What does your name mean?Walter is German and means powerful ruler.
Jackson is English, meaning simply son of Jack, and Scottish, meaning God has been gracious or has shown favor.
Jackie is a diminutive of Jackson and means the same thing as Jackson.
McElroy is Irish. The McElroy family is one of many ancestral lines of Ireland that trace their heritage to a single common ancestor. The accepted McElroy ancestral records beginning at the earliest reliable historical period center on King Niall of the Nine Hostages. Niall (pronounced Nall) reigned as Ireland's high king from A.D. 379 to 405 or 404, depending on which source is consulted.
Niall of the Nine Hostages , or Niall Nóigiallach, was the youngest son of Eochaidh Mugmedon, the King of Connacht. One of the first verifiable historical Irish leaders, he eventually came to control most of the Northern half of Ireland. He conquered the Uliad aristocracy, which ruled in Ulster, and by this victory and subsequent consolidation of power was able to found a dynasty. Three of his sons founded kingdoms in Ulster; other sons founded kingdoms in the Irish midlands.
Niall was famed for his raids on Britain along with his brothers and sons. He led an expedition against Britain, where it is rumored that he may have captured a young Romano-British boy named Patricus, son of Calpurnius, a local magistrate. Patricus later came to be known as St. Patrick. A son of Niall, who succeeded his father at Tara circa 427-430, welcomed St. Patrick to his court in 432.
When and where were you born?
I was born at 4:25 in the morning on Thursday, September 3, 1953, at Deaconess Hospital in Evansville, Indiana. I never lived in Evansville, however. I grew up in a small farming town in the neighboring county, Poseyville, Indiana.
Did anything else happen on September 3rd?
Actually, yes. September 3rd has a number of historical anniversaries.
On September 3, 1783, the Treaty of Paris was signed, ending the Revolutionary War and granting formal recognition to the independence of the United States by Britain.
In 1939 Britain declared war on Germany. France followed six hours later, quickly joined by Australia, New Zealand, South Africa & Canada, thus signaling the start of World War II in Europe after Germany invaded Poland 2 days before and ignored ultimatums to withdraw.
In 1838 Frederick Douglass escaped from slavery.
On my birthday in 1954 the Lone Ranger Radio Show ended. The Lone Ranger was heard on radio for the last time after 2,956 episodes spanning 21 years. The Lone Ranger was always accompanied by his best friend Tonto, who helped him in his search for justice west of the Mississippi. Fran Striker, the writer of the series, inspired by Robin Hood's silver-tipped arrows, gave the Lone Ranger his trademark silver bullets. Clayton Moore, the beloved actor who first played the Lone Ranger on TV, died in 1999.
About 250 miles west of Donegal, the passenger liner Athenia was torpedoed in 1917 by U-30, commanded by Fritz-Julius Lemp, and sank with the loss of 112 lives. About 1300 survivors were rescued by Royal Navy destroyers and merchant ships. As U.S. passengers were on board, log book and German naval records were altered to conceal the actions of U-30, having sunk, without warning, an unarmed passenger vessel. Lemp's later failure to destroy Enigma equipment when commanding U-110 was responsible for the premature deaths of many of his comrades.
During the Holocaust on September 3 in 1941 the SS first started experimenting at Auschwitz with the efficacy of Zyklon B as a killing agent. They selected some 250 sick prisoners from the camp's hospital blocks together with about 600 Soviet prisoners of war and used Zyklon B to kill them. Once the camp authorities recognized Zyklon B as a particularly useful means of extermination, they started using it in 1942 to kill prisoners deemed unfit for work, mainly patients in the camp hospitals. The first large scale liquidation of sick prisoners by using Zyklon B was carried out on August 29, 1942, as part of an effort to control an outbreak of typhus. SS physicians selected 746 typhus patients and convalescents from the hospital blocks. These victims were loaded onto trucks and transported to the gas chambers of Birkenau. Zyklon B would be used to kill hundreds of thousands of Holocaust victims in the 5 gas chambers at Auschwitz-Birkenau.
In 1966 Gene Roddenberry was given an award “For Distinguished Contributions to Science Fiction” at the 24th Annual World Science Fiction Convention in Cleveland, Ohio, following a special preview of Star Trek’s “Where No Man Has Gone Before” episode.
In 1967 Nguyen Van Thieu and Nguyen Cao Ky won the South Vietnamese presidential and vice presidential elections in a landslide. Viet Cong terrorist activity on election day killed 26 South Vietnamese and wounded 82.
In 1976 the U.S. Viking 2 spacecraft landed on Mars at Utopia, and in 1985 the 20th Space Shuttle Mission — Discovery 6 returned to Earth.
What is your sign?
I’m not a believer in such things; I am, however, a Virgo. I took a Myers-Briggs Personality Inventory test in 1993. The results indicated an INTJ/INFJ type indicator.
What is your greatest life achievement so far?
My marriage
Do you have any distinguishing marks or tattoos?
No tattoos. Sorry. I wear glasses (myopia and astigmatism). I have a surgical scar from some back surgery along with some assorted scars picked up along the years. I have two scars on my left index finger. One dates from when I was in the third grade. I was messing around with a knife and nearly wacked off the end of the finger at the third knuckle. The other is closer to the base and was the result of a large-toothed saw that slipped as I was cutting a tree limb that was hanging closer to a power line than I liked. It took a couple of stitches and got my tetanus shot updated. I also have a childhood scar on the back of my right hand from a nail that ripped the skin open. There’s another on my left wrist. I got that when, imitating Superman as a child with make believe cape and all, I jumped off our front porch and snagged the wrist on a nail that was protruding from one of the porch support beams. In this case, Superman bled. A lot.
Any food issues?
My wife says I’m a picky eater. I don’t agree. I can and will eat about anything except fried liver, chicken or fowl of any kind (including turkey), and I don’t like crabs or shrimp. I don’t eat a lot of red meat, but I do enjoy a steak from time to time. I became a vegetarian my senior year in high school and remained one until I got married some 13 years later. A lot of my meals still contain no meat. My favorite drink is cold milk. My favorite food is pizza with anything except anchovies. I could live on pizza; actually, during some periods of my live, I have lived on pizza.
Any health issues?
I need to take better care of myself. I spend too much time staring at a computer screen and get too little sleep and way, way too little exercise. My myopia and astigmatism are getting worse. I actually had to get bifocals a couple of years ago. I’ve had back surgery twice – both successful. Overall, no real issues. My blood pressure is within normal range. My cholesterol is good – the good stuff is high and the bad stuff is low.
What are your top 5 favorite songs of all time?
1 — American Pie, Don Mclean
2 — Won’t Get Fooled Again, The Who
3 — Dreaming, Blondie
4 — The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, Gordon Lightfoot
5 — That’ll Be the Day, Buddy Holly and the Crickets; Dance Around the Clock, Bill
Haley and the Comets (tie)What are your top 5 favorite movies of all time?
1 — TITANIC and SAVING PRIVATE RYAN (tie)
2 — SCHINDLER’S LIST
3 — Any of the STAR TREK Movies
4 — 1776 and JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR (tie)
5 — GOOD MORNING, VIETNAM and FORREST GUMP (tie)What are your favorite TV theme songs?
1 — Bonanza
2 — LA Law
3 — Law & Order
4 — St. Elsewhere
5 — Andy Griffith ShowWhat is your favorite candy?
I like Brach’s Maple Nut Goodies. These are peanuts dipped in butter toffee with a maple coating. They’re not good for me, but I love’em. I am not a chocolate fan, although I do like M & Ms as long as they are the kind with peanuts.
Who is your favorite author?
I like anything by Tom Clancy. I read a lot and I own a lot of books, but other than that I don’t really have a favorite author. I like individual books of different genres for different reasons.
If I wanted to read one book on philosophy,
what book would you suggest?There is something to be said for reading some of the classics of philosophy or reading a survey of the great philosophers of history. However, if you wanted to read the most influential and important philosophical work of recent years I would suggest “A Theory of Justice” by John Rawls.
What is your favorite toy?
My computer, of course.
What is your favorite season, your favorite
day of the week, and your favorite holiday?My favorite season is the fall. In Florida, the arrival of fall brings with it a marked dropped in humidity and the unbearably oppressive heat. With that comes a return to perfect temperatures and great weather. Up north, fall brought with it not only lower temperatures but clearer air and colorful trees and the ability to shuffle your feet through layers of fallen leaves.
I have no favorite day of the week.
As for favorite holiday, I like Christmas but its allure has lessened sharply as my children have gotten older and the magic of sharing this holiday with them has changed its texture. I like the Fourth of July for its history and the traditions behind it. All Thanksgiving means is that I receive two days of holiday pay at work. New Years holds little or no significance as a holiday. After eliminating those special days, I can say that my favorite holidays are St. Valentine’s Day and Martin Luther King’s Birthday – St. Valentine’s Day because of the personal significance it has for my wife and me; MLK Day because of the history it embodies and the changes in the American social and political processes accomplished by the Civil Rights Movement.
What is your favorite sport?
None. I detest sports. I attend my son’s high school football games just to watch the halftime shows since he plays in the band. I didn’t know who played in – much less won – the Super Bowl until two days later. I just don’t care.
What is your favorite car?
VW Bug. I’ve owned two and grew up driving my mother’s. I don’t like the new ones. They don’t look like bugs, and they are too expensive to be a Peoples’ Car.
What is you favorite city?
Washington, D.C.
What is your goal in life?
By some accounts, happiness is a legitimate life goal. Happiness, however, has never been an explicit life goal for me. I’ve always found happiness as a goal to be illusory, transient, and superficial. If your working definition considers happiness a by-product of the pursuit of other goals or an aggregate of contented satisfaction resulting from a complex balance of virtue, pleasure, achievement, and good fortune, I might then acquiesce to an implicit goal of happiness.
Explicit goals are important. It’s up to each individual to set the course of his or her own destiny. Having goals is the primary tool of being able to do so. I’ve had many goals through life. Some have been job related. Some have been personal goals, and some have been goals for my family. These specifically defined goals have all helped to define my goal in life but do not constitute that goal.
So, what is my goal in life?
Simplistically, my answer would be “to make a difference in some people’s lives and to help my children grow into good people.” More profoundly, my answer would be “self contentment within a karmic world of moral cause and effect and to break the samsaric cycle of a theistic monism governed by the conservation of matter and energy.”
What is your favorite computer game?
I don’t play them at all. I used to install them on the computer for my kids to play, but my son is just as adept if not more so at doing that himself now so I don’t mess with them at all except to fuss with him about all the hard drive space they take up.
What is your favorite board game?
I don’t really like games at all. My son and I have been known to play a game of chess now and then although not as much as we used to. I don’t have a favorite.
What is the one thing you wish people understood about you?
It would be really nice if people realized that a lot of what I do is just to amuse myself, and a lot of what I say is just an observation with no judgement attached to that observation. I never mean any harm. Sometimes routine interaction bores me, so I throw out idiosyncracies to keep my mind running.
What Newsgroups do you frequent?
alt.culture.us.1960s
alt.culture.us.1970s
alt.disney.disneyworld
alt.emergency.services.dispatcher
alt.folklore.computers
alt.history.ocean-liners.titanic
alt.movies.titanic
alt.obituaries
alt.politics.org.cia
alt.politics.org.nsa
alt.tv.ally-mcbeal
alt.tv.star-trek.tos
dc.general
earthlink.*
fl.attractions
fl.general
in.general.
in.misc
rec.arts.disney.parks
sci.cryptWhat mailing lists are you on?
I subscribe to several different mailing lists. The topics of these lists include 9•1•1, dispatch, interracial couples, Tom Clancy, the Titanic, numbers stations, legal news, and some other miscellaneous lists. If you are interested in any of these lists, email me directly and I’ll provide background information and the necessary subscription data.
What deceased celebrities do you miss?
This was asked in one of the Newsgroups that I regularly read. I thought it was an interesting question. These are the people who make my list.
Red Skelton & DeForest Kelly
I cried when they died, both for their deaths and for the personal memories they helped me create.Red Skelton was a childhood friend. Not that I ever met him, but I watched him on TV religiously. He was hilarious and as good-natured a man as you’d ever want to know. His was a gentle soul. Reruns on PBS of his stand-up routines still make me laugh until my sides hurt.
As with red Skelton, when DeForest Kelly died, a little piece of my childhood went away. I grew up a trekkie, and I am old enough to be a first generation trekkie. De was for many of us the ultimate trek Doctor. He was part of the big 3. The thorn in Spock’s side. The conscience of Jim. I was sad when Roddenberry died, but I didn’t cry. Unlike Gene, Dr. McCoy was there in my living room so many nights. He was a friend and as a friend, he is missed.
Jimmy Stewart
I liked him in all of his movies, but I sure loved that Pooka Harvey.Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
I don’t know what path he would have taken had he lived. The civil rights movement and this country were at a turning point. Relatively speaking, it was easy to get national consensus that blacks were human and ought to be treated that way in the political process. Getting a group of people who had been forced out of the economic mainstream into that mainstream — well, that was another matter. The leaders that followed him just don’t inspire the same confidence. Maybe he would have stumbled over the economic issues, too. I don’t know. I wish I’d have had the chance to find out.
Bobby Kennedy
It’s not that I’m a Kennedy-clan fan. I’m not. I would have loved to have seen a another Kennedy-Nixon election in 1968, though. Just for the historical perversity of it.Farewell Red Baron
So long good ol’ Charlie Brown“Peanuts” creator Charles Schulz died of cancer just as the last original cartoon of his half-century career was being published in newspapers worldwide. “Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Linus, Lucy . . . how can I ever forget them . . .” Though his last strip was merely a montage of classic scenes, there was an appropriate sense of finality to it.
Schulz chronicled the joys and traumas of childhood in a tone that was consistently droll, good-natured, and without pretense. Reading the strip, sometimes you didn’t know whether to laugh or cry — and that can be an exhilarating feeling, too.
The strip reminded us that being a kid is not easy. There’s a fearful world out there, and the playground is a dangerous place. Going to school every day is not easy. If it’s not the teacher, it’s the bully. Most adults forget about these struggles and ignore the problems little kids have. As an adult, you learn how to get around these problems and how to survive. But little kids are struggling with that survival.
Year after year, the long-suffering Charlie Brown faced misfortune with a mild, “Good grief!” Lucy handed out advice at a nickel a pop. Snoopy, Charlie Brown’s wise-but-weird beagle, still took the occasional flight of fancy back to the skies of World War I in his Sopwith Camel and his rivalry with the Red Baron.
I longed to be Snoopy. Deep down, I knew I was Charlie Brown. I rooted for him to kick the ball, pitch the perfect game, and finally kiss the little red haired girl.
I will never look at the funny pages or the world the same again.
What will Christmas be without Linus’ monologue that starts, “Lights please...” and continues with the scriptural real meaning of the holiday? Although the videos and books will always be around, it’s sad that they’re collectors items now. What else will be around that will mean so much to our kids? South Park and all is fine, I suppose, but it isn’t the cartoon that I want forming a central part of my children’s childhood memories.
For many years, Charles Schulz commemorated Veteran’s Day by sending Snoopy over to Bill Mauldin’s to “quaff a few root beers.” Next Veterans Day, Snoopy will stay home. His creator, however, will be in the thoughts of the many millions of readers for whom his work was as good as it gets.
Do you belong to any organizations?
I’ve belonged to several organizations over the past 25 years or so. The most recent ones are these:
- International Association of Firefighters, Local 2117, AFL-CIO
- Titanic Historical Society
- Association of Former Intelligence Officers
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