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Good things happen when you open to ’em
They say that “bad things happen in threes.” But I’m here to tell you that good things can happen in threes if you but open yourself to ’em.
Take today for example. I stopped at Lowe’s to get some of my walking steps in and felt proud to have parked in the spot designated with a sign that said “Veterans Parking.” I figured I might as well get some bird seed to feed my fine feathered friends who accumulate near the statues of both the standing St. Francis of Assissi and the seated Buddha.
Continue readingDefender Assn. of Phila. honored today
The Defender Association of Philadelphia, of which I worked for 20 years as a public defender, is celebrating its 90th year of representing poor defendants today!
Continue readingWhat to do when hearing you’re deceased
“The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.”
That is what Mark Twain wrote in a cablegram he sent from Europe to a newspaper publisher in the United States that had published an obituary with false details of his death in a widely circulated newspaper one day more than a hundred years ago.
I am saying the same thing right now in the year 2024!
Yeah, I got a report from a fellow attorney with whom I worked with in Philadelphia – Scott Rudolf – asking me on my Facebook page if I was OK. I told him yes and then, after obtaining my phone number, he messaged me that the Disciplinary Board of Pennsylvania had reported that I was “deceased.”
The Board keeps track of all attorneys and “helps to regulate attorney conduct, protect the public, and maintain the integrity of the legal profession.” (Good luck with that last one!)
I never knew it, but it also keeps track of inactive and retired attorneys and whether they have passed away. I did not pass away. I was an inactive attorney and then a retired one, but one that was still kicking.
It seems the SNAFU started some two years ago when I signed up with an on-line group called “Ever Loved.” It offered suggestions on writing your obit as well as the choice of photographs and documents you would want you next of kin to use at you memorial service. It suggested I upload the information to secure it for years to come.
I wrote an obit that included my singing with a Doo Wop group and then being drafted, serving in the Vietnam War, writing as a newspaper reporter and then a union organizer. It also mentioned the two exquisite wives that had to put up with my shenanigans over the years we had been together.
That obit somehow made its way to the Disciplinary Board which used it as so-called proof of my death.
I got it all straightened out after having to contact the Board. They required at least two cards with your mugshot on them, I guess to prove it is really you. The death notice died out soon after that. (Joke intended!)
Now I feel more alive having dealt with my own mini-resurrection. “He’s alive,” said the creator of the scariest monster I ever saw in my lifetime. “He’s alive” can now refer to me.
My Credit Card Scammed Once Again
Well, it happened again. I got hacked and should have never given my credit card info to a site that was offering a whopping sale for a Cable TV extension.
DO NOT fall for HBO Max come-on that offers the service for $2 a year.
Continue readingSongs with numbers in them awaken me!
A Trivia game I played with senior citizens recently focused on musical songs that contained numbers in their titles. The experience stayed with me and later woke me at 3 am while I laid in bed unable to dismiss the songs not mentioned some 12 to 13 hours earlier at the Upper Merion Senior Service Center in King of Prussia, PA.
The songs we played included “One, Two Three” by Len Barry, “Sixteen Tons” by Tennessee Ernie Ford, “Nine to Five” by Dolly Parton, “One is the Loneliest Number” by Three Dog Night, “December ‘63 (Oh What a Night” by the Four Seasons, and “When I’m 64” and “Eight Days a Week” by the Beatles. I began to add more songs in my awakened state of mind and knew I’d get no further sleep until I get the songs out of my system and onto paper.
Here are a few I came up with:
“The First Time I Saw Your Face” Roberta Flack ”5 Will Get You 10” We Five
“10 Things I Hate About You” Leah Kate ”15 Miles on Erie Canal” Seeger
“A Hundred Pounds of Clay” Gene McDaniels “A Thousand Stars” Young
“ Thousand Miles Away” the Heartbeats “A Million to One” Jimmy Charles
- The Number 16 had a great number of songs. My favorite was “16 Candles” by the Johnny Maestro and the Crests. The Sound of Music composers Rodgers and Hammerstein gave us “Sixteen Going on Seventeen” while Chuck Berry provided “Sweet Little Sixteen.”
- “Sixteen Reasons” was offered by Connie Stevens while Ringo singing without the Beatles gave us an updated version of “You’re Sixteen, You’re Beautiful and You’re Mine.” Meanwhile, Neil Sedaka recorded “Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen.”
- My favorite number three song was “Quarter to Three” by Gary “U.S. Bonds and as well as the Frank Sinatra song “One for My Baby (and One More for The Road) which started off with the lyrics: “It’s quarter to three, there’s no one in the place but you and me.”
- “Three Times a Lady” was also offered by the Commodores, while the Four Aces gave us “Three Coins in a Fountain.”
“One” was by far the most used number in songs I recalled and double-checked on Google.
Check ’em out:
“One and Only You” the Platters ”Wonderful One” Marvin Gaye
“Once in a While” the Chimes “One Summer Night” the Danleers
“One Hand, One Heart” West Side Story “One of Us” Abba
“One More Night” Phil Collins ”One for the Money” Escape the Fate
“One Fine Day” the Chiffons “One Voice” Barry Manilow
“One Way of Another” Blondie “One Tin Soldier” Billy Jack film
Number songs also included these offerings:
“Beechwood 4-5789“by the Marvelettes ”Do the 81” Candy and the Kisses
“It Takes Two” Marvin Gaye and Kin Weston “1001 Arbian Nights” ChipZ
“Land of 1,000 Dances” Wilson Pickett “1812 Overture” Tchaikovsky
“Five O’Clock World” the Vogues ”Three Blind Mice” Nursery Rhyme
“Five Will Get You Ten” We Five “Fourth of July” Sufjan Stevens
“Ten Things I Hate About You” Leah Kate “Take Five” Dave Brubeck
“Fifteen Men on a Dead Man’s Chest“– Robert Louis Stevenson in Treasure Island
“Twenty-four Hours from Tulsa” Gene Pitney “Eight Miles High” by the Byrds
“19th Nervous Breakdown” Rolling Stones “In the Year 2525” by Zager & Evans
“The 12th of Never” by Johnny Mathis “50 Ways to Leave Lover” Paul Simon
“Ninety-Nine Bottles of Beer on the Wall“ – Traditional drinking song
“I Found a Million Dollar Baby in a Five and Ten-Cent Store“ - Fanny Brice
“60 Minute Man” Billy Ward and Dominoes “High Noon” Tex Ritter
“Midnight at the Oasis” Maria Muldaur ”Cloud 9” the Temptations
“In the Midnight Hour” Wilson Pickett ”Love Potion Number 9” The Clovers
“Midnight Train to Georgia” Gladys Knight ”10,000 Kisses” Jackie Edwards
“A Thousand Kisses Deep” Leonard Cohen
And finally, “Number-Like” Last Titles:
“Save the Last Dance For Me” The Drifters “The Last Song” by Edward Bear
“The Last Thing on My Mind” by Tom Paxton.
‘My Social Security’ & all of your earnings
While getting together all taxable income documents for 2023 to file with the IRS, I came across something that is quite amazing. The Social Security System keeps a list of all earnings you ever made starting with the first time you ever worked.
Continue readingTerms befuddling my sexual understanding
There are certain words and phrases in the English language that I just can’t relate to or understand and bug me whenever I am asked to respond to them.
“Heterosexual” is at the top of my list. I guess it is in cahoots so to speak with “homosexual” but I never heard it used until I was grown up and dating for a couple of years. The dictionary definition for heterosexual is someone who is “sexually or romantically attracted exclusively to people of the other sex.”
Continue readingExcellent Treatment at Philly VA Hospital
I am about to get one of those RSV shots at the VA Hospital of Philadelphia to prevent any lung infection, and I wanted to share my enthusiasm for all the work the Veterans Administration has provided me most of my adult life.
It started a month after exiting the Vietnam War alive and receiving a GI Bill stipend to become a “first generation” college student, and a few years later, to buy my first home. But it wasn’t until I got care-giver burnout in 2008 while taking care of my wife who suffered a traumatic brain injury from a fall, as well as a “PTSD-suffering uprising” from my combat experience, that I first got life support help from a VA hospital.
Continue readingGetting Credit for my Time Served in Philly
You never know when an action from your past may catch up to you and remind you of what you once did in your previous life.
Take for instance my attendance last week at a Veterans Ceremony in Plymouth Township which borders my home town of Conshohocken, PA. They honored veterans who served in the municipality by placing their names in a brochure while a full-fledged US Navy Captain spoke at a memorial.
I approached the officer who was Captain John S Han and told him of my visit to Korea where he and his family had emigrated from in the early 1970s. Someone snapped the above picture and he then looked a little closer at me and asked “Don’t I know you?”
“I don’t know,” I said reminding him that I was Airborne in the Army and never served in the Navy, but had grown up and once worked in Philadelphia.
That’s when he shocked me by telling me he served as a prosecutor in Philadelphia and was my opponent in court when I tried my one and only jury trial “in absentia.” That means the defendant had flown the coop, so to speak, and the judge – one of my favorite jurists named James Lineberger – kind of declared my client AWOL (Away With Out Leave). That judge – another veteran – had once received a battle-field commission while serving in the Korean War. I felt like I was kinda back in the so-called trenches while suffering through that trial only to lose a case that we public defender attorneys called a “dead-dog loser.”
Captain Han reminded me that the defendant eventually got a 15-year sentence from Judge Anthony DeFino for a vicious crime considered to be a home invasion of a South Philadelphia man’s home where he beat a senior citizen. I told Han that I believed he should have gotten a stiffer sentence.
But what a coincidence. Getting credit for time served some 20 years earlier by a fellow veteran and a battle-hardened courtroom attorney. What a happy Veterans Day recall.
(Shortly after writing this, I learned that Captain Han was appointed to the transition team of the new mayor of Philadelphia!)
Birthday coincidence or just a cosmic joke?
Does fate have anything to do with the day that a person is born? Can one person born on the same date years earlier have some sort of influence on someone born years and perhaps even centuries later?
I mean, I was born on December 1st and share a biorhythm with Woody Allen, Richard Prior, Lou Rawls, and Bette Midler, all of whom are or were older than me. I love to joke around and make people smile like the two famous comedians, and I loved singing Doo Wop as a young man and still believe I can carry a tune some times.
But I could not get over that the author of the horror book “Dracula,” an Irishman by the name of Bram Stoker who was also a theater manager, shares his birthday with a fellow born in Romania and was a prince in Transylvania by the name of Vlad the Impaler!
How strange or other worldly is that? Did the author know Vlad’s birthday when he wrote the book in 1897? The brutal and sadistic leader famous for torturing his foes and responsible for the deaths of some 80,000 people, was born more than 500 years before the novel’s publication. How crazy or ironic is that?
I check birthdays of famous people every day on a site called “Today’s Famous Birthdays.” For instance, singer Patti Page and “Gone with the Wind” author Margaret Mitchell share their birthday today. It is also the birthday of Edmond Halley, with whom astronomers have named “Halley’s Comet.”
But Bram and Vlad take the proverbial cake in my book. It’s weird man, weird!
Has a “huge angel” been influencing me?
While attending the 10th anniversary of the Center for Contemporary Mysticism, a mystical experience opened my eyes to so many spiritual possibilities.
Continue readingHeartline & Intuition studies completed
It has taken me three years to complete one study and a mere two years to finish the other, but I believe I have contributed to the scientific understanding of reseasrchers for possible heart ailments and changes in thinking and memory for adults.
Continue readingMy writing device driven home in a flash
‘Don’t mess around with Synchronicity’
I was thinking about a story I once wrote for a newspaper about the Philadelhia-born singer Jim Croce and I discovered so many stepping stones that guided me from one career choice to another with an almost mystical maneuvering.
Continue readingSo grateful for feeling fewer body pains
While just starting to meditate, I could not get rid of thinking about the pains I was feeling in my body.
I had a major operation in May and am still suffering some aftereffects, including pain in my left side where a 12-inch incision was made to operate on an aneurysm. I was in the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania for six days.
Continue readingSupreme Court Guts a More Perfect Union
Our Supreme Court is the worst judicial tribunal since the United States’ highest judiciary ruled in 1856 that blacks were not and could not be citizens.
Yes, Supreme Court Justice Roger B. Taney has gone down in history for his ruling in Dred Scott v. John Sanford. It stated that a black man had no rights under the Constitution and that the Founders’ words in the Declaration of Independence, “all men were created equal’ were never intended to apply to blacks.
Continue readingConfederate names changed at Army bases
The name change has finally occurred and I am happy to report that every US Army base where I was stationed has had its Confederate Army soldier’s name removed and replaced with more admirable names.
Continue readingBobby Darin tribute for his birthday today
Today is the birthday of my favorite singer of all time.
If he lived, Bobby Darin would have turned 87, but a rheumatic heart condition caused a premature death at age 37.
That was exactly 50 years ago this year on Dec. 20, 1973.
Continue reading‘Stand Back’ Proud Boys Guilty of Treason
Traitors.
That’s the word that everyone in the United States can call four of the Proud Boys who were found guilty by a jury of their peers for taking part in the insurrection conducted in the Capital on Jan. 6, 2021. They reached the verdict on 31 of 46 counts following seven days of deliberation in Washington DC and nearly 15 weeks of courtroom proceedings.
Continue readingGabriel’s Messages – available to all souls!
“Gabriel’s Messages” opened my heart to so many truths not only about life but of the transition of death, and I hope that others can read this wonderful book by my friend, Cyndi Smith, a fellow member of the Center for Contemporary Mysticism of Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia.
It offers hope to a world that seems so weary about bad news for it predicts a new order of things 25 years from now. For instance, a “food tax” will be developed and help to send food to all corners of the world to end hunger; fossil fuels will no longer be used and be replaced by battery power or renewable energy. and medicine will become universal – we will be able to see any doctor in any part of the world.
Continue readingBan Fox News lies from our military bases
Fox News should be curtailed on all military bases and facilities to prevent men and women in uniform to be lied to about stories and events shaping our nation, particularly the political world around us.
Continue readingAcupuncture offered to help veterans
I’m getting therapy once again for my well-being!
Physical therapy, that is. Although I could probably use a little for my mental well-being. (Just kidding.)
Continue readingVietnam War peace accord 50 years old!
This month marks the 50th anniversary of when the Vietnam War finally ended. A Peace Accord was reached on January 27, 1973, making way for the complete removal of all troops by March 29th of the same year.
Many of us remember the chaotic pictures of persons trying to flee Saigon on the last day reminding me of the chaos that erupted when the United States ended The Afghanistan War on August 2021. The Vietnam War was America’s longest war ever until Afghanistan overtook it. Both wars became highly unpopular and some believe that politics had a lot to do with both battlefronts.
Fifty years ago the Vietnam War finally ended, but for many like myself, it feels like it was only yesterday.
Continue readingFrigid conditions cause worst winter ever
This has been the coldest winter I have ever experienced. Weather forecasters on news stations are calling it the “Once in a Generation Winter Storm.” They reported that more than 800,000 households lost power nationwide. And the frigid conditions continue as I write this the day before Xmas.
The worst of the freeze occurred after I parked my car at the Conshohocken PA train station yesterday en route to the VA Hospital of Philadelphia for a scheduled MRI. I thought things couldn’t get any worse after completing the medical procedure that was highly uncomfortable, but when I got back to the train station lot I faced another painful circumstance. I could not open the driver’s side door of my Toyota Corolla.
Continue reading
‘So It Goes’ for Kurt Vonnegut Jr, anti-war veteran author, and former POW
One of my all-time favorite authors – a veteran who was a POW and a staunch anti-war advocate – would have celebrated his 100th birthday this month.
Kurt Vonnegut Jr., who turned me on to science fiction mixed with auto-biographical recalls, was born on Veterans Day in 1921, just three years after Armistice Day, which was the original veterans’ day. It commemorated the end of the European war “Over There” and was called “the war to end all wars.”
Continue readingHere’s my Pledge to Vote in Pennsylvania!
Voting has been made easier for many of us in Pennsylvania and the state provides links for checking on your voting status as well as any request seeking a mail-in ballot. I took part in a Zoom connection entitled “MontCoVotes” and learned how to maneuver through the government channels and wanted to share them here.
Continue readingSt. Francis of Assisi is truly honored today
The world is celebrating the feast day of Saint Francis of Assisi today! Francesco di Bernadone, whose real name was actually Giovanni (John), was born some 800 years ago. He came from a wealthy family. But turned his back on his mercantile father and gave up all worldly goods to help the poor as well as the animals.
Continue readingCommunity college creates career choices
(See Part I “My Delaware County Community College!”)
Before I ever went to a community college, I had to make up several deficits in my learning. I had to take remedial math as well as remedial English. I passed both and was then permitted to take regular classes which include journalism studies and just as important, the school’s extra-curricular activity of working on the college newspaper.
I began as a reporter for The Communitarian. The paper used my by-line on every story I wrote, and by my second year at DCCC, I was named editor. Well, I believe my military training must have kicked in because I started to publish an edition on a weekly basis. You were lucky to have it published once a month until I took over.
My Delaware County Community College!
Delaware County Community College will always be my favorite school despite the many degrees I obtained elsewhere and the things I learned about myself and my somewhat hidden potential.
I was the first in my family to go to college. My mother, whose own parents came from Hungary, was the first to graduate high school. My father, who immigrated from a Greek island when he was 15, never went beyond sixth grade.
Continue readingDance recall ain’t all that easy nowadays
For the life of me, I cannot remember the first time I ever danced.
You know, get out on the floor of somebody’s home, a schoolroom, or even a dance floor and move around to music or some make-believe dance sound. My mind simply can’t dig up that moment that should be among my most precious memories.
Framed for my service in the Vietnam War
I got framed.
And the person who framed me was none other than my son, Nicholas.
He framed all my medals from my enlistment in the US Army more than 50 years ago including my service in the Vietnam War.
Continue readingAwakening to sounds of the outdoors again
I got a new pair of hearing aids, and a new world of sounds has opened for me!
I wore ‘em outdoors during a walk on my 10,000-steps-a-day journey, and the first thing I noticed was the sound of birds chirping merrily in the trees I walked under. They had to have been communicating with each other because as soon as one stopped chirping, another one seemed to follow up in response.
Continue readingA photo gift for a GI & a swimsuit recovery!
What do a missing swimsuit and a 50-year-old photo of a newly-minted lieutenant have in common?
Both got lost and then recovered on a friendly trip to the library and the treasured gift of hoping for an uplifting outcome.
Continue readingGabriel’s Message Enlightens the moment
The following is Gabriel’s Message as channeled by my good friend Cyndi Smith:
Your soul does not completely fit inside your body. Some of your soul remains in Heaven in what you call your higher self. Much of it is here inside of you but the part that overflows your body is called your aura.
Continue readingA Brewerytown Kid Grows Up – Reviewed!
Continue readingPerfectly, Unadulteratedly Human
The authentic human voice is a thing many writers strive to capture. Few can claim to have succeeded. Contos, however, very much has earned that badge of honor. The text is home to an authentic and powerful narration that still, in its honest humanity, grounds itself in the humble approach to one man’s life and what that life means.
I don’t often cry over books. It’s not that I can’t, it’s just something that very rarely happens.
I cried reading about the Kid of Brewerytown.
Take that as you will.Katherine D. 5.0 out of 5 stars
– Jan 22, 2022
First Public Defender on Supreme Court!
For the first time in our nation’s history, an attorney who once practiced law as a public defender will serve on the U.S. Supreme Court.
Ketanji Brown Jackson was confirmed by the Senate and will take her seat this summer when Justice Stephen Breyer steps down. She will be the first former criminal defense lawyer since Justice Thurgood Marshall who served on the bench more than 30 years ago.
Continue readingPlease stop all your cell phone spamming
“Potential Spam” is the innocuous term that Verizon classifies as one of several phone calls I get each day on my cell phone.
I immediately delete them but have had an accident or two when I’d click the wrong button and end up dialing that number. I quickly stop any further progress at that number and click on delete. I got a feeling, however, that some “son-of-a-b” got a recording of my mistake and will log it into their account, but I really don’t know.
Continue readingPlease Disregard My “Last” Transmission!
“The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated . . .”
This quote from Mark Twain touched my very soul yesterday when I got a message from one of my old colleagues who said that he had read something “disturbing.” The exact quote via Messenger was: “Michael, are you okay? I saw something disturbing for your name.”
My reply: “Disturbing? I haven’t done anything to warrant that since I made an illegal turn into the senior citizen center in Upper Merion Township last week and a cop stopped me.”
Continue readingGuided meditation calms Covid concerns
Mindfulness meditation has awakened within me.
I am once again being guided by my good friend and co-founder of the Center for Contemporary Mysticism, Joe Irwin a former church pastor.
———— Continue reading
Kids who shared a kiss reunite years later
Sixty years to the day of the most memorable kiss of my life, the girl who bestowed that kiss had contacted me for the first time since way back then.
Sixty years!
Continue readingVeterans Day Tribute from Conshohocken!
I have been honored this Veterans Day through a recorded interview about my book on the Vietnam War for a program called “Good Morning Conshy” where I share the broadcast with two companion pet managers for what is known as PACT. Many of the animals had assisted veterans who could no longer care for their pets and needed help for animals they viewed as their children.
We all had contacts with Conshohocken, a small borough just outside of Philadelphia, and learned that the interview would be recorded and made available on U-Tube. Watching it, I noticed how white-faced I look after recovering from a stomach illness. I am glad I wore my “boonie hat” that I had saved from the Vietnam War. It shows one silver bar that was subdued to prevent the enemy from spotting an officer. I wore it only once before and that was at Omega Institute at a five-day meditation retreat for veterans with PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.)
Continue readingHighlights of a Philly public defender intern
One of my favorite jobs was serving as an intern for the Defender Association of Philadelphia. I went to the jails, the courtrooms, and the training rooms to learn how to properly defend persons charged with various crimes.
The prison was tough. You never knew if the defendant was telling the truth or not. You simply interviewed him for the basic information and wrote up his story for a trial lawyer to review before speaking to the suspect and going to trial. You never saw the person again and you had no idea how he may have faired.
Vietnam War Book Review a 4-Stars Rate!
Review of Vietnam War Recall authored by Michael J Contos at Contoveros.wordpress.com
[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of “Vietnam War Recall”
Like many other young men of the time, author Michael Contos found himself in the military, headed to a turbulent region of the world to protect democracy. After completing Officer Candidate School, Michael was deployed to Vietnam to lead a platoon of infantrymen on missions while evading the formidable Viet Cong forces. Here, he describes the worst day of his life that led to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a debilitating condition that would threaten to consume his life and linger for decades; a day so jarring that he would not talk about, even with his family.
Upon returning home, his experiences in combat haunt him, so he seeks the help of spiritual leaders to help relieve the symptoms of PTSD. The story is told in the first person through flashbacks, introspect, and excerpts from the author’s blog. Through the narration, readers get a glimpse into the personal turmoil that many of our veterans face after combat.
The best part of this book is the intimate and emotional description of PTSD; a young leader, not afforded time to grieve or debrief from his experiences, lives with the nightmares, flashbacks, and anxiety that seem to permeate every facet of his life. These intense feelings are captured clearly by the author. I also love the way the daily humdrum of military life is portrayed, and the descriptions sure bring back memories for this veteran. The cadences, the euphoric feeling when you realize your parachute is perfect, and the anticipation of the return to the United States (DEROS) is very real indeed! A little humor, typical of military camaraderie, is also peppered into the pages of the story; I had to chuckle when I read about some familiar but important advice: never crap alone in the field!
Although the messages are powerful, the book does seem a bit repetitive at times. Other than this, there is nothing negative to say about the story, its purpose and voice are truly a gift to an audience who does not truly understand the realities of war and its crippling effects on our young servicemen, not only the ones who gave their lives but also those who returned bearing unseen scars. I happily give Vietnam Recall: The Best and Worst Days of My Life 4 out of 4 stars for these reasons. The book appears professionally edited and is divided into chapters of appropriate length.
I particularly recommend this book to readers who love historical accounts of war and those who seek insight from a primary source about mental illness. Those with family members in the military will appreciate the insightful glimpse into the psyche of those who have chosen to defend our way of life. There is some moderate profanity, along with explicit descriptions of trauma and wartime peril; those sensitive to these topics may not want to read the book. For all others, the book is a penetrating account of one man’s journey towards healing and peace. All who read this story will undoubtedly be moved by the author’s gipping words as he relives the most difficult moments of his life. He speaks for the countless others, who remain silent.
******
Vietnam War Recall
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Conshohocken may hold remains of a saint
I knelt at the gravesite while bowing my head and closing my eyes to pray yesterday morning. I was visiting Calvary Cemetery of West Conshohocken, the burial site for Father William E Atkinson, an Augustinian priest who passed away in 2006 and is now being considered for canonization by the Catholic Church to be named a saint.
Continue readingWallet found & returned synchronistically
I felt like a boy scout as I found a young woman’s lost wallet and marched it to the police station while another person walking outdoors helped to notify the owner.
By the time I got to the borough hall building and spoke to a police spokesperson, the woman had called the station and was on the phone the moment I walked into the headquarter’s dispatch center.
Wow! Talk about synchronicity!
Continue readingMy Vietnam War book is finally published
It took me more than 50 years, but I finally published my Vietnam War story and the toll it took on me after leading a combat infantry platoon as a 21-year-old first lieutenant in the US army.
I self-published with the help of editors who wrote the back cover description. They used a mug shot I had taken some ten years ago while attending a PTSD meditation clinic at Omega Institute for veterans and their families. The clinic introduced me to different forms of meditation that allowed me to eventually deal with the trauma and view the war experience in a more benign and compassionate light.
Continue readingEnlarged stupidity leaks on my prostate
Schmuck.
Dumb schmuck to be exact.
I got a call from my doctor at the VA Hospital of Philadelphia after having blood drawn earlier in the day. He was concerned about an increase in some bad things involving my prostrate.
Whatever those things were, I knew they weren’t any good, and he advised me to have a test done to insure that I was not developing prostate cancer.
Continue readingVFW opens me to a local veterans retreat
Well, I joined a VFW.
That is, the Veterans of Foreign Wars. I could’ve joined it right out of Vietnam, but at that time of my life, I didn’t want to help support the war that I had just left.
Continue readingForget the Alamo devastates my childhood
My reality took a major hit when I learned of a book that reveals the famous battle at the Alamo in Texas was not what Walt Disney had broadcasted on TV, but was a nefarious cover up of an expansion of slavery in the Lone Star State.
Santa Anna’s Mexican troops were trying to stamp out slavery in its territory and the 180 persons fighting at the old Spanish mission in San Antonio were trying to not only retain slavery, but make it grow for the production of cotton.
Continue readingUSAA: stop Tucker Carlson ads to vets
I complained to USAA, the American veterans car insurance company, when I learned that it was advertising on the Tucker Carlson show. As a subscriber of USAA of more than 50 years, I threatened to seek insurance elsewhere after the Fox News host called the joint chief of staff general “stupid” and followed that up by describing him as a “pig.”
General Mark Miley, who incidentally was a Trump appointee, recently expressed his support for “critical race theory” at a congressional hearing.
“I do think it is important for those of us in uniform to be open-minded and well-read,” he told the House Armed Services Committee. “I want to understand white rage . . . and I’m white. . . I want to understand it. So what is it that caused thousands of people to assault this (the Capital) and try to overturn the Constitution?”
———
I salute this military leader, a four star general who is also “airborne infantry,” and can not for the life of me understand how someone who never put on a uniform or faced a single day in combat could say such drivel about such a soldier.
Nor can I understand how USAA could continue spending advertising dollars at the Fox program. I know they want to reach veterans and our families, but the money is also propping up a mouthpiece for white supremacy and anti-democratic conspiracy theories.
(Click here for a look at the actual Fox newscast.)
Please USAA. Cut all ties with Tucker Carlson and continue your support of veterans who care about America’s values!
This former combat infantry platoon leader besieges you to do the right thing.
Now!
Continue readingAre you Catholic? No, I’m Christian
I experienced one of those “holy shit” moments the other day.
You know the type of experience you get from something you see, hear or read and you just have to say to yourself out of earshot of everybody something like: “holy shitoli!”
Continue readingSychronicity hits my home and my heart!
Synchronicity is a term I have come to cherish since being introduced to it by my favorite psychologist, Carl Jung. It refers to deeply meaningful coincidences that mysteriously occur in one’s life. Jung proved by the law of probability that they were not mere coincidences but insights into our rich and worthwhile lives.
Continue readingTreasures discovered on my daily jaunt
I have found so many little treasures on my daily walk as I strive each day to achieve my goal of 10,000 steps.
Yep, I log all of my paces on a skinny Fitbit wrapped around my wrist which also tells me the time of the day as well as the number that is calling my cell phone.
Continue readingPublic Defender Advocate Lives On!
Walter Mondale, the Minnesota resident and former candidate for president of the United States, was a staunch advocate for providing legal services to poor people charged with crimes and I firmly believe that his legacy will live on.
Continue readingLet’s boycott Georgia firms to save the vote
Condemn veterans who attacked Capitol
Any veteran that took part in the January 6th insurrection at the US capitol should be stripped of his or her VA benefits and labeled a “traitor.”
There is a disturbing number of current and former military persons identified among those who broke into the capitol to overturn the election. About 20 percent of the nearly 300 arrested, according to NPR. They should no longer receive treatment at VA hospitals, get the GI Bill for attending school or obtain a mortgage loan.
Continue reading
Justice demands a guilty verdict for Trump
I look forward every day to reading the news of an indictment against the former president and/or an update on all of the civil lawsuits against him.
You know they’re coming. All the highly experienced lawyers need do is to simply confirm their concrete and rock-solid facts before going to court and contacting the news media for reporters to share the information on the law with the entire world.
Continue readingStagger Lee helps me win a dicey jury trial
Stagger Lee, a song about a murder over a dice game and Stetson hat, was the number one song in America this week in 1959. Listening to it, I was reminded of how I won a jury trial by using its lyrics for my closing argument.
The song, recorded by New Orleans native Lloyd Price, told of two men who “gambled late.” One accused the other of cheating and lead to the shooting death of the other.
I represented a client who told me he was shooting dice outside of a Philadelphia bar when he won all the money from a fellow who had gambled late outside the bar.
Covid-19 virus attacks & assaults my life
I tested “positive” for Covid-19.
Having felt sick, I contacted an Urgent Care unit in Conshohocken just outside of Philadelphia. Within minutes, a nurse scheduled an appointment and placed long-stemmed items up both nostrils after confirming my identity with a glance at my drivers’ license and a cell-phone confirmation.
Continue readingUniverse conspires: All roads lead to Georgia
Today, I am a Georgia boy once again. And if we try hard enough, all of us could be Georgians!
Over the next several weeks I hope Americans join with me in offering positive intentions to convince the universe to focus and raise up the wonderful State of Georgia.
Continue reading
Holidays are ‘downers’ for some of us vets
Holidays ain’t what they used to be when you were a kid. Particularly, if you ended up in the military and spent some of your formative years in a war zone like the Vietnam War.
I could not celebrate Thanksgiving Day this year. It was the 50th anniversary of a comrade of mine named Victor Lee Ellinger, a first lieutenant who was shot and killed by an enemy sniper just three days before the holiday. (See Cost of War.)
Continue readingSome creep hacked into my Internet ID!
I got hacked.
Again!
Some sombitch broke into my Internet connection and must have sent dozens of messages to who knows how many people I have gotten to know through Facebook and possibly Messenger.
Continue readingSoldiers I knew were no ‘losers’ Mr. Trump
First Lieutenant Victor Lee Ellinger was no loser, Mr. Trump.
He was shot and killed by an enemy sniper during the Vietnam War and I forced marched my platoon to come to his aid only to find out we got to him too late to help.
He was no “sucker,” having enlisted the same year that you miraculously developed bone spurs on one of your feet, getting your fifth deferment to keep you out of the military and any chance of being in harm’s way. It was the same year I was drafted and later commissioned to lead a bunch of other young men into battle.
Continue readingThe Masking on America’s Streets Today
I want to unmask my true feelings about the Masking of America and how to get people to care enough for one another to be a little more considerate while walking outdoors.
Dating today just ain’t what it used to be!
What’s it like to be young and wanna go out on a date nowadays?
I mean, there just ain’t a good place to go, no good place to meet someone, no good activity that will allow two mostly young people to get together and see if they can make some sparks to fly. Continue reading
Highlights of Declaration of Independence
The Fourth of July is upon us, and I wanted to share some independent facts that many Americans may not have learned in history books or inside their classrooms.*
The Declaration of Independence was first printed in a German-speaking newspaper and not an English one. The Colony of Pennsylvania once had a large German population and when people of what became the Keystone State voted on which language to use, German lost by only one vote. Continue reading
Change Confederate generals’ names now
As a veteran of several military bases, I would vote to change the names of all the facilities named for generals who fought for the Confederate army during our nation’s Civil War.
I offer such action with a heavy heart because of the link I still have with the facilities that helped to create the soldier I had become and the lessons learned in the US Army. Continue reading
Highlights of an early life recalled now
While I am still able to recall in some details highlights of my early life before true adulthood I decided to write them down for future generations and others who may want to commiserate with my adventures and misadventures. Continue reading
Making History with my own Mail-in Vote
I voted at home today and I can’t wait to put the written ballot in the slot opening at my local Post Office. Continue reading
Silence greets me with a rewarding note!
I meditated this morning and realized there were few if any sounds coming from the street outside my home. Traffic usually provides noise from cars and trucks as motorists make their way along the suburban road in Conshohocken, PA, some 14 miles outside of Philadelphia. Continue reading
D-Day Paratrooper falls prey to Covid-19
An American hero has fallen to the Coronavirus and the world may never see the likes of him ever again.
Ninety-eight-year-old George Shenkle, a card-carrying member of the “Greatest Generation” took part in the invasion of Normandy more than 75 years ago, freeing our universe from the evil of the Nazis. He served as a paratrooper with three combat jumps – including both D-Day and the Battle of the Bulge — and got a purple heart in return for the wounds he received after hitting the ground and running into enemy fire and explosions. Continue reading
Vietnam veteran recalls war 50 years ago
Today is Vietnam Veterans Day and the Year of 2020 marks the 50th anniversary of my deployment in the war zone. I was a 21-year-old second lieutenant placed in charge of a platoon of some 25 men, many of them still in their teenage years and drafted like I had been. Continue reading
Universe conspires to relieve my tax fear
Hallelujah!
The Universe smiled upon me and relieved the stress I created when deciding to get my taxes done without paying an arm and a leg for help.
Stress taxing me for my new endeavor
Stress . . .
It is hitting me more and more lately, particularly since I decided to do my own taxes for the first time in my life and not pay out nearly $300 to have a professional do the work. Continue reading
Exercise Routine by Accident & Incentive
I exercise daily and try to get enough steps each day to add up to two miles. That’s around 6,250 steps if anyone is counting.
Well, my I-phone is counting ‘em. The steps, that is. And the miles. Continue reading
Tales from my State Capital Adventures
I once worked in Pennsylvania State Government, meeting and writing a speech for the governor and broadcasting a news story about a new group of buses being introduced to the Keystone State. Continue reading
Client didn’t die quick enough contempt
(Second of two posts — See first Contempt here)
I was kicked out of a courtroom when I raised my voice to a judge who seemed to be favoring an assistant district attorney who wanted my client removed from hospice because he hadn’t died soon enough after I got him out of jail. Continue reading
Contempt of Court Trials & Tribulations
I was held in contempt by two different judges during my illustrious career as a defense attorney. Continue reading
Grandkids can open you to new worlds!
“It’s snowing!” Phoenyx happily announced to the household as the nine-year-old made her way up to the third floor at 6:58 am this morning. Continue reading
No ‘Pardon’ for any War Crime Criminals
I was so proud of the Secretary of Navy for his resignation in protest of a hideous act to cover up the atrocities of those in the military charged with war crimes. Continue reading
Unmasking sleep apnea’s nightly ritual
I have taken off the mask and I can now sleep unencumbered once again!
A doctor advised me that I no longer have sleep apnea and don’t need the machine that has forced air into my nostrils over the last several years just to keep me breathing. Continue reading
Contoveros Blog turns 10 years old!
It’s been 10 years since I wrote my first post for this Contoveros Blog and looking back I feel a little like Ken Burns, the producer of PBS specials on such things as war, music and other all-American things. Continue reading
An Officer and a Gentleman Recalled
I was commissioned a Second Lieutenant 50 years ago and looking back I see it as one of the greatest achievements of my life. Also, one of the luckiest ones and I’m so glad to still be around to tell about it.
Yes, by an Act of Congress I was made “An Officer & a Gentleman.” I don’t know where that title came from — Great Britain I guess — but I tried to live up to it’s “ideal” while in the army and when discharged and choosing different career paths in my life. Continue reading
Famous people met: Tale of our own history
Who’s the most famous person you ever met?
I mean directly or indirectly. And I don’t mean being in an audience with hundreds or thousands of others at a concert or rally. Continue reading
Seeing a Divine Hand in the Worst of Times
God works in mysterious ways.
Put another way, the Universe will conspire to bring about what you really want and need in life, even though you may not know it when the Divine Intervention takes place.
Or even like it. The intervention that is. And on first blush, it may even seem bad but you realize on reflection it had to have happened for you to progress in life. Continue reading
President jails reporter critical of re-election
The headline above could be something we’ll see in the not too distant future but actually occurred more than 200 years ago in the United States of America.
———————– Continue reading
Karma enlightens Groundhog Day movie
“Groundhog Day” is the movie starring Bill Murray who visits Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, where he is destined to live each day over and over for what seems like eternity. Its message is one of Karma and reincarnation, particularly when one realizes that the director and co-screen-writer was a practicing Buddhist by the name of Harold Remis. Continue reading
Poetry battles the mind of a younger man
Listen, my children, and you shall hear
Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,
On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-Five:
Hardly a man is now alive
Who remembers that famous day and year.
GI Bill to celebrate its 75th anniversary!
I would not have gone to college had it not been for the GI Bill which is marking its 75th anniversary on June 22, 2019.
My father, who was born on a small Greek Island, never went beyond sixth grade. My mother, daughter of Hungarian refugees, was the first in her family to graduate from a high school in New Jersey.
And I had barely made it through Dobbin’s Tech, a trade school, having transferred from a Catholic high school after I got caught playing hooky and ordered to go to summer school for religion. No one – including myself — saw college in my lifetime.
Continue reading
Court antics from young Abe Lincoln & me
I never realized I had anything in common with Abraham Lincoln until I re-watched a movie about the president’s early life as a trial attorney. Continue reading
Confession of a US Army dog-tag deserter
I confess. I disobeyed orders when I marched into combat as a young man and I want to finally get it off my chest after all these years. Continue reading
‘Welcome Home’ this Veterans Day 2018
One hundred years ago peace-loving people throughout the world commemorated the “War to End All Wars” by institutionalizing a holiday that morphed into Veterans Day in America.
World War I, as historians have named it, did not end all of the wars and in 20 years the nations of the earth faced the worst world war mankind has ever known. Continue reading
‘False in One, False in All’ never failed me!
“False in one, false in all.”
That’s the jury instruction I’d request a judge to provide when a witness at a trial said one thing one time and another thing at another time. Also, when one or more witnesses said something different than what the first witness had sworn to tell the truth about while sitting on the witness stand. Continue reading
Blast from the past: the nuclear bomb desk
I will never forget my old wooden desk in grade school and the drills we held in order to protect us from a nuclear blast. The nuns from St. Ludwig’s Catholic School ordered us to get out of our seats and to curl up beneath the desks where we practiced the silence of Benedictine monks. Someone had pulled down the shades over the wide windows of the second-floor room and we sat for long minutes that felt like hours. Continue reading
Dreams of a boy’s fun from a coonskin cap
He doesn’t play with me like he used too. I’d be the first thing he’d grab and put on his head when he went outside and pretend he was Davy Crockett. A coonskin hat was meant for little boys and those wanting to be “king of the wild frontier.” But he has seen me less and less since that white plastic ball entered his life and got him swinging at it. Continue reading
All-time favorite car — 1957 Chevy Bel Air
The first car I ever owned was my all-time favorite one.
It was “surf green” Chevrolet Bel Air made in the year 1957. I paid a whopping $300 for it when my barber offered it to me in 1967. I was working as a printer and had saved up enough money to pay him cash. Continue reading
August 22 — we’ll never forget Patty Ward
Patty Ward, a Specialist 4 with a helicopter gunship, was shot down 50 years ago while flying to the aid of US Army soldiers during the Vietnam War. He was one of four men who died when their helicopter was hit and crashed.
Patty was awarded the Silver Star for bravery in connection with helping to rescue other grunts wounded in another battle. His family in the Fairmount section of Philadelphia received the medal posthumously. Continue reading
Standing up for (and with) the News Media
While editorials from dozens of newspapers throughout the country are expected to be offered about the attacks on the First Amendment on August 16, I figured I’d get my two-cents worth in as a former news reporter. Continue reading
Guidance from Above seen from a distance
Are there moments in our life when we can see God’s fingerprints or the Will of the Universe directing us along our path? I’m talking about seeing such a Divine event as it is occurring or upon hindsight years later.
That’s the question raised by a group of my friends at the Spiritual Sharing Circle that meets once a month at the Center for Contemporary Mysticism in the Chestnut Hill section of Philadelphia. Continue reading
Meditation can rescue us in dire situations
Joy filled my soul as I read that the 12 boys trapped in a flooded cave in Thailand were thinking of entering a monastery in honor of the former Navy Seal that gave his life in an effort to save them. Continue reading
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