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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link="#0563C1" vlink="#954F72"><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Mr. Whidden was a friend from where I grew up. He told me stories of his childhood and youth out on Cape Canaveral a short distance from the site where John Glenn launched into orbit much later. This was the 1920s in that remote village, where his father was a beekeeper and raised hogs. <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>One of their sows got out of the pen. Tracks led toward the beach. When they found her, she had discovered how to charge into the surf and catch fish (good chance BillW’s cod book never mentioned that.)<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Mr. Whidden had this story about the fishing sow. Naturally the Whiddens and local hog farmers hoped she could teach the piglets how to do that, and they could be rich, or at least well-fed, with nearly free meat production.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>I always had my doubts about that story, for I couldn’t see how a hog could possibly be a swimmer with those hoofs, but everything else Mr. Whidden told me checked out perfectly, with actual historical records about the development of the Cape Canaveral launch facility. I found references to back up everything he said. Mr. Whidden has been gone for nearly 30 years, but that fishing sow story has bothered me for all this time. The rest of the story sounded even more outlandish.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Whelp. My humble apologies Mr. Whidden: <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><a href="https://twitter.com/capeandcowell/status/1293949729345339392">https://twitter.com/capeandcowell/status/1293949729345339392</a><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Now the rest of the story doesn’t seem as implausible. Details available on request.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>spike<o:p></o:p></p></div></body></html>