16. December 2007 by Ken.

Here’s a picture I took a few minutes ago out my back door onto the deck. It’s about 23F (-5C) outside right now. Notice the table with about 8-9″ (200-225 mm) of some strange unknown substance which appears to be falling from the sky? Anyone with a clue as to what this might be? I’m totally stumped on this one

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16. December 2007 by Ken.

A friend forwarded an email containing a long list of trivia, including this one:

If a statue in the park of a person on a horse has both front legs in the air, the person died in battle. If the horse has one front leg in the air the person died as a result of wounds received in battle. If the horse has all four legs on the ground, the person died of natural causes.

I knew there was some sort of rule for this, but never found it written down anywhere. I was born in Monroe, Michigan, and recently went back there to meet with my mom, sisters, a couple of aunts, a niece, and a cousin for a weekend. While there, we went past the statue of General Custer (who grew up there) and I mentally noted that all four of his horse’s feet were on the ground. See the pictures here. According to rule of this item, he died of natural causes. Well, I guess if you’re a white man deep in Indian territory and both sides are shooting at each other, it seems very “natural” that you would die of bullets, arrows, or spears, huh?

Monroe is pretty proud of the dead General, and I’ve been told some restaurants serve “Custered” pie and one ice cream stand (I was last there while it was almost snowing, so no ice cream for me!) have frozen “Custerd”. My dad once told me that he actually grew up in a house near where Custer lived as a boy. Of course, that house was probably gone then, but I’m sure there must be a bronze plaque noting the location. I have no affinity for someone so dumb as to defy the odds and believe that the “superior” white men always win–they don’t…. My personal observation on immigration reform is that if the Native Americans had an effective border patrol several centuries ago, they would have been much better off and we would still be somewhere else, probably Europe!

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