Which Reminds Me

Only recently do I notice that my Uncle Steve's mother was a Craig, so perhaps all these farty-tarty Craigs who live nearby are somehow related to them, but then again I would only be guessing. I really don't know anything about them or why I should care about that.

Which Reminds Me

It has always been clear to all that Gregory is your personally sponsored attack dog, even though I have no idea why I should be bothered about filling his empty head, so you cannot now pretend the reverse.

Which Reminds Me

Oh, are you Debbie Lang's horrid movie star cousin, those vulgar garish vicious nasty people who have an overpriced glitzy mansion on Lake Tahoe and ride herd on their less fortunate relatives? I don't know whether I remember something about that or whether I am just making it up. Yes, rich people are so clueless sometimes, never mind about the money.

Which Reminds Me

Only the rude and abrasive Debbie does not seem to get that some people really don't like her. She is only here in our college because her father is the librarian, not because she has any brain in her empty head.

Which Reminds Me

Is there any nice way to tell the worthless horrid Gonzales/Rivera tribe that I am NOT for sale? They will need to keep shopping and look elsewhere to find a companion for their horrid Debbie Dike. I will not be available. Ditto to Sandra Dike, etc. etc.

Which Reminds Me

For about six years I worked for the South Florida Newspaper Network, mostly as a staff writer and also later an assistant editor. For the first two or three years that I was there, starting in 1992, the company was owned by a certain Mr. Worrell who was also an avid collector of antique cars. Some of his prize cars were stored in one section of the first floor of that building in Deerfield Beach, located down the street from a hotel owned by Merv Griffin and also Don King's headquarters. Later the company was sold to private investors who were actually the company's executives. A year or so after that the company was sold to the Tribune company which publishes the Sun-Sentinel, the local daily. And time goes on. Only much more recently, browsing through Facebook, do I notice that that obnoxious woman who was pastor's secretary at our church for many years, lists Worrell as one of her surnames. She is on husband number three or four now so I am not sure what that means. Was Worrell her maiden name or is she otherwise related to the owner of the company that I worked for? How odd that no one ever mentioned this to me.

Which Reminds Me

Yes, please excuse this icky mess while I go about having the mentally retarded Deli-Craig family surgically removed from my personal business. Not that Craig, a different Craig, but you really wouldn't remember that. The Craigs all look alike to you. And my mother's name is Betty, stick that in your ear. No, you are not invited to my house to rifle through all my personal papers, not that I have anything important to show you.

Which Reminds Me

Yes, I am vaguely aware of the existence of an organization called "The Voice of China" which was founded by Tommy Anderson and is operated by his descendants, who mostly belong to the Foursquare Church based in Los Angeles. They probably wish that we would give them some money bur, sorry, we have not been so lucky as that. I heard that they moved their headquarters to Tulsa, OK. That's nice for them but I really have almost no connection to that. We always hope that any group working to expand the Gospel voice to the world may do well and prosper as per the Great Commission. Needless to say.

Which Reminds Me

Yes, I lied. I described Terry as a friend of mine, which was not strictly true. Terry is better described as a whiny nuisance, but we don't always say what we really think about these annoying hangers-on. We just gloss over the really annoying parts of the story because it wouldn't be polite to say what we really think about that. Besides which, I wasn't talking to you. And how did this annoying spy come to read all the letters that I ever wrote to everyone? It just doesn't seem fair somehow for you to judge me by cheating that way.

Which Reminds Me

Yes, I vaguely remember that Dr. Davis' history class was heavily into explanations of conspiracy theories, which may or may not be true, but how can you function when you think that everybody is out to get you, and that you are the King of France, and the governance of the world is all up to you, if only everyone would recognize your royal pretensions without you ever really telling us about that in so many words.

Which Reminds Me

Yes, we noticed that it is fairly safe and certain to say that Amy is "not bald." Needless to say. Why would you make such a point of noting that Amy is "not bald"? Yet who are we to argue with the military recruiters who gave Amy her rifle shots which she spent to help mostly herself only and nobody else. Thus we can't have Amy running our lives. Needless to say.

Which Reminds Me

Yes, what was I thinking? White shoes in September? I must have been out of my mind.

Which Reminds Me

Yes, I remember hearing a story told of the woman who was failed to pass her final examination for her Ph.D. or doctorate program at some university in Central Europe, and leaving the examination room, she bursts into tears, and the narrator sees her and feels so sorry for her. Higher education is sometimes a tough row to hoe for women. Philip Bom, a professor at Regent University, was telling this story to many people. Yes, I can easily imagine several other people probably also remember hearing the same story, but I cannot recall whether he mentioned her name. I only partly remember the story vignette as told but not any details of before and after.

Which Reminds Me

Yes, we noticed Helen Kammerer on a ship crossing the Atlantic Ocean, but you are no Helen. Needless to say more about that.

Which Reminds Me

As Christians we must learn to bring every thought captive to the truth. We cannot be rambling on and on about nothing much, as if we were some TV talking head garrulous chatterbox with no need of interacting with other persons and taking into account other points of view that are not identical to your own.

Which Reminds Me

Yes, it will be hard for you to continue the green cheese game in this modern-day America where foreign accents are multiplied ten times over, and they don't even care that much anymore about learning to speak English properly. They are proud of their exotic foreign accents, besides which, people don't even notice accents so much anymore, although you might find it hard to get another job as a TV talking head with such pronunciation issues but few people ever think of applying for such a position. It is not enough just to talk incessantly about everything that ever crosses your little mind. You have to also be photogenic, which is not so easy for some people.

Which Reminds Me

Yes, I seem to remember that John Bueno wanted my parents to invest money in one of his school projects, expanded schools to help all those poor people learn how to read and write, but my parents had other priorities at the time, including the idea that I might be going to college soon and they would need to use their money to help pay for my college expenses. So isn't John going to wish me well as I now graduate from high school and go on to college? I don't remember him saying anything to me during that meeting. It was just all about the school project and my mom telling him what we are going to do with our money, thank you very much.

Which Reminds Me

During 1976, near the end of our time in El Salvador, my mom took me with her to go over to the Buenos' house to discuss some point about money which completely escapes my mind. I seem to remember that John disagreed with my mother's point, which, whatever, he is entitled to have his own opinion about money and the uses of it. If you are the president of the local Missionary Fellowship then you can make some rules of your own, I suppose. But as I am not really a career missionary, nor permanently stationed there, I do not have to take my orders from them, so whatever. Needless to say.

Which Reminds Me

The college from which I graduated with a BA degree, Southern California College, was recently renamed. The new name of it is Vanguard University, the origins of which name I am not fully apprised, except to say that much earlier the college's singing group led by Noel Wilson was called the Vanguard, and so it would seem logical to expand the name's usage to the entire college, if you can pass the singing audition, supervised by Noel Wilson.

Meanwhile, someone else perhaps is speculating on our college's connection to the literary Vanguardist movement of Spain. Yes, I suppose there could be some points to be made if you can read and write Spanish or have ever been to Spain. Even so, that was probably not what the college leadership had in mind, at least not originally. Even so, myself not having the Ph.D. in Spanish, I probably wouldn't want to explore this point any further.

Which Reminds Me

Now that we have read the diaries of great-grandmother, we see that she often refers to the visits of her son, my Dad's Uncle Ariel, and how he often stops in San Clemente on the way there or on the way home to Pasadena. What he does in San Clemente is not clear, whether of a religious or political nature, and Nixon is not mentioned. But the way she mentions San Clemente frequently makes us wonder what he would be doing there. Was it a favorite restaurant? We know that our relatives were heavily involved in the Republican Party but the details of that are not clear even in the diaries. I don't really need to know more about that. Some people might prefer to keep their voting record private but when you are so politically active it cannot remain a secret for long.

Which Reminds Me

Yes, I remember that you were referring to that famous novel by Henry James, "The Turn of the Screw," which features, famously, a strangely obsessed governess who has charge of two very strange little children, Miles and Flora, who commune with ghostly apparitions.

And if I failed to pass the governess test while babysitting my two little cousins, I am not sure that I care very much about that. I would prefer to not be held responsible for whatever they do. Let me be counted absent and then let's see how they burn the house down or whatever. Then we will see more clearly where their heads are at.

Which Reminds Me

I will be dropping off some things that I really do not need which means, sad to say, which means that we will need to drop off Steve at the passport office. Thanks for signing my passport but I cannot have all these blue-collar Detroit car mechanics throwing monkey wrenches at me. I have a different type of job to do and prefer not to be distracted by the clueless cousins who are adept at mostly building roads to nowhere. Thus we can easily see that I really don't need Wisconsin to get "over" Detroit. I am already "over" Wisconsin also, but that does not make me a Canadian. Needless to say.

Which Reminds Me

Wisconsin is now infamous for being the birthplace of an aunt of mine who is the EX-wife of my uncle, who is now remarried to someone else. This leaves Wisconsin in the garbage basket it would seem although I had nothing to do with it and don't know anything about it. Why should I accept the blame for what the blithering idiots of Wisconsin, or was it North Dakota, did to themselves? Yes, no deal.

All I need is a job with a paycheck, and also not so many strings attached. 

Which Reminds Me

Hmmm..... If Samuel Sokobin's passport signed by Ernest Price made his residence in China a legal existence, the same or similar can be said of Roy Chapwood Andrews, whose passport, coincidentally, also was signed by Ernest Price. Even so, if all these earnestly delivered speeches lack a factual cohesion, well, I may rightfully ignore your earnest brand of stupidity. Needless to say. Because anyway that was not the issue. There were passports and passports, old and new, original and reissued. Whatever that meant I am not sure but there was a World War raging at the time, at least in 1917. We cannot speak for 1921.

Which Reminds Me

Yes, you would think that Bessie May Hamilton (1878-1917) would be happy to be the wife of the extremely wealthy Mr. Alexander Melville Hamilton (1878-1932), son of the famous Mr. Robert Dollar (1844-1932), whose shipping company operated numerous passenger ships all over the world. And yet, in her passport application of 1917, she lists her husband as "John H." How could that happen? John Harold, Alexander's younger brother, was married to Agnes Barr. How can you not know the name of your own husband? What mindless clerk typed out your passport application which you signed without having read it? Is that what happened? Oddly, she died of smallpox three months later.

Which Reminds Me

I can easily see that you have mistaken me for those Democratic Party activists Joan, Kathy and Heather. Even so, I don't know anything about it. They never tell me anything.

Which Reminds Me

It is true that I have, or rather had, an uncle who was called "Doc" Andrews. He was not really a doctor, however. He was a dentist and his name was "Alton Marion," although he died in 1977.

Even so, the surname of Andrews is not rare. There are many Andrews family members all over the world, especially in Scotland. Andrews is a rather common name, actually, so whether my Andrews in-law connections are somehow connected to Roy Chapman Andrews, I really have no idea. My cousins have yet to discuss this point with me so I really cannot explain it for them.

I have enough problems already without the Andrews taking potshots at me. Needless to say.

Which Reminds Me

Yes, that was nice of Mr. Dollar to concern himself about the fate of all these Chinese stowaways found on the ship from Shanghai. Even so, I really cannot tell them apart. They all look the same to me, whatever their names are, Li or Ying-Yang or whatever.

Which Reminds Me

Yes, in our researches we noticed your Trementozzi connection. Even so, I am not sure whatever that means. The way these Italians carry on as if they themselves were God and only through Italians can we find salvation, you would get the mistaken impression that I myself, not being Italian, am therefore a bloodless wonder, so it gets very annoying. Even the Apostles themselves were not necessarily Italians ethnically speaking so what does that prove?

Which Reminds Me

Yes, I won't deny that there was an unhealthy behavior pattern going on between myself and little sister. Why won't she just leave me alone? How many times do I have to tell you to go away and leave me alone? No, she continues to push my buttons and triggers until eventually she can laugh at the way I explode. She actually thinks that it is very funny to watch me explode. She does many annoying things almost every day to get the reaction that she wants. My mother always says to just ignore her and she will eventually get bored and go away and find something else to do but, anyway, I can only ignore this harassment for so long. It will be either do something to stop her or else kill myself, one way or the other.

Which Reminds Me

You weren't paying attention in Sunday School class or you wouldn't be crowing about how I have to prove my worth. You prove your worth by presenting your husband. I prove my worth by presenting Jesus who gave His life on the cross so that I might live. Of course I still need to get a job and pay my bills. My financial worth is dipping into red ink. Even so, I see no reason to "prove" something to you. You are not my judge. You are just a nuisance.

Which Reminds Me

After Edwin Bogle divorced Genevieve, or else she died first, I haven't gotten that far, he married secondly Francine, who, after Edwin's death, married Samuel Sokobin, his second marriage, his first wife Joan Corcoran having died or else divorced him, I haven't gotten that far. So that sort of does not really connect the Bogle-Martinelli-Hawins to the Sokobins and/or the Corcoran Art School. So?

Ok, so, thanks for signing my passport but I really do not need this extra headache.

Which Reminds Me

We see that Edwin Bogle, accountant for the Robert Dollar Company, who lived in Shanghai in 1920-1922, was married to Genevieve Martinelli, whose father served as a U.S. Senator, Ennio Battista Martinelli. The Bogles had three daughters. But whether they are somehow related to the apple cider Martinellis? I really don't see the connection but I can't say one way or another. I haven't gotten that far. Actually, the thought had not crossed my mind.

And is Charlotte Hawkins from college now related by marriage to the Bogle-Hawkins clan? I really don't know. Just because your name is Hawkins, that does not mean that you have any case to make. In fact, you might just be building the case against yourself. Needless to say.

Which Reminds Me

By research we learn that the reissued passport of Samuel Sokobin was signed by Ernest Price. Thus he was legal in China but it was really the job title of American vice consul which enabled Sokobin to sign the passport of my great-grandfather a few months later, in 1917.

Yes, we citizens of the United States do trust our representative government for the hiring of appropriate embassy personnel and the rules of them. I really do not need to think twice about what government official signs my birth or death certificate or other legal paperwork. The people may come and go for whatever reasons but it is the office and authority of the government that makes the passport valid. I do not recall this being an issue. Needless to say.

Which Reminds Me

I cannot imagine when I would ever dye my hair. As long as I can gray gracefully, possibly never. Even so, there was no reason to apologize for something that I did NOT do. There was no reason for me to dialogue with these annoying pipsqueaks.

Which Reminds Me

Yes, I saw for myself how Sancho Panza's filthy dirty little brats ran wild with the street gangs on Yokohama Boulevard. Why did we allow these annoying people in our little school? Only because their mother was an American, probably. But even so, I don't take my orders from those entirely unimportant people, needless to say, so get off my back. One can only imagine what else I did not see with my own eyes so I cannot comment on whatever else happened later.

Which Reminds Me

I do not recall myself having a specific plan for the future after high school. Some arrangements were made completely over my head but I cannot quite understand what that was all about. Nobody ever really explained it to me that I should be capable of answering some ridiculous commentary about whatever that was.

Which Reminds Me

Yes, it is a bit awkward, all these pagan trash Spanish Baptists angling to kill Pentecostals. During high school they were almost indistinguishable from the Catholic milieu around them but suddenly now that they are in the U.S. they are claiming to be Baptists. They never mentioned the Baptists during high school, so why are they now suddenly pretending to be rulers over the Pentecostals simply by virtue of having transferred their allegiance at some point to the Baptist machine. Whatever happened to the simple Protestant rule of being born again as per John 3:16? Martin Luther expounded the idea of salvation as a personal relationship with God, not a comparison of one person to another. Yet now the Baptists are angling to make money and social status the driving factor in governing the lower class Pentecostals. This is driving a wedge between us and them. Needless to say.

Which Reminds Me

It is true that I liked to bake cakes occasionally, which I often did even in high school. And someone, possibly the maid Mercedes, was trying to use that to liken me to Marie Antoinette, who famously said "Let them eat cake," which is so ridiculous. Was there ever anything nice to say about these vicious nasty Spanish people? They think they are so clever with their fake uppitiness, and yet I am not fooled in that regard. I see how really mean and horribly selfish and greedy these Spanish people really are behind that facade of "sweetness" but I am not allowed to really say anything about that because as Christians we have to be gracious and give them space to do their own thing and hope that more Christianity will soften the edge of their unashamedly racial attitudes. Strange how they are allowed to be so completely racial while we dare not do that.

Which Reminds Me

Yes, I do remember myself in high school threatening to kill myself my wicked nasty little sister although I relented and decided not to actually do that. It was an empty threat at a moment of extreme frustration. It is almost as if I am really not related to these people. If the choice is them or me and you choose them, fine. Ok, so you don't want me around so let me go. Don't try to frame me for a crime I did not actually commit. I do not want to be forced to entertain you when actually she was the chatterbox, not me. Yes, I do feel very guilty about that.

Which Reminds Me

Yes, sorry is just not enough to compensate for all this unnecessary harassment. What were you expecting me to do? There is nothing that I need to say about that, whatever that was. So? Where is my escape hatch? Where is my paycheck? You blocked me for no good reason. Needless to say.

Which Reminds Me

Yes, you may be wondering, if I am a descendant of Chaucer, for what do I need all this Spanish junk? They have their places. There was no need to extend this unnecessary conversation.

Which Reminds Me

Yes, how well I remember that in El Salvador my mother was talking about how she once worked for a Blue Book family as a domestic servant while also attending college. I cannot recall the details of that. I do not think that she ever mentioned their names, but if Barbara Miller was there she probably still wants to know more about that. Or are you the maid listening from the kitchen?

Barbara Miller, a schoolteacher from Jackson, Mississippi, was only there for one year. Although she was renting a room at the home of the Navarrete family, some people from church, she also spent quite a bit of time at our house being entertained by us. Later, pretty much everything we ever discussed with Barbara Miller comes back around all twisted and mangled into a strange and almost unrecognizable configuration. Hmmm..... Is that how these demon schoolteachers minister to us, by cursing us? Or else her brains fell out of her head or something like that. How can I resume a dialogue with such a ridiculous person as this Barbara Miller? I read somewhere that Jackson is a dark hole but I really wouldn't know. I have never been there.

Barbara often complained of her problems getting along with the Navarrete son who was living in the house where she lived, but I cannot understand what she means by that. I never really socialized with the Navarretes. Their father played the organ at church but beyond that I cannot remember a single thing about them. I think that Barbara often discussed with my mother her problems with the Navarrete son but I was not privy to the details of that so I cannot expand your awareness of these issues.

Which Reminds Me

I also cannot say that I ever read Dante Alighieri's "The Divine Comedy" in its entirety, although we did study the Inferno portion in Spanish translation in Spanish literature class. We spent so much time studying hell that we did not have time left for Purgatory and Paradise, where Dante is said to gaze upon Beatrice, the love of his youth who died at an early age. We had to move on to the next book before we got that far.

Which Reminds Me

I do not recall myself ever claiming to have read the Decameron in its entirety, so it was strange that you should be accusing me of such a lie. However, I do vaguely remember reading something of an excerpt or introduction to the Italian Boccaccio classic, in English translation of course, which gives me the general idea of a group of a dozen or so young persons of the aristocratic nobility who, while disease and plague is raging in the city, retreat to a palace where they can be free of contamination and sit around exchanging stories. A similar device, that of a pilgrimage, was used for Chaucer's Tales. But of the actual primitive and sometimes crude stories themselves we would prefer not to say very much. We are required to read these books in school due to their historical significance of cultural tradition and language development even if we might not want to invite these rowdy characters to our homes.

Which Reminds Me

Yes, I vaguely remember that my mother said that during college she worked as a domestic servant for a rich family in Newport Beach. I don't know that she ever said the name of the rich person that I should remember who they were. Besides which, they were persons listed in the Blue Book, of which I know almost nothing and if you have to ask me about that then you probably are not listed in the Blue Book either.

Which Reminds Me

Yes, I almost forgot, you were asking me if I had read the book by Niccolò Machiavelli, called "The Prince," published in 1531. Actually no, I have not read that. It is generally not recommended unless you are a student of evil, which I am not. I sort of get the idea just by reading reviews or references which give me no desire to put that in my head. Anyway, there are so many other good books I have not read. So many books, so little time.

Which Reminds Me

Interesting how, when looking at pictures of Italian aristocrats of the Renaissance, some of the people in the portraits seem to have reddish hair. These were the D'Este's, the Medicis, the Gonzagas, della Roveres, etc. But were they really redheads or is that a painter's touch to add highlights? Or is that a hairpiece tacked on to her head? In such elaborate headdresses of the time it is hard to tell what is real or just an artistic gloss. How sad that so many of their children succumbed to various diseases: malaria, tuberculosis, food poisoning, stranglings, not to mention the syphilis prevailing amongst those hedonistic libertines of the "nobility." Very clever.

Which Reminds Me

Nellie Duncan married Elmer Fell and that is how she came to have two sons to inherit whatever is left of the Rochester works.

Which Reminds Me

Yes, I suppose that some smart alecky person would want to make some snarky commentary out of the story of the five Duncan sisters who, while doing so much spiritual work, at the same time had so many marital problems. Only Nellie 'Fell' managed to leave behind some children to multiply and populate the earth. Olive Work doesn't seem to have any children, or at least nothing came up so far in the searches. Hmmm.... And there is also the Duncan sisters' sojourn at Lima, in New York that is, although not the Lima in Ohio that was the hometown of the Barth great-grandparents. Likewise our great-grandmother Mary was the daughter of Nellie Smith, and she had seven children. So I suppose that some persons give added significance to the name of Nellie that not intended. Oh, I had not noticed that.

Which Reminds Me

Really, spare me the tawdry details of border disputes in the Southern Cone. I really don't want to know more about that, although it is good to know that I actually was not wrong. If I had not known that was there I might have avoided it like the plague. But usually when people step on land mines and have their body parts blown apart it is safe to assume that they did not know that was there.

Which Reminds Me

So if you are giving me a choice between the Money Or Tease, I really would prefer to take the money and dump the wicked Or-Tease family in the garbage because, anyway, since they are not going to behave as Christians turning the other cheek, I likewise would be forced to return all these empty threats somehow. Unfortunately.

Which Reminds Me

And why do I have to pay for the crimes of these wicked trigger-happy Chinese people? Words can kill just as easily as guns, so, who knows, perhaps that is the point of drawing Coltman into this  conversation, although the Standard Oil thing ultimately does not help us. Perhaps the Standard Oil people wish to benefit from association with our religious work while at the same time refusing to pay a dime for all this unnecessary harassment. That is how rich people are sometimes, they don't really care to learn what really happened. They only care about saving their own faces. You cowards!

Which Reminds Me

We do not like this cheapskate pop bottle redemption plan. How do I politely explain that just reenacting scenes from the Shingshang movie does not solve this problem? A book would be helpful but only if the truth is told in a logical way that explains what really happened. Pie thieves need not apply.

Which Reminds Me

Two completely separate incidents as far as I can see: 
1917: My great-grandfather's passport is signed by Samuel Sokobin, an American vice consul.
1923: Charles Colton is killed at Kalgan, near the Great Wall, and, interestingly, Samuel Sokobin is there.

Interestingly, Charles Colton's father, Robert, lived for many years in China working for Standard Oil.

Interesting how Standard Oil has all these connections all over the world. 

Which Reminds Me

Yes, how interesting. Frank Baum's great-grandmother was a Barth. Catherine Barth (1772-1846) was married to Philip Frederick Barth on July 6, 1788. So?

And why this nonsense about the Nancy House? Nancy who?
And who was buried at Stone Arabia Cemetery? It's a town in New York. What a name!

Which Reminds Me

Yes, you people seem very attached to your widget of Lionel Atwill. He actually gets his money from his mother, not from her third husband, his stepfather George Eustis Paine (1920-1991), one of the Widener heirs, so he has no direct claim on Lynnewood Hall, although who knows how his fortune inherited from his mother was enhanced and benefited by the tangential association.

Coincidentally, Leonel was Sharon Turner's husband, although he died many years ago. But the Turners are not related to us. There is no reason for us to be targeted by the whining Turners. Not to be mean about it, but there is no fortune to be found by killing us. But if you really want the gas and oil headache, fine. Kill me. I don't care that much. It wasn't worth that much to me.

Since I am now dead, having been killed in advance by the Turners, it will be hard for me to work. I am completely dead so you can't get blood from a turnip. It just doesn't work.