What Makes One Happy? Part 3

What Makes One Happy? Part 3

In my last two articles, I wrote about what makes me happy, both in the short-term and long-term. I spent very little time on my short-term happiness, and I plan to keep it that way in this article. It’s my long-term happiness that I will focus on in this article.

happiness is finding a parking meter with time on itWhen I think about what makes me happy in the short-term, I can’t help but think about listening to one of my favorite songs on my audio system. Be it on my smartphone, my home audio system, or in my awesome care with seven thunderous speakers that make my pants-leg move to the beat of the song. Wow. I also love hanging out with my friends, sharing food & drink over a meal. They are the most terrific friends in the world, and you know who you are. I’m looking forward to our next get together. Plus there are all the little things that happen each day, such as the feeling of completion of a job well done. All sorts of little things that make life fun and exciting.

Still, in the big picture, all of these little happiness’ do not measure up or compare to sharing these moments with an extraordinary woman. I’m fortunate enough to have found such a woman. There was a time, lasting for more than a decade where I feared I would not.

Now, I know that there are people out there, that do not need another person in their life. They hook up with someone and move on after a short while. That’s alright. It’s their life, and they are free to live it as they like.

However, for me, I can’t do that. In the short-term, sure. When I’m single and available, everything is game-on. From one night stands to hanging out for a couple of months is fine. But I’ve always known since I was a young adult, I needed someone to share my life with in profound and meaningful ways. I need a woman in my life. She has to be extraordinary, beautiful, and kind. I need a woman who will return my love, as I am, faults and all. Besides, I look upon the lady of my love with rosy glasses anyway, so she will be perfect in my eyes.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I have my faults and plenty of them. Yet, one thing I have learned in all my years is that in order to survive and thrive; I must be who I am. For too many years, I wore a mask hiding my true self and trying to be the person I thought she wanted me to be. What a mistake that was. I lost decades of happiness as a result.

Thankfully, I have rectified that error. I speak my mind, unforgiving in standing up for my beliefs. If you don’t like them, or can’t deal with them, well that’s on you. I am who I am and you can either accept it or not. Fortunately, my lady-love does accept me for who I am. I know that there are parts that she does not like but I must have more than enough to overcome those as she professes her love for me in return.

She makes me happy. Ecstatic in fact. Here’s how. In my everyday life, I have to leave the house and go to work, just as most of us have to. I’m functional and happy when I am away. I’m stable and even keel even when we’re apart.

The closer I get to her physically, the happier I get. When we’re in close proximity, my happiness scale jumps radically. And when we touch each other, physically touch and just about anywhere on each others body, my soul sings. Happiness MeterTake when we’re sleeping. I am overjoyed when we spoon up to each other; one arm draped over the other. My happiness meter jumps into the red-zone. As we sleep, I can sense when we roll over and are apart. That meter dips down and out of the red-zone. In my semi-conscious state, I’ll reach out and touch whatever part of her I can, just to connect and move that meter up. If for whatever reason, she rolls over to face me and in her sleep reaches out and holds me, I feel that meter explodes well above the red-zone.

The thing that surprises me is that her touch doesn’t have to be sexual at all. It’s the simple connection of skin to skin that excites me. Now, don’t get me wrong. I live for the sexual kinds of touch, but I tend to include those in the short-term happiness column. The long-term, red-zone touches are what make me happiest.

Touching is just one of the must haves on my short list in a long-term relationship. Yes, there are a few more, and in total are less than ten. She and I have shared that list with each other. There are lots more on the ‘it would be nice if she …’ list, but if some are missing, that’s alright. It’s the must-have list that is most important to me. I’ve already written about two of those on the list. I won’t list them all or otherwise; this article could become a novel, short as the list is. I am fortunate to have found a girl, no, a woman, who satisfies every one of those items.

We have our pet names for each other. Mine for her has changed over the years. The last couple of years, I’ve referred to her as ‘My Love.’ I use it everywhere. I call her that at the checkout counter of the grocery store or when I am answering a private question about which type of beans I prefer. I love saying that. “Yes, my love.” “No my love.” “Hey, love, want to go to a movie?” I hope she smiles every time she hears me say it. I certainly do.

I am thankful to her for everything she gives me. I suppose that at times, she doesn’t recognize it, but when things quiet down, I am positive that she does. I think about her every day, no, just about every minute of the day. I regularly review what she would think and do in this situation or that. What would she think about a decision I am contemplating? Or just simply, picture her in my mind and smile.

One time, I feared I would never find the love of my life. Well, that’s not quite true. I was confident I would. I would search forever if need be to find her. I found her in the most extraordinary way and on our first date, we talked for hours over dinner which included some of the most bizarre topics. Topics that included how we would like to be buried when we died. How odd is that on a first date?

So, I have found her, the love of my life. The one that makes me happy in the long-term. She’s the one. Love, don’t you ever die on me. You hear me, love? I’ve got too much loving to do and much more happiness to explore.

Evil Meter

Another day without spilling my coffee

Another day without spilling my coffee

Two whole days and I didn’t spill a drop of my coffee. Whoo hoo! Both days were splendid, and I got stuff done, now if I could only delete my chronic headache, but who cares. Coffee heaven!

Losing my freaking mind over spilled coffeeSpilled coffee

What Makes One Happy, part 2

What Makes One Happy, part 2

Last time I wrote about my short-term vs. long-term happiness. Another short-term happiness is coffee. I love coffee. Sixteen years ago when I rejoined the dating scene, I had my first cup of vanilla latte. coffee latteWhile I liked coffee then, I fell in love with vanilla lattes. Today, exiting the dating scene with my long-term girlfriend, I drink several cups of coffee daily, laced with vanilla sugar-free creamer.

Which brings me to my second item in my long-term happiness list, alone time for painting, drawing, and writing. I drink coffee as I paint, draw, or write.

However, I am getting ahead of myself. Let’s back up, shall we?

As a child, I drew all sorts of spaceships and ground vehicles, making up stories as they developed. I also tended to write stories in my head that incorporated these doodles or were fresh and not related to them. I even wrote a couple down which were lost to the hands of time. As a young adult, I forgot about them and proceeded to be caught up in photography and girls. Girls turned out to be my main obsessive behaviors and I was awkward around them. It took a lot of trial and effort that lasted for decades, despite getting married and having a child in the meantime.

Sixteen years ago, I revisited my creative talents a couple of years after my marriage died and I lived alone. I loved it and I began drawing and painting in earnest. Living alone like that for all those years trained my adult mind to disappear into my creative world, feeling and living the lives of the characters I created. Later, branching out and revisiting my creative writing, I fell into the same pattern. In some ways, it was easier to disappear into my creative world as I could sit in a comfortable chair and write; all the while, my girlfriend watched her favorite shows on television.

I have to admit, I prefer my alone quiet time, apart from life and in my creative space (my office or my studio) in order to draw, write or paint. Sailing into the sunsetIt’s important to me, no question about it, and being there makes me happy. I’m free to be myself, unbeholden to anyone or anything else. Feeling what my characters feel and experience, I can develop story lines that flow. I can feel the pain and joy, torment and pleasure that they feel. It hurts at times but I am able to leave a bit of me in my creations. As I have said before, my heart and soul is embedded in each work I create, be it visual or written. I wouldn’t have it any other way.

To be honest though, it is difficult at times to separate myself from the real world, where my girlfriend is such an important part, and spend time in my creative space where I immerse myself in my fictional realities. I can recall a numerous occasions when I had to stop and ask her to wait until I finished a particular section of the story. I didn’t want to lose track of the flow of the story, extricate myself from the pretend world in order so that I could interact with her on whatever she wanted to say. Sometimes she’d acquiesce and other times, she’d fume. I can’t say I blame her. I do the same to her.

Last November, consumed with writing my latest book, ‘The Trafficking Consortium’, she really became bothered at the time I spent writing the story and disappearing into this fictional world, even when I was sitting right next to her. The Trafficking ConsortiumI took every spare moment to write, moments that she had felt were hers. I agree. Most times they were but during November, nope. It was as if I had a barking dog scratching at the door to be let out and relieve itself. Just as you can’t tell a dog to wait, else it would piss on your carpet, I couldn’t tell the story to wait. Frankly, it hurt to keep it inside instead of being let out. So, every available moment was taken to write, and write, and write some more.

My girlfriend and I are still negotiating these rules of engagement, so that I can create undisturbed and uninterrupted with time I allocate to her. Since she is very important to me, I walk a delicate line between the two worlds. In the meantime, I keep at it. I thank the universe that lately, she is okay with me blocking out significant blocks of time to create. I wonder what she will think when she figures out that some of my best creative time is well after dark and can last into the wee hours of the morning. I don’t think it is a problem though as my body can’t take it anymore. For some reason, it insists upon a decent night’s sleep.

Thanks for reading. I hope you have a great day and a better tomorrow.

What Makes One Happy?

What Makes One Happy?

Miss MollyI don’t know about you, but I can tell you about me. First off, I group my happiness into two categories, short-term and long-term.

My latest bit of short-term happiness comes from my car. It is a 2017 Camaro 2LT/RS with a few other goodies to go with it. She wears a Hyper Blue Metallic dress over a hot leather interior. Yes, that’s her in the picture. Beautiful, isn’t she?

I named it Miss Molly after the song ‘Devil with a Blue Dress On’ covered by Mitch Ryder & the Detroit Wheels. With six on the floor and on-the-fly modifiable performance modes, she’s a dream to drive and lots of fun to ride.

Devil In Blue DressBTW, I’ve named all my cars over the years with female names, the previous being ‘Alice,’ (nod to Elton John’s ‘All the Girls Love Alice’) a 2014 red Camaro built with similar accoutrements. Over the years, I have had or driven several Camaros and I first fell in love with the car when I bought my very first one. It was a 1974 antique white Camaro Type LT with all the trimmings, including a spoiler, and a dark saddle tan interior. I paid $5,204 for it brand new, right off the showroom floor. Too bad they still don’t go for that kind of money. Her name was Valerie and I’m not going to tell you why, though I bet you can guess why.

As for Miss Molly, I love sliding into her and giving her a ride.

However, I am most interested in writing about what makes me happy in the long-term. In no particular order, they are:

  1. Alone time for painting, drawing, and writing.
  2. Naked female bodies, or as I otherwise say, lover of the female form.
  3. An extraordinary woman to share our combined interests.

Fortunately, I am at a stage in my life where I enjoy all three, which I suppose makes me elated and lucky. I feel that I am, but why do I always want more?

Let’s start with number two in the list. I first learned of my fascination with girls and their bodies back in seventh grade. That would make me about eleven at the time. It was completely unknown to me, but I now know that it was at this stage in my life where I started changing my attitudes towards girls. Of course, at that time, I didn’t understand it. A year later in eighth grade, our teacher arranged our classroom desks in a circle. A girl (Theresa), who sat across from me, would sit with her knees spread wide so that I could see right up under her dress and study the panties covering her privates. I was fascinated, yet young and very, very stupid. Thankfully, I never made a move back then. I think it was also the year that I discovered my father’s stash of nudie’s in the basement where my mother would never find them. From that moment on, I was hooked.

A year later, as a freshman in high-school, and still underage, I perused the magazine stands, trying to work up the courage to buy my first Playboy magazine. I stood there for over an hour before the proprietor of the place asked me “Well, are you going to buy something?” I chickened out and instead, bought my first book on how to sketch the human female body. This was just as good I thought and used it more to master the art of masturbation than to study and learn to draw them. Of course, by this time, I had been practicing masturbation for over two years, but now I had something in hand (forgive the pun) to refine the art. Even to this day, I frequently enjoy it. Perhaps that is why my urologist tells me that I have a perfect prostate. Does daily practice really make perfect in this case?

As the time inevitably drove on, I found myself hooked on studying a woman’s body. I amassed quite a collection of ‘girlie’ magazines, preferring the more tasteful ones over the increasing market of tasteless ones. With the advent of the internet and the freely accessible store of images, I eventually dropped all my subscriptions, which I presume many other men did as well, which in turn started the slide of the modern paper-based ‘girlie’ magazine.

Female FormMy love of a woman’s body has never once wavered in the decades since. In fact, it’s only grown. No matter what the shape, style, or wrappings, I love them all. I have my favorites of course and I absolutely hate the basketballs that some women insert into their bodies. I like them real, natural, and responsive. I even started reading medical textbooks and other similar books meant to instruct rather than titillate. I learned a lot about the female body and how it works. Even to this day, I strive to learn more about them. I want to find out how they work, inside and out.

As a result, I discovered the mechanics involved with foreplay, the female orgasm, and the after care. Over the years, I practiced with various partners and when I wasn’t in a committed relationship, with several at a time. They taught and I learned. Each taught me more than any book learning could ever have, though I do feel that the books helped make for an easier experience in and out of bed.

Still, I find myself unsatiated. My fascination with a woman’s naked body grows exponentially. I want more and I want to continue studying and practicing the art. And, this is very important, I know with whom I want to share this fascination and experience the joys that come with exploring the human body.

That would be, of course, the love of my life, my girlfriend and life-partner. No, they’re not three different girls, they’re all the same girl, all wrapped up in one fabulous package. I don’t believe I can handle more than one at a time. Too exhausting as she would say. We’ve been together for thirteen years this coming May. I have learned a lot about how her mind and body works. Although … I know that I don’t know it all. I know I am missing much that I cannot learn by reading books, looking at porn, or studying medical manuals. I desire and intend to rectify that with lots of practice. Perhaps within the next thirteen years, I will become satisfied.

However, to tell you the truth, I hope I do not. I have always had an insatiable desire to learn and grow. I don’t know what I would do with myself if I lose that desire. I will always want to learn more about what makes her tick. It’s a real shame that I am growing older, and my body doesn’t work as it once did in my teens and early twenties. If only I knew then what I know now, how much more would I be able to learn? And oh, how I would practice. Afterall, doesn’t practice makes perfect?

Next time, I will expound upon my need for drawing, painting, and writing. Lastly, I will write about my need to share life and experiences with an extraordinary woman.

In the meantime, have a great day and a better tomorrow, perhaps in bed with your favorite partner(s).

Editorial on Google Chrome v56

Editorial on Google Chrome v56

Google ChromeFirst off, let’s just say that I have been a Google Chrome supporter for at least two years. In my mind, it’s done an excellent job isolating and protecting us users from the nasties out there in the world trying to screw with us. I know because as an IT engineer at work, one of my jobs is to test the interactions of new software product versions in our environment. As such, I read up on upcoming releases of our critical applications used in our environment. The Google Chrome browser is one of those applications.

Last Wednesday, Feb 7, 2016, Google released its latest version of their Chrome Browser. I knew in advance that it was coming. I thought I knew how it would affect my user base at work and my devices at home.

I was wrong. In the week since Google released it, I have discovered a failure within printing calendars from OWA (Outlook’s web application for email and calendars for Exchange Servers) and Android device breakdowns. I’m less worried about the printing of calendars which I’m sure will be fixed at some point. I’m more worried about the total disconnect on Android devices.

When I first learned of the upcoming Chrome release, I figured that it would not affect me. All of my devices are relatively new and update frequently. Okay, apparently I was partially correct.

Google DriveAbout 3-4 years ago, I bought a Samsung tablet 10.2. It’s been a workhorse in my house ever since. My girlfriend uses it to read her webmail and traverse the various social sites. I use it to make use of the Google Drive features which depend on Chrome. When I am away from my home office, I can pick up the table and write full chapters of a new book on it. Then, when it’s time to do initial editing, my girlfriend will read out loud what I wrote on the tablet while I follow along on mine and make corrections.

With the release of Chrome 56, that all broke and apparently will be gone forever. In researching the question, here is what I found.

Samsung stopped updating the Android OS on my 10.2 tablet at version 4.0.4. Okay, it’s an older version. I get that. But until the other day, I didn’t care. The tablet did everything we needed, browsing, docs, sheets and a bunch of other stuff that is not germane to this editorial.

When version 56 installed, Google in its infinite wisdom simply disabled the installed instance on my tablet. It didn’t say why. It didn’t throw up a message why the program wouldn’t load. Tapping the icon on the screen merely appeared to start and immediately stopped. When my girlfriend told me that her chrome on her tablet had broken, she just handed me the tablet and told me to fix it

ChromeNormally, this is a no-brainer for me. I uninstalled the app and went to the Playstore to reinstall it. What do you know? The app wasn’t listed. WTF? When I dug deeper, I found an article in 2015 mentioning that due to the disabling of certain external features, most notably .mobi, Google was going to stop supporting Chrome on certain devices in the future. Okay, to me that means, support will stop answering questions, and I am free to use the software for as long as I want, as long as I don’t call them. Right?

Wrong in this case. Google effectively crashed my installed copy and prevented it from being used at all. Okay then, at first I accepted it and moved on, giving the tablet back to my girlfriend and told her to use the built-in browser that came with the table.

A couple of days later, it hit me. My current cell phone is a Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge. What would happen if I decided to continue to use it for the next, say, 3 or 4 years. Not to say I would, but what if? I still have my Galaxy S3 in use, so it is possible. What if Google decided to build in yet another security feature into Chrome and disable all previous versions of Chrome. What if they decided that the Android OS version was just too old to support the latest and greatest (?) version of Chrome and just killed Chrome on my device.

You would say, just use a different or built-in browser. My answer would be, wrong.

Chrome is the built-in browser on this device. As such, I would have no browser at all, and I suspect a bunch else would break as well since the OS on the S6 Edge is so heavily dependent upon the Chrome backbone.

Would I be able to use the playstore to go out and find the current copy of Firefox, Opera, or Safari? I’m not sure. They would be forcing me to buy a new smartphone when I had a perfectly good working one yesterday.

Is this right? The same goes for my tablet. It was a perfectly good working one yesterday and not today. Its usefulness is now cut in half, and my girlfriend and I are already talking about replacing it.

Now, you Apple people out there would ask, why not buy an iPad, or why didn’t you buy and iPad.

I’ll tell you. I’m an open systems kind-of-guy. I do not like the small little world that Apple forces me into. I do not like how they force you to buy new expensive accessories on each device you own. And by-the-way, Apple builds in their own planned obsolescence into each of their products. Now, before you try to defend your position, just know that I do have an iPad 2. Yes, this is an older tablet, predating my Samsung Tablet. I had figured that it would force me to replace it two years ago. The thing is, I don’t use it very much. In fact, about the only time I use it is to test my website designs on it. And hey, guess what? I haven’t gotten the nerve to load up Chrome on it and see what happens. I will soon, just not today.

In the end, I’m not happy that Google is doing what they are doing, in the interest of making a better, more secure browsing platform. I feel they should have a least let me keep on continue using the older version, and given me a disclaimer. Fine, I’ll accept the disclaimer and continue to be productive. If something happens afterward, it’s on me, and I’m okay with that. #sad

Keep plugging

Keep plugging

Her Client Trilogy

It’s Friday afternoon, and I am sitting in my home office for the first time in a week. I’m a bit surprised by that as I ordinarily come in here every day, whether I am working at my full-time job or not. The past several days have once again, been an eye-opener for me. I’ve learned a few things, and I’ve needed to deal with doctors, medication interactions, and my job. But what might I write about that will interest you, my fans and fellow readers out there?

I could write about how well sales of my books are going. I’m very pleased with that, especially with the ‘Her Client’ series of books. It seems they are taking off. I’m a bit surprised with that revelation but what do I know? I write what comes to me, whether it is a nice, vanilla topic or not. But do you honestly care what my sales figures are? No, I wouldn’t think so. However, thank you to everyone who has bought my books.

The Trafficking ConsortiumI do have a new book, ‘The Trafficking Consortium,’ on the cusp of being released. An Advance Reader Copy (ARC) available for purchase right now on my website right now. My beta readers, (those readers who I make the book available for free with the understanding that they will write an honest critique as well point out problems in the book) have suggested a couple of revisions. After chatting with them and thinking about it, I decided to implement the changes. They were right. The changes will help with the flow of the book, and rectify a timeline issue that I had not considered before. In the end, it will be a better book.

If you want to be one of my beta readers, send me a request and I will be happy to send you a link to the free copy of the ARC.

Over the next couple of weeks, I will be implementing the changes and once again offer the revised edition for free with the promise of an honest critique of the book. So, if you’re eagerly awaiting the delivery of the first edition of the book to the general market, please be patient. I promise you. It’s coming. I love this story too much to let it die.

possible, able, real, persevere, persistCircling back to what to write about in this post. I finally decided that, despite the issues I’ve experienced and suppressed from most people, I learned a valuable lesson which I would like to share with you.

 

Persevere & Persist

Keep plugging. Don’t try to analyze and problem-solve that which you have no control over. Instead, deal with the here and now, work out a way to do what you love, and ways of coping to allow you to do exactly that. You know who you are. Be who you are. Fuck the rest. That’s my message to you.

Until next time, this is Richard Verry, with a cup of coffee, writing to you from my home office with windows that look out on a snow covered landscape and glad to be indoors.

Good Morning One and All

Good Morning One and All

Blue sky and snowI woke up to a lovely day today, a blue sky devoid of clouds. I haven’t seen a blue sky in weeks. However, it’s cold outside. A balmy 18F (-8C) with a strong, steady breeze encouraging me to stay inside, despite the fact that I had to go out to get the paper for my girlfriend. To bad it’s not delivered to my door but at the street. Oh well, stop bitching. Sitting in my office, staring out the windows as I write this, lifts my spirits and brightens my mood. I hope that the same goes for you.

There have been a lot of changes in my life since I last wrote to you. An extensive assessment of my post-concussion condition revealed that, except for a couple of areas, I am mostly better. I still have the headaches, delayed memory issues, and a couple of other things. The overall consensus is that I need to mix things up in my life. Get out, do things, and stop focusing on my headaches. Perhaps there is truth in that.

Frosty beer mugI’ve gone back to work. Whoo hoo! At least on a limited basis. Half-days, three times a week is a pretty good start getting my life back to normal. I started last Wednesday and finished the week up on Friday. Both days were significantly better than when I tried it last September. I’ve gone to the movies twice, gone out and met friends at restaurants and a bar & grill. Damn, I sure missed that last one. Hanging out, sharing food and beer with friends, acquaintances, and making new friends as people come by to see what the good cheer is all about.

From what I hear from those keeping the tally, sixty-three of us officially stopped by last night, and probably a few more as I saw people come in and not get acknowledged by the keeper of the clipboard. Due to the music, various monitors displaying various sports games from around the country, and the din of exuberant conversations, the place was loud. Thankfully, I came prepared with a pair of decent ear plugs.

All in all, it’s good to get out. My headaches stayed mostly in the 2-3 range the entire week, though right now, it’s a strong 4. I blame the gathering at the bar & grill for that though in all honesty, if this were a month ago, I believe I would have experienced a 6 or 7. That’s progress.

As I laid in bed just before I fell asleep last night, a potential scene for a novel popped into my head. Maybe, perhaps, it will make it to print in a future novel. I can only hope.

Lastly, as I mentioned last time, I was cleaning up my office in preparation to do some drawing. Well, that project is done, at least enough so that I can pull out my drawing tablets, pencils, gray eraser, and blending stubs and begin work. I’m going to take the weekend off from my office, right after I post this article, and start on Monday. Since my creative juices are at an all time low, I’ll start simply by using photographs as references. I do that from time to time though I often take it to a whole different direction than what I see in the photo.

The plan is, by drawing, that will open the creative stream in my head, and allow me to come up with a plot for a new book. Wish me luck.

Have a great day and a better tomorrow.

Thank you Readers

AwesomeThank You Readers

I want to say thank you to June Allan for your 5 five star review of my book, ‘The Breakup’.

I also want to say thank you to Winfield who graciously posted 5 star reviews on each of my books in the ‘Her Client’ trilogy.

You’re awesome. Thank you.

The Breakup
The Breakup
Her Client Book 1
Her Client
Her Overseer Book 2
Her Overseer
Her Essentia Book 3
Her Essentia
Her Client Trilogy
Her Client Trilogy

 

So Now You Know

So Now You Know!

Yesterday, I had lunch with my girlfriend at a local diner. This diner is interesting as it’s decor is from the 1950’s. On each table, they use a painted clay flower pots to hold the creamers and sugar for us coffee drinkers. (Yes, I’m a coffee drinker.) On the outside of the flower pots are sayings and interesting facts. Our table had the following.

Electric Chair“The electric chair was invented by a dentist.” Needless to say, I was intrigued.

Later that afternoon, I googled it and discovered that in fact, the statement was true. A dentist from Buffalo NY invented the electric chair. Buffalo is just 75 minutes down the Thruway from where I live. Fascinated, I kept reading.

Alfred P. Southwick conceived of the chair as a humane alternative form of execution. He worked on refining it throughout the 1880’s. It first used in 1890 and quickly became the primary form of execution within the United States. The first person to die in the chair was Joseph Chappleau, convicted of beating his neighbor to death with a sled skate. Execution of Marth PlaceThe first woman executed in the electric chair was Martha M. Place, who died on March 20, 1899, for the bloody murder of her 17-year-old stepdaughter, Ida Place. In executing a woman for the first time, her executioners revised the placement of the electrodes, and placed them on her ankles. It was reported that Martha died instantly.

Due to its success, the use of ‘Old Sparky’ spread throughout the early twentieth century and crossed international borders and practiced in The Philippines. However, most other countries concluded that the chair had no distinct advantage over hanging.

I was fascinated to learn that on one occasion, the chair failed to kill its occupant, Willie Francis. Upon investigation, they learned that a portable chair was improperly configured by an intoxicated trustee. After his failed execution, lawyers for Willie Francis argued before the courts, that since Willie was ‘executed,’ he successfully fulfilled his sentence and should be released from custody. The argument was rejected, and Willie was successfully executed a year later in 1947.

Unfortunately, the device was not perfect and many executions failed to quickly and humanely kill their subjects, resulting in the chair falling out of favor. As lethal injection became the preferred method of execution, the use of electric chair slowly died, pun intended. Today, it is used only as a secondary form, when lethal injection is unavailable, or when the prisoner chooses it himself or herself when available. In most states, the chair has been retired except for those capital cases committed before March 31, 1998.

Fascinated, I continued my research and read how the chair works. I was surprised to learn that the individual was not subjected to a single, long jolt of electricity. Rather, a single, short duration, high-intensity shock was delivered to the top of the head to cause unconsciousness and brain death. Following the initial shock, the chair then produced a longer, lower intensity charge designed to shut down the core organs, including the heart.

So now you know.