- The Selective Service System was formed on May 18, 1917. While doing some spring cleaning yesterday, I believe I found my grandfather’s registration certificate which shows it was signed June 1917. He was born on Nov 22, 1894 in case you were wondering. One thing perplexes me, the name on the card is “Walter Edgar Geeding”. My father was “Walter Everett Geeding Jr” and I was always told grandpa was “Walter Everett Geeding Sr”.
- I was told my great-great-grandfather, Simon Geeding, was a drummer boy in the Civil War (1861 to 1865). Everything but the drummer boy part checks out according to FindAGrave.com. But according to the free part of Ancestry.com, Simon’s father was also named Simon, and his birth is listed as “Washington, Maryland, USA on 29 Sep 1788″. I just discovered this last night and is the furthest I’ve been able to track my family tree, just twelve years after the birth of our nation. As of now, the trail ends.
- I also found out last night that if you search for “Civil War” on Google, the first result is no longer the American Civil War, but the new Captain America movie that’s about to hit theaters.
- One of my readers has a close association with Gregory Popovich, not to be confused with current San Antonio Spurs head coach, Gregg Popovich. Popovich is the creator of the Popovich Comedy Pet Theater, who usually performs in Las Vegas but is currently touring. My family was given tickets to the show (exceptional seats, btw) at SMU’s McFarlin Memorial Auditorium and it was the perfect endcap for spring break with animal tricks, juggling, acrobatics, and other fantastic routines. I was told to speak to Popovich after the show, as he greets his audience in the lobby, and after mentioning his friend, he was kind enough to give my kids a couple of DVDs of his performances.
- During the show, there were a few minor sound issues, but at one point a video projection screen did not fully raise up and there were a few minutes of awkwardness, which appeared to be the venue’s fault. When I met Popovich after the show I didn’t bring it up, but he sincerely apologized for the “technical difficulties”. You could tell he really cared about his performance and the audience. I told him it wasn’t a bother, and I was more impressed with how professional he was about it and how he recovered, and that it was a beautiful lesson to teach our kids. He seemed very appreciative.
- If you are ever in Vegas looking for a great family show or if the Popovich Comedy Pet Theater is in your neck of the woods, you can get tickets here. And no, I wasn’t asked to write any of this in exchange for anything, I just really enjoyed the show and the warm and kindness of the performer.
- I was driving around the most opulent neighborhoods in Dallas on Saturday and passed an area that looked like it was blocked off for a motorcade. I knew President Obama was in Austin recently and then was going to speak in Dallas, but I thought he was already back in D.C., so I thought the blocked-off street was for local resident former President George W. Bush. However, when I turned on the news nightly news, it turns out it was for our sitting president. That made me wish I would have known about it earlier to watch the motorcade pass by. I’m not sure why I think it would be cool to watch a presidential motorcade drive by, it’s just security and limo driving by without any real view of the passenger, but it’s also one of those experiences one doesn’t get to see often.
- Random political idea that would never happen – Republicans and Democrats nominate two presidential candidates from each party, so in November there would be a total of four candidates (and their VP picks) to vote for. It’s nothing I’m endorsing, I just like thinking of the possibility and outcomes. So if you want to vote for your party, but really don’t like the sole nominee, instead of not voting altogether (some Dems will choose not to vote altogether if Clinton is the nominee and same for some Republicans with Trump) then you have another choice. It would be interesting to see, with four choices, how much a political party would win compared to the actual winner. Of course, this wouldn’t work with the electoral college. Remember, I’m not saying I want it this way, I just like thinking about how it would all play out.
- I was watching the evening news with DaughterGeeding and there was a clip of Donald Trump leading a chant of, “No more Oreos. No more Oreos. No more Oreos.” DaughterGeeding, with a look of equal parts astonishment and fear on her face, said, “I’m not voting for him!”
- The time change gave me an extra hour to mow the lawn.
- I’m going to continue my streak of never filling out an NCAA Final Four bracket.
- ‘CBS Sunday Morning’ thoughts:
- It was a special edition episode titled “Guns in America”. The substituting host for Charles Osgood started the show off saying, “Our intent is not to take sides or pass judgement, but rather to take stock and cast light on a debate that seems to be growing ever louder with committed and sincere advocates on both sides.” I thought that was a good way to start things off for such a touchy subject, which I’ve been both sides on, and now remain divided.
- To my surprise, Ted Koppel is now part of ‘Sunday Morning’. I love Koppel, but I think he should be doing so much more, like hosting ‘Face the Nation’ or being a part of ’60 Minutes’. I miss the days when Letterman would crack how bad one of his segments were going and that people better tune in to ‘Nightline’. Back then, they competed against each other, and it was always great when Koppel was on the show.
- The widow of firearms manufacturer Samuel Colt had an Episcopal church built as a memorial to her husband and the three children they lost. “The church’s architecture contains guns and gun-smithing tools sculpted in marble to commemorate her husband’s life as an arms maker.” Here’s an example.
- Spoiler free season four ‘House of Cards’ thoughts:
- I’m about five episodes in and thought it wouldn’t hold up, but so far it’s better than last season.
- I really like the curtains in President Underwood’s Oval Office.
- I’m not use to any Dallas references in any movie or television show, it just feels a bit surreal.
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Ellen Burstyn was the mother of a president in a different television drama that was on ABC and now she’s the mother-in-law of a president. Her performance in both is solid.
- Neve Campbell is surprisingly good.
- The Samsung promotions last season was way too obvious and it’s the same this season.
- As with all movies and television shows now, you see real world news anchors making cameos, but they drug a retired anchor, a well-established one, to lead a broadcast for a fake news network.
- I’d love to see Robin Wright host SNL. I noticed she’s directed several of the new episodes of ‘House of Cards’.
- It’s my understanding with the Roosevelt Room at the White House, tradition holds that a TDR portrait is displayed during a Republican administration and FDR with a Democratic administration. I noticed both in these episodes.
- “If you don’t like the way the table is set, sometimes you have to turn over the table.”
GOC Spoiler: There are no wooded hilly areas in Highland Park. Also, the news anchors are way too good at reading scripted fake news.
I think CBS Sunday Morning did a great job handling the subject of guns. I learned some things in the history segment, I cried over the man who accidentally killed his sister as a child, I wished more people could treat guns the way the good folk in Wyoming do, and I was fascinated to learn more about Australia's gun-control measures. I think it was fairly evenly balanced coverage, and would be beneficial for all of us to watch.
I was also glad to see Ted Koppel will be a semi-regular contributor. I must say, though, after not seeing him for quite a while, I was a bit taken aback to see how he has aged. Not that it's a bad thing, just that it caught me by surprise.
The issue with your grandfather's name could be simply a clerical error. Kind of like Vito Andolini becoming Vito Corleone in The Godfather.
Pretty sure that hour was already there.
I’m stunned at the Trump chant. I know I shouldn’t be, but I’m really shocked by it. They’ll probably say it’s not a shot at the president, that Republicans just really don’t like Oreos, or something that they think gives them plausible deniability that only a fool would believe. And they’ll repeat it so much that even they believe it.
Really. At this stage in the campaign for such patent racism to be led by the leading GOP candidate is absolutely unbelievable.
Fe: names – I have about a year's worth of serious Geneology research built in our Ancestry.com account. I love it as a hobby. I am not surprised about your comment regarding name mixups. I routinely find errors in names on documents. So many times, the people writing names on forms were listening to people talk and just got it wrong. Census records are some of the worst offenders. Enjoy your research; we have our family lines traced back to when our families came to America. Variously, we were part of the immigration at Jamestown, New Amsterdam, the Irish Potato Famine, and other chapters of history. I love History!
PS – You probably already know this, but be very careful importing other users family trees into your own on Ancestry. I did that at first and took much at face value, but then I started having issues with things not adding up. I had to go back and compare actual documents and records and learned that many people had things wrong. Now, I take some time and vet things much better.
For your young daughter to be against Trump because he’s “anti-Oreo” is natural and normal. She’s a child. She should be on Team Cookie. For an adult to bypass the entire conversation and try to make the Oreo thing racist is simply willful ignorance.
Congrats on your kick, dribble and shoot skills. 😉
Growing up in a small town, it reminds me of all the neat little things they'd put in the local newspaper that don't see here in the big city paper.