I worked in my favorite air conditioned library, and did research on space weapons. Later, I was looking for UV paint, and someone said to go to Dragons Den on Rte 9. I went and ran into the owner of the whole chain, a man named Fred, whom I probably hadn’t seen in ten to twenty years. The name Karen Doe came up, his former wife, and a Penobscot He said she was back in Old Orchard. I was surprised because she and I met in Old Orchard when we were kids, and have been running into each other since. She used to call me her “Water Brother” because of a ceremony we did back then, but also of course because one day we discovered quite by accident that we both say “uggabugga” when we’re flummoxed by something. You can imagine how rare it is to find someone else saying that. It must be genetic. Now, in all my years as an Algonquin linguist, I have never come across a definition for this word, but we both say it, and we are both Maine Algonquins, so that’s my evidence. Add it to the list!
She is now a recording artist on the flute with Narada Records. She was on the wonderful Inner Child CD with Michael Jones, by far his best album, no longer in stores for some reason, along with Nancy Rumbel. She played flute on a recording of mine, and there was a problem that never got resolved so I never released the recording. That was years ago. Now here is a chance to resolve it, and maybe the cousins will be reunited in the spirit of Uggabugga. That made me happy to know she was alive and well after all this time. She now has a bunch of teenagers. By the way, I didn’t find the paint. I was told I’d never find it! I ran into Ray working at the library, and exchanged notes, but his brother in law showed up and he left in midconversation.
I did some reading on Vannevar Bush, a truly fascinating man. He was the founder or inventor of much of what we are just learning about in the news today. He was the founder of Raytheon and Texas Instruments for one thing. He developed a form of computer, had influence over the atomic bomb’s development, and was a pioneer in radio and television components, and indirectly, refrigerators. Raytheon means “God of Life.” He is also credited with the concept of hyperlink, and much of the conceptualization of the internet. (Sorry Mr. Gore, you’re standing on the shoulders of giants.) But there were views on other things like genetics that most of us would not agree with Mr. Bush. He also wanted to link the human brain directly in with computers, an idea only a mad scientist could love. In fact these inventions have now been patented, and some say the same thing can be done with electronic beams, which opens up a can of worms in regards to the space weapons program. But I don’t believe that.
In the evening, in between baseball innings (I’m monitoring this amazing surge from the Mets) I watched C Span with some amazement. William Delahunt D Mass was criticizing Bush for allowing the US to lose credibility, saying the Bush guys believe their own PR. Most importantly, he quoted a poll in Stars and Stripes magazine, a patriotic military mag, that said that 52% of the GIs polled said that “morale was low.” That is remarkable. Everywhere on TV while surfing channels I saw hardcore conservatives questioning everything they used to believe. Chris Matthewson has always seemed like a sincere conservative, but he had just seen Fahrenheit 9-11 and said he thought it was a really good, emotion-packed movie, and was asking Howard Dean if it was really true about the Bush connections with Osama Bin Laden. Howard was trying to act Presidential, and said he hadn’t had time to see it. It was an historic moment on talk TV, a conservative more outraged at Bush than the arch-liberal. He was also shocked that 40% of Americans still believe that Saddam was connected to the attack on the World Trade Center. Howard Dean also said that with John Edwards on the ticket, he predicts the Dems will pick up states we don’t expect. (We don’t know what those states will be till we get there, but they were red before!)
There were clips everywhere of Kerry and Edwards walking around together, and Kerry looked really genuinely happy for the first time. That was good to see. Again, it was a BLOG that revealed the news about Edwards, even though the New York Post got it wrong and announced Gephart as Kerry’s Choice. The BLOG from an airport hanger said they saw Kerry’s jet with signs “Kerry and Edwards” painted on the side. That was the only reliable news source that got the scoop.
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