letters

dear Marie,

I have been preparing this letter ever since your engagement announcement. On the eve of your wedding i as your mother decided to share with you what i believe will strenghten your marriage. The mistakes i made and observations of other wives gives you valuable insight to avoid mistakes and navigate successfully the trials and tribulations you will share with your husband.

We know how men are-and you must do everything possible to keep him happy and make sure he doesn't stray. Don't ever talk about about your past boyfriends especially Phil- i have talked to him recently and he has agreed to never mention you again regarding "that" party. I STRONGLY SUGGEST you never weaken even in the most intimate moments of confidentiality anything about

your past abortions. Never ever mention your uncle and his triple manslaughter conviction.
If you feel right about discussing your past "experimental" lesbian encounters it might even make him feel more secure about his own sexuality and the other ladies agree. About your fathers alcoholism--we wont be able to hide it, so slip this one in gently. But dont and i repeat
dont ever tell him your brother sells time-shares!!!!

letters

A Parental Nightmare...
A father passing by his son's bedroom was astonished to see the bed nicely made up and everything neat and tidy. Then he saw an envelope propped up prominently on the pillow. It was addressed, "Dad". With the worst premonition, he opened the envelope and read the letter with trembling hands: Dear Dad, It is with great regret and sorrow that I'm writing you. I had to elope with my new girlfriend because I wanted to avoid a scene with you and Mom. I've been finding real passion with Joan and she is so nice. I knew you would not approve of her because of all her piercings, tattoos, her tight motorcycle clothes and because she is so much older than I am but it's not only the passion, Dad, she's pregnant. Joan says that we are going to be very happy. She owns a trailer in the woods and has a stack of firewood, enough for the whole winter. We share a dream of having many more children. Joan has opened my eyes to the fact that marijuana doesn't really hurt anyone. We'll be growing it and trading it with the other people in the commune for all the cocaine and ecstasy we want. In the meantime, we'll pray that science will find a cure for cancer so Joan can get better; she sure deserves it! Don't worry Dad, I'm 15 years old now and I know how to take care of myself. Someday, I'm sure we'll be back to visit so you can get to know your grandchildren. Your son, Chad P.S. Dad, none of the above is true. I'm over at Tommy's house. I just wanted to remind you that there are worse things in life than the report card that's in my desk drawer.

The silly old man

That's what people called him as he fed fish to the seagulls, a routine the old "codger" made for himself

to amble about on the beach, the birds eagerly awaiting their meal. Usually the activity is frowned upon in ocean resorts as the flock of birds mess up the area. As you get older there might or might not be a reason why you do things.

The old man was Eddie Rickenbacker, the top scoring U.S. pilot ace in world war 1, highly decorated and an aviation pioneer, race car driver, president of the now defunct eastern airlines among many other notable achievements. The man had escaped death many times including the most unbelievable injuries sustained during a dc3 crash.

During WW2 President Roosevelt called him to the white house for a secret mission. MacArthur (another WWI hero) had become a rogue element and they had lost control over him as he acted now on his own

disobeying all orders regarding the pacific theater.

This secret mission is still classified but recently the leaks have begun. No way was anyone to know how this spat could be made public during the war, the morale in the U.S. concerning a general like Mac Arthur was of utmost importance.

Apparently MacArthur looked up to Eddie only- he was his idol. MacArthur was also a highly decorated WWI1 soldier. No records could ever exist demonstrating the communications going back and forth regarding his loose cannon condition and you can read between the lines here

if you know what i mean. So they enlist Eddie and a selected crew for a B-17 flight to get him to

the pacific secretly-no small feat considering the distances involved. He would put MacArthur

in his place. Much has been written on why they ran out of fuel and ditched in the ocean, but by most accounts an unskilled navigator. The injured survivors ran out of food and water during the first week of their 24 days in a raft, the crate of oranges that floated up from the sinking plane made conditions worse

as the gastric juices made them hungrier. One of the crew died and you would have to read the story of this ordeal to understand the miracle of a seagull landing on eddies head. Besides the meal they used the entrails to fish more food. This was the third time in his life newspapers had declared

him dead ! Only because of his wife's insistence was the search extended and a small float plane

towards the very end found them in Japanese held waters. The pilot won an award as he put the most injured in the confined space and tied the rest to the wings and drove on the waves for 40 miles where they met up with a navy ship.

So, many people would scoff at the old man feeding seagulls unaware of why some people do the things they do- he would say thank you to every bird he fed still wearing the cap he wore during his 24 days at sea.

TEOTWAWKI AND THE SURVIVALISTS

Stands for-- the end of the world as we know it--- and has many sites. Another one is SHTF(poo-poo hits the fan).




After much analysis i will save you from being confused and will share my thoughts on the survivalist scenario. I am trying to be as rational as possible.

Make no mistake-unprepared people suffer and or die. The survivalist is fully aware of the past.

millions and millions have perished from and will continue to do so from the following life extinguishing events:

earthquakes-floods-volcanoes-fires-firestorms-plagues-wars-civil disturbances,disease,social upheavals, economic breakdowns and the like. Some are combined and inexorably add exponentially to the disaster. Survival is an everyday exercise-look around you-fire exits-fire sprinklers-air bags-fire stairs on older bldgs.-first aid kits-emergency bags in the car trunk-bomb shelters from the cold war and WW-2-medical bracelets-warning signs for everything.

But we are complacent in our relatively protected environment and take for granted without even thinking about the basic life sustaining necessities. Our consciousness relegates to the
back rooms of our brains the imminent dangers that are around every corner. This is called
out of sight out of mind. If you interviewed a thousand people 10% have life changing events,
they have survived- wars, being raped, shot at, car wrecks- natural disasters-fires etc.
There are the others who didn't make it-you don't see them so- out of sight and hence the complacent attitude. We are aware but would rather not address negative issues as it interferes
with our current pursuit of happiness-like the fable of the grasshopper and the ant. I have a friend who scoffs at anything because he his too busy in his business(i lost all sales one day because a tv was turned on to see replays of the shuttle exploding) so i understand his avoiding bad news. Here comes a hurricane, about the 10th for us, he dutifully prepares with stocks
and protective measures but its worse than EXPECTED and the family hides in a closet as high water and winds do their thing. This happened in Cancun and what happens? the city is in chaos!




Looters stole their generator-many streets in Cancun are cul-de-sacs and neighbors are barricading the entrances with fires made out of 55 gal. drums and debris and have to gather together with machetes and tools to run off criminals-it was close to being life threatening and very scary to say the least. Yet a few days before it was paradise-civilization crumbles very quickly and leaves you wondering how precious we had it. You've seen it on tv recently Haiti,Chile---Katrina, L.A. riots. I could have saved time by just directing the reader to wikipedia
and search-- human death toll natural disasters in recorded history--you will have a better grasp on reality. Who cares? you guys are paranoid! im Joe normal-i live in pleasant ville and i run thru the park with my pink poodle and balloons enjoying my Dr. pepper and beef jerky. I am smug in my self contained world. Well that is exactly the mind set of the millions and millions who share your view. Except they died a most gruesome death. 30% of the world is in survival mode as we speak-bombs-no water-no electricity-disease-malnutrition, it is daily life for them, almost normal. Any more and i might as well write a F.EM.A manual and a history book. Point is




the scenario is real,very real and the proponents are not necessarily a negative lot either--an evolutionary study shows negativity is crucial to survival. For example early man survived by being in a negative frame of mind-he leaves his cave on all fours to reveal less of himself, care full



of his surroundings he walks crouched now, knife and spear ready- sensing and looking for danger



before it looks for him ,and maybe, just maybe might make it home with food. Speed up the years
and his offspring 20x times down are more complacent-less danger is present. He runs out the cave to tip toe thru the tulips and rejoice in the beauty of th---aaaaheaaargggh---- some animals lunch!! Hey, i told you to not let your guard down! Negativity is primordial as you will not be surprised in this mind set-you expect danger and are prepared--being positive belongs to the realm of progress and visualizing catching a fish. Positive has its place and has no place for the unprepared. How is positive going to save you when you are in a disaster?



The survivalists web sites vary and mix-up different trains of thought so lets sort this out first.




1)The Gov. has F.E.MA. claiming they are ready but offer advice in case you are on your own.
2)5% of the U.S population lives in harsh wilderness and their lives depend on survival wits.
3)continuation of government programs are now classified but the released ones prove concept.
4)the seed depository on a barren island (Norway?) makes me more nervous.
5)many secret underground cities and facilities worldwide-foreign investors also!
6)many companies specialize in shtf survival gear and info. to survive disasters.
7)individual teotwawki web-sites that feature very uneducated knee-jerk reactionaries
but most are educated sites with insightful and valuable lectures that will and i guarantee you save your live--but there are levels in regards to practical and common sense usage and expectancy.



I would assume that the average reader will dismiss some of the sites and the idea for readiness
due to the bombastic nature of the content including ads for hoarding gold -seeds-guns-equipment. On the other hand if he was a boat owner he has no qualms buying-life vests, flare guns,survival kits,survival food,etc.



The forums get mixed readers-some actually live in Alaska-northern Canada and scoff at the Barrett 50. cal (A huge rifle)toting crowd--they in turn fail to understand why they are dead
set in extolling the virtue of a knife being the only thing practical to true survival. They are talking about different scenarios and confuse the issue.
As mentioned, there are many disaster scenarios but all of them call for you to continue living-
someone watching me write this said suicide doesn't fit here! Tell that to the 10,000 German
women who committed suicide when they could not take it any longer when the Russians had their way with them at the end of the war- including 2000 nuns and females from 8 to 80
tell that to the girls school who after being raped were mutilated. tell that to all the suicides likewise in Russia -tell that to the Japanese women who suffered the same fate.
All most all victorious armies rape and plunder and murder -their government unable to protect them-tell that to women in Africa whos pregnant bellies were sliced open on money bets to see if it was boy -girl! These people committed suicide because of disasters and were unprepared.One
river in Germany was a body dump as parents killed their daughters unable to cope with the disaster. It wasn't that long ago and its going on right now again- in the world close to us. All these poor souls were unprepared and led down the complacent road by their governments.


If you study the numbers you have as much to fear if not more from humans as natural disasters.


The SHTF proponents have a valid point and in fact almost mandatory. The basic premise is a breakdown in society due to any of the fearful possibilities.


Water and food distribution networks as we've seen breakdown real fast.


Transportation networks are very vulnerable.


People are not civil when starving and lacking basics they have come to rely on their whole life.


We have seen you will be on your own very quickly.


Most people perish as they are unfit in every way to survive on their own.





I have come to these conclusions;


Large natural disasters are hard to avoid and luck plays a part.


Awareness of real or imagined dangers favors the fearful.


Statistically there will be more survivors unprepared than those who are prepared.


The nature of chaos does not favor your preparedness and in fact can lead to your downfall.


Most preparations that you have will be out of reach.


Assumptions made over iced tea in your living room are not real to what you will encounter.


The most prepared are the very wealthy and know the facts -their consultants are tops in their fields and have prepared many scenarios to survive, this is a big business and totally unavailable
to 95% of the population, again you are on your own except for these helpful sites.
Some curious facts;

Blizzards leave horses and men dead frozen-except those who gutted the horse and got inside.
you can make fire from ice
you can get water from stones
insects will lead you to water
you don't need a cannon to shoot the shell
you can make a bomb very easily in the outdoors
where most died in a high rise fire the savvy breathed air from the toilet tubes inside the top bowl
people have perished with food and water all around them
you can make weapons from mouse traps and shotgun shells
spears and arrows are still tops in the kill hall of fame
small animal livers will save your life re snakes-scorpions
you can make a shelter from 6 inch grasses.
chemical warfare from plants
ambush followers and kill them with firecrackers
instant poisons from household ingredients





We can go on and on---


the survivalists can add plenty more.





Here is a scenario not listed above- in the 80's a navy flotilla lost all comm. capabilities due to a

electromagnetic? wave from a far star. They lost almost all abilities due to the fried electrical
systems, it was an eye-opener for the military although this is a common occurrence (i know avionics people) but this burst was very big and damaging-it happened in the south pacific. It
was assumed by scientists that it indeed had covered a very large area maybe a few thousand miles wide. In 2006 a solar flare shocked the scientific world because never before had one sped so fast-ever -about 1/2 the normal rate to reach the earth-textbooks would have to be re-done!!

I know one of the scientists and he says the reaction is exaggerated. If we had a nasty one hit where it hurts, the consequences would start slowly and problems will develop where you don't expect. Add to this an uneasy political instability and an upset population and it wont be pretty.

Read what happened when the very upset masses in France during the revolution did to the nobility- the favorite was tying husband and wife face to face nude and thrown in the rivers to drown nobody could have imagined this days before as they enjoyed themselves in the lap of luxury. Read how thousands were interned in the stadium in Chile, Americans included, during the coup de'tat. many suffered.

Now then, it is clear things can go wrong and you re not prepared.

So lets study those who escaped by wits or preparation or luck, and use statistical models dealing with hard data.

The teotwawki's have prepared for almost every contingency but under the leadership of Gen. Murphy things will go wrong.

Theoretically you are prepared with------
a bug out bag
weapons and ammo
stored food
an emergency medical kit
an arranged hide out
alternate routes
taking the family
a means of escape

The past has shown---

You have a 50/50 chance to retrieve it

weapons are targets themselves-are heavy-invite trouble-slow you down- ammo is gone quick

food and water weigh a lot-is soon gone

providing you can keep it-supplies are limited- you cant flee with wounded and/or sick

your hide out will be occupied before you get there and if not good luck keeping it

your alternate is every ones

saving your family might not be possible

your vehicle has an average 450 mile flee zone radius-so do all the others- so you will be in good company with other refugees who might not have what you have managed to save. gas will dry out real quick. mandated evacuation routes will be a nightmare. the stay put alternative has its own problems.

At this point 20% will have successfully extracted themselves from the chaos, most wont be survivalists, not to say in some cases they will be the only ones present due to extenuating circumstances.

odds are increased with 3 bug out bags one in the office or home- one in the trunk of car and a hidden one on a planned route. and the same applies to the other necessaries.

even when relatively safe new problems will arrive;

a constant water and food supply

dog packs -not kidding

insects

maintenance medicine

protection from hoards (its not fair you have that and wont share)

inclement weather

leadership dilemmas and psychological effects could be your biggest problem of all.

It wont matter that you invested tons of money and time preparing and can have it all or not.

Solid evidence shows your survival rests on what you can have on your person that is within reach and that is the bug out bag or survival outfit and it better be within 50 ft. or less at all times.

the survival outfit is a civilian attire that looks like a jacket and pants yet on close inspection

in cleverly outfitted with a myriad of hidden and sown in pockets-pouches that will even

hold an ar-7 break apart survival rifle and small pistol and the necessary amount of emergency

paraphernalia to last running on foot and surviving for up to a month.

And far away (100) miles an underground shelter to last 2-3 years.

WILL SOON PROVIDE MORE INFO NEXT PAGE SOON

Rotterdam

History is fascinating because those who track it have their own agenda and although we can rely
on most accounts to be somewhat factual, some finer points on what really happened lead us to believe otherwise.

A quick search of the bombing of Rotterdam in ww2 will lead us to believe the brutal attack
was just that. But read the info sites and start seeing discrepancies. Books and web sites state
Gen. Kurt Student was wounded there and convalesced for 8 months. Another site says he was shot by friendly fire with no further explanation. Yet another has more detail of an s.s. trooper
shooting him mistakenly from a window.You would think that someone who shoots a GENERAL
by mistake would have some press interest or the fact that no news comes from it at all especially under Nazi censorship is being covered up. The following story comes from one of the
most decorated and recognized dutch underground leaders who i met in Mexico.
Bridges are crucial targets in war. A soldier there sadly watched German paratroopers take over the city network bridges. He was upset how easily they scattered the small defending bridge guards. He left the bridge ramparts to escape captivity and laid low in the adjoining tulip fields.
Under the hot sun in an army coat and unable to move at all , even to take his coat off as he would be spotted from the bridge. Pondering his dilemma, he watched a small group of officers set up a table next to the bridge under its shadow. Spreading maps on the table ,it was obvious
these were high ranking officers and taking his time to sight the distance--he took a shot--
the officer slumped over the map table as his companions leaned over wondering why.
Another shot and the second casualty went down. The bridge noise covered his shots and he managed to scurry away from the field and crawl in a ditch until he could run fleeing the
errant shots as the German troops finally sensed the danger.
His second target was the air force general of all German paratroopers.
Hitler rushed to his bedside in the hospital-and was outraged- the city was taken, how did a general get shot after the hostilities? Leaving the ward he had only one thing to say--bomb
Rotterdam into rubble. The part time sniper was interviewed in 1957, he owned a sandwich shop.
Better no one knows what i did and what it caused, many people, my own, died, had i known....

seminars

You can hear 20 seminars regarding life--bla-bla-bla. been there done that.
I was taken to one by S. Levitin, a famous sales guru who had invited another well known
life changer to speak for us. I learned from him the best way to explain the following------

SUCCESS IS NOT A DESTINATION IT IS A JOURNEY

This man had many companies and thousands of employees. he told the controller to sell his assets for millions-he bought a real yacht-he played golf worldwide- made his dreams come true
and came back to re buy the companies-he was bored and enjoyed being productive, the climax was anticlimax. enjoy the ride. ( i hung around big bucks for 5 months once and wanted for nothing didn't have to lift a finger- trust me its not good for your soul)

TOO MANY PROBLEMS

the seminar topic was about carrying too much baggage you don't need.

This therapist or shrink whatever, has his patients meet in a parking lot unfamiliar to them.
meets them and takes them in to a building where he leads them all over the place like they will get to their destination soon, up and down they go and after a while he ditches them. Most of them are now cured of their problems--they had been all over the halls of a children's cancer ward.

Creativity

I will be reminiscing about my years in the antique and collectible business later, but some of my notes revealed an event long ago, a story that should uplift those who think they are trapped.



We are working 2 stores in Manhattan and one of the partners apologetically mentions that an unwanted visitor will appear.....someones brothers uncles long lost aunts....you know the drill....



and hes down on his luck....you know the drill.....and can we help out anyway we can by giving him odd jobs ,whatever. The guy looks rough.



that's the impression.



I think i read him to be someone who has learned just recently the advantages of a complete



360 degree change of lifestyle and he is dead serious about the change. If you have been given a second chance this may be the look you have.


Anyway, theres not much for him here as he doesn't hang around very much. But he was interested in taking advantage of the biggest celebration I've ever seen, the 200th


anniversary of the United States. the bicentennial was to be celebrated across the nation with emphasis in major seaports where the most distinguished and historical tall masted sailing ships

from the world over (operation sail) were to partake in the events. The show stealer's were

3 and 4 masted majestic sailboats, the survivors of bygone years when nations ruled primarily

on the high seas. These ships even today are used in training naval cadets by their respective

countries and serving on one qualifies you for a career. The royal yacht Britannia was there and i was able to see her on her last voyage with the queen of England in Mexico in the late 80's.

So hes kind of late to merchandise decals-t-shirts and related souvenirs, mind you millions

of people will be in and around battery park and adjoining areas to see the event. if i remember

correctly street traffic was closed from 14Th,and down. He didn't have the money anyway to buy and sell. A week before the event, he comes in the store with curtains and sheets that he bought. The linen is sailboat motif and the majority are prints of the actual ships that will be present.For example, a single bed sheet had repetitious images of sailboats that provided 60 cutouts for making "official" patches. Someone lent him a sewing machine and by cutting out

and sewing to a felt backing he was amassing hundreds of patches. In 24 hours he sold everyone of them and made about $2500, that's like $6000 today's dollars. Because it wasn't so well known,
the DAR pomorza, a polish ship, he didn't have that many patches but the polish community was buying them up, he told me he could have sold another 100 or so. Entrepreneurs abound in big cities and making decals, patches and souvenirs to hawk at specific events is not new but cutting up linen that you paid $40 for and making $2500 in a day is creative. What was really creative was his goal--under normal circumstances to save that amount in that time and place would take 6 mos. to 2 years. I've seen it done but the $ was spent very quickly. this guy said he was going to start a new life somewhere and i hope he did. A friend of mine showed up in a city
with less than a dollar after a divorce and in 6 years had a major co. under his belt.