Folks,

It has been a strange month really. Winter for a couple of days and then summer for a couple of days - repeated throughout the month. There is a saying in England:

March winds and April showers bring forth May flowers.

It doesn’t really apply here - it is the winds that I don’t like, the showers I can live with and the flowers I would like. Be prepared, we are holding a joint prize Quiz with Ottawa "OPINION" in April. Separate prizes. BUT the same quiz, which is a common theme followed by a number of pictures that you have to identify. Stay tuned. I went to The Sunday Brunch this morning, my first for 15 months. It was also the first time out with my kid for 15 months due to his work schedule and my state of mind - which has bothered me and affected me greatly and is getting worse rather than better. Don’t go and worry about me now, because I do enough of that myself!! Regarding the sponsored links on the new Website. we are striving to get more and more readers. Peter Temple is keeping track of the numbers of people who visit the site, and so, to get the numbers up, I would like to extend an invitation AT NO CHARGE to members, to put a link on that page. Later on, when the readership is way up, we may have to consider a charge for new links, BUT until then, they are free. Remember, we welcome submissions - most get online - just drop me an email with perhaps something that is special for you - for instance. Goodluck in March, and for the rest of the year. St Patrick’s Day (17th March) seems to be celebrated more and more here, so I would like to end with an Irish Blessing found in The Old Farmer’s Almanac:

may you live as long as you want

and never want as long as you live.

Peter Walker Editor.

It is with deep regret that I write to tell you all that Bill McKay, of Vancouver Mensa, who has been handling the CANDA mailing for the past few years, died suddenly on January 12th. A memorial article has been sent to
MC2 and to Lumens.

Bill’s widow called me to ask what she should do about the accumulation of newsletters (10 per issue went to Bill, for forwarding to every other newsletter Editor) and I offered to collect them and pass them on to all of you, at least for the short term.

I would ask that as quickly as possible, you change the mailout address you have for Bill to my snail mail address:

Geraldine Sombke
1616 Pendrell St, Apt 1701
Vancouver, BC V6G 1S8

Thanks, and feel free to contact me if I can provide further information.

Gerri Sombke

teacher@brightwebs.com
“Helping you feel comfortable in a high-tech world”

Folks -

I recently read two books which linked, in an way that historical events sometimes manage, two American men with little in common. One man was the CEO of a large firm which handled transactions worth $200 Billion in U.S. Treasuries and other currency exchanges every single day. The other was a sergeant in a U.S. Army Special Forces Operational Detachment Alpha (ODA) team, with operational experience in thirty-four countries, and seven decorations actions in combat.

The event which linked them was the attack of September 11, 2001, and the stories they tell are separated by 19 months and thousands of miles. Both show us death, and both talk of courage, but the context of their stories is so disparate that to connect the events would be improbable in any book of fiction.

These kind of stories are important to know, if for no other reason than to understand the events which drove the American Administration into two pre-emptive wars in the first decade of the 21st Century, and gained the enmity of much of the world.

For your information.

Jim Szpajcher

Cantor Fitzgerald, Howard Lutnick and 9/11: - A Story of Loss and Renewal
Author - Tom Brabash, published by HarperCollins, 2003 (ISBN 0-06-051029-3)

On the morning of September 11, 2001, Howard Lutnick deviated from his work schedule to drop off his son for his first day of kindergarten in New York, having planned to arrive at the offices of Cantor Fitzgerald some time after 9 am. As the CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald, Lutnick - at 40 - was one of a group of young, fast-rising, stars in the financial world. In less than two hours, the company, which occupied the 101st, 103rd, 104th and 105th floors of the North Tower of the World Trade Center had lost over 90% of its staff. This book tells the story of the effect on Cantor Fitzgerald on that day, and the struggle to continue business while losing 658 of just over 1000 staff who worked in Cantor’s New York Offices. Also lost that day with Cantor’s employees were food service workers, electricians and several teams of consultants - over 700 in total on those four floors.

On September 14th, the surviving Cantor executives met at Howard Lutnick’s house to discuss the situation: In the municipal bonds division, only the boss was accounted for - 1 out of 36. In corporate bonds, 4 out of 86. In equities, 16 out of 140. Mortgage-backed securities - 2 out of 36. Foreign exchange forwards - 1 out of 8. TradeSpark, 4 out of 44. Human resources, 1 out of 9. Repos - no one had survived.

This book is listed as with Brabash as the author, but much of the book is Howard Lutnick’s own notes of the time from September 11 through to six months later.

Not only is “On Top Of The World” a book about Cantor’s struggle to survive, but it puts a very human face to the tragedy of the towers. While other firms managed to evacuate many of their personnel that morning, not one person in Cantor’s offices at 8:46 am, when American Airlines Flight 11 struck the north side of Tower 1, was able to escape.

For a first-hand account of the WTC on September 11,2001, this book holds up well with comparisons against two books by members of the New York Fire Department: “Last Man Down” by Rich Picciotto, and “Report From Ground Zero” by Dennis Smith..

For those, like myself, who watched this event on television on the morning of September 11, 2001, this book renews the sense of horror and the shock. Having said that, this book also moves beyond the events of that day, and through the process of rebuilding and survival of the company.

Rating (out of 5): 3.5 stars.

The Extraordinary Story Of A Special Forces - A Team At War.
Authors - Frank Antenori and Hans Halberstadt, published by St. Martin’s Press, 2006 (ISBN-13: 978-0-312-35332-2)

On April 6, 2003, some thirty American Special Forces personnel attacked a crossroads near Debecka, in Northern Iraq, and held off a counter-attack of over 150 Iraqi army personnel, tanks and armored personnel carriers. During the action, a group of Kurdish allies and a BBC news team, including veteran reporter John Simpson, was hit by an American bomb which was supposed to strike at the Iraqi T-55 tanks.

This incident was televised around the world while it was happening, and with Antenori’s retirement from Special Forces, we can now read the inside story of what really happened.

Over the past 60 years, the concept of “Special Forces” has revolutionized modern military fighting tactics. Sgt. Antenori gives the reader a view of what the term “Special Forces” means in the modern U.S. Army. While superficially this battle has some resemblance to the heroic and desperate fights one finds common in military history, where outnumbered soldiers manage to survive the assault of overwhelming forces, A-Teams in Afghanistan and Iraq are equipped with modern weapons and satellite communications, and can call on an entire arsenal of advanced support to defeat any opposing forces.

Antenori and Halberstadt engage the reader by taking a step-by-step overview of what preparations and training a modern A-Team engage in.

It is useful, four years on, to review the opposition to the American invasion in March and April, 2003, and how the enemy has changed from a poorly trained regular army, to numerous sectarian and religious groups who have the sources of funding for weapons and are gaining experience in fighting the American military.

Sgt. Antenori’s war lasted only a few weeks, while today’s American forces in Iraq are staying and fighting for many months at a deployment. Many military personnel are on their 3rd, 4th or 5th deployments to Iraq. Antenori’s Special Forces defeated the Iraqi Army. Those who followed have not had the same success - for all their training - in the years since.

Having said that, this book is worth reading, and gives a personal view of the invasion of Northern Iraq in 2003. It will not be a classic book of the war, but it provides a good counter-point to such books as “The March Up” by Bing West, and “In the Company of Soldiers” by Rick Atkinson.

Rating (out of 5): 3 Stars.

Folks - Here are some scenes from Central and Eastern Alberta over the past few weeks.

1. Fort Island through snowfall. This island in the North Saskatchewan is downstream from our house about 4 miles. Alexander Mackenzie, the explorer who opened up much of this part of the continent, opened a trading fort, called Fort D’Lisle,with his XY Company, on this island in 1799. The Hudson’s Bay Company and Northwest Company opened up posts on either side of Mackenzie’s, on the island. On the left (north) side of the island, about half way down, is a brass plaque on a cement marker, which tells the story. One can reach the island by canoe in summer, or over the ice in winter. This photo was taken from the Myrnam bridge on February 5.

2. Night Shift on PD-238. This photo was taken at 4 am, on February 14, just north of Wetaskiwin. Current temperature was -29C (-20F), with a wind chill of -40C/ -40F. The two crew members were working to lay out the flare line, when they paused to look at me. The steam is due to working with water in such temperatures. Rigs use boilers for steam to keep lines from freezing up.

3. Morning hoar frost from our kitchen window, February 24. Temperature -20C/ -4F.

4. The view over our hayfield. We have more snow this year than for the past decade, and the spring run-off will be welcome. Taken from our lane, February 24. Temperature -12C/ 12F. If you look close, you might see the sparkles off the snow in the foreground.

5. Clearing a fresh snowfall on our lane, February 24, using a tractor mounted snow-blower. Annie got this photo of yours truly (wearing sporty action-colored touque) in action about halfway up our lane. As a note, one should remember not to throw snow against the wind….

Enjoy, Jim Szpajcher

No man is an island entire of itself;

every man is a piece of the continent,

a part of the main;

if a clod be washed away by the sea,

Europe is the less,

as well as if a promontory were,

as well as any manner of thy friends or of thine own were;

any man’s death diminishes me,

because I am involved in mankind.

And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls;

it tolls for thee.

John Donne

These pictures were taken west of Cynthia last Tuesday afternoon Feb. 20, at 3 P.M. Cynthia is in Brazeau Country. Cats paid no attention to the truck. Never seen Lynx like this before.