The Shame of Stanford University

One of the main reasons I came to admire Carroll “Lex” LeFon was his intellectual curiosity. He had a quality that, let’s be honest, one has to try and nurture. It’s too easy to “pick your side” and then find fault with anyone holding a different view.

Particularly in these politically-charged days.

I believe it has to come down to a respect for others. Not putting oneself first above everything.

I learned most of what I know about naval aviation thanks to Lex. He wrote some of the funniest stories I’ve read, and some of the most instructive.

But his real core was more than funny and instructive stories.

Many of his “posts” were of such a nature that to call them “blog posts” does him a disservice. They are more on the essay side of the scale.

If I had to pick one essay of his that exemplified him, this is the one. He picks one of the ugliest things one person could do to another, and asks the reader of that revulsion that most of us would have – does it come from a conscience given by God, or is it more secular in origin?

“Religious/philosophical discussion follows. Those who don’t like that sort of thing, or aren’t capable of joining it in a civil fashion are encouraged to seek their entertainment elsewhere.”

He was genuinely curious about the beliefs of all.

One of his “best friends he never met” was a journalist from the UK, of which “they agreed on virtually nothing“. But they respected each other and were curious about the other’s beliefs.

Although I never met him, nor even had an Internet conversation with him, I have come to believe that if he had been surrounded with readers who simply agreed with him, he would have become bored quickly and Neptunus Lex would probably have slipped back into anonymity in Sandy Eggo way before 9 years.

But that’s just my opinion.

Must be Something in the Water

Today I was doing my usual walk in the neighborhood, and I turned down my adjacent street, as usual. Some years ago, when I had dogs, I would usually stop at the house nearest the river and talk with Margaret, an elderly widow. We’d sit outside and the subjects ranged far and wide.

She’d talk about occasionally seeing the ghost of her husband in the house. Was he checking up on her?

Another thing I learned from her was the surprising number of people who have lived on this street since the homes were new.

Normally with our California suburbs growing like weeds, that wouldn’t be a surprise, but these homes were built in the mid-50s. And another surprising thing – many people up and down this street – about 1/4 mile long, know each other.

In many suburbs, many neighbors know very little of each other. Nor do they want to.

So this morning, I turn the corner and I see this woman, obviously advanced in years, on all 4s pulling weeds in the lawn.

The Price of Hubris With The Wilsons

English picked up both the concept of hubris and the term for that particular brand of cockiness from the ancient Greeks, who considered hubris a dangerous character flaw capable of provoking the wrath of the gods. In classical Greek tragedy, hubris was often a fatal shortcoming that brought about the fall of the tragic hero. Typically, overconfidence led the hero to attempt to overstep the boundaries of human limitations and assume a godlike status, and the gods inevitably humbled the offender with a sharp reminder of their mortality.

I don’t know if I fit the classical Greek definition of Hubris, but a couple of times I did get spanked pretty good, if not by Zeus, some power. Maybe it was God knowing I had a comeuppance.

Or maybe it was just old-fashioned karma.

Christmas Eve, 1944

The interesting thing about history is that some events have been known, well, since the event. Whether it was 100s of years ago or a few days ago. Sometime ago, I read an excellent book on the history of the First World War. Also known as “The Great War”, or the “War to End All Wars”.

Along with the history and origins of the Spanish Flu, the author went into great detail on the unofficial Christmas Armistice that broke out all up and down the line of the Western Front on Christmas Eve, 1914. German and British soldiers with hesitance came out of their trenches and sang together and exchanged simple gifts. Even had a few football matches amid the barbed wire.

Other bits of history, long suppressed and known only to the few who were there, come bubbling to the surface years later through the remembrances of one of the principals.

I wrote about one of these times that became known 50 years later, when the “puzzle was finally solved”.

This is another one of those incidents, remembered by a man who then was a 12 year old boy. It only became public through a 1970s Reader’s Digest story.

He and his mother were waiting for their father to return to their cabin in the forest, when they had some unexpected visitors. And for one cold and snowy evening all hearts were open to the true meaning of Christmas.

Whether you are the man for whom this site is dedicated, and on a Christmas Eve in 2008 had “had a hole in his life that would not be filled on this side of the veil“, or a serviceman (or woman) “on the line” today somewhere in the world thinking of home and loved ones, may you find joy and peace.

Lawncare Bleg

Posted By lex, on September 17th, 2011

Got three-four of these right in a row in the front yard of the Crushing Burden of Debt. Which is for sale, doncha know? And this can’t be helping.

I tried to locally treat the middle two pairs with fertilizer, seed and gypsum. Came back from Ventura County and the one on the right had mysteriously appeared.

46 comments in the original post with suggestions ranging from gas lines to gophers to…UFOs!

You’re a pretty savvy bunch. Anybody got any idea what’s going on?

Back To The Index 

Funny little conversations

Posted by lex, on January 12, 2006

 

That you can have at 5:45 in the morning with a woman you’ve been married to for 24 years:

Hobbit (stirring): It’s foggy outside.

YHS (muffled): Mrmph?

Hobbit: It’s foggy outside.

YHS(after a pause): Have all the planes been grounded?

Hobbit (not missing a beat): Ain’t the fire inside?

YHS (smiling): Let’s all go stand round it.

Hobbit: Funny, I’ve been there…

YHS: And you’ve been here…

Together: And we ain’t had no time to drink that beer.*

(both fall back to sleep)

* Just in case. Because, there are, you know: Children.

 

Back To The Index 

 

 

At Death’s Door?

         

We tend to believe ourselves to be physical beings with a spiritual core.

But what we really are is spiritual beings with a physical shell.

—Author Unknown

As I have gotten older I have realized that there is no guarantee that we will all grow old. And along the way, starting in high school, I realized that this is but an illusion. That we will all grow old. Although we all expect to grow old.

Shh!

 

Posted by lex, on May 6, 2006

 

He’s taking a mid-term.

“Engineering Risk Benefit Analysis.” Decision trees, probs and stats. Binomial, exponential, Poisson and normal distributions. Random number generations, excel spreadsheets and simulations. Graphs.

And he’s not half stressing over it.

So. Shh.

Back To The Index 

Zero Tolerance

Posted by Lex, on Sat July 24, 2004 at 07:00 PM

 

As a squadron commanding officer, I had to discharge two otherwise fine Sailors who had “popped positive” on urinalysis screens for having THC in their systems. They were good kids, from bad backgrounds – the service had been a lifeline for them, a chance to remove themselves from bad situations.

And I had cut that lifeline – sent one back to the gang infested streets of El Paso. The other returned to East Los Angeles. Truly, my hands were tied.

Things I’ve Learned Along the Way

The other day, noticing that my Xfinity bill had just about doubled in 5 years, I went to a local office to see about lowering it. A young woman (funny how all that is relative isn’t it?) went above and beyond looking for “plans” that would lower the bill, and she found one.

Know a definition for “elderly”? One I heard decades ago?

Anyone who is at least 10 years older than you.