The Cloudy Flashback

The Eight Sentences:

“You remember what I told you about sunsets, don’t you?” Lillie had asked.

“Yes, ma’am, I do, I’ll never forget it,” Claudia replied.

“Well, Dr. Thibaut’s passing was one with a beautiful clear sunset. No clouds to be seen, but a beautiful afterglow.” 

Lillie put her coffee cup on the table, raised her glasses and wiped her eyes with the ever-present white lace handkerchief. 

Claudia thought a moment and at the risk of sounding like a challenge, pressed ahead with her question, “Do you think that people can have a cloudy life — one that would have beautiful clouds at sunset, but, aaah, still have had troubles?”

“Honey, no life goes by without problems. We all have our clouds, remember that man in Lil’ Abner?”

                                                                                                               

                                                                                                                                                   Image credit: deniskitchen.com

The Back Story:

  After the death of her masters supervisor, Claudia visits an old friend in Baton Rouge, Dr. Thibaut's housekeeper, Miss Lil. In this conversation, they talk about analogies, sunsets and clouds.

  Many readers, especially baby boomers, will remember the Lil Abner cartoon strip. Joe Btfsplk was a character that featured an ever-present dark cloud over his head symbolizing bad luck. 

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Faculty Club Flashback

The Eight Sentences:

 “I’ve been experimenting with some of your suggestions -- you told me several months ago about the seating arrangements. Ever since, I always make sure my wife is seated to my right when we’re discussing certain things.”  

“When I saw the two of you at the Faculty Club last week, her body language told me that it wasn’t working,” Claudia smiled.

“Of course, I didn’t see you.” 

“Yes, you did -- I waited on you.”

He was surprised, “What?”

I told you I wanted to include a section in my paper about disguises. Well, it worked, didn’t it?”

LSU's Faculty Club - a popular restaurant for faculty
as well as the general public.

The Back Story:

Never one to flout her talents, Claudia became a self-styled recluse in junior college, and none of her Columbia, Missouri, high school friends ever knew that she had graduated from the University of Arkansas with a major in sociology and earned a master’s degree at LSU in group dynamics. Disassociation from any childhood or teen acquaintances had become her first disappearing act. 

This snippett continues the series of flashbacks and features a conversation with her masters advisor. 

He speaks first.

What next?

Looking for more viewers, readers, and contacts?

Join us here at Weekend Writing Warriors. The same 

link will take you to the work of dozens of talented writers.

 Check out their work, too. 

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 Sunday Snippett group.

Flying High with Helicopters

The eighth anniversary of hurricane Katrina is fast approaching.

My wife and I have many memories and stories about how the weather changed our lives. In several ways, Katrina was as significant for me as the JFK assassination. Kennedy’s death didn’t cause me to move away from my home state.

Katrina did.

One of the nightmarish memories of the storm involves events that occurred in the aftermath.

The levee system in New Orleans failed. In addition to storm refugees and evacuees, now flood victims were arriving in Baton Rouge. Not too far from our home.  The basketball arena on campus at LSU became a huge triage facility.  

The “whop-whop” sound of helicopters constantly arriving at Tiger Stadium was a daily reminder of the tragedy that changed thousands of lives. Our house was close enough to the flight path that we could easily hear the airborne deliveries.

More than once, I looked toward where the sound seemed to be coming from, only to discover they were behind me.

It reminded me of the opening scene from the movie M*A*S*H.

Fast forward to the 1:06 mark.

My near obsession with helicopters recently joined forces with my 19th childhood (who needs only two?) and I started building plastic models again.  Hadn’t tried that in over forty years.

Last summer, I got back into flying radio controlled aircraft. I’d flown airplanes while in college and this time it’s, you guessed it, helicopters. I spent as much time repairing them after crashes as I did with them in the air. So I purchased several pieces of equipment to help.  The lighted magnifying glass and the “extra hands” with alligator clips proved handy for both hobbies.

Here are a few photos of my first model in 40 years, a Bell H-13H. Once I get the decals on, it will be a “M*A*S*H” replica. I can hear the music now.

“Through early morning fog I see

visions of the things to be

the pains that are withheld for me

I realize and I can see...

that suicide is painless”

If you have the right tools, any job is easy!

Just getting started: frame and skids.

Motor on the frame.

 Frame with cockpit interior. I was impressed with the detail.

Notice you can see the foot pedals.

 Almost done. Just needs decals.

Next up, a B-24 Liberator. It played a significant role in every theatre of World War II and I'll be writing a blog soon on a book about it. The book is The Wild Blue - The Men and Boys Who Flew the B-24s Over Germany by Stephen E. Ambrose. Watch for it soon.

Is Tyrann Mathieu a better student than Len Bias was?

[Shown above is Tyrann Mathieu, aka "The Honey

Badger," returning a punt for a TD against Arkansas

in the 2011 regular season game.] Image credit,

GameDayR.com

Scott Rabalais’s column has long been a personal favorite. I enjoy his writing style and his in depth reporting on LSU football.  Rabalais is a sports writer for the Baton Rouge daily newspaper, The Advocate. His conclusions are often easy with which to agree.

This excerpt from his article of August 11, 2012 about the decision of LSU to end their relationship with Tyrann Mathieu got me thinking.

“But there is a human drama at play here as well. If, as it has been reported, it is correct that Mathieu had to be kicked out after failing multiple drug tests, then the concerns for a human being far outstrip the concerns of how LSU will be able to stop Arkansas’ offense on third-and-6 come November.
Whatever Mathieu did, he couldn’t stop doing it. And the inability to keep his life moving in a positive direction, toward virtual immortality as an LSU football player and a virtually life-lasting fortune in the NFL, is deeply troubling.”

Later in the day, after the above named column was published, Mr. Rabalais tweeted that the name of Ryan Perrilloux has come up frequently today. (Perrilloux suffered the same fate at LSU as has Mathieu.)

My thoughts go back even further, to Len Bias.  

I reviewed a book a few years ago entitled, Reading for Survival, by John D. MacDonald. After re-reading that review a few moments ago, my thoughts now turn to Mathieu and how good a student he is.  

I have some hopes for young Mathieu and pray that they come to fruition in his favor.

I hope that he is a better student than Len Bias was.
I hope he can read and comprehend better than Bias could.
I hope he finishes his education and earns a degree -- wherever he attends school.
I hope he overcomes his addiction (whatever it may be) and, finally,
I hope his past will not create a negative bias against his future.

Bad Behavior Bedevils Buckeyes - Death Penalty Looms

Breaking news!

Check out my story on Allvoices about the latest problems for the Ohio State Buckeyes.

A long-time college football fan, I really hate to hear about this.  I was a loyal fan of Ohio State back in the glory days of Rex Kern, Archie Griffin and Woody Hayes.

How I Watch Football

Seems like I've loved football all my life. Watching on TV is a lot of fun and I enjoy games when none of my favorite teams are participating. I just pick one of the two in the game and cheer for them.

Over the years, as I've gotten more familiar with the rules, listening to the announcers, commentators, and other talking heads has become boring, tedious, and irritating.

Many times, while watching an LSU game on TV, I would "MUTE" the sound and tune in on the radio so I could hear Jim Hawthorne, the "Voice of the Tigers". Living in the mountains of North Carolina makes it difficult to hear Jim now, so I've come up with another solution -- and it works for any game!

Again, I hit the "mute" button and now, I turn on my CD player and listen to OPERA!

Yes, you read that correctly, opera. One of my favorite performers is Kiri Te Kanawa.

One aspect of opera that appeals to me is the emotion -- and football games are full of emotion! Whether your favorite team is winning or loosing, it's a emotional roller coaster throughout. Years ago, the schools' bands were featured at half-time. Now we just get more commercials and talking heads.

Many public broadcast stations present the Metropolitan Opera on Saturday afternoons and that's great timing for college games.

NFL Films actually filmed a "Hi Mom Opera" years ago and that's where I got the idea. To see it, go to this link and skip all the way over to the last segment, at the "40 min" marker.

It's going to be a long time till football ends next year (the Superbowl isn't until May 2011), so enjoy the opera and have a great season!