Dolly earns her wings

Yesterday, American icon Dolly Parton died at the age of 80. Though I never met her, I admired the work she did and the example she set for being an outstanding human. Dolly was amazingly generous with her time and her fortune, helping people when they were in need and supplying over 330 million books to kids with her Imagination Library organization.

I watched many videos yesterday from people who were touched by Dolly and to be honest it got me bawling. As a friend said, what a gift it was just to be alive at the same time Dolly was!

I wish I had my own Dolly story but I wasn’t so lucky. Back in 2020, in the midst of the pandemic, I was in Franklin, Tennessee, on a business trip at the same time my friend James was. James worked as a satellite truck uplink operator and was at the Ryman covering a country music awards show. I saw he was also in town and was considering going down there to say hi to him. The real reason I wanted to go was the chance that I might be in that backstage area and possibly meet Dolly. I know I would’ve been all tongue-tied if that chance presented itself, and I pondered how random people probably seek her out all the time to the point of it being creepy, so I opted not to go. Now I wish maybe I’d gone there anyway.

Dolly was the example person I could point to and say “here is what greatness humanity is capable of.” What an example she set for us all.

Adventure Landing Sails Over the Horizon

Adventure Landing as seen by the Wake County Tax Assessment department.

It hit me harder than it probably should have: a nearly forty year old mini amusement park abruptly closes up shop. I probably never visited more than a dozen times in the thirty-four years I’ve lived her, so that’s … what, once every three years? They sure weren’t making money from my visits, but I have to say that every time I visited they sure were making money. There were always kids flooding the arcade, the lines to ride go-karts were constant, and you could always count on waiting for players when you worked your way through the mini golf courses.

In fact, the day they announced they were closing, I reminded a colleague of the time many years ago when our employer took the whole team out to ride go-karts at Adventure Landing as a wacky reward for getting our product across the finish line, so to speak. I had no clue when I brought this up that Adventure Landing had already called it quits.
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Double Doody – fun with the cyclospora stomach bug

My exhaustion was evident even before the cyclospora opened the floodgates.

Hoo boy, what a week I had last week. The cyclospora parasite made it pure misery. For several days, I didn’t dare stray far from a bathroom. Fortunately, I got smart, acted quickly, and was back on my feet much sooner than I could’ve been. Here’s my story.

Friday evening, June 26th, my wife was taking me the airport for a three day weekend I was spending with our daughter. On the way we stopped at our local Lebanese restaurant for some to-go food. I sat in the passenger seat, stuffing my face as we weaved through rush-hour traffic to the airport. I polished off the kabobs and hummus but was sad not to get to my tabbouleh.

I made Kelly promise not to gobble up my tabbouleh as I kissed her goodbye and walked into the airport.

The weekend away visiting our daughter was wonderful. I would taunt Kelly with a photo of some amazing meal we were eating and she would joke about how good my tabbouleh is! She remained true to her word and I finished off my tasty snack when I returned Sunday night, June 27th.
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Havana Syndrome: Pentagon bought device through undercover operation some investigators suspect is linked to a series of mysterious ailments | CNN Politics

Now CNN is reporting on the mystery device. There is a lot of smoke to this fire.

The Defense Department has spent more than a year testing a device purchased in an undercover operation that some investigators think could be the cause of a series of mysterious ailments impacting US spies, diplomats and troops that are colloquially known as Havana Syndrome, according to four sources briefed on the matter.

A division of the Department of Homeland Security, Homeland Security Investigations, purchased the device for millions of dollars in the waning days of the Biden administration, using funding provided by the Defense Department, according to two of the sources. Officials paid “eight figures” for the device, these people said, declining to offer a more specific number.

The device is still being studied and there is ongoing debate — and in some quarters of government, skepticism — over its link to the roughly dozens of anomalous health incidents that remain officially unexplained.CNN has asked the Pentagon, HSI and the DHS for comment. The CIA declined to comment.

Source: Havana Syndrome: Pentagon bought device through undercover operation some investigators suspect is linked to a series of mysterious ailments | CNN Politics

Jurisdictions Work Toward Easier Single Sign-On for Residents

Larimer County, Colorado, has already centralized identity and access management (IAM) for hundreds of internal government applications, radically simplifying work life for county employees. Now, the county wants to extend that approach to resident services.

The county uses a cloud-based identity management platform to give staff members access to all the resources they need for their job with a single sign-on. No more juggling multiple login credentials for individual systems and databases. The next step is to give residents a single identity they can use to engage with any county department or program.

That’s harder than it sounds.

Source: Jurisdictions Work Toward Easier Single Sign-On for Residents

US used powerful mystery weapon that brought Venezuelan soldiers to their knees during Maduro raid: witness account

WASHINGTON — The US used a powerful mystery weapon that brought Venezuelan soldiers to their knees, “bleeding through the nose” and vomiting blood, during the daring raid to capture dictator Nicolas Maduro, according to a witness account posted Saturday on X by the White House press secretary.

In a jaw-dropping interview, the guard described how American forces wiped out hundreds of fighters without losing a single soldier, using technology unlike anything he has ever seen — or heard.

“We were on guard, but suddenly all our radar systems shut down without any explanation,” the guard said. “The next thing we saw were drones, a lot of drones, flying over our positions. We didn’t know how to react.”
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Exclusive: U.S. has been testing a captured device linked to Havana Syndrome, sources say

So, a recent news story claimed that a secretive, powerful, directed-energy weapon was used by U.S. Special Forces to slaughter Venezuelan troops during Maduro’s capture. Today there are rumors that such a device is indeed in the hands of the U.S. Military. I didn’t fully trust the report from Venezuela but now I am intensely curious.

Four people tell me the U.S. government has this weapon, which has been tested.

Source: Exclusive: U.S. has been testing a captured device linked to Havana Syndrome, sources say

The last days of the Southern drawl

Around Raleigh I hear fewer and fewer Southern accents and I think it’s sad. I can still muster up mine but it seems to only come out when I’m around other Southerners. The ratio of Southerners in Raleigh seems to be dropping by the day.

On Sundays after church, my family would pile into our crank-window GMC truck and head to Kentucky Fried Chicken. “Can I get me some of them tater wedges?” my father would say into the speaker, while my sisters and I giggled in the back seat. My dad has always had a southern accent: His words fall out of his mouth the way molasses would sound if it could speak, thick and slow. But his “KFC voice,” as my sisters and I call it, is country. It’s watered-down on work calls and during debates with his West Coast relatives. But it comes out around fellow cattle farmers and old friends from Kentucky, where he grew up.

My mother’s accent isn’t quite as strong. She’s a therapist, and she can hide it when she speaks with her patients and calls in prescriptions. But you can always hear it in her church-pew greetings, and when she says goodnight: “See you in the a.m., Lawd willin’.”

I was always clear on one fact: I wasn’t going to have a southern accent when I grew up. I was raised in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, near Nashville, where the accents grow stronger with each mile you travel from the city. I watched people snicker at the redneck characters on television who always seemed to play the town idiot. I knew what the accent was supposed to convey: sweet but simpleminded. When I was 15 and my family went to New York for the first time, the bellhop at our hotel laughed when my mom and I spoke; he said he’d never met cowgirls before. That was when I decided: No one was going to know I was from the South from my voice alone.

Source: The last days of the Southern drawl

A look back at 2025, part 1

I see I have a blog here and think it might be fun to add something to it every now and then.

The page has now turned on 2025 and many are saying “good riddance!” This year, I don’t know if I share that sentiment. Sure, a lot of undesired stuff happened but there are some moments that deserve to be celebrated.

Twenty-twenty five was the year I threw caution to the wind and went on a grand adventure by sailing to Cuba. It’s notable that I did it without Kelly, with whom I travel nearly everywhere. It was a Guy Trip, organized my friend Ken Thomas and a small circle of his friends. None of us knew anything about Cuba and only I had any real sailing experience. The great thing is that it didn’t matter as we were all willing to dive into the unknown and trust that we would figure things out. And we did, beautifully. It was a huge confidence-builder to take a leap and learn that I have the skills to succeed. More blog posts on this to come.

Politically, America’s rot is now out in the open for all to see. Congress has abdicated its role as a check on the executive, with the Supreme Court siding with the billionaire class nearly every time. There is naked corruption everywhere. The government services we all need to keep a functioning society have been deliberately thrown into chaos. Republicans are doing their damnmedest to codify racism. All in all, things look pretty bleak.

But do they? People everywhere are finally waking up. Democrats are winning landslide elections in formerly Republican-safe districts. The President’s approval rating is far underwater. Yes, lawless thugs are running roughshod over Constitutional protections in our immigrant neighborhoods, but the people are having none of it and fighting back. Folks are getting organized, fast! While it would be nice if our institutions would stand up for everyone, it is heartening to see so many people willing to step up to fill the gaps. The American experiment is not quite dead yet.

Along these lines, I attended a few very large demonstrations in 2025 that really hit home. Never before have I felt so emotional at a protest than I did this past year. It gives me so much hope. So, though the oligarch-controlled media does its best to keep it hidden, there is significant pushback against the folks trying to shred our Constitution.

ICE raids Hyundai plant in Georgia

Trump is doing his damnedest to destroy our economy.

South Korea says ‘many’ of its nationals were detained in immigration raid on Hyundai facility in Georgia

The South Korean government said Friday it had expressed “regret” to the U.S. Embassy over the raid at a battery plant under construction at one of the state’s largest manufacturing facilities.

South Korea said Friday that it had expressed “concern and regret” to the U.S. Embassy over an immigration raid on a Hyundai facility in Georgia during which it said “many” South Korean nationals had been detained.

“The economic activities of our companies investing in the U.S. and the rights and interests of our nationals must not be unfairly violated,” said Lee Jae-woong, a spokesperson for the foreign ministry of the key U.S. ally, according to the Yonhap news agency.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/ice-hyundai-plant-georgia-enforcement-action-rcna229148