Worthy of Interest

(Kimberly Launier/ABC News)

     Please notice that this is an ABC News reporter's shot.   Various sources assure that it is not a photoshop, retouch, or combined photograph of any kind.    This is the dog "Hero"  who was saved by an American soldier in Iraq.   The soldier was killed in action shortly afterwards.   The dog was sent to the American soldier's home.   This picture was taken in that soldier's parent's back yard shortly after the soldier's mother had been hugging the dog, and asking to the dog's chest, "Justin, are you in there?"....a mother's lament.

The sunrays came upon the dog very shortly after the question had been asked.

El Gringo Viejo

Probably should have said...

About three weeks ago, the Old Gringo was presented a very large Mexican flag, quite a nice one, not made in Red China, of a satin-like material, with excellent stitchwork and colour-fast colours and design (eagles and serpents and all of that), and measuring about 3.5 feet by 5.5 feet.   It was presented by the local Telegrafos Station where we wire money at times.   It was also presented by the Comite' Ejiditario of the Ejido de Francisco I. Madero.    The station-chief of the Telegrafos facility in the Estacion de Santa Engracia was the deliverer of the flag and indicated that the Gringo Viejo was the person selected to receive the honour this time because of the works and examples he had set forth for the communities in the area.

      It was all a bit humbling, but un-necessary.   The article is relatively costly and must be treated with certain formal protocols.....which of course we follow.   Heretofore, we would clothes-pin the Mexican and/or American colours on their appropriate days of celebration or recognition.   Neither flag was particularly ostentatious, but they were always arrange with respect on a nice rope that we run on the inside of the the outside horizontal support  for the manser of the corridor.   Without any pride or humility we assert that it looks dignified, correct, respectful, and appropriate for the appropriate date.    This particular flag has attached ties, and those must be used to secure the banner to its place.   It cannot be pinned, nailed, glued, or taped into its place of display.

      On the day of the 12th of December, we normally hang the flags of Texas, Mexico, and the United States to recognize that the presence of Saint Mary in her apparition at the Hill of Tepayac near Mexico City in 1531 is recognized as the Patroness of All the Americas.

      Sometimes when the Old Gringo is grumpy he might even fly the Mexican tri-colour with the date "1824" in gold numbers on the white field.   That was the flag that flew over the Alamo during the confrontation in San Antonio in 1836.    The defenders at that place were actually fighting for the restoration of the Mexican Constitution of 1824 and the defeat of the famous hideous usurper Antonio Lopez de Santa Ana.    Most Mexicans know the flag as a statement of stubborness and loyalty to principle....and the willingness to fight to the end for an abstract point.     There are other times....usually on Bobbie Lee's birthday and/or Confederate Veterans' Memorial Day that we might fly the Confederate military flag....albeit a small one....in a discreet place on the same corridor.

     We have had teachers bring their students to listen to my understanding of history and my explanation of the various flags and why they are posted on certain days.    Perhaps to the consternation of my ejido, the Gringo Viejo will play the Mexican National Anthem at VERY HIGH volume on major Mexican national days  (there's a bunch) at 06:oo during the morning's darkness.   We have done it during the period of disorder, perhaps to our peril...but it was felt to be necessary so that the youngsters going to school (it starts early there) would know that there are certain things bigger than immediate gain.

      Sometimes a person might think that he has become so eccentric as to be perfectly irrelevant.    Perhaps it would be well should he be so.   But then, along comes a flag that cost a couple of organisations the better part of  50 or 60 dollars, and then that person feels requited and a bit humble.

And that was my story for this hour.

El Gringo Viejo 

Musings

These days now begin to fill with memories of sugar plums and all eleven of Santa's reindeer flying over all fifty seven States to apologize to all for the establishment of Christianity.   S0, one prepares for the sharing, the conviviality, and the general hustle and bustle.

      An OROG wrote in to suggest that this linkage is also a very high quality card service with nice themes and artwork;   www.ojolie.com    was reviewed by the Gringo Viejo, and it is a really nice operation.   We are having considerable problem with the other site due to the inability we are having in adjusting our flash drive properly, apparently.   We are not having any problem with the newer site, so perhaps if the same is happening to other  OROGs, perhaps the new place would serve as a decent alternative.

      It is well that we report that the situation in Mexico continues to improve.    We would commend to the attention of all OROGs that they dig into information beyond what is commonly available about the times we are living through, both in the area of our little place and our area in Texas.     It is hard for one person to speak softly into a strong wind and then be heard at any distance.     But, our earlier repeated observations about improving security and re-establishment of predictable social and commercial order have proven to be true. 

     With another few months it is possible that we might even experience the  re-emergence of the way things were 10 years ago.   We simply must wrest away the hands of the demons from the throat of the people who feel compelled to use these strange substances.   Once again, the Gringo Viejo observes that it should suffice to have things as powerful as alcohol and nicotine.  What more could be necessary?

Enough of such things for a little while.   Family is coming down from Central Texas and we are making the journey to the mother-in-law's place for Thanksgiving's gathering.   This will be the first such celebration without the father-in-law.   So it will be a bit of a challenge for each of us, especially for the widow.

If the football games become blowouts and the granddaughters are asleep, perhaps the inspiration will hit to send along additional messages later to-day.
El Gringo Viejo

Returned from the Front

The Old Gringo returned yesterday.   Windy drive up....45 mile per hour gusts....hot...dry and a wait that was a little long at the bridge.   But... one learns at some point in life to enjoy the misery and just get it over with.

      This particular time it seems that the drive was a little tiring, and so it will take a moment or two to re-disorder the thought processes in the "little grey cells".     There is quite a bit of positive news about our little mud hut on the Rio Corona.   There is news on the Mexican overall political front and on the commerce, industry, and agricultural front.   There are commentaries and observations, and a bit of review of prvious pontifications coming up.

     Speaking of pontifications, it will take a tad longer for us to attempt to understand the former Speaker's contention that ".....Catholics have a concience thing..." and therefore cannot be reasonable about issues that require the contradiction of the Canons of the Roman Catholic Church.   She also observed of herself that she loves and honors her Roman Catholic faith, but since the rules were made up by a bunch of old men wearing skirts and funny pointed hats, there is no reason to adhere to any rules...be they of concience or of canon. 

Your patience will be rewarded with some serious thoughts later to-day.
El Gringo Viejo 

Out for a Bit

Times will be quiet here on the blog for a bit.   The Old Gringo will be heading down for another stint of it.   With the settling of issues at hand from a couple of weeks back, it is time to take my place on the bridge and at the helm of our little place in the middle of nowhere, Mexico.   It is somewhat disconcerting to know that Jesse Ventura is coming back to Mexico after his recent setback in court.   Actually it is rather a sad state of affairs when a person such as Jesse Ventura cannot board an airplane without being repeatedly groped.   He has had a titanium hip replacement that makes it necessary for him to undergo super-inspection at almost every boarding.

     My understanding is that he did not think that he deserved any special treatment, only that he should be able to carry some fail-safe identification that would show that he is an ex-governor of one of the 57 States in the Union and that he has a titanium hip replacement and does not like to have people groping him at every opportunity.

     The judge decided against him.   In a way.  The judge decided that his court was not the most appropriate bench before which to present the case.   Jesse became very grumpy about it all.   We'll both be arriving back home in Mexico about the same time.   But the Old Gringo is not grumpy.   Not too grumpy.

    Not too grumpy....even if some sow has a weep-out about her son's plight.  She does feel really bad for that lady who had her head caved in by her child who dropped a grocery cart off a four story ledge onto the lady's head.  She was really sorry about that, but she just had to point out that the real victim in the affair was not the old white woman but her poor son who is only 12 years old....and New York might be going to treat him like an adult criminal just because of this and his other 22 arrests for various misdemeanours and felonies.  He is, after all, all really good kid.

     The woman who was injured has severe to profound head and brain injuries and is comatose and not expected to live.    The mother of the child lives in an housing project near the shopping mall where the events took place.   She and the mother of the other boy, also a multiple offender at the age of 12,  who was involved in the dropping of several grocery carts, apparently with the openly stated intention of killing or injuring someone....are professional welfare recipients and optimizers of the "baby mother safety net".

      The woman in the coma is one of those peculiar people who still think that organisms who look roughly human must be born with and have souls  even if they are completely unsupervised, are unchurched, and are in the fourth generation of welfare dependency.
      The woman in the coma was doing an errand at the mall that day was to purchase several hundred dollars worth of higher quality candies for the children at the housing projectl   The candy was to be passed out during the trick or treat festivities of All Hallow's Even.
      The woman in the coma was a wealthy woman who had dedicated much of her time and a great deal of money over the years to efforts to help the marginalized populations in New York City and elsewhere.   May she rest in peace.   May the Great Lord Yahweh forgive us all for having allowed the creation of a system of government sanctioned and subsidized creation of narcissistic, sociopathic monsters.

El Gringo Viejo, will return in a few weeks...with luck, during his absence, he might be able to forward some information and conditions about our little mud hut on the spring fed mountain creek somewhere in the boondocks in Mexico.

Al always, thanks for your time, attention, and interest.....

Best Bargain on the Web, very enjoyable

This entry comes from some folks who produce the greatest greeting cards on or off the web.  It seems that they don't worry so much about being politically correct or incorrect.   They seem terribly Anglican, which is not that strange because they come from rural Sussex, from the below-named village of Lurgashall.   In keeping with things there, they are all very intelligent, talented, and sophisticated and have a talent for modernizing antiquity.   The operation is Jacquie Lawson Cards, and they would be something equivalent to a Japanese Bonzai tree that is 500 years old, or like Lou Gehrig's farewell to Baseball speech, or actually having a private audience with Santa Claus, or a two-month rail trip around the United States.

Check in at http://www.jacquielawson.com/    and see their offerrings.   We cannot figure how the business can make any money, so we assume that they are all independently wealthy and have not been taxed enough.  We shall report them to Barry and Michelle's Tax Collection Service if more evidence presents itself. 

     The Gringo Viejo's ancient ancestry considering our various surnames are terribly Hebrew, Ingles, Picts, and Jutes, Frenchy, Dane, (and some Prussian, Hessian, and German Saxon thrown in, but do not tell anybody).   We have a lot of people buried around Bury Saint Mary's, Kelsale, Suffolk, to the north of Lurgashall, Sussex.
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See also: About Us How the cards are made

Lurgashall village

Jacquie lives in the village of Lurgashall, in Sussex, England. Most of the scenes, characters and animals for her cards are taken from the village, or indeed from her own picture-perfect period cottage.

The name Lurgashall is probably Saxon in origin, dating from the period following the Saxon invasion circa 500AD when a roving band of marauders may well have travelled along the Roman road from Chichester to London and settled on the site. Although the village is not mentioned in the Domesday Book, situated as it was in the dense forest of Wealden which was then considered to be of little value, Lurgashall was included in the fruits of victory which William the Conqueror handed out to his greedy henchmen.

Lurgashall is a now small but thriving village of around 700 inhabitants, and it boasts a pub (of course), a Saxon church, a shop, and a cricket green. The cricket pavilion (which can be seen clearly in the "Snowdog" Christmas card) is notable for the clock tower which was erected in 2000 in memory of Jacquie's late husband Roger, who was for many years captain of the village cricket team. The cricket team has its own website - www.lurgashall.com.

If you're ever passing through, be sure to call in at the Noah's Ark Inn, where Henry and Amy will be happy to serve you a pint of their best Greene King IPA!

St. Laurence's Church
Although nothing remains of the original wooden Saxon building, the present Church shows clear signs of later Saxon architecture. The Tower, with its pointed arch, is Norman. The Cloister was added in the 16th century, so that parishioners from some distance away could rest & eat between morning and evening services. Remains can be seen of an early font which was smashed by the Puritans in the Civil War. This bears signs of a lock to prevent the theft of Holy Water for superstitious purposes. Beneath is a 'Resurrection Stone' of immense weight which was hired out to prevent newly buried corpses from being stolen! The present font, of Sussex Marble, was first used on Lady Day, 1662, when the restored Charles II had reintroduced the Prayer Book and the ceremony of Baptism. The Lectern was presented in 1897 in memory of Alfred Lord Tennyson who lived nearby and was a regular worshipper at St. Laurence's.

THE GRINGO VIEJO'S ANCIENT PARISH:

     This is where a bunch of really pure-bred English mongrels were baptised, married, and buried back in the 1200 - 1600 AD period.     This is in the little city of Kelsale, Suffolk, in Anglia, England.   Lots of primordial Gringos there.



Church of Saint Paul and Saint Mary, C of E

Kelsale, Suffolk, East Anglia

Some day soon, perhaps, we shall be able to make the trek to various places to see at least where our children's ancestor saw things, whether we see the same things or not.   We shall have to go into most of south and eastern England.....then some places in western England like Shropshire and southern Mersey Counties which are adjacent, I believe to the northwesternmost corner of Wales, but still in England...and then Cumbria and Northumbria in  northernmost England and to the Isle of Man.   Before or after that, on the same trip, we shall have to cover the southeastern third of Spain to say grace over the bones and dust of the children's better side.

     Any English OROGs on a personal basis with Basil Rathbone need to ask him if he can pick us up at the station and take us over to see his place at 221B Baker Street.   We would prefer one of those black taxis or perhaps one of the red double-decker busses that we see in the war movies.    We'd intend to be staying in the London area for three or four nights.   We'll need one day to give the Archbishop of Canterbury a few pointers about Anglican dogma and ritual.....also to remind HRM Elizabeth that she really needs to name her son as Duke of  Falkland and Belize, and then pass the succession directly to her grandson, HRH Prince William.    It would be a shame to follow a pretty decent run of it for one monarchette with a dumboe like the present Prince of Wales.  Would there be a king so bold of bone that he would deign to deny the dullards the dole they demand and disband the Labour Party, and expel their pinky souls (what be left of 'em)from the Parliament.   So there.   Let it be written.

El Gringo Viejo