I open this morning on the intellectual side of things. The classics, Plato, Aristophanes and Aristotle. A step back never hurts. An education in itself.

History repeats itself and society can learn from it. Something man forgets.

Universities have been moving away from the classics. Hard to believe. The study of eh classics produces thinking minds. Some great.

I suspect the reason for the drift is money. Universities are businesses. They run themselves like a corporation. Students are a significant source of their income. If students avoid studying the classics, the University loses money.

If particular courses fail to make money for the university, such courses are eliminated from the curriculum.

Americans want everything yesterday. Students part of the group. Why study the classics when a computer or engineering degree can reward their four years with significant instantaneous income. Classic majors don’t pay well. At least at the beginning. They do provide some with substantial income in later years.

The Washington Post published an article in point 4/19/21. The article by Cornell West and Jeremy Tate titled: Howard University’s Removal of Classics Is A Spiritual Catastrophe.

A passage: “Academia’s continual campaign to disregard or neglect the classics is a sign of spiritual decay, moral decline and deep intellectual narrowness running amok in American culture. Those who commit this terrible act treat Western Civilization as either irrelevant and worthy of prioritization or as harmful and worthy only of condemnation.”

A step back in time and the thoughts of Plato, Aristophanes and Aristotle. Michael Hudson on 4/23/21 wrote about lust for money. The article titled: Plato, Aristophanes and Aristotle on Money-Lust, 399-380 BC.

The thrust of the article to the effect that man’s lust for money is destructive and not necessarily healthy: “Delphi’s warning that lust for monetary silver (philarguria) was the only thing that could destroy Sparta was evolved by Plato, Socrates and other philosophers accusing wealth addiction of leading to greedy and hubristic behavior that impoverished society at large. Creditors were singled out for reducing debtors to bondage and taking their land.”

Watched the Academy awards last night. Did not enjoy the show. I hope it was done the way it was because of the virus and next year will return to its old format.

Rumor has it that Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer is considering retirement. Could be. He is 82 years old.

If such occurs, it will provide Biden and Senate Democrats with the opportunity to replace him with a young Democratic Moderate/Liberal.

Accidents happen, especially in war time. During World War II, Key West was a strategic location. U.S. Naval vessels were in frequent use of the port. The Germans were aware and constantly had submarines patrolling waters 40-50 miles off Key West. The U.S. Navy laaid out a mine field to interfere with the submarines and any surface vessels.

On this day in 1942, the USS Sturtevant left Key West via the Northwest Channel. The Sturtevant ran into the U.S. Navy’s mine field and sunk with the loss of 17 men.

It was April 26, 1986. On that day, the worst nuclear disaster up to that time occurred in Chernobyl. A reactor at a nuclear power station exploded. Radioactive contamination covered most of Western Europe.

Sometime in 2000, a woman visited my Utica office with her baby.  The baby about 7-8 months old. An unusually lovely baby.

One problem and the reason for the visit. The baby was born with one of her arms missing above the elbow.

Her husband was not with her. He refused to seek possible legal help for his daughter because he felt he would be blamed for the baby’s  defect.

I knew nothing about injuries arising out of Chernobyl. Explained it to the mother. We would look into the situation and advise her.

I spent the next 2 months working on the case. Actually to determine if there was a case. I was in communication with the best minds regarding various aspects of Chernobyl. Spoke with scientists, doctors and lawyers in Italy, France and England.

For a multitude of reasons, I became convinced there was not a viable case. As did the best minds on the issues in Europe. It was a sad day when I advised the mother I could not help her daughter.

She took it well. The baby now about 9 months old, laughing and gurgling on her mother’s lap.

I did learn one thing for sure. Her husband was responsible. He was correct when he could not face the situation.

The father had been working and living 14 miles from the explosion. It was established by the time I was researching the matter, that a male’s testicles and other reproductive organs were the cause. The radioactivity somehow infected men as indicated.

The law teaches us there is a right for every wrong. In this case there was not.

Big evening tonight. Dinner with Jean and Joe Thornton at La Te Da. Thrilled I will be seeing them. More than a year since I have. They self-quarantined for over a year in their home in Birmingham.

Jean had her own disaster saturday night in Key West. She is on crutches.

Jean and Joe ride their bikes around Key West. Never a car. Their Key West home in Truman Annex.

Jean was walking her bicycle to the street to ride to a wine tasting. She somehow tripped on the curb.

Pain in the ankle was immediate.

Jean a tough lady. Thought it was nothing and would go away.

She did the wine tasting. Then to Vino’s for another wine. Then to OnlyWood for dinner. She was finishing her wine there when she went into a cold sweat and passed out.

The next thing she remembers is being carried out of the restaurant on a stretcher and the ride to the hospital in the ambulance. The ambulance sirens screaming as it sped to the hospital while a medic was working on her.

Fortunately, no fracture. A bad sprain. She is on crutches.

We are going to look good tonight. Jean on crutches and Louis with a cane!

Enjoy your day!