Campanastan

Infographic: Contraception Changes Everything

From the good folks at PSI. Here is the original.

Click to enlarge.

 

"The Roman Catholic church... carries the immense power of very directly affecting women's lives everywhere by its stand against birth control and abortion." - Robin Morgan

Campanastan Confessions: The Road to Shambala Led to Reno Tonight

And here is what was at the end of that road....

Three Dog Night? WTF? A canineophile? No, a rock band whose heyday was from the late 1960s to the mid-1970s. Four of the seven original members are still performing: singers Cory Wells and Danny Hutton; guitarist Mike Allsup; and keyboardist Jimmy Greenspoon.

Excellent show - almost 75 minutes, with all their many hits and some new material as well. They did two great versions of Mama Told Me (Not To Come): the usual, and then a hilarious rap version.

We missed Eli's Coming but heard my favorite, Shambala.

Dinner at the Steakhouse Grill, great music, old and new friends....hard to beat - only possible if Mary Frances had been there!

Picture taken by Lisa Sehlke - Greg Weinbender, Ken Reid, Dick Engberg, yours truly, and Jerry Sehlke:

Wash away my troubles, wash away my pain
With the rain in Shambala
Wash away my sorrow, wash away my shame
With the rain in Shambala

Everyone is helpful, everyone is kind
On the road to Shambala
Everyone is lucky, everyone is so kind
On the road to Shambala
         --- words and music by Daniel Moore

No Steve Elkington Here! Barry Switzer on Michael Sam: Does He Got Game?

Legendary football coach Barry Switzer opines on Michael Sam:

And on owners drafting gay players:

About what I expected from ol' Barry: if the guy can play, that's all he cares about. 

Oh, yeah - kudos to Arizona Governor Jan Brewer. She got game, too. Well, not really, but she had visions of $$$ leaving her state!

"Some people born on third base go through life thinking they hit a triple." - Barry Switzer

Someone Visited My Villa in Tucson!

Friend and former colleague Basia Irland snapped this in Tucson. 'Patio of the Bells', indeed!

"Stupidity is a talent for misconception" ~ Edgar Allan Poe

Happy Valentine's Day!

Not my cat, but the one on the card I gave Mary Frances. 

It is also Oregon's 155th birthday! And Arizona's 102nd!

"Romance is thinking about your significant other, when you are supposed to be thinking about something else." - Nicholas Sparks

Dale Hansen Unplugged: So Michael Sam is Gay?

Great commentary from Dale Hansen of WFAA in Dallas on Michael Sam. Pretty amazing!

From the Huffington Post.

 

I love this:

You beat a woman and drag her down a flight of stairs, pulling her hair out by the roots? You're the fourth guy taken in the NFL draft. You kill people while driving drunk? That guy's welcome. Players caught in hotel rooms with illegal drugs and prostitutes? We know they're welcome. Players accused of rape and pay the woman to go away? You lie to police, trying to cover up a murder? We're comfortable with that.

"You love another man? Well, now you've gone too far!" - Dale Hansen

R.I.P. Pete Seeger. We're Still Waist Deep in the Big Muddy

God bless Pete Seeger, who died today at age 94.

This song, Waist Deep in the Big Muddy, from the Vietnam War era, still rings true today. Seeger wrote it in 1967 and it caused a fuss because it really wasn't about some military exercise in Louisiana that went awry.

I suspect the song will have a long period of relevance; there will always be big fools around.

 

And here is the Kingston Trio's beautiful version of Where Have All the Flowers Gone? It was written by Seeger and Joe Hickerson.

 

"We learn nothing from history except that we learn nothing from history." - Cicero

But for Five Saudi Arabians, She Would Be 62 Today

Hard to imagine that my 'baby sister' should be turning 62 today. Yes, today would have been my younger sister Ann Campana Judge's 62nd birthday had not five Saudi Arabians - not Iraqis, not Afghans - murdered her on 11 September 2001.

She and colleague Joe Ferguson were on American Airlines Flight 77 escorting three middle-school students and their teachers to Los Angeles for a field trip sponsored by their employer, the National Geographic Society. They were to meet up with a number of other students and teachers to visit the Channel Islands.

It's not hard for me to imagine what she might have looked like today: not much different than she did in the above photo (she's on the left; my older sister Ellen is on the right). She was one of those people who would never look her age. The photo was taken in Spring 2000.

Read more here.

I miss you, Annie! We all do. 

"Cowards die many times before their deaths; the valiant never taste of death but once." -- William Shakespeare (from Julius Caesar)

Best Wishes and Merry Christmas From Campanastan!

Best wishes to all friends of the President-For-Life and First-Lady-For-Life  - enjoy the holidays! Even those in Campanastan's 'Mountain Resort' are accorded this sentiment.

Even Galahad (aka G-had, the Pet-For-Life) is celebrating, and anxious to read his gift, The New Yorker Book of All-New Cat Cartoons. 

And the official tree:

"Jesus did not spend a great deal of time discoursing about the trinity or original sin or the incarnation, which have preoccupied later Christians. He went around doing good and being compassionate." - Karen Armstrong

One Graph, One Life: Nelson Mandela

Hard to think one could do justice to Nelson Mandela's transformation of South Africa with such a simple graph but I think Dylan Matthews did a pretty good job.

Thanks to Ezra Klein.

“It always seems impossible until it's done.” - Nelson Mandela

Special Black Friday Quotes Edition

“You know if the U.S. Government wanted to boost the economy there's a simple solution make Black Friday the refund date for your state and federal taxes” - Stanley Victor Paskavich 

"When women are depressed, they eat or go shopping. Men invade another country. It's a whole different way of thinking." - Elayne Boosler

"Shopping is better than sex. If you're not satisfied after shopping you can make an exchange for something you really like." - Adrienne Gusoff

"Oh for the good old days when people would stop Christmas shopping when they ran out of money." - Unknown

"One of the nice things about Christmas is that you can make people forget the past with a present." -Unknown 

"Because only in America, people trample others for sales exactly one day after being thankful for what they already have." - Unknown

"Christmas is the season when you buy this year's gifts with next year's money." - Unknown

 “Permanence, perseverance and persistence in spite of all obstacle s, discouragement s, and impossibilities: It is this, that in all things distinguishes the strong soul from the weak.” –Thomas Carlyle

“Perseverance is a great element of success. If you only knock long enough and loud enough at the gate, you are sure to wake up somebody.” –Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

“Effort only fully releases its reward after a person refuses to quit.” – Napoleon Hill

“A little more persistence, a little more effort, and what seemed hopeless failure may turn to glorious success.” –Elbert Hubbard

“Perhaps there is only one cardinal sin: impatience. Because of impatience we were driven out of Paradise, because of impatience we cannot return.” –W.H. Auden 

“Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not: nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not: the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.” –Calvin Coolidge

 “Patience, persistence and perspiration make an unbeatable combination for success.” –Napoleon Hill

A True Hero and Role Model for Us All - And She's a Girl!

I was hoping that Malala Yousafzai would win the Nobel Peace Prize, but it was not to be. Certainly the OPCW is a deserving winner, but the Nobel folks could have sent a real message to the world by awarding it to a courageous 16-year old girl who stood up to the cowardly Taliban by daring to promote education for females.

She floored Jon Stewart on the Daily Show the other night with her response to Stewart's question about her reaction when she learned the Taliban wanted her dead:

I started thinking about that, and I used to think that the Talib would come, and he would just kill me. But then I said, 'If he comes, what would you do Malala?' then I would reply to myself, 'Malala, just take a shoe and hit him.'  But then I said, 'If you hit a Talib with your shoe, then there would be no difference between you and the Talib. You must not treat others with cruelty and that much harshly, you must fight others but through peace and through dialogue and through education.' Then I said I will tell him how important education is and that 'I even want education for your children as well.' And I will tell him, 'That's what I want to tell you, now do what you want.'

Good Lord, what an answer from an amazing, articulate, person! Sixteen years old! Watch the entire interview. 

I've got another hero to join the likes of Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Jackie Robinson.

And she's a girl!

You go, Malala!

"We realize the importance of light when we see darkness. We realize the importance of our voice when we are silenced. In the same way when we were in Swat, we realized the importance of pens and books when we saw the guns." - Malala Yousafzai

My 2013 9/11 Remembrance

I wrote the following two years ago, on the tenth anniversary of 9/11. Can't improve on it.

************************************************************************************************************

I will be avoiding all the 'specials' on the tenth anniversary of 9/11. Not interested in all the contrived 'linkages' between 9/11 and the guy who collects trash in Toledo who found an image of the burning Pentagon in some dumpster or the football player who has the Twin Towers tattooed on his biceps. Sorry.

My desk is littered with magazines whose covers shout features like "Where Have We Been?", "What Went Wrong?", "Are We Safer?", "Why Do They Hate Us?", blah, blah, blah, I can't read any of them. I should say I can't finish any of them.

Actually, I did read one excellent article: "What 9/11 Wrought" by Joseph Lelyveld in the current issue of Smithsonian magazine. Read it. 

As much as I despise those who rained death upon us, I don't like what we have become. Xenophobes. Jingoes. Torturers. What moral authority the USA had, it's been greatly diminished.

I'm driving to Seattle today for a meeting tomorrow and Tuesday. When I had planned to drive it did not dawn on me that it would be on 9/11. Flying today wouldn't bother me, but it will be nice to be on the road for about five hours. No media folks trying to get a sound bite.

But let me give a shout-out to the first responders, many of whom made the ultimate sacrifice to save others. And Pat Tillman.

******  

Ten years ago today my younger sister Ann Campana Judge was murdered by the five men you see above. 

She was on American Airlines Flight #77 - the one that was crashed into the Pentagon.

I will always remember that these men, as well as 10 of the other 14 murderers, were Saudi Arabians. The other four were nationals of the UAE (2), Lebanon, and Egypt. 

When we buy Saudi oil, some of our money goes to organizations that support these kinds of people. 

We should never forget that.

A few days after 9/11/2001, a field outside the Pentagon was 'appropriated' by loved ones of the victims. We left mementos of those we lost.

Below you can see what what my niece Becky and I left in Ann's memory.  The Marlboro Lights and Diet Coke should have been accompanied by a fifth (or more) of Dewar's Scotch but we exercised some good judgment - we left a Dewar's ad from a magazine. Besides, Ann would have wanted us to consume it.

 

Two years ago on this date they dedicated the Pentagon Memorial. The Washington Post had a special section on it.

I've been to the memorial thrice and it is a remarkable place. It's open 24/7.

Below are some pictures, including Ann's bench and her name carved in stone at the entrance.

In August 2009 I had a nice long visit. I sat on her bench and said "God bless!" to the other 183 murdered  heroes who are memorialized, including the three middle-school students and their teachers Ann and NGS colleague Joe Ferguson were escorting to Los Angeles to join others for a field trip to the Channel Islands. It was the students' first airplane trip.   

 

 

Here are more pictures.

Next time I vist I'll bring some Diet Coke, a pack of Marlboro Lights, and maybe a bottle of Dewar's. Those were three of Annie's favorite things.

One thing gnaws at me: what were Ann's last moments like? Was she aware that they were going to crash? She must have - she was an experienced flyer who'd flown out of DC airports many times. She knew they were flying too fast and too low. And they were going in the wrong direction to be landing at DCA. Did she die on impact or suffer? Was she comforting the children? Probably.

Somewhat morbid, I know. 

I have her effects in a box (Mary Frances had this custom-built for me) in our library - her driver's license, some business cards, etc. It's amazing how well they survived the conflagration. She was incinerated but her business cards survived.

Here is an article about the foundation I created to honor Ann.

"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." -- attributed to Edmund Burke 

"A little bit of irreverence is good. A lot is better." -- Ann Campana Judge  

The Most Interesting Man in the World, 1940

Thanks to Heather Magee Linderfelt.

“Find out what you don’t do well, and don’t do that thing” – The Most Interesting Man in the World

¡Vota por El Partido Anti Corrupción (PAC) en Honduras!

Something exciting is brewing in Honduras, and it's not coffee! In an effort to 'refresh' the political system, a new (2011) political party, El Partido Anti Corrupción (PAC), is fielding candiates for national and local offices at the end of November 2013.

Salvador Nasralla is running for president on the PAC ticket.

My good friend Rolando López is running for a diputado (deputy) seat in the National Congress. Honduras has a unicameral legislature with 128 deputies.

And another friend, Gustavo Cabrera, is running for mayor (alcalde) of Omoa.

¡Buena suerte!

"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." - Edmund Burke

Graphic: Most Harmful Drugs in the UK; Dr. Sanjay Gupta Apologizes About Weed

Just found this in a 2010 issue of The Economist. It is based upon a survey of drug-harm experts. Be sure to read the brief article, which contains the usual caveats. 

In a related vein, I heard Dr. Sanjay Gupta of CNN, promoting his upcoming special 'Weed' (11 August 8 PM EDT), explain that he has done an about-face when it comes to medical marijuana:

Over the last year, I have been working on a new documentary called "Weed." The title "Weed" may sound cavalier, but the content is not.

I traveled around the world to interview medical leaders, experts, growers and patients. I spoke candidly to them, asking tough questions. What I found was stunning.

Long before I began this project, I had steadily reviewed the scientific literature on medical marijuana from the United States and thought it was fairly unimpressive. Reading these papers five years ago, it was hard to make a case for medicinal marijuana. I even wrote about this in a TIME magazine article, back in 2009, titled "Why I would Vote No on Pot."

Well, I am here to apologize.

I apologize because I didn't look hard enough, until now. I didn't look far enough. I didn't review papers from smaller labs in other countries doing some remarkable research, and I was too dismissive of the loud chorus of legitimate patients whose symptoms improved on cannabis.

Read the entire article here. In it, he says

We have been terribly and systematically misled for nearly 70 years in the United States, and I apologize for my own role in that.

Good enough for me!

Speaking of cavalier,

"Reality is for people who can't face drugs." - Laurence J. Peter (and others)

The Fed Chair Choice Made Simple: Janet Yellen v. Larry Summers

From Jen Sorensen at AlterNet.

"I've always thought that underpopulated countries in Africa are vastly underpolluted." - Larry Summers

Why Can't We All Just Get Along?

Great 40-year-old picture that is currently making the rounds. Read the story of this remarkable 1973 picture by Joe Crachiola that appeared in the Macomb Daily (Michigan).

Wonder what these folks are doing now?

"Can we all get along?" - Rodney King (1965-2012)

Wasatch Brewery: Great Beer, Social Responsibility, & Humor

From Jerry Coyne's blog.

 Wasatch Brewery Mission: To make the best ales and lagers possible. To achieve commercial profitability, while maintaining the highest level of social responsibility. To have as much fun as we can legally get away with.

Celebrating Four Years: SUSIE Students Arrive in Oregon!

Thought I would celebrate the fourth anniversary of the arrival of our SUSIE students, twenty-three young women and men from Central America (Panama, Honduras, Costa Rica, and Nicaragua) and the Caribbean (Jamaica, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and Trinidad and Tobago). Most arrived on a Sunday. We were all excited.

I ike to think of them as future Western Hemisphere leaders.

SUSIE is an acronym for Study of the U.S. Institute for the Environment, and was funded and sponsored by the Study of the U.S. Branch in the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. It was a five-week summer program that dealt with water supply, water quality, water and wastewater treatment, land and coastal development issues.

Ana Maria Peralta, one of three Dominicanas, who later pursued an MBA in Spain, assembled this photograph:

 
The instructors are arranged along the left side and top. The picture of Mt. Hood is signifcant because on the day before we all went to Washington, DC, we took them up to a few patches of snow where they all experienced snow for the first time.

Here is a larger picture of all of us in Washington, DC, where we spent a week after five weeks in Oregon:

 
 Here is a story about the program and the students; view their project presentations.

Each student was different, but all shared great intelligence and a desire to learn. I told them that they were going to spoil me for my fall Geology 101 class. They did!

Lasst year at this time I was traveling through Honduras and Nicaragua and saw three of the SUSIE students. I saw Julio Eguigurems (above) on 27 June in Honduras. He works at the national forestry school in Comayagua. I then traveled to Nicaragua to see Laura Espinoza García and Natalia Raudez. Laura will be hesading to study in Belgium on a scholarship and Natalia is married and a mommy. I unfortunately missed Lucia Paiz Medina, who is studying for her Master's degree in Brussels.

Julio may be applying for a Master's degree at OSU, and Dara-Marie Raggay of Trinidad and Tobago was accepted at OSU for a Master's in Environmental Science but did not matriculate.

Amazing people!

You don't know how much I miss you!

"Sometimes the only difference we can make is passing our wisdom to someone else who will make the bigger difference." -- Linda B. Gray

Why: 1) Oregon Is God's Country; and 2) We Need To Keep Portland Weird

Sign outside the Rose City Park UMC in Portland, OR.

Here is the article.

Amen!

Thanks to Joe Dellapenna.

You rock, Rev. Tate!

"What's all the fuss about? That God prefers kindness over hate? I would think that's a given. Isn't that the meaning of one of the most often quoted parables: the Good Samaritan? As far as Jesus' crowd was concerned Samaritans were atheists. What was Jesus meaning? Did the Samaritan convert to the 'right beliefs.' Not according to the story. As a matter of fact, it was the teachers of law, those with 'right beliefs' who didn't get it; who 'passed by.' " - Rev. Tom Tate

Happy 99th Birthday to John Pilgrim Campana

Giovanni Pellegrino Campana would have been 99 today. 

That name is on his birth certificate, but we knew my father as John Pilgrim Campana. Born on 6 June 1914, the son of Italian immigrants Consiglia and Domenico Campana, who arrived on these shores from Naples, Italy, in the late 1890s.  

The family settled in Boston, where my father grew up working, playing baseball, ice hockey, but most of all, studying. He vaguely recalled the Great Molasses Flood of 1919. He attended Boston Latin School, the oldest and arguably still the best high school in the USA.

After that, it was off to the oldest college in the USA, Harvard, where he graduated magna cum laude with a degree in history in 1936. In those days, Harvard was not a hospitable place for Italian-Americans, Irish-Americans, or Jews; forget about Latinos or African-Americans! It was the bastion of WASPs - White (or Wealthy) Anglo-Saxon Protestants.
 

He loved playing hockey - he was a right winger - but didn't play for Harvard after his freshman year. He told me that the rich kids on the team would rent one of the indoor arenas for practices that were restricted to themselves and their friends. So while he worked, they practiced and his skills fell behind. When he told me this, there was nary a trace of bitterness in his voice. That's just the way it was.

But his true sports love was baseball. He played shortstop and pitched on the Harvard team till he graduated in 1936. I have a team ball signed by all the players on the 1936 team, with the inscription: Harvard - 3, Yale - 0.

He married 'Southern belle' (North Carolina) Ruth Ellen Emerson in 1943 and they had three children. They first lived in Manhattan, then moved out to Queens, and finally, headed to the Long Island suburbs in December 1951, where they remained until 1978, retiring to Mooresville, North Carolina.

He started teaching in the New York City school system in 1938, a career that spanned 36 years, 26 of which were spent at Brooklyn's Erasmus Hall High School, the nation's second-oldest high school. He taught history and political science. He recalls EHHS students Barbra Streisand, chess champion Bobby Fischer, and Lainie Kazan. Don't ask him about the first two. In those days, EHHS was one of the nation's best. Its top students won scholarships to the USA's  finest universities. Even the top Jewish students, who for years could not get into the Ivy League schools, routinely made Princeton, Yale, and Harvard starting in the mid-1950s; African-Americans (few in number at EHHS in those days) and others soon followed.  As I grew up, I remember many visits from former students who would drop by to thank him for all he had done. They told me what a remarkable teacher and man he was and how much he had helped them.

He left EHHS in 1964 to help open Canarsie High School in Brooklyn. He was the Assistant Principal, a position that earned him more money but meant no more teaching. That was a tough call for him.
 

His time at CHS was difficult - an unreasonable boss and trouble from the start. In those days, the races and ethnicities mixed far worse than they do today. On some days scores of NYPD officers patrolled the halls and grounds. When a chair whizzed by his ear during a cafeteria free-for-all, he knew it was time to retire. That was 1974. The photo was taken a few years before he left CHS.

 

My father was an inveterate and prolific letter-writer. He would write letters to all kinds of people: political leaders, heads of state, CEOs, editors, sports figures, et al.  At the time of his death he was working on a book titled, One Small Voice, a collection of his letters. His favorite target was Tom Yawkey, then the owner of his beloved but then-incompetent Boston Red Sox. He would instruct Yawkey on whom to trade, whom to release, etc. It was a futile exercise, of course, but he enjoyed it. One of my big regrets in life was seeing him die in 1984, before the Red Sox won the World Series in 2004 and 2007. But at least he did not witness the 1986 debacle. That surely would have killed him. My father's devotion to the Sox and their history still have an impression on me: although I am a Yankees fan, there is a soft spot in my heart for the Red Sox.

I often wonder how the Internet would have appeared to him. Given his love for writing and commentary, would he have become a blogger? Somehow I doubt it. He was committed to letters.
 

He was remarkable man. A student of history, language (five), politics, sports, chess, and more. He was small in stature and an unlikely athlete. Baseball, hockey, golf, bowling, and tennis were his games. He was a Democrat who was not overly fond of John F. Kennedy and the Kennedy clan. He remembered too much from his early days in Boston and also never forgave patriarch Joe from being an early Hitler supporter. But he voted for JFK over Richard Nixon in 1960; that was a no-brainer.
 

I loved listening to him discuss history, especially American history. He actually 'rescued' my interest in history, because my high-school history teachers were pretty pathetic. The often emphasized rote memorization with little dicussion of what the events meant. That's where my father came in. He provided the big picture.
 

Whatever my skills are in teaching and education, I owe to him. He was so proud when I received my PhD. He had an ABD ('all but dissertation' - half done, on Stephen Decatur and the Barbary Pirates) from Fordham - marriage and a family intevened - and he never finished. He would have made quite a professor!

I miss you, Dad; I think of you each day.  You're my role model.

I think the Yankees will beat out your Sox again this year. But the beloved Bruins look like they are en route to the Stanley Cup. Oh, how he loved watching Bobby Orr!
 

"Democracy is like a raft; you're safe, but your feet get wet." -- John P. Campana

Biking From Woods Hole to North Falmouth, MA: Some Observations

U.S. Coast Guard station at Woods Hole, MA.

Some old guys at the Holiday Inn in Falmouth, MA.

Some old guys and me at the HI.

Turtle habitat!

Cranberry bog near Falmouth, MA.

Disgruntled voter.

Clint Eastwood's summer home?

Near North Falmouth. I thought I saw some lead ingots stacked near the barn.

Coonamessett Pond near North Falmouth, MA.

"Cape Cod is the bared and bended arm of Massachusetts: the shoulder is at Buzzard's Bay; the elbow, or crazy-bone, at Cape Mallebarre; the wrist at Truro; and the sandy fist at Provincetown, — behind which the State stands on her guard, with her back to the Green Mountains, and her feet planted on the floor of the ocean, like an athlete protecting her Bay, — boxing with northeast storms, and, ever and anon, heaving up her Atlantic adversary from the lap of earth, — ready to thrust forward her other fist, which keeps guard the while upon her breast at Cape Ann." - Henry David Thoreau

Mother's Day Recollection 2013: Butter Pecan Ice Cream, Strong Coffee, & Four-Letter Words

Real ice cream she loved; butter pecan was by far her favorite. Strong coffee? You'd better believe it! Don't ever serve her a cup if she could see the bottom; it would go right down the drain. Four-letter words from a Southern lady? Well, you'll have to read this entire post.  

My mother, Ruth Ellen Emerson Campana, shown here (c. 1990) with younger daughter Ann and son-in-law Geoff Judge, died on 8 May 2003 at the age of 83. Hard to believe that was 10 years ago. Although she lived for almost two years beyond 9/11, that event killed her just as sure as those Saudi Arabian terrorists killed her youngest child, Ann Campana Judge, on American Airlines flight 77.

My mother was remarkable woman. Born in Cabarrus County, North Carolina, in 1920, she was an archetypical Southern lady. No profane language, kind, compassionate, soft spoken, a beautiful drawl, proud of her Southern Scots-Irish roots but no apologist for the Confederacy and slavery although her great-grandfather fought for the South. At age 23, she married my father, John Pilgrim Campana, an Italian-American from Boston, and the two of them settled in New York City, where my father taught high school.

Although my Harvard-educated father was the family scholar, my mother was no slouch. She majored in history and English at Flora Macdonald College (now part of St. Andrew's Presbyterian College) in Red Springs, NC, and graduated at 20. She acquired her love of learning from her mother Julia Johnston Emerson, who was a college graduate in a time when that was almost unheard of. What stubbornness she had no doubt came from her father Harris Emerson, a farmer and an avowed Republican in a time when the South was the 'Solid South', always voting for Democrats (hard to believe, I know). My mother said he was a Republican becuase everyone else was a Democrat.

I owe many of my semi-decent English skills to her. Each Sunday night she would would write five words and their definitions on my blackboard. Those were the 'Weekly Words.' I relied on her to correct my writing more than I did my teachers. Why? Because she was better than they!

My friends loved her. 'How come your mother's so nice?' was a common question. But she was no pushover. My father's hot-blooded Italian nature often manifested itself when one us overstepped our bounds, but my mother would generally raise her voice only slightly, or just glare at us. The message got through.

While still raising three children, she returned to teaching in 1960 and taught fourth grade. Her students idolized her. Here is a beautiful tribute from one of her fourth-grade students, Fred Avolio. Fred also remembers the 'Weekly Words.' And yes, Fred, I remember bringing my pet iguana Leroy into class.

My mother was also somewhat naive. One story, somewhat risqué, stands out. I must have been 16, Ann 13, and older sister Ellen was away at college. We were chatting at the dinner table, something we did every evening. My mother related a discussion that occurred in the teachers' lounge at her school. Seems she came in during a conversation, and a few of the teachers were laughing about something called '69'. She was puzzled so she asked one of her colleagues what it was (she had concluded that it had nothing to do with math). He told her that she had better ask someone in her family. So she did. Ann and I could hardly contain our laughter, and my father's jaw dropped like I had never seen (he taught high-school in Brooklyn so I knew he knew). I believe it was Ann who matter-of-factly told her what it was. Then my mother's jaw dropped. I think what surprised her and my father more than anything was that their 13-year old daughter knew exactly what it was.

On another occasion at the dinner table, she told us that one of her fourth-graders had made a gesture to a classmate and she was unsure what it meant. We children knew what was coming. When my father asked what it was she extended her right arm and raised her right middle finger. Before my father could recover, Ann, all of 12 or 13 at the time, exclaimed, "'Fuck you!' It means 'Fuck you.'" I thought the Big One was going to strike my father. I chimed in and said that it didn't mean that literally but more like 'Fuck off!' At that point my mother said she got the message and did not need to know any more. In all our years chatting at the dinner table that was the only time I recall the word 'fuck' being spoken - not once, but twice.   

Needless to say, I did not mention either of these instances in the eulogy at her funeral service, although I was tempted to. It would have sent those North Carolina Presbyterians over the edge.

Despite the fact that she lived in the North for 35 years, she never lost her Southern grace and charm.

In 1978 she finally returned to her beloved Tar Heel State.

When my sister Ann was murdered, my mother was living with her and husband Geoff Judge. After Ann was killed she continued to live with Geoff (an amazing man who treated her as he did his own mother) but soon after that she began to shut down. When Ann's beloved black Lab Bubba died, that was it. First she decided she couldn't walk on her own. Then, she stopped talking. Finally, she stopped eating. The end came soon after that, peacefully, while she slept. I believe the death certificate read 'heart attack' but I knew better. It should have read 'broken heart' - burying her baby killed her.  

The irony is that today's saying is something she would say whenever she heard of a parent burying a child. I doubt she ever expected she'd have to do the same.

Especially her youngest.

Happy Mother's Day, Mom!

One last thing - I turn 65 tomorrow, and the older I get, the wiser I've become. You were right about so much stuff, Mom. I do forgive you for trying to transform me into a Southern gentleman. Some things aren't just meant to be. Probably one of the few times you failed.  But I still won't apologize for not going to law school.

Boy, do I miss you!

Got this strange hankering for some butter pecan ice cream. And none of that low-fat stuff - the real deal. 

"The hardest thing any parent has to do is bury a child." -- Ruth Emerson Campana

Gas Pump Karaoke Scores a Trip to Jay Leno's Show

Hilarious prank!

Got this from Amy Ellwein's FB page.

 

Will and Monifa Sims make it to the Jay Leno Show.

 

"I used to hang out at karaoke bars all the time. It was the most fun you could have when you had no money." - Jeremy Renner

The USA's Civil Rights Era Began This Day in Brooklyn,1947

Sixty-six years ago today, on a cold Tuesday in Brooklyn, Jack Roosevelt 'Jackie' Robinson took the field in a game against the Boston Braves at Ebbets Field. He was to face Johnny Sain, one-half of the legendary "Spahn and Sain and pray for rain" pitching duo of the Braves.

Robinson didn't do too well that day: grounded out, flied out, hit into a double play, reached on an error. But his feat went far beyond what he did at the plate or in the field. He became the first African-American since the 1880s to play in a major league baseball game, and entered the history books. We didn't know it at the time but the USA's civil rights era began that day.

Jackie Robinson was a great athlete, but he proved to be an even greater man. Robinson endured a lot of crap (a euphemism) from other ballplayers, the public, sportswriters, and fans. He was a proud man, but had promised Dodgers owner Branch Rickey that he would hold his tongue and his fists for two years. Rickey feared that if Robinson proved to be too combative right off the bat, naysayers would proclaim 'I told you so!' and the cause of major league baseball integration would be damaged.  

I like this 1997 passage by Ira Berkow, in which he talked about Robinson and Dodger teammate and fellow Hall of Famer Pee Wee Reese, a Southern boy from Kentucky who was the Dodgers' captain at the time Robinson came to the big leagues.

The first of the two incidents occurred at the beginning of spring training in 1947, when Robinson had been called up to the Dodgers from Montreal, Brooklyn's top minor league team, on which Robinson had starred during the 1946 season. A petition was drawn up by a group of mostly Southern Dodgers players that stated they would not take the field with a black man.

"I'm not signing that," Reese told the ringleaders, who included Dixie Walker, Kirby Higbe and Bobby Bragan. "No way."

Reese, the soft-spoken but respected team captain, with a Southern upbringing, perhaps surprised the petition-carriers. "I wasn't thinking of myself as the Great White Father," Reese says now. "I just wanted to play baseball. I'd just come back from serving in the South Pacific with the Navy during the Second World War, and I had a wife and daughter to support. I needed the money. I just wanted to get on with it."

But there was more to it than the money.

And Reese's refusal to sign the petition, many believe, meant the end of the matter.

Robinson played, and endured vicious abuse from opposing teams, from beanballs and spikings to racial epithets and spitting. Robinson had promised Branch Rickey, the owner and general manager of the Dodgers, that for at least his first two years in the major leagues, he would hold his tongue and his fists, no matter the provocation. And one day -- it was probably in Cincinnati, Reese recalled, in 1947 or 1948 -- the attack was so nasty that Reese walked over to Robinson and put his hand on the black man's shoulder.

"Pee Wee kind of sensed the sort of hopeless, dead feeling in me and came over and stood beside me for a while," Robinson recalled, as quoted in the forthcoming biography "Jackie Robinson," by Arnold Rampersad (Alfred A. Knopf). "He didn't say a word but he looked over at the chaps who were yelling at me through him and just stared. He was standing by me, I could tell you that." The hecklers ceased their attack. "I will never forget it," Robinson said.

After reading that pssage I gained a huge amount of respect for Pee Wee Reese. He could have easily gone the other way, but he did the right thing. Not easy for a white guy from Kentucky in the late 1940s.

Jackie left us at the all-too-early age of 53. What he endured no doubt contributed to his untimely death. Robinson was a truly remarkable man who rose to a challenge few of us could ever imagine, much less face with such grace, strength, and courage.

At the tender age of 8, in 1956, I saw him play against the St. Louis Cardinals and Stan "The Man" Musial at Ebbets Field. He was nearing the end of his Hall of Fame career, but still went 2-for-4. My father attempted to explain to me the significance of what he had done, but I was too consumed with hot dogs and cotton candy to comprehend. Later, I understood, and realized that what Robinson had done helped free us all. He is now one of my all-time heroes, right up there with Nelson Mandela and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. 

Arnold Rampersad wrote an excellent biography, Jackie Robinson. Read it. Never mind that you're not a sports fan. It is not a sports book; it's about a courageous man, a hero for all, who just happened to play baseball.

And don't forget the new movie, 42.

"Some numbers will always be associated with an athlete; '42' will forever be associated with a movement." - John Saunders, ESPN

Wishful Thinking...Hitting Forty (But Not Home Runs!)

Hitting forty is perhaps wishful thinking on my part, but certainly not on the Yankees' part. This New Yorker cover (8 April 2013) says it all. Mark Ulriksen did the cover of 'Medicated Row'.

From left to right: Andy Pettitte, Alex Rodriguez, Mariano Rivera, Derek Jeter, Ichiro Suzuki, and Mark Teixeira.

But 'old guys' Andy Pettitte and Mariano Rivera beat the Red Sox tonight!

Hey, where's Curtis Granderson? well, he's injured but he is a youngster compared to these guys - only 32. But so is Teixeira. No African-Americans? 

“I’m not a Yankees fan per se, but I’m a New Yorker at heart, and I can say the Yankees are sure old and beat up. In this lineup I put together, I added the ages of all the players and found the average was forty. And forty in baseball is old.” - Mark Ulriksen 

Another Civil Rights Victory: Miners Beat Wildcats, 72-65, 19 March 1966

We all know instances of sports driving or leading society. Jackie Robinson taking the field on a cool, rainy day on 15 April 1947 comes to mind. But what about 19 March 1966?

On that day in College Park, MD, Texas Western University, formerly Texas School of Mines and now known as the University of Texas-El Paso, defeated basketball legend and bigot Adolph Rupp and his University of Kentucky Wildcats to win the NCAA major college basketball title, 72-65.

David beats Goliath - so?  

Two 'southern' schools competed for the title, one with an all-white starting five (Kentucky) and the other with an all-black starting lineup. That was the first time a school - from the North or South - had started an all-black lineup in the NCAA championship game. In fact, until coach Don Haskins started five blacks in a game earlier that season no major college had ever started an all-black team. And in that championship game, Haskins played blacks exclusively.

Why was this such a big deal? From Frank Fitzpatrick's excellent story on ESPN Classic:

In 1966, American cultural and sporting mythology insisted at least one white starter was necessary for success. Black athletes, prevailing wisdom implied, needed the steadying hand of a white teammate. Otherwise, games would dissolve into chaos.

"There was a certain style of play whites expected from blacks," said Perry Wallace, who a year later at Vanderbilt became the first black basketball player in the Southeastern Conference. "`Nigger ball' they used to call it. Whites then thought that if you put five blacks on the court at the same time, they would somehow revert to their native impulses."

Chaos? Revert to their native impulses? WTF? More from Fitzpatrick:

Texas Western walked the ball up court, ran a rigidly patterned offense, and emphasized defense - allowing just 62 points a game.

"We were more white-oriented than any of the other teams in the Final Four (Duke and Utah were the others)," said Texas Western guard Willie Worsley. "We played the most intelligent, the most boring, the most disciplined game of them all."

How did Rupp hasndle defeat? Again, Fitzpatrick:

He always blamed the loss on a flu bug, on inept shooting, on the referees, sometimes embellishing his excuses with hints that Texas Western somehow had cheated by using ineligible players.

Haskins fumed at his counterpart's reaction. Later that year, when he and Rupp crossed paths at a sports banquet in Ohio, the younger coach nearly snapped. "I had been listening to all this damn crap out of him," said Haskins. "and it's a wonder I didn't say something to him about it. But I didn't."

You can bet Southern (and other) college basketball coaches started taking second looks at black players.

And college basketball - and society - changed for the better. 

The tale has been the subject of a book and film, Glory Road.

Just a basketball game? Uh-huh. Just like 15 April 1947 Boston Braves v. Brooklyn Dodgers was just a baseball game.

"The running, gunning Texas quintet can do more things with a basketball than a monkey on a 50-foot jungle wire." - James H. Jackson, Baltimore Sun

"They can do everything with the basketball but sign it.'" - Rod Hundley, referring to the Texas Western starting lineup

Are CoppaFeel's Video and Calendar In Poor Taste?

I first stumbled upon this video after reading this post from AlterNet about using naked breasts to make a political point. The video contains no naked breasts, although the calendar from the UEA CoppaFeel girls apparently does. 

Either way, I guess some are complaining.

As someone whose family (older sister - twice; me - a minor scare) has been touched by breast cancer I think just about anything to raise awareness is appropriate. If you don't like it, don't watch.

 

"Girls have got balls. They're just a little higher up, that's all." - Joan Jett

The Healing Power of Cat Purrs

I knew cats had a purpose! Here is the source.

“Cats are intended to teach us that not everything in nature has a purpose.” - Garrison Keillor

On The Clock? Craig's Corvallis Countdown

I'm hardly one to comment on college athletics - much less basketball - but I could not
help but notice Ken Goe's column in The Oregonian this morning: "Another Oregon State game, another close loss, and time to take a hard look at the coach". My first thought was that Goe is saying what many are no doubt thinking, including myself: is OSU basketball coach Craig Robinson running out of time?

The headline wouldn't normally garner much attention. Another major college basketball coach on the hot seat? Tell me something I don't know. But this is no ordinary coach - this is Craig Robinson, the President's brother-in-law, who, like the President, is an intelligent, articulate, athletic, well-educated, Ivy League (Princeton as opposed to Columbia) African-American. But unlike his brother-in-law, he was successful in the world of high finance who threw it all away because he was born to coach.

But Goe's wondering about Robinson's future, given that he is finishing his fifth year without a trip to the NCAA tournament or even the NIT (= Not Invited Tournament). And it's easy to recall that OSU has not been to the NCAAs since 1990, but hard to recall that OSU used to be a force in college basketball (think coach Ralph Miller and former NBA star Gary Payton).

I suspect OSU officials were drooling when they signed Robinson. Perhaps they thought:

Wow - the President's brother-in-law, a successful guy, an African-American who went to Princeton and starred in basketball! A role model for all young men, but especially urban young men of color. This guy'll bring in those city African-American players like nobody else can. March Madness, here we come!

How'd that work out for you, guys? Now they have to worry about the fallout if they fire Michelle Obama's brother.

I don't know if this guy's a good coach or not. But I do suspect it is difficult to attract urban young male athletes, especially those of color, to Corvallis. It is a small city of 55,000 in an agricultural area. Without OSU and an HP facility that seemingly cannot leave town fast enough Corvallis would be a wide spot in the road 10 miles off Interstate 5 90 miles south of Portland. An African-American colleague of mine jokes that there are '382 African-Americans in Corvallis'. I suspect that is pretty close. But there is certainly little appeal for many urban young men of any color.

Robinson's lack of success is even more evident as OSU looks down the road to see the success the University of Oregon has had. Its football team is legendary and its basketball team in the Top 25. But UO is in a metro area (Eugene-Springfield) about 4-5 times larger than that of Corvallis, and has Phil Knight's money. 

I would hate to see Robinson leave. OSU may not be making the NCAA, or even the NIT, tournament, but I suspect Craig Robinson's influence on his charges extends far beyond their time on a basketball court at OSU. 

And in the game of life, that is what counts the most.

"Football, fraternities, and fun have no place in the university. They were introduced only to entertain those who shouldn't be in the university." - Robert Maynard Hutchins, former president, University of Chicago

Video: The Department of Interior Does Valentine's Day Right

From the Department of Interior. 

Who says the government can't do anything right? 

Thanks to Wayne Wright.

My Valentine - Mary Frances -  is shown to the right. Lake Tahoe, almost as beautiful as she, is in the background. Here is her Valentine's Day limerick:

We've been together one score
Our love 'tis the stuff of such lore
    Mary Frances, so fine
    For thee I do pine
And call out, 'May I love you some more?'

 

"The heart has its reasons of which reason knows nothing." - Blaise Pascal 

Video: Amazing Dolphin Rescue!

Amazing! Here is the link.

 

“Never trust a species that grins all the time. It’s up to something.” - Terry Pratchett 

Campanastan Honors Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Remembers the South

Today we honor Dr. Martin Luther King,Jr ,,who would have turned 84 on 15 January 2013. I have come to appreciate and admire him (and all the civil rights workers) by reading Taylor Branch's brilliant trilogy of the civil rights era: Parting the Waters: America in the King Years, 1954-63; Pillar of Fire: America in the King Years 1963-65; and At Canaan's Edge: America in the King Years 1965-68.

What thoroughly amazes me were the toughness, resiliency, and resolve of the civil 
rights workers, and how they honored King's insistence upon nonviolent resistance. Along with King, the names of heroes such as John Lewis, Ralph Abernathy, Hosea Williams, Rosa Parks, Coretta King, Septima Clark, James Meredith, Andrew Young, Marian Wright, Diane Nash, Fannie Lou Hamer, James Bevel, Bob Moses, et al., are forever burned in my mind. Similarly, I shall not soon forget place names like Selma and Montgomery, or people like Lester Maddox, George Wallace, Bull Connor, Orval Faubus, Strom Thurmond, and their ilk.

As I read the aforementioned books, cringing at what humans can do to each other, one thought haunted me: what would I have done had I been a Southern white person during that time (I am actually half-North Carolina Scots-Irish WASP)? I've concluded that I probably would not have been one of the segregationist ringleaders, but certainly would not have risen to the defense of the oppressed. I probably would have (very quietly) supported their cause, but not done anything to jeopardize my comfortable middle-class lifestyle (see the quote below). Certainly Northerners were no better than Southerners when it came to desegregation; recall the Boston busing "incidents" of the 1970s.

Another thing also amazes me: how much the Southern poor whites ("poor white trash") and blacks had in common. Both were horribly oppressed, but skillful politicians kept the poor whites riled about the "uppity Negroes". If the two groups had united, there would have been hell to pay.

I do have a few interesting memories about that period, as I was a student in Virginia (College of William and Mary) from 1966-1970. One stands out. Just after I arrived in Virginia, Sen. Harry F. Byrd died - he was the scion of the infamous Byrd (members of the FFV) political dynasty in Virginia, and the whole state mourned his death. What I remember most about that time is the characterization of Byrd by a local columnist:

"Never was there a man who so dragged his feet through the sands of time."

Here is a humorous memory. I played alto saxophone in the W&M marching band, and we had been engaged to provide entertainment at the Southern Governors' Conference (in Williamsburg or Jamestown). While we stood in formation, who should start darting among the band members, fiddling with the music and instruments and being a nuisance? It was none other than  Lester Maddox, newly-elected segregationist governor of Georgia. He finally asked our band director, Charles 'Chuck' Varner, if we knew Dixie, and if so, could we play it? Varner, annoyed by all of Maddox's antics, calmly but firmly said, 'No, Governor, we don't have the music but we would gladly play Marching Through Georgia for you. Maddox stopped, scowled deeply, and then darted off whence he came. Way to go, Chuck!

"I look to a day when people will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character." ~ Martin Luther King, Jr., 28 August 1963

She Would Have Been 61 Today

Hard to imagine that my 'baby sister' should be turning 61 today. Yes, today would have been my younger sister Ann Campana Judge's 61st birthday had not five Saudi Arabian murderers taken her life on 11 September 2001.

It's not hard for me to imagine what she might have looked like today: not much different than she did in this picture (she's on the left; my older sister Ellen is on the right). She was one of those people who would never look her age. I think this photo was taken in Spring 2000.

Read more here.

I miss you, Annie!

"Cowards die many times before their deaths; the valiant never taste of death but once." -- William Shakespeare (from Julius Caesar)

Campanastan Wishes All Season's Greetings!

The President-for-Life and the First-Lady-for-Life send you our best wishes for the holidays!

In our usual display of magnanimity we have released several 'vacationers' from Campanastan's famous 'mountain resort'. Those who have told us what they know are favored. 

"Blessed are those who tell the State what it wants to know, when it wants to know it - regardless of the season."- Joseph Stalin

New York Times Front Page, 16 December 2012

"The hardest thing a parent will ever have to do is bury a child." - Ruth Campana, who knew that for a fact (and it likely killed her)

Fukushima Revisited: Message From Japan

A colleague sent this to me; it's from a Japanese colleague of his. 
I can vouch for its legitimacy. 

His note to me:

This message is from a wonderful Japanese colleague, 
who has a heartfelt concern for his countrymen and friends, 
as is evident in this unedited text concerning the aftermath of the
 earthquake and tsunami nearly two years ago.  He talks about 
some issues that many of us might not think of immediately with 
regard to the disastrous consequences of the fallout.

**********************************************************************

Dear my friends,

Toward the end of the year 2012, I remind the recent situation 
of the terrible accidents of nuclear power plants in Fukushima.

I believe we have the responsibility to inform what kind of 
extraordinary events happened and how we are coping with 
that phenomena regarding urban drainage issues.


1. Infiltration of radioactive stormwater

I found at the bottom of four infiltration pits, that is soakaways, 
around my house a high dosage of radioactive materials, 
which came down from the accumulated ashes on the roof.
It counted 0.3 micro-sievert per hour. That means soakaway 
could collect the radioactive materials from the roof. It cleaned 
up the surface of the roof.

On the surface of the ground of my property, the 
dosage was 0.05 micro-sievert per hour, that is almost no problem.
Japanese Government announced that the radioactive materials 
could be acceptable for the people if it is under 0.23 micro-sievert 
per hour.

However, there are many ‘hot spots’ over the value 
in our neighborhood.


2. Spread all over the ground

After the accidents of the melt-down of the nuclear 
power plants in Fukushima, the radioactive ashes, 
dusts, powders, and particles have been spreading 
over large areas.

They fell down with rainfalls onto the grounds; roads,
roofs, gardens, agricultural fields, forests, and water 
bodies all over.

They are gradually flowing down into the rivers, lakes, 
and the sea.

Radioactive materials do not infiltrate into the ground 
since they are absorbed on the small dusts and ashes 
as a shape of particles.

Radioactive materials are accumulated at the bottom 
of the water courses, especially at the river mouths, and
semi-closed bay such as Tokyo Bay. - - - - 
I am afraid it would be included in the food chain.



3. Continuous sweeping of the contamination

We can sweep those of roofs and roads.

However it is very difficult to remove the accumulated 
radioactive materials in the forests and agricultural fields.
The trees and plants have been retaining the fallen materials
for a long time.
The radioactive materials gradually flow down to other 
places; the neighboring grounds and water bodies.


For example, at a city near Fukushima, the dosage 
was decreased successfully from 10 micro-sievert to 
1.8 micro-sievert after the cleaning of the area. However 
six months later, it returned to 8 micro-sievert, because 
the radioactive materials continuously came from
the neighboring contaminated zones, especially that 
of trees and plants around there.


4. Concentration into sewage sludge

The sludge collected at the wastewater treatment plants 
(WWTP) was full of radioactive materials in the 
eastern part of Japan. They are gradually decreasing.

The dewatered sludge, referred as to sludge cake,
had various ways to be disposed or utilized; landfill, 
reclamation, gasification, fertilizer, solid resources for 
cement industry, and so on.
Japanese Government decided to dispose the sludge 
over 8,000 Bq/kg could be treated by the Government.
Sludge less than that value should be disposed under 
the responsibility of each municipal government.

However, for example, cement companies do not 
accept the sludge if they are more than 100 Bq/kg.
People do not agree to move the sludge including 
radioactive substances out of WWTP.

At the other point of view, drainage system worked 
well to collect the spread radioactive substances from
the non-point sources to a WWTP.


5. Piled up sludge in WWTPs

As a results, the sludge is reserved at the site of WWTP 
enveloped in large plastic bags and piled up on site.

The total volume of reserved sludge in the WWTP 
is more than 120,000 tons in Japan at the end of this July.

We are exploring how to remove them and how to treat them.


6. Our tasks

1) To find the places where the contaminated sludge could 
be accepted.

2) To clean up the contaminated rivers, forests, agricultural 
fields. But how?

3) To treat the highly contaminated sludge. But how?

4) To establish the comprehensive strategy against 
the spread of radioactives.


7. What we learned

In a country which has many strong earthquakes, it is 
almost impossible to have nuclear power plants.


As the memory of the day, I tried to talk about recent 
situation of our fields after one year and nine months.

I hope I could report much detail regarding ‘the radioactives 
and urban drainage' some day in the near future.
I hope it does not come to ‘a good information' for the 
similar accident.

The next one should never be happened.Japanese experiences 
should be the final in the globe.

I expect nobody would utilize the information of Japanese 
experiences.

December 5, 2012.
　　　　　　　　　　　Shoichi FUJITA  TOKYO  JAPAN

Lesley Gore Redux: 'You Don't Own Me' PSA (It's NOT My Party!)

Mary Frances' friend in Albuquerque sent this to her. Here is the original link.

 

From the site:

Women constitute more than half of the population. In 2008, 60% of voters were women. It is estimated that 10 million more women than men will vote in this election. Despite this, women make up only 16% of Congress. Women earn only 70 cents to each dollar men make. Women of color and undocumented women make less than white citizens. Mitt Romney and the Republican Party are determined to overturn Roe V. Wade. Romney has not supported equal pay for women (The Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act). Romney has vowed to defund Planned Parenthood. Romney has vowed to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Romney doesn't want health care to cover birth control. Romney says same sex marriage should be banned with a Constitutional Amendment.

Women, let's rise up. Our vote alone can win this election. A vote for Obama is a vote for your health and your right to choose. It is a vote for equal pay and equal rights. A vote for Obama is a vote for our families. It is a vote to marry who you choose. It's a vote to start a family when you choose. A vote for Obama says that we won't stand for violence against women and that rape is rape. Our vote ensures that our daughters will grow up with the same rights that we've had. A vote for Obama sends a message: This war on women must end. We will not go backwards.

This election is shockingly close. Our safety is at stake. Our silence is consent and our vote is our voice. Let’s get active. Let’s get out every vote we can. Let’s make this election a mandate. A mandate to finally ensure women the respect, dignity and equality we all deserve! This is now. This is our call to action. Once and for all, let's take back the power that is so inherently and naturally ours!

 

Lesley Gore recorded this in 1964 - a feminist anthem before its time. It went to #2 in the USA, kept from #1 by The Beatles.

Fabulous!

But just like Lesley, I sometimes think this is 1964 all over again.

'Don't tell me what to do
Don't tell me what to say' 
 'You Don't Own Me' by John Madara and David White 

For Cat Lovers: 'I Could Pee on This and Other Poems by Cats'

Francesco Marciuliano, writer of the comic strip Sally Forth, has done us cat lovers a great service by penning, I Could Pee on This and Other Poems by Cats, a hilarious collection of poems attributed to cats.

I gave it to Mary Frances for our recent anniversary and we have amused ourselves at after-dinner tea by reading from it. Galahad (his slave name; feline name: K'sazytop-day) seems to enjoy it, too.

Some samples:

Nudge

Nudge
Nudge nudge nudge
Nudge nudge nudge nudge nudge
Nudge
Your glass just shattered on the floor

Work

They say there are 
Twenty-four hours in a day
But I'm only up for three of them
And two I consider overtime
 

I Lick Your Nose

I lick your nose
I lick your nose again
I drag my claws down your eyelids
Oh, you're up? Feed me!

O Christmas Tree

O please
O come on
O like you didn't know
What you were getting for Christmas
Before I ripped open all your gifts
O by the way
The tree looks better on its side
O I really do think so 

This Is My Chair

This is my chair
This is my couch
This is my bed
This is my bench
There is my chaise
There is my settee
Those are my footstools
Those are my rugs
Everywhere is my place to sleep
Perhaps you should just get a hotel room 

You can see where this goes.

"Cats would eat us if they could." - Mary Frances

Happy 19th, Mary Frances!

Nineteen years ago today, Mary Frances and I married on the shores of Lake Tahoe at the Hyatt Hotel in Incline Village, NV. Fun time with about 50 people and Jack, the white suit-clad Justice of the Peace.

No, this is not our wedding picture.

I joke with Mary Frances that the marriage is invalid because Jack called me 'Mitchell'. But he atoned for that gaffe by repeating the ceremony so I guess it's okay.

So here's my tribute, which will no doubt embarrass her:

Been nineteen wonderful years
Great joy, and not any tears
So let's try for more
Say, ten-and-a-score?
And a future without any fears! 

"You know you're in love when you can't fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams." - Dr. Seuss

Sagan the Sage?

Click to enlarge.

When Good Caddies Grow Old They Become...The Cooperstown Six!

Note added on 4 July 2014: See this post about a May 2014 caddy camp reunion. 

So here's why I went to Cooperstown, NY, two weeks ago - to see some old friends:

Maybe not Hall of Famers, but All-Stars for sure! From left to right: Babe Ruth; Frank Colvario; me; Steve Costa; Fred Forte; Ted Williams; Peter Xeller; and Peter Walsh. You can click on any of these pictures to enlarge them.

With the exception of the Babe and Teddy Ballgame, all of us caddied summers at the Maplewood Caddy Camp (see here as well) which serviced the Maplewood Hotel's golf course in Bethlehem, NH, nestled in the gorgeous White Mountains. After the hotel burned down in winter 1963, we headed to Cape Cod and established a caddy camp for Clauson's Inn (Hatchville, MA), now the Cape Cod Country Club.

The camps were operated by the North Bennet Street School (formerly North Bennet Street Industrial School), located in Boston's North End. The caddy camps (another was at the Lake Tarleton Hotel in Pike, NH) served to get city boys out into the country, giving them the opportunity to earn some money and learn 'life skills.' A great experience.

Here is a picture of the Clauson's campers and counselors from 1963:

The camp's director, the late John T. Dexter, known to us as 'D' or 'Mr. D', was an amazing man who made a lasting impression on all of us. And who could forget 'Ma' Labonte, our cook, who had a ferocious backhand spatula.  

I have seen Frank and Peter X. many times since 1963; Peter, a fellow New Yorker, is my long-time childhood friend  (since third grade). I had not seen Steve, Fred, and Peter W. for almost 50 years. All the Cooperstown Six, save for Peter X and me, grew up in the greater Boston area - Steve in Somerville, Frank in the North End of Boston, and Fred and Peter in Roslindale.  

We are hoping to get many of the 1963 crew together next summer - our 50th anniversary.

So how did two New Yorkers wind up working summers with a bunch of Bostonians? My father, a native of Boston's North End, caddied at the Maplewood Caddy Camp in the 1920s and thought it would be a great experience for his son and his friend. He was right.

My father also ran New Hampshire caddy camps at Bretton Woods and The Balsams.

And here is a snapshot of the Cooperstown Six minus Two (Fred and Peter Walsh):

 "Make new friends and keep the old, one is silver and the other gold." - Girl Scouts motto

The UMC View from Cooperstown, New York: It's In the Eyes of the Beholder

I took these pictures at the United Methodist Church in Cooperstown, NY. At first I thought it was a remembrance of 9/11. Then I thought it might honor the number of American servicemen and servicewomen killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. Then I realized it just might be an expression of patriotism and love of country.  

Finally I realized that it doesn't matter; what it means is in the eyes of the beholder, and it means a lot to me.

"Blessed are those who can give without remembering and take without forgetting." - Elizabeth Bibesco

Johnny Pesky Passes. Long Live the Pesky Pole!

Why is a Yankees fan memorializing a Red Sox player, much less a guy who
was arguably the most beloved Sox of them all? Probably because my father was a diehard fan, and his favorite Sox player was Johnny Pesky, who died yesterday at 92. After all, Pesky's main position was shortstop, my father's as well.

Here is an obituary from the Sox website. 

Johnny Pesky, born John Michael Paveskovich on 27 September 1919 in Portland, OR, had a long career (61+ years) with the Sox as player, manager, broadcaster, and executive. He was a close friend of fellow West Coaster Ted Williams, who, along with their other West Coast teammates Dom DiMaggio and Bobby Doerr, were celebrated in David Halberstam's The Teammates: A Portrait of a Friendship.

Two of the teammates, Williams and Doerr, are in the Baseball Hall of Fame. Pesky was a good player - .307 lifetime batting average and good fielder  - but lost three years in his prime to World War II. But no other Red Sox player has a foul pole named for him. The right-field
foul pole at Fenway Park, known as Pesky's Pole for many years, was finally given that official moniker in 2006. Here is the story behind that name - it was not so named for Pesky's hitting prowess; he hit just 17 total homers, and only 6 at Fenway Park.

Above all, Pesky had a well-deserved reputation as a nice guy. But he played the game for keeps and was a great teammate. He apparently was a very good hockey player, supposedly working out with the Boston Bruins. 

I never saw Pesky play, but I did see him in 1964 during his short stint as Sox manager. The Sox finished 8th out of ten that year. He was let go shortly after that. 

Johnny Pesky will be missed by many, many people.

Including at least one Yankees fan.

“The sky is a little bluer, the beer tastes a little better, and my wife looks like Gina Lollobrigida." -  Johnny Pesky, when asked how it felt to win as a manager.  {When asked whom his wife resembled during a losing streak, he replied, "Bela Lugosi."]   

A Republican President's Words of Wisdom

Got this from Facebook.

Makes a lot of sense, which is why we are not likely to hear it from either major candidate in the 2012 election. 

"A man who has never gone to school may steal from a freight car; but if he has a university education, he may steal the whole railroad." - Theodore Roosevelt

The Best Thing to Come Out of Nicaragua?

Except, of course, for Lucia, Laura, and Natalia - 'Las Chikis'.

Thanks, Laura!

“If it be the design of Providence to extirpate these savages in order to make room for the cultivation of the earth, it seems not improbable that rum may be the appointed means.” - Benjamin Franklin

Thanks for Independence and the Right to RAPPS!

In between the fireworks, auto and furniture sales, and barbecues, take a few minutes today to read  the Declaration of Independence and the remarkable Bill of Rights, the first ten amendments to the Constitution, which came along 11 years later:

Download Const

Download Usdeclar

If you are an American citizen, thank your lucky stars for those 56 guys who signed the Declaration in Philadelphia in 1776 and started this thing rolling.

While you are at it, give extra thanks for the First Amendment, which guarantees five fundamental rights, which you can remember with the mnemonic RAPPS: religion, assembly, press, petition, and speech.

Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, two giants in American history - friends, then opponents, and finally friends again - both died on this day in 1826. As I get older, I think less of Jefferson and more of Adams. Both were great men, but the former 'talked the talk' and didn't always 'walk the walk' (e.g., slavery) whereas the latter tried to do both.

Enjoy the day, and enjoy RAPPS!

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness." -- Declaration of Independence

"...a Republic, if you can keep it." -- Benjamin Franklin, at the end of the Constitutional Convention, when asked, "What have you wrought?"

O, Canada! Enjoy Your Day!

Happy Canada Day (or Fête du Canada) to my Canadian friends!

From the Globe and Mail.

"Canadians can easily 'pass for American' as long as we don't accidentally use metric measurements, apologize when hit by a car, or brag about our health care." - apologies to Doug Coupland

Celebrating Three Years: SUSIE Students Arrive in Oregon!

Thought I would celebrate the third anniversary of the arrival of our SUSIE students, twenty-three young women and men from Central America (Panama, Honduras, Costa Rica, and Nicaragua) and the Caribbean (Jamaica, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and Trinidad and Tobago). Most arrived on a Sunday. We were all excited.

I ike to think of them as future Western Hemisphere leaders.

SUSIE is an acronym for Study of the U.S. Institute for the Environment, and was funded and sponsored by the Study of the U.S. Branch in the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. It was a five-week summer program that dealt with water supply, water quality, water and wastewater treatment, land and coastal development issues.

Ana Maria Peralta, one of three Dominicanas, who later pursued an MBA in Spain, assembled this photograph:

 
The instructors are arranged along the left side and top. The picture of Mt. Hood is signifcant because on the day before we all went to Washington, DC, we took them up to a few patches of snow where they all experienced snow for the first time.

Here is a larger picture of all of us in Washington, DC, where we spent a week after five weeks in Oregon:

 
 Here is a story about the program and the students; view their project presentations.

Each student was different, but all shared great intelligence and a desire to learn. I told them that they were going to spoil me for my fall Geology 101 class. They did!

I am now traveling through Honduras and Nicaragua and will be seeing three of the SUSIE students. I saw Julio Eguigurems yesterday in Honduras and will be traveling to Nicaragua today to see Laura Espinoza García and Natalia Raudez. I will unfortunately miss Lucia Paiz Medina, who is studying for her Master's degree in Brussels.

Julio may be applying for a Master's degree at OSU, and Dara-Marie Raggay of Trinidad and Tobago has been accepted at OSU for a Master's in Environmental Science. I hope to see her in Oregon soon. 

Amazing people!

You don't know how much I miss you!

"Sometimes the only difference we can make is passing our wisdom to someone else who will make the bigger difference." -- Linda B. Gray