'The Natural'

Some people need to primp and prepare to try to present themselves

well in a photograph. Here this man is a rental car supervisor in the

middle of a transaction with a customer; he doesn't even have a chance

to prepare for his photo as he's in the middle of a business

transaction at his company's rental counter; hence his caption here --

'The Natural. He has had no chance to prepare and needs none. Your

ratings, critiques, and observations are invited and most welcome; if

you rate harshly, very critically, please submit a helpful and

constructive comment; please share your photographic knowledge to help

improve my photography. Thanks! Enjoy! john

I'm a guy, so evaluating guys for looks doesn't come so naturally to me, but this guy just oozed charisma and good looks so much I just HAD to take his photo (he liked it too). 

Taken with lower light, indoor exposure after dark with a 70-200 Nikon f 2.8 at full aperture, full extension and less than 1/100 sec. exposure time.  VR certainly helped.

Glad it pleased you, you're a discerning critic.

;~))

john

John (Crosley)

The picture is not sterile!

He has an infectious smile!!

;-)

Very emotional and realistic portrait!

Yours is a very clever remark - kudos for originality.

Thanks.

john

John (Crosley)

I'm only a guy, and so I cannot see this man from a female perspective, but I think his 'look' is positively charismatic.

To me his look was magnetic; I imagined that women would find him highly attractive -- am I wrong?

I'd be surprised if wrong; to me he has movie star good looks.

john

john (Crosley)

Apologies for misspelling you name above.

I am devoted to accuracy, hence this correction.

My apologies.

john

John (Crosley)

(editing has been disabled or I would have fixed it above without this comment)

He has gum disease. That's not too magnetic. Tends to keep the girls away -far away!

Maybe you find him charismatic because he looks like your what's his name president? Wonder what the 'Tea-Party' would say. :-)

Unless you're a previously unrevealed doctor, dentist or dental hygienist, I am unsure. Meir, how you come about making medical diagnoses based upon a photo.

Moreover, I saw this man in person and saw not a hint of gum disease.  Perhaps you are confusing reflections off mouth moisture on his mandibular gums with disease.  I was close enough to him to assure you that he smelled almost as good as he looked - his hygiene was impeccable.  I saw no trace of gum disease at all -- in fact he looked at healthy in person as another commenter felt -- completely healthy and charismatic.  Your comment seems 'off the wall' and entirely negative. 

Race have something to do with it?

I thought his looks were movie star impeccable, and he was both charismatic and handsome.

I know you probably felt you had to say something, but really, is that the best you can do?

john

John (Crosley)

At that time the 'President' was George W. Bush, and Barack Obama was hardly a known person at all except among a few Democrats and those who had seen a certain speech he had given -- a real winner of a speech.

There is a strong undercurrent of racism, experts feel, among the Tea Partiers and also among many rock-ribbed Republican conservatives, and so antipathy toward Obama, the President of the United States, has to have separated out antipathy toward the man and/or his policies and those who feel a man who is half African-American 'just should not be President', which I feel is a widely held if unspoken belief among those groups.

In any case, the Tea Partiers seem to have more in common with the Luddites of old.  Their 'bring down the government at any cost attitude' probably had a great deal to do with the recent stock market crash by their actions in blocking routine renewal of the national debt increase - something no other president has had to face.

That move singularly by its consequences erased trillions of dollars of wealth world wide by triggering a market collapse - so what did it gain?

It remains to be seen if there will be a backlash against tea partiers or Obama.

The Republican conservative AND Tea Party avowed goal is to wreck everything so they can drive Obama out of office -- a policy of cutting off one's arm to spite one's face if one carries it to logical consequences.

'Damn the unemployment, it's needed to drive Obama the devil incarnate from office', yet he happens in my opinion along with Clinton (who certainly had his faults) to be probably the smartest president the US ever has had. 

Reagan, Bush I, Bush II and other Republicans also ran up more debt as a percentage of gross national product than any Democrat in modern history - they betrayed the supposed conservative ideals the Republicans have espoused, beginning with Reagan who ran up the largest debt in history during his administration.  He spent the US to prosperity; something the Republicans with their well-oiled echo machine accuse the Democrats of trying to do.

It took Clinton's Administration to bring that national debt under control.

Then George W. Bush, with his two wars kept 'off the books' not only ran up the 'on the books' debt, but buried (with Congress's approval) massive amounts of 'off the books' debt, then the Republicans and Tea Partiers blame it on Social Security recipients and MediCare which they dearly want to repeal because they believe it's Socialism.

Saddam Hussein was not a nice man to understate it, but he had no missiles or planes capable of attacking the USA per US government acknowledgement and he had NO nuclear arms or biological warfare weapons after they were destroyed after Gulf War I, and it has been shown that the 'intelligence that claimed they existed was 'manufactured' by pro-war Republicans who pushed and pushed and Bush himself willingly was led into the Iraqi war, much to the harm of the treasure of the US. 

'I want to be a war president' was Bush II's stated goal, and he got it, leaving the US and the world in a huge rat's nest with its treasure squandered.

(The housing crisis and its aftermath we can blame on both the Democrats and Republicans with repeal of Glass-Steagall -- fie on both their houses together with a cowardly Alan Greenspan who really saw or should have seen what terrible consequences were possible from encouraging runaway housing inflation/speculation/insecure lending practices but was too busy being full of  himself to step in to stop it.

No one is without blame and it's up to Obama to clean things up, but he's being denied even routine appointment of key government aids as he heads into the next election cycle -- he's shorthanded and the Republicans and Tea Partiers are making sure that he's handicapped in leading America, and America is suffering as a consequence.

So, who's the next candidate for President from the Republicans or Tea Partiers who can do a better job -- Ron Paul, Michelle Bachman, Mitt Romney or Mr. Perry from Texas who wears Christianity on his sleeve - a sort of Bush III but this time entirely Texan and not half Texan and half New Englander?

john

John (Crosley)

Race has something to do with it? On the contrary, I think (think?) that negro, b'klal, has better teeth than caucasian. In Sierra Leone a dentist can hardly make a living (so said my trilingual, english, tribal and cajun! speaking lab tech, Mr. Farmer, from S.L. whose family was deposed in a "coup" and eliminated; and Mr. Bob here, studying medicine at the time -and never seen a cavity in his life-, got a message, "don't come home"!).... "I imagined that women would find him highly attractive -- am I wrong?".....   Maha says "khval" (a pity) and Fatma says "ma pitom" (no way!).  Waiting for Leah's appraisal.

The word 'Negro' in English written discourse is properly capitalized just as is the word Caucasian when it is used to refer to race.  That is a long-honored convention of the English language, which you, as a person who is capable of excellent English expression and who has lived in the United States, cannot reasonably be heard to claim to be unaware of.  To break that convention appears demeaning and racist.

********

I had a brother-in-law-law, an Iraqi, a man of tremendous charisma, studying for his doctorate.

He went to a dentist, and the dentist pronounced him entirely free of dental caries, an unheard of occurrence in central Oregon where everybody had caries and mouths full of them in those days before dentists applied fluoride and toothpaste had fluoride.  Many of the poorer people even had their teeth taken out prophylactically and had their 'choppers' put in at an early age to avoid the pain of dental extractions after multiple, untimely abscesses. 

Apparently the water in Mosul, Iraq -- (pronounced Mo' sul, not as you hear it often in the US news), where he grew up, was loaded with fluoride.

But the dentist reported my brother-in-law to be probably would lose his teeth before those of us from Oregon who drank primarily mountain snow melt devoid of minerals, despite absence of dental caries.

The reason was not any racial or subracial superiority or inferiority, but because the prime cause of tooth loss is gum disease caused by receding gums and periodontal disease (not evident on the guy above, by the way -- he just has large teeth).

There is no statement about racial inferiority or superiority in the lack or presence of cavities in an individual -- just the presence and/or absence proabably of fluoride and/or other minerals in the water.

I doubt the average life in Sierre Leone is an extended one, so loss of teeth due to old age and periodontal gum disease may not be a major problem.

I wrote that then found an article which as of 2007 stated that with an average age of death of 37, Sierre Leone had the world's shortest average lifespan.  Little wonder they don't need dentists.  They need food and doctors.

Also, another article noted that Sierre Leone residents stood a standard chance of developing caries because although refined sugar was not in their diet very much, their was a substantial amount of naturally occurring fruit sugars, which are every bit as much breeders of bacteria as refined sugars.  (Bacteria don't care which is which -- to them 'food is food'.

If a Sierre Leone resident only lives to an average lifespan of 37, periodontal disease hardly has had time to make serious inroads, as advanced periodontal disease is a disease of older individuals - these poor, very poor, people and poorly treated people never get a chance and probably would view the chance to get old enough to encounter periodontal disease a luxury - because it would mean they didn't die at a time when many American women are just considering reproducing for the first time.

It is interesting you write things but you don't explore their ramifications - something  I tend to do.

It's easy to write 'stuff', as you do, but I tend to be more complete, I guess, and I hope therefore I have a reputation for far greater accuracy and thorough.

john

John (Crosley)

You are funny –and your stories -one for every occasion. You wrote all the above and read all those Google pages just for me. I am flattered! Regarding (you wrote) “average age of death at 37”, does death have an average age? And what is the meaning of the appendage “at 37” in reference to the “principle”.  If you meant that the “average age at death is 37”, or “average life span”, than are there not 3,000,000 living, breathing, above ground people, all over 37 and not all of them, will drop dead tomorrow?  If you meant “expected life span” then write “expected life span” and at what age!  Better that you leave the statistics of “mortality at specific ages” to the Actuary Professionals; otherwise you will find yourself either lost in the eternal world of darkness or buried so deep you will be in a place from whence molten lava flows.  

You "had a brother-in-law? Past tense does not surprise me. Did your brother go from Oregon to Mosul? They usually go to Pakistan. Is he a “sleeper” or “home grown”? Is “sleeper” spelled with upper or lower case? -just so I don't  sound “Radical Islam” phobic.

All is in good fun.

Meir, I'm flattered that you went to such trouble both to read what I wrote and to reply with such nit picky specificity.

If you didn't understand, then that's one thing, otherwise I'll leave your prose for readers to read and not comment on it except for one thing.

He 'was' in reference to my former brother-in-law means he DIED, unhappily enough, as I liked him very much, when he lived in my household early on and those few times thereafter that I saw him. 

He was my workmate on my first full-time paid job, and he worked like a he-man, which he was.  Though not tall, he had a grip that could crush anything he could grasp, and woe betide the poor man who got into an arm wrestling contest with him -- he had fantastic upper body, arm, and hand strength.

He was amazingly charismatic; well liked by all who came in contact -- not without faults, but I don't feel any need to try to enumerate them, as I was blind to them.

He was such a good man, I recall once one summer during his graduate school break, he had promised a farmer he'd work for the farmer that summer, then subsequently got a very good paying job at an Oregon lumber mill and could then self-support and have a pretty good living without help from his far-off family in the home country -- who were not poor by any standard, (AND he was very anti-Baathist).

I asked him once, not knowing, why, if the Baathists had power, and they controlled the economy, why didn't he just join then?  Kind of like being a Republican if you're a Democrat just to share the power and not be excluded, I reasoned.

He didn't educate me, but gave me a piercing stare and said he NEVER would join the Baathists and that some day I might understand but he could explain (I now know he would have risked his life if I spoke what he might have told me or it was learned otherwise even that he had spoken, as the Baathists had spies everywhere, even among student groups in the USA.  To speak plainly in the USA easily might have meant death on return to Iraq, but I was not let in on the facts, sadly.

Just to keep his word, when the farmer called -- since he had promised to work for the farmer -- he quit his high-paying lumber mill job and went 35 miles or so each way daily to a job in another city and county to do farm work --- heavy physical work for long hours, and sometimes driving outdated and balky farm machines --  anything hard the farmer wanted, he did and without complaint.

The farmer paid him, I think, lower than agreed, and took advantage of every ounce of energy this charismatic and enormously hard working man (working on his doctorate) had.

I worked alongside him weekends during my senior year in high school, and he could outwork anybody I ever worked with or personally saw work, from then to now; I was very impressed, needless to say and he was just then a roomer in my house, not a 'relative'.

At the lumber mill job earlier, he arrived home from his work at first with enormous blisters on his foot soles apparently from wearing the wrong socks, and though in fabulous pain, still went to work and refused to call in sick -- because work was what they paid him to do.

He brought his prayer rug, quietly did his prayers with his door closed, but never proselytized, and in return no one proselytized him.  

His children, though we're not in touch now, I think have many of his finest attributes.

He set a good example for me as a youth in how to judge individuals rather than cultures -- a practice I've tried to carry throughout my life.

Oh, lo and behold, it turns out my second wife (get this Meir!) was Jewish! 

Who knew?! 

Apparently her mother.

And grandmother.

She apparently found out at a young age from the family photo album, but didn't grasp the significance -- it being the Soviet Union then, and her father being a doctor of high rank and an uncle being an Admiral and an aid to Brezhnev and an aunt, THE Librarian of the Kremlin (if I understand my facts correctly)

I knew the Admiral and his wife very well in their retirement, and we often visited, though now that Putin's in power relations are strained, especially because my ex-wife peddled false claims in reprisal for my having 'caused' her brain cancer, and didn't even understand how they undermined me when she two years or so ago asked me to visit her aunt and uncle, and didn't understand that her false claims had given me a bad name with them.

Being good Russians and former Soviets, with a son who once was a Putin aide, they must politically very careful,and the Admiral had amazingly good political sense.

I am sure they're stunned that she now is Jewish AND married Jewish, considering that the Russians invented the word 'pogrom'.  (and before you reply, I do know that the religion derives from up the maternal parentela, so no lectures needed on what comprises being 'Jewish' for the child of a mother born to a Jewish mother, OK?)

If she'd pursued the matter, she could have obtained an exit visa from Russi and an entrance immigrant visa from Israel, become a legitimate Israeli citizen on her own right, and maybe ended up your neighbor! 

Your loss was my gain, however temporary.

She's still a treat to look at, smart as a whip, can ace any IQ test, and I've heard now recently has spawned a minor school of young, smart, amiable, and good looking Jewish boys who do her and their father proud, or so I'm told.

(I'm apparently forgiven for 'causing her brain cancer' as far as I can tell -- forgiven, but I don't think absolved of 'guilt', for that alleged 'evil deed' however -- something we just don't discuss the few times we have spoken.)

I choose my words carefully generally (despite late-night or no sleep misspellings which creep in because I can't get spell check to work on my machine).

'He was' means 'he was' as in 'he died'.

He 'was' a very good man, who also had good children, including one who served as a pilot in the US Air Force (protecting YOU in the Middle East) and the other a dentist -- good credit to both parents, though he never could come back to the USA to see them after his wife left with his children at the outset of the Iran-Iraq war.

I learned tolerance at a very young age -- there was not ever any 'hate speech' in my household as I grew up . . . . no ethnic slurs (at least in any language I could understand), clean talk . . . . and anybody from any continent was welcome in my house as I grew up. 

People from every continent (except Antarctica) did indeed visit on a periodic basis . . . . and were treated with respect, dignity and cordiality.

Many people  who were expected to become future leaders worldwide passed through our front door, and all were treated well.  Almost to a one, they were graduate students seeking their Masters and Doctorate degrees.

It was a good way to raise a kid.

And for that I'm very thankful.

It's something I would pass on, if I could.

Nice to read the words 'good fun' Meir. 

Now let's bury the fictitious Asher Lev, Ok?

john

John (Crosley)

Above, not caught in time when the 'edit window' was open, was the missing word 'not'.

My now deceased brother-in-law adamantly and avowedly would NOT join the Baathists he told me, (without explanation).

(correcting and inserting the word 'not' where omitted . . . .)

john

John (Crosley)