David Yuhas
09-14-2008, 01:02 PM
Dear Ron,
The following is a copy of the most recent e-mail on a project I have been working on for about two years now. I enclose it by way of introduction.
The next installment, which I shall be writing today will include an invitation to your good self, which I suspect, you will find most interesting.
Regards, David Yuhas
Inland Empire, Part XXIV...Protocols for Inmate Infantrymen
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=32480220566&ref=mf
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_locomotive
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_rail
To Proposed Personages for TV Series, Inland Empire
Now leaning towards PBS
Round-Table Discussion of State Issues
1. First Week, Colorado
Governor, Bill Ritter
Mayor of Pueblo, Dave Galli
Mayor of Colorado Springs, Lionel Rivera
Mayor of Denver, John Hickenlooper
City Manager of Greeley, Roy H. Otto
City Manager of Ft. Collins, Darin Atteberry
2. Second Week, Idaho
Round-Table Discussion of State Issues
Governor, C.L. Otter
Mayor of Idaho Falls, Jared Fuhriman
Chairman of Ft. Hall/Pocatello, Alonzo A. Coby
Lt. Governor James Risch
Senator Mike Crapo
Congressman Mike Simpson
3. Third Week, Kansas
Round-Table Discussion of State Issues
Governor, Kathleen Sebelius,
Mayor of Wichita, Carl Brewer
4. Fourth Week, Montana
Round-Table Discussion of State Issues
Governor, Brian Schweitzer,
Chairman of Crow Territory, Carl Venne
Mayor of Billings, Ron Tussing
City Manager of Bozeman, Chris Kukulski
Mayor of Butte, Paul Babb
Congressman, Denny Rehberg
5. Fifth Week, Nebraska
Governor, Dave Heineman,
Mayor of Lincoln, Primo Santini
Warren Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway
Senator Ben Nelson
Senator Chuck Hagel
6. Sixth Week, North Dakota
Round Table Discussion of State Issues
Governor, John Hoeven,
Mayor of Fargo, Dennis Walaker
Senator Byron Dorgan
Tom Brokaw
7. Seventh Week, Oklahoma
Round-Table Discussion of State Issues
Governor, Brad Henry,
Mayor of Oklahoma City, Mick Cornett
8. Eighth Week, South Dakota
Round-Table Discussion of State Issues
Governor, Mike Rounds,
Mayor of Sioux Falls, Dave Munson
Senator, Tim Johnson
Craig Ferguson, (Official State Celebrity)
9. Ninth Week, Texas
Round-Table Discussion of State Issues
Governor, Rick Perry,
Mayor of McAllen, Richard F. Cortez
Mayor of Laredo, Raul G. Salinas
Mayor of Del Rio, Efrain V. Valdez
Mayor of Midland, Wes Perry
Mayor of Lubbock, Tom Martin
Mayor of Amarillo, Debra McCartt
David Stall, Corridor Watch
Jim Hightower
10. Tenth Week, Utah
Round-Table Discussion of State Issues
Governor Jon Huntsman Jr.
Mayor of Logan, Randy Watts
Mayor of Ogden, Matthew R. Godfrey
Mayor of Salt Lake City, Ralph Becker
Mayor of Provo, Lewis K. Billings
Congressman Jim Mattheson
Ross Anderson
11, Eleventh Week, Wyoming
Round-Table Discussion of State Issues
Governor, Dave Freudenthal,
Mayor of Cheyenne, Jack Spiker
Mayor of Laramie, Klaus Hanson
Mayor of Casper, Paul Bertoglio
Mayor of Sheridan, Dave Kinskey
Rulon Gardner
12, Twelfth Week...or "What You Will"
******************************
Great Western Railway & Great Plains Express Engineering Desk
Regular Guests at Round Table Discussion
Dwight Beranek, Railroad Designer, Army Corps of Engineers, Discussion Leader
Paul Copeland, Beatty-Balfour Rail Inc.
William M. Stout, Atlas Railroad Construction
Jeffrey M. Levy, Railworks Inc
Lorenzo Simonelli, GE Transportation
Carlisle, Jones, Birmingham Locomotive & Rail
William Herzog, Herzog Railroad Construction
Peter McKenna, Skanska USA
John Cavanaugh, Electro-Motive Diesel Inc.
James Robertson, Illinois Steel Services
T. Boone Pickens, BP Capital Management
Amory Lovins, Rocky Mountain Institute
Jens Soeby, Vestas Wind Systems
John Krenicki, Jr., GE Energy
Michael Antal, University of Hawaii, Charcoal
Michael Lurvey, University of Hawaii, Charcoal
Bud Peterson, University of Colorado, Thermal Engineering
William Eucker, US Navy, Thermal Engineering
*******************************************
Western State Cavalry Desk
Regular Guests at Round-Table Discussion
Kent Whealy, Heritage Farms...Discussion Leader
Adm. William J. Fallon, USN (Ret.), Ft. Dan George, POW, Plantation Camp
Senator Jim Webb, Virginia, GI Bill, Chapter 31, "Vocational Rehab" for Veterans
Ms. Sally Spencer, BLM Wild Horse & Burro Program
Kyle Partain, Western Horseman Magazine
Tim Carroll, North American Horse & Mule Loggers Assn.
Wes Jackson, The Land Institute, Perennial Grasses, Plantation Design
Prof. Joseph Thomasson, Ft. Hays State University, Great Plains Horticulture
*******************************************
Distinguished Friends,
Here, once again, is the quota, by State, that I would recommend for the recruitment of 16,000, able-bodied, Level III & IV, Inmate Infantrymen
Colorado, 4.8 million population...1,770 Inmate Infantrymen
Idaho, 1.5 mil...553
Kansas, 2.8 mil...1,032
Montana, 1 mil...368
Nebraska, 1.8 mil...663
North Dakota, .6 mil...221
Oklahoma, 3.6 mil...1,328
South Dakota, .8 mil...294
Texas, 23.5 mil...8,666
Utah, 2.5 mil...921
Wyoming, .5 mil...184
The Infantrymen would come to the Western State Cavalry with an "80% Dowry" that would be caluculated in the following way...
Take the total cost of a State's prison system for one year...including admin & construction costs.
Divide that sum by the number of prisoners.
80% of that figure is what the State would pay the Western State Cavalry to look after each Infantrymen for one year.
While Level IIIs & IVs will always be more expensive to maintain than Level Is & IIs, healthy prisoners will always be cheaper than sickly ones...so the figures should average out.
Inmate Infantrymen would work a 40-hour week, & have the same food & medical care as Cavalrymen. On the down-side, Infantrymen would not be allowed visits, phone calls, cigarettes or matches. Communication with the outside would be limited to letter-writing.
Daily wages, if the work has gone well, would consist of a one-liter, carafe of wine.
On the up-side there would be no shackling, beating, tear-gassing or solitary confinement...mostly because the Cavalrymen would not be professional prison guards. Punishment, typically, would mean being sent back to one's orignial prison.
Prison compounds, the Cavalry "Forts", would be made up of arrangements of converted, shipping containers. The ratio of Cavalrymen to Infantrymen would be one-to-one.
A Cavalrymn, for protection, would carry a .38 revolver in a tanker holster...& a knife...& K9s would never be far away.
The work-week would be five days rather than six...mostly for the reason that as there would be no sex offenders or other protective-custody prisoners in the ranks of the Inmate Infantry, everyone would have to do his own laundry & take turns in the kitchen.
Back when I was a ranger & an officer in the Zambezi Valley my unit's dispensary consisted entirely of aspirin & cough drops...&, as that worked well enough then, I think it's worth trying once more. There would be no point, then, in prisoners with hepatitis, HIV or a drug dependency volunteering for the Inmate Infantry.
Inmate Infantrymen would wear bib-overalls & blue shirts/jackets...& their motto would be "Many Hands Make Light Work". Their principal task during the Fall & Winter months would be portaging 9-foot, timbers...(four-man teams equipped with piano-movers' slings shifting future railroad ties), from 200-yard roadside-margins to road in the Rocky Mountains.
Summer work would cosist of farm labor on any of twenty Great Plains Plantations. Railroad construction would be year-round.
Evening movies for Infantrymen & Cavalrymen would be a regular feature at Cavalry Camps.
My request to the Governors of the Eleven, Inland Empire States is to separate the volunteers for the Inmate Infantry, & send them to training camps for their new mission on the Western landscape. Rocky Mountain, State imates would be sent to logging camps to begin their, roadside, railroad-tie harvesting operations...while Great Plains inmates would spend their Spring & Summer months on agricultural projects. Texas Inmate Infantrymen would operate year-round in Texas, as Texas would be the winter home of all cattle from the Plantations on the other Plains States.
Five Authentic, Western Films I would recommend as required viewing in the Inmate Infantry training camps would be...
"Broken Trail", starring Robert Duvall, & Thomas Haden Church
"Buffalo Soldiers" starring Danny Glover
"The Last Days of Frank & Jesse James" starring Johnny Cash as Frank, Kris Kristofferson as Jesse & Willie Nelson as Honorary Cavalry Founder, General Jo Shelby, CSA...(the head of the only US Trans-Mississippi Cavalry that didn't slaughter bison, massacre Indians or contribute to the Dust Bowl of the 1930s.)
"Cabeza de Vaca", which is in Spanish...but still qualifies as a first-class Western
& the Biggest of All..."The Outlaw Josey Wales" starring Clint Eastwood & Chief Dan George
My favorite westerns are those that combine a history lesson along with high drama...& these five are sure to put Inmate Infantrymen & many a Cavalryman as well, in a good frame of mind.
So...to the Eleven Governors of the Inland Empire, I say "Thank you for any consideration".
Next Week...Something a Little Different
This e-mail campaign, so far, has steered clear of politics...& will continue to steer clear of partisan, political politics. However...this being a political season, next week's installment will deal with an issue I consider to be a personal challenge.
My specialty (Jeder hat sein Hobby), is the interpretation of cryptic texts...Shakespearean & Cervantean above all...but anything from passages in the Book of Genesis to "Harry Potter" to the fine points of our Constitution are likely to get my blood up.
The following, which is an analysis of a passage from Shakespeare's "Love's Labors Lost" taken from my book, "The Shakespeare-Cervantes Code", is a sample of my work...
A GARDEN IN NAVARRE
In Act One, Scene One of Shakespeare’s “Love’s Labors Lost”, there is a report of an incident in the king’s garden...”yclept” or “called” the king’s “park”.
The incident is reported to have taken place “north-north-east & by east, from the west corner of thy curious-knotted garden”. A garden, to be called a “park”, to begin with, must be a very large garden. It could not merely be a garden in a courtyard. A garden with a “west corner”, moreover, is one in a thousand...it suggests a square laid out diagonally.
In this case, however, the garden would not have a north-north-east-runing side (a north-northwestern side) but a northwestern side.
To have a north-north-western side the garden would have to have more sides than four. The incident being reported was that of a couple seen romantically involved in the king’s garden, for some reason “by east” of the “north-north-western” side of the garden...an unnecessary touch, it would seem, by an author not given to throwaway lines.
Academe has always assumed this garden to be a figment of the author’s imagination, located in French Navarre, ruled by the witty, erudite & famous, King Henry of Navarre, called “Ferdinand” for the purpose of the play.
There are, however, a number of problems identifying Henry with “Ferdinand”.
“Ferdinand”, to begin with, typically, is the name of a Spanish, not a Navarrese royal. The king’s father, moreover, is identified as“Charles”...while Henry’s dad was an “Anthony”.
“Ferdinand”, on all of four occasions, is called “the Duke”...& Henry of Navarre was never the Duke of Navarre. The reader who is a keen Shakespearean may agree with me when I say that if there is one area where the author never errs it is on matters of royal protocol.
During the Elizabethan era, there were, in fact, two Navarres...the kingdom on the French side of the Pyrenees & a something like duchy on the Spanish side. Original Navarre, Navarre proper, formerly called “Pamplona”, & before that “Pompaelo”, as it was founded as a Roman fortress by Pompey the Great in 69 BC, was annexed by King Ferdinand of Spain & ruled by a Viceroy until 1833.
The King of Spain during most of the Elizabethan era was Philip II, whose father was indeed a “Charles”, Charles V, &, who, when in Navarre, might well have been called “the Duke”.
The garden in “LLL” is almost certainly the garden enclosed by the pentagonal “Citadel” in Pamplona, Spanish Navarre...a structure built by Philip II in 1570. A thirty meter-wide military road running between the garden & the wall would explain very well why the lovers in the play would drift “by east” of the north-north-east-running road.
If this is so obvious. then, why does Academe seem so clueless?
My “Arden” copy of “LLL” has a bibliography containing 157 entries, none with any objection to Navarre’s garden being imaginary. The problem here, I submit, is the man identified as the author, “William Shakespeare”.
Not only is the garden described a real garden, but the author is letting the tuned-in reader in on a little secret. A pentagon with a “west” corner will not have a north”, “south”, or “east” corner. A “west” corner, in this case, is a unique compass point.
Between 1587 & 1604, Spain & England were at war...& “LLL” was published in 1598. Setting this bittersweet, romantic comedy inside a major, enemy, military installation, not to mention a royal residence, is wonderfully wicked! Clearly, only someone who had been inside the Citadel could have written “LLL”.
Now Stratford Will, 1564-1616, or any other English author for that matter, would have had to have seen the inside of the Citadel in Pamplona between 1572, when the fortress, with its garden, was first in place....& 1587, at the outbreak of the war.
In 1572, Stratford Will was a mere eight years old...& it would not be until 1590 that the butcher’s apprentice ever left Stratford. “Hmmmm”, you may say.
Exactly! To see what Academe has been missing during the past 400 years, try the web site“www.pamplona.net”...click on “street plan” or “Plano Callejero”.....activate the “hand” icon on the right...place your cursor on the lower left of the plan & drag it to the upper right...& there you are…the Garden in “LLL”.
http://mapas.sykgis.com/apps/animsa/mapas/mapas.asp?id_via=233&numerovia=0&nombre_fichero=geo1e13-pamplona&lite_provincia_geoc=Navarra&lite_municipio_geoc=Pamplona¢ro=1
Next week I hope to present my proposal as to how four, distinguished Naturalized Americans & high-office holders...namely Panamanian-born, Senator John McCain, Kenyan-born, Senator Barack Obama, Austrian-born, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger & Canadian-born Governor Jennifer Granholm might all be eligible to become President of the United States should a small, antiquated line in the Constituion be replaced by one that is eminently up-to-date.
Section 1 of Article II of the Constitution contains the clause:
“No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States.
Congress, in the course of an hour, might change "at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution" to "for the past twenty years", making the aforementioned Four & many other Natualized Citizens as well, eligible for top job.
According to the Official Mythology, Senators McCain & Obama are already eligible for the office...but what I am saying is that if I can de-cypher a Shakespeare trying to be cryptic, I should be able to figure out the frame of mind of the Framers who were writing for one & all....& it is not even close. Neither Senator is currently eligible...& I will be presenting my bold solution to the problem.
Regards, David Yuhas, Boulder, Colorado
p.s.
"Our love of beautiful things does not make us soft" said Pericles of his Athenians...& out of the 16,000 Western State Cavalrymen, two dozen would be given full-tme to the business of trying to match the follwing...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKQgTiqhPbw
Where Inmate Infantrymen are not on the premises, as in this horse-dancing ensemble, female veterans would always be welcome in the Western State Cavalry.
p.p.s.
With all of the wine flowing at Western State Cavalry there is something to be said for setting up an In-House winery..."Chateau Husker"...subtitled..."When You're Not Allowed a Cork-screw"
p.p.p.s.
Don't miss next week's installment "Inland Empire". I can't wait to read it myself...& I'm the one who's going to be writing it.
The following is a copy of the most recent e-mail on a project I have been working on for about two years now. I enclose it by way of introduction.
The next installment, which I shall be writing today will include an invitation to your good self, which I suspect, you will find most interesting.
Regards, David Yuhas
Inland Empire, Part XXIV...Protocols for Inmate Infantrymen
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=32480220566&ref=mf
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_locomotive
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_rail
To Proposed Personages for TV Series, Inland Empire
Now leaning towards PBS
Round-Table Discussion of State Issues
1. First Week, Colorado
Governor, Bill Ritter
Mayor of Pueblo, Dave Galli
Mayor of Colorado Springs, Lionel Rivera
Mayor of Denver, John Hickenlooper
City Manager of Greeley, Roy H. Otto
City Manager of Ft. Collins, Darin Atteberry
2. Second Week, Idaho
Round-Table Discussion of State Issues
Governor, C.L. Otter
Mayor of Idaho Falls, Jared Fuhriman
Chairman of Ft. Hall/Pocatello, Alonzo A. Coby
Lt. Governor James Risch
Senator Mike Crapo
Congressman Mike Simpson
3. Third Week, Kansas
Round-Table Discussion of State Issues
Governor, Kathleen Sebelius,
Mayor of Wichita, Carl Brewer
4. Fourth Week, Montana
Round-Table Discussion of State Issues
Governor, Brian Schweitzer,
Chairman of Crow Territory, Carl Venne
Mayor of Billings, Ron Tussing
City Manager of Bozeman, Chris Kukulski
Mayor of Butte, Paul Babb
Congressman, Denny Rehberg
5. Fifth Week, Nebraska
Governor, Dave Heineman,
Mayor of Lincoln, Primo Santini
Warren Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway
Senator Ben Nelson
Senator Chuck Hagel
6. Sixth Week, North Dakota
Round Table Discussion of State Issues
Governor, John Hoeven,
Mayor of Fargo, Dennis Walaker
Senator Byron Dorgan
Tom Brokaw
7. Seventh Week, Oklahoma
Round-Table Discussion of State Issues
Governor, Brad Henry,
Mayor of Oklahoma City, Mick Cornett
8. Eighth Week, South Dakota
Round-Table Discussion of State Issues
Governor, Mike Rounds,
Mayor of Sioux Falls, Dave Munson
Senator, Tim Johnson
Craig Ferguson, (Official State Celebrity)
9. Ninth Week, Texas
Round-Table Discussion of State Issues
Governor, Rick Perry,
Mayor of McAllen, Richard F. Cortez
Mayor of Laredo, Raul G. Salinas
Mayor of Del Rio, Efrain V. Valdez
Mayor of Midland, Wes Perry
Mayor of Lubbock, Tom Martin
Mayor of Amarillo, Debra McCartt
David Stall, Corridor Watch
Jim Hightower
10. Tenth Week, Utah
Round-Table Discussion of State Issues
Governor Jon Huntsman Jr.
Mayor of Logan, Randy Watts
Mayor of Ogden, Matthew R. Godfrey
Mayor of Salt Lake City, Ralph Becker
Mayor of Provo, Lewis K. Billings
Congressman Jim Mattheson
Ross Anderson
11, Eleventh Week, Wyoming
Round-Table Discussion of State Issues
Governor, Dave Freudenthal,
Mayor of Cheyenne, Jack Spiker
Mayor of Laramie, Klaus Hanson
Mayor of Casper, Paul Bertoglio
Mayor of Sheridan, Dave Kinskey
Rulon Gardner
12, Twelfth Week...or "What You Will"
******************************
Great Western Railway & Great Plains Express Engineering Desk
Regular Guests at Round Table Discussion
Dwight Beranek, Railroad Designer, Army Corps of Engineers, Discussion Leader
Paul Copeland, Beatty-Balfour Rail Inc.
William M. Stout, Atlas Railroad Construction
Jeffrey M. Levy, Railworks Inc
Lorenzo Simonelli, GE Transportation
Carlisle, Jones, Birmingham Locomotive & Rail
William Herzog, Herzog Railroad Construction
Peter McKenna, Skanska USA
John Cavanaugh, Electro-Motive Diesel Inc.
James Robertson, Illinois Steel Services
T. Boone Pickens, BP Capital Management
Amory Lovins, Rocky Mountain Institute
Jens Soeby, Vestas Wind Systems
John Krenicki, Jr., GE Energy
Michael Antal, University of Hawaii, Charcoal
Michael Lurvey, University of Hawaii, Charcoal
Bud Peterson, University of Colorado, Thermal Engineering
William Eucker, US Navy, Thermal Engineering
*******************************************
Western State Cavalry Desk
Regular Guests at Round-Table Discussion
Kent Whealy, Heritage Farms...Discussion Leader
Adm. William J. Fallon, USN (Ret.), Ft. Dan George, POW, Plantation Camp
Senator Jim Webb, Virginia, GI Bill, Chapter 31, "Vocational Rehab" for Veterans
Ms. Sally Spencer, BLM Wild Horse & Burro Program
Kyle Partain, Western Horseman Magazine
Tim Carroll, North American Horse & Mule Loggers Assn.
Wes Jackson, The Land Institute, Perennial Grasses, Plantation Design
Prof. Joseph Thomasson, Ft. Hays State University, Great Plains Horticulture
*******************************************
Distinguished Friends,
Here, once again, is the quota, by State, that I would recommend for the recruitment of 16,000, able-bodied, Level III & IV, Inmate Infantrymen
Colorado, 4.8 million population...1,770 Inmate Infantrymen
Idaho, 1.5 mil...553
Kansas, 2.8 mil...1,032
Montana, 1 mil...368
Nebraska, 1.8 mil...663
North Dakota, .6 mil...221
Oklahoma, 3.6 mil...1,328
South Dakota, .8 mil...294
Texas, 23.5 mil...8,666
Utah, 2.5 mil...921
Wyoming, .5 mil...184
The Infantrymen would come to the Western State Cavalry with an "80% Dowry" that would be caluculated in the following way...
Take the total cost of a State's prison system for one year...including admin & construction costs.
Divide that sum by the number of prisoners.
80% of that figure is what the State would pay the Western State Cavalry to look after each Infantrymen for one year.
While Level IIIs & IVs will always be more expensive to maintain than Level Is & IIs, healthy prisoners will always be cheaper than sickly ones...so the figures should average out.
Inmate Infantrymen would work a 40-hour week, & have the same food & medical care as Cavalrymen. On the down-side, Infantrymen would not be allowed visits, phone calls, cigarettes or matches. Communication with the outside would be limited to letter-writing.
Daily wages, if the work has gone well, would consist of a one-liter, carafe of wine.
On the up-side there would be no shackling, beating, tear-gassing or solitary confinement...mostly because the Cavalrymen would not be professional prison guards. Punishment, typically, would mean being sent back to one's orignial prison.
Prison compounds, the Cavalry "Forts", would be made up of arrangements of converted, shipping containers. The ratio of Cavalrymen to Infantrymen would be one-to-one.
A Cavalrymn, for protection, would carry a .38 revolver in a tanker holster...& a knife...& K9s would never be far away.
The work-week would be five days rather than six...mostly for the reason that as there would be no sex offenders or other protective-custody prisoners in the ranks of the Inmate Infantry, everyone would have to do his own laundry & take turns in the kitchen.
Back when I was a ranger & an officer in the Zambezi Valley my unit's dispensary consisted entirely of aspirin & cough drops...&, as that worked well enough then, I think it's worth trying once more. There would be no point, then, in prisoners with hepatitis, HIV or a drug dependency volunteering for the Inmate Infantry.
Inmate Infantrymen would wear bib-overalls & blue shirts/jackets...& their motto would be "Many Hands Make Light Work". Their principal task during the Fall & Winter months would be portaging 9-foot, timbers...(four-man teams equipped with piano-movers' slings shifting future railroad ties), from 200-yard roadside-margins to road in the Rocky Mountains.
Summer work would cosist of farm labor on any of twenty Great Plains Plantations. Railroad construction would be year-round.
Evening movies for Infantrymen & Cavalrymen would be a regular feature at Cavalry Camps.
My request to the Governors of the Eleven, Inland Empire States is to separate the volunteers for the Inmate Infantry, & send them to training camps for their new mission on the Western landscape. Rocky Mountain, State imates would be sent to logging camps to begin their, roadside, railroad-tie harvesting operations...while Great Plains inmates would spend their Spring & Summer months on agricultural projects. Texas Inmate Infantrymen would operate year-round in Texas, as Texas would be the winter home of all cattle from the Plantations on the other Plains States.
Five Authentic, Western Films I would recommend as required viewing in the Inmate Infantry training camps would be...
"Broken Trail", starring Robert Duvall, & Thomas Haden Church
"Buffalo Soldiers" starring Danny Glover
"The Last Days of Frank & Jesse James" starring Johnny Cash as Frank, Kris Kristofferson as Jesse & Willie Nelson as Honorary Cavalry Founder, General Jo Shelby, CSA...(the head of the only US Trans-Mississippi Cavalry that didn't slaughter bison, massacre Indians or contribute to the Dust Bowl of the 1930s.)
"Cabeza de Vaca", which is in Spanish...but still qualifies as a first-class Western
& the Biggest of All..."The Outlaw Josey Wales" starring Clint Eastwood & Chief Dan George
My favorite westerns are those that combine a history lesson along with high drama...& these five are sure to put Inmate Infantrymen & many a Cavalryman as well, in a good frame of mind.
So...to the Eleven Governors of the Inland Empire, I say "Thank you for any consideration".
Next Week...Something a Little Different
This e-mail campaign, so far, has steered clear of politics...& will continue to steer clear of partisan, political politics. However...this being a political season, next week's installment will deal with an issue I consider to be a personal challenge.
My specialty (Jeder hat sein Hobby), is the interpretation of cryptic texts...Shakespearean & Cervantean above all...but anything from passages in the Book of Genesis to "Harry Potter" to the fine points of our Constitution are likely to get my blood up.
The following, which is an analysis of a passage from Shakespeare's "Love's Labors Lost" taken from my book, "The Shakespeare-Cervantes Code", is a sample of my work...
A GARDEN IN NAVARRE
In Act One, Scene One of Shakespeare’s “Love’s Labors Lost”, there is a report of an incident in the king’s garden...”yclept” or “called” the king’s “park”.
The incident is reported to have taken place “north-north-east & by east, from the west corner of thy curious-knotted garden”. A garden, to be called a “park”, to begin with, must be a very large garden. It could not merely be a garden in a courtyard. A garden with a “west corner”, moreover, is one in a thousand...it suggests a square laid out diagonally.
In this case, however, the garden would not have a north-north-east-runing side (a north-northwestern side) but a northwestern side.
To have a north-north-western side the garden would have to have more sides than four. The incident being reported was that of a couple seen romantically involved in the king’s garden, for some reason “by east” of the “north-north-western” side of the garden...an unnecessary touch, it would seem, by an author not given to throwaway lines.
Academe has always assumed this garden to be a figment of the author’s imagination, located in French Navarre, ruled by the witty, erudite & famous, King Henry of Navarre, called “Ferdinand” for the purpose of the play.
There are, however, a number of problems identifying Henry with “Ferdinand”.
“Ferdinand”, to begin with, typically, is the name of a Spanish, not a Navarrese royal. The king’s father, moreover, is identified as“Charles”...while Henry’s dad was an “Anthony”.
“Ferdinand”, on all of four occasions, is called “the Duke”...& Henry of Navarre was never the Duke of Navarre. The reader who is a keen Shakespearean may agree with me when I say that if there is one area where the author never errs it is on matters of royal protocol.
During the Elizabethan era, there were, in fact, two Navarres...the kingdom on the French side of the Pyrenees & a something like duchy on the Spanish side. Original Navarre, Navarre proper, formerly called “Pamplona”, & before that “Pompaelo”, as it was founded as a Roman fortress by Pompey the Great in 69 BC, was annexed by King Ferdinand of Spain & ruled by a Viceroy until 1833.
The King of Spain during most of the Elizabethan era was Philip II, whose father was indeed a “Charles”, Charles V, &, who, when in Navarre, might well have been called “the Duke”.
The garden in “LLL” is almost certainly the garden enclosed by the pentagonal “Citadel” in Pamplona, Spanish Navarre...a structure built by Philip II in 1570. A thirty meter-wide military road running between the garden & the wall would explain very well why the lovers in the play would drift “by east” of the north-north-east-running road.
If this is so obvious. then, why does Academe seem so clueless?
My “Arden” copy of “LLL” has a bibliography containing 157 entries, none with any objection to Navarre’s garden being imaginary. The problem here, I submit, is the man identified as the author, “William Shakespeare”.
Not only is the garden described a real garden, but the author is letting the tuned-in reader in on a little secret. A pentagon with a “west” corner will not have a north”, “south”, or “east” corner. A “west” corner, in this case, is a unique compass point.
Between 1587 & 1604, Spain & England were at war...& “LLL” was published in 1598. Setting this bittersweet, romantic comedy inside a major, enemy, military installation, not to mention a royal residence, is wonderfully wicked! Clearly, only someone who had been inside the Citadel could have written “LLL”.
Now Stratford Will, 1564-1616, or any other English author for that matter, would have had to have seen the inside of the Citadel in Pamplona between 1572, when the fortress, with its garden, was first in place....& 1587, at the outbreak of the war.
In 1572, Stratford Will was a mere eight years old...& it would not be until 1590 that the butcher’s apprentice ever left Stratford. “Hmmmm”, you may say.
Exactly! To see what Academe has been missing during the past 400 years, try the web site“www.pamplona.net”...click on “street plan” or “Plano Callejero”.....activate the “hand” icon on the right...place your cursor on the lower left of the plan & drag it to the upper right...& there you are…the Garden in “LLL”.
http://mapas.sykgis.com/apps/animsa/mapas/mapas.asp?id_via=233&numerovia=0&nombre_fichero=geo1e13-pamplona&lite_provincia_geoc=Navarra&lite_municipio_geoc=Pamplona¢ro=1
Next week I hope to present my proposal as to how four, distinguished Naturalized Americans & high-office holders...namely Panamanian-born, Senator John McCain, Kenyan-born, Senator Barack Obama, Austrian-born, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger & Canadian-born Governor Jennifer Granholm might all be eligible to become President of the United States should a small, antiquated line in the Constituion be replaced by one that is eminently up-to-date.
Section 1 of Article II of the Constitution contains the clause:
“No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States.
Congress, in the course of an hour, might change "at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution" to "for the past twenty years", making the aforementioned Four & many other Natualized Citizens as well, eligible for top job.
According to the Official Mythology, Senators McCain & Obama are already eligible for the office...but what I am saying is that if I can de-cypher a Shakespeare trying to be cryptic, I should be able to figure out the frame of mind of the Framers who were writing for one & all....& it is not even close. Neither Senator is currently eligible...& I will be presenting my bold solution to the problem.
Regards, David Yuhas, Boulder, Colorado
p.s.
"Our love of beautiful things does not make us soft" said Pericles of his Athenians...& out of the 16,000 Western State Cavalrymen, two dozen would be given full-tme to the business of trying to match the follwing...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKQgTiqhPbw
Where Inmate Infantrymen are not on the premises, as in this horse-dancing ensemble, female veterans would always be welcome in the Western State Cavalry.
p.p.s.
With all of the wine flowing at Western State Cavalry there is something to be said for setting up an In-House winery..."Chateau Husker"...subtitled..."When You're Not Allowed a Cork-screw"
p.p.p.s.
Don't miss next week's installment "Inland Empire". I can't wait to read it myself...& I'm the one who's going to be writing it.