A Visit with WBS

Swimming champ circa ????
Oct. 23,1996 Rick, Ted, and WBS
WBS & CRS "so happy together". WBS, Oct 23, 1989

Yesterday Jim and I took Hunter and Hope to a show at the community theater. We then proceeded to "the Haven" to visit WBS. Many of the oldsters were gathered around the table,including WB. He was getting a mite surly and had just ripped the bandage off his hand. He was happy to see some new folks, even said "Hi Jim" with a little wave. Hope was quite taken with the whole set-up. There were toys, some dress-up items and there was music playing. She began to whirl around and sing a bit. She then plopped a St. Patty's Day hat with green hair on her greatgrandpa's head. He was agreeable to that, so she added a huge pair of glasses and a flower lei. It was a very happy, funny visit which everyone seemed to enjoy. Even Jean the resident pack-rat grabbed an opportunity to snatch Hope's purse, but eventually we got it back. Since I don't have any photos of all this, I am including some from the 2,678,00 that are stored in our furnace room. If anyone does not have a shot of the six Simpson brothers lined up like knuckleheads please contact me.

The Latest from Maia Louise

Hello Family,
I haven't blogged in much time, but I am BACK! As a matter of fact, I will be back in the states the 14th of April. I am looking forward to returning. I am very homesick, and I am spending a lot of time looking for a new job and apartments on the internet. It probably isn't the best way to spend my last three weeks, but whatever.
For the past two months I have had a job that I really enjoy. I am the caretaker for six little girls. I wake them up in the morning, get them showered and fed. They clean their room and bathroom, and then head to school. We play around for a couple of hours mid day, and in the evening I put them to bed. It is all a little more complicated than that, but that's the general idea. My girls all have parents that they go home to on the weekends. They speak a native Maya language that is very beautiful. They try to teach me words, but I am a slow learner. I used to have eight girls, but two of them got moved to a different group. They were being very disrepectful. These girls are not easy. I spend a lot of my time getting mad at them. They outright don't listen at times. This is a general problem at the orphanage. The kids have very little respect for the volunteers. They always listen to their Guatemalan caretakers. But in my case, I have no Guatemalans working with me. I enjoy that, because I have total responsiblity, but at the same time, I get very tired. I am gaining their respect slowly, and by the time I leave they will be perfect angels. God knows I spoil them, despite their bad behavior. I have repainted their entire bathroom, bought them puzzles, board games and jumping ropes, encouraged them to create a mural in their room, and let them use all the toilet paper they want (toilet paper is to be used sparingly in Casa Guatemala). I have a favorite, even though that isn't really right. Her name is Sandra and she is six years old. She needs a lot of attention. I hug her and cuddle her constantly. She had 13 brothers and sisters at home, so attention is limited there. Her teeth are rotting out of her mouth, which is a horrible sight. But I recently sent her to the dentist, and she can't eat anymore sweets, and must brush her teeth (or what is left of them) three times a day. I am hoping for big strong white ones to replace the old ones. She is a beautiful little thing. I do her hair in two braids every day (she has lice, but we're working on that). She wears little sea green dresses. She is learning to jump rope, and the big girls are almost letting her in on their games. When I wake her up in the morning, she twitches and opens her eyes with a surprised sigh. I love her, I really do, and leaving her will break my heart.
What I am really looking forward to leaving is everything but the kids. I am really stuck here, going to the same bar every week, and practically living on an island. I feel trapped, and that feeling is wearing me down. I will be very sad to leave the kids, but my heart jumps with the idea of moving back home. I can't wait.
See you all soon.
Love Maia

Beechwood Place

Nanny (aka Mema) and Aunt Betty at a Beechwood Place gathering. Marg found this going through some old albums. Gotta be Thanksgiving, Christmas, or Easter. The note on the back says 1978. Could that be right? All of us of a certain generation surely remember those gatherings. Probably spanned 20 years or more.
Wonder if Kit Kat and Wick still have their silver dollars.

Jim

Hope and Hunter: Into the Wild

Thatcher sent me these great photos of Hope and Hunter. Since he's too busy running Simpson and Brown to post them, I got his OK to put them online myself. I'm not sure where they were taken. Can someone identify?

Can the English language survive after Bush?

All,
Let me state that I very rarely make politically charged statements or make patriotic admissions, be it for India or the US. My friends in India don't miss a single opportunity to give me hard time, because I became US citizen years back. (thereby giving up Indian citizenship)

This is what was sent to me today morning. I just found it amusing.

Can the English language survive after Bush?

"The vast majority of our imports come from outside the country. "
- George W. Bush
"If we don't succeed, we run the risk of failure."
- George W. Bush
"One word sums up probably the responsibility of any Governor, and that one word is ' to be prepared '."
- George W. Bush
"I have made good judgments in the past. I have made good judgments in the future. "
- George W. Bush
" The future will be better tomorrow."
George W. Bush
" We're going to have the best educated American people in the world."
- George W. Bush
" I stand by all the misstatements that I've made."
- George W. Bush
"We have a firm commitment to NATO, we are a part of NATO. We have a firm commitment to Europe We are a part of Europe."
- George W. Bush
" Public speaking is very easy."
- George W. Bush
"A low voter turnout is an indication of fewer people going to the polls. "
- George W. Bush
"We are ready for any unforeseen event that may or may not occur. "
- George W. Bush
"For NASA, space is still a high priority."
- George W. Bush
"Quite frankly, teachers are the only profession that teach our children. "
- George W. Bush
"It isn't pollution that's harming the environment. It's the impurities in our air and water that are doing it."
- George W. Bush
" It's time for the human race to enter the solar system."
- George W. Bush

I am sorry if I have offended anyone.

Nanda

On My Mind

DIVIDE AND MAYBE CONQUER

I think I’ve finally figured it out. And believe me, I’ve been thinking about it, hard, for months now. I’ve read countless articles and editorials. I’ve listened to members of the Bush Administration and members of Congress. I’ve listened to the talking heads on TV and radio. I’ve discussed it with scores of fellow Americans.

What am I talking about? I’m talking about why on this green earth Bush & Company invaded Iraq. I know they gave us several song & dance numbers before the big push: Bad Saddam, WMD, Osama Connection, Terrorists ready to run amuck in our own home towns. But in short order we found out this jive was just smoke & mirrors.

And then, as we went along, oil was rumored to be the real reason for the invasion. The black gold. So was Georgie’s desire to outshine his daddy and finally stomp on Saddam’s party. Oedipus goes to Baghdad. But these reasons too had their loopholes.

So why then? Why did they drag us into another stinking war? Why did they commit all that dough and all those troops? Why have they sacrificed so many lives?

Because they’re arrogant and stupid, we concluded. Yeah, that’s it. They’re just plain old arrogant and stupid.

Stupidity and arrogance: it sounded good but it didn’t really make us feel any better about the whole mess. And, of course, our soldiers kept dying and getting their arms and faces blown off. To say nothing of all those Iraqi civilians caught in the crossfire.

All right then, why? Why? Why?

Because, ladies and gents, boys and girls, righties and lefties, the involved and the apathetic, Islam is Evil.

You got it: Islam is Evil. That’s what the neo-cons years ago concluded and now that they had power, dammit, they were going to do something about it. The Koran, they believe, is a book of Murder and Mayhem. Leave the fanatics to their druthers and in due course they’ll kill us all.

Listen, I’m no fan of the Bush Administration—corruption, jingoism, nepotism, buddyism, no respect for the Constitution, no respect for the poor, no respect for the environment—but these birds reasoned that the only way to solve the Muslim question was to set a fire and let the Middle East burn itself to the ground. Implosion was the only solution.

Divide and conquer, baby, divide and conquer. It’s been going on for centuries. The Romans used it. Napoleon used it. We used it here in the USA in our genocide against Native Americans.

The Bushies invaded the one and only secular country in the Middle East. The only country in the Middle East that had absolutely nothing to do with the 9/11 attacks. Why? Because Saddam didn’t give a toot for Mohammad or Jesus or Moses. All he wanted to do was maintain control of all those nasty desperados. And the only way to do it, as Tito proved, was with an iron heel.

The neo-cons who won the White House in 2000 realized they could take out Saddam and no other countries—at least no other governments—in the region would come to his defense. On this point they were correct.

But now, look: Civil War.

Ah, but that’s precisely what the neo-cons knew would happen. They never believed for a second they could control the hatred between the Sunni and the Shia. And they didn’t want to. Not really. They’ve made it look like they wanted to, but it’s just a façade. A deadly smokescreen for their true ambitions. Yes, they’ve had to watch Georgie plummet in the polls as Americans have become fed up with the carnage. But so what? George has always been a puppet and now he’s a lame duck. And we all know Cheney ain’t runnin for Prez.

Civil War in Iraq was their intent from the very beginning. And once the Civil War starts there’ll be infernal hell in the region. That’s when we’ll quietly slip away. And soon thereafter the Sunnis in Iran will join the fray. So will the Saudis and the Yemenis and all the rest of those crazy bastards. They’ll kill each other by the suicide-bomber full.

Which, of course, is what the neo-cons wanted all along. They’ll be able to say they tried their best. They tried to bring democracy to the region. They tried to bring peace and stability.

And in another 8 years, and another Presidential cycle, they’ll get Jeb or some younger Bush in there after all the killing finally subsides—millions will perish—and Amurica will waltz right in, create some new vacation meccas like they did in the Caribbean a generation ago, and then we’ll all slurp slurp slurp on cheap Middle East Oil now extracted, refined, shipped, and pumped by Exxon/Mobil/Conoco/Chevron. It’ll trade under the ticker symbol EMCC. Buy it at an IPO near you. It’ll make you rich rich rich so you can fun fun fun.

Sure they’re arrogant, but they’re also fricking geniuses.

INVITATION

Dear All,

Rich is considering inviting all of you to his place for dinner on 21st April.(Friday)

Will you please raise your hands if this date is convenient for you? :-)

Nanda on behalf of Rich.

A few more St. Croix

Char does several laps in his tidy whities.
The Grand Marshal discusses parade logistics. Beautiful secluded Jack's Bay.
While sailing with Captain Carl, Chuck has a flashback
and thinks hes in Aida Grace Vollmar's typing class.

I Love St. Croix

We had lots of fun on vacation. We returned to Isaac's Bay and found the beach shack unoccupied . This time we brought a sheet to grab some shade. The somewhat erotic cacti put on quite a show. St. Patrick's Day Parade is a big deal in Christiansted. There are lots of floats, music, majorettes, drinking, super-soaker water pistols, green hair, faces, and bodies. Many people dress up, or down as you can see. There was a lot of good street food and green rum and beer and the smell of cannabis in the air. Did I mention that many were S_ _ _- faced by about 11:45am? It was like Halloween and St. Patrick's Day and Madi Gras. Lastly I have included a picture of the esteemed Captain Carl and his first mate. We discovered a new beach for more good snorkeling and beach glass right by "The Sunset Grill". Its hard to believe there is actually a great funky bar and restaurant named that, or maybe it isn't. Its a great, beautiful island.

St. Croix Visit

We had a great time in St. Croix last week with Marg and Jim. During our visit we saw many interesting things, including a pirate, cacti, and the arbre pénal (punishment tree), to which recalcitrant slaves were chained when they needed to be taught a lesson.

the president of iraq speaks

"We ended the rule of one of history's worst tyrants, and in so doing, we not only freed the American people, we made our own people more secure."

George W. Bush

way to go, georgie!!!

Remembering moms

Beautifully written memories, these blogs and comments. Thank you for posting them, and the pictures. Aunt Mary clearly left quite a legacy.
I remember asking Annie Tracy once if she still missed her mother. Aunt Helen had probably been dead about 10 years by then, and was not herself for years and years before that, but Annie looked at me with incredulous surprise and said, "Of course I do. I miss her every day. Every single day."
I remember the day my mother died. I was living in NYC but was spending the weekend on Long Island with a friend who had a pool. Saturday, June 14 1980. I'd had some weird things happen with my mother, like the time I woke in the middle of the night with this vision of her face all misshapen - she looked like Edvard Munch's "The Scream" - and when I called the nursing home first thing in the morning they told me she'd fallen out of bed during the night and dislocated her jaw.
She had been in the nursing home six weeks by June 14. She couldn't sit up, her hands were clenched into tight fists so we had to keep cutting her fingernails, she couldn't talk anymore. But the doctor said her heart was so strong she could live another 20 years. I was underwater in my friend's pool and I heard my mother, plain as day, and I saw her strapped in her wheelchair, her head on her chest, facing a window that looked onto a brick wall. I saw her struggle for breath, then get still. And then this amazing picture of her coming out of that sick body and reaching her arms way out with a huge smile on her face, like someone stretching after a long nap, like her old self, radiant and healthy and happy. I came up from underwater - it all happened in seconds - and the first thing I saw was a huge clock under the diving board. It was 2 minutes after two.
I told my friend I had to leave. This was before answering machines or cell phones. Took the train back to New York, spent an hour or so in St. Patrick's, went home to my apartment and sat on the floor. When Nancy called, she said mom died around 2.
I still miss her. And I swear, sometimes, she is right here with me. Dad, too. But that's another story.

The Mother

In Remembrance:

Mary Shaffer Simpson
August 18, 1922-March 16, 2005

the beginning and the end

some of us who frequent the simpson blog still have our mamas and some of us do not. a year ago this week the simpson boys of WB and MS Simpson said goodbye to our mama. i think about my mama everyday. i see the picture of her as a young woman hanging in our den and i take a moment to rekindle some small memory. just something she told me or did for me or made me realize in her quiet, subtle way.

this week i hope you'll think about Mary too.

she spent three quarters of her life being a mama. once she started she never stopped. not for a second. the role went on and on, day after day, month after month, decade after decade. beats anything on broadway by 50 years. there is nothing in life as demanding as being a mama. you don't get to go home in the afternoon. you don't get weekends off. you never get to completely stop worrying.

i watch my wife being a mama to our little seventeen month old daughter and now i have a much better idea what the title means. it means selflessness. it means generosity. it means understanding. it means patience. it means love love love, no end to the love. forego the love for even a second and the guilt comes pouring in.

this week i urge all to love their mamas.

blogger Jake

Hello everyone, THis is Jake signing on for my first Simpson blog. All is well here today in uncommonly sunny Paris for early March. I’ve been reading up on all your comings and goings and thought it was about time I contributed something. I certainly have my share of adventures I'd like to share with you all. As some of you already know François and I recently got a civil union which has been possible in this country since 1999. We met in August 2001 at an architectural restoration site in the French Alps and have been devoted to each other ever since.

We plan to celebrate our commitment with our families and friends though it will likely take place next year after our lives are a bit more settled. The civil union ceremony was brief and informal and conducted rather hastily to help my employment prospects. That said we have absolutely NO intention to overlook the opportunity to have a big party.
On a more general note, I’ve been working for a French real estate company for the past year and François will be taking his final med school exams in mid-June.

I’ve attached a couple of pics and will write more soon. 1 is in François' dad's u.s. army truck he just finished restoring, 2 is the at the prefecture after signing our civil union and 3 is in cambridge when I was at mit. My best to all of you. +++

Thank Goodness Nanda is Back. Finally!

Guys,

Although it seemed that the trip to India took for ever, Nanda did get some R&R.
While she was there, her family managed to organize an important religious ceremony for her nephew.

Nanda spent most of her time with her mother(Shubhada), her brother Vivek, his wife Swati and their 2 sons Shreyas and Akshay.

Vivek and Swati manufacture Pollution contr0l equipments.

Please click on the link to see the photos.

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/nanda_jcnj/slideshow?.dir=/ae51&.src=ph

Rich.

No Country for Old Men

After the Ice

Okay so the Spring thing was premature. It was cold but beautiful this a.m. I'm going away so I won't be hogging and blogging no mo. See you later!

Adiós, Anonymous

In recent days the level of discourse hereabouts has at times fallen to shameful levels: name-calling, unfounded accusations and foul language are daily fare. The inconsiderate comments of an anonymous contributor have provoked anger and resentment, but equally thoughtless and unkind remarks have been made by and about known contributors. Why, some innocent observer happening upon our intercourse here might think us a band of loutish, ill-bred oafs. I fear also that our rancorous tone may be discouraging some of our less vocal members from posting their news. I remind you that the purpose of this blog is to keep us in touch with one another, to share happenings, ideas and opinions, and to do so as much as possible in a cordial, respectful manner.

Although I detest censorship, as Blogmeister I’m responsible for the care and preservation of the blog. I feel a radical move is necessary to keep the peace. So, until further notice, the ability to post anonymously has been eliminated. While the suspicion has been that these comments have come from within our ranks, there is no proof of that. Anonymous postings can come from anywhere on the web, and the writer of such posts has no accountability, no responsibility for civility. I apologize for this inconvenience and the heavy-handed response, but so it goes. Hopefully, those who have enjoyed the protection of anonymity will now feel motivated to establish their credentials.

Sincerely,
B. Meister