Gerrymandering

6th December 2023

Dear Mr. President,

In the modern political climate we have seen all too well what corruption can and has done to the most powerful nation in the history of the world. The Republican Party is becoming more and more Fascist and our paralyzed government is having trouble keeping the lights on. As the margin narrows fanatics cling to power by subverting the will of the people.

One of the ways they do this is by Gerrymandering which is the act of drawing an electoral district in order to influence the outcome of an election. It has been a long held belief now that the voter should pick their representation, and the representation should not pick the voters.

Then and there for, the electoral districts should be drawn by independent committee and designed to reflect the will of the voters with homogeny. This would mean that the representation in government of the people would better reflect their will.

I will grant you that removing Gerrymandering would mean one lest way for Democrats to hold on to power, but the idea of democracy is not holding on to power. The ideal of this nation is to be governed by the people. This means that we should educate our people, see to their needs, and be clear in our intentions. It does not mean to subvert the vote by deluding it into the votes of opposition.

There are many parts of our government that have problems and that are outdated and it would be impossible to change them all in the span of one presidency or even two, but this is one thing we should change. Ban Gerrymandering in any way shape or form.

America belongs to her people,


Richard Leland Neal

In 2016

16th September 2024

Okay, Boss,

You’re looking for a man in my age range who has an opinion on “2016”. I’m going to guess you mean the election here, but your instructions are to make a statement of one to two hundred words off the cuff without doing research. Well, here goes.

In 2016 the American people were given a choice between an entrenched politician and a wildcard who had conflicting methodologies. Clinton, the entrenched politician, preached a realistic attitude that foretold the fall of the coal industry and made no falsehoods about the change that was in the future of the country. Trump, wild card, preached a return to the golden age of America telling coal workers that he would protect their jobs. Faced with a dismal truth or a hopeful lie enough people accepted the lie as their best hope placing Donald Trump in power. Other factors tipped the needle in Trump’s direction like poorly timed investigation announcements and Russian interference. The Clinton camp thought it was a no contest win and got complacent. Any one of these could have been the tipping point for the election, but it is widely considered a wind gust victory for Trump.

That’s what comes off the top of my head anyway. I mean, I’ve looked at what happened a few times and have strong opinions of it, but that’s what I can sum it up as on the fly.

Best,



Richard Leland Neal

Scooby-Doo! - Masks Come Off

Velma puts the clues together: the villains created a story about a witch and a zombie to scare people away so they could use a metal-tipped pole to search for a car filled with money that they hijacked. They perfected their illusion with powder bombs to make it look like they could disappear. And they would’ve gotten away with it too if it wasn’t for these meddlin’ kids!

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Scooby-Doo! - Capturing a Witch

The villains see the money bags in the swamp and rush towards them, cackling: “Money! Money! Money!”. Suddenly, Shaggy and Scooby jump out of the sacks and the monsters give chase. “Duck!” Fred calls, and a tree branch is released, sweeping the Witch, the Zombie and poor Scooby into a cart. The captured villains are tied up, the sheriff arrives and Velma pulls off their masks - it’s Zeb and Zeke!

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Scooby-Doo! - Uncovering the Conspiracy

Fleeing from the Witch, Velma, Daphne and Fred find Scoob and Shaggy under a blanket in a boat. What luck! It’s an airboat and the gang escapes. Then, another startling discovery. Scooby throws the anchor down, and it catches onto something. The gang looks to see what they’ve found - an armoured truck - filled with money!

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Scooby-Doo! - The Chase

The footprints lead the gang to a derelict old riverboat. ‘Let’s split up!’ Fred suggests. Shaggy and Scooby go to explore. A terrified Shaggy and Scoob peek into a box, they see a pair of shoes and attached to them ... a zombie! Yikes! A chase ensues; they are pursued this way and that by the dastardly duo of dangers. Meanwhile, Fred and Velma rescue Daphne and set out to find Shaggy and Scooby.

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Scooby-Doo! - Hunt for the Witch

Shaggy and Scoob head to Zeb’s cabin. Here, they make a terrible discovery: a doll in the shape of Zeb, stuck with pins. Zoinks! A voodoo Doll! Scooby and Shaggy rush back to the gang and they all make their way to the Witch’s shack. Suddenly, the Witch appears in a puff of smoke. Flourishing her bony witchy fingers, she casts a spell and vanishes, taking Daphne with her.

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Scooby-Doo! - A Zombie and a Witch

 

The gang arrives at the town of Swamp’s End, they notice that it’s deserted. They go to the General Store, run by a man named Zeke. Fred asks what happened to the town and hears from him a spine-chilling tale: a while ago, when Zeke and his partner Zeb were frog hunting in the swamp, they came across a cackling witch conducting a ritual, creating a hulking, brainwashed zombie. Jinkies!


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Scooby-Doo! - Run in with the Zombie

Our adventure begins with Mystery Inc. returning from a fishing trip. Fred takes the Mystery Machine through a swamp in the dead of night. They ask a lone stranger standing on the side of the road for directions. As Shaggy rolls down his window, he notices the man’s hunched posture, his green skin, his red eyes, his inability to respond with anything other than ‘uugghhh, guughh’. A zombie! Zoinks!

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Transylvania - Bran Castle

The most anticipated part of this journey was arriving at the famous Dracula lair, Bran Castle, on the Transylvanian side of the historical border with Wallachia. Built sometime in the 14th century by the Transylvanian Saxons, the castle was primarily used as a fortress protecting the borders from Ottoman incursions.

There is a belief that Vlad III Dracula was held prisoner by the Hungarians based on written records that he passed through Bran gorge many times on his way to Wallachia’s capital Târgovişte. Other historians completely refute Vlad ever setting foot in the castle most likely due to lack of documentation as evidence thereby breaking the connection between Vlad and Bran Castle.

Of course, the question remains as to how Bran Castle became associated with the vampire’s castle given that Bram has never been to Transylvania. Some suggest that Bram was inspired by an illustration of Bran Castle, referred to as Terzburg (sic) in Charles Boner’s book on Transylvania but Bram’s castle description is so vague that it could have been Poienari Citadel, Slains Castle or any other castle on a precipice with chasms and rivers.

Bran Castle became synonymous with the fictional Dracula sometime in the 1990s when restorations were complete, and the property was added to the tourist circuit. It has a perfect blend of Gothic architecture, sombre appearance and rocky hilltop location for vampire-themed fans coming from far and wide in search of the elusive Count Dracula.

Count Dracula may be a fictional character of Bram’s imagination, but myths of the un-dead referred to as strigoi have been part of Romania’s folklore since the 16th century, beginning with a villager who apparently terrorised his neighbours for years after his death until he was decapitated by the village priest. Strigoi are restless souls who supposedly rise from the grave with the ability to transform into animals and gain vitality from their victims. Unbeknownst to Bram, his creation of Dracula as a blood drinking vampire would become a modern interpretation of the strigoi and Transylvania with all of its beauty and historical villages would become a vampire-themed tourist destination.

On a more realistic note, Bran Castle fell into decay by the late 19th century until it was gifted to Queen Marie of Romania who carefully restored it in the 1920s and made it one of her favourite getaway homes. The castle was confiscated at the end of WW2 when the monarchy was dissolved, and the king (Marie’s grandson) was forced to abdicate and sent into exile. The castle was returned to Marie’s descendants in 2009 and continues to operate as a museum focused on its real history instead of the fictional one.

This brings me to the end of my journey. I wander away from the castle with my head filled with facts and fiction between Vlad and Dracula and I reflect on this beautiful region, its diverse people and wonderfully good food.

Farewell / La revedere



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Transylvania - Câmpulung

Tucked in a valley at the foothills of the Carpathian Mountains is the narrow and elongated municipality of Câmpulung, translated as Long Field. The town is divided by the River Tîrgului with two major roads running parallel on either side of the river.
 

Câmpulung is one of the oldest Wallachian settlements dating back to 1292. When Basarab I defeated the King of Hungary at the Battle of Posada in 1330, it ended Wallachia’s suzerainty to the Kingdom of Hungary and became the first independent Romanian principality. Basarab I became the founding ruler of Wallachia and established the dynasty House of Basarab of which Vlad the Impaler is a descendent. Basarab set up the first capital city in Câmpulung.

As an interesting sidenote, Basarab’s daughter Theodora married the then Emperor of Bulgaria and after several children and a decade of marriage he divorced her and sent her to a monastery to become a nun. Theodora is the first known nun in Romania’s history and in 2022 she was canonised by the Romanian Orthodox Church.

One of the highlights of the town is the Ethnography and Folklore Museum. Housed in a beautifully restored house, the museum displays a significant collection of folk-art objects, providing an insight into rural living and an appreciation for handmade items from hand carved furniture and wood turned utensils to hand-painted eggs and pottery, handwoven rugs, embroidered cloths, and traditional costumes.

A short stroll south of the Museum is the Negru Vodă Monastery, thought to be built in 1220 by the legendary Radu Negru, Voivode of Wallachia. Radu is supposed to precede Basarab I but some historians think he might have been one and the same person or he might have been Basarab’s father but there is no evidence to suggest either way. The earliest mention of Radu Negru was in the 17th century, lending a lot more mystery than truth to his existence. It is possibly the reason why he is listed as a ‘legendary’ ruler rather than real.

The monastery was rebuilt many times throughout the centuries, having been destroyed at least twice from earthquakes in the 1600s and the 1800s and a fire in the 1930s. Each time the monastery was repaired and restored. The interior of the church is filled with large scale paintings depicting various notable figures including several Wallachian rulers and their spouses. According to inscriptions found in the Court of Argeş (another monastery), both Basarab I and his son Nicolae Alexandru were buried here.

Coming to the end of my day, I’m hankering for a very filling but not too heavy dish and the Romanian stuffed peppers, ardei umpluţi, is what comes to mind. This is a universal dish that can be found in many cuisines, each with its own variation. What I am thinking of is the vegetarian version made of near-perfectly rounded, red bell peppers with their tops chopped off and the seeds cleaned out so it’s nice and hollow. Added to it is a mixture of cooked rice, minced onion, finely chopped carrots, seasoned with parsley, dill and the usual salt and pepper. The stuffed peppers are placed in a tray and a freshly made tomato sauce poured over it then baked. The bread as always is present to soak up the sauce.

A side note about the food. Romanian cuisine is wonderfully diverse and flavoursome. Given its geographical location, the cuisine is influenced by all its neighbours past and present such as the Balkans and Greece to the south, the Turks to the southeast and the former Austria-Hungary to the northwest. What sets it apart from its neighbours is the local flavouring and preparation giving the dishes their distinctive Romanian flavour.

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Transylvania - Poienari Citadel

“The view was magnificent, and from where I stood there was every opportunity of seeing it. The castle is on the very edge of a terrific precipice. A stone falling from the window would fall a thousand feet without touching anything! As far as the eye can reach is a sea of green treetops, with occasionally a deep rift where there is a chasm. Here and there are silver threads where the rivers wind in deep gorges through the forests.” – Bram Stoker’s Dracula

Such an apt description of Poienari Citadel located high atop a mountain west of Transfăgăraşan. It’s as if Bram Stoker had seen it when he described Count Dracula’s lair in his famous 1897 book. But Bram has never been to Transylvania. He has however, spent considerable time writing his book near Slains Castle in Scotland and the description of the octagonal room in the book seems remarkably similar to the floorplan of Slains Castle’s octagonal interior hall.

Construction of the citadel began in the 1300s, possibly by the first rulers of Wallachia and it is thought that only the main tower was built. Abandoned after a few decades and left to decay, it was Vlad Dracula, also known as Vlad III and Vlad the Impaler, who saw it as a strategic spot for a stronghold. As such he set about restoring the fortress and expanding on the tower with walls and bastions. He used the fortress as a second residence with his primary home located in Târgoviște, the capital of Wallachia at the time.

Vlad Dracula was the son of Vlad II the Dragon (Vlad II Dracul) who was a member of the Order of the Dragon, a chivalric order established by the then King of Hungary. The word dragon in archaic Romanian is dracul and Dracula is a Slavonic form meaning ‘son of Dracul’, hence Vlad Dracula.

Vlad Dracula was ruler of Wallachia, reigning over three different occasions. Wallachia was a small country squeezed between two powerhouses, the Kingdom of Hungary to the north and the Ottoman Empire to the south. During his reign, Vlad would regularly switch allegiances for personal gain; fight ferociously; and posthumously acquire the moniker Vlad the Impaler. One story tells of a banquet held by Vlad with hundreds of Wallachian boyars (nobility) who were constantly feuding with one another. When the boyars began challenging his authority, he called on his army to impale them with wooden stakes. A very bloody example that brought stability to Wallachia through fear.

Another story tells of the Ottoman sultan demanding suzerainty which Vlad refused. Vlad retaliated by impaling more than 20,000 Turks. The number seems incredibly high, and it is possible that the story is part true, and part embellished but what does remain a fact is that his reputation grew exponentially, and he continues to be an infamous historical character.

It is assumed that Bram Stoker’s aristocratic, well-dressed, cape-wearing, blood-drinking vampire Dracula was based on the fierce warlord Vlad Dracula. It’d be easy to see why. Both are named Dracula; both were warriors in Transylvania; and both fought the Turks. However, Bram’s notes show copied sections from another book about Wallachia and Moldavia that references several rulers named Dracula who fought the Turks but no mention whatsoever about the name Vlad or The Impaler. He further noted that Dracula means the Devil. What can be surmised from this is that Bram liked the idea of Dracula and its evil and cruel association as a character whilst having no clue about its historical background nor the real people who owned the name. Only a tiny bit of doubt remains based on Van Helsing’s description of Dracula in the book: “He must, indeed, have been that Voivode Dracula who won his name against the Turk, over the great river on the very frontier of Turkey-land."

This connection or lack thereof between the real and fictional Draculas was complex. I am unsure if it was unravelled satisfactorily but I sure was left somewhat hungry. Sitting on a bench at the top of the citadel, I extracted a small lunchbox with a serving of salată de beuf. Translated as beef salad, this is a very popular Romanian dish, often made for easter or other main events. Time consuming to make it is a mix of finely chopped root vegetables, boiled meat, pickled gherkins, peas, and potato folded with homemade egg and mustard-based mayonnaise and accompanied with fresh bread. It was a very hearty dish that powered me up on the next leg of my journey.

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Question Fire

12th August 2021

My Dear Friends in the Los Angeles Fire Department,

Over the last few days a question has come up that you may resolve. I recently wrote the Governor regarding the wild fires in which I had two major points. The first was that we could rent tanker trucks full of water to help with fire fighting and the second was that there are retired fire trucks for rent in Hollywood.

I figured that if nothing else the industrial tankers can be rented or hired in mass with drivers and could hose down areas near fire or resupply fire trucks with water. The idea there is just numbers. It was about getting as much water to the fire as possible.

Now, the idea of using fire trucks that have been retired and are now used for movies and film was simply that, well, the more fire trucks the better. I did some poking around and found a company that rented trucks that had last fought fires in nineteen eighty five. Its trucks looked to be in good working order. That company had six trucks, but there are more companies with more trucks and in a wild fire every fire truck counts.

On FaceBook this was dismissed as small thinking and I was then told to leave the fire fighting to the people in charge. The Governor himself has not responded. This leads us to the two questions ‘are these ideas worth consideration?’ and ‘is it important to express my concern over the wildfires with the Governor?’.

In a world where every life counts lives are saved as much by funding as by people. Further, that funding will insure that our fire crews have what they need to fight the fire and come home safe. Writing the Governor about fire safety and ideas is one way of saying that the voters care about this topic. That would mean that even if I wrote to the Governor saying ‘buy more fire trucks’ I would still be supporting fire fighters and a safer California.

What do you think?


Richard Leland Neal

Hoping Kind of People

26th October 2023

Okay boss,

You need a writer and I’m one of those ‘hoping this is my big chance’ kinds of people with little experience, but all the drive in the world. I mostly have written comedy scripts. Comedy news for a YouTube channel to be clear. You can find that on my IMDB.

I wrote two full length plays and one full length film in college but after finding little in the ways of advice for marketing these works I got a degree in Psychology. I tend to lean into the darker parts of the human mind, and I like to really get out there and bend some brains.

I’ve written a few other scripts, I know I wrote a romantic comedy somewhere and a Sci-Fi thriller. I wrote the Thriller with a co-author and he wasn’t very compromising.

Where I’m at as a writer is green to the professional world, seasoned to working with others, and running out of time to get this going. If you have a job for me that job will be a big deal. If I had an agent I wouldn’t be answering this ad. If you need an agent, yeah, I can’t help you.

I think I get an answer for every hundred or so of these I sent out so I’ll be happy to hear from you.

Best,



Richard