Tom Glenn's Blog, page 10

Working Out

For most of my long life, I was a runner and weightlifter. But a few years ago, a surgeon botched knee replacement surgery on my right leg. The result is that I walk with a slight limp and can no longer run. But I kept up with weightlifting.

Then early last year, I developed a severe eye condition—my lower lids lost their elasticity and sagged. I had to have surgery on both eyes to correct the problem. Because of the pressure that weightlifting puts on the eyes, I had to refrain until my eyes were completely healed. Then, just as I was ready to resume exercising last December, I came down with pneumonia. It wasn’t a serious case (like I’d suffered several times earlier in my life). I never had a fever, and my only symptom was a bad cough. Nevertheless, I had to stop lifting weights until I was cured.

Before I had to cut back on weightlifting, I was doing three sets each of sixteen exercises, including pushups, sit-ups, bench and military presses, and curls. Because of my long respite, I have had to reduce the number of exercises and the weights I’m lifting. But as of today, I’m up to three sets each of seven exercises, granted at somewhat reduced weights.

I have already exceeded by a large margin the life expectancy for American males. I credit my severe diet and exercising, along with plenty of sleep and drinking lots of water, for my extraordinary health. I have every intention of living well past a hundred, mainly because I have more books I want to write (I now have six in print).

The evidence so far is that I’m going to make it. Wish me luck.

Article

Per the request of a reader, I checked and determined that my 2016 article entitled “Bitter Memories: the Fall of Saigon” is still on the internet. You can read it at Bitter Memories: The Fall of Saigon – Atticus Review

Between 1962 and 1975, I spent more time in Vietnam than I did in the U.S. I ended up in 1974 as the chief of a clandestine group working with the South Vietnamese to intercept and exploit the radio communications of the invading North Vietnamese. We foresaw the North Vietnamese assault on Saigon, but the U.S. Ambassador, Graham Martin, refused to accept our warning and call for an evacuation. In fact, he forbade me from evacuating my 43 men and their families. But I did it anyway through lying, cheating, and stealing. I got them all out safely but had to stay until the very end to do it. The article tells that story and how I escaped under fire after the North Vietnamese were already in the streets of Saigon.

If that interests you, read the article and let me know what you think. When you get to the end of the first part, click on the red “2” at the bottom of the screen, and you’ll be taken to part 2. I’ll be glad to answer questions.

Fall of Saigon

I’ll be doing my presentation with slides called “Bitter Memories: The Fall of Saigon” at the Adults Seeking Knowledge (A.S.K.) facility at 1:00 p.m. on Wednesday, March 29. A.S.K. is located at 12 South Summit Avenue, Gaithersburg, Maryland 20877-2008. When Saigon fell, I was the head of a clandestine group intercepting and exploiting the radio communications of the invading North Vietnamese. I succeeded in getting my 43 subordinates and their families safely out of the country before I escaped under fire after the North Vietnamese were already in the streets of Saigon.

Hope you can make it.

Biden’s Popularity

President Biden’s State of the Union address made me realize that his job as president has been quite remarkable, but he goes unrecognized. The Washington Post reports that a recent poll indicates that 62 percent of Americans think Biden has accomplished “not very much” or “little or nothing” during his presidency. My guess is that they will judge his speech the same way despite its excellence.

These Americans are very wrong. Among the accomplishments Biden could have (and in some cases did) list were sending stimulus checks to millions, providing student loan forgiveness up to $20,000 to millions of Americans, nominating and seating Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, appointing more Federal judges in a two-year period than any president since JFK, securing millions of COVID-19 vaccines, rejoining the Paris Climate Agreement, re-engaging in the World Health Organization, reversing Trump’s Muslim ban, reopening Obamacare enrollment, ending Trump’s Transgender Military Ban, passing an extensive Infrastructure plan, enshrining Gay Marriage into law, reforming the Electoral Count Act, and introducing sweeping immigration reform.

My guess is that Americans don’t appreciate Biden because he is not a gifted orator—he’s famous for his gaffes (and there were some during the speech)—and because so much of his time in office has been spent undoing the damage inflicted by is predecessor, Donald Trump. But he’s a hard worker that accomplishes an amazing amount while not calling attention to his achievements.

It’s time for us Americans to do our homework and come to appreciate what this ordinary Joe has brought us.

Slavery and Indian Wars

When I was reading Paul Auster’s Bloodbath Nation (see my review at https://www.washingtonindependentreviewofbooks.com/bookreview/bloodbath-nation), I was shocked to learn, in one of Auster’s sidebars, of the sheer coldblooded butchery inherent in American treatment of non-white races. Among other things, he impugns our history of slavery. I was disturbed enough to do some research. Here’s what I found out:

European settlers killed 56 million indigenous people over about 100 years in South, Central and North America. Between 1800 and 1900, the American Indians lost more than half of their population, and their proportion in the total U.S. population dropped from 10.15 percent to 0.31 percent.

We are guilty, in short, of massacre of our native population.

And slavery? Approximately 10 million slaves lived in the United States. Four million of these slaves were living at the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861. Life expectancy for whites back then was only 25.5 years, but for slaves it as even less, only 21.4 years.

In other words, the way we treated our slaves reduced their life expectancy by approximately 20 percent.

It looks to me like we as a nation have been effective at covering up our history of butchery and genocide. It’s high time we faced up to our past atrocities and pled guilty.

Leadership vs. Management

During my years as a civilian under cover as military working with army and Marine units in Vietnam, I learned by observing that leadership works far better than management. The military teach their officers and non-commissioned officers to lead. That means motivating subordinates to be the best they can be, to excel, to surpass their own limitations.

So once I returned to the National Security Agency (NSA) after my years in Vietnam, I was assigned to head organizations as large as a division of several hundred people. I taught my subordinate managers to lead, not to manage. As a result, our technicians (analysts and linguists) outdid themselves, achieving amazing results.

But leadership was not favored by the federal government including NSA executives. Despite all the successes of my people, NSA’s top managers found my techniques scandalous. I was called before the deputy director (a civilian; the director was always a general or admiral, but the real management was done by the civilian) and counseled that my job was to control people, keep them in line, stop them from getting out of hand. I was undeterred and continued to lead rather than manage. The results my people achieved were so superior that I kept getting promoted, granted begrudgingly, until I was at the top of the senior executive ranks. I was able to retire with a generous annuity that allowed me to write fulltime without any money worries. That resulted in six books and 17 short stories now in print.

I continue to believe to this day that treating people in a way that stresses their positive qualities encourages them to do their best. My record of achievement is strong evidence that my belief is correct.

So I urge all managers to become leaders. Believe me, it pays off.

The Cold

As I was writing this blog, the temperature outside was 15 degrees. It’s now up to 30 degrees. It has been below freezing for days now. As regular readers of my blog are aware, I find cold weather devastating. And here I am shivering, even though the temperature in my office this early in the morning is 64 degrees. Thank God, I’ve turned the gas heater on, and the temperature is rising.

As I have mentioned before, between 1962 and 1975, I spent more time in Vietnam than I did in the U.S. I became acclimatized to the tropical heat with temperatures normally well above 90 degrees. I grew so accustomed to wearing shorts and going shirtless that I resented having to bundle up when I got back to the states. Even during the hottest months (July and August) in “the world” (what we called the U.S. back then, as opposed to “in-country,” meaning Vietnam), I found it cooler than I liked.

I have never re-acclimatized back to the U.S. So I am constantly going around in multiple layers of clothing. And during the cool months of fall and spring, I set the thermostat as high as I can get away with. The winter months find me in gloves and earmuffs.

Fortunately, I have a gas stove in my office in the lowest floor of my split-level home where I spend most of my time. These days, it is on constantly. I can’t wait for the balmy months when I can open the glass doors at the north end of my office to let in the warm air from the pond in back of my house.

The weather forecast tells me it will get into the upper forties today. But more below freezing weather lies ahead.

I sure wish I could wear gloves while typing.

Global Warming

Multiple times over the years, I have complained in this blog about our failure to take action to reduce global warming. According to NationalAcademies.org, human activities are causing the earth to heat up in ways that are different from warm periods in the past. Put differently, we humans are the cause of our current global warming, and we humans must change our ways to reduce it. Since 1900, the average surface air temperature has risen 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit (1 degree Celsius), all caused by human activity. The steepest rise began in the 1970s and continues today.

This increase is mostly due to burning fossil fuels, such as coal, oil, and natural gas. Carbon dioxide has increased from a pre-industrial level of 280 parts per million to more than 410 parts per million today. Most of that increase has occurred since the late 1950s. In the earth’s distant past, it would take between 5,000 to 20,000 years to see the amount of change in carbon dioxide levels that humans have caused in just the last 60 years.

The effects of global warming? First, higher temperatures that increase heat-related illnesses and can make it more difficult to work and move around. Wildfires start more easily and spread more rapidly when conditions are hotter. Second, more severe and frequent storms, which cause flooding and landslides, destroying homes and communities, and costing billions of dollars. And third, increased droughts which can stir destructive sand and dust storms that can move billions of tons of sand across continents. Deserts are expanding, reducing land for growing food.

What can we do about it? Reduce our burning of coal, oil, and natural gas. That means switching to renewable solar and wind energy.

It’s doable if we set our minds to it. But so far, few of us are even aware of the problem, and even fewer are taking any action to reduce global warming. It’s time for the people of the world to band together to reduce our carbon dioxide pollution.

Foreign Phrases (2)

Continuing my investigation of foreign phrases commonly used in English:

Ad hoc: Created or done for a particular purpose as necessary, made or happening only for a particular purpose or need, not planned before it happens. The phrase is Latin and means “to this.”

Ad nauseum: To a sickening degree, referring to something that has been done or repeated so often that it has become annoying, continued to the point of nausea. Once again from Latin, the phrase means “to sickening.”

Sang-froid: Cold blood in French. When used in English, it means composure, self-possession, calmness, coolness of mind, the ability to remain calm in a dangerous or difficult situation.

Caveat emptor: A Latin phrase that literally means “let the buyer beware.” According to Wikipedia, the phrase is a short form of Caveat emptor, quia ignorare non debuit quod jus alienum emit (Let a purchaser beware, for he ought not to be ignorant of the nature of the property which he is buying from another party.) In other words, the buyer should assure himself that the product is good and that the seller had the right to sell it, as opposed to receiving stolen property.

Persona non grata: Latin for “an unwelcome person.” The term in a diplomatic sense refers to a foreign person whose entering or remaining in a certain country is prohibited by that country.

Laissez faire: French for “let people do as they choose.” The phrase was a motto of eighteenth century French economists who protested excessive government regulation of industry. The actual translation of the words is “let do.” The implication is the less the government is involved in the economy, the better off business will be, and by extension, society as a whole.

Deus ex machina: Literally, “God out of the machine” in Latin. Wikipedia says it is a Latin calque from Greek ἀπὸ μηχανῆς θεός (apò mēkhanês theós) “god from the machine.” The term was coined from the conventions of ancient Greek theater, where actors who were playing gods were brought onto stage using a machine. The machine could be either a crane (mechane) used to lower actors from above or a riser that brought them up through a trapdoor. In modern speech, it means a plot device in fiction or theater whereby a seemingly unsolvable problem in a story is suddenly and abruptly resolved by an unexpected and unlikely occurrence. Its function is generally to resolve an otherwise irresolvable plot situation, to surprise the audience, to bring the tale to a happy ending, or act as a comedic device.

More next time the spirit moves me.

Foreign Phrases

One of the blessings of English (for me, anyway) is its profusion of words and phrases borrowed from other languages. Many of them come from French, somewhat fewer from Italian, Latin, Greek, and German. So I decided to list some of them here, explain their meaning, and give some background.

I start with noblesse oblige. The phrase is from French and means literally “nobility obligates.” Its meaning as used by Americans is the inferred responsibility of privileged people to act with generosity and nobility toward those less privileged. The term comes from a time when French (more specifically, Anglo-Norman) was the language of the English nobility.

Doppelganger: The term doppelgänger comes from German and means, literally, “double goer.” In English, it means an apparition of a living person, a mysterious, exact double. According to Wikipedia, “In fiction and mythology, a doppelgänger is often portrayed as a ghostly or paranormal phenomenon and usually seen as a harbinger of bad luck. Other traditions and stories equate a doppelgänger with an evil twin.”

Tabula rasa:  a Latin phrase often translated as “clean slate” in English. It originates from the Roman tabula, a wax-covered tablet used for notes, which was blanked (rasa) by heating the wax and then smoothing it. Tabula rasa proponents maintain that individuals are born without built-in mental content, and therefore all knowledge comes from experience or perception.

Double entendre: The phrase is actually a mix of English and French. Entendre by itself means “to hear.” According to Wikipedia, “A double entendre is a figure of speech or a particular way of wording that is devised to have a double meaning, of which one is typically obvious, whereas the other often conveys a message that would be too socially awkward, sexually suggestive, or offensive to state directly.” Examples (from Your Dictionary online): You look really hot! (said to someone who is sweating, other meaning is being really sexually attractive). I’d love to see your melons! (said to a produce grocer, other meaning references a woman’s breasts). Mr. Halloway keeps touching his organ (said about a person who plays the organ in church, other meaning refers to male genitalia).

Al dente: cooked just enough to retain a somewhat firm texture. The term is Italian and means “to the tooth.” In the opinion of many, “al dente” is the only proper way to cook pasta.

Zeitgeist: the spirit of the time, the defining mood of a particular period of history as shown by the ideas and beliefs of the time. The literal meaning of the German term come from Zeit, meaning “time,” and Geist, meaning “spirit” or “ghost.”

More next time.