TECH TALK: Tracking your every move

/0 Comments/in , /by
by Eric Austin
Technical Advisor

Remember that story about Hanzel and Gretel leaving breadcrumbs behind them so as not to get lost in the woods? Well, this week’s topic is kinda like that — if Hanzel and Gretel were actually everyone who used the web; the breadcrumbs are your credit card information, browsing and purchase history; and the wicked witch is actually hackers hell bent on screwing up your credit history.

So, basically the same.

The truth is that we leave breadcrumbs behind us wherever we go on the web. Sometimes those breadcrumbs are for our benefit and cause us no harm, but, unfortunately, often they’re left behind to benefit others.

In this article I’d like to briefly go over the different ways we can be tracked on the Internet.

Cookies. I’m sure you have heard of “cookies.” You may have seen a notification pop up on one of the websites you visit informing you that it uses cookies. But what are they?

Basically, cookies are small text files that websites create on your local hard drive which store bits of information about you. This information can be very basic, such as whether you have ever visited that site before, or as complex as what products are in your shopping cart, your login details, which ads you have clicked on and many other things.

There are three types of cookies. First-party cookies are ones which are left by the website you are currently visiting. This is the most common type of cookie, and generally is harmless and adds to your browsing experience.

Third-party cookies are left by advertisers running ads on the site you are visiting. For the most part, these cookies are also harmless. But since you have no control over who might be leaving them, they have a greater possibility of being malicious, so it is usually better to turn them off in your browser’s preferences. The only thing you’ll be missing out on is ads tuned to your buying preferences.

A final type of cookie is called a Flash Cookie because they are exclusive to websites that use Adobe Flash. Also called Local Share Objects (LSOs) or “supercookies,” since they cannot be gotten rid of by the most common efforts to delete browsing data, such as clearing your browser cache or deleting cookies. To remove these nefarious little devils, you’ll need to go to Adobe’s website and change your settings there.

For a long time, cookies were the lone way websites and advertisers had of tracking their visitors, but they had one major weakness: since the data resides on a user’s local machine, that user can delete them at will — and then all that carefully collected data was gone! Advertisers didn’t like this.

So websites and advertisers have recently found a way around this problem with a method called Device Fingerprinting. This allows websites to uniquely identify your device through a myriad of hardware and software characteristics. Rather than relying on local stored data to identify you, this fingerprint information is stored on the advertiser’s web servers instead. The advantage for advertisers is that, once your device has been fingerprinted, that information can only be removed by the company who created it. This method is almost impossible to subvert since it doesn’t rely on any locally stored data.

If you are curious just how your unique device fingerprint is created and what it’s based on, you can visit the site https://panopticlick.eff.org/, and click the “Test Me” button.

Mobile devices shouldn’t be left out either. Device fingerprinting has evolved to include phones and tablets, as well as printers, game consoles, smart TVs and just about anything that connects to the Internet.

Further, your mobile device has its own identifier specifically for advertisers — Apple iOS’s Identifiers for Advertisers (“IDFA”) and Google Android’s Advertising ID.

Just be comforted in knowing that, on the Internet, you are never alone. Big Brother is always watching!

Feeling a little uncomfortable after reading this week’s column? Then you’ll definitely want to tune in to the next one where I’ll be talking about how to be anonymous on the web.

Have an opinion or question about this column? Stop by the website and leave a comment! Want me to cover something in a future column? Drop me an email at ericwaustin@gmail.com. Until next time my fellow Mainiacs, happy computing!

IF WALLS COULD TALK, Week of February 16, 2017

/0 Comments/in /by
Katie Ouilette Wallsby Katie Ouilette

Well, faithful readers, WALLS hope your Valentine’s Day was a happy one. Over the years and even recently, I have learned that even sadness has a happy meaning or, at least, thankfulness.

OK, WALLS, you know I’m leading to something…..right? Yes, our faithful readers, you know about my stay at our very caring Redington-Fairview General Hospital, but I haven’t told you about visitors, as I saved it for WALL’S Valentine’s column! Yup, visitors to the sick? WALLS, sure that knowing people care is important in the ‘healing-wellness’ cycle. No, WALLS, not a long visit, that is tiring, but just a ‘caring stop’ and wish for wellness. What’s more, it isn’t just for hospital care, but WALLS, I’ve certainly appreciated all the wonderful friends’ inquiries made to Lew, whether at his Whittemeore’s Real Estate Office, the grocery store buying that has become his duty, or as someone has called from their car in a parking lot. Yup, every inquiry that I’ve learned about has made me want to get this healing process into high gear!

Yes, my Valentine’s Day has been a happy one, even if it seems I am glued to my chair in the window and watching our snow come down. However, most of all, as I received Valentine greetings from my family and the wonderful photos from Great-Grands Reese and Owen Paine! Also, WALLS, in front of me are ‘the traditional three red roses’ that ‘say it all’ from Lew. He’s not only been a great care-giver, but his caring has forced me to get totally healed soon, as he says ‘how about some chowder while the snow blows?’

WALLS and faithful readers, I hope your Valentine’s Day was meaningful. Mine was because ‘I believe’.

O.K., WALLS, you caught my being interested in what has been happening in our USA lately. Well, another local newspaper had two half pages dedicated to Skowhegan Area Chamber of Commerce happenings and one item interested me. It was entitled “Chamber and College Breakfast” and described as an opportunity for business to let our local colleges know what types of things that are expected from their students once they graduate from their college. Surely, there are students in The Town Line area that might be interested. WALLS, the Skowhegan Chamber’s phone number is 474-3621. This is a fine idea which students may want to pursue. After all, we know that ‘in Maine, life is as it should be.’

SOLON & BEYOND, Week of February 16, 2017

/0 Comments/in , , /by
Marilyn Rogers-Bull & Percyby Marilyn Rogers-Bull & Percy
grams29@tds.net
Solon, Maine 04979

Good morning, dear friends. Don’t worry, be happy!

The Solon Pine Tree 4-H Club met on Saturday, February 11, with President Michaela Marden presiding.

The members are planning to attend an officer training and record workshop in Skowhegan on February 20, at 10 a.m. One member is planning to take some of her sled dogs and do a demonstration with them.

On Saturday, March 4, the club will be doing a food sale to benefit the Solon Food Cupboard and a dinner at the Solon Elementary School on the annual Solon town meeting day to benefit the club’s activities. Hope more of you will go to these events to support them.

As one of their community projects 17 food trays with lots of homemade goodies and two fruit trays were made and delivered.

Leaders Lois Meader and Eleanor Pooler did demonstrations to show the new members what to do.

The next meeting will be on Saturday, March 11, at 9:30 a.m., at the Solon Fire Station. The members will be doing demonstrations.

As I sit writing this week’s column we are in the middle of a very bad blizzard! Have been saving the following information for just the right occasion…and this is certainly it! As I look outside, the snow is almost completely covering some of the windows and the wind is blowing a gale and snow still coming down.

Have been studying an old book that I gave to Frank for Christmas back in 1973. It is called, The Old Farmer’s Almanac Sampler. On the inside cover it states, “Along about Thanksgiving time, when turkey and pumpkin pie are gladdening the inner man, a familiar friend, The Old Farmer’s Almanac, arrives upon the scene as it has each year since 1792. Now more popular than ever before in its long history, it goes into over a million homes throughout the country and in the far corners of the world.

“From its beginning that almanac has played an intrinsic part in our nation’s life. In the homes of countless pioneers, the Almanac and the Bible constituted the entire library. It served as a calendar, weather man, agricultural adviser, medical consultant, and a great many other things. Its miscellaneous information ranged from the signs of the zodiac to the latest gags, and its well-thumbed pages were consulted daily. For The Old Farmer’s Almanac Sampler its editor has brought together for the first time a choice sampling of the wit, wisdom,and entertainment of the almanac in other years. Here, in selections reflecting the times in which they were published, are bits of homely philosophy; anecdotes, comments, and advice on the daily life of a changing America….(And this book was published in 1957.”

There is one thing I’m going to share with you, if it gets past the editor, “A country farmer, not long since, having married a second wife, complained much of the rheumatism in his hips. He asked his wife one day what was the matter with her goose, that she did not hatch; she answered shrewdly that she supposed the gander had the rheumatism in his hips.” (That saying was in a 1796 issue of the Almanac!)

I really enjoyed Debbie Walker’s column in The Town Line issue of February 9 about Old Farmer’s Almanac.

So now for Percy’s words of wisdom memoir: “Only one principle will give you COURAGE—that is the principle that no evil lasts forever nor indeed for very long.” (words by Epicurus, 271 BC).

REVIEW POTPOURRI: Conductor: Carlo Maria Giulini; Country Singer: Bobby Bare; Duets by Bing Crosby & Mary Martin

/0 Comments/in , /by
Peter Catesby  Peter Cates

Mahler Symphony No. 9

Carlo Maria Giulini conducting the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra; Weitblick- SSS0140-2, 2 CDs, from live concert of February 9, 1973.

Carlo Maria Giulini

I have already commented at length on the late great conductor Carlo Maria Giulini in this column. He displayed a very high level of power, beauty and clarity in most of the recordings that I have heard on my shelves and elsewhere, even with his sometimes overdone slow tempos.

This live broadcast of Mahler’s very accomplished and achingly beautiful 9th Symphony is very good without the annoying hyper intensity that often spoils other recordings.

The Weitblick label has also released a number of other live concerts by other great conductors of the past- names like Eugen Jochum, Georges Pretre, Sergiu Celibidache, Yevgeni Svetlanov, etc., every one of them synonymous with quality; these often reveal more excitement in the heat of the moment than the studio note – perfect records glutting online inventories and all too often selling at higher prices. Berkshire Record Outlet stocks a number of these and charges lower prices more frequently than Amazon and the other retailers in cyberspace. It has frequently been my main source because of its large stock of quality product and price.

Bobby Bare

Constant Sorrow

Bobby Bare

RCA Victor LPM-3395, mono edition, recorded 1965, 12-inch LP.

Now 81, country singer Bobby Bare has recorded almost 38 albums and giving superb performances of both his own and other people’s songs. Every record I own of him is a pleasure; this one is no exception and features his own Times Are Gettin’ Hard and I’m A Long Way from Home; Bob Dylan’s Blowin’ in the Wind, Willie Nelson’s One Day at a Time, and several others. Chet Atkins provided the usual A-plus production while Anita Kerr worked up several exquisite arrangements.

Bing Crosby & Mary Martin

Lily of Laguna; Wait Till the Sun Shines, Nellie; Decca 18278, 10-inch shellac 78, recorded March 13, 1942.

Bing Crosby

The truly great Bing Crosby (1903-1977) is paired here with Broadway star Mary Martin (1913-1990).

Although Bing recorded with a large number of musical celebrities during his 50 years of more than 4,000 sides, I never knew of this coupling, as his assured, relaxed singing style with nearly perfect phrasing and timing and Martin’s elegantly poised, polished, refined and aloof vocal craft would seem to me totally incompatible and one major reason why her stage successes with South Pacific and Sound of Music could never translate to the movie screen.

Mary Martin

They sang the above songs with their commendably professional best but left me cold ! However, other folks might respond differently

I’m Just Curious: One memory leads to another

/0 Comments/in , /by
by Debbie Walker

One of my favorite magazines, Good Old Days, arrived today. This issue is full of “Friends for Life” and other old memories. So I did some of my own walking down memory lane.

I believe I am very lucky. My friend for life is Mim. Our parents witnessed each other’s weddings. Mim and I were both born in 1953. We played together as toddlers, went to elementary school together. We actually followed in our mother’s footsteps; we witnessed each other’s weddings. We have one of those friendships that you might not see each other for a year or two, but once together you’d never know we didn’t see each other every day. We both know we are there in the wings, if needed.

“Friends for Life” can also be friends you meet at different times of your life, and you just fit in each other’s lives. I have to add a little note here: It is fun when you all know each other. You can’t beat that kind of support system!

Well, one memory leads to another, even if they are not related! Somehow this walk down memory lane brought up a memory of Dad. That poor man spoiled me and he worked hard for doing so! We had a dug well for household uses but got our drinking water from the woman “up the road.” I have a picture showing Dad and I on a water run (definitely walking!). It shows me in the stroller, Dad pushing stroller with one hand and carrying a bucket of drinking water in the other hand. Because his spoiled daughter had to go he made two trips instead of one. The funny part is I doubt they ever expected people in our area one day would be buying water!

OK, I am going down another memory lane with Great Grammie Smith, Dad’s grandmother, oh how I loved that woman! I could have spent forever sitting on the floor at her feet with her telling me of days gone by while running her poor rheumatoid arthritic fingers through my hair. One story Grammie liked telling me was about the day I was born. Gram said Mom went into labor and being her first child she was a bit afraid. Gram told mom she was to bring home a blonde haired, blue eyed baby girl. She’d accept nothing but! Mom brought me home and gave me to Grammie, just what she asked for. History repeated itself because when my child was born I was able to take her to the nursing home and give Gram another blonde haired, blue eyed baby girl. I always thought there was a bond between Deana and Gram because of that visit.

Sometime I will tell you about a program I used to do called “Journaling for the Generations.” It was just fun passing on all different ideas to encourage people to document some of their moments thru time!!

I’m just curious what memories this brought to your mind!! Contact Debbie at dwdaffy@yahoo.com. Thanks for reading!

I’m Just Curious: Did you know?

/0 Comments/in , /by
by Debbie Walker

I know I am not the only person who has never read a Farmer’s Almanac. I was talking with my friend Donna; she said she never had either. We did not know what we were missing. Did you know?

Did you know that every month has certain days better for function than others? Examples: Baking days are only the 1, 7, 8, 27 and 28 of February. So if someone in the family has a birthday February 10 you will need to bake that cake on the 8th unless you want it to sink in the middle or something.

I am messing up because I have an appointment for a haircut on February 4. Ooops, not the right date. According to the almanac I should have picked 2, 3, 7, 8 or 20th. Oh well, I don’t think there are any superstitions tied to any of this.

Picking apples and pears on February 10 and 18 -20 something is certainly off with that one. The cover says “Solutions for Living a More Natural Lifestyle.” How does picking apples in February fit into a natural lifestyle? Beats me!!

If you were planning on buying a house in February and you didn’t do it on February 2 you are out of luck. Even so that is better than January, there were NO days.

This magazine also says good days to get married in February 2017 are the 2nd, 3rd, 7th to 9th, 25 or 26th. If that was the same in 1970 it would have not been good. I got married on February 7, and I wound up divorced!

In the Health and Beauty column I was a little surprised to see dates to “Start a Diet to Lose Weight,” there were eight days. There were also dates to “Start a Diet to Gain Weight!” There are only three days, February 7, 8 and 26. That one has certainly never been my problem but I imagine it is as, or more, difficult as losing pounds.

There are so many more tidbits of information like on August 21, 2017, we will all be looking at the sky. There is going to be a total eclipse of the sun. This one we should be able to see in our own yard.

There are some Almanac Throwbacks from their 1877 Farmer’s Almanac. One such is “What a Western Woman Did in a Day.” Her day started at 4:30 a.m. You know it doesn’t get better. Just the work she did after dinner would have worn out most of us these days. They were tough women.

There are rules for making wives and husbands happy in this almanac I have. I certainly hope you don’t mind all this babble but I felt like I needed to pass all this info along. I’m Just Curious, “Did you know?”

I am Debbie Walker and you can contact me at dwdaffy@yahoo.com . Sub line: Did You Know? Thanks for sharing your time!

SCORES & OUTDOORS: Crows v. Ravens: is there a difference?

/0 Comments/in , /by

Roland D. HalleeSCORES & OUTDOORS

by Roland D. Hallee

If you remember, a couple of weeks ago I wrote about all the birds that have been coming to our feeders, and I compared the situation with the Alfred Hitchcock thriller film, The Birds. Well, I have another chapter in that episode. I have noticed recently the high number of crows, or ravens, that have been hanging around my house. Just the other day, I saw seven of them sitting in my pine trees in the backyard. They are huge birds.

Just to draw a comparison, there was a gray squirrel – either Martha or Stewart, my resident squirrels, are pretty good sized squirrels – on one of the other branches, and these birds made it look like a field mouse. The squirrel was dwarfed by these birds. They were also licking their chops. However, the crows’ stout bill is not strong enough to break through the skin.

Later that day, while driving by the park that is located at the end of my street, there were about two dozen of these birds feeding on the banking that was bare of snow.

Where are they coming from? And are they crows, or ravens like some people are calling them?

Well, to cut to the chase, crows have a fan-shaped tail, while ravens’ tails are wedge-shaped. The birds I’m looking at have a fan-shaped tail. Obviously, there are a few differences between the two species. Most of the differences are noticeable when the two are together. However, crows will assemble in large flocks, while ravens tend to be solitary, until the fall migration.

Crow, left, and Raven. Note the position of the tail feathers. The crow’s are fan-like, while the Raven’s are wedge-shaped.

Both the crows and the ravens are highly intelligent birds. Perhaps the most intelligent. The two can learn to imitate a variety of sounds, including the human voice. Recent research has found crows not only use tools, but also tool construction. Their intelligence quotient is equal to that of many non-human primates.

There is a story that indicates crows know how to count. The story has not been substantiated, but it goes like this. Three hunters enter a hunters’ blind. They wait, the crows know they are in there. The crows don’t move. Two hunters leave the blind, and the crows still don’t move. Once the third hunter leaves, the crows know they are gone and resume their normal activity.

Crows also have a good memory, remembering where there is danger, and where their cache of food is for later consumption.

Predators include owls and hawks. Crows will gather together to move an offending or intruding owl or hawk. However, West Nile disease has been taking its toll on crow populations.

A couple of years ago, while fishing on Webber Pond, my wife and I noticed a large flock of crows headed for a tree that sat on a point. Apparently, a bald eagle was intruding on a nest. The crows mobbed the eagle and drove it off. That was interesting to watch.

So, taking all these things into consideration, the large black birds hanging around my house are crows. But the question as to where they come from and why they are hanging around, has not been answered. In the past, I have seen massive numbers of crows fly overhead in late fall. But they continue in a northwesterly direction, darkening the sky as they passed. This year, they are making themselves right at home around my house.

I will continue to investigate.

REVIEW POTPOURRI: Film: Nightcrawler; Singer: Big Joe Turner

/0 Comments/in , /by
Peter Catesby  Peter Cates

Nightcrawler

Jake Gyllenhaal

Jake Gyllenhaal

starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Rene Russo, Bill Paxton, etc. Directed by Dan Gilroy, Open Road films, released 2014, 117 minutes.

The story line of Nightcrawler involves a night drifter/loner, Lucas Bloom, who stalks the mean streets of Los An­geles and stumbles onto a major source of income as a photographer of particularly gruesome accident scenes. As portrayed quite skillfully by Jake Gyl­lenhaal, Bloom exudes an unsettling, bleak, nihilistic lack of any moral compass; in another time, he would have been a perfect recruit for Hitler’s Einsatzgruppen.

Rene Russo

Rene Russo

This film draws much of its suspense from the unwavering foreboding of the Los Angeles night as distilled through the masterful cinematography, a quality that riveted my attention more than Bloom’s personality or the well-honed chain of events. And the solid acting of Rene Russo and Bill Paxton enhanced the film a lot.

Joe Turner

I’ve Been to Kansas City; Decca/MCA Records MCAD-42351, CD, consists of original Decca 78s recorded between 1940-41.

Big Joe Turner (1911-1985) was a roaring grizzly bear of a singer/ blues shouter who performed for the better part of 60 years and made many records. Born in Kansas City, his early years working as a bartender/ singer led to becoming known as the Singing Barman.

Big Joe Turner

Big Joe Turner

His musical colleagues on these sides include a Who’s Who of American jazz – Hot Lips Page, Don Byas, Pete Johnson, Willie “The Lion” Smith, Art Tatum, Edmund Hall, Billy Taylor, etc. All 13 sides are first rate, particularly Corrinne, Corrina and Piney Brown Blues.

The most truly successful song he may have composed is Shake, Rattle and Roll.

Memories are made of these

/0 Comments/in , /by

Pages in Time

by Milt Huntington

Sit back, relax, and make a few withdrawals from your collective memory banks while I dredge up a few nostalgia nuggets of my own.

I had the honor of speaking at my 60th Cony High School class reunion a while ago and used the occasion to delve into the pages of yesteryear where fond and distant memories were lurking.

I assured my classmates that some things never change like the Hartford Fire Station whistle that still sounds religiously every single day at 12:30 p.m. and again at 9 o’clock. I reminded them that the State House and the Blaine Mansion are still there along with the old Post Office, the Armory, the AMHI buildings and of course the old flatiron building where long ago they built a school upon a hill.

Speaking to a room-full of Cony grads from here and away, I reminded them of the icons of long ago that no longer exist–places like the Augusta House, Jose Motors, the State Street Diner, Forrest’s Drug Store and the A&P. Gone, all gone, I lamented are our old hangouts like McAuley’s Restaurant on Outer Western Avenue, Doc’s Lunch, Mike’s Lunch, The Roseland, Foster’s Smoke Shop, McNamara’s and the Oxbow out in Winthrop. We still all smile with happy memories when we hear of Island Park.

It was my sad duty to remind folks that McLellan’s, Kresge’s and Woolworth;s have all disappeared from downtown Water Street. No more can they visit Penny’s, Montgomery Ward, Sears & Roebuck, Adam’s, Chernowsky’s, Farrell’s Clothing Store, Nicholson & Ryan’s or Bilodeau’s jewelry stores.

Other institutions that have faded into the pages of time include: the Colonial and Capitol theaters, the drugstores with the wonderful pinball machines, the barber shops, the beer joints, the Depot News, the Army-Navy store, Foster’s Smoke Shop and the Hotel North.

Stealing thoughts from one of my earlier columns, I pushed some buttons of memory concerning the clothes that all of us wore. The boys of the 40’s and 50’s wore maroon corduroy jackets with plaid trousers rolled up at the cuffs. Their shoes consisted of white bucks or penny loafers. Crew cuts were far and away the style of the day. I wish I could grow one now.

The Cony girls of long ago displayed pony tails, up-do’s or page boys, and they looked “sharp” in blue velvet, sweaters, clinging skirts, Gibson Girl blouses and midi-skirts. Their feet were decked with bobby sox, white sneakers and saddle shoes.

The guys never called them “cool.” Nah! They called them sharp, groovy, snazzy or neat. Today, of course, all the younger whippersnappers say “like” and “you know” most of the time. Not all the time, just when they open their mouths. It doesn’t take much to get me going on that subject. I think of the the Red Sox pitcher I watched who said “you know” 32 times in a three minute television interview. I expressed my amazement that a lot of college graduates who go on to sports never learned to exhibit some degree of articulateness.

Seizing my moment in the spotlight, I dug down deep to dredge up memories of icons of 60 years ago and more. I asked them to sink into the depths of their memories to remember stuff like table-side juke boxes that played the music of Frankie Lane, Joni James Patti Page, Jo Stafford and Frank Sinatra. The songs that continually spring from my memory of years gone by are the likes of Mule Train, Jezebel, Come Fly With Me, See the Pyramids, Music, Music, Music, Purple Shades and a thousand more.

Those were the days, my friends, we thought they’d never end, but they did–just like the pant leg clips we wore when we road our one-speed bicycles. Gone forever are the glass milk bottles delivered to our doorsteps and the ice boxes that actually contained blocks of ice. Gone, all gone, are the telephone party lines, Howdy Doody, 45 rpm’s, S&H Green Stamps, Hi-Fi’s, Studebakers and Packards, roller skate keys and pizza when we called it pizza pie.

I could go on and on…and I usually do, but suffice it to say: “Those were the good old days.” How much fun it is to pause now and again to think back on all the things that we remember of our own particular and special Camelot.

Milt Huntington is the author of “A Lifetime of Laughter” and “Things That Make You Grin.”

IF WALLS COULD TALK, Week of February 9, 2017

/0 Comments/in , /by
Katie Ouilette Wallsby Katie Ouilette

OK, faithful readers, there’s an old saying about ‘what goes around comes around,’ and, frankly, as I sat in my chair in our kitchen in East Madison and reflected on the problems that were encompassing our USA because of immigration rules and regulations. I also decided to find out why the pile of papers in the corner of the top shelf of our bookcase had been kept. Yup, I made a discovery, WALLS!

I found a column entitled IF WALLS COULD TALK that had been written before The Town Line’s managing editor had called me about writing for The Town Line. You were writing for the extinct hometown newspaper, but, guess what? I learned that my Mémère Zelia Valliere and I were having a talk about my speaking French. Yes, she and my Great-Grandma Sarah would talk French to each other on the phone and I wanted to learn that language, but Mémère said, “No, you don’t want to learn to speak French……You speak English.” It seems I didn’t understand her reasoning until Skowhegan Junior High School and I learned in history class that the French were employed only after all the English-speaking immigrants had jobs.

So, WALLS, as you talk to our faithful readers, it is true today that what went around has come around again. It is true that immigration in those days was from our north, wherein, today, folks who love what they hear about our USA, want to live here. What’s more, many of those who want to immigrate to our USA have experienced unbelievable torture and loss because of the Middle East War.

WALLS, I know you aren’t taking a political stand here, but I do appreciate your being aware of what has happened in the world as we thought we knew it. This brings you back to your opening sentence, WALLS, that ‘what goes around, comes around.’ Probably our faithful readers haven’t thought how speaking our native English has possibly played into the equation. I never thought of it until finding the column in the corner of our bookcase.

Yes, yes….I do listen to the news and I did learn a few days ago, WALLS, that the development area for our famous “Valley” in California has many of other countries working there. In fact, our West Coast family tells us of their many friends from other countries……and many of them are from Asia.

WALLS, maybe we in Maine have lived a ‘protected life.’ You know that there’s been a sign at the ‘entrance to Maine’ that says “Welcome to Maine…..The Way Life Should Be.” Yes, WALLS, let’s make sure people ‘believe.’