Tonight I’m hosting a dinner party for twenty techies who have helped me with technology issues, but more importantly, are to be credited with giving direction to the next thirteen years of my life.
Thank you,Microsoft.
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Photo Credit: USS Maddox (DD-731), Unknown - U.S. Navy photo NH 97900
August 4,1964 – The National Security Agency falsely claimed that a U.S. Navy destroyer (pictured) was attacked a second time by North Vietnam in the Gulf of Tonkin, leading Congress to authorize the use of military force
Read more on the blog www.existentialautotrip.com
The blog? A daily three to four-minute excursion into photos and short texts to regale the curious with an ever-changing and diverting view of a world rich in gastronomy, visual art, ideas, chuckles, stories, people, diversions, science, homespun, and enlightenment.
Observing with wit and wisdom, Dom Capossela, an experienced leader, guides his team of contributors and followers through that world, an amusing and edifying conversation to join.
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Commentary
Monday, August 5, 2019
Tonight I’m hosting a dinner party for twenty techies who as a group are ostensibly responsible for the steady technological progress of the blog.
But really, they are to be credited for changing the life of an older person.
When my daughter left for college, emptying my apartment, I took the solo car trip to New Orleans that gave birth to the idea of the blog.
But being sub-par technologically, how do you do it?
A young friend spent a couple of hours with me and set up a platform.
But then she was off to school and I had no idea how to proceed.
Microsoft to the rescue.
I was and am a recurring problem.
Every of my visits to the store had more questions than the one before.
Patiently they worked me through them and the blog grew from a single typed sheet to a daily blog with ten different sections and a plethora of photographs.
Now even working on producing videos.
From totally ignorance I emerged as a decent blogger.
In the process, instead of leading an aimless day-to-day existence, I am electrified with the greatest venture of my life.
My social life has been reoriented.
My intellectual life has been rekindled.
My joie de vivre is pulsing as strongly as ever.
So tonight I’m hosting a dinner party for twenty techies who have helped me with technology issues, but more importantly, are to be credited with giving direction to the next thirteen years of my life.
Thank you Microsoft.
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News re: existentialautotrip
Monday, August 5, 2019
This is a good post to mention that I am a totally enthusiastic user of the Microsoft Surface computers, the Surface laptop-tablet for on the road, and the giant Surface Studio II at home.
Most outstanding, is that they are both keyboard and touch-screen driven – an amazingly efficient combination.
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Weather
Monday, August 5, 2019
Today in Boston will be 82* and a feels-like of 82* under sunny skies.
Our perfect summer stretch continues for another six days at least, although some rain is expected later.
Yayy!
This has been a great weather summer so far.
We use one of the pricey jarred tunas.
But sometimes use the basic Pastene of Genoa brand cans.
Always in olive oil.
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Saturday’s Dinner posted on
Monday, August 5, 2019
We had our lovely tuna fish salad for dinner.
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Tracking Postings – Tracking Time
Monday, August 5, 2019
Our 486th consecutive posting, committed to 5,000.
After 486 posts we’re at the 9.72 percentile of our commitment, that commitment a different way of marking the passage of time.
Note how quickly we are approaching the 10% mark.
Feels like we’re just getting started, but we are close to 10% done.
10 xs 10 and then what?
Wow!
By the way, our posts are always done by 6.00am the day of, but are usually available by 6.00pm of the night before.
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Chuckle of the Day:
Monday, August 5, 2019
Remember before the internet when it was thought collective stupidity was due to a lack of information?
Well, it wasn’t that.
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We love getting mail.
Contact me at domcapossela@hotmail.com
Monday, August 5, 2019
From our pal, Sally C:
Now, here’s a quote for us all!
"The first draft is black and white. Editing gives the story color." —E. J. Hill, YA author
Sally
And Sally writes again:
I think I've been quiet lately because Kali's work dumbfounds me.
Colleen spoke well, as you said, for all of us.
And yet again,
Dear Dom,
Re: Dubois and the advent of the NAACP
You'd probably enjoy the book about the Grimke sisters, who rejected their Southern plantation heritage and embraced their black nephews, fathered by their brother with one of his slaves.
One sister became a prominent speaker on abolition, suffrage for both blacks and women, and civil rights.
I think the book is called "Mine Eyes Have Seen," or something like that.
Sally
Web Meister responds: Sally, thanks for sharing these tidbits. We appreciate how they enrich our readings.
A tip o' the hat (U.S. President Calvin Coolidge, 1924)
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Acknowledgements
Monday, August 5, 2019
Always thanks to the Microsoft team at the Prudential Center for their unflagging availability to help with a constant flow of technological problems.
Thanks to Sally C who so frequently enriches our posts. But never frequently enough. And we do miss her pieces of Americana.
And to 61+ jokes for providing the material for today’s chuckle.
And to Howard D whose continuing input helps map the strategy of the blog.
Always thanks to Wikipedia, the Lead and the Thumbnail sections of the Blog very often shaped from stories taken from that amazing website. They are truly worthy of public support.
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Today’s Thumbnail
Monday, August 5, 2019
The Gulf of Tonkin incident, also known as the USS Maddox incident, was an international confrontation that led to the United States engaging more directly in the Vietnam War.
It involved one real and one falsely claimed confrontation between ships of North Vietnam and the United States in the waters of the Gulf of Tonkin.
The original American report blamed North Vietnam for "both" incidents, but the Pentagon Papers, the memoirs of Robert McNamara, and NSA publications from 2005 proved material misrepresentation by the US government to justify a war against Vietnam.
On August 2, 1964, the destroyer USS Maddox, while performing a signals intelligence patrol as part of DESOTO operations, was monitored by three North Vietnamese Navy torpedo boats of the 135th Torpedo Squadron.
Maddox initiated the incident by firing three "warning" shots, and the North Vietnamese boats replied with torpedoes and machine gun fire.
Maddox expended over 280 3-inch and 5-inch shells in a sea battle.
One U.S. aircraft was damaged, three North Vietnamese torpedo boats were damaged, and four North Vietnamese sailors were killed, with six more wounded.
There were no U.S. casualties.
Maddox was "unscathed except for a single bullet hole from a Vietnamese machine gun round".
It was originally claimed by the National Security Agency that a Second Gulf of Tonkin incident occurred on August 4, 1964, as another sea battle, but instead evidence was found of "Tonkin ghosts" (false radar images) and not actual North Vietnamese torpedo boats.
Photograph taken from USS Maddox (DD-731) during her engagement with three North Vietnamese motor torpedo boats in the Gulf of Tonkin, 2 August 1964.
The view shows all three of the boats speeding towards the Maddox."
U.S. Navy sailor aboard USS Maddox (DD-731) - Official U.S. Navy photo NH 95611 from the U.S. Navy Naval History and Heritage Command
In the 2003 documentary The Fog of War, the former United States Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara admitted that the August 2 USS Maddox attack happened with no Defense Department response, but the August 4 Gulf of Tonkin attack never happened.
In 1995, McNamara met with former Vietnam People's Army General Võ Nguyên Giáp to ask what happened on August 4, 1964, in the second Gulf of Tonkin Incident.
"Absolutely nothing", Giáp replied.
Giáp claimed that the attack had been imaginary.
The outcome of these two incidents was the passage by Congress of the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, which granted US President Lyndon B. Johnson the authority to assist any Southeast Asian country whose government was considered to be jeopardized by "communist aggression". The resolution served as Johnson's legal justification for deploying U.S. conventional forces and the commencement of open warfare against North Vietnam.
In 2005, an internal National Security Agency historical study was declassified; it concluded that Maddox had engaged the North Vietnamese Navy on August 2, but that there were no North Vietnamese naval vessels present during the incident of August 4. The report stated, regarding the first incident on August 2:
at 1500G, Captain Herrick ordered Ogier's gun crews to open fire if the boats approached within ten thousand yards (9,150 m). At about 1505G, Maddox fired three rounds to warn off the communist [North Vietnamese] boats. This initial action was never reported by the Johnson administration, which insisted that the Vietnamese boats fired first.
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Acknowledgements
Monday, August 5, 2019
Always thanks to the Microsoft team at the Prudential Center for their unflagging availability to help with a constant flow of technological problems.
Thanks to Sally C who so frequently enriches our posts. But never frequently enough. And we do miss her pieces of Americana.
And to 61+ jokes for providing the material for today’s chuckle.
And to Howard D whose continuing input helps map the strategy of the blog.
Always thanks to Wikipedia, the Lead and the Thumbnail sections of the Blog very often shaped from stories taken from that amazing website. They are truly worthy of public support.
A tip o' the hat (U.S. President Calvin Coolidge, 1924
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Good Morning on this Monday, the fifth day of August, 2019
The list of lies told to me by people I trusted is sixteen pages long.
Our lead picture is of the USS Maddox and our Thumbnail adds a bit of info about the Gulf of Tonkin incidents.
Our commentary talks of the impact of the Microsoft crew on the lives of their customers.
We posted a Boston weather report and the ‘ticking calendar’ as illustrated by the growing number of posts as calendar markers.
We posted a chuckle, three thoughts sent by Sally C and we shared a dinner of Tuna Salad.
And now? Gotta go.
Che vuoi? Le pocketbook?
See you soon.
Your love.