Secret Lives

remember Danica McKeller?  Also known as Winnie Cooper from The Wonder Years. Well - it seems she dropped acting and became one of the smartest math geniuses in the world. In fact she actually co-authored a new theorem in math.

Percolation and Gibbs states multiplicity for ferromagnetic Ashkin-Teller models on Z2  (not a CLUE what that does) and she has written four math books.  WHO KNEW


https://youtu.be/9KLMhhqCsbU

Then there is Hedwig Kiesler in the 1930s. A young star known for her sexy beauty and a racy movie called Ecstasy.  Her claim to fame was looking gorgeous and stupid at the same time.

She was married to one of the richest people in the world who happened to be Austria's leading arms maker and a key to the Nazi's.  Being a showpiece she attended all the dinners with Hitler and his gang of Trump wanna be's. She would sit there looking stupid and gorgeous but listening.

WELL - In 1937 she drugged her maid.  Took her clothes and sold her jewelry and escaped to London.  Very long story short was that she was the key in creating anti-jamming software in WWII torpedoes for the Americans and now every cell phone in the world uses the same technology.

OH - her name became Hedy Lamarr, one of the great pioneers of wireless communications and a few movies to boot!

********************

Art fair in Deforest Saturday!  if you are looking for something to do I'll be in front (literally) of the Library.

*******************

STOP RINSING YOUR DISHES BEFORE THE DISHWASHER - if you rinse you are making your dishes dirtier.  Your soap does not activate it's enzymes because there is no dirt.  Scrap the big parts off and put them in the washer.

Modern dishwashers have a sensor that spots how much dirt and then uses the appropriate amount of water.  Then your soap  sees the dried on food and releases enzymes.   In reality the more dirt the cleaner your dishes will get because more water is used and your soap can do what it's suppose too!

If you rinse your washer will think everything is clean, use less water and your soap will be stagnant and not clean anything.  Technology at work.  

Melottes Melody Mix Ups

There was a huge fire in Madison yesterday and one of the problems MFD was having was water pressure because the water mains were not looped and were a dead end.

In Columbus we have been closing as many opening as many dead ends as we can for just that situation. If you remember last year Water and Light closed Tower Drive for a day to open a loop that goes to the hospital.  Just some of the little things people don't hear about.  I hear a lot of complaints about how much it costs for water but Columbus is a very safe community.  Many places with cheaper water do not have as good of an infrastructure as we do.  

We can handle 3 pretty good size fires at once - unlike MANY towns with cheaper water.    

*****************

 Melotte's Melody Mix-ups!  OH YEA BABY!

The story goes that when dad lost his job (before he worked at Parker Pen) we had no money BUT, a huge house.  Seems a music man came to Fort Atkinson selling accordions.  He opened a store and sold many many accordions and once the market was full he left town . . . . like The Music Man.

Someone had to teach all these new players how to play so dad decided to start teaching accordion to pay the mortgage.   

Yup - that is me - the little guy on the right with my brother and dad.  I still have that accordion. 

WELL - he gets a lot of students as there were a lot of accordions and they paid the bills and my mom acted as hostess.   

Next thing you know we are in parades and performing in concert halls. I remember once I played "Hang Down Your Head Tom Dooley" in front of a crap load of people.  What a depressing song THAT is. 

You just don't see many accordion bands anymore. We kept getting bigger and bigger as time went on performing in larger and larger parades.  

I'm not sure what brought us down and am waiting for a "Behind the Music" special/expose' so I can find out.  

Someone in the family was the slide guitarists on The Lawrence Welk Show but I'm not sure who that was as I was never a real fan of Lawrence. Since our family was not really close I have no idea who anyone is.  I'm not sure I ever met my grandfather.     

**********************

Had my best round at Door Creek since June 17th 2015 last night.  It was actually FUN to golf as opposed to frustrating. 

**********************

A new documentary is coming out soon called USS Indianapolis: The Legacy Project.  This one was

a work in progress for many years and FINALLY Mel was interviewed by National Geographic and some of it was used in the documentary.

This is DJ with Sarah Vladec the producer as they were scheming on ways to get Mel to interview.

We saw the first cut last year and it was pretty amazing the stories and combat footage and films of the rescue.  Not sure how this will be presented to the public but I can't wait.

https://youtu.be/G2UP5k9sdQ0

Have not heard how the National Geo group is doing with looking for the Indy.  The same group that found the Titanic is searching.  Plus HBO is still working on their Band of Brothers style show about the Indy.

I'm back and way way behind

Thanks everyone for their kinds words.

Lets get a public information notice out right away.

Power of Attorney STOPs immediately  upon the death of the person you are taking care of.

SURPRISE!!!  

So if you are taking care of a loved one.  Make sure you have a joint checking account or that money is locked away and you can not get at it until you can find 3 or 4 more convoluted hoops to jump through.  (Like a will in a lock box which is needed to get to the checking account) And remember - many of the things that you will need to pay for do not accept cards.

You would think that when you do the whole PoA thing a lawyer would tell you it stops upon the death.  BUT NOOOOOOO!!


*****************

USS Indianapolis: Men of Courage will be released on  Nov 11 Veterans day.

*****************

EV and her brother

It seems all the poems my mom wrote were only the tip of the iceberg as we have found all sorts of other writing which are AMAZING.  Stories about how her mom and dad met and about growing up in the very north woods.  I see a book coming and can't wait to share what life was like.

As we were cleaning out bookshelves we kept coming upon more and more hand written material.  I think we have enough for an autobiography  LOL  Some amazing stories about a band of gypsies and getting lost in the deep woods and getting married after a 24 hour courtship.  Great stuff.

Another thing - PODS are awesome and pretty inexpensive.

Dad trick riding a car  LOL

In other news - I don't have a lot of time writing as losing a week really hurt getting ready for an art fair this weekend in Deforest. 

I'm getting an image printed on metal and if it turns out well maybe I'll put that into the mix, we shall see. 

All of a sudden I have so many things to do INCLUDING getting back up to speed with whatever has happened in Columbus before we go on a vacation to Winter Park in Colorado and then a trip to Indianapolis for the USS Indianapolis reunion.

Meanwhile - this is what a 100+ year old water main looks like.  Seems sanitary to me! 

 

********************

We were at Jungs and saw a row of different heuchera (pronounced hookera) so I decided to make a nice shady  heuchera garden under our cotoneaster.  This is 2 of the 14 that is blooming in their first full year. 

We also now have 80 square feet of Sweet Woodruff and 60 square feet of Lamium.  All from 2 plants that we have been propagating for 3 years.  GREAT weed killer. 

OK - I gotta get to work on art fair stuff that I put off over the winter because I knew it would only take 2 weeks to get everything in order - what could possibly go wrong. 

That is my grandfather 2nd from the left.  

Mom and dad in 1951