MORE ODDS AND ENDS

(Elaine is in the hospital with pain issues.  Her Siamese cat SuZee and I expect her to get better and come home shortly.  We miss her.) 

I found a box in our basement containing articles and other information that once interested me.  Let's see if it still "rings my bell."

01.  DISCRIMMINATION?

In 2015, a Bel Air, California citizen of Indian descent was accosted by a policeman who thought she was an illegal alien.

I wonder if this happens a lot.  I hope that police organizations conduct training to stop this practice.

02.  BIRTH OF WIKIPEDIA

Readers Digest says that WIKIPEDIA got named in 1995 by a computer programmer named Ward Cunningham after a user-editable website he called the "WikiWikiWeb" after the phrase "Wikiwiki" that means "quickly" in Hawaiian.

03.  FUNNY MONEY

A New York Times article tells the story of Steven Boggs (J.S.G. Boggs) who learned in 1984 that he had the ability to duplicate artistically British Pounds, Swiss Francs and American Dollars.

He never sold his works, he just enjoyed spending them.

If a merchant accepted a bill (which was  always blank on the back!) he would ask for a receipt, sign it, and sell it to "collectors."  It was then up to the "collector" to contact the merchant for details.

Recovered money copies were considered to be art and some were exhibited at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in DC.

Mr. Boggs said: "They (The Secret Service) said I was a counterfeiter ... they don't understand the difference between art and crime!"

(Interesting side note:  His mother was once billed in a carnival as "Margo, Queen of the Jungle.")

Over the years (he died at 62) Boggs "traded his bills for goods and services, from candy bars to motorcycles, whose worth he estimated at several million dollars."

Famous British Civil Rights lawyer Geoffrey Robertson successfully got Boggs out of a counterfeiting charge and writes in his book "The Justice Game" (1998) "... that the Bank of England, in response to the Boggs Case, added a copyright notice to its paper currency."

03.  A BOOZE POEM I LIKE

This ancestry remembrance was written by Hugh G. White of Midland, Texas. It always makes me smile to hear it read.)

"A century ago, 'neath a Tennessee Hill

Hepzibah White ran a mountain still.

Her product was widely noted

As first-rate likker and meat,

Guaranteed to cloud your mind 

And knock you off your feet.

Hepzibah is now long gone,

Her spirits left the rill,

And though she no longer cooks her mash,

The hills remember her still!"

04.  ASTRONOMY

Reporter: "Ma'am, did you see Halley's Comet?"

Older Lady: "Yes, but only from a distance."

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