Dear Editor:

I’m back again with another collection of facts, oddities, and opinions.

First, kudos to those teenagers who cut the trees that allowed the tourists to escape the trap. Their parents should be proud and so should the community.

With so many people wearing masks, one would expect this to be the heyday of bank heists but I’m not aware of an uptick.

Little Lopez island, third largest of the San Juans and a population smaller than that of Forks, has decided to build a $10 million swimming pool, and they have already raised well over half that amount. In 2019 the state contributed $1 million in recognition of the fact that San Juan is the only county without a public swimming pool.

(More info available at F.L.I.P.)

Legitimate protesters deserve respect. Who can deny that racism entered America’s DNA with the arrival of the first black slave in 1619? Over 6,500 lynchings and countless massacres of native Americans attest to its existence. Conversely, liberals need to acknowledge that the lunatic fringe of the protesters, including the anarchists, arsonists, and looters at times deserve more than tear gas and rubber bullets. And in my humble opinion, police departments don’t need to be defunded; that could prove to be counterintuitive. They need to be cleansed of their racist personnel.

Marines in Japan on their way to Korea were frequently asked by women about their parents and grandparents. They learned later that during WWII the Japanese public had been told that in order to qualify for the Marines men had to kill their parents and/or their grandparents.

In February 1943, Hitler’s 6th army at Stalingrad surrendered to the Russians. By that time 160,000 Germans had died and 90,000 were captured. Only 6,000 Germans survived the prison camps and returned home 12 years later.

An ad currently running on TV features a couple saying, “Now that we have sold our life insurance policy, we can look forward to an enjoyable retirement.” I didn’t realize a policy was such a burden.

An article in the magazine “Cowboys and Indians” opines that the U.S. president who did the most for Indians was Richard Nixon. I would add that what has aided quite a few of them and enabled them to get a measure of revenge for past ill-treatment is casinos.

Finally, did you know that a human head may be covered with 600,000 hairs, but a sea otter can produce that many in a square inch? Wealthy Chinese were once willing to pay in today’s currency $2,400 for one pelt.

Sincerely,

Bob Hall