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The New American Digest

For Followers of Gerard Van der Leun's Fine Work

  • About American Digest
  • About New American Digest
  • “The Name In The Stone”
  • Remembering Gerard Van der Leun
    • from the website: Through the Looking Glass
    • from the website: Barnhardt
    • from the website: Neo’s Blog
  • Articles
    • The Overland Stage
      • The Holladay Overland Stage: 1 – The Central Route
      • The Overland Stage – 2 Company Operations
      • The Overland Stage – 3 Exploring The Route – An Overview
      • The Overland Stage: 4 – South Platte/Julesburg/Ft Sedgwick
        • Jack Slade
      • The Overland Stage: 5 – Julesburg to Junction Station (aka Ft Morgan)
      • The Overland Stage: 6 – Junction Station to Latham
      • The Overland Stage: 7 – Latham Crossing to Fort Collins
      • The Overland Stage: 8 – LaPorte to Virginia Dale
      • The Overland Stage: 9 – Virginia Dale to Cooper Creek
      • The Overland Stage: 10 – Cooper Creek to Pass Creek
        • Fletcher Family
      • The Overland Stage: 11 – Pass Creek to Bridger Station
      • The Overland Stage: 12 – Bridger Pass to Duck Lake
      • The Overland Stage: 13 – Duck Lake to LaClede
      • The Overland Stage: 14 – LaClede to Almond
      • The Overland Stage: 15 – Almond to Rock Springs
      • The Overland Stage: 16 – Rock Springs to Fort Bridger
      • The Overland Stage: 17 – Fort Bridger to Weber Station

I find I don’t wish to explore new lands, but to explore again those I have already passed through, trying to see what I’d missed in the first hectic rush … Gerard Van der Leun

Home→Published 2025 → February - Page 3 << 1 2 3 4 5 >>

Monthly Archives: February 2025

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Sunday Apostasies

The New American Digest Posted on February 16, 2025 by DTFebruary 16, 2025

To which I neither accept nor deny but which I present to simply stir the pot.

I see two possibilities - on the face of which, neither seems likely:
Mankind was "made" ... or mankind "just happened"

Could it be that "Eternal Life" is just another form of Hell?

The three religions of Abraham: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam
Jews: It never happened
Christians: Yes it did
Muslims: Yes it did, but it was our guy, not yours

“History records the tragic fact that men have gone to war and cut each other’s throats because they couldn’t agree as to what was to become of them after their throats were cut.”

Christianity: 30% of world - 2.4 billion (about 1.4b Catholic)
Islam: 2 billion
Judaism: 15 million

non-religious: 1.4 billion

Matthew 12
[34] Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.
[35] For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law.
[36] And a man’s foes shall be they of his own household.

I sometimes think all gods exist: they all sit in a cosmic tournament poker game, playing for souls.

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Posted in Uncategorized | 9 Replies

The Old Post Office

The New American Digest Posted on February 15, 2025 by DTFebruary 15, 2025
Rural Kentucky
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Posted in Uncategorized | 15 Replies

Valentine’s Day

The New American Digest Posted on February 14, 2025 by JeanMarch 23, 2025

you love strawberries…

you told me
once
that I taste
better
than strawberries.

♥!♥♥♥!♥♥♥♥

Say please…

We, you and I,
along with them,
will never, possibly sometime,
cautiously once in a while
SCREAM hesitatingly while
requesting not quite boldly
but softer than a whisper…
love me, dammit.

♥♥♥♥♥♥

Will be done…

if there
is one
I will
find it.

if there
is none
I will
make it.

a way
to
you.

♥♥♥♥

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Posted in others | 5 Replies

Feb 13, 19-I Forget

The New American Digest Posted on February 13, 2025 by DTFebruary 13, 2025

Most significant other (MSO) & I had a most unusual per-marriage relationship. I can't really say we "dated" in the usual American sense - although she claims we did a little. I never considered going out with a group of people a date, but she was a foreigner of a conservative culture so in her eyes, I guess we did.

But not for long.

I don't know what it was - I was in my early 40s and by some definitions, I'd been married twice before ... actually had recently broken it off with #2.

But the little voice inside my head told me to not hesitate; this woman was worth the full commitment - I knew it right away. Wasn't sure she did.

We were in Colorado. Being of vastly different religions - or the same one, depending on how "religion" is defined - and being as Colorado acknowledged common-law marriages, we got married in the eyes of the state.

Turns out the Feds don't recognize common-law when it comes to things like green cards and immigration processes.

So today is the day we went to the courthouse and got married for the Feds.

So today, Feb 13th, is one of our anniversaries. And it had nothing to do with Valentine's Day, it had to do with being Friday the 13th.

But we have three anniversaries.

Our family and friends wanted a "wedding", so a few months later at a nicer time of year, a friend of ours, legally empowered to perform weddings, not that it was necessary, married us yet again in the "proper way" - in front of friends and family. A good time was had by all, music included "They're Coming To Take Me Away" (yes, ghostsniper, it'll be on Tunes For Tuesday someday), and I heard the food was excellent - I didn't get any. And everybody went home happy.

Especially me.

Our apartment was full of guests, including parents ... and that one friend that gets too drunk. I was with him when he tried to check into the hotel he and his wife reserved. They took his money then denied he paid - and refused him the room. So he and his wife also spent our wedding night with us.

MSO and I spent our wedding night sleeping on the floor with the other lessor beings; parent sets getting the two bedrooms.

But the anniversary we celebrate is the first one, the common-law marriage where we both committed to each other some 25 years or so ago.

And it seems to still be working out. Wouldn't trade what I have for anything.

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Posted in Uncategorized | 7 Replies

I Was Going To Get All Philosophical Today, But …

The New American Digest Posted on February 13, 2025 by DTFebruary 13, 2025

Here's a train picture instead. I admit to being somewhat of a steam engine groupie. And I like the 1800s versions most of all.

1897
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Posted in Uncategorized | 6 Replies

Carnival

The New American Digest Posted on February 12, 2025 by DTFebruary 12, 2025

I guess I've grown old and ... not so much cynical as ...

I passed on by.

But teens and 20s? I'd have stopped and spent a few hours doing what boys that age do at street carnivals.

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Posted in Uncategorized | 18 Replies

Overland Stage – Part 8 LaPorte to Virginia Dale

The New American Digest Posted on February 11, 2025 by DTFebruary 11, 2025

Part 8 - LaPorte to Virginia Dale is now live.

Latham to Laporte was a 35 mile run, reduced to secondary status with the main line running south from Latham - continuing to follow the South Platte - to Denver then running back north along the foothills of the Front Range (a bit west of US287) to LaPorte, re-joining the original trail.

The run north from LaPorte was not the flat lands of the South Platte Route. Not quite mountains but one of the most difficult stretches of the entire route was located in this section. Like the other segments, it had its share of Indian attacks and threat from bandits.

Virginia Dale - the only remaining complete station at its original location - and perhaps the most famous of all - was Jack Slade's headquarters. Only a mile or so below what was then the Dakota Territory, it was perhaps the most pleasing of locations.

Next: The Laramie Plains

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Posted in Overland_Stage | 6 Replies

Tunes For Tuesday – Arzachel “Queen St. Gang”

The New American Digest Posted on February 11, 2025 by DTMarch 23, 2025

A sample of some obscure – and some maybe not obscure – tunes from my strange and off-the-wall collection.

Today’s selection: Arzachel - Queen St. Gang

An English psychedelic band under pseudonyms released a single album Arzachel in 1969. This particular cut is aka "Soul Thing".

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Posted in tunes | 6 Replies

Chahlie…

The New American Digest Posted on February 10, 2025 by JeanFebruary 10, 2025

I'm Chahlie.
Say it the way it looks. Chahhhlie. Got it? OK.

People think I'm pathetic.
Some people. Not all people. Only the ones who know me.
The rest of 'em? Welllll, they don't really count.
'Cause they don't know me. See?

Maybe, when this is over, you can tell me what you think.
Because by then you will know me.
Chahlie. That's me.

I don't do mucha nuthin'. 'Cause I don't have to or want to.
I slip-slide through the days without breakin' a sweat.
As it should be. For me.
Nuthin' but easy all day every day.
It's a sweet life if you can get it.
And I got it.

…to be continued. Maybe.

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Posted in Uncategorized | 6 Replies

On The Road

The New American Digest Posted on February 10, 2025 by DTFebruary 10, 2025

Spent a lot of time "living" in places like this. High end, low end - they all seem the same

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Posted in Uncategorized | 5 Replies

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Rules

Gerard Van der Leun
12/26/45 - 1/27/23


Gerard's Last Post
(posthumous): Feb 4, 2023
"So Long. See You All a Little Further Down the Road"

When my body won’t hold me anymore
And it finally lets me free
Where will I go?
Will the trade winds take me south through Georgia grain?
Or tropical rain?
Or snow from the heavens?
Will I join with the ocean blue?
Or run into a savior true?
And shake hands laughing
And walk through the night, straight to the light
Holding the love I’ve known in my life
And no hard feelings

Avett Brothers - No Hard Feelings

The following was posted along with the announcement of Gerard's passing.
Leonard Cohen - Going Home

For a 2005 interview with Gerard


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Most Recent Comments

  1. Joe on Istanbul SuburbJuly 12, 2025

    Answer---Messicans.

  2. ghostsniper on DinnerJuly 12, 2025

    HA HA HA Gene Simmons. Back about 1979 I read an interview on him in Penthouse. He's a durty dawg.…

  3. ghostsniper on Istanbul SuburbJuly 12, 2025

    Me? I'd keep the truck straight for the most part, if I could afford it in the first place. I…

  4. DT on Istanbul SuburbJuly 12, 2025

    Istanbul. Smaller than NYC; rank 17, just shy of 15mil. Rather visit there than NYC though. This is a suburb;…

  5. DT on On A Kinder NoteJuly 12, 2025

    Likely. Could be. Forgot to label the pic. Guessed from the batch it was in.


Blogroll
The New Neo
Jean's Blog

Hey, Mr. Tambourine Man,
play a song for me
I'm not sleepy
and there ain't no place I'm goin' to

Hey, Mr. Tambourine Man,
play a song for me
In the jingle jangle morning,
I'll come followin' you

Take me for a trip upon
your magic swirling ship
All my senses have been stripped
And my hands can't feel to grip
And my toes too numb to step
Wait only for my boot heels to be wanderin'

I'm ready to go anywhere,
I'm ready for to fade
Unto my own parade
Cast your dancing spell my way
I promise to go under it


Men who saw night coming down about them could somehow act as if they stood at the edge of dawn.


From Gerard's site. The picture always caught my eye.

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