8.20.2025 – rip currents can sweep

rip currents can sweep
even best swimmers into
deeper water

Beaufort County, SC Sheriff’s Office

Advisory: Rip Current Statement until 08:00PM Wednesday

WHAT…For the High Rip Current Risk, dangerous rip currents. For the High Surf Advisory, large breaking waves up to 6 feet in the surf zone.
WHERE…South Carolina Beaches, and Georgia Beaches.
WHEN…For the High Rip Current Risk, through Wednesday evening. For the High Surf Advisory, until 8 PM EDT Thursday.
IMPACTS…Dangerous swimming and surfing conditions and localized beach erosion. Rip currents can sweep even the best swimmers away from shore into deeper water.
AFFECTED AREAS: COASTAL BRYAN … COASTAL CHATHAM … COASTAL LIBERTY … COASTAL MCINTOSH … BEAUFORT … COASTAL COLLETON … CHARLESTON … COASTAL JASPER

Instructions: Inexperienced swimmers should remain out of the water due to dangerous surf conditions.

Summertime beaches of America are patrolled by lifeguards who put out different colored flags to signal swimming conditions.

The colors are pretty much univeral.

Green: Safe to Swim

Yellow: Use Caution

Red: Rough Conditions – Some say beach closed, some say swim at your own risk …

Double Red: Beach closed for Swimming.

Seaside beaches also have a blue or purple flags indicate jellyfish, stingrays, and dangerous fish in the water – something I didn’t have to deal with growing up on the shores of Lake Michigan.

Also, there is this caveat.

Absence of flags does not assure safe waters.

8.19.2025 – place of tears

place of tears, whisper
of me, he sang a song that
reached the hearts of men

Adapted from “The Reward” by James Weldon Johnson.

No greater earthly boon than this I crave,
That those who some day gather ’round my grave,
In place of tears, may whisper of me then,
He sang a song that reached the hearts of men.”

As it appears in Fifty Years and Other Poems by James Weldon Johnson (Cornhill Company, Boston, 1917).

According to Wikipedia, James Weldon Johnson … in 1930, at the age of 59, Johnson returned to education after his many years leading the NAACP. He accepted the Spence Chair of Creative Literature at Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee. The university created the position for him in recognition of his achievements as a poet, editor and critic during the Harlem Renaissance. In addition to discussing literature, he lectured on a wide range of issues related to the lives and civil rights of black Americans. He held this position until his death. In 1934, he also was appointed as the first African-American professor at New York University, where he taught several classes in literature and culture.

8.18.2025 – be watched hawkishly

be watched hawkishly
and confronted truthfully
whatever the price

But Animal Farm is more than just a satire of the Russian Revolution. This “fairy story” (as my father called it) is an eternal warning against political leaders who hijack potentially noble movements for their own selfish purposes. My father thought all politicians should be watched hawkishly, confronted truthfully (whatever the price) and kicked out when they put their interests before those of their country.

So writes Richard Blair, son of George Orwell, in his opinion piece, Animal Farm was my parents’ teamwork’: Orwell’s son on 80 years of the satirical classic.

Mr. Blair closed with: Animal Farm has had a remarkable life story, playing its part in democratic protests behind the iron curtain and more recently in Myanmar, Zimbabwe and Ukraine. It remains an unforgettable inspiration to all those fighting for freedom. In a world where authoritarianism, nationalism, xenophobia and political lying are all on the rise, we need Animal Farm by our side more than ever now.

May I repeat.

In a world where …

authoritarianism …

nationalism …

xenophobia …

and political lying …

are all on the rise,

we need Animal Farm by our side more than ever now.

8.17.2025 – swell letter from you

swell letter from you
snapshots and small packet of
Lake Michigan beach

In a letter my Dad wrote to his then girlfriend, later wife and later still, my Mom, on August 15, 1945, he opened with:

My Darling Lorraine,
Well, the war is finally over and now all we have to do is until the time comes when I can come home.

It was VJ Day.

Victory over Japan.

Dad was in Europe and Germany had surrendered that spring and the US Army in Europe was waiting to see if it would be needed in the war against Japan.

Dad had entered the army in the spring of 1942, spent the next 2 years in South Carolina and in 1944, was shipped over to England.

Since 1942, getting out of the army and home was first and foremost on his mind.

He would mention Cubs baseball games and that he was looking forward to going to a game when he got home.

He would mention Michigan football games and that he was looking forward to going to a game when he got home.

He would write about the food and mention that he was looking forward to my Mom’s cooking for him when he got home.

Homesick in a major sort of way.

Mom would send off packages of candies and nuts from his favorite stores.

And she sent pictures, snapshots she took and studio photographs she had taken.

Dad loved the photos and always mentioned them and always asked for more.

And he would mention how much he missed home.

Mom must have sensed this, I mean who couldn’t and she thought up things she could send.

Things that were small enough to send in the mail and still be meaningful to Dad.

Things that would say, I miss you too.

Things that would say, someday.

After remarking on the end of World War 2, Dad to turned to the last letter he got from Mom.

Dad wrote:

I received a swell letter from you dated the 6th of August which contained a couple of snapshots and a little packet of Lake Michigan Beach.

A little packet of Lake Michigan Beach.

Lake Michigan Beach.

A little packet of Lake Michigan Beach sand in a packet mailed to Europe at the end of World War 2.

Mom had recently had a beach day with her younger brother Carol and other friends and as nice a trip to the beach in August sounds, Mom’s thoughts were in Europe and she put some of the sand away to send to Dad.

Some thing that was small enough to send in the mail and still be meaningful to Dad.

Some thing that would say, I miss you too.

Some thing that would say, someday.

Dad wrote:

Maybe next year we can be there together.

He then wrote, I think it was the longest letter that I have ever received from you … and it was wonderful.

He was over in Germany.

Japan had surrendered.

The war was over.

And he had a little packet of Lake Michigan Beach.

And it was wonderful.

Lake Michigan Beach (1972) by Armond Merizon (My Dad’s favorite artist)

8.16.2025 – new meritocracy

new meritocracy
perhaps Britain could regain
some of these nations

In the article, Farage adviser said UK would be better off if it had not fought in WW2 by Guardian Senior political correspondent Peter Walker, Mr. Walker quotes Jack Anderton, who ran Nick Farage’s hugely successful TikTok account as posting on his personal blog that:

“Trillions of pounds of British taxes have been spent in foreign lands in the pursuit of ‘democracy’, ‘human rights’ and ‘doing what is right’,” the post said. “More than a million British lives have been lost since WW1 in wars and battles that have never once been fought by British men, on this island.”

Fighting in both the world wars ensured the UK was no longer a great power, he wrote: “We impoverished ourselves for decades, we didn’t finish paying the loans off to America until 2006. Our economy stagnated, we lost an empire, and we are pushed around by America. And Germany, a country we beat, has been richer than us since the 1970s.

“Alternative history is interesting; if Britain had not fought in WW1 and WW2, it would not have had to rely on America for economic support, and it would have had the independence to act accordingly. Britain could have developed India, Cyprus, Fiji, Malta, Saint Lucia, Seychelles, the Bahamas, Australia, Canada, South Africa, Ireland and New Zealand. In the coming meritocracy, perhaps Britain could regain some of these nations.”

Admittedly, Nixon Speech Writer, Pat Buchannan made much the same point in his book, Churchill, Hitler, and “The Unnecessary War but it is still odd to see this argument a new.

That neither writer explained out a victorious Third Reich, beating the USSR and cleansing Europe of all its unwanted and unnecessary human life forms would have allowed the British Empire to thrive and survive does bring a huge question mark to their argument.

Then again, maybe the Third Reich and its aims were not unattractive to either Gentleman.

Not that it should matter, but Mr. Anderton is 23 years old.