Thoughts For The Day From Papa ‘a

Good Afternoon & Happy Sunday!

The leaves are changing colors and Autumn has fully arrived in Spokane!  A great time of year rich in colors and vibrant sunshine during “Indian Summer” days!

The BIG news to report is that my son, Jake, and his wife, Sarah, are expecting a baby girl in February, 2021.  What wonderful news!  They picked out the name Tempa Joanne Newbold…Tempa was the first name of my grandmother Tempa Cleora (Wood) Testerman and the first name of my mother Tempa Christine (Testerman) Newbold…how about that???  We are so excited for Jake, Sarah and big brother Izaak (Ike).  Little Tempa Joanne will be a welcome addition to their family and our extended family.  What a blessing from God, for sure!

Happy Birthday to my friend Josh in Spokane, community volunteer & affordable housing champion extraordinaire and lover of souls, who turns 45 today!  Here’s to you Josh!  Enjoy your special day of celebration!  Happy Birthday wishes also go to singer/songwriter Daryl Hall of “Hall and Oates” fame, who is 74 today; to actress Joan Cusack, who turns 58 today;  and to LPGA golfer extraordinaire Michelle Wie, who is 31 today!  Here’s to all of you!

Speaking of singer Daryl Hall, I made a Facebook post the other day featuring Jose Feliciano and him doing a fabulous rendition of “Light My Fire”…one of my all-time favorite songs.  It was really something to see and listen to and if you friend me (Mark Newbold) on Facebook you can see and listen for yourself.  You’ll be glad you did!  Come to find out, “Light My Fire” was written by Jim Morrison of “The Doors” along with fellow composers Robby Krieger, John Densmore & Ray Manzarek.  Jose Feliciano is a Puerto Rican born musician whose stellar and sophisticated guitar work and impassioned vocals were first discovered in the venues of New York’s Greenwich Village.  RCA’s Jack Somer signed him after seeing Jose at Gerde’s Folk City.

Well, one of the posts I received on Facebook was from my friend Dennis of Spokane who wrote:  “I remember it (“Light My Fire”) well…I and my friends were drinking 10 cent beers at Goofy’s in Spokane (Goofy’s was located on the southwest corner of Browne & Pacific) during “Expo ’74.”  The band was on break and in walks this beautiful blonde with Jose Feliciano on her arm.  She led him to the stage…he sat down, the sound man scrambled…Jose picked up a guitar and said into the mike “a little more bass,” and then broke into “Light My Fire”…absolutely terrific…never forget it!”    How about that???

Speaking of interesting people, Junior Achievement (JA) recently honored Edward Bersoff, founder of Greenwich Associates, LLC and Parabilis, an innovative business finance firm that assists small & medium sized businesses to obtain needed investment capital outside of traditional banking arrangements.  Parabilis has helped a number of businesses get the needed capital to become successful enterprises.  He was asked by JA if you could choose one person, living or dead, to have dinner with, who would it be?  His answer:  “…if I had to pick one person, it would probably be Robert Pirsig, the author of “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.”  That strangely titled book digs deeply into the role that quality, and dedication to it, should play in our daily lives.  I’d love to ask Pirsig how he cam to think about the subject, how it transformed him, and what impact it had on his later years.  The book definitely changed my world view and I would certainly want to thank him for that.”

 

I came across a collectible card from my 1950s & 1960s card collection that featured the Pulqui II, a fighter plan that was built by Argentina.  “Pulqui” comes from the Mapuche Indian word meaing “Arrow.”  It was a jet fighter aircraft that was designed by Kurt Tank in the late 1940s in Argentina under the direction of the Peron government (Juan Peron) and built by the Argentine Fabrica Militar de Aviones (FMA).  The Pulqui II’s development was comparatively problematic and lengthy, with two of the four prototypes being lost in fatal crashes.  Despite one of the prototypes being successfully tested in combat by revolutionaries during a revolution against the Peron government (Revolucion Libertadora”), the political, economic and technical challenges faced by the project meant that Pulqui II was unable to reach its full potential, and the Argentine government ultimately chose to purchase F-86 Sabres from the United States in lieu of continuing development of the indigenous fighter to production status.  It’s interesting to note that in the late 1940s, Argentina benefited from the recruitment of prominent German aerospace scientists and engineers, fleeing Europe following the defeat of the Nazis and seeking sanctuary in Latin America.  Kurt Tank was a German designer and the former technical director of the Focke-Wulf Flugzeugbau AG jet fighter project in Germany at the war’s end.  He was primarily responsible for the development of the Argentine Pulqui II jet fighter.  Due to economic and political upheavals in Argentina, the Pulqui II was never put in full production and planes from other countries were purchased by the Argentine government going forward.  Here’s another example of “history readings stranger than fiction,” don’t you think?

 

I guess you could say I’m truly from “The Leave It To Beaver” generation…did you know that the T.V. show “Leave It To Beaver” was the first T.V. show to show a toilet?  Well, it was just the tank, but the appearance of a toilet onscreen was a T.V. first.  The boys (Wally & Beaver) were often in the bathroom off their bedroom.  In this case, in the episode “Captain Jack,” Wally puts an alligator in the toilet tank after he and Beaver order one through the mail.  This episode was intended as the premiere of the show but aired the second week.  How about that???

 

Speaking of amphibious creatures, here’s the trivia question for the day:

Q:  What is a group of jellyfish called?…a Smack…a Float…a Clowder…or an Army?

A:  Many people may be familiar with collective terms such as a “school” of fish, a “pack” of wolves and a “gaggle” of geese.  But what is the collective term for a group of jellyfish?  A group of jellyfish is also called a “smack.”  And, that’s what it feels like when you suddenly get caught in a group of jellyfish.  Ouch!  Jellyfish can be found on shallow or deep ocean waters, and even beached jellies can smack you with their venomous and painful sting.  The most venomous jellyfish in the world is the box jellyfish, capable of killing an adult human with a single sting in just a few minutes!

 

Here is the thought for the day:

“There are a dozen views about everything until you know the answer.  Then there’s never more than one.”

—C.S. Lewis, “That Hideous Strength” as quoted in C.S. Lewis’ Little Book Of Wisdom:  Meditations on Faith, Life, Love and Literature” (2018)

 

Here’s to a great Sunday and to the week upcoming and lots of love & good wishes always!

Press on,

Papa ‘a (Dad, Uncle Mark, Mark, etc.)