Heading for 250

Happy Saturday Morning – Yesterday Marcia actually got herself a real job. The Unit next door which Adrianne and Tevita had sold, has the new owner getting the place ready to her liking. Yesterday the first cadre of service types marched in. That business required the building’s entry doors be kept unlocked, and here is where Marcia discovered her niche – keeping track who enters the building. And it worked.

This is not some joke, people have reported packages missing, yet they have the delivery service’s photograph showing the delivery. We’re taking steps. In the meantime? See where this is heading? Thanks Marcia!

As a morning bonus, when she gets up I’ll ask her if she would like me to put a dollop of whipped cream in her morning coffee. If it were me, I’d say yes, where I normally would say no.

‘Optimist’ Definition – 1835 local business clerks and leaders formed a private ownership library club and with it donated 700 books. Cincinnati’s Young Men’s Mercantile Library – all for self-improvement was born. Shortly thereafter our Chamber of Commerce was started there in 1839. Short years later (1845), because of a fire, they lost the library.

But back to the optimists. The fire of 1845 was devastating but that was not the end – there is a ‘Pheonix’ to this story. The fire was quickly followed up with these early business folk donating $10,000 to rebuild the building in return for a new library to be housed right there in downtown on its top (11th) floor.

Plus, under the guidance of local icon Alphonso Taft, father of President William Howard Taft, they gave the $10,000 rebuild in return for a $1 per year lease for an unheard of 10,000-years – and it’s RENEWABLE!

Every year speakers of note are brought in. Over the years iconic names including Ralph Waldo Emerson, Herman Melville, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Julia Child, and Margaret Atwood have shown up on the roster.

Now, you must agree, that each of these founding people are the true definition of being Optimists!

Education – Browsing during my almost daily pre-bedtime pastime I came across a couple of items. Here is the main ‘bit’ in the first piece, the ages of our Founding Fathers (or should I say, Founding Kids?).

We’re so used to seeing sketches and paintings of each of the names we all memorized when they were in their later years. It’s not until you park their actual ages front and center at the time they placed their signatures on the Declaration of Independence, now 250 years ago, that you realize just how young they were when they put their lives on the line. And did so while facing the world’s most powerful Nation – its armies and Navy.

Common sense would say that certain death was their future.

On July 4, 1776:

James Monroe, was 18
Aaron Burr, was 20
Alexander Hamilton, was 21
James Madison, was 25
Thomas Jefferson, was 33
John Adams, was 40
Paul Revere, was 41
and George Washington, was 44

What was it those many years ago that allowed such an amazingly high level of understanding, insight, perception, and astuteness by such a young group.

Today, we have young folk too who display the energy, brawn, and foresight our Founding Fathers also displayed. But as I see it, there is a difference. I tend to think that now our dependence on electronics and the drop in classical education, plus the lack of face to face interactive discourse has become a huge negative.

In addition, the reliance on the ‘mobile’ and ‘tablet’ rather than exercising the mind with debate, and writing skills has caused a decline in our ability to interact in the best manner possible.

Recently I saw on a NASA site the questions from the eighth-grade final exam from 1895 in Salina, KS. The exam was a total of 6 hours of allotted time broken up into five specific sections each containing 10 questions (I’ve listed the five below and included one of the 10 questions from each).
Click on 1895 in Salina, KS to open the NASA page which contains all the questions. You’ll be astounded and shocked!

Grammar (Time Limit – one hour)
Give nine rules for the use of Capital Letter

Arithmetic (Time Limit – 1.25 hours)
District No. 33 has a valuation of $35,000. What is the necessary levy to carry on a school seven months at $50 per month, and have $104 for incidentals?

U.S. History (Time Limit – 45 minutes)
Give the epochs into which U.S. History is divided

Orthography (Time Limit – one hour)
Define the following prefixes and use in connection with a word: bi, dis, mis, pre, semi, post, non, inter, mono, sup

Geography (Time Limit – one hour)
Name all the republics of Europe and give the capital of each.

Quotation – Dr. Steve Turley, PhD Education: “Lewis (author C.S. Lewis) explains that while the cultivation of virtue was central to classical education, modern education stifles such moral formation by teaching a scientifically-inspired mechanistic vision of the world.”

Own a Buck knife? – Marcia has owned one for years. Every so often it ends up somewhere away from where she normally keeps it and then it’s not long before a search is underway. She loves that knife.

For a variety of reasons, with so many mainstay companies it appears that “the end is near.” This detailed description of the history of Buck Knives I placed here because of Marcia’s love of the product.

If these things don’t interest you, skip the video. If you do appreciate them, take the time to soak up some amazing background:

Cuse – Over the last couple of years, being our family’s ‘eyes’ regaling our Dinah’s love and work she puts into rowing, I’ve kept you abreast of her adventure. This past year she’s been a member of the Syracuse University rowing team.

Last weekend was the NCAA Rowing Championships DI. Twenty-two teams qualified. Syracuse sent three boats to Lake Lanier Georgia – this was a first. Based on points, Dinah’s program placed 9^th nationwide – a first; they are immensely proud. Now looking towards the 2026-27 school year.

Go CUSE!

Highlander memories – As an aside, way too long ago I was on that same Lake Lanier racing in the Highlander class day-sailer, crewing my friend Mike’s boat in the Nationals. The Highlander is a 20-foot high performance one-design racing dinghy.

The day of the finals the wind was touching 25 knots which really exceeds the upper wind limit for a race. This was after a delay a day earlier and hence a ‘GO’ decision was made – crew safety and equipment failure be damned.

Mike, the Captain, worked the rudder, main, and was the start strategist, and race tactician. I was the meat hanging overboard as the boat healed and worked the Jib and the Spinnaker. I do remember several waves depositing small squirming fish on the boat’s 7’ bow.

Such fun!
Wonderful memories!

This week’s Interlude – June is a massive month when it comes to the release of major hit Rock music. This past week, June 3rd 59 years ago, was especially ’vibrant’ when a song which had to be modified for radio streaming length and lyric ‘modification’ was released. The insert included a much-loved solo. The last couple of ‘Interludes’ have been difficult, so here is a major hint – the city of record for the group is Detroit.

Good luck, remember to match both the people and the title piece to be correct.

I hope you guess who the singer is. Check if you’re correct, the singer’s name and song title are found below. Complete songs can be found on Spotify and others.

Enjoy!
Life is AMAZING!

Dirk

BONUS POINTS:

When we look at other nations, whether it be to the north, or even western Europe it’s our jobs report which powers along. For May it exceeded expectations. Our May new hires added to the U S economy was:

1. 67,000
2. 145,000
3. 79,000
4. 85,000
5. 172,000
6. 38,000
7. 210,000

Last week Bonus Points answer – # 7
Answer this week’s Interlude: Doors, “Light My Fire”