Private First Class Lesley L. Matheson, U.S. Army

That's a portraiture of my Great [Maternal] Uncle, Pvt. 1st Class Lesley L. Matheson, U.S. Army, 50th Engineer Combat Battalion, which hangs prominently on my home office wall. He was killed by the Imperial Japanese Army in battle on October 25, 1944 while fighting in the Pacific theatre in the Battle of Leyte Gulf, which was the first time the Japanese pilots used kamikazi tactics. Uncle Lesley's Service Number is 34500566. He was buried at sea.

His ghostly image.

Moonshine Whiskey and Lead Poisoning

The use of automobile radiators containing lead-soldered parts in the illicit distillation of alcohol (i.e., "moonshine") is an important source of lead poisoning among persons in some rural Alabama counties. From March 5 through October 26, 1991, eight persons were diagnosed with elevated blood lead levels (BLLs) at a local hospital and were reported to the notifiable disease surveillance system maintained by the Alabama Department of Public Health (ADPH). None of these patients had known histories of occupational or other potential sources of lead exposure, but all reported recent histories of moonshine ingestion. This report summarizes the results of an investigation of these cases conducted by the ADPH during December 1991. A case-patient was defined as any person aged greater than or equal to 17 years who presented to the hospital from January 1, 1990, through December 31, 1991, and had a BLL greater than or equal to 15 ug/dL. Laboratory records of specimens submitted for blood lead determination, and medical records were reviewed at the hospital. In addition to the eight patients reported to the ADPH, review of laboratory records identified one patient with a BLL of 35 ug/dL during November 1990. Patients ranged in age from 28 to 64 years (median: 33 years); five were female. Five patients resided in the county in which the hospital is located, and four lived in adjacent counties. All nine patients had been evaluated for alcohol-related medical conditions at the hospital. Manifestations included generalized tonic-clonic seizures (six), microcytic anemia (five) (hematocrit mean: 32.1%), encephalopathy (two), upper extremity weakness (one), and abdominal colic (one). BLLs ranged from 16 ug/dL to 259 ug/dL (median: 67 ug/dL). Seven patients required hospitalization for 48 hours or longer (range: 2-18 days). Three of these received chelation therapy; initial BLLs were 67, 228, and 259 ug/dL. One patient, whose BLL was 67 ug/dL, died during hospitalization from alcohol-withdrawal syndrome complicated by aspiration pneumonia. Patients reported moonshine ingestion ranging from 0.2 L per day to 1.5 L per day. No specimens of moonshine consumed by the patients were available for analysis. However, the lead contents of specimens of moonshine confiscated from two radiator-containing stills in the county in 1991 were 7400 ug/L and 9700 ug/L, compared with nondetectable amounts (less than 1.0 ug/L) in municipal water from the county. Consumption of 0.5 L per day of moonshine containing 9700 ug/L lead would result in a steady state BLL of approximately 190 ug/dL. * Reported by: T Dix, S Walker, MD, Crenshaw County Hospital, Luverne; D Cosby, Alabama Alcohol Beverage Control, Andalusia; CH Woernle, MD, State Epidemiologist, Alabama Dept of Public Health. Div of Field Epidemiology, Epidemiology Program Office; Lead Poisoning Prevention Br, Div of Environmental Hazards and Health Effects, National Center for Environmental Health and Injury Control, CDC.

Appalachian American Ennui: I Used to Call Her Mommy

Appalachian American Ennui: I Used to Call Her Mommy: On cold mornings I helped my grandmother feed the yawning mouth of a Warm Morning stove with shiny black lump-coal.  The smell was ine...

Hania Rani — 'F Major' (Official Video) [Gondwana Records]

Wildflower Garden Lower Paddock

Scent of a Woman | "I'll Show You Out of Order!"

The Tango - Scent of a Woman (4/8) Movie CLIP (1992) HD

Paul Smith's Garage

I was still a toddler. What is a "toddler" anyway? A baby that is on the go? A baby whose legs have been activated? I was very much on the go. Fact. I think that my aunt Judith, still a young girl, tried to run after me. I know that I worried the shit out of my grandparents', Paul and Anna Mae Smith, as I ran from car to car in the field behind Paul Smith's garage, which, in its day, was a marvel in the automotive repair business on the topigraphicaly busy eastern edge of the mighty Cumberland Plateau on the Morgan County Highway just southeast of Wartburg, Tennessee. Metal carnage awiated me in the field. From one to the other I entererd the wrecked cars, where possible, and grabbed the huge steering wheels and pretended. My infant pretense was binary, without reflection of any kind. The essence of ignorance, forgiven by infancy. In hindsight, I now reflect at the circumstantial evidence of tragedy. So many deaths occurred, broken bones, bloodletting. But at the time, I was joyful in my ignorance. These vehicles in this graveyard were from the 1930's, 40's, and fifties. The latest models yard were early sixties; the year that I was there was 1964. I would be adopted away before I knew what happened to this entire facet of my infancy. Paul Smith would drown and die in a propspective addition to a junk yard, somewhere in Roane County. I was the happiest I would ever be. My grandfather was a tragic figure. Bent down regularly with bipolar depression and the associated effects of self-medication with copious amounts of alcohol, which he purchased from my maternal grandfather, usually on Sundays.

My first memory was of a time with my grandfather, Paul Clifford Smith. We wrecked in Roane County en route to Warburg from Missionary Ridge, in Chattanooga. He had stopped somewhere on Highway 27 and bought me a Coca Cola in a little green bottle. When we wrecked, his head fell into my diapered lap. I instructed his unconscious face that I no longer wanted my Coke. "Papaw, I don wone my coke no more." In writing this, I cannot imagine why I would have said this because I always empty the recepticle, especially when it contains sugar and carmel flavoring. We were taken to the Roane County Jail where the Smith family was summoned to collect me. My maiden recollection. I can still see it. His sad face.

Hania Rani – Live from Studio S2

I have to believe that if all the politicians, all the haters, myself included, all the autocrats, dictators, prosecutors, judges, public defenders, private defenders, human-resource managers, assistant managers, mid-level managers, county executives, mayors, police chiefs, sheriffs, governors, and presidents of all stripes, would benefit their followers tremendously, gently, and optimistically, by listening to Hana Rani for thirty minutes before they go about their respective days, that are invariably populated within Elinor Wylie's "lathered packs," and "reeking herds."

Appalachian American Ennui: Thom Yorke - Suspirium

Appalachian American Ennui: Thom Yorke - Suspirium

Barton Fink

I turned Frank on to Barton Fink this evening. He was transfixed, as I expected. So many themes. But, the most audible was, "you don't listen!" I have a "you don't listen!" story of my own. Comedic, too: Bill Mayhew: "When I shut my eyes, I can almost smell the live oak." Audry: "That's chicken fat, Bill." Mayhew: "Hmm. My olfactory's turning womanish on me -- lying and deceitful."

Duck Creek Accident

I was driving to meet a client in Hancock County when I got in behind the pictured Ford, which was weaving down Duck Creek Road when it veered right and descended to the position shown. A very old man was inside. Once I determined that he was in no immediate danger, I tried to call 9-1-1, but the reception was Appalachian bad. I drove to Highway 31 and flagged down the first vehicle that approached. Turns out, I knew the old couple; Judge Bill McMurry (ret.), and his wife, Judy. They called 9-1-1 so I could return to the scene and monitor the situation until help arrived. At this point I should note that had I not known the old dude was down in hollow, no one would have been able to see him from the road. Serendipity, I guess. I had hollered at the the old man as he was attempted to free himself from the car by extending a walking stick upward and out the drivers' side window, to absolutely no avial. When the law arrived I said as much, to which a bystander declared, that's Stanley Greene. He can't hear a god damned thing. Afterward I checked on him. Not a scratch. I was equally concerned with any fuel or radiator leakage into the tributary. None detected.

That there's the back of Stanley's old white head and his left ear.

Appalachian American Ennui: Grizzly Bear "Yet Again" By Emily Kai Bock [Offici...

Appalachian American Ennui: Grizzly Bear "Yet Again" By Emily Kai Bock [Offici...: She reminds me of Cheryl Posey, who died in 2018.

Parasite - The Academy Award Winning Masterpiece About the South Korean Wealth Gap

My son, Frank, commented that the pictured family of progtagonists in the film, Parasite, were the equivalent of South Korean Hillbillies. To which I countered, "Verly crlevelr hirr birries."

The film is very, very heavy at the end, but brilliant throughout.

Appalachian Treasure Unearthed

Years ago, while I was clearing brush out of the back paddock, I looked down and saw this partially buried artifact sticking out of the ground. I took it home, cleaned it up, and thus began my longstanding custom of bringing it out ever so often so that it can be admired by the entire family. It's become a tradition in our happy home. I've fought the urge for many years now to put it in the mailbox and hide behind the maple to watch our female mail carrier's reaction when she opened the recepticle. I'm proud of my forebearance. The provenance of this masterpiece remains a complete mystery to me.

Aldous Harding - Imagining My Man (Official Video)

Latest Project - The Basement

I used a mint chocolate kit kat as a color theme for my basement, sans sandy cookie striations. Kona Brown and varying shades of tealish mint green. Now and then I can find a discounted gallon of this color. It never matches, but that's okay. It's the basement. Besides, so long as I don't comingle the different mixtures on the same plane, I'm okay. Besides, I really don't give a fuck. If I paint one side of a cube with one shade, and another side with another, you can't event catch it. When I bought this place 27 years ago, there was a dirt floor in the basement with dehumidifiers running 24/7. Now, she's "dry as a hot prairie wind." Bone dry. The freehand chimney art is from the cover of a Frank Black album, entitled "Oddball." I like it because it's creepy. I painted the left eye larger than the distant right eye. I know a man who suffers from this same kind of affliction. Very attractive.