Blackguard

obsolete : the kitchen servants of a household

2a: a rude or unscrupulous person
2b: a person who uses foul or abusive language

“‘Is Heathcliff not here?’ she demanded, pulling off her gloves, and displaying fingers wonderfully whitened with doing nothing and staying indoors.

‘Heathcliff, you may come forward,’ cried Mr. Hindley, enjoying his discomfiture, and gratified to see what a forbidding young blackguard he would be compelled to present himself. ‘You may come and wish Miss Catherine welcome, like the other servants.’

Cathy, catching a glimpse of her friend in his concealment, flew to embrace him; she bestowed seven or eight kisses on his cheek within the second, and then stopped, and drawing back, burst into a laugh, exclaiming, ‘Why, how very black and cross you look! and how – how funny and grim! But that’s because I’m used to Edgar and Isabella Linton. Well, Heathcliff, have you forgotten me?’

She had some reason to put the question, for shame and pride threw double gloom over his countenance, and kept him immovable.

‘Shake hands, Heathcliff,’ said Mr. Earnshaw, condescendingly; ‘once in a way, that is permitted.’

‘I shall not,’ replied the boy, finding his tongue at last; ‘I shall not stand to be laughed at. I shall not bear it!’ And he would have broken from the circle, but Miss Cathy seized him again.

‘I did not mean to laugh at you,’ she said; ‘I could not hinder myself: Heathcliff, shake hands at least! What are you sulky for? It was only that you looked odd. If you wash your face and brush your hair, it will be all right: but you are so dirty!’

She gazed concernedly at the dusky fingers she held in her own, and also at her dress; which she feared had gained no embellishment from its contact with his.

‘You needn’t have touched me!’ he answered, following her eye and snatching away his hand. ‘I shall be as dirty as I please: and I like to be dirty, and I will be dirty.’

With that he dashed headforemost out of the room, amid the merriment of the master and mistress, and to the serious disturbance of Catherine; who could not comprehend how her remarks should have produced such an exhibition of bad temper.”

Richmond, Virginia (1988)

Me and Father Ron on a cold December day the week before my 18th birthday when I would no longer be eligible to become an Eagle Scout.

I was up against the clock and was in panic mode but I got it done.

Richmond, Virginia (1989)

Here is the picture that ran in the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

Back then you went down to the paper’s offices downtown and they did an actual portrait session for you. They also gave you some nice gifts in recognition of your achievement.

I thought that was pretty cool.

“Bring It All Back Home”

From Wikipedia:

“Sally Ann Grossman was an American model and the wife of Bob Dylan‘s one-time manager, Albert Grossman. 

She is best known as the young woman languorously stretched out on the cover of Dylan’s 1965 album Bringing It All Back Home. The album photograph came about after Dylan spent the summer writing and recording at the Grossmans’ home. Grossman stated in a 1996 interview that she took part because “I was around, and Bob just asked me to do it”. The photograph was taken by Daniel Kramer in the Woodstock, New York, home. The chaise longue in the photograph was a wedding gift to the Grossmans from Mary Travers of Peter, Paul and Mary. As for the red jersey dress, Grossman said, “I don’t think I’ve worn it again.” Grossman said, “It’s amazing to be on an album cover that people remember 30 years later.”

OBITUARY

COVER LINK

La Habana, Cuba (2008)

Taken at a public park dedicated to Lenin. He looks like Colonel Sanders.

My wife had returned to RVA for maternity leave as she was not allowed to travel by airplane if she was close to giving birth. I was there by myself so I took our two dogs, Piggy (Pit Bull) and Dip (Black Lab) out to this park that we’d previously visited before.

The Cubans loved to go there and throw big barbecues in its open fields. They’d just set up some tents, build some fires, and put on the music.

These parties lasted through the night and I’m pretty sure people spent the night out there.

There was also horse riding and I don’t know if this was a tourist attraction or the people were so poor they had to use horses as transportation. Regardless, wherever there are horses there are large piles of horse poop.

If you know anything about dogs, particularly terriers (like Pit Bulls), they love rotten smelling things, like dead animals. And shit.

If they find something particularly gross, it drives them crazy.

They roll over on their back and writhe in ecstasy in the pile of stank, reveling in the stench.

Guess which white dog found a big giant pile of horseshit and covered herself in it?

Guess who had to try and hose her off before riding an hour back to our house?

Guess who rode home in the trunk?

Still Valid

“Still one thing more, fellow citizens, a wise and frugal Government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government, and this is necessary to close the circle of our felicities.”

– Thomas Jefferson

March 22, 2021

“Bad Influence”

Saw this movie when it first came out and I still think about it.

The girl in the middle who seduces James Spader is Billy Zane’s (“Titanic”) real life sister.

And this was probably one of the only movies where Spader played a genuine good guy.

Richmond, Virginia (1989)

At my Eagle Scout award banquet at Gayton Kirk, which sponsored Boy Scout Troop 776.

Shane is on the far left. His father was the Scout Master. Tyler is in the middle. We were on the wrestling team together. He later became an Army Reserve Chinook pilot. He’s also the one who talked me back into Scouting after I quit when we moved from Pennsylvania to Richmond.

He knew I liked history, particularly Civil War history, and he had me come to his local Troop and talk about it to the new Scouts.

I quit when I was Star rank and needed to finish Life rank, a dozen Merit Badges, and my Eagle Scout project before I could earn the final badge in Scouting.

I knew it would look really good on a college application, but the problem was I needed to finish all of that in 12 months as you had to be under age 18 to earn the badge.

When I committed to trying to complete Scouting and earn my Eagle Scout rank, it was the first time in my life I took on a big project and completed it to fruition.

I laid out all my tasks on a piece of paper, organized them according to priority, developed a timeline and game plan, and went after it.

That experience taught me so much. I still use those techniques today.