See that kindly old man in the pic? Charles Upham: nice guy, good husband, good father, occasional temper outbursts against people who pissed him off but nothing terrible. Oh, also a helluva of a soldier – the most decorated soldier in New Zealand history.
Charles & Molly Upham
Upham was born in 1908. His father was a lawyer; his mother a homemaker. Upham pretty much always wanted to be a farmer and, after finishing high school, he went off Ag College, earned a diploma, worked as a sheep farmer, then became a valuer for the NZ government. Upham also joined the New Zealand Territorial Force (equivalent of the Army Reserve) where he put in five years.
On September 3, 1939, New Zealand declared war on Germany within hours of Britain’s declaration. Upham enlisted as a private that same month at the age of 30, and by December had been promoted to sergeant. The Second New Zealand Expeditionary Force sailed for Egypt later that month and, in June, 1940, Upham went to Officer Cadet Training. Upon completing that training, he was promoted to second lieutenant. Upham’s unit saw their first action in Greece in March, 1941 from where they were ordered to withdraw to Crete. Here, Upham was part of the Battle of Crete. The thirteen-day battle was a bloodbath for both sides. Of the 42,000 British, British Commonwealth, and Greek troops involved, approximately 4000 were KIA or MIA, 2000 wounded, and more than 17,000 taken prisoner. The Germans suffered almost 6000 casualties out of the 22,000 deployed.
Upham’s first combat on Crete was on May 22, two days after the first German paratroops landed, when his unit was part of the counter-attack on Maleme airfield which the Germans had captured on the second day of the battle. During the attack, the platoon he commanded was three times held up by heavy German resistance. In the first case, it was a German machine-gun nest. According to the later official citation written to support the medal awarded to Upham, he “advanced to close quarters with pistol and grenades, so demoralizing the occupants that his section was able to ‘mop up’ with ease.” On the other two occasions, Upham worked his way close enough to German machine-gun positions that he was able to destroy them with grenades. Ultimately, the counter-attack failed to retake the airfield, and the New Zealanders had to withdraw. Upham helped carry out a wounded man under fire. Upon his return to NZ lines, Upham and one other man were sent to guide out a company which had been isolated 600 yards behind enemy lines.
As the battle continued, Upham was wounded by mortar shrapnel and was also shot in the foot, but continued in combat. On May 25, he went forward with his platoon sergeant to warn other troops they were in danger of being cut off. Coming under fire, he was wounded in the arm and played possum. While out of sight of two German soldiers, he crawled to a tree, rested his rifle in a fork in the branches, and shot both the Germans attacking him. Allegedly, the second German fell onto the muzzle of Upham’s rifle. During the entire battle, Upham suffered from dysentery. He was among the troops fortunate enough to be evacuated to Egypt where he was promoted to captain.
For his actions during the Battle of Crete, Upham was awarded the Victoria Cross (VC) – the British Empire’s highest award for gallantry (think Medal of Honor). The official citation opened with, “During the operations in Crete this officer performed a series of remarkable exploits, showing outstanding leadership, tactical skill and utter indifference to danger” and ended, “He showed superb coolness, great skill and dash and complete disregard of danger. His conduct and leadership inspired his whole platoon to fight magnificently throughout, and in fact was an inspiration to the Battalion.” Upham abhorred the pomp and ceremony which followed the award, insisting it should be awarded to his men who fought beside him
Upham the soldier (probably taken in North Africa)
Upham next saw action in the First Battle of Ruweisat Ridge (part of the First Battle of El Alamein – where British and Commonwealth forces stopped Rommel). The New Zealanders (& others) broke through the German defenses and advanced along the ridgeline. Too late, command officers realized that what they thought were German forward pickets were actually the main defense line. These German forces prevented Allied reinforcements reaching the advance units which were then counterattacked by the Afrika Corps. Upham’s unit was part of the second wave of the first attack. During the initial assault, Upham was wounded twice but managed to use grenades to blow up a truck load of German soldiers. Later in the battle, Upham was ordered to send an officer out to find out where the most advanced New Zealand troops were. Naturally he sent himself, armed with a Spandau gun (a.k.a MG 34), took fire from enemy machine gun posts, and brought the information back.
Upham and his men remained in combat for several days, during which time he led assaults on machine gun posts and tanks. He was shot through the elbow by a machine gun bullet which broke his arm, but returned to combat where he was wounded again. Too weak to move, he was captured and taken to an Italian field hospital. There, the Italian doctor marked his wounded arm for amputation, an operation to be carried out without anesthetic. Having watched several other soldiers die from the pain and trauma of the makeshift surgeries, Upham refused (for the rest of his life, Upham was sure this refusal had saved his life).
Upham was eventually shipped off to Germany as a POW where he made numerous escape attempts. On one occasion he tried to climb a fence in daylight, became entangled in the wire, and fell down between the inner and outer fences. Confronted by a German guard threatening to shoot him, Upham slowly pulled out a cigarette and lit it (although there is no doubt the event took place as described there is some suggestion that the photo was staged at a later time).
Coolness under fire.
Eventually Upham was shipped off to Colditz. He made his final escape attempt by leaping from a train during his journey to Colditz, and was recaptured after 12 hours. When American forces liberated Colditz, Upham joined one of the units, was given weapons and a uniform, ready to go back into combat. Before he could, he was ordered back to Britain. In London he was reunited with Molly McTamney and they married in June, 1945. In September of that year, Upham was recommended for his second Victoria Cross (or more correctly, a bar to the first) for his actions in North Africa. So unusual was this that King George VI, who had invested Upham with the first VC upon Upham’s return to London in May, questioned whether this was proper (see below for why). The CIC of New Zealand forces replied, “In my respectful opinion, sir, Upham won the VC several times over.”
Upham returned to New Zealand in September, 1945, (he had also tried to join NZ combat forces in the Pacific but his request was refused) where he returned to his first love – farming. The local community raised £10,000 pounds to buy him a farm. Upham declined the gift and the money was used to fund a scholarship – which still operates – at Lincoln College (now Lincoln University). In order to buy his farm, Upham took out a war rehabilitation loan (think GI Bill) to buy a farm in Hundalee where he also took in broken horses so they wouldn’t be shipped off to a glue factory. One piece of lore says that, until the day he died, Upham never allowed a piece of German machinery on his property, and may have even taken potshots at VWs driven by visitors. Charles and Molly had three daughters (including twins). For twenty years he also served on the board of Christ’s College (a secondary school and his alma mater).
Home on the farm
Charles Upham died November 22, 1994, aged 86. Among the death notices published in the Christchurch newspaper was the following: One of the bravest and best soldiers — in deep respect. Sympathy for family and friends on behalf of the Association of former Afrika Korps, –Karl Heinz Boettger (Col Ret’d), Hamburg Germany. Upham’s funeral was held in Christchurch where an estimated 5000 people lined the streets. He is buried in St. Paul’s Anglican Church, Papanui.
The Victoria Cross was first awarded in 1856 for acts of valor during the Crimean War. In 1999, New Zealand created a separate award named the Victoria Cross for New Zealand. Between 1856 and 1999, 1352 VCs were awarded (across the British Empire & Commonwealth, not just to New Zealanders) – about 20% posthumously (for comparison, since 1861, the US government has awarded 3527 Medals of Honor, with 19 people receiving two. The British tend be a little more chintzy when handing out medals).
Only three men have won the VC & bar. Arthur Martin-Leake won his first VC as a combat surgeon in the Second Boer War in 1902 for attending wounded men under fire. He won his bar as a member of the Royal Army Medical Corps for actions in Belgium in October and November 1914, for rescuing wounded men near the German trenches. Noel Chevasse, won his VC in October, 1916 as a member of the Royal Army Medical Corps for attending wounded men while under fire in France. He won his bar for actions in July and August, 1917, in Belgium. He was wounded while bringing a fellow soldier out of No Man’s Land but continued to work at an aid post while also venturing multiple trips into No Man’s Land under fire to bring back wounded.
Charles H. Upham is the only combat solider to win the Victoria Cross and Bar. And, if that’s not enough reason to admire the man, allow me one more. Despite numerous attempts to recruit him, Upham steadfastly refused to go into politics.
Upham’s medals. The Victoria Cross is at far left.
* My thanks to Animal for allowing me to post a franchise Profile in Toxic Masculinity
Further Reading:
Kenneth Sandford, Mark of the Lion. Originally published in 1962, it was reissued in 1994 with a new afterword by Bruce Wallace covering Upham’s life from 1962-1994. I haven’t read the afterword. The original was accurate but leaned to the hagiography side.
Tom Scott, Searching for Charlie: In Pursuit of the Real Charles Upham (2020). Although determined to be more even-handed than Sandford, Upham still emerges from this book as a hero. Scott also discusses his travels to the various battlefields on which Upham served.
Here’s a podcast interview with Tom Scott about his writing of the book.
Charles Upham, “This is Your Life.“
zoom https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84729616733?pwd=c2NNY05TdkUxMEVTSUp5N3VDRWJTZz09
Hear about Deadhead’s race
Hi Tulip. Not doing a Zoom tonight?
Oops, that was the Zoom link.
Over already?
https://us05web.zoom.us/j/85209621373?pwd=OThETnNCR3M5cUFJUUcxYWhZM3hFZz09
Straf started one.
New link
https://us04web.zoom.us/j/79225281900?pwd=VDRVVFZneWVQeXVWQ0dMelZJMkFBQT09
They don’t like it Upham!
Hah! I’ve been watching the whole series on BritBox.
?
I’m tempted to buy the box set for keeps, along with ‘Allo ‘Allo!.
What a story! Thanks RN!
Compares this badass to some of the PTSD pukes I’ve had to deal with from the endless war. By pukes, I mean non-combat types.
SMH
Is that you George?
Nice, a good bit of history about an interesting man.
By the way, do you know who else was at the Battle of Crete? Evelyn Waugh. Yes, the effet Brit who wrote Brideshead Revisited was also part of the whole thing, as he was a Royal Marine Commando. In fact, the manuscript for the said novel was parachuted to him when he was holed up in a cave in Yugoslavia during the fighting there.
“Absolute Mad Lads – The Nightmare POW, Charles Hazlitt Upham”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MqW0iCXTCpw
“Men Are Worse for Climate Change Than Women Because They Love Meat and Cars
A new study has found that men emit 16% more greenhouse gases than women because they spend more money on fuel and meat.”
https://www.vice.com/en/article/z3xg43/men-are-worse-for-climate-change-than-women-because-they-love-meat-and-cars
I assure you, my wife buys most the meat in this house.
On the other handPlus, my wife’s daily commute is literally 40 feet.Does a Dutch oven reduce the greenhouse gases?
My wife far outstrips me with her crazy A/C use. I know, because I pay for it.
I’m vegetarian and I emit more greenhouse gas than most people.
A great tale, thanks !
Interesting thread how book covers in the past looked better than the covers for the same books now:
https://twitter.com/Java_jigga/status/1417929596733825026
The newer Snow Crash is a bit of an improvement IMHO.
As for the rest, ?♂️
I like the first one better. I don’t think my copy of Snow Crash has either of those covers.
I might have the paperback in a box somewhere but I only read the version on my Kindle now.
FWIW, I never gave a toss about record/cassette/CD covers, either.
There were some great album covers though. When it’s the size of a cd it’s not the same.
I never owned more than a handful of records.
I have couple of yards of techno vinyl, even after cd’s were a thing.
Remember the audiophiles back then? I knew a guy that would wrap his needle arm in foam with bread ties. He had a bunch of spare needle inserts. Once, he proclaimed the insert was bad. Everyone else there looked at each other like, “what?” then he changed the insert and said, ” see! It sounds so much better now!” We all said, “nope sounds exactly the same!” Lol.
Agree 100%. Used to look them over for every detail. I remember the “Paul is dead” clues, too.
Both album covers and book covers were and are great places for art. I love both but have only focused on books.
My copy had this cover, which is better than either of those.
Now help him write a decent ending.
The covers from the ’50s, ’60s and ’70’s were half of the sell. They inspired awe, wonder and curiousity. Now they inspire yawns.
Absolutely. I went and bought first editions of all my favorite Roald Dahl books to read to my boys because the illustrations were so incredible. They stuck in my mind for decades because of how good they were. Then you look at any recent editions and they are absolutely crap. This is a first edition Fantastic Mr Fox (I think I bought a public library used edition for 15 bucks). Just beautiful, the bottle green trousers and red jaunty coat really made the Fox for me. The illustrations now look like something I could do after ten beers.
https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=30734033266&cm_sp=SEARCHREC-_-WIDGET-L-_-BDP-F&searchurl=an%3Droald%2Bdahl%26fe%3Don%26sortby%3D17%26tn%3Dfantastic%2Bmr%2Bfox#&gid=1&pid=1
James and the Giant Bitch
Was that the porn parody?
Roahld Dahl is worthwhile, but you know that already.
There were a lot of reprints of early 20th century SciFi and Fantasy in the seventies, and they had the great seventies art. You can see this also with Raymond Chandler titles. Great stuff.
https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/CJYAAOSwnstfso-V/s-l300.jpg the seventies cover
https://www.overdrive.com/media/1277428/the-high-window Now
I remember marveling at the Time/life western series, with it’s faux tooled leather covers and amazing photos and pictographs. Lots of WW2 books too.
Yeah, I remember some of those old great western ones. Here is another from a first edition James and the Giant Peach. Great stuff, especially compared to the current editions.
https://www.hilobrow.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/james-and-the-giant-peach-nancy-eckholm-burkert1.jpg
I have a coffe table book somewhere from one of the sci-fi cover artists from the 60’s and 70’s. Trippy stuff.
Oh yeah, look at these: https://wyrdbritain.blogspot.com/2020/06/elric.html
Done by Michael Whelan
Wow, somehow that works better than just slapping down some shit in illustrator and photoshop and calling it a day. Who would have guessed?
Thanks for a good informative article RN. Love the pic of him on the farm with a pipe in his mouth.
Just got back from the Skateboarding Museum in Simi Valley. They have a half pipe and some other ramps. There’s a massive collection of vintage skateboards. They had a version of each of the 5 boards I owned when I skated in the 70’s. Very cool. Kid had a blast. He likes when there’s other kids there to impress with his skills. I skate a little here and there and rest quite a bit in between. Good day.
buddy of mine, albeit it’s been a few decades…
That guy is a really good old school freestyler. I took my kid to a park when he first started and the kids there saw me skate some. They were impressed and asked me if I could do a kickflip. I did the exact one your buddy did. They freaked out. There a new version that incorporates an ollie. I can’t do that one. There was no such thing as ollies when I quit skating.
Old school kickflip is at 1:02 about.
I have not yet learned to ollie. Bert invented the double handstand kickflip and a few other moves. I was hoping to reconnect with Bert through his younger sister via our high school reunion this year, but … covid.
Bert’s still going strong. I’ll catch up some day.
Oh, and I chose that video because it was the most recent I could find. I actually don’t think it does him justice, although I’m a bit biased.
You can tell he was an upper level freestyler. He could make an early eighties routine just with what he does right there.
What did you think of Lords of Dogtown? I finally saw it a few months back and enjoyed it a lot. I liked the recreation of 70’s Santa Monica, but you know that area from the and now much better than I do.
It was a very cool recreation of the scene. The story is almost complete bullshit, though. Everybody was riding pools and doing crazy shit back them. The dogtown people just had movie cameras and the magazine people following them around. They were certainly not poor kids from the bad part of town. Most skaters really looked up to them until they met them in person. They were stuck jerks, generally. That said, it’s like looking in a mirror at the era. My kid watches it about twice a month. Huge impact on him and what got him to be serious about skating.
That sounds like a happy day ?
It truly is. I can’t describe the joy I get from teaching my kid something I did when I was young. Pretty sure my dad was eyeing my board and wondering if he could somehow trade it in for a couple of 6 packs. Nobody’s parents were involved in skating, aside from sometimes driving us to a spot. We mostly hitched a ride or took the RTD bus.
Nice! I figured the story was very Hollywoodized, but enjoyed the scene that they set. As much as I am a NorCal guy, I still dig the SoCal and that environment in the 70’s and 80’s was pretty special. It seemed kinda like how Tarentino really nailed an epoch in EL Lay in his latest flick. That era will never happen again, glad your kid got into it.
The dogtown people always were self aggrandizing and egotistical. Makes sense that their movie is too. They used to show up at our skate spots with new Trans Ams and movie equipment. We’d have hitchhiked there. They’d steal our beer and snake every run. We were always relieved when they left. Don’t get me wrong, they were great skaters, they just weren’t the only ones.
Did they have the roller skate on the 2×4?
Yes. They have a whole section on the primitive stuff. They even had a “kit” you bought from Sears Roebuck and affixed it to the wooden deck of your choice.
Late to the convo, but Damn Cool report, Thanks Black!
Thanks. It’s a cool assed place. They have all the old boards hanging on the walls. The ramps are nice, if not a bit tame. There’s a vert section in the far corner, but it’s better suited to regular foot. I could only go frontside on it because it’s right up against the corner.
Fakies? worked for me….
Fakies with a toe tap out of the pool, very classy,
Yeah, you could fakie it. It’s only about 4 feet wide and tucked deep into a left hand corner. There’s a bump thingy in the middle, so approaching from the right was sketchy. I just romped up close to the wall and did frontside kickturns. I’m more scared of crashing than I used to be, so I keep it mellow-ish.
He claims to have 5 thousand boards, but there was maybe 3-5 hundred on display. They went in chronological order with the oldest stuff being scooters and makeshift stuff. The 70’s wall had all of my old boards, in the flesh. Man they look so tiny now! Can’t believe I was ripping pools on those little things.
10.5×32 with 6tracks FTW, still my deck of choice, Sector 9 or a Salba, YMMV
SK8!
When I quit, like late ’78-early ’79, boards were just getting big like that. My last board was a Jay Adams Z-flex in yellow, with midtracks and Kryptonics green wheels. They had my first board, a Makaha with three bolt generic trucks, 2nd which was a Logan Earth ski with Bennets and road riders and 3rd a Sims superply with the same trucks and wheels then a different deck for a while which I never knew who made it and finally, the Z-flex.
OJ 55x? with Speedmetal bearings and Yellow Blue Doh dohs, tthat specific,
I am personally very glad you two went to Pipeline, it brings back so much of my youth, and yet after decades, we still play, there is no skating here, Keep it up Black and Son!
Very cool!
When you start feeling like Harvey Dent, try being more Bruce Wayne. I mean, you’re kind of screwed either way, but Bruce Wayne has more money and cool stuff.
I don’t really know DC at all. I was just thinking of The Dark KnIght the other day, and then coincidentally a couple of days later it came up on some blog or podcast in my feed that I didn’t actually listen to but apparently it came out 13 years ago.
The point I wanted to make was that, when Dent goes rogue, he kidnaps one of the terrorists and interrogates him. Wayne (as Batman) goes to intervene before he takes it further, and makes the point that this guy Dent is interrogating is a sociopath from whom there is no hope of getting any meaningful or truthful answers. Anyway, it occurred to me that this is the modern radical left, the “anti-fascists”, the cultural marxists, the real terrorists burning, looting, screaming, attacking. They are pathological, nihilist, divorced from any morality, objective truth, etc. These people are callous sociopaths, hopeless cases. The people who really ought to be held to account are the people who should know better, and have spent years dismissing any concerns about this culture; the people who rationalise it away, deny it, contextualize and excuse it.
Obviously we* know this, but please enjoy my post and perhaps it will spark someone smarter to say something smarter
*WE ARE THE GLIB. YOU WILL BE ASSIMILATED. YOUR BIOLOGICAL AND TECHNOLOGICAL DISTINCTIVENESS WILL BE ADDED TO OUR OWN. RESISTANCE IS FUTILE.
AM I BEING DETAINED??????????????/
No but be good and mind your manners. Run along now.
Hey limey, I don’t know if you saw it, but you mentioned digging fusion the other day and I recommend Live/Evil. Upon thinking about it, I imagine that if you dig it you probably already know of it. Maybe you don’t know this, if you don’t then enjoy. This is Miles Davis at his most badass rock and roll jazz.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=up9yWDl0jBc
Thanks dude. I’ll jam this on tomorrow. I really don’t know much about fusion but I really get a kick out of some of it. Any recommendations are much appreciated. I’ve had a few things in rotation for years but never explored it any further, and recently just started wandering deeper into the fusion forest, branching out from musicians I like, seeing who they play with, going to find their stuff, and so on.
Absolutely. I have massive musical appetite and a vast knowledge of weird and obscure music of the world as well as more typical styles. The beginnings of jazz fusion produced some great stuff and the merging of electronic with jazz has had some interesting stuff happen more recently. Suggestions are always free with me!
My favorito afrobeat/future jazz album from my fav drummer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lj6eA9fnvCM
Like that video of the fat chick burning the coptic church in Canada. Stone cold, no empathy, nothing, just set it on fire and walked away. Probably felt righteous, but couldn’t tell on her face. I doubt people like that will stop willingly. If she got any rush from it at all, she’ll do it again. And she’s not the only one like that now. They’ll have to be stopped.
But yes, the people who told her this was okay and implicitly promised that she could keep doing it, are no different than these FBI agents who entrap unstable people into dumb stuff like Kidnapping Whitmer, and they need to be stopped too. (well, different in that FBI is worse, by doing it from behind a badge but it’s still people with “authority” coaxing mostly the mentally ill into barbarity.)
But then, the theme of the Dark Knight is that Joker is wrong– humanity isn’t garbage and ordinary people do the right thing when they need to.
“humanity isn’t garbage and ordinary people do the right thing when they need to”
Gonna have to go ahead and disagree with you there. Human history 100% does not bear this out.
That’s not quite what I took from The Dark Knight. It’s more like most people are fearful but someone demonstrating bravery (and righteousness) can inspire it in others.
Just enjoy the decline Limey. There’s nothing any of us can do about it so try to make a few bucks, get laid and watch it burn to the ground.
Living in a Senior Park sucks, I have to go to headphones or I get complaints, I roll Sennheiser 560s for recording, so the sound is good, but FREEDOM!
My sound system wants to play at volume, poor thing, it just wants out for a bit…..
If it’s too loud you’re too old.
Razorfist goes over the early reporting on the Maricopa county audit. It aint good let alone most secure election in history.
So for the next edition of the “Toxic Masculinity”, I would nominate David Sterling (a former layabout and founder of the SAS) whose exploits and those of his charges, read like a series of absurd 1960’s propagandist movies or Larry Alan Thorne (a.k.a Lauri Törni) a guy that hated Commies so much that he fought them with the Finns in the Winter War, in the Waffen SS in the Eastern Front against the Soviets, once again. After he had incontrovertibly demonstrated his hate for Marxist beyond a shadow of a doubt, he joined the U.S. Army and became an officer in the 10th Special Force Group under Colonel Aaron Bank (another toxic candidate) and fought against the North Vietnamese in the first, or second (depending on how you count), of the forever wars.
If TPTB were to ask I would gladly do a write-up of these decidedly toxic men (and COL Bank if they so desired).
Fixing second <a href="link
I suck, but the link works
I’m not TPTB but I would like to read that topic.
2nd. I will read about that guy for sure.
Meh, just write it and submit. That’s what I did with this one.
I had the opportunity to meet and brief COL Bank when I was in 10th Group (A) during the Cold War. He was still a hard charger in the 1980s. He was critical of the leadership and thought the Generals did not have good plans on how to employ us if WWIII had started. I had to agree with him.
I think we already have a Larry Thorne profile here from some time back.
/yes I do read the articles and links
WTF happened to the Commonwealth? Australia, New Zealand & Canada pure badasses during WW2. The Germans and Japanese thought they were the shit and then they met the Anzacs.
Said it before. Same thing as Britain, killed off a good number of those type of men in two world wars. Coupled with
a 100+ years of increasing socialism.
Tough men make good times. Good times make soft men. Soft men make hard times. Hard times make tough men.
Repeat.
Then in another generation they should be badasses.
Alright, I’ll set one up. Working from home, but it’ll be up. Zoom meeting.
https://us05web.zoom.us/j/84610494389?pwd=amxXcTdpQUhBYXJ4TVF3cHQ1MHBDdz09
oops.
https://us05web.zoom.us/j/85209621373?pwd=OThETnNCR3M5cUFJUUcxYWhZM3hFZz09
God damn.
That’s a man.
Thanks, RN.
I just dumped 50$ worth of weed on my carpect, all gone, tank dog I have fresh buds, what an idiot…
Handkerchief over the mouth of a vacuum cleaner. Upside, gets most of the bud. Downside, you get the flavor of carper fibers in your smoke.
carpet
Too much work, I have more, it would be a keartbreaker 20 years ago, now, bummer…
I am hiring a Girl, friend to help me arrange my household at 25$ an hour/100$ a day, basically a consultant to get my house back in order, plus we are friends and she’s hawt!
See the Seinfeld episode about dating the maid.
I’m already dating her, may as well pay her,
I think Q needs to weigh in here.
https://archive.li/pD3jG/1f8367851c2a891b07d1e937c2c8c31c621f3103.jpg
https://archive.li/fXm85/92adf451b3685af7b6a31dc2f7dd5437f23fde81.webp
NSFW.
https://archive.li/HF1zP/f6f40e254625b6d4b866a493c154f857f5d31628.jpg
NSFW.
https://archive.li/YFkPh/61dd0754912883135258eaab012bba0e57c5cfb2.webp
NSFW.
You know it’s #1 for me, Gracias mi Amigo!
Am I wrong for choosing the fully clothed woman?
I would too. Couldn’t find and noodz of her but she’s spectacular so I needed to include her.
umm, Redhead, yummy? yes…
Makes sense to me.
Everybody wants their birthday presents wrapped.
Sorry, boys. Can’t restart zoom for about 10 minutes. If you want, set up a new one.
New Zoom since the one Straf was running ended.
https://us04web.zoom.us/j/79225281900?pwd=VDRVVFZneWVQeXVWQ0dMelZJMkFBQT09
I’m in.
I never pursued a Raven hair Blue eyed girl, now I have 2 in hand, beautiful Ladies, and still a Brown haired vixen as well.
Single life ain’t too bad,
*clinks glasses with Yusef*
Enjoy!
Job search update: There is a non-zero chance I will become Florida (Mythical) Woman.
Melbourne FL to be precise.
You be bouncing around.
I’m following up on the most interesting nibbles on my job postings. I like the idea of getting a nice house for less than 500k. And if there’s a return of Covidmania, Florida seems to have the right idea.
Wasn’t talking about your job. *Bahooga eyes*
Kiddin’. Hope you find your dream place.
Lol. Well-played.
I can’t wait for your late night radio show, “Coast to Coast with hayeksposives”
That could get me on a List…
If you do, let me know. There’s a lot of stuff here I’d like to blow up.
Nice. That’s a deal.
You in the Orlando/Melbourne area?
Yes, I am. And if you’ve been here, you know what I speak of when I decry the lack of explosives.
Well, we can blow things up with enough pulsed current.
Is it hard to get ammo in FL?
More fun with texture. Today it’s glass apple.
https://i.ibb.co/CMqKdgN/E13-D6867-987-B-4-B81-ACD7-B3-EABF53-B336.jpg
I had my weekly meeting with my staff of engineers. I had to tell them about the new “requirement” that they go online to our intranet page and attest whether they have had or not had the vaccine. I conveyed the message that if they had questions, they were to take them up with HR.
I told them that I was disappointed that there was not an “Am I being detained?” option? They laughed. They are used to their boss, who has a shelf full of libertarian works (including Hayek of course) amidst my other tomes such as “Explosives Engineering”, “Electronic Warfare”, “Explosively Driven Pulsed Power” and others. It warms my heart when they ask to borrow the libertarian works.
As opposed to you?
Oops, sorry, that wasn’t supposed to be printed.
Ha, I am the boss. Not the big boss; just their boss.
They call me boss almost as a term of endearment.
Except for my privileged right-hand man. He gets to call me Jules.
Or does he really call you “joules” ?
Perhaps…I’ll never tell 😉
JK. He writes Jules in the emails, as I do sign off that wau as well. And then if we end up forwarding an email up the chain, we change the spelling to my real name. It’s an unspoken rule we have to cover up our close friendship so there’s no accusation of bias or anything.
I did have an old, now retired colleague who called me Madame Megawatt. That was fun too.
Most right thinking people think Gavin Newsom will not be recalled. That is a pretty safe bet but I would take odds that it may just happen. He is more vulnerable than they are letting on. If he loses it is a wide open field.
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2021/07/21/Judge-reinstates-coLarry-Elder-Calif-recall-ballot/9511626911718/
I am voting for Elder.
He’s not the perfect candidate but he has good name recognition and is polling quite well.
I’m not that familiar with him but he seems like a decent guy or at least less not decent than the rest of the people running.
EDPP is not a cheap book!
That is quite true!
It’s even more “not cheap” to implement!
I’m such a lizard, it was 71 when I woke up, and my furnace is set for 78 so,
Heating in July! and I don’t care, as long as I’m warm,
/basks on rock in living room
That sounds a bit extreme!
But as long as you’re comfy…
https://www.amazon.com/photos/shared/Q1fWD-pQRmyYX9NRcafC6g.IOEw6j2fQtwiWcKv2CDnoG
Front door flowers be blooming.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=obR-9gfmkQY
?
https://www.rt.com/news/529907-china-henan-floods-/
Chai-nuh news.
Welp, today’s my first day going back to the office. I woke up with plenty of time for the morning routine and commute.
Plus, they dropped off a new workstation at my cube that I’ll have to configure, so I’ll have an excuse to avoid a lot of the annoying backlog. My existing workstation has an asset tag from my previous agency, so it’s got to be either over a decade old or pretty darn close. (State IT got forcibly consolidated out of our agencies in 2012. And all of my predictions regarding the effect of their plan has come true – to the detriment of the taxpayers, IT staff, and customer agencies alike.)
Blah, blah, blah.
When’s that next book coming out?
?
Morning UCS.
Well, I have to spend my money on medical expenses, which means I can’t yet pay an editor or cover artist. That will delay release of “Prince of the North Tower”.
I’m waiting for the bills to see how much I owe and how much my insurance covered.
I was just being playful, now I feel bad. 🙁
I’m genuinely looking forward to reading it.
Don’t fret too much. I have overpriced insurance that tends to cover a lot. I’ll probably be able to move forward regardless. I’m just waiting to find out what the numbers are before I agree to pay anyone.
I’m going to hit the road so I can get a good parking spot. I’ll reconnect from work.
I’m in the office. It’s really quiet here. It’s just me and one of the consultants, and I can hear his keyboard from a few cubes away.
I’m used to the fans I have going at home.
Do you have any very small fans you could bring in from home, just for the “white noise” if you don’t need them for cooling?
Good morning, U! Welcome back to the land of commuting-to-work. ? (Glad you’re better, but sorry you don’t get any more time off.)
I may be a state employee, but even I only get so much time off. I have a small fan here, but it’s extra loud. My littlest fan I brought home, but I could take back to the office, since it’s not plugged in there.
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/07/fake-news-media-strikes-check-crowd-joe-bidens-cnn-town-hall/
The media was at the Gabby Hayes press conference, at least they can understand what he is saying,
Mornin’ Sean,
I watch virtually no TV news any more. I don’t even check out the national news shows’ websites – just one of the local stations (mainly for the weather and traffic.) I think pretty much all the national news I see is what’s linked from Glibs. I think it’s better for my mental health.
Good morning, Sean!
Heh, the seating arrangement is precisely the opposite of a one third full church.
Mornin’ all y’all.
Why am I doing any of this? why am I bothering with the grind anymore? I serve no longer serve a purpose, it’s just passing time anymore.
Ah, but think of who you’ve recently met to pass the time with! 🙂
Good morning, Yu!
Are you caught in the 2-jar grind?
https://youtu.be/Uh9zSdf-T5c
That chick is cute! Live in the moment, Bob.
Existential whine complete! next is Mushrooms!!!!
/Carry on as you were
Glad your job was salvaged, Bob! I’ve been nearly driven to that breaking point a few times since this panic-demic started.
I have to get to work half an hour earlier than usual this morning to get training on our new phone system. I’ll no longer have a handset (although perhaps I could have requested one) – just a headset with one earphone. I found out the hard way that the over-the-ear earphone is essentially incompatible with glasses.
All calls will come through out PCs now. We have at least two employees who are well past standard retirement age. I can’t help but wonder whether this latest innovation is going to be what finally drives them out the door.
Oh – and good morning, gentlemen!
Are you talking about an earphone that hooks to the ear? Because when I think of an over the ear headphone I think of the big shells that look like shooting hearing protectors.
Yes – just the in-ear earbud and the wire to hook around your outer ear. I thought I’d prefer it to the one with the metal band going over the head (so that I wouldn’t get “headset hair.”) Then I actually tried it. Not so much.
Do they have to answer the phone?
And good Morning.
At least one of them does, and I’m sure both of them have to call other employees, at least, even if they make few outside calls.
Good morning, robo!
To be fair, the “softphone” is a PITA – I hate it. I have only used it once or twice to call the Help Desk because they don’t seem to have a Teams channel.
I may have missed one or two calls because I don’t keep it on by default. *oops*
I increasingly get asked to do Teams meetings.
“Yeah, we don’t do that here.” is my reply.
I’m on it all day. ?♂️
….aaaaaand the extra alarm I set on my phone to remind me to go clean up and prep for work early has gone off. Time to get a move on.
I’ll check back with y’all sometime during AM Lynx, if I can.
Best thing about today: I have another “hair doctor” appointment later this afternoon! Always up for some pampering! ?♀️
The evil Russkies unveiled a new stealth fighter to be fielded in 2026:
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/russia-unveils-new-fifth-generation-stealth-fighter-jet
Nice looking plane…
There are few folk more irritable than a pothead who has no bloody pot; I really don’t want to schlepp to Brooklyn today. Sigh…
My Brother when he hid his stash so well that even he couldn’t find it. Nearly burned the motorhome down by knocking over a propane lantern. He was one of those users that needed to dose hourly. Always leaving tools behind in the bush, dropping shit and generally being an extremely unpleasant person. Haven’t spoken with him since 2016 for obvious reasons.
When Trump was elected I laughed about it and he called me a Nazi. Funny that coming from someone that’s been on the dole for basically most of his life. Plus he was a hard-core addict. Calls me a drunk but I’m not the one milking the Gov because I’ve got HepB. I work for not only sustenance but for peace of mind. He probably doesn’t even know that both of our parents are dead. He was the golden child. He’ll die first because there can only be one!
I need the routine.
Might be genetic, my dad refused to retire. He tried, briefly, and decided to resume working. He’s still at it.
I’ll always need an outside of the house reason to get up and go. Even though I don’t like most people I’ll volunteer for charities before I cocoon and wait for death. Wal-Mart greeter?
That’s why I’ve been irritable since 2019
*muffled profanities*
I forgot exaclt how many stupidly annoying things a default configured computer with default configured applications does by default.
No, I don’t want you to do any searches or suggest sites or “fix” my URLs you stupid machine. Give me what I typed and don’t put up any ‘recommendations’. You’re not going to figure out what I want, you never do.
That sort of attitude will get you nowhere when the AIs take over
I don’t think we’re capable of creating an AI, let alone one capable of taking over.
that is what they said about toasters and here we are
Relevant.
Shout out to Midwayusa.com
They give discounts on pricing for one order the week before and after your birthday. I scored some 9mm at pricing that didn’t make me sad.
Your American freedoms make me sob like AOC in a parking lot.
2 days from clicking to arriving on my doorstep.
No ID, no signature, no nothing. FWEEDOM!
I can’t own firearms. By Government fiat.