The Little Thread Which Grew - the Apollo '73 to Everything But

[Maria Cuervo]

Re: The latest from Mama

One question that's been bothering me for quite a while:

Who/what the fuck is "Mama" and why can't s/he/it/they/ post under their own identity(s)?

Jus' askin'

I very rarely even look at mama's posts, which seem like commercials. I can see being secretive about their identity if they were doing something like anonymous disrupting Co$. But mama seems to mostly just talk about food, sports, and travel. At first I thought mama was a travel agency or someone selling people on restaurants and travel fare.

So while I am sure mama means well, I usually just fast forward when I see that. No offense Lakey.

 

[lkwdblds]

Re: The latest from Mama

One question that's been bothering me for quite a while:

Who/what the fuck is "Mama" and why can't s/he/it/they/ post under their own identity(s)?

Jus' askin'

Mr. Nobody,

Mama just sent me a letter to pass on to you to help answer your question of why she posts as MaMa. Here it is:

answers for Mr. Nobody:

Mama, is the grand daughter of a woman in Mt. Idy, who taught her to write. Her grandmother's son, Charley, who often read her letters, was known to hobnob with such luminaries as Maude Frickert, Jack Paar and even Dale Evans and her husband. When he was living in Hollywood, he often played Tic Tac Toe with Peter Marshall.

Mama's interest in genealogy has helped her to own her passions for tilting at windmills, and writing of her exploits.

One of her GGG grandfathers was Sir Percy Blakeney.

Another side of the family, was from Spain, landed gentry (so to speak), in early California, the Alejandro de la Vega family. She especially relates to the scion of the family.

Her GG grandfather, Dan Reid Sr.and his brother, John wereTexas Rangers.

Dan Sr.'s grandson, Britt was, at one time, a youthful publisher of the Daily Sentinel.

Mama is not internet savvy, she travels with her trusted companion, Siri, who passes these bits on to Lakey of her exploits, much like Dr. John H. Watson did in the late 1800s.

Currently, she resides on her chicken ranch in Texas, and tries to stay away from the Watchdog light of her neighbors Sergey and Larry.

I recognize Dan Reid Sr. from the old Lone Ranger Shows of radio and TV. As Lone Ranger fans know, the genus of the Lone Ranger occurred when a band of Texas Rangers was chasing a gang of outlaws known as the Butch Cavandish Gang. The Gang led the Texas Rangers into a canyon called Box Canyon and then set up an ambush for them. The Texas Rangers rode into Box Canyon and were sitting ducks. The Cavandish Gang was strategically place all around the upper levels of the Canyon and fired at will on the unprotected Rangers. Dan Reid Sr was killed, along with all the other Rangers except for Dan's brother John Reid who was badly wounded.

The Cavandish Gang poked all the bodies and presumed them all to be dead so they left the canyon to go rob more banks, trains and stage coaches. Shortly after the Gang left the Canyon, a native Indian Tonto, who had heard all the shooting going on road into to the canyon to see if there were any survivors. When he came to John Reid, he found that Reid was still clinging to life. Tonto gave him water, cleaned his wounds and built a fire there and spent days attempting to nurse John back to health. It was touch and go the first couple of days as to whether John Reid would survive. Finally, it became apparent that he would make it. Tonto also had to remove bullets from his body. When the Ranger survived, he and Tonto decided to ride together and track down the Cavandish Gang.

The Ranger got the idea that he would be more effective if he let everyone think that he was dead. This would give Cavandish and his Gang a false sense of security. As a result, he had Tonto, who had already dug graves for the other Rangers dig one more grave for him so as to make it look as if he were buried there as well. To further conceal his Identity, John Cavendish decided that it was best if he wore a mask. Tonto came up with a new name for him which was the Lone Ranger.

Back around 1966, I took a date to a big event at an auditorium in Hollywood. One of the emcee's was a trivia expert and got to talking about the Lone Ranger. There were 600 people in the audience and he started asking us questions about the Lone Ranger.

First, he asked what was the name of the Lone Rangers Indian companion and all 600 knew the answer, "Tonto"
Next he asked the name of the Lone Rangers Horse and all 600 knew it was "Silver"
He then asked who played the Lone Ranger on TV and maybe 450 knew it was Clayton Moore
He then asked who played Tonto on TB and maybe 500 knew it was Jay Silverheels.
He asked the name of Tonto's horse and maybe 250 inew it was Scout
Next came the first tough question which was what was the name of the Lone Ranger's nephew. About 30 of us, me included, said Dan Reid.
Now it really got hard, the next question was, What was the name of Dan Reid's horse. I was the only person who out of 600 who knew the answer, the horses was name Victor and it was sired by Silver and was totally white and looked very similar to Silver.
The last question was, What actor played Dan Reid on TV. Finally I was stumped. I didn't know. It wasn't that I forgot it but that I just never knew that.

For anyone interested, youtube has the 1949 Pilot for the TV show, the Lone Ranger. Watch this episode and not only will you see what 1949 TV was like but you will become an instant expert on Lone Ranger Trivia: Here is the link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wZOyjHDIZ0

For any die hards who watch this, happy viewing!!
Lakey

 

[lkwdblds]

Re: The latest from Mama

Mr. Nobody,

Mama just sent me a letter to pass on to you to help answer your question of why she posts as MaMa.

I recognize Dan Reid Sr. from the old Lone Ranger Shows of radio and TV. As Lone Ranger fans know, the genus of the Lone Ranger occurred when a band of Texas Rangers was chasing a gang of outlaws known as the Butch Cavandish Gang. The Gang led the Texas Rangers into a canyon called Box Canyon and then set up an ambush for them. The Texas Rangers rode into Box Canyon and were sitting ducks. The Cavandish Gang was strategically place all around the upper levels of the Canyon and fired at will on the unprotected Rangers. Dan Reid Sr was killed, along with all the other Rangers except for Dan's brother John Reid who was badly wounded.

The Cavandish Gang poked all the bodies and presumed them all to be dead so they left the canyon to go rob more banks, trains and stage coaches. Shortly after the Gang left the Canyon, a native Indian Tonto, who had heard all the shooting going on road into to the canyon to see if there were any survivors. When he came to John Reid, he found that Reid was still clinging to life. Tonto gave him water, cleaned his wounds and built a fire there and spent days attempting to nurse John back to health. It was touch and go the first couple of days as to whether John Reid would survive. Finally, it became apparent that he would make it. Tonto also had to remove bullets from his body. When the Ranger survived, he and Tonto decided to ride together and track down the Cavandish Gang.

The Ranger got the idea that he would be more effective if he let everyone think that he was dead. This would give Cavandish and his Gang a false sense of security. As a result, he had Tonto, who had already dug graves for the other Rangers dig one more grave for him so as to make it look as if he were buried there as well. To further conceal his Identity, John Cavendish decided that it was best if he wore a mask. Tonto came up with a new name for him which was the Lone Ranger.

Back around 1966, I took a date to a big event at an auditorium in Hollywood. One of the emcee's was a trivia expert and got to talking about the Lone Ranger. There were 600 people in the audience and he started asking us questions about the Lone Ranger.

First, he asked what was the name of the Lone Rangers Indian companion and all 600 knew the answer, "Tonto"
Next he asked the name of the Lone Rangers Horse and all 600 knew it was "Silver"
He then asked who played the Lone Ranger on TV and maybe 450 knew it was Clayton Moore
He then asked who played Tonto on TB and maybe 500 knew it was Jay Silverheels.
He asked the name of Tonto's horse and maybe 250 inew it was Scout
Next came the first tough question which was what was the name of the Lone Ranger's nephew. About 30 of us, me included, said Dan Reid.
Now it really got hard, the next question was, What was the name of Dan Reid's horse. I was the only person who out of 600 who knew the answer, the horses was name Victor and it was sired by Silver and was totally white and looked very similar to Silver.
The last question was, What actor played Dan Reid on TV. Finally I was stumped. I didn't know. It wasn't that I forgot it but that I just never knew that.

For anyone interested, youtube has the 1949 Pilot for the TV show, the Lone Ranger. Watch this episode and not only will you see what 1949 TV was like but you will become an instant expert on Lone Ranger Trivia: Here is the link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wZOyjHDIZ0

For any die hards who watch this, happy viewing!!
Lakey

Mama just sent me more information to give to Mr. Nobody.

Before I get into that, I want to post some data which links up the IBM Corp with the Nazis and the Holocaust.

According to Mama, there could not have been a Holocaust had not Thomas Watson, CEO of IBM in the 1930's not made a deal with Hitler and the Third Reich. During the 1930' IBM Corp created punch card technology. Punch cards could be punched in various way and an IBM Punched Card Reader could rapidly read a large number of cards, passing through a sorter and them tabulate statistical results from the punched Card. Mama says that the Nazi's made a deal to buy complete puched card systems from IBM. The claim is made that without the punched card method of sorting and collating, the Nazi's would have been at a loss to locate and round up the millions of Jews spread throughout the European Nations which they conquered.

This does make a lot of sense. For example, the Nazi's conquer Poland and take over the Western half, splitting Poland with their ally, the USSR. How would they go about finding out who the 3.5 million Jews in Poland were and where they lived. Ditto for Holland, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Hungary, etc. Without an electronic data analysis system which could collate and sort, finding out which citizens were Jews and where all the Jews lived, it would have required too much manual manpower to round up and kill all the Jews. Thus Thomas Watson and IBM played a major roll in facilitating the Holocaust. This is what Mama is saying.

Now, the additional answers for Mr. Nobody:

Mama, is the grand daughter of a woman in Mt. Idy, who taught her to write. Her grandmother's son, Charley, who often read her letters, was known to hobnob with such luminaries as Maude Frickert, Jack Paar and even Dale Evans and her husband. When he was living in Hollywood, he often played Tic Tac Toe with Peter Marshall.

Cliff Arquette used to play Charley Weaver on Jack Paar and Hollywood Squares. He would read letters from Mama, who lived in Mt. Idy.

Mama's interest in genealogy has helped her to own her passions for tilting at windmills, and writing of her exploits.

One of her GGG grandfathers was Sir Percy Blakeney.

Sir Percey was the Scarlett Pimpernel (played on the silver screen by Leslie Howard)

Another side of the family, was from Spain, landed gentry (so to speak), in early California, the Alejandro de la Vega family. She especially relates to the scion of the family.

Don Diego de la Vega, son of Alejandro, was Zorro.

Her GG grandfather, Dan Reid Sr.and his brother, John wereTexas Rangers.

John Reed was The Lone Ranger. His nephew, Dan Jr., rode with him and Tonto. Dan's son was Britt Reid, the Green Hornet.

Dan Sr.'s grandson, Britt was, at one time, a youthful publisher of the Daily Sentinel.

Mama is not internet savvy, she travels with her trusted companion, Siri, who passes these bits on to Lakey of her exploits, much like Dr. John H. Watson did in the late 1800s.

Siri is Apple's iPhone secretary.

Dr. John H. Watson wrote of his adventures with Mr. Sherlock Holmes.

Currently, she resides on her chicken ranch in Texas, and tries to stay away from the Watchdog light of her neighbors Sergey and Larry.

"The Chicken Ranch" was the "Best Little Whorehouse in Texas" exposed by the Watchdog (Dom De Louise in the movie). Sergey Brin and Larry Page created and run google. They live nearby.

 

[MrNobody]

Re: The latest from Mama

I very rarely even look at mama's posts, which seem like commercials. I can see being secretive about their identity if they were doing something like anonymous disrupting Co$. But mama seems to mostly just talk about food, sports, and travel. At first I thought mama was a travel agency or someone selling people on restaurants and travel fare.

So while I am sure mama means well, I usually just fast forward when I see that. No offense Lakey.

A travel agency you say? Looks more like a drivel agency to me.

Sorry, Lakey, but having (or pretending to have) "potentially interesting" ancestors, does not necessarily make a person more interesting to me.

 

[Maria Cuervo]

Re: The latest from Mama

A travel agency you say? Looks more like a drivel agency to me.

Sorry, Lakey, but having (or pretending to have) "potentially interesting" ancestors, does not necessarily make a person more interesting to me.

i apologize to mama for my acting like a mindless twit. It was not a little rude; it was big rude. wonder if I were to expand my interests to include sports (watching) I wouldn't relax a bit more. Rodeo, swimming, tennis, ice skating, wrestling, gymnastics, bicycling as in the Tour de France, and a few others DO interest me.

 

[MrNobody]

Re: The latest from Mama

i apologize to mama for my acting like a mindless twit. It was not a little rude; it was big rude. wonder if I were to expand my interests to include sports (watching) I wouldn't relax a bit more. Rodeo, swimming, tennis, ice skating, wrestling, gymnastics, bicycling as in the Tour de France, and a few others DO interest me.

Perhaps I'm a bit too "German" to discover the rudeness in your posts.

Apart from that, I'll quote the wise words of a famous British politician (named "Churchill" IIRC): "No sports, gentlemen, NO sports!"

 

[lkwdblds]

Re: The latest from Mama

A travel agency you say? Looks more like a drivel agency to me.

Sorry, Lakey, but having (or pretending to have) "potentially interesting" ancestors, does not necessarily make a person more interesting to me.

Two points - Who said that having potentially interesting ancestors would make a person more interesting to you. I don't believe that I said that and in any case, I don't feel that that would necessarily be true. My second point is to ask why you would use the word "Sorry". What are you sorry about and why are you sorry.

I had no expectation that Mamas ancestors would impress you so why would I be sorry if they didn't. I could care less one way or the other.
Lakey

 

[looker]

Re: The old days - Aboard the Apollo - 1973

When I was a kid. Friends and I wanted to start a band

We had to share the same Amp Bass lead and rhythm. It was our "wall of sound"

For a drum machine we put 3 tennis shoes in a dryer. and vary the dry cycles Fluff dry was James Taylor, Heavy was Led Zepplin.

For guitar cord we used a chunk of coax off dad’s old CB radio.

If we broke a string we just left it that way or used a different gauge string in it place. Weed eater string or fishing line for the Acoustic Flamenco guitar

We had no bass guitar, we would just improvise over the drone of the 60 cycle humm. Very Jefferson Airplane Psychedellic.

Them were the days before we were famous

 

[Maria Cuervo]

Looker's "When I was a kid" thread

When I was a kid. Friends and I wanted to start a band

We had to share the same Amp Bass lead and rhythm. It was our "wall of sound"

For a drum machine we put 3 tennis shoes in a dryer. and vary the dry cycles Fluff dry was James Taylor, Heavy was Led Zepplin.

For guitar cord we used a chunk of coax off dad’s old CB radio.

If we broke a string we just left it that way or used a different gauge string in it place. Weed eater string or fishing line for the Acoustic Flamenco guitar

We had no bass guitar, we would just improvise over the drone of the 60 cycle humm.

Them were the days before we were famous

When I was a kid. I wanted to be a painter.

I told my mom there was a school project. I had some allowance saved. We went to Woolworths.

In the crafts aisle I picked up some cheap oil paints, a small canvas, a few cheap brushs. I wanted to paint a horse's head. It was my "masterpiece."

For a background color I used blue since the sky is blue. Every blue was all one mid-tone blue.

For the horse I used brown. I was careful not to let any paint fall on the floor. I had only a few colors. Never heard of poetical Picasso, mythical Klimt or Beckman, expressionist colorist Van Gogh. I painted a realistic horse head.

Father found out my aspirations, confiscated the horse head, paints, brushes.

Once I can retrieve the horse I am sure my name will be up in lights.

 

[lkwdblds]

Re: Looker's "When I was a kid" thread

When I was a kid. I wanted to be a painter.

I told my mom there was a school project. I had some allowance saved. We went to Woolworths.

In the crafts aisle I picked up some cheap oil paints, a small canvas, a few cheap brushs. I wanted to paint a horse's head. It was my "masterpiece."

For a background color I used blue since the sky is blue. Every blue was all one mid-tone blue.

For the horse I used brown. I was careful not to let any paint fall on the floor. I had only a few colors. Never heard of poetical Picasso, mythical Klimt or Beckman, expressionist colorist Van Gogh. I painted a realistic horse head.

Father found out my aspirations, confiscated the horse head, paints, brushes.

Once I can retrieve the horse I am sure my name will be up in lights.

This post seems innocent at first and it mirrors Looker's referenced post line for line. I'm not sure about Looker's post as far as hidden meaning is concerned, probably a hidden meaning is implied but I see Maria's post as a parable. It definitely expresses a message of some sort, probably a very profound message but even though I work the morning Sudoku puzzles and the Cryptograph puzzles in the morning paper, I'm having trouble understanding this parable and seeing what Maria is actually saying. (By the time I did finish writing the post, I came up with an interpretation of the parable which I present below.)

There are clues, her wanting to be a painter is the first clue, also knowing that she recently started working on a new painting is a second clue. When Maria first arrived here, I asked her to please post some of her art and she responded with a piece of artwork having to do with a horse's head so that is clue 3. Actually the piece of art which she presented, is a very beautiful and accomplished piece of art so that might be clue 4. For the next clue, it takes a keen eye to notice that "mom" is spelled with a lower case "m" while Father is capitalized so it is pretty obvious that Father refers to God or Jesus, since, for many but not all believing Christians Jesus is God. Had she simply mean that her father confiscated everything, she would have used the simple term, "dad".

For her name to be up in lights, the only thing I can think of to make any such connection is the HorseHead Nebula in the constellation, Orion. I Googled the HorseHead Nebula and came up with the following:

Horsehead Nebula
The Horsehead Nebula is a dark nebula in the constellation Orion. The nebula is located just to the south of the star Alnitak, which is farthest east on Orion's Belt, and is part of the much larger Orion Molecular Cloud Complex. Wikipedia
Distance to Earth: 1,500 light years
Magnitude: 6.8
Discovered: 1888
Right ascension: 5° 40' 59"
Discoverer: Williamina Fleming

Here is a link showing what the HorseHead Nebula looks like, an almost perfect image of a beautiful steed!: https://www.google.com/search?q=the...Fimagegallery%2Fimage_feature_89.html;516;387

That's as far as I can go with that parable. Does anyone, especially Hatsheput have any comments or, Maria, could you let me know if I am on the right track or not.

Lakey

 

[Maria Cuervo]

Re: Looker's "When I was a kid" thread

This post seems innocent at first and it mirrors Looker's referenced post line for line. I'm not sure about Looker's post as far as hidden meaning is concerned, probably a hidden meaning is implied but I see Maria's post as a parable. It definitely expresses a message of some sort, probably a very profound message but even though I work the morning Sudoku puzzles and the Cryptograph puzzles in the morning paper, I'm having trouble understanding this parable and seeing what Maria is actually saying. (By the time I did finish writing the post, I came up with an interpretation of the parable which I present below.)

There are clues, her wanting to be a painter is the first clue, also knowing that she recently started working on a new painting is a second clue. When Maria first arrived here, I asked her to please post some of her art and she responded with a piece of artwork having to do with a horse's head so that is clue 3. Actually the piece of art which she presented, is a very beautiful and accomplished piece of art so that might be clue 4. For the next clue, it takes a keen eye to notice that "mom" is spelled with a lower case "m" while Father is capitalized so it is pretty obvious that Father refers to God or Jesus, since, for many but not all believing Christians Jesus is God. Had she simply mean that her father confiscated everything, she would have used the simple term, "dad".

For her name to be up in lights, the only thing I can think of to make any such connection is the HorseHead Nebula in the constellation, Orion. I Googled the HorseHead Nebula and came up with the following:

Horsehead Nebula
The Horsehead Nebula is a dark nebula in the constellation Orion. The nebula is located just to the south of the star Alnitak, which is farthest east on Orion's Belt, and is part of the much larger Orion Molecular Cloud Complex. Wikipedia
Distance to Earth: 1,500 light years
Magnitude: 6.8
Discovered: 1888
Right ascension: 5° 40' 59"
Discoverer: Williamina Fleming

Here is a link showing what the HorseHead Nebula looks like, an almost perfect image of a beautiful steed!: https://www.google.com/search?q=the...Fimagegallery%2Fimage_feature_89.html;516;387

That's as far as I can go with that parable. Does anyone, especially Hatsheput have any comments or, Maria, could you let me know if I am on the right track or not.

Lakey

just one detail...the artwork was of Leda being raped by the swan, or, if you will, the drunken statue of liberty being raped by the swan.

 

[lkwdblds]

Re: Looker's "When I was a kid" thread

just one detail...the artwork was of Leda being raped by the swan, or, if you will, the drunken statue of liberty being raped by the swan.

Right, thanks for correcting me! I was too lazy to go back and find the picture on the thread. Well, my theory still works okay, even if there was no horse's head in the first artwork you posted here. You didn't correct me on other points so I am taking that in a positive manner. I hope your current painting project is progressing well!

I can't say too much for doing those Crytograms in the daily newspaper. I am really getting good at it. The day before last I solved a monstrous cryptogram in only 4 minutes, my all time record.

Here was the cryptogram:

VHHB TKKE RDGH DUGNME, UDT GZKD JHN ORVV NOTKMIGUDT KWKMJGZRDE DKGGKM --- The author was UVQKMG KRDIGKRD

I Looked at the first three words for over a minute. How could the first two words both have a doublet in them? I figured it had to be an OO followed by an EE. I got DEEP as the second word and then the first word had to be LOOK, which gave LOOK DEEP, the next work was four letters and ended with O so it had to be INTO. From having the first three words, I decided to tackle the author's name. Luckily the author's name had many of the letters I had already solved for and It took me only 15 or 20 seconds to spot the author as ALBERT EINSTEIN. After that, I had so many letters solved for that I simply was able to write out all the other words in order. The whole thing, including writing it all down took only 4 minutes.

That's what happens when you get a feel for how to solve these things. The first two words being doublets was the key. You simply could not have LL, FF, SS, NN, AA, UU, KK or TT. It had to be two vowels which had to be OO and EE. The ability to see that reduced an almost unsolvable nightmare and led to a 4 minute solution.

That pattern solving ability is worth developing because if can be used in other facets of life besides Crytograms.
Lakey

 

[Maria Cuervo]

Re: Looker's "When I was a kid" thread

I do have images of horses, and a horse's head. LOL.


Well I am enjoying your decryption of the parable.
Keep that up. I will post soon but have some analog-world things to attend to first.

Maria

Right, thanks for correcting me! I was too lazy to go back and find the picture on the thread. Well, my theory still works okay, even if there was no horse's head in the first artwork you posted here. You didn't correct me on other points so I am taking that in a positive manner. I hope your current painting project is progressing well!

I can't say too much for doing those Crytograms in the daily newspaper. I am really getting good at it. The day before last I solved a monstrous cryptogram in only 4 minutes, my all time record.

Here was the cryptogram:

VHHB TKKE RDGH DUGNME, UDT GZKD JHN ORVV NOTKMIGUDT KWKMJGZRDE DKGGKM --- The author was UVQKMG KRDIGKRD

I Looked at the first three words for over a minute. How could the first two words both have a doublet in them? I figured it had to be an OO followed by an EE. I got DEEP as the second word and then the first word had to be LOOK, which gave LOOK DEEP, the next work was four letters and ended with O so it had to be INTO. From having the first three words, I decided to tackle the author's name. Luckily the author's name had many of the letters I had already solved for and It took me only 15 or 20 seconds to spot the author as ALBERT EINSTEIN. After that, I had so many letters solved for that I simply was able to write out all the other words in order. The whole thing, including writing it all down took only 4 minutes.

That's what happens when you get a feel for how to solve these things. The first two words being doublets was the key. You simply could not have LL, FF, SS, NN, AA, UU, KK or TT. It had to be two vowels which had to be OO and EE. The ability to see that reduced an almost unsolvable nightmare and led to a 4 minute solution.

That pattern solving ability is worth developing because if can be used in other facets of life besides Crytograms.
Lakey

 

[Maria Cuervo]

Re: The old days - Aboard the Apollo - 1973

http://www.forum.exscn.net/showthre...llo-1973&p=1014712&highlight=Leda#post1014712

Here is leda again.

The painting I am working on now is a bit different. Whenever I finish it I will take a picture of it and post it here.

 

[lkwdblds]

Re: The old days - Aboard the Apollo - 1973

http://www.forum.exscn.net/showthre...llo-1973&p=1014712&highlight=Leda#post1014712

Here is leda again.

The painting I am working on now is a bit different. Whenever I finish it I will take a picture of it and post it here.

You are so talented, quit showing off! (just kidding). What is going on with that swan, either he is kissing Leda or he is feeding her a morsel of fish.

Lakey.

 

[lkwdblds]

Re: Looker's "When I was a kid" thread

Right, thanks for correcting me! I was too lazy to go back and find the picture on the thread. Well, my theory still works okay, even if there was no horse's head in the first artwork you posted here. You didn't correct me on other points so I am taking that in a positive manner. I hope your current painting project is progressing well!

I can't say too much for doing those Crytograms in the daily newspaper. I am really getting good at it. The day before last I solved a monstrous cryptogram in only 4 minutes, my all time record.

Here was the cryptogram:

VHHB TKKE RDGH DUGNME, UDT GZKD JHN ORVV NOTKMIGUDT KWKMJGZRDE DKGGKM --- The author was UVQKMG KRDIGKRD

I Looked at the first three words for over a minute. How could the first two words both have a doublet in them? I figured it had to be an OO followed by an EE. I got DEEP as the second word and then the first word had to be LOOK, which gave LOOK DEEP, the next work was four letters and ended with O so it had to be INTO. From having the first three words, I decided to tackle the author's name. Luckily the author's name had many of the letters I had already solved for and It took me only 15 or 20 seconds to spot the author as ALBERT EINSTEIN. After that, I had so many letters solved for that I simply was able to write out all the other words in order. The whole thing, including writing it all down took only 4 minutes.

That's what happens when you get a feel for how to solve these things. The first two words being doublets was the key. You simply could not have LL, FF, SS, NN, AA, UU, KK or TT. It had to be two vowels which had to be OO and EE. The ability to see that reduced an almost unsolvable nightmare and led to a 4 minute solution.

That pattern solving ability is worth developing because if can be used in other facets of life besides Crytograms.
Lakey

I forgot to post the answer to the puzzle which is " Look deeply into nature, and then you will understand everything better." - Albert Einstein

Lakey

 

[Maria Cuervo]

Re: The old days - Aboard the Apollo - 1973

You are so talented, quit showing off! (just kidding). What is going on with that duck, either he is kissing Leda or he is feeding her a morsel of fish.

Lakey.

that is Zeus disguised as a swan and raping Leda.

 

[lkwdblds]

Re: The old days - Aboard the Apollo - 1973

It's nice to see Sweetness and Light clicking a Like on Maria's post.

Sweetness and Light, you were on this thread the day I turned 70, back on Dec 5, 2009 and you were there a few days later when we hit 10,000 views. I am inviting you to come here when we hit 2,000,000 views. Maria had an idea where each of the thread regulars and any guests who wanted to join us could down a beer or something stronger at their homes at the moment when we passed 2,000,000 views.

For those who do not know, Sweetness and Light was the official hostess of the tread when the tread was new. After I had told my Apollo story and my CCLA story. the thread had about 5,200 hits and I had told everything I could think of about my Scientology experience. I announced to the handful of readers which we had at that time that the thread was done. Sweetness wrote me that I was a good writer and had more to say and that a lot of people enjoyed the two stories I had posted. She urged me to continue.

That led to me writing up lists of 10 best categories at CCLA. 10 best auditors, 10 best staff members (among whom I mentioned myself but no one knew that because I had not yet revealed my name), I made a list of the 10 best looking female staff and male staff, the 10 best bands and singers, the 10 most intelligent staff, etc. The 10 frienliest staff and then wrote a little blurb about every staff member who I could remember;

What really kept the thread going, unkown to me at the time, was that I made up a list of favorite eating places for staff and public. At about that time, Carmelo started scrutinizing the thread, correcting some of my data and/or adding to it, etc. Finally, I was done or so I thought. Sweetness's encouragement had caused me to do about 10 more pages of the thread and the views topped out at 7,200. Actually, that was not too bad for a thread telling someone's story inside CoS.

Carmelo then approached me and wanted us to team up and suggested we continue discussing the best restaurants near the old CCLA, then we got into the best Disc Jockeys in the L.A. area and then from there we got into the best entertainers who were still performing at that time. We had a mutual hit on Jack Benny, both of us agreed that he was just a fantastic comedian. Anyway, Carmelo and I agreed to team up, keep the thread name the same, at his suggestion, and branch away from my story to be a sort of internet magazine which dealt with all subjects.

I told Sweetness about that and she wanted to stay on as a regular as we adopted our new format. I dubbed Sweetness and Light as the Thread Hostess. I met her in person and we went to some party at Nancy Many's house back in late 2009. Sweetness stayed around for several months but eventually stopped being a regular on this thread. She started concentrating on her own projects and her own ESMB threads. Every time she makes an appearance here, it is always a pleasant surprise for me.
Lakey

 

[SweetnessandLight]

Re: The old days - Aboard the Apollo - 1973

Thank you Lakey, for those kind words!

I shall do my best to be around more often, and I surely don't want to miss that next big milestone! I think our having a collective drink in celebration of that occasion is a great idea!

I still think the origins of the original Celebrity Center and all the stories about the people involved is a bookworthy project!

But I'm very glad that you did not give up the thread before it's time!

If you are planning to go to see Paulette Cooper in L.A., then I may get to see you in person again! That would be fun!

 

[lkwdblds]

Re: The old days - Aboard the Apollo - 1973

Thank you Lakey, for those kind words!

I shall do my best to be around more often, and I surely don't want to miss that next big milestone! I think our having a collective drink in celebration of that occasion is a great idea!

I still think the origins of the original Celebrity Center and all the stories about the people involved is a bookworthy project!

But I'm very glad that you did not give up the thread before it's time!

If you are planning to go to see Paulette Cooper in L.A., then I may get to see you in person again! That would be fun!

Thanks for the nice post, Sweetness!. On the origins of the original Celebrity Center, my story was a first, a breakthrough so to speak but another gentleman, Howard Dickman has already written an ebook about the life of Yvonne Jentzsch. His book is very professional and is thoroughly researched. His book is not just about Celebrity Center but is about Yvonne's whole life so a large portion of his book is about the old CCLA. His book is accurate and very comprehensive. He has a lot of good material in their about Yvonne, much of it to do with Celebrity Centre. I am providing a link to his book : http://scientolipedia.org/info/Yvonne_Gillham_Jentzsch

Howard really researched everything thoroughly dealing with the early days of CCLA. He presents pictures of the staff house at 9th and Lake, and also the large manor where Yvonne moved CCLA to for about 3 o4 months in 1972. He has all the addresses and the sizes of the buildings and their lots. The whole thing was beautifully researched. He contacted me and asked if he could use my story as a reference and also contacted me several times during the period when he was writing his book. I helped him as much as I could.

My original story was weak on the earliest of days at CCLA. I thought the Org had opened around February of 1970 but actually it started in the Spring of 1969. I first went there to see a concert around August of 1970 and settled there permanently in October of 1970. I relied heavily on Purple Haze for most of my data on the early Org. Also Neville Chamberlin kicked in a nice bit of information as wwell. Within about two years of me writing my story which appeared on the Apollo Thread a day or so after Christmas of 2010, two more authorities surfaced to help bolster my knowledge of the origins of CCLA.

One expert was Don Keeler, the former Class 8 CS at CCLA. and the other was an old friend I met at CCLA named Richard Royce. Richard was there from the beginning. He has a college education from USC in Los Angeles and his background was in art. One day walking to West 8th St. in L.A. he walked by the building and since since it had an art gallery in it, he went inside to check it out. Yvonne greeted hims and recruited him to be a parishioner.

Getting back to the thread, probably it's time is now passed and has been passed for some time. I decided several times to let it go but due to its presence on search engines, it seems to have a life of its own, without any OP monitoring it. Then we have a new member such as Maria show up, or older members such as Hatsheput, Leon and Sweetness and Light return. I've learned a lot from reading Maria's posts and her blogs. With her knowledge of the subject of Philosophy and the brand of Christianity which she espouses, she brings with her new perspectives which have not appeared before on ESMB. She arrived on this thread in March as a complete newby to ESMB. I was thinking of letting the thread expire back in February but something made me stay with it. The drive for 2 million hits is not the real reason I stayed with it. I just had a feeling that maybe something big might occur here. CoS seemed to be getting its "clock cleaned", shrinking rapidly in membership all the while insisting that they were expanding at unprecedented rates such as 47X.

Get serious, if an organization of 8 million members grows by 47 X in one year, they grow to an organization of 376 million people. Go 18 X the next year and you are around 7 billion people, virtually all the people in the world. How can anyone still in CoS take these stats seriously. Instead of going from 8 million to 376 million in one year, the true numbers may be that they dropped from around 45,000 to 38,000 during that period. Why is it dropping? The answer is simple, "Out Exchange". Members are exchanging hard earn dollars and their labor for plaques or cornerstones in posh buildings which are beautifully furnished and impress in that regard but essentially those building are almost always nearly empty. To get stats going up any organization has to exchange with its employees and its member in abundance and this simple business principle is not being applied. It is really that simple.
Lakey

PS - Sweetness, I am interested in attending the Paulette Cooper event. Maybe Purple Haze might attend and the 3 of us, and probably others might want to get together for lunch after the event.