Melodee Aaron - SF Erotica Romance

How Much Do You Owe?

2011-08-24T07:32:00.000-07:00

Have you thought about the National Debt?

I mean have you REALLY thought about it?

The debt is growing at about $3M a minute, but for this argument, we are going to use a static figure of $14.639T. Yeah, that’s a little obscure, and really, most people can’t grasp the concept.

Written out with a little less shorthand, that is $14.639-trillion dollars.

Written out fully, that is $14,639,000,000,000.00

Yeah, that’s a lot of zeros to the left of the decimal place.

It’s also too big for most folks to comprehend.

Let’s just look a figure of $1,000,000,000 or 1-billion. That’s just 14.639T/1B of the National Debt, or only 0.007% of the full National Debt. Yes, way less than even 1%.

If we use the clock and roll it back by 1-billion seconds, we would find ourselves in the year 1980. Gas was $1.19 a gallon, and a new house was about $70,000 or so. Pac Man was just released, and those new camcorders were hitting the market in Japan. And you would be anxious to find out just who shot JR.

On the other hand, if we turn back the hands of time by 1-billion minutes, we are in the year 129. Jesus was crucified less than a hundred years ago. There may even be a few people alive who actually saw him.

Now let’s go back 1-billion hours…we are in the year 110,967 BCE. The last ice age was just starting. Anatomically modern humans would have been banging rocks together on the riverbanks trying to figure out how to kill a mammoth or two for dinner.

If we take the next step and go back 1-billion days, we find ourselves 2,739,726 years ago. There are no humans, only apes that have learned to walk erect. More than a quarter of a million years will pass before the first true humans arrive.

Finally, if the clock spins backwards for 1-billion years, there is life, but it is single-celled. Some of the cells haven’t even stumbled on the idea of a defined nucleus yet.

What if we used the real number from the National Debt? 14.639 trillion years ago, the universe itself didn’t exist. Nothing. This was before the time when God’s hand moved across the face of the deep. In fact, He hadn’t even turned on the lights yet.

My point is that the National Debt is a staggering number. If we use the figure from the start of this blog (it has grown by about $10,000,000 since you started reading), that means that every single person (all people, regardless of age) owns a share of the National Debt amounting to about $46,000.

In simple language that everyone can understand, you owe $46,000 per person in your household above and beyond the credit cards, mortgage, car payments, and all the rest of your bills.

And it’s time to pay the piper.

Keep Loving!

Melodee Aaron, Erotica Romance Author

Melodee's Books at BookStrand

Herman Cain's 9-9-9 Plan

2011-08-20T14:32:00.000-07:00

I can't seem to leave some news stories alone...

Herman Cain and 9-9-9

OK, folks, this just defined the GOP Presidential Race.

Herman Cain has detailed even more on his 9-9-9 plan for the economy, and it makes perfect sense.

In a nutshell, the three 9s stand for:

9% Flat-Rate Personal Income Tax

9% Flat-Rate Corporate Income Tax

9% National Sales Tax

The studies indicate this would actually generate MORE income to the government while lowering the tax burden of better than 95% of the taxpayers.

Let’s use Mr. Obama’s favorite term: Fair and Balanced.

What could be more fair? Everyone, individuals and companies, pay the same tax rate. No one gets off free. No one gets off easier. No one pays more than their share.

What could be more balanced? Everyone pays the same income tax, but those who buy more pay more in sales tax.

Let’s look at the ideas everyone else has, such as they are…

The Democrats in Congress want to raise everyone’s taxes. In a twisted sort of way, that’s at least fair and balanced. Everyone gets screwed.

The Republicans in Congress want to cut only the taxes on business. Nothing fair or balanced about that, but it would work to get the economy back on track. It’s a long-term deal, though, probably taking a 5 or more years to work.

The President wants to increase taxes only on business. This would only make matters worse. Business would stop growing and spending. Unemployment would skyrocket.

Other GOP hopefuls except for Cain and Romney don’t have a plan at all, just rhetoric.

Romney has an inkling of an idea, but no substance so far. We’ll have to wait and see what he comes up with. I’m not going to hold my breath.

Herman Cain is the only person out there with a plan. And the plan he has is one that will work, and it will work quickly.

Take at a look at this guy.

He’s on the right track!

Keep Loving!

Melodee Aaron, Erotica Romance Author

Melodee's Books at BookStrand

Got A Flat?

2011-08-08T18:30:00.000-07:00

Earlier today (August 8, 2011), I proposed via Twitter that to balance the budget and get spending under control, we should look at an option where for every $1 in tax increases, there should be a simultaneous cut in spending of $4.

Then I did a little research…

Not so many years ago, Canada was in dire financial straights, and their credit was in the toilet. The Canadians took just such an approach, but a little more aggressive.

For every dollar they increased taxes, fees, and other revenue sources, they cut seven dollars in spending.

That is even better. Someone care to do the math for me to see how fast we could reduce the debt to zero?

More importantly, this nonsense of a “fair and balanced” approach being to increase taxes on any one group is far from fair, balanced, or even workable. Tax increases must be across the board.

In fact, a flat tax is the way to go. Everyone pays the exact same percentage of their income no matter what. No deductions, no adjustments, no nothing. Also, the source of the income doesn’t matter. No exemptions for alimony, child support, retirement, Social Security, and all the rest. No lower limit on income below which you get a free ride. No upper limit on income above which you have a million loopholes. Finally, all individual taxpayers would be subject to this structure, and for the purposes of tax law, all businesses of any form would be considered “individuals” under the tax codes. Foreign businesses selling products in the US would be subject to a national sales tax. See later in this blog.

Caveat: Self-funded retirement accounts would be an exception. See later in this blog.

Just to pick a number, and I have no clue how close this would be to the actual number needed, let’s say the Flat Tax Rate (FTR) is set to 15%.

If you make $50,000 in income this year, you would pay $7,500 in taxes. End of story.

If Bill Gates makes $5,000,000,000 in income this year, he would pay $750,000,000 in taxes. End of story.

If Billy-Bob makes $400 in income this year, he would pay $60 in taxes. End of story.

I would bet dollars to doughnuts that for the vast majority of people, their tax rate would go down, while the Treasury would collect far more money.

Additional savings would come from the fact that the IRS is now redundant and could be fully eliminated. Your tax form just became a post card.

Again, I have no clue and no motivation to look up what the budget of the IRS is, but I will again bet that it isn’t peanuts. I also suspect the number would probably depress the hell out of me.

Anyway…

This needs to be coupled to a National Sales Tax. (NST)

Every item that is sold is subject to the NST. Again, there are no exceptions, exemptions, or other loopholes. If you buy it, you pay the NST on it.

Now, there may need to be two different NST rates: One for end-user sales, and another for items to be resold. That’s a detail for the economists to work out. Personally, I see no problem with a single NST that applies anytime an item is sold.

Also, the NST would apply to EVERYTHING, including items sold to government agencies, non-profits, and services provided.

Now, on to my vision of a few of the details…

I would see the NST as being fairly low, maybe as low as 1%, but probably around 2% is more realistic. I suspect that the FTR would be about 10% or so. Again, these numbers have NO basis in any calculations. They are 100% pure gut feeling.

Let’s assume a person making $60,000 a year and putting $12,000 a year into a retirement account. They would have the choice of paying taxes on the retirement account funding now or when they draw it out at or after retirement age. Let’s assume they elect to pay now.

Their taxable income is $60,000. Their tax due would be $6,000. This leaves them $54,000 in their pockets for mortgage payments, food, utilities, clothes, gas, and all the rest, but remember that everything they buy, including their mortgage, is subject to the NST.

Let’s assume that their monthly expenses, before the NST, come to $4,000 a month. At 2%, the NST would be $80. This puts another $960 a year into the Treasury.

So, for one taxpayer as above the total income would be $6,960 a year. That comes to a tax burden of 11.6%.

For someone making ten times the amount above, just multiply everything by 10 except the tax burden. It would stay the same.

Once our taxpayer reaches retirement age and starts to draw from their retirement account, since they paid taxes on that money when they deposited it, no new tax is due except on the interest earned. That is another detail that the accountants can work out.

Now that is fair and balanced.

I would love to see someone who has the time and expertise in accounting work out some numbers for the FTR and NST that would give the Treasury the same income as they have now. Then see what happens when we trash the IRS and the related maze of agencies that are involved.

I think it’s pretty clear that the income of the US Treasury could be increased while reducing the tax rate for 90% or more of Americans.

Couple this increase in revenue with a 1:7 reduction in spending, and we’re out of the hole in a matter of a few years.

More importantly, our kids and grandkids are out of the hole, too.

Keep Loving!

Melodee Aaron, Erotica Romance Author

Melodee's Books at BookStrand

Kicking The Can

2011-07-25T19:59:00.000-07:00

I didn't listen to President Obama's speech about the debt ceiling tonight. It's just not that important to me because we all know something will happen to raise the limit and avoid default.

I just finished reading the transcript of the speech, and I would suggest that you do the same, even if you listened to the speech live.

The real issue is the deficit.

First of all, the President is right...the huge deficit is the fault of both parties, and both have a responsibility to fix the problem. But I want you to look at something Mr. Obama said...

...the deficit was on track to top $1 trillion the year I took office...

The projected deficit for 2011 is $1.6 trillion.

In other words, the deficit has increased by 60% since Obama took office.

Next, Mr. Obama and Senator Reid keep talking about a “Balanced Approach” with “Shared Sacrifice”. I'm all for both.

bal·ance [bal-uhns] -anced, -anc·ing. -- a state of equilibrium or equipoise; equal distribution of weight, amount, etc.

Mr. Obama and Senator Reid also tout that ...98 percent of Americans who make under $250,000 would see no tax increases at all.... Sorry, but “Balanced” is, by definition, across the board, all or nothing.

If, for example, we disallow the mortgage interest deduction for one group of tax payers, then we do it for all. If we raise taxes by 5% for one group, we do it for all.

Let's make the tax code totally equal. Everyone pays a flat 15% of their income. No deductions, no nothing. Every dollar that every person, company, corporation, etc. makes is subject to a flat 15% tax.

Your tax form becomes a post card and the IRS has no reason to exist.

That's fair.

And we all know why Mr. Obama wants a long-term deal...

Elections are coming.

Won't that be fun?

Keep Loving!

Melodee Aaron, Erotica Romance Author

Melodee's Books at BookStrand

Don't Ask, Don't Tell...About Kindle, That Is

2011-07-18T18:39:00.000-07:00

I've been considering doing a few books and stories and using self-publishing via the Amazon Kindle. Mostly, the stories would be under some of my pen names, but I might do some under my real name in the erotica romance genre, or maybe even into the straight erotica genre.

I was a little concerned by some of the wording in the Kindle/Amazon terms of service about “inappropriate content”, so I had a person on my team contact Amazon for clarification.

After all, I don't want to jump through the hoops of getting the book into the proper format, having cover art done, edits, and all the rest only to find out that the book can't be sold via Kindle.

I should add that most of my erotica romance stories are now available on Kindle from Amazon. That leads me to believe that all is well with the genre, but it never hurts to ask.

Or does it?

This is a quote from the letter sent to Amazon...

I am considering using Kindle and Amazon to publish my works from my pen names and my real name, but your FAQs and TOS are very fuzzy on what is meant by "inappropriate content".

I am hoping you can clarify this for me.

Specifically, I am considering Kindle for my works in the genre of "Erotic Romance". Works in this genre are, as you know, sexually explicit and use adult language. Many of my works in this genre under my real name of Melodee Aaron are available on Amazon in the Kindle format.

This leads me to believe that the erotic romance genre is indeed in compliance with the TOS and are not considered "inappropriate content" for the program, but as I said, the TOS and FAQs are very fuzzy.

Before I spend a lot of time and effort to self-publish works on Kindle, I want to make sure that it will not be wasted.

Clear enough, I think.

Now here is the reply we received from Amazon...

Our content guidelines are published on the Kindle Direct Publishing website.

To learn more, please see: Content Guidelines.

[link added]

Content that is violation of these guidelines will not be offered for sale.

As stated in our content guidelines, we reserve the right to determine what content we consider to be appropriate. This content includes both the cover art image and the content within the book.

We’re unable to elaborate further on specific details regarding our content guidelines.

If you follow the link above, you find the most interesting of the few lines to state:

What we deem offensive is probably about what you would expect. Amazon Digital Services, Inc. reserves the right to determine the appropriateness of Titles sold on our site.

Further, near the top, the guidelines state:

If Amazon Digital Services, Inc. determines the content of a Title is prohibited, we may summarily remove or alter it without returning any fees.

[emphasis mine]

Anyone see a problem here?

To summarize for you, what all of this means is:

We will take and keep your money if we decide that your content is inappropriate, but we won't tell you what is or is not appropriate before we take your money.

That hardly seems right to me.

At first, I was upset. I called my lawyer and wanted someone's head on a platter. But he's used to me, and calmed me down. BTW, he said I wasn't upset. I believe the legal term he used was “Fucking Pissed Off”. Anyway, he told me he would look into things.

This evening, I had an E-Mail from the legal department, and they told me, “...publish anything you like. That policy will not hold up in court and Amazon will look like morons by the time we get done with them in front of a judge...”

In other words, you can't enforce a policy that no one knows about and you refuse to disclose. So long as it's legal, Amazon is shit out of luck.

As to if I will put some works on Kindle or not, who can say? I did a fast count, and of the 237 books I have available in electronic formats now, only two of them are not available on Kindle at this time. Doesn't really seem worth the work.

Maybe.

Keep Loving!

Melodee Aaron, Erotica Romance Author

Melodee's Books at BookStrand

Kids Say The Darnedest Things!

2011-07-17T20:20:00.000-07:00

We did a little shopping trip yesterday that was originally intended for my oldest daughter (Amanda @AmandaJDouglas ) and I, but ended up being the entire family. That was OK, though, because we had a nice family lunch and the guys (hubby Jack and son JJ) pretty much just sat on the benches around the plaza and watched the girls while me, Amanda, and Debbie stimulated the economy.

JJ just turned 3 a month or so back. He's been signing since he was about 9 months, and talking since about 14 months. He's good at both. I'm not sure if JJ really went through “The Terrible Twos”, though. He never really became argumentative or stubborn. He did ask a lot of questions.

But as we were getting ready to head for home, Jack was going to put JJ in his car seat. JJ crossed his arms and said, “No.”

Jack just chuckled and explained to JJ that the car seat is much safer for him and that it is the law in any event. JJ shook his head and said, “No. I don't want to ride in that.”

I want you to have the picture firmly in your mind...JJ is a normal 3-year-old boy. Light hair and blue eyes, almost a toe-head, and of normal stature. His father is 6' 10” and about 300 pounds of muscle. Jack had not bent over to talk to JJ.

Jack laughed again and told JJ, “Then I'll just put you in the car seat.”

JJ looked around at his sisters and at me. He also looked at the security person escorting us. He looked up at his dad, spread his little feet to about shoulder width, put his fists on his hips and said, “You're going to need more help, daddy.”

He was wrong.

Keep Loving!

Melodee Aaron, Erotica Romance Author

Melodee's Books at BookStrand

The Modern Slave Trade

2011-07-04T10:05:00.000-07:00

The Modern Slave Trade

OK, let's talk about an aspect of illegal immigration that no one seems willing to address.

It seems to me that of all days to talk about this, July 4th is a good choice. Today we celebrate the Declaration of Independence, that amazing document that states, in part, that “all men are created equal...”

I guess it's just not politically correct.

Yeah, like that's gonna stop me!

The most common statement heard in support of granting amnesty to the felons illegally in the United States or for simply ignoring the problem is that the illegals “...are doing jobs that no one else will do...” The single most common job so cited is that of harvesting various crops like lettuce.

Similarly, in the struggle to eliminate slavery in the early history of our country, a common logic given to support continued slavery was that slaves were needed to harvest various crops, especially cotton, because no one else would do that work.

Let's look at the history of slavery and how things changed after 1865...

The cotton-picker was initially invented way back in 1850, but little was done with the idea. The inventors, Taylure and Paige, created the machine to replace manual labor. There is a good argument that they were simply trying to increase efficiency and thereby profits, but when you consider the time frame, it is also very possible that they foresaw the coming abolition of slavery. Be that as it may, the idea more or less languished until 1889 when the first truly practical machine was developed by the Price Campbell Cotton Picker Corporation. In 1905 and 1924, more improvements were made that led to the modern machines. Even in the early days, a cotton-picker could replace 40 or more field laborers. Modern machines capable of picking up to 8 rows of cotton at a time and can replace as many as 400 workers.

The fact is that the southern slave holders were right...no one wanted to pick cotton. Picking cotton is hard work, back-breaking labor in the hot sun from dawn to dusk. Even paid workers don't want to do it for even twice minimum wage.

But the cotton needed harvesting.

When the slaves were no longer an option, cotton plantations turned to the machines.

So, what does all of that have to do with illegal immigrants? Everything!

I'm going to pick on lettuce. No pun intended...

“We need the undocumented immigrants to pick lettuce and do other jobs that no one else will do!” That's the old, tired rhetoric from the supporters of amnesty.

But it just ain't so!

Why don't we have a machine that can pick lettuce at higher efficiencies than doing it by hand? It has nothing to do with lettuce being delicate or hard to pick or anything of the kind. The reason is very simple...

We don't need a lettuce-picker because we have modern slaves to do the work.

Yes, I just called the illegals slaves. And that is exactly what they are. At least that's how the left is treating them.

Illegals are exactly that: Illegal. They can't complain about working conditions or pay. They can't sue. They can't strike. They can't even go to the boss and ask for a raise. Just like the slaves couldn't demand redress from their owners.

With amnesty, we are trying to deal with the problem by making the workers legal. Guess what that will do. All of a sudden, the workers will get at least minimum wage, health insurance, vacations, and all the other benefits. That will drive costs up and profits down. Someone, someplace, will say, “Hey! We need a lettuce-picking machine to replace all of these workers!” And one will be invented. Then, all of the these workers will be out of a job and on various forms of welfare. Like we need more people unemployed! Our economy is already in the tank. Adding another 15-million people to welfare and unemployment will leave us in far worse shape than even Greece.

By simply ignoring the problem, we are perpetuating the modern slave trade. We are slowly killing these people who only want a better life in America. We are, by allowing them to remain here and suffer under the yoke of being a poorly paid slave, doing them a disastrous disservice.

We owe it to those here illegally to break the bondage that holds them. All slaves should—and must—be freed.

The excuse of needing the slaves to do certain jobs is simple nonsense. When slavery in the south was abolished, the country adapted, thanks to good old-fashioned American ingenuity.

We must follow the high ground taken by those in our history who fought to free the blacks, and we must free the illegal immigrants of today.

We will adapt again and eliminate the need for a modern slave trade.

Keep Loving!

Melodee Aaron, Erotica Romance Author

Melodee's Books at BookStrand

Commentary on The Declaration of Independence

2011-07-04T06:22:00.000-07:00

I'd like to call your attention to a few lines of the Declaration of Independence, and to offer my commentary on them. Please feel free to post your comments as well.

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America

The key word here is “unanimous”. The founders were serious about this, because they understood the severity of the action fully. Remember that, at the time, Great Britain was the most powerful military force on the planet, and the odds would be very much against the new nation in an armed struggle. It was important that the thirteen states be truly united to show their determination.

And it is in this need for unanimous action that many compromises, some good and some bad, came into being. One of the baddest of the bunch was slavery.

The majority of the founders, even those holding slaves, believed that slavery was wrong. Several colonies, however, disagreed with that position. In order to present a unified front, it was agreed to by the majority that no language related to slavery would be placed in the Declaration in order to keep the decision unanimous.

Was this the right thing to do? Maybe not, maybe so. Second-guessing history is a game you can't win. Could only eleven of the thirteen colonies have managed to break away from England? I don't know, and no one else does, either. Since the majority caved to the minority, it is clear that the founders believed that anything less than a unanimous position would fail. I think we must bow to their choices at the time. They were there. We weren't.

One thing is clear, however...if you read the writings of Jefferson, Franklin, and others, they knew that slavery would be one of the largest obstacles to face the United States in the future. Franklin even predicted a “...struggle, perhaps armed, in less than 100 years...” over slavery.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

It is these few sentences that define the United States. We can talk about the Constitution and the laws, but in these few words, the founders spelled it all out very clearly.

To me, the most powerful five words ever written are all men are created equal.

Some people say that these words are meaningless, and what the founders meant was that “all white male property owners” are equal. As for me, I believe the founders said just exactly what they meant to say. After all, why would they be so precise in the wording of the rest of the document and so fuzzy here? It doesn't make sense.

It is true that society at the time defined the people holding the political and economic power as the white male property owners, but I think the founders knew that would change as the United States matured. Less than 100 years after this document was written, the slaves would be free. Less than 150 years later, women would get the right to vote. Segregation would vanish in less than 200 years. These changes happened not because of the Constitution or the rule of law. They happened because we, the people, took those five words to heart.

We saw that the founders really did mean “All Men” when they laid out the principles that define us as a nation.

All humanity.

Have we reached the lofty goal that the founders challenged us to achieve? No, not yet. We move forward every day, sometimes slipping backwards now and then.

There are those who will argue that the gauntlet thrown down by the founders is one that we can never pick up, that we can never reach that perfection envisioned 235 years ago. Why do some people have such a defeatist attitude?

We can only try, we can only give our best, we can only give 110% effort, and we will move ahead, coming closer and closer to that dream. When we fail, and we take a step backwards, as we did when we imprisoned Japanese-Americans in WWII, we must face those facts and correct our course. When we wrong our fellow Americans, as we did for many long years to the Native Americans, we must examine what we did wrong, correct our misguided efforts, and continue to move ahead in the right direction.

This is not easy work, nor will all Americans agree with the correct path of action. It is there that lies the true political greatness of the passage I quoted above.

The founders stated above that ...it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. These words established the concept of the Constitution, defining it as the means by which the people, the governed, grant power to the government. It is we, the people, who hold the power. The founders made the United States a self-governed nation. We can, and should, demand accountability and redress from the government. We must be vigilant and watchful of those we select to steward the operation of government.

When we blindly turn over the task of government to others and merely accept their demands and direction, we do a disservice not only to the Declaration of Independence and it's authors, but to ourselves and to our progeny.

The few lines above charge us, the people of the United States, with the task of taking care of ourselves. It is a huge job, but one that I welcome fully.

I would have each of you ask yourself the question, “Am I taking care of myself by being self-governing?”

...we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

It is with these words that the Declaration of Independence ends.

Perhaps the framers of these words were referring only to the fifty-six men whose signatures follow this line, but my impression is that the words refer to all people of the United States.

In context of today's world, we can see this ideal represented in a few places. Police, firefighters, emergency services workers, medical personnel, and a few others live by this line. These people pledge their life each and every day to the welfare of their fellow Americans.

The largest group who follow this creed are, of course, members of the military. Even in times of peace, or far from the battle fields where our soldiers fight, military personnel face extreme danger at every turn. Not even police and firefighters face the things that the military deal with. Have you ever worked on a thermo-nuclear warhead or a bunker-busting bomb? These people do not do this work for the pay. They do it because they believe in the dream defined in the Declaration of Independence.

But each of us owes to everyone else our honor, our fortunes, and our very lives. As Evelyn Beatrice Hall said, "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it", we must all be willing to defend our fellow Americans. If we agree or disagree is moot.

Our very freedom is at stake.

Lastly, as far as the Declaration of Independence goes, I want you to reflect on the men who signed the document. Remember the global power-politics of the time, and you will see that these fifty-six were, in effect, signing their own death warrants. Their lives had about the same value as a pile of chicken shit.

Again, ask yourself a question...”Would I have the guts to sign such a document in the same situation?”

I would like to think that I would, but I honestly don't know. I would hope that I would be willing to stand up and really pledge my life to my fellow Americans. But that's hard to do when we are talking about the reality and not some abstract ideology.

It is always easier to do the wrong thing. You are part of the herd following the wrong leaders and the wrong causes. You don't have to fight for what is right. The safety in numbers offered by the herd makes us feel secure.

Doing the right thing is hard. You have to break away from the safety of the herd, stand out alone in the middle of the plain, daring the predators to pick you off. You're subject to attack, to pain, and to death itself.

As a nation, we have done the hard things. We have stood up for the oppressed. We have battled the tyrants and those who would rule the world in their own image. We have made huge strides to follow that guiding light found in the words ...all men are created equal..., but there is still much hard work to do.

As a nation, we have also taken the easy way out far too often. We ourselves oppressed people because of their beliefs or the color of their skin. We have waged war unjustly for dubious causes. We have forgotten the words That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. We have blindly followed those who would divert us from the path we have followed for nearly a quarter of a millennia.

It seems that in many cases it is no longer politically correct to believe in the principles defined by the founders in the Declaration of Independence, but I believe that is the right thing to do. It is hard, and being cut off from the herd, I fully understand the risks I am taking by pledging to you, my fellow Americans, my life, my fortune, and my honor.

God Bless America

Keep Loving!

Melodee Aaron, Erotica Romance Author

Melodee's Books at BookStrand

The Meaning of July 4th

2011-07-04T04:20:00.000-07:00

Many times, we forget the real meaning of July 4th.

No, it's not about getting a 3-day weekend, or bar-b-que, or drinking beer, or even about fireworks.

July the 4th is about the birth of our nation.

It's easy to forget that on July 4, 1776 our ancestors began a struggle to become free, to stand on their own as a people, united and determined to become what they could through hard work and determination, and to reap the benefits of that work, or to fail as providence might dictate.

Along the road the founders set before the new nation we have seen many bumps and many detours. I could list a few of those things, but most of you know them. Some were small, mere distractions to the real goals. Others were large, threatening to divert us from the course of freedom and self-reliance. Even today, we still encounter challenges to our ambitions.

The simple fact is that we always find a way to move forward and grow as a people, as a nation.

Some of you may never have actually read the document that started it all, our Declaration of Independence. I would ask each of you, no matter if you have read it or not, to take a few minutes and read the wonderful words penned by Thomas Jefferson and the others.

The Declaration of Independence [A Transcription]

IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

[The 56 signatures on the Declaration appear in the positions indicated:
]

Column 1
Georgia:
Button Gwinnett
Lyman Hall
George Walton

Column 2
North Carolina:
William Hooper
Joseph Hewes
John Penn
South Carolina:
Edward Rutledge
Thomas Heyward, Jr.
Thomas Lynch, Jr.
Arthur Middleton

Column 3
Massachusetts:
John Hancock
Maryland:
Samuel Chase
William Paca
Thomas Stone
Charles Carroll of Carrollton
Virginia:
George Wythe
Richard Henry Lee
Thomas Jefferson
Benjamin Harrison
Thomas Nelson, Jr.
Francis Lightfoot Lee
Carter Braxton

Column 4
Pennsylvania:
Robert Morris
Benjamin Rush
Benjamin Franklin
John Morton
George Clymer
James Smith
George Taylor
James Wilson
George Ross
Delaware:
Caesar Rodney
George Read
Thomas McKean

Column 5
New York:
William Floyd
Philip Livingston
Francis Lewis
Lewis Morris
New Jersey:
Richard Stockton
John Witherspoon
Francis Hopkinson
John Hart
Abraham Clark

Column 6
New Hampshire:
Josiah Bartlett
William Whipple
Massachusetts:
Samuel Adams
John Adams
Robert Treat Paine
Elbridge Gerry
Rhode Island:
Stephen Hopkins
William Ellery
Connecticut:
Roger Sherman
Samuel Huntington
William Williams
Oliver Wolcott
New Hampshire:
Matthew Thornton

Please watch my blog for some commentary on this amazing document.

Happy Birthday, America.

Keep Loving!

Melodee Aaron, Erotica Romance Author

Melodee's Books at BookStrand

Super Help Needed!

2011-06-27T09:35:00.000-07:00

HELP ME!

OK, here's the deal...

As we wandered around the San Diego Zoo's Nighttime Zoo yesterday, my mind was, as always, running. I tried to keep it in neutral as far as work goes, but any author will tell you that just isn't possible. I'm always looking for a story angle.

Anyway, at some point we passed a bunch of kids and a handful of adults escorting them. For some reason, the kids were all dressed to one degree or another as various superheroes. You know...Superman, Batman, Spiderman, and all the rest. The kids were cute.

But that got me to thinking. I know, that's dangerous.

Since then, I've been playing with an idea that's tugging at my brain for a new book. A futuristic SF story about a superhero.

Yes, an erotica romance superhero.

As crazy as it may sound, I'm leaning to something just a little, well, hokey. Yeah, just like the comic book—excuse me, graphical novel—superheroes. A little comedy tossed in with the battling of evil doers, and, of course, the romance and erotica.

I need a few ideas from readers and other authors to help me along in the early stages of this process...

(BTW, you can read a lot about other superheroes on the web site: http://www.superherodb.com/)

First, what kind of super powers should our hero have? Flight? Invisibility? Telepathy? What?

Second, what about a name for the superhero part of the hero's twin egos? What would be a snappy name to match his powers? I guess Superman has the perfect name. He is, after all, super. Ditto for Batman. Same deal with Spiderman. Any thoughts?

Third, what does our superhero do when he isn't fighting evil? Is he a jock, maybe a pilot or sports star? Does he have some mundane job like Clark Kent or Peter Parker? Maybe he's filthy rich like Bruce Wayne? What do you think?

Fourth, and this could “cancel” numbers 2 and 3 above, does he even have an alter ego? Maybe, just maybe, he doesn't keep the fact that he is a superhero secret at all. What are your thoughts on that?

I would also appreciate any other thoughts you might have. Remember that we're talking about a hokey superhero here, just like the, um, graphical novels. That means the field is pretty much wide open to anything!

You can comment to this blog post. That's the preferred way. But if you don't have a Blogger account and don't want to sign up for one for some reason, you can also E-Mail me at melodeeaaron@yahoo.com and I will post your comments back to here unless you ask me not to. Also, you can comment on FaceBook or send me a Tweet.

So, come on, folks! Let's hear it!

Keep Loving!

Melodee Aaron, Erotica Romance Author

Melodee's Books at BookStrand

Happy Anniversary

2011-06-08T03:00:00.000-07:00

Today marks the 4th anniversary of the day I married the absolute Man Of My Dreams.

Yes, I write romance novels, both standard and erotica. Anyone who reads, or writes, romance novels knows that we all, the authors that is, write about our heroine finding the perfect man. He's an alpha male, but has a tender side that he shows to our leading ladies. He's tough, willing to kill or die for her, and totally fearless, except of her. The hero is almost always tall, handsome, strong, and has a body that makes Mr. Universe look like the proverbial 97 pound weakling.

We also know that men like that don't exist in the real world.

Well, I used to know that, too...

Jack came into my life when he was hired as a security consultant. He had the needed experience having been a Navy SEAL and working for the US Secret Service. The first day I saw him, I damned near melted. It was, for me, an instant attraction, but he was married and had an infant daughter.

OK, I'll admit it. A man being married was never a red light to me to stop when it comes to making a move on him, but having kids, especially little kids, always was a line even I wouldn't cross. As far as I was concerned, Jack was off limits back then.

After a few years of working for me, Jack got a divorce. He never, in the time prior to that, showed any interest in me, and even after his divorce, he was a total professional. It seemed that he just wasn't interested in me, but I did notice that he wasn't dating anyone else.

To make a long story short, and Jack has covered some of it in his blog posting about life with me, he and his two daughters ended up living in my house.

It was at the end of a rather bad time for me when a dear friend suggested that I go out with Jack. Jack had still shown no interest in me other than as an employee and a friend, but when I told him about my friend's idea, Jack did ask me out.

From there on out, it was all free fall for me. I admitted to myself that at some point in the previous few years, I had fallen for Jack, and he made it clear to me that he felt the same way.

I won't go into all of the details, but we dated for more than six weeks before we made love. I will tell you that I had never done that before, though. I mean I had never waited six weeks before getting into bed with the person I was dating.

There is one night with Jack I do want to tell you about, though...

It was Saturday night, March 10, 2007. We were home alone because Maria (my housekeeper) had taken the girls to her house for the night so they could all get up early to go to church on Sunday morning. Jack had cooked a wonderful dinner of nothing but hamburgers and fries, and we had finished eating and were sitting in front of the fireplace on the floor sharing a bottle of wine. It was Orfila Estate Ambassadors Reserve Merlot 2003. Yeah, I remember that detail. Actually, I still have the cork from the bottle.

We were just talking and laughing, snuggling and making out a little, but nothing too extreme, but the evening was yet young and I had high hopes.

We were laughing at each other about carrying on like a pair of teenagers in the backseat of dad's car and the fact that we were both far enough away from being teenagers that we might have trouble getting up from the floor when Jack went suddenly very serious on me. With nothing but real, deep concern painted across his face, he said to me, “Melodee, I want to talk to you about something important.”

Honestly, I was scared. I had never seen Jack so serious other than a couple of times when he thought he might have what he calls a shooter in the crowd someplace. I swallowed hard, but I still didn't think I could speak very well, so I signed back to him, “Sure. What's wrong?”

He smiled at me, something like a little boy with a big secret that excited him, but that he was afraid to share for fear of getting in trouble. He signed back, “I hope nothing is wrong.” He hesitated for nearly a minute, and as he did, that cute smile faded away, replaced by an uncertainty I never even suspected Jack could harbor. He looked down for a moment, then back up and stared into my eyes. He took my hand in his and put my fingers on his lips, kissing them softly. Then, with my fingers still touching his lips so I could feel the movement and not have to rely totally on reading his lips, Jack said, “Melodee, will you marry me?”

We had drank almost the entire bottle of wine, but it wasn't the alcohol that made the room swim around me. I can still remember how my hand dropped from his face, my arm falling limp to my side as I inhaled deeply. No, I really didn't see this coming at all, and I still have no idea why not.

I had been proposed to before. I really can't remember how many times, but there was only one case when I took it seriously, but I turned him down for a number of reasons. This wasn't a new experience for me. Been there, done that.

I stared at Jack, the man I knew I loved more than I had ever loved anyone else, and I must have looked like an idiot. I felt my breath, fast and shallow, pulsing in and out of my open mouth. My heart raced in my chest. I could even feel sweat running down my back and chest as my hands got clammy. I sat there staring at him long enough that Jack signed, “Are you OK?”

I could only nod in reply. I raised my hand to sign to him, but I stopped, and I took Jack's hand in my sweaty fingers and raised his fingers to touch my lips.

I took as deep a breath as I could, and I managed to say, “Yes, Jack, I would love to marry you.”

He smiled again, but not that little boy look from before. It was like when the sun charges over the mountain at daybreak, suddenly making the dark of the night vanish and proudly announces the start of a brand new day, fresh and wonderful. I couldn't help but smile back at him.

Jack reached into his pocket and pulled out a ring box, not from Tiffany's or one of the big-time shops, but from one of the better known local stores here in San Diego. His smile went a little sheepish and he said, “This isn't the kind of thing you're used to.” He opened the box and took a ring from it and then took my left hand and slipped the most gorgeous diamond solitaire engagement ring I have ever seen onto my finger. Jack shrugged a little. “It's not much.”

I wonder if I looked silly or like an animated cliché, but I clutched my hand to my chest, his hand still holding mine, and I replied, “It's amazing. I love it, and I love you.”

That bright smile returned to his face. “I love you, too.”

Over the last four years, Jack has pressed me several times to get a new engagement ring, something fancier and more expensive. He has it in his mind that somehow or for some reason, I need or want a ring that costs more than the one he could afford at the time he gave me the original.

As I sit here typing this, that same ring with the beautiful stone set in the bright yellow of the gold rests in the same place it has been since that evening. It has, in that time, left my finger one time for about four days when I had surgery after almost dying from a brain aneurysm. The diamond catches the light of my desk lamp and throws fire in all directions as my fingers move over the keyboard. And each flash of light, every flicker of the radiance, reminds me that the Man Of My Dreams is here with me, for all time, and that we are a part of a team made up of me, Jack, Amanda, Debbie, and JJ. The sum of the team is much greater by several orders of magnitude than the simple total of the individual parts.

The team even has a name...

Family.

And, Jack...

I love you.

Keep Loving!

Melodee Aaron, Erotica Romance Author

Melodee's Books at BookStrand

On Tweens and Teens

2011-06-04T21:00:00.000-07:00

My oldest daughter, Amanda (@AmandaJDouglas on Twitter), has been the subject of a number of my blogs, and yes, here we go again.

Amanda will officially be eleven years old on Tuesday June 7th. I say “officially” because for the last eleven months and about twenty days, she has told everyone she can get to listen that she is “...almost eleven...”. I guess all kids do that, though I don't remember doing it myself.

But the transition from a little girl to a tween started a long time ago, much to the dismay of her father.

Amanda and her sister Debbie are not my biological children. They are my husband's children from his first marriage. When Jack and I were married, we convinced (long story) his ex-wife to surrender the girls and I legally adopted them. Though we share no genes, the girls and I are sometimes far too much alike for Jack's comfort. Amanda in particular has picked up my habits of being outspoken, flirtatious, and in general lacking anything even close to inhibitions.

She is also growing up pretty fast. Amanda is already 5' 4” and tips the scales at about 110 pounds. That's not at all surprising since Jack is 6' 9” and about 265 pounds, and her egg-donor is a big woman.

Jack's biggest issue is that Amanda is hitting puberty early. Well, she's still in the “normal” curve, but I think Jack would prefer her to wait a while for all of that. Until she's about 32 or so.

Anyway...

Amanda has breasts. Nice breasts that are probably going to be bigger than mine in a few years. Bitch. And all of that “baby fat” she had as a little girl is being replaced by a drop-dead hourglass figure. Her face is taking on the shape of a young woman, too, instead of the round features of a kid. Yeah, Jack hates it.

What really freaks Jack out is that Amanda's tastes in clothes are changing. Just two years ago, for example, she preferred and wore the typical little girl one-piece swimsuits. Last year, she decided she liked the modest two-piece suits. Now, she wants actual bikinis. Not quite to the string bikini stage yet, but she's getting there. The amount of material needed to make her skirts has steadily decreased, too.

Any day now, I expect Jack to chew his arm off.

While Jack has all manner of issues with Amanda growing up, Amanda herself is having some problems, too.

The biggest for her, at least right now, is that Amanda is a very good musician. She plays the guitar (several kinds that I don't understand), and sings. Well, the aforementioned growing tits are getting in the way of the guitars, and her voice is changing. What really kills her is when her voice cracks in the middle of a song.

The issue for both Jack and I is that Amanda's hormones are playing ping-pong with her brain. Nothing really too bad as of yet, but I can see it getting worse.

Just as two examples...

As I mentioned above, Amanda has a Twitter account. She is very careful about who she follows and how she interacts with them both because she is a smart girl and because her dad and I, and several of our company's network and security staff look at every single bit (not just the bytes!) of data that pass to and from her system. But, she will sometimes go past her curfew because she is either talking to or about some boy or another. Her staying up late is not the issue here. The issue is that she has agreed to shut down at a certain time, and then goes past that without telling us. Really, we have no problem so long as she asks beforehand if it's OK for her to stay up a little later, and sets a time. It's a matter of making a commitment and sticking to it.

The other matter is where she decided to order some clothes on her own. More or less. Amanda showed up in some rather, shall we say, “advanced” clothes, particularly a couple of nighties and some jeans that looked like they were applied with a spray gun. When I asked her where she got them, she told me right up front she bought them online and that her dad approved the purchases. Well, he did. Sort of. Amanda asked Jack if she could buy some clothes. He said “yes” without knowing what she was going to buy because he assumed she wanted like Winnie the Pooh pajamas. And she didn't tell him that she wanted something from Victoria's Secret. Yeah, they were both wrong on that one! I chewed Amanda's ass a little. I chewed Jack's a lot.

The point is that Amanda is pushing the envelope.

And that is exactly what she is supposed to do.

Yes, Amanda has already started saying that she's “...almost a teenager...”, and teenagers, like it or not, test limits. I can see the above behaviors, and others that we as parents can't even imagine yet, increasing in the coming years.

But that's OK with me. I know that is part of growing up and becoming the woman that Amanda will soon (much too soon for me, too) become. My job, as her mom, is to guide her as best as I can into womanhood, to teach her the things that a woman needs to know.

Like when the diamond in the bling-bling is big enough to damned near faint over.

Seriously, I know my job will be easy. Amanda is, as I said, a good girl, and she loves and respects both her dad and me. She will, almost certainly, want more freedom than we will give her, but she will understand why the limits are there. And she will, from time-to-time, test those limits. We will need to respond with love and firmness, and explain to her, maybe for the 87th time, why the limits are there.

While Jack would probably prefer to Amanda to stay his little girl forever, we both know she will grow up. And she will grow up into a woman we will both be proud of.

Me personally?

I can't wait!

Keep Loving!

Melodee Aaron, Erotica Romance Author

Melodee's Books at BookStrand

Life With Melodee - Part 8

2011-05-16T15:00:00.000-07:00

People often ask me the same question:

What is it like to live with Melodee?

That's a pretty big and deep subject, and there isn't an easy answer. Like the old saying goes, it's complicated.

But I'm going to try to tell you a little about what Life With Melodee is like in a series of postings here on Melodee's blog.

Part Eight

An Unlikely Mom

I've talked a little in past installments about how I had doubts early on in my relationship with Melodee on her ability to be a mom. No, I'm not talking about being a “mother”, but an actual mom. Mommy if you prefer. Between her past and the lifestyle she leads, and even down to her irreverent attitudes and admitted attention junkie status, there were a number of red flags that made me concerned.

Again, as I have said in other articles, Melodee has proved me wrong. She's a great mom, not only to Amanda and Debbie, but also to our youngest, our son JJ. Maybe it's something innate in all women, some maternal instinct that can lie dormant for decades and then suddenly be awakened to come to the forefront and take over. I don't think that a man can even begin to understand that kind of thing. I know it gives me a headache just trying.

And despite somehow transforming into a mommy, Melodee has lost none of the things that make her attractive. She is still flirtatious and playful. She still pays attention to me, never letting me forget that she loves me and that I'm the center of her universe. She still dresses the same ways. And still has that confidence and strength that struck me so hard all those years ago now.

I've been trying to figure out exactly how it is that she can deal with the kids, particularly Amanda and Debbie, so well, and I think I have figured it out.

Melodee treats them more like small adults than as little kids. Well, most of the time.

Amanda is, to use her words, “almost 11”. In reality, she's 11 going on about 25. Most kids at her age don't like being talked to like a kid, but they have a few more years to go before they figure out why. Not Amanda. She hates it and she knows exactly why she hates it. It makes her feel like we are belittling her. I admit that I have trouble talking to Amanda like a young lady instead of a kid. Not Melodee. She tells Amanda exactly what is what, and there is no mincing of words. Amanda still doesn't like that she has to follow rules, but she understands why it is that the rules are there, and she appreciates having the facts spelled out for her in clear terms.

Debbie, on the other hand, is 8 approaching about 70. In all honesty, I'm the dumb one around the house. I'm pretty sure that JJ is smarter than me. So is Amanda. Melodee can make all three of us look like low-grade morons. Melodee makes no bones about the fact that Debbie is significantly smarter than she is. That's scary. Debbie wants to be a doctor. She already reads medical books. Quickly. She questions the several family doctors about their diagnosis and treatments. Doogie Howser has nothing on Debbie. I have difficulty talking to Amanda like an adult, but I simply can't talk to Debbie at her level. I'm not bright enough. But again, Melodee can. And she does. Debbie responds much better to Melodee that she does to me.

And then there's JJ. He just turned three, and he was able to sign long before he could talk. The girls both are better at sign than I am, but JJ is the only one who can really keep up with his mom. When Melodee was carrying JJ, she was terrified that her deafness was something congenital. There has never been a real determination made about just what caused her deafness, but genetics would certainly be an option. All of the prenatal tests and such were normal, but Melodee was still concerned. Yeah, and so was I. Soon after he was born, it was clear that JJ could hear as well as any normal person, but Melodee still used sign with him. In fact, his first words were when he signed “mama” to Melodee. But even at just three, Melodee treats JJ more like an adult. When she talks to him, she gets down on her knees so they are eye to eye. I do catch her signing in baby talk to him once in a while, though.

I think what it all really comes down to is that there is a subtle difference between being a mother and being a mommy. The bottom line is that any female with a normal biology can be a mother. It takes someone very special to be a mommy, though.

Yeah, Melodee is pretty special.

Life With Melodee - Part 7

2011-04-24T11:24:00.000-07:00

People often ask me the same question:

What is it like to live with Melodee?

That's a pretty big and deep subject, and there isn't an easy answer. Like the old saying goes, it's complicated.

But I'm going to try to tell you a little about what Life With Melodee is like in a series of postings here on Melodee's blog.

Part Seven

A Dichotomy

di·chot·o·my/dīˈkätəmē/Noun

1. A division or contrast between two things that are or are represented as being opposed or entirely different.

In many, many ways, that fits Melodee. A few examples follow.

Graceful – Melodee can move with a grace and flow that looks a little like oil spreading across water. Most men, myself included, are amazed that a woman can walk in a long evening gown. Add 4” heels to that, and we are dumbfounded. Melodee can look likes she's floating when she does it. Think about this: Ginger Rogers did all the same moves as Fred Astaire, but she did them in a long gown, high heels, and going backwards. You see my point. Melodee skydives, and I have watched her. In free fall, she looks like a bird, probably a bird of prey, soaring and swooping with motions not unlike those of a ballet. When she lands, I have never seen her fail to plant her feet firmly and remain standing. In my time in Special Ops, I did more than my fair share of jumping out of airplanes, and I didn't do that every time I landed. I have seen people around Melodee drop things, and she will frequently catch the item in midair. She will just smile and say, “Reflexes like a cat.”

Klutzy – Usually, the best description I have for Melodee's motions is that they remind of watching a bird. You've seen birds flit and flutter around, darting from one place to another with fast, jerky movements. That's Melodee. She will often bump things with her arms or hips. She's well known for turning suddenly and running into the person walking behind her, or even into walls. She stumbles a lot over things that most people would just step over. Recently, Melodee broke her ankle. She was wearing 5” heels and she knows that I like the way the heels make her legs and butt look, so she was walking just a little sexier than she normally does. Melodee will tell you that she stepped on a rock and that twisted her ankle, but I was walking right next to her, close enough that I didn't have to move to catch her when she started to fall, and I didn't see any rocks on the sidewalk at all. Truth is, she was preoccupied with prancing and tripped over her own feet.

Intelligent – Melodee has five doctorate degrees: Physics (Theoretical), Math (Theoretical), English (Literature), Electrical Engineering, and Mechanical Engineering. While having an education does not make a person intelligent, you can't be dumb and do that. She talks about things sometimes that I can't even spell. After all, I'm just a dumb swabby. I've seen her sit with top scientists and keep up with them. She helps the kids with their calculus homework in her head. Melodee usually knows what I am going to say about two weeks before I do. And she does that to everyone. I used to wonder if she might be psychic, but I know now that's not the case at all. Melodee is so bright that she is always running the odds of events happening in her head, and she can predict just how likely something is to happen with good accuracy. Honestly, it's a little scary.

Ditzy – Melodee sometimes gets that deer in the headlights look. When she does, it's clear that she has no clue about what's going on around her. In the middle of a conversation, you'll look at her, and you know she's totally lost. I've had a number of theories about what was happening with that. One was that she was playing the “Dumb Blond” part for some reason. Another was that she really just wasn't getting it. For a time, I thought that maybe her deafness was causing her to miss a turn. But I've come to believe that Melodee will drift off in her mind to some other topic and just simply loses track of the conversation. She's not really ignoring you, she just had some thought that grabbed her attention away.

Conservative – Politically, Melodee is about two steps to the right of Rush Limbaugh. Maybe more. She believes in a small, limited government, particularly the federal government, and she believes in little, if any, taxation to support that government. She favors a strong defense and military, and firmly believes that the best defense is a strong offense. Her idea of diplomacy is something like, “...if you don't straighten up and fly right, we'll nuke you back to the stone age.” She has precious little patience for tyrants, dictators, liberals, socialists, and deficit spending.

Liberal – Melodee also hates a number of traditionally conservative positions. For example, she supports same-sex marriage, but in a round-about way: Melodee believes that government has nothing to do with marriage and that marriage is a function of the churches. If a couple wants to be married, that is up to a church. Add to that the idea that any group of two or more people should be able to enter into a contract that gives the group the rights and privileges that are now associated with marriage. In other words, not only does Melodee support same-sex marriage, she also supports polyamory and multiple marriages.

I'd better stop here. I have to sleep with Melodee.

Or not!

Life With Melodee - Part 6

2011-04-17T16:10:00.000-07:00

People often ask me the same question:

What is it like to live with Melodee?

That's a pretty big and deep subject, and there isn't an easy answer. Like the old saying goes, it's complicated.

But I'm going to try to tell you a little about what Life With Melodee is like in a series of postings here on Melodee's blog.

Part Six

The Girls

I've spent a good deal of time in this series talking about Melodee and my daughters, Amanda and Debbie. This time, I'm going to talk almost exclusively about the three in general and specifically about how they interact in ways that have changed my life.

Mostly for the better.

I've already said that Melodee, Debbie, and Amanda all sort of took to each other from the very start. This is especially true for Melodee and Amanda. It's sometimes hard to believe that they aren't actually from the same gene pool, and they are so much alike that it scares me sometimes. This is especially true when you understand that Amanda is not quite 11 right now, and she's already acting enough like Melodee to make me nervous. At any rate...

I really don't know exactly when it happened, but at some point, I started to call the three women in my life “The Girls”. I have to admit that I stole the term from some of Melodee's books. Those of you familiar with her Immortal Love Universe will know that the Emperor (Jim) refers to his four wives (Marilyn, Janelle, Tanya, and Paige) as The Girls. And yeah, The Girls is always capitalized.

The Girls all love to shop. Maybe it would be more accurate to say that the live to shop. I knew before Melodee and I became a couple that she was a shop-o-holic, and Debbie and Amanda soon followed suit. It still fascinates me, though, that many of the shopping trips The Girls take don't actually involve buying anything. They all seem happen to just look, try on new outfits, and go through every pair of shoes and every purse in the stores. Except for the jewelry stores.

When Melodee and I got together, Amanda had her ears pierced. That was it. Now, Debbie has 3 piercings in her ears and Amanda has 5. That's nothing compared to Melodee's 7 in her ears and a few, well, extras. Amanda has even asked about getting her tongue pierced. The answer was no. I would guess that between the two of them, they had maybe a total of a dozen rings, necklaces, bracelets, and other jewelry. Now they probably have 100 or more pieces. Each. But even at Tiffany's, they all tend to look at a lot more stuff than they buy. Thank God for small favors.

And then there is the food and drink thing. There was a time that the only thing Amanda and Debbie would drink was Coke or Pepsi. I at least weaned them over to diet. On the other hand, Melodee rarely drinks anything other than tea (both iced and hot). Amanda and Debbie absolutely hated tea in any form. Now, The Girls go through more tea than the entire English Navy and Army combined. Amanda and Debbie turn their noses up at soda. The good news is that The Girls have all transitioned over to decaffeinated tea.

As for food, Melodee has, as far as I know, always hated fish and seafood of any kind. It's funny, but she will eat tuna salad now and then. Amanda and Debbie like fish and seafood. We often go, as a family, to a little diner down the road a couple of miles, and they have nightly specials. On Friday, as is tradition, they have a “Seafood Trio” that consists of shrimp scampi, a hunk of grilled salmon, and a couple of cod fillets. They also have the “Fish Fry” that is three of the cod fillets with slaw and French fries. Melodee has taken to ordering the Fish Fry and she actually likes it. Sometimes, she will steal a few bites of the salmon from Debbie or Amanda. She hasn't worked up to the shrimp yet.

Someplace down the line, the dress code also changed. Melodee used to have exactly three modes of dress: (1) Jeans and Tee Shirt, (2) Formal Wear, and (3) Super Sexy. Since becoming a mom to a pair of prepubescent girls, Melodee has only changed her style of dress a little. In most ways, she has simply combined #1 and #3 above. She has also added a fourth group that I like to call “Casual Mom”. This style usually consists of The Girls all dressing alike. And that worries me sometimes.

Melodee has a closet full of what she calls her Little Black Dresses, or simply LBD. Now, Amanda and Debbie also have several versions of LBDs. The three also have several other matching outfits. While Debbie is still very much a little girl (she's only 8 now), Amanda is becoming a young woman. Yeah, I hate that. And while Amanda will not likely be as tall as Melodee, it's getting easier every day to get them confused.

A lot of the above are things that I admit to having some mixed emotions about. I sometimes wonder if our daughters are growing up too fast, but that is probably just me wanting them to be little girls forever. After all, that whole boy and dating thing really bugs me. But there is one area that is absolutely positive, and that is the fact that both Amanda and Debbie have good ideas of what they want to do with their lives now.

Debbie has always been interested in life science and biology. She loves all that stuff, even if I don't understand any of it. She's still undecided on exactly what specific area she wants to go into, but she's floating someplace between medicine for people and medicine for animals. In other words, she can't pick just now between being an MD or a DVM. Either would be great as far as I'm concerned.

Amanda on the other hand is also floating between two careers, but maybe not as desirable in the eyes of some parents. She loves the guitar and music in general. Some days, I think she's decided on becoming a rocker. But, like Melodee, Amanda loves to write and tell stories. I have this feeling that when all is said and done, Amanda will do both and be a songwriter. Maybe a little like Jim Croche or Tom T. Hall telling stories with her songs. As for me, I'm good with that. I think either or both would be good for her. Again I admit that I really don't care to watch Amanda doing some of the same moves as Nancy Wilson while she plays the guitar.

And that brings me to the real bottom line of all of this.

Melodee has been a great and positive influence on my daughters. No, let me correct that...Amanda and Debbie are OUR daughters. Melodee is teaching them the things that a young woman needs to know. I mean things like respecting and loving themselves, how to pick a good man while avoiding the bad ones, and how to care about other people. Most importantly, Melodee is teaching them that there is nothing they can't do if they want it and are willing to work hard to get it.

And all three of The Girls are learning how to love from each other.

Life With Melodee - Part 5

2011-04-03T09:35:00.000-07:00

She Do The Boogie

2011-03-14T14:34:00.000-07:00

You know, women just don't get the fact that a man will be all rough and tumble with a son, encouraging him to do "manly" things as young as possible, but then turn right around and do everything they can to keep their daughters from growing up past the little girl stage.

Yeah, just one of many double standards. I'm good with that, though.

Take my husband Jack and our oldest daughter, Amanda...

Amanda will be eleven in June. She's pretty, precocious, smart, and—according to Jack at least—learning to flirt from me. Every so often Jack will catch her making eyes at boys when we are in restaurant or something. Amanda tends to wink and wave at boys when we are out shopping. Adding to Jack's concern is that Amanda likes boys five or more years older than she is.

OK, maybe she is taking after me. Anyway...

The other day, Amanda was out in her "studio" playing her guitar. We had a room built for her in the garage area that has good sound proofing and all the equipment she needs to play and not be disturbed and not blow the windows out of the house. She almost lives out there.

Jack decided to go listen to Amanda play for a while, and when he walked into the room, Amanda was jamming on Tube Snake Boogie by ZZ Top. Yeah, that didn't go over too well with her dad. Amanda doesn't get the innuendo of the song, at least I believe from talking to her that she doesn't, but that doesn't matter to Jack. But he was at least understanding enough not to make a big issue of it and asked Amanda to play something else.

She thought for a moment, no doubt thinking her dad requested something else by ZZ Top, and she went right into playing Pearl Necklace.

I've been in bed sick for the last few days, so Jack just came to our room and sat down on the side of the bed and told me all about how his not-quite-eleven daughter was playing "dirty songs" on the guitar. I reassured him that Amanda likely had no clue about the "meaning" of the songs and just liked the music. There are, after all, some pretty good guitar riffs in most ZZ Top songs, those two included. I told him I would talk to Amanda.

He didn't look too reassured, though.

Later, Amanda came to my room and brought me the latest news about the world at large. We talked about some of the stories, and I finally said to her, "Your dad was upset about the ZZ Top songs you were playing today."

She frowned a little. "Yeah, I thought I was messing them up and he was mad about that, but I don't think I missed a note or smeared anything."

"No, honey, your dad doesn't like what the songs are about."

The frown deepened. "He doesn't like songs about jewelry and dancing?"

I smiled and took her little hand in mine. "I guess not. Try not to play them when he's around."

Keep Loving!

Melodee Aaron, Erotica Romance Author

Melodee's Books at BookStrand

Life With Melodee - Part 4

2011-02-15T11:00:00.000-08:00

People often ask me the same question:

What is it like to live with Melodee?

That's a pretty big and deep subject, and there isn't an easy answer. Like the old saying goes, it's complicated.

But I'm going to try to tell you a little about what Life With Melodee is like in a series of postings here on Melodee's blog.

Part Four
Random Recollections

As I sat here planning what to write about next, it dawned on me that I have left out a lot of strange things that happened over the years between when I met Melodee and when we admitted that we were in free fall for each other. In an effort to correct this, I offer the following random comments and thoughts.

June Cleaver She Ain't

Not even close. In fact, Melodee is a horrible housekeeper, and a worse cook. I don't think Melodee even knowns why she is so bad at these domestic activities, so she usually just says that she never learned how to do them. But let's be honest here. Using a broom, putting an empty glass in the sink, doing the dishes, and even running a vacuum aren't really skills that have a steep learning curve. Even cooking isn't all that tough if you can read (and Melodee can read very well, even if at blinding speed that makes me dizzy to watch her flip the pages) and follow directions. I think that cooking and cleaning offer nothing to hold her attention. She would rather do something interesting, and since she has no inhibitions of any kind, Melodee pretty much does what she wants to do when she wants to do it. Maria (Melodee's long-time housekeeper and cook) forbids Melodee from even going in the kitchen unsupervised. I think the girl could screw up Cup-O-Soup!

Speaking Of Inhibitions

Melodee has none. Not a one. And I am not just talking about sexual inhibitions here. She will say anything that is on her mind to anyone. Just as one example, I saw her tell a now former President of the United States that he was a "dumb-fuck" and that he should "grow a pair of balls or put on a dress". And this was at a White House reception with maybe 2000 of our closest friends around. On the sexual side, she can be a little hard to swallow sometimes, no pun intended. When "in the mood", she will do just about any thing in just about any place. She has gotten us tossed out of a few of those places. Take the time that she used liquid latex to paint on her "clothes". She was totally nude, except for her shoes, and had painted on a shirt and pair of jeans. She strolled right through the lobby of a major hotel and into the bar like she owned the place. And then there is her habit of playing "dress-up" on a regular basis. She likes the schoolgirl look. And the nurse. And the policewoman. But I think her favorite is to dress up like a cat. Sometimes Melodee likes the big cats, particularly tigers and cheetahs. Other times, she goes for the house cat look. And it can get a lot more, well, complicated. Not that I'm complaining.

Gun Play

Melodee grew up in the country, and like most country folks, she knows how to hunt and how to handle a firearm. She's a fair shot with a rifle, and she won't kill herself with a handgun. Probably. At one point, I decided that, for security reasons, Melodee needed to be armed. She explained to me that she would not carry a gun. She gave up hunting long ago, and didn't want to have a gun in her purse. I can, and did, respect that, so I convinced her to carry a can of pepper spray. She put it on her keyring and had it in her purse. One evening, a bunch of us from the company were having a dinner meeting at Melodee's house, and she decided she needed some gum. She walked to the side table where she had tossed her purse when we came home earlier that day, and reached inside. After a moment of fumbling around, the pepper spray went off. I still don't know how it happened, but it did. She effectively maced everyone in the room. I decided that maybe the pepper spray wasn't as good of an idea as I had thought, so I got her a stun-gun. Again, it went in her purse. For those men smart enough to avoid a woman's purse, you can't believe the amount of stuff in there. Most of it we men prefer not to imagine. We were at a book signing in Chicago and Melodee reached into her purse for something. Next thing I knew, she was on the floor flopping around like a fish out of water. Somehow, she had armed and triggered the stun gun with one hand in her purse. After that, I carry the weapons and just stay close to Melodee.

Economic Stimulus

Melodee is a shop-a-holic. I think she even has a union card to prove it. She has a particular addiction to high-end jewelery. The staff at Tiffany's know her by name and on sight. And I mean the shop in New York. She spends a lot of money on clothes and shoes as well as jewelery. For a long time, I wondered about the clothes and shoes part, but I found out what was going on after we were married. She buys a lot more clothes and shoes than she has in her closets. At the rate she shops, she would fill the house up in a matter of months, and I never saw any Goodwill or Salvation Army trucks around the place. It turns out that she donates most of the "excess" to a local charity. Some they sell, some they give to women to wear to job interviews or to work. The transactions are very low profile. The real downside is that both of our daughters are catching the shopping addiction from their mom now.

Attention Junkie. And Pusher

Melodee likes to be the center of attention. See above for more. I think that a huge part of her lack of inhibitions goes right back to this fact. By being flirtatious, outspoken, and all the rest, she gets the attention that she craves. But it's a two-way street with her when it comes to attention. I shower a lot of attention on Melodee, and I'll even admit that I spoil her. Usually not with "things", because she's pretty well got all of that, but with a touch or a word. I mentioned in Part 3 that I had, without thinking, picked a little wildflower for her, and she sort of melted. Well, I still pick flowers for Melodee. Mostly for exercise, I walk the perimeter of our property every day. That's about 7 miles. Along the way, pretty much all year round, I can find a few little wildflowers to pick and bring home for her. She loves the attention, but she gives it back to me. Melodee is my second wife, though I really believe that she is my first true love. But that doesn't mean that I haven't dated in the past. I have never had a woman so in-tune with my mood and needs as Melodee is. I don't know what a "soul mate" is, but maybe being so connected is part of that, but I think it's also possible that the giving is just a part of Melodee. It's who she is.

Baggage

Melodee has a good deal of baggage. I won't go into the details of her childhood other than to say that through a rather nasty chain of events, she was addicted to drugs at a very young age. This addiction has, as it does with all addicts, stayed with her for all these many years. Over all, I think she's done well for herself despite being in various states of recovery since her pre-teen years and being deaf. There was even a period when she worked as a hooker to pay for her fixes. Since I have known Melodee, she has had one relapse to the drugs, and I mentioned that in an earlier part of this series. But, since we have been "together", she has stayed clean and says she has no desire to use again. I believe her.

Hell Hath No Fury...

Some people who know Melodee only casually have the opinion that she angers easily. The reality is that she is more of a "slow boil" person. She will sit and stew until she finally has had enough, then she blows up. The reason for the confusion, at least as I see it, is because Melodee is so outspoken. She will tell you (or anyone else) exactly how she feels, and she lacks anything even close to tact. If she thinks an idea is stupid, she will say so, usually in close to those words with a few of the infamous deleted expletives tossed in. If a person keeps harping about something that Melodee has already identified as a stupid idea, she will, usually, tell them to just shut the fuck up and go the fuck away. Her harsh words and course manner can easily be seen by some people as being angry. I get that. But those people have never seen Melodee really angry. I have. Several times. Maybe Melodee is atypical, because she doesn't get angry like most women I have known over the years. She doesn't cry or get sullen. Melodee doesn't throw things. When I think about it, Melodee's anger is more like that I have seen from many men. Melodee yells, cusses like a sailor (actually, I am a sailor, and she uses words I never would in public!), and she will punch someone if they are too close. She paces a lot, too. I have never seen her hit a wall or other immovable object, but I think she just might under the right conditions. Trust me, you do not want to be on the wrong side of her anger.

The Inner Mommy

Shortly after we were married, Melodee legally adopted my two daughters, Amanda and Debbie. The girls already loved her as "Aunt Melodee" and the transition to "Mom" or "Mommy" was easy for all three of them. On April 26, 2008 Melodee gave birth to our son, Jack, Jr., or JJ. There were some concerns, mostly by Melodee, that JJ might be born deaf as she was, but everything is just fine with him. Interestingly, he learned to sign before he learned to speak. Now, he does both, and the simple truth is that he is much better at sign than either the girls or I. He is the only one in the house who can keep up with Melodee when she is signing at top speed. Well, other than our dog Tripper. He's really good at sign, too. I know the trip of being a Mommy hasn't been easy for Melodee. She will sometimes fret about never hearing JJ cry and missing his first words. She gets equally down because she can't hear the girls call her "Mom" or tell her that they love her. But she manages. A good friend and colleague of ours is a ham radio operator, and he's a wizard with electronics and radio, and he put together a little system using old pagers. The kids and I all have a little box with a button on it that we can press. That sends a signal to a pager that Melodee carries, and it vibrates to alert her, and the display tells her who is calling for her. JJ was able to use his to call his Mommy by the time he was a year old. There is an old saying that I heard once that any woman with normal biology can be a mother, but it takes someone special to be a Mommy. Melodee is a great Mommy.

Fantasy Island

I guess this mostly for the men reading, and that's alright. I know I'll catch hell from the women reading, but I always had the opinion that men had a larger sexual appetite than women. I don't know if that's valid opinion or not, and it doesn't matter. In my experience, I was always the one who was ready to have sex anytime, anyplace. I had to talk my woman into the idea. Well, I learned something about Melodee very early, even before we were "together", and that is that she has a healthy and strong sex drive. She enjoys sex, is creative, and very open. Once we started really "dating", I thought that was wonderful and that, maybe, I had died and gone to heaven. A bit later, I found out that there is such a thing as too much of a good thing. Simple biology is that men are not multi-orgasmic, at least not in the long term. And then there is Melodee's "30 Second Rule". One day she bet me that she could take me from nothing to climax in under 30 seconds. I admit that I don't have the staying power of a porn star, but 30 seconds seemed a little fast to me, so I took the bet. Nothing happened the rest of the day, just normal routine things around the house. About 6pm, Maria took the kids to her place for the evening to watch some TV and play some games. About 6:30pm, Melodee pretty well jumped me on the couch. The bad news is that I lost the bet. The good news is that the loser had to get on top for the rest of the session. Melodee's philosophy on sex seems to be that she'll try anything once, twice if she likes it. I haven't found anything that she has done only once.

Well, that's about all I have for now.

Melodee wanted me to invite any readers to feel free to comment on these postings. One, or maybe both, of us will answer.

Blow Up Dolls

2011-02-11T04:00:00.000-08:00

I can't seem to leave some news stories alone...

Blow-Up Dolls

I like this idea.

Many of you may not know anything about the Bigelow modules, and a good place for general information is the Wikipedia article at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bigelow_Aerospace and the links from there.

In general, think of a big balloon in space. It's cheap, light, and usable. By the way, none of those things apply to the ISS or the Space Shuttles.

I think this is a good solution.

Keep Loving!

Melodee Aaron, Erotica Romance Author

Melodee's Books at BookStrand

Mooning

2011-02-10T04:00:00.000-08:00

I can't seem to leave some news stories alone...

Shooting The Moon

No, nothing to bitch about here.

Just interesting trivia for you to consider next time you moon someone.

Keep Loving!

Melodee Aaron, Erotica Romance Author

Melodee's Books at BookStrand

And The Dumbest

2011-02-09T04:00:00.000-08:00

I can't seem to leave some news stories alone...

Now We're Really Getting Dumb

For Those Who Are Hip

The mos fri par of thi is tha a gro of deg mor in pos of pow act agr wit thi.

Mor pro tha hav an edu doe not mea you are stu.

For Those Who Have A Brain

The most frightening part of this is that a group of degreed morons in positions of power actually agreed with this.

More proof that having an education does not mean you aren't stupid.

Keep Loving!

Melodee Aaron, Erotica Romance Author

Melodee's Books at BookStrand

Even Dumber

2011-02-08T04:00:00.000-08:00

I can't seem to leave some news stories alone...

This Is Even Dumber

Am I the only one who thinks this is really bad idea?

Let me tell you why I think this is such a bad idea...

First, a mammoth (or mastodon if you prefer) is bigger than a modern elephant. In some cases, a lot bigger. That means they are stronger than a modern elephant. And a modern elephant is pretty damned strong.

Second, there is no evidence to suggest that a mammoth has a better personality than a wild modern elephant. Personally, I think that a mammoth probably would have a temper to make a modern elephant look like a Girl Scout on a cookie sales crusade. I would bet money that a mammoth is a pretty foul tempered creature.

Third, the mammoth went extinct for a reason. No, I don't mean how they went extinct. Maybe the climate change got them. Maybe early humans hunted them off the planet. Who cares? I mean why did the mammoth go extinct? Only God can answer that question. The problem is that they went extinct for a reason that we do not understand.

I could go on, but I think you get my drift.

Let's not mess with them, OK?

Keep Loving!

Melodee Aaron, Erotica Romance Author

Melodee's Books at BookStrand

Life With Melodee - Part 3

2011-02-07T08:21:00.000-08:00

The Flames

Sorry I've been absent for so long. I had a bout with the flu, and then other issues came up. I think Melodee really nailed it, though. I just got lazy. So, after her giving me a little push, I'm back at it again.

This time, I'm going to talk a bit about the things that led up to Melodee and I falling in love. No, that's not really correct, because I think we'd been in love for a long time before we admitted it to ourselves and each other.

As I said before, my two daughters and I were living at Melodee's house, and everything was working out well. Melodee's housekeeper, Maria, would watch the girls when I had to leave town with Melodee on trips, and if I had to go someplace alone, Aunt Melodee would take care of them. The girls learned sign language, both the standard ASL and Melodee's own special version, much faster than I did. I chalk it up to them being kids and information sponges.

Melodee was still dating other people, and it was still making me nuts sometimes. Yes, I was still rationalizing my irritation as being concerned about her safety. Yes, I still knew it was bullshit.

It was about that time when I noticed a change in Melodee. She stopped dating and became more withdrawn. She spent long hours talking with a man on the Internet in chat rooms and via email. I wondered what was going on, but she would deny that anything was wrong. I found out that the man she was in contact with was doing a tour of duty in Iraq, and then things got really weird. Melodee started asking me if I knew of anyone who could get her to Iraq to meet him. I tried to impress on her how dangerous that would be for her, but she wasn't interested in any of that. She wanted to go.

I didn't mention that the man was also married. Any of you who know much about the military will see the problem here. For a married officer, having an affair can end a career. Whether it was that fact or just that the man really is an officer and gentleman, he talked Melodee out of the bad idea of going to downtown Baghdad for vacation. Personally, I think it was the latter that motivated him.

Just days after this all happened, we had a tour on the US east coast. Melodee hates to tour, but she went anyway, and she became more and more isolated. She snapped at everyone, and even walked out of an appearance. Somehow, she got past the security people and pretty well vanished for several hours.

I had gone back to the hotel to see if she was there, and was just about to call the local police when she walked into the room like she owned the place. And it was clear from the instant she walked in that she was so stoned that she could barely stand.

I mentioned before that Melodee has a history of drug abuse, but she had been on the wagon for about 4 years. When she fell off, she fell off hard. At the risk of getting an assault charge, I shook her down and found a rather large supply of dope and the related paraphernalia. I also found the name and phone number of the pusher who fixed her up. I doubt they will ever find him.

To make a long story short, we got her home, cleaned up, and back on her feet.

Melodee continued her contact with the man in Iraq, but he made it clear to her that he wasn't going to leave his wife. You have to keep in mind that Melodee is used to getting what she wants. Call her spoiled if you like, but she was not a happy camper about that. She went off on him, and later, after she effectively hung up the Internet on him, she went off on me. And all I was doing was having a glass of milk before bed.

I had learned a long time before this night that the worst thing I could do when Melodee was in a mood like she was in was to actually say anything. So I just listened as she ranted. Actually, I watched, mostly. She was so mad that she couldn't speak, so she used sign. At one point she said that the man had told her that she needed to find a good man who was available, and suggested that she go out with me.

I almost choked on my milk, at least at first. I had pretty well worked up my nerve to ask her out before she started her online dating affair, but then backed away. So, I decided in an instant that it was now or never.

I shrugged my shoulders and said, "So, would you go out with me?"

Melodee stopped pacing and stared at me for a moment before she signed, "What? Like on a date?"

I shrugged again. "No, not really a date. Just go out for a couple of drinks and dinner and maybe some dancing. You know, nothing about business, just friends out for a good time."

She laughed. "Oh, like fuck buddies?"

I actually did spray milk out of my nose. "No! Just friends." I'll admit to more than a few fantasies about her.

It was her turn to shrug. "Sure, why not?"

We decided to go to the local tribal casino at Viejas the next evening.

We more or less avoided each other all the next day. I really don't know if that was intentional or not, but Melodee and I didn't see much of each other until it was time to leave at about 6pm. Maria told me that Melodee would be out in a minute, so I went to get the car. Truck, actually. A Ford F-250 with a crew cab. Melodee likes trucks. I pulled the truck up in front of the house and was about halfway up the steps when Melodee came through the door.

Before I go on, I want you to remember that I had been living in Melodee's house for more than a year and working for her for more than 4 years. I'd seen her in everything from jeans and a tee shirt to evening gowns that cost more than the GDP of some countries. I'd seen her in swimsuits that weren't much more than a few square inches of lace and some string to baggy sweatshirts and footy pajamas. And she has the habit of running around the house after she showers in nothing but a towel. I already knew that, somehow, Melodee made them all look good. Maybe I'm biased on that part.

She was wearing a yellow skirt that was far enough above her knees and tight enough that I couldn't help wondering how she could walk in it. Added to the skirt was a black top that left like a mile of her waist exposed. She had her hair down to its full length just past her shoulders, and she had added shoes that had at least 4-inch heels. Melodee is tall. She claims she's 5'9", but she's closer to 5'10". I know because I'm 6'9" and the top of her head was level with my eyes. Not that I was looking at the top of her head.

I can remember that the only thing I could come up with to say was, "Hi."

She smiled that dawn-breaking smile of hers and said, "Not tonight."

We got in the truck and drove the 10 or so miles to the casino. I couldn't even speak and I was afraid to look over at her for fear of wrecking the truck. As we walked through the casino to the restaurant, she held my hand and every man we passed stared at her. No, it didn't bother me, but I still don't know why. All I knew at the time was that I didn't blame them.

After dinner, we went over to the nightclub in the casino, and we had a few drinks. Between the wine with dinner and the drinks at the bar, I was at least able to talk to her. Until then, I don't think I had said more than a dozen words. I managed something like, "You look nice tonight."

She smiled. "Thanks. I hoped you'd like it."

"Yeah, I do." I needed another drink. Or ten.

She laughed and flipped her hair over her shoulder. I recall wishing she hadn't done that, because my mind sort of kicked into neutral then. "Are you going to ask me to dance or what?"

I honestly still don't know how Melodee can dance. She's totally deaf, but she keeps in time with the music somehow. She says she can feel the vibrations, but I don't know. Maybe she's in better tune to that than I am, but I can't feel anything. But I asked her to dance, and we went to the dance floor. The band played two fairly fast songs, and we danced to them, only holding hands most of the time. Then, the band shifted gears to a slow dance. I decided that discretion was the better part of valor, and headed for the table, but Melodee grabbed my hand. She frowned and signed, "Where are you going?" Without waiting for an answer, she moved into my arms and wrapped hers around my neck. By now, my brain couldn't find any gear, not even neutral, so I just followed her lead.

I had danced with Melodee before at various business gatherings. I often went to such events with her as her "date", but I was actually her bodyguard. The fact was that this was different. Those past events were, well, business. This was pleasure. Before, I was focused on the crowd, watching the people there. Now, I was focused on Melodee.

As the song played (it was "I Don't Want To Miss A Thing" originally by Aerosmith. Yes, I remember that.), it felt right somehow. Melodee rested her head on my shoulder, and she did something that, at the time, I couldn't follow at all. As we danced, she pulled her right hand from around my neck and rested it on my chest, and was signing with her fingers against my chest. I couldn't understand her, though, and I told her so. She just smiled and put her arm back around my neck.

After the song ended, we went back to the table, and sat down. I had my hands on the table in front of me, and she reached over and took them in her left hand so she could sign with her right. "I was trying to tell you 2 things out there. First, thanks for bringing me here tonight."

I guess my brain was working a little better. "No, thank you for coming with me."

Melodee smiled. "And it felt really good dancing with you."

"I could say the same."

She laughed. About then, the waitress came around, and Melodee changed from the mixed drink she had to iced tea, and I followed suit. I realized that I didn't need booze to build up my nerve. I just needed to relax. Melodee wouldn't bite me, at least unless I wanted her to!

We talked and drank tea for a long time, sometimes taking a break to dance a little. As the night wore on, I think we both relaxed a lot and became more comfortable with each other. We also spent a lot of time just staring at each other. I won't even try to guess what Melodee's thoughts were, but mine were that maybe this attraction I'd felt for her for so long was something more than simple attraction.

It was after 1am when we decided to head home. As we waited for the valet to bring the truck around, Melodee held on to my arm and rested her head on my shoulder, and it felt great. As we pulled out of the casino, Melodee told me to take "the other" way home.

There are 2 ways to get between where Melodee lives and the casino. The fast way is to take Interstate 8 from the East Willows Road overpass to Highway 79. The "other way" is a dirt road called Viejas Grade Road up the mountain and through Descanso. So, I turned and made my way through the reservation and started up the grade.

It was a clear and moonless night, and there were at least a million stars in the sky. I'd known for a long time that Melodee loves the night sky, and it didn't surprise me at all when, about halfway up the hill, she asked me to pull over so she could look at the stars. I pulled over on a wide spot and shut off the truck and the lights, and we stepped outside. Melodee fumbled in her purse and pulled out a little LED flashlight with a red lens, and we walked to the back of the truck and I let down the tailgate and spread a blanket on the bare steel. I lifted her up to sit on the blanket, and without thinking, I leaned over and picked a freeway daisy from the side of the road and handed it to her.

In the red light, I saw her face get a funny look, like she couldn't believe that I was giving her a flower that didn't come from a florist. For a moment, I thought that I had offended her somehow, broken some rule known only to women that said unless the flowers cost $40 a dozen, they aren't worth having. But Melodee slowly smiled, and took the flower from my hand. She signed, "No one ever picked a flower for me before." She slipped the flower behind her ear, and then patted the tailgate next to her. I sat down beside her, and she leaned against me. We just sat there for a long time, watching the stars and not speaking. We only moved to point to the occasional shooting star as they passed through the darkness.

I felt Melodee shiver, and I asked if she was cold. She nodded, so I helped her down and we got back in the truck. I started the engine and started to put the truck in gear, but she touched my hand. When I looked at her, Melodee took a deep breath and took the flower from her hair and put it carefully on the dash. She leaned over and kissed me.

Things got a little blurry after that. I know we set there in the darkness making out like a couple of kids at the drive-in for more than an hour. I can't remember either of us saying much of anything, and truth be told, we didn't get much past "first base". What I do know for sure is that Melodee felt wonderful in my arms and her lips tasted delicious.

It was pushing 3am when we finally came up for air and decided that we should get home, and all the way there, we held hands and Melodee used the center seatbelt and sat next to me. I just parked the truck in front of the house and we went inside. We peeked into the girl's rooms and they were both sound asleep.

All the way home, I had been wondering what to do when we got there. Okay, I'll admit that I wanted Melodee. To this day, I have no idea why we didn't have sex in the truck, but it seemed right just kissing her. Once we got home, I thought things would be different. I know there are some reading this who will fuss about my kids being in the house, but I wasn't thinking about that.

I walked Melodee to her room, and she opened the door. She turned to face me and smiled, though it looked a little shy, something I had never seen from her before. She asked, "Would you like to come inside?"

I didn't even think about it. It was like I had planned it all, and rehearsed the lines, and knew exactly what to say to her. I reached up and put my hand on her cheek. "No, we both need to think about this and what happened." I kissed her cheek. "Goodnight, Melodee."

I walked down the hall toward my room.

By the time I got to my room and closed the door, I was ready to kick myself. I don't know how long I was in the shower (cold, by the way) before I noticed that I still had my socks on. But sometime around when I laid down and turned out the light, I realized what had happened.

At some point over the last five years, I had fallen in love with Melodee. The fact that she was acting an awful lot like I was told me that maybe, just maybe, she felt the same way.

I slept very well that night, and I had wonderful dreams about an amazing woman.

How Dumb Is Dumb?

2011-02-07T04:00:00.000-08:00

I can't seem to leave some news stories alone...

That's Dumb

The key point that the article misses is that it doesn't address the goals of the American Educational System.

Actually, I should say "goal", because there is only one, and that can be summed up in one word...

Conformity

The single goal is to make sure the student conforms to accepted thinking and current political thinking. Nothing more, and nothing less.

There are many examples to back this, but the clearest and the most obvious is the simple fact that every college student knows, and that is that on any particular exam, the correct answer is not the answer that best answers the question, but the answer that the professor/instructor says is the right answer.

In other words, all the elegant proofs and detailed analysis to prove that 2+2=4 doesn't mean squat if the professor says that 2+2=3. If you answer "4", you fail. If, on the other hand, you conform and answer "3", you pass.

Yes, it really is just that simple.

But we need people how can think analytically. We need, to use an old term, free-thinkers. But there is a problem with that...

Free-thinkers have always been seen by the regime in power as being dangerous. This is because the free-thinkers can see the fallacy of what the regime is saying, they can find the flawed logic. And they can lead the revolt that brings down the regime.

Therefore, we must nip free-thought in the bud, crush the creativity of the masses, and stop any activism against the regime before it gets started, before these dangerous individuals reach adulthood and can effect change.

God save us all if anyone should disagree with the tyrants.

Keep Loving!

Melodee Aaron, Erotica Romance Author

Melodee's Books at BookStrand

Rock'n'Roll Never Forgets

2011-02-06T11:12:00.001-08:00

Yes, I'm back.

I took a hiatus to focus on some writing projects before a trip overseas (Asia, Africa, and Australia), but the tour was canceled. My husband (Jack) is also in charge of "Loss Prevention", and that includes security, for the company. Some of the losses he prevents include life. Mine. Due to the problems in the Mideast (Egypt in particular), we won't be going.

The good news is that I was able to actually get ahead of the writing game a little. The bad news is that the gains are almost all on the print side of the coin. The other good news is that has freed up some time to get to work on the E-Book stuff.

Now...

A few things have been going on around here while I was working...

The biggest is that Jack may soon get to join me in the world of the deaf. Those of you who read regularly here will recall that we got our oldest (Amanda) a new guitar and small amplifier for Christmas. She loves it. And she plays it. A lot. But she has been fussing that the amp doesn't have enough power (her statement is that the "...amp doesn't have enough balls..." Yeah, she's ten) and at the higher volume levels, the amp distorts. What do I know? I'm freaking deaf, so I have to take her word for it. Amanda went to her dad, and then came to me, with an ad for a new amp. A big amp. A REALLY amp. We're talking something that could rattle the roof of the Astrodome. And the puppy is made up of six "cabinets": The amplifier itself, four big speakers, and a smaller monitor speaker. Did I mention that the amplifier is rated at 750 watts? Per channel? Into the five channels? Yeah, that's 3,750 watts total. I have no clue how "loud" a watt is, but I did some checking. Our family room is about 25 feet wide and 35 feet long. The entire family tells me that the sound system for the home theater system in there can get painfully loud if turned up past about 6 or 7. It has a total of 1,500 watts into ten speakers. So, I would guess that better than twice that much power would be pretty freaking loud.

Anyway...

Yes, we got Amanda the new amp. We also have a contractor coming out Monday to do a bid on building her a "Sound Room" into the garage. It will be sound-proofed and have good acoustics so she can play without disturbing anyone and have good sound reproduction.

In the meantime, she is playing the thing in her room.

Amanda's room is next to my office. With her small amp, when she would really crank it up, I could feel the vibrations while working at my desk. She's playing the big amp right now, and I can see the pictures on the shared wall between her room and my office bouncing. The iced tea in my glass next to me is not just "rippling"...it is sloshing around.

And Jack is walking around the house wearing his noise canceling headphones.

And here's the funny part...

Amanda understands that loud noises and music can damage her hearing. She has learned the lessons that rockers of the past like Pete Townsend missed. So she wears some kind of special "Musician's Hearing Protectors" when she plays. I gather that these things reduce the volume without changing the sound. Again, how would I know? You can actually talk to her in a more or less normal voice and she can hear you even when the foundation is cracking. Or, as happened when I went in to talk to her last night, the sound was blowing my hair around.

I'm just thankful that the amp doesn't dim the lights when she plays.

And there is a bright side to all of this...

Amanda is pretty good on the guitar. Oh, she's no Eric Clapton or Eddie van Halen or Jeff Beck, but she's only ten and has only been playing for about five years. She has a gift for the instrument, though, and is able to learn a song very quickly. She can read music, but she can learn a song in a matter of an hour or two just by listening to it. She likes all guitars, too. She plays acoustics, but she loves electric. She also likes bass and rhythm, but she really loves lead. And she can sing, too. At not-quite-eleven, her voice is still a little soft, but she's learning and growing.

I sometimes think that Amanda wants to be a rocker when she grows up. She'd be good at it, I think. Yeah, I'd love to see her be an author, but whatever she's good at and likes is OK with me.

Jack just wants her to do something quiet.

Keep Loving!

Melodee Aaron, Erotica Romance Author

Melodee's Books at BookStrand

January 10 - This Day In History

2011-01-10T04:00:00.000-08:00

This Day In History
Courtesy of
On-This-Day.com

January 10

1776 - Thomas Paine published his pamphlet "Common Sense."

1840 - The penny post, whereby mail was delivered at a standard charge rather than paid for by the recipient, began in Britain.

1861 - Florida seceded from the United States.

1863 - Prime Minister Gladstone opened the first section of the London Underground Railway system, from Paddington to Farringdon Street.

1870 - John D. Rockefeller incorporated Standard Oil.

1901 - Oil was discovered at the Spindletop oil field near Beaumont, TX.

1911 - Major Jimmie Erickson took the first photograph from an airplane while flying over San Diego, CA.

1920 - The League of Nations ratified the Treaty of Versailles, officially ending World War I with Germany.

1920 - The League of Nations held its first meeting in Geneva.

1927 - Fritz Lang's film "Metropolis" was first shown, in Berlin.

1928 - The Soviet Union ordered the exile of Leon Trotsky.

1943 - U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt sailed from Miami, FL, to Trinidad thus becoming the first American President to visit a foreign country during wartime.

1943 - The quiz show, "The Better Half," was heard for the first time on Mutual Radio.

1946 - The first meeting of the United Nations General Assembly took place with 51 nations represented.

1949 - Vinyl records were introduced by RCA (45 rpm) and Columbia (33.3 rpm).

1950 - Ben Hogan appeared for the first time in a golf tournament since an auto accident a year earlier. He tied ‘Slammin’ Sammy Snead in the Los Angeles Open, however, Hogan lost in a playoff.

1951 - Donald Howard Rogers piloted the first passenger jet on a trip from Chicago to New York City.

1957 - Harold Macmillan became prime minister of Britain, following the resignation Anthony Eden.

1963 - The Chicago Cubs became the first baseball club to hire an athletic director. He was Robert Whitlow. (MLB)

1971 - "Masterpiece Theatre" premiered on PBS with host Alistair Cooke. The introduction drama series was "The First Churchills."

1978 - The Soviet Union launched two cosmonauts aboard a Soyuz capsule for a redezvous with the Salyut VI space laboratory.

1981 - In El Salvador, Marxist insurgents launched a "final offensive".

1984 - The United States and the Vatican established full diplomatic relations for the first time in more than a century.

1986 - The uncut version of Jerome Kern’s musical, "Showboat", opened at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC.

1990 - Chinese Premier Li Peng ended martial law in Beijing after seven months. He said that crushing pro-democracy protests had saved China from "the abyss of misery."

1990 - Time Inc. and Warner Communications Inc. completed a $14 billion merger. The new company, Time Warner, was the world's largest entertainment company.

1994 - In Manassas, VA, Lorena Bobbitt went on trial. She had been charged with maliciously wounding her husband John. She was acquitted by reason of temporary insanity.

1997 - Shelby Lynne Barrackman was strangled to death by her grand-father when she licked the icing off of cupcakes. He was convicted of the crime on September 15, 1998.

2000 - It was announced that Time-Warner had agreed to buy America On-line (AOL). It was the largest-ever corporate merger priced at $162 billion. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) approved the deal on December 14, 2000.

2001 - American Airlines agreed to acquire most of Trans World Airlines (TWA) assets for about $500 million. The deal brought an end to the financially troubled TWA.

2002 - In France, the "Official Journal" reported that all women could get the morning-after contraception pill for free in pharmacies.

2003 - North Korea announced that it was withdrawing from the global nuclear arms control treaty and that it had no plans to develop nuclear weapons.

2007 - The iTunes Music Store reached 1.3 million feature length films sold and 50 million television episodes sold.

Whose Birthday Is It?

Keep Loving!

Melodee Aaron, Erotica Romance Author

Melodee's Books at BookStrand

Pinup Girls

2011-01-09T07:00:00.000-08:00

When I first started writing this, I thought that it would appeal most to my male followers. I should say my straight male followers. After all, what I'm talking about here are pictures of naked women.

But then I started thinking about it...

Art is art, no matter how you slice it. Beautiful is beautiful.

That means that there are no gender or preference divisions here. Anyone who appreciates the human form will probably like this, except those at the more prudish end of the scale.

And if that's you, you probably aren't reading my blogs anyway.

So...

There are many definitions of the term "Pinup Girl". You may already have one in your mind, and I'll let you use that or even find one online that you like. For me, I define a Pinup Girl as:

A pop-culture woman presented as a sex symbol.

We've had tons of them in the past from Betty Grable to Marilyn Monroe to the stylized drawings of Vargas and others to Farah Fawcett to Lady Gaga. I believe that just about everyone, no matter their age or gender, can think of at least one Pinup Girl I didn't list.

In the 1950s and 1960s, Playboy redefined the Pinup Girl. Prior to the premiere issue in December of 1953, if you wanted to look at pictures of nude women, you had three basic choices...

First, you could go to back-alley stores and buy some pornography. The quality was poor, and the subject matter often someplace between disturbing and disgusting. It was also illegal in most parts of the US.

Second, you could go to the local air museum. Some of the best post-war Pinup Girls were found there as images on the various planes of the Army Air Corp.

Third, you could go the art museum. The problem for me with this option was always that many of the painting are by impressionists, and the woman's eyes are on two different sides of her head. Sometimes three.

Anyway...

Then along comes Playboy presenting beautiful women in tasteful manners. None of the brashness of porn, and none of the insanity of impressionists. In other words, Pinup Girls.

But, all good things must come to an end. Playboy, like all magazines, is in decline. The web has killed them, they just aren't quite dead yet. So where do we go from here?

Yes, to the 21st Century. And there are Pinup Girls for the 21st Century.

Here are a few web sites I would like you to visit. I should warn you that these may contain nudity. On the other hand, if you're reading this and have made it this far, that's probably OK with you. The sites are all related to the same "parent" site (the last one in the list), but are slightly different.

FaceBook

Twitter

Tumblr

Home Page

You may have heard of the Suicide Girls. They have been around for about nine years now, and they have done a few videos and such. Maybe you haven't heard of them, though.

While it is only my opinion, the Suicide Girls are indeed the Pinup Girls of the 21st Century. They are tastefully presented. They are the proverbial "girls next door", and they are all very pretty women. Many are just plain drop-dead gorgeous.

Yes, there is a fine line between art and pornography, and that line is often defined by individual opinions.

This is art.

Keep Loving!

Melodee Aaron, Erotica Romance Author

Melodee's Books at BookStrand

January 9 - This Day In History

2011-01-09T04:00:00.000-08:00

This Day In History
Courtesy of
On-This-Day.com

January 9

1793 - Jean-Pierre Blanchard made the first successful balloon flight in the U.S.

1799 - British prime minister William Pitt the Younger introduced income tax, at two shillings (10p) in the pound, to raise funds for the Napoleonic Wars.

1848 - The first commercial bank was established in San Francisco, CA.

1861 - The state of Mississippi seceded from the United States.

1894 - The New England Telephone and Telegraph Company put the first battery-operated switchboard into operation in Lexington, MA.

1902 - New York State introduced a bill to outlaw flirting in public.

1905 - In Russia, the civil disturbances known as the Revolution of 1905 forced Czar Nicholas II to grant some civil rights.

1929 - The Seeing Eye was incorporated in Nashville, TN. The company's purpose was to train dogs to guide the blind.

1936 - The United States Army adopted the semi-automatic rifle.

1937 - The first issue of "Look" went on sale. Within a month, "Look" became a biweekly magazine.

1940 - Television was used for the first time to present a sales meeting to convention delegates in New York City.

1951 - The United Nations headquarters officially opened in New York City.

1961 - The play, "Rhinoceros," opened on Broadway.

1969 - The supersonic aeroplane Concorde made its first trial flight, at Bristol.

1972 - The ocean liner Queen Elizabeth was destroyed by fire in Hong Kong harbor.

1972 - British miners went on strike for the first time since 1926.

1981 - Hockey Hall of Famer, Phil Esposito, announced that he would retire as a hockey player after the New York Rangers-Buffalo Sabres hockey game. The game ended in a tie. (NHL)

1984 - Clara Peller was first seen by TV viewers in the "Where's the Beef?" commercial campaign for Wendy's.

1986 - Kodak got out of the instant camera business after 10 years due to a loss in a court battle that claimed that Kodak copied Polaroid patents.

1991 - U.S. secretary of state Baker and Iraqi foreign minister Aziz met for 61/2 hours in Geneva, but failed to reach any agreement that would forestall war in the Persian Gulf.

1995 - Russian cosmonaut Valeri Poliakov, 51, completed his 366th day in outer space aboard the Mir space station, breaking the record for the longest continuous time spent in outer space.

1997 - Tamil rebels attack a military base in Sri Lanka. 200 soldiers and 140 rebels were killed.

2000 - ABC-TV began airing "The Mole."

2002 - Yasmine Bleeth was sentenced to two years of probation, regular drug tests, 100 hours of community service and pay the court costs in connection to a cocaine-possession charge.

2002 - The U.S. Justice Department announced that it was pursuing a criminal investigation of Enron Corp. The company had filed for bankruptcy on December 2, 2001.

2003 - Archaeologists announced that they had found five more chambers in the tomb of Qin Shihuang, China's first emperor. The rooms were believed to cover about 750,000 square feet.

2005 - Matthew Broderick and Nathan Lane received stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in a dual ceremony.

Whose Birthday Is It?

Gracie Fields 1898

Vilma Banky (Lonchit) 1898

Chic (Murat Bernard) Young 1901

George Balanchine 1904

Simone de Beauvoir 1908

Richard Milhous Nixon (U.S.) 1913

Fernando Lamas 1915

Anita Louise (Fremault) 1915

Herbert Lom 1917

Judith Krantz 1928

Domenico Modugno 1928

Bart Starr (NFL) 1934

Bob Denver 1935

Dick Enberg 1935

Big Al Downing 1940

Joan Baez 1941

Susannah York 1941

Roy Head 1943

Jimmy Page 1944 - Musician (Led Zeppelin)

Scott (Noel) Engel (The Walker Brothers) 1944

Bill Cowsill 1948 - Musician (Cowsills)

Rio Reiser 1950

David Johansen 1950 - Musician (Buster Poindexter)

Crystal Gayle 1951

Eric Erlandson 1963 - Musician (Hole)

Haddaway 1965

Joely Richardson 1965

David John "Dave" Matthews 1967

Carl Bell 1967 - Musician (Fuel)

Steve Harwell 1967 - Musician (Smash Mouth)

A.J. McLean 1978

Keep Loving!

Melodee Aaron, Erotica Romance Author

Melodee's Books at BookStrand

January 8 - This Day In History

2011-01-08T04:00:00.000-08:00

This Day In History
Courtesy of
On-This-Day.com

January 8

1642 - Astronomer Galileo Galilei died in Arcetri, Italy.

1675 - The first corporation was charted in the United States. The company was the New York Fishing Company.

1790 - In the United States, George Washington delivered the first State of the Union address.

1815 - The Battle of New Orleans began. The War of 1812 had officially ended on December 24, 1814, with the signing of the Treaty of Ghent. The news of the signing had not reached British troops in time to prevent their attack on New Orleans.

1838 - Alfred Vail demonstrated a telegraph code he had devised using dots and dashes as letters. The code was the predecessor to Samuel Morse's code.

1853 - A bronze statue of Andrew Jackson on a horse was unveiled in Lafayette Park in Washington, DC. The statue was the work of Clark Mills.

1856 - Borax (hydrated sodium borate) was discovered by Dr. John Veatch.

1877 - Crazy Horse (Tashunca-uitco) and his warriors fought their final battle against the U.S. Cavalry in Montana.

1886 - The Severn Railway Tunnel, Britain's longest, was opened.

1889 - The tabulating machine was patented by Dr. Herman Hollerith. His firm, Tabulating Machine Company, later became International Business Machines Corporation (IBM).

1894 - Fire caused serious damage at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, IL.

1900 - U.S. President McKinley placed Alaska under military rule.

1900 - In South Africa, General White turned back the Boers attack of Ladysmith.

1901 - The first tournament sanctioned by the American Bowling Congress was held in Chicago, IL.

1908 - A catastrophic train collision occurred in the smoke-filled Park Avenue Tunnel in New York City. Seventeen were killed and thirty-eight were injured. The accident caused a public outcry and increased demand for electric trains.

1916 - During World War I, the final withdrawal of Allied troops from Gallipoli took place.

1918 - U.S. President Woodrow Wilson announced his Fourteen Points as the basis for peace upon the end of World War I.

1921 - David Lloyd George became the first prime minister tenant at Chequers Court, Buckinghamshire.

1929 - William S. Paley appeared on CBS Radio for the first time to announce that CBS had become the largest regular chain of broadcasting chains in radio history.

1935 - The spectrophotometer was patented by A.C. Hardy.

1952 - Marie Wilson came to TV as "My Friend Irma".

1955 - After 130 home basketball wins, Georgia Tech defeated Kentucky 59-58. It was the first Kentucky loss at home since January 2, 1943.

1957 - Jackie Robinson announced his retirement from major league baseball in an article that appeared in "LOOK" magazine.

1958 - Bobby Fisher, at the age of 14, won the United States Chess Championship for the first time.

1959 - Charles De Gaulle was inaugurated as president of France's Fifth Republic.

1960 - The NCAA met in New York and voted against reviving the unlimited substitution rule for college football.

1964 - U.S. President Lyndon Johnson declared a "War on Poverty."

1961 - Robert Goulet made his national TV debut this night on "The Ed Sullivan Show" on CBS.

1962 - Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa was exhibited in America for the first time at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. The next day the exhibit opened to the public.

1973 - Secret peace talks between the United States and North Vietnam resumed near Paris, France.

1973 - The trial opened in Washington, of seven men accused of bugging Democratic Party headquarters in the Watergate apartment complex in Washington, DC.

1975 - Ella Grasso became the governor of Connecticut. She was the first woman to become a governor of a state without a husband preceding her in the governor’s chair.

1982 - American Telephone & Telegraph (AT&T) settled the Justice Department's antitrust lawsuit against it by agreeing to divest itself of the 22 Bell System companies.

1982 - The U.S. Justice Department withdrew an antitrust suit against IBM.

1987 - The Dow Jones industrial average closed over the 2000 mark for the first time at 2,002.25.

1992 - U.S. President H.W. George Bush collapsed during a state dinner in Tokyo. White House officials said Bush was suffering from stomach flu.

1993 - Bosnian President Izetbegovic visited the U.S. to plead his government's case for Western military aid and intervention to halt Serbian aggression.

1994 - Tonya Harding won the ladies' U.S. Figure Skating Championship in Detroit, MI, a day after Nancy Kerrigan dropped out because of a clubbing attack that injured her right knee. The U.S. Figure Skating Association later took the title from Harding because of her involvement in the attack.

1997 - Mister Rogers received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

1998 - Ramzi Yousef was sentenced to life in prison for his role of mastermind behind the World Trade Center bombing in New York.

1998 - Scientists announced that they had discovered that galaxies were accelerating and moving apart and at faster speeds.

1999 - The top two executives of Salt Lake City's Olympic Organizing Committee resigned amid disclosures that civic boosters had given cash to members of the International Olympic Committee.

1999 - British Prime Minister Tony Blair concluded a three-day visit to South Africa.

2005 - The rate for U.S. First Class mail was raised to 39¢.

2009 - In Egypt, archaeologists entered a 4,300 year old pyramid and discovered the mummy of Queen Sesheshet.

Whose Birthday Is It?

James Longstreet 1821 - U.S. Civil War general

Wilkie Collins 1824

Jose Ferrer 1909 - Actor, director

Larry Storch 1923 - Actor ("F Troop")

Ron Moody 1924 - Actor ("Oliver Twist")

Soupy Sales (Milton Hines) 1926 - Comedian (Host: The Soupy Sales Show)

Walter Hergesheimer 1927 - Hockey player

Sander Vanocur 1928 - Broadcast journalist (ABC News)

Doreen Wilbur 1930 - Archery

Charles Osgood 1933 - Broadcast journalist (CBS News Sunday Morning)

Gene Freese 1934 - Baseball

Elvis Presley 1935 - Musician, known as "the King of rock 'n' roll"

Shirley Bassey 1937 - Singer

Christy Lane 1940 Country-gospel singer

Anthony Gourdine 1940 Singer (Little Anthony and The Imperials)

Yvette Mimieux 1941 - Actress ("The Time Machine", "The Most Deadly Game")

Stephen Hawking 1942 - Theoretical physicist, writer (A Brief History of Time)

Ron Ellis 1945 - Hockey player

Robby Krieger 1946 - Musician (The Doors)

David Bowie (David Robert Jones) 1947 Singer, movies ("The Man Who Fell to Earth", "Labyrinth", "Basquiat"), Broadway ("The Elephant Man")

Terry Sylvester 1947 (Hollies, Swinging Blue Jeans)

Joe Reed 1948 - Football player

Wilbur Howard 1949 - Baseball player

John McTiernan 1951 - Director

Calvin Smith 1961

Maria Patillo 1965 - Actress

R. Kelly 1969

Ami Dolenz 1969 - Actress

Jenny Lewis 1976 - Actress

Gaby Hoffman 1982 - Actress

Keep Loving!

Melodee Aaron, Erotica Romance Author

Melodee's Books at BookStrand

January 7 - This Day In History

2011-01-07T04:00:00.000-08:00

This Day In History
Courtesy of
On-This-Day.com

January 7

1558 - Calais, the last English possession on mainland France, was recaptured by the French.

1610 - Galileo Galilei sighted four of Jupiter's moons. He named them Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto.

1782 - The Bank of North America opened in Philadelphia. It was the first commercial bank in the United States.

1785 - French aeronaut/balloonist Jean-Pierre Blanchard successfully made the first air-crossing of the English Channel from the English coast to France.

1789 - Americans voted for the electors that would choose George Washington to be the first U.S. president.

1887 - Thomas Stevens completed the first worldwide bicycle trip. He started his trip in April 1884. Stevens and his bike traveled 13,500 miles in almost three years time.

1894 - W.K. Dickson received a patent for motion picture film.

1896 - "Fannie Farmer Cookbook" cookbook was published.

1904 - The distress signal "CQD" was established. Two years later "SOS" became the radio distress signal because it was quicker to send by wireless radio.

1926 - George Burns and Gracie Allen were married.

1927 - Transatlantic telephone service Service began between New York and London. 31 calls were made on this first day.

1927 - In Hinckley IL, the Harlem Globetrotters played their first game.

1929 - The debut of "Buck Rogers 2429 A.D." occurred in newspapers around the U.S. The title of the comic strip was later changed to "Buck Rogers in the 25th Century."

1932 - Chancellor Heinrich Brüning declared that Germany cannot, and will not, resume reparations payments.

1935 - French Foreign Minister Pierre Laval and Italian Prime Minister Benito Mussolini signed the Italo-French agreements.

1940 - "Gene Autry’s Melody Ranch" debuted on CBS Radio. The show aired for 16 years.

1941 - The NBC Blue radio network presented "The Squeaky Door" for the first time. The show was later known as "Inner Sanctum."

1942 - The World War II siege of Bataan began.

1949 - The announcement of the first photograph of genes was shown at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.

1953 - U.S. President Harry Truman announced the development of the hydrogen bomb.

1954 - The Duoscopic TV receiver was unveiled this day. The TV set allowed the watching of two different shows at the same time.

1959 - The United States recognized Fidel Castro's new government in Cuba.

1968 - The cost of a U.S. first class stamp was raised to 6 cents.

1975 - OPEC agreed to raise crude oil prices by 10%, which began a time of world economic inflation.

1979 - Vietnamese forces captured the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh, overthrowing the Khmer Rouge government.

1980 - U.S. President Jimmy Carter signed legislation that authorized $1.5 billion in loans for the bail out of Chrysler Corp.

1989 - Crown Prince Akihito became the emperor of Japan following the death of his father, Emperor Hirohito.

1990 - The Leaning Tower of Pisa was closed to the public. The accelerated rate of "leaning" raised fears for the safety of its visitors.

1996 - Alvaro Arzu was elected president of Guatemala.

1996 - One of the biggest blizzards in U.S. history hit the eastern states. More than 100 deaths were later blamed on the severe weather.

1998 - Former White House intern Monica Lewinsky signed an affidavit denying that she had an affair with U.S. President Clinton.

1999 - U.S. President Clinton went on trial before the Senate. It was only the second time in U.S. history that an impeached president had gone to trial. Clinton was later acquitted of perjury and obstruction of justice charges.

2002 - Microsoft Corp. chairman Bill Gates introduced a new device code named Mira. The device was tablet-like and was a cross between a handheld computer and a TV remote control.

2009 - Russia shut off all gas supplies to Europe through Ukraine. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin publicly endorsed the move and urged greater international involvement in the energy dispute.

Whose Birthday Is It?

Jacques Montgolfier 1745

Joseph Bonaparte (Naples) 1768

Millard S. Fillmore (U.S.) 1800

Charles Laemmle 1867

Adolph Zukor 1873

Charles Péguy 1873

Butterfly McQueen 1911

Charles Addams 1912

Vincent Gardenia 1922

Jean-Pierre Rampal 1922

Gerald Durrell 1925

William Blatty 1928

Terry Moore (Helen Koford) 1929

Jack Greene 1930

Douglas Kiker 1930

Eldee Young 1936

Lou Graham (golfer) 1938

Danny Williams 1942

Paul Revere (Paul Revere and The Raiders) 1942

Leona Williams 1943

Jan Wenner 1946

Kenny Loggins 1948

Marshall Chapman 1949

Erin Gray 1952

Morris Titanic (NHL) 1953

Katie Couric 1957

David Lee Murphy 1958

Kathy Valentine (The Go-Go's) 1958

David Marciano 1960

Craig Shipley 1963

Nicholas Cage 1964

Guy Hebert (NHL) 1967

Doug E. Doug 1970

John Rich 1974

Dustin Diamond 1977

Rhianna (Robin Hannah Louise Kenny) 1983 - Singer

Keep Loving!

Melodee Aaron, Erotica Romance Author

Melodee's Books at BookStrand

January 6 - This Day In History

2011-01-06T04:00:00.000-08:00

This Day In History
Courtesy of
On-This-Day.com

January 6

0871 - England's King Alfred defeated the Danes at the Battle of Ashdown.

1205 - Philip of Swabia was crowned as King of the Romans.

1453 - Frederick III erected Austria into an Archduchy.

1540 - King Henry VIII of England was married to Anne of Cleves, his fourth wife.

1720 - The Committee of Inquiry on the South Sea Bubble published its findings.

1759 - George Washington and Martha Dandridge Custis were married.

1838 - Samuel Morse publicly demonstrated the telegraph for the first time.

1896 - The first American women’s six-day bicycle race was held at Madison Square Garden in New York City.

1900 - In India, it was reported that millions of people were dying from starvation.

1900 - Off of South Africa, the British seized the German steamer Herzog. The boat was released on January 22, 1900.

1912 - New Mexico became the 47th U.S. state.

1930 - The first diesel-engine automobile trip was completed after a run of 792 miles from Indianapolis, IN, to New York City, NY.

1931 - Thomas Edison executed his last patent application.

1941 - Richard Widmark made his debut on radio in "The Home of the Brave."

1941 - Alice Marble made her professional tennis debut when she defeated Ruth Hardwick of Great Britain at Madison Square Garden in New York City.

1942 - The first commercial around-the-world airline flight took place. Pan American Airlines was the company that made history with the feat.

1942 - The National Collegiate Football Rules Committee abolished the Y formation.

1945 - The Battle of the Bulge ended with 130,000 German and 77,000 Allied casualties.

1950 - Britain recognized the Communist government of China.

1952 - "Peanuts" debuted in Sunday papers across the United States.

1963 - "Wild Kingdom" premiered on NBC.

1967 - U.S. and South Vietnamese forces launched a major offensive, known as Operation "Deckhouse V", in the Mekong River delta.

1974 - CBS radio debuted "Radio Mystery Theatre."

1975 - The Broadway show "The Wiz" opened.

1975 - ABC-TV debuted "A.M. America."

1982 - William G. Bonin was convicted in Los Angeles, CA, of being the "freeway killer" who had murdered 14 young men and boys.

1987 - After a 29-year lapse, the Ford Thunderbird was presented with the Motor Trend Car of the Year Award. It was the first occurrence of a repeat winner of the award.

1994 - Figure skater Nancy Kerrigan was clubbed on the right leg by an assailant at Cobo Arena in Detroit, MI. Four men were later sentenced to prison for the attack, including Tonya Harding's ex-husband.

1998 - The spacecraft Lunar Prospect was launched into orbit around the moon. The craft was crashed into the moon, in an effort to find water under the lunar surface, on July 31, 1999.

1999 - The 106th U.S. Congress opened. The first item on the agenda was the impeachment proceedings of U.S. President Bill Clinton. The trial was set to begin January 7, 1999.

1999 - Bob Newhart received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Whose Birthday Is It?

King Richard II (England) 1367

Joan of Arc 1412

Jedediah Smith 1799

Gustave Doré 1833

Carl Sandburg 1878

Tom (Thomas Erwin) Mix 1880

Joey Adams 1911

Danny Thomas 1912

Loretta Young 1913

Eugene Maleska 1916

Sun Myung Moon 1920

Earl Scruggs (Bluegrass Boys, Foggy Mountain Boys) 1924

John Z. DeLorean 1925

Pat Flaherty 1926

Wilbert Harrison 1929

Vic Tayback 1930

Dickie Moore 1931

E.L. Doctorow 1931

Bobby Lord 1934

Silvia Syms 1934

Nino Tempo 1935

Doris Troy 1937

Bonnie Franklin 1944

Syd Barrett (Pink Floyd) 1946

Kim Wilson (The Fabulous Thunderbirds) 1951

Jett Williams 1953

Malcolm Young (AC/DC) 1953

Rowan Atkinson 1955

Van McCoy 1956

Nancy Lopez Knight 1957

Kathy Sledge (Sister Sledge) 1959

Eric Williams (BLACKstreet) 1960

Michael Houser (Widespread Panic) 1962

Charles Haley (NFL) 1964

John Singleton 1968

Danny Pintauro 1976

Keep Loving!

Melodee Aaron, Erotica Romance Author

Melodee's Books at BookStrand

The Ultimate Radio

2011-01-05T16:00:00.000-08:00

I can't seem to leave some news stories alone...

Phone Home

Amazing...

Yes, a gravity well can be used as a lens for light and shorter wavelengths. No arguments there.

The gain in power in a system is easily measured by using a thing called a decibel (dB). While not exactly true, for every 3 dB of gain, you double the effective radiated power (ERP). Let's talk radio since that's more familiar to most people...

If your radio puts out 10 watts, and you put up a new antenna that has 3 dB more gain than your old antenna, you have done the same thing as increasing your power output to 20 watts. As a general rule, though, a new antenna is cheaper than a new transmitter. AND the new antenna also helps on the receive side, pulling in weaker signals better than the old one did.

Just some rough calculations show that the sun could provide as much as four million dB of gain.

But, the problem is not about power. It's about time.

No matter what you do, radio can't travel faster than light. The cosmic speed limit is fixed at 300-million meters per second.

We already have several radio telescope systems that can communicate with another facility just like them anywhere in the galaxy. The downside is if we are talking to ET on his home planet that is, let's say, 200 light years away, when we send a message, we won't get an answer for 400 years. We could harness the entire output of the sun and blink it on and off in Morse code, and that time won't change.

Keep Loving!

Melodee Aaron, Erotica Romance Author

Melodee's Books at BookStrand

Life With Melodee - Part Two

2011-01-05T11:30:00.000-08:00

People often ask me the same question:

What is it like to live with Melodee?

That's a pretty big and deep subject, and there isn't an easy answer. Like the old saying goes, it's complicated.

But I'm going to try to tell you a little about what Life With Melodee is like in a series of postings here on Melodee's blog.

Part Two

The Early Years

Back in the early days of my life with Melodee, it was very much an employer/employee relationship.

I admit that I was attracted to her from the moment I met her, but as I have said before, I was married and had a young daughter, Amanda. Even though my wife and I had problems, I take a great deal of pride in the fact that I never cheated on her. Not once. I guess one could say that, as Jimmy Carter put it, I did "lust in my mind" a few times, but I never acted on those thoughts.

Melodee and Diana gave me a free hand to set up things as I saw fit on the security side of the coin. I got rid of the contracts with the security companies and hired our own people. Most were old friends and others from the military. Some were special ops people, others were military police types, and a few were new to the idea of security but they had potential. I had teams in place at Melodee's house and to go along on trips. It was all working very well.

I know it was because I felt attracted to Melodee, but the fact that she dated people bothered me. I tried to rationalize that irritation as her being alone with someone was a security risk. That was, and I knew it then, total bullshit. I was envious of her dates at best. Just plain jealous at worse. There was even a time that I tried to talk her out of going out with a particular woman because I was worried about her being exposed to risks. I even offered to go along to "protect" her. Melodee just laughed and went anyway. Alone.

I don't think I mentioned that Melodee was bisexual. She had just as many dates with women and she did men. Yeah, that bothered me, too.

I remember one turning point in our relationship, though.

One of the guards at the house had a baby, and he needed a few days off to be with his wife and new son, so I covered for him. Melodee's property has a fairly large lake, and she was down on the boat dock laying in the sun working on her tan. I used the excuse of keeping an eye on her to tag along. Actually, I rationalize a lot. I couldn't resist watching her in her bikini. I really was keeping an eye on her.

I had stood up from my chair to get some iced tea, and Melodee decided to stand up for some reason. Being ever the officer and a gentleman, I went to help her up. I had her hands in mine, and as she tried to stand, her bare foot on the towel she'd been lying on, the towel slipped on the wooden dock and she started to fall. Without thinking, I grabbed her under the arms and more or less picked her up and we ended up in what could easily have been seen as an embrace.

So there we stood on the dock, my arms around Melodee's waist and hers had moved up to circle my neck. Our faces were maybe 6 inches apart as she stared up at me. I imagine that my face was at least as slack-jawed as hers looked to me. We held that position for what seemed like minutes, but it couldn't have been more than a few seconds. I knew I should say something, but I couldn't think of anything, let alone something neutral.

Melodee recovered first. A smile that was like dawn breaking spread over her face and she said, "Thanks. I could have broken my neck."

All I could say in reply was something like, "You're welcome."

We let go of each other and went about the rest of the day like nothing happened.

A couple of years after I went to work for Melodee, my marriage fell apart completely and for the last time. By then, Amanda was pushing 3-years-old and I had another daughter, Debbie, who was nearing 1-year-old. I didn't fight for the girls in the divorce, instead settling for a pretty much standard shared custody deal where the girls stayed with their mother. I would often bring the girls up to Melodee's place for the weekend so they could be outside and enjoy the fresh air out of the city. The girls both fell in love with Melodee and she with them. They called her "Aunt Melodee". There was no secret that Melodee liked to party. She had some drug issues that she worked hard to keep in remission, not always with great success, but she tried. But she was great with the girls, and I couldn't help but think that Melodee would make a great mom one day.

One evening, I was again covering security at the house, and we had just finished dinner. Melodee and I sat at the table in the dining room and sipped at some wine. Melodee is nothing if not blunt, and she asked me, "So, Jack, when are you going to take the girls away from your ex?" I told her that a single man who traveled as much as I did to work with her would have pretty much zero chance of getting full custody. Melodee just shrugged. "Maybe. You and I both know that Paula [my ex] is a tweaker."

I could only nod. I'd known that Paula was using meth, but I'd rationalized that she didn't abuse the girls. Looking back now, I understand that neglect is just a subset of abuse. I was wrong and I put my girls at risk because of my mistakes. I'll never be able to make that up to them.

Melodee only smiled at me. "It takes a junkie to know a junkie. You need to get the girls away from her."

I can't remember what it was now, but something interrupted us and we wouldn't return to the conversation for some time.

As time went on, Melodee and I became friends. We shared a lot of laughs and some sad times, too. How could we not? We were together a great deal of the time, and we were deeply involved in each other's lives.

I thought a lot about asking Melodee to go out with me, but it seems like every time I worked my nerve up to actually asking her, she would find some new flame and I would back off.

When Amanda was 4 and Debbie 2, I finally decided, with Melodee's support, to get custody of the girls. It was surprisingly easy, too. All my ex cared about was the child-support money. I just agreed to keep sending her the money, and she signed the papers giving me custody and her visitation rights.

But that created a new problem: I had a single bedroom apartment in Alpine, about 10 miles from Melodee's house, and I needed to find a new place to live.

In her typical, offhand manner, Melodee said, "Hell, that house is way too big for me. You and the girls can move into my place. We'll probably never see each other."

And so, Amanda, Debbie, and I all moved into Aunt Melodee's place.

Next time I'll talk about how Melodee and I fell in love. Or at least how we came to know that we'd been in love for a long time already.

Jack

January 5 - This Day In History

2011-01-05T04:00:00.000-08:00

This Day In History
Courtesy of
On-This-Day.com

January 5

1781 - Richmond, VA, was burned by a British naval expedition led by Benedict Arnold.

1885 - The Long Island Railroad Company became the first to offer piggy-back rail service which was the transportation of farm wagons on trains.

1896 - It was reported by The Austrian newspaper that Wilhelm Roentgen had discovered the type of radiation that became known as X-rays.

1900 - In Ireland, Nationalist leader John Edward Redmond called for a revolt against British rule.

1903 - The general public could use the Pacific cable for the very first time.

1914 - Ford Motor Company announced that there would be a new daily minimum wage of $5 and an eight-hour workday.

1925 - Mrs. Nellie Taylor Ross was sworn in as the governor of Wyoming She was the first female governor in the U.S.

1933 - Construction of the Golden Gate Bridge began.

1934 - Both the National and American baseball leagues decided to use a uniform-size baseball. It was the first time in 33 years that both leagues used the same size ball. (MLB)

1935 - Phil Spitalny’s All-Girl Orchestra was featured on CBS radio on the program, "The Hour of Charm."

1940 - The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) got its very first demonstration of FM radio.

1944 - The London "Daily Mail" was the first transoceanic newspaper to be published.

1948 - Warner Brothers-Pathe showed the very first color newsreel. The footage was of the Tournament of Roses Parade and the Rose Bowl football classic.

1956 - In the Peanuts comic strip, Snoopy walked on two legs for the first time.

1961 - "Mr. Ed" debuted. The show would run for six years.

1970 - "All My Children" premiered on ABC.

1972 - U.S. President Richard M. Nixon ordered the development of the space shuttle.

1987 - U.S. President Ronald Reagan underwent prostate surgery.

1993 - The state of Washington executed Westley Allan Dodd. It was America's first legal hanging since 1965. Dodd was an admitted child sex killer.

1996 - Yahya Ayyash, a member of the Hamas in Israel, is killed by a booby-trapped cellular phone.

1998 - U.S. Representative Sonny Bono died in skiing accident.

2002 - A 15 year-old student pilot, Charles Bishop, crashed a small plane into a building in Tampa, FL. Bishop was about to begin a flying lesson when he took off without permission and without an instructor.

Whose Birthday Is It?

Stephen Decatur 1779

Edmund Ruffin 1794

Jeannette Piccard 1895

Jean-Pierre Aumont 1913

George Reeves 1914

Al Blozis 1919

Erica Morini 1919

Jean-Pierre Aumont 1919

Sam Phillips 1920

Buddy Young 1926

W.D. Snodgrass 1926

Fred Glover 1928

Walter 'Fritz' Mondale 1928

Robert Duvall 1930

Alvin Ailey 1931

Chuck Noll 1932

Johnny Adams 1932

Francois d'Aulan 1932

Earl Battey 1935

Lindsay Crosby 1938

Chuck McKinley 1941

Wayne Rutledge 1942

Sam Wyche 1945

Diane Keaton 1946

Ted Lange 1947

George "Funky" Brown (Kool and the Gang) 1949

Chris Stein (Blondie) 1950

Pamela Sue Martin 1953

Clancy Brown 1959

Suzy Amis 1961

Iris Dement 1961

Jeff Fassero 1963

Schellenbach (Luscious Jackson) 1967

Joe Juneau 1968

Marilyn Manson 1970

Keep Loving!

Melodee Aaron, Erotica Romance Author

Melodee's Books at BookStrand

Social Insecurity

2011-01-04T16:00:00.000-08:00

I can't seem to leave some news stories alone...

Do The Math

This is something that I have long suspected, but I never actually looked at it very close before. Well, let's take a look...

First of all, to keep things simple, I have used the figures from the article that a couple paid $114,000 in Medicare taxes and another $614,000 in Social Security taxes over their careers. I have assumed that the people will retire after paying into the systems for 45 years, that is to say that they worked and paid taxes from about age 20 to age 65. Also, for the sake of simplicity, I simply divided the about amounts by 45 years to get an average annual payment. These come to $2,533.33 per year for Medicare and $13,644.44 for Social Security. Next, I used a savings calculator located at http://moneycentral.msn.com/personal-finance/calculators/aim_to_save_calculator/home.aspx to do the calculations and used the default of a 5% return rate. The really iffy part is that I assumed that the tax rate would be 0% since this is a medical and retirement savings account. Finally, I have stopped paying interest on the money at the end of the 45 years when you start to withdraw the money from the accounts.

Here we go...

For Medicare, if you saved the $2,533.33 per year for 45 years at 5% interest, you would have a total of $404,573. That's well in excess of the $355,000 the article states you will need for health care.

For Social Security, if you saved the $13,644.44 per year for 45 years at 5% interest, you would have a total of $2,179,019. The article says you'll only need $555,000.

These simple figures identify one major issue:

The big government Marxist way of doing things is horribly inefficient.

But, let's carry our math a little farther...

According to the World Bank, the average life expectancy in the US is just over 78 years. That means you will live about 13 years after you retire and start drawing the above benefits. We'll call it 15 years to make the math easier.

For health care, you would have about $27,000 a year to spend. For retirement benefits, you would get about $145,200 a year. That's a total of more than $172,000 a year.

Now, most people by this age will have paid off their mortgage, so living expenses come down to maintenance, utilities, insurance, and taxes. Let's call that about $1,200 a month. They may have a car payment, and we'll use $750 a month. Clothing and food should be around $750 a month. And for everything else, let's toss in another $1,000 a month. Yes, these figures are probably high, but I would rather error in that direction than come in too low. This comes to $3,700 a month, or $44,400 a year. That leaves our retired couple $127,600 a year to spend for health care and as "mad money".

The obvious thing—the gorilla in the room, if you like—is that we are paying far too much for far too little. Investments and savings made through the private sector will provide bigger returns for smaller cash costs.

So, how do we fix it?

The problem is that the Marxists have promised people for decades that Medicare and Social Security will take care of them. No matter what your politics might be, the right thing to do is to make good on those misguided promises. Yes, it will be hard, and it will be costly, but it's the right thing to do.

I would suggest some kind of a sliding scale. People over a certain age simply keep paying what they do now and get full coverage when they retire. People under that age get an individual account in the private sector with the dollars paid in so far plus interest deposited, and all future payments go there, too. New people entering the system get the private account from the start. There would be a spike in the costs to the government to pay for the mistakes made in the past, but then the costs would actually go down with time. And the economy would benefit from the extra money in the system.

We pay for this with the money saved by the elimination of the entire Social Security Administration and a few dozen other agencies whose jobs just ended because government gets out of the business.

And before someone asks, yes, this should be mandatory, just like current Medicare and Social Security taxes.

Keep Loving!

Melodee Aaron, Erotica Romance Author

Melodee's Books at BookStrand

January 4 - This Day In History

2011-01-04T04:00:00.000-08:00

This Day In History
Courtesy of
On-This-Day.com

January 4

1821 - The first native-born American saint, Elizabeth Ann Seton, died in Emmitsburg, MD.

1850 - The first American ice-skating club was organized in Philadelphia, PA.

1884 - The socialist Fabian Society was founded in London.

1885 - Dr. William Grant performed the first successful appendectomy. The patient was Mary Gartside.

1896 - Utah became the 45th U.S. state.

1928 - NBC Radio debuted "The Dodge Victory Hour" which starred Will Rogers, Paul Whiteman and his Orchestra and singer Al Jolson.

1935 - Bob Hope was heard for the first time on network radio as part of "The Intimate Revue."

1936 - The first pop music chart based on national sales was published by "Billboard" magazine.

1944 - The attack on Monte Cassino was launched by the British Fifth Army in Italy.

1948 - Britain granted independence to Burma.

1951 - During the Korean conflict, North Korean and Communist Chinese forces captured the city of Seoul.

1953 - Tufted plastic carpeting was introduced by Barwick Mills.

1957 - "Collier’s" magazine was published for the last time. The periodical was published for 69 years.

1958 - The Soviet satellite Sputknik I fell to the earth from its orbit. The craft had been launched on October 4, 1957.

1960 - French author Albert Camus died in an automobile accident at age 46.

1962 - New York City introduced a train that operated without conductors and motormen.

1965 - The Fender Guitar Company was sold to CBS for $13 million.

1965 - Poet T.S. Eliot died at age 76.

1965 - In his State of the Union address, U.S. President Johnson proclaimed the building of the "Great Society."

1972 - Rose Heilbron became the first woman judge in Britain at the Old Bailey, London.

1974 - U.S. President Nixon refused to hand over tape recordings and documents subpoenaed by the Senate Watergate Committee.

1974 - NBC-TV presented hockey in prime time. The Boston Bruins and the New York Rangers were the teams in the National Hockey League (NHL) game.

1981 - The Broadway show "Frankenstein" lost an estimated $2 million, when it opened and closed on the same night.

1982 - Bryant Gumbel moved from NBC Sports to the anchor desk where he joined Jane Pauley as co-host of the "Today" show on NBC.

1984 - Wayne ‘The Great One’ Gretzky scored eight points (four goals and four assists) for the second time in his National Hockey League (NHL) career. Edmonton’s Oilers defeated the Minnesota North Stars, 12-8. The game was the highest-scoring NHL game to date.

1987 - An Amtrak train bound from Washington to Boston collided with Conrail engines approaching from a side track, 16 people were killed.

1990 - Charles Stuart jumped to his death from a Boston Harbor bridge. He had become a suspect in the murder of his wife. He had claimed that a gunman had shot him and his wife.

1990 - Deposed Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega was arraigned in U.S. federal district court in Miami on drug-trafficking charges.

1991 - The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously to condemn Israel's treatment of the Palestinians in the occupied territories.

1997 - The Greek Cypriot government signed an agreement to buy S-300 surface-to-air missiles from Russia.

1999 - A drifting Nicaraguan fishing boat was found by the Norwegian oil tanker Joelm. The fisherman had been lost at sea for 35 days after the engine of their vessel quit working.

1999 - 16 people were killed and 25 injured when gunmen opened fire on Shiite Muslim worshippers at a mosque in Islamabad, Pakistan.

1999 - Former professional wrestler Jesse Ventura was sworn in as Minnesota's 37th governor.

2001 - FBI agents in the Dallas area charged the "Texas 7" of unlawful flight to avoid federal prosecution for capital murder, broadening the manhunt nationwide.

2006 - Nancy Pelosi became Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives. She was the first woman to hold the position.

2010 - In Dubai, United Arab Emirates, the Burj Dubai (Dubai Tower) opened as the world's tallest tower at 2,625 feet.

Whose Birthday Is It?

Jakob Grimm 1785

Louis Braille 1809

Charles "Tom Thumb" Stratton 1838

Augusta John 1878

Sterling Holloway 1905

Jane Wyman 1914

Barbara Rush 1927

Don Shula (NFL) 1930

Ray Starling 1933

Jean Chretien 1934

Floyd Patterson 1935

Dyan Cannon 1937

Grace Bumbry 1937

John McLaughlin 1943

Arthur Conley 1946

Barbara Ann Cochran 1951

Kathy Forrester (The Forrester Sisters) 1955

Ann Magnuson 1956

Bernard Sumner (New Order) 1956

Patty Loveless 1957

Matt Frewer 1958

Michael Stipe (R.E.M.) 1960

Patrick Cassidy 1961

Dave Foley 1963

Julia Ormond 1965

Deana Carter 1966

Benjamin Darvill (Crash Test Dummies) 1967

Jeremy Licht 1971

Keep Loving!

Melodee Aaron, Erotica Romance Author

Melodee's Books at BookStrand

Bennie And The Jets

2011-01-03T16:00:00.000-08:00

I can't seem to leave some news stories alone...

I Think I'm Gonna Spew!

Jets of radiation, that is...

The main reason I'd like you to read this article is to follow the links to the images.

They are amazing!

Other than that, I won't bore you with a bunch of physics.

Keep Loving!

Melodee Aaron, Erotica Romance Author

Melodee's Books at BookStrand

January 3 - This Day In History

2011-01-03T04:00:00.000-08:00

This Day In History
Courtesy of
On-This-Day.com

January 3

1496 - References in Leonardo da Vinci notebooks suggested that he tested his flying machine. The test didn't succeed and he didn't try to fly again for several years.

1521 - Pope Leo X excommunicated Martin Luther.

1777 - The Battle of Princeton took place in the War of Independence, in which George Washington defeated the British forces, led by Cornwallis.

1815 - By secret treaty, Austria, Britain, and France formed a defensive alliance against Prusso-Russian plans to solve the Saxon and Polish problems.

1823 - Stephen F. Austin received a grant from the Mexican government and began colonization in the region of the Brazos River in Texas.

1825 - The first engineering college in the U.S. , Rensselaer School, opened in Troy, NY. It is now known as Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

1833 - Britain seized control of the Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic. About 150 years later, Argentina seized the islands from the British, but Britain took them back after a 74-day war.

1868 - The Shogunate was abolished in Japan and Meiji dynasty was restored.

1871 - Henry W. Bradley patented oleomargarine.

1888 - The drinking straw was patented by Marvin C. Stone.

1924 - English explorer Howard Carter discovered the sarcophagus of Tutankhamen in the Valley of the Kings, near Luxor, Egypt.

1925 - In Italy, Mussolini announced that he would take dictatorial powers.

1938 - The first broadcast of "Woman in White" was presented on the NBC Red network. The program remained on radio for 10 years.

1938 - The March of Dimes was established by U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The organization fights poliomyelitis. The original name of the organization was the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis.

1947 - U.S. Congressional proceedings were televised for the first time. Viewers in Washington, Philadelphia and New York City saw some of the opening ceremonies of the 80th Congress.

1947 - In Trenton, NJ, Al Herrin, passed away at age 92. He had claimed that he had not slept at all during his life.

1951 - NBC-TV debuted "Dragnet."

1953 - Frances Bolton and her son, Oliver from Ohio, became the first mother-son combination to serve at the same time in the U.S. Congress.

1957 - The Hamilton Watch Company introduced the first electric watch.

1959 - In the U.S., Alaska became the 49th state.

1961 - The U.S. severed diplomatic relations with Cuba.

1962 - Pope John XXIII excommunicated Cuban prime minister Fidel Castro.

1967 - Jack Ruby died in a Dallas, TX, hospital.

1973 - The Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) sold the New York Yankees to a 12-man syndicate headed by George Steinbrenner for $10 million.

1980 - Conservationist Joy Adamson, author of "Born Free," was killed in northern Kenya by a servant.

1983 - Tony Dorsett (Dallas Cowboys) made the longest run from scrimmage in NFL history. Dorsett ran 99 yards in a game against the Minnesota Vikings.

1984 - A woman died at Disneyland after falling from a ride. She had apparently unfastened her seatbelt while on the Matterhorn bobsled.

1988 - Margaret Thatcher became the longest-serving British Prime Minister in the 20th century.

1990 - Ousted Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega surrendered to U.S. forces, 10 days after taking refuge in the Vatican's diplomatic mission.

1991 - The British government announced that seven Iraqi diplomats, another embassy staff member and 67 other Iraqis were being expelled from Britain.

1993 - U.S. President H.W. George Bush and Russian President Boris Yeltsin signed the second Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) in Moscow.

1995 - WHO reported that the cumulative total of officially reported cases of AIDS had risen to 1,025,073 in 192 countries as at the end of 1994.

1995 - The U.S. Postal Service raised the price of the first-class stamp to 32 cents.

1997 - Bryant Gumbel signed off for the last time as host of NBC's "Today" show.

1998 - China announced that it would spend $27.7 billion to fight erosion and pollution in the Yangtze and Yellow river valleys.

1999 - Israeli authorities detained, and later expelled, 14 members of Concerned Christians. Israeli officials claimed that the Denver, CO-based cult was plotting violence in Jerusalem to bring about the Second Coming of Christ.

2000 - Charles M. Schulz's final original daily comic strip appeared in newspapers.

2001 - The ATF (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms) charged the "Texas 7" with weapons violations. An autopsy showed that Officer Aubrey Hawkins, killed by the convicts, had been shot 11 times and run over with a vehicle.

2004 - NASA's Spirit rover landed on Mars. The craft was able to send back black and white images three hours after landing.

Whose Birthday Is It?

Marcus Tullius Cicero 106 B.C.

Lucretia Mott 1793

Clement Attlee 1883

Anna Pavlova 1885

J.R.R. Tolkien 1892

Marion Davies 1897

Zasu Pitts 1898

Ray Milland 1905

Victor Borge 1909

Joseph Rauh 1911

Maxene Andrews (The Andrews Sisters) 1916

John Russell 1921

Bill Travers 1922

Hank Stram 1924

George Martin 1926

Joan Walsh Anglund 1926

Robert Loggia 1930

Dabney Coleman 1932

Coo Coo (Clifton) Marlin 1932

Bobby Hull (NHL) 1939

Van Dyke Parks 1943

Victoria Principal 1944

Stephen Stills (Buffalo Springfield) 1945

Betty Rollin 1946

John Paul Jones (Baldwin) 1946

Melody Anderson 1955

Mel Gibson 1956

Shannon Sturges 1968

James Carter 1969

Michael Schumacher 1969

Jason Marsden 1975

Danica McKellar 1975

Keep Loving!

Melodee Aaron, Erotica Romance Author

Melodee's Books at BookStrand

Life With Melodee - Part One

2011-01-02T22:00:00.000-08:00

People often ask me the same question:

What is it like to live with Melodee?

That's a pretty big and deep subject, and there isn't an easy answer. Like the old saying goes, it's complicated.

But I'm going to try to tell you a little about what Life With Melodee is like in a series of postings here on Melodee's blog.

Part One

How We Met

I met Melodee almost 12 years ago now. I was working for the Secret Service after leaving the US Navy, and hating every minute of it. Melodee's agent, Diana, approached me and said she was looking for someone to provide security for Melodee while she was both on the road and even at her home in Southern California. Frankly, it sounded like fairly easy work and the money Diana offered was pretty good, so I agreed to an interview. I flew from my home in Washington DC to San Diego, and a shuttle van took me up to the mountains where Melodee lives.

I have to say I was unnerved when we reached Melodee's house. There was a high fence and a gate and a guard shack. The guard was a standard security guard type from one of the companies you frequently see, but he was armed and he checked a list as well as my ID before sending us up to the house. I wondered why Melodee needed me if she already had private security in place.

Diana met me at the door, and was very cordial, as she had been in our many telephone conversations. She ushered me in to a sitting room and introduced me to Maria, Melodee's housekeeper. Diana and I chatted for a while and then Maria came in and whispered in Diana's ear. Diana rolled her eyes and told me that we would need to wait just a while longer because Melodee was "tied up" for the next 30 minutes or so. Diana took me outside and we wandered around the property a little. I was impressed with the size of the place, especially for Southern California. I guessed that Melodee had about 200 acres and that included a large lake, tennis court, and much more. Add to that a large house, and I couldn't help but ask how many kids Melodee had. Diana told me, in a very matter-of-fact manner, that Melodee was single and had no children.

Diana stopped walking for a moment and added, "I don't think I told you that she's deaf." At the time, I didn't know a single thing about sign language or deaf people. I asked if Melodee could read lips. Diana just smiled and added, "Yes, better than you can read words."

We went back to the house since we'd been gone about 30 minutes, and Maria told us that Melodee would be out in a few minutes, and she would meet us on the patio. Maria brought out a big pitcher of iced tea, and we sat there watching the birds for a while. About 30 minutes later, Diana excused herself and went in the house to find Melodee. Some 10 or so minutes after that, Diana returned and assured me that Melodee would be out to join us in 5 minutes.

In another 15 minutes, I could tell Diana was getting agitated. She again went inside. Maria came out to check the tea, and I asked her if, maybe, Melodee was writing and couldn't stop in the middle. The old Hispanic woman smiled and said, "No, Melodee just runs on what I call Melodee Time."

Diana returned and again apologized for the delays and said Melodee would join us very soon now. I noticed the lack of a time frame, but I did check my watch. We chatted for a while, and we were even treated to a few squirrels and rabbits running through the yard along with a wide variety of birds at the feeders and in the trees.

Exactly 19 minutes later I heard someone coming toward the patio from inside the house, and I suspected it wasn't Maria. Maria had moved with an easy grace and almost no sound. Yes, I notice those kinds of things. When you do time as a SEAL and in the Secret Service, noises are a big part of the even bigger picture. Whoever was coming was actually thumping, like they hopped on one foot.

I was right, too. The young woman who came through the door from the house to the patio was indeed hopping on one foot. She was tall, maybe 5' 9", and slender with long blond hair past the middle of her back. She wore a pair of white shorts that looked like they had been painted on and a red bandanna print top that was tied around her chest. And she hopped on one foot trying to get her left sandal on.

I need to tell you that I was married at the time. Things weren't all that good, and my wife and I had separated on 2 occasions, but I was still legally married. That doesn't mean I was dead, though. This woman was a knock out. I also knew it was Melodee because a number of hand gestures flashed between her and Diana, things I couldn't read. The last gesture Melodee made to Diana I did understand, though. She extended the middle finger of her right hand toward the older woman.

Finally getting her shoe on, the young woman stopped in front of me and extended her right hand. She smiled and I was nothing less than enchanted. As I stood and took the offered hand, she spoke to me. It sounded something like, "Eye. Eye-mm eloee. Ood ou m ou ack." Honestly, I could only barely understand her speech at all. I assumed that she offered some kind of greeting, so I stayed with something neutral.

At least as neutral as I could be. Her hand was warm and soft as I held it, and it tingled a little. Again, that's the kind of detail that you notice in my line of work. Add to that the fact that a very pretty young woman who I had never met was standing there for a supposed business meeting with far more skin exposed than she had covered, and I was lucky to be able to talk at all.

As the three of us sat and chatted, I could see that Melodee and Diana kept up a running conversation in sign language, just slight motions of their fingers, and facial expressions. Just details that I filed away in my mind for future reference. As we talked, I found it was easier and easier to understand Melodee's speech, but I had to listen carefully. The problem for me came in because to really listen to her, I had to stare at Melodee's face, particularly her lips. I have called her "pretty" up above, but I found that wasn't a strong enough word. Maybe beautiful is closer, or perhaps gorgeous. I had to fight to keep from getting some kind of sappy look like an idiot on my face as I watched her speak.

Finally, I had to ask why they needed me. They already had security. Melodee made a flickering gesture toward Diana, and the older woman spoke. "We mostly need to fill a gap for when Melodee is on tour, but it makes no sense to have two security groups in place." I wondered about that. Surely the places she visited provided, or could provide, private guards if needed, but I really didn't see much need for it. Diana added, "Last year, we had an event at a signing, and Melodee was attacked. She's scared to go out there again, I can't blame her."

I remember frowning and wondering why someone would attack an author, and I guess my puzzlement showed on my face, because Melodee smiled and said, "I was stabbed by a woman who thought my romance novels were being written to steal away her husband." Melodee stood up, turned away from the table, untied her top, and lowered the back to show me a large scar on her back from a knife wound.

I really don't want this to sound bad, but it probably will. I couldn't focus on the scar. Melodee just exposed even more skin than she already had exposed, and I could see the curve of her breast as she stood with her back to me. Like I said, I wasn't dead, just married. I was also really distracted. I wasn't sure if I wanted her to put her top back on or take it the rest of the way off. I had mixed feelings about both options.

It hit me as I watched her putting her shirt back on that I was dealing with a woman who had tremendous drive, a ton of ambition, was very intelligent, and who had no inhibitions at all. If nothing else, the job would be both interesting and challenging. I like both.

We talked for another hour while Diana and Melodee kept up their own side conversation using sign language. I saw Melodee make a slight nod.

Diana smiled and said, "So, if you want the job, it's yours."

I've been here ever since.

Next time I'll talk a little bit about my early days with Melodee. It's been a fun ride.

Jack

Is Your Willy Chilly?

2011-01-02T16:00:00.000-08:00

I can't seem to leave some news stories alone...

How Chilly Is Your Willy?

Neutrinos are interesting particles. OK, for the purists out there, they may not be particles at all, but waves instead. By the way, for the non-purists, pretty much everything might be either particles or waves. Usually, we treat them as one or the other as is most convenient at the moment.

Anyway...

The fact that we have a machine, for lack of a better term, that can detect neutrinos is interesting, but I find the machine itself even more interesting.

I can't even imagine an ice-cube that big.

We're gonna need a freaking huge bottle of Irish whiskey to melt that puppy!

Keep Loving!

Melodee Aaron, Erotica Romance Author

Melodee's Books at BookStrand

January 2 - This Day In History

2011-01-02T04:00:00.000-08:00

This Day In History
Courtesy of
On-This-Day.com

January 2

1492 - The leader of the last Arab stronghold in Spain surrendered to Spanish forces loyal to King Ferdinand II and Queen Isabella I.

1788 - Georgia became the 4th state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.

1842 - In Fairmount, PA, the first wire suspension bridge was opened to traffic.

1859 - Erastus Beadle published "The Dime Book of Practical Etiquette."

1872 - Brigham Young, the 71-year-old leader of the Mormon Church, was arrested on a charge of bigamy. He had 25 wives.

1879 - Thomas Edison began construction on his first generator.

1890 - Alice Sanger became the first female White House staffer.

1893 - The first commemorative postage stamps were issued.

1900 - U.S. Secretary of State John Hay announced the Open Door Policy to prompt trade with China.

1900 - The Chicago Canal opened.

1910 - The first junior high school in the United States opened. McKinley School in Berkeley, CA, housed seventh and eighth grade students. In a separate building students were housed who attended grades 9-12.

1917 - Royal Bank of Canada took over the Quebec Bank.

1921 - The first religious broadcast on radio was heard on KDKA Radio in Pittsburgh, PA, as Dr. E.J. Van Etten of Calvary Episcopal Church preached.

1921 - DeYoung Museum in Golden Gate Park opened.

1929 - The United States and Canada reached an agreement on joint action to preserve Niagara Falls.

1935 - Bruno Richard Hauptmann went on trial for the kidnap-murder of Charles Lindberghs baby. Hauptmann was found guilt and executed.

1942 - The Philippine capital of Manila was captured by Japanese forces during World War II.

1953 - "The Life of Riley" debuted on NBC-TV.

1955 - Panamanian President Jose Antonio Remon was assassinated.

1957 - The San Francisco and Los Angeles stock exchanges merged.

1959 - CBS Radio ended four soap operas. "Our Gal Sunday", "This is Nora Drake", "Backstage Wife" and "Road of Life" all aired for the last time.

1960 - U.S. Sen. John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts announced his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination.

1965 - "Broadway" Joe Namath signed the richest rookie contract ($400,000) in the history of pro football.

1968 - Dr. Christian Barnard performed the first successful heart transplant.

1968 - Fidel Castro announced petroleum and sugar rationing in Cuba.

1971 - In the U.S., a federally imposed ban on television cigarette advertisements went into effect.

1974 - U.S. President Richard M. Nixon signed a bill requiring all states to lower the maximum speed limit to 55 MPH. The law was intended to conserve gasoline supplies during an embargo imposed by Arab oil-producing countries. Federal speed limits were abolished in 1995.

1983 - The final edition of Garry Trudeau’s comic strip, "Doonesbury", appeared in 726 newspapers. "Doonesbury" began running again in September 1984.

1983 - The musical "Annie" closed on Broadway at the Uris Theatre after 2,377 performances.

1985 - The Rebels of UNLV beat Utah State in three overtime periods. The final score of 142-140 set a new NCAA record for total points in a basketball game (282). The game took over three hours to play.

1991 - Sharon Pratt Dixon was sworn in as mayor of Washington, DC. She was the first black woman to head a city of that size and prominence.

1996 - AT&T announced that it would eliminate 40,000 jobs over three years.

1998 - Russia began circulating new rubles in effort to keep inflation in check and promote confidence.

Whose Birthday Is It?

Nathaniel Bacon 1647

Philip Freneau 1752

Martha Thomas 1857

Sally Rand 1904

James Melton 1904

Sir Michael Tippett 1905

Vera Zorina (Eva Hartwig) 1917

Isaac Asimov 1920

Renata Tebaldi 1922

Anna Lee 1923

Jason Evers 1927

Gino Marchetti 1927

Julius LaRosa 1930

Roger Miller 1936

Jim Bakker 1939

Donald B. Keck 1941

Christopher Durang 1949

Chick Churchill (Ten Years After) 1949

Wendy Phillips 1952

Joanna Pacula 1957

Gabrielle Carteris 1961

Cuba Gooding, Jr. 1968

Christy Turlington 1969

Todd Haynes 1961

Tia Carrere 1967

Taye Diggs 1971

Kate Bosworth 1973

Keep Loving!

Melodee Aaron, Erotica Romance Author

Melodee's Books at BookStrand

The Devil Is In The Details

2011-01-01T16:00:00.000-08:00

Just a few definitions from The Devil's Dictionary.

WEREWOLF, n. A wolf that was once, or is sometimes, a man. All werewolves are of evil disposition, having assumed a bestial form to gratify a beastial appetite, but some, transformed by sorcery, are as humane as is consistent with an acquired taste for human flesh. Some Bavarian peasants having caught a wolf one evening, tied it to a post by the tail and went to bed. The next morning nothing was there! Greatly perplexed, they consulted the local priest, who told them that their captive was undoubtedly a werewolf and had resumed its human form during the night. "The next time that you take a wolf," the good man said, "see that you chain it by the leg, and in the morning you will find a Lutheran." - Ambrose Bierce

IDIOT, n. A member of a large and powerful tribe whose influence in human affairs has always been dominant and controlling. The Idiot's activity is not confined to any special field of thought or action, but "pervades and regulates the whole." He has the last word in everything; his decision is unappealable. He sets the fashions and opinion of taste, dictates the limitations of speech and circumscribes conduct with a dead-line. - Ambrose Bierce

INCUBUS, n. One of a race of highly improper demons who, though probably not wholly extinct, may be said to have seen their best nights. For a complete account of incubi and succubi, including incubae and succubae, see the Liber Demonorum of Protassus (Paris, 1328), which contains much curious information that would be out of place in a dictionary intended as a text-book for the public schools. Victor Hugo relates that in the Channel Islands Satan himself -- tempted more than elsewhere by the beauty of the women, doubtless -- sometimes plays at incubus, greatly to the inconvenience and alarm of the good dames who wish to be loyal to their marriage vows, generally speaking. A certain lady applied to the parish priest to learn how they might, in the dark, distinguish the hardy intruder from their husbands. The holy man said they must feel his brown for horns; but Hugo is ungallant enough to hint a doubt of the efficacy of the test. - Ambrose Bierce

FAIRY, n. A creature, variously fashioned and endowed, that formerly inhabited the meadows and forests. It was nocturnal in its habits, and somewhat addicted to dancing and the theft of children. The fairies are now believed by naturalist to be extinct, though a clergyman of the Church of England saw three near Colchester as lately as 1855, while passing through a park after dining with the lord of the manor. The sight greatly staggered him, and he was so affected that his account of it was incoherent. In the year 1807 a troop of fairies visited a wood near Aix and carried off the daughter of a peasant, who had been seen to enter it with a bundle of clothing. The son of a wealthy bourgeois disappeared about the same time, but afterward returned. He had seen the abduction been in pursuit of the fairies. Justinian Gaux, a writer of the fourteenth century, avers that so great is the fairies' power of transformation that he saw one change itself into two opposing armies and fight a battle with great slaughter, and that the next day, after it had resumed its original shape and gone away, there were seven hundred bodies of the slain which the villagers had to bury. He does not say if any of the wounded recovered. In the time of Henry III, of England, a law was made which prescribed the death penalty for "Kyllynge, wowndynge, or mamynge" a fairy, and it was universally respected. - Ambrose Bierce

BIGAMY, n. A mistake in taste for which the wisdom of the future will adjudge a punishment called trigamy. - Ambrose Bierce

DEGENERATE, adj. Less conspicuously admirable than one's ancestors. The contemporaries of Homer were striking examples of degeneracy; it required ten of them to raise a rock or a riot that one of the heroes of the Trojan war could have raised with ease. Homer never tires of sneering at "men who live in these degenerate days," which is perhaps why they suffered him to beg his bread -- a marked instance of returning good for evil, by the way, for if they had forbidden him he would certainly have starved. - Ambrose Bierce

EAT, v.i. To perform successively (and successfully) the functions of mastication, humectation, and deglutition. "I was in the drawing-room, enjoying my dinner," said Brillat- Savarin, beginning an anecdote. "What!" interrupted Rochebriant; "eating dinner in a drawing-room?" "I must beg you to observe, monsieur," explained the great gastronome, "that I did not say I was eating my dinner, but enjoying it. I had dined an hour before." - Ambrose Bierce

DAMN, v. A word formerly much used by the Paphlagonians, the meaning of which is lost. By the learned Dr. Dolabelly Gak it is believed to have been a term of satisfaction, implying the highest possible degree of mental tranquillity. Professor Groke, on the contrary, thinks it expressed an emotion of tumultuous delight, because it so frequently occurs in combination with the word jod or god, meaning "joy." It would be with great diffidence that I should advance an opinion conflicting with that of either of these formidable authorities. - Ambrose Bierce

MINISTER, n. An agent of a higher power with a lower responsibility. In diplomacy and officer sent into a foreign country as the visible embodiment of his sovereign's hostility. His principal qualification is a degree of plausible inveracity next below that of an ambassador. - Ambrose Bierce

KILL, v.t. To create a vacancy without nominating a successor. - Ambrose Bierce

SYLPH, n. An immaterial but visible being that inhabited the air when the air was an element and before it was fatally polluted with factory smoke, sewer gas and similar products of civilization. Sylphs were allied to gnomes, nymphs and salamanders, which dwelt, respectively, in earth, water and fire, all now insalubrious. Sylphs, like fowls of the air, were male and female, to no purpose, apparently, for if they had progeny they must have nested in inaccessible places, none of the chicks having ever been seen. - Ambrose Bierce

EVANGELIST, n. A bearer of good tidings, particularly (in a religious sense) such as assure us of our own salvation and the damnation of our neighbors. - Ambrose Bierce

CONDOLE, v.i. To show that bereavement is a smaller evil than sympathy. - Ambrose Bierce

Keep Loving!

Melodee Aaron, Erotica Romance Author

Melodee's Books at BookStrand

January 1 - This Day In History

2011-01-01T04:00:00.000-08:00

This Day In History
Courtesy of
On-This-Day.com

January 1

0404 - The last gladiator competition was held in Rome.

1622 - The Papal Chancery adopted January 1st as the beginning of the New Year (instead of March 25th).

1772 - The first traveler's checks were issued in London.

1785 - London's oldest daily paper "The Daily Universal Register" (later renamed "The Times" in 1788) was first published.

1797 - Albany became the capital of New York state, replacing New York City.

1801 - The Act of Union of England and Ireland came into force.

1801 - Italian astronomer Giuseppe Piazzi became the first person to discover an asteroid. He named it Ceres.

1804 - Haiti gained its independence.

1808 - The U.S. prohibited import of slaves from Africa.

1840 - The first recorded bowling match was recorded in the U.S.

1863 - U.S. President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, which declared that all slaves in the rebel states were free.

1887 - Queen Victoria was proclaimed empress of India in Delhi.

1892 - Ellis Island Immigrant Station formally opened in New York.

1892 - Brooklyn and New York merged to form the single city of New York.

1894 - The Manchester Ship Canal was officially opened to traffic.

1898 - Manhattan, the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island were consolidated into New York City.

1900 - Hawaii asked for a delegate to the Republican national convention.

1900 - Nigeria became a British protectorate with Frederick Lagard as the high commissioner.

1901 - The Commonwealth of Australia was founded. Lord Hopetoun officially assumed the duties as the first Governor-General.

1902 - The first Tournament of Roses (later the Rose Bowl) collegiate football game was played in Pasadena, CA.

1909 - The first payments of old-age pensions were made in Britain. People over 70 received five shillings a week.

1913 - The post office began parcel post deliveries.

1924 - Frank B. Cooney received a patent for ink paste.

1926 - The Rose Bowl was carried coast to coast on network radio for the first time.

1930 - "The Cuckoo Hour" was heard for the first time on the NBC-Blue Network, which later became ABC Radio.

1934 - Alcatraz Island officially became a Federal Prison.

1934 - The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) began operation.

1936 - The "New York Herald Tribune" began microfilming its current issues.

1937 - The First Cotton Bowl football game was played in Dallas, TX. Texas Christian University (T.C.U.) beat Marquette, 16-6.

1939 - The Hewlett-Packard partnership was formed.

1942 - U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill issued a declaration called the "United Nations." It was signed by 26 countries that vowed to create an international postwar World War II peacekeeping organization.

1945 - France was admitted to the United Nations.

1956 - Sudan gained its independence.

1958 - The European Economic Community (EEC) started operations.

1959 - Fidel Castro overthrew the government of Fulgencio Batista, and seized power in Cuba.

1968 - Evel Knievel, stunt performing daredevil, lost control of his motorcycle midway through a jump of 141 feet over the ornamental fountains in front of Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas.

1971 - Tobacco ads representing $20 million dollars in advertising were banned from TV and radio broadcast.

1973 - Britain, Ireland, Denmark and Norway joined the EEC.

1975 - The magazine "Popular Electronics" announced the invention of a personal computer called Altair. MITS, using an Intel microprocessor, developed the computer.

1979 - The United States and China held celebrations in Washington, DC, and Beijing to mark the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries.

1981 - Greece joined the European Community.

1984 - AT&T was broken up into 22 Bell System companies under terms of an antitrust agreement with the U.S. Federal government.

1986 - Spain and Portugal joined the European Community (EC).

1987 - A pro-democracy rally took place in Beijing's Tiananmen Square (China).

1990 - David Dinkins was sworn in as New York City's first black mayor.

1992 - The ESPN Radio Network was officially launched.

1993 - Czechoslovakia split into two separate states, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The peaceful division had been engineered in 1992.

1994 - Bill Gates, Chief Executive Officer of Microsoft and Melinda French were married.

1994 - The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) went into effect.

1995 - Frederick West, an alleged killer of 12 women and girls, was found hanged in his jail cell in Winston Green prison, in Birmingham. West had been under almost continuous watch since his arrest in 1994, but security had reportedly been relaxed in the months preceding the apparent suicide.

1995 - The World Trade Organization came into existence. The group of 125 nations monitors global trade.

1998 - A new anti-smoking law went into effect in California. The law prohibiting people from lighting up in bars.

1999 - The euro became currency for 11 Member States of the European Union. Coins and notes were not available until January 1, 2002.

1999 - In California, a law went into effect that defined "invasion of privacy as trespassing with the intent to capture audio or video images of a celebrity or crime victim engaging in a personal of family activity."

2001 - The "Texas 7," rented space in an RV park in Woodland Park, CO.

Whose Birthday Is It?

Bartolomé Murillo 1617

Paul Revere 1735

Betsy Ross (Elizabeth Griscom) 1752

George Washington Carver 1860

E.M. Forster 1879

Edie Martin 1880

Alessandro de Stefani 1891

J. Edgar Hoover (U.S.) 1895

Xavier Cugat 1900

Bradford Ropes 1905

Louis W. Parker 1906

Barry Goldwater 1909

Basil Deardon 1911

Dana Andrews 1912

Marvin Camras 1916

Earl Wrightson 1916

J.D. Salinger 1919

Carole Landis 1919

Milt Jackson 1923

Valentina Cortese 1925

Barbara Baxley 1927

Frank Pourcel (The French Fiddles) 1928

Bernard Kliban 1935

Frank Langella 1940

"Country Joe" McDonald 1942

Don Novello 1943

Daimi 1944

Alain Afflelou 1948

Steve Ripley (The Tractors) 1950

Ren Woods 1958

Grandmaster Flash 1958

Dedee Pfeiffer 1964

Verne Troyer 1969

Paul Thomas Anderson 1970

Christina B. Bump 1978

Keep Loving!

Melodee Aaron, Erotica Romance Author

Melodee's Books at BookStrand

Dumbing It All Down

2010-12-31T16:00:00.000-08:00

I can't seem to leave some news stories alone...

Dumb and Dumber

Yeah, this makes me feel better.

I don't want to offend anyone out there who serve(s/d) in the any branch of the military, but I think I have the same impression of everyone else who has never served. No, I haven't been in the military. They won't take deaf girls who can't go more than six days without a visit to the spa.

Anyway...

It is a common assumption that in terms of performance on exams, the Air Force is hardest to get into. Then comes the Navy, followed by the Marines, and the Army brings up the rear with the lowest over all standards. Again, I apologize if that is not correct, and I don't mean to imply that the Army has low standards, just that they are a bit less than the other branches.

But the fact is that 25% of the kids today can't get in the Army. The Army just won't have them.

Everyone except the government and educators know exactly how to fix this.

Increase the standards in schools and focus on what is important and have quality teachers.

And people wonder why my kids are home-schooled using my curriculum.

Keep Loving!

Melodee Aaron, Erotica Romance Author

Melodee's Books at BookStrand

December 31 - This Day In History

2010-12-31T04:00:00.000-08:00

This Day In History
Courtesy of
On-This-Day.com

December 31

1687 - The first Huguenots set sail from France for the Cape of Good Hope, where they would later create the South African wine industry with the vines they took with them on the voyage.

1695 - The window tax was imposed in Britain, which resulted in many windows being bricked up.

1711 - The Duke of Marlborough was dismissed as commander-in-chief.

1775 - The British repulsed an attack by Continental Army generals Richard Montgomery and Benedict Arnold at Quebec. Montgomery was killed in the battle.

1841 - The State of Alabama enacted the first dental legislation in the U.S.

1857 - Britain's Queen Victoria decided to make Ottawa the capital of Canada.

1862 - U.S. President Lincoln signed an act admitting West Virginia to the Union.

1877 - U.S. President Rutherford B. Hayes became the first U.S. President to celebrate his silver (25th) wedding anniversary in the White House.

1879 - Thomas Edison gave his first public demonstration of incandescent lighting to an audience in Menlo Park, NJ.

1891 - New York's new Immigration Depot was opened at Ellis Island, to provide improved facilities for the massive numbers of arrivals.

1897 - Brooklyn, NY, spent its last day as a separate entity before becoming part of New York City.

1923 - In London, the BBC first broadcast the chimes of Big Ben.

1929 - Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadians played "Auld Lang Syne" as a New Year's Eve song for the first time.

1946 - U.S. President Truman officially proclaimed the end of hostilities in World War II.

1947 - Roy Rogers and Dale Evans were married.

1953 - Willie Shoemaker broke his own record as he won his 485th race of the year.

1954 - The last episode of the radio show "Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok" aired.

1955 - General Motors became the first U.S. corporation to earn more than one billion dollars in a single year.

1960 - The farthing coin, which had been in use in Great Britain since the 13th century, ceased to be legal tender.

1961 - In the U.S., the Marshall Plan expired after distributing more than $12 billion in foreign aid.

1967 - The Green Bay Packers won the National Football League championship game by defeating the Dallas Cowboys 21-17. The game is known as the Ice Bowl since it was played in a wind chill of 40 degrees below zero. (NFL)

1974 - Private U.S. citizens were allowed to buy and own gold for the first time in more than 40 years.

1978 - Taiwanese diplomats struck their colors for the final time from the embassy flagpole in Washington, DC. The event marked the end of diplomatic relations with the U.S.

1979 - At year end oil prices were 88% higher than at the start of 1979.

1986 - A fire at the Dupont Plaza Hotel in San Juan, Puerto Rico, killed 97 and injured 140 people. Three hotel workers later pled guilty to charges in connection with the fire.

1990 - Titleholder Gary Kasparov of the U.S.S.R. won the world chess championship match against his countryman Anatoly Karpov.

1996 - NCR Corp. became an independent company.

1997 - Michael Kennedy, 39-year-old son of the late U.S. Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, was killed in a skiing accident on Aspen Mountain in Colorado.

1999 - Russian President Boris Yeltsin resigned. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin was designated acting president.

1999 - Five hijackers left the airport where they had been holding 150 hostages on an Indian Airlines plane. They left with two Islamic clerics that they had demanded be freed from an Indian prison. The plane had been hijacked during a flight from Katmandu, Nepal to New Dehli on December 24.

1999 - Sarah Knauss died at the age of 119 years. She was the world's oldest person. She was born September 24, 1880.

Whose Birthday Is It?

Henri Matisse 1869

George Marshall 1880

Simon Wiesenthal 1908

Jonah (Robert) Jones 1908

Rex Allen ("The Arizona Cowboy") 1924

Ross Barbour (The Four Freshmen) 1928

Odetta 1930

Anthony Hopkins 1937

Rosalind Cash 1938

Sarah Miles 1941

Andy Summers (Police) 1942

John Denver 1943

Ben Kingsley 1943

Pete Quaife (The Kinks) 1943

Barbara Carrera 1945

Diane von Furstenberg 1945

Tim Matheson 1947

Burton Cummings (The Guess Who) 1947

Donna Summer 1948

Tom Hamilton (Aerosmith) 1951

James Remar 1953

Bebe Neuwirth 1958

Joe Dallesandro 1958

Val Kilmer 1959

Paul Westerberg 1959

Scott Ian (Anthrax) 1963

Joe McIntyre (New Kids on the Block) 1972

Keep Loving!

Melodee Aaron, Erotica Romance Author

Melodee's Books at BookStrand

Splat Goes The Baby

2010-12-30T16:00:00.000-08:00

I can't seem to leave some news stories alone...

Babies Do NOT Bounce

Wait a minute...

What safety?

There is nothing safe about holding your infant in your lap while flying OR driving.

It doesn't matter if you're doing 60 MPH or 600 MPH, when the vehicle is in a collision with another object, that baby will come out of mom's arms at about the same speed as the impact.

Yes, infants must be harnessed in a seat on a plane, just like in a car.

But I understand the FAA's problem...they have an impossible job.

The FAA has a mandate to both regulate and promote the airline industry. The two tasks are incompatible.

To be blunt, the FAA should regulate without regard to the profit margins. Let the airlines take care of promotion and such.

Keep Loving!

Melodee Aaron, Erotica Romance Author

Melodee's Books at BookStrand

December 30 - This Day In History

2010-12-30T04:00:00.000-08:00

This Day In History
Courtesy of
On-This-Day.com

December 30

1460 - At the Battle of Wakefield, in England's Wars of the Roses, the Duke of York was defeated and killed by the Lancastrians.

1853 - The United States bought about 45,000 square miles of land from Mexico in a deal known as the Gadsden Purchase.

1879 - Gilbert and Sullivan's "The Pirates of Penzance" was first performed, at Paignton, Devon, England.

1880 - The Transvaal was declared a republic. Paul Kruger became its first president.

1887 - A petition to Queen Victoria with over one million names of women appealing for public houses to be closed on Sundays was handed to the home secretary.

1903 - About 600 people died when fire broke out at the Iroquois Theater in Chicago, IL.

1911 - Sun Yat-sen was elected the first president of the Republic of China.

1919 - Lincoln's Inn, in London, admitted the first female bar student.

1922 - The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) was formed.

1924 - Edwin Hubble announced the existence of other galactic systems.

1927 - The first subway in the Orient was dedicated in Tokyo, Japan.

1935 - Italian bombers destroyed a Sweedish Red Cross unit in Ethiopia.

1936 - The United Auto Workers union staged its first sit-down strike, at the Fisher Body Plant in Flint, MI.

1940 - California's first freeway was officially opened. It was the Arroyo Seco Parkway connecting Los Angeles and Pasadena.

1942 - "Mr. and Mrs. North" debuted on NBC radio.

1944 - King George II of Greece proclaimed a regency to rule his country, virtually renouncing the throne.

1947 - King Michael of Romania abdicated in favor of a Communist Republic. He claimed he was forced from his throne.

1948 - "Kiss Me Kate" opened at the New Century Theatre in New York City. Cole Porter composed the music for the classic play that ran for 1,077 performances.

1953 - The first color TV sets went on sale for about $1,175.

1954 - Pearl Bailey opened on Broadway in the play, "House of Flowers."

1954 - James Arness made his dramatic TV debut in "The Chase". The "Gunsmoke" series didn’t begin for Arness until the fall of 1955.

1961 - Jack Nicklaus lost his first attempt at pro golf to Gary Player in an exhibition match in Miami, FL.

1972 - The United States halted its heavy bombing of North Vietnam.

1976 - The Smothers Brothers, Tom and Dick, played their last show at the Aladdin Hotel in Las Vegas and retired as a team from show business. Both continued as solo artists and they reunited several years later.

1978 - Ohio State University fired Woody Hayes as its football coach, one day after Hayes punched Clemson University player Charlie Bauman during the Gator Bowl. Bauman had intercepted an Ohio pass.

1980 - "The Wonderful World of Disney" was cancelled by NBC after more than 25 years on the TV. It was the longest-running series in prime-time television history.

1993 - Israel and the Vatican established diplomatic relations.

1996 - A passenger train was bombed by Bodo separatists in India's eastern state of Assam. At least 26 people were killed and dozens were seriously injured.

1996 - About 250,000 striking workers shut down vital services across Israel in protests against budget cuts proposed by Prime Minister Netanyahu.

1997 - More than 400 people were massacred in four villages in the single worst incident during Algeria's insurgency.

Whose Birthday Is It?

André Messager 1853

Rudyard Kipling 1865

Simon Guggenheim 1867

Stephen Leacock 1869

Hideki Tojo 1884

Vincent Lopez 1895

Bert Parks 1914

Marie Wilson 1915

Jo Van Fleet 1922

Bo Diddley 1928

Barbara Nichols 1929

Jack Lord 1930

Skeeter Davis 1931

Russ Tamblyn 1934

Fred Lorenzen 1934

Sandy Koufax (MLB) 1935

John Hartford 1937

Noel Paul Stookey 1937

Paul Stookey (Peter, Paul and Mary) 1937

Joseph Bologna 1938

Del Shannon 1939

Fred Ward 1942

Michael Nesmith (Monkees) 1942

Davy Jones (Monkees) 1945

Roger Glover (Rainbow) 1945

Patti Smith 1946

Jeff Lynne (E.L.O., Traveling Wilburys) 1947

Suzy Bogguss 1956

Sheryl Lee Ralph 1956

Patricia Kalember 1956

Matt Lauer 1957

Tracey Ullman 1959

Ben Johnson 1961

Jay Kay (Jamiroquai) 1969

Tiger Woods 1975

Meredith Monroe 1976

Tyrese 1978

Keep Loving!

Melodee Aaron, Erotica Romance Author

Melodee's Books at BookStrand

The Universe Next Door

2010-12-29T16:00:00.000-08:00

I can't seem to leave some news stories alone...

An Old SF Standard

I love this disagreement for several reasons...

First, I have doctoral degrees in math and theoretical physics. I find the solutions to the equations and observations both eloquent and intriguing.

Second, I write science fiction. HARD science fiction where the fiction has to fit the facts.

SF authors, myself included, have used the idea of multiple universes for decades. Maybe centuries. The fact is that there are many solutions in physics—classical, quantum, relativistic, and M-theory—that support the concept. The problem comes in that no one can think of a way to test if these other universes exist outside of the pretty equations. By definition, any one universe can't "see" the others.

Maybe...

Have the researchers found actual physical evidence of other universes?

Personally, I don't think so. I think they are seeing the results of much more mundane things in the early history of our universe. As the article points out, there are much simpler explanations for the rings they see in the cosmic background radiation.

But that does not mean that the other universes don't exist. Again, just my opinion, but I believe that there are many other universes. To be precise, an infinite number of them.

And this is where it gets fun for both physicists and SF authors...

The universes can all have very different laws of physics.

And there are hints that we might, just maybe, be able to "see" these other universes in the equations of relativity, quantum mechanics, and M-theory.

One of my favorite solutions is based on M-theory...

It might be possible that a single-ended string, like a graviton, could hook one end in our universe and the other end to another universe. We then simply travel along the graviton to go to the other universe.

OK, so we need to work on the details a little. Maybe a lot.

But it sure makes for good SF!

Keep Loving!

Melodee Aaron, Erotica Romance Author

Melodee's Books at BookStrand

December 29 - This Day In History

2010-12-29T04:00:00.000-08:00

This Day In History
Courtesy of
On-This-Day.com

December 29

1170 - St Thomas à Becket, the 40th archbishop of Canterbury, was murdered in his own cathedral by four knights acting on Henry II's orders.

1812 - The USS Constitution won a battle with the British ship HMS Java about 30 miles off the coast of Brazil. Before Commodore William Bainbridge ordered the sinking of the Java he had her wheel removed to replace the one the Constitution had lost during the battle.

1813 - The British burned Buffalo, NY, during the War of 1812.

1837 - Canadian militiamen destroyed the Caroline, a U.S. steamboat docked at Buffalo, NY.

1845 - U.S. President James Polk and signed legislation making Texas the 28th state of the United States.

1848 - U.S. President James Polk turned on the first gas light at the White House.

1851 - The first American Young Men's Christian Association was organized, in Boston, MA.

1860 - The HMS Warrior, Britain's first seagoing iron-hulled warship, was launched.

1888 - The first Performance of Macbeth took place at the Lyceum Theatre.

1890 - The U.S. Seventh Cavalry massacred over 400 men, women and children at Wounded Knee Creek, SD. This was the last major conflict between Indians and U.S. troops.

1895 - The Jameson Raid from Mafikeng into Transvaal, which attempted to overthrow Kruger's Boer government, started.

1911 - Sun Yat-sen became the first president of a republican China, following the Revolution.

1913 - "The Unwelcome Throne" was released by Selig’s Polyscope Company. This was a moving picture and the first serial motion picture.

1934 - The first regular-season, college basketball game was played at Madison Square Garden in New York City. New York University defeated Notre Dame 25-18.

1934 - Japan renounced the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922 and the London Naval Treaty of 1930.

1937 - Babe Ruth returned to baseball as the new manager of the Class D, De Land Reds of the Florida State League. Ruth had retired from baseball in 1935.

1940 - During World War II, Germany began dropping incendiary bombs on London.

1945 - The mystery voice of Mr. Hush was heard for the first time on the radio show, "Truth or Consequences", hosted by Ralph Edwards.

1945 - Sheb Wooley recorded the first commercial record made in Nashville, TN.

1949 - KC2XAK of Bridgeport, Connecticut became the first ultrahigh frequency (UHF) television station to begin operating on a regular daily schedule.

1952 - The first transistorized hearing aid was offered for sale by Sonotone Corporation.

1953 - Jean Stapleton debuted in her first Broadway play, "In the Summer House", which closed after only 55 performances.

1972 - Following 36 years of publication, the last weekly issue of "LIFE" magazine hit the newsstands. The magazine later became a monthly publication.

1975 - A bomb exploded in the main terminal of New York's LaGuardia Airport. 11 people were killed.

1985 - Phil Donahue and a Soviet radio commentator hosted the "Citizens’ Summit" via satellite TV.

1986 - The Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables, FL, reopened for business after eighteen years and $47 million expended on restoration.

1989 - Following Hong Kong's decision to forcibly repatriate some Vietnamese refugees, thousands of Vietnamese 'boat people' battled with riot police.

1996 - The Guatemalan government and leaders of the leftist Guatemalan National Revolutionary Union signed a peace accord in Guatemala City, ending a civil war that had lasted 36 years.

1997 - Hong Kong began killing 1.25 million chickens, the entire population, for fear of the spread of 'bird flu'.

1998 - Khmer Rouge leaders apologized for the 1970s genocide in Cambodia that claimed 1 million lives.

Whose Birthday Is It?

Marquise de Pompadour 1721

Charles Goodyear 1800

Andrew Johnson (U.S.) 1808

William Gladstone 1809

Pablo Casals 1876

Viveca Lindfors 1920

William Gaddis 1922

Rose Lee Maphis 1922

Dina Merrill 1928

Inga Swenson 1932

Tom Jarriel 1934

Ed Flanders 1934

Ray Nitschke 1936

Jon Voight 1938

Mary Tyler Moore 1938

Ed Bruce 1940

Ray Thomas (Moody Blues) 1942

Marianne Faithfull 1946

Ted Danson 1947

Cozy Powell 1947

Jon Polito 1950

Gelsey Kirkland 1952

Yvonne Elliman (Jesus Christ Superstar) 1953

Ed Autry 1954

Neil Geraldo 1955

Paula Poundstone 1960

Mark Day (Happy Mondays) 1961

Jim Reid (The Jesus and Mary Chain) 1961

Jason Gouuld 1966

Mystro Clark 1966

Glen Phillips (Toad the Wet Sprocket) 1970

Jude Law 1972

Shawn Hatosy 1975

Jessica Andrews 1983

Keep Loving!

Melodee Aaron, Erotica Romance Author

Melodee's Books at BookStrand

Dodging Balls and Bullets

2010-12-28T16:00:00.000-08:00

I can't seem to leave some news stories alone...

If You Can Dodge A Wrench, You Can Dodge A Ball

Before we get into why this important, you need to be up to speed on kinetic energy...

Kinetic Energy of an object is defined as: "The energy which it possesses due to its motion. It is defined as the work needed to accelerate a body of a given mass from rest to its stated velocity. Having gained this energy during its acceleration, the body maintains this kinetic energy unless its speed changes. The same amount of work is done by the body in decelerating from its current speed to a state of rest." Therefore, the kinetic energy of an object is a function of its mass (weight for our purposes) and its velocity (speed). If we increase either the mass or the velocity, the total kinetic energy goes up.

For those who are really curious, the formula is: ((m*v)*(m*v))/2. At least for classical physics.

Anyway...

An average person can run short distances at about 5 MPH. Go outside and run as fast as you can into the wall of your house. When you wake up and get home from the hospital, come back to reading.

Back? Good. How's the head?

Now, go out to your car and drive it at 5 MPH into the wall of your house.

See any difference in the damage to your house?

Even though the velocity was the same (5 MPH), the mass of the objects was vastly different. If you weigh, say, 150 pounds, your kinetic energy is about 11.5 kilojoules. Don't worry about what a kilojoule is. For the car, assuming its mass is 3,000 pounds, the energy is about 4,626.3 kilojoules. For an increase in mass of about a factor of 20, the kinetic energy went up by a factor of more than 400.

Just for fun, here are the kinetic energies of a few objects you might recognize...

22 caliber LR bullet: 0.2 kilojoules
357 magnum bullet: 1 kilojoule
Car at 29 MPH: 156,521 kilojoules
Car at 70 MPH: 307,350 kilojoules
Semi Truck at 70 MPH: 645,001,625 kilojoules
Fright train at 70 MPH: 23,220,485,106 kilojoules

Now, back to the article...

Let's assume a piece of space junk that has a mass of only 5 pounds. That's not much. The problem is that orbital velocity is about 17,000 MPH at an altitude of 150 miles. Lots of satellites live in that area, too. So what? The kinetic energy of a hunk of junk with a mass of 5 pounds at 17,000 MPH is about 152,775 kilojoules. See the table above.

Now imagine what would happen to the typical satellite if you hit it with your car at about 30 MPH. Yeah, it ain't gonna be pretty.

Now imagine ramming your car into the International Space Station. So much for the crew.

Interestingly enough, the airbags would probably let you walk away from the collision.

Now here's another twist...

Some armor-piercing rounds fired from a gun can blow clear through a steel plate up to several inches thick, but even though a car at 29 MPH has more kinetic energy, it won't plow through that same plate wall. Why not? Because the bullet offers a smaller area of impact, so the energy it carries is concentrated more than that of the car...

Assume a bullet of 0.357 inches diameter. If we ignore the fact that the bullet comes to a point, that's an impact area of about 0.4 square inches. If the front of the car (again assumed to be flat and a perfect rectangle) is 8 feet by 3 feet, that's an area of 3,456 square inches. The 357 slug carries about 2.5 kilojoules per square inch of energy (1Kj/0.4), while the car at 29 MPH imparts about 45 kilojoules per square inch. Then things start to spread out from the impact. The fact is that the car spreads out more and faster than does the bullet. According to calculations, 1 millisecond after impact, the bullet still has about 2.4 kilojoules per square inch of energy, but the car has fallen off to about 11. After 4 milliseconds, the bullet is at 2.1 and the car is below 1.

The bullet is denser and stays together better, keeping its energy concentrated.

Most space junk is fairly dense. Remember our 5 pound space junk from above? That would be a hunk of steel with a volume of about 18 cubic inches. That's a block of steel about 2.5 inches on a side. Not very big.

Again, think about the damage such an object would cause to a satellite. To use NASA's tidy little term, loss of vehicle.

What if the vehicle lost is a weather satellite watching hurricanes to provide warnings to people? How about a navigation satellite that the airlines use to get around? Maybe it's just the satellite that is feeding the Super Bowl game to your house?

Yeah, this is serious stuff, and we need to address the issue, and sooner is better.

The longer we wait, the worse it will get.

Keep Loving!

Melodee Aaron, Erotica Romance Author

Melodee's Books at BookStrand

December 28 - This Day In History

2010-12-28T04:00:00.000-08:00

This Day In History
Courtesy of
On-This-Day.com

December 28

1065 - Westminster Abbey was consecrated under Edward the Confessor.

1694 - Queen Mary II of England died after five years of joint rule with her husband, King William III.

1732 - "The Pennsylvania Gazette," owned by Benjamin Franklin, ran an ad for the first issue of "Poor Richard’s Almanack."

1832 - John C. Calhoun became the first vice president of the United States to resign, stepping down over differences with President Jackson.

1836 - Mexico's independence was recognized by Spain.

1846 - Iowa became the 29th state to be admitted to the Union.

1869 - William E. Semple, of Mt. Vernon, OH, patented an acceptable chewing gum.

1877 - John Stevens applied for a patent for his flour-rolling mill, which boosted production by 70%.

1879 - In Dundee, Scotland the central portion of the Tay Bridge collapsed as a train was passing over it. 75 people were killed.

1897 - "Cyrano de Bergerac," the play by Edmond Rostand, premiered in Paris, France.

1902 - The first professional indoor football game was played at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Syracuse defeated the Philadelphia Nationals 6-0.

1908 - An earthquake killed over 75,000 at Messina in Sicily.

1912 - The first municipally-owned street cars were used on the streets of San Francisco, CA.

1917 - The New York Evening Mail published a facetious essay by H.L. Mencken on the history of bathtubs in America.

1926 - The highest recorded cricket innings score of 1,107 runs was hit by Victoria, against New South Wales, in Melbourne.

1937 - The Irish Free State became the Republic of Ireland when a new constitution established the country as a sovereign state under the name of Eire.

1942 - R.O. Sullivan crossed the Atlantic Ocean for the 100th time.

1945 - The U.S. Congress officially recognized the "Pledge of Allegiance."

1950 - The Peak District became Britain's first designated National Park.

1956 - After five years on television, the last "Ding Dong School" was aired on NBC-TV.

1964 - Initial filming of the movie "Dr. Zhivago" began on location near Madrid, Spain. The movies total running time is 197 minutes.

1973 - The Chamber of Commerce of Akron, OH, terminated its association with the All-American Soap Box Derby. It was stated that the race had become "a victim of cheating and fraud."

1973 - Alexander Solzhenitsyn published "Gulag Archipelago," an expose of the Soviet prison system.

1981 - Elizabeth Jordan Carr, the first American test-tube baby, was born in Norfolk, VA.

1982 - Nevell Johnson Jr. was mortally wounded by a police officer in a Miami video arcade. The event set off three days of race related disturbances that left another man dead.

1987 - The bodies of 14 relatives of R. Gene Simmons were found at his home near Dover, AR. Simmons had gone on a shooting spree in Russellville that claimed two other lives.

1989 - Alexander Dubcek, who had been expelled from the Communist Party in 1970, was elected speaker of the Czech parliament.

1991 - Nine people died in a rush to get into a basketball game at City College in New York.

1995 - Pressure from German prosecutors investigating pornography forced CompuServe to set a precedent by blocking access to sex-oriented newsgroups on the Internet for its customers.

2000 - U.S. District Court Judge Matsch held a hearing to ensure that confessed Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh understood that he was dropping his appeals. McVeigh said that he wanted an execution date set but wanted to reserve the right to seek presidential clemency.

2000 - Shannen Doherty was arrested for driving under the influence.

Whose Birthday Is It?

Woodrow Wilson 1856

Arthur Stanley Eddington 1882

John Molson 1763

Cliff Arquette (Charley Weaver) 1905

Earl "Fatha" Hines 1905

Lew Ayres 1908

Billy Williams 1910

Sam Levinson 1911

Lou Jacobi 1913

Roebuck "Pop" Staples 1915

Stan Lee 1922

Johnny Otis 1924

Hildegarde Kneff 1925

Martin Milner 1927

Dorsey Burnette 1932

Maggie Smith 1934

Bruce Yarnell 1935

Charles Neville 1938

Bobby Comstock 1943

Hubert "Hubie" Green 1946

Edgar Winter 1946

Dick Diamonde (Dingeman Van Der Sluys) 1947

Aurelio (Ituarte) Rodriguez 1947

Alex Chilton 1950

Denzel Washington 1954

Nigel Kennedy 1956

Joe Diffie 1958

Mike McGuire 1958

Chad McQueen 1960

Marty Roe 1960

Anita Doth 1971

Mackenzie Rosman 1989

Keep Loving!

Melodee Aaron, Erotica Romance Author

Melodee's Books at BookStrand

Imagine...

2010-12-27T16:00:00.000-08:00

I can't seem to leave some news stories alone...

Would That I Could

Am I the only one who would love to actually see an ice volcano?

Can you imagine being on the surface of Titan watching the ices of water and more exotic chemicals as they stream down the sides of the cone?

I wonder what it would really be like...

Keep Loving!

Melodee Aaron, Erotica Romance Author

Melodee's Books at BookStrand

December 27 - This Day In History

2010-12-27T04:00:00.000-08:00

This Day In History
Courtesy of
On-This-Day.com

December 27

1703 - The Methuen Treaty was signed between Portugal and England, giving preference to the import of Portuguese wines into England.

1831 - Charles Darwin set out on a voyage to the Pacific aboard the HMS Beagle. Darwin's discoveries during the voyage helped him form the basis of his theories on evolution.

1845 - Dr. Crawford Williamson Long used anesthesia for childbirth for the first time. The event was the delivery of his own child in Jefferson, GA.

1900 - Carrie Nation staged her first raid on a saloon at the Carey Hotel in Wichita, KS. She broke each and every one of the liquor bottles that could be seen.

1904 - James Barrie's play "Peter Pan" premiered in London.

1927 - Leon Trotsky was expelled from the Communist Party.

1938 - The first skimobile course in America opened in North Conway, NH.

1945 - The World Bank was created with an agreement signed by 28 nations.

1947 - The children's television program "Howdy Doody," hosted by Bob Smith, made its debut on NBC.

1949 - Queen Juliana of the Netherlands granted sovereignty to Indonesia after more than 300 years of Dutch rule.

1951 - In Cincinnati, OH, a Crosley automobile, with a steering wheel on the right side, became the first vehicle of its kind to be placed in service for mail delivery.

1965 - The BP oil rig Sea Gem capsized in the North Sea, with the loss of 13 lives.

1968 - "The Breakfast Club" signed off for the last time on ABC radio, after 35 years on the air.

1971 - Snoopy, Charlie Brown, Linus, Lucy and Woodstock of Charles Schulz’ "Peanuts" comic strip were on the cover of "Newsweek" magazine.

1978 - Spain adopted a new constitution and became a democracy after 40 years of dictatorship.

1979 - Soviet forces seized control of Afghanistan. Babrak Karmal succeeded President Hafizullah Amin, who was overthrown and executed.

1985 - Palestinian guerrillas opened fire inside the Rome and Vienna airports. A total of twenty people were killed, including five of the attackers, who were slain by police and security personnel.

1985 - Dian Fossey, an American naturalist, was found murdered at a research station in Rawanda.

1992 - The U.S. shot down an Iraqi fighter jet during what the Pentagon described as a confrontation between a pair of Iraqi warplanes and U.S. F-16 jets in U.N.-restricted airspace over southern Iraq.

1996 - Muslim fundamentalist Taliban forces retook the strategic air base of Bagram, solidifying their buffer zone around Kabul, the Afghanistan capital.

1997 - In Northern Ireland, Billy Wright was assassinated. He was imprisoned as a Protestant paramilitary leader.

2000 - Mario Lemeiux (Pittsburgh Penguins) returned to the National Hockey League (NHL) as a player after over 3 years of retirement. He was the first owner-player in the modern era of pro sports. Lemieux had purchased the Pittsburgh Penguins during his retirement from playing.

2001 - U.S. President George W. Bush granted China permanent normal trade status with the United States.

2002 - North Korea ordered U.N. nuclear inspectors to leave the country and said that it would restart a laboratory capable of producing plutonium for nuclear weapons.

2002 - Clonaid announced the birth of the first cloned human baby. The baby had been born December 26.

2002 - In Chechnya, at least 40 people were killed when suicide bombers attacked the administartion of Grozny.

Whose Birthday Is It?

Johannes Kepler 1571

George Cayley 1773

Louis Pasteur 1822

Sydney Greenstreet 1879

Marlene Dietrich 1901

Anna Russell 1911

William H. Masters 1915

Oscar Levant 1916

Scotty Moore 1931

Walter Norris 1931

Lee Salk 1926

Inga Swenson 1932

Dave Marr 1933

Bernard Lanvin 1935

John Amos 1941

Leslie Maguire 1941

Cokie Roberts 1943

Pete Quaife 1943

Tracy Nelson 1944

Mickey Redmond 1947

Mick Jones 1947

Gerard Depardieu 1948

Terry Bozzio 1950

Karla Bonoff 1952

Tovah Feldshuh 1952

David Knopfler 1952

Arthur Kent 1953

John Watts 1954

Maryam D'Abo 1960

Youth 1961

Jeff Bryant 1962

Matt Slocum 1972

Wilson Cruz 1973

Olu 1973

Keep Loving!

Melodee Aaron, Erotica Romance Author

Melodee's Books at BookStrand

Killer On The Road

2010-12-26T16:00:00.000-08:00

I can't seem to leave some news stories alone...

Here We Go Again

All I know about serial killers is what I learned doing research for books.

And frankly, that isn't much.

All I know for certain is that there is something in us humans that freaks out at the idea of a serial killer being on the loose.

Keep Loving!

Melodee Aaron, Erotica Romance Author

Melodee's Books at BookStrand

December 26 - This Day In History

2010-12-26T04:00:00.000-08:00

This Day In History
Courtesy of
On-This-Day.com

December 26

1620 - The Pilgrim Fathers landed at New Plymouth, MA, to found Plymouth Colony, with John Carver as Governor.

1776 - The British suffered a major defeat in the Battle of Trenton during the American Revolutionary War.

1865 - The coffee percolator was patented by James H. Mason.

1871 - The "Gods Grown Old" was performed for the first time. It ran for 64 shows.

1898 - Marie and Pierre Curie discovered radium.

1908 - Texan boxer "Galveston Jack" Johnson knocked out Tommy Burns in Sydney, Australia, to become the first black boxer to win the world heavyweight title.

1917 - During World War I, the U.S. government took over operation of the nation's railroads.

1921 - The Catholic Irish Free State became a self-governing dominion of Great Britain.

1927 - The East-West Shrine football game featured numbers on both the front and back of players’ jerseys.

1941 - Winston Churchill became the first British prime minister to address a joint meeting of the U.S. Congress.

1943 - The German battlecruiser Scharnhorst was sunk in the North Sea, during the Battle of North Cape.

1944 - Tennessee Williams' play "The Glass Menagerie" was first performed publicly, at the Civic Theatre in Chicago, IL.

1947 - Heavy snow blanketed the Northeast United States, burying New York City under 25.8 inches of snow in 16 hours. The severe weather was blamed for about 80 deaths.

1953 - "Big Sister" was heard for the last time on CBS Radio. The show ran for 17 years.

1954 - "The Shadow" aired on radio for the last time.

1956 - Fidel Castro attempted a secret landing in Cuba to overthrow the Batista regime. All but 11 of his supporters were killed.

1959 - The first charity walk took place, along Icknield Way, in aid of the World Refugee Fund.

1974 - Comedian Jack Benny died at age 80.

1982 - The Man of the Year in "TIME" magazine was a computer. It was the first time a non-human received the honors.

1986 - Doug Jarvis, age 31, set a National Hockey League (NHL) record as he skated in his 916th consecutive game. Jarvis eventually set the individual record for most consecutive games played with 964.

1986 - "Search for Tomorrow" was seen for the last time on CBS-TV. The show had been on the air for 35-years.

1990 - Garry Kasparov beat Anatoly Karpov to retain the chess championship.

1991 - The Soviet Union's parliament formally voted the country out of existence.

1995 - Israel turned dozens of West Bank villages over to the Palestinian Authority.

1996 - Six-year-old beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey was found beaten and strangled in the basement of her family's home in Boulder, CO.

1998 - Iraq announced that it would fire on U.S. and British warplanes that patrol the skies over northern and southern Iraq.

1999 - Alfonso Portillo, a populist lawyer, won Guatemala's first peacetime presidential elections in 40 years.

2000 - Michael McDermott, age 42, opened fire at his place of employment killing seven people. McDermott had no criminal history.

2002 - The first cloned human baby was born. The announcement was made the December 27 by Clonaid.

2004 - Under the Indian Ocean, a 9.0 magnitude earthquake sent 500-mph waves across the Indian Ocean and Bay of Bengal. The tsunami killed at least 283,000 people in a dozen countries, including Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Sumatra, Thailand and India.

Whose Birthday Is It?

Thomas Gray 1716

Juan Lovera 1778

Laurent Clerc 1785

Charles Babbage 1792

Goerge Dewey 1837

Henry Miller 1891

Mao Zedong 1893

Richard Widmark 1914

Steve Allen 1921

Alan King 1927

Donald Moffat 1930

Abdul "Duke" Fakir 1935

Phil Spector 1940

Jane Lapotaire 1944

John Walsh 1945

Joyce Jillson 1946

Carlton Fisk 1947

Ozzie Smith 1954

Brian Westrum 1962

Lars Ulrich 1963

J 1967

Audrey Wiggins 1967

Peter Klett 1969

Jared Leto 1971

Keep Loving!

Melodee Aaron, Erotica Romance Author

Melodee's Books at BookStrand

Hot Lips

2010-12-25T16:00:00.000-08:00

I can't seem to leave some news stories alone...

Flirt or Slut?

God knows I'm a flirt. Or a slut. There's a fine line between the two.

I'm like most women, and I like an original opening line. I use that term loosely, because sometimes it can be a line I've heard a million times before presented in a new and different way.

I'm not sure how I would react to being told I have beautiful lips would work, though. I'm more preoccupied with my legs. One line that did work was a guy who walked up to me in an airport and said, "Pardon me, miss, but those are the hottest damned legs I have ever seen." Even though he was going to Los Angeles and I to New York, he joined the Mile High Club. We were in Denver.

Notice that the article really only talks about how a man can flirt with a woman? That's because men have to work at flirting with a woman. We're a pretty particular bunch and hard to impress. But it's easy for a woman to flirt with a man.

Just lick your beautiful lips.

Keep Loving!

Melodee Aaron, Erotica Romance Author

Melodee's Books at BookStrand

There's No Crying In Baseball...

2010-12-25T10:23:00.001-08:00

But Crying On Christmas is OK.

Well, the visit from Santa went well, and now the aftermath of the carnage called "Opening The Presents" is all that's left around the tree.

The kids had a great Christmas...

Amanda is the oldest. She'll be eleven soon, and she gave up believing in Santa a couple of years ago. But she's great with the younger kids and plays the game to keep them believing. Her big score was a guitar and amplifier. Amanda has played for over four years now, and she's pretty good. In that time, we've bought her two other guitars. Her first was a real cheap guitar—both in terms of price (less than $100 including a small amp) and quality. Think about it...a six-year-old wants to play the guitar. Does it make sense to spend a bunch of money on a first instrument for her? No, not at all. After a year or so, and her sticking with the guitar and getting better, we bought her another, better guitar. I don't know the brand, but it's an OK, middle of the road guitar, and I seem to recall paying about $300 for it and another $50 or so for the amplifier. She loved it, and still does, and plays it nearly every day. But the only thing Amanda really wanted for Christmas this year was a "good" guitar. She had picked out a Fender "Standard" Telecaster with a price tag around $700 retail. We found one at a local shop for about $550. Then her dad did something I never expected him to do...Jack said to me, "Baby, why don't we just get her a really good instrument?" We ended up leaving the shop that day with a Fender American Deluxe Stratocaster HSS with the rosewood fretboard and tungsten finish (MSRP $2,099.99), a Fender G-DEC 3 Fifteen amplifier (MSRP $399.99), a Fender case, and assorted other goodies that I don't understand but the sales guy said she would need. We made it out the door for just under $2,300 with tax and all. Yeah, that's a lot of money for a guitar, especially a guitar for a not-quite-eleven-year-old girl. Amanda knew it was a guitar just from the size and shape of the box, but she was expecting the lesser grade Telecaster she had asked for. The look on her face when she tore open the package and saw what it really was made the price all worthwhile. She forgot everything else around the tree, and in moments had the guitar tuned and was picking out songs while sitting in the middle of the family room floor in her pajamas. She didn't need the amp to know that she had a real instrument in her hands. That was about 8:00 AM or so. It's a little after ten now, and she's in her room (next to my office), and is playing the guitar. I can feel the vibrations on my desk. She didn't exactly promise her dad that she wouldn't blow out the windows, but I think she's trying to avoid that.

Debbie is our middle child, and she's coming up on nine next year. Debbie is very logical and scientific, and she wants to be a doctor. But she's still a kid, and she hasn't quite decided if she still believes in Santa or not, but she is very clear on the idea that it's not worth taking chances, at least not yet. Debbie doesn't care for the toys that a normal 8-year-old girl would like. The exception is that she likes stuffed animals, especially unicorns. I think she has all of them. No, I don't mean that she has all of the stuffed unicorns they make...I means she has ALL of them on the planet. Anyway, when her dad and I asked what she would like for Christmas, she gave us the standard list of clothes, stuffed animals, that sort of thing. I could tell that Debbie was holding something back, though, so when her dad left the room, I pressed her. She looked a little embarrassed, and took me to her room and pulled up a web site from the University of California book store. She wanted a medical textbook on neurology. Yeah, I didn't mistype that. So, I got it for her. Her dad still thinks I'm nuts, but that's what Debbie wanted. By the way, ever bought a medical textbook? Unless you want to take out a second mortgage, don't. The bloody things are like gold! I peeked in on her a few minutes ago, and Debbie is sitting at her desk with the book and a notepad, reading about things that I can't even begin to comprehend.

JJ—technically Jack Junior—will be three in April. He has no doubt that there is a Santa Claus. He nailed a good deal of toys, some clothes, and in general had a gay old time with Christmas. Funny thing is that he seemed to have more fun with the ribbons, bows, and paper all over the floor than he did with his haul. Go figure.

And then there's Jack, my husband. Jack quit smoking when I was pregnant with JJ, and in some ways that made Christmas harder for me. Jack didn't smoke cigarettes or cigars: He smoked a pipe. I could always get him a pipe or something related to his pipes, but since he quit, that's not an option now. He also likes guns and to shoot, but there just seems to be something wrong with the idea of buying someone a gun or ammo for Christmas. So Jack ended up with some clothes and shoes from me. Oh, and me in a killer sexy elf outfit.

What about me? Well, Jack made me cry like a baby this morning. After all the gifts were opened, I had the pile of normal things from the kids and a few things from Jack like perfume and some makeup. He stood and said that he needed to go outside to get my last gift. When he came back, he had the biggest single red rose I have ever seen wrapped up with some wildflowers and other flowers he had picked by hand from the yard. He stood in front of me smiling a little sheepishly and told me that he had no idea what to get me that I didn't already have. He handed me the flowers and kissed my cheek. I must have looked like the proverbial 24-carat idiot sitting there clutching those flowers to my chest with tears streaming down my face. At one point, Jack left the room for a minute and Amanda asked me, "Mom, how can guys be so stupid most of the time, and then do something so sweet and romantic like that?"

I still can't answer that question.

Keep Loving!

Melodee Aaron, Erotica Romance Author

Melodee's Books at BookStrand

December 25 - This Day In History

2010-12-25T04:00:00.000-08:00

This Day In History
Courtesy of
On-This-Day.com

December 25

800 - Charlemagne was crowned first Holy Roman Emperor in Rome by Pope Leo III.

1066 - William the Conqueror was crowned king of England.

1223 - St. Francis of Assisi assembled one of the first Nativity scenes, in Greccio, Italy.

1776 - Gen. George Washington and his troops crossed the Delaware River for a surprise attack against Hessian forces at Trenton, NJ.

1818 - "Silent Night" was performed for the first time, at the Church of St. Nikolaus in Oberndorff, Austria.

1868 - U.S. President Andrew Johnson granted an unconditional pardon to all persons involved in the Southern rebellion that resulted in the Civil War.

1894 - The University of Chicago became the first Midwestern football team to play on the west coast. U.C. defeated Stanford, 24-4, in Palo Alto, CA.

1896 - John Philip Sousa finally titled the melody "The Stars and Stripes Forever."

1914 - During World War I, British and German troops observed an unofficial truce and even playing football together on the Western Front.

1917 - The play "Why Marry?" opened at the Astor Theatre in New York City. "Why Marry?" was the first dramatic play to win a Pulitzer Prize.

1926 - Hirohito became the emperor of Japan after the death of his father Emperor Taisho.

1930 - The Mt. Van Hoevenberg bobsled run at Lake Placid, New York opened to the public. It was the first bobsled track of international specifications to open in the U.S.

1931 - Lawrence Tibbett was the featured vocalist as radio came to the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City. The first opera was "Hansel und Gretel" and was heard on the NBC network of stations.

1937 - Arturo Toscanini conducted the first broadcast of "Symphony of the Air" over NBC radio.

1939 - "A Christmas Carol," by Charles Dickens, was read on CBS radio for the first time.

1941 - Hong Kong surrendered to the Japanese.

1946 - W.C. Fields died at the age of 66.

1950 - Dick Tracy married on Tess Truehart.

1962 - The Department of Commerce Census Clock in Washington, DC, recorded the U.S. population on this day as 188,000,000.

1971 - The longest pro-football game to date finally ended when Garo Yepremian kicked a field goal in the second quarter of sudden death overtime. The Miami Dolphins defeated Kansas City, 27-24. The total game time was 82 minutes and 40 seconds.

1972 - The Nicaraguan capital Managua was hit by an earthquake. Over 10,000 people were killed.

1979 - The USSR invaded Afghanistan in a bid to halt civil war and protect USSR interests.

1989 - Ousted Romanian President Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife, Elena, were executed following a popular uprising.

1989 - Former baseball player and manager Billy Martin died in a truck crash in Fenton, NY.

1989 - Dissident playwright Vaclav Havel was elected president of Czechoslovakia.

1991 - Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev went on television to announce his resignation as leader of a Communist superpower that had already gone out of existence.

1998 - Seven days into their journey, Richard Branson, Steve Fossett and Per Lindstrand of Sweden gave up their attempt to make the first nonstop round-the-world balloon flight. They ditched near Hawaii.

2000 - Over 300 people were killed and dozens were injured by fire at a Christmas party in the Chinese city of Luoyang. The incident occurred at the Dongdu Disco.

Whose Birthday Is It?

Sir Isaac Newton 1642

Clara Barton 1821

Mohammed Ali Jinnah 1876

Maurice Utrillo 1883

Conrad Hilton 1887

Dame Rebecca West 1892

Robert Ripley 1893

Cal Farley 1895

Humphrey Bogart 1899

Cab Calloway III 1907

Tony Martin 1914

Pete Rugolo 1915

Anwar Sadat 1918

Robert N. Hall 1919

Rod Serling 1924

Dick Miller 1928

Chris Kenner 1929

O’Kelly Isley 1937

Hanna Schygulla 1943

Henry Vestine 1944

John Edwards 1944

Ken Stabler 1945

Gary Sandy 1945

Noel Redding 1945

Larry Csonka 1946

Jimmy Buffett 1946

Barbara Mandrell 1948

Sissy Spacek 1949

Desireless 1952

Steve Wariner 1954

Robin Campbell 1954

Annie Lennox 1954

Shane McGowan 1957

Klea Scott 1968

Noel Hogan 1971

Alecia Elliot 1982

Keep Loving!

Melodee Aaron, Erotica Romance Author

Melodee's Books at BookStrand

Christmas Health

2010-12-24T16:00:00.000-08:00

I can't seem to leave some news stories alone...

Medical Good News

This is another one that is a long way from being practical, but it offers a glimmer of hope.

And it also pointedly attacks the wisdom of restricting stem cell research.

Yeah, this conservative is about to take a hard left turn, so if your image of me being a female version of Rush Limbaugh is subject to damage, you may want to stop reading now.

Still with me? Good!

First, let's put things into the cold, hard light of reality and perspective, shall we?

HIV/AIDS is not a pandemic nor even an epidemic. Most estimates put the total number of people worldwide with HIV at around 35-million. If we assume a global population of 6-billion, that comes out to about 0.6% of the world's population. On the other hand, about 500-million people (about 8% of global population) have genital herpes. See http://www.avert.org/worldstats.htm and http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/123926.php for all the details. And, just for fun, the Black Death killed nearly half the population of the known world.

The fact is that calling something an epidemic sells more commercials on the evening news than looking at the actual facts.

But, that does not mean that HIV is not a problem and a terrible illness.

It is both.

Anyway...

We have one person who was effectively cured of HIV. Oh, and his leukemia. That's hardly firm research, but due to the nature and prevalence of the illness, it is worth looking at a little closer.

The problem is the extreme right-wingers who oppose stem cell research are being just plain stupid about it all. Yeah, I said that.

Let's move forward with this finding and see what we can do.

Keep Loving!

Melodee Aaron, Erotica Romance Author

Melodee's Books at BookStrand

The Christmas Present

2010-12-24T11:59:00.000-08:00

When I was a kid, my family didn't have a lot. We were kind of like the poverty-stricken snake: We didn't have a pit to hiss in.

One thing we did have was family, such as it was.

I never knew my dad's mother or my mom's father; they both died before I was born. I never really knew my dad's father, either. He was what folks back then called a "wino" and what we would, in today's politically correct world, call a homeless person.

But I did know my mom's mother. In fact, she lived downstairs from us for a long time.

I had a good assortment of aunts, uncles, and cousins, all from my dad's side, who lived fairly close. There were another set from my mom's side, but they mostly lived in Denver, and we didn't see them very often.

But Grandma was always around.

I always had toys for Christmas, but not many and never very expensive things. I sometimes think that my dad always wanted a son, because often he would get me toys that would seem, at least at first, as being more appropriate for a boy.

Like the year he spent who-knows-how-much on a toy plane, some big airliner or another, that had a "remote control" on a wire so I could make the lights come on, the engines sound like they were revving, and it would taxi around while I steered it. I loved the plane and played with it for years.

Or the year dad got me BB gun, followed a year later by a Winchester lever-action 22 rifle. No, I didn't shoot my eye out, either. I loved them, too.

Looking back, it was more about dad giving me something rather than the gifts themselves that I loved. Like so many kids, I equated the gifts with dad loving me.

I don't have any of those toys or gifts today. They were all lost to the passing years, and I have no clue where or how. All I have now are the memories, and that's more than enough for me.

Then there was the year that Grandma died.

She had breast cancer, and the doctors did all they could, but they didn't have the treatments available then that we have today. There was really little they could do other than keep her comfortable. Well, at least as much as possible.

Her last Christmas was a sad one, but at six, I really didn't understand that she, mom, and dad all knew it would be her last. I thought it was just another visit from Santa.

The medical bills took as big a toll as anything else. There weren't many presents under the tree that year.

But I remember one small package, only a few inches long, and far less than that in width and height. It had worked its way to the very toe of my stocking hanging above the old gas fireplace, and I had to take the red sock down and shake it to get the present to fall to the floor.

I recall thinking that it must be something good because it was heavy and made a loud clunk when it hit the white and blue ceramic tile that made up the floor in front of the burning fire. I can still see the red wrapping paper, covered in white snowmen dressed in the traditional black top hats with their carrot noses and coal lump eyes. It was tied with a thin green ribbon, and a silver bow twice as big as the package itself finished it off.

I'd already opened all my other gifts, but something about this odd present fascinated me. It was so unusual, so different from all the others, that I had this feeling in my six-year-old mind that something must be very special about this last item.

A small card was taped to the package, and it read simply: "To Melodee From Grandma and Grandpa".

That puzzled me. Grandpa? Did it mean Grandpa Bunny, the aforementioned wino? Surely not.

But at six, I didn't worry about it too much, and tore into the ribbon and paper, tossing them to join the small, sad pile already on the floor.

Inside was a simple, unmarked cardboard box, and when I opened that, I found an old, well-worn pocket knife.

As I turned it in my hands, it was marked on one side with the word "Primble" and on the other with "Barlow". I had no idea who these people might be, but they must have lost this knife a long time ago, because far from the bright, shiny color of a new tool, this one was brown with the color of old rust, rubbed off by wear from being carried and used on a regular basis.

I opened the larger of the two blades, and it was thin from repeated sharpening. Carefully, I ran my finger across the blade as I'd seen dad do when he sharpened his knife, and it was like a razor. I couldn't get my tiny hands to open the smaller blade, though. The spring was too strong for my fingers to work.

Grandma, sitting in the old, big easy chair, waved her hands to get my attention so I could read her lips. "Child, close that knife and come on over here."

I folded the knife and went to where she sat, and I crawled up in her lap.

I know now that probably hurt her. Her bones were brittle and ached from the cancer that, unknown to a six-year-old child, ravaged her body. But Grandma didn't complain. She didn't even wince.

Instead, she put her arm around me and tapped at the old knife with her other hand, the tremble noticeable even to me. "That was your Grandpa's knife. He carried that everyday for a long, long time. It's yours now."

I saw a few tears running down her cheeks, but I really didn't understand, because she smiled bright as daybreak. When I glanced over at mom, she too was crying softly, but she also smiled. Dad was busy poking at some invisible spot on his shirt, his eyes carefully averted from my gaze.

I remember saying thank you, but totally without understanding.

Grandma died in February, but it was many more years before I understood the meaning of her last Christmas present to me.

As I said, all the toys and other things from those times are gone, all a part of history now.

All but one...

As I write this, I look down at the desk and see the familiar knife there, the words "Primble" and "Barlow" still easily readable in the brownish metal, the colors of the artificial horn flowing across the handle. The blade is a little thinner now, but it's still razor-sharp. Both blades now, because I can get the smaller one to fold out.

I carry that little knife with me everywhere I can. If I wear jeans, it's in my pocket. Otherwise, it's in my purse.

It's not worth anything. It wasn't even an expensive knife when new. To me, though, it's priceless. It's a tie across the miles and years to a woman I loved very much and miss terribly. It's also a tie to man I never knew, but who I love just as much.

Some of you may be disappointed, because most of the stories from my childhood have a funny aspect, and this one is seriously lacking in the comedic department. No, this wasn't a funny story, but it is a happy one.

Memories define who we are. To a large degree, they also define who we will become. That, in turn, defines how we live our life and how we impact others. The memory of Grandma's last Christmas is a good one. She gave me a gift beyond all measure.

She gave me a past much longer than my years.

Yes, there is a good dose of bitter with the sweet, but like a fine wine or the most delectable chocolate available, the sweet far outweighs the bitter, reducing the painful twinge to giving us a reminder of how good things really are. The bitter only serves to enhance the sweet.

Happy Holidays

Keep Loving!

Melodee Aaron, Erotica Romance Author

Melodee's Books at BookStrand

December 24 - This Day In History

2010-12-24T04:00:00.000-08:00

This Day In History
Courtesy of
On-This-Day.com

December 24

1814 - The War of 1812 between the U.S. and Britain was ended with the signing of the Treaty of Ghent in Belgium.

1818 - Franz Gruber of Oberndorf, Germany composed the music for "Silent Night" to words written by Josef Mohr.

1828 - William Burke who, with his partner William Hare, dug up the dead and murdered to sell the corpses for dissection, went on trial in Edinburgh.

1851 - A fire devastated the Library of Congress in Washington, DC, destroying about 35,000 volumes.

1865 - Several veterans of the Confederate Army formed a private social club in Pulaski, TN, called the Ku Klux Klan.

1906 - Reginald A. Fessenden became the first person to broadcast a music program over radio, from Brant Rock, MA.

1914 - In World War I, the first air raid on Britain was made when a German airplane dropped a bomb on the grounds of a rectory in Dover.

1928 - The first broadcast of "The Voice of Firestone" was heard.

1943 - U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt appointed Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower supreme commander of Allied forces as part of Operation Overlord.

1944 - The Andrews Sisters starred in the debut of "The Andrews Sisters’ Eight-To-The-Bar-Ranch" on ABC Radio.

1944 - A German submarine torpedoed the Belgian transport ship S.S. Leopoldville with 2,235 soldiers aboard. About 800 American soldiers died. The soldiers were crossing the English Channel to be reinforcements at the battle that become known as the Battle of the Bulge.

1948 - For the first time ever, a midnight Mass was broadcast on television. It was held at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City.

1948 - The first completely solar-heated house became occupied in Dover, MA.

1951 - NBC-TV presented, "Amal and the Night Visitors," the first opera written for television.

1951 - Libya achieved independence as the United Kingdom of Libya, under King Idris.

1965 - A meteorite landed on Leicestershire. It weighed about 100lbs.

1966 - Luna 13 landed on the moon.

1967 - Joe Namath (New York Jets) became the first NFL quarterback to pass for 4,000 yards.

1968 - The crew of the U.S. Navy ship, Pueblo, was released by North Korea. The Captain of the Pueblo, Commander Lloyd M. Bucher, and 82 of his crew were held for 11 months after the ship was seized by North Korea because of suspected spying by the Americans.

1968 - Three astronauts, James A. Lovell, William Anders and Frank Borman, reached the moon. They orbited the moon 10 times before coming back to Earth. Seven months later man first landed on the moon.

1979 - Soviet troops invaded Afghanistan in support of the country's Marxist government.

1981 - Reggie Jackson announced that he would join Gene Autry’s California Angels for the 1982 season.

1981 - In Eastern Kazakh/Semipalatinsk, the Soviet Union performed a nuclear test.

1985 - Fidel Castro, the Cuban president, announced that he was a non-smoker.

1989 - Ousted Panamanian ruler Manuel Noriega took refuge at the Vatican's diplomatic mission in Panama City.

1990 - Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman were married.

1992 - U.S. President H.W. Bush pardoned former Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger and five others in the Iran-Contra scandal.

1997 - Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, known as "Carlos the Jackal," was sentenced by a French court to life in prison for the 1975 murders of two French investigators and a Lebanese national.

1998 - At Disneyland in Anaheim, CA, a tourist was hit by a piece of flying metal while waiting to board a ride. The man's wife and a Disneyland employee were also injured. Luan Phi Dawson died December 26th from his injuries.

1999 - Ivory Coast President Henri Konan Bédié was overthrown in a coup.

1999 - An Indian Airlines plane was seized during a flight from Katmandu, Nepal, to New Delhi. In Afghanistan, the 150 hostages were freed on December 31 after India released three Kashmir militants from prison.

2000 - 36 minutes after the end of a game, both the New England Patriots and the Miami Dolphins were called back to the playing field. The teams had to play the final 3 seconds of the game which the Dolphins had won 27-24. The end result did not change.

2000 - The "Texas 7," seven convicts that had escaped a Texas prison, robbed a sports store in Irving, TX. The suspects killed Officer Aubrey Hawkins, stole $70,000, 25 weapons and clothing. The men had escaped on December 13.

Whose Birthday Is It?

John (King of England) 1167

Ingatius 1491

Benjamin Rush 1745

Kit Carson 1809

James Joule 1818

Matthew Arnold 1822

Harry Warren 1893

Howard Hughes 1905

I.F. Stone 1907

Ralph Marterie 1914

Dave Bartholomew 1920

Ava Gardner 1922

Lee Dorsey 1924

Carol Haney 1924

Robert Joffrey 1930

Ray Bryant 1931

Jill Bennett 1931

Mike Curb 1944

Nicholas Meyer 1945

Lemmy Kilmister 1945

Jan Akkerman 1946

Sharon Farrell 1946

Clarence Gilyard 1955

Stephanie Hodge 1956

Ian Burden 1957

Mary Ramsey 1963

Diedrich Bader 1966

Ricky Martin 1971

Keep Loving!

Melodee Aaron, Erotica Romance Author

Melodee's Books at BookStrand

Open The Pod Bay Doors, Hal

2010-12-23T16:00:00.000-08:00

I can't seem to leave some news stories alone...

Sure Beats A Commodore 64

I can't help but wonder how the computer will be paid if it wins.

And will it get endorsement contracts for iPod?

Keep Loving!

Melodee Aaron, Erotica Romance Author

Melodee's Books at BookStrand

December 23 - This Day In History

2010-12-23T04:00:00.000-08:00

This Day In History
Courtesy of
On-This-Day.com

December 23

1783 - George Washington returned home to Mount Vernon, after the disbanding of his army following the Revolutionary War.

1788 - Maryland voted to cede a 100-square-mile area for the seat of the national government. About two-thirds of the area became the District of Columbia.

1823 - The poem "A Visit from St. Nicholas" by Clement C. Moore was published.

1834 - English architect Joseph Hansom patented his 'safety cab', better known as the Hansom cab.

1852 - The Theatre of Celestial John opened on Telegraph Hill in San Francisco, CA. It was the first Chinese theatre in the U.S.

1880 - Thomas Edison incorporated the Edison Electric Light Company of Europe.

1888 - Following a quarrel with Paul Gauguin, Dutch painter Vincent Van Gogh cut off part of his own earlobe.

1893 - The Engelbert Humperdinck opera "Hansel und Gretel" was first performed, in Weimar, Germany.

1913 - The Federal Reserve Bill was signed into law by U.S. President Woodrow Wilson. The act established 12 Federal Reserve Banks.

1919 - The first ship designed to be used as an ambulance for the transport patients was launched. The hospital ship was named USS Relief and had 515 beds.

1922 - The British Broadcasting Corporation began daily news broadcasts.

1930 - Ruth Elizabeth Davis, an unknown actress, arrived in Hollywood, under contract to Universal Studios. Universal changed her name to Bette Davis for the movies.

1938 - "Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch" was heard for the final time on the radio.

1941 - During World War II, American forces on Wake Island surrendered to the Japanese.

1942 - Bob Hope agreed to entertain U.S. airmen in Alaska. It was the first of the traditional Christmas shows.

1943 - "Hansel and Gretel," the opera, was televised on New York's WRBG. It was the first complete opera to be televised.

1947 - John Bardeen, Walter H. Brattain and William Shockley invented the transistor.

1948 - Former Japanese premier Hideki Tojo and six other Japanese war leaders were executed in Tokyo. They had been found guilty of crimes against humanity.

1951 - A National Football League (NFL) championship game was televised nationally for the first time. The Los Angeles Rams beat the Cleveland Browns 24-17. The DuMont Network had paid $75,000 for the rights to the game.

1953 - Soviet secret police chief Lavrenti Beria and six of his associates were shot for treason following a secret trial.

1954 - The Walt Disney movie "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" was released.
Disney movies, music and books

1957 - Dan Blocker made his acting debut on television in the "Restless Gun."

1965 - A 70-mph speed limit was introduced in Britain.

1968 - Eighty-two crewmembers of the U.S. intelligence ship Pueblo were released by North Korea, 11 months after they had been captured.

1972 - The Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Oakland Raiders 13-7 in an NFL playoff game on a last-second play that was dubbed the "Immaculate Reception." Pittsburgh's Franco Harris caught a deflected pass and ran it in for the winning touchdown.

1981 - NASA approved a plan to continue the Voyager II spacecraft on a trajectory that would take it within 66,000 miles of Uranus on July 24, 1986.

1986 - The experimental airplane Voyager, piloted by Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager, completed the first non-stop, around-the-world flight without refueling as it landed safely at Edwards Air Force Base in California.

1987 - Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme, serving a life sentence for the attempted assassination of U.S. President Ford in 1975, escaped from the Alderson Federal Prison for Women in West Virginia. She was recaptured two days later.

1989 - Ousted Romanian President Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife, Elena, were captured as they were attempting to flee their country.

1990 - Elections in Yugoslavia ended, leaving four of its six republics with non-Communist governments.

1995 - A fire in Dabwali, India, killed 540 people, including 170 children, during a year-end party being held near the children's school.

1995 - The bodies of 16 members of the Solar Temple religious sect were found in a clearing near Grenoble, France. 14 were presumed shot by two people who then committed suicide.

1997 - Terry Nichols was convicted by a Denver jury on charges of conspiracy and involuntary manslaughter in the 1995 federal building bombing in Oklahoma City. The bomb killed 168 people.

1998 - Guerrillas in south Lebanon fired dozens of rockets at northern Israel.

Whose Birthday Is It?

Richard Arkwright 1732

Alexander I 1777

Joseph Smith 1805

Samuel Smiles 1812

Connie Mack 1862

Fredi Washington 1903

Don McNeill 1907

Yousuf Karsh 1908

Maurice Denham 1909

James Gregory 1911

Jose Greco 1918

Gerald O’Loughlin 1921

Ruth Roman 1923

Harry Guardino 1925

Robert Bly 1926

Dick Weber 1929

Akihito 1933

'Little' Esther Phillips 1935

James Stacy 1936

Frederic Forrest 1936

Johnny Kidd 1939

Tim Hardin 1940

Eugene Record 1940

Jorma Kaukonen 1940

Elizabeth Hartman 1943

Harry Shearer 1943

Ron Bushy 1945

Susan Lucci 1948

Johnny Contardo 1951

Dave Murray 1958

Eddie Vedder 1964

Corey Haim 1972

Jamie Murphy 1975

Keep Loving!

Melodee Aaron, Erotica Romance Author

Melodee's Books at BookStrand

How Healthy Are You?

2010-12-22T16:00:00.000-08:00

I can't seem to leave some news stories alone...

Waiting For Mr. Badbar

Most people will tell you that Medicaid and ObamaCare have no connection.

Wrong.

They are intimately connected.

The goal of ObamaCare is to eliminate private insurance, Medicaid, and Medicare and to replace them with Universal Single-Payer government sponsored health care.

Notice I didn't say "insurance". The insurance companies are on the chopping block, too.

Anyway...

Read the ObamaCare law as passed by the Senate and not voted on by the House. I want you to actually read the law, so I will just tell you that the bits that detail this are between pages 693 and 1727.

Hell, you might as well read it since the members of Congress didn't. Like Pelosi said, "...we have to pass it so we can find out what's in it..." Hell of a way to run a government if you ask me.

Services like the ones this article talk about are only the first to go.

Let's get rid of pharmacies. You'll get your medications from the government. Well, the ones they want you to have, anyway.

Who needs transplants? If you had taken care of yourself, your liver/kidney/heart would still be OK and we wouldn't need to spend all that money on you.

Teeth? We don't need no stinking teeth! Ensure is covered by the plan. Root canals aren't.

Our records show that you voted for a Tea Party candidate in 2010. Take two aspirin and call us in the morning.

Keep Loving!

Melodee Aaron, Erotica Romance Author

Melodee's Books at BookStrand

December 22 - This Day In History

2010-12-22T04:00:00.000-08:00

This Day In History
Courtesy of
On-This-Day.com

December 22

1715 - James Stuart, the "Old Pretender", landed at Petershead after his exile in France.

1775 - A Continental naval fleet was organized in the rebellious American colonies under the command of Ezek Hopkins.

1807 - The U.S. Congress passed the Embargo Act, designed to force peace between Britain and France by cutting off all trade with Europe.

1864 - During the American Civil War, Union Gen. William T. Sherman sent a message to U.S. President Lincoln from Georgia. The message read, "I beg to present you as a Christmas gift the city of Savannah."

1877 - The "American Bicycling Journal" went on sale for the first time.

1894 - The United States Golf Association was formed in New York City.

1894 - French army officer Alfred Dreyfus was convicted of treason in a court-martial that triggered worldwide charges of anti-Semitism. Dreyfus was eventually vindicated.

1895 - German physicist Wilhelm Röntgen made the first X-ray, of his wife's hand.

1910 - U.S. Postal savings stamps were issued for the first time. They were discontinued in 1914.

1939 - Gloria Jacobs became the first girl to hold a world pistol record when she shot 299 out of a possible 300 points. She was 17 years old at the time.

1943 - Sporting goods manufacturers received permission to use synthetic rubber for the core of baseballs.

1941 - British Prime Minister Winston Churchill arrived in Washington for a wartime conference with U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt.

1956 - Colo, the first gorilla to be born in captivity, was born at the Columbus, Ohio zoo.

1956 - The last British and French forces evacuated Egypt.

1961 - James Davis became the first U.S. soldier to die in Vietnam, while U.S. involvement was still limited to the provision of military advisers.

1976 - The last show of "Let’s Make A Deal" was aired.

1984 - New York City resident Bernhard Goetz shot four black youths on a Manhattan subway. Goetz claimed they were about to rob him.

1989 - Romania's hard-line Communist ruler, Nicolae Ceausescu, was overthrown in a popular uprising.

1990 - Lech Walesa was sworn in as Poland's first popularly elected president.

1991 - The body of Lt. Col. William R. Higgins, an American hostage murdered by his captors, was found along a highway in Lebanon.

1996 - A car bomb exploded in Belfast, injuring a known IRA supporter. Police suspected that Protestant loyalists were responsible for the attack.

1998 - A unit of RJR Nabsico pled guilty to attempting to smuggle cigarettes into Canada.

2001 - Thirty Afghans, including two women, were sworn in as part of the new interim government in Afghanistan. Hamid Karzai was the head of the post-Taliban government.

Whose Birthday Is It?

Giacomo Puccini 1858

Andre Kostelanetz 1885

Dame Edith Margaret 1907

Lady Bird Johnson 1912

Gene Rayburn 1917

Frankie Darro 1917

Barbara Billingsley 1922

Peggy Castle 1927

Hector Elizondo 1936

Red Steagall 1937

Steve Carlton 1944

Barry Jenkins 1944

Diane Sawyer 1945

Steve Garvey 1948

Robin Gibb 1949

Maurice Gibb 1949

Bob Fitchner 1950

Rick Nielsen 1950

Jan Stephenson 1951

Ian Turnbull 1953

BernNadette Stanis 1953

Ricky Ross 1957

Luther Campbell 1960

Chuck Mead 1960

Ralph Fiennes 1962

Dina Meyer 1968

Lauralee Bell 1968

Heather Donahue 1974

Keep Loving!

Melodee Aaron, Erotica Romance Author

Melodee's Books at BookStrand

Health and Welfare

2010-12-21T16:00:00.000-08:00

I can't seem to leave some news stories alone...

It's A Start

A single ruling by one judge is hardly what I would call a "major legal roadblock", but it's a start.

I don't know of a single person—myself included—who does not believe that there are some problems with the American medical system.

Costs are out of control. Too many people lack access to basic preventative care. Insurance premiums are so high that many people simply can't afford them.

But socialized medicine is not a good solution. There are three principle reasons why not...

First, costs are higher in a socialized system. Look at any country with socialized medicine for examples. The combined governmental and private expenditures per capita run higher than what we now have. Sometimes the increase is as much as 70% higher.

Second, quality of care goes down in a socialized system. Again, look at the examples. Life span decreases as does the life expectancy following major illnesses like cancer. Perhaps more telling are the self-reported state of health from people at various ages.

Third, access to health care goes down in a socialized system. Waits for treatment get longer, choices get narrower, and work loads on providers go up. All of these contribute to both the first and second reasons, too.

A better solution seems totally unrelated to heath care to most people at first glance, and that is why it is often dismissed. You have to be able and willing to see the "big picture"...

Create Jobs

Good, long term, well paying jobs from employers who are making money can provide quality health insurance. Yes, it's really just that simple.

How this happens is just as simple...

Get The Government Off The Backs Of Business

With the current mass of regulations, forms, taxes, and all the rest, business can't be streamlined and efficient. They spend so much time and money on governmental compliance issues that a business can't afford to create jobs.

The easiest way to make all of this happen is for government to, basically, do nothing. Get rid of the unneeded regulations and taxes, and then just sit back.

Let The Free Market Fix Itself

In a nutshell, a health care provider or insurance company that is not offering a good value will not have any customers, and they will go away or change their offering. Costs will come down. Premiums will come down. Access will increase. Service will increase. Quality will increase. More people will take part in the programs because they have a job and can afford the program.

In other words, problem solved.

And we don't have to call each other Comrade.

Keep Loving!

Melodee Aaron, Erotica Romance Author

Melodee's Books at BookStrand

December 21 - This Day In History

2010-12-21T04:00:00.000-08:00

This Day In History
Courtesy of
On-This-Day.com

December 21

1620 - The "Mayflower", and its passengers, pilgrims from England, landed at Plymouth Rock, MA.

1849 - The first ice-skating club in America was formed in Philadelphia, PA.

1879 - Ibsen's "A Doll's House" was first performed in Copenhagen, Denmark, with a revised happy ending.

1898 - Scientists Pierre and Marie Curie discovered the radioactive element radium.

1909 - McKinley and Washington schools of Berkeley, CA, became the first authorized, junior-high schools in the U.S.

1913 - The "New York World" Sunday edition included a crossword puzzle as an added feature of the "Fun" supplement. It was the first crossword puzzle to be published.

1914 - Marie Dressler, Charlie Chaplin, Mabel Normand and Mack Swain appeared in the first six-reel, feature-length comedy. The film was entitled "Tillie’s Punctured Romance".

1925 - Eisenstein's film "Battleship Potemkin" was first shown in Moscow.

1937 - Walt Disney debuted the first, full-length, animated feature in Hollywood, CA. The movie was "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs."

1944 - Horse racing was banned in the United States until after the end of World War II.

1945 - U.S. Gen. George S. Patton died in Heidelberg, Germany, of injuries from a car accident.

1948 - The state of Eire (formerly the Irish Free State) declared its independence.

1951 - Joe DiMaggio announced his retirement from major league baseball.

1958 - Charles de Gaulle was elected to a seven-year term as the first president of the Fifth Republic of France.

1968 - Apollo 8 was launched on a mission to orbit the moon. The craft landed safely in the Pacific Ocean on December 27.

1971 - The U.N. Security Council chose Kurt Waldheim to succeed U Thant as secretary-general.

1978 - Police in Des Plaines, IL, arrested John W. Gacy Jr. and began unearthing the remains of 33 men and boys that Gacy was later convicted of killing.

1981 - Cincinnati defeated Bradley 75-73 in seven overtimes. The game was the longest collegiate basketball game in the history of NCAA Division I competition.

1988 - 270 people were killed when Pan Am Boeing 747 exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland, due to a terrorist attack.

1990 - In a German television interview, Saddam Hussein declared that he would not withdraw from Kuwait by the UN deadline.

1991 - Eleven of the 12 former Soviet republics proclaimed the birth of the Commonwealth of Independent States.

1995 - The city of Bethlehem passed from Israeli to Palestinian control.

1996 - After two years of denials, U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich admitted violating House ethics rules.

1998 - Israel's parliament voted overwhelmingly for early elections. It was the signal to the demise of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's hard-line government.

1998 - A Chinese court sentenced two dissidents to long prison terms for attempting to organize an opposition party. A third man was sentenced to 12 years in prison on December 22, 1998.

1998 - The first vaccine for Lyme disease was approved.

2001 - The Islamic militant group Hamas released a statement that said it was suspending suicide bombings and mortar attacks in Israel.

2002 - Larry Mayes was released after spending 21 years in prison for a rape that maintained that he never committed. He was the 100th person in the U.S. to be released after DNA tests were performed.

Whose Birthday Is It?

Jean Baptiste Racine 1639

Benjamin Disraeli 1804

Henrietta Szold 1860

Joseph Stalin 1879

Walter Hagen 1892

Pat Weaver 1908

Andor Foldes 1913

Heinrich Böll 1917

Kurt Waldheim 1918

Alicia Alonso 1921

Paul Winchell 1922

Phyliss Love 1925

Ed Nelson 1928

Freddie Hart 1933

Phil Donahue 1935

John Avildsen 1935

Jane Fonda 1937

Frank Zappa 1940

Ray Hildebrand 1940

Carla Thomas 1942

Albert Lee 1943

Gwen McCrae 1943

Jared Martin 1943

Michael Tilson Thomas 1944

Gordon Kannegiesser 1945

Josh Mostel 1946

Carl Wilson 1946

Nate Wright 1947

Elliott Maddox 1947

Samuel L. Jackson 1948

Claude Chartre 1949

Betty Wright 1953

Chris Evert 1954

Jane Kaczmarek 1955

Jim Rose 1956

Lee Roy Parnell 1956

Ray Romano 1957

Florence Griffith Joyner 1959

Christy Forester 1962

Andy Dick 1965

Gabrielle Glaser 1965

Kiefer Sutherland 1966

Khrystyne Haje 1968

Brad Warren 1968

Julie Delpy 1969

Brett Scallions 1971

Keep Loving!

Melodee Aaron, Erotica Romance Author

Melodee's Books at BookStrand

Getting Goosed

2010-12-20T16:00:00.000-08:00

I can't seem to leave some news stories alone...

Geese

Remember the two geese in the Disney movie The Aristocats? They were named Abigale and Amelia. Uncle Waldo seemed to be a bit too friendly for an uncle if you ask me.

This blog is NOT about them, though.

I hope they can show that these remains are those of Amelia Earhart. It will put all of the nonsense about the woman to rest once and for all.

Or will it?

You can bet that someone will come up with a new conspiracy theory.

Keep Loving!

Melodee Aaron, Erotica Romance Author

Melodee's Books at BookStrand

December 20 - This Day In History

2010-12-20T04:00:00.000-08:00

This Day In History
Courtesy of
On-This-Day.com

December 20

1606 - The "Susan Constant," "Godspeed" and "Discovery" set sail from London. Their landing at Jamestown, VA, was the start of the first permanent English settlement in America.

1699 - Peter the Great ordered that the Russian New Year be changed from September 1 to January 1.

1790 - The first successful cotton mill in the United States began operating at Pawtucket, RI.

1803 - The United States Senate ratified a treaty that included the Louisiana Territories from France for $15 million. The transfer was completed with formal ceremonies in New Orleans.

1820 - The state of Missouri enacted legislation to tax bachelors between the ages of 21-50 for being unmarried. The tax was $1 a year.

1860 - South Carolina became the first state to secede from the American Union.

1864 - Confederate forces evacuated Savannah, GA as Union Gen. William T. Sherman continued his "March to the Sea."

1879 - Thomas A. Edison privately demonstrated his incandescent light at Menlo Park, NJ.

1880 - New York's Broadway became known as the "Great White Way" when it was lighted by electricity.

1892 - Alexander T. Brown and George Stillman patented the pneumatic tire.

1928 - Mail delivery by dog sled began in Lewiston, ME.

1933 - The film "Flying Down to Rio" was first shown in New York.

1938 - Vladimir Kosma Zworykin patented the iconoscope television system.

1946 - The Frank Capra film "It's A Wonderful Life" had a preview showing for charity at New York City's Globe Theatre, a day before its "official" world premiere. James Stewart and Donna Reed star in the film.

1946 - In Indochina (Vietnam), full-scale guerrilla warfare between Vietnam partisans and French troops began.

1954 - Buick Motor Company signed Jackie Gleason to one of the largest contracts ever entered into with an entertainer. Gleason agreed to produce 78 half-hour shows over a two-year period for $6,142,500.

1962 - A world indoor pole-vault record was set by Don Meyers when he cleared 16 feet, 11/4 inches.

1963 - The Berlin Wall was opened for the first time to West Berliners. It was only for the holiday season. It closed again on January 6, 1964.

1968 - Author John Steinbeck died at the age of 66.

1973 - The Spanish premier Carrero Blanco was assassinated in Madrid.

1987 - More than 3,000 people were killed when the Dona Paz, a Philippine passenger ship, collided with the tanker Vector off Mindoro island, setting off a double explosion.

1989 - General Noriega, Panama's former dictator, was overthrown by a United States invasion force invited by the new civilian government. The project was known as Operation Just Cause.

1991 - Ante Markovic resigned as federal Prime Minister of Yugoslavia.

1991 - Oliver Stone's "JFK" opened in the U.S.

1994 - Marcelino Corniel, a homeless man, was shot and mortally wounded by White House security officers. He had brandished a knife near the executive mansion.

1994 - Ivan Lendl retired after a 17-year tennis career.

1995 - An American Airlines Boeing 757 en route to Cali, Colombia, crashed into a mountain, killing all but four of the 163 people aboard.

1996 - Doctors reported that a Cypriot woman who had taken fertility drugs was carrying about 11 embryos.

1998 - In Houston, TX, a 27-year-old woman gave birth to the only known living set of octuplets.

1999 - The Vermont Supreme Court ruled that homosexual couples were entitled to the same benefits and protections as wedded couples of the opposite sex.

1999 - Sovereignty over the colony of Macao was transferred from Portugal to China.

2001 - The U.S. Congress passed a $20 billion package to finance the war against terrorism taking place in Afghanistan.

2001 - Argentina's President Fernando De la Rua resigned after two years in power.

2001 - The first British peacekeepers arrived in Afghanistan to help the nation heal after decades of war.

Whose Birthday Is It?

Samuel Mudd 1833

Harvey Firestone 1868

Walter Adams 1876

Branch Rickey 1881

Susanne Langer 1895

Gabby Harnett 1900

Irene Dunn 1901

Max Lerner 1902

Sidney Hook 1902

Vagn Holmboe 1909

Hortense Calisher 1911

Eugene W. Smith 1918

Audrey Totter 1918

Ann Richards 1918

George Roy Hill 1922

James Leasor 1923

David Levine 1926

John Christiansen 1928

John Hillerman 1932

Mattie Alou 1938

Kim Weston 1939

Bob Hayes 1942

Angel Tompkins 1943

Bobby Colomby 1944

Peter Criss 1945

Uri Geller 1946

John Spencer 1946

Dick Gibbs 1948

Little Stevie Wright 1948

Oscar Gamble 1949

Cecil Cooper 1949

Bill Clement 1950

Jenny Agutter 1952

Michael Badalucco 1954

Blanche Baker 1956

Billy Bragg 1958

Mark Keyloun 1960

Kris Tyler 1964

Chris Robinson 1966

Keep Loving!

Melodee Aaron, Erotica Romance Author

Melodee's Books at BookStrand

Incoming! The Remix

2010-12-19T16:00:00.000-08:00

I can't seem to leave some news stories alone...

Ducks & Shotguns

I have a graduate degree (PhD) in theoretical physics with an emphasis on astrophysics. That does NOT mean that I am a practicing physicist. Nor am I a mechanical or structural or materials engineer. In other words, I do not have the knowledge needed to say outright that these people are wrong.

But...

It doesn't make sense to me, and I can't get the math to work.

Every time I try to make it work, I come up with the same results...

We go from being a duck being shot at by a hunter with a rifle to being shot at with a shotgun. If that is better or not depends on a bunch of factors, but on one in particular...

How big is the incoming rock?

If under about 4 miles or so (maybe up to 5 miles), a bunch of small impacts would be better than one big impact. Well, as long as you're not at ground zero for one of the small impacts. "Small" is a relative thing. Most of them will still take out a city the size of Los Angeles.

If the rock is much bigger than about 6 miles in diameter—about the size of the so-called dinosaur killer at the K-T Event—it looks like we would actually make things worse by breaking it up. See the above duck.

And then, if we are talking about a really big rock, say on the order of 100 miles or so, it doesn't matter.

Bend over, put your head between your knees, and kiss your sweet ass goodbye.

Keep Loving!

Melodee Aaron, Erotica Romance Author

Melodee's Books at BookStrand

December 19 - This Day In History

2010-12-19T04:00:00.000-08:00

This Day In History
Courtesy of
On-This-Day.com

December 19

1154 - Henry II became King of England.

1562 - The Battle of Dreux was fought between the Huguenots and the Catholics, beginning the French Wars of Religion.

1732 - Benjamin Franklin began publishing "Poor Richard's Almanac."

1776 - Thomas Paine published his first "American Crisis" essay.

1777 - General George Washington led his army of about 11,000 men to Valley Forge, PA, to camp for the winter.

1842 - Hawaii's independence was recognized by the U.S.

1843 - Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" was first published in England.

1871 - Corrugated paper was patented by Albert L. Jones.

1887 - Jake Kilrain and Jim Smith fought in a bare knuckles fight which lasted 106 rounds and 2 hours and 30 minutes. The fight was ruled a draw and was halted due to darkness.

1903 - The Williamsburg Bridge opened in New York City. It opened as the largest suspension bridge on Earth and remained the largest until 1924. It was also the first major suspension bridge to use steel towers to support the main cable.

1907 - A coalmine explosion in Jacobs Creek, PA, killed 239 workers.

1917 - The first games of the new National Hockey League (NHL) were played. Five teams made up the league: Toronto Arenas, Ottawa Senators, Quebec Bulldogs, the Montreal Canadiens and the Montreal Wanderers.

1918 - Robert Ripley began his "Believe It or Not" column in "The New York Globe".

1932 - The British Broadcasting Corp. began transmitting overseas with its "Empire Service" to Australia.

1957 - Meredith Wilson’s "The Music Man" opened at the Majestic Theatre in New York City. It ran for 1,375 shows.

1957 - Air service between London and Moscow was inaugurated.

1959 - Penn State’s Nittany Lions beat Alabama, 7-0, in the first Liberty Bowl football game.

1959 - Walter Williams died in Houston, TX, at the age of 117. He was said to be the last surviving veteran of the U.S. Civil War.

1961 - "Judgment At Nuremberg" opened in New York City.

1972 - Apollo 17 splashed down in the Pacific, ending the Apollo program of manned lunar landings.

1973 - Johnny Carson started a fake toilet-paper scare on the "Tonight Show."

1978 - Indira Gandhi was expelled from the Lok Sabha for contempt and imprisoned.

1979 - ESPN televised its first NHL game. The teams were the Washington Capitals and the Hartford Whales.

1984 - Wayne Gretsky, 23, of the Edmonton Oilers, became only the 18th player in the National Hockey League (NHL) to score more than 1,000 points.

1984 - Ted Hughes was appointed England's poet laureate.

1984 - Britain and China signed an accord returning Hong Kong to Chinese sovereignty on July 1, 1997.

1985 - Jan Stenerud announced his retirement from the NFL. The football kicker held the record for the most career field goals with 373.

1985 - ABC Sports announced that it was severing ties with Howard Cosell and released ‘The Mouth’ from all TV commitments. Cosell continued on ABC Radio for another five years.

1986 - The Soviet Union announced it had freed dissident Andrei Sakharov from internal exile, and pardoned his wife, Yelena Bonner.

1986 - Independent counsel Lawrence Walsh was appointed to investigate the Iran-Contra issue.

1989 - U.S. troops invaded Panama to overthrow the regime of General Noriega.

1990 - Bo Jackson (Los Angeles Raiders) became the first athlete to be chosen for All Star Games in two sports.

1996 - The school board of Oakland, CA, voted to recognize Black English, also known as "ebonics." The board later reversed its stance.

1997 - "Titanic" opened in American movie theaters.

1998 - U.S. President Bill Clinton was impeached on two charges of perjury and obstruction of justice by the U.S. House of Representatives.

1998 - A four-day bombing of Iraq by British and American forces ended.

2000 - The U.N. Security Council voted to impose sanctions on Afghanistan's Taliban rulers unless they closed all terrorist training camps and surrender U.S. embassy bombing suspect Osama bin Laden.

2003 - Images for the new design for the Freedom Tower at the World Trade Center site were released. The building slopes into a spire that reaches 1,776 feet.

2008 - U.S. President George W. Bush signed a $17.4 billion rescue package of loans for ailing auto makers General Motors and Chrysler.

Whose Birthday Is It?

William Parry 1790

Minnie Fiske 1865

Fritz Reiner 1888

Ralph Richardson 1902

Leonid Brezhnev 1906

Jean Genet 1910

Edith Piaf 1915

David Susskind 1920

"Little" Jimmy Dickens 1920

Doug Harvey 1924

Galt MacDermot 1928

Howard Sackler 1929

Cicely Tyson 1933

Al Kaline 1934

Phil Ochs 1940

Maurice White 1941

Tim Reid 1944

Alvin Lee 1944

Charlie Ryan 1944

Richard Leakey 1944

Zal Yanovsky 1944

Elaine Joyce 1945

John McEuen 1945

Stan Smith 1946

Robert Urich 1946

Claudia Kolb 1949

Jeff Davis 1952

Janie Fricke 1952

Billy Brigg 1957

Kevin McHale 1957

Mike Lookinland 1960

Reggie White 1961

Jennifer Beals 1963

Robert MacNaughton 1966

Kevin Shepard 1968

Warren Sapp 1972

Alyssa Milano 1972

Daniel Patrick Adair 1975

Marlo Sokoloff 1980

Jake Gyllenhall 1980

Keep Loving!

Melodee Aaron, Erotica Romance Author

Melodee's Books at BookStrand

How Far Would You Go?

2010-12-18T16:00:00.000-08:00

I can't seem to leave some news stories alone...

500 Miles

OK, so it's farther than 500 miles. I just couldn't resist the musical note. No pun intended.

Anyway...

Most people can't begin to comprehend the distances we're talking about here. There are just too many zeros in 10,800,000,000 miles. Try these instead...

17,380,915,000 Kilometers

57976.493 Light Seconds

966.27488 Light Minutes

0.0018371642 Light Years

That last one is telling...

It is about 4 light years to the closest star. Voyager 1 has been traveling for 33 years.

At this rate, it will take Voyager 1 another 2,177 years to reach the nearest star.

Keep Loving!

Melodee Aaron, Erotica Romance Author

Melodee's Books at BookStrand