Regarding yesterday's post. It's always something simple.

Last night I got a call from my childhood friend telling me he'll drop by tomorrow on his way to visit his brother in Ohio. The call turned into an hour and a half long chat partly about how he had managed to vanish back in the early 70s.

What is amazing was how simple it was. He simply changed his name a bit and moved to Oklahoma. Thomas Louis Martin, or Thomas L. Martin simply became T. Lewis Martin and went by Lou.

He simply filled out forms with T. Lewis Martin and it was unquestioned. 

He said it really was pretty much that easy. His wife reported him as a missing person a few days later and his name was added to the list of missing persons. Thousands of people every year turn up missing and unless foul play is suspected the LE community doesn't do a lot about. They have better things to do than spend resources looking for someone that skipped town to avoid non criminal things.

He also told me he had an attorney on a small retainer that he quietly called annually to see what his legal status was. 

Five years later his wife had him declared legally dead in Massachusetts and remarried. When he told me that he laughed like hell.

He said that when that happened the last person that wanted to meet him was his now ex because that would make her a bigamist. 

While I suppose that could eventually get cleared up it certainly would have opened a real can of worms legally.

Anyway, he reunited with his family but never went back to MA while she was alive. She has passed a couple of years ago so everything is pretty much moot. 

Shortly after she remarried he moved in with a woman and lived common -law and they raised a couple of kids.

This whole thing sounds pretty whacked out but that's what he told me. 

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I have no idea what is going to happen next.

I just got word out of nowhere that a childhood friend is going to drop by on me in a week or so. He's on his way to Ohio to visit his sister.

In itself this is no big deal until you add to the fact that he vanished for about 50 years and this is the first time since he left he's emerging.

When I say vanish I mean he outright disappeared off the face of the earth. Last heard from getting on a plane headed for London. I suppose he took a ferry over to the mainland and disappeared.

The first thing I thought about was the French Foreign Legion but in real life things generally happen without as much drama as people think of.

This was in the 70s. Pre computer. He had married a woman that after two years of marriage blindsided him with a divorce suit. Normally this would not have been too bad but her entire family was a ringtailed passel of lawyers and judges. He figured he would likely wind up living under a bridge. This was Massachusetts and it was as corrupt as it is now. Think Lindsay Clancy corrupt.

Anyway a few days after he got hit with the divorce he asked me for a ride to Logan which I cheerfully did. He said work was sending him to London for a few days. I dropped him off and forgot about it.

A few months later someone told me he was missing. I mulled over saying anything but figured it wasn't my place. I said nothing and nobody ever asked me anything. A few months later his absence seemed to be forgotten. I just wanted to give the man his privacy. He was committing no crime.

Vanishing back in those days was a LOT easier than it is today. This was long before airport security, picture IDs and that sort of thing. The easiest way to vanish was to become someone else which was not hard to do. 

Move a couple of states over and establish an existence. Find a grave of a child that died in infancy that's about your age and write in for a copy of a birth certificate. If the grave was in a churchyard you could sometimes come up with a baptismal certificate that was almost as good and back them was generally proof of ID.

On the power of the birth/sometimes baptismal certificate get one's self a driver's license. This was before picture IDs. A driver's license and birth certificate could get you a passport. 

It's entirely possible he took a round trip to London and back and returned and disappeared. No telling.

Anyway net week I should know and when I find out I'll post it. It might prove to be interesting or it may be a total bust.

 

 

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Someone asked me why I think that in many instances the threat of violence is a good thing.

Simply because it works.

If someone pushing a basket full of unpaid for merchandise out the door of some store catches a baseball bat across the face on the way out they will likely rethink there misdeeds when they come around.

Once that happens a few times word will get out. Once word gets out that that is the new policy then people will stop stealing from that store because nobody likes eating hickory.

A shoplifting conviction usually brings a small fine, often less than the value of the stolen goods.

What's interesting is that we can practically eliminate ICE agents with the expedient of enacting a law that says 90 days after enactment the federal government will pay a bounty on $50,000 on illegals turned in, dead or alive.

Contrary to what people will tell you it will not lead to a blood bath. People are not 100% stupid. This won't lead to a blood bath. What will happen is we will see the biggest mass exodus in human history.

You will see people that are covering for illegals looking at them in a different light. They will see the illegal family of five not as a family of five but as a new home and a new car they will change their attitude. 

Unfortunately they won't be able to cash in because the family down the hall will be long gone. They will be gone like a shot the minute they find out that the law has been enacted. 

I would imagine that there would be gang types that would think they could ignore the law (sold out by other gang types) and maybe a couple Darwin candidates but it certainly no blood bath. It would solve the problem with little grief.

The point being that until there are real consequences things are not really going to change. The way the system is running now nothing is getting done to protect society.

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I am gathering parts to put a new radiator in the Miata.

The current radiator has a plastic upper that was originally black and is turning close to yellow which means it's likely to spring a leak at any time.

It's a process and I have to do the best I can to make sure I have everything I need to hand over to me mechanic.

I think I'm squared away but time will tell. 

Normally a lot of fasteners can be reused but on a 35 year old car it generally pays to spend some chump change and use new bolts as the old bolts are either rusty or in some cases rounded off. It also saves a little money in labor which compensates for the added expense. 

Someone asked my why do it now and I explained that it is a lot cheaper than having to be towed from Erie or having it fixed someplace else.

You fix something before it breaks so you don't have to fix it when it breaks.

All in the part of maintaining a 35 year old sports car.

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I'm getting sick and tired of the USS Abraham Lincoln suicide attempt publicity

Most of which is fake news or damned close. The Lincoln task force has 8 attempted suicides and no deaths. Say again. No-zero- deaths. Those figures sound a little below average to me for a group of that size yet the media is making a big fuss over it.

Back in the day my battery had one attempt. The soldier in question was a dud to begin with and was trying to get out of the Army. He cut his wrists the wrong way and although he bled like a stuck pig he was discovered and carted off to the hospital and then the booby hatch for a while. 

When he returned to the unit to go through the separation process the supply sergeant made him sign a statement of charges for the bedding he had ruined by bleeding on. What a delightfully cold hearted thing that was to do! I admit it. I laughed when I heard that.

It should also be noted that we were in garrison in peacetime and the worst thing we might have to face was being told to pick up cigarette butts.  The attempt, like most attempts was simply a cry for help.

The military suicide rate is comparable or even slightly lower than their civilian counterparts. 

Looking at the 8 attempted suicides I am surprised the numbers are that low. Generally the attempts are made by sailors that have not been in the service very long and are having a hard time adjusting to military life.

When you consider that the task force has been to sea in combat operations for as long as it had, the low rate speaks highly for the serving sailors. They've worked their asses off day and night when they were in combat and stayed fairly busy afterwards because their mothers are not there to pick up after them.  

You also have to remember that some of these sailors are newbies that came aboard straight out of Great Lakes. They haven't adapted to military life yet. While many of them (Like I did) take to it like a duck to water for some it is a major shock and hard to adjust to. For the latter some of them don't know where to turn. 

I am not taking suicide lightly. I am pointing out that the military seems to have the same rate as the civilian populace. It's a problem and the military does what it can to prevent it.

This whole thing is just another case of the media creating a major problem out of thin air. One can't possibly hate the media enough.

If I were the judge on a case where someone bombed a television network and admitted it in open court i would probably punish him with a $25 fine and 15 minutes of community service.

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IMO the greatest ad campaign I have ever seen

was by the Dos Equis beer people when they came out with 'The Most Interesting Man in the World' ads.

It hit a spot in my mind because I have always kept my eyes open for interesting people. Not cool, not rich, not famous or sexy, just plain interesting.

It's kind of an intangible. Interesting. 

What makes a person interesting? 

Who knows? For different people I guess it's things.

One young man I found interesting was a village idiot type that one could describe as being mildly retarded which I suppose was an accurate description. However he was not a retard. An actual retard is different from a special needs person who is generally far more intelligent so I guess I can describe the man as being a little slow. He was clearly NOT a retard.

What I found interesting about him was that every so often he would belt one out of the park. One time an engineer turned fisherman was setting up a small pump to feed a stove on his boat. Tommy was watching him and asked him, "Gee. You must be pretty smart. I would have put the tank on the roof and let the oil run down to the  stove."

Duh.

The poor man's jaw dropped, he tossed his wrench into the tool box. I bailed out MOST Riki-tik. I didn't want to see the aftermath.

Call him slow, call him whatever you want. He didn't bore me. That says a LOT. 

Two days later I saw stove smoke coming out of the stove's chimney and a 15 gallon tank mounted to the roof of his cabin.

Another time one of the Filipinos I knew had me over his place and I met his aunt, an older woman and we discussed living on a trade/barter economy. She pointed out that not only could one often get a better deal, but it was tax free. She was pretty sharp and knew all the angles. The woman was interesting. I figure that if the woman had gotten a better formal education she could have gone to New York and gotten rich in real estate or something like that.

On the other hand, maybe she was smart enough not to want getting involved with that type of people. Still, although I was also heavily into trade/bartering I learned a few things. I actually still am. 

One deal I made is the time I helped a guy sheetrock a bathroom in exchange for a sail he had in his garage. It was practically brand new and was worth about $900 from a sailmaker. The job took about 3 or 4 hours and when you figure it out the deal net me a $900 sail. The pay rate would up being between $225-300 per hour.

Still, I do admit I like interesting stories and interesting people.

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the difference between sunrise and sunset is now 11 hours and 59 minutes

where I live today.

it's time to start watching the deer a little more carefully to see what kind of winter we are in for. If I see a lot of white in their coats it's a better than average chance we're going to have a snowy winter.

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Jumping through my a$$ today.

Helping out at a club gun bash today. 

I'll be busy most of the day.

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Scars and all...

This is one of the most beautiful women I have ever seen in my life. 

Oh yeah. I caught hell from someone when I suggested they take their brat kid to the Lindsay Clancy Day Care.

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