Haunted?

I took my son recently to the U.S.S. Hornet for an overnight stay through his scout pack & the museum's Live-Aboard program. We were informed that the old aircraft carrier has the reputation of being haunted. Here's where a number of people cross their arms & start rolling their eyes. Others start shifting their feet, look uncomfortable & change the subject. We thought we would give the historic vessel a chance, and decided to make the trip to Alameda, CA for the overnight stay on Nov. 14.

The afternoon & evening was fun, with tours after the orientation. There were numerous combat & rescue aircraft, a flight simulator, which was very popular with the kids & adults alike and numerous other installations, showing naval & the celebrated ship's history. Actually, the flight simulator was more of a gantry platform, with the hydraulics, a screen & a mock-up of a space shuttle passenger area, much like Disneyland's Star Tours. Fun, but you were not in control of the craft. Anyway, the evening was otherwise uneventful. Around 10:15 pm, a number of the kids & their parents went to the fo'csle (forecastle, you know, the enclosed area at the bow of the ship) for ghost stories, but when they docents started talking about happenings near our berth near the torpedo shop, several people in our group and from other groups left the area, to spare their children a case of the night terrors. I had to escort a couple of the scouts back to their parents, then returned to hear the stories with my son. He thought the stories weren't so scary, while some of the kids, who didn't stay past the first several minutes, thought it was the scariest stuff they ever heard. Were we at the same story session?

My son chose a top bunk to sleep in, and a few of his friends selected top bunks nearby. As the night wore on, the other boys moved to bunks, not at the top level, because the word was, that the top bunks were haunted. When my son remembered his night's sleep, he said that he felt something tousle his hair, then some time later, something poked him in the back of the head. He was going to reach out & slug his pal Jacob, who he remembered had selected the bunk nearby, but then remembered that his friend moved to a bunk, closer to his parents. My son then went back to sleep, with no further interruption.

I was selected for the 4:00 to 5:00 am watch, with Jacob's father. We went to the Chapel of the ship, where we were to begin our watch. It began, simply enough, but as we sat in the chapel, I heard a noise coming from inside the next room, which was the Chaplain's Office. The sound was like someone drumming their fingers intermittently across the wall; not exactly a rhythm, but, still rather deliberate sounding. Steve, the other dad on the watch heard it, as well. One of the docents came by the Chapel to check on how our watch was going. The docent was not aware that the next room was the Chaplain's Office and said, after I asked about the room, that the Chaplain's Office had not been opened for some time. The sound repeated a few more times during our watch, then subsided.

I returned to my bunk, in the berth across from the hatchway to the Torpedo Shop, hoping to see some unexplained activity in the room, or in the Torpedo Shop. No luck, and I went to sleep. I awoke to the sound of a voice over the ship's loudspeaker, saying, "Now hear this: Reveille, Reveille!" There was no bugler on the ship, and I had not brought my bugle or trumpet, so I couldn't play the part as ship's bugler for the stay on the ship.

After morning mess, I returned through the lower deck passageway toward the ladder to go aft tomeet up with the rest of my son's Cub Scout pack. I went by the Sick Bay, saw that it was not cordoned off, meaning that it was not off-limits. It was not lighted, though, so I still wondered, whether I was supposed to be there. I stepped inside the hatch, walking about 3 feet in the passageway and notced that it was about 5 to 10 degrees colder. There was plenty of ventillation, and the area of lower temperature was actually farther from the hull. There was no visible reason for it to be any cooler in that area. I went walking around the Sick Bay, in the dark, hoping to see something that was not on your average tour, especially, since it was self-guided and by flashlight. Other than the cold spot, there was nothing out of the ordinary about the Sick Bay. Makes me wonder, how it would have been during the night. Perhaps on another visit? When I mentioned the cold spot in the Sick Bay, I was informed that the Sick Bay was another area of noted activity, since they did everything from dental exams to major surgery in there.

Having so many experiences in a 24-hour period makes me want to visit other haunted places. It could be a new hobby. It could turn into something bigger. It could be folly, or it could be a hoot...

Swine Flu? Just Eat Your Carnitas.

Not to trivialize the unfortunate folks, who have succumbed to this virus, but why are we verging on calling it a pandemic, when the plain, old influenza virus, in its many incarnations takes out the same number in casualties, only weekly? Surely, it cannot be to assist the people, who better our lives (& their bank accounts) through pharmacology, on, no. In this world, there cannot be winners, without losers. The folks, hoping to avoid getting sick, purchase innocculations, which may or may not stave off the Swine Flu, while certain people in the pharmaceutical & medical communities collect the $200 per test, which take a week to get the results. Doctors still recommend you get the shot. Meanwhile, the illness itself may take that long to go through your system, in which case, you may develop your own antibodies, or die. Thank you, drive through. The flu shots, which are annually available, are usually several strains behind, remaining popular among the elderly, children, immuno-compromised & generally concerned folks.

Then, there are the people, who further perpetuate the fear, by trying to tie things together, like eating pork & the Swine Flu. Wow, How many people stopped eating chicken because of the Avian Flu, or going to Legionnaire functions because of the Legionnaire's Disease? Now, the toll of losses for the Pork Industry is around $1 billion. Incredible, what unschooled, yet skillfully cultured fear can accomplish. I would like to see what the disease-to-diet correlations are, if there have been any statistical studies to show, just how these things, which should have no relation to each other, save 1 word in a name, can have such a profound impact on the world of industry.

How about some other thoughts on this?