Farewell to Moristotle & Co.

Photo from Jim’s mini high school
reunion at Lake Tahoe (10/8/2011)

By Jim Rix

Mo, congratulations on your third retirement!
    As I recall, your first retirement was from being an IBM technical writer/editor, and your second from being an administrative assistant to UNC vice presidents. I envy you that you were able to carry on to this third retirement, from managing the Moristotle & Co. blog and doing what you love to do, write and edit and help others.
    It will be sad when new postings cease after August 21.
    Your Friend,
    Jim

Copyright © 2023 by Jim Rix

Acting Citizen: Farewell to Moristotle & Co.

–30– (look it up)

By James Knudsen

Whose idea was it to put the fourth Saturday on the 22nd?
    Whose idea was it to fill this week with all manner of things to run around attempting to accomplish in July San Joaquin Valley heat?
    Whose idea was it to have a scatter-brained, unemployed actor contribute one column a month? It happened so long ago that I’m not sure who should receive the credit... or blame.

Moristotle 80th Birthday Interview

Interviewed by Geoffrey Dean

I posed a number of probing questions to Moristotle recently. His answers give us new insights into his mind and heart, while on a lighter note, they also helped me figure out what to give him for his 80^th birthday tomorrow!

     Thanks to my sister, Jennifer, for taking the photos above.

What three (or more) words would you use to describe yourself?

Skeptical, optimistic, helpful. I’m surprised how easily those three words came, and how confident I am of them….No, those came too fast; they need qualification, elaboration.

For Jim Rix’s 80th Birthday (on January 15)

Jim’s Most 

Famous Column?

By Moristotle

Jim Rix’s wry, witty discourse on the Greek legend of Psyche and Eros, “Thirst Satyrday for Eros: Understanding Eros (subtitled ‘...merits ardent investigation’),” was published on Saturday, September 6, 2014. Over eight years later, on December 28, 2022, our administrative staff received a notice from Blogger unlike any other we had ever received in our almost 17 years of posting, to wit:

Book Review: Rhino Dreams

10 Reasons
to Read This Novel

Reviewed by Moristotle

I chose the “10 reasons why” approach for this review because – in full disclosure – I said yes to Jon Price’s request that I please help a writing colleague in California – Kathy Williams – market her just-published book. (I’m not one to say no to a friend, and I might have been hoping to receive a free copy of the book, which I soon did.)

13 Years Ago Today: A gutsy book about a milestone criminal case

By Moristotle

[Originally published on August 15, 2007.]

Jim Rix, the author of Jingle Jangle: The Perfect Crime Turned Inside Out, lives in South Lake Tahoe, California, and Neighbors Bookstore there is the first bookstore to display his gutsy book about the Ray Krone case, a milestone in the annals of criminal justice.
    The second store to carry the book is the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Bull’s Head Bookshop, which displays it alongside Sister Helen Prejean’s bestselling The Death of Innocents, this year’s Summer Reading Program selection for incoming Tar Heel freshmen, who will discuss the book in many concurrent seminars on Monday afternoon, August 20. The jacket of Jingle Jangle proudly displays a blurb from Sister Helen:

My Life [8]

Coping with COVID-19

By Jim Rix

My Life [7]

In healthy retirement

By Jim Rix

I now reside in South Lake Tahoe, where I manage my 5-unit apartment building (formally SoftRix’s offices) and my house in Tahoe Keys as a seasonal vacation rental.
    My older son, Leland, and daughter, Vanita, live just 30 minutes away, over the hill in Carson Valley, south of Carson City, Nevada. Both are teachers. My youngest child, son Marlon, is an accomplished woodworker/cabinet-maker in Clovis, California. From them I have one grandson and five granddaughters.

Interview: Autobiographer Shirley Skufca Hickman

Shirley Skufca, in her years
at Tulare Union High School
(1958-60)

On the 4th volume of her life story

Interviewed by Moristotle

Early on, as I luxuriated in reading Shirley Skufca Hickman’s Rocky Road Is More Than a Candy Bar, I determined that I had to interview Shirley, if for no other reason than to try to find out how she could remember so much of her life of 60 years ago – even stuff about me that I don’t remember. Yes, I am mentioned a few times in the book, which includes the story of her two years as a new teacher at Tulare Union High School – my junior & senior years and, more prominently, William Silveira and Jim Rix’s as well. Bill & Jim have already announced and written about Shirley’s book on Moristotle & Co.
    And as I continued to read, even more intriguing questions arose than how she could remember so much. Let’s see what the questions were, and how she replies to them. They are in italics.

Rocky Road Is More Than a Candy Bar (Excerpt 1 from an autobiography)

Chapter 3 opens: A new teacher’s first day

[Editor’s Note: Jim Rix has introduced us to the 4th volume of Shirley Skufca Hickman’s autobiography in his own autobiographical column, “My Life,” and William Silveira reviewed the book on March 18. So, today, we present an excerpt from the book, the opening of Chapter 3, in which the author describes the first day of her first week as a new high school teacher. The rest of the chapter will appear on Wednesday. And remember, if you know how to access Amazon.com, you can “look inside” the book there.]

My Life [6]

Getting Cousin Ray out of prison

By Jim Rix

Early in the 1990s, while SoftRix was taking off, we learned that a distant cousin of mine, Ray Krone, was on death row. My mother assured me he was innocent, and since she was an objective thinker, not subject to the whims of bias, I decided to look into it. I visited Ray and examined court records, soon becoming convinced that my mother was right. Ray was innocent and we provided significant assistance to secure his release. But, hey, I offered in Chapter 1 to practically give you a copy of my book about that. Go read it.

My Life [5]

From contract programming to software ownership

By Jim Rix

When I began contract programming, around 1980, computer software lagged far behind computer hardware. Skilled programmers were consequently in high demand, and contract programming was quite lucrative. I contracted with companies like Advanced Micro Devices and Intel, two semiconductor manufacturers, as well as companies with federal aerospace contracts.

My Life [4]

I become a computer programmer

By Jim Rix

Following my stint as a high school mathematics teacher, I took a job at Lockheed Missiles and Space Company, in Sunnyvale, and began a career in computer programming. After seven months at Lockheed, I was offered a better position at Tymshare, Inc., another computer company. Tymshare transferred me to Seattle, Washington. That lasted a few years, after which I was laid off and sold furniture for a while at Levitz Furniture. I don’t think I had realized how versatile I could be.

My Life [3]

Marriage and teaching

By Jim Rix

After being graduated from TUHS, I entered San Jose State University, on a football scholarship. For my football promise, I’d also received an appointment to the United States Naval Academy, in Annapolis, Maryland, but I didn’t pass the entrance exam in English. At SJSU, I even had to take bonehead English. Halfway through the semester, the teacher told me she didn’t know why I was in the course. I guess I had had a bad day when I took that exam.

My Life [2]

High School Days

By Jim Rix

“After being graduated from TUHS.” I know that Chapter 1 said the next chapter would begin that way, but let’s pause a bit before we proceed to pick up with the autobiography I sent to the teacher who is writing her own biography of her days in Tulare. Maybe I shouldn’t have given high school such short shrift in what I sent to her.

My Life [1]

Early lessons

By Jim Rix

Today is my 77th birthday, a week after Moristotle’s, and only five days after that of our Tulare, California, high school classmate Donald Richert. I mention Don because Moristotle – I’m going to call him Morris from here on because he hadn’t yet become Moristotle….I mention Don because Morris has told him and me (and more than once) that he can remember first meeting us, although neither Don nor I can remember meeting Morris. Don and I, Morris says, were playing Roshambeau (or Rock Paper Scissors) on a school activity bus the summer before we three entered high school. Maybe we were playing it with too much gusto to remember, but just enough gusto to make a memorable impression on Morris? Anyway, we have remained in touch for some of the ensuing 64 years. We remember each others’ birthdays.

Six Years Ago Today: What is the cause of Heart Disease?

By Jim Rix

[Originally published on November 20, 2012.]

First let’s be clear on just what “Heart Disease” is, because some people confuse it with its consequences (heart attack, stroke, etc.) and/or its risk factors (high blood pressure, high cholesterol, etc.).

In Memoriam David Michael Pain

David Michael Pain
August 10, 1941 – May 20, 2018

By Moristotle

I never met Mike Pain in person. I first heard of him in the early 2000’s in reading Jim Rix’s account of Ray Krone’s wrongful conviction for a December 1991 murder in Phoenix, Arizona, and Jim’s involvement in winning a new trial for Ray, for which Mike did extensive private investigation on Ray’s behalf. This week Jim remembers Mike as “a unique individual, very good at his profession, private investigation” [which he chose in 1975].

The Loneliest Liberal:This Day in History

Photo by Jim Rix, 1976

By James Knudsen

Did you know that on this day in history, April 28, 357, Constantius II visited Rome for the first time?
    Me either. Or that April 28 is the day on which Benito Mussolini was killed by Italian partisans? Or that Charles DeGaulle resigned as President of France on this day in 1969? None of those events are committed to memory for the simple reason that they haven’t had much impact on my life. However, on this date in 1967 something did happen that has had a profound impact on me (and many others), I got another sister, Morissa Camille Knudsen. Here are some things you may or may not know about her.

Outside the Box: A suggestion for publicizing a book (or anything?)

By Moristotle

One particular member of the Moristotle & Co. staff comes up with unusual ideas so frequently, I’ve become used to it and usually don’t get all that excited. But this morning he came up with one that utterly floored me – so much so it reminded me that we do have this recurring column called “Outside the Box,” and the last time we published one was a little over a year ago (March 10, 2017).
    Ed Rogers had just recently had a big thought outside the box, when he suggested that the blog might have a “writer’s corner” – for the blog’s book authors to network and help one another with publishing, publicizing, and selling. I dutifully created such a corner and plugged in most of the advice that I could think of, including many items of actual experience from Ed himself, and from, for example, Jim Rix, Randy Somers, and Shirley Skufca Hickman, all of whom have written at least one book, published them, and sold many copies.