MYSTERIES

My miscreant mouse is now residing in a junkpile.  Good riddance. Kathy has now found 2 old mice in the basement and one is working well.  My son Chris has ordered me a new "and improved" mouse.

Meanwhile, I will retype all that the old mouse deleted and made unrecoverable.

This will now become one of my mysteries:  How did a lot of keyed-in data suddenly disappear even though "automatic save" was supposedly in effect?  Blame it on that bad-acting mouse!

Before I tell you about three mysteries, let me regale you with two gentle religious stories.

Emo Phillips wrote:  "When I was a kid, I used to pray every night for a new bicycle.  Then I realized that the Lord, in his wisdom, didn't work that way.  So, I stole one, and asked Him to forgive me."

Mitchell Hauser wrote: "A priest, a minister and a rabbi want to see who's best at his job.  So they each go into the woods, find a bear, and attempt to convert it.  Later they get together.

The priest begins: 'When I found the bear, I read to him from the Catechism and sprinkled him with holy water.  Next week is his First Communion.'

'I found a bear by the stream,' says the minister, and 'preached God's holy word.  The bear was so mesmerized that he let me baptize him.'

They both looked down at the rabbi, who is lying on a gurney in a body cast.  'Looking back,' he says, 'maybe I shouldn't have started with the circumcision.' "

MYSTERY  NUMBER  ONE

When I was a High School senior, I attended a recruitment presentation put on by Boston University (BU). In attendance were approximately 200 students.

After introducing himself, the presentation leader asked us to stand and say our names. (We were seated randomly.)

After saying our names, we were asked to reseat ourselves, but in different random locations.

The leader then had us all stand again as he accurately named each and every one of us!

I know this was some kind of mental (memory?) trick, but I've never figured it out.  (I should have asked for an explanation  when I was a BU student.)

MYSTERY  NUMBER TWO

I was in Boston's South Station waiting for a train to take me to Air Force Basic Training, when an elderly man came over and sat down next to me.

He was very tall and skinny and had "piercing" eyes.  He was hefting a long wooden shaft that looked just like an African spear and helped form a tripod with his two thin legs.

He wanted to talk to me and I'll try to reconstruct our dialogue, which scared the hell out of me.

Man: "Hello, Joe.  How are you?"

Joe: "Do I know you?"

Man:  "You're from New Bedford and your mother is Doris Vaughan. Right?"

Joe: "Yes, what's your name?'

Man: "That's not important.  How are your Uncles, Allen and Billy doing?  Are they still working at Corson's?"

Before I could reply, he reached into his coat pocket and produced a bunch of smudgy 4x6 photographs, some with sepia coloring, but most in black and white.

I only remember a couple of these photos.  One showed the old man standing between two extremely tall, dark Africans in native garb. 

Another had what I think was an Hawaiian scene, once again with natives looking like bookends.

This was a long time ago and I don't remember much more, but I do remember him showing me a lot of photos, all different.  He had enjoyable stories to accompany each of these pictures.

Finally, my train came and as I looked out of the carriages window, I saw the old man hobbling along with his spear and sitting down next to a young man who was probably also waiting for his train to arrive.  

Who was this man?

MYSTERY  NUMBER  THREE

When I was a child, everyone told me that my father was an Italian-American artist, and I believed them.

After my mother passed, I decided to try and contact my father's family.  Part of that effort was DNA-checking.  

I was then astounded to discover that my biological father was someone else.  I also learned that he must be one of five brothers.  Which one?

After lots of work by my son, we narrowed the list down to two, but now we are not sure which is the one. I'd like to learn which one before I disappear.

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