November and December, 2007
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MUSE INDEX Dropdown menus LINKS Previous issues What's New Who's Who Birthdays and anniversaries Muse readers' own websites Muse History Nov-Dec Photo Gallery Nancy's Quilts |
CONTENTS OF THIS ISSUE: SEP-OCT MUSE PICTURE (Natalie Murdock) Click R&R PLANS (Timothy Murdock) Click SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER MUSE (Roy Murdock) Click THE PLAN (Gene Murdock) Click FROM THE HEART-LAND (Charles Frost) Click BARB AND DICK (Bob Murdock) Click MESSAGE FROM JANE (Jane McCauley) Click Part 2 OUR TRIP EAST (Christel Murdock) Click NOMOMU (Barbara De Stefano) Click HE'S FINE! (Margery Aukstikalnis) Click CALIFORNIA WILDFIRES (Carl Martz) Click THE CLASS CLOWN, PART 1 (Gene Murdock) Click WILDFIRES (Becky Murdock) Click WOW (Becky Murdock) Click HARRIS FIRE (Christel Murdock) Click Part 3 HAPPY HALLOWEEN (Deanna Murdock) Click PHOTOS FROM WALES (Akiko Matsumoto) Click MOVED IN! (Margery Aukstikalnis) Click SUMMER'S OVER (Charles Frost) Click IN HONOR OF CAROLYN'S FATHER (Daniel Leskinen) Click NEWS OCTOBER 9 (Charles Frost) Click LAS VEGAS WEEKEND (Natalie Murdock) Click SOLITUDE (Gene Murdock) Click |
57th Anniv. photo by Colleen Gallery photo
Maple Leaf Quartets, I-IV Gallery photo Quilt index
for Luke, 1994 Gallery photo |
Tasmania island (lower right) |
Timothy Murdock I am still in Kuwait for another 11 months (4 down). I go R & R on 1 NOV until 22 NOV. Three of my buddies and I are going to Sydney, Australia. We start off by staying in a 5 star hotel (Intercontinental Sydney); then we travel south to Canberra and Melbourne. While in Melbourne we are going to see a soccer game. We have front row VIP seats. A couple days after that we hop on our scheduled flight to Hobart, Tasmania for three days, where we are going hiking (and partying). Once we fly back to Melbourne, we hit the road again to Adelaide. We plan to swim from the Pacific Ocean to the Indian Ocean. My birthday will be in Australia, so 16 NOV should be very fun. We are still in the planning phases but have half of our trip already booked. Well, take care!! |
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Roy Murdock GREAT MUSE!!!!! You guys did a fantastic job- love the pictures accompanying each article. That is so cool about Gene getting a library named after him. Val sounded really good. Love the Gene the Spy series. Love the pics from the Howlett reunion. Makes me want to go next year. happy happy love love |
Encyclopedia Britannica. |
Gene Murdock September 24, 2007: I am still mobile in that I can still drive to get out and see the world around me, but I realize that I will have to give up the car in the not too distant future, so I have come up with THE PLAN. The biggest change will be that I will have to give up the work at the Aviation Museum, which is the best job I ever had. I hope to keep my computer as long as I can so I can keep in touch with everybody and send out my MOMOMUs. Beyond that, I will still keep up the art hangings on my hall door, although I will have to rely in my own collection without being able to get to the local libraries for theirs. I will keep my monthly contribution to the beauty shop sign which consists of humorous comments on the dry-erase board outside the door. I will still share my collection of music and movies, replaying the best ones about three months apart. I have a bunch of collectibles that I can put out as a show-and-tell contribution, and I will stick to my present goal of making at least three people laugh and five others smile each day. The details of how I do this will be the subject of another article. I will make a list of topics that I want to study, picking a different subject each month. I will rely on the Web for much of the information, but we have an excellent set of encyclopedias in the library that I can use. Some of the early topics will be: Canada, Mexico, Iberia, horses, Humphrey Bogart, Peter Sellers, and the list goes on and on... As a fall-back, I can read the encyclopedia from cover to cover. I had thought of using the encyclopedia reading as a source of MOMOMUs, but someone beat me to it. In Barnes & Noble I just purchased a book by A. J Jacobs entitled "The Know-It-All" in which he tells about his monumental task of reading the entire Encyclopedia Britannica! This book makes a good bathroom reader since it has no plot, so I can just stick in a book mark and read as much as I want each time. The book is hilarious! The encyclopedia in our library is the World Book, and the main difference between it and the Britannica is a lot of foreign names and places. The Britannica, I read in A.J.'s book, has 33,000 pages compared to the World Book's 12,600, so I'll stick to the World Book! My apartment, on the front of the building, is well situated. From my windows I can see up and down the streets that pass the building, so I can watch the daily comings and goings, which of course makes me the Sidewalk Superintendant as well as the Parking Lot Monitor. Of course there is always the boob tube, which I find quite acceptable in terms of weather, sports, nature programs, comedies and history, but not much else. Like many others I believe I get most of my news from Jon Stuart's Daily Show on the Comedy Channel. I will be able to swap information on my love of foods, dining and cooking as long as my dear friend "Cookie" Mary is in charge of the kitchen! But I will not be bored! |
in the Helicopter! |
Charles Frost Oct. 18, Thank Goodness for Candles: This newsletter would surely have gone out last night were it not for a raging thunderstorm. The lights flickered momentarily while we were eating supper; then the house went dark. We did out best imitation of a romantic candlelight dinner. Jan arranged mirrors to reflect more light. With three candles I read a couple of chapters in a true-life spy story. It was an effort, despite the fact that the print was not small. The lightning and thunder went on for hours. Power was restored at 2:30AM and internet service around 5:30. On the Pandolfi Farm: Samantha, Sophia and their mother Nancy wound up the goat-show circuit in mid-September. "We enjoyed it and learned a lot," Nancy writes. "I could have sold my goats many times but instead took down phone numbers of people who would like babies. We now have six goats, as we bought two of the Oberhaslie breed because the girls need a bigger breed for showmanship. The new ones are only 5-6 months old so they are still small but not as small as our Nigerians. The fence is up, and the horse is here. The chickens have just started laying eggs and are hiding them so we can't find them. They don't lay in their nest houses yet, so we have to go in search of the eggs. A little like an Easter egg hunt." Nancy has organized a group of nine girls to learn how to show goats. "A community of families around us are interested in this project. The trick for me is to balance our home life and offer something fun and useful for these people we know well." Clark Doings in Saco, Maine: Colleen, a sophomore at York County Community College, now has her own apartment, and Pamela is helping her settle in. During a shopping trip to Wal-Mart they found matching placemats, napkins and napkin rings. A few days ago they visited the animal shelter, where Colleen picked out two old-lady cats. Margot is full of purrs and requires unlimited hugs and pats, while Gracie spends nearly all day sleeping on top of Colleen's kitchen cabinet. Both cats were strays. Pamela has been working on a Christmas dollhouse. "I tore apart my 1690s colonial keeping room and put it into the large colonial dollhouse, so that it looks like someone has added onto the older house. Just like our counterparts in real life." Activities in A Small Town: You might think that there wouldn't be much to do in a college town of only 17,000. (You occasionally hear such complaints from students, mostly city slickers.) Here's a list of extracurricular activities that have taken place during the past month: Picnic for retired Truman professors at President's house. Fundraiser for Jay Nixon, a Democrat gubernatorial candidate, at the ranch of a former Truman president. Get-together of the Gourmet Club at local restaurant. Three football games (two wins one loss for Truman). Four free foreign films shown at the local cinema: La Moustache about a weird guy who has an identity crisis over whether he has or doesn't have one; Indigenes or Days of Glory, about France's failure to give promotions to North African native soldiers, who fought bravely in World War II (pension issues remain unresolved); Das Leben der Anderen or The Lives of Others, about the disillusionment of a skilled officer who works for the Stasi, the all-powerful East German secret police. And Darratt, or The Dry Season, wherein a young man is directed by his grandfather to avenge the murder of his father after the truth and reconciliation commission grants amnesty to all war criminals of the Chadian civil war. (He seeks out the perpetrator, a baker of baguettes, who employs and befriends him -- the film will do little to enhance the appeal of baguettes for you!). Illustrated lecture by famous guest anthropologist on the changing ways of hunter-gatherer tribes in Namibia. A rock band concert on campus (blasted your ears off). Faculty forum lecture grimly titled "The Chemistry of Killing" on pesticides and chemical warfare. Community theater production of No Sex Please, We're British. Illustrated talk by two political scientists on their experiences monitoring elections in Azerbaijan, Ecuador, and Venezuela. Entertaining two grandparents and their daughter visiting the campus on Parents Day. Annual arts festival sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce. Fly-In at the Kirksville Regional Airport: Lots of fun for the whole family. A crew came down from Des Moines to offer rides in their helicopter. So, of course, we had to take one, neither of us having done this before. The other air show photo shows an ultra light vehicle whose fan billows a parachute that lifts it off the ground. Country Estate Auction: Our friend Lathe Nunan has become a certified auctioneer. We went to nearby Queen City to see him do his stuff at the auction of the estate of an antiques collector (see photo). Beautiful sunny day, good turnout. Amish people came in their buggies. It would have been rude to stare at them, but I couldn't help noticing that one young Amish woman in the crowd had a cell phone tucked into the ties of her apron. Wonder how she gets it charged! Have a good week. May the power be with you! |
Sept. 2007 |
Bob Murdock My sister Barbara and her friend Dick live in Pennsylvania, where the jolly man is the proprietor of a Quiznos eatery. The photo was taken at a birthday party at the restaurant. Barb helps out there, and they are so busy that she hasn't been able to get away to visit us in Baltimore. But we are still hoping! |
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Jane McCauley Really enjoyed the murmuse this month and especially the tribute to Edna Howlett. I fondly remember her and can just picture how hard she worked, especially after her husband was so sick and the big family she had. I never had her in school but often heard how well she was liked by the students. |
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