What is KlezKamp?

This is the question of the day, after our four days as Kampers. So here goes.

Imagine Interlocken Music Camp, in the woods of northern southern Michigan, near the shore of the lake of that name, with hundreds of campers taking performance and related music theory and culture courses.

Now take that camp, remove it from the Michigan woods and instead put it on a cruise ship.

Now, lower the temperature from about 80 degrees to about 35 degrees.

Now, take the cruise ship and put it in the middle of the mountains of the Hudson River Valley, and turn it into a hotel, which resembles a cruise ship, in that you cannot disembark from it.

Now take the restaurants on the cruise ship and compress them into one restaurant, serving three meals a day, under the supervision of the local kosher authorities.

Now change the music from classical to klezmer, and the language from English to Yiddish.

Now give each camper the opportunity to attend four ninety minutes classes a day, whether they are performance related (instrumentation, voice or dance), culture related (Yiddish literature, or the history of the language, etc.), language related (Yiddish instruction at various levels), or art related (Hebrew/Yiddish calligraphy, papercutting, etc.) along with eating his/her three meals a day (dairy breakfasts and lunches/meat dinners).

Now in the lobby of the hotel, place several artists who are hawking their works, a piano around which there are jam sessions going on most hours of the night or day, and sellers of related books, tapes and cds (along with Kamp tshirts and sweat shirts). And because it is Hanukah, put several tables together on which Kampers can place and light their menorahs.

Every night, schedule an activity (a staff concert, a student concert, productions by Klezkids and by Klezteens, a spoof on the Purim megilla written by a Yiddish poet and produced in Yiddish, a showing of the 1970s movie Hester Street, with a discussion with Joan Micklin Silver, the director.

Add an orthodox morning and evening minion. And create a general feeling of informality and music making, and you get the general idea.

The instructors include some of the most accomplished klezmer players in the country, the instructors include well know authors and university professors.

Picture about 500 or 600 campers, ranging in age from 3 year old toddlers to 93 year old toddlers.

You begin to get the idea.

Vice President Cheney in Kehonkon?

It's a perfect place for his secret location. It is not only remote, but Al Quaida's ability to find it would be vastly limited by their inability to spell it correctly. Al Quaida? Al Keida? Al Qayda?

Still in Kerhonkon

To find out what I am doing here (more or less), go to www.klezkamp.blogspot.com, or www.klezkamp.org.

Back in DC tomorrow night.

I am in Kerhonken, New York (2 cents)

Wanna guess why?

Capote and I would have made quite a team

He said that he had 94% recall of any conversation he heard (this is how he wrote his book without taking notes).

I have 6% recall.

Together, we'd have been perfect.

Capote [17 cents]

"Capote" may be the darkest movie I have ever seen. Also, one of the best. Based on Gerald Clarke's biography of Capote, it tells of the writing of "In Cold Blood", the story of the murder of a Kansas family of four in 1959, and the two men arrested for, convicted of, and executed for the killings. Capote spent almost five years on the story, which was the subject of his acclaimed and best selling book.

Philip Seymour Hoffman plays Capote extraordinarily, and Caroline Keener plays Harper Lee, his friend and sometime assistant, who wrote "To Kill a Mockingbird" when some of her friends did not even know she wrote.

Of the two murderers, Perry is the more central character. Truman and Perry, both products of terrible homes, virtually abandoned to the world As Capote says, it is like we were the raised in the same house, only I went out the front door and he went out the back. This is obviously one of the reasons for their drawing so close to each other, and one of the reasons that Capote suffered a virtual nervous breakdown and never wrote another book.

The movie is in color, but its memory is in black and white. It is slow moving, it is fascinating, and boy, does it make you think.

Do I Hate Bagpipes

more than anyone else in the world?

Could be.

All the News That's Fit to Print

1. War continues in Iraq: Middle East stability nowhere in sight.

2. Global warming threatens civilization as we know it.

3. United States President believes anything he wants to do is legal and authorized by the war powers resolution.

4. Baby penguin missing in London.

Or, do I have the order of importance wrong?

At the National Gallery

By the way, the website for the National Gallery of Art is www.nga.gov. If you go to www.nationalgallery.org, you wind up at the National Gallery of Jordan!

There are a number of exhibits at the National Gallery, and I saw four of them briefly today--the ones in the West Building. None are bad, but if you don't see them, you probably won't miss them.

Briefly, I saw:

The exhibit of Audubon bird prints (handcolored lithographs). They are very striking, but you have seen them before, if only in book reproductions. So, they are not "new". The exhibit is there through March and I may go back and look again, with more care. You can't say anything negative about Audubon; it's just that I have been exposed to them for so long.

The exhibit of Peter Claesz still lives. Claesz lived in Holland in the 17th century and was one of the pre-eminent still life painters, who brought more realism into his paintings than did his predecessors. The exibit closes on December 31, and was the primary reason for my visit today. Still lives have never been very attractive to me and, as still lives go, these seemed pretty ordinary. I expect this is why I had never heard of Claesz before (or at least don't remember hearing of him). And this is the first exhibit of his work in this country, ever. There are 25 tabletops on display. As far as food in Holland goes, the baked goods and the cheeses don't look like they have changed a bit. The meat pies are different (peacock, mincemeat and pheasant are shown), and highly decorative. The olives and nuts look like our olives and nuts. But the fruit is not quite the same, and my guess is that there has been more variation in apples, pears and grapes than in other types of food.

There is an exhibit of 19th century engravings and acquitints by Felix Buhot. He was a perfectionist, who kept altering the plates as additional strikes were made, so there is a lot of almost-duplication in the exhibit. His scenes of urban Paris and the rural French coast are very interesting, but I can't say that the prints themselves are particularly appealing. You have to see this one for yourself and decide. For some, this may be just the ticket. It is there through February 20.

Finally, there is a small exhibit of photography by Nicholas Nixon called "The Brown Sisters". He is married to one of them and has taken pictures of the four sisters, in the same order left to right, every year since 1975. Then, they were in their twenties; now their fifties, and you can see how they age not only year to year (sometimes imperceptible), but over 5, 15 or even 30 years. I found it moderately interesting. But I wouldn't go see it again.

There is a Winslow Homer exhibit and an exhibit of drawings from the Getty Museum that I did not have an opportunity to see. Next time.

You are what you eat.

From today's Jerusalem Post's article on Ariel Sharon's minor stroke:

"A day before suffering the stroke, Sharon reportedly dined on hamburgers, steak in nchimichurri sauce, lamb chops, shish kabab and an array of salads... For dessert, Sharon had double servings of chocolate cake."

Is Kent Conrad My Favorite Senator?

I had the absolute pleasure last night of hearing his remarks on the Senate Floor (interrupted a number of times by Paul Sarbanes, who also said all the right things, and acted as a foil for Conrad) on the administration's proposed budget reconciliation legislation (styled deficit reduction, while it expands the deficit). I am waiting to see if Conrad's statements will appear on his website; they will be worth re-reading.

The question is: should I move to North Dakota so I can vote for him? I know they need Democrats out there? And I hear the weather is nice, and surf very gentle.

Another Side to Novgorod

In addition to the exhibit described in the previous posting, the comment book at the museum was almost worth the price of admission.

Other than a number of long and (I am sure) very thoughtful comments in Russian, there were such comments as:

This was a really great exhibit and besides, today is my birthday (that by a sixth grader)

December 7, 1941, a day that will live in infamy.

This exhibit proves that Christ as risen.

I am an Isralite of the tribe of Juda and I love Jesus.

Novgorod (3 cents)

The exhibit at the Walters in Baltimore on artifacts (more than just icons) from Novgorod is very interesting. Novgorod is an old, old city in the heart of Russia that has always been exceedingly Russian. It has existed since at least about 800 C.E., and because of the nature of the soil and ground, and the wood construction which has always been predominant, it provides fertile ground for archeologists and anthropoligists, who have identified twelve different layers of the city, one on top of the other. Excavations are continuing, and will continue for a long time, bringing up items that demonstrate some of the basic characteristics of Russian life for over a millenium.

The Walters exhibit is sponsored by the museum, as well as by museums in Moscow and Novgorod, so it presents one of the only opportunities to see some of the many items on display. The icons and other religious pictures on wood (actually on canvas on treated rough wood, with a varnish for protection) are striking, with their bright colored dyes, all made (of course) from natural sources (plants and rocks). There is also jewelry and other articles of adornment, ceramics and metal cookery, coins, books and writings on wood and parchment, toys, riding aides and so forth. The signage is excellent, both for its content and its placement. There are also objects (particularly cloth fragments) that demonstrate that Novgorod was a major trade center on routes to the west, to the north, and to the south (Constantinople) from which Christianity (of the eastern orthodox variety) arrived at any early date.

Photos and models of cathedrals and reminders that this has always been a cold and muddy place complete the picture. It is there until sometime in February and worthy the drive. It is too bad that the book created for the exhibit is hardback, $65, and not that attractive at that.

Campbell Brown and Colonial Lane

Campbell Brown is the accomplished and attractive NBC Today Show weekend host (and weekday sometime substitute). The only other thing I knew about her is that she had an interesting first name.

So, much to my surprise, in looking a the most recent quarterly alumni magazine of Ladue High School, I see reference to Campbell Brown, NBC personality and daughter of Ladue graduate Jim Brown. This particular Jim Brown (I assume this is the right one, based on his graduation year) was a year or two older than me, and lived about 12 houses away on Colonial Lane. We were not friends, and during high school probably had nothing really to do with each other, but were part of the same group that spent their summer evenings on bicycles through the neighborhood in junior high school years.

At any rate, it got me thinking that there were a lot of kids on Colonial Lane. Some stayed there until I left after high school graduation, but others moved away earlier, to be replaced by families with kids much too young for me to pay attention to (not being a pedophile).

And, I don't know what happened to (virtually) any of them. So, here are the names of those I remember. Your job is to locate them.

John Vencill (saw him a few years ago; lived in Atlanta working for some aircraft company)
Anne Richardson (saw her a few years ago; retired in North Carolina playing golf)
Cindy Richardson
Marsha Steinberg
Nancy Laba
Jody Laba
Barbara McCracken
Dick Elliott
Brian Zingsheim
Steve Kunkel
Barbara Kunkel
Ann Braznell
Joann Larsen
Lanny Jones

Some of them may not remember me. They've been gone a long, long time. But I think I have the names right.

The Worst Play in the History of American Theater

We saw last night what is either the worst play in American theater history, or perhaps one that is tied for last. "The Beautiful Child" is its name, and it played at a small black box theater near the new Washington convention center. We went because the daughter of a friend of my wife's was involved in its production.

The staging was fine. The acting ranged from OK to abominable. And the text is horrific, generally involving a tragic spoof (if there wasn't such a genre before, this is it!) on a pedophile school teacher who confesses to his parents his love for an 8 year old student (with whom he has developed a physical relationship) and their decision to save him by hiding him out, but also to cut out his eyes so he can never see another child. Meanwhile, his parents are engaged in a 24-7 spat, his father has impregnated his secretary, and a deus ex machina (as opposed to deus sax machina--see recent posting) psychiatrist (who is sometimes called a psychologist) hangs around talking about her own problems.

The play was compounded by our return home, and happened to turn on the Dateline show about the MSNBC sting in Fairfax County to catch real pedophiles, who had met fake 13 year olds on on-line chats, and arranged to meet the kids when they were "home alone". No spoof here. Pure tragedy.

Eli Evans Again

In speaking about his interviews with Jews in small towns, Evans said that he asked one man why his grandfather settled in this particular place. He said he was told that the man's grandfather was moving west, and stopped there because his horse died.

In a review yesterday in the New York Times of a new book which chronicles the life of several families affected by the Dust Bowl of the 1930s, the author was quoting as saying that one of the families he was following was living in a small town because, as the family was moving west, their horse died.

If I had only heard Evans, I would have believed him. If I had only read the Dust Bowl history, I would have believed it. But now it reminds me of the story told by a law school professor, who said: If you are listening to a clock strike the hour and it strikes 13, you not only disbelieve the 13th chime, but all that came before.

But, if you are ever asked by someone how your family got to your home town, one thing is clear. You can't beat a dead horse.

More Morning Thoughts

I obviously hit the Post button too soon.

But it goes with my first morning thought. Au Bon Pain, on L Street, has several thermoses of coffee from which its customers pour their own cups. OK, so far, so good. But Au Bon Pain, on L Street, changes the order and placement of the thermoses from day to day. Sometimes, the one closest to the door is Cafe Roast, sometimes Hazelnut, etc. There should be a law against this, don't you think? The whole purpose of getting coffee is to enable you to read signs and process what you read. You cannot be expected to this first thing in the morning.

One other thing. An article I saw this morning on CNN's website talked about an explosion in Russia. It was quoting a source from what may be the world's most difficult to pronounce word (other than those without vowels and with Slavic consonent order):
Rosenergoatom. Want to tell me how you think you say it?

Morning Thoughts (16 cents)

Sax, Sax, Sax (1 cent)

This week's Tuesday concert at Grace Episcopal Church was fascinating. A saxophonist (Noah Getz) with a piano accompanist (Matthew van Hoose), both Levine School faculty members, among other things.

The pieces were all 20th century (not that the sax is too much older than that). The pieces were all in teh nature of tone poems, meant to be evocative of particular settings or events. Briefly:

"Holy Roller" by Libby Larsen was, to me, just noise, with no redeeming qualities. I did not understand it at all, and saw no relationship between the music (very, very abstract - a squeak here, and a sqawk there) and the title. The program notes says it was based on three year revival meeting in Los Angeles, 1906 to 1909. Of course, I was not there.

"Wings" by Joan Tower was terrific and very saxophony. You could just imagine a hummingbirds wings as the entire piece was played with rapid flutters (di,dah; di, dah; di,dah; etc., very very fast).

"Sonata: Deus sax machina" by Gregory Wanamaker was comic classical music at its best. Imagine it: the first part basically a Rube Goldberg machine put to music, the second part called 'Refrigerator' a slow modern piece with what appear to be random "slap-tonguing" (so says the program) meant to represent ice falling from the ice maker; the third section just good twentieth century modern music, non-melodic and highly rythmic.

Finaly, "Tableux de Provence" by Paule Maurice, six short representations of the south of France, not quite as abstract, almost (if not actually) as much jazz and classical, with a strong taste of Gershwin-like urban chaos.

Next week is the Christmas concert, which I will skip.

Eli Evans and the Jews of the South (24 cents)

Author Eli Evans spoke on the Jews of the South at the DC JCC last night, as part of the Nextbook series, and I have to say I was disappointed. Evans has written a number of books abouth Jews in southern communities, as well as a biography of Judah Benjamin, the first Jewish U.S. Senator and the Confederacy's Secretary of State. He does a lot of lecturing around the country. I had great hopes.

But his talk was primarily anecdotal, stories about his grandfather, his father, his brother, and people he has met along the way, and while they were sometimes amusing and moderately interesting, I don't think that they imparted much in the way of new knowledge. And when speaking of broader trends in today's south and with regard to its Jewish community, he was, I thought, fairly hackneyed, and did not demonstrate any significant depth in his thinking.

Not that the evening was a waste; it was just disappointing.

He did bring out some points which resonated, however. He has not lived in the south since he left Yale Law School 42 years ago, although he has devoted much of that time to his subject, and is obviously an expert in this field. When his son was born in New York City, he carried a bag of North Carolina soil into the delivery room, so his son would not be all Yankee. In fact, his son chose to go to UNC, leading his wife (she from Alabama; he from North Carolina) to suggest that the bag must have worked. Evans says that, wherever he lives or goes, he always carries his southern upbringing with him, and he believes that to be unique.

I am not sure how unique that is. As a native of St. Louis, who has lived in Washington DC for over 35 years, I still consider myself a St. Louisan, and consider that my world view was set by my upbringing in the St. Louis Jewish community. This is no different from the way Evans appears to feel. St. Louis is, to some people, the South, and to others, an eastern outpost in the midwest, and to still others, the heartland of the country. I don't know what it is, but it has (or had) its own distinctive personality and social structure. I consider my daughters, who were born in and still live in Washington, D.C., to be from St. Louis, too. And, I was very surprised once, when I said this out loud, that one of them looked at my like I was crazy, and said to me "what did you say?" But I know the truth, even if she did not recognize it.

One of my favorite author (most of the time) is Calvin Trillin, who writes in the New Yorker and is a product of the Kansas City Jewish community. In his "Letters from my Father" (I think that is the name), an extraordinary book, I thought, he tells of raising his daughters in Greenwich Village, but wanting them to in fact be as if they were raised in Kansas City. They too thought he was a little nuts, but I know exactly what he means.

Fateless

Fateless is the name of a semi-autobiographical novel by Hungarian-Jewish writer Imre Kertesz, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2002, in large part on the basis of this book. It is also the name of a movie, produced in Hungarian in Hungary, scheduled to be released in the United States in January. The movie has been playing in Hungary to large audiences since February of this year, and has been shown at several film festivals, including the Washington Jewish Film Festival, where it was screened on Sunday night.

The story is of a 14 year old boy in Budapest in 1944, who is rounded up off a bus with a number of other Jewish men and shipped to Auschwitz. Told to say, when asked, that he is 16 (to be old enough for a work detail), he does, and winds up on work details at Buchenwald and other, smaller work camps. He is in these camps for over a year, holding himself together under obviously horrendous conditions, until he develops a severe knee infection that leaves him unable to stand, much less walk. By some chance event (which the real Kertesz still cannot explain), rather than being shot, he is carried to the Buchenwald hospital, where he is well cared for in a bed with a blanket and clean sheets, and where he gets real food. He is there a short time, when the camp is liberated. He chooses to go back to Budapest (now under Soviet control), and finds himself fairly alone (his father has been killed; his mother apparently survived, but he does not have a reunion with her during the film), wandering the streets, wondering what his future will bring. He is still in his camp clothes, he has no money, he feels an outsider in the city of his childhood, he even longs for the regularity and comeradery of the German work camps.

It is a harsh picture (although one wonders if the concentration camp scenes are all harsh enough). The director, Lajos Koltai, was in town and gave a very nice introduction to the film and its creation. As he said, when he finished his introduction: "The one thing I cannot say here is, 'sit back and enjoy the film. This is not a film to enjoy.'" The young actor who plays the lead, Marcell Nagy, is excellent in his first film role. The cast is all Hungarian. The musical score, by Italian composer Ennio Morricone, is haunting.

It will be very interesting to see the American public's reaction.

Are You a Man or a Mouse?

That is the question being asked to those lucky mice whose brains are being injected with embryonic human brain cells.

This may be great science, but is is clearly news of the weird.

They say that it will be great for research. I say: Will Mickey Mouse become a reality? And if so, was it really Walt Disney pulling the strings of intelligent design? When he wakes from his frozen stupor, he will be one surprised guy.

Schwarzenegger and Clemency

The issue, to me, is not this particular individual, but the death penalty itself. Perhaps the reaction in California will be strong enough for the state to change its policy.

Tookie Williams is a very unsympathetic guy, having founded a deadly gang and participated in several murders. I am not sure that one can reform sufficiently from that to be qualified for a particularized "mercy" clemency and there were no allegations that I know about that would lead one to give clemency on the basis of legal insufficiency in connnection with the conviction.

So, the result is not surprising.

We will see what happens.

Another Direct Quote from the Post

"[Pakistan's] Supreme Court has extended a ban on making, selling and flying kites that it imposed two months ago after ruling that the sport had become increasingly deadly...."

Richard Pryor, 1940 - 2005

Talented guy. Very active. But....

1970's, charged with failing to pay federal income taxes for four years
1970's, convicted of marijuana possession
1978, heart attack
1978, charged with firing a .357 magnum (that's a gun, I believe) at his wife's ear (he missed?)
1980, set himself on fire while freebasing cocaine
1986, diagnosed with multiple sclerosis

Married and divorced six times (twice to the same woman: times 5 and 6)

How did he live as long as he did?

Christmas vs Holidays: the question of the year

Not that I can understand why the religious right is so upset about the lack of Christmas in advertisements that they want to boycott those stores whose ads say "happy holidays", but aren't these the same guys who were complaining that all of the commercialism was taking Christ out of Christmas??? You just can't please some people.

I did look at the first section of today's Washington Post. There are 28 pages in the section, and 59 ads (yes, I was surprised the number was that low). Only one ad, on page A27, advertises a Christmas sale. Creative Playthings of Gaithersburg and Chantilly. And, the sale ends December 13.

From Today's Washington Post

And I quote:

"The man accused of killing the American nun and rain forest defender Dorothy Stang told a jury (in Belem, Brazil) Friday that he acted in self-defense after mistaking her Bible for a gun".

End quote.

Presumably

I used the word 'presumably' three times in close proximity in my most recent posting. Presumably, this is too much.


Answer: Dr. Livingston, I Presume.

Question: And what is your full name, Dr. Presume?

Guantanamo: Good Radio?

"Guantanamo", at the Studio Theater in Washington, would make good radio. That is because there is no action on the stage. The characters are either sitting or standing in place. There is no direct dialogue. They are all talking to the audience, either directly as if one-on-one, or directly as if making a public speech, or indirectly by mouthing the words of a letter they had written to a family member. There is no reason to have your eyes open, unless it is to distinguish the characters one from the other, but this could be done by other means, as simply having a radio announcer state their name in an undertone before each speech.

That is not completely a criticism. The play is about inactivity, the inactivity (or inability to take action) of "enemy combatants" detained at Guantanamo, and the inactivity (or inability to take effective action) of their family members or attorneys. So, the lack of action on the stage is appropriate.

The story is about U.K. citizens, Moslems all, detained at Guantanamo, and focuses on the life stories of five of them, presumably all innocent of whatever they could be charged as having done (in fact, they were not charged specifically of anything). The words are taken from official documents, presumably, and organized by the two playwrights, on British, one South African, into a two hour, two act play. It premiered in London where it played for over a year.

The purpose of the play presumably is to show how a democracy like the United States (and its ally Britain) could fail abysmally in protecting human rights, and innocent people can be caught in a terrible situation by happenstance. It therefore both describes the forest and the trees.

The problem (in addition to a fair amount of wordiness) is that it is impossible to grasp truth regarding these individuals one way or another. There is no way you can believe, or disbelieve, the stories you hear. Also, there is nothing "dramatic" about it: you know exactly where it is going from the beginning. It is a manufactured documentary play.

The acting was very strong, and most of the audience stayed awake during the full production (except for one elderly man who slept through it all leaning forward on his cane, and who was unfortunately in the first row, no more than three feet from one of the lead actors).

It is also hard to judge the political goals of the authors of this very political play. It may be more than your typical American liberal type opposition to the war. One of the authors, Gillian Slovo, was the daughter of Joe Slovo, the former head of the South African Communist Party and the only white member of the executive committee of Nelson Mandela's ANC in opposition to the apartheid government of the U. of S.A. The other playwright, according to her mini-bio in the program heads a Palestinian rights organization.

From the Sublime to the Ridiculous

Tuesday, at lunch, I went to back to Grace Episcopal Church, for their weekly music program, this one featuring the Washington Bach Consort. The program was very enjoyable - a lengthy organ solo, followed by a melodic contata that I did not recognize, "Es ist dir gesagt, Mensch, was gut ist".

What surprised me was the size of the audience. When I went to the piano solo last week, I would guess that there were between 100 and 150 people there, which I thought was a respectable group. Yesterday, the church was filled with what I estimate to be 500-600 people. I was led to the balcony, coming in a little late, which had about 150 sitting (or standing) there.

The Consort had 11 singers, and 11 instrumentalists, plus the conductor, J. Reilly Lewis. I believe that it performs with more musicians in some of its other venues.

That evening, we went to the (formerly British) Embassy Players' winter panto, "Babes in the Woods", featuring Michelle as a very pretty Maid Marion. Slapstick comedy all the way, it was ridiculous in the best of senses, just as it set out to be. It plays all this week at the Kensington Armory, through Sunday matinee.

Memoirs

I have just finished reading two books, each of which are, in their own ways, memoirs. They are very different from each other.

The first was Richard Halliburton's "The Glorious Adventure", published in 1927, being the story of the young post-college Halliburton determining to follow the route of Odysseus, starting and ending in Ithaca. A student of the classics, Halliburton travels with few possessions, but for his many translations of "The Odyssey", all annotated. His style is breezy and appealing, as he visits some very primitive locals (primitive compared to how they are in 2005), in Greece, Italy, Turkey and North Africa. He starts with a friend, who needs to cut his trip short, but finds others (male and female, old and young) as he wends his way from improbable adventure to adventure.

It is hard to tell what is the truth, and what is exaggeration. But exaggeration there must be, as even Halliburton the narrator implies in his conversation with Calypso (real name: Fifi. Age: about 65) near the end of the book: "At twenty six, I hadn't an especially crimson record to confess. However I wasn't going to disappoint her by admitting it. Fifi never listened to a more profligate autobiography than the one I made up and related to her on the porch of Calypso's cave. Of course she was far too sophisticated to believe me entirely."

Very different is a much newer book, "A Walk Toward Oregon", published when the author, Alvin M. Josephy, Jr. was 85. (He died last year at 89.)

My guess is that Josephy was planning on a multi-volume memoir, but that time caught him short. His first 40 years take up, perhaps, 80% of the book, and his many accomplishments of the last half are handled much more matter-of-factly. What makes the first part of the book so good is that, in addition, to detailing his life to you, he paints a very clear portrait of the United States in the period 1920 through 1960. His style of writing is, perhaps not as breezy as Halliburton's, but equally appealing and accomplished.

Josephy was a man of many accomplishments. A long time editor of Time Magazine of the American Heritage, a New York Herald Tribune reporter, and the author of many volumes on the history of American Indians, Josephy, born in 1915, started out with a life of privilege (his mother was a Knopf of the publishing family), but his father's poultry business fell apart in the Depression, forcing him to leave Harvard after his second year, never to return. For a while, he lived in Hollywood, working with an uncle, who was an MGM screenwriter. For a while, he was down and out. He traveled to and from California; he went on a long road trip with a friend to Mexico. He interviewed Trotsky there. He became active in liberal Democratic politics.

He tells the story of privilege, of poverty, of ethnicity, and of history. And he tells it remarkably well. (Even the final few chapters, where everything seems so rushed, are fascinating; the difference here is that they primarily tell the Josephy story, while the earlier book tells the story of an entire country.)

And, as Halliburton seems prone to exaggeration as poetic license, you feel that Josephy is staying very close to the truth. His first marriage fell apart, and he does not tell that story: "..seemed too personal and melodramatic to pour it all out in a book for others to read about". That quote is from page 230.

On the same page, he introduces the woman to whom he will be married for the rest of his life (almost 60 years). She was probably one of the reasons that his first marriage disintegrated, although he obviously does not want to say so. Yet, he cannot tell a lie. He does not say that he met Betty (that's her name) after his marriage to Roz ended. He says: ".....at about the same time as the end of my marriage, some friends introduced me to......."

For this reason, I conclude that Josephy's book, in addition to being enjoyable and very interesting, is completely honest.

Act of God and OJ

Looking out this morning after the season's first measurable snowfall, you can see white covering the lawns and the branches of the trees. Very nice. But the streets stayed clear of snow and even the walkway to the driveway was basically clear, with only small patches of snow here and there.

Why was it, therefore, that the two cars in the driveway were totally covered (like top to bottom, side to side, front to back) by about four inches of packed snow on top of about a quarter of an inch of ice?

You can look at it in one of two ways, each starting from the basic premise, which I think that I learned I law school, that any natural tragedy or any inclement weather is an "act of God". OK, I will accept that for now.

If so, would former Israeli Sephardic chief rabbi Ovidiah Joseph (hereinafter called "OJ") conclude that God put four inches of snow on both cards as a punishment, if not for me, for the reincarnated souls of dead Jews that I carry around (after all, this is what he said about Holocaust victims), or perhaps as a punishment from me because I don't spend all my time studying Torah (after all, this is what he said about Katrina victims)?

Or, looking at the more positive side of things, is it possible that God put 90% of the snow that fell around our house on our cars because he wanted to be certain that I got sufficient upper body exercise this morning?

OJ?

Maybe It Will be Better (2 cents)

I was writing a very nice review about Alvin Josephy's "A Walk Toward Oregon", when everything went kaputt.

I bought a new computer today. An Apple or a Mac or something like that. I will try to get it hooked up soon. Maybe it will be better.

George Catlin at the Renwick

Several hundred Indian and related paintings by George Catlin are in the upper gallery at the Renwick. All are part of the Smithsonian collection.

Catlin painting Indian scenes from 1828-1848. His catalog shows that he made over 600 paintings during this time period. Each is numbered and described in an 1848 catalog, that the Smithsonian has reproduced for this exhibit.

His Indian portraits are of obvious interest, as are his scenes of buffalo hunting, Indian dances and Indian villages. Even one of his few non-Indian paintings, that of the St. Louis waterfront painted from across the river in Illinois is of interest. His notes say that at the time of this painting, in the early 1830s, St. Louis had 25,000 residents. It looks like quite a big city. No high-rises, of course, and not even the "old" court house, but it stretched for quite a way on the river. About a dozen large river boats are also in evidence.

But, having said all of this, the fact of the matter is that these paintings are of historic value only; they are not works of art. Catlin could not draw well (of course, he could draw better than I can, but not well), and has no concept of depth. It is as if these would fit into a category of "naive" or "primitif" art. That surprised me.

What do they have that we don't? (6 cents)

Again, from today's Wall Street Journal:

"Mexico's [President] Fox basked in near-record approval ratings as polls found voters strongly approved handling of Hurricane Stan and Wilma relief efforts."

Take that, FEMA!

Not Possible (2 cents)

The Wall Street Journal today, in an article about luxury automobiles, says that Rolls Royce is now offering purchaser their choice of 45,000 different shades of paint.

There goes the credibility of that paper.

Radio Time (2 cents)

I spent a fair amount of time this morning in the car, and had the radio on, and am pleased to report that I found three interesting things to listen to (and that I did not turn anything off in disgust):

1. The president's speech at Anapolis on Iraq strategy. Like the contents or not, it was a good speech, well delivered and interesting to hear.

2. The Supreme Court argument on Planned Parenthood's challenge to the state of New Hampshire on requirements for parental notifications before abortions can be performed on minors.

3. The Kojo Mnambe show with British mystery writer P.D. James.

This was especially refreshing, since so much of what you hear is just drivel.

Quick concert notes

You can attend free concerts in Washington. Another reason this is a good place to retire.

Saturday, at the Andersen House, we attended a piano-cello recital of pieces by Schumann (Immanuela Gruenberg and John Kaboff) and today I went to Grace Episcopal Church and saw solo pianist Joseph Currie. Currie played Schumann's Arabeske (a familiar piece) and Liszt's Annes de Pelerinage (2nd Annee), which I had not heard before. Gruenberg and Kaboff played pieces that were unfamiliar to me: Three Romances, Five Pieces in Folk Style and Fantasy Pieces. Most were written originally for instruments other than the cello, and transcribed by Schumann. Gruenberg and Currie gave interesting introductions to what was played.

The musicians were all of high quality, although none of them will probably solo with the New York Philharmonic.

Barry Rubin at Politics and Prose

My Monday Night at Politics and Prose this week led me to hear Barry Rubin speak about his new book on the prospects for democracy in the Middle East. I am not sure how many books Rubin has written over the past thirty years. Based on his presentation, it must be thousands. No matter what question was asked him, he answer was "I did not deal with that subject in this book. But I have written two others concentrating on the point."

Any insights? Two items of importance that I picked up. First, that Rubin thinks that democracy will come to the Arab Middle East, but that it might take another millenium or two. Second, that what the United States does in the Middle East has limited effects on what happens there. In other words, we may be disrupting Iraq with our presence, but are we really changing Iraq? Probably not -- stick around another millenium or two and see.

TV News Hits New Low!! (2 cents)

With Larry King's show tonight dedicated to Hugh Hefner and his three live-in girl friends. A new low!

The News!

They say that fewer people are reading newspapers, and that the average newspaper reader is 55 years old. They say that the largest group of people, and especially young people, are getting their news from the internet, where they look at only selective subjects whose reliability is questionable.

Some people get their news from the radio, where there are some acceptable all news stations such as WTOP is Washington, but where news is generally limited to repetitive five minute bites, or dangerous right wing crazies.

What about television? Obviously, a lot of people watch a lot of television, but the network newscasts have lost significant numbers of viewers, and are clearly in transition mode.

For a while, you could turn on CNN, or CNN Headline, or Fox, or MSNBC and get news virtually anytime day or night. (Of course, this was a very short while.) Now, it is impossible. Prime night time TV time has third-rate biopics or crime stories on NBC, absolute loons on Fox News, Larry King and his third rate interviews, followed by a too cute Anderson Cooper 360 show on CNN and, of all people, strident, unwatchale Nancy Grace on CNN Headline News, the station that should provide 'round the clock information. But graceless Nancy Grace is not the only deficient news host. Look at Shawn Hannity and Bill O'Reilly, who disgrace the legitimate right wing, and Allen Combs, the "liberal" who plays Abbot to Hannity's Costello. Then there is the perpetually unpleasant Greta van Sustern, and the perpetually silly Joe Scarborough. They almost make Geraldo Rivera look good.

This is a big country, with a lot of talented people. Where are today's Ted Koppels? Why did Aaron Brown get canned? How is it that the networks and the cable stations feel obliged to put mediocrity or worse on the air? Have they no pride whatsover?

Street Musicians: There Ought To Be a Law (1 cent)

I have given it much thought. The law should provide encouragement to, and subsidies for, those musicians of whom I approve, and punish with permanent exile and banishment those whom I do not care for.

The Textile Museum

Here is a place to visit in Washington, off the normal tourist trail. Located in the Kalorama neighborhood, in an elegant house, it features special textile exhibits, has an extensive library, and offers classes of various sorts. It is free, and parking is easy. There is a gift shop. The museum appears to be very well maintained.

There are two exhibits now.

The first, Rozome Masters of Japan, closes on February 12. It has a number of largely contemporary art works on fabric, created using an old hot wax technique, where the wax is applied with brushes. Most of the pieces are screens, mainly flat mounted on the wall, but there is also several kimonos and other items.

I cannot understand the technique, which is apparently about 1500 years old, but which had gone out of fashion and has only been recently revived. The designs went from realistic nature designs (birds and flowers, mainly), to social settings of various sorts, to abstract designs, some soft and some harsh.

My favorite is called Upheaval Seashore by Chie Otani, a four part screen of a bright and highly textured bring orange-red-brown shore, with protruding rocks, which look almost like helmets left from a recent battle. Some I did not like at all, particularly those that were the most abstract.

The second exhibit, which runs until February 26, is called "Silk and Leather: Splendid Attire of Nineteenth Century Central Asia", and that is what it is. Adult and children's clothing, men's and women's, cloaks, boots, hats, belts and more.

The colors tend to be very bright. The embroidery techniques are quite old. According to the material available at the exhibit, the 19th century in what is now Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan was apparently properous enough to engender a revised interest in highly decorative apparel, and this exhibit shows a variety of what was produced.

Worth seeing. For a preview, go to www.textilemuseum.org.

Good Night and Good Luck

'Good Night and Good Luck', the George Clooney-directed movie about Edward R. Murrow and Joe McCarthy was, to me, a bit disappointing. I was expecting something riveting, but I found it to be relatively shallow. The movie looked good - black and white, and all that. And the acting was good enough, and I assume it was historically very accurate, since so many of those involved are still around. But you really did not learn anything about any of the characters, and it only dealt with a small period of Murrow's career. Not that it was bad; it was just disappointing.

Thanksgiving Reading: Two Quick Books (3 cents)

I am not exactly sure why I chose either of these to read this weekend, but...

I first sat down with "a novel of suspense" called "The Floating Girl" by Sujata Massey, published in 2000. It is the third of a series of books set in Japan and starring a young journalist/antique expert, who has a pension for getting herselves involved in murder mysteries. The author is American, of German/Indian parentage (see Vikram Seth's "Two Lives"), who lives in Baltimore and writes about Japan, where she has apparently spent a fair amount of time. The victim is an American living in Tokyo involved with the production of pirated manga books (Japanese serial comic books); it all has to due with Japanese gangsters horning in on the sparse profits of this enterprise. You learn a little about some aspects of contemporary Japanese life, but the story is a little weak and far fetched. Not sure why I kept reading, but the fact that I did must say something. But it does not say enough for me to search out the others in the series.

The second book is, I guess, part of my "catch up" reading. It was Kitty Dukakis' "Now You Know". Daughter of BSO first violinist and Pops conductor Harry Ellis Dickson (I learned that Dickson was changed at Ellis Island or thereabouts, and that Harry Ellis Dickson's first cousin was Eddie Duchin.), and wife of Massachusetts governor and presidential wannabe Michael Dukakis, Kitty D. was a golden girl, who (like her golden mother) was apparently always an insecure mess underneath. This book is about her psychological battles, with alcohol, diet pills and depression, and her several hospitalizations. And that is all it is about. Not that that it not a lot, but she obviously was a very accomplished person, moving amongst accomplished people, but this all gets lost in the dust. For periods of time, Kitty seems able to keep her demons in check, and then something happens (like her husband losing the election) and all hell breaks loose. A sad story. You feel not only for her but for her husband, her father, and her children. Perhaps the book was cathartic; I do not know what has happened in the fifteen years since she wrote it. But it is certainly not a book that I, had I been her, would have wanted to write.

Recurrent Dream and More (9 cents)

I have had the same dream a number of times. It is about my grandmother, who lived 100 years and died in 1972. The dream is that in fact, she hadn't died, but had been living the whole time and I just forgot about her, until I found her in a nursing home, very old, but still alert. How I found the nursing home, I don't know, but a felt terrible, as you would imagine, that she had been left alone all these years, that we thought she had died, and who knows what she was thinking about us. But she seemed fine and happy to see me, and not at all mad at me or anyone else, and I knew I couldn't let this happen again. That's the dream. Quite spooky, and who knows what it could mean.

But yesterday, I am reading an article called "Keeping alive the Memory" about the Weissensee Cemetery in Berlin, the largest Jewish cemetery in the city, with about 115,000 graves, still in use. The cemetery, located in former East Berlin, has opened its archives to the public, and now is getting a number of visitors from other parts of the world. The article was in the November 2005 Atlantic Life.

I quote: "The elderly lady from Brazil was one such visitor - at least she thought she was. Borgmann [caretaker of the archives] describes how the woman arrived at the cemetery hoping to find the grave of an aunt. Less than an hour later, she was standing stupefied in front of the headstone of the grandmother she thought had been killed by the Nazis. The death of her grandmother had weighed on the consciences of the family for more than six decades. They had left her behind when they fled to Palestine. Using the archive, Borgmann had been able to find out the grandmother had survived the war, and lived until she was 93 years old in a Jewish nursing home in Berlin."

I assume that the lack of possible communication was very much exacerbated because the grandmother was caught in Communist East Germany, but nevertheless, the story seems impossible, doesn't it? But then, so does my dream which, each time it recurs, seems as real as can be.

Yoram Meital

Yoram Meital is the head of the Chaim Herzog Center and on the faculty of Ben Gurion University. He spoke last night to a small group of BGU supporters. He was scheduled to speak on changes in the political structure of the Arab middle east, but concentrated more on Israel in light of the recent major changes in that country.

He described himself as optimistic in some areas, and pessimistic in others. An "opssimist".

The optimism comes from the naming of Peretz as new head of the Labor Party, mainly because of his Morrocan background and his union/Histadrut background. He believes that Peretz will bring domestic, social issues back to the forefront of Israeli consciousness, something that has been missing for decades.

The optimism also comes from the withdrawal of Sharon from Likud, and the formation of a new "centrist" party. He believes that most Israelis (right or wrong) are comfortable with the Sharon foreign policy, and with the Peretz domestic policy, so he believes that the next government may be set and stable.

He recognizes the need of the new part to be more than a one-man party. (In the car, after the session, as we were driving him back to his hotel, Meital said that BGU president Avashai Braverman has been approached by Sharon to come into a new government; Braverman's term as president of the university is ending.)

His pessimism comes from the short term inability of any Israeli government to reach an accommodation with the Palestinians. Apparently, Sharon, who is now in favor of reconciliation, believes that a minimum of 70,000 West Bank settlers will be affected. After the turmoil of 7,000 in Gaza, Meital does not know how this can be handled domestically. He also believes, and believes that Sharon thinks, that Abu Massen does not have sufficient control over Palestinian affairs and that Hamas will strengthen. But, he thinks, that if Hamas comes to power, you can't tell whether they will hold on to their current strident position, or modify it. Look at Begin, he says, or De Gaulle, or Nixon in China.

Exhibitionism (2 cents)

I believe that I am the only person in Washington who has seen the American Silver exhibit at the Renwick, the Adolph Cluss exhibit at Sumner School, the Napoleon exhibit at the National Geographic and the The Pope and the Jews exhibit at the John Paul II Cultural Center.

What's wrong the rest of you guys?

Vikram Seth's "Two Lives" Is an Odd Book, and Disappointing

I went into it with so much hope. A renowned writer, whom I had never read. A sparkling presentation at Politics and Prose. A subject matter (Indian great-uncle/German Jewish great-aunt in Germany and England) with so much promise. Where did it go wrong?

First, the source material could have been expanded. Why, for example, did Seth pay so much homage to the often fascinating correspondence of his Aunty Henny and her pre-war German friends, without apparently ever trying to contact those friends (or their children) to see what more could be discovered from this perspective? Why, as his Aunty Henny and Shanti Uncle were married for almost forty years, and together as close friends for more than a decade before that in England, did he not talk to their English friends? Why rely virtually exclusively on one trunk of correspondence of his aunt's, his interviews with his sick, octogenarian great uncle, his own memories, and a few communications with his own relatives, mainly in India?

Second, what was this book about? Henny and Shanti (obviously an interesting topic)? Was it about the way the story was uncovered and the book put together (sort of like that classic "The Search for Corvo")? Was it about Seth and his realization that the world was a bit more complicated than even he, with all of his sophistication and intelligence, dreamed?

You get the clear feeling that Vikram Seth struggled with this book. (In fact, from the length of time he apparently spent writing other books, you get the feeling that he does a lot of struggling to finish a book - although you cannot tell if it is because he agonizes so much over every page, or because he is easily diverted. My hunch is the latter.) I also came away with the conclusion that it was published well before it was finished. That it would have taken substantially more work and time to track down more of the story, and that it needed a fair amount of editing. Hard editing.

Perhaps Seth was tired of the subject; perhaps his concentration is limited; perhaps his publisher was impatient. Perhaps, one day, someone will write "Vikram Seth - One Life" and we will find out.

It is Show Me You Care time

All readers: please respond and say hello.

Senator Giovanni (1 cent)

We went to see The Forgotten Opera's production of Don Giovanni last night at, of all places, the Alexandria Masonic Hall. TFO is a small local company made up of singers about town who have put together several food length, staged operas, with small music ensembles (in this case a 5 piece orchestra cum conductor). Scenery is minimal, but it shows that you can put on an opera, with a very small budget, quite successfully, if you don't expect Met quality.

The updating was interesting. Don Giovanni is a womanizing senator who would like to be president. Elvira is his old girl friend who took the fall for him when he hit and killed a young woman in an auto accident, and has been in jail 8 years. The opening scene is the retirement party of Justice Callahan, whose daughter is attacked by the Senator in the mask, after which Giovanni murders Callahan by accident. It is Callahan who comes back at the end to haunt Giovanni and carry his soul to hell. Leporello is Leporello. Zerlina is the new wife (and former intern) of Representative Brady, who carries on with the Senator, either for her own, or perhaps for her husband's, eventual gain.

They hammed it up and handled it like a farce. The company did its own, very witty translation (which I would like to see in print). They kept their clothes on, but through their translation and some of the handprops, played this seduction opera with the R rating it deserves.

All in all, good fun. To bad it is only being performed twice, and that more people won't have an opportunity to see it.

Arthurthinks readers know that we saw Don Giovanni in Prague, its original home, this summer. A more polished and more lavish performance, to be sure. But The Forgotten Opera was much more fun.

No Child Left Behind? (11 cents)

A recent internet poll from Belief.net shows that 55% of Americans believe the Genesis story of creation and, presumably, that any opposing scientific information should be ignored.

Another recent poll conducted by CNN shows that 40% of Americans believe that human life will end at some point through divine, supernatural intervention, and that a large number of those Americans believe that it will happen in their lifetime.

Talk about failure of American education!!!

One of the common beliefs of how the world will end, of course, is with a rapture, where believing Christians will be swept up into heaven (I guess it's heaven), and everyone else will perish. My question here is: will all of the children be swept upwards, or will there be Some Child Left Behind????? Oh, my. W. W. J. D. ????"

Vikram Seth

has written a book about his uncle (Indian Hindu) and aunt (German Jewish) and their entertwined lives. I have just started reading it, after hearing is terrific presentation the other night at Politics and Prose. What a charming presenter.

Is the book well written? Here is from the final chapter (I didn't cheat; he read this portion at the store):

"Behind every door on every ordinary street, in every hut in every ordinary village on this middling planet of a trivial star, such riches are to be found. The strange journeys we undertake on our earthly pilgramage, the joy and suffering we taste or confer, the chance events that ccleave us together or apart, what a complex trace they leave: so personal as to be almost incommunicable, so fugitive as to be almost irrecoverable.

Yet seeing through a glass, however darkly, is to be less blind. That is what has motivated this effort; that is all I have hoped would result. These two people whom I love and who loved me may not, in differing degrees, have wanted every stroke - sometimes distorted, sometimes overexplicit - of this portrait. but they are dead and past caring; and I want them complexly remembered - in sickness as in health, in weakness as in strength, in secrecy and in openness. Their lives were cardinal points for me, and guide me still; I want to mark them true."

A Singular Cingular Experience ($10.03)

Some of you might remember my posting about the Zips man. Here is Mr. Cingular.

My cell phone has only been successfully charging about half of the time. The other half of the time, when I put it in the charger, there is a message on the phone that says "unable to charge". This has been going on for several months.

I stopped by a Cingular outlet to ask what the problem might be. He told me that he did not have any diagnostic tools. He said it could be the charger, it could be the battery and it could be the phone.

I asked him if he could test the battery. He said that he couldn't, that he did not have any battery testing equipment and in fact he did not have any replacement battery for my phone.

He asked me if I had the charger with me; I said no, and asked him if I should bring it in. He said then he could see if it charges. I said half the time it does and half the time it doesn't. I said: if it charges, you will tell me it looks OK, right? Right, he said. And if it doesn't, you will tell me that it might be charger, it might be the battery and it might be the phone, right? Right, he said. So, what good would it do me to bring it in? No answer.

He then took the phone and put it into another charger. It started charging. He told me that. I told him that it does that half the time. No answer.

He then said that the phone might be getting old and need upgrading. I told him it was just a year old. He said, you know, in cell phones, one year is like ten. I asked him what that meant - 10 years old didn't seem so bad. He said, well, they build them to become obsolete, particularly if you don't take care of them.

I told him I took very good care of my cell phone. He looked at me. No answer.

I wanted to suggest that he might be in the wrong business; maybe he should be managing a Zips.

Recent Books (2 cents)

I have not published any references to recent books I have read, so here I go:

1. "The Adamses, 1735-1918" by Richard Brookhiser contains brief biographical sketches of John Adams, John Quincy Adams, Charles Francis Adams, and Henry Adams, four generations. It is a relatively short book, contains some interesting segments, but was, for me, inspiring. It may be that the Adams family just does not inspire. Remember, that a few weeks ago I heard Garry Wills talk about his new biography of Henry Adams, and it left me quite cold.

Two interesting tidbits. First, Brookhiser says that John Adams ranked 14th out of 24 in his Harvard class.....but that in those days, Harvard ranked not by grades but by social standing. Second, there is one John Adams quote that I repeat a lot (and misquote, of course). Its sentiments are right on, but it shows less than an adroit sense of human nature:

"I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study matematics and philosophy. My sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy.......in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry and porcelain."

Brookhiser's writing is grammatically correct and to the point, but it is not inspired. It is as if I had written the book. I would not go out of my way for this one, but would not avoid it, either.

2. "Lindberg" by A. Scott Berg. This book is long, almost three times as long as Brookhiser's. It is better written, and its subject is someone what more interesting. Lindberg was a daredevil (the first person to have to parachute out of airplanes four times to avoid being killed) in his youth, and certainly when he flew the Spirit of St. Louis to Paris. But then he turned scientist, working on a number of medical inventions (such as artificial heart pumps to permit more sophisticated heart surgery, and with Robert Goddard, rocketry), spent a lot of time avoiding publicity unsuccessfully, dealing with the kidnap and murder of the eldest son, being at various times very close to and virtually estranged from his talented writer-wife, traveling the world over again and again and again, and dying of lymphoma in his early seventies. While it seems clear that he was not a Nazi, he certainly was an America Firster, and an isolationist believing and speaking against entry into World War II, and while not a religious person, he clearly had a strong anti-Semitic streak in him. Not someone you would want to spend a lot of time with, although he clearly was attractive and had, when he wanted to, a great deal of charm. The book won a Pulitzer Prize. Worth reading.

3. "Tinasima", by Elena Poniatowska, who in spite of her name is a Mexican author, journalist and feminist. The book pretends to be fiction, but it is history based fiction (and probably as close to a biography as many books purporting to the a biography). I thought it was a terrific book.

Tina Modotti (the subject) is of Italian ancestry, raised in California and becomes photographer Edward Weston's model and later his mistress, moving him away from California (and his family) to Mexico. There, she becmes a photographer in her on right, Weston leaves and goes back to California, and she becomes involved in left-wing politics as well as her art, and becomes extremely well known amongst Mexican and communist circles. Eventually being forced out of Mexico, and having given up on her photography, she moves to Europe and eventually to Moscow in the 1930's believing that all the deprivations she sees are necessary to move to the communist paradise. She has a couple of other coworker/lovers, becomes a Russian spy, becomes a nurse during the Spanish civil war, and is eventually sent back to Mexico, where the movement has lost most of its steam. At an early age (I believe in her 40s), she get ill (presumably a form of cancer) and dies.

Shortly after finishing this book, I was at an elementary school book sale, and noticed a coffee-table size soft cove book about a woman named Lee Miller. After looking at it, I purchased it for $2 or so. Miller also started off as a photographer's model, and then herself became a photographer, and an excellent one, although she too left the craft for a long period of time, engaging in other artistic ventures, raising a family, and falling prey to depression. From what I have seen, Modotti's photographs are good; Miller's are spectacular.

By coincidence I saw an actual biography of Modotti for sale at Second Story Books in Dupont Circle. Looked at it; the facts seemed just as written in the novel, "Tinisima".

4. False Starts. I tried to find my next fiction book, but started three and stopped each shortly after I started them. Books by Ian Pears, Jennifer Egan and David Veronese. Still looking.

Napolean

is at the National Geographic. 250 items are on display. most are part of a private collection on display for the first time. Maps and books belonging to him, clothing and furniture, sculpture and paintings of him, and a good description of his life and deeds as you move along.

no reason to miss it.

St. Paul Vignettes (37 cents)

Four days in St. Paul, Minnesota. Vignettes.

On Thursday morning, I had coffee and a bagel at Dunn's (sort of a local Starbucks). The Dunns is in an office building at the corner of 5th and Wabasha. It shares it space with an eyeglass store. Weird, I thought....., but then.......

I decided I needed to get my shoes shined, and I found someone who shined shoes while wandering the St. Paul skywalks. The shoeshine stand sits right in the middle of the office of a mortgage loan company (Bell is the name of the mortgage company; I was told it was the largest private residential mortgage lender in Minnesota).

In Washington, DC, there are some parking meters where it would cost you almost $2 to park for an hour, and it is difficult to find a parking lot where $2 would buy you an hour of parking, but......in St. Paul, I found a place where you can park all day for $1.25.

I had two firsts, when I had lunch at a restaurant on University whose name is something like Chang Geng (but not exactly). The first first is that I had never been in a Cambodian restaurant before; the second first is that when I asked the very nice waitress how the chicken, mixed vegetables and peanut sauce was, she said: "It is not something that everyone can eat. Are you allergic to peanuts?"

We saw the Friday night "dress rehearsal" performance of Prairie Home Companion at the Fitzgerald (yes, it is F. Scott) Auditorium, and were surprised that it is a show. Garrison Keillor does not sit at a desk like Jay Leno; he struts and walks; there is a set consisting of a two story Lake Wobegon house, there is a five piece combo, etc. It was much more entertaining than I thought it would be, but went on very long......like 2 1/2 hours. Best line, I thought, was when Keillor was talking (in his very very clever opening monologue, much better than his later visit to Lake Wobegon) about the strange young men and women with their many tattoos who you see near university campuses, including one young man whose face looked like he had fallen head first into a tackle box.

Terrific food at the St. Paul Grill (been there before; still as good), Fhima's (not Brownie's outfit), A Rebours (best new restaurant in the Twin Cities in 2005, says their version of the Washingtonian Magazine) and even the Carousel in the Radisson Riverfront (or at least as far as the walleye goes). The Cambodian food (sans peanuts, I decided) was also good.

Looking for Joan Didion's new book, my wife was told at the Border's in St. Paul that, as Didion had just spoken in town, the book was sold out at all the Border's and that you probably could not find it anywhere in the Twin Cities. That sounded weird, but we stopped at the Borders on the way to the airport, and lo and behold - - - they were out as well. So........where did we find it? In the bookstore at the airport that apparently had no problem keeping up with their stock. My wife says that Border's is becoming like CVS: they are guaranteed to have everything except the one thing you want.

Very friendly place, St. Paul. Very friendly. And everyone talks with a Jesse Ventura accent, and says "Yah" and "OhhhKay" a lot.

Ohhhkay? Yah!

Uzpizin (26 cents)

New Movie. Rates Five Etrogs. Go See It. Send me your comments.

Lowell Thomas

The first Lowell Thomas book I ever read was the first volume of his two autobiographical volumes. The most interesting thing to me, in reading the memoirs of this journalist/author, was that he was always just in the exact place where something important was happening, and that everyone he met was either famous, or would become famous within the next five years or so. "How is that possible for a poor boy from Cripple Creek, Colorado?", I asked myself. I still don't have the answer to this question, but know that it is true not only for Thomas but for many others, although most, unlike Thomas, have a family or financial advantage to give them a boost.

In any event, the most recent Thomas book I read is called "Back to Mandalay", and is not a first person journalistic account of his travels or reportage, but rather the story of the capture of the jungles of Burma by the Allies from the Japanese in World War II.

The topic may today sound a bit esoteric, but in fact, it is an extremely interesting tale, made more interesting by Thomas' easy reading prose.

The problem is that the Japanese control Burma. This is a problem not only for Burma but for the Allies, because they had to way to get supplies to General Stillwell in China, and because the Japanese could cross Burma on their way to India, still under British rule. The story is the story of leapfrogging most of the country to establish bases in the north, where the transportation routes were located, to destroy the Japanese ability to move supplies and manpower. In fact, once the north fell, so did the south and all of Burma.

The lead characters were Ord Wingate, of Palestine fame, and Phil Cochran, who became the model for a Terry and the Pirates cartoon character. The supporting cast consists of British and American officers and enlisted men, fearless all (or at least fearless most of the time), who had the job of moving into the jungle to set up bases, through the movement of men and material in a large glider operation. The book deals with strategy, success and failure, and mainly with the personalities of so many of those involved.

Wingate, a scholar whose heart was in Palestine with the Jews, masterminded the operation from headquarters in the south, while Cochran headed the operational side of things. Their ability to work together, in spite of enormous personality differences, is interesting, as is the success of the mission over difficult odds, and great obstacles.

Wingate was killed in a plane crash before the mission was completed, cutting off a brilliant career. His death was kept secret.

The book ends with a "where are they now?" And, as you would expect, having no relationship with their military heroism or success, some returning soldiers did just fine, and others were unable to find their bearings.

Any other unusual characters in the book? Yes. Goldberg. Goldberg had a European Jewish father, and a Burmese mother, and was a trader/guide/lost soul, who appeared and vanished equally quickly. Wouldn't you know it?

Haman Returns to Shushan (15 cents)

Get out your groggers, because Haman (grogger, grogger, grogger) has returned to Shushan, using the name Ahmadinejad (grogger, grogger, grogger).

Everyone is waiting for Purim Sheni.

I Was Wrong

A week or so ago, I wrote an article about the tell-all books being written by young women in the U.S. today, and suggested that this was a (not particularly welcome) trait among female writers.

Then, I picked up a book called "The Other Man" by Michael Bergin, which tells the story of a young man from Naugatuck, Connecticut (which I remember as the home of the Peter Paul Mounds company), who moved after college to New York city to become a model, wound up 50 feet high in his underwear, the representative of Calvin Klein over Times Square, and met (at a fancy bar) one Carolyn Bessette, later to be Mrs. John F. Kennedy, Jr. It is the story of their "romance" and "love" [his words], but really of their sexual escapades over a period of time, their inability to express any feelings about each other in words, and their all-too-frequent spats and estrangements. Of course, she (the love of his life) dropped him (the love of her life) for a Kennedy (Dr. Evil) and he couldn't do anything about it because the Kennedys would undoubtedly do him in. But she was unhappy, told John John that she was going to visit a girl friend, but really went to have more sexual escapades with Bergin (no longer a Klein model, now an actor on "Baywatch" living in L.A.), with him she had another spot, and before you know it, she was downed in Nantucket Bay. Not a pretty story on any (and I mean any) level; how accurate it is, who knows?

But it certainly fits the genre I complained of as female. And then I realized that the Spalding Gray book I wrote about recently ("Impossible Vacation") was pretty much the same.

So, I was wrong. This type of book is clearly ambisexual.

Hi-Ho, Silver.

The Renwick Museum has an exhibit (originally put together in Dallas) of twentieth century silver (largely sterling silver) in American design. There must be 100 or so items on display, perhaps more. The four or five rooms (all on the first floor of the museum) are very well lighted and laid out, and provide a nice contrast to the outside hustle and bustle of 17th and Pennsylvania.

I went to the museum about a week ago at about 1 p.m. There were only five or six others looking at the exhibit, which is too bad, because it shows some very attractive pieces.

I did not take notes, and I know nothing about the topic, so my remarks are necessarily limited. The objects on display, by and large, have to do with food: tableware, tea and coffee sets, trays, and so forth, along with dressing table sets, ash trays, and a few display pieces. The designs change over time, but the hallmark seems to be simplicity (with a bit of art deco thrown in), as opposed to the ornate nature of earlier silver design.

I liked the coffee and tea sets the best, because they are able to create a pattern and concept, and mold their several pieces around it.

I believe that the manufacturers (most with familiar names) are all American, but a large number of the designers are not. They seem to be largely from Scandinavia or Germanic countries; not English.

There is a full-book catalog (I think hard cover only) that I am sure is worth every penny of its expensive price, because it does go through the entire history of twentieth century American silver design in significant detail. The industry today hardly exists, or at least it exists only as an art form industry, or a specialized manufacturing industry, not at all along the lines that existed prior to World War II.

One genre appeared to be absent from the scene. I assume that there has been a fair amount of silver Judaica manufactured in this country during the twentieth century - menorahs, kiddish cups, and so forth. It would have been interesting to see how these items mirrored, or contrasted with, the silver pieces being created for other purposes.

Cigarette Statistics

According to the Wall Street Journal, Philip Morris alone (actually Philip Morris USA, which I assume is only its American operation) made 187,000,000,000 cigarettes last year. 22% of American adults smoke.

I did a little calculating. Assuming 22% of adults equal about 50,000,000 people, that means that the average smoker smokes about 13 cigarettes a day. That is probably about right, then.

The number just seems so big.

Ladnering and Katzening (1 cent)

To "ladner" someone is to provide him with a gift to reward him for obtaining something improperly, where the gift is to give him more of what was improperly obtained. For example, if someone breaks into a store and steals a television set, you give him a bigger television set. If he rapes a 6 year old, you provide him with another 6 year old (or two). That is the meaning of ladnering.

How can American University ladner Ladner by giving him $4 million of severence and benefits when he is being forced out by improperly spending university assets on himself? It boggles the mind. (I wonder who Boggle was.)

Four A.U. trustees have resigned over the past month as a protest against the Board's generous treatment of Ladner, and their resignation of course cleared the way for the remaining board members to ladner Ladner, so it seems to me that the resigned board members are guilty of abetting the ladnering of Ladner, at the very least.

If you assume that the $4 million one way or another comes from the University's pocket, and that tuition is $30,000 a year, it means that 100% of the tuition of 133.33 students this year went to pay for Ladner's ladnering. Not to mention the costs (legal counsel and otherwise) of getting from there to here.

At the same time, another new word has come into use: "katzening". To katzen an institution is to give it an extraordinary gift that will enhance the prestige and mission of the institution. The Katzens gave A.U. $20,000,000 for a new museum and arts center, which has just opened.

Our institutions need more katzening, and less ladnering.

Where is the Color?

It is the 24th of October, and virtually every leaf is still on the trees, and still green. I have seen a few trees which have a rust colored tint, but that is all.

It has to do with our warm and wet September. We are now in a chilly and wet October.

What is going to happen? Will green leaves fall off the trees? Will leaves stay on and become colorful through mid-December? Will one day we wake up and see all the leaves brown?

Stay tuned.

Mail Call

My office has twenty five people working in it. My home has two people living in it.

Yet, we get substantially more mail at home than at the office.

Here is what was in our mailbox this Sunday morning, delivered on Friday and Saturday.

1 Washington Jewish Week, Oct. 20

2 The Forward newspaper, Oct. 21

3 Wall Street Journal, Oct. 22

4 Moment Magazine, Oct.

5 Smithsonian Magazine, Nov.

6 The Territory Ahead catalog

7 Heifer International catalog (2)

8 Dell catalog

9 Alternative Medicine magazine, Dec.

10 Lands' End catalog

11 Travelsmith catalog

12 Washington Post At Home

13 Capital Area Food Bank newsletter

14 Southern Poverty Law Center report

15 Woolrich catalog

16 Gaiam Harmony catalog

17 Lancome ad

18 Western Schools Nurses Study resource

19 Material from my wife's professional association

20 Material from my wife's co worker

21 Long and Foster ad

22 Old Navy ad

23 DHC skincare catalog

24 Jewish Foundation for Group Homes newsletter (2)

25 Lord and Taylor ad

26 Stone Ridge donation receipt

27 Journal Watch - medical bulletin

28 Ad for trip to Dalmation coast

29 Washington ballet ad

30 Ad for nursing conference

31 Lymphoma Society flyer

32 Lymphoma Society correspondence

33 American Express ad

34 HSC Pediatric Center ad

35 Bank Statement

36 Brokerage Statement

37 New Israel Fund correspondence

38 Archeological Conservancy flyer

39 Something from Chase Bank

40 PharmAdura ad

41 Women for Women correspondence

42 The Smile Train Ad

43 Something from Kaiser Permanente

44 Something from Rindskopf funeral parlor

45 Communication from Beth Sholom Congregation

46 Ad for the Vampire Ball

47 Insurance company correspondence

48 Phone bill

49 Ad from Strayer University

50 Bill from Moment magazine

51 Ad from Moore Cadillac/Hummer

52 Another Lord and Taylor ad

53 Southern Poverty Law Center solicitation

54 Credit card bill

55 Solicitation from Operatoin Understanding

56 Ad for a manicure or pedicure

57 Paycheck

58 Sprint bill

59 Solicitation from CARE

60 Another brokerage statement

61 Ad from Best Buy

62 Inova Blood Donor solicitation

63 Ad from Outdoor Lighting Perspectives

64 Still another brokerage statement

65 New credit card

66 mail from a client (at home?)

67 WETA bulletin

68 Verizon ad

69 Communication from professional association

70 Newsweek ad

71 Loehmann's ad

72 Suntrust ad

Memory Reminders

When we visited Auschwitz this summer, I learned that, in the Polish town of Oswiecim (Auschwitz), the Jewish population before World War II was about 7,500. There is no sign of this for the many, many visitors to Auschwitz. So, it seemed to me it would be helpful if, in each Polish city (and in locations of former shtetls now wiped off the map), there would be a sign posted on the road at the city limits stating what the pre-war Jewish population was, and how many were alive at the end of the war. Not that I think that the Polish population would rally around to support the idea, but I think it would provide an important long term lesson for all.

I learned this week that in Germany, something similar is actually in existence. Although it is less obvious to the traveler, a German artist named Gunter Demnig has been placing gold cobblestones on the grounds in front of buildings, giving the names of a World War II victim and the date they were deported or murdered by the Nazis. There are now 6,000 of these across the country, and can be sponsored for just $115. Demnig just was awarded the German government's Federal Service Cross.

Marion Barry [47 cents]

I was a supporter of Marion Barry during his first two terms as D.C. mayor. I thought he did a very good job bridging all portions of the city, from the poor to the business community. Then, he got caught in his own drug and sex addiction problems, and his performance was drastically affected, but I felt for him, because addictions are just that, and not always controllable. I did think that he was entrapped, and that his prison sentence was not necessary.

After he came out of prison, he announced he was "clean" and eventually, after a bout with prostate cancer and some domestic turmoil, announced he would re-run for his old Ward 8 city council seat. It was clear that he would win, because his popularity in Ward 8 has always been extraordinary.

So, now he is again on the council.

But it turns out that he has not filed federal or DC tax returns for 4 or 5 years, that he has been in negotiation with (at least) the feds for a year or more [I think I remember my facts here], that a plea bargaining agreement that would have most likely kept him out of prison was not completed, and that the entire matter is now unresolved. He also has reportedly stated that his personal problems have kept him from concentrating fully on his legislative responsibilities. He apparently, by the way, does not deny his failure to file his tax returns.

This is outrageous. This is not addiction, and I have found no reason at this point to have any sympathy with him whatsoever. My question is:

1. Why is he still on the council? How can someone who has admittedly not filed DC returns for years be permitted to serve as a legislator?

2. Why is there not a groundswell for his resignation?

3. What is wrong with the rest of the council? Why aren't they, at the very least, censuring him?

4. Why has the press, after a flurry of reports over a period of a few days some weeks ago, grown silent?

5. Why is there not a legitimate voice coming from Ward 8 asking these questions?

6. Why is he still considered a celebrity? Why, for example, was he a keynote speaker at the Millions More March last week, speaking as a role model, and on behalf of the people of Washington DC? How could the organizers permit that under the circumstances?

Today's Young Woman

If you had asked me, say, last Friday, what books I was planning to read next, I would not have said "Black, White and Jewish" and "Love My Rifle More Than You". In large part, this would have been because I had never heard of either of them. But I picked up a copy of "Black, White and Jewish" at the State Department book sale on Saturday, and last night I attended a book signing by the author of "Love My Rifle".

The two authors have the following in common: they are both young women in their late twenties, who come from mixed-up broken home backgrounds, who fell in with the wrong people at various times in their young lives, and who have experimented (if that is the word) with drugs and sex, but have since straightened themselves out or matured to a great extent.

Rebecca Walker, who is "Black, White and Jewish" is the daughter of novelist Alice Walker (Black) and civil rights lawyer Mel Levanthal (White and Jewish), who divorced when she was eight. Her mother moved to San Francisco, living the artistic life, and her father married a White, Jewish woman, had a second family, and wound up in Larchmont, NY. Their custody arrangement was to share their daughter, having her move every two years. So, Rebecca went to several schools in the Bay Area, and several in the Bronx and Westchester, making and losing friends, always being "other".

Kayla Williams, of "Love My Rifle" was the daughter of a Republican mother and Hippie father, who separated shortly after her birth, and who grew up in the rural south, becoming a "punk", hanging out with "punks, goths, and even neo-Nazis".

But Walker and Williams were both bright enough to go to college and do well there. Walker's book ends with her high school graduation, so except that I knew that she went to Yale, and now she works for a San Francisco non-profit and writes, I don't know much about her after her 19th birthday. Williams, on the other hand, decided to join the army, and became an Arabic specialist (two years in Monterey Language School) and went to Iraq as a Military Intelligence NCO assigned to the 101st Airborne Division. Walker writes about her youth and adolescence, and Williams runs through that period, but concentrates on her 12 months in Iraq as a female soldier, who speaks Arabic.

What is interesting (disturbing?) about both books is how openly the authors talk about their extensive drug and sexual histories, both of which for each began at a very early age (like 12, maybe), and they do it without any apologies, shame, etc. Perhaps this is good; I really don't know. But when I was growing up, books like this were not written, and young women did not talk about such things. I don't think they were experiencing these things, either. I know in my suburban high school, drugs (and sex) were pretty much unheard of, and were never heard about. And, in fact, although boys talked big among boys, I never heard a girl, throughout all of high school, even say anything off color. (I remember, when I was in college, hearing a female college freshman describing someone as a bastard, and I was astounded and wondered what kind of an upbringing she had.)

I also am not sure that young men write this way, even today. This may be a female style, at least predominantly. And these are obviously not the only books of this type; I remember Kate Roiphe's "Last Night in Paradise" that I read a few years ago with much the same reaction.

OK, readers. What do you think? Am I reflecting things accurately? Is the trend good, bad, or neutral?

Churchill and America

I did not stay for all of the presentation and question period at Politics and Prose this afternoon, when Martin Gilbert spoke about his new book, "Churchill and America", but did hear a good deal of it. The book seems worth reading.

Churchill clearly loved and disliked America. He mother was American, and he had admiration for it physically and for its people. He thought however, that if the US had entered World War I earlier, had backed the League of Nations, or if it had joined with Britain in the mid-1930s to face up to Hitler, things would have been very different.

On the other hand, he had no question, once Pearl Harbor was attacked, that America would stick in the fight and become allied with Britain until the war was won.

America and Britain have never had a formal alliance, but there was a secret agreement between Churchill and Roosevelt, never to use atomic weapons on the other.

Churchill met three American presidents, McKinley and the two Roosevelts. He was close to FDR, but he argued with him over various matters sometimes on a weekly basis, sometimes on a daily basis.

He toured the western United States in the 1890s; he was in New York City in 1929, the day the market crashed. He fell in love with Ethel Barrymore, who refused his proposal (he had an uncertain future).

Interview with Sam Dash

Sam Dash, who died last year, was the chief counsel of the Senate Watergate committee, appointed by Senator Sam Ervin of North Carolina. He was interviewed in 1994 as part of a Nixon administration oral history project. The interview was played on C-Span radio this afternoon, and was fascinating.

Dash was a very well spoken individual, who gave a cool and clear description of his time as chief counsel.

The most interesting part of the conversation, I thought, dealt with the discovery of the tapes. John Dean had been fired by Nixon and had told Dash (after negotiations which wound up giving him immunity from prosecution)that Nixon was aware of everything and had orchestrated a cover up. But why did Dean's word mean more to Dash than the president's?

Dean had suggested that some things might be on tape, although he apparently had no actual knowledge. But he stated that Nixon, at times, would walk to a bookcase and speak low, and Dean had wondered why he did that. Was it possible that he was trying to keep something from being picked up by a microphone?

The existence of the tapes themselves were made known by Butterworth, who had set them up, and who told Dash that they ran 24-7. Butterworth apparently assumed that Dash already knew about the tapes.

Dash told Dean that Butterworth had said that there were tapes. Dean was not defensive, but said: "Great, that will mean that what I am saying can be corroborated." And it was, virtually in full detail. So, Dash believed Dean.

Ervin asked Nixon to turn over the tapes. Nixon was paranoid (yelling at Ervin) and wound up in the hospital (the word was that he had viral pneumonia, but did he?), and must have assumed that he never would have to turn the tapes over. But he did.

Had Nixon destroyed the tapes, on the basis of national security, for example, Dash said that he never would have been forced from office.

So, the tapes were really discovered (and preserved) by chance.

Dash also talked about Haldeman's purjory. About Archibald Cox as special prosecutor and his relationship with the Select Committee (he thought it should stop operations, for fear that it would interfere with prosecutions). About the Republican counsel, Fred Thompson (later actor and Senator) of Tennessee. About Lowell Weicker of Connecticut, a Republican who voted like a Democrat.

True or False (?) (1 cent)

1.

A priest, an imam, a minister and a rabbi, meeting together to build relationships and create better mutual understandings.

A feel-good session, where the four decide to each confess to the others one of their personal shortcomings.

The Minister: I am a compulsive gambler. I can't help myself. Even sometimes I gamble the money put in the collection plate.

The imam: Every night I drink a fifth of bourbon.

The priest: I have a girl friend on the side.

Silence from the rabbi, whose face is troubled.

"well?", say the others.

"well", says the Rabbi, my shortcoming is that I can't help but gossip.


2. After the London police shot and killed the suspected Brazilian terrorist in the London underground, President Bush became distraught.

"What's the problem?" asked Karl Rove.

"The news from Britain is awful", said the president.

"Yes", said Rove, "but there is a lot of bad news. Why has this one got you so down?"

"It is just such a tragedy", says the president. "By the way..."

"Yes?"

The President continued...."exactly how many is a Brazilian?"

He Stole My Idea (48 cents)

Steve Eldridge, in his column in this morning's Washington Examiner, suggests that transportation authorities can raise money by auctioning off naming right to bridges, tunnels and highways.

Any reader of this blog knows that I had suggested this as a way to raise money for DC months ago. For example, wouldn't Coca Cola pay a lot of money so that the White House Address would be, for a set period of time, 1600 Coca Cola (Pennsylvania) Avenue?

So, what I have long suspected must be true.

Steve Eldrige reads my blog. But is too embarrassed to admit it and give credit where due.

Sic semper reporters.

Spalding Gray

I did finish "Impossible Vacation" last night, and then read a little about Gray. The book clearly was filled with autobiographical detail. And his story is a very sad one.

His mother did commit suicide. And he suffered from a manic-depressive condition throughout his life, although he didn't recognize it as such until he was well into his thirties, it seems. Before that, it was just mood swings, search for perfect experiences (usually, sexually oriented, one way or the other), trying to get acting jobs, trying to hold himself together. Eventually, he decided he could write, and his writing led him back to acting. He wrote a number of books, the best known being "Swimming to Cambodia", was in over 30 movies and a number of plays, and put together his own monologues on his life and troubles, which were apparently (and not surprisingly) both entertaining and perceptive.

He turned 60 in 2001, and a friend loaned him his farmhouse in Ireland for a celebration, to which Gray invited a number of his friends (he was also married with children by then). His friend who owned the house died of a heart attack just before they went to Ireland, which put a damper on things, but not nearly the damper that a very serious car accident did shortly after they arrived. Gray spent the rest of his life trying to recover from serious injuries including a fractured skull (forehead) which led to both disfiguration and a steel plate, and other broken bones. Surgeries and pain followed, and depression.

He had threatened suicide a number of times following the accident. He clearly was not his former self, and whatever tendencies he had to wither psychologically increased drastically. It was unclear if anyone took his suicide attempts/threats seriously, but one day, he apparently through himself in the East River. His body was recovered several weeks later. In the interim, he was classified as having simply disappeared, and his family and friends hoped that he would surface in one piece.

A sad, sad story.

Today's Washington Post Metro Section

1. The rainfall at National Airport Friday and Saturday was 7.34 inches.

2. The rain affected the Christian evangelical to-do scheduled for the mall. The leader, Luis Palau, said: "I'm not discouraged. I'm perplexed that the Lord would allow this rain to come and despite all our prayers - it's still coming." I guess the earthquake in Pakistan/Kashmir, killing tens of thousands, is not a surprise. God could easily ordain that. But, the idea that God would let it rain on Mr. Palau is hard to figure.

3. The metro repairs over the weekend made the normal 45 minute commute of an 18 year old waitress even longer. A 45 minute commute for an 18 year old?

4. While the Capitals lose millions every year, the Nationals made $25 million their first year.

5. American University's president Ladner had a social secretary who among other things, supervised the president's house, including the birdpaths and planters, and the silver closets and the butler's pantries.

6. An hispanic kid, on his 18th birthday, was shot dead by a Frederick policeman, after he had aimed a BB-gun at the policeman. The kid was probably involved in drugs, and gangs, and was running away from an assault, when he turned around and pointed the realistic looking gun at the chasing policeman.

7. If a woman is "attacked", what does that mean? If she was "assaulted", is that the same, or different?

8. Marion Barry has not filed federal tax returns sincee 1998. This is only a misdemeanor? He also has not filed DC returns.

9. 210,000 DC residents (that is about 40%) live in areas that "lack access to routine medical services." What can this mean?

10. What is, and what do you do with, apple skoal?

11. What do Democrats say "Democratic Party" and Republians say "Democrat Party"?

12. Can you say "it's", when you mean "it has"?

13. Highest temperature yesterday: 102 in Baghdad.

14. Lowest temperature yesterday: 33 in Denver.

Back to Normal? (7 cents)

Our ten year old guest is now back with his mother, having spent just a fine week with us. He was a delight to have, but took up a lot of time. Thus, I did not have a chance to prepare new postings last week.

This one will simply be a rundown of what has been happening. Or not.

I have been spending quite a bit of time trying to sort out the thousands of books I have, organizing them, and getting rid of some of them. Yesterday, I carted away almost 300 books. Some went to the local Bryn Mawr book store in Georgetown, and others went to the Stone Ridge Country Day School for their annual mammoth book sale.

It opened a few shelves in a large walk in closet that I have, but didn't really make a dent in anything. But it gave me a chance to go through books I had not touched in years. (I think I went through about 1/3 of that closet, and got rid of about half of the books I looked at.)

As to the books I saved, I tried to limit them to books that were (a) of possible use to me in the future, (b) autographed, (c) of some value, or (d) nicely illustrated.

As to value, I generally go to www.abebooks.com, which is probably the best source for used books on the web. Usually, you can find any book you are interested in. It is rare when you cannot, and usually it is a book in a foreign language. For example, I have a copy of a novel called "Arnold Beer", written by German Jewish author Max Brod, published in the 1920s in a nice edition. I have never seen a copy for sale anywhere.

There are a few books, which I learned this week were worth more than I thought. An example of this is a book about St. Louis called "St. Louis in Fruheren Jahren", published in St. Louis in 1983. I have a nice copy. The three copies for sale on Abebooks are listed at between $175 and $200. Then, there is "Sketches in England, France and Scotland, written by F.A. Abbot (and originally published in the New Orleans Picayune), published in New York in 1858. My copy is signed. You can buy a signed copy for $250, but mine is not in very good condition (that is not quite honest; the spine has come completely away at the front. A third example is called "Benner's Prophecies", which are actually prophecies as to the future of commodity prices, published in 1879 in Cincinnati. It is a small book, in fairly decent shape. There are two copies for sale for about $500 each. This is hard for me to believe.

I have not finished a book over the past week or so, again because of diversions, but I am in the middle of three interesting books. One is Jonathan Safran Foer's "Incredibly Loud and Extremely Close" or something like that. I am about 1/4 through the book, which is very enjoyable. Second, I am reading Spalding Gray's "Impossible Vacation", a novel which I assume has some autobiographical content (in fact, I thought I was reading a memoir until I looked back at the cover and saw the word 'novel'). Gray wrote very well; his suicide last year was clearly tragic. I know little about him. Finally, I am reading a book by Lowell Thomas. This one is called "Back to Mandalay Bay", and was the story of the Burma campaign of World War II. Much more interesting than you might imagine.

I have also been spending a fair amount of time preparing for a study group presentation tonight on "Columbus the Jew". Was Christopher Columbus (by background and ancestry) Jewish, and is the question of any relevance whatsoever. Columbus set out for (what became) America on the day following the final expulsion of the Jews from Spain by Ferdinand and Isabella. Columbus, like Shakespeare and Jesus, have been studied in extraordinary detail; yet the details are elusive. He was most likely from Genoa, but did not speak Italian. The question is whether or not his parents, or grandparents, or great grandparents, were in fact Jewish refugees from the 1391 pogrom in Barcelona. There are passionate (and reasoned) arguments on all sides. But the upshot is that, no matter how much we try to figure out something historical, we will fail to be definitive.

Tomorrow is Columbus Day, and Wednesday night Kol Nidre, so again we have a week that will be unusual, but the goal is to keep the postings coming.