Thain family ancestry.

Greetings Handsome readers.

My last post discussed the lineage of Marcus Johnson. A lot of energy has gone into discovering his ancestry and much is known of his genetic history. From the single mom in the early twenty-first century back to ancient France we know that story.

But, what do we know of the ancestry of some of the other historical notables? Not a lot, it seems.

We know that the Thain family was only included because of a large cash investment in Marcus Johnson’s holdings prior to the launch of the “Arc of the Millenium”. Transcripts from meetings with Johnson and his advisors (Gupta and Cooper) that Johnson himself declared the Thain line inappropriate for the mission. Apparently the Thain family, upon hearing this, made a substantial investment. It was this money that influenced the Founder to include one more family.

How would Harappan history have been different had the Thains not been there? They were the driving force that caused the clans to move away from Harappan society. The Thains founded and built the Hall of the White Mountain Clan.

. . . and of course it was my friend Dorian Thain that stirred the pot on Earth starting the Earth Revolution as well as securing the rights for Kusha for homeless Harappans.

Tomorrow: What do we know about the Mother’s ancestry?

Never mix red wine with Oodo.   

Philip Normer

Kushan Year 87

Earth Year 2479

Writing Swear Words

Writing swear words.

Yesterday I discussed my reticence to use swear words too often. I do use them but try to do so sparingly.

I use them in my writing. One of the main themes I try to work into all my books is that the hero is not always clean and sober. Sometimes the hero is an average person thrust into the position of being counted upon. I happen to think very highly of the “average person”. They may drink too much, smoke things they shouldn’t, weigh more than is healthy and they may use bad words.

The editor I was working on with my last book “The Gavaskar Field” balked at some swear words I’d used. HIs thinking was that I might cut myself off from younger readers. I target my writing to adults but I do not want to be seen as promoting bad language.

However some characters do swear. I chose to leave some standard four letter words on the lips of some of my characters but for some I changed their language. 

Max Gavaskar the heroin of my book is a sweet and naive young woman. I gave her some cute swear words. “kakka poon” is an Estonian phrase. My wife made up another word “owangadangle”. I’ve given that to Max as well.

I chose several Hindi swear words since my story claims India and China have a stronger influence on society than they do now. I gave those words to smart people. While the less educated use more standard swearing.

In this way I have a set of swear words for each character. Much like in real life. Only in writing the words make up the person where in real life it is the opposite.

The (not so) manly art of swearing.

The (not so) manly art of swearing.

In yesterday’s post I mentioned that I come from the “throwing tools and swearing” school of mechanics. Yes I do swear while working on my cars, but don’t get the idea that I am a fan of swearing in our regular speech.

I hardly think I am a prude but swearing is one thing I think should be kept to a minimum. Primarily for three reasons the least of which is that I’d like civil discourse become more popular for all of us.

Many years ago I worked on a logging crew, setting chokers. It is a hard, dangerous and thankless job. I enjoyed the company of my co-workers but they all had the habit of swearing constantly. I cheerily joined it and cuss words became part of my lexicon.

Then one day I heard myself talking to my girlfriend of the time. I sounded like an ignorant, low life jerk. I couldn’t make a complete sentence without using some offensive four letter word. I like to think I am a smart person. No one else would have thought so listening to my speech patterns back then. I decided at that moment to remove certain words from my vocabulary. There is almost always better word to use than sh!t or f@#k.

That being said my final reason to refrain from using swear words is that if you use them too often, when you really need one they no longer have the power they otherwise might. 

If you’ve seen SIcko by Michael Moore you’ve seen a part of my life. I was featured in that movie for a hand accident I suffered several years ago. I zipped off a couple of finger tips with a table saw. Yes, I swore then.

“F@#k, f@#k, f@#k-itty, f@#k.” Is exactly what I said when I saw what had happened to my fingers. I say “saw” because the pain had not yet reached my brain. 

If I used the “F” word all the time it would not have been as forceful as I needed at that moment. 

Save your cuss word for when you really need them. The world will be a better place and you will have a stronger set of cuss words.

Tomorrow how this relates to my writing.

Car Troubles

Ah, car troubles! Those of you who follow me here and on facebook know that I just returned from a long road trip (2500 miles). Now just days after my return home I had to have my car towed to the shop this morning. Not fun but I could have broken down in the middle of Bumf@#k Montana.

For that I am immensely grateful.

Let me say that I love my vehicle. I've even named it (Casper). Now that you know that I can say I have less than positive thoughts about the individuals who designed the car. 

When I was a kid I worked in full service gas stations (remember them?). I did tune ups, oil changes, and even rebuilt a few engines. I wouldn't go near a modern car with a wrench anymore.

Today's problem was probably the starter solenoid. Back "in the day" you could crawl under the car with a small ball peen hammer and smack the little guy a few times and you could get the car started. 

Not anymore. To get to the starter you need to remove the exhaust manifold! What is the sense in that?

Are there any car designers out there who can tell me why we have now designed our vehicles so that commonly replaced items are inaccessible? 

Sadly I am in the "throwing tools and swearing" school of mechanics. 

Tomorrow I will discuss the manly art of swearing.

Ancestry of the Founder

Greetings pretty readers. We’ve been discussing the Founder, Marcus Johnson lately.

Earlier we mentioned that his family roots go back to France in the 1700’s CE (Common Era, an Earth designation for their current calendar). 

There was in France a Malanie de la Croix. She was a cousin to king Louis the Thirteenth. He declared her religion (Hugounaut) heritecal and demanded she convert or leave France.

She sold a gold bodice and found a strapping young farm boy to be her companion. Not much is known of their meeting and courtship but it is assumed that she was the driving force in the relationship.

When they got the America they changed their name to Cross. The origional last name of the young man is lost to history.

After a three years and two children the man was drafted into the French and Indian Wars and was never heard from again. 

Melanie remarried a David Tetois and had three more children. One of her first two children was a boy named Curtiss Cross. It is from him that Marcus Johnson is descended.

Melanie became known as Huckleberry and was the matriarch of a large clan of Crosses and Tetois.

It may be interesting to note that succeeding generations of the Tetois line down played the connection of Huckleberry to royalty in France, while the Cross line held firmly to that story.

Never mix red wine with Oodo.   

Philip Normer

Kushan Year 87

Earth Year 2479

The Founder's Inventions

My last post discussed Marcus Johnson’s childhood and his first words. When he turned twenty he disappeared. Ran away from home. He returned ten years later with a list of inventions that would changed the face of Earth.

All Earth scientists of the time were concerned about the planet’s environment. Humanity was surrounded and hounded by natural disasters constantly.

Much of Johnson’s inventions were in the materials field. He developed new frictionless bearings and several filtering materials.

The invention that everyone remembers is the air scrubber drones. The Founder designed an air scrubber that could remove CO2 from the atmosphere. He proposed a fleet of them to clear the planet’s atmosphere. The problem was a power supply.

Johnson drew up plans for a primitive version of the hydro-cyclon motor but the device was not workable until some time later when Hydro Corp. perfected Johnson’s design.

The Green Bible, which was attributed to Johnson until Harappans argued it was a fake, contained several of Johnson’s designs.

My next post will discuss Marcus Johnson’s ancestry. More about the first Crosses to go to America.

Never mix red wine with Oodo.   

Philip Normer

Kushan Year 87

Earth Year 2479

Philosophy from the Highway

Soemething I came up with while driving on a Long Straight Stretch of road.

There is something about driving across the desert that brings out the philosopher in me. Something about all that open land. Something about driving for an hour without seeing another car. Something magical about driving into a sunrise on a long straight stretch of highway rolling across the bottom of an open bowl of sagebrush ringed with dusty red mountains. 

There are straight stretches and there are straight stretches. I’m not referring to those long dull sections of highway 99 in the central valley of California. Lined with oleanders to block the view of businesses and tract homes backed by farm land. I’m talking about those sections of road unencumbered by human habitation on either side. Places where the only view of something hand made is the highway it self. Maybe a lonely power line dissecting the alkali flats to one side of the highway.

Highway 50 through˚ Nevada has some classic Long Straight Stretches. Billed as the “Loneliest Highway in America” the highway crosses mountain range after mountain range and in between are some of the best Long Straight Stretches you can find. Highway 305 from Austin to Battle Mountain Nevada is a great Long Straight Stretch. Nevada 233 to Utah 30 skirting the northern end of the salt flats is lonelier and straighter still. 

Interstate 80 which follows old highway 40 has a fine stretch across the salt flats from Wendover to  Salt Lake City. When it was still two lane highway it was one of the classic Long Straight Stretches in America. Somehow the four lane interstate highway takes some of the romanticism out of the trip. They did build an unusual cement tree near the rest area which returns some of the character to the drive. But interstate highways don’t quite have the soul of a lonely two lane stretch of desert highway.

Highway 97 from Ely to Vegas is a great Long Straight Stretch which includes an occasional elk herd¸ to spice up the trip. There are many many more to be found through out the western U.S. Wyoming, Montana, eastern Oregon and Washington and across the desert southwest. This is where you find the great Long Straight Stretches. 

They may exist, but I have yet to find a great Long Straight Stretch east of the Mississippi. The eastern highways I have driven have their own charm. The interstates all look the same lined with woods so thick that you could be anywhere from Mass to South Carolina. Without the highway signs I’d be lost. But then I’m a westerner and used to my open spaces. How does the song go... give me land, lots of land, with the sunny skies above, don’t fence me in... something like that. 

Many people, my wife included, don’t appreciate the beauty of Long Straight Stretches. They don’t delight in the pulchritude of a perfectly straight ribbon of concrete through empty land. They don’t cherish the anticipation of cresting the hill at the end of a Long Straight Stretch and seeing an even better Long Straight Stretch on the other side. They just groan, oh, another dull stretch of highway. Not me. When I pop over a hill and catch a glimpse of a great flat bottomed valley before me with that mystical ribbon of highway I gasp in wonder and joy. How many miles is it? How long will it take me to cross? Where does the road go from the other side? How many (or how few) cars will I see on this crossing?

The right music is essential to the proper appreciation of Long Straight Stretches. Now, this is a personal choice, but I prefer fast and hard, Rock n’ Roll. I like to feel the beat pulsing along to the rhythm of the tires and the motor. Radar Love by Golden Earing or anything by Stevie Ray Vaughn. Early Santana has a great desert beat. Paint it Black by the Stones. When I’m driving in the forest I like classical but on a Long Straight Stretch it’s gotta be upbeat, hard driving music.

One last thing is essential to the full appreciation of Long Straight Stretches. The time of day. I prefer sunrise. Start your crossing in the middle of the night, several hours before the first light of day. Listen to the local radio quietly or nothing at all, perhaps a book on tape. Then as the sky grows light, just before the sun rises put in that special tape of your favorite hard rock songs. I have never watched anything on TV as wondrous as a sunrise over a Long Straight Stretch. At sunrise the colors are deeper and more contrasting. The shadows ad dimensions not seen during the middle of the day. Evening and the s≠unset is fine as well but there is something special about the anticipation of dawn while driving across the desert in the dark of night. When that light does finally arrive, you have earned it and appreciate it just a wee bit more.

There is a Zen quality about driving across a Long Straight Stretch. Driving these lonely paths of desert highway give you time to think and room to breath. I have solved many of life’s mysteries during these desert sojourns. My eyes have been opened to many new possibilities, and I’ve solved a few life crises driving Long Straight Stretches. 

Learn to appreciate the journey. Learn the value of empty land. Learn to love Long Straight Stretches.

Tomorrow on the blog: Philip the Bard returns.