loss

friday firesmith – A tale of Greg

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Greg and I were friends in high school. Several things about Greg were strange, but after all, he was a drummer in a band. I dated a woman who had known him most of his life, and was good friends with his family, and she thought Greg was a little odd, but so where most of her friends.

I was the best man at his wedding. His new bride was eighteen, he was twenty-four, and they seemed to be a happy couple. Two years later she left him.

Greg started dating a woman older than he was, and she had a twelve year old daughter. They went on vacation and Greg’s beach photos were mostly of the little girl in her swimsuit. I began to feel uneasy about Greg and the girl, but shortly after the beach trip, her mother broke up with him and left.

When I left the Army I moved to Valdosta Georgia and Greg had disappeared. A few years later he called me looking for a character witness in a trial. It seems that a computer virus had infected his computer and downloaded a lot of child porn. I told Greg I was the last person he wanted in that courtroom. If summoned I would have told the truth.

He had called a mutual friend and that friend called me, and we began to compare notes. Greg never had a girlfriend in high school, never dated, and his wife, Kim, looked a lot younger than eighteen. The photos of his girlfriend’s daughter made us stop and wonder. There was only one conclusion to come to about Greg. He was a pedophile. All the clues had always been there, but we, and everyone else, never put them together.

Last I heard, Greg had served five years in a prison in West Virginia on the child porn charge. Where he is now, I have no idea.

Greg and I were good friends. We drank together, we talked a lot about music and life. I was a roadie once for a gig he played at a Country Club where a woman got on stage and stripped. We went to concerts, the beach, and hung out a lot. I wore my dress green uniform at the wedding and somewhere there’s photos of us together. Greg and I were close.

Child Porn is a red line for me with Greg or anyone else. Sexualizing children is abhorrent. I was more than willing to disregard the good times years of friendship in order to preserve my own values. I would do the same with anyone I have ever known.

I will, without hesitation or regret, cut ties with anyone who has anything to do with sexualizing children. There is no acceptable degree.

Take Care,

Mike

take that, crossfit gurus and midlife crises moms

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In 1965, a young Scottish man named Angus Barbieri walked into the University of Dundee hospital with an extraordinary request: “I want to stop eating—completely.” At the time, Angus weighed 207 kilograms (456 pounds) and wasn’t interested in traditional diets or calorie restrictions. He wanted to eliminate food from his life altogether. What sounded like madness at first became one of the most remarkable and carefully monitored fasting experiments in medical history.

Under strict medical supervision, Angus began a fast that was initially intended to last only a few days. He consumed only water, tea, black coffee, and small amounts of vitamins and electrolytes. But something unexpected happened—he didn’t feel hungry. His body efficiently burned through its fat reserves, and he steadily lost weight without major complications. Week after week, month after month, Angus kept going, amazing doctors with his resilience. “I forgot what hunger feels like,” he said at one point.

After 382 days without a single bite of food, Angus ended his fast in July 1966 with a modest meal: a boiled egg, a slice of bread, and some butter. By then, he had lost 125 kilograms, dropping to 82 kilograms (180 pounds). Even more astonishing, he never regained the weight and lived the rest of his life without major health issues. His feat remains the longest recorded fast in medical history. However, doctors strongly caution against repeating such an extreme fast without professional oversight, as it carries significant risks. Still, Angus Barbieri’s journey stands as a powerful story of discipline, transformation, and one of the most unusual medical cases ever recorded.

thanks, Jeff!