ODDS AND ENDS (MOSTLY ABOUT SOCIAL SECURITY FOLKS)

Murder Most Foul

In an earlier blog entry, I talked about the murder of one of my ex-employees (Nancy Holt) who was strangled by her husband.  I went to the funeral, but I had some questions that I didn't get answers for at that time. Here is what I learned at a later date.

Q:  What punishment did the husband (Donald Wayne Holt) receive for killing his wife?

A:  As the result of a plea bargain, Mr. Holt agreed to a life sentence with all but 30 years suspended.

Q:  Where will Mr. Holt serve his incarceration?

A:  He will be housed at Patuxent Institution, where he will get treatment for Diabetes and depression.

Q:  What was the reason that Mr. Holt murdered his wife of 15 years?

A:  According to Court documents, he believed that his wife was seeing another man and was seeking a divorce.

Q:  What happened to his 3 children, 2 of whom were twins?

A:  "His children are staying with relatives.

Air Disaster. Loss of Well-known Social Security Retiree and Spouse

In the early hours of October 31, 1999, an Egypt Air jet airliner crashed into the Atlantic Ocean 60 miles south of Nantucket.  The crash was either caused by an incompetent co-pilot or loose rivets in the fuselage.

Among the 217 persons who perished were Arthur and Marie Simermeyer.

Art was an "upper manager" at the Social Security Administration, with 48 years of Government service before retiring in 1989.

Art did not approve of my "enlightened" management style and I did not think good thoughts about his old-fashioned management style either.

I believe that it was he who killed an award that I was supposed to get.  But so what!  He was a human being who did what he felt was right for our senior citizens, and I applauded him for that, and I felt very sad about his passing.

The Book Man

Sydney Goldfields is a Social Security retiree who claims to have read 10,000 books since he was 14.

And I don't think he even wears glasses.

The average American adult reads 11 books a year.   Sydney reads that many in six weeks... that might relate to 90 or 100 books a year.

I read where the average person reads 250 words per minute and the average novel has 100,000 words.  You can figure that out.. suffice it to say, Sydney reads a lot more than the average person.

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"Go, and read some more!"