Hebrew Manuscript

a sad commentary on "our times" when emotional blackmail becomes a prime motivator in returning historical and priceless items to the institutions who wish to care for them and preserve them for the benefit of posterity.  Those without conscience, who thus prey upon those of us whose consciences will not allow them to sully their personal standards of honesty and trust, may appear to reap monetary benefits in this life - but none of us can know what lies ahead - 

I won't be satisfied until all the books have been returned to the Library in Alexandria...

Alexandria, Louisiana, has a library!?

My openion should be u see some peoples are search the happiness to sad som peoples so all shouldbe going to "WHOLE IS FINE".

-----------------------------------

IRONFLEX

<a href="http:www.drivenwide.com">

search engine</a>

Hmmmm...I count 2, 2 drivenwide.com references, AH AH AH, in the last 2 days. "I fear this means that there is some mischief afoot."

Doc-I hope they do, but I was referring, AS YOU KNOW :P, to the much older one a bit east of us...

By a circuitous route in Google (I'm still searching for that holy grail of dresses, the vintage Peterman velvet one I've mentioned before), I was carried back right here, and reread the entire August 14th postings. I do that sometimes-go way back. Good reading.

I miss Tiberius and Captain Neptune and Heiress and Spinner. ExPat used to post more. Sunny, sassy Missy, and overly verbose, ranting Olivia. Are we all busier now? Distracted? Maybe I'm a sentimentalist (scratch the maybe), but to me THIS IS IMPORTANT.

I really have no idea what I'm trying to say.

Jonathan-speak to us, godi! More from the Old Ones...

Books, codices, parchments, clay tablets and so on are strange media for transmitting knowledge (or pseudo-knowledge, or simply fables, stories, etc).  An even stranger medium for data storage is that Alice In Wonderland network of neurons inside each of our skulls!

The ever-so-fragile electronic world of the web and internet is one more bizarre human construction.  What would it take for the whole house of cards to come crashing down?  Perhaps we will learn that in our lifetimes... and who will find disk drives or DVDs or CDs or tapes centuries in the future and be able to discipher the mysterious meaning of all those ones and zeros.  (Will the people in 2500 even count?)  

Most strange of all: none of us will be around in 100 years, and hundreds of thousands of images in our heads will simply be erased once our delicate organic bodies turn into worm food.  (Ah, Shakespeare is the person to hear on the topic of death.  He was the supreme analyst in THAT area!)  

Perhaps it really is most important to open our eyes, enjoy, let it pass through (like a good Thanksgiving dinner), and let the memories last as long as they need to and then 'let them go'.  The future is indeed a mysterious place, and our children and grandchildren can explore it on their own without any help from us.  It isn't how we want it to be (they never listen, right?).  It is simply how it has always been, and will always be, as long as there are human beings stomping around this 'lonely planet'.  

Oh, check out this interesting (and classic) 1960s novel:   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canticle_for_Leibowitz  .  It paints an interesting picture of the cycles of human knowledge (among other things....)

Olivia,

The good Capt Neptune has taken his family on a wonderful and fairly extensive sea voyage / adventure and should be back in a week or so.

Don't despair fair lady, the others shall pop in and out as their wont. Such a sweetie!

Thank you Peter. Always the insightful gentleman, our own very gentil, parfait knight!

I get silly sometimes, and re-reading some of our past posts made me all weepy. What a dopey way to start off Saturday morning, but that's me.

I think of all of you and your words throughout the day. Your thoughts have coloured my perceptions for the better, opening up entirely new pathways of experience, down which I travel like Dorothy to the various Ozzes we make of our lives. How wonderful that the internet has allowed us to find one another, and converse so readily. This is a phenomenon that I can't help but feel shall make of human experience a far richer gestalt. And as Doc says, the future is indeed mysterious, but we have a better support system now, for dealing with mysteries and the unknown in general. Then there's more serious things, like shoes and J Peterman dresses...all good for dispelling the weltschmerz.

It's all good! Okay, I feel better now.

Olivia,

It is indeed all good. Especially when you feel safe enough to open all the doors and windows to your house and let all of the fresh breezes flow in and out.

I am always amazed at the level of participation here at the "Eye". There seems to be quite an investment of ‘self' made here by many of us. Our closely held thoughts, ideals, beliefs, and even our deepest hopes are expressed here.

This was a huge leap of faith for me. I typically kept my cards gripped tight and close to my vest . . . . until I too got "silly" and started laying them all down on the table, face up, in front of a group of people, whom in my wildest dreams, I probably would not have ever met.

In many ways, it feels like that mythical family I think we all hoped for.

Damn, I knew I shouldn't have looked at all those old photos last night. There is nothing worse than a man when he is being both introspective and babbling at the same time. But hey.... It's safe in the Eye.

Enjoy the rest of your day. It was nice having a cup of java with you this morning.  I'm off to visit the baseball jacket in the 'Owner's Manual'

Olivia, Even though I'm not an "oldster" I think what you said is spot on. Bobbing about on the surface of the sea, this is our common anchorage where warmth, camaraderie, and sea stories are plentiful. It's a pleasure, during the day or night, to be able to come to this place that both welcomes and enriches my life.
To all, a bit more on topic, I recently read where the UK’s Antiques Roadshow was promoting a new product, called SelectaDNA. It’s a liquid adhesive with a locked-in DNA code that cannot be replicated or de-coded. The product is water-based, can easily be used on all types of valuable antiques or heirlooms, dries quickly and is relatively inexpensive. Once SelectaDNA has been applied to an item, it is virtually impossible to remove all of it and identification can be made, using UV light, even from small amounts the size of a pinhead. Not much help for previously pilfered treasures, but, this new technology, may be a deterrent to future thieves and could certainly make it easier for stolen items to be returned to their owners.
Olivia, again, Good luck. As Elmer Fudd said: "I'm sowwy, guys, but I'm a vegetawian. I hunt onwy for the sport of it."

Peter, you're so right about investment. I love it that everyone just puts it all OUT there when they post here!

I was terrified posting my little stories, afraid of 'intruding' too much, or seeming to have the arrogant notion that they might be enjoyable to others. I write all the time, but I'm always reluctant to send stuff to anyone for a publishing evaluation. Not so much that they wouldn't be accepted. My feelings aren't that fragile. I just have a hard time thinking they might be WORTH publishing, and I'd hate to have that confirmed. As Mark Twain said, better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak and remove all doubt. Or not. Today is Indecisive Day...back to housecleaning-I can DO that!

As for the Owner's Manual-OMG, don't get me started. Wait, it's too late. This is ME:

http://jpeterman.com/product~cat~110201~sku~WDR%204006.asp

and this...

http://jpeterman.com/product~cat~110201~sku~WTR%203083.asp

I have two of these already, red and black, but...

http://jpeterman.com/product~cat~110201~sku~WDR%201863.asp

this, of course:

http://jpeterman.com/product~cat~110211~sku~WOW%203044.asp

etc.

http://jpeterman.com/product~cat~110205~sku~WBZ%201931.asp

http://jpeterman.com/product~cat~110205~sku~WBZ%203099.asp

and so on...

Sorry, how self-indulgent! I don't think anyone's about today anyroad.

Olivia and PeterLake,
The two of you have expressed my thoughts, and fears, quite succinctly. I cannot add any more, except to say that I'm glad I came to the edge...and flew.

Pam, you fit here so well I think of you as being with us forever. I always think of fun things when I read your posts.

In the great green room, there was a telephone, and a red balloon...

OMG, I count 6, SIX J Peterman links ah ah ah (boom, flash). And that's just scratching the surface. I need to be rich, I guess. I'd be way happier then, right? LOL

I just adore the romantic Peterman dresses! jackets! skirts! I think I can hear them calling my name...

The only reason for being a bee is to make honey. And the only reason for making honey is so I can eat it. I've got twelve pots of honey in my cupboard, and they've been calling to my tummy.

Oh, where I was going with Goodnight Moon-I read it, and Peter Rabbit and Mr. Jeremy Fisher and Runaway Bunny et al, so many times to my kids at bedtime, that when we took car trips, I would recite one from memory when they were nodding off in the back seat, in their car seats, when the trip ran a bit long.

That's all. They don't remember now, unless I remind them "A minnow! I have him by the nose!" always brings it back. Or I'll sing Brendan Behan's "The Auld Triangle" to them. They always got a song at bedtime too. They liked the Irish ones best.

Getting all maudlin again. But you know, no matter what the kids make of themselves, no matter how insignificant I may be to them, I'll always have that childhood with them, when they thought I knew everything, and was the coolest person on the planet, and they LISTENED to me and we had wonderful conversations about leaves and the sky and books. Sat on the kitchen floor and played cars or learned jacks. Messed about in boats. Seeing the world through the eyes of a child, watching them soak it up, is so amazing. A gf told me that the teen years are what they are so that we have an easier time letting go. I don't want them to forget the wonder of the growing, developing, open and mindful time. I still feel it, from my childhood. My kids used to think I was telepathic, because I so well remembered the feelings one has when we're only wee. I would tell them how I felt at 5 or 8 or so, and their little eyes would get big in that beautiful way that they do. "That's just what I feel now, too!" they'd say when I guessed right. And then we'd go on to something else, as I suppose I should do now also. Those memories are so precious to me now-just talking to myself, thinking out loud, sorta.

I have a book of poems that includes a bunch my mom used to read to me as a kid... I have a Richard Scarry book my son loved as a kid, and I now hold pages up the the web-cam for my 2-1/2 year old grandson who also loves it.  I saved my father's collection of G. A. Henty historical novels, and his treasured 'Anne of Green Gables' books (Montgomery), as well as Dad's copy of the Robert Louis Stephenson 1883 classic novel, 'Treasure Island'.  

Gone are all the Boy Allies volumes.  Gone are the Tom Swift volumes.  Dad read them when he was a kid; he liked the fact I enjoyed them too.  My son was cut off from them, and my grandson.... well, he's only 2-1/2 years old, so who knows.  I don't even know if Alex will master English sufficiently to read the books I loved.  (My grandson, growing up in Tokyo, is moving ahead at lightspeed learning Japanese from his mom.  My son's work to make him learn English is progressing, but at a much slower pace...)

We all live in our little bubbles, and it's sort of miraculous that we can even break though our differences in culture and time.  A few years ago I discovered Ammianus Marcellinus, and was absolutely GRIPPED by his description of the seige of Amida.  Sadly, we only have Books 14 to 31 of his histories.... it's sort of like having a collective case of Alzheimer's disease with fits of sharp memory... but everything more than nothing is something worth cherishing!

My boys have been intriguing me lately with a sudden desire to return to yesteryear. I'm not sure what's going on but you won't find me complaining.

The youngest (21) wanted me to send him some of his old legos, squirelled away in the back recesses of his closet, so he could build something cool to sit on his desk.

My middle son (23) is actually cooking! He said he remembered how much fun we used to have in the kitchen and he wanted to know how we made "Walrus" salad - our name for Waldorf salad :) - so he could make it for his wife.

The eldest son (26) and I, as I was putting the now defunct Jack-o-laterns in the compost bin, just got through reminiscing about going to the Zoo together, when he was small, to watch the elephants eat the pumpkins after Halloween.

All those memories make my heart so toasty warm and I wouldn't trade a moment of the time I spent with my children for anything. I read to them all the time. I still recall one crazy book phase where they delighted in hearing me recite tongue-twisters! Fox In Sox, my mind, and my mouth, got quite a workout!

They also allowed me to be a kid, too. I could use them as my excuse for playing with play-doh, singing silly songs, making sand castles, lying in the grass to look up at the sky, standing in the rain...I still like to do most of those things now but it can raise a few eye-brows when there are no children around...

Pam, I think we'd get on well...I mean, we DO, don't we? About those childlike things-I do them too, getting the same odd looks you do, no doubt. But...

Would you do that in a house? Would you do them with a mouse? In a box? With a fox? Here or there or anywhere?

Definitely regressing...back to the Hoover and the duster.

Olivia & Kindlee,

I wanna story . . . .  but please make some rice cripy treats first.

Thanks for letting me listen in.

Doc, 心配してはいけない。孫は彼がスマートなら、難しさの英語を学.

Olivia, I am so sorry, having been remiss in my stories of the Old Ways. I have been "pulling a Peterman" out in my forest, and also trying to get my garage back to the point where I can at least get two cars back into its three spaces. Freakin' nightmare.

Back to the forest! I get to play with my chainsaw now... Cue the Vincent Price laughter. And let's see if my chuck-on-the-shoulder to Doc prints properly...

Olivia,

We DO get on well with each other. Our remembrance of the past serves to remind us that we love and appreciate the simple, uncomplicated things that life also has to offer.

If you can call this uncomplicated: ...when beetles battle beetles in a puddle paddle battle and the beetle battle puddle is a puddle in a bottle...deep breath now...they call this a tweetle beetle bottle puddle paddle battle muddle...(Oh, why do I remember these things?)

Off to make potato soup. Comfort food at it's best. Remember Deep Purple's Smoke on the Water is my music of choice for chasing down dust bunnies!

Doc, Is Richard Scarry the one who had us all looking for 'gold bug'? Treasure Island - great read. Does your grandson show you a children's book in Japanese and 'read' back to you, over the web-cam?

PeterLake, And what favorite story do you remember, either being read to you or you reading to someone?

And now you've all got me waxing nostalgic for the days when I would spend my hours in the Great Library, and in the Serapeum - their great histories and pitiable ends offering the most profound reasons why one should trust neither rulers nor mobs.

http://www.bede.org.uk/Library2.htm

Kindlee,

I used to read J.R.R. Tolkein to my sons when they were young.  It was great fun going to the movies with them to see the LOTR trilogy twenty years later.

Jonathan Eells, My goodness, I had no idea you were so auld. I must look to you for the wisdom of the ages. It is a mistake to think I can solve any major problems just with potatoes.

Kindlee:  Richard Scarry had the books with the animals doing human stuff (e.g. 'In The Kitchen'.  All the little piglets like to help their mother in the kitchen.  They are making good things to eat.  What is Mother Pig putting into the oven?')  And there are all the little cartoon pictures (captioned): strainer, spatula, mustard jar, corkscrew, etc....Alex is heavily into the boats, ships, supermarket, in the city,'work machines', cars, trucks and firetruck pages....

Alex responds well to 'say it in English', but he's incorrigible and inflexible with 'errors', like the time I identified a vehicle as a crane.  I was immediately 'brought on the carpet'.  'NO, Gam-Pa, CHERRY PICKER!'  It's unnerving being corrected by a two-and-a-half year old who likes to do pirouettes to impress Gam-Pa one minute and is 'straightening out the old man' in the next!

Treasure Island (which I re-read about a year ago) came as a great shock.... Just as Shakespeare's 'King Lear' is REALLY a story about a guy who messes up his retirement, Treasure Island is REALLY a story about negotiating a plea bargain (Long John Silver negotiates a share in the treasure and ends the story as a publican in Bristol!!!)  It's very strange how stories change their significance as we age.  I dread the day I pick up Huckleberry Finn and experience it as an allegory rather than a neat story about a 'bad kid'.

PeterLake,

I still have my copies of the 3 books, from when I read them years ago, myself. After the 2nd movie came out, my eldest borrowed Book 3 from me, anxious to see how it was all going to end and not wanting to wait to find out until the last movie was be released.

Doc Nolan,

He sounds like a wonderful grandchild! I think I remember Richard Scarry now - we had Cars, Trucks and Things that go. I was always corrected about the names of trucks and dinosaurs. They love to show us how smart they are becoming and they know we're very proud of their knowledge...and their chutzpah!

Maybe some books we read, when we were young, should be left to our fond memories.

Kindlee, the only mistake would be to think that you CAN'T solve problems with potatoes.

Speaking of ancient Judaica, there's a new NOVA show out about how YHWH was married to Asherah.  I think this idea is pretty old (well, at least as old as the Jews, eh?), but there's some new evidence come to light about it.  When I grow up I want to be an archaeologist.   

I always ask children what they want to be when they grow up because I'm looking for ideas.

Pam-Pasta marinara works well for problem-solving too. I have a big pot simmering as we speak. Tonight, with mixed greens salad, crusty bread, and some syrah in the glass. Some good friends are coming over, we'll be a nest of singing birds and no mistake. Wish you were here-potato soup (remember Stone Soup? ) would make a great appetizer! I bow to your mastery of the tongue twister, ma chere amie. I can barely speak of woodchucks and sea shells. AC/DC, Back in Black, gets my motor running...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stone_soup

Jonathan-don't put an eye out with that thing! Although eyepatches are rather dashing, they are poor compensation for a lack of binocular vision. Does pulling a Peterman hurt? Sounds painful...Oh, and please take me with you next time you visit the Great Library. I'll be as quiet as a mouse, promise. *wicked grin*

Peter-we had a wonderful Thanksgiving tradition for many years. We'd rent a log cabin on Petit Jean Mountain for the Wednesday throughout the weekend. Spent the cool, crisp days hiking in the forests thereabout, evenings by a big log fire, hot drinks and adventure books read out loud. One year it was Treasure Island (arrr-we all learned to talk like a pirate, matey). One year we began LOTR, and continued on for months until it was done, acting it out, imagining the sort of accents that Elves and Men, Dwarves and Hobbits might have. Theoden King's battle with the Lord of the Nazgul made us all cry. Eowyn and Merry brought us back in heroic fashion. We stayed up late to finish chapters. Some years we stayed home and did this, but it was always wonderful. The Thanksgiving dinner at Mather Lodge, a short walk down the trail from our cabin, was very good, traditional, and no cleanup. We sat by a wall of windows overlooking the valley where eagles rode the thermals. All this, and really good pie, too...

http://www.tednasmith.com/lotr3/TN-Eowyn_and_the_Lord_of_the_Nazgul.html

http://www.petitjeanstatepark.com/

Olivia,
I would most certainly love to come over with my soup. I made the executive decision to leave out the stone - room for more potatoes. Dinner sounds marvelous and I'm sure the company and conversation will surpass the food. I had trouble deciding what wine goes with potato soup. I picked a Pfalz riesling - hope it was a wise choice.

Olivia,

Thank you for sharing those precious (yesssshh my precious.....) memories and links. I used to have quite a collection of calendars but they were lost in a flood. I also used to read Tolkien's "Father Christmas Letters" to the little guys too.

Now I must be off to Ristorante Chianti for a bowl of angel hair pasta with tomato basil cream sauce, a cup of minestrone, topped off with espresso and spumoni . . . . only to be followed by .. . . .

..... Kindlee's suggestion of potato leek soup.

Everyone,

Thank you all for warming up this cold, blustery and grey Midwestern day with the hearths of still burning embers of your memories.

All this talk about the past reminds me of a saying: 'Nostalgia isn't what it used to be".

Olivia,  I, too wonder "what would Elvis do?"

Kindlee, your comment about Legos has made me nostalgic for "Lincoln Logs".....now they're on my shopping list for Christmas.

ExPat,
Oh gosh, Lincoln Logs! I always liked Tinkertoys, and Colorforms, and those balsa wood airplanes that you could wind up the rubber band, with the propeller, and let fly!!

Doc Nolan,

I was informed, by #1 son, that I do indeed remember 'goldbug' from Richard Scarry's book Cars and Trucks and Things That Go. On every page was a smiling little half-circle gold bug (insect, not VW) that we had to find before turning the page. He also reminded me of Where's Waldo; and how much time we spent looking for him, his socks and other equipment, and the Wizard Whitebeard.

They continue to 'straighten me out' whenever they deem it necessary.

Have a nice evening.

aahhhh  . . .  I can almost smell the electric transformer and the smoke tablets from my Lionel Train

Your avatar looks like something larger than HO scale.

In retrospect, I think Lionel was O. But your picture is larger still...a steam locomotive. Where?

Kindlee,

My new photo should provide a better perspective of the scale. That is me with my then 4 year old grandson.

The train is the Union Pacific Challenger that made a run across the Midwest about five years ago. This photo was taken in the rail yards in West Chicago. At the time, Chris, (my oldest son), Jason (the little guy) and I were building a huge train layout in the basement. It was supposed to be for Jason but Chris and I had the best time working on it together. It's all packed up now; ready for Jason whenever he wants it.

http://www.uprr.com/aboutup/excurs/up3985.shtml

I've always had a respect and appreciation for the creations of the mechanical / industrial era. These great, mamoth machines were works of art in their own right.

I must tell you that the breadth of your knowledge and interests is amazing.  Salute!

I feel I should at least pretend to be contemplating today's topic so here it goes . . .  libraries have been ver good to me.

"Good night and good luck"

insert this missing "y" above.

My brothers used something called 'banana oil' that they dropped down the smokestack of their Lionel train. It made smoke in a thin wisp, and it did smell a bit like banana. Perhaps that explains the extraordinary Drosophila infestation...

Liberries ben berry berry good to me.

I still have a partial bottle of the aspirin looking smoke pills, circa 1957.  I'm surprised I hadn't ingested them.  There ain't nuthin' like a ripe liberry to draw fruit flies either.

Hopw your pasta party was tres enjoyable!

The loss of the  Library in Alexandria still beckons a sad overtone on a 6 year Latin Student's knowledge base;Rome was not build in a day! My latin teacher commented that  the Romans got lazy and that was the downfall of the Roman Empire;and, she commented and feared that in the 70's Americans were getting lazy, too. So, she made me work, care and think harder! America is a democarcy something Argentina wants, too, and other hopeful countries...HOPE.....Hope Optimisn for Peace Eternal! Changing attitudes for the better of humanity and being a good-doer is a fine idea! We learn from our past and that makes libraries important; all my three children and I would visit our local library and spend many long hours reading.In our county we have 35 libraries and a county next to our county has one library....huh.....which county has more education awareness?

PeterLake,

Thank you for the link and the train picture, with you and your grandson.

My dad had a sprawling HO scale train layout, in our basement, when I was growing up. He felt it was a man's domain, where he and my brother could hang out. I had some qualities, however, that my brother lacked...patience, an eye for detail, and small fingers! Those things slowly, albeit reluctantly, earned me a place as a scenery maker. Recreating towns, mountains, tunnels, etc...in miniature, to scale, with all kinds of materials, and imagination, was something I liked doing. At the same time, I fell in love with steam locomotives. I have enticed (maybe more like pushed) my family to make many road trips to see surviving steam locomotives, and ride the rails when possible, all across the country, especially in New England. My favorite place is probably North Conway, NH, where they have a 4 stall roundhouse and operating turntable. Anyway, there are many more stories about trains and planes and rockets and more...and I don't want to bore you or anyone else with them...

Thank you for the salute to my "breadth of knowledge and interest." Quite frankly, I'm not so sure it's such a good thing. I've always felt like a Jack of all trades, master of none. Maybe, if I had fewer interests and a more narrowed focus, I could really excell at something. As it is, I am interested in so many things and I can't seem to stop myself from constantly trying and learning more. I suppose at least I can honestly say that I have never been and never will be bored! 

Hope you had a super weekend. Thanks again for the railroad nostalgia.

Excel. Please excuse the spelling. It's been a long day.

Kindlee,

I doubt I would or could ever tire hearing your stories.  You are a master story recantour, no doubt about it.

PeterLake,

How very kind. So, perhaps I can finally say I specialize in something. Ah, at long last, a succinct business card!

Is there any greater compliment than to be missed by our Olivia?

I think not.