You heard I suppose of Nostradamus. He was able to look into the future to tell of future events. Some say he predicted the present troubles.
The Greeks had Cassandra who also is said to have that ability to see the future. Some Christians have he Bible, The book of Revelations is supposed to have symbols if correctly interpreted tell of the anti-Christ and other future supernatural events.
Then there is numerology. This is defined as “The branch of knowledge that deals with the occult significance of numbers.” How do numbers foretell events? Many believe there are hidden significance in them.
Events in Charlottesville made me recall driving through a small town in Florida earlier this year. I was on one of those side routes having tired of the madness on the interstate. I saw a small shop advertising “Real Southern Lunches” so I stopped. When I went inside I was the only customer making me question my decision. The place looked sparkling clean so I stayed.
Talking to the waitress who seemed to relish some company she told me she believed a number could tell much about a person. She told me she had a gift of being able to manipulate numbers to do that. She went on and on about it, strange words coming from a normal looking person.
I’m thinking I better hurry up and get away. But she persisted in asking me to give her a number and a person. I guessed it helped her day pass so I said, Trump. He had just been inaugurated. “Number 45, Trump is our 45th president.” She sat down in the booth right at my side, took out two pens, one blue and one red. She wrote the number down. I took a photo of it as is shown above.
She then turned the paper over and began to rub the back and utter strange words. She then flipped it over.
It seemed to me the red number 5 had moved a bit. I had my smart phone camera so since she still had her eyes closed I took another photograph shown to the left. I wanted to compare it with the original photo.
Then she opened her eyes, looked at me and her handiwork, smiled somewhat wanly, quickly flipped the paper over. She went through the process again.
All I could figure was that somehow she had folded the papers together to produce that illusion. I watched her hands very closely as they rubbed the paper as I listened to her mysterious chant. I figured she was going to unfold it and the numbers would be back to the original position. It was quite surprising to me when she flipped it again. The five ran right into the four as you can see from the photo I took of it to the left. 
Now I was confused. Looking at it there was no way the paper had been folded but the numbers on it had clearly moved. There was no doubt of it at this time. She still had her eyes closed as if in a trance.
When she came out of it she looked down.
I said “that’s great. What’s the trick.” She stared past me. I wasn’t sure she heard me. I was about to repeat my question when she said. “One more will do it,.”
She went on after taking a deep breath. “I shouldn’t be doing this. It is sapping my energy.”
I was going to tell her that was fine but before the words came out she was in her trance again, the number was face down on the table and she again started to rub the backside of it and her intonations grew loud and rapid. This time much sweat poured off her face. She screamed loudly really scaring me. It took all I had to stay sitting in the booth.
I had that fight or flight response to her yell that I wanted to run.She then opened her eyes as if she scared herself out of the trance. She stared at me wondering who I was and where she was. Her wits quickly came back to her. She flipped over the paper.
There it was. The number 45 had disappeared and turned into a swastika. I quickly took the photo on the left while she as if in shock stared down at the number.
Incredulously I asked her: “Does that mean Trump is or is going to be a Nazi.”
Her response was to tear up the paper and walk away, As she was heading behind the counter the restaurant door flew open and a group of local church members, some wearing “Make America Great Again” hats poured into the restaurant and she was quickly pouring coffee and otherwise busy. Soon the place was filing up.
I signaled to her to bring me the bill. I didn’t want to leave it like this. I wanted to say more to her. She disappeared into the kitchen area and came back out wearing one of those red Trump hats. She walked over to my table.
“Dixie,” (that was her name) I whispered. “I want to talk to you about the number.”
“What number?” She replied.
“You know — the 45. The way it moved.”
She smiled and said: “Do me a favor pal. Pay the bill and move on. We like nuts on our sundaes and not in our seats.”
I left and pretty much forgot about the incident until the other day as I said. I wondered if I had somehow dreamed the whole event. I went to m smart phone and fortunately I still had the photos.
All I can think now is that if the numbers are right then we have a new Führer and are on the cusp of the Fourth Reich. But then again who believes in the occult significance of numbers.
“Real Southern Lunches”? So, what was on the menu that made it “Real Southern Lunches”?
If you ate a Big Mac, fries and a Coke at McDonald’s in Jacksonville then you had “Real Southern Lunch”. It was lunch, it was real, and the location was Southern. Culturally unique? No.
Perhaps next time you will tell us that lunch was fried chicken and biscuits, with you witnessing the killing and butchering of the chicken and delving into augury.
https://www.cliffsnotes.com/cliffsnotes/subjects/literature/what-is-an-augury
” Atrabilious amphigory and periphrastic bits of casuistry ‘
How …Sesquipedelian … of you .
You have to give me a break. I don’t get to be a blowhard too often. I admit a gulosity for obscure words and when people complain I remind them that these ARE words and they are all usable. I mean, what were they for if not to use. I’m no jobbernowl, ya know.
As my old pal , now deceased , of Boston Edison , Inspector Jack Cantwell would say … You ain’t no ham and egger !
Another favorite , after we had been driving over hell and gone on a Utilities survey looking for a particular pole … ” Here it is Johnny , right where we left it ! “
Tadzio! Refreshing remarks. Good to see your humor come to the surface. Not the usual atrabilious amphigory and periphrastic bits of casuistry. A pause in the threnody….jeremiad perhaps? Call it what you will. I just hope to see more of this Tadzio. We are all here to have a little fun.
Now for Bill C. A friend of mine has been in every county in the United States. And believe it or not, he was not the first person to do this spectacular waste of time. He was the second. And when he was done he told me that he had been to 31 Washington Counties! Thirty one! We just can’t have this slave owner with all these counties under his belt. And I think we give JFK a pass. After all, it was Marilyn Fucking Monroe!!!!C’mon. Are we in agreement?
Was there a drunken bulldog named Fireball in there btw ?
Wasn’t Cher in that ? I refuse to believe you have gone around the paper crease . This is you mocking the mockers , spoofing the spoofers , high camping the campers , Right ?
I doff my Dixiecrat straw boater to you
Remember, (1) FDR’s segregated army; (2) FDR’s Executive Order #9066 ordering the internment of 100,000 Japanese Americans and (3) FDR’s support for the KKK:
“So. Governor Cuomo has made it plain that he believes a U.S. Army base in Brooklyn should be stripped of the names of two Confederate Generals. Using his own words that send a clear message that “in New York, we stand against intolerance and racism, whether it be insidious and hidden or obvious and intentional,” one must now ask: When or will the Governor — and the Mayor who has ordered a hunt for all local “symbols of hate” in his city — demand that the name of FDR, a man who literally appointed a member of the Ku Klux Klan to the Supreme Court (Hugo Black) and boasted to that very Justice that “some of his best friends and supporters” were Klansmen — be stripped from landmark tributes all over New York State?” American Spectator article by Jeffrey Lord.
All FDR monuments must be torn down!
Signs and Wonders and Southern Lunches . Outstanding post !
Matt:
1. They have “homes” for folks who think so!
2. BUT, BUT: we all know that 666 is the mark of Satan, and the building at 666 5th Avenue in New York is owned by the Kushner family, the president’s son-in-law.
3. And as Louis Farrakhan told us the Washington Monument was 555 feet high and 1555 was the first year slaves were brought to America. Which proves Satan’s hand in all of this.
4. Washington Monument must be torn down anyway: he owned slaves. Change the name of the state of Washington, Washington D.C. and all schools, streets, etc, named Washington.
4. And Lafayette owned a few slaves, and while the French were aiding the American Revolution, slavery was still legal in France and French colonies. Tear down all Frenchmen’s statues!
5. Wilson and FDR ran segregated armies, and the Vietnam War was a bad war against brown Asian people, so all those monuments to Wilson and FDR, and all those men who served in segregated armies (in WWI & WWII) or in bad wars (Vietnam) must be torn down.
6. LBJ’s statues must go . . . and Jimmy Carter’s because no black astronauts served during their presidencies.
6. And the Democratic Party was pro-slavery; so no monuments to Democrats!
7. And, we all agree, Clinton, JFK, MLK., Jr., were all adulterers. All those monuments must be torn down!
It’s all very logical: it all flows from these numbers: 45, 555, and 666. And Louis Farrakhan said the most magical number of all to the Nation of Islam was 19, and most of these evil personages lived in the 19th century or 1900s. It all makes sense, now!
P.S. Since some African-Americans are descendants of Africans who sold other Africans into slavery, we must tear down all statues of African Americans and purge the African American Museum, too, unless and until absolutely no link is established between an individual and historical slave traders.
P.P.S. Since drugs are the curse of modernity, anyone who used drugs must have his statue taken down!
P.P.P.S. Anyone who opposed Gay Marriage, must be disbarred (including Justices Roberts, Thomas, Scalia and Alito) and their names stricken from monuments.
10-4 (O.K! Over and out!)
Bill C, the only thing I would add:
http://www.theroot.com/did-black-people-own-slaves-1790895436
How Many Slaves Did Blacks Own?
So what do the actual numbers of black slave owners and their slaves tell us? In 1830, the year most carefully studied by Carter G. Woodson, about 13.7 percent (319,599) of the black population was free. Of these, 3,776 free Negroes owned 12,907 slaves, out of a total of 2,009,043 slaves owned in the entire United States, so the numbers of slaves owned by black people over all was quite small by comparison with the number owned by white people.
Carter G. Woodson was a black scholar, got his Ph.D. at Harvard. Interesting guy.
Good one. Loved it. Very clever.
Calm down. Remain quiet. Some nice men with big butterfly nets will soon be here. And they’re your friends. Just remain calm. Everything is going to be al(t)right.
Great comment! Way to go, Tadzio!