Happy &c
Happy birthday, Joe! 3 Nov 1960, our happy, loving, outgoing son! Florida native, born in Jacksonville while we were stationed in Mayport. A bubbling happy boy from Day One! I wasn't allowed to hold him that night, but the nurse brought him out to show me and prove that I had a son. Raised a "Navy brat" Joe grew up living many places, seemed to thrive everywhere, and now lives in Louisville, Kentucky. We are hoping he'll be down for a few days at Christmas!
Happy birthday, favorite son!
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Reading the news online this morning, and don't know how you may see it, but this was a neat trick and most clever. William Curry, a 2021 graduate of Vestavia Hills High School near Birmingham, Alabama: for months posing as a student and living in dorms at Stanford University. Being outed numerous Times yet going straight to another dorm and continuing his ruse, starting fall semester 2021 and resuming fall semester 2022. Gregarious personality, dated a Stanford coed, getting involved with student social groups, pulling it off like a pro. So reports the Stanford Daily. I won't post Will's picture.
Most people are trusting and accept you as you present yourself. Plus these days, folks are careful and cautious about seeming "racist" in any way, and not only cautious but make special effort to be accepting and welcoming. Thus, perfecting a skill of deception and fraud, Will Curry will go far in life unless/until he acquires a criminal record.
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With young Will in mind, the perceived disadvantaged, i.e., people whose racial category is prejudiced against by White folks, sometimes can make it work to their advantage. I once knew a capable young fellow Navy lieutenant of Spanish or Latin ancestry who told me that "the Navy is a social welfare organization" and who worked it eventually to rear admiral.
A skilled and determined person, especially with an ingratiating personality, can make the most of an opportunity to be a token.
The exuberant, persuasive personality helps. This is a story I've told here before, that comes to mind from Time to Time, and that Will Curry's story caused to surface again:
Thirty or so years ago, a couple made an appointment with me to come down to Apalachicola from Tallahassee for a premarital conference. A Tallahassee resident, the woman was a widow; the man, a Canadian, was a priest of the Anglican Church of Canada. A nice middle-aged couple, she a quiet person, he outgoing and effusive. They wanted to be married quietly, hopefully in Trinity Church, and came down for a couple of premarital counseling sessions with me.
In regular touch to plan the event, then all went quiet and I didn't hear anything.
Until front-page headlines of the Tallahassee Democrat exposed the prospective groom, arrested as a con-man who posed in various roles and preyed on vulnerable women to defraud them out of assets. Uneasy about what he saw, the woman's son had initiated an investigation that led to the man's exposure and arrest.
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Other news this morning, Russia says their nuclear policy is clear and unambiguous, and they have no intention of using nuclear weapons in Ukraine. Okay, great, but I recall Putin saying he had no intention of invading Ukraine either. A liar is a liar, and the man has neither conscience nor morals, so beware.
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Busy day ahead, very busy Thursday and right on through the middle of next week. Family Time, All Saints Sunday, Family Time.
Happy birthday, Joe, beloved only son, who has brought us so much love and joy in life, and continues to do so!
RSF&PTL
T