Not funny but at least interesting

Above: Longhouses in Ravno Selo, Vojvodina, Serbia.

This village was called Schowe when it was occupied

by my German ancestors from 1785 - 1939. These

longhouses were built very near to 1800 and have

been continuously occupied since that time.

I shot this photograph in November, 2006.

Though I cannot even begin to compete with the wry humor of my children, at least now with my own blog I can defend myself from spurious posts and their not so cleverly hidden attempts to paint me as an nothing more than an eccentric octogenerian.

But in keeping with my DiscoveryChannelesqueand professorial nature, I publish a few things here that are interesting to me and have been important parts of my life and which have nothing to do with PVC pipe.

Famous People I have met and talked to one on one:

1962 Southern Californina children's show host Engineer Bill -- at Pacific Ocean Park in Santa Monica. CA- On the green light you go and on the red light you stop, because no engineer would ever run a red light.

1964 or 1965 -- Walt Disney at Disneyland in California.

1965 Academy Award winning composer Georg Stolle - My great Aunt Katherine was his housekeeper, and I got to meet him and hold one of his Oscars at his home in Benedict Canyon, CA.

1966 US President Ronald Reagan in Santa Monica, CA - I was on his campaign staff when he ran for Governor of California.

1966 Actor Sebastian Cabot - he sat next to me in the audience for a marionette show.

1967 NBA Star Kareem Abdul Jabbar - I ran into him on the floor at Pauley Pavillion at UCLA in Los Angeles when he was Ferdinand Lewis Alcindor. I asked him what his shoe size was, and he told me 17 1/2

1971 LDS First Presidency Counselor N. Eldon Tanner - I met him at the Denver Stapleton airport on my way to serve as a missionary in Peru.

1972 LDS President Gordon B Hinckley - I was interviewed by him in Lima while on my mission. He was a member of the quourm of the 12 Apostles at the time.

1974 LDS President Spencer W. Kimball I met him in the Church Office Building Parking Lot.

1975 Actor Charleton Heston - I asked him an acting question on a radio call in talk show.

1977 LDS Apostle Neal A. Maxwell - he married us in the Provo LDS temple and we got to have an interview with him before we got married.

1978 LDS Apostle Dallin H Oaks. He was then President of Brigham Young University. I met him in the locker room at the Smith Field House.

1989 Actor Patrick Duffy (he played Bobby Ewing on the TV show Dallas) at the Sheraton Hotel in Dallas.

1996 World's richest man Bill Gates at a reception for Microsoft employees in Irving, TX.

Famous people I have seen up close but did not get a chance to talk to:

1963 - Sandy Koufax pitches a no-hitter against the San Francisco Giants. We were in Dodger stadium that night, about 12 rows up behind the third base dugout. Koufax pitched a perfect game until the 9th inning when he walked a batter.

1960's between 1964 and 1967: Composers Alfred Newman (How the West Was Won, Airport) and Ferde Grofe (Grand Canyon Suite, Mississippi Suite). I worked with and was directed by these composers as a junior high school choir member at programs in the Santa Monica, CA Civic Auditorium called Stairway to the Stars. Alfred Newman won 9 Academy Awards and was nominated for them 45 times.

1967 The Smothers Brothers at a concert at a theatre i n the round somewhere in the San Fernando Valley in California. Seats in the third row.

1976 Singer John Denver, at a concert in Salt Lake City. I had front row seats.

1983 - Prince Charles and Princess Diana in St Andrews, New Brunswick, Canada. We were about 10 feet away from their car.

2000 - French President Jacques Chirac - we just happened to be passing by the Elysee Palace in Paris when his car exited the building with him in it. We we were about 20 feet away from him.