John Steven Calder

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How I met my Sweetie!

In June-July 2009, I was staying with my friend Glenn Michael Mills , aka 'Millsy', at a home in Los Gatos. Millsy was dying of ALS or more commonly known as Lou Gehrig's Disease. Once a mighty force on the rugby field, Millsy was fading fast and I wanted to spend as much time with him as I could.

I always thought we would have time as we got older. Nature was not on the same page as me.

Millsy and I playing at Stanford in the early 90's

Millsy and I at the Glenn Michael Mills Rugby Tournament 2009
I moved into the house in Los Gatos, which was donated by a friend of ours, and outfitted with wheelchair ramps and handrails. The house was free, for as long as Millsy needed it. My job was to drive him to appointments, meals, and such, and to cook for him.
About the 1st of July 2009 my phone rings "Calder, ya crazy bastard, we gotta go to this thing at Jimmy's place!". On the other end was my friend, mentor and partner in crime, the legendary writer Warre…

Jimmy Hoffa, Soap Making and the FBI

Saponification is an exothermic (gives off heat) chemical reaction that occurs when fats or oils (fatty acids) come into contact with lye (a base). Saponification literally means "turning into soap" from the root word, "sapo," which is Latin for soap.
A human body can be turned into soap quite easily. In the movie “Fight Club”, the character Tyler Durden showed it could be a profitable business as well. Gain access to liposuction body fat and you can make the creamiest bar of gourmet soap.
A rare and curious version of saponification can occur when a human body is stored in a high pressure vessel with no bacterial contamination, at a very low temperature.
That's exactly what happened to an unnamed deckhand of a freighter that sank on Lake Superior. As a kid growing up in Michigan, we heard ghoulish tales of “Grandpa” the ghost of the freighter SS Kamloops sunk in a storm on Lake Superior, just off Twelve O’Clock Point on the north coast of Isle Royale .
I always r…

No Way Home

An Essay on the human cost due to the collapse of a City By John Calder I often ponder what kind of man would I would be today, had I NOT been born in a place that started dying the day I was born.

What and where would I be today if my place of birth was growing and vital? Where people had happy endings, stories that had endings, things that made you happy or even something to look forward to?

It wasn't till I was maybe 10 years old did I discover that the very existence of Detroit, my friends and families, were all tied to the rise and falls or whims of the Ford Motor Company. I realized that this town only had room for one great man, I too wanted to be a great man (in my boyish brain) and I would have to find my opportunities elsewhere. Where was my land of opportunities? I had no idea.

Well, pretty much the car companies got their asses kicked, and the place beat up the most was my home town, Detroit and all the little suburbs that housed the people that fired the automobiles manu…

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