Hey, I may be on to something here!”

Unfortunately I tried it a few times later on the trail, but my magic formula didn’t work.  (On the other hand there I did see that “Naked lady on the Yukon,” 10 days later, on August 12…) 

You can see the full story at the “Naked lady” post, which brings up the strong current on the Yukon River.  Generally it’s pretty fast, ranging from over four miles an hour up to seven miles an hour in some places.  (Except on“Lake &^%$# Laberge,” where the paddling is very slow.)

That’s the kind of current that helps you paddle 440 miles in 12 days.  But it also means that when you see something totally unexpected, by the time you recognize it, the current is already moving you downriver…  Which meant that by the time I recognized the naked lady as a naked lady, the current was already pushing me farther down-river.

SwampWaterPoster.jpgWhich is enough – for now – about the naked lady on the Yukon.

Which brings up one of my other 2016 adventures, a return trip to the  Okefenokee Swamp, as detailed in “There he goes again.”  That post – from Monday, May 30 – looked ahead to the middle of the week.  I actually put in 11:00 a.m. on Wednesday morning, June 1, and counted 39 gators in the first hour of paddling.  (Then I stopped counting.)   I never did do a post on that little adventure, which is something I need to do in the next week or so.

As for an excuse, I had “another stinkin’ funeral.”  A close friend died unexpectedly the day before, but I didn’t find out about it until I was already in Valdosta.

Which makes this as good a place as any to end this particular post.  Except to note that there were way too many “stinkin’ funerals” to go to in 2016.  (As noted also in the December 19 post, A funeral and an NTE (Near-Ticket Experience).)

And to note that I didn’t see any naked ladies in the Okefenokee Swamp.

Just at lot of alligator[s] mississippienses…”

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The upper image is courtesy of Sun tanning – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The caption:  “A woman sun tanning on a Portuguese beach.”  Further references are in the blog-posts cited in the text.  And a BTW: Googling “election from hell 2016” got me some 154,000,000 results.