Darn

                                                             Darn it all 


...Here I was, happy as I've ever been and going a bit quickly for icy conditions as I neared my house on the country road. Swish swash swish and over the embankment - lost control and wound up upside down on the snowy ground. I don't even like to write it. The memory grates and I blame me for letting it happen. I'm a very good driver - and careful too - and I take very good care of my pick-up - I love my pick-up - Ruffy Tuffy I call him. Now, he's sitting at an auto repair station - unhappy as can be - roof dented in - the passenger side window broken out where they pulled me out. I was in disbelief - a nightmare become solid. Nothing I could do but blow the horn and squeak out - "help me" - good grief,,,about two hundred yards from my house on the way back from a haircut and a purchase of new packet of white paper for the printer. Well, at least the insurance had car rental assistance and I can get around - for another week. Five hundred dollar deductible for the repairs - I hope. I need Ruffy Tuffy back - I pray for his speedy recovery and return to our cozy garage - well sometimes too cold in the winter garage. Working so hard and things going down hill. The only sensible hope I have is that it's on the way to something better - that this dormant weakness that had been somehow able to affect my day in such a terrible way - will erase and leave a wider and deeper future very much the opposite in effect - a better Ruffy Tuffy pick-up truck and better roads as well. I didn't really want to write this story, but it had to be done....

Taking Doggy to the Vet

                                                     Taking Doggy to the Vet

     In about twenty minutes I'm going to have to help my Doggy Snuggles into the pick-up to have him checked out at the Vet. Ordinarily this would not be such a big deal. I've done this before, but this time it's more serious. This time it's more like a life death struggle between me and the Church of Scientology - which I blame for killing my Doggy Missy in Israel - shortly after I took a communication course down there in Be-er Sheva and a few other counselling wastes of time. These speeders came along - whish - as we pushed my little Fiat 850 Special along because it had run out of gas - a typical American social activity - and whosh - the poor little dog was run over and all she could do was snap at my hand and bite me as I went over to see how she was - the Vet lived next door to where I did my communication course - neither he nor Shafee - the course supervisor were home - they didn't participate in our typical American social activities - they were busy "clearing the Planet" of our typical American social activities - and so this time I'm trying to get my Doggy to the Vet before he dies - he looks fairly tired - can barely walk and won't hold any food down - barely drinks water - but he loves me still and looks up at me from where he lies on the floor and wags his tail at me - G-d I hope he pulls through this and - forgive me G-d but I hope it's one of them that gets sick this time - don't have to die - after all we're typical Americans - not anti - human scientologists - just let them be sick for a long time - that's all and let me play with snuggles on the grass again - for a long time - that's all I want...
               
                                                           Two Days Later

...well - it's about two days later and the Vet visit was close to what Scientology does to doubters - rushed out with Doggy swearing never to come back - one of the girls in the office was rude - or so I took it. I decided to try myself to nurse  Doggy back to health. He got worse and worse and now barely eats anything - but he does drink water and I do have pills from another Vet which I give him every day now. BUT - he looks bad - sleeps all the time and can barely stand up - though somehow he managed to go down the steps from the deck today. - He's breathing hard and I don't really give him much of a chance - but I will not quit trying because I know he would never give up on me. We need a miracle...

PART II Live Broadcast

 

                                                           PART II     Live Broadcast

                                        

                                       

             All this might seem involved and difficult and it is and was, but this was by far not all 

that  was involved in this miracle. The entire landing on the Moon was televised - LIVE - 

from the landing craft - AND - get this - THE SURFACE OF THE MOON!!  Come on - get 

out of here. YES - this happened. The estimated TV audience for this event was half a 

billion viewers - and that's a lot of soap to sell during the commercials!!  You don't believe 

this right? Well, I worked on this part!! Me - and the rest of the crew at RCA Astro in 

Hightown,  NJ as well as Westinghouse and General Electric technicians. Never - nothing 

ever of this scope and significance had ever been done before - nowhere ever - get it? - a 

first. How? - I ask you - how could this possibly have happened? Well - I'm not going to 

reveal this - not quite yet. You are not ready, but I will tell you this. It really happened. In fact 

right now you are probably reading this and looking at the pictures using the same basic 

system which was rush rush rush manufactured and developed and fool proofed against 

failure - (that was our part at RCA) - I mean seriously - could you see all these TV screens 

going blank at the critical time? Can't happen - no - period!! Live Broadcast I give you!!

What - no way Jose!! Only - yes - it really happened - half a billion witnesses. Ha Ha Ha.


                                          

Project Apollo

PART I    WHAT'S THAT YOU SAY??

....I'm doing a full series on the Moon landing. I feel the time has come to  explain what really happened.
..
My father told us that his physics teacher in high school had explained to the class, using the best math

 he had at his disposal, that it was theoretically impossible for man to reach the Moon using rockets.

This was over a special Jello dessert mom had made for the fourth of July. It was red white and blue and 

really good. His physics teacher was right, I learned later in engineering school, and his math was perfect

too...There was no question, but that we would be forced to use other worldly forces - after all my brother

Denny explained. "we were going to other worlds". Denny was extremely smart. I'm only sorry he's no 

longer physically with us because, one. I'm in a fix again, and, two, he's missing the Jello. Denny's sense 

of humor rose above all barriers. 

   Fantasy one: You could overcome the theoretical negativity about the need for a very large rocket by 

breaking it up into sections and putting them together. This meant three stages to the rocket to get it into 

orbit to begin with. Gulp!

    Fantasy two: in addition to the first three launching stages, you'd have attached -  a lunar landing 

vehicle and a command vehicle which circled the Moon, and, of course, the return capsule which was 

attached to the command vehicle. These sections were all part of the same rocket - the Saturn V - ha ha 

ha...

  Fantasy three; and here's the best part, landing on the moon and recovery of the lunar module and the

 astronauts and return to earth. The logic itself made even our most calloused engineers spend double - 

triple time in the men's room.  Listen to this. after landing on the surface of the moon (never done before

 of course), the astronauts would collect rocks and take pictures and then climb back into the lunar 

module while the other astronaut circled around the Moon and waited for the landing craft to launch off  

the surface of the moon, - rendezvous with them and carry everyone and the rocks all back to the earth. 

Come on!!  Seriously!! None of this had ever been tried before - well, except for a rendezvous or two. No 

one had every launched the landing craft anywhere really - let alone to a circling space craft!!

  So here's the catcher - do you really think this was possible - at all?? Come on - everyone comes back 

with smiles and rocks?? Hey - only in Hollywood baby. Did it really happen? Yes, it did...How then? and 

now maybe you'll really start believing again...

Yom Haatzmaut

                                               Yom Haatzmaut  2018                               
                                       

   Look - no one really ever expected to see Yom Haatzmaut 2018. In fact, as I recall, no one
 really expected a world to be here at all - yet here we are. Surprise!! The issues today are 
universal acceptance of Jerusalem as the Capitol of Israel, rebuilding the Temple, and 
insuring SodaStreme a place in supermarkets all over the world. Who expected to see Tel 
Aviv  grow into a mega metropolis like it is in 70 years? Not me - and I was there back in 
1972 - after - men were broadcasting live from the surface of the Moon. This was the 
closest contact I'd ever had with the American Embassy. The Moon landing was being 
shown live from the embassy. I thought to go. As it was, I only listened to it from our
balcony in Bat Yam. You know, I worked on that camera - one of the camera's that went to
the Moon - and all I got in return was a cheapo listen on our transistor radio while millions of 
people watched it on TV - the largest audience ever in the history of the world. This was not
fair I tell you! It was also not fair that there was only one TV in Tel Aviv receiving that signal 
anyhow! It was not fair that there were hardly any cars either - or telephones - or washing
machines - or most anything - really - except the most important thing - of course -
 Independence. When was the last time Israel and the Jewish people stood on their own
land a free and independent people like this? I'll tell you when - never!! Now this was after 
the six day war - after taking back Jerusalem after thousands of years. An accomplishment 
very difficult to believe happened at all - overwhelming, especially in view of the suffering 
and tragedy that preceded the establishment of the new State of Israel. A surprise if you 
will. Like so many other fine things happening today. And, do you know what I think? I think life is supposed to be an endless succession of positive events and surprises - expansion 
and development as we grow and become - even ourselves - more. 

Saturn V

                                                         
                                                        Saturn V 

  
  
  There were two times in my life when I ran in total abject fear 

  One was flooring the accelerator of my dad’s new Super 88 Oldsmobile down the shore to lose the cops chasing us in their new Mercury Turnpike Cruiser. It was late at night and I simply didn’t want to get caught. I made a bad decision in trying to get away and now here they were gaining on us at every corner with their blaring red light and siren and, me, scared half to death trying to escape who knows what – probably a speeding ticket and now “running from the law” or “ignoring sirens” or worse – “endangering normal people”. There were three guys in the back making comments like; “they’re closing on us”. I had to do something. So, I floored it – right through the stop sign across Ventnor Avenue – hyperspace – no question about it – something beyond got us through this certain death and terrible social consequences for whoever crawled home. No, none of this – there is a G-d – no question about it. That car had a four barrel carburetor. We landed – somehow - in a driveway in back of a house well out of sight of passing police cruisers – turned the car off – got out…”we were just enjoying the night air officer – so nice here at the beach you know?” “What – no – we’ve been walking for hours now” – just in case -thinking as fast as we’d been flying through the air or however it was that we got there – while relieving ourselves, as I recall. 

   Yeah – it was scary, but nothing like the launch of the Saturn Five.   

   Don’t try this, you will die. I’m not kidding. There is no way to explain these things without referring to the magical forces that protect children. Call it what you will, there are forces that exist over and above our sphere and one thing they do is watch over children who play

with fire. Again, in remembering these things. I have a hard time believing that we escaped serious damage.

  There was something far more exciting and meaningful than the first small step by man and the giant leap for mankind. This was easily the ten years leading up to this historic event. Neither the landing on the Moon nor the ten years preceding it actually happened exactly as reported as many will attest firsthand. Well, there were not that many witnesses to the landing – even though it was televised everywhere in the world. There were very few people on the moon at that time. There were, however, lots of firsthand people on the earth to witness everything else, and this was far more unbelievable. Look, it is near impossible to land an untested craft on the surface of the moon - broadcast the event live - and then take off, rendezvous with another circling craft and return to earth with people and moon rocks. The most incredible part was and is that it actually happened!! 

We were totally caught up in the space race. The Russians were launching dogs and satellites and running circles around us. I was fifteen and experimenting with rocket fuels like everybody else. It was all over Popular Science, which, next to Popular              Mechanics and Motor Trend were my favorite magazines. I won’t tell you what I mixed up, because you’ll kill yourself just like I nearly did, but it was sure powerful. It had to be to beat the Russians. I do remember hammering finishing nails in between the wide copper tube and the socket I was using for a nozzle – just to tighten it up and make sure it didn’t blow out from the pressure. Ouch, I still get shivers remembering this. All the experiments with fuses. electrical filament fuses and a dry cell battery. “Jet X” fuses – sold at toy and hobby stores then – these were chemical fuses – you light them and they burn along till they reach the target – strings embedded with some kind of flammable material. No, this was just me and my friends following the moon program along and playing with our own models - of course. We chose the Jet X  for the Saturn V tube (Saturn V Rocket), leaned the rocket against an empty two gallon oil can, and attached about three feet of fuse, lit it and ran. We must have run about 60 yards or so and – Kaboom – off it went – not skyward mind you – even though this was the plan – but in every direction there was – like a mortar shell. In fact, having been in the Army for a little while and working very closely to the mortar units, it was exactly like a mortar round, loud, a bright flash, and scary as all heck. It was totally involuntary, but we just kept running and involuntarily laughing  – I mean laughing – couldn’t stop laughing. It was strange. 

  But, this wasn’t the fear – the fear came on the second shot. Now, listen, If this all sounds like high school to you, it’s because it was high school and this is what high school sounds like. Our second launch was more carefully done. Now that we knew what to expect, we could design a better rocket that would have more thrust and a safer launch pad. 

  A much larger copper tube was packed with easily twice as much “rocket fuel” and ultimately propped up against a dug out drainage ditch alongside a bend in an out of the way dirt road. The plan was to allow plenty of time to get out of any danger in case of the "lift off" problems we had on our first launch. It was a full horseshoe bend and the rocket was on the outside of one side and we would exit, following the road we came in on and leave plenty of fuse. Then, wait to watch it soar skyward and celebrate our creativity. Well, all of this went fine and we had lit the fuse, turned the bend in the road and were on the other side when it happened. A little blue Volkswagen with a smiling driver and about three passengers – kids, mind you – obviously all very friendly came put-putting along as carefree as you could imagine – right on target. Talk about perfect timing. Now, you cannot imagine what it was like to watch that little car make the turn down at the end of that dirt road. I should have screamed – jumped up and down – waved them off like on an aircraft carrier – you know? But I didn’t - none of us did anything – we just stood there with open mouths and experienced fear – raw fear. We remembered our last launch – vividly. I remember  driving with my wife down to the dead sea in Israel once - following someone who was traveling too fast for the curves in the road. At that time, very few Israelis had cars and had very little driving experience. I turned to my wife and said, “he won’t be able to make these turns at that speed – he’ll lose the road”. He did – went right off the road. Fortunately, nothing serious. You get used to driving – like riding a bike – you know? The rocket was going to blow up. We half expected it. Nothing happened. Nothing at all. We went back to check – after a good half an hour or so. The copper tube had turned all sorts of colors from the heat. Apparently, it had just lain there and burnt up. Thank heaven! I was fortunate enough to work for RCA in Hightstown, NJ years later. We had a contract with NASA for  one of the cameras that was sent to the moon and televised live pictures back to the earth. I think about this a lot when I write these little stories about the Saturn V – you know – about how the information gets publicized around the world…I think it was the excitement that actually lifted the Saturn V off that launch pad in Florida - my brother Denny said it was the money. We laughed about that a lot...

                        

                        

Five Word Limit

                           
                                                            Five Word Limit


"Gerry, you have to understand that we are publishing into a culture that just doesn't read any more."

He listened and felt like the chief engineer had just told him the oil well was dry. "Well what are we

supposed to do?", he asked bluntly." "You have five words.", Sam repeated, "five words and then

 pictures and videos. Nothing else will do, five words to explain what lies below, what's inside, like

selling a product in the supermarket using the package only. 'Sweet Blue Heaven Soap. Get to it"

"Thanks Sam", he said just loud enough to be heard.

   So there it was. His assignment. Gerry was new. He'd written and published for his English

professor, contemporary commercial advertising and media copy. It looked like an interesting course

and it was. The teacher was a pro and continually gave out good and timely advice.

 "It's a real rat race out there. Writing for profit is a blood sport." He listened to all this and felt the

excitement too. The salaries were huge - if you got "on stage".

   "On Stage" was a resume with significant work experience - and most of all - references that

mattered. OK - he'd listen to Sam, turn in his five words a picture and a video and wait.


                                      College Student Finally Found Alive


He made up the story. He knew Bernstein. He was in his commercial writing class,  He didn't want anyone else to know the sad story. He just

made up the story and turned it in. Sam stopped by and looked at him. "Good job Gerry" - we can't

publish it but consider yourself  on stage.",  and smiled.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2018/01/10/upenn-student-found-dead-in-california-park-homicide-investigation-launched.html