His name is Arnold Ferolito. He was a friend of my father. How did they meet? I don’t know. But the story starts like this…

Arnie was down on his luck. He had a business model based on some kind of green/environmental concept. But it was the 1960s - and that wouldn’t be a viable thing for 50 years. So my father’s advice was “Stick to your strengths. You’re a brilliant electronic engineer with experience in video. That will be a growth field. Find something there.” Well, the timing was impeccable. Within a few weeks, there was an accident at a studio in Manhattan. Two cabinet-sized muti-million-dollar videotape machines were blown out a window in Manhattan to the street several stories below. Arnie bought them as scrap, rebuilt and resold them. That became the seed money for AF Associates.

During my tweens, we would visit them for a day once a year or so. Swim in his pool. I’d chat with his daughter (close to my age), who was oddly willing to talk with me - introverted and awkward as I was. Turns out, the whole family was badly twisted. The older (middle) son was bright, but impossible to talk to (aka autistic). The younger one was “disturbed”. My sister (about 3 at the time) nearly died in that pool once. I was the only one who saw her fall in and I fished her right out.

I worked for AFA in the summer of 79 before my senior year in HS. AF did my father a favor and hired me for the few weeks. I assembled the on-location truck that went to the keystone of the remote TV studio at the Lake Placid Olympics. AFAssociates was reputable and successful. At least for a few years.

'Round about the 90s, my father volunteered me to help AF with some “tech stuff”. It turned into endless demands on my time. AF had seen my father demo a video camera connected to a TARGA board in a 486 PC. AF decided he wanted multiple cameras connected to a PC in each of his 3 houses (NJ, LI, FL) so he could keep an eye on them. Enter the GEOVISION board. These were first-gen tech at the time. The setup was difficult and finicky. There was no support. And it ran on Windows 95. Then there was the dynamic IP issue for the home DSL services. Plus VNC for remote access through the open router ports. It became a full-time support gig - with SUPER URGENT calls all the damn time when a PC crashed or an IP address changed. Did he pay? He did not.

All this time he’s working on his new business. An offshoot of AFA, it involves satellite signals and offshore content, and complex licensing. None of which I care to listen to. Oh, and he’s suing his son-in-law. And his daughter won’t talk to him. And his brilliant son working at Intel won’t either. And his wife divorced him 10 years ago. But that’s OK, his new wife Olga is young and beautiful and Russian. And he gets more and more insistent with his political opinions. Which are generally disgusting racist, elitist, anti-immigrant, winner-take-all, AnCap, well, you know the type. Except this was still the 1990s when Newt Gingrich was the worst US politics had to offer. He was out there.

Well, It got annoying. No pay, calls all the time, constant blame for issues, noxious opinions. My father had passed away, so I had nothing tying him to me. So I ghosted him.

He called me endlessly and left long voicemails. Some were guilt trips calling out to my dead father. Some were poor-me pity pleas citing his failing health. The calls lasted several YEARS, but finally tapered off. I never looked back.

Except I did. I looked him up. Holy shit, he’s in WIKIPEDIA! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RM_Broadcasting He’s LITERALLY a foreign agent! As declared by the State Department! He is a small part of a root cause of the downfall of this country. And I am sure that he is proud of the way things are headed.

If he (or anyone he knows) reads this, I am doxxed. But I really doubt this has any traction to spread. Please do not repost this.

I do too. Mine involves a Russian agent in the US. I plan to use real names and dox him. It will certainly take time to type up.

It looks a little like a Skyfall.

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No… Tell me more.

Two very niche board games from the 70s: “Snit’s Revenge” “Lie, Cheat, and Steal”

And an old Avalon Hill wargame: “Wooden Ships and Iron Men”

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I really like this one. It takes us right up to the threshold of prison time. Icing on the cake would be a courtroom video, but I don’t really need it. We all know how it goes.

In the past I’ve used Spice, RT, Jira at work. Freshdesk free works for home. Also a simple bullet list in Google docs.

My GG grandfather was killed when soldiers fired into an unarmed crowd that was protesting for basic human rights. This was in Marineo, Sicily, on 3 January 1894. His widow had to flee to the NYC tenements with their 6 children to start fresh - as progressive sympathizers were not safe.

She was poor in Sicily, she was destitute when she arrived in the US. Like many others, she did garment piece work to get by. Other Sicilian immigrants arrived in a wave and they made a new community.

When the Triangle Fire happened, real labor reform began to happen through the work of the ILGWU and others. They did not stop protesting until they got results.

Yes. Hard times ahead. Hard times behind may show us the way forward. Ad astra per áspera.

Any coating might produce this through reflective destructive interference.

It might be Christina Carter.

I thought I saw something like this at NEAF this past April. I’ll see if I still have the brochures…

My father’s death was one of the best things that happened to me.

Three is a magic number

My take:

To demonstrate that there is a more leftist population in the US public than is regularly recognized and shift the entire discussion in that direction.

To create a strong alternative to the major pro-corporate parties that is more in line with the rest of the liberal parties around the world.

To oppose the highly organized far right.

No, I won’t vote for her this year. But I can appreciate the above goals.

1990s Plymouth Caravan

This is a really good video.

Well, some places found that scanning the originals and providing them online not only saved money storing them, but also improved access. For other places, it’s a matter of going to the town clerk (or equivalent), filling out some forms, and waiting - sometimes months.

I’ve been doing genealogy for my family and friends for a few years. Can I ask what part of the world your ancestors lived in? I find there is almost always some online documentation for any given person (after 1800 or so - depending on the location), but finding it is a complex acquired skillset that can take quite a while to learn. It seems likely you have the opposite of beginners luck - aka a steep curve. Of course, some more rural parts of the world can lag in documentation, and language issues are always a problem. You may really have invisible ancestors. Without more info, it’s hard to give more advice.

Also, there is a significant difference between paid and free accounts on Ancestry. FamilySearch can be hard to use. WikiTree has no research tools, but does have a large tree and a supportive user community. There are a lot of sites, some completely free, and some with tiered membership. Finally, a DNA test (not 23&Me) can be a huge boost to what you are able to find.

Recently, I have been contemplating going pro and charging folks. If you are interested, I can look into yours for free, to see if (1) I’m good enough, and (2) I’m not just lucky in that I’ve only had easy challenges up to now. Assuming that this is a place where the documentation would be in English. So far my experience is US, Canada, UK, and some Italy. Drop me a PM. I work in financial IT - confidentiality has been critical my whole life.

I really like:

Social Stratification in the United States: The American Profile Poster https://a.co/d/6sCqsfk

for insight on this topic. Endlessly interesting and a marvel of the graphic presentation of data.