Unusual Pottery

Boo attended a white elephant party a few weeks ago, and came home with this unusual pottery set.  I'm trying to find information on it.  If you know, feel free to send me in the right direction. 

Hugs,
Melinda

The Kindness Elves

A few days ago, I mentioned that we were going to be adding a new tradition to our Elf on a Shelf routine.  I mentioned the Kindness Elves.  And then I didn't take the time to explain them very well.

Kindness Elves are similar to EotS in that they will visit every December.  But they are different in that they will be teaching about kindness and giving and the "spirit" of the season, rather than run around and make messes, like a certain little ....

Anyway, I first read about the Kindness Elves over here at The Educator's Spin On It.  I think I was hooked when they mentioned that one of their friends had the Kindness Elves teaching the Elf on the Shelf to be kind. 

Then, because I tend to forget all the really good ideas, we used a printable calendar to write down everything our elves will be doing this month, and we used quite a few of the ideas found at The Imagination Tree.  If I find the calendar, I'll come back and link up to it as well.

Okay, so now I need to add pictures.  Cause a picture is worth a thousand words, and otherwise, I'll talk your ear off.  Pictures!


Like I said, we wrote all of our plans out on the calendar.  I'm actually pretty excited that we're this well organized.  (By we, I mean Boo and myself.  Dale doesn't like to play.)

The Kindness Elves arrived Sunday morning.  Little Bit named them, and did a really good job.  They are named Hope and Joy.  Another difference is that she can pick these elves up.

 

 Today's job is to make a book bag for one of her friends.  You can find the exact "mission" at The Educator's Spin.  But Hope and Joy made Crystal a book to read.  It's called "How to be a Kindness Elf."

 

 On the inside, you can see Rule 1 is Don't make a mess.  Rule 2 is Use Polite Words please.

 

 

I can tell you that the kindness elves seem to be a hit, and I'm really glad we decided to add them in this year.  Oh, another thing I like is that the children have a choice on if they are going to follow the mission or not.  It's not a have to thing.  It's a teachable moment, and it's precious.

 

Hugs,

Melinda

Day 7 and Day 8

Yesterday's challenge was "changes to come." That is a very challenging category, because while there are a lot of changes happening and a lot of changes coming, they are very hard to photograph.

So I present to you, my personal change, the hardest number I have ever seen. A number I hope to change soon.

Also, today's challenge is "routine." I wonder if my current routine is the cause of my needing to change my numbers. I'm going to be adding a different routine soon to help that number go down.

Until then,
Hugs,
Melinda

Photograpy Challenge - Day 6

Today's theme was "Obsession."  I was a little bit worried about this, because I'm not really "obsessed" with anything.  I wasn't sure what I was going to photographer. 

We went out as a family today, and ended up at a bookstore.  So imagine my excitement when I saw this book just waiting for me!

 

That's awesome!  Cause it means I don't have to take any more "obsession" pictures right?

 

Then we stopped at a different store, and I knew it.  I had taken the wrong picture.  This.  This is the picture of obsession that I needed to take.  This is obsession.

 

 



Happy Clicking!
Hugs,
Melinda

Elf on the Shelf

Yes, I caved.  We have an elf on the shelf.  We got it 2 years ago.  Little Bit named her "Crystal."  I have been trying to remember to take pictures, and I actually have quite a few from last year. 

But here are this year's adventures so far.  Boo and I actually sat down and planned out the whole month.  She arrived on December 1, and she's been getting into all kind of trouble.  We are actually going to be incorporating a new tradition this year with "Kindness elves."  They will be arriving Sunday.

Day 1 - Just a simple "I'm back," and she brought Push Pops for the girls.

 Day 2 - Someone had a little too much fun with the stickers.

Day 3 - She decided to go for a little climb. 

 

 Day 4 - It seems like she and the cat got into a little argument.

 

Day 5 - But she cleaned up the mess.  Sort of.

 

And made a new one.

 Day 6 - And right now, she's taking a little ride.

 

 

The good thing about all of these, none of them have taken very long at all.  The swing took the most time, but even that only took 10ish minutes instead of 5. 

 

I'm excited to add the Kindness Elves into our traditions.  I'll be adding the pictures as I get them.  I hope you enjoy the pictures!

 

Hugs,

Melinda

Photography Challenge: Days 1-5

I came across a 30 day photography challenge on Pinterest, and decided that I needed to participate.  I could only find the image, so I printed it off and I'm making my own challenge. 

Day 1 - Self Portrait.
I don't like taking pictures of myself, so I opted for a non-facial picture.

Day 2 - What you wore.
I almost forgot, so I took it first thing in the morning.

Day 3 - Clouds
The sunset was beautiful.  Cold, but beautiful.

Day 4 - Something green
Even though it's the Christmas season, I resisted taking a picture of the Christmas tree.




















Day 5 - After Dark
I like Christmas lights, so I ended up taking a picture of the tree after all. 

 

Tomorrow is "Obsession." I don't know what I'm going to take a picture of.  Turtles maybe?

 

Hugs,

Melinda

This is a test post

I'm trying out a new app to see if I can post from my windows phone. Hopefully this works.

 

And the answer is.... I can do it, but I can't edit photos.  So, it will work, but I'll need to be vigilant on editing my photos.  Good.

 

Hugs,

Melinda

Daddy's Stories

One of the things I'm trying to accomplish while in Nashville is to write down some of my dad's stories as he tells them.  At one point he had wanted to write a book about his experiences while a missionary in Nigeria.  His book was going to be titled "They still eat white people there." 

We're not making much progress. 

The other day, as he was flipping through the bazillion TV channels, he saw pictures of the Sahara Desert and he started talking.  This is the story he told me.

I flew from Amsterdam to Lagos, and flew across the Sahara.  I took all kinds of pictures.  I was amazed at the Sahara from above.  I got to Lagos and made it through customs.  We loaded Henry's trunk with the medicine that I was carrying, and started driving to the next terminal. 

We made it to the first roadblock.  He looked like he was a police officer, but with a sub-machine gun.  And you knew it was loaded.  He pointed to me and said, “What do you have in that?” pointing to me and the camera around my neck. 

“It’s my camera.” 

“What do you do with it?” 

“I take pictures with it.” 

“Let me see.” 

This is when I still worked with film.  I pulled out a part of the film strip and tore it off and said “See here?  You can’t see anything on them, and you’ve ruined those pictures.” 

He let me go. 

Right into the next roadblock.

 

 

I will try to post more stories as he tells them to me.  Until then.

Hugs,

Melinda

How is your dad doing?

So, I'm getting a lot of people asking the same question.  "How is your dad doing?"  You want to hear something crazy?  That's a loaded question and actually very hard to answer.

The first question I have is "what do you mean?"  Do you mean today?  How is he doing today?  Because he has good days and bad days.  He'll have a day where he is really strong and can walk pretty far, and he doesn't seem to be in any pain, and then the next day, he is wiped out and sits and sleeps all day.

If you want to go on a week by week basis, then this week seems to be better than last week.  When I left for Nashville, I was afraid I was headed to a funeral.  When he started running a fever last week, I wasn't sure that was very far in the future.  This week, I don't know.  He seems to be okay.

But if you go on a month to month basis, things start changing.  He is most assuredly a lot weaker than when I saw him in the spring.

How about a year to year comparison?  The man sitting in the recliner is not the dad I remember from my childhood. 

Don't misunderstand me.  He's still my daddy, and I still love him, but he is much changed. 

And it hurts.  It hurts to see him so sick and weak and unable to do some of the very basic things he needs to do.  In some ways, it's almost like taking care of a young child.  Only he's not my child.  He's my dad.

But I am here.  I will help however I can.  After all, he is my father, and he raised me.  It's the least I can do.

But how is my dad doing?  I don't know how to answer that anymore.

Hugs,
Melinda

Diabetes is a killer

Diabetes is a killer.  Quite the catchy title, isn't it.  But it is.  It's a killer.

My brother in law had Type 1 Diabetes.  According to my husband, he was drinking too much soda, and collapsed at football practice.  I might have the facts a bit incorrect, but the fact remains that he had Type 1 Diabetes.  He didn't take care of himself.  He didn't test his blood glucose levels often enough.  He drank lots of soda and ate M&Ms all the time.  He had kidney failure and did peritoneal dialysis.  He had heart problems.  He died in January of 2012.

My dad has Type 2 Diabetes.  He has kidney failure and received a kidney transplant in 2000.  He didn't take care of himself.  Ate out a lot, drank a lot of soda.  He didn't want to have a "cardboard" diet.  He has had at least 8 strokes.  He has been in rehab at least 3 times this year.  He has been in the hospital even more times.  He has had pneumonia caused by aspirations several times, this year which causes him to cough and cough to the point that his lips turn blue.  He is rapidly losing all of his strength. 

So why am I writing this?  Because I need to write out what I have learned.  You can not ignore your blood sugar levels.  You can not ignore your health.  You can eat what you want without consequences.  You can not ignore the doctors, the nurses, the dieticians, everyone trying to help you live a better and longer life. 

I am in Nashville helping my dad out for a while.  Which means I do things for my dad that he did for me when I was a kid.  Modesty has gone out the window.  I fix his dinner, I help him with his medicines, his insulin, his blood sugar monitoring.  I'm helping my sister breath a little.

Diabetes is an individual diagnosis, but it also affects the WHOLE family. 

If you are diagnosed, please, do your family a favor, and take care of yourself.

Hugs,
Melinda

Flying

On October 30, 2014, I flew from Kansas City to Nashville to be with my dad and my little sister.  This post was written on the flights.

It's been 15 years since I've flown anywhere, and yet this morning, I find myself on a plane to Nashville. I had hoped, no prayed for no turbulence. I am not certain if its normal or just a bit bumpy.

But my oh my. Kansas City looks like Christmas up here.

The lady in the seat next to me is asleep. Everyone has their light off. What else is there to do on a 6:30 am flight but sleep.

I'll see you in Chicago.

And yes, Little Bit, I did get to see the clouds up close.

Okay, after sitting in the first plane for about 35 minutes, I finally got off and raced through O'Hare Airport. Did you know that place is huge? But I have made it to the gate with about 5 minutes to spare.

On to Nashville!

Running through O'Hare made me hot and thirsty. I hope the flight attendant brings water soon.

So I remember why I don't normally fly. It feels an awful lot like riding in a big bus. Only I can't look out the front window. And sometimes the road gets really bumpy. And there's not enough room.

The really interesting thing is the descent. Little Bit learned about gravity on the space station this week. "You're really falling like the space station so it feels like you're floating." The descent feels like that. Floating. 

The difference between economy and first class is negotiable. From here it looks like bigger seats, and maybe more attention but otherwise, not worth the money.

Flying has many benefits: mainly that it gets you there faster.  But I don't think I'll be flying again anytime soon.  I like my feet on the ground.  But mainly, because I miss these guys.

Hugs,
Melinda

 

Post 600!

I was coming on here to write a post about how life has gotten in the way of my 31 day challenge, and that I will be back on it as soon as I get about an hour to sit down and write.  I noticed that my very next post, this post, is post #600!

So, Life is in the way.  And this is post #600.  And I'll come back soon.  Hopefully tomorrow.  Until then....

Hugs,
Melinda

Cool Spy Gadgets

First off, I must apologize if this post seems a bit disjointed and rambling.  I'm trying to write while watching game 4 of the ALCS.  I hope that the Royals can sweep the series and head to the World Series.  The Playoffs have been fabulous to watch.

Okay, back to the CIA and spy gadgets.

When you think of spy gear, what do you think of?  Lipstick guns?  Microfilm?  Bugs and microphones?  I believe that one of the reasons that spy novels and tv shows and movies is because it is somewhat grounded in reality.  We love to pretend that these things actually exist and that we would recognize them if we ever saw them.



Pigeon Camera
 

Letter Removal Device

What would you say if I told you they do exist?

In the exhibits of both the International Spy Museum and the CIA Museum, you will find all sorts of gadgets and gear used by covert operatives in the field. 

One of the most interesting is the Insectothopter.  It was built to resemble a dragonfly, and it had a listening device built into it.  Here is a video of it's test flight.


From concealed compasses, to robotic fish, it seems like the CIA thought of it all.  I have spent about an hour just browsing the pictures on the CIA website and on their Flickr account.  I only wish I knew the stories that go with the pictures.

Can you imagine the story behind this hollowed out coin?
 

Hugs,
Melinda

This post is part of a 31 day writing challenge.  Find all my posts here.

Going Dark

This is part of a 31 day challenge.  Find all the other posts here.  

My husband and I were watching a movie the other day, and the director decided that he needed the operations room to "go dark."  I don't know what that phrase means, and since my mom's favorite phrase was "look it up," that's what today's post is all about.

According to UrbanDictionary.com it is a "slang term in the intelligence world which means you go silent.  You don't speak or communicate with anyone for a given period or time.  It is a way of protecting yourself from someone who would do you harm."

There was also an interesting answer on this page that appears to be from someone who has used it before: "Going dark is a Military term we used quite a bit in the Marine Corps Infantry when I was in. It means "Radio silence" driving "black out" with no lights and basically incognito and stealth mode. I use it nowadays when I let people know I am cutting off my cell phone so they won't try and contact me."


All of which makes this story extremely interesting.  Especially since finding the article that it references was slightly difficult.  Apparently, the CIA has "gone dark" in Europe.


My other question is what are "black ops?"  I can guess what it is, but like I said before, my mom always told me to look it up for myself.


According to Wikipedia, a black operation is a covert or clandestine operation, and according to this page, the CIA is the one that "must lead covert operations unless the president finds that another agency should do so and properly informs the Congress."  Their authority to do so comes from the National Security Act of 1947.  You know?  The Act that officially established the CIA.

One last thing.  The National Clandestine Service is an arm of the CIA that performs the "black ops" for the CIA.

"Bond.  James Bond."

And let's not forget about everyone's favorite black op agent.  Because I mean really.  What else is he if he's not a black op?

Okay, this is EXTREMELY interesting to me.  I couldn't remember who James Bond works for.  (Is it MI5?  MI6?  What's the name of the agency?) Well, my search lead me to this article of the literary character written by Ian Fleming.  Apparently, Mr. Fleming wrote Bond as a Secret Service agent.  I guess I'm going to have to get one of the novels and find out for myself.

Until Then,
Hugs,
Melinda

Stars on the Wall

I love my husband.  I really do.  He is very supportive and encouraging.  Even when I don't want him to be.  *sigh*  We were talking about how I thought I should stop posting information about the CIA, how I had written my last post, and how I was going to move forward from here. 

I was bouncing ideas off of him, because I just knew that I was going to start over.  Some of my ideas were 31 Ordinary Days, 31 Names of God, 31 Smartphone Photos, 31 Days of Homeschooling, 31 Recipes I actually use, and so on and so forth.  I'm putting them here, so that I can find them for the challenge next year.  Who knows?  I might even just do one or two before then.

Because the love of my life has convinced me I need to keep going.  That I'm not writing for anyone but myself.  That I don't have to include ALL the information I find.  That I need to finish.

I hate it when he's right.

So, here is the next installment in my 31 Days series.  You can find my other posts here, including my "last" post.

The stars are real.

If you watch enough shows or read enough books about the CIA, eventually you will come across mention of the memorial wall.  It's real.  It's a part of the legend and lore of the CIA.

As of this moment, there are 111 stars engraved on this wall.  Each represents a fallen CIA officer.  Each represents a name.  A story.  A family.

Underneath the stars is a book.  The Book of Honor, it's called.  If the star on the wall is attached to a name that can be known, it's actually listed in The Book.  Otherwise, there is simply a gold star.

 



One thing I learned is that the size of this book has been changed.  In 2004, it went from about 25 inches by 9 inches to almost double that at 20 inches by 30 inches.

The stars on the wall are there as a memorial, a reminder, that the fight against evil and terrorism is real.  That there are people out there who want to see the United States of America fall.  That there are people out there who fight them. 

I have a picture of the memorial service for my uncle.  In it, I can see my aunt, my cousins, my grandparents sitting next to the Director.  On the other side of the picture, I see the flower arrangements, and the stars. 

They are very real.  They are a part of our story. 

Hugs,
Melinda

Too much information ...

There's just too much information....  Or there's simply not enough. 

Aldrich Ames was a double agent convicted of selling secrets to Russia.

The CIA has been portrayed in books, in film, on TV, and in video games.

The agency is known for having a multitude of cool gadgets and unique tools for getting the job done.

I have all these things that I want to read about and research and write, and yet, I also feel like I don't have enough.  At least, not enough to put into a 31 day series.  There is more.  Much more. 

And yet, I feel like I don't have enough words for it all.

I think I am going to stop this "series."  I'm not stopping my research and I'm not stopping my novel idea.  I'm simply putting a halt to including it on my blog. 

That's not really what this blog is about anyway.

If you've been with me this long, I want to say thank you.  I appreciate the 1700+ views that this post brought.  I appreciate learning how to make buttons, and link pictures, and how to somewhat plan for a 31 day series.  Thank you for your time, and your interest.  I greatly appreciate it.

Hugs,
Melinda

The start of my search

This post is part of a 31 day writing challenge. Find all my other posts here.

I'm going to be honest here.  99.9% of all my research this month is online.  I homeschool, and we have one vehicle.  Getting to the library every time I want to is not going to happen as often as I want.  So I do online searches.  There are sites that I trust, and sites that I stay away from; WikiLeaks being the first one in that list.  (I hesitate to even mention the name.)

I'm sort of stuck on content for a blog post today, so I thought I would put up a whole bunch of links about my uncle that I've read through and used as a jumping off point.  I'm going to do my best to give a brief summary of what is contained in each, but please remember these are not my works.  I'm simply passing them on.

Arlington Cemetery - This one pops up almost always first.  It seems to be a collection of press releases and stories that appear no where else.  It's an interesting read if you can get all the way to the end.  This is where I started my search.

Wikipedia - I use this one simply to remember dates.  As you can see, it's missing quite a lot.

The Baltimore Sun - This one is interesting, because it's pretty much the only one out there I've seen that said President Clinton "approved a CIA operation."

The Los Angeles Times - This one starts off with the fact that James Woolsey retrieved his body.  But I never noticed before today that it also states Freddie was "a U.S. diplomat acknowledged by Clinton Administration officials to be a CIA operative."

RefWorld - This one is interesting.  It's about the start of Michael Pullara's efforts to reopen the case and try to get Sharmaidze released.  It does seem to be connected to the UN Refugee Agency, but I don't know how.

The Baltimore Sun, part 2 - This one goes more into the politics of the time, and starts to explore the connections between the CIA, Shevardnadze, the KGB, and Russia.

The New York Times - One last one.  This is pretty much the same as the Baltimore Sun and the Los Angeles Time.

Hopefully tomorrow, I won't have writer's block.
Hugs,
Melinda

The Farm

There are not too many TV shows or movies about the CIA that don't mention "The Farm" in some way or another.  The one I've seen most recently was The Recruit with Al Pacino.

That made me wonder what exactly is "The Farm?"  It should be perfect for 31 days of random CIA facts.  Right?

The most interesting thing I've seen, or not seen, is the lack of information.  There is a lot of speculation, but nothing definitive.

But let's start with the basics.

The rumor is that the CIA maintains a clandestine training facility at Camp Peary in Virginia.  Okay, so let's learn more about Camp Peary.  Would you like to see a map?

It was initially used as a Seabee training facility during WWII.  Also during it's formation, the residents of the towns of Magruder and Bigler's Mill had to relocate, which is interesting to me, because apparently the town of Magruder was an established community for freedmen after the Civil War.  Camp Peary was also apparently used as a POW camp for German soldiers.

There are approximately 9,000 acres, lots of fresh water, and lots of wildlife.  It has also been closed to the public since 1952.

So, those are the "known" facts.  You can look up just about any of those and confirm them.

How about some speculation, then, since we do not know all the facts.

I'm going to start by linking to all the articles where I found this information.  I would dearly love to do more in depth research and get my hands on physical copies, but I just don't have the time or the resources right now. 

Wikipedia Article on Camp Peary
Source Watch article on Camp Peary
Eyeballing Camp Peary
eHow article on CIA Training
Daily Press news article from 1994 - This one is the one I found the most interesting and the one that I would like to chase down every lead and article it mentions.  This was a good article to read.

Going through these articles, I have a brief timeline of supposed reports.

In 1964, Camp Peary officials reached out to the Daily Press to reassure area residents that nothing improper or unsafe was being conducted by the river or the woods.  That the camp was a training camp in experimental war techniques.  (Daily Press)

In 1970, a former operative, Bill Wagner attends a 3 week interrogation course, that he describes as the "premier course."  Attendees take the roles of interrogators and the interrogated.  Supposedly, this course was dropped after the Watergate scandal.  (The Atlantic via Wikipedia)

In 1972, The Virginia Gazette reports that CIA officers are being trained as assassins, and quotes former agents saying "experimental" training includes hand held nuclear devices, such as a backpack bomb.  (Wikipedia, Daily Press). A "high-ranking CIA official ended up calling the Washington division of the Richmond Times Dispatch to deny the claim and say that it was nonsense that they trained assassins.  (Daily Press)

In 1984, three game wardens were able to breach security in order to ticket six hunters with improper hunting without launching any alarms.  (Daily Press)

In 2005, airplanes are regularly seen taking off and landing at the airstrip.  Flight plans include Guantanamo Bay.   (Eyeballing)

So what goes on at "the farm?"

According to former operatives, this is a basic operations course.  There is Weapons and Explosives, Driving, Navigation and Parachuting, and Tradecraft, which includes tailing, breaking and entering, bugging, drop offs, and report writing.  (eHow)

And according to the Daily Press:

"What else goes on there is pure speculation and area folklore."

Hugs,
Melinda

Russian Politics and a Bit of History

I really have been doing a lot of research into this, even though I haven't posted a whole lot of information.  I have gotten to the point that I feel I really need to spend some time on the politics and the history of Russia before I can move on.  After all, this 31 day challenge was really just a starting point for me, for my research and the novel I hope will come from it eventually.

I will freely admit, that most of the information I have gathered tonight has been from (insert sarcasm here) the ever reliable source of Wikipedia, but silly me, I forgot and closed links before I could connect to them.  However, I did go to the library tonight to get physical books to research this better than an hour long session with the internet.  See?

A little light reading

So Russian politics and history.  First I want to say that even though Russia is one of the oldest countries with a wonderful and rich history, the Russia that we know today hasn't actually been around that long. 

On March 17, 1991, there was a Referendum on the future of the Soviet Union.  In plain English, a question was put before the voters about what should the USSR look like in the future.  This was the question

Do you consider necessary the preservation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics as a renewed federation of equal sovereign republics in which the rights and freedom of an individual any nationality will be fully guaranteed?

With over 80% voter turnout, the referendum was overwhelmingly passed with 70% approval.  (I wish we could get that kind of voter turnout in America.)

So what went wrong?

Well, 6 republics boycotted the vote.  Armenia, Estonia, Georgia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Moldova.  And in doing so, they effectively seceded from the USSR.  And in the first part of December 1991, the Ukraine also declared itself an independent republic.

Mikhail Gorbachev resigned as president of the USSR on December 25, 1991, and the USSR dissolved shortly after, leaving the country of Russia in it's place with Boris Yeltsin as the president of the brand new country.

So then, in January of 1992, Yeltsin tried to privatize the Russian economy in most industries and agriculture.  The notable exceptions were in energy and defense.  Guess where most of the profit in the Russian economy comes from?  If you were to guess energy and defense, you would be right.

In April of 1993, there was another referendum held.  Four questions were asked of the Russian people.  Pardon me, but I don't have the exact language in front of me.  It was did they have confidence in Yeltsin, did they support his socio-economic policies, and should they have early elections for both the president and parliament.  The congress wanted Yeltsin to have 50% of the electorate in order for this referendum to pass, but the constitutional court said he only had to have a simple majority. All 4 parts passed with a majority vote.

My uncle Freddie was killed on August 8, 1993.  I simply put that here for a time line reference.

Because the referendum passed, Yeltsin started demanding more power.  The Congress of People's Deputies and the Supreme Soviet said no.  Yeltsin decided to dissolve them on September 21, 1993.  On September 22, the Supreme Soviet said you can't do that, we're going to impeach you, and then declared Rutskoy as president.

On October 2, Yeltsin had the military surround the parliament building and basically kicked everyone out.  This set off a string of street fighting that has been labeled as the "deadliest single event of street fighting since 1917."  Which, if you didn't know, is when the Bolsheviks overthrew the Russian Tsar.  He and his family were eventually all killed, and the legend of Anastasia was born.

But I digress.

Actually, that's as far as I got in my research for tonight. 

It's really hard to remember that Russia is basically a new country and still experiencing growing pains, because it is also an old country with a rich history.  Tonight, just for a moment, I want to consider the theory that not only is Russia, Latvia, Lithuania, and all of the other "new" countries that were established in 1991 are still experiencing their own growing pains, could we consider the thought that perhaps Freddie was a casualty, perhaps one of the last casualties of the Cold War?

I don't know.  There is a lot of information, and I have a really hard time understanding politics in our own country, let alone a foreign country.

But I'm adding it to my bank of knowledge, and my file of "interesting thoughts to have."

If you've read this far, I thank you.  If you are interested in reading more of this series, find all my other posts here.  I'm not normally this longwinded, but I had to make sense of what I was reading.  If you want a more lighthearted post, may I suggest this one?  There is a recipe for Elephant Stew.

Dasvidania,
Melinda