Peter Mallory's blog

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- Hair stylist Ray Catheline sparked an effort to help those forgotten or ignored in our community, especially children, with his fundraiser a year ago that raised $7,873 for "Cudas Unhooked," a very constructive and cost effective program set up by a group of New Smyrna Beach volunteers like him to help “at risk” high school students finish high school and be successful in life.

The program is designed to give the kids the help, encouragement and support they need to get their lives back on track and graduate from high school.

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- As each of us faces the new year we all hope that it will be a good one for us. The most important point about this desire is that how the new year turns out for us is for the most part more dependent on our own efforts than any other consideration.

In other words, for most people the new year depends more on them than any other factor. The best thing about this situation is that for most people there are sure fire things they can do to make things better that cannot be stopped by outside forces. It is instructive to mention some of the things that you can do to make things get better.

First of all, have a positive attitude. While it is often easier to be negative than positive you usually achieve much more while being positive.

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- The problem with trying to tell about a career in engineering is that most of the things that interest an engineer would bore the ears off of a brass donkey. The solution of difficult and complicated problems in science and mathematics is what makes engineering fun, but to the layman there is nothing of interest whatsoever.

Therefore it is the challenge of this blog to find personal stories from the world of engineering that the layman can find amusing and entertaining. Here goes:

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- Like a lot of children, Christmas was a magical fun time for me. I “bought into” all of the fun things that the grownups did to make me believe in Santa Claus.

Let me tell you some of the things that went on. First of all, my parents and older brother, Hal, hid all of the presents and the Christmas tree so that when I went to bed on Christmas eve the house was bare. When I got up in the morning there was a brightly lit Christmas tree with presents under it.

They must have been up half the night to pull that one off. Later my parents said let us put the tree up before Christmas so we can have the fun of decorating it and Santa won’t have to work so hard. I knew Santa got my letter because he knew exactly what to bring.

Finally, the sports media pundits are finally understanding what Florida fans have known all along: Tim Tebow is a winner. He may not be in the same class as John Elway or Joe Montana or Brett Favre, but he knows how to win and that's what counts.

For the past week the sports world has been completely captivated by Tebow and his incredible string of wins. The last one over the Chicago Bears. /p>

Nestled in the dead of winter in our Cinncinnati, Ohio, the lives of my family and millions across the nation would be changed forever with the crackling sound of a news flash on the radio reporting Pearl Harbor had been attacked. I was a mere 7 years old. 

The first I knew of it that mid-day Sunday on Dec. 7, 1941, was my father and older brother running to the giant wooden radio the size of two stacked bread boxes shouting: "The Japanese have bombed Pearl Harbor!"

At this time of the year, many of us need to be reminded of what we have to be thankful for because sometimes it is easy to forget. Here in Florida, we live in a really nice place to grow up and raise a family; especially here in Florida, though with scarcity of jobs our young people are having to go elsewhere.

I have gone to great lengths to be able to live here in New Smyrna Beach. Many of my classmates have also done so. We have done this even though the economic opportunities are not as great as elsewhere. The climate is great, the beach is great, the problems including crime and traffic are manageable. All in all, this is a wonderful place to be.

Many people are worried about the country’s future.

When it comes to enhancing the economy of Volusia County, the powers that be act like the man who takes his wife to a party and then ignores her in favor of some glitzy strange blonde. His marriage suffers and the blonde forgets him immediately.

In the case of Volusia’s economy, the government and civic leaders spend all of their time wooing businesses and people from outside the area while giving short shrift to the people and businessmen who live here. The problem with this approach is that the home-grown businessman wants to stay here and grow since this is his home.

Political candidates have been arguing over whether Social Security is a Ponzi Scheme. To understand this issue, we must understand what a Ponzi Scheme is and what Social Security is.
Historically a man named Ponzi offered investors large returns if they would invest in his business scheme. There was no business or investment activity in Ponzi’s scheme. He simply took part of the money he took in and made large payments to his investors. He spent the rest of the money. As long as new investors kept investing and the money didn’t run out the scheme went along smoothly.
However, as one would expect Ponzi, ran out of new investors and people started to get suspicious. Investors disappeared; Ponzi’s scheme collapsed; and Ponzi went to jail.

I was only 5 years old when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. The reason I could tell it was an important event was that the grownups around me were so visibly angry.

This was 9/11 for my parents' generation: 2,402 American servicemen killed and another 1,282 injured.