More Rain for Tuesday...

Yes, friends...some nice and welcome rainfall broke out last evening into this morning in the Heartland.

Don't really know how much it will affect the already poor corn crops, but it might salvage some of the soy and other yields around America's "breadbasket". I do know it's making those dandelions pop back up...(dammit).

Anywho, let's see what's been going on elsewhere...

*** Some updates to the two latest homicide stories posted here yesterday.

-- Here's story number one regarding the Coventry Court Apartment shooting:

http://www.journalgazette.net/article/20120814/LOCAL07/308149930/1002/LOCAL

Cortez Antonio Harris, age 21, is the latest homicide victim.

FWPD have no suspects or motives to the slaying, and the coroner has listed this as the 22nd HOMICIDE of the year in Fort Wayne/Allen County.

-- Here's story number two regarding the Oak Crossing death investigation:
http://www.journalgazette.net/article/20120814/LOCAL07/308149964/1043/LOCAL07
Cause of death for Gregory A. Funich, age 42, was blunt force trauma.
The coroner has ruled his death a homicide, so that makes NUMBER TWENTY THREE (if you're keeping count as I am).

The interesting thing about this, was that Funich's "partner" came home to find him dead, and also told police that Funich's car was missing.

The Lovely Mrs. Bobby G. told me after reading the story that her "gaydar" went off, and I have to agree with her. Mine did too.
Didn't see the media pick up on this angle.

This could been some lover's spat, or a cheating issue...hard to say at this point, but Michael R. Alexander (the person charged) says he was with Funich for seven hours and was smoking crack at the house and went to get more synth pot.

Alexander also had Funich's wallet on his person, and blood spatter on his clothing, along with a cut on his hand that did not appear to be from a knife (used to "open a bag of fish" as Alexander stated to police).

In ALL of 2011, there were TWENTY-FOUR HOMICIDES (I came one short when I said 25...looks like I might be UNDER the total this year) in all of Fort Wayne and Allen County.

But crime IS going down...remember that (and I am also the Great and Powerful OZ...lol)

Moving on...

*** Former heavyweight boxing champ Michael Dokes dies at age 54.

Here's the link:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-08-13/michael-dokes-former-heavyweight-boxing-champion-dies-at-54.html

You talk about someone who had a lot and pissed it away...this man was it.

He died two days ago of liver cancer after spending a brief time in a hospice in Akron, OH.

How fall the mighty...after a drug trafficking charge in 1986, he served 2 years probation, and then in 2000, he was sentenced to 10 years in prison for attempted murder, 2nd degree kidnapping, and intent to commit sexual assault to his girlfriend.

Dokes was paroled in 2008.

*** Helen Gurley Brown dies at 90.

Here's this link:

http://www.usatoday.com/life/people/obit/story/2011-08-02/helen-gurley-brown-cosmopolitan-dies-at-90/57039456/1

I have to say I enjoyed the PORTRAYAL of Ms. Brown by the late Natalie Wood a LOT more in the movie Sex and the Single Girl (with co-stars Tony Curtis, Lauren Bacall, and Henry Fonda - 1964), than I did the actual Ms. Brown.

I will say she knew how to run a publication, though...made Cosmopolitan a household word.

And, as a self-made woman, she was the classic American success story...goes to show what can happen when capitalism (instead of socialism) rules the roost.

*** Those that know me know I am fascinated with toys...

I grew up with all kinds of them, grew older with them, and will probably go to that big "toybox in the sky" when I pass...without them !
(not enough room in the damn casket)

Besides,  don't people usually say:

"He who has the MOST TOYS...WINS"?

After all these years, I'm pretty selective when I choose the toys I find "cool".

Having grown up with Tinkertoys and cap pistols had it's own unique way of empowering a youngster, but it's when we look for the unusual, the detailed, and the hard-to-find...that the search for the "good stuff" becomes one of life's pursuits.

Unfortunately, as we all get older, lots of toys get tossed, given away, or sold at garage sales...damn shame, too.

THOSE are the ones commanding the HIGH prices these days, although there are some from more recent years that net some nice folding money.

I could rattle off some cool toys from MY era that are probably difficult to find (at best), or are SO hard to come across, that the only way to recall them is by memory (or some museum for "lost toys"...lol).

Ideal toy's Mr. Machine, Remco's Robot Commando, Firebird 99 (car dashboard), Horrible Hamilton, Monkey Division (army toys), Mattel "Tommy-Burst" (machine gun), "Fanner 50" (cowboy pistol), Hubley, Auburn, and Ny-Lint trucks and cars are just a few of the "biggies" back then.

Lego bricks was something relatively new here in the states...and costlier than Lincoln Logs.

We also had a plethora of "white metal" cap guns extolling the TV heroes from the Lone Ranger and Roy Rogers to Gene Autry and even The Rifleman. We even had the Mattel VRR-ROOM "motor" for our bicycles that duplicated a motorcycle roar (battery-powered - it clamped onto the frame and had a "throttle" with a KEY-starter that mounted on the handlebars).

And not once were ANY of these toys banned as being UNSAFE...it was all in the manner you played with them that made them anything close to UNSAFE (and parents scolded you loudly if you even thought about putting ANY of those items near your mouth - that was for FOOD and DRINKS...!)

Today, it's hard to find good toys...toys that have staying power and will last more than a few years.

We can't even make decent cap guns these days, because some dumbass will TRY and use them to hold up a BANK, or something similar...hence the red-tip on them all.

And long gone are the days of $.59 cent ANYTHING that can be played with, like those tried and true GREEN ARMY MEN.

Hell, we could get a cap gun for as cheap as $.25 (stamped metal) and a box of caps for a NICKEL (5 rolls with 100 caps per roll)!

Toys have evolved over time, as they always do, but what is missing in much of today's youngsters is the ability TO PLAY.

The creativity found in playing with army men, building a castle with Legos, a windmill with Tinkertoys or even Barbie moving furniture in her "Dream House" is somehow lost; supplanted by the trusty VIDEO GAME, and that's got to account for some of the issues kids have today.

Much of what we had when we used to play consisted of IMAGINATION...and that as a pretty BIG area to spend time in.

I believe that with creativity and imagination comes a curiosity in children...the GOOD kind that doesn't result in bad behavior or societal problems.

And when kids lose any portion of that, they lose a part OF their childhood as well.

I know there will always be that "inner child" in me, and I'm fine with that.

I think all of us owe it to NEVER lose that part of us that used to be that child.

Maybe, that would keep some of us from doing the things that society frowns upon.

I would bet that if you ask some of the innovators today (and of the recent past) what THEY used to play with, you'd probably find that they had toys that encouraged creativity and imagination.

And as they grew older, they took those things and ran with them.

All I know is I miss that ability to "play", but I can at least remember what it used to be like, and sometimes, that alone is enough.

Our creativeness and imagination will always be with us, because of such things in our youth.

And without them, we are all a bit more lost than we should be,

It's just something to think about.

Be well, make a difference to someone, and...

Stay SAFE out there, America.