You are sooooo dumb!

1968 is often called one of the most pivotal years in the second half of the 20th century. Even by today’s post 911 standards, many key events happened that would shape the way American’s would view themselves and our place in the world. January kicked off the whirlwind of events that literally transformed us from […]

Daylight into Darkness

The first time I met Jim was on a Thursday evening in the choir loft at the church I decided to attend. We had just moved to a new job and didn’t know anyone outside of work. Finding a church with a decent music program has become more important since retirement from the Navy. […]

Clear the Square… NOW!!!

I’m not sure if its vanity or just a curiosity, but I have always been interested in things named McPherson. My family name was actually spelled that way when they first emigrated to the US in 1845 at the beginning of the potato famine. The family came from northern Ireland on a ship called the […]

The Submariner

Looking back over the last forty years, my thoughts of what a good submariner looks like have become much clearer. I have not been on a boat for over twenty years but there are some things that still stand out even through the haze of the years. I should tell you that I greatly admire […]

State of the Union

The history of the State of the Union is a pretty interesting one for most people who study such things. The requirement for the President to prepare and deliver his views of the country are contained in the Constitution, “He shall from time to time give to Congress information of the State of the […]

SSN 711 – That fateful day on January 8th

In January 2005, an event happened on the USS San Francisco (SSN 711) that serves as a reminder that even in this day of modern technology and science, the ocean is still mightier in its capability to test man’s limitations. On January 8th 2005 at 0243 GMY, she collided with a sea mount resulting […]

Mutiny? Not in my Navy…

To the best of my memory (and a search on Google) there has never been a mutiny on board a US Navy submarine. If there ever has been one, I am sure that one of my faithful fact checking readers will be reaching out to me. That’s cool. I hope I am not wrong since […]

Welcome to TV Wasteland… and now for a word from our sponsors

Daytime television has become such a wasteland. Other than watching an occasional news broadcast, I have avoided daytime TV for years as a complete waste of time. Lately though, I have been doing some thinking about how daytime television actually resembles our country a lot more than I would like to admit. People have their […]

Earthgrazers

I learned a new term while researching today’s post. Earthgrazer. You may have to add it to your computer’s onboard dictionary as I did in order to avoid the dreaded red line of spelling misfortune. It is another word for a Shooting Star. I was originally going to use the word Shooting Star in the […]

2011 in review Thanks to all who came for a visit…

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog. Here’s an excerpt: The concert hall at the Syndey Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 16,000 times in 2011. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 6 sold-out performances for that many […]