About Me
I have made a pretty daring claim on my home page: 'guaranteed to please.' I can explain my confidence. It's really just something you probably heard in grade school. Two of my teachers (at least) used the building analogy, i.e., 'you can't build the fourth floor before you have built the first' (at least). In thinking about a problem, we almost always start with some assumption(s). It's so hard to recognize it because of the nature of the assumption. We're all walking around with assumptions without realizing it. They become ingrained. In any inquiry, the only useful assumption is that you are probably harboring some assumptions. If you know that, you can begin to dismantle whatever structure is already there. Every brick & board must be separated from every other, before you try to combine any of them. The fact that almost no one can do that, is the basis of Sherlock Holmes and why those stotirs are so important.
The Borden case is about as interesting as any I have ever been able to untangle. Although it is divided into several segments, the first explains everything you need to know. The main truth - the cornerstone of the case - was handed to me by a TV news magazine in the '90s. I consulted a diagram of the second floor, which, in addition to the fact that Lizzie and Emma switched bedrooms a year or so before the murders, confirms that news mag opinion. Most of the facts cited are from one book, but the author failed to interpret any of them. That's amazing if you have so many facts, but many discussions don't supply more than five of them. There is nothing out there you should listen to except this. The colossal failure of the show, "Lizzie Borden Took an Axe," is so shocking because two of the participants are not even disguised behind the costume epithet "Expert." They are openly career detectives; 'out 'n' proud'! Well, at least, unabashed at their own density. (What does a homicide investigation consist of that these yumkins can thrive professionally?! I guess it's all lab work anymore.)
Sorry, I can't offer refunds, but anyone might say they were disappointed to get their money back. On the “Shop Now” page & Home Page, you will find free essays. One offers children a way to protect themselves from abuse. (The Lizzie Borden essay, for sale on this site, is relevant to this type of crime. Another free essay is designed to reduce the flight of nurses from their profession. Starting in the ' 80s, more than 130 hospital emergency rooms closed, almost exclusively for lack of nurses. The system I describe for paying nurses should 1) improve their lot, 2) reduce the cost to patients, and 3) subtract the cost from the cost of insurance.
See Lizzie Borden Headings for all remaining Darkened Major Headings & Underlined Sub-headings.)
You notice that some essays are labeled “Part 1”. The Lizzie Borden piece is thirty-one pages long. If I were to offer the whole piece I couldn't ask what I think it's worth, and if it’'s worth any less, I've spent too much time and effort on it. The first segment really is a solution, in itself, explaining motives and the bearing of physical facts.
The Borden case is about as interesting as any I have ever been able to untangle. Although it is divided into several segments, the first explains everything you need to know. The main truth - the cornerstone of the case - was handed to me by a TV news magazine in the '90s. I consulted a diagram of the second floor, which, in addition to the fact that Lizzie and Emma switched bedrooms a year or so before the murders, confirms that news mag opinion. Most of the facts cited are from one book, but the author failed to interpret any of them. That's amazing if you have so many facts, but many discussions don't supply more than five of them. There is nothing out there you should listen to except this. The colossal failure of the show, "Lizzie Borden Took an Axe," is so shocking because two of the participants are not even disguised behind the costume epithet "Expert." They are openly career detectives; 'out 'n' proud'! Well, at least, unabashed at their own density. (What does a homicide investigation consist of that these yumkins can thrive professionally?! I guess it's all lab work anymore.)
Sorry, I can't offer refunds, but anyone might say they were disappointed to get their money back. On the “Shop Now” page & Home Page, you will find free essays. One offers children a way to protect themselves from abuse. (The Lizzie Borden essay, for sale on this site, is relevant to this type of crime. Another free essay is designed to reduce the flight of nurses from their profession. Starting in the ' 80s, more than 130 hospital emergency rooms closed, almost exclusively for lack of nurses. The system I describe for paying nurses should 1) improve their lot, 2) reduce the cost to patients, and 3) subtract the cost from the cost of insurance.
See Lizzie Borden Headings for all remaining Darkened Major Headings & Underlined Sub-headings.)
You notice that some essays are labeled “Part 1”. The Lizzie Borden piece is thirty-one pages long. If I were to offer the whole piece I couldn't ask what I think it's worth, and if it’'s worth any less, I've spent too much time and effort on it. The first segment really is a solution, in itself, explaining motives and the bearing of physical facts.
Available, Now, Descriptions Are on the Home Page
Pt. 3 - How Lizzie Could Have Won By Killing Only One.
Pt. 2 - The Parents' Complacency Physical proof that neither victim had the slightest misgiving about their security.
Pt. 1 - Facts & Motives
Pt. 2 - The Parents' Complacency Physical proof that neither victim had the slightest misgiving about their security.
Pt. 1 - Facts & Motives
- Lizzie's father intended to make a will or change an existing one, to leave his daughters, out.
- His ex-brother-in-law, the sisters' uncle, John, intended to help him do so, and they meant to do it, on the day of the murders.
- John stayed overnight, the night before the murders.
- Neighbors said that even in the hottest weather, the doors and windows of the Borden house were shut tight.
- The main door to the parents' room was blocked with furniture, from the inside.
- The attack on the father, was exclusively focused on his face.
- There was a maid in or near the house when the murders occurred.
- Witnesses saw her outside, at about the time of the first murder.
- Society women supported Lizzie until she was acquitted. Then, they ostracized her.
- Emma was out of town, for several days before the murders.
- Lizzie rented a room in a boarding house, a few days before the murders.
- The parents and maid had experienced bouts of nausea over the weeks, before.
Some of the segments, not yet available, will have these titles: (Major Headings are emboldened - Subtitles are underlined.)
The First Murder
Architecture as Adversary Architecture as Accessory The Victim as Accessory Accessories as Accessory (I think everyone still knows the first meaning of “Accessories”, in the last segment; drapes, carpets, bedclothes, small furniture.) Managing the Maid
Possible Accomplices
Nearly eliminates some and definitely implicates others. This is not merely a dry list of 'people in the area.' Uncle John - Where he was that morning is known. I know why he was there, but it's not discussed in this segment devoted to validating possibilities. Toward the end, there is a gripping segment involving him [Pt. 9], which is critical to the case.
Why Lizzie Rented A Room
Lizzie skews her movements to Uncle John's expected arrival. Lizzie has an accomplice who may have been unwitting. In the segment, "Possible Accomplices", that person's complicity, in advance, is found to be not in her or Lizzie's interest. This segment elevates the likelihood that the accomplice had foreknowledge, just by virtue of basic reasoning power.
The Trial
The Conspiracy on Lizzie's behalf, is manifest. Accomplices Identified As A Group which includes one Judge (Dewey) and Lizzie's Lead Attorney, Robinson. Dewey's Behavior Squelching of Evidence Why Lizzie Could Not Lose Dewey's Daughters
The Father As Wild Card
If He Was Home During the First Murder If He Was Not Home
Uncle John
I said this segment was “gripping.” Something happened that no one has ever thought of. If anyone had, you would have heard of it because it's crucial to Lizzie's success. I know exactly where it happened within three sq ft. The margin of error is the diameter of those huge hoop skirts which women wore. When you hear it, you'll get it. It's just that simple and vital to Lizzie's plan. It's the most dramatic moment in the whole story, except for the long 'moment' between the two murders.
Other Essays
The 'O.J.' case can be seen as rwo separate subjects. Pt.2 describes realistic scenarios. The ice cream was still frozen. That means something, but so does kts its mere presence.
I saw through the Trojan Horse story instantly, as I first heard it in third or fourth grade. That means the Trojans could not have fallen for it. The only mystery in some of these solutions is why it took me so long to get it after I had first noticed that the established view was wrong. I started How the Pyramids Were Built as a single work nine years before I realized the answers. I started writing with only the hope of quashing the picture of the close-fitting 'square-spiral' ramp and those long lines of men pulling the blocks on pallets with ropes over their shoulders. In the meantime, I thought of some possibilities which are not right but plausible. I have left them for you to see in three separate discussions: 1} The Shape & Surface of the Pathway from Quarry to Pyramid, 2} How the Blocks Were Moved, and 3} How The Blocks Were Lifted. (Pt. 3, seems complete, but I'd like some more time with it.)
I'd like to take a moment to share this odd, touching little personal ad I came across a couple of years ago. It must be over thirty years old.
Bi-coastal, bisexual bypass veteran seeks petulant, strung-out parasite with the combined ambiance of an early '70s militant feminist and an early '60s Borscht Belt comedian, to accompany me on transcontinental flights and kvetch about the food, turbulence — nearly everything! For example, "Steak? You call this a steak?! This is not a steak!" Then, disdainfully dangling the offending entry over the aisle twixt thumb and forefinger, "This — is a hockey puck"! Also, occasionally don a Teddy Roosevelt mask and spank my grandfather with a spatula. No eccentrics.
I saw through the Trojan Horse story instantly, as I first heard it in third or fourth grade. That means the Trojans could not have fallen for it. The only mystery in some of these solutions is why it took me so long to get it after I had first noticed that the established view was wrong. I started How the Pyramids Were Built as a single work nine years before I realized the answers. I started writing with only the hope of quashing the picture of the close-fitting 'square-spiral' ramp and those long lines of men pulling the blocks on pallets with ropes over their shoulders. In the meantime, I thought of some possibilities which are not right but plausible. I have left them for you to see in three separate discussions: 1} The Shape & Surface of the Pathway from Quarry to Pyramid, 2} How the Blocks Were Moved, and 3} How The Blocks Were Lifted. (Pt. 3, seems complete, but I'd like some more time with it.)
I'd like to take a moment to share this odd, touching little personal ad I came across a couple of years ago. It must be over thirty years old.
Bi-coastal, bisexual bypass veteran seeks petulant, strung-out parasite with the combined ambiance of an early '70s militant feminist and an early '60s Borscht Belt comedian, to accompany me on transcontinental flights and kvetch about the food, turbulence — nearly everything! For example, "Steak? You call this a steak?! This is not a steak!" Then, disdainfully dangling the offending entry over the aisle twixt thumb and forefinger, "This — is a hockey puck"! Also, occasionally don a Teddy Roosevelt mask and spank my grandfather with a spatula. No eccentrics.
Why and How I Write
Before I was ten, I became interested in history as a riddle and a problem. I don't know whether that morsel will whet your whistle or sour your palate. It is off-beat for most people of any age. In my early teens, I decided to write in this form, and although I read things because they interest me, I have never read anything without studying the writing itself. Everyone knows the adage, “Form follows function.” Every creative work has some sort of style, but I have always been able to see style as a means to an end, a tool rather than a product. I think I have a style that is rich but never cloying, piquant but seldom acidic (I guess that's enough — unless you're thinking of eating these essays!).
1) One standard I try to maintain is that anything which isn't needed is wrong. I'm constantly being re-convinced of it, because the meaning always becomes more clear and complete as the phrases grow more concise. Making everything tighter is such an important part of the practice of writing that it's almost a synonym for the whole exercise.
2) Well-worn pat phrases almost never survive my scrutiny for meaning. There is no cookie cutter in my kitchen.
3) Humor never indicates a lower degree of importance and does not require or justify slack syntax.
4) Alliteration and other 'sound packing' happen naturally. I just don't try to break it up. Oh, alright; maybe I've tweaked a coupla' times. (Jsheesh! What a bunch 'a sticklers!) There are only twenty-six letters in the alphabet. Many have more than one sound, and many sounds are conveyed by more than one letter. Sound packing/alliteration and wordplay often occur where a cadence also develops accidentally. (It's mysterious that they so often occur in the solutions to very difficult passages, requiring many sessions over a long time to resolve. They don't occur as often in the essays for sale on this site as they do in the important social issue pieces. (That's mysterious, but some portion of an effort like this is not completely voluntary; "active".)
5) Vocabulary is only useful when it's understood, but words are always being stretched to mean more than they once did and shrunken to mean less (like discriminate). Some words acquire an entirely different meaning than they ever had a few years earlier (like incredible). They may always mean something positive (like incredible) or negative (like discriminate). I must estimate how familiar a very new or somewhat dated meaning might be to most readers. Whenever it's just as good, I choose the best-known word, which leaves the least room for doubt, as far as I can tell, but I might really need to use a word in a neutral way, closer to its root. I often use a word in a way that I know is still known to some people, in spite of a better-known meaning, even though it won't be understood by some readers. That's why there are a few footnotes. I sometimes try to reinstate a traditional meaning because no other word quite works, as long as it has been used in the last mm-forty years or so (according to Oxford, when in doubt). I only string two words together with dashes to indicate a new combined word for that one purpose, not because I don't know where in the phrase, those words should go.
6) There is no such thing as a fancy or upscale word, just words which are understood, or not. Remember, a dictionary cannot hurt you. That's just an old wives' tale. 'But "old wive’s tale" is one of those "cookie cutter" phrases with no meaning, which you promised not to use!'. (You notice that the single, 'paraphrase quotation' marks are outside the double, exact quotes. It's sometimes the very thing, but I think someone once declared a rule against it.) Try to get a dictionary predating 1980. An abridged Oxford is great.
7) I have borrowed this "carrot" symbol (>) from math, where it means "Greater Than," to separate the numbered segment of the paragraph from the rest. A paragraph shouldn’t have to end just because the numbered segment ends. I don’t think the carrot has ever been used, except in math. Applied to written language, this way, it should never be mistaken for anything else. It's also an arrow pointing in the direction you read.
2) Well-worn pat phrases almost never survive my scrutiny for meaning. There is no cookie cutter in my kitchen.
3) Humor never indicates a lower degree of importance and does not require or justify slack syntax.
4) Alliteration and other 'sound packing' happen naturally. I just don't try to break it up. Oh, alright; maybe I've tweaked a coupla' times. (Jsheesh! What a bunch 'a sticklers!) There are only twenty-six letters in the alphabet. Many have more than one sound, and many sounds are conveyed by more than one letter. Sound packing/alliteration and wordplay often occur where a cadence also develops accidentally. (It's mysterious that they so often occur in the solutions to very difficult passages, requiring many sessions over a long time to resolve. They don't occur as often in the essays for sale on this site as they do in the important social issue pieces. (That's mysterious, but some portion of an effort like this is not completely voluntary; "active".)
5) Vocabulary is only useful when it's understood, but words are always being stretched to mean more than they once did and shrunken to mean less (like discriminate). Some words acquire an entirely different meaning than they ever had a few years earlier (like incredible). They may always mean something positive (like incredible) or negative (like discriminate). I must estimate how familiar a very new or somewhat dated meaning might be to most readers. Whenever it's just as good, I choose the best-known word, which leaves the least room for doubt, as far as I can tell, but I might really need to use a word in a neutral way, closer to its root. I often use a word in a way that I know is still known to some people, in spite of a better-known meaning, even though it won't be understood by some readers. That's why there are a few footnotes. I sometimes try to reinstate a traditional meaning because no other word quite works, as long as it has been used in the last mm-forty years or so (according to Oxford, when in doubt). I only string two words together with dashes to indicate a new combined word for that one purpose, not because I don't know where in the phrase, those words should go.
6) There is no such thing as a fancy or upscale word, just words which are understood, or not. Remember, a dictionary cannot hurt you. That's just an old wives' tale. 'But "old wive’s tale" is one of those "cookie cutter" phrases with no meaning, which you promised not to use!'. (You notice that the single, 'paraphrase quotation' marks are outside the double, exact quotes. It's sometimes the very thing, but I think someone once declared a rule against it.) Try to get a dictionary predating 1980. An abridged Oxford is great.
7) I have borrowed this "carrot" symbol (>) from math, where it means "Greater Than," to separate the numbered segment of the paragraph from the rest. A paragraph shouldn’t have to end just because the numbered segment ends. I don’t think the carrot has ever been used, except in math. Applied to written language, this way, it should never be mistaken for anything else. It's also an arrow pointing in the direction you read.
Why Not Donate?
I can't think of one reason! Look — right there! Isn't that a credit card in your hand — or lying in arm's reach? (I can wait while you check your pockets.)
Anonymous
Please don't begrudge me one last fling of anonymity. If you give me a little lift here, I'll be happy to profit from the fame, but small-scale notoriety can make you vulnerable without the means to afford security. It doesn't matter whether you are liked or not. You just can't be famous and live in a regular neighborhood.