9/20/06
A Tale of Two Fiefs
Tri-O's
oddities, observations, and opinions
by Herb Kandel
There may be some skeptics who doubt…….. but once in a galaxy far, far away and long, long ago there existed a land called Baldwinia. It had two populated areas. One was Orangio By The Sea (OBTS) and the other its near neighbor Fairtopia. Each was unique.
OBTS was a place where the most people wanted to live by the water. They built many lodgings by the shore and some had multiple dwellings. Soon the shoreline was rife with buildings from huts to castles. The population consisted of many vassals and some vassals were superior to others, these were The Overseers And Developers (TOADs). Now a TOAD had a variety of duties, among which was the requirement to attend the lord mayor at his court, help administer justice, and contribute money if needed (the legal tender was coins made of antler material called bucks). In addition they must take up arms if summoned to battle, bringing a contingent of lawyers to protect the lord mayor . When huts, castles, land, and even whole fiefs became available it was the duty of the TOADs to immediately, in secrecy, notify the lord mayor who then could quietly include his name as one of the buyers for the lordly investments, re-sell it at a higher amount, and pocket the big buck difference. As well, they must feed and house the lord mayor and his company when they traveled . The loyal TOADs in addition maintained the lord mayors moat, castle, fences, and gaming preserve. They made sure that the spoked wheels on his riding rig , the Baldwinia Municipal Wagon (BMW) were the most modern.
On the lord mayor’s side, for reciprocity, he was obliged to protect the vassals, and be instrumental in his high office by vouching for the TOAD's recommendations and pushing for his council’s approval of them. The lord mayor and TOADs reveled in the realm of unlimited growth and its potential. This rule of governing in OBTS was the established way for a long time, until…..but we'll get to that shortly.
Meanwhile in Fairtopia, land of the petal and pistil, the inhabitants were of the more earthy kind who valued planting, tilling, and fertilizing . They preferred modest abodes and opposed developing the towering multi- dwelling hutches of their OBTS neighbors. The lord mayor and council of Fairtopia were known to have spurned potential TOADs when they approached.
The trees, shrubs, bushes, vines, foliage, and flowers were the pride of the populace followed closely by the great citadel of records they were constructing to house the many parchments of written stories and documents of present and past happenings.
Among the court was the small knighted force who drove their wheeled wagons used for keeping the peace along the roads and byways.
There was an instance when a major downpour pushed by high winds during the hot season was going to cause great damage. The lord mayor of Fairtopia could not escort his first dame to a safer area as he did not want to leave his post, so he had one of his knights take her out of the area in a fief coach wagon. All was well after the deluge.
Now to get back to the Orangio By The Sea story……..
It came to pass that a traveling minstrel started imparting in verse the doings of OBTS and posting pamphlets. Something to the effect, “ How did all the bucks get stowed/ in the pockets of the Toads ?/ And where was lord mayor in all this?/ Investigate and then dismiss/ Check the facts and give him the boot / if you find he stashed the loot”.
This cry reached the Grand Doge who was the chief ruler of the entire kingdom of fiefs and who controlled all the treasuries. In due course the OBTS lord mayor and his TOADs were tried, found guilty, and punished for their wrong doings.
The minstrel seeing how influential his verse and pamphlets were, thought that this type of attention should be brought to the lord mayor of Fairtopia because of the ride given by his knight to the first dame during the deluge. The minstrel called out , “ We question the manner of transportation/ for those in office by affirmation/ and seek to chastise who transgress/ just like we did OBTS”
But the people, it seemed, were not moved by this call to action. There were other matters of more import to contend with. And elders recalled the lord mayor of the northern land of Grand Apple, Fiorello, who used to ride fire wagons to the cheers of citizens. Soon the matter was forgotten.
The morals: 1. Sometimes ill-gotten bucks can trample TOADs 2. A cry for justice should be in proportion to the allegation or you can't create a tempest in a vassal which can't hold water.
*Personal Note: This column marks the first anniversary of the launch of TRI-O’S. My thanks for all the encouragements (you know who you are).
To Folks out of town: 1. On Sept. 1, 2006 the former (resigned) mayor of Orange Beach, City Attorney and developers were convicted by a federal court jury of fraud and related charges in a real estate scheme in the Gulf Coast resort. 2. Before hurricanes Ivan and Katrina, the Fairhope Mayor had a police officer drive his wife to catch a flight out of Pensacola . The Mayor's use of police drivers came under question on the front page.
Thursday, September 21, 2006
Sunday, September 10, 2006
9/9/06
A Gallery Of Rogues
TRI-O's
oddities, observations, and opinions
by Herb Kandel
Rogue waves are enormous waves that undulate and swell on the ocean, they are also called freak or monster waves. A seven-story one emerged off the coast of Georgia on April 16, 2005. According to the New York Times “It crashed into the bow, sent deck chairs flying, smashed windows, raced as high as the 10th deck, flooded 62 cabins, injured 4 passengers and sowed widespread fear and panic.” One passenger compared the ship being like a “cork in a bathtub”. Kind of reminds one of the 1974 movie “The Poseidon Adventure”
This got me wondering about different rogue species - objects of nature, imagination, and others. There was the hybrid plant creation of a Venus flytrap which develops a nasty craving for human blood in “Little Shop of Horrors”. And in “The Attack of the Killer Tomatoes” no one was safe from the rolling red spheres. When he traded the milk cow for the magic beans Jack never thought that those rogue beans would provide the means for him to climb to the heavens to meet the Giant which almost cost him his life. The placid St. Bernard, Cujo, became a monster when Stephen King turned him into a rabid rogue dog. Even the universe has a rogue, on Star Trek Enterprise the crew visited a rogue planet and discovered an alien ship on board (astronomers have even ousted Pluto from the planet category…… how roguish of that asteroid posing as a planet!).
Ways were found to cope with most rogues; the wave (ride it out) , the tomato (eat it before it eats you), and the dog (vaccinate him), but how do we act in response to rogue nations?
The word ROGUE is defined as “An unprincipled, deceitful, and unreliable person; a scoundrel or rascal“. Iran’s violations of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, to which they are a signatory, setting Aug. 31 as the deadline for suspending nuclear enrichment clearly makes them one. They are emboldened by three factors 1. That Russia and China will want a diplomatic approach and not sanctions (recall the “Peace in our time” negotiation charade with Hitler before WW2 ?) 2. That the U.S. has too much on its plate in Iraq and Afghanistan 3. That the perception is that Hezbollah bested Israel.
According to the New York Times “On Friday, a midlevel cleric, Ahmad Khatami, said during a Friday Prayer ceremony that the West ought to be cautious in the way it addressed Iran ‘You cannot use the language of force against this nation,’ Mr. Khatami said in a speech broadcast around the nation from central Tehran. ‘Do not test us as you have tested us before‘” . This is the same as brazenly putting a chip on your shoulder and daring someone to knock it off.
They say all they want to do is to have the ability to independently make nuclear fuel and use it to generate electricity. Right!! They are sitting on one of the worlds largest seas of oil capable of such generation. Why go for the nuclear? Q. Why is it reported that the area surrounding the nuclear facilities is being populated with civilians? A. To discourage strikes there in order to avoid world outrage against collateral deaths and casualties.
Mr. Ahmadinejad , Iran’s president, said that Iran was not a threat for any country, even Israel. Right again!! After they stated that Israel should be wiped off the map.
This war waged by terrorists is not new it started in 1979 when Iranian radical students seized the U.S. embassy, taking 66 hostages. From 1982-1991 in Lebanon 30 US and other Western hostages were kidnapped ( remember Terry Anderson?) In 1983 in Beirut a truck bomb killed 241 marines. In 1984 an explosion outside the U.S. embassy killed 24. During 1985 there was an airline hijacking, restaurant bombings, a ship attack, and airport bombings.1986 Athens and West Berlin experienced bomb attacks. In 1988 the Pan-Am Lockerbie flight explosion killed all 259 aboard. In the basement garage of the New York World Trade Center in 1993 a car bomb killed six and injured over 1,000. During 1995 and 1996 Saudi Arabia had two car bombings at U.S. military headquarters, killing 24 U.S. military servicemen and injuring hundreds. U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania were truck bomb victims in 1998 killing 224 injuring about 4,500. In 2000 U.S. Navy destroyer USS Cole was heavily damaged when a small boat blew up alongside it, 17 sailors killed. Then on 9/11/01 2 commercial jets hijackers smashed into twin towers of the World Trade Center; 2 more hijacked jets were crashed into the Pentagon and in rural Pa. Total dead and missing numbered 2,9921.
Terrorist acts continue to this day and in the final analysis there may be no compromise with a fanatic sect who prize “martyr” death over life, and it may be left to Israel alone to seriously consider a preemptive strike similar to the 1981 one that destroyed Iraq's reactor when that rogue nation threatened potential nuclear world destruction..
A Gallery Of Rogues
TRI-O's
oddities, observations, and opinions
by Herb Kandel
Rogue waves are enormous waves that undulate and swell on the ocean, they are also called freak or monster waves. A seven-story one emerged off the coast of Georgia on April 16, 2005. According to the New York Times “It crashed into the bow, sent deck chairs flying, smashed windows, raced as high as the 10th deck, flooded 62 cabins, injured 4 passengers and sowed widespread fear and panic.” One passenger compared the ship being like a “cork in a bathtub”. Kind of reminds one of the 1974 movie “The Poseidon Adventure”
This got me wondering about different rogue species - objects of nature, imagination, and others. There was the hybrid plant creation of a Venus flytrap which develops a nasty craving for human blood in “Little Shop of Horrors”. And in “The Attack of the Killer Tomatoes” no one was safe from the rolling red spheres. When he traded the milk cow for the magic beans Jack never thought that those rogue beans would provide the means for him to climb to the heavens to meet the Giant which almost cost him his life. The placid St. Bernard, Cujo, became a monster when Stephen King turned him into a rabid rogue dog. Even the universe has a rogue, on Star Trek Enterprise the crew visited a rogue planet and discovered an alien ship on board (astronomers have even ousted Pluto from the planet category…… how roguish of that asteroid posing as a planet!).
Ways were found to cope with most rogues; the wave (ride it out) , the tomato (eat it before it eats you), and the dog (vaccinate him), but how do we act in response to rogue nations?
The word ROGUE is defined as “An unprincipled, deceitful, and unreliable person; a scoundrel or rascal“. Iran’s violations of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, to which they are a signatory, setting Aug. 31 as the deadline for suspending nuclear enrichment clearly makes them one. They are emboldened by three factors 1. That Russia and China will want a diplomatic approach and not sanctions (recall the “Peace in our time” negotiation charade with Hitler before WW2 ?) 2. That the U.S. has too much on its plate in Iraq and Afghanistan 3. That the perception is that Hezbollah bested Israel.
According to the New York Times “On Friday, a midlevel cleric, Ahmad Khatami, said during a Friday Prayer ceremony that the West ought to be cautious in the way it addressed Iran ‘You cannot use the language of force against this nation,’ Mr. Khatami said in a speech broadcast around the nation from central Tehran. ‘Do not test us as you have tested us before‘” . This is the same as brazenly putting a chip on your shoulder and daring someone to knock it off.
They say all they want to do is to have the ability to independently make nuclear fuel and use it to generate electricity. Right!! They are sitting on one of the worlds largest seas of oil capable of such generation. Why go for the nuclear? Q. Why is it reported that the area surrounding the nuclear facilities is being populated with civilians? A. To discourage strikes there in order to avoid world outrage against collateral deaths and casualties.
Mr. Ahmadinejad , Iran’s president, said that Iran was not a threat for any country, even Israel. Right again!! After they stated that Israel should be wiped off the map.
This war waged by terrorists is not new it started in 1979 when Iranian radical students seized the U.S. embassy, taking 66 hostages. From 1982-1991 in Lebanon 30 US and other Western hostages were kidnapped ( remember Terry Anderson?) In 1983 in Beirut a truck bomb killed 241 marines. In 1984 an explosion outside the U.S. embassy killed 24. During 1985 there was an airline hijacking, restaurant bombings, a ship attack, and airport bombings.1986 Athens and West Berlin experienced bomb attacks. In 1988 the Pan-Am Lockerbie flight explosion killed all 259 aboard. In the basement garage of the New York World Trade Center in 1993 a car bomb killed six and injured over 1,000. During 1995 and 1996 Saudi Arabia had two car bombings at U.S. military headquarters, killing 24 U.S. military servicemen and injuring hundreds. U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania were truck bomb victims in 1998 killing 224 injuring about 4,500. In 2000 U.S. Navy destroyer USS Cole was heavily damaged when a small boat blew up alongside it, 17 sailors killed. Then on 9/11/01 2 commercial jets hijackers smashed into twin towers of the World Trade Center; 2 more hijacked jets were crashed into the Pentagon and in rural Pa. Total dead and missing numbered 2,9921.
Terrorist acts continue to this day and in the final analysis there may be no compromise with a fanatic sect who prize “martyr” death over life, and it may be left to Israel alone to seriously consider a preemptive strike similar to the 1981 one that destroyed Iraq's reactor when that rogue nation threatened potential nuclear world destruction..
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
