good talk

You guys are tough, you can take it. Alexander Lebed distinguished himself as the Russian Commander of the Tula Paratroop Division during the War in Afghanistan. A big, beefy guy who had been one of the Russians' Heavyweight Boxers, the Russians often preferred guys as their Generals who looked like they could leap in and start doing it themselves. During the attempted Communist Coup of 1991 the 3-Star General Lebed was ordered to use tanks against the Government of Mikhail Gorbachev, he refused. No admirer of Communism, his own father had been thrown in jail for being Late to Work. In reference to the Communists' lip service to Everybody being Equal to Everybody Else, Lebed said, "It's Ridiculous to say that a Corporal is Equal to a General." Resigning from the Army Lebed ran for the Presidency of Russia in 1996, held in wide Public Esteem and thought to be Uncorruptible in Contrast to about Everybody Else, Lebed finished third with 14.5% of the Vote. In the Run-Off 2 weeks later between the incumbent Boris Yeltsin and the Communist Gennady Zyuganov, Lebed threw his support behind Yeltsin gaining him the Presidency. But later that year Lebed and Yeltsin had a falling out resulting in Lebed deriding Yeltsin as "A Sick Old Man," and saying of the Presidency of Russia, "I will have it." Unusually Prescient, a Year before the Russian Stock Market Crash, Lebed said, "There's supposed to be forty million Stock-Holders in Russia, in Reality there's forty million Fools." In 1998 Lebed was Elected as the Governor of Krasnoyarsk Krai, the 2nd largest Russian Province, as he bided his time. On April 28, 2002 Alexander Lebed was killed in a Helicopter Crash, he was "52." As soon as I Heard that Lebed had been killed and how he had died I knew that he had been Murdered. Alexander Ivanovich was a Good Man and the World Can Use More of Those.

good talk

Scratch what I said about Erin, you just can't be nice to some people including all of you, Finito Benito. The day before my Wallet was temporarily taken I checked into a modest hotel in Panama City and had a conversation with a couple of Protestant Ministers who were Missionaries there. One was a young White Guy and the other was an older Black Guy. I was in my room for an hour and I heard a knock on the door and they asked me if I wanted to go to dinner with them. So we did and when the Check arrived the older Black Guy said that he had just gotten a check and that he would cover it, so that was quite nice. The next day before I went to see the Miraflores Lock I gave the Black Missionary a ten dollar bill for their Ministry (it doesn't sound too generous to me either) and he got all excited by it and was praying over it, easily pleased it was just a Sawbuck. I think that's what saved my wallet, how often is a thief going to run in between 2 Undercover Detectives ? With all the Sin there is there it'd be a Gold Mine for a Missionary. I eventually did take the bus to the Lock that day and saw the Workings of the Panama Canal, they give you a brief lecture on what's going on and then you go outside and you can see the Ships passing through. We acquired the Virgin Islands in 1917 specifically to protect the Panama Canal. Our lease ran out several years ago but it's been business as usual, the Canal can't handle the biggest of today's ships but it does all right. Eh, all tapped out, you people wear me out.

good talk

Erin and I can go out sometime, get a Good Feed, walk it off, maybe do something else, We could have done this 5 years ago, you TV Folk have to make a Big Production out of everything. Erin is very dear to me. I see where Erin's birthday is St. Patrick's Day hence her name, I won't be around so Happy Birthday. I've been over a good portion of Ireland both North and South and yes, I've kissed the Blarney Stone. The Irish are amongst the nicest of People, I'm not Irish and that's how they treat me. I was feeling down yesterday while pondering my association with you people, I went to see "the Reader," I thought it was well done, it was really sad and a few times I felt tears welling-up in my eyes, after I came out I felt better. You people think I'm a Barrel of Laughs and your obvious concern for myself never ceases to move me. One of the People who Bill Clinton pardoned during his last few days in Office was a Hispanic who was in Prison for Moving 800 pounds of Cocaine, Bill thought that this Poor Oppressed Man should be Returned to the Community. 18 years ago I was in Panama City, Panama, a wild and wooly place. I went and saw Panama Viejo, sacked and burned by the buccaneer Henry Morgan in 1671 you can see the burned-out remnants it's real interesting, "Riches and Glory Lost Forever." One of the places that Francis Drake waited for passing Spanish Treasure Ships was Acapulco Bay, the Spanish called him "El Drage," the Dragon. After I saw Panama Viejo I wanted to go see the Workings of the Panama Canal and they have a Section set aside for tourists to do this at the Miraflores Lock. I always like to travel the way the people do so I went to their bus depot for local buses to take the Bus to the Miraflores Lock. A Black Guy, many of the Locals are these, saw me looking around and approached me and asked me where I was going, I told him and he said you get it over here so I followed him a little ways, then he said that he was hungry and asked me for some money. I said sure, I'll give you $3, they used our Currency in Panama and you could buy twice the amount of food for the dollar, he'd be hungry no more. So I pulled out my wallet and took a $5 bill out and said let's go to that bakery and get change. This guy in an instance grabbed my Wallet and started running with it almost like a football player with a ball, I was carrying a heavy bag and was taken so by suprise that he was really getting away. So I screamed, "Bandidos! Policia!" (I had seen a Grade C Western when I was a little boy and somebody yelled that when he saw the Outlaws coming over the Ridge towards the Town, I had waited many years to work this into Conversation). There were probably 3 thousand people in this densely-packed area around the Bus Depot and nobody tried to stop this guy as he ran with my wallet until after he had run 30 yards he ran in between 2 guys one of whom lunged at him from the one side while the other guy lunged at the thief from the other side, I thought, huh, he's not gonna get away. These two struggled with the thief for about 30 seconds trying to contain him but with no success so finally one of them broke free from the fray, pulled out his pistol and fired a shot into the air to let the thief, and the thousands watching, know that they meant business. The thief stopped his struggle, in the commotion I had dropped the $5 bill, it's not like anybody returned it. The Policemen had the thief and myself and a Cop who had arrived on the Scene sit in the back of a pick-up to go to the Judicial Court. The thief tried to convince the Cop that he was only making a Political Statement, that I was a Yankee and Deserved This. At the Courthouse (how much was in my wallet? $160) within half an hour of our Arrival the thief was Sentenced to 6 Months in Jail (I sent a postcard to my brother Bob saying that I don't think they have much of a backlog of Criminal Cases in Panama). As the thief was being taken away he said to me (unlike most Panamanians he spoke good English), "I'm sorry about that, but I'm still hungry." I said, "You should have taken the $3." Behind Door Number One is $160, Behind Door Number Two is 6 Months in Jail.

good talk

You Hard-Core Losers are dragging me down with You. I've been to Plains, Georgia which is where Jimmy Carter lives. It amounts to very little, it's like Johnson City, Texas which always was depicted as a thriving small town when LBJ was President, when I was there long ago there was hardly anything there. There's Jimmy's estate with a sign on the rusty fence bordering the road stating "Keep on Moving." I thought that I saw Jimmy drive out. There's the Peanut Warehouse and there's Billy's Gas Station and I went inside. They still sell "Billy Beer" there and you can buy some for a bloated price. When Jimmy was told that his brother Billy had Registered as a Lobbyist for Libya that was the only time that anyone heard Jimmy take the Lord's Name in vain. If anybody should be in the Baseball Hall of Fame it's Roger Maris, they have the Roger Maris Museum in a mall in Fargo, North Dakota and I've been to that, it's real good. From Fargo, the last I heard Roger Maris held the national high school record for kick-off returns for touchdowns in a single game, it was 6 or something, a lot. Oklahoma under Bud Wilkinson was a great powerhouse in the 50's and recruited Roger Maris. Roger took the Greyhound (that's called takin' a dog, the modern Greyhound is seven-eighths Greyhound and one-eighth English Bulldog for strength, I've been to the Greyhound Museum in Abilene, Kansas and that's real good, they have a current Greyhound Champion to greet people and an old, retired Champion who does nothing but lay on a big pillow) to Norman, Oklahoma but when there was no one to meet him he turned around and went back home and began his baseball career. Roger Maris was a 2-time American League MVP and bettered Babe Ruth's record of 60 Home Runs in a Season with 61 in 1961 when he was also with the Yankees. People despised Roger for breaking Babe Ruth's record pointing out that he did this in a 162 game season whereas Babe Ruth did his 60 in a 154 game season, they neglect to point out that Roger did his 61 in fewer at-bats than Babe Ruth did his 60. Persecuted as an Evil Man for the rest of his life for having the temerity to do as well as he possibly could during the 1961 Season, Roger Maris died from Cancer when he was "52." You held the Major League Record for Home Runs in a Season for 37 years and were twice the American League Most Valuable Player but you're not in the Baseball Hall of Fame? The Thinking in this Country has been askew for quite some Time and Things are so bad Today that You're Better Off to be Old rather than Young.

good talk

I see where Bernadette Peters just turned "61." I saw her in "Gypsy" on Broadway about 6 years ago, in one Scene she's sitting with some people in a Restaurant and She's taking the Silverware, "They Overcharge." I just saw in the Paper where the Illegitimacy Rate for Births in this Country is 38.5%, that's well over a third, and for Blacks it's 70% as it has been been for a long time. That's what's called Droppin' a Bastard. You know, just let it fly. Ha, ha, I notice that on my Birth Certificate it states that my Birth was Legitimate, good to know. My Mother said that she was only pregnant 3 times (me and my 2 Brothers). My Father was an only Child and My Grandmother said that she couldn't have any more, I told her So you made the Most of It (my Father's size), She seemed to think this was funny. In California they've declared a Drought Emmergency as it's lasted for Years now, this is entirely due to OVERPOPULATION, too many People using the Water. I see where in San Diego over a Quarter of the Mortgages on Houses have more to pay on them than what the House is Worth, that's called being "Upside Down." This Country has been in a Freefall for a long time and will hit Bottom more Sooner than Later, you're dragging me down with you and I'm not very Happy about this. Maybe You should Go See the Wizard, for What? For Everything. Emergency. You know what I really enjoy about watching TV, having Billy Mays Scream at me, I can't live without it. One of our Best Amateur Heavyweight Boxers is Mike Hunter, Jr. and I saw his father, Mike Hunter, also a Heavyweight fight about 15 years. A smallish Heavyweight with an unorthodox lunging style he was pretty good. I saw him fight Alexander Zolkin and win a Close Decision. I thought that Zolkin had won, it said in the Paper that afterwards Hunter went back to his Dressing Room and barfed and then Passed-Out giving weight to my opinion. Mike Hunter was shot to death a few years ago by the Police in a Drug Deal gone Bad, it always pains me to hear about a Game Lad being done in. About 18 years ago I saw Tim Patterson, a white Heavyweight, fight at Bally's. Bally's called their frequent Boxing Cards at that time "Young Fighters On the Rise," ha, ha. A few years later Tim Patterson shot his Promoter, Elvis Parker, to death because he thought that Parker had drugged him before a Match, that this was why he had lost. Patterson fired 6 bullets from his .38 into Parker, reloaded and did it again. He's serving Life Without. It's been said that the People who become Boxers are different than the People who become Archbishops.