"There are 8 Million Stories in the...

...naked city."

That line is from the TV series, The Naked City, which aired on ABC from 1958 to 1963.  That was a long time ago, but its trademark declaration has become a cliche.

Everyone DOES have a story; and if you've ever spent much time in a bar, you're probably "up to HERE" in...(since this is a family friendly site),..TALL TALES .

I'm amazed at how the TALES get taller and taller the more alcohol is consumed.

I think I'll write a novel about it someday.  I'll call it, "Mr Average Goes to the Lion King Bar and Grill"....where he proceeds to down drink after drink of 100 proof "Loose Lips Bourbon."

As he begins telling his "Life's Story" to any and all in the bar, his accomplishments become more and more wild and woolly!

"Yes, it's true," he says, "I invented the Atomic Bomb."

"Oh, the Hell you did," responded on of the listeners.  "Yes I did. I have the patent for it!" replied Mr. Average, as he downed another shooter of Loose Lips
"I'm a history major", shouted another doubter, "and I know for a fact that Einstein invented it...and wrote President Roosevelt a letter convincing him that it would win WW2 for America."

"Actually," replied Mr. Average. "I wrote that letter and simply got Einstein to sign it, because he was famous and would be listened to.  Nobody ever paid any attention to me. I'm just Mr, Average. Old woolly headed Al didn't know diddley squat about an Atomic Bomb until I told him."

Well, with that, Mr. Average's audience began to disperse, obviously having had enough of his deranged imaginings.

"One more thing," he shouted," I just came from the Doctor's and he said my bladder cancer had completely disappeared.  I cured it myself with basically the same recipe I used for the Atomic Bomb."

"All Right, that's it," pronounced the bouncer, "Cured yourself with the Atomic Bomb, did you. Well, you're out of here. Atomic Bomb my butt.

You're the Atomic Bum!

And don't come back."

On second thought, Instead of a novel, the book should be a biography,

because everything 

Mr. Average said was true!  Except his name, which was actually Leo Szilard.

-Ed



My Thanks to QUORA  DIGEST (650 Castro Street #450, Mountain View, CA 94041)

' Szilard owned the patent on the atomic bomb. Szilard was the epicenter of the first atomic bomb. He, more than anyone else (arguably Oppenheimer is up there too), is the father of the atomic bomb and always saw the bomb as a weapon of world peace, rather than of destruction - as a way to bring balance to the world. It would be the end of wars as he knew them, and it was his dream from the very beginning
When Szilard approached Einstein for signing the letter, Einstein had no idea about the recent advances in nuclear physics (fission), or the possibility of a nuclear bomb. Szilard explained the situation and got Einstein to sign the letter.

Later in life, he was diagnosed with bladder cancer, and doctors gave him a bad probability of survival. Using his knowledge of radioactive elements and biology, Szilard invented an experimental treatment method to irradiate the cancerous cells using gamma radiation from Cobalt 60 isotope. The doctors warned him that he would die because of the increased radiation, but Szilard persisted. Using this method, he cured his cancer and  made a complete recovery. This method of Radiation therapy has been used ever since to treat some cancers.'

Grandpa Meets Grandpa

 ...not in person, but in a picture I ran across recently of a portrait of the Jolly family of Anderson, South Carolina taken around 1895. John Andrew Jolly was his name and he doesn't look very grandfatherly since  he was still a teenager when this particular photograph was taken.

He is the boy shown second to the left with his bicycle. I never knew him; in fact, my Mother hardly did either, since he died when she was three years old. My grandmother was left penniless with 4 little children. What a woman! He passed some of the "genes" along, but it was up to her to provide for and raise the children, all of whom became good, middle class American citizens who raised their own good, middle class Americans, one of whom became a war hero (Charles Mateer) one who became a well known North Carolina Judge (John R. Jolly), and one was a secret service agent (David Jolly).

Not bad for a family that began with so many strikes against them.

On his tombstone was the inscription, "An Honest Man"

Thanks Grandpa. Wish you could have stayed longer.

-Ed

The Lady with the Mystic Smile

It's still hard for me to believe that somebody just paid 4.9 million dollars for a painting by an "artist" named Kazuo Shirago titled BB56.

Which he painted with his feet!

That sure doesn't make any sense to me, but what the Hell, it's the "Art Community" and they've been living on a different planet for a long time.

Art, of course, is very subjective but most will agree that there are certain common sense standards. BB56 defies all of them.

Simply put, BB56 ain't no "Mona Lisa."

And as long as we're talking "subjective,"  In my opinion the Mona Lisa...ain't no" Mona Lisa" either!

Say what?

The Mona Lisa is the most famous painting in the world, and some say the greatest ever created.  I disagree. I don't believe it's even one of Leonardo's best.

I'm not the first to say this, but I believe the fact that the painting was once stolen from the Louve is what turned a good, but not exceptional painting, into the most famous in the world.

I saw the Mona Lisa when she came to Washington in 1963 for a couple of weeks. I was surprised at how small it was, and.........yes, it was her....and....well that was about it.

Had I been visiting the Louve and known nothing about the painting I would have stopped for about 15 seconds, looked, and moved on.  I believe that's what most visitors to that famous Paris museum did UNTIL 1911, when an Italian handyman named Vincenzo Peruggia made worldwide headlines by stealing it. His motive was to return it to Italy, where he was praised as a hero.

Suddenly the world was inundated with headlines, pictures and stories about the Da Vinci painting

that continued for more than 2 years when it was finally recovered.

 Noah Chaney, highly respected author and professor of art history, said,

"If a different one of Leonardo's works had been stolen, then that would have been the most famous work in the world -- not the Mona Lisa," 

"There was nothing that really distinguished it per se, other than it was a very good work by a very famous artist -- that's until it was stolen," he added. "The theft is what really skyrocketed its appeal and made it a household name."

 I agree. Today that would be called the "Kim Kardashian Effect." It's famous, for being famous"

Over the years art experts and others have twisted their brains in knots trying to explain why the Mona Lisa is such a great painting.

Mona or Leo?smile.  Is it, or isn't it?

Some even claim that Mona is really a self portrait of Leonardo himself.

Now, don't get me wrong. This is not a criticism of the great Leonard Da Vinci. Anyway, who am I to do something like that! I'm just saying the Mona Lisa in my opinion is NOT one of his best paintings!
For example:

It just occurred to me that when whatever mind altering drug the poor sap who paid 4.9 million dollars for BB56, wears off,  he might want to consider paying somebody to steal it.

(Not to make it famous; Hell, just to get rid of it!)

-Ed.

“Anyone who conducts an argument by appealing to authority is not using his intelligence; he is just using his memory.”

― Leonardo da Vinci