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MEMPHIS, TN. - The role of being a newspaper editor is not always easy, and not always dull. I have to share a short story about a strange and unusual incident that happened to me Friday evening I'm not going to name names here, nor give much information about all the details of the story. If the person it happened to wants to send me a story then I will print it, but it's not for me to do it on my own. Here's the quick version of it. I was going through my email when I got to one that was from a dear and much trusted classmate. The email alerted me to the sad death of one of our regular readers and regular contributors. It included a copy of an email sent to her from the wife of the dead person. It suggested that I might want to publish the notice of his death in this issue so that all of his friens would be aware. I was shocked. I was shocked not because of his death, but because I had received another email from the "dead" person that was timestamped a day after his wife said he had been killed!I replied to his email asking him to contact me immediately, and I got on the phone and started trying to track down some more information. When I was on my third phone call, I got a beep saying a voice mail was awaiting me. The voice mail was from the "dead" classmate saying he had received my email and wondered what was so urgent.I returned his call and found out that the whole thing was a tragic mistake, in many ways, and that in fact he was very much alive and appreciated me being concerned about his untimely death.This is the reason that I have always waited until I have confirmation from at least two of you, or I can find the death notice in the newspaper before I make such announcements. This is exactly why! Twice in the past I have been told that someone was dead, only to find out that was not the truth. So, I was glad that my investigative reporting class had taught me a few skills.Please include your class year with your e-mails.
Text Messaging - (While I know most of you are familiar with this, there is a chance that some of you really don't understand what is really going on.) Text messaging, or texting is the common term for the sending of "short" (originally 160 characters or fewer, including spaces) text messages from mobile phones.In the United States, text messaging is so popular the average number of text messages sent per subscriber per month has been reported as being 188. To accomidate the speed of the messaging, many devices now include full, typewrite location keys and are normally pressed with the two thumbs. Text messaging is often done in forms of shortened words. for example: I Love You is shortened to "ily" or "ilu". "LOL" is short for Laughing Out Loud. "OMG" is used for "Oh, My God". The negative social implications of texting have been outlined; such as a harmful change in student academia, colloquialisms that have been regarded as normal language, (‘LOL’, ‘L8’, ‘CYA’) the disregard of face to face communication and bullying that has taken place through text messaging.I had intended to wax lyrical about my 1960 Plymouth Valiant (with the fully stocked bar hidden under the back seat) and/or my '57 Chevy (purchased on my behalf but without my knowledge by my girlfriend when she traded my motorcycle (!!!) and her stereo in on it), but your Mystery Photo has caused me to bypass those two wonderful memories and jump straight to something (pun intended) else.Manufactured in Mexico for Volkswagen during 1973 and 1974, the VW 'Thing' (Type 181) was based on the WWII Kubelwagen. It stopped being imported into the US in '75 due to it's failure to meet safety standards.I bought mine new in '73 and had it until I left the US to live in Europe in '77. Drop top, removable doors and fold down windscreen made it an amazingly fun off-road vehicle. The vinyl and steel interior was for all purposes waterproof, and there were a couple of drain plugs in the floorboards to let any collected rainwater run out.Having stuck on some stars made of Contac Paper, I used to regularly get saluted as I drove onto Redstone Arsenal to visit friends - one of whose father was a Colonel who did not take too lightly to the fact that the sentries were ushering me onto the base so carelessly.Recently I saw one driving around the Algarve, but I was heading in the wrong direction to chase the driver down and make him an offer! I really do regret leaving my Thing behind.
Yearbooks and Phonebooks
You may or may not know, I worked at N.A.S.A. for several years as a scuba diver working with the astronauts in the “neutral buoyancy tank” as a SCUBA (Self Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus) diver doing design work underwater, after Grissom, Chaffee and White died in the space craft while sitting on the launch pad. To test objects, we simulated outer space by making things neutrally buoyant. To do this we would spray the test item with enough foam material so that we could shave enough foam off to make it simulate outer space so it would not sink, nor would it rise to the surface of the water. This simulated outer space or a “weightless condition”. On weekends I use my diving gear to do a lot of SCUBA diving in different places and on one special weekend a friend and I went to a rock quarry to do some exploring. You’d be surprised what you will find what people will throw away in a flooded rock quarry. On this particular week-end I ran out of air and decided to ditch my weight belt and figured I’d come back he next week-end to retrieve it. The following week end, I went diving to locate my weight belt and was having a difficult time staying down so I was continually holding on to some rocks as best I could. Suddenly, I saw this handle sticking up out of the rocks and I grabbed it thinking it was just an old “flat iron” someone had discarded in the rock quarry. I held on to the handle until I found my weight belt and then I took a closer look at the old iron that I had been using to hold myself down. It was an Akron Lamp DIAMOND Iron. The sphere on the back held a white gas, it came with a handle to pressurize the white gas in the sphere, and black handle to adjust the flame inside the iron for the temp control and it weighs about a good two pounds. I am still trying to retrieve a date on it. From what I can find, it was built in the early 1900’s and is in reasonably good shape. Sometime when I can get it into my work my schedule, I intend to take it apart and completely polish it from inside to outside. Even the black wooden handle looks like it was made within the last year or two. No, this is not a steam iron, the reservoir would hold the fuel and it came with a hand pump to pressurize the sphere to dispense the fuel to the coil located in the area located between the handle and the bottom of the iron. I have no idea what the antique value is worth but I’m not ready to get rid of it just yet.