Everett Jenkins Birthday Blog

Yesterday, on Father's Day, I decided to vegetate.  I had received my Father's Day gifts on Saturday, with the highlight being watching a video my oldest daughter sent me of her receiving her M.B.A. degree from Eastern Washington University on Saturday.  She has had a great year.  She got married, she got a new house, and now she earned her third degree after a bachelor's from UC Davis, and a master's from UC San Diego.  And to top it all off, while she has made a point out of telling me that she is a Pointer now, she matriculated under the name Jenkins and during the graduation ceremony she was announced as Jenkins Pointer, and the diploma she received has the name Jenkins on it.  I may have cried at the wedding, but I had a little smile watching the graduation ceremony. After viewing the video, I decided to watch a movie before succumbing to four hours of watching golf. My initial selection was "Footloose",  Footloose - Wikipedia a movie that I had never see

  "Earth is not well.  The promise of starting life anew somewhere far, far away -- no climate change, no war, no Twitter -- beckons, and settling the stars finally seems within our grasp.  Or is it?  Critically acclaimed, bestselling authors Kelly and Zach Weinersmith set out to write the essential guide to a glorious future of space settlements, but after years of research, they aren't so sure it's a good idea.  Space technologies and space business are progressing fast, but we lack the knowledge needed to have space kids, build space farms, and create space nations in a way that doesn't spark conflict back home.  In a world hurtling toward human expansion into space,   A City on Mars  investigates whether the dream of new worlds won't create nightmares, both for settlers and the people they leave behind.  In the process, the Weinersmiths answer every question about space you've ever wondered about, and many you've never considered. "Can you make bab

  It is 2024, but it may be 1968.  For a sense of deja vu, I encourage everyone to watch the Frontline episode entitled "Crisis on Campus".  Crisis on Campus | FRONTLINE (pbs.org)   The episode chronicles one of the most turbulent years on the college campuses across the nation. The turbulence stems from an all too tragic war.  By watching this documentary, one can begin to understand why Anthony Blinken seems so desperate to get a cease fire agreement in the Gaza War.  Otherwise, the Democratic National Convention in (deja vu) Chicago, may be subject to the activism seen on the college campuses this spring and the resulting images from the Chicago streets may once again lead to a more authoritarian Republican being elected President in the Fall. Sometimes, we can learn from history, but the sad repetition continues nevertheless. Peace, Everett "Skip" Jenkins Fairfield, California June 12, 2024    

  "Once upon a time, Tamar had been my tribe, but a shadow wall had crept up between us.  I couldn't shake the uneasy feeling that, in spite of her leftist stance, which was about as far left as she could stand without falling off the edge, she was complicit in an unjust occupation.  Zion was a tinderbox of contradictions that left me confused.  It didn't matter to me then that the State of Israel was declared, in large part, in reparation for the Holocaust, or that some of its people were being attacked.  Palestine was under its colonial thumb.  It didn't matter that Tamar didn't live in a settlement, or that she participated in peace protests and rallies, or that she rolled her eyes at the slogans in her neighbors' windows (GOLAN HEIGHTS IS OURS!). They were still her neighbors, and she's chosen to leave me and live among them.  It didn't matter that she wasn't the one who had shined a flashlight between my legs to look for a bomb.  I couldn't

  My marriage came to an official end in 2003.  After it came to an end, I began to date again using the new dating websites that existed at the time.  One of the dates that I went on was a particularly memorable one.  I recall the date quite well because it was one of the few that I had with a United States born woman and because she was European American. I am not quite sure what the initial attraction was, but I do recall that during the dinner date, we discussed her rather famous father H. Bruce Franklin during our meal.  Her father came up because I had mentioned that I was an Amherst College graduate on the dating website and she brought up the fact that her father and I are both Amherst College graduates. It also came up that her father and I are both Robert Heinlein fans and Star Trek lovers.  During the dinner, she told me the name of her father and I immediately recalled his name because he was a cause celebre during my Amherst College days and was the subject of a number of