A few decades ago, when the late broadcaster Paul Harvey used to provide \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Rest of the Story,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he told about a well-to-do couple who\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d given each other expensive wedding rings, engraved, with names and dates, before taking a trans-Atlantic cruise on a luxury liner.<\/p>\n
Not accustomed to wearing a ring at all, the new husband must have let it slip off his finger, falling into the deep blue sea. As Paul Harvey explained, the couple, then years older, took the same voyage, and on their return trip sat down to a seafood dinner. Suddenly, Harvey related, the husband bit into something hard, almost chipping a tooth.<\/p>\n
The man discovered he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d bitten into a . . . into a . . . fishbone!<\/p>\n
Surprised? What are the chances that a tiny object in millions of cubic miles of ocean would end up in the owner\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s bicuspid?<\/p>\n
Holding back giggles, Harvey apologized for getting radio listeners\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 hopes up. And as for me, I merely repeated the story; I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t make it up. However, there is a similar truthful account of a ring that went missing for years and years, and with the tenacious work of a handful of people, went back to its owner.<\/p>\n
The missing-then-found object was a VHS\/RHS class ring, owned by Alfonzo Vigil. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve known Alfonzo for many years, his house having been on my Optic route in the early \u00e2\u20ac\u02dc50s. I knew most of his family: Martha, Antonia, Mary, Mabel, Dora, Al, Jose, etc.<\/p>\n
Here\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what Alfonzo says happened:<\/p>\n
Alfonzo graduated in 1959 and bought a class ring bearing his initials, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153A.V.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d He took a job with the local Foremost Dairy, and while at work one day, he removed the ring. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It must have rolled down into the heater vent,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I told Mom I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d lost the ring, and she told me I shouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have taken it off in the first place.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the military called, taking Alfonzo away for almost three years. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I left the car at home; my sister, Martha, and brother, Jose, drove it. When I got back, the car was gone, maybe worn out,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said.<\/p>\n
Much more recently, an RHS teacher, Gale Cunico, spoke to counselor Amadee Duran, explaining her husband, Scott, had found a ring inside a car he had been working on. According to Alfonzo, Gale carried the ring on a chain around her neck, hoping to locate the owner of the ring that was already about 55 years old.<\/p>\n
Scott Cunico, who works on vehicles, had discovered the ring in the deep recesses of the dashboard vent. And by checking yearbook photos from that era, Gale and Amadee were able to determine that the ring belonged to Alfonzo.<\/p>\n
So, after several decades, Alfonzo and his class ring were reunited \u00e2\u20ac\u201d only this year. Alfonso, who weighs about 135 pounds \u00e2\u20ac\u201d his actual high school weight \u00e2\u20ac\u201d noted that the ring \u00e2\u20ac\u0153slipped back on easily.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d
\nAnd he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s thankful for the help mixed with curiosity of people like the Cunicos and Amadee, whose efforts made this story much more palpable than the fish tale Paul Harvey told so many years ago.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 \u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 \u00e2\u20ac\u00a2<\/p>\n
Angelina Vigil has at least one fan, someone from perhaps 100 miles away, who believes the matter she was involved in spurs two expressions: A tempest in a teapot and A mountain out of a molehill.<\/p>\n
The duly selected fiesta queen recently posted something on Facebook, the social media forum on most people\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s computers, that drew the ire of half the members of the Espa\u00c3\u00b1ola Fiesta Executive Council.<\/p>\n
She wrote a message complaining about the village of Espa\u00c3\u00b1ola, sprinkling the post with words that were x-ed out by the time the story hit the media.<\/p>\n
Essentially, Angelina\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s angry spiel about the town caused the 22-member Espa\u00c3\u00b1ola Fiesta Executive Council to split 11 to 11 on her fate: dethrone her, or allow her to keep her crown and represent the community.<\/p>\n
The media reported that despite Angelina\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s tear-filled apology, the board nevertheless voted to dismiss her. The council\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s justification: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It was determined by the Espa\u00c3\u00b1ola Fiesta Executive Council that her actions could not be rectified and cannot redeem the damage created by her mistake on social media.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Lest we forget, her Facebook post came after the theft of her crown and scepter. Police have since arrested a 19-year-old woman and a 21-year-old man, in connection with the heist of the crown.<\/p>\n
The young woman clearly was upset over the theft of the items and complained about it \u00e2\u20ac\u201d in a forum to whom many people had access.<\/p>\n
I believe the council\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s decision was an over-reaction. People\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s comments often are influenced by external factors \u00e2\u20ac\u201d such as the breaking into her mother\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s house and the subsequent act of absconding with the crown and scepter.<\/p>\n
She\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s young, she was angry, she apologized. She was punished for putting into writing something others may even agree with but don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want to read.
\nThe council\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s decision seems punitive.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 \u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 \u00e2\u20ac\u00a2<\/p>\n
Do the surnames Lancaster and Schaffer sound familiar? To many alumni of Robertson High School, they should.<\/p>\n
In an email exchange I had with RHS alumnus Steve Franken, he invoked the names of Helen Lancaster and Ruth Schafer who, he wrote, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153would have a conniption if they knew you ended a sentence with a preposition!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Indeed I did, not for spite or rebellion, but simply because I disagree with that pre-Civil War rule. I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t remember the grammatical atrocity in my email to former Las Vegas Mayor Franken. But I plead guilty nevertheless.<\/p>\n
In my reply to Franken, I explained that I usually end my sentences with a prOposition.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s where I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m coming from.<\/p>\n
The Lancaster-Schafer duo, owners of a stellar reputation for English grammatical correctness, were never my teachers, as I attended Immaculate Conception School.<\/p>\n
However, when a group of us Highlands English majors observed RHS classes, in preparation for practice teaching, we trembled when Ms. Schafer said to her students, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be intimidated by the visiting college students. Does it occur to you that they might not know the answers?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A few decades ago, when the late broadcaster Paul Harvey used to provide \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Rest of the Story,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he told about a well-to-do couple who\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d given each other expensive wedding rings, engraved, with names and dates, before taking a trans-Atlantic cruise on a luxury liner. Not accustomed to wearing a ring at all, the new […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1380"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1380"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1380\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1381,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1380\/revisions\/1381"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}