Good Morning All & Happy Friday!
Well, winter still has its grip on Spokane…some new snow last night! It looks like many communities across America are dealing with more winter weather…my heart goes out to folks in Texas, who seem to have been especially hard with power outages right in the middle of plunging temperatures. It looks like more work needs to be done to ensure that our nation’s power infrastructure is adequate going forward. There’s a proposal in Congress from a representative from Idaho to eliminate four dams on the Snake River, part of the hydroelectric infrastructure that supplies a large portion of electricity to communities and businesses throughout the Pacific Northwest. Who would have thought that a member of Congress from a state the depends on hydroelectricity as a power source would be introducing legislation to do away with such a large number of dams with really no plan to replace it with comparably priced power…wow!…just wow! It seems like that would be killing the proverbial goose that lays the golden egg…what do you think?
Speaking of weird legislative proposals coming from politicians in the middle of a pandemic…Here’s one from my home state of Washington. It seems that there are a group of legislators that are determined to see a form of a state income tax be enacted, even though voters have time and again turned down efforts to have such a tax enacted without the legislature reducing and/or eliminating certain types of regressive taxes such as the state sales tax that is particularly hard on low-income families. I’d consider supporting a state income tax if I could be assured that other existing taxes would be reduced and/or eliminated, but that doesn’t seem to the modus operandi of politicians these days. It seems to me that adding an additional tax in the middle of a pandemic isn’t such a great idea. It would be better if a bi-partisan Tax Reform Commission was created with the task of coming up with a true/comprehensive tax reform proposal rather than adding taxes here and there when political winds are blowing one way or the other. What do you think?
Happy Birthday to Spokane friends Darcy and Tricia, who celebrate their birthdays today. Tricia, is a registered nurse who is a strong champion of foster care and adoption. She is devoting much of her time to help drug addicted infants and their mothers. She recently started an effort to see that a facility is created in Spokane to take in drug addicted infants and their mothers and help them get a better start in life. It’s called Maddie’s Place and will occupy the old location of the Vanessa Behan Crisis Nursery. The support from the community has been fantastic and it looks like enough money has been raised to purchase the desired location and provide funds for start up. How about that? The cost of caring for these infants will be greatly reduced for the community and will give these little ones a chance for a better life. If you’re interested in helping out in this effort, you can google “Maddie’s Place” on your search engine or send me a message with your e-mail address and I’ll send you some info about it.
Happy Birthday wishes also go to actress Victoria Justice, who is 28 today; to actress Haylie Duff, who turns 36 today; to actor Benicio Del Toro, who is 54 today; to actress Justine Bateman, who turns 55 today; to one of my favorite actors, Jeff Daniels, who portrays one of my favorite Civil War characters, Joshua Chamberlain in “Gettysburg” and “Gods and Generals” and who is 66 today and to novelist Amy Tan of “Miss Saigon” fame, who turns 69 today. Here’s to all of you!
Here are some more excerpts from the transcript of an interview that my dad, Don Newbold, did as part of the Washington State World War II History Project some years ago:
Question: So you were how—how old (when Pearl Harbor happened)?
Answer: I was seventeen.
Question: Seventeen?
Answer: Well, actually when they attacked I was 16. Cause my birthday is the 24th of December and I would—became 17 just after the attack. And didn’t enter the Service—I graduated from high school at 17 in May or June of ’43 and then I had diptheria (sp?) and it was a long story and was quarantined for that two months (during the time Dad worked at the Kaiser shipyards in Vancouver WA as a riveter building baby flattops (smaller aircraft carriers)…so after I got through with that…got over that…I was pretty ill…then my friends, most of them were getting—were slightly older. The 18 year old draft age. Either they were getting their notices. I was still 17 but I convinced my folks that I should join. And they signed away the rights of their son to the United States…”
—Donald (Don) Newbold, “Transcript of interview for the Washington State World War II History Project”
I came across another one of my “Outer Limits” T.V. show collectible trading cards from the 1960s. That was one scary show from my childhood, for sure…”Don’t Adjust Your Television Set…For The Next 60 Minutes You Will Be In The Outer Limits” or something to that effect. This particular card features the “Transparent Creature”:
“A scientist, experimenting in bringing dead animals back to life, has his first opportunity to work on a human when his assistant dies in an automobile accident. Claiming the remains of his former aide, the scientist jolts the body with 100,000 volts of electricity (that’s a lot of electricity!). Suddenly a transparent image floats above the body, speaking a warning from the beyond. “Do not attempt to tamper further with the will of nature. Let me have my peace!” This card is number 3 in a set of 50 cards that were distributed in 1964…
Here are some trivia facts for the day:
The famous songwriter George Gershwin (I got to see his piano in the Smithsonian Library in Washington, D.C. some years ago…it was a real thrill!) suffered from chronic constipation for most of his life…(That doesn’t sound like fun!)
It may not seem like it now, but the Disney movie “Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs” pushed the envelope for its time. Upon the film’s release, Show White sparked a nationwide controversy about whether or not the enchanted forest and the wicked witch were too scary for young children. In fact, the theater managers at the Radio City Music Hall (where Snow White premiered) were nervous that the movie would be too scary for kids. These fears proved to be well founded. After the movie’s premiere, the velvet upholstery on the seats had to be replaced. Kids were so frightened by the scene where Snow White gets lost in the forest, that they wet their pants.
Here is the thought for the day:
“In Heaven the whole man is to drink joy from the Fountain of Joy.”
—C.S. Lewis, “The Weight of Glory”, quoted in “C.S. Lewis’ Little Book Of Wisdom,” (2018)
Here’s to a great Friday and lots of love & good wishes always!
Press on,
Papa ‘a (Dad, Uncle Mark, Mark, etc.)