"I DIDN'T MAKE A MILLION"

"I DIDN'T MAKE A MILLION" is the title of a book written by WHITEY SMITH and published in Manila, Philippines, in 1961, by the Lawrence R. Doran Publishing.........It is one of my regrets that I did not at the time I had the opportunity, and also some others as well, to buy the book and have it autographed by Whitey Smith(which he was always perfectly willing to do for those who bought it)...... Whitey Smith ran one of the finest restaurants in Manila at the time I made his 'acquaintence' as did many others who frequented the place...of course, there were other restaurants in that section of the Ermita which I may discuss sometime or elsewhere...... The name of the restaurant was TOWN'S TAVERN and the last time I tried to go there, I found it had been turned into a bank....and soon after his retirement,etc. Whitey Smith passed away....... This restaurant also sort of set a group of standards for me that I often use to rate or judge other similar establishments.....in that you never had to ask for your glass of water to be refilled as waiters all quickly noticed such and responded even before you could glance around or try to indicate such....I never knew one to miss a refill... The tables all came with appetizers of a tray of peanuts and a tray of pickles.....and the walls were decorated in places with photos(black and white and often signed or autographed by notables, newspaper men, officials, movie stars, celebrities,etc.) of anyone who was someone who ate there and usually at times, more than once.....I never was asked to supply my own photo to hand there and perhaps this oversight was a great blessing.......so I'd never have had to explain why my physiog was hanging in the place.... Around the bar, overhead, if I recall, there was a working model train or railroad that was sometimes set in motion during the dining evenings and the bar was busy and elegant and Whitey always seemed to be behind it most of the time.....never under it...... With my friends, like Bill and Ron, or with some damsel I often ate there when in Manila and I had a few Thanksgiving and Christmas meals there also.....but can't recall if it was before or after the actual holidays........ Ron bought Whitey's book and it was one of those things that I always thought the book would be there as he had them on each table for sale at a steal...pesos not dollars....now they run for big bucks of some kind and are a rarity. What I found interesting in perusing Ron's copy was that Whitey had started out in Shanghai with his wife Helen,had led a band in the ASTOR HOUSE HOTEL and had done some boxing, about which I always intended to ask him, especially if he knew anything about 'Chinese Boxing' but,like the buying of his book, I never got around to doing this.Procrastination! The disease of tommorrow....the manana habit...bukas na! Whitey had been in Shanghai during the Japanese takeover and was able after the war to settle in Manila with his wife,etc. Well, the point is that TOWN'S TAVERN was a meeting place for Western journalists, 'diplomats' of lower echelons, operatives and agents and gatherers of information and researchers and just ordinary diners who wanted good food and drink....and there were others where such things went on......some rather obvious and others not so obvious....but all this will have to wait for another time if ever.....

THE MOSAIC THEORY OF SECRECY

The access to secret information and documents is not easy to obtain despite the FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT and even when such is allowed via this law, the really important and relevant material is BLOCKED OR BLACKENED OUT! Secrecy by nearly all government agencies is determined somewhat by the 'MOSAIC THEORY OF SECRECY' which is sort of like 'THE MOSAIC LAW OF THE BIBLE' set in stone and not to be ignored. However, taking the example of a mosaic tile, agencies, like the CIA and others, believe that a single 'tile' in the wrong hands can be used to figure out the whole! This is sort of like GURDJIEFF'S statement that 'if know the small details, you can or will know the whole'. Actually, this theory owes a good deal to OCCULTISM and ESOTERICISM and the 'arts of claivoyance' and 'psychometry' if one looks deeper. We all know that many government agencies and bureaus, especially during certain Wars, like WWI & WWII, used 'psychics'[, and astrology,etc. and 'mind-reading' techniques,etc. as well as hypnosis to find out things and to interrogate prisoners,etc. at certain times,etc. This can also be compared to finding what the ocean is like from a single drop of ocean water. That is, one can, if Sherlock Holmes is correct, ONE CAN DEDUCE THE EXISTENCE OF THE OCEAN FROM A SINGLE DROP OF WATER! Thus from a single piece of tile from the entire 'mosaic' ONE CAN DEDUCE OR CONSTRUCT THE ENTIRE PATTERN OF THE MOSAIC! Similar things have been done in science in the past and also done in paleontology with fossils,etc. THUS WE FIND THAT SECRECY IS STILL THE WAY OF ALL GOVERNMENTS AND NO TRANSPARENCY CAN EVER EXIST. Small,elite groups will continue to control and manipulate all departments and activities of government including the highest branches and ignore the constitution and laws of the land.

EAGLES DO NOT CATCH FLIES OR SPIES!

If this seems familiar to you somehow if you read this, it should be, I posted in under the War On Terrorism. CIA operatives and informants have been on the 'hit list' of Terrorists for some time now and recently some have scored through various means,one of which shows the basic vulnerability of things with an enemy that is ruthless, unrelenting, and influential. The enemy is perhaps an odd assortment of terror groups and many in the West and the East unwittingly give support to them in ways they do not realize or understand. It has little to do with so-called media types, left-wingers, do-gooders,etc. but with ignorant persons who continue behaviours that help fund such or lead to fear and hysteria.