In 1988 my old dead philosopher, genius, inventor, bon vivant, raconteur, pilot, machinist, manufacturer, expert witness buddy Jack and me were waiting in a a jury room in a courthouse in Birmingham Alabama for Jack to be called as an expert witness.
Jack had been sober three days, was resplendent in his new custom tailored suit, and was smoking a Dutch Masters President when the high roller personal injury lawyer who’d paid us came in, and said
Misatah Rutledge, I didn’t know you appreciated a good cigar!
(The only really good cigars Jack smoked were those his disciples like me bought him. He was strictly a Dutch Masters buyer.)
The lawyer took a small, flat cell phone from his brief case and called his office, and since this was decades before the “me too” era, he said-
Honey sugar, there’s something I’d like you to do for me. Please sashay back to my office and fetch us a big double handful of those Cuban cigars I keep behind my desk, over heah to the jury room. It’s always so good to see you, and these gentlemen here need the privilege of seeing you.
Within a few minutes a woman who looked extremely expensive came in with a paper sack half full of Cuban Punch Rothschilds, and in due time Jack was called as a witness, he delivered an incredible performance, the verdict was six million dollars, and Jack was the only source of of that sum when this exchange occurred—
Mr Rutledge, what would it cost to mark all the navigable streams in Alabama with your product?
Jack looked straight at the jury and said
That helicopter cost about six million dollars.
By the time you pay for that helicopter, much less the widow and children of the two fathers you killed, you could mark every stream crossing in Alabama.
And if you bought that many balls, I’d grant a substantial discount.
As we left heroes of the hour, Jack turned to me at the airport and said, you realize that lawyer used that little phone and those Cuban cigars and that pretty girl to impress us, and it worked.
Let’s buy us one of those cell phones.
And so we did, for over two thousand dollars, and for the first six months we had to drive quite a ways for them to be in range of a cell phone tower.
Jack took a bath one night almost 90 years of age and died, and I miss him as much as I do my own father who died when I was 13. But nobody lives forever down here in this old sin cussed world.
But if your cell phone uses any kind of cord except a USB-C you need a new one just for that reason.
en.m.wikipedia.org
I’ve owned a dad blasted, privacy destroying, ball and chain; cell phone since 1988 and finally they’ve found a good cable to charge one.
The gubbermint ought to require any new plug in gadget to use USB-C.
We have three iPhone 16s here at our home and only one kind of charger for all three.
You have to own a USB-C cable charged phone to realize just what gooderns they are.
Jack had been sober three days, was resplendent in his new custom tailored suit, and was smoking a Dutch Masters President when the high roller personal injury lawyer who’d paid us came in, and said
Misatah Rutledge, I didn’t know you appreciated a good cigar!
(The only really good cigars Jack smoked were those his disciples like me bought him. He was strictly a Dutch Masters buyer.)
The lawyer took a small, flat cell phone from his brief case and called his office, and since this was decades before the “me too” era, he said-
Honey sugar, there’s something I’d like you to do for me. Please sashay back to my office and fetch us a big double handful of those Cuban cigars I keep behind my desk, over heah to the jury room. It’s always so good to see you, and these gentlemen here need the privilege of seeing you.
Within a few minutes a woman who looked extremely expensive came in with a paper sack half full of Cuban Punch Rothschilds, and in due time Jack was called as a witness, he delivered an incredible performance, the verdict was six million dollars, and Jack was the only source of of that sum when this exchange occurred—
Mr Rutledge, what would it cost to mark all the navigable streams in Alabama with your product?
Jack looked straight at the jury and said
That helicopter cost about six million dollars.
By the time you pay for that helicopter, much less the widow and children of the two fathers you killed, you could mark every stream crossing in Alabama.
And if you bought that many balls, I’d grant a substantial discount.
As we left heroes of the hour, Jack turned to me at the airport and said, you realize that lawyer used that little phone and those Cuban cigars and that pretty girl to impress us, and it worked.
Let’s buy us one of those cell phones.
And so we did, for over two thousand dollars, and for the first six months we had to drive quite a ways for them to be in range of a cell phone tower.
Jack took a bath one night almost 90 years of age and died, and I miss him as much as I do my own father who died when I was 13. But nobody lives forever down here in this old sin cussed world.
But if your cell phone uses any kind of cord except a USB-C you need a new one just for that reason.
USB-C - Wikipedia
I’ve owned a dad blasted, privacy destroying, ball and chain; cell phone since 1988 and finally they’ve found a good cable to charge one.
The gubbermint ought to require any new plug in gadget to use USB-C.
We have three iPhone 16s here at our home and only one kind of charger for all three.
You have to own a USB-C cable charged phone to realize just what gooderns they are.






