Memories for sale

Princeton High School (PHS) was built in the late 1950's seeing its first graduating class step from the doors in the spring of 1959.

In the fall of 2013, Princeton Community Middle School (PCMS) students walked into the newly-constructed 6-12 campus of both PCMS and PHS. The next fall, that of 2014, saw high school students start their new era in the new PHS at 100 Viking Way, across the street from the old school.

This spring will see the start of demolition of that old school. It will have survived nearly but not quite sixty years, seeing probably fifty-thousand students pass through its halls over the years.

And what's left is for sale via an online auction through the services of Penny Worley Auctioneers.

Here are some of the highlights as I skim through the pages. (All of these comments were made on a snow day last week, 2/18. Prices, at least, probably should be updated before posting.)

The two most valuable items are a pair of vending machines (178 and 179) . Currently going for $400 each. I had no idea that Princeton owned those. I assumed they were all leased or just put there for a cut of the profits.

The remaining contents of my classroom are up for purchase as lot 1855. If anybody's curious, I can sign anything in there to increase the value.

The auctioneers do have a sense of humor, or at least the person writing the descriptions does. Check out this lot (1323) of 'footballs (partially deflated-Patriots style)".

I can't remember whether I got a 'silver' Viking pin or not, but this lot of pins (1579) certainly seems like something we should have moved across the street with us.

Above the memorial pond - in a courtyard that our students weren't allowed to even see for the last five or so years of the school's existence but where thousands of students ate lunch over the decades and which had a plaque honoring our fallen Vikings like Kelly Freeman to whom the pond was once dedicated (I've no idea whether the pond was dedicated to someone who was forgotten before Kelly) - there once hung a Viking head medallion that was probably four or five feet in diameter. The medallion was taken down when the pond was being rehabbed a decade or so ago by Judy Maciolli (now Judy Kelly and teaching with us again). For a year or so the medallion sat and aged outside before I rolled it into my room where it sat for a while longer before I passed it along to our tech folks who rebuilt the sign and trimmed the head from the medallion. Lot 1153 is all that seems to have survived of that medallion. That makes me really sad, though I have to admit that I passed it along and didn't follow it enough to complain.

Lot 566 is the only one that really tempts me to dive into the bidding. That would look pretty sweet hanging in...on my...next to...

I have no idea where I would hang a four-foot Viking head that doesn't even follow the branding guidelines.

So, does anybody want to buy my memories?

Veterans Day Memories

Veterans Day Memories

Reposting from 2006

The picture shows a Cub Scout placing flags at the gravestones in the New Albany National Cemetery, my home town. It's one of one-hundred twenty-three national cemeteries, but it's the one that's clearly closest to my heart.

It was across the street from my elementary school, diagonal from my junior high, and probably three blocks from my high school. I spent many a time walking along the walls of the cemetery or walking beside them instead of on the walls when, for a time, I would choose to express deference toward those fallen and intered there. I never remember playing through the cemetery as I remember some friends doing, and the rare cuts through the cemetery were always oddly solomn for me, even though it wasn't anything resembling a spooky cemetery. There were nice, huge, old trees here and there, but the world was just outside the low walls, and nothing every was scary there to me.

And in 1991 my grandfather, a veteran of two American wars, was intered there. It is ther first funeral that I'd been through, and it just might still be the only one I've been through. He lived to a ripe of age - seventy-two - and certainly didn't die as any result of his service time, but it was comforting for the few years after that when I still lived in New Albany to know that I could stop by and see his gravesite at any time, nestled there among the rows and rows of identical headstones marking the graves of so many veterans and their families.

Today is Veterans Day, a time to remember how much has been given to us for what our country is today. No matter your feelings for the policies of the current administration - and mine are often negative - no matter whether you believe in the conflicts into which our current military men and women are being sent, remember to honor them for their sacrifice. Without those sacrifices, our country would not be what it is today.

Take a minute to thank a veteran today. Visit him or her. Stop by a memorial - the Chris Dyer memorial. Or simply pause your assuredly hectic life for a moment and thank them silently.

To know more about the New Albany National Cemetery, see any of these links:

• Wikipedia's brief entry for it
• National Cemetery Administration's information page

Thanks, Grandpa...
Thanks, Chris...
Thanks each of you...

34 years ago today...

Songs of Death

Astride a pale horse... from PHSChemGuy on 8tracks Radio.

No reason here, no worries...just looking for good playlists.

Songs of Death from 8Tracks

The one we will miss most

Wonderful remembrance piece about Adam Yauch, the celebrity passing from 2012 that most mattered to me.

Check, check, check it out...

A great man has left us...

Today Charles Durning let slip this mortal coil.

We are all the richer for his having been with us as long as he was.

He was a spectacular actor and an even greater man.

From his wikipedia bio...

Durning served in the U.S. Army during World War II. Drafted at age 21, he was first assigned as a rifleman with the 398th Infantry Regiment, and later served overseas with the 3rd Army Support troops and the 386th Anti-aircraft Artillery (AAA) Battalion. For his valor and the wounds he received during the war, Durning was awarded the Silver Star and three Purple Heart medals. 

Durning participated in the Normandy Invasion of France on D-Day, June 6, 1944, and was among the first troops to land at Omaha Beach. In Episode S03E09 of the program Dinner for Five, which also included Burt Reynolds, Dom DeLuise and Charles Nelson Reilly, Reynolds spoke about Durning's service career for him, as Durning did not like to talk about it much. Reynolds revealed that Durning was in a group of gliders who overshot their landing zone and that he had to fight alone all the way back to the beach. Reynolds also stated that his own father was there fighting about 15 yards away and that Durning was probably the most decorated veteran (then) still alive from World War II. Some sources state that he was with the 1st Infantry Division at the time, but it is unclear if he served as a rifleman or as a member of one of the division's artillery battalions. 

Durning was wounded by a German “S” Mine on June 15, 1944 at Les Mare des Mares, France. He was transported to the 24th Evacuation Hospital. By June 17 he was back in England at the 217th General Hospital. Although severely wounded by shrapnel in the left and right thighs, the right hand, the frontal region of the head, and the anterior left chest wall, Durning recovered quickly and was determined to be fit for duty on December 6, 1944. He arrived back at the front in time to take part in the Battle of the Bulge, the German counter-offensive through the Ardennes Forest of Belgium and Luxembourg in December 1944. 

After being wounded again, this time in the chest, Durning was returned to the United States. He remained in Army hospitals to receive treatment for wounds until being discharged with the rank of Private First Class on January 30, 1946. 

He was nominated for an Emmy Award for his portrayal of a Marine veteran in "Call of Silence," an episode of the television series NCIS, first broadcast November 23, 2004. Drawing on his first-hand knowledge of the lingering effects of battle-induced stress, Durning's character turns himself in to authorities, insisting that he must be prosecuted for having murdered his buddy during ferocious combat on Iwo Jima six decades earlier. The real truth of the incident only becomes known for certain when the guilt-stricken veteran goes through a cathartic reliving of the battlefield events. 

Durning was known for participating in various functions to honor American veterans. He was the chairman one year of the U.S. National Salute to Hospitalized Veterans. He was an honored guest speaker at the National Memorial Day Concert for many years, televised by PBS every year on the Sunday evening of Memorial Day weekend. 

In April 2008 Durning received the National Order of the Legion of Honor from the French consul in Los Angeles, awarded to those who served with distinction in France. During the ceremony, Durning spoke about his wartime experiences.

I've offered Durning a tribute before, but many of the videos have left YouTube, so I thought I would update things.

Two moving years

XKCD is spectacular. If you're not following along, you're missing out on the absolute best thing on the internet.

Yes, it's got its 'your mom' jokes and its pure geekiness and also stunning visual presentations of information, but it's also got heart-wrenching moments of emotion as raw and moving as anything else on the web - or anywhere.

This past Friday's comic was another example of that...

Background after the jump and partially thanks to Neatorama...

A dark day remembered

Part 2 of WKRP in Cincinnati's "In Concert" episode

In Concert Part 2 by giebergoldfarb

Part 1 of WKRP in Cincinnati's "In Concert" episode

In Concert Part 1 by giebergoldfarb

If you need to learn more about the events...

• Wikipedia
• CrowdSafe.com
• Entertainment Weekly
• Cincinnati Enquirer's website

The fall...just the tough parts

It's been a rough fall to be a pet around Casa de Chemguy.

Late last year the vet found a lump inside LeRoy's mouth. A few weeks later we had the lump surgically removed and sent away for biopsy. The results came back saying that the lump was malignant melanoma, something that could be particularly aggressive when found in dogs' mouths. We headed onward, at our vet's recommendation, to see a local veterinary oncologist and began a series of vaccine shots - three or four over a course of a couple of months - that would effectively prevent the melanoma from returning.

At the first examination with Dr Harris - the oncologist - an x-ray also revealed that LeRoy had a lung tumor. We decided to treat the typically more aggressive melanoma first and then begin treatments toward the lung tumor after getting the melanoma under control. At LeRoy's three-month check-up from the final melanoma vaccine, we began chemotherapy treatment for the lung tumor. A week or so after that treatment, LeRoy began declining food. Two weeks later we returned for his second chemotherapy shot and told Dr Harris about the food issue. She saw that LeRoy was showing hunger - he took dog treats at the vet, something he rarely ever did - and suggested changing food. We were growing concerned and started trying him on a rice and hamburger diet with little success.

We took LeRoy to the vet a few times over those last three or so weeks, and each time they offered us a series of attempts at remedies - treating diarrhea, nausea, stomach upset. LeRoy - my first dog, my loving boy - finally passed away on his own on the morning of August 16, my first student day back at school this year.

...

About two weeks ago, then, Ayla - our cat - began to have some problems jumping up onto our dining room chairs and then onto the table. She was also holding her back left leg out oddly and limping around. We took her to the vet and got the diagnosis of cancer a day later. That was a Wednesday, and we had her on a chemotherapy drug by Friday. By Friday evening she was jumping back onto a chair and onto the table to eat her evening treat of moist cat food. That Saturday morning, though, she was unable to walk, unable to put any weight on her leg, and we took her back to the vet.

The tumor had weakened her femur badly enough that the bone had broken overnight. The only treatment available was to amputate her leg, so after some tears, The Girl and I left her with the vet for a hopeful Saturday surgery. The surgery was a few days later as they wanted to run fluids through her and make sure her kidneys were fully functioning before beginning her on anesthetic. On Tuesday evening, then, The Girl picked up our now three-legged cat.

Saturday morning - two days ago now - we took the cat back to the vet for a checkup. She still has another week before the stitches can be removed, but her missing leg is healing well, the wound fully sealed up now. On Saturday then she even stood up on her one back leg and pawed at the gate - we have her locked in the bathroom, held back by baby gate for the first couple of weeks of her rehab - trying to get out to us.

All signs are encouraging, and we can sure use some encouraging pet news around here.

Sheesh...

Nearly a century gone

Thanks to 5chw4r7z for posting today about the 98th anniversary of the passing of the last passenger pigeon, Martha, at the Cincinnati Zoo.

I didn't know that, as 5chw4r7z posted, the last Carolina parakeet died in the same aviary four years later.

Sadness part 5

From NPR...

Sadness part 4

From Esquire...

Sadness part 3

From iconicphotos...

Sadness continues...

From flickr...

Sadness...

Apparently Randal's actuarial tables weren't quite right...

Very sad to see that Neil Armstrong passed away today.

No picture today

Today's This Day in History didn't put me in a particularly artistic mood, so I avoided drawing anything.

I remember hearing about the Carrolton Bus Crash when I was in middle school. It's been 24 years since the horrific collision, and I see the signs every time I drive back to New Albany.

I wish the survivors of the crash well and am thankful that improved bus safety design came about because of the tragic event.

Sadness

Very saddened to hear that Adam 'MCA' Yauch passed away today.



Looks like I won't ever get to that NYC concert.

Thanks for all that you gave us. You'll be missed.

Laiki remembered

On this day in 1957 the Russian space agency sent a dog into space. Laika, that dog, became the first animal successfully sent into space, but she did not return. The Russians never intended for her to return but rather for her to pass away aboard Sputnik 2 once she had given her life to research that would eventually lead to humans successfully entering and returning from space.

Today, 54 years later, we remember Laika.

If you get a chance, take a read of Laika, a gorgeous graphic novel about Laika and her handlers. The book is warm and engaging, heart wrenching and hopeful. It's a spectacular tale beautifully told.

My life, simplified

Thanks to the math department for sharing today's video.