The Johnson Connection

We really don't have a Johnson connection. However, it is apparently true that the late President Lyndon B. Johnson was my eighth cousin once removed. How is that possible? I have no idea. This is not something that was explained to me in any kind of logical way in childhood. This is something that only an advanced degree in genealogy research would be able to uncover. Now that ancestry.com is available, it is easy to see that the President Johnson connection does not come from my Grandfather McClellan's side. It comes from grandmother's Strickland roots. In fact, you have to go all the way back to Rebecca Izard (1614-1667) who lived in Isle of Wight, Virginia, to find the connection. One of Rebecca's granddaughters, Ann Braswell, daughter of Richard Braswell, married Matthew Strickland (1674-1744) and they had ten children. So we are descended from Rebecca's son Richard. The Johnsons are descendad from Rebecca's daughter Jane. They all lived in Isle of Wight back in the old days of colonial America. However, those days are long since gone. The United States exists now and Rebecca's descendants are scattered all over the place. So? This is true of many American families, obviously.

Muzzling the Yappy Johnsons

It is fairly clear that those creepy wicked Grand Wizards Mark and Tim Johnson are guilty of hiding something. What makes the vile wicked Johnson clan think they have anything to say to us anyway? Just because Boddy was obviously on to their tricks, that does not mean that we would be interested in getting back at Boddy in some way along with them. Clearly, the Johnsons are guilty as charged of something although we are not sure exactly what, something about carrying too many boxes. They really should be confessing this overload of theirs instead of making so many excuses. It is ridiculous for them to be following us around in this hounding way, checking up on every little detail and trying to pretend that we are part of their retinue when actually we never met and these charges are coming from Boddy, not from us. We were not aware of the Boddy charges against the Johnsons. However, we think that the Johnsons should be discussing this matter with the judge in the courtroom assigned to them. As for us, it it is not our problem. We would be interested in hearing the judge's sentencing of the Johnsons, but we will wait to watch the show on television. Obviously, we are not referring in this case to our eighth cousin, President L.B. Johnson. This refers to the Johnsons of Florida.

Defining Success

The definition of success is sometimes problematic. Sometimes persons successful in one area get too big for their britches as the saying goes and want to extend themselves too far into our personal lives. Just because I read someone's book, that would not necessarily mean that I would want to hang out with them and discuss personal matters and compare notes. I may or may not agree with them on every point. As for example, I vaguely remember reading the book by Kathie Lee Gifford, whose own book title admits to not knowing when to keep her mouth shut, in which she trashes all the evangelical people, mainly the Tulsa gang and also expresses her great annoyance with her first husband Paul Johnson, about whom she has almost nothing nice to say, which leaves us not surprised that marriage did not last very long and wondering how they ever got matched anyway. Obviously life goes on regardless of what Kathie Lee may or may not think about anything. Motormouths find their appropriate places in front of the camera reading scripts and quiet people are supposed to write the books, but it does not always work that way. Life is just not fair.

Pie in the Face

Which reminds me of being in seventh grade at my grandparents' house in Modesto watching television with my cousin David and seeing how mean those gay men were to Anita Bryant, like we were saying, always smashing pies in her face. Perhaps she was too brittle and aggravating and provocative. Of course, a real pie would be messy. It would be much more clever and devastating to use a pi, something that can never be just washed away and lingers throughout a lifetime, something that makes your life miserable and unberable, a battle that you can never really win, an obstacle that just keeps tripping you up over and over again, an annoying person who never gets a clue and goes away, an empty wasteland of fruitless days and hours. A trap of sorts. And your name doesn't even have to be Anita to get the pi in the face. Very clever.

No Comment

Funny, I don't recall lying to you. In fact, I don't recall ever discussing anything at all with you. A debate about pi-in-the-sky was never my idea of useful conversation anyway. Life is too short. Perhaps you are guilty of entrapment, but if you are the police then the persons lower down on the totem pole are the ones who will be squashed eventually because a position of authority means a lot.

Connections

Yes, it never crossed my mind to ask Cheryl Hoffman whether she has any family connection to the German Templers, a small Protestant cult founded by Christoph Hoffman and Georg Hardegg. Although their German Colony at Carmel was visited by Alexander A. Boddy during his journeys in Palestine, Boddy does not discuss in detail the nature of this German Colony in his book, "Days in Galilee." However, one hundred years later it seems that not many of those colonists' families remain there. Perhaps these Templers may congratulate themselves on having the inside scoop on the development of the Holy Land. They built that. But easy come, easy go. One hundred years later it seems that not many of those colonists' families remain there. Many of them were removed during World War II because of their suspected or obvious Nazi sympathies. It is all in the history books anyway so there would be no need for me to explain further.

Ask Craig

Why don't you ask Craig Bolenbaugh about Suzette's mafia cousins and their tax evasion woes? I seem to remember that Pam and Craig know a lot about this for some reason, possibly because they discussed the details of this with Suzette and Vic and others at one of those parties to which I was not invited or something like that. I really could not care less about that stuff but I am sure that Pam, a college accounting major, and Craig, a CPA, would certainly have a lot of opinions and things to say about that boring tax stuff. As for me, my opinion is that it is not my job. I don't work for the IRS. And furthermore, zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
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