We know from talking to many of you that this is your "don't miss" place in the Digest, so we
endeavor to make it fun and informative for you every month. One good reader, Cole Gralapp, told his brother, my son-in-law, Wes, something like this, "When I ask you what's going on in your family, I usually get monosyllabic grunts, but I can read Bobby's Digest and get details about what's happening." [Thanks, Cole.] Another good reader is my daughter, Maureen Bayhi, who is shown in the photo below pointing to a sign which says, "Fishing: a jerk on one end of the line waiting for a jerk on the other."
If you have been enjoying the photos in this Digest, but have wondered who or what you were looking at, simply let your cursor fall stationary over the photo and the photo's identification will appear.
We began our New Year of 2005 with the traditional New Orleans fare to ensure prosperity and good health: boiled cabbage and blackeye peas over rice (See photo). I'll give that recipe to you in some future Digest.
The New Year got off to a whimper instead of a bang when, after LSU scored with seconds left in the NY's day bowl game to take the lead, they allowed Iowa to score on a long TD play as the clock expired. The LSU defensive man was in zone coverage and because of the hurry-up offense, didn't switch to man-to-man at the last second and he allowed the Iowa receiver to run by him uncovered. Amazing fact is that in 1958 when LSU won its first National Championship, Iowa was the runner-up in second place. Bye, bye Saban, you ain't no Saint, Nick. Athletic Director Skip 
Bertman lost no time in getting Les Miles lined up as new head coach. Here’s a young coach who doesn’t want to coach in the NFL and can bring multiple championships to LSU like Bertman did as Baseball Coach. Good pick, Skip. From a metaphoric point of view, I would have preferred the new coach were name “More” Miles, but, hey, look what a man with the name “Skip” did: multiple National Championships in Baseball for LSU.
On Jan 2, the New Orleans Saints were playing for a chance at a Wild Game playoff berth with a win against the Carolina Pantherers that had twice knocked them out of the playoffs. Last year the Saints made a last second TD on a six man lateral and pass play that covered most of the field and then missed the extra point to tie the game. This year they played a great game against the Panthers, holding off a Panther comeback to win 21-18 in the last seconds of the game. Now the Jets had to win for the Saints to go to the playoff. As the Saints game was nearing a close, I was watching the Rams-Jets game on one of the other TVs in the Timberlane Screening Room, and the Jets were coming back. They tied the game in the last seconds in regulation. They got in field goal range and Doug Brien, a former Saint, missed it wide right! The flub cost the Saints the playoffs and he’s not even playing on the team anymore! Then the Rams went on to win that game in over-time and knock the Saints out of the playoffs! That close!
On my way duck hunting, I stopped by my high school chum, Shelby, to see what new old motors he had acquired and restored. I saw an old washing machine motor (ca. 1905) with a horse's head on the end of the exhaust. He started it up and the exhaust began puffing out of the nostrils of the horse as if it were galloping on a wintery day. To see an .mpeg movie clip of Shelby's motor running with smoke coming from horse's nostrils, turn on your sound and Click Here(Note: .5Mb file) See also still photo of motor with Bobby & Shelby.
Drove up to Alexandria, Louisiana to go duck hunting with my son-in-law Wes and his good friend Oday. Each day we got five, one large duck or goose, and four smaller blue or green wing teals. Look for a photo of these two veteran duck hunters with their retrievers, Wes has the chocolate Lab and Oday the blonde Lab. On the second day we three hunters each shot a green wing teal and Snickers the chocolate Lab quickly retrieved the first one and came back and sat down as if, "Well, my job is done." It was the first time she had more than one duck to retrieve and she had to be taught that her job isn't done until she has brought back all the ducks to her host who feeds, shelters, and provides her opportunities for her favorite sport.
The next week my friend Brian and I joined our barber friend, Mike Nuccio of VIP Barbershop, in his favorite sport, fishing for specks. We boated about four specks and a flounder before the tide had finished running out. It was one of the shirt sleeve fishing days of winter we enjoy often during New Orleans winters.
Next I enjoyed one of my favorite sports, talking to a group of people about some subject I know about. This time it was to an IONS (Institute of Noetic Sciences) group called Dimensions of Life which meets each Sunday in New Orleans. They wished to learn more about Rudolf Steiner and I was glad to oblige. Dave Lyons in introducing me said, "I've read somewhere that someone who has studied 90 books on one subject has the equivalent of a PhD in that subject, so here’s Bobby Matherne who has a double-PhD in Rudolf Steiner’s works.” I had one sharp question about Steiner's claim that the heart is not a pump, “If you were in the hospital suffering a heart attack, would you want your doctor to treat your heart as a pump?” I replied that I didn’t accept the presupposition that I would be in that condition, and I was accused of evading the question. Finally I said, “If I were conscious I’d tell him no don't treat it as a pump, but if unconscious I’d expect him to use whatever tools and knowledge he had to best fix my situation.”
Another presentation I made was reading the long poem by Lisel Mueller, "The Triumph of Life: Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley," as a preface to a lecture on Bio-Ethics. The voice in the poem is that of the woman who wrote "Frankstein" as a 19-yr-old girl and she is speaking to you and me today about what we are doing in our biogenetics laboratories. (To read the poem on-line, Click Here.)
With the Saints out of the NFL playoffs, the sports attention has turned to the New Orleanes Hornets and the LSU Tigers. The Hornets had an abysmal start to their season, but the new coach Byron Scott has acquired a bunch of new and energetic players who are beginning to show some winning spirit. LSU is in second place in the SEC West and going strong.
I uploaded the Christmas Snow photos and the trip to the Children's Museum with my grandchildren, Gabe, Molly, and Garret. I asked Gabe to come along to help me keep tabs on the two younger ones, but as it turned out, I only added another kid to keep track of. They had a ball in the kid's supermarket, kid's cafe, piloting the kid's tug, and so on. My two daughters came back to rescue Granpa just in time.
We lost Johnny Carson this month and I'd like to share my first memory of Johnny and Ed McMahon on tv. It was in early 1962 right after I graduated from LSU and was being recruited for my first job. I was home a lot and heard that Johnny Carson was going to replace Jack Paar on the Tonight Show. He was currently on a daytime show called, “Who Do You Trust?”, so I tuned to see if Jack’s replacement could make the grade. I remember so well one bit that made me laugh. Johnny was reading from a card, “The Mississippi River is the world’s deepest river.” And from off-screen, in a mode the whole nation would soon be experiencing every weekend night, Ed said, “And the wettest.” Pan back to Johnny’s face which froze in this gesture of puzzlement all of America soon came to love. We will miss you, Johnny, and have good memories every time we think of you.
Got a call from Doyle Henderson. He's doing fine. He needed to get a new cell phone that had a ringer loud enough for him to hear. He's down the hill from Big Bear living in his motor home while receiving chelation and hyperbaric chamber treatments for his ankles which had been losing circulation due to his diabetes. He still hasn't sold his cabin in Fawnskin, but says the good news is that the prices are climbing back up as the forest fires in the area recede into history.
What else did we do this month? We drove to see Buster and Emily (See Photos) to give her a birthday present and they invited us to join them for dinner at the Olive Garden Restaurant at Esplanade Mall. After a delicious meal we left them to do some shopping at Macy’s for some clothes and bath towels. We also bought from a catalog this month a new embroidered quilt for our bed(See photo of it below).
Del's mom is doing a bit better after her post-Christmas surgery and we're hopeful for a complete recovery. Your prayers are much appreciated.
Till next month, may each of you enjoy Mardi Gras, Pancake Day, Groundhog's Day, and enter into a blessed Lenten season as we head into Spring in the Northern Hemisphere and into Fall in the Southern.
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Subject: Change of Address
Date: Wed, 1 Nov 2006 09:26:56 -0600
From: Ray Haiduk [old address]
To: doyletics address
Laughter is good! Thanks for making me laugh!
Ray Haiduk, Lubbock, TX
My new email address will be: [new address] [Sent from Digest052]
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New Stuff on Website:
New TIDBITS pages:
Words Women Use If you're a Guy, you may learn something; if you're a woman, you may get a laugh.
Making Paper Submitted by Shirley Anne Cox on Jan. 21, 2005:
Daniel, age 3, and Jacob, age 2, were watching one of their favorite
DVDs in their Uncle Mike’s room. Fearing the unacustomed quietness
Daniel's mother, Elizabeth, peeked into the room to find both boys bent
over lookiing excitedly into the computer's printer. With his hand on
the paper feed button, Daniel said, "Look, Momma! We're making paper."
She had to laugh at those two boys standing so proudly in a pile of
clean white paper that they were sure they had made on their own with no
help from anyone else.
The Five Most Popular ARJ1 Reviews Read During 2004:
1. Humorous Look at the Ups and Down of Japanese Stock Market and Sex Partners Way of the Urban Samurai
2. The Bridges of Madison County Classic Love Story
3. When Rabbit Howls Truddi Chase's coping with Multiple Personalities
4. Thinking in Pictures Temple Grandin's coping with Autism
5. Flowers for Algernon The poignant story of a thirty-year-old baker's helper, Charly Gordon, in his striving to overcome his retardation.
Prominent Links to Bobby Matherne's Writing on the Website:
I'd like to start off with two prominent links from folks who attempt to ridicule my writing. Like they say in Hollywood, "Just get the spelling on my name right!"
Two Links which Attempt to Ridicule My Writing on the Website:
In the spirit of the quotation by Schopenhauer shown below, I'd like to share with you two of the websites which attempt to ridicule the nascent science of doyletics and the work of Rudolf Steiner, both of which are featured prominently on this website.
All Truth goes through three stages:
First it is ridiculed.
Then it is violently opposed.
Finally it is accepted as self-evident
-- Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860)., Philosopher
When I read these folks' rantings, I feel like Mark Twain did when he heard the people of the town were planning to tar and feather him and ride him out of town on the rail. He said, "If it weren't for the honor involved, I'd just as soon not."
1. Loon of the Month:
This bunch of ratbags didn't even have the decency to make doyletics.com the Loon of the Month, but included us in its Honorable Mention. (Note: I use the name they use to identify themselves and their website domain.)
Words from the Chief Ratbag:
"There is a very nice waterfront seafood restaurant near my place called 'Doyle's'. When you go there for lunch it's a really relaxing experience and the cares of the world just seem to float away like the little boats leaving the nearby wharf. I never feel fear, anxiety or anger when I have a forkful of lobster in one hand and a glass of chardonnay in the other. . . "
http://www.ratbags.com/loon/2001/03march.htm
2.Positive Atheism's Big List of Scary Quotes:
The title of the page is enlightening — atheists certainly have a lot to be scared of, even positive athiests. Given that they must be pure materialists they would certainly not like to read any quotes by Rudolf Steiner who understood materialism very well, but who created a spiritual science to balance the cold, leaden weight of materialism, skepticism, and atheism. This links to an alphabetic list, so scroll down to Rudolf Steiner's name or do a Find.
http://www.positiveatheism.org/hist/quotes/scar_s.htm
Three Links which Extol My Writing on the Website:
3. A quotation from Art is the Process of Destruction, my essay on what constitutes true art:
Great Quotes about Art on Phoenix Arts Group Website
4. Jerry Pournelle's Blog Points to My Review of QED:
Richard Feynman and Quantum Mechanics
5. Here is a synopsis of How to Read a Book by Mortimer Adler, with comments, by Bobby Matherne:
Included in the Kansas State University Syllabus for English 287
If the above canned emails don't work on your system, you can send a Subscribe/Unsubscribe request to the address found on this page: http://www.doyletics.com/bobby.htm Please include your first and last name when Subscribing.
The best source at the best price is to order your copies on-line is from the publisher Random House/Xlibris's website above.
“National Treasure” (2004) — the search for the Knights Templar’s treasure is on and Nicholas Cage has to start by stealing the Declaration of Independence. An updated Indiana Jones epic with the search taking us to Washington, D. C., Philadelphia, and Boston. A real cliff hanger, spooky cobwebs, dark tunnels, secret doors, and a spicy chick. Hang onto your scroll case and Meerschaum pipe — the game is afoot! 
“Wimbledon” (2004) Paul Bethany (Chaucer in "Knight's Tale") and Kirsten Dunst play Wimbledon: he's the 119th-seeded UK and she's the top ten-seeded US player. He about to retire from tennis and she an up-and-comer shepherded by her ambitious and ubiquitous father. How can these two ever get a chance to meet, much less fall in love, and which one will become the best tennis player in the world: the Brit or the Yank?
“All the King’s Men” (1949, B&W) With a remake in the works, I thought we’d watch the original movie of Robert Penn Warren’s classic novel loosely based on the life of Huey P. Long. Broderick Crawford in his pre-Highway Patrol days never seemed so young and brash in any movie as he did playing the flamboyant governor who dragged Louisiana kicking and screaming into the 20th Century. 
“The Forgotten” (2004) What could make a woman forget her 9-yr-old son? And what if she remembers anyway – why would someone want her to forget again? There’s always the alien abduction theory, but that’s too far-fetched, isn’t it? What if she finds a man who had forgotten his daughter and then remembers her? Two people made to forget? A zany, but fun movie full of suspense. Two great endings on the DVD. Watch them both. 
Beet Soup or Borscht
All That Matters
