Morning to all my Saturday morning person readers. I say “person readers” out of respect to our new Supreme Court nominee since I, like the person up for nomination, am not a biologist and thus feel unqualified to define the readership.

This week, with my neighbors away on vacation (Adrianne & grandkids), I took Rugby-the-dog on many a walk. Upon their return he seemed extremely happy to finally see the rest of his ‘pack’. I believe that part of his joy lay in the fact that my walks offered him more distance with fewer sniffing stops.

In addition, it presented me with witnessing the nuttiness of our weather. One day it hit eighty, the next day a short snow flurry. I am amazed that I am not walking about with a case of the sniffles.

Bureaucracy bar none — Question? Who exactly runs our nation? I believe that our governmental infrastructure, and accompanying bureaucracy, has grown beyond functionality. Earlier this week it was proposed by the administration to hire (‘require’?) an additional 87,000 IRS agents; and just so you understand fully we’ve been informed not to expect refunds for months on end.

The ancient Greeks understood all of this and found an answer. In that light, have we created our own ‘Gorgons’, a ‘Medusa’ for each overgrown bureau? An entity where nothing and nobody can stare into a department without turning into stone? Does our term ‘to stonewall’ even apply?

Bumper Cars – Way back in 1895 in my state of Ohio there were only two cars on the road (properly registered). Somehow they managed to find each other and properly crashed into one another. Some skeptics claim that only one car was involved in an accident and it hit a tree, I prefer the first tale.

The joy in $$$ earned – by the health care industry primarily due to the way Covid-19 was presented and managed – worldwide. Words such as ‘lockdown’, travel restrictions, masking, and Zoom have become part of the everyday lexicon (even the word ‘Passport’ has taken on new meaning). Almost made illegal were any and all attempts to treat Covid-19 as symptoms were first noticed using a variety of widely available prescriptions; it was rest at home until too sick and then be admitted to the hospital.

So here is what was paid out to hospitals, State by State, for each Covid-19 case dealt with. Remember that the $$$ amount shown is per patient. Not included is how the bottom line of Maderno and Pfizer were affected.

While we were bombarded with a daily drumbeat of cases and the raw numbers of deaths attributed to the contagion, here from World Health Organization and John Hopkins Covid Resource Center are the actual survival rates.

Traveling in Style –

”The Graf Zeppelin is a ship with a soul. You have only to fly in it to know that it’s a living, vibrant, sensitive and magnificent thing” ~ written by British journalist Lady Grace Drummond-Hay (shown seated in the Graf’s lounge)

Most of us have known of the burning of the huge airship, a Zeppelin named Hindenburg, while landing in Lakehurst, NJ. What most don’t realize was the level of comfort and safety the Zeppelin airships offered beginning in the late 1920s.

The Graf Zeppelin was 100 ft wide and 776 ft long. It had a crew of 36 and carried 24 passengers who were afforded amazing comfort. The Graf Zeppelin had nary a single injury. It made regular crossings of the Atlantic and into Brazil. In the end of its ‘run’ it had made 590 flights totaling over 1 million miles which included a “round the world” trip – Lakehurst, NJ from start to finish, flying time 12 days, 12 hours, and 13 minutes accomplished in 21 days (20,651 mi covered).

On its second flight it also transported ‘Susie’, an eastern gorilla which had been captured in the Belgian Congo. After touring the US, Susie went to Cincinnati Zoo in 1931 where she lived until 1947.

Fini –
• Today is ‘baby-brother’ Art’s birthday. He’s the last of the brothers’ still plowing forward while in his prime – the last of us still in his sixties.

• Later this week two ladies who’ve been a joy in my life celebrate their birthdays, Dia and Jeannie (Neaners) P.

• Have you ever sat at a railroad crossing waiting impatiently for the train to cross? Consider yourself lucky it wasn’t for the Norfolk & Western train of 500 coal cars that travelled 157 miles between Iaeger, West Virginia, U.S.A and Portsmouth, Ohio, in 1967 – it was 4 miles long, pulling 42,000 tons of coal.

• Adrianne and the grandkids vacationed in New York City. Little did they realize that we can send a person to the moon in much less time than it would have taken them to make their trip from the ‘Nati’ by Stagecoach.

their incoming flight seen from my favorite viewing spot

• Possibly, since writing about travel’ and the German ‘Zeppelin’, today marked the day – April 2, 1917 – that Woodrow Wilson had America enter World War I.

• And finishing up this ‘travel’ version of the Ramblings is this factoid; the purported world’s shortest street is 6 centimetres (2.4”) long. It is in Scotland.

• This especially for our family numismatist, Jason, comes this piece of history. Today in 1792 Congress authorized the minting of the $10 Eagle, $5 half-Eagle & 2.50 quarter-Eagle gold coins (as well as the silver dollar, dollar, quarter, dime & half-dime). Any of these in your collection?

Best till next weekend. Travel safely!

Dirk