The World's First Recount

   This had never happened before - certainly not at Heston Elementary School. This was new. 

You had to be there. I had been elected President of my class every term now for two years. 

There was absolutely no question that I would be elected again. My little girl friend assured me 

with a wink of her pretty little eye that it was in the bag. She had a lot of pull. She was very

pretty. 

   I began our weekly meeting as usual - old business - new business, and of course our new 

election came up. No problem. I requested by show of hands how many of our classmates

preferred myself as President of our class again. A much smaller number than usual raised

 their hands. "Hmmm", I thought as I counted perhaps 12 students. Next. I asked by show of 

hands who preferred my opponent as our next President. "Whoosh", there was .an audible 

excitement and what seemed a small breeze created by hands reaching high up into our 

classroom. I counted carefully about 16 hands. "What", I thought, is going on? I didn't know 

what to do.

   Surely, there was some kind of mistake. I reached for an answer and said: "I think I counted

wrong - let's try that again". I actually said that or something very close to that - right off the 

top of my head. Don't forget, this was fifth grade and, as far as I could tell, totally uncharted 

territory. I learned something that day. Something I will never forget, and I'm writing this so 

you don't make the same mistake. Not ever - ."Don't ever question the way people vote".

   I asked the students who wanted me to be class President to raise their hands again. This

time about 8 students meekly raised their hands.You guessed it, my opponents votes were

about 22 - including my girlfriend. They all made the nastiest faces at me you ever saw - no 

winks - no smiles and that was that. 

   I won the rest of the elections till sixth grade was over and we graduated. I found out later 

what it probably was. The boy who won was a really good guy and deserved a term to be 

President of the class. He really liked that. I should have known better.

 

                                                     Election Coincidences

     There are two major coincidences in my life which beg mentioning here. One is that I attended 

Wharton (a college at Penn) at about the same time as Donald Trump. I actually only took one course at 

Wharton - it was required that engineering students like myself had to have two liberal arts courses - non 

technical courses - in order to graduate, so I signed up for a course in "Criminology" at Wharton. Two It 

Things I remember that impressed me there. One, was that all the crime statistics from Chicago hadn't 

been accepted by the FBI since the prohibition, Al Capone, days. The other was a story our instructor 

told us about the class being held up with guys holding bananas in their hands. This was to show us the 

problems about witnessing crimes. No one reported the bananas! This made us laugh at the time! I look 

at today's election problems and still smile at these memories.

     The other coincidence I recall f? rom earlier days was from elementary school where I had been 

elected four times in a row as president of our class. Here I was at our fifth term, conducting a new 

election, which I assumed would have the same results. No such luck. In complete bewilderment, I 

counted the raised hands of kids who voted for my opponent and then myself. What? No way! My 

opponent had more votes!!  So, I told them that we would do this over again (recount?) and we did. 

This time, my opponent had many more hands than before - which goes to show you what happens when

you question democratic opinion. Ha Ha on me! Well I lost that election, but went on to win the next too

and we graduated.

                                                             n'took

   n'took looked out at the strong yellow sun of July and was thankful for the warmth. He was also thankful for his fur coat of elk and his sealskin boots. This far north and protection against the cold and wet of winter was just about as important as breathing. The tundra was deep green and he watched it growing before his eyes and smiled. "This is a good day mother, we are lucky to be Inuit people and safe from the dangers of the wild people of the south". His mother smiled and reminded him of the stories of their history, and defeating the thieves and murderers of the south using their knowledge of the snow and cold to confuse and blind their enemies and then slay them with their bone tipped spears. n'took was proud to be Inuit and a good fisherman who the others valued to be in their company on their fishing trips. He loved the fresh smell of summer and the growing grasses, the cool breezes blowing across the tundra. He loved the gentle quiet of the night and the security that thousands of years of experience at living here had brought to his tribe...

Naomi Spychakov

                                                                Naomi Spychakov

...It was a morning like so many others for Noami. Smiles for the front office and another for her coworker Mischa. "доброе утро миша, как дела" "good morning Mischa how are you". Mischa meant a good strong cup of hot tea with a sprig of mint and some gossip, so Noami's smile was for real. "Good - Spaciba - Noami". It would have been obvious to anyone looking at the two young girls that they were good friends, something in their smiles and the way their heads bounced when they spoke. It might have been because they were both young, or maybe because both were Jewish and single, but it was good at this particular time in Kyiv for anyone to be happy at all. A bird flew by the window, they were only two floors up in a monstrously large building in downtown Kyiv and it was late Spring and the sun shone kindly on a city that had lost it's heart and soul somewhere in the middle of the last century. Even a little brightness helped.

   Noami opened the files for company resources, mostly to check on "coal in the plant". It was her job to make sure there was always adequate coal on hand to keep the generators going. This was not too much of a problem except during long cold spells in the winter when the electrical usage in Minsk usually peaked. Then the rule, as handed down by her supervisor, Yuri Shapir, was to have at least two weeks worth of highest use coal on hand. She remembered his "secret"."Just to be sure that neither you nor I lose our jobs, he confided like one undercover spy to another, 'we' have a secret hidden chamber with exactly that amount of coal", he smiled and raised his eyebrows and said "I will show you this afternoon." Which he did. They were like two children playing in the woods after dark and laughing at the idea of ghosts and wild creatures as they made their way down into caverns that must have been dug out centuries ago. She hoped that she would be able to find the place again and hoped more that she wouldn't have to. Yuri and Mischa were all that kept Noami from being totally bored to death at her job. She rarely considered that it was her personal integrity that brought her to that job and that often she stood as a vital link for insuring electric power to over two million persons in and around  the city of Minsk.

   A brightly colored ad caught her eye. "How can they just insert stuff like that onto your browser". she thought. It reminded her of grade school. Silly faces and childish smiles. "Come join us on Mars", it read. "What?", she thought and smiled at the idea. "Was this a joke?". She clicked on the "Find Out If This Is For You"  button. That was the last thing Noami would do as Naomi Spychakov, assistant to technical director of central power station Minsk Obast. The site simply captured all of her imagination and took her, with building excitement, nearly to the surface of Mars. Well, that's at least how it seemed.