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   MSGID: 1394.fidonet-memories@1:2320/33 2709eb34   
   REPLY: 26049.memoryln@1:2320/105 27093f2a   
   PID: Synchronet 3.19c-Win32 master/d07ae18a9 Jun 10 2022 MSC 1929   
   TID: SBBSecho 3.15-Win32 master/d07ae18a9 Jun 10 2022 MSC 1929   
   BBSID: TBOLT   
   CHRS: ASCII 1   
   Mike,   
      
     This is going to be a long message, but it'll give folks something to   
   read. Plus, as you'll see, I'm in one of my devious, nether moods. This    
   is why Joe refers to me as "comedy relief"...as the echo would be rather    
   dead, otherwise.    
      
    >   I haven't seen Ed in quite awhile.   
      
    MP> I am worred the virus might have got him.  :(   
      
     I hope not...but it makes you wonder. I've been lucky and blessed that   
   while I've had 2 original shots, and 2 boosters 6 months apart, so far,   
   I haven't had it...and I didn't take "the redneck covid test, either".    
      
     For the uninitiated, that's where you pour your favorite wine into a   
   glass. Take a sniff, and if you can smell it, take a taste, and if you   
   can taste it, you're negative. Repeat as many times as necessary, per   
   instructions from Doctor Sy Chosis.    
      
     I bought a lanyard and a pouch holder, that I keep my Covid-19 shot   
   papers, and my voter registration info in...and I wear that around my   
   neck. They were getting dog eared in the wallet. :P   
      
    >  MP>  * SLMR 2.1a * Life's essentials: H O C N Ca P Cl K S Na Mg   
      
    MP> If you did not you are awful close.  You got all the ones I am certain   
    MP> of.   
      
     Curiosity got the best of me...so, I downloaded a table...and I got them   
   all right!! Not bad for being out of chemistry class for over 40 years. :)   
      
   H: Hydrogen   
   O: Oxygen   
   N: Nitrogen   
      
   (These are the only "gin" all restaurants have -- and I wondered why if   
   you have nitrogen, if it only works after dark?? ).   
      
   C: Carbon (A studebaker sandwich?? ).   
      
   Ca: Calcium (I thought that was what Cal said when he saw Um ).   
      
   P: Phosphorus (Who said phos was for us?? ).   
      
   Cl: Chlorine (I thought that was mainly for swimming pools ).   
      
   K: Potassium (If you're on Lasix, you need to take a supplemental tablet,   
   but that's your Pee-Rogative ).   
      
   S: Sulphur (smells like rotten eggs or raw sewage..and that's really   
   crappy :P ).   
      
   Na: Sodium (it has to be stored in kerosene, or it'll ignite/explode   
   violently when exposed to oxygen). How they can combine it with chlorine   
   to get NaCl (sodium chloride, better known as table salt), is beyond me.   
   Yet, if you're a heart patient (as I am now), you need to limit your   
   sodium intake to 2000 milligrams a day. Yet practically all foods...   
   especially the processed (microwave) ones, are "drowning in it". But,   
   I rarely season my food...but the restaurants do so heavily.   
      
   Mg: Magnesium (too much of that can cause diarrhea...back to the raw   
   sewage comment :P ).   
      
     There was a blooper about holding a deacon over a flame in a test tube,   
   but I can't remember it. It's amazing how many of those bloopers didn't    
   have a good eyed editor or proofreader...let alone reading them to see   
   how they sounded.    
      
     When I was working in silkscreen printing, I did catch several errors,    
   but there were a few I missed. In some cases, the customer wanted them    
   misspelled, but it made them look like an idiot.    
      
     All I could think of was the scene from the movie "End Of The Line",   
   filmed in the mid 1980's (much of it in central Arkansas, and some of    
   it in Chicago)...most of the actors from there are dead and gone now...   
   including the 2 lead characters, Wilford Brimley (Will Haney) and    
   Levon Helm (Leo Pickett).    
      
     The screenplay was written by Arkansas native Mary Steenburgen (who    
   played Rose Pickett, Leo's wife, in the movie). Mary's father was a    
   long time employee of the former Missouri Pacific Railroad, which was    
   absorbed by Union Pacific Railroad years ago. Yet, their Downing B.    
   Jenks shops in North Little Rock (where heavy maintenance on their    
   locomotives is done), and their classification yard, is the second    
   busiest on the Union Pacific Railroad, second only to the one in the    
   Omaha/North Platte, Nebraska, area. Union Pacific is the biggest    
   employer in central Arkansas.   
      
     Anyway, in the movie, the decals that said "Chicago Police" that    
   were on the police cars, and the "big checks" that were held by    
   Haney and Leo in the movie (in the former pedestrian mall, Metrocentre    
   Mall, in downtown Little Rock) were printed by my workplace. So, one    
   could say that I had an indirect part in the movie. :)   
      
     The scene had Haney and Leo in the locomotive, going to Chicago,    
   from the community of Clifford, Arkansas (they used the former Missouri   
   Pacific Railroad depot at Benton, 20 miles southwest of Little Rock,    
   which has since been razed).    
      
     They were going to try to persuade the president of the board,    
   Thomas G. Clinton (played by Henderson Forsythe), the original owner,    
   to re-open the railroad. Clinton had given it to his son-in-law Warren    
   Gerber (played by Howard Balaban (not sure of his name)), when he    
   married Clinton's daughter...but Gerber was going to turn it into    
   an air freight company behind his father-in-law's back, and had shut   
   the railroad down (more on the outcome in a minute). The movie was   
   rated PG for some language and violence, but I've known movies far   
   worse in content. You'd hear the language around the railroad yards,   
   or most anywhere else, nowadays.   
      
     Ironically, the steam engine in the opening scene was the restored   
   St. Louis-Southwestern Cotton Belt 819 steam locomotive, rebuilt at   
   the Pine Bluff shops (where it was originally built in the early   
   1940's), now the Arkansas Railroad Museum. Due to various issues,    
   it's only being cosmetically restored, and it may never run again,    
   sad to say...although it did run in years past on trips from Pine   
   Bluff, Arkansas to Tyler, Texas, on the old Cotton Belt line, for   
   their rose festival...and from Pine Bluff to St. Louis for the 1990   
   National Railway Historical Society Convention in St. Louis...to   
   appear with some other steam locomotives at the former Union Station.   
   Only 4 tracks remain there...it's now a shopping mall with hotels...   
   or it was the last time I was there nearly 20 years ago.   
      
     Anyway, back to the movie. In the diesel locomotive, the exchange    
   went like this:   
      
   Leo: You know, Haney?? I was taking a shower the other day, and I   
   was trying to remember the Pledge Of Allegiance. You know, the   
   American one?? And, hell, I couldn't get it to come to me.   
      
   Haney: Well, sir...grade school was a long time ago.   
      
   Leo: Yes, sir. That's what kept me out of high school.   
      
     Now, if that isn't Arkansas humor, etc., I don't know what is.    
      
     Anyway, when Haney and Leo finally get to see Clinton, to tell him   
   what happened, Clinton can't figure out why things got shut down.   
   The exchange goes like this:   
      
   Clinton: I'm sure Warren had good reason for closing the railroad   
   down. After all, he's made more money for this company than I ever   
   did when I was running the show; and he's a d@mn good businessman.   
   Plus, he's also a member of the family...so, I have to respect his   
   decisions. But, I would like to help you boys, if I could.   
      
   Haney: Mr. Clinton?? That little shop in Clifford, Arkansas means   
   our lives. It's all we've got, sir. And, we've come up here to get    
   it back.   
      
   Leo: And, we don't know a doggone thing about the air freight business.   
      
      
      
   Clinton: What did you say??   
      
   Leo: I said we don't know a dadgum thing about the air freight business.   
      
   Clinton: (Incredulously) Southland...is going into air freight??   
      
   Leo: Yes, sir.   
      
   Clinton: (Angrily) That little S.O.B. -- he knows how I feel about    
   airplanes. I hate the S.O.B.'s...always have. The day the airplanes    
   went into commercial business, I knew right then, that it was the    
   disease that would kill the great railroads!! I gave the little    
   S.O.B. this company when he married my daughter; and now he's going    
   to throw it right back in my face!!   
      
   (I totally agree with him on his statement).   
      
   Leo: See there, Haney?? Everybody's got son-in-law problems!! It's    
   the same all over!!   
      
   Clinton: (Furious) He was going to slip this transaction by me...to    
   show that this is HIS company now!!   
      
   Haney: I want to tell you something, Mr. Clinton. I really don't give    
   a d@mn about your family squabbles. Hell, we all have them. But, YOURS,    
   cost our jobs. But, we do have a plan if you're interested.   
      
   Clinton: (Leans forward) Fellas, I'm d@mn interested!!   
      
     To make a long story short, Haney buys the whole thing from Clinton    
   for $1, and turns it into an independent rail yard. Back at Clifford,    
   when Gerber tries to get the sheriff to arrest them, Haney turns the    
   tables on him for trespassing. When Gerber tries to get his father-in-law    
   to go back with him to Chicago, Clinton tells Gerber "Not on your d@mn   
   airplane, Warren".   
      
     When they had the premiere of the movie in Little Rock, the entire   
   cast, with limos, etc. were there...it was a big spectacle. The United   
   Artists (UA) Cinema 150 at the busiest intersection in southwest Little   
   Rock, Asher And University (about 2 miles from me), was packed...and   
   the Wendy's next door did a land office business. Sadly, that theatre   
   was razed several years ago.   
      
     The Wendy's is still there, and apparently Wendy's is now trying out   
   for a limited time, a Strawberry flavored Frosty!! They had served   
   chocolate and vanilla Frosty's for years. Chick-Fil-A has a peach milk   
   shake, but only during the summer months. Unfortunately, some of my   
   medications require me to wait 2 hours before or after having any dairy   
   products (ice cream, milk shakes, etc.).   
      
     We've got Heat Advisories and Excessive Heat Warnings here now, and   
   my concern is if the power and internet will stay up, with everyone   
   running their air conditioning at full tilt.   
      
   Daryl   
      
   ... One doesn't get older, one gets better. And, I'm approaching magnificent!   
   === MultiMail/Win v0.52   
   --- SBBSecho 3.15-Win32   
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