tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-49822792155014341112024-03-13T23:20:28.133-07:00Martin SnappMartin Snapphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10569395652952859388noreply@blogger.comBlogger463125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4982279215501434111.post-14354082214661277702017-05-29T13:40:00.005-07:002017-05-29T13:40:51.335-07:00Mourning JFK<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Wcoj0Klz9PA/WSyHGabVqRI/AAAAAAAACzM/x0T3_NgM8PsCqQB6zSKFJNDlNMpoZANSgCLcB/s1600/John_F._Kennedy%252C_White_House_photo_portrait%252C_looking_up.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="970" data-original-width="760" height="320" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Wcoj0Klz9PA/WSyHGabVqRI/AAAAAAAACzM/x0T3_NgM8PsCqQB6zSKFJNDlNMpoZANSgCLcB/s320/John_F._Kennedy%252C_White_House_photo_portrait%252C_looking_up.jpg" width="250" /></a></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">T<span style="font-family: inherit;">om Jones</span></b><span style="font-family: inherit;"> was in the library of the Art & Architecture building
when he heard the news coming through the window from a transistor radio on the
street outside. <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Richard Nelson</b> was in
Lawrence Hall, listening to a song by an unknown band called The Beatles.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">George McGaughey</b> was sitting in chemistry class, waiting for the
professor, who was unaccountably late.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">"As we were getting up to
leave, the door to the classroom burst open. A very excited student stepped
into the room and shouted, 'The President's been shot!'</span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">"I turned to the fellow next
to me and said, 'Now, who in God's name would shoot Kingman Brewster?' We
looked at each other and said, 'Holy Christ! He means President Kennedy!'"</span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">It was 50 years ago this month:
November 22, 1963, the Friday of what was supposed to be our first Harvard
weekend. </span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">As George walked down the hill back
to the Old Campus, he saw cars stopped randomly up and down the street.
"Not just in traffic lanes but helter-skelter all over the roadway, with
doors and windows open and their radios turned way up. I could follow the news
reports coming over their radios as I walked back to the Old Campus, all trying
to determine whether the President was dead or alive. We soon learned the
horrible truth."</span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Tom Judson</b> was on the freshman football team, playing against their
Harvard counterparts. "The people in the stands had known but didn't tell
us until the game was over," he says. "I remember walking back to the
locker room next to <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Tim Weigel</b>, who
was weeping."</span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Chuck Lidz</b> was in his Poly Sci 30 class, taught by the great Karl
Deutch. "He walked in a couple of minutes late and announced that the
President had died. Then he lectured passionately about how we needed to stand
behind President Johnson against what he firmly believed was the first step in
a fascist coup. I heard that it took him almost a week to stop worrying about
it. Apparently, having lived in Germany in the '30s had a significant
impact."</span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Tom Maynard</b> loved President Kennedy. "I grew up in a close
Irish Catholic family, and John Kennedy was for all of us more than the
President. He was the fourth member of the Holy Trinity. The shock when his
death was announced was like losing a family member. Worse."</span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Bob Leahy</b> loved him, too. "When he died, it felt like
something inside me died. <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Jim Manor</b>
and I got together in my room in Bingham Hall and proceeded to get drunk on
gin. It was the first time I had ever gotten drunk. Manor and I listened to the
'Camelot' album and tried to sing along. To this day I can't stand the smell of
gin, but I still like Manor."</span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The grief crossed partisan lines.
"Some of us were great admirers of the President; others, including myself
at the time, were less so," says <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">John
Lungstrum</b>. "But that was not the point. This kind of thing just didn't
happen in America!"</span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">It was evening when <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Sten Lofgren</b> heard the news in his
native Sweden. "I stood on the balcony looking up at the stars and
clutching a portable radio. Slowly, I moved the pointer from one end of the
dial to the other, tuning in every major radio station in Europe. Everywhere
there was somber music interrupted by solemn announcers speaking many different
languages, most of which I could not identify, let alone comprehend. What was
instantly clear, though, was that they all used the words 'John F. Kennedy' and
'Dallas, Texas.' All of Europe, and probably most of the world, was in mourning
in spite of whatever political differences they might otherwise have had."</span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">Sefik
Buyukyuksel</span></b> was living in his native Turkey when he heard the news.
But his future wife, concert pianist Idil Biret, was in Boston that day, about to
make her American debut with the Boston Symphony. After announcing the news of
the President's death to the audience, Henry B. Cabot, president of the
orchestra's board of trustees, declared that the show would go on. It was the
only concert in the country that wasn't cancelled that day. </span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">"And so we played
Rachmaninoff's Third Concerto for a Boston audience that was in shock,"
she recalls. "Some of the cellos came in too early before I started the
cadenza between the second and third movement. It was probably due to emotion.
You can feel the heavy atmosphere in the recording that was made during the
concert." (You can hear that recording, including Cabot's speech, on Sefik
and Idil's website, idilbiret.eu/en?p+318/)</span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Some classmates, like <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Carl Williams</b>, spent the day praying
and weeping in Dwight Hall Chapel. Others, including <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Ray Rahn</b> and <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Ken Kusterer</b>,
hitchhiked to Washington for the funeral. "<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Chuck Schumer</b> (no relation to the Senator) and I put on our suits
and went out to stand on I-95," says Ken. "Before even putting out
our thumbs, a large Puerto Rican family picked us up, knowing from our suits
that we were going where they were. In D.C. we spent the night sitting on our
curb spot, and from there we saw the funeral procession the next day. We got a
ride hone from a fellow curb-sitter and joined the throng of cars headed back
north."</span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Randy Alfred</b>, a native Bostonian, was only 12 when he met JFK in
person. Randy's junior high class was on a field trip to Washington, D.C. in
1958, and one of their stops was a visit with their state's junior senator.
Kennedy spoke briefly to the group and then asked for questions, no doubt
expecting the how-does-a-bill-become-a-law variety. Instead, Randy, being
Randy, asked a sophisticated question about reciprocal trade agreements.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Kennedy threw his head back and
laughed, in the manner we all knew so well, and said, "That's a mighty big
question from a little boy!" Then he proceeded to give Randy a serious
answer to his question.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">"Ever since that trip I'd
tried to get a copy of the group photo we took with him, but the teacher had
misplaced the only copy, and inquiries to the Senate and the White House had
proved fruitless," says Randy. "But a few days after the
assassination my mom telephoned me with news that the teacher was rummaging
through his attic and finally located the original. As I was the only one who'd
ever inquired about it, he mailed it to me. When it arrived, I discovered that
Kennedy had autographed it. I hung it on my wall. It's still on my wall."</span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">And for <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Barry Golson</b>, the Kennedy connection went back to before he was
born. "<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Lucida Grande"; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">In
1940 my Boston-born mother was at Regis, a small Catholic women's college.
There was a mixer, and Mom, who was a babe back in the day, was asked to dance
by a skinny guy from Harvard. Jack Kennedy and my mother danced together the
rest of the evening and hit it off. They had a couple of dates more and wrote
each other letters. It was a very brief romance, and I never inquired about the
details. (This is my mother we're talking about.) </span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">"<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Lucida Grande"; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">So Jack Kennedy was someone
familiar to me as I grew up. In 1956, Mom called me over to the TV set during
the Democratic convention, when an absurdly young JFK made a run for VP. 'Watch
that man,' Mom said. 'He'll be president someday.' At Exeter, I stayed up all
night listening to the election returns of 1960, which was more than JFK
himself did. In November 1963, as a freshman like the rest of you, I heard the
terrible news in Bingham. It was the first death of anyone I 'knew,' as well as
the death of a President. I never really got over it.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">"<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Lucida Grande"; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">P.S. When Mom got back from her
honeymoon in 1943 with my dad, whom she also met at a dance, she returned home
while my Navy dad went back to sea. She looked in her bedside table, where she
kept things that mattered to her. The handwritten letters from JFK were gone.
Crestfallen, Mom asked her mother where the letters were. 'A proper wife
never keeps letters from her former beaux,' said my Boston battleaxe of a
grandmother. 'I threw them out.'"</span></span></div>
Martin Snapphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10569395652952859388noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4982279215501434111.post-67489202078330036032016-11-20T15:52:00.002-08:002016-11-20T15:52:40.980-08:00The Greatest Power Couple In Berkeley HIstory<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-J0W4EG1iOho/WDI2vsGH23I/AAAAAAAACv0/29Nq41EYLHIH4q0ZONDU-40rNi8HMzjhQCLcB/s1600/10erc-grand-opening.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-J0W4EG1iOho/WDI2vsGH23I/AAAAAAAACv0/29Nq41EYLHIH4q0ZONDU-40rNi8HMzjhQCLcB/s320/10erc-grand-opening.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">(Above: Tom & Loni with Zona Roberts at the Grand Opening of the Ed Roberts Campus)</span><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -0.5in; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span>Congratulations to Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates
and state Senator Loni Hancock, who celebrated their 30<sup>th</sup>
anniversary on November 13. Actually, they got married on November 9, and
therein lies a tale.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -0.5in; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span>"I think we should celebrate on Nov. 9,
but she thinks we should celebrate on the first Sunday after the first Tuesday
in November, in honor of her election as Berkeley's first woman mayor,"
says Tom. So they resorted to the politician's best friend:<span> </span>the compromise. In even years they
celebrate on her date, and in odd years they celebrate on his.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -0.5in; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span>Yes, he said mayor. They used to hold each
other's job. Loni was Mayor of Berkeley from 1986 to 1994, and Tom served in
the state legislature from 1976 to 1996. </span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -0.5in; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span>In 1994 she joined the Clinton
administration, and he was termed out of the legislature two years later, and
that was the end of their political careers – or so they thought.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -0.5in; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span>But in September 2001, while they were
vacationing in Italy, they got an urgent message from Berkeley saying Loni was
desperately needed to come back ASAP and run for Tom's old seat in Sacramento,
and Tom was needed to run for Loni's old office in City Hall.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -0.5in; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span>"We headed to Milan and booked our
tickets, then we went to dinner," he said. "When we got back from the
restaurant we were told, 'Something awful has happened. Somebody flew some
airplanes into a building.' So it was weeks before they were able to get a
flight back to the states.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -0.5in; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span>They finally made it back and won their
elections, and were re-elected by increasing margins every four years since
then. Tom, who was the youngest person ever to serve as Alameda County
Supervisor when he won his first election in 1972, is now the oldest person
ever to serve as Mayor of Berkeley.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -0.5in; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span>He's also the longest-serving mayor, 14
years in all. But he's never taken a penny in salary.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -0.5in; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span>"I had a choice: I could take my
pension from my 20 years in the legislature, or I could take my mayor's salary,
but not both," he explains. "I chose the pension."</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -0.5in; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span>So whenever he made a tough decision or
cast a tie-breaking vote at a City Council meeting, he always quipped,
"Well, that's what they're not paying me the big bucks for!"</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -0.5in; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span>It would take a hundred columns to list all
their achievements, but Tom's include the David Brower Center, the Ed Roberts
campus for the disabled, and the project closest to his heart, the sports
fields (which his colleagues named after him) at the East Bay Shoreline
Regional Park.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -0.5in; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span>Meanwhile, Loni has been an effective
champion for education, public safety, governmental reform and the environment,
becoming in the process, as her Senate colleague Carol Liu, D-Los Angeles,
called her, "the moral conscience of the Senate."</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -0.5in; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span>But now it's over. On Dec. 1 Tom, the
city's oldest mayor, will hand his gavel to Jesse Arreguin, the youngest, and Loni
will hand her Senate desk to Nancy Skinner. And then they can finally embark on
their long-delayed retirement.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -0.5in; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span>And they're still in love. She still can
make him blush just by saying something nice about him. And he has no more
passionate defender than her.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -0.5in; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span>Berkeley will be in their debt for
generations to come.</span></span></div>
Martin Snapphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10569395652952859388noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4982279215501434111.post-22926781922794190152016-11-11T16:38:00.002-08:002016-11-11T16:38:56.251-08:00Barack, We Hardly Knew Ye<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">After Jack Kennedy was killed, I promised myself I
would never fall in love with a politician again. And I was able to keep that
promise for 50 years until a skinny guy with a funny name called Barack Obama
came along.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">He was everything JFK was, minus the philandering.
Whatever else you think of him, you have to admit: The man has style.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">I can't decide which is my favorite Obama picture,
but it has to be one that shows his special connection with children. I can't
help smiling every time I see the one in the Oval Office when he pretended to
be caught in a web cast by a 2-year-old in a Spiderman costume.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">But the picture that moves me to tears every time is
the one of him bending over to let a little African American boy touch his
hair. Yes, little boy, the President's hair is just like yours.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">But as proud as he made me, nothing compares to his
conduct last week, when he so graciously welcomed the man behind the birther
movement as his successor. He must have been dying inside, but he never let it
show. He has more class in his little finger than that man has in his whole
body.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">He wanted to change the culture of Washington, but on
the day he took office he was handed a crisis not of his own making that he
couldn't have anticipated: the worst economic slump since the Great Depression.
And the Republicans blocked him at every move. As Senate GOP leader Mitch
McConnell said, "</span><span class="st"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The single most important thing we want to achieve
is for Obama to be a one-term president."</span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span class="st"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">When Tea Party rallies featured
signs depicting him as a gorilla or a witch doctor, they just smiled and looked
the other way. When birthers said he wasn't a legitimate president because he
was really born in Kenya, they never uttered a peep of disapproval.</span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span class="st"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">When right-wing talk show hosts
slandered him, they rubbed their hands in glee. But did they ever stop to think
how his daughters must have felt when saw signs depicting him with a bone
through his nose?</span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span class="st"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">But as bad as it got, he
never complained. He just kept doing his duty - saving the economy, reforming
health care, signing an agreement with Iran to diffuse its nuclear weapons,
ending the Cuba embargo, taking the first steps toward curbing climate change,
killing Osama Bin Laden, and welcoming LGBTs into the American family.</span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span class="st"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">And now it's all going to go
away. The new president has promised to dismantle everything Obama
accomplished; and with both Congress and the Supreme Court on his side, he's
likely to succeed. We are entering a dark age from which we might not emerge for
a long time, if ever.</span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span class="st"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">But there's one thing they
can't take away: The memory of a time when there was a president who appealed
to the better angels of our nature, rather than our worst hatreds and fears. If
you think you miss him now, just wait a couple of months.</span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Ask ev'ry person if he's
heard the story/And tell it strong and clear if he has not/Don't let it be
forgot/That once there was a spot/For one brief shining moment that was
known/As Camelot.</span></i></span></div>
<br />Martin Snapphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10569395652952859388noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4982279215501434111.post-66023921108135333572016-11-09T16:46:00.002-08:002016-11-09T16:46:36.164-08:00The Greatest Story Never Told<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wiKcKNIsNQ0/WCPCNvtohgI/AAAAAAAACvE/J0KPa4hVmbIlf0x-ljvdJs1D_s39GyXiwCLcB/s1600/First-Ladies_cropped.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wiKcKNIsNQ0/WCPCNvtohgI/AAAAAAAACvE/J0KPa4hVmbIlf0x-ljvdJs1D_s39GyXiwCLcB/s320/First-Ladies_cropped.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">(Above: On May 11, 1994, First Lady Hillary Clinton and five of her predecessors -Barbara Bush, Nancy Reagan, Rosalynn Carter,
Betty Ford and Lady Bird Johnson - in an unprecedented joint fundraising
effort to create the National Botanical Garden on the National Mall. The only living First Lady unable to attend was Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, who was then terminally ill, and died a week later. Photo from the Clinton Presidential Library.)</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I thought I was being so clever, waiting until this morning to run this story on the California magazine the day after Hillary Clinton's smashing election victory. Needless to say, it didn't quite work out that way, and this story will never see the light of day - except here:</span></span><br />
<br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Geneva;">Now that Hillary Clinton has been
elected America's first female president, the top item on her to-do list, even before
she tackles ISIS and the economy, is: What are we going to do with Bill?</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Geneva;">"I wouldn't be surprised if
she named him ambassador to Tokyo," says Daniel Sargent, Associate
Professor of History at Cal. "Getting him out of Washington would be the
most prudent move she could make."</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Geneva;">But why Tokyo?</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Geneva;">"Because we don't have an
embassy in Antarctica."</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Geneva;">Seriously, though, Bill Clinton
presents a challenge for both the president-elect and the rest of us, starting
with what to call him: First Gentleman? First Spouse? Or, as Sarah Palin used
to call her husband Todd, First Dude?</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Geneva;">"I think 'First Gent' has a
nice ring to it," says Carl Anthony, official historian at the National
First Ladies Library and author of a dozen books on the subject of presidential
spouses, including individual biographies of Jackie Kennedy, Nellie Taft, Betty
Ford, and Florence Harding. "It's short, sweet, and a little jaunty."</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Geneva;">Whatever we call him, how will
our first male presidential spouse change the job?</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Geneva;">"The question is complicated
by the fact that Bill will not only be the first man in that role, he'll be the
first former president, too," says Sargent. "But in the end, it's the
dynamics of the marriage and the tenor of the times that have always determined
what the role is, and that role has fluctuated over the years. For instance,
before the 1950s we had several first ladies who exerted considerable political
influence, including Eleanor Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson's second wife, Edith,
who became the de facto president for the last year of his term after he
suffered a stroke. It's striking that it was she, not the Vice President, Thomas
Marshall, who took over.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Geneva;">"But after World War II we
had a retrenchment, a redefinition of the role into a symbolic, maternal,
feminine figure, like Mamie Eisenhower. It's easy for historians to
characterize the '50s as a period of traditional beliefs that have been set in
stone since time immemorial, but it's more accurate to say it was a time of
self-conscious reaction against the assertiveness of the pre-war period."</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Geneva;">Of course, even the most
political First Ladies have taken pains to play down that aspect of their role.
In her autobiography, Eleanor Roosevelt wrote, "The political influence
that was attributed to me was nil where my husband was concerned. If I felt
strongly about anything, I told Franklin, since he had the power to do things
and I did not. But he did not always feel as I felt."</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Geneva;">But in his book <i>Eleanor and Franklin</i>, Eleanor's protégé
Joseph Lash describes their daughter Anna squirming uncomfortably at the dinner
table as Eleanor hectored FDR over some policy issue and finally blurting,
"Mother, you're giving Father indigestion!"</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Geneva;">Anthony says the position of
presidential spouse is actually a combination of two different roles, and each occupant
of the position has balanced them differently.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Geneva;">"One the one hand, you're
the spouse. On the other, you're First Lady. One role is personal; the other is
ceremonial. It's been slightly over 100 years since we haven't had a
presidential spouse in the White House - the period from the death of Ellen
Wilson in 1914 to the president's second marriage a year later. We had no
presidential wife, but we still had a First Lady - actually, two: Wilson's
daughter Margaret and Ellen's secretary, Helen Bones. Together, these two women
fulfilled the ceremonial role. So that's the first scenario: no spouse, but a
female relative standing alongside the president at public ceremonies.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Geneva;">"Go back a little deeper
into the 19<sup>th</sup> Century, and we have a slightly different twist on
this duality. For instance, Andrew Johnson's wife Eliza had tuberculosis, and
when they moved into the presidential mansion in June 1865, two months after
the Lincoln assassination, it was announced in the newspapers that Mrs.
Johnson, given her delicate health, would not be performing the public role as
hostess in the White House. So her married daughter, Martha Patterson, took
over the public role. But Eliza still performed her private role as
presidential spouse. She sustained him emotionally during his impeachment trial
and gave him advice. So that's scenario number two – private yes, public no.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Geneva;">"The third variation on this
scenario is the times when we had presidents who were widowers when they
entered the White House, like Thomas Jefferson, Martin Van Buren, and Chester
Arthur, so we had neither a presidential spouse nor a First Lady. Most history
books will tell you that Jefferson's daughter Martha, Van Buren's
daughter-in-law Angelica, and Arthur's sister Mary Arthur McElroy performed the
hostess duties, but that's just a summary, and in a summery the truth gets lost.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Geneva;">"The fact is that Jefferson
was president for eight years, but Martha came up to the White House for only
two social seasons. All the 'female' decisions – selecting the China patterns,
choosing the guest list, planning the menus – Jefferson did all that himself.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Geneva;">"Same thing with Van Buren.
Angela didn't marry his son Abram until the last year of his term, and most of
that time was spent on honeymoon in Europe with her husband. So for most of his
administration the China patterns, guest lists, and menus were selected by the
president himself. The same thing was repeated in the Arthur administration. And
as recently as Richard Nixon, you have a president who was weighing in on
choices for food and wine that were being served to guests at state dinners.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Geneva;">"So there is nothing in
history to suggest that Hillary Clinton can't do it. All those chuckles and
hoo-ha about Bill choosing the menus are just not the case. The Clinton
situation is not going to provide one ultimate 'right' choice in terms of
historical precedent. She might have Bill or Chelsea serve as surrogates on
particular social occasions – for example, the First Lady's afternoon teas,
which have been going on since the McKinley administration. The First Lady
doesn't actually serve the tea, she just stands in the receiving line. So all
those chuckles and hoo-ha about Bill serving tea are just not the case. None of
them served tea.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Geneva;">"Then there are the
occasions when the head of state of another country visits the White House. He
or she is welcomed on the North Portico by both the President and First Lady,
and Bill has already done that. The only difference this time is that she will
be making the welcoming speech instead of him."</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Geneva;">"So you can see that there's
no one 'right' way to be First Lady. It can be whatever the Clintons make of
it. There's historical precedent for whatever they choose."</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Geneva;">But Dan Mulhern, a lecturer at
Cal's Goldman School of Public Policy, says that though the public role of
First Lady waxes and wanes from administration to administration, the private
role – presidential spouse – is just as important as ever. And he speaks from
personal experience; he spent eight years as First Gent of Michigan when his
wife, Jennifer Granholm (who graduated from Cal in 1984 and currently heads Hillary
Clinton's transition team), served as governor from 2003 to 2011.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Geneva;">"The best advice I ever got
was from a former First Lady of Michigan, Paula Blanchard," he says.
"She told me, 'Your primary role will be emotional. Your wife is going to
get assailed from a thousand different directions. Even your closest friends
will have an agenda. She's going to be on stage 24/7, so she'll need a safe
harbor.' I knew in my bones she was right. I knew it was true, and it remained
true, and it's more true now than it was then."</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Geneva;">And he's shared this advice with
Bill Clinton.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Geneva;">"I talked to him about this
in 2008 during the primary campaign. I told him, 'The most important thing you
can do is support Hillary. Help her be her best, be a sounding board, and
remind her of her heart, her vision, and why she's in it in the first place
when it's getting ugly or when you're going through a difficult stretch.' And
he was receptive. We haven't talked about it since."</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Geneva;">But make no mistake: This will be
a life-changer for Bill.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Geneva;">"When you're in this role,
it's not unlike an altar boy to a priest or a caddy to a golfer," Mulhern
says. "It's not about you and your strengths, and Bill's strengths are
extraordinary. He's going to face the challenge of being on the sidelines, of not
having knee-jerk reactions and writing tweets at three in the morning. People
come up to you, look right past you, or use you to get to your wife. They think
you're just a nice piece of arm candy. Women have a lot more experience dealing
with that B.S., but he's going to have to learn."</span></span></div>
Martin Snapphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10569395652952859388noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4982279215501434111.post-16258423454850338282016-09-11T19:38:00.001-07:002016-09-11T19:38:23.352-07:00The Eyes Have It<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">(Above: Dr. Lee, Dr. Jung, and Dr. Litwin)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Stupid me. No sooner did I settle into my new digs
when I hit myself in the eye with a garbage can lid. It takes a perverse sort
of talent to accomplish this, but I managed to pull it off. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">I immediately knew something was seriously wrong. I
had blurry double vision, and my fear was that it was another detached retina.
I had two detachments 20 years ago, one in each eye, and my sight was saved
only because I had a brilliant surgeon, Dr. Scott Lee of East Bay Retina
Consultants.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">A retinal detachment is a very scary proposition,
and the sooner the doctor can re-attach it, the better. But it was 5 p.m. on a
Friday afternoon, and I was worried that everyone in Dr. Lee's office had
already gone home.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Fortunately, not everybody had. I talked with the
newest doctor on the staff, Dr. Jesse Jung; and, believe it or not, he
diagnosed my condition right over the phone.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">"It doesn't sound like a retinal
detachment," he said. "With the symptoms you describe, you probably
dislodged the lens. Unlike the retina, we don't need to jump on it today. Come
in to the office on Monday and see Dr. Lee, and he'll take it from there."</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Sure enough, Dr. Lee confirmed his diagnosis, and
then he surprised me by saying something you never expect to hear a surgeon
say: "I think Dr. Jung should do the surgery instead of me."</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Surgeons (like trial lawyers) have a reputation for
being rather, shall we say, self-confident, and this was an incredibly humble
thing for Dr. Lee to do. But, as he explained it, over the years he has tended
to specialize more and more on the back of the eye, like retinas, and Dr. Jung
specializes in the front of the eye, like dislodged lenses. So he did what he
felt was in the best interest of the patient and passed me on to the younger
man.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">And he was right. Dr. Jung did a great job. It's
only been a few days since the operation, but I can already tell my sight is
coming back.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">It'll never be as good as before, of course. Doctors
are just human beings, and while they do the best they can, only Mother Nature
has a monopoly on perfection. But it'll be good enough to serve me well for the
rest of my life, as long as I stay away from garbage can lids.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">I've been going to East Bay Retina for 20 years.
Their patients are people with serious problems like detached retinas, macular degeneration
and dislodged lenses. Thank goodness the doctors and staff really know their
stuff and are really nice people, too. Their patients need it. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">My only complaint is that when they moved from their
previous location on Pill Hill to their present site on Telegraph Avenue
(kitty-corner across the street from the old Neldam's Bakery, which was
resurrected by some former employees in 2010 and renamed Taste of Denmark),
they didn't bring the eye chart in their waiting room with them. It read:</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">T</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">HAN</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">KYOUF</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">ORNOTS</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">MOKING</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">It's the second-best waiting room sign I've ever
seen, second only to the one at Berkeley Dog & Cat Hospital before it was
remodeled, which read, "Sit. Stay. The doctor will be with you in a
minute." </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Update: A few weeks ago I was singing the praises of
my retina doctors, Scott Lee and Jesse Jung, for saving the sight in my right
eye after I dislodged the lens in a freak accident.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Well, time to add another name to the list. Last
week I had a bad setback when all of a sudden I couldn't see anything out of
that eye. I called Dr. Lee and Dr. Jung's office and made an appointment for
the next day; but I was still feeling nervous, so I called my ophthalmologist,
Dr. Josh Litwin, and asked him to talk me down.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">He listened for a few minutes and then said, "I
can't continue this conversation right now because I was just walking out the
door when you called. I have a medical problem of my own and I'm late for my
own doctor's appointment. But give me your contact information anyway."</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">I didn't know why he wanted it, but I figured he
just wanted to update his records since I recently moved.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">But an hour later I heard a knock on my door, and
there was Dr. Litwin! I mean, who makes house calls any more?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The answer is Dr. Litwin. He walked in, sat me down
in my living room, pulled some instruments from out of his medical bag, and
gave me a thorough eye exam.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">"Just as I thought," he said. "The
pressure in your eye is way, way up, sort of like glaucoma on steroids."</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">As it turns out, steroids had a lot to do with it.
There are some steroids in the antibiotic eye drops I have been using to
prevent infection, and they can trigger increased eye pressure, which is what
caused my blindness. (Dr. Jung had warned me about this and told me not to
overdo the drops. But did I listen? No.)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">"Oh my God!" I said. "What can I
do?"</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">"Don't worry," he said. "I brought
some pills with me. Take one now, another before you go to bed, and see Dr.
Jung tomorrow."</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Sure enough, Dr. Jung confirmed his diagnosis the
next day and said the pills were having the desired effect. A few days later my
vision was back to normal.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Now, in hindsight I probably could have waited until
the next day, but I can't tell you what it was a relief to have Dr. Litwin show
up when he did. And he knew it.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">"I didn't do it for this," he said,
pointing at my eye. "I did it for this," he said, tapping my
forehead. "You sounded really scared on the phone, and I didn't want you
to have to agonize overnight."</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">I'm so grateful to Dr. Litwin, but I guess I
shouldn't have been surprised. His father is the iconic Berkeley eye doctor
Richard Litwin, a man who bears an astounding physical resemblance to Santa
Claus and has been the go-to guy for generations of Berkeleyans, who love him
for acting like a small-town doctor. And it looks like his son hasn't fallen
very far from the tree.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">I'm an old man, and at my age there are no
guarantees. My sight might or not come back permanently to what it was, but I
sure can't say I haven't had the very best medical treatment possible.</span></div>
<br />Martin Snapphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10569395652952859388noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4982279215501434111.post-825520576982415382016-08-17T17:26:00.003-07:002016-08-17T17:26:52.697-07:00A Gold Medal in Bigotry<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-GsOysOadPTo/V7UAW4oc54I/AAAAAAAACtM/Th_FjAr0cNcAWc2S2o9CBZNLxn7_13dPwCLcB/s1600/fig_ag_world_championships_2015__team_usa_16.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-GsOysOadPTo/V7UAW4oc54I/AAAAAAAACtM/Th_FjAr0cNcAWc2S2o9CBZNLxn7_13dPwCLcB/s320/fig_ag_world_championships_2015__team_usa_16.jpg" width="213" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> (Above: Simone Biles, the greatest gymnast in history)</span></span><br />
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Female athletes – especially
African-American female athletes – have been dominating the Olympics, but you'd
never know it from listening to those old white dudes in the media.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">From NBC's Al Trautwig harping that
gold medal gymnast Simone Biles's grandparents, who have raised her since she
was a baby, are not actually her parents, to his colleague Dan Hicks' contention
that 400-meter gold medalist Katinka Hosszu's husband is "the guy
responsible" for her win, to the Chicago Tribune's reporting Corey
Cogdell-Unrein bronze medal in trap shooting with the headline "Wife of
Bears lineman Mitch Unrein wins bronze in Rio," the sexism was almost
comical if it weren't so embarrassing.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">African-American gymnast Gaby
Douglas, a member of the gold medal-winning all-around team, was thoroughly
trashed by the right wing media for not holding her hand over her heart during
the medal ceremony, but they never uttered a peep when Donald Trump did the
same thing during the presidential debates.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">But at least her ceremony was
televised. When 100-meter freestyler Simone Manuel made history by becoming the
first African American woman to win an Olympic gold in an individual swimming
event – with all its social/political implications, given the bitter civil
rights battles during the 1960s over blacks being allowed to use
"white" swimming pools – NBC didn't even show her medal ceremony.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">NBC didn't televise the opening
ceremony live, either, because, as chief marketing officer Jeff Miller
explained, <span>"The
people who watch the Olympics are not particularly sports fans. More women
watch the Games than men, and for the women, they're less interested in the
result and more interested in the journey. It's sort of like the ultimate
reality show and mini-series wrapped into one."</span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span>Want more? Uzbecki gymnast Oksana
Chusovitina was roundly criticized because her pink and white leotard "failed
to complement her skin tone," Austrian Larrissa Miller "turned heads
for all the wrong reasons" because her leotard had "an unattractive
teal hue with a rhinestone-covered collar," and when NBC's camera showed
the U.S. women's gymnastic team gathered together during the all-around
competition a male announcer – whom NBC still refuses to identify – said, "They
might as well be standing in the middle of a mall."</span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span>Before you accuse me of political
correctness, ask yourself: When was the last time you heard this kind of
language being used about men, especially white men? Michael Phelps is being called
"the greatest Olympian in history," but Katie Ledecky, </span>a
five-time Olympic gold medalist and nine-time world champion, is only "the
female Michael Phelps" and is praised by saying "She swims like a
man."</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">One incident can be brushed off as
a fluke. Two could be a coincidence. But three or more – and there are a lot
more – is a definite pattern. Shame on the media in general and NBC in
particular.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">But there's one shining exception:
swimming commentator Rowdy Gaines, who said, <span>"A lot of people think she swims like
a man. She swims like Katie Ledecky, for crying out loud!"</span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span>Of course, Gaines is a three-time gold
medalist himself, unlike Trautwig, whose sole connection to organized sports
was being </span>stick-boy for the New York Islanders and ball boy for the New
York Nets, or Hicks, who, as far as I can determine, never played organized
sports at all. So what does he know?</span></span></div>
Martin Snapphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10569395652952859388noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4982279215501434111.post-77571123144578334852016-08-17T16:54:00.001-07:002016-08-17T16:54:18.393-07:00The Last Of The Old Fashioned Hardware Stores<style>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-qv8ZgopaJ5U/V7T43i-hO5I/AAAAAAAACs8/HvBv7u8S7K4dBvauFCAXyFgb_z3c8PfLwCLcB/s1600/516ZC-500x500.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-qv8ZgopaJ5U/V7T43i-hO5I/AAAAAAAACs8/HvBv7u8S7K4dBvauFCAXyFgb_z3c8PfLwCLcB/s320/516ZC-500x500.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">(Above: The magical </span><span style="font-size: small; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;"><span>K&V Tite Joint Fastener.)</span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;"><span> </span>My sister, who knows me oh so well, calls
me "a man of very little faith," and she doesn’t mean it as a
compliment. She's not referring to anything religious or spiritual; what she
means is that I have a bad habit of always expecting the worst. And she's
right. If I had a coat of arms, it would show a half-empty glass.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">Then an amazing thing happened.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">For the last two months I've been engaged
in the arduous experience of moving to a new home (which I'll write about in
another column). But at least I'd be able to take my two cats, Sally and Pepe
with me, as well as my beloved chest bed, which has a lot of sentimental value
for me (two ex-girlfriends and five cats).</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">But when the movers came to pack me up,
they informed me that they wouldn't be able to put the chest bed back together
again because it needs four essential metal thingamabobs to connect the pieces,
and three of them were missing.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">What's more, they were doubtful about my
chances of finding any replacements. "They're so rare, you'll never find one
in a hardware store," they told me. But they gave me a list of places to start
looking and wished me luck.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">I prowled every salvage yard and antique
store in Berkeley, but nobody even knew what the thingababob was, much less
where I could find any. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">I was in despair. Finally, I gave up and
decided have a professional machinist hand-make me three more. It would mean
big bucks, but I really love that bed.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">But a little voice told me that I'd never
rest easily unless I gave it one last shot and, despite what the movers said, ran
it past the folks at my old tried-and-true, Berkeley Hardware. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">I showed the thing to Assistant Manager
Andy Taylor, and he said, "Oh yeah! A K&V Tite Joint Fastener!"
(You mean the thing actually has a name?)</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">Whereupon, Inventory Manager Sherrin
Farley, who had been listening to our conversation from her adjoining office,
piped up, "I got 'em right here on my desk!"</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">It turns out they'd had them for nobody
can remembers how long, and rather than let them take up space on the shelves,
where nobody would want them anyway, she decided to stash them in her office
and worry about what to do with them later.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">Now that's a real, old fashioned family
hardware store! </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">Berkeley Hardware has been serving the
community for more than 120 years and has been owned by the same family for
more than 70. Last month it moved from its longtime home on University Avenue
to a new site at 2020 Milvia Street. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">Family is the operative word, from owners
Bill and Virginia Carpenter (and their kids and grandkids) to General Manager
Quentin "Chuck" Moore to the employees, all of whom seem like they've
been working there forever.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">On August 20 they'll celebrate the move
with a "Grand-Reopening" with refreshments, goody bags, drawings and
more.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">Parking can sometimes be iffy, but don't
let that deter you. Berkeley Hardware is a community treasure. I mean, where
else are you going to find a K&V Tite Joint Fastener?</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">And the kitties? I still haven't been able
to coax Pepe out of the bedroom. Suggestions will be gratefully accepted.</span></span></div>
Martin Snapphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10569395652952859388noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4982279215501434111.post-54066962779021547222016-08-07T18:36:00.002-07:002016-08-07T18:36:18.352-07:00Tricky Dick And Us
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-J2JVNzO4Ogo/V6fh72hlQmI/AAAAAAAACsg/_P1PgQo8eRgLcL25UASw23hJcQMwRM3kgCLcB/s1600/zi1zolot14bvn7ezemn4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="215" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-J2JVNzO4Ogo/V6fh72hlQmI/AAAAAAAACsg/_P1PgQo8eRgLcL25UASw23hJcQMwRM3kgCLcB/s320/zi1zolot14bvn7ezemn4.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="typewriter">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Tuesday will be the
42<sup>nd</sup> anniversary of the resignation of Richard Nixon, an event I
celebrated by literally dancing in the streets.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span><div class="typewriter">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Why did people like me despise
him so? Partly, it was because he fought dirty. Starting with his first race
against Jerry Voorhis, his favorite tactic was intimating that whoever stood in
his way was a traitor.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span><div class="typewriter">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">But I think the real
reason was because, as much as we hate to admit it, he was the true mirror of
our national soul.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span><div class="typewriter">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">We want to think we're
like Jack Kennedy - handsome, graceful, a hit with the girls. But the truth is
that most of us are more like Nixon - insecure, resentful, and compulsively
self-destructive. </span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span><div class="typewriter">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">I remember the night of
the Kent State killings, when he tried to talk with protesters at the Lincoln
Memorial by making chitchat about football. How we sneered!</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span><div class="typewriter">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">It feels good to make fun
of the class nerd. It makes you feel like part of the "in" crowd,
even if you aren't. </span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span><div class="typewriter">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Especially when you can
feel so self-righteous about it. After all, this was Nixon the red-baiter,
second only to Joe McCarthy as the arch-villain of the 1950s. He deserved all
the bad things that happened to him, didn't he?</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span><div class="typewriter">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Yes and no. Sure, he
looked silly talking about touchdowns and field goals to students who wanted to
talk about war and peace. But it was the closest he could come to extending a
hand. And we slapped it away, laughing at his lamenwss.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span><div class="typewriter">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">To a paranoid like Nixon,
it must have been another confirmation of what life had been teaching him since
childhood: He really<i> was </i>surrounded
by enemies.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span><div class="typewriter">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">"What starts the
process, really," he wrote about his passion for winning, "are the
laughs and slights and snubs when you are a kid. But if your anger is deep
enough and strong enough, you learn that you can change those attitudes by
personal gut performance."</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span><div class="typewriter">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">And Nixon had a childhood
that would make anyone paranoid. His younger brother Arthur died from
meningitis, then his older brother Harold died from tuberculosis. </span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span><div class="typewriter">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Those illnesses ate up
what little money the family had, and Nixon had to turn down a scholarship
offer from Harvard and attend little Whittier College, instead. (No wonder he
was so jealous of the Kennedys.)</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span><div class="typewriter">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">And yet this loser,
through sheer force of will, transformed himself into a winner. A lot of us
thought he sold his soul in the process, but who among us is without sin? Our
beloved Jack Kennedy's record isn't so hot when it comes to the McCarthy era,
either. And remember, it was the Kennedys, not Nixon, who authorized the FBI
wiretaps on Martin Luther King.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span><div class="typewriter">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Ironically, after the fall
of the Soviet Union the secret KGB files came to light, and it turned out that
some of the people Nixon accused of espionage, like Alger Hiss, really <i>were</i> spies, after all.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span><div class="typewriter">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">I know it doesn't make up
for Watergate. All I'm saying is that Nixon was speaking for us all when he
pronounced his own epitaph the day he resigned: "Others may hate you, but
those who hate you don't win unless you hate them. And then you destroy
yourself."</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span><div class="typewriter">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">There, but for the grace
of God, go we.</span></span></div>
Martin Snapphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10569395652952859388noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4982279215501434111.post-2326443710136012016-07-17T13:03:00.003-07:002016-07-17T13:03:35.134-07:00Hamilton Would Have Voted For Hillary<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-nBlh0Sq5siM/V4vkbAILZbI/AAAAAAAACr8/9RM0QvLvM9UpEWHMj7rsdptFnbA9lH8ywCLcB/s1600/Alexander_Hamilton.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="261" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-nBlh0Sq5siM/V4vkbAILZbI/AAAAAAAACr8/9RM0QvLvM9UpEWHMj7rsdptFnbA9lH8ywCLcB/s320/Alexander_Hamilton.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">You think this year's election is
nasty? We're just amateurs compared to the Founding Fathers.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Take the election of 1800 – please!
It pitted President John Adams for the Federalists against Vice President
Thomas Jefferson for the Republicans (who were actually the forerunners of
today's Democratic Party. It's complicated).</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Adams accused Jefferson of playing
footsie with the radicals in France who were sending people to the guillotine
by the thousands (which was true), and Jefferson accused Adams of clapping
people into prison for criticizing him (which was also true).</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">But all that was just a prelude to
the main act after the election. The result was a tie. Jefferson got 73
electoral votes, and so did – not Adams, but Jefferson's own vice presidential
running mate, Aaron Burr.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">This result happened because of a
peculiar system in the Electoral College. Each elector had two votes, and the
man who got the most votes became president and the guy who came in next became
vice president (a system that was changed two years later after they saw what a
mess they'd made). </span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The Republicans blew it. Their
Virginia electors thought a few New York electors would vote for somebody
beside Burr, and the New York electors assumed the Virginia electors would do
it, and the result was that nobody did.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">So the decision was left to the lame
duck House of Representatives, which was controlled by the Federalists. And a
lot of them hated Jefferson so much, there was a lot of talk about voting for
Burr out of spite.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">But Alexander Hamilton, who had
been Jefferson's political arch-enemy for years, put the kibosh on the idea.
"If there is a man in this world I ought to hate, it is Jefferson,"
he wrote his friends in Congress. "But the public good must be paramount
to every private consideration."</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">He still thought Jefferson was a
hypocrite and political fanatic, but Burr was worse - "a cold-blooded
Cataline, a profligate, a voluptuary, without doubt insolvent." Burr was
capable of selling out the country to a foreign power, or starring a war for
personal profit. </span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">"For Heaven's sake,"
wrote Hamilton, "let not the Federalist Party be responsible for the
elevation of this man!"</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Hamilton's argument carried the
day. Jefferson was elected, and Burr went on to shoot Hamilton and organize a
conspiracy to create an independent country in what is now the Midwest and the
Southwest, for which Jefferson had him arrested for treason. (He got off,
thanks to Chief Justice John Marshall, who wanted to stick it to Jefferson.)</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">And now today's Republican Party –
the party of Honest Abe, Teddy, Ike, and The Gipper - will assemble in
Cleveland next week to nominate the most reprehensible candidate since Aaron
Burr.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">It would take ten columns to list
all the reasons why he's unfit for this job: his bigotry, his ignorance, his
narcissism, his insecurity, his boorishness, his vulgarity, the sadistic pleasure
he takes in humiliating people in public - I could go on and on.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">But it comes down to this: Our
beloved country feels like it's coming apart right now. Do we really need this guy
in the Oval Office pouring more fuel on the flames?</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">For Heaven's sake, let not the Republican
Party be responsible for the elevation of this man.</span></span></div>
Martin Snapphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10569395652952859388noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4982279215501434111.post-56915888994035442262016-07-02T20:28:00.001-07:002016-07-02T20:28:08.243-07:00Those Were The Days<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-N0S6hAehutc/V3h4rvU97cI/AAAAAAAACrU/VVDDm6Cgd4smrI5K8n8-GFxR92Dj_EhawCLcB/s1600/ken-stabler-madden.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="220" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-N0S6hAehutc/V3h4rvU97cI/AAAAAAAACrU/VVDDm6Cgd4smrI5K8n8-GFxR92Dj_EhawCLcB/s320/ken-stabler-madden.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">(Above: The Snake and an unidentified man on the right. Photo by Sports Illustrated)</span></span><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I don't know about you, but I'm
looking forward to Ken Stabler's induction into the NFL Hall of Fame on August
6 with mixed emotions.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Yes, I'm happy that he's finally
getting recognized. But what took them so long? Why did they wait until after
he died, when they knew how much it meant to him?</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">This isn't the first time the HOF
has been a day late and a dollar short. They did the same thing to Les Richter,
the great Cal and L.A. Rams linebacker, electing him six months after he died.
And there are plenty of other deserving old timers waiting in line, including Jerry
Kramer, Jim Marshall and the Mad Duck himself, Alex Karras.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">But they're likely to wait a lot
longer, as great younger players like Kurt Warner, Ray Lewis and Peyton Manning
become eligible and elbow them aside. Kramer, the key player in the Green Bay
power sweep, the most famous football play of all time, wasn't even nominated
this year. </span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">As more and more younger players
retire and more and more Hall of Fame voters are too young to remember the old
guys, many old timers will be lucky to get in at all, let alone in their own
lifetime.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">But don't let my grumpiness spoil
the celebration. All hail The Snake, who was Joe Montana before Joe Montana. No
amount of bureaucratic disrespect can diminish his glory or the pleasure he
gave us.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">It really was a golden age back in
the 70s, with the Raiders, Warriors and A's all winning championships - the A's
three years in a row. But the team that had the strongest hold on our hearts
was the Raiders.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">How much fun it was to attend a game
at the Coliseum! Each section was a tiny community of its own, with many fans
turning down the team's offer to move them to better seats as a reward for being
longtime season ticket holders because they didn't want to move away from their
friends in the section, who they had come to think of as family.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Each section seemed to have its own
matriarch, usually called Mom, who adored the Raiders – especially Stabler and
Marv Hubbard, who, sadly, also passed away last year – and despised the Broncos
and Chiefs. </span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">And Heaven help anyone who cussed
in front of kids; the whole section would come down on him. The atmosphere was downright
wholesome, in its own rowdy way.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">And they were loyal, even when the
team betrayed them by moving to Los Angeles. The most loyal of all was a group
called the Bay Area Dirtballs, who flew down to L.A. for all the home games.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">But within a year after the team
returned to Oakland in 1995 most of the Dirtballs had given up their season
tickets, preferring to watch games at sports bars like Ricky's, instead.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Why? Two words: Black Hole. They
didn't like the new breed of fans the team brought back with it from L.A. They
felt their team had been hijacked by a bunch of wild-eyed crazies they had
nothing in common with, and it didn't feel like their team anymore.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">So as a longtime Raiders fan, I
know how a lot of Republicans are feeling these days.</span></span></div>
Martin Snapphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10569395652952859388noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4982279215501434111.post-76834775960089257492016-06-26T17:02:00.002-07:002016-06-26T17:02:59.163-07:00The Play's The Thing<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-dMofWWjqyR0/V3Bsc9ftuZI/AAAAAAAACq4/9HfqMbnQL3EopXw5T-KogVkajFWsPYHyQCLcB/s1600/Shrek.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-dMofWWjqyR0/V3Bsc9ftuZI/AAAAAAAACq4/9HfqMbnQL3EopXw5T-KogVkajFWsPYHyQCLcB/s320/Shrek.jpg" width="214" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">(Above: Harriet Schlader, founder and Managing Director of the Woodminster Summer Musicals, poses with Daniel Barrington Rubio, who is playing the title role in Shrek The Musical, which will open the organization’s 50th season of musicals in Woodminster Amphitheater. Photo by Kathy Kahn.)</span></span><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Joaquin Miller Park in Oakland is
one of the Eastbay's crowning glories, featuring cascades, a reflecting pool
and the jewel in the crown, the Woodminster Amphitheater, a beautiful open-air
facility with spectacular views and a woodsy environment that was built as a
WPA project during the Great Depression.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">For the last 50 years Harriet
Schlader and her late husband Jim, who passed away in 2010, have been
delighting local theater fans by presenting some of Broadway's best musicals under
the stars at Woodminster. Their first production was <i>South Pacific</i>, followed by <i>Paint
Your Wagon</i>, <i>Kiss Me Kate</i> and <i>The Music Man</i>. This year it starts with <i>Shrek: The Musical</i>, which opens July 8,
followed by <i>Chicago</i> in August and <i>La Cage Aux Folles</i> in September.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">For many East Bay families, it's a
longstanding tradition to enjoy a picnic in the park and then see a musical at
Woodminster. Some season ticket holders have been sitting in the same seats for
three generations.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">And they can always count on two
things: a highly professional production and a fast-moving show that ends no
later than 10:30. </span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">For years, I heard different
stories about the reason why. Some said it's the law in Oakland; others said
it's in Woodminster's contract with the musicians' union. But Harriet says it's
a lot simpler: concern for the audience's rear ends.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">"It's stadium seating,"
she says. "That can be hard on your butt, so we keep the shows down to 2½
hours. As my Jim used to say, 'Get out before they catch on.'"</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Jim and Harriet were already
Broadway veterans when they began producing musicals at Woodminster. He was a
singer whose opera-trained tenor voice made him a favorite with producers - he
was never out of work longer than two months for more than 20 years - and she
was a dancer who performed with the Radio City Music Hall corps de ballet and
on <i>The Jackie Gleason Show</i> as a
member of the June Taylor Dancers.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">And while they always tried to choose
shows for Woodminster that would entertain an audience, they chose shows that
elevated the audience, too.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">For instance, back in the 1970s
segregation was still a way of life in Oakland, but the Schladers fought that
attitude with art, presenting <i>No Strings</i>
(about an interracial romance) and an <i>Oklahoma</i>
with African American actors in the leading roles.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">"When the curtain raised, you
could see people in the audience elbowing each other, like the wave," says
Harriet. "When Curly came out, they sat there with their arms folded. But
within 15 minutes they forgot about it and were totally into the show.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">"But we still got calls
afterward. 'Are you going to do the next show the way you did with <i>Oklahoma?' </i>'What do you mean?' 'You
know, with black people in the cast?' It made me so mad! I mean, it's
entertainment! And now here we are years later with <i>Hamilton</i>. It goes to show that anybody can play any role if you
engage the audience. That's what theater is all about."</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Happy anniversary, Woodminster. May
it prosper for another 50 years. And it probably will, because waiting in the
wings as Harriet's eventual successor is the Schladers' son Joel, who will
direct all three shows this year. And they have lots of grandkids, too.</span></span></div>
Martin Snapphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10569395652952859388noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4982279215501434111.post-61380900513038012232016-06-23T13:50:00.003-07:002016-06-23T13:50:35.761-07:00Sunflowers<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-DlnbrQ5shtM/V2xKoi_RmRI/AAAAAAAACqI/C9WAwchUoNI7jHxg7lx2WrJEGBw69XlTgCLcB/s1600/IMG_20160526_160816.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="319" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-DlnbrQ5shtM/V2xKoi_RmRI/AAAAAAAACqI/C9WAwchUoNI7jHxg7lx2WrJEGBw69XlTgCLcB/s320/IMG_20160526_160816.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-u1iZAuAVwvc/V2xLHqCJKhI/AAAAAAAACqg/jLuBWBrSEpEDpQYRKUEPNbAC6mL9TR18wCLcB/s1600/2016-06-07%2B17.14.29.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-u1iZAuAVwvc/V2xLHqCJKhI/AAAAAAAACqg/jLuBWBrSEpEDpQYRKUEPNbAC6mL9TR18wCLcB/s320/2016-06-07%2B17.14.29.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-a3A3_BetN0g/V2xLBIxKB7I/AAAAAAAACqY/E5z6hZy7lQkIGcTcn7KHsWMwt6_7JVTlwCLcB/s1600/2016-06-07%2B17.14.42.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-a3A3_BetN0g/V2xLBIxKB7I/AAAAAAAACqY/E5z6hZy7lQkIGcTcn7KHsWMwt6_7JVTlwCLcB/s320/2016-06-07%2B17.14.42.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-L54rfZXXKFo/V2xK5sT__kI/AAAAAAAACqQ/osv_w7mTni4IwNEtpTrXFiZYPYLdraXeQCLcB/s1600/2016-06-07%2B17.14.47.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-L54rfZXXKFo/V2xK5sT__kI/AAAAAAAACqQ/osv_w7mTni4IwNEtpTrXFiZYPYLdraXeQCLcB/s320/2016-06-07%2B17.14.47.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> (Photo credit: Sticky Art Lab)</span></span>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">For years there's been a vacant lot
in my neighborhood in Berkeley, at the corner of McGee and University. Delancey
Street uses it every holiday season to sell Christmas trees, but the rest of
the year it's just an eyesore surrounded by a chain link fence.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">But when I walked by on May 16 I
noticed something different: six enormous sunflower plants blooming along the
University side of the fence. On closer inspection, they turned out not to be
plants at all. They were images of sunflowers knitted with wool yarn. There was
even a knitted ladybug on one of the leaves. </span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The artist's name, I found out, is
Dawn Kathryn. Seven years ago she took a knitting class at the Oakland Library
and got the bug (pun intended). This is her second knitted public art project.
The first was a sweater she knitted for a tree in West Oakland in front of
Kilobolt Coffee shop.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Alas, it's not there anymore. A
vandal tore it down, which is frustrating because she works as much as six
months on each project. And two weeks ago the same fate also befell the
sunflowers. Somebody cut their heads off.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">"After putting in that much
time on a project, it can be a little nerve wracking hoping nobody takes it
down," she says. "It doesn't matter how many people like it, one mean
person can screw it up for everybody who enjoys it."</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">But that's not the end of the
story. The lot is only a couple of doors down the street from Sticky Art Lab, a
great, only-in-Berkeley art studio for kids where they can experiment with scrap
materials and create unique, handmade works of art. </span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The next day, the kids from Sticky
Art Lab were out there restoring the sunflowers (including the ladybug) to
their former glory. I spoke with two of them: Sasha, 8, and Emma, 10.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">"With no sunflowers, the fence
looked really sad," says Sasha. "All Dawn was trying to do was make
the world a prettier place, although there's beauty in everything, I
think."</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">"And if it isn't as beautiful
as it could be, you can always try to make it better," Emma adds.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">They worked in teams: One kid
holding each flower or leaf in place while the other tied it to the fence with
matching-color yarn.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">"We started with the flowers,
and after that we worked on each separate petal," Emma explains.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Now the sunflowers look better than
ever, bringing a smile to everyone who sees them. </span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">"It was really fun," says
Sasha. "I felt really good after we did it."</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">"It makes me proud to admire
my work every time every time I pass by," says Emma.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">As for Dawn, she's already at work
on another public knitting project: a sweater for a signpost around the corner
from Discount Fabrics on Ashby and San Pablo. </span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">"I don't have a timeline; I do
it when I can and when I feel like it," she says. "But the post isn't
very large, so I don't think it will take long."</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">And she's grateful to the folks at
Sticky Art Lab.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">"It's a wonderful place, with
great afterschool programs and summer camps. And they are wonderful people, as
attested to by the fact that they repaired my flowers."</span></span></div>
Martin Snapphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10569395652952859388noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4982279215501434111.post-70391919501382210582016-06-23T13:07:00.002-07:002016-06-23T13:07:40.633-07:00Garden of Memory<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-jwhYA3JFPsc/V2xBC4sBtGI/AAAAAAAACp4/M6dRe2v7rJIxDtBD0OX095q2kqiqscN9wCLcB/s1600/Photo%2Bby%2BMichael%2BZelner%252C%2BJune%2B21%252C%2B2012%2BLuciano%2BChessa.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-jwhYA3JFPsc/V2xBC4sBtGI/AAAAAAAACp4/M6dRe2v7rJIxDtBD0OX095q2kqiqscN9wCLcB/s320/Photo%2Bby%2BMichael%2BZelner%252C%2BJune%2B21%252C%2B2012%2BLuciano%2BChessa.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">(Above: Luciano Chessa playing the musical saw at the 2012 Garden of Memory)</span></span><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">One day 20 years ago, Berkeley
pianist Sarah Cahill, one of the best known exponents of New Music, took a
break from performing to write a newspaper story about the most exotic restrooms
in the East Bay. One of the places she checked out was the Chapel of the Chimes
in North Oakland. It's a columbarium, a repository for the ashes of the dead,
including bluesman John Lee Hooker, baseball star Dick "Rowdy
Richard" Bartell, and Raiders boss Al Davis. </span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The restroom turned out to be
nothing special, but the rest of the building – oh my! It was designed by Julia
Morgan, and if you've ever seen Hearst Castle, you know that Morgan was in love
with Gothic architecture. The Chapel of the Chimes features pointed arches, vaulted
ceilings, fountains, gardens and – above all – stained glass everywhere. The result
is a magical ballet of ever-shifting patterns of light and color.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">"To hear the rippling of the
water in the fountains, smell the blooming gardenias, see the glow of warm
light coming through the stained glass windows and skylights - it's a place
where you enter and you can't help but start exploring because it's a real wonderland
that beckons you inwards," says Cahill.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Then she got a brilliant idea: What
a great place this would make for a concert! Or, rather, 45 different concerts
going on simultaneously. She put a different musician in each room and invited
people to take in as much (or as little) of each performance as they like, then
move on to the next room and a completely different experience.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">And here's the most brilliant part:
She decided to hold the concert on the Summer Solstice, the longest day of the
year, to take advantage of all the sunlight.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">It was an immediate hit, and 20
years later the event, called Garden of Memory, is going stronger than ever.
This year's concert will be on June 21 and will feature 45 different
performances ranging from quirky to bizarre. It's musicians at play, having fun
doing what they do best – making music.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Among this year's lineup:</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-left: 84pt; text-indent: -48pt;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span>·<span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-synthesis: weight style; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span>In the Garden of St. Mark: Mills College music
professor Maggi Payne playing theremins (think of the end of "Good
Vibrations") and inviting kids in the audience to join in.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 84pt; text-indent: -48pt;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span>·<span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-synthesis: weight style; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span>In The Chapel of Patience: Henry Kaiser
(grandson of industrialist Henry J. Kaiser, who is buried next door at Mountain
View Cemetery) and Norwegian guitarist Knut Reiersrud playing electric guitars
while Kaiser's wife Brandi Gale, a synesthete (meaning she sees vivid colors in
her mind when she hears music), makes spontaneous paintings as she listens to
them play.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 84pt; text-indent: -48pt;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span>·<span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-synthesis: weight style; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span>And in The Sanctuary: 25-year-old composer Dylan
Mattingly, who began attending these concerts with his parents when he was a
little kid, playing improvisations influenced by bluegrass and the microtonal
choral music of Polynesia with his old friends from Berkeley High, violinists
Eli Wirtschafter and Alex Fager.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The Chapel of the Chimes is at <span>4499 Piedmont Avenue. The music
starts at 5 p.m. and will go on until the last of the light filters through the
windows at 9. Tickets are $15 general, $10 for students and seniors, and $5 for
kids. It's the coolest concert of the year, a Black & White Ball for
Bohemians. Be there or be square.</span></span></span></div>
Martin Snapphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10569395652952859388noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4982279215501434111.post-15323374063132880922016-06-04T13:00:00.003-07:002016-06-04T13:00:24.732-07:00The Greatest<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-lWbJ069BS7Q/V1MycQCT6uI/AAAAAAAACpM/WiGzgwiozZQ_CpoHYeW67DTloyoILfwVwCKgB/s1600/maxresdefault.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="189" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-lWbJ069BS7Q/V1MycQCT6uI/AAAAAAAACpM/WiGzgwiozZQ_CpoHYeW67DTloyoILfwVwCKgB/s320/maxresdefault.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">(Above: the Champ with four guys from England, probably the only people in the world who were almost as famous as he was)</span><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">He was, as he never stopped
reminding us, The Greatest.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Of course, we'll never know how
great he could have been because he was still approaching the height of his
physical powers when he was exiled from boxing in 1967. By the time he returned
to the ring three and a half years later, he had clearly passed his prime. But that
was still good enough to beat two of the greatest heavyweights of all time, Joe
Frazier and George Foreman. </span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">But for all his prowess inside the
ring, his true greatness lay in what he did outside it. By refusing fight in
Vietnam – "No Viet Cong ever called me (the N-word)," he explained – he
incurred the wrath of what we used to call "the establishment." </span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">White male sportswriters – and
there were no other kind in those days - exploded in vituperation. Red Smith of
the New York Herald Tribune wrote, "Squealing over the possibility that
the military may call him up, Cassius makes himself as sorry a spectacle as
those unwashed punks who picket and demonstrate against the war." (Note
the refusal to call him Muhammad Ali.)</span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Jim Murray of the Los Angeles Times
accused him of ingratitude for the Civil War: "Muffle the guns at
Vicksburg. Spike the guns of Sumter. Burn the banners of the noblest cause man
ever fought for. Cassius Marcellus Clay has decided to secede from the Union.
After 103 years of freedom, he sulks."</span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The only prominent national leader
who sent him a telegram of support was Martin Luther King. And the only white
sportswriter to defend his right to be himself – to his everlasting credit - was
Howard Cosell, who said of his colleagues, "They wanted another Joe Louis,
a white man's idea of a black man. Instead, they got Ali, who was unafraid to
speak his mind no matter what the consequences."</span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">It's probably hard for younger
people to understand what Ali meant to people my age. Vietnam was the defining
issue of our generation, dividing American families every night over the dinner
table. By refusing to go to war, Ali became our hero, our champion, our beau
ideal. </span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">I only saw him in person twice. The
first time was in 1967, shortly after he was stripped of his title, at an
anti-war March in Los Angeles. He was the most handsome man I ever saw, and one
of the most articulate. He gave us a short, thoughtful talk urging us to think
carefully about what we were about to do because we were likely be beaten and
arrested - prophetic words, because that's exactly what happened when the L.A.
cops, who were a law unto themselves, staged a police riot.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The second time was in 1990, when
he appeared at Cody's Books in Berkeley on a book tour. I stood in line to meet
him with everyone else; and when it was my turn, I was so star struck I could
only babble incoherently about how much I loved him.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Parkinson's had already robbed him of
his speech by then, so he held up his hand to stop me and, with infinite
dignity and grace, lifted himself up out of his chair and shook my hand.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">He was a great man. He was a good
man. God bless his memory.</span></div>
Martin Snapphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10569395652952859388noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4982279215501434111.post-91488201690931512512016-05-29T16:04:00.001-07:002016-05-29T16:04:23.113-07:00Drink Beer, Save Animals
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-0MHVyka0vHM/V0t1VcgrXUI/AAAAAAAACo0/RujXoStJ6UYKcz50kPSWvuoLmp2KrPzgQCLcB/s1600/IMG_1358.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-0MHVyka0vHM/V0t1VcgrXUI/AAAAAAAACo0/RujXoStJ6UYKcz50kPSWvuoLmp2KrPzgQCLcB/s1600/IMG_1358.jpeg" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">(Above: Esme, Nunbun and Durga in a typical pose)</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Tippi the kitten was starving to
death when she arrived at the Berkeley Humane Society. The little white female
with a gray spot on her forehead wouldn't eat and was obviously in a lot of
pain. She hadn't been grooming herself, either, so her fur looked awful.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">"Her mouth was clearly the
source of the pain," says vet tech Sarah Gray. "There was pus coming
out of the right side, and it was too painful for the vet to examine her. So we
started her on antibiotics and sedated her for the exam."</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span> </span>Once she was under, they were able to look in her mouth and
discover that a chunk of her lower jawbone had broken off and was being held in
place only by soft tissue.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">"You could tell by the
discoloration that the fragment had already started to die, so we had to remove
it and two teeth on her lower jaw. Then we put her on antibiotics again and let
her rest," says Gray. "After two weeks she was eating out of both
sides of her mouth, had almost doubled in weight, and was grooming herself. When
I first met her, most of her personality was encompassed in dealing with the
pain she was in. Now she was amazing and wonderful and super duper sweet. So we
put her up for adoption."</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">It didn't take Tippi long to find a
new home – and a new name. She was adopted by Erin Bennett of Berkeley, who
renamed her Esme and put her together with her other two cats, Nunbun and
Durga.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">"<span>I had planned on being extremely cautious
when introducing the cats, but Esme darted out of her room right away and
almost immediately began playing with them," she reports. "I was so
happy to see them all getting along. Esme is the tiniest of the three, but most
definitely the fiercest! She especially loves to chase after and initiate a
play-fight with Nunbun, who is three times her size! It is such a joy to see
them cuddle, play, and eat together."</span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span> Esme is another happy ending for the
Berkeley Humane Society, which bounced back from a disastrous fire that
destroyed its adoption center in 2010 to place more than 941 animals in loving
new homes last year, and is on track to top that number in 2016. But loving
care like this is expensive.</span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span>So what can you and I do to support them?
Drink beer.</span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span>Next Saturday, June 4, the Humane Society
will host its third annual Pints For Paws, a craft beer festival featuring more
than 80 beers from more than 20 craft breweries. (This is Berkeley, after all.)</span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span>And if beer isn't to your taste, there
will be plenty of locally produced ciders and wines, too - plus food trucks,
live music, and special guest appearances by some of Berkeley Humane's adorable,
adoptable animals.</span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span>And unlike other beer fests, which donate
only a portion of their proceeds to charities, 100 percent will go directly to
the animals.</span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span>Pints For Paws will run from 2 to 5 p.m.
at the Humane Society, 2600 10<sup>th</sup> Street in West Berkeley. Tickets
are $45 in advance at berkeleyhumane.org/pintsforpaws or $50 at the door.</span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span>Oh, and bring your dog. Tell them Tippi –
oops, I mean Esme – sent you.</span></span></span></div>
Martin Snapphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10569395652952859388noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4982279215501434111.post-18578964605678009482016-05-29T16:00:00.003-07:002016-05-29T16:00:23.363-07:00Going For Broke
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-e64sAMOZw5o/V0t0T8VgODI/AAAAAAAACok/ktKpn8pBmacRIfsQHaugCZ-dXbe00T7MgCLcB/s1600/Lawson%2526Me2015.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-e64sAMOZw5o/V0t0T8VgODI/AAAAAAAACok/ktKpn8pBmacRIfsQHaugCZ-dXbe00T7MgCLcB/s320/Lawson%2526Me2015.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">(Above: Lawson Sakai and me at last year's ceremony.)</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">They say the French hate Americans,
but I know one group of Americans they definitely don't hate. Au contraire, mon
ami, they love these guys, and with good reason. </span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The date was Oct 18, 1944. The town
of Bruyeres – population about 3,500 – was facing a bloodbath of catastrophic
proportions. The German commandant in the area, Klaus Barbie, aka "the
Butcher of Lyon," had scheduled a mass execution of hundreds of resistance
fighters in the town square that afternoon.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">But that morning, the 442<sup>nd</sup>
Regimental Combat team, a segregated Japanese American U.S. Army unit, spoiled
his party by liberating the town. And those resistance fighters were saved,
including a 16-year-old boy named Francois Mitterrand, who grew up to become President
of France. </span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">He never forgot, and neither did
the people of Bruyeres, as I discovered in 1994 when I accompanied some 442
veterans on a sentimental journey back to the city.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">As our bus pulled into town, I
spotted huge banners overhanging the street. I expected them to read,
"Bienvenue a nos <span lang="FR">libérateurs"
</span>– welcome to our liberators. But instead, they read, "Bienvienue a
nos sauvers " - welcome to our saviors!</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The next day was Bastille Day, and
the parade featured the 442nd vets marching down the main street – which the
French named Rue du 442 after the war – behind the local high school band.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Never have I seen such joy. Old grandmothers
leaned out their windows and tossed roses at them as they passed by. Young
mothers, who were born decades after the war, ran alongside, holding up their
babies for them to kiss. </span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">One of the citizens who greeted us
was Serge Carlesso, who was an 11-year-oldboy on the day the 442nd liberated
his town. Serge's right leg was blow off by a German shell, but the 442<sup>nd</sup>
medics saved his life. With him was his grandson, Laurent, who was the same age
Serge had been on that day.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Also there was Pierre Moulin, a man
who made it his life's work to honor the 442<sup>nd</sup> and keep their memory
alive, writing books and articles and leading tours of the battlefields.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Serge died several years ago, and
Pierre died just last month. And many of the 442<sup>nd</sup> veterans who took
that trip with me are gone, too. But Laurent is still around to keep the story
alive. And so am I, and so are the next two generations of Japanese Americans,
the sansei and the yonsei.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Next Saturday, May 20 - Armed
Forces Day – the men of the 442<sup>nd</sup>, plus their family and friends,
conduct a memorial ceremony for their lost comrades in Oakland's Roberts Park,
and they cordially invite you to join them. It won't take long – only about a
half hour – and the scouts from Troop 21 in Berkeley will present the colors. </span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Roberts Park is on Skyline
Boulevard. Just follow the signs for the Chabot Space & Science Center and
take the Roberts Park turnoff a mile and a half before you get to the Center. Just
say the magic words "442" to the guard at the gate, they'll tell you where
to park. The service starts at Noon.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">And no matter how nice the weather
is, bring a sweater. We're going to be in a redwood grove, and it has its own micro-climate.</span></span></div>
Martin Snapphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10569395652952859388noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4982279215501434111.post-26305725190899387682016-05-29T15:56:00.003-07:002016-05-29T15:56:37.263-07:00Daring To Dream
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-MTh1Uq3dHDg/V0tzfdxLV2I/AAAAAAAACoU/EUwJcb6zs_4mKDHPIWh6VsPTkStZD7qVgCLcB/s1600/51s2rtZmr7L._SX258_BO1%252C204%252C203%252C200_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-MTh1Uq3dHDg/V0tzfdxLV2I/AAAAAAAACoU/EUwJcb6zs_4mKDHPIWh6VsPTkStZD7qVgCLcB/s320/51s2rtZmr7L._SX258_BO1%252C204%252C203%252C200_.jpg" width="249" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Bay Area basketball fans remember
Lou Campanelli as the coach who took over the moribund Cal men's basketball
program in 1986 and restored it to the kind of glory it hadn't known since the
legendary Pete Newell era of the late 1950s, leading the Bears to their first
NCAA tournament in 30 years.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">For instance, Cal hadn't beaten
UCLA for 26 straight years, but he beat the mighty Bruins his first time out.
And the last time he played them, he handed them their worst home defeat ever.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">But what I didn't know until now is
that there was an even more fascinating chapter in his life before he came to
Cal. And it's all detailed in his new memoir, <i>Dare To Dream: How James Madison University Became Coed And Shocked The
World</i>, which he wrote with longtime local sportswriter Dave Newhouse<i>.</i></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Of course, it wasn't called James
Madison University back then. It was Madison College, a tiny girl's school in
Virginia's Shenandoah Valley.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">But its president, Ronald Carrier,
whom Campanelli calls "the greatest college president in history,"
had a better idea. He<span> </span>changed
"College" to "University" and doubled the student body by
admitting men.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">But to attract the kind of faculty and
money he needed to make JMU a first-class teaching and research university, he
needed something to put the school on the map. And that something was
basketball.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">So he took a chance on a smart, young,
ambitious, fast-talking, but as yet untested coach from New Jersey named Lou Campanelli.
It was a real culture shock. Carrier even had to teach him how to speak
"Mountain Talk" to convince local parents to let them coach their
children.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The only players who would consider
James Madison were the ones nobody else wanted. But within five years Campanelli
took them to three straight NCAA tournaments, knocking off powerhouses like Georgetown,
Ohio State and West Virginia along the way.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">But the game that really put JMU on
the map was a last-minute 2-point loss to one of the greatest teams of all
time, the 1982 North Carolina squad that starred James Worthy, Sam Perkins, and
some guy named Jordan.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">And how many of his players
graduated on time with their class? All but one, and that guy came back later
and got his degree, too. </span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">"I'm prouder of that than of
all the victories combined," he told me. "I told their parents, 'I
can't promise you he'll play in the NBA some day, but I can promise you he'll
get his degree.'"</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">And it worked. Within a few years,
U.S. News & World Report was ranking JMU as one of the Top 10 Regional Colleges,
and there it has remained ever since.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Dare
To Dream</i> can be enjoyed on many levels. One one hand, it's a thrilling David
vs. Goliath story that makes "Hoosiers" look about as exciting as a
TV test pattern. On the other, it's a fascinating insight for hardcore hoops
buffs into how the game is really played. It's sure to become required reading
for all young aspiring coaches.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Campanelli and Newhouse will appear
at Barnes & Noble in Dublin at 2 p.m. on May 15 and at the Emeryville store
at 7 p.m. on May 19. He may have been a great coach, but he's an even better
storyteller.</span></span></div>
Martin Snapphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10569395652952859388noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4982279215501434111.post-55890793609186796702016-05-29T15:53:00.003-07:002016-05-29T15:53:57.384-07:00Mayor Fujioka Goes To Washington
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-gZJaS-e-OQM/V0ty52wXlzI/AAAAAAAACoM/wLuesEVaQpo47iUFRK9TSfpGearESFYDACLcB/s1600/image.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-gZJaS-e-OQM/V0ty52wXlzI/AAAAAAAACoM/wLuesEVaQpo47iUFRK9TSfpGearESFYDACLcB/s320/image.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span>Piedmont Mayor Margaret Fujioka is off to Washington D.C. next week
to accept a special honor from the Smithsonian Institution on behalf of a
beloved relative she never met.</span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span>On May 12 the Smithsonian's Museum of American History will
officially launch its Nisei Soldier Congressional Gold Medal Digital
Exhibition, honoring the soldiers of the 442<sup>nd</sup> Regimental Combat
Team, the segregated Japanese American World War II unit that was awarded more
medals, man for man, than any other military unit in American history.</span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span>The exhibition focuses on 12 individual soldiers, and one of them is
Fujioka's uncle, Private First Class Teruo "Ted" Fujioka, a member of
the 442<sup>nd</sup>'s 1<sup>st</sup> Antitank Company, who was killed by a
German 88 mm. artillery shell on November 6, 1944, in the woods outside the
French town of Bruyeres. It was two months after his 19<sup>th</sup> birthday.</span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span>"I never met him, but I've always felt like I knew him,"
she says. "He was one of twelve children, so there were a lot of aunts and
uncles to tell me stories about him as I was growing up. My father was the
youngest, and he and Ted were very, very close. He idolized his big
brother."</span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span>What they told her was that Ted was an intelligent, patriotic, handsome,
athletic and kind young man who was a terrific writer and a born leader, and
that his dream was to become a lawyer and run for office some day.</span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span>"He has been an inspiration to me all my life," she says.
"It's no coincidence that I became a lawyer and ran for office
myself."</span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span>Ted Fujioka was born in 1925. His mother was a gifted artist and
haiku poet. His father was a journalist and community leader who was active in
promoting friendship and understanding between the United States and Japan in
the decade leading up to World War II.</span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span>Despite this – or perhaps because of it – Ted's father was one of
the first of the more than 120,000 Japanese Americans who were arrested and
imprisoned after Pearl Harbor. The rest of the family was sent to the Heart
Mountain detention camp in Montana, where they languished until the end of the
war. But Ted's dad was arrested by the FBI and interrogated for months before
finally being allowed to join his family at Heart Mountain because of ill
health.</span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span>The internees created their own school system in the camp, and Ted
was elected the first Student Body President of Heart Mountain High School, as
well as editor of the student newspaper, the Heart Mountain Sentinel, and
president of the Hi-Y Club.</span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span>When he turned 18 he volunteered to enlist in the U.S. Army and
joined the newly created 442<sup>nd</sup> Regimental Combat Team, despite the
treatment his family and so many others had suffered at the hands of the
government.</span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span>"The future welfare of all of us who hope to remain in this
land rests almost entirely on how the 442<sup>nd</sup> does in battle," he
wrote to his parents explaining his decision. "We've got everything to
gain by doing our utmost in battle, nothing to lose. We have a chance to prove
to all who doubt our loyalty and sincerity to this nation that we too are
Americans and therefore entitled to live as Americans in the truest sense of
the word."</span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span>He fought in some of the bloodiest battles of the war, including the
celebrated Rescue of the Lost Battalion in the Vosges Mountains just a few days
before his death.</span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span>"The Lost Battalion was a Texas National Guard Unit of about
200 men what was trapped behind German lines," his niece explains.
"Other units tried to break through to save them, but they couldn't. But
the 442<sup>nd</sup> did, although they suffered 800 casualties to save those
200 men. For this and many other heroic acts of bravery and loyalty to our
country, the 442<sup>nd</sup> was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal in
2011."</span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span>Mayor Fujioka attended that ceremony, too, accompanied by her
father. </span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span>"The emotion he felt to be there to accept an award on behalf
of his brother meant a lot to him in the last years of his life," she says.
"He died two years later. I wish he could be with me on this one, too.
That's one of the reasons for me to go – to honor him, to honor Ted, to make
sure this story gets told, and to thank the Smithsonian for doing this."</span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span>A year after her father died, she and her family visited France and
saw the places where Ted fought and died, including the American Cemetery in
Epinal, where so many of the 442's fallen are buried. </span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span>"It was a sobering experience gazing upon the hundreds of rows
of white crosses; walking down the main street of Bruyeres, which the French
have named 'Rue 442;' and breathing the thick, molst air of the Vosges forest
where the grateful French built a memorial to the 442<sup>nd</sup> for
liberating Bruyeres," she says. "I will never forget the inscription:
"To those whose lives proved that patriotism is not determined by their
ethnicity."</span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span>Ted's parents received the dreaded telegram from the War Department
a week after his death. They were still imprisoned at Heart Mountain. Shortly
afterward they received a Purple Heart for the wound that killed him. Many
years later a thief stole it from their home. But Mayor Fujioka still has the
stubbed end of the pencil he used to write his letters home, as well as many of
the letters.</span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span>In his last letter, Ted wrote, "Dear Moma, Papa, & all,
Don't worry about me. I'm <u>OKAY</u>. Just take care of yourselves. When this
war is over, I'll be home again – Heart Mountain, Detroit, Cincinnati,
Hollywood, wherever it may be… As ever, Ted. Will write again."</span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span>But he never did.</span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span>Teruo "Ted" Fujioka, 1925-1944. Rest in peace.</span></span></span></div>
Martin Snapphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10569395652952859388noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4982279215501434111.post-8418469647967975792016-05-29T15:51:00.000-07:002016-05-29T15:51:23.405-07:00Berkeley Hardware Redux
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-zhgFhLbbYRY/V0tyRPBus8I/AAAAAAAACoE/jp-SFeZm4bkiDhhJaqxj8KJI44VZ6X2gwCLcB/s1600/20160211__VOI-BERKACE-0212%257E3.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="219" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-zhgFhLbbYRY/V0tyRPBus8I/AAAAAAAACoE/jp-SFeZm4bkiDhhJaqxj8KJI44VZ6X2gwCLcB/s320/20160211__VOI-BERKACE-0212%257E3.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">(Above: Manager Quentin Moore presiding over Berkeley Hardware's famous model train set.)</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Whew! Berkeley Hardware isn't going
anywhere, after all! </span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Actually, it is going somewhere;
but only two blocks away.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I must admit I was feeling panicky
when it was announced last year that the store's lease wouldn't be renewed,
after 120 years in business. It seemed like the latest in a long casualty list
of those mom & pop stores that used to make Berkeley so Berkeley, including
Edy's, Wilkinson's, Radston's, Cody's, and the Blue & Gold Market.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">But Berkeley Hardware was special,
even among that august company. It's the oldest store in town, founded in 1895,
when Grover Cleveland was president. But it really became a beloved institution
in 1945, when Charles Judy - universally known as the most respected man in
town – purchased it.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The stories abound about his
honesty and generosity, all of them true. Like the time went to the bank to
make a withdrawal, only to find the teller had given him $600 too much, which
was a lot of money in those days. </span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">He tried to give the money back,
but the teller wouldn't hear of it. "We never make mistakes," he said
smugly.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Mr. Judy shrugged, took the money
home, and put it in his safe for safekeeping, certain that the man would
eventually realize his mistake.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Sure enough, that night there was a
knock on his door. It was the teller. "Mr. Judy, we did make a mistake
after all," he sheepishly confessed.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Or the Christmas Eve when Mr. Judy
got a frantic phone call from a man who had bought a model train for his child.
A part was missing. It was well past midnight, but he got out of bed, met the
man at the store, and gave him the part so his kid wouldn't be disappointed on
Christmas morning.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">"That's the kind of guy he
was," says his daughter Virginia Carpenter, who now runs the store with
her husband Bill. "We still try to do that today, if we can."</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Berkeley Hardware will open by the
end of the month in its new location at the corner of Addison and Milvia, and
all the old gang, who are on a first-name basis with most of the customers,
will still be there. Tracy will still be running the hobby department, Mike
will still run the gardening department, Romeo will still run the tool
department, Rio will still run the electrical department, and Alex will still
be in charge of the plumbing department.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Best of all, store manager Quentin
"Chuck" Moore, a man whose disposition is so sunny he makes Santa Claus
look like the Grinch, and his assistant manager, Andy Taylor, will be there
too.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">"We're not going to change our
helpful hardware folks," Bill promises.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">It's a smaller space, so they'll
have to reduce the back stock inventory somewhat. </span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">"Those oddball items that
people come in for once every four or five years won't be on the shelf,"
says Bill. "But we have the capacity to get them from our warehouse within
a few days."</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">That's a minor inconvenience
compared to the appalling prospect of Berkeley Hardware going away forever,
which, thank goodness, it isn't.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Mr. Judy died in 1997, but his
spirit lives on. And so does his store. May it live and prosper for another 120
years.</span></span></div>
Martin Snapphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10569395652952859388noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4982279215501434111.post-50572278199734453972016-05-29T15:44:00.001-07:002016-05-29T15:44:30.645-07:00Austin & Amanda
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-7lTQGGQ8OAQ/V0twq0F1N9I/AAAAAAAACn4/sBd1BeY-1Pk-2wl0b5hgc23MHTVTfkW9ACLcB/s1600/IMG_0985.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-7lTQGGQ8OAQ/V0twq0F1N9I/AAAAAAAACn4/sBd1BeY-1Pk-2wl0b5hgc23MHTVTfkW9ACLcB/s320/IMG_0985.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Last January 16, Gail Churchill, a
volunteer with Island Cat Resources & Adoption in Alameda (ICRA, for short)
was feeding a small group of feral cats in Oakland when she noticed that a new
one – a black and brown tabby – had joined the group. What caught her eye was
that he had a notched ear, meaning he had already been neutered. </span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Over the next few days he came
closer and closer to her and wanted to be petted. That's when she noticed
several oozing wounds on his back that were now abscessed.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The next day she came back with a
cat carrier and whisked him off to the vet. </span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">"I didn't know how he would
respond to being picked up," she says, "but he must have known better
days were ahead of him because he was gentle and willing to go into the
carrier."</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The vet found four deep bite wounds
that required shaving, cleaning, and drainage tubes inserted under Austin's –
that's what she named him – skin. ""All this was done with only a
local anesthetic because he was so sweet and calm during the whole
procedure."</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The next day he was able to go home
– "I was NOT going to let him go back outside!" – and got along
famously with Rosie the golden retriever and Gail's other cats.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">A few days later, Gail got a call
from a very nice woman in Berkeley named Judy Bertelsen, who was looking for an
adult male cat to keep her 10-year-old female, Amanda, company. It was a
perfect match.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Amanda had settled down into a
sedentary life as an old lady until Austin arrived, but now she's enjoying a
second youth.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">"She is really enjoying
playing with Austin, and he with her," Judy reports. "They love the
cloths that are draped over a chair and the futon because one of them can hide
behind the cloth and stick a paw and/or nose out, and the other one can pounce.
They are absolutely wonderful. I recall Eckhart Tolle's comment that he had
lived with a number of Zen Masters, all of them cats."</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Austin is just one of hundreds of
homeless kitties that are rescued each year by ICRA. Since this group began,
they have spayed or neutered 16,000 cats <span> </span>(Think of all the unwanted kittens that were never born
because of them!) and placed more than 3,300 kitties in loving new homes.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I've covered a lot of worthy
organizations, but ICRA gets more bang for its buck than any other group I've
seen. Not a penny goes to salaries; everybody is a volunteer. All the money
goes to the kitties.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Their major fundraiser of the year –
a champagne silent auction - is coming up Saturday, May 7, from 7 to 10 p.m. at
the Alameda Elks Lodge, 2255 Santa Clara Avenue (basement level). Apart from
the auction items – fine jewelry, trips to Disneyland, wine, gift certificates,
pet goodies and original artwork – it's always a great party, featuring
champagne, wine, vegetarian munchies and live entertainment.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Suggested door donation is $40, but
passes for $35 can be purchased online in advance at <span><span class="MsoHyperlink">picatic.com/icrasilentauction</span></span>. if you can't
make the party but would like to support ICRA anyway, you can do it online at <span><span class="MsoHyperlink">icraeastbay.org</span></span>. </span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Tell 'em Austin sent you.</span></span></div>
Martin Snapphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10569395652952859388noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4982279215501434111.post-63503674944243169752016-05-29T15:30:00.002-07:002016-05-29T15:30:32.938-07:00Who Wrote Shakespeare's Plays?
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-7cudwSPv3tA/V0ttdRXyRsI/AAAAAAAACns/zEqbvHPspvYHJTjeLXH1FiKgL9n6GlgUgCLcB/s1600/MTE1ODA0OTcxNzgzMzkwNzMz.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-7cudwSPv3tA/V0ttdRXyRsI/AAAAAAAACns/zEqbvHPspvYHJTjeLXH1FiKgL9n6GlgUgCLcB/s320/MTE1ODA0OTcxNzgzMzkwNzMz.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst" style="line-height: 14.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 175.5pt; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in;">
<span class="tgc">Happy birthday
to William Shakespeare, who was born 452 years ago this Saturday and died 400
years ago, also this Saturday. (The guy always had great timing.)</span><span class="tgc"><span style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 14.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 175.5pt; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in;">
<span class="tgc">As the old joke
goes, Shakespeare used a lot of clichés – the joke being that they became clichés
when other writers started ripping them off. It's amazing how many phrases he
coined are still a part of our everyday language 400 years later. They number
in the thousands.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 14.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in;">
<span class="tgc">To list just a tiny sample: </span><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Times;">"Knock knock! Who’s
there?" (<i>Macbeth</i>), "Kill with kindness" (<i>The Taming of
the Shrew</i>), "Laughing stock" (<i>The Merry Wives of Windsor</i>),
"Love is blind" (<i>The Merchant of Venice</i>), "Good
riddance" (<i>Troilus and Cressida</i>), "Milk of human
kindness" (<i>Macbeth</i>), "Play fast and loose" (<i>King John</i>),
"One fell swoop" (<i>Macbeth</i>), "Break the ice" (<i>The
Taming of the Shrew</i>), "Refuse to budge an inch"<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(<i>Measure for Measure</i>),
"Cold comfort" (<i>The Taming of the Shrew</i>), "Dead as a
doornail" (<i>Henry VI Part II</i>), "Give the devil his due" (<i>Henry
IV Part I</i>), "Eaten me out of house and home" (<i>Henry IV Part II</i>),
"For goodness’ sake" (<i>Henry VIII</i>), "Foregone
conclusion" (<i>Othello</i>), "Jealousy is the green-eyed
monster" (<i>Othello</i>), "Heart of gold" (<i>Henry V</i>), and
"Wild-goose chase" (<i>Romeo and Juliet</i>).</span><span class="tgc"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 14.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in;">
<span class="tgc">For the first few
hundred years after he died, nobody questioned whether he wrote those great
plays and sonnets. But lately, poor Will has become like Rodney Dangerfield: He
just can't get no respect.</span>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 14.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 175.5pt; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in;">
<span class="tgc">People as
diverse as Walt Whitman, Sigmund Freud, Mark Twain, Helen Keller Charlie
Chaplin and George Bernard Shaw have suggested that someone else must have
written them and used Shakespeare as a front man. Among the candidates: Ben
Jonson, Christopher Marlowe, the Earl of Derby, the Earl of Rutland, the Earl
of Southampton, the Earl of Essex, Francis Bacon, Queen Elizabeth, Sir Walter
Raleigh, and the current favorite, Edward de Vere, 7<sup>th</sup> Earl of
Oxford.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 14.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 175.5pt; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in;">
<span class="tgc">Their argument
is sheer snobbery: How could a country bumpkin from Stratford, who never made
it past grammar school, possibly have written such sophisticated plays with
such a huge vocabulary and such a great insight into human nature?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 14.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 175.5pt; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in;">
<span class="tgc">But
Shakespeare's school, the King's New School in Stratford, wasn't like the
grammar schools of today. The students learned Latin and Greek, and they had a
thorough grounding in the classics.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 14.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 175.5pt; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in;">
<span class="tgc">Besides,
Shakespeare was an auto-didact. His real teacher was himself. He consumed
literature like a vacuum cleaner, and it all came out in his writing.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 14.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 175.5pt; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in;">
<span class="tgc">Another
auto-didact was Abraham Lincoln, who had even less formal schooling than
Shakespeare - a total of less than one year in "blab school," where
the students shouted versus from McGuffey's Reader in unison at the top of their
lungs. And Lincoln wrote some pretty good speeches, too.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 14.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 175.5pt; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in;">
<span class="tgc">As for the Bard's
huge vocabulary, there's a simple reason why he knew so many words: He invented
them.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 14.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 175.5pt; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in;">
<span class="tgc">Shakespeare's
language is so sublime, it has transcended the enormous gap of four centuries
and still speaks to us today. He even has the best description of our current presidential
candidates.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 14.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 175.5pt; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in;">
<span class="tgc">When they
campaign: "His promises fly so beyond his state/That what he speaks is all
in debt; he owes/For every word."</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 14.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 175.5pt; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in;">
<span class="tgc">And after
they're elected: "His promises were, as he then was, mighty;/But his
performance, as he is now, nothing."</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 14.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 175.5pt; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
Martin Snapphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10569395652952859388noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4982279215501434111.post-54567756130264905672016-05-29T15:24:00.004-07:002016-05-29T15:24:37.277-07:00Turn The Page
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-jD39l47dZlg/V0tr21KeVPI/AAAAAAAACng/pxr6WVYG0vgfLDjoI7baoEk7O8Texja3gCLcB/s1600/20160414__ECJ-SNAPP-0415%257E1.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-jD39l47dZlg/V0tr21KeVPI/AAAAAAAACng/pxr6WVYG0vgfLDjoI7baoEk7O8Texja3gCLcB/s320/20160414__ECJ-SNAPP-0415%257E1.JPG" width="211" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span id="default"><span id="imagePopUp">(Above: Children's Fairyland
Shana Barchas, the education director at Children's Fairyland in
Oakland, appears at Alice's Reading Room, one of many Fairyland stations
at which kids' book authors will meet with children at the
"Turn the Page!" event.)</span></span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span id="default"><span id="imagePopUp"> </span></span>Last week, I was praising Glenview
Elementary School in Oakland for teaching the kids that reading is fun. Instead
of forcing them to do extra reading as punishment for being bad – the way
schools used to do when I was these kids' age – they're permitted to do extra
reading as a reward for being good. </span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">This week, let me praise Children's
Fairyland for teaching the same lesson in a different way: By staging its
first-ever book festival for kids who are even younger: 2 to 8 years old.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The cream of the crop of local
children's book authors and illustrators will be on hand to talk with the little
tykes for this all-day extravaganza - called Turn The Page! – which will take
place throughout the park on Saturday, April 23, from 10 to 4.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">There will be read-alouds, art
demonstrations, sneak peeks at books that are being worked on, and an inside look
into the process of creating a book.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">"We want kids to see that
books don't just magically appear," says C.J. Hirschfield, Fairyland's
executive director. "Somebody gets the idea. Somebody writes it. And
somebody does the illustrations. And that somebody could be them."</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The children will get a chance to
meet more than 25 authors and illustrators, including Lisa Brown, Marcus Ewert,
Aya de Leon, Elisa Kleven, and Muon Van. </span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">On the Emerald City stage, a cozy
little venue that makes it easier to chat with the little ones in the audience,
authors and illustrators will team up to describe the creative process,
including Annie Barrows, author of the "Ivy And Bean" series; Innosanto
Nagara, author and illustrator of "A Is For Activist;" and Kathryn Otoshi,
author and illustrator of "One," a picture book about bullying.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">"They'll show the kids things
like 'This is what the art looked like when I first started drawing the
character, and this is how it turned out,'" says Shana Barchas, Fairyland's
education director.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Meanwhile, in the Japanese Tea
Garden, volunteers from the Oakland Public Library will teach the kids the art
of bookmaking, from the first word to the final product. </span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">"They'll write and illustrate
their own book and put it together," Barchas says. "Then they can
either keep the book or put it on a shelf of the Oakland Public Library's one-of-a-kind
popup library – a bike with shelves on the back - and swap it for a book some
other child has made."</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Over in the Merry Meadow, authors
and illustrators will be doing informal meet-and-greets with their tiniest
readers. Luann Strauss, owner of Laurel Book Store, and her crew will also be on
hand to sell books by all the authors and illustrators, which the kids can then
get autographed in person.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">And while all this is going on,
Fairyland's regular activities will go on as usual, including a brand new musical
at the Puppet Theater: "Puff The Magic Dragon," a spinoff of the famous
Peter, Paul & Mary song with one big difference: This version has a happy
ending. (There's no other kind at Fairyland.)</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Kudos to Kaiser Permanente, which
is presenting the festival with support from Chronicle Books. And kudos to the
folks at Fairyland who have worked so hard to put this together.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">"We've wanted to do this for
sooooo long!" says Hirschfield.</span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span>It was worth the wait.</span></span></span>
</div>
Martin Snapphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10569395652952859388noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4982279215501434111.post-43082764573887503802016-05-29T15:20:00.002-07:002016-05-29T15:20:55.771-07:00Reading For Fun
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-f9yHQ1GZ2Ic/V0trOoNaI1I/AAAAAAAACnY/5IUGn0a9Seg6EQ1WNJqUaXmp8npU3oUKgCLcB/s1600/iStock_000015992250Small-1200x400.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="106" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-f9yHQ1GZ2Ic/V0trOoNaI1I/AAAAAAAACnY/5IUGn0a9Seg6EQ1WNJqUaXmp8npU3oUKgCLcB/s320/iStock_000015992250Small-1200x400.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">When I was a kid, they'd give you
extra reading as a punishment for being bad. Nowadays, at Glenview Elementary
School in Oakland, extra reading is a reward you get for being good.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Only one stipulation: It has to be
pleasure reading. No drudgery allowed.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I ask you: Which is the better way?
At Glenview, the kids are learning an important lesson they'll take with them
for the rest of their lives: Reading is fun.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">That's the good news. The bad news
is that public schools like Glenview are woefully underfunded these days. It's
been that way since 1978, when Proposition 13 was passed.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Since then, parents have scrambled
to find ways to make up the deficit, nowhere more so than at Glenview.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Every year, they organize a
two-week extravaganza called the Read-A-Thon, which combines the kids' love of
reading with a clever way to raise money.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">For two weeks, the kids ask their families,
friends and neighbors to sponsor them in reading 30 minutes every day, over and
above their homework.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The money they raise goes to the
Glenview PTA, which has to come up with $65,000 every year to pay for essentials
that wouldn't exist if not for the Read-A-Thon.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Otherwise, Glenview would have to
say goodbye to its school librarian, instrumental music programs, anti-bullying
programs and empowerment programs for girls.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">For safety's sake, the kids are
only allowed to knock on the doors of people they know, and they must be
accompanied by an adult they know personally.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The climax of the Read-a-Thon is an
all-day party when they put away their schoolwork and do nothing but read for
sheer pleasure. The littlest ones usually make "forts" out of
blankets and chairs in the middle of the classroom, crawl inside, and read to
their little hearts' content. It's beyond cute.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">This year's Read-a-Thon took place
from February 19 to March 4, and I'm happy to report that the kids raised the
entire $65,000. For that, they got an extra reward: As promised, Principal Chelsea
Toller ate a live worm.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Second grade teacher John Miller had
promised his kids that if 100 percent of them logged 30 minutes of reading per
day for the entire two weeks, he'd let them watch while he got his head shaved.
They did, and he did.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Mr. Miller's class also received
Glenview Oaklandish T-shirts for being the class with 100 percent reading
participation that raised the most money.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Third grader Melody Blankman,
fourth grader Ruby Donaldson and fifth grader Malachi Williams won a private lunch
with Principal Toller for raising the most money school wide.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Alas, Ms. Smith's third graders
narrowly missed scoring 100 percent participation, which meant she didn't have
to make good on the promise she'd made them: getting hit in her face with a pie.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I wish these kids didn't have to go
out and beg for their own education. I didn't when I was their age. But it is
what it is. This is the world we have made for them.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">If you'd like to support the
Read-A-Thon, you can do it online by going to glenviewelementary.org and
clicking on the<span> </span>"Donate
Now" button, or by sending a check made out to "Glenview PTA" to
Glenview Elementary School, 4215 La Cresta Ave., Oakland CA 94602.</span></span></div>
Martin Snapphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10569395652952859388noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4982279215501434111.post-82094940476149889592016-05-29T15:17:00.005-07:002016-05-29T15:17:49.501-07:00The Last Time I Saw Paris<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-15EnSrKukmw/V0tqZjyUOTI/AAAAAAAACnQ/zF6NeMX0UasDl88mrPiGF5Uhw7q5737dQCLcB/s1600/6946220-3x2-940x627.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-15EnSrKukmw/V0tqZjyUOTI/AAAAAAAACnQ/zF6NeMX0UasDl88mrPiGF5Uhw7q5737dQCLcB/s320/6946220-3x2-940x627.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i><span>The last time I saw Paris, her heart was warm
and gay.<br />
I heard the laughter of her heart in every street café.<br />
The last time I saw Paris, her trees were dressed for spring.<br />
And lovers walked beneath those trees and birds found songs to sing.<br />
I dodged the same old taxicabs that I had dodged for years.</span></i></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i><span>The chorus of their squeaky horns was music
to my ears.<br />
The last time I saw Paris, her heart was warm and gay.<br />
No matter how they change her, I'll remember her that way.</span></i></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoListParagraph" style="text-indent: -0.25in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span>-<span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-synthesis: weight style; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span></span><span>Oscar Hammerstein
II, written a few days after the fall of France in 1940</span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span>My heart is breaking. Paris – the cultural capital of Europe, the city
of lights, where every building is an exquisite piece of baroque sculpture – violated
by cruel, naïve, and unfathomably dangerous true believers. Children
slaughtered while attending a rock concert. People gunned down while eating
their dinners. It's almost too much to bear. </span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span>If you've never been to Paris, do yourself a favor and put it on your
bucket list. With all respect to New York, London and Rome, it's the greatest
city in the world. And it has captured the hearts and imaginations of Americans
ever since Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson served as our country's first
two ambassadors there.</span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span>"If you are ever lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young
man," Hemingway wrote, "then wherever you go for the rest of your
life, it stays with you, for Paris is a moveable feast."</span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span>Predictably, American politicians are falling over themselves to exploit
this tragedy. And just as predictably, they're coming up with all the wrong
answers and pointing their fingers at all the wrong people.</span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span>A lot of them are blaming the Syrian refugees, ignoring the fact that
these refugees are fleeing from ISIS, the very same people who committed the
Paris attacks. Ted Cruz says we should only admit refugees who are Christians.
Mike Huckabee wants to use this as an excuse to cancel the nuclear deal with
Iran, ignoring the fact that the only boots on the ground who are having any
success against ISIS – apart from the Kurds - are the Iranians.</span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span>And Donald Trump took a break from his war on Mexicans – who, as far as
I can recall, haven't bombed anybody – to train his fire on the Syrian
refugees, saying, "If I win, they're going back."</span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span>It reminds me of what Great Britain did during World War II: It
imprisoned Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany on the grounds that they might be
German spies. None of them were, of course, any more than the 120,000 Japanese
American citizens we imprisoned after Pearl Harbor.</span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span>It's only human to lash out at the nearest target when something like
this happens, but is it wise? When Bin Laden ordered the 9/11 attacks, his goal
was to trigger World War III between Islam and the West. It's a war that no one
can win but everyone can lose.</span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span>Let's step back, take time to mourn the desecration of this beautiful
city, and then fight. But this time, let's use our heads for strategy and our
hearts for compassion, instead of being suckered into fear-based, impulsive
action. The latter is what Bin Laden would have wanted.</span></span></span></div>
Martin Snapphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10569395652952859388noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4982279215501434111.post-52733177239720403352016-03-28T16:07:00.001-07:002016-03-28T16:07:20.158-07:00Life's A Merry-Go-Round<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-1aGWyqpR3hc/Vvm4OCc1zSI/AAAAAAAAClg/3PmjXg8zmWEK22zRFH-SOI9B1s0Ihpagg/s1600/IMG_5916.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-1aGWyqpR3hc/Vvm4OCc1zSI/AAAAAAAAClg/3PmjXg8zmWEK22zRFH-SOI9B1s0Ihpagg/s320/IMG_5916.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Above: Caroll, Ken and Jaynie)</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Once upon a time – 1950 to be exact,
the same year that Children's Fairyland in Oakland opened its fairy gates for
the first time - a young man named Ken Vetterli, who was operating a carousel
in Capitola, saw a beautiful young woman named Carol riding the carousel and
asked her for a date. It must have gone pretty well, because they married the
next year.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">And carousels kept popping up in
their lives. Flash forward 24 years to 1974. Ken, who by now was vice president
of an Oakland-based firm called the Flecto Paint Company, decided Flecto should
purchase a tiny, child-sized carousel that had been built in, yes, 1950, and
use it to showcase the company's latest product, a revolutionary new gloss
called Varathane.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The little carousel was in pretty
dilapidated shape, but after six months of hard work they restored it to its
former glory. In November 1975 the bright, shining new carousel, bearing a sign
reading "Flecto," made its debut at a trade show in Chicago It was a
hit from day one, and was in constant use at trade shows and other promotional
events until it was finally retired 10 years later and its parts stored in
crates.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Now, flash forward again to 2002,
this time to Children's Fairyland, where the Walrus and the Carpenter seal pond
had outlived its usefulness after 50 years.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">"We loved our rescued sea
lions, but the neighbors were complaining about their barking," says
Fairyland's executive director, C.J. Hirschfield. "So we found them new
homes and looked around for something to take their place."</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Out of the blue, a phone call came
from a representative of the Flecto Paint Company. Ken Vetterli was long
retired by then, but the guy wanted to know if Fairyland would be interested in
Flecto's carousel.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Would they? And how! There were no
written instructions on how to reassemble the contraption, but members of the
Lake Merritt Breakfast Club, the organization that built Fairyland in the first
place, figured how to do it.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Once again, the carousel was a hit
from day one. "It was the perfect size for very young children between 28
and 54 inches tall," says Hirschfield. "Adults had to stand on the
sidelines and wave."</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">But by last year the Flecto
Carousel was showing its age again. "Just like the Velveteen Rabbit, it
had been worn down by years of kids' love and attention," says
Hirschfield.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">They did a Google search for Flecto,
but Flecto was no more. It had been taken over by a company in Illinois that
also owns Rust-Oleum, and Varathane is now a Rust-Oleum product.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Undaunted, Fairyland's plucky director
of development, Cindy Sandoval, found Rust-Oleum's corporate email address and
sent them a blind email asking if they'd be interested in advising Fairyland on
another restoration. </span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Twenty-four hours later, the answer
came back from Liz Krauthammer, Rust-Oleum's senior brand manager. Not only
would they provide expertise, they'd take charge of the project and pay for the
whole thing, to boot.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Shannon Taylor, Fairyland's gifted
director of art and restoration, picked out the color scheme for the horses and,
with advice from Rust-Oleum's experts, painted the horses in vibrant new colors
and restored the deck.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">"They paid for that,
too," says Hirschfield.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Last November, Hirschfield, who
writes a column of her own in the Piedmont Post, wrote one about the
restoration's progress. To her surprise, she got a phone call a few days later.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">It was Ken Vetterli, the man who
started it all in 1974, who now lives down south in Claremont. It turned out
that her column had been picked up by an online trade journal, and Ken's son
Jim – another Flecto veteran - spotted it and passed it on to him.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">"I often wondered what
happened to the carousel," he told her. "What makes it even more
special is that my great-granddaughter Jaynie, who lives in Walnut Creek, has
been to Fairyland many times and must have ridden on it."</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The restored Flecto Carousel was
formally opened to the public last Saturday. Ken and Carol – who, by the way,
will celebrate their 65<sup>th</sup> anniversary this summer - and many members
of the extended family flew here for the occasion, including their daughter
Janet, who came all the way from Northampton, Massachusetts. </span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Also attending were two former
Flecto employees – Suzanne Layden, one of the first people to ride the carousel
at its 1975 debut at the Chicago trade fair, and Georgette Pratt, who worked in
the accounting department.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">"Flecto was a lot more than a
job," Ken explains.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The guest of honor, of course, was
5-year-old Jaynie, who took the first ride on the new carousel. And the second.
And the third. And the fourth. She rode four different horses and named each
one – Cupcake, Jewell, Apple, and Orange Blossom. Hirschfield vows they will
keep those names forever.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Krauthammer was unable to attend,
but she was at Fairyland's annual gala last summer, where she announced that
the whole thing has been so much fun, Rust-Oleum has decided to
"adopt" and restore one of Fairyland's sets each year. </span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">So how does it all feel? </span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">"I feel swell," says Vetterli.
"That's my generation's word for 'awesome."</span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></span></div>
Martin Snapphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10569395652952859388noreply@blogger.com0