History, both Local and Family, lost

The Williamsport, Warren County, Indiana library burned, almost to the ground, last night (Sunday, October 8, 2006). It was four (4) years old. The fire was started in a dumpster and spread to the roof, where it ... "spread like wildfire" ... burning books, displays, shelves and historical documents indiscriminately. (http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061009/LOCAL/610090436 and http://www.wthr.com/Global/story.asp?S=5514765, which just ran a story on the fire, much longer than what's shown, here.)

Being my family's "historian", and knowing that one part of the family came from Warren County, I'm sure that papers that would have been available, there, are no longer. And it was ARSON! (Why would anybody set a fire to a library? Just for "fun"? What kind of "fun" is this? You have devastated the library staff, patrons (daily, weekly, or even occassionally), children who visited for story-time and to check out books for themselves, townspeople, county officials, those who donated books and their family papers to the library, those who gladly paid (and even though who didn't) extra taxes and funds, for the building, and many others. Happy? (IDIOTS)

I hope this also points out to EVERYONE that there are assholes in our midsts that care nothing for education or local history. PLEASE be sure to keep an eye out (small towns through big cities) when travelling around your, or others', towns. If you see ANYTHING suspiscious, report it (call 911) IMMEDIATELY. This town just lost a new jewel. They plan on rebuilding, but there were many items lost that are irreplacable.

I also hope this points out to people, everywhere, that your historical records are just that close to being gone. With the advent of computers, money should be spent and time should be taken to at the very minimum scan every historical document (papers, pictures, books, etc.) you have into the computer. Then make copies and keep at least one "master copy" of them off-site. This includes every town/city with historical records in special rooms, stored in the basements (there HAVE been floods that have destroyed records), every courthouse and library (and whereever else they're stored), museum, etc. I have ideas about this, if anyone is interested.

This admonition also includes every family with old family documents, pictures, bibles with pages of listed family, etc. Think of all the people in New Orleans and elsewhere who have lost every picture, every document, everything, pertaining to their family. They have lost irreplacable items handed down from generation to generation. With off-site scans, they could be reproduced... Not the same as the "real thing", but better than nothing at all.

No matter how "safe" and "protected" you feel you are by sprinkler systems (water destroys records), Halon Systems, Security Systems, alarms of any type, watchmen, or whatever type of system you have, you are vulnerable to assholes. Just like those who send out computer viruses, trojan horses, adware, spyware, etc., that are only built to cause problems and destroy others' computers and records, they are out there. They could care less about "historical value", "business records", "personal records", etc. They exploit the smallest "hole" in the security. All they want to do is destroy.

Remember, that at one time, all of the federal census records were stored at Commerce Building in Washington. There was a fire:

[The 1890 Federal Census images and indexes on Ancestry.com] have been extracted from the remaining population schedules for the 1890 Federal Census, which was destroyed by a fire at the Commerce Department in Washington, DC on 10 January 1921. The surviving fragments consists of 1,233 pages or pieces, including enumerations for Alabama, the District of Columbia, Georgia, Illinois, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, South Dakota, and Texas. The records of only 6,160 of the 62,979,766 people enumerated survived the fire.

(Source: Ancestry.com, 1890 Census - http://content.ancestry.com/iexec/?htx=List&dbid=5445&offerid=0%3a7858%3a0 - MY bolding - BS)

Even the Federal Government is vulnerable, and THEY should know better. Spend the money to scan all of our National records.

I've heard it said over and over that to know someone, you must learn their history. We learn from the past and mistakes made. If all the history is lost, how will we ever learn? Whether you are interested or not, others may be. (Many family historians are thought to be crazy by their families... They want every scrap of paper, copies of every picture, copies of various documents, etc. And many are "pack rats". It's necessary to PROVE someone was who they said they were, where they were, what they were, etc.) Although images (scans) are not the actual documents and, technically, can be "massaged" (think of all the fake pictures sent around in emails), they are better than nothing, and if the actual document is destroyed, they may be all we have.

Various organization are involved in a "Save Our History" campaign, tied in with the History Channel. Part of our "history" is the history of our families. When it's gone, it's gone.

Scan those records. Create databases. Back them up and save copies FAR AWAY and safe from damage, if something should happen to where the actual records are stored. ("In a fire safe" on the same site means nothing. Fires in these buildings can reach temperatures high enough, for long enough periods of time, to damage or destroy things in many of these safes.) It's worth it.

Bill Sanders

Sports, Politics, Etc.

Sports

We spent the day watching the Colts and NASCAR (two TVs going at the same time...) And I have a few observations:

Colts Win

The Indianapolis Colts beat the Tennessee Titans, 14-13. Why is it that everyone is making such a big deal of "the winless Titans" almost beating "the undefeated Colts"? On any given day, any NFL team, from the ones with the worst records to the ones with the best can win. This means that one team has to lose. Duh! Why can't anyone remember, in one of the Indianapolis Colts' worst seasons, in the 80s, (I always remembered it as the ONLY game they won, but they may have won a couple of others... Thought it was the Dolphins they beat, and they were after another undefeated season...), must have been in early-mid November, they beat a team that was undefeated to that point. (At least that's the way I remember it!) It can happen... And, as was proved last year, they can't "sit back" and "rest on their laurals(sp?), assuming they can beat teams having a tough time, and they can't "let the starters rest" in the final games of a season. They need to keep the momentum going for the finals. (I'll stop there... Don't wanna jinx anything!)

NASCAR

Talladega, October 8, 2006 - Dale Earnhardt Jr is leading in the last few laps. Jimmy Johnson and Brian Vickers (teammates) are directly behind, with Johnson waiting for the last (white flag) lap to get a run and try to pass Jr. The white flag falls... Johnson drops back to get the run, Vickers still behind him... They take off, Johnson drops below Jr, is about half-way past, and Vickers follows. But he was moving faster than Johnson by just that tick, taps Johnson's back end as he gets behind, which turns Johnson up into Jr's door, and wrecks them both. Vickers goes on to win.

My wife almost screamed out "He did that on purpose!", though you could see by the replays that it didn't appear to be so. She kept saying "Jr better be the winner!", though it was obvious that that was not going to be the case. Even Jr said nothing looked "purposeful" in the replay. Johnson, on the other hand, without seeing the replay, pretty much put the blame on Vickers, saying, without actually saying it, that he'd done it on purpose. I guess this will be up to NASCAR to figure out, but, again, it didn't happen at the finish line, so there's no way that Earnhardt or Johnson will be scored the winner.

Oh... Another "friendly arguement" I have with my wife has to do with certain other drivers. (I don't root for ONE driver... I root for a few, usually Stewart, Jr, and Jeff Gordon - probably because no one else likes him (I always like the underdog!)) What's strange is the illogic of TRUE NASCAR fans! (Apparently, I'm not one, because I see logic in a lot of places others don't.) Here's the point: If Jeff Gordon says anything in interviews about ANY favored driver (especially Jr!), my wife says he's whining. Where, if Jr says exactly the same thing about ANY other driver, he's NOT whining. What's the difference? Jr has a Southern accent, and Gordon's speech is nasally (therefore "whiney" to some). Hell, I even understand the fanaticism of race drivers.

I used to watch Wild World of Sports and loved the "Stock Car Races". I knew some of the drivers' names, and watched them go. I loved Richard Petty, Dale Earnhardt (Sr), and others. Was I "fanatical" about it? No, but I did enjoy it, and usually decided sometime at the beginning of the race who I would root for. SOME fans, obviously, love THEIR drivers. I wish I could get that deep into it, but to me, it was just "fun". Now, it's even more "fun" to watch the race. My wife is a die-hard Earnhardt fan. She works nights, so tends to fall asleep during races, but if Jr's in the lead (or near) WATCH OUT!

The thing today? See, when Jeff (Gordon) went out of the race in a wreck (not caused by what he was complaining about), he said the "bump drafting" (where one car goes nose-to-tail with the car in front, literally "bumping" him forward, or raising the rear tires slightly off the pavement, where the lead car loses traction - sometimes causing a wreck, depending on where it happens), especially by JR (OMG!), which NASCAR said it was going to watch carefully, was really bad. My wife immediately goes "WAH! WAH WAH! Such a baby"... I kept trying to point out that if Jr said the same thing, she wouldn't have said that... She said "Jr never would"... BS! I've seen it with my own eyes! Everyone, but Jr, drives dirty, and everyone but Jr (and a few of the older drivers) is a baby! See the "logic" in this? I don't! GEEZE! (We were both grinning about the "arguements" we were making, so, no... no worries about that, but she was pretty adamant! LOL)

Politics

Oh, gawd! They're at it again... If you didn't know it, this is an election year (and if you don't, you need to get off the internet and watch TV more! ;-)

It seemed to start fairly nicely... Local prosecutor wanna-be put an ad on TV asking for your vote. Nothing negative there. Then (I can't remember who started it) one of them pointed out the other's record, then one pointed out the other's record (or lack thereof), and it's off to the races.

I understand. The saying is "If you can't find something nice to say about someone, don't say anything." However, in Politics, it's "If you can't find dirt on someone (or make some up) you will lose." The "make some up" part is not strictly true. They find ANYTHING they can make negative comments about and put it on. No wonder people don't want to be politicians any more... Even if you make it, you are up for more and more and more scrutiny. There aren't a lot of people out there that want EVERYTHING in their past (from when they were about 12 or so on) detailed in public! Even if it built their values to be those others would respect.

BTW: Various political ads report the opponent voted AGAINST various legislation apparently desired by those who would vote for that person. Think about this: MANY, MANY times, desirable legislation is added to - usually items that favor one small area (as in "pork barrel" projects) - and the only way to keep the "pork" out is to vote against the desirable legislation. Who knows? It COULD even be a strategy of certain parties (individuals or the whole group) to add this "pork" in, knowing certain congressmen will vote against it, thereby giving them "fodder" for these political ads. By the same token, if the desirable legislation is voted FOR by the opponent, THEN they could say they voted FOR various pork barrel projects.

Politics is a nasty business. Actually, politics, itself, may not be nasty, but the tactics used in political ads DEFINITELY is.

Other Stuff

Bad Ads

Some of the ones previously discussed are still out there (or trotted out for occassional play). Thank GOD it's not as often as before. There are others... I can't think of them at the moment... Apparently, I just "put them out of my head" as soon as I see them. (Defeats the purpose, doesn't it!)

Infomercials

Looks like a new crop of infomercials have arrived at Discovery and History Channels. Some are new versions for many I've already researched at www.orangefrogproductions.com (Scams, Shams and More Flim-Flams button.) Some are new things. Soon as I get the following up and running CORRECTLY, I will have to get on to researching them.

Orange Frog Productions

Version 2 will be out soon. I have not made major changes to OFP since it went up in 2003. This revamping will (hopefully):

• I am dividing it into three logical sections - Main; Owner; and Scams, Shams and More Flim-Flams (scams = various types of scams, shams = Infomercials, Flim-Flams = Rumors = Trivia lists, Urban Legends, etc.; and it includes information on Spam.) There are probably other ways that I SHOULD have done it, but it works for me, for now.
• I am making it more "accessible" (the print is designed to enlarge - or shrink - if you wish) - The sidebar buttons will currently overlap the content area, but it will work.
• I am adding buttons to all external links, allowing users to open that link in the current or a new window)
• I am adding definitions (glossary entries and tool tips)
• The background is a bit lighter, so the contrast will make it easier to read
• I'm trying to be more careful, so it works in both IE and Firefox. I know there are other browsers out there, but they seem to follow the lead of those two. I've already found and fixed some things. Hopefully there are few others. Most have had to do with the styles used to format things.

While it's not completely done, I believe it's ready to debut as OFP's main site. I have also included a Sitemap for the new site, and a Sitemap from the old site that links to the new pages.

A little more work (want to use Google Sitemap to let Google know there are changes, and have to make sure the old links will go to new pages via .htaccess file), and I will republish the site.

Keep an eye on it. www.orangefrogproductions.com. The new version is currently at www.orangefrogproductions.com/ofp2/index.html, but will be moved "down", soon. Let me know what you think.

That should do it for now.

TTYL

BigDaddyBS (Bill S)