In reply to an email at joedooley@yahoo.com

Top right here is Hawthorne Hill, the home of Orville Wright. I only lived a few blocks from here in Oakwood, in Dayton, Ohio. This estate and the grounds took up quite an area. I have delivered newspapers to this house while Orville still lived here. I never saw him in this house, but saw him around town on a number of occasions. I delivered the paper to a door around the back, and collected from a housekeeper. I was not their regular paper carrier, I filled in for a friend when , he could not deliver the Dayton Daily News.

I remember on one occasion, mid 40's, a parade downtown, Charles Kettering, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Orville Wright, riding in the back of an open limo. Rather than taking him home, Orville got out and walked a few blocks to this house. I was farther down, actually in school, when the caravan went by and just got to see Kettering, who lived in Dayton, and FDR.

Dayton, Ohio is the home of a great deal of this nation's history. Not may communities can boast having the likes of Orville Wright and Charles Kettering as residents.

I remember this .............

The Chinese table tennis player who was instrumental in the pingpong diplomacy that paved the way for President Nixon's groundbreaking visit to China has died. Zhuang Zedong was 73.

Here's more from the BBC about the 1971 incident that led to pingpong diplomacy:

"The incident that triggered the invitation to the US table tennis team to visit China took place at the world championships in Nagoya, Japan, when [American table tennis player Glenn] Cowan missed his team's bus and was given a ride on the Chinese bus.

"In an interview with Reuters in 2007, Zhuang said his team mates had urged him not to approach the American, but he ignored them.

"Through an interpreter he told Cowan: 'Although the US government is unfriendly to China, the American people are friends of the Chinese. I give you this [a silk portrait] to mark the friendship from Chinese people to the American people.'"

Zhuang, a three-time world champion, was a major sporting figure in China. Photographs of him with Cowan created a stir because of poor relations between their two countries. Following the incident, Chinese leader Mao Zedong ordered the 15-member American team to be invited to China.

Nixon was in China less that a year later, a visit that led to diplomatic ties in 1979.

The Year of the Snake ................

Over 1.3 billion people in China and millions of Chinese around the world celebrate the first day of the Chinese New Year – February 10, 2013 – today. 

It’s the most important of Chinese holidays, kicking off a celebration that lasts for 15 days and culminates with the Lantern Festival.

Each year is associated with one of 12 animals in the Chinese zodiac. 

For 2013, it’s the Year of the Snake. 

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Reports of stampede at Hindu festival in India

By By BISWAJEET BANERJEE, Associated Press

ALLAHABAD, India (AP) — At least 10 people were feared dead and 30 more were injured Sunday after a stampede broke out at a train station in the northern Indian town where millions of devout Hindus gathered for a religious festival, television news channels reported.

New Delhi Television channel reported that the stampede broke out after a footbridge at the Allahabad train station collapsed late Sunday and said at least 10 people were feared dead. CNN-IBN news channel said at least 20 were feared dead and that 30 were injured.

There was no immediate confirmation from any local officials.

An estimated 30 million devotees were expected to take a dip at the Sangam, the confluence of three rivers — the Ganges, the Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati — on Sunday, one of the holiest bathing days of the Kumbh Mela, or Pitcher Festival. The festival lasts 55 days and is one of the world's largest religious gatherings.

The area is located at the edge of Allahabad in northern India.

The auspicious bathing days are decided by the alignment of stars, and devout Hindus believe a dip in the sacred river on one of these days will wash away their sins and free them from the cycle of death and rebirth.

The festival brings together millions of devout worshipers and thousands religious leaders and ascetics.

The most dramatic feature of the festival is the Naga sadhus — ascetics with ash rubbed all over their bodies, wearing only marigold garlands — leaping joyfully into the holy waters.

Dorner manhunt: Reward will be offered for ex-cop's capture

Authorities on Sunday will offer a reward for information leading to the capture of a former Los Angeles Police Department officer wanted in the killings of three people and the wounding of two others.

According to a statement, the news conference will be attended by law enforcement officials from Los Angeles, Riverside and Irvine. Officials from the FBI and U.S. marshal's office also will be there.

The reward will come a week after Christopher Jordan Dorner's alleged killing spree began.

Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck announced he was reopening the investigation into the firing of  Dorner from the Police Department, the event that apparently sparked his vengeful campaign.

Beck said he was reopening the investigation "not to appease a murderer" but to assure the public his department is fair and transparent. He said he wanted to protect an "increasingly positive relationship with the community" that the LAPD has developed over the last few years.

"I am aware of the ghosts of the LAPD's past and one of my biggest concerns is that they will be resurrected by Dorner's allegations of racism within the department," Beck said in a prepared statement. "...Therefore, I feel we need to also publicly address Dorner's allegations regarding his termination of employment."

Scary stuff

This is Route 25 in Suffolk County on Long Island where people had to be rescued from their cars. They received over 30 inches of snow with drifts over 4 feet. Over 900,000 people were without electricity.

 

Vonn uses Woods to reach home

Cape Town - Several days after a knee injury that could jeopardise her spot on next year's US Olympic team, Lindsey Vonn was seen boarding Tiger Woods' private jet as she left Austria.

According to ThePostGame website, normally this might just be seen as a kind gesture by the golf star, but amid speculation Vonn and Woods are an item, this only serves to incite rumors about their relationship.

Vonn, whose divorce from ex-husband and former Olympic skier Thomas Vonn was finalized in January, told the Denver Post that she and Woods are "just friends."

Woods has the week off, electing not to compete in the PGA Tour's Pebble Beach National Pro-Am.

Mail Service Suspended in New England Due to Snow

PROVIDENCE, R.I. February 9, 2013 (AP)

The U.S. Postal Service has suspended mail delivery and will keep post offices closed in all six New England states because of the blizzard that has dumped more than 2 feet of snow throughout the region.

Postal Service spokeswoman Christine Dugas says post offices in Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island will remain closed Saturday.

She says it's an unusual move, but roads across much of New England have been closed or are impassable.

HP Directs Its Suppliers in China to Limit Student Labor

HONG KONG — Hewlett-Packard, one of the world’s largest makers of computers and other electronics, is imposing new limits on the employment of students and temporary agency workers at factories across China. The move, following recent efforts by Apple to increase scrutiny of student workers, reflects a significant shift in how electronics companies view problematic labor practices in China.
Related

Many factories in China have long relied on high school students, vocational school students and temporary workers to cope with periodic surges in orders as factory labor becomes increasingly scarce. Students complain of being ordered by school administrators to put in very long hours on short notice at jobs with no relevance to their studies; local governments sometimes order schools to provide labor, and the factories pay school administrators a bonus.

After early start, worst of flu season may be over

 NEW YORK -- The worst of the flu season appears to be over.

The number of states reporting intense or widespread illnesses dropped again last week, and in a few states there was very little flu going around, U.S. health officials said Friday.

The season started earlier than normal, first in the Southeast and then spreading. But now, by some measures, flu activity has been ebbing for at least four weeks in much of the country. Flu and pneumonia deaths also dropped the last two weeks, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported.

"It's likely that the worst of the current flu season is over," CDC spokesman Tom Skinner said.

But flu is hard to predict, he and others stressed, and there have been spikes late in the season in the past.

The Super Bowl Blackout ....

The company that supplied electricity to the Super Bowl says the blackout that halted the big game was caused by a device it installed specially to prevent a power failure.

All of you who understand that, please raise your hands................

Friday Morning thoughts .............

Listening to old music from the 50's, Billy Eckstine is singing, and he is bringing back memories of the last time  I saw him, the mid-fifties in Reno, I forget which club. He made his entrance with a woman on each arm, "a white woman,"  and in those days, that was a "no no."  "Blacks" could not be in the clubs, unless entertaining. There were very few restaurants they could frequent ..... my point being, I never asked "Why?'

It was obviously wrong, there was no reason for it, but for some reason, I never asked that one question of anyone, "why?"

We allowed Indians, American Indians, orientals, everyone, but no blacks. And basically, we were in a business where we were doing nothing but taking their money away from them. I never heard anyone comment on it or ask why, it was just accepted, NO BLACKS.

"They" had the New China Club, I'm sure they had restaurants, but I don't know where they were. I became good friends with Billy Ward, a black entertainer, of Billy Ward and the Dominoes. I had to have them over to the house for dinner, and there was no place, out, that we could go together. And, I never questioned ... "Why."

It was just the "way it was" and just accepted. There are some courageous blacks that questioned it, and due to them, things changed. No "whites" come to mind though.

Makes me wonder what all is happening today,, and is anyone asking that same question or are we just complacent and walking around, veiled, accepting things as they are and not asking that why question.

I wonder how much of history would be altered if we had asked that one word question, more?

I remember the morning, late fifties, very early, probably around 6 am, that a woman walked in to the Primm and started playing 21. It did not take her long to lose a few hundred dollars. Then, her husband entered, he was black. Don got on the phone to Ernie Primm. The decision, get her even, and "back her off." They did, the couple was ushered to the bar and drinks were bought for them. The first black man at the bar in the Primm. Many phone calls ensued, probably all over Reno, if not the state of Nevada.

After a half hour or so, Ernie called back, "Open the doors." That was it, segregation in the casinos in Nevada was over. Still no "Whys," just the way it was.

We need more "Why'ers" today, and I don't hear any.

Rosa Parks - 1955

In 1955 I was in the Navy, stationed on the USS William T. Mitchell TAP114, spending most of my time at sea between the states and Japan and Korea.

My early life, living at home, we had Sadie, who I had known almost all of my life. Sadie was black, I knew that, but never thought of her that way, she was Sadie, almost a member of the family. My Mom would get up early to have the house cleaned up so it looked good when Sadie, our housekeeper and cook, arrived.

I ate Sadie's food for eighteen years. One afternoon, I was maybe eight or nine or so, there was something I wanted to do and Sadie said "no." I called her the "N" word. I don't know why, I never thought of her that way, but that day, it was the most insulting thing I could think of. I have never forgotten that incident, and never will. I guess in my whole life, if there was something I could take back, that would be it.

We had a few neighbors who were very racist, only had one or two blacks at Emerson Junior High School, and they were generally nicknamed "Snowball." Never thought about it.

Blacks rode in the back of the Brown Street bus, never gave a thought as to why. 1943 we moved out to Oakwood, a very affluent area of the city. All of the black "maids" rode in the back of the bus, never thought about the "why" of it, it was just the way it was.

1950, I went to college at The Citadel in Charleston, South Carolina, in the deep South. The epitome of segregation. My first demerits were for calling a black lady "Mam." They worked in the mess hall, our food was in bowls and platters, when any were empty it was up to a "Dewilly" or a "Plebe," freshmen, to hold the empty platter up till they were taken back to the kitchen and refilled. I did, no one noticed, I said, "Mam,"

"What DID YOU CALL HER?"

"Mam."

"That's a "N-----" ........ Dewilly."

After the Navy I lived in Reno, Nevada, 1956, NO BLACKS allowed in the clubs in Reno, except The New China Club, which was for "them."

Never thought about the whys, it was just the way that things were. All nationalities were welcome, Indians, any race, just NO BLACKS.

Rosa Parks had done her share to get the situation gradually turning around. I was in the Primm, not sure of the year, late 50's or probably the early 60's when the doors were opened for Blacks. So, in my lifetime I have seen it turn around.

It was just the way it was, I never gave any thought to WHY, it was just the way it was.

There are those who asked WHY, Rosa Parks was one of those.

I have often wondered how and why the people in Germany in the 30's and 40's allowed the atrocities to happen, they saw them and looked the other way, it was just the way it was.