Category Archives: Nostalgia reviews

On that OTHER “Teflon Don”

Jumbo poster 1.jpg

A poster celebrating that other “Greatest Showman on Earth” – circa 1882…

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Just a couple thoughts on the 2016 U.S. Presidential Race.

First of all, if “The Donald” – shown at right in 1988 – does manage to get elected, he may well be the first president in American history to get both impeached and convicted.

And here’s a BTW: So far we’ve only had two presidents impeached – Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton – but neither man ended up getting actually convicted by the U.S. Senate.

(And that statement about “impeached and convicted” is judging by the GOP’s late[st] push to stop Trump. “Which is being interpreted:” If Trump does turn out to be as bad as many people expect – on both sides of the aisle – it seems likely that Congressional Republicans would gladly join any Democratic effort to impeach and convict him, if only to secure their own future employment…)

The other observation: It wouldn’t surprise me a bit if Donald Trump is really trying to help Hillary get elected. In other words, it wouldn’t surprise me a bit to learn that Master Showman Donald Trump is actually playing those far-right conservatives like a piano.

Who knows? He may be trying to get some kind of political payback from Hillary. Or he may have felt it more advisable to run for president as a Republican rather than a Democrat. (How would “two New York Liberals” have played out at the Democratic convention?) Or maybe he just wants to shake things up, to “show that he can.” But whatever his true intentions, you can be sure he’s got something up his sleeve. (There’s “more here than meets the eye.”)

But we’re digressing. The title of this post refers to “that other ‘Teflon Don.'”

The thing is, I originally planned to do a post comparing Donald Trump to P. T. Barnum – at left – known for an earlier Greatest Show on Earth. But surprisingly, I found a number of distinct differences between the two men. (One of them: Barnum turned out to be an effective elected official.)

But first, here’s something of an experiment. I Googled the phrase “donald trump fraud” and got 3,120,000 results. I Googled the phrase “donald trump hoax” and got 1,157,000 results. On the other hand, I Googled “donald trump huckster” and got a mere 32,400 results.

The point being that somewhere along the line, my recent free association on Donald Trump ultimately led me to that other Great American Showman, P. T. Barnum.

One surprising thing I learned about Barnum: He served 60 days in prison when he was 19 years old. He was publishing the weekly Herald of Freedom in Danbury, Connecticut. In the process he managed to upset “some very powerful people,” and got convicted of libel:

Traumatic though this spell in prison must have been … Barnum found that far from damaging his career the conviction increased both his notoriety and his popularity… He became a folk hero for some and upon his release from prison he was met by a band and a horse-drawn carriage organised by his supporters for a parade back to town.

Which might have led to Barnum being labeled “Teflon P.T.” However, that doesn’t have the same nice ring to it as “Teflon Don.” (And besides, Teflon hadn’t been discovered yet…)

Then too, in what might be called a similarity between the two men, Barnum (1810-1891) was known for an alleged comment, “There’s a sucker born every minute.”

But that seems to be like many another American myth, to wit: “greatly exaggerated:”

“There’s a sucker born every minute” is a phrase most likely spoken by David Hannum, in criticism of both P. T. Barnum, an American showman of the mid 19th century, and his customers. The phrase is often credited to Barnum himself. It means “People are foolish, and will always be fools.”

Wikipedia went on to indicate that we simply don’t know who first coined the phrase. (But it did add that in the “1930 John Dos Passos novel The 42nd Parallel, the quotation is attributed to Mark Twain.”) On the other hand, his biographer said Barnum “was just not the type to disparage his patrons.” For that matter, Barnum thought his audiences should get their money’s worth:

Often referred to as the “Prince of Humbugs” [as shown at right] Barnum saw nothing wrong in entertainers or vendors using hype (or “humbug,” as he termed it) in promotional material, as long as the public was getting value for money. However, he was contemptuous of those who made money through fraudulent deceptions, especially the spiritualist mediums [of] his day…

Now, about his serving as an “effective elected official.”

First of all, Barnum started out by promoting “hoaxes and human curiosities such as the Feejee mermaid and General Tom Thumb.” But that didn’t pan out, and after “economic reversals due to bad investments in the 1850s, and years of litigation and public humiliation, he used a lecture tour, mostly as a temperance speaker, to emerge from debt.” (Is is possible that, “The Donald” is also just trying to work himself out of debt?) The point is that from there:

Barnum served two terms in the Connecticut legislature in 1865 as a Republican. [On the issue of slavery] and African-American suffrage, Barnum spoke before the legislature and said, “A human soul, ‘that God has created and Christ died for,’ is not to be trifled with. It may tenant the body of a Chinaman, a Turk, an Arab or a Hottentot – it is still an immortal spirit.”

Which no doubt surprised a number of people.

From there he was elected as Mayor of Bridgeport, CT in 1875. He “worked to improve the water supply, bring gas lighting to streets, and enforce liquor and prostitution laws. Barnum was instrumental in starting Bridgeport Hospital, founded in 1878, and was its first president.”

Which no doubt surprised even more peope.

In another strange twist, before the Civil War Barnum produced blackface minstrel shows, but with a twist: His “minstrel shows often used double-edged humor.”

Then too, in 1853 he promoted a “politically watered-down stage version of Harriet Beecher Stowe‘s Uncle Tom’s Cabin.”

But in Barnum’s version, the play, had “a happy ending, with Tom and other slaves freed.” And finally, another similarity: Both men started out as Democrats. In Barnum’s case, his “opposition to the Kansas-Nebraska Act which supported slavery, of 1854 led him to leave the Democratic Party.”

And so, in joining the “new anti slavery Republican Party,” Barnum had “evolved from a man of common stereotypes of the 1840s to a leader for emancipation by the Civil War.”

The question is: In light of Donald Trump’s often-shifting political positions, will he eventually be seen as an “effective elected official,” a funhouse showman, or a Simon Legree?

Simon Legree hunting fugitive slaves in “UTC.”

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The upper image is courtesy of the Jumbo link within P. T. Barnum – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The caption: “Jumbo and his keeper Matthew Scott (Circus poster, ca. 1882).” For further information on Barnum, see P.T. Barnum, Human Freaks, and the American Museum, and/or P T Barnum Facts, information, pictures | Encyclopedia.com.

Re: To play someone like a piano. The cited reference is actually to playing someone like a fiddle – Wiktionary, meaning to ” manipulate (a person) skillfully.”

Re: Free association. See also Free association (psychology) – Wikipedia.

The lower image is courtesy of Wikipedia’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin.” The caption: “Simon Legree on the cover of the comic book adaptation of Uncle Tom’s Cabin (Classic Comics No. 15, November 1943 issue).” And a note on Barnum’s “happy ending.” In the original version Uncle Tom died, a victim of Simon Legree. In turn, he is portrayed as “the perfect Christian.” That is, at the end of the novel the character George Shelby returns to his Kentucky farm and frees all his slaves. In doing so he “tells them to remember Tom’s sacrifice and his belief in the true meaning of Christianity.”

Re: Trump’s political positions: “On specific policy, Trump has been described as a moderate Republican. His politics have been described as populist, nativist,protectionist and authoritarian by a variety of sources.” A few examples: Trump has said he wants to “lower taxes for middle and working-class people, and increase taxes on wealthy private equity and hedge fund managers.” He has supported “improving America’s infrastructure,” even though on the federal level – he has said – “this is going to be an expensive investment, no question about that.” He started out pro-choice but now describes himself as pro-life. He supports “states’ rights to legalize and regulate cannabis.”

One final note: The “Simon Legree” comparison is based in large part on Trump’s emphasis on Mexico sending “its people” into the U.S., mostly “criminals, drug dealers, rapists, etc.,” while “some, I assume, are good people.” He has said that on “Day 1 of my presidency, illegal immigrants are getting out and getting out fast,” and that he would build a wall similar to the Israeli West Bank barrier. Finally, “Trump opposes birthright citizenship based solely on birth within the United States, arguing that it should not be protected by the Fourteenth Amendment.”

Remember “transcendent” meditation?

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“Maharishi Mahesh Yogi with the Beatles in India” – in happier times…

Welcome to the “Georgia Wasp…”

This blog is modeled on the Carolina Israelite. Harry Golden did up that old-time personal newspaper. And for that he was considered a “voice of sanity amid the braying of jackals.”

That’s now my goal as well. To be a “voice of sanity amid the braying of jackals.”

For more on the blog-name connection, see the notes below.

In the meantime:

Remember Transcendental Meditation? In case you missed it, the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi started teaching this method of personal development in 1958.

Prep examples of Madras Ironically, “TM” was said to have launched in Madras, India. (Now called Chennai.)

In less than a decade after 1958, Madras shirts, shorts and jackets – like those at left – became all the rage. (“All the rage” for middle school, high school and even college “boys” in the 1960s.) Getting back to TM: It also got “more popular in the 1960s and 1970s, as the Maharishi shifted to a more technical presentation and his meditation technique was practiced by celebrities.”

Celebrities like the The Beatles, shown in the top-of-the-page picture

The kicker? You had to pay through the nose. (At one point the price for “working folk” was pretty much a full week’s salary.) For that you got instructed in the technique itself, plus you got your own “personal Sanskrit mantra.” (Note that a mantra is a word or phrase – said to be of “spiritual power – that you repeat over and over again, for up to 20 minutes.)

One of the goals – of “regular” meditation anyway – is to “bind the mind staff in place.”

That – in a way – brings up that the Maharishi – hereinafter “Mahesh” – did quite well as a result of his teaching. (The photo at right shows one of his “headquarters;” the one in Seelisberg, Switzerland.)

On the other hand: It turns out you could get pretty much the same thing from Lawrence LeShan‘s 1974 book, How to Meditate: A Guide to Self-Discovery. But of course, that would mean you had to do some actual work, to learn the self-discipline on your own.

(An observation that seems to be “redundant redundant…”)

But we digress! The point is: LeShan’s How to Meditate was “one of the first practical guides to meditation.” And it was a whole lot cheaper than TM. (My first copy cost $1.95.)

And incidentally, LeShan noted that “anyone who gives (or sells) you a mantra designed just for you … is pulling your leg.” On the other hand, I remember reading somewhere that Mahesh charged Americans so much – for example – because they don’t value “free stuff.” They – we – arguably figure that if we don’t pay a high price for something, it must not be worth much.

Which does make a certain amount of sense. (And a telling comment on the American psyche.)

Be that as it may…

We mentioned the Beatles being “converted” to Transcendental Meditation. As Mikal Gilmore noted, George Harrison’s wife Pattie introduced him to Mahesh in 1967. Harrison was impressed enough to persuade the other Beatles to “attend a sabbatical in Bangor, Wales.”

Later – in 1968 – the group went to Rishikesh, India, for a longer course. However:

[T]heir relationship with the teacher soured when they heard rumors that he had attempted unwelcome sexual advances on a female devotee. Lennon and Harrison confronted the yogi, pronounced their disdain and then left him, despite his pleadings that they reconsider…

On a related note, pretty much the same thing seems to have happened to Rajneesh – born Chandra Mohan Jain – also known as “Osho.”

“OSHO” (1931-1990) was yet another “Indian mystic, guru, and spiritual teacher who garnered an international following.” In the fullness of time he got nicknamed “the sex guru.” (But others said he just had “straightforward attitudes about sex.”)

All of which may prove no more than that men are scum.

(At least from a female view.)

But again we digress. Getting back to Mahesh and the Beatles, see Maharishi Mahesh Yogi | The Beatles Bible. As to the group confronting Mahesh about the allegation, Lennon said he had to do the “dirty work … as usual.” When he said they were leaving, Mahesh ostensibly said, “‘Why?’ Hee-hee, all that shit. And I said, ‘Well if you’re so cosmic, you’ll know why.'”

The article noted as well that despite “the harshness of Lennon’s words about Maharishi, McCartney and Harrison, in particular, remained believers in the power of meditation.”

Which could be another way of saying that the underlying discipline itself was good and valid. (Even if one greedy individual did use it for his own personal gain.)

And the article noted a positive result: The song “Sexy Sadie,” which Lennon originally wanted to title “Maharishi.” But again, none of that means the underlying discipline is worthless. It simply means that – at worst – one or more unscrupulous, misguided or overzealous individuals used a valid spiritual discipline for person gain.

Henny Youngman.jpg Which is “nothing new under the sun.” Take martial arts… Please!

Many people these days come to the martial arts as if to a sport or, worse, as if seeking an effective instrument of aggression and domination. And, unhappily, there are studios that cater to this clientele. Violent and exploitative martial arts movies contribute to the corruption… (E.A.)

And incidentally, that Henny Youngman one-liner – “Take my wife, please!” – is based on a fundamental principle of both martial arts and magic. (The principle of dislocation.)

But for a third time, we digress…

Plain old meditation – the kind you don’t pay an arm and a leg for – is a “practice where an individual trains the mind or induces a mode of consciousness.” It’s done for any number of reasons, including to “promote relaxation, build internal energy or life force (qi, ki, prana, etc.) and develop compassion, love, patience, generosity and forgiveness.”

Among the benefits of meditation: better focus, less anxiety, more creativity, more compassion, better memory, less stress and “more gray matter.” Or as LeShan said, the real goal is “to help you grow and develop as a total human being.”

The kicker? You actually have to put in a lot of work. Or as LeShan said, in its ideal form the “long hard practice” of true meditation “disciplines and strengthens the personality.” See also Discipline – Wikipedia, with an image captioned: “To think good thoughts requires effort. This is one of the things that discipline – training – is about.”

All of which may be another way of saying that – when it comes to personal development (a heavy-duty industry in this country) – some people prefer that kind of thing pre-digested:

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The upper image is courtesy of www.vintag.es/2013/06/maharishi-mahesh-yogi-with-beatles.

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Re: The Carolina Israelite. Harry Golden‘s personal newspaper, which he wrote and published back in the 1940s through the 60s. Harry was a “cigar-smoking, bourbon-loving raconteur.” (Which is another way of saying he told good stories.) That also means if he was around today, the “Israelite would be done as a blog.” (For more on the blog-name connection, see “Wasp” and/or The blog.) But what made Harry special was his positive outlook on life. He got older but didn’t turn sour, as so many seem to do today. He still got a kick out of life.

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Note that personal development has “developed” into an industry, with “several business relationship formats of operating.”

The “Madras” image is courtesy of Madras Guide – How the Shirt, Pants & Jackets Became Popular.

References to LeShan‘s book, How to Meditate, are from the 1975 Bantam Books edition. The “bind the mind staff” quote is from page 55. (Along with a note that “we” should “bind ourselves gently and with humor and compassion at our own lack of discipline.”)

On that note too, see page 14, featuring a quote from Teresa of Ávila, describing the mind of man – in the attempt to meditate for example – as an “unbroken horse that would go anywhere except where you wanted it to.”

The quote about “anyone who gives (or sells) you a mantra” is from page 67.

The “Switzerland headquarters “photo is courtesy of Transcendental Meditation – Wikipedia.

Re: The high price of TM. For another view, see Why does the Transcendental Meditation course cost so much? One theory has it that Mahesh wanted TM to be “primarily taught to the wealthy leaders of society in order to enact maximum change in society,” and further that he “made a public address to that effect in the mid 1990’s and immediately T.M centers worldwide raised their prices.”

Re: Mikal Gilmore. Gilmore – a writer for Rolling Stone magazine – described Mahesh and the Beatles in his 2009 book, Stories Done: Writings on the 1960s and Its Discontents, at pages 124, 156, and 164-65 in the 2009 Free Press paperback edition.

As to the Beatles and Mahesh, Gilmore noted that later in their lives, “Harrison and McCartney reconciled with Maharishi, though Lennon never did.” (124)

The Henny Youngman image is courtesy of Wikipedia. His classic one-liner – “Take my wife… please” – relied on dislocation. That principle is used in comedy, and also in magic and the martial arts in general. See, Shinogi – Budotheory.ca, which mentioned three types of dislocation: positional, temporal, and functional. See also Magic (illusion) – Wikipedia. Finally, see The Internet Classics Archive | The Art of War by Sun Tzu, which noted the Chinese philosopher who said, “The fundamental principle of the Art of War is deception.” (In other words, dislocating an opponent.)

So anyway, in the classic one-liner – literally “a century ago” – the audience was led to expect Youngman to say “for example” when he began. (As in, “Take my wife… for example.”) But instead of saying that, Youngman dislocated his audience with, “Take my wife… Please!”

The quote on martial arts as used for “aggression and domination” is from Taisen Deshimaru’s The Zen Way to Martial Arts, translated by Nancy Amphoux, Arkana Books (1991), at page 3.

Re: “Benefits of meditation:” The actual article-title is What Happens to the Brain When You Meditate (And How it Benefits You. As to “more gray matter,” the article said that meditation has been shown “to diminish age-related effects on gray matter and reduce the decline of our cognitive functioning.“

Other benefits of meditation came from LeShan‘s How to Meditate, in the 1975 Bantam Books edition. (The quote “develop as a total human being” is from page 38.) LeShan pointed out that true meditation is much like physical exercise. Both require “repeated hard work,” most of it “basically pretty silly” in appearance. “What could be more foolish than to repeatedly lift twenty pounds of lead up and down?” But both forms of exercise aim for “the effect on the person doing it.” (Page 3.)

LeShan cited two main effects. The first is greater personal efficiency in everyday life. The second is “the comprehension of a different view of reality than the one we ordinarily use.” (Pages 6-7.) Other effects? The capacity to transcend the painful, negative aspects of life, and develop a serene “inner peace.” (Id.) He said it’s characteristic of a practiced meditator to live with joy and love; “a zest, a fervor and gusto in life.” And one final effect – for the practiced meditator – “a very deep sense of the union of himself and the All.” (Page 7)

The quote about “long hard practice” is from page 38.

The lower image is courtesy of mydailyminefield.com/2012/03/20/spring-has-sprung. Another good image is at animalstime.com/what-feed-baby-bird-what-feed-baby-birds, along with good advice on “What To Feed A Baby Bird [Who] Fell Out Of A Nest.”

I originally planned to use the image below, an illustrated quote from “that great Philosopher, Charlie Chan.” But then I had a brainstorm, figuring an image like that of baby birds – eager mouths wide open – would get the point across better.

“So anyway,” the image below is courtesy of izquotes.com/quote/217824. See also Charlie Chan (Wikipedia). The quote is said to have come from Charlie Chan at the Circus, and in the form given. See Charlie Chan – Wikiquote and Reel Life Wisdom – The Top 10 Wisest Quotes from Charlie Chan. But I could have sworn that the actual quote was, “Mind like parachute; work best when open.”

A final note: This post is a substantially altered update of a post originally published as On the Bible as “transcendent” meditation, at DOR Scribe – Expand your horizons.

On spam, today’s “thorn in the side”

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The “Endless Knot,” a great metaphor for spam…

I’ve written before about the advantages of blogging. Advantages over the kind of “delightfully retro” format that Harry Golden had to use in his Carolina Israelite. (See ABOUT THE BLOG.)

Things like links, along with full-color pictures and “flashy graphics.”

But now it’s time to write about some of the disadvantages. One of the biggest disadvantages of blogging is spam, masquerading as “comments.” (Along with the possibility of being hacked.)

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It’s a rainy, blustery Friday afternoon here “in the ATL – also known as ‘God’s Country.'”

For one thing, the Metro Area is all in a hubbub about “icy Arctic blasts,” courtesy of the winter storms threatening most of the Eastern seaboard. On a more personal note, I just tried to log in to my other blog. But I couldn’t, because it was “temporarily disabled.”

It was temporarily disabled, because someone tried to hack into it.

That led me to work on this blog. Unfortunately, my personal Muse – exemplified by the one at right – was no help whatsoever.

That led me to this blog’s “comments” link. (In the “Dashboard.”)

I found 427 comments. Unfortunately, most of them were spam.

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When I first started my other blog, the first thing I did each day was go to the “Comments” section there. And there I’d mass-delete the latest batch of spam, most of it having to do with “Babyliss.”

Just as an aside, “Babyliss” is apparently a division of the Conair Corporation. (See Wikipedia.)

That led me to web articles including We Can’t Get Rid Of Spam – Forbes. That in turn led me to remember the Apostle Paul’s experience with his own particular “thorn in the side.”

(In the alternative, his “thorn in the flesh.”)

The article thorn in the flesh explained that today the phrase “is a colloquialism used to describe a chronic infirmity, annoyance, or trouble in one’s life.”

The article also noted the phrase is “commonly used by Christians,” and refers to 2 Corinthians 12:7. This was right after Paul wrote about some his visions and revelations, which led him in turn to talk about his “boasting.” (“I have plenty to boast about … but I don’t want anyone to think more highly of me than he should.”) Which led to this passage:

To keep me from becoming conceited because of the exceptional nature of these revelations, a thorn was given to me and placed in my body. It was Satan’s messenger to keep on tormenting me so that I would not become conceited. (E.A.)

Wikipedia noted that Paul – at left – didn’t specify the nature of his physical “thorn in the flesh.” It also noted that through the centuries, “Christians have speculated about what Paul referred to.”

On the other hand, if Paul had lived in modern times and tried to advance his message through a blog like this, he may very well have been referring to that *&%*@% spam that keeps coming back like a bad case of [fill in the blank with the expletive of your choice]!!!

This thorn in the flesh that Paul mentioned has been used and misused by Christians to justify submitting to nearly any problem that comes along. Satan has twisted this passage of Scripture to deceive many, many people into believing that God would not heal Paul, so how can they expect to be healed? Let us examine this closely and find out exactly what Paul’s thorn in the flesh was.

That phrase – “Satan has twisted this passage of Scripture” – brought up the subject of how “the Devil can cite Scripture for his use.” (See The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose | EnglishClub, quoting Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice, Act 1, scene 3.)

But that’s a whole ‘nother subject entirely.

More to the point is the concept of Karma. See Wikipedia, which defined it as the action, work or deed of an individual, or “the principle of causality where intent and actions of an individual influence the future of that individual.” (In the alternative, “the sum of a person’s actions in this and previous states of existence, viewed as deciding their fate in future existences.”)

All that led me to think maybe all that spam was some strange punishment for my past sins. In the alternative I had the good Christian thought that maybe some of this spam presented an opportunity to “entertain angels unaware.” But these days – having been victimized by thousands upon thousands of unsolicited “spams” – my attitude has hardened.

I now I fully agree with the words of Mister Kurtz, in the novel Heart of Darkness:

“The horror, the horror… Exterminate all the brutes!!”

The upper image is courtesy of Endless knot – Wikipedia. The caption: “One common form of the Endless Knot.” On the matter of spam, see also Unsolicited Bulk Email: Definitions and Problems.

Re: “God’s Country.” See Introduction to “Ashley Wilkes.”

The “muse” image is courtesy of Muse – Wikipedia. The caption: “Polyhymnia, the Muse of sacred poetry, sacred hymn and eloquence as well as agriculture and pantomime.”

Re: “Angels unaware.” That’s from the King James translation of Hebrews 13:2.

The “Paul” image is courtesy of the Paul the Apostle link in the “thorn” article. The caption: “Paul the Apostle, by Rembrandt Harmensz van Rijn c. 1657.”

The lower image is courtesy of “www.studentpulse.com/article-images/uploaded/348_1.jpg.” See also Kurtz (Heart of Darkness) – Wikipedia, and In Heart of Darkness, what does Kurtz mean by his final words … (Mister Kurtz was a central character in Joseph Conrad’s novel.)

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Note that this post is an updated version of one originally published on my other blog, in September 2014, On “babyliss,” a thorn in the side – and maybe karma.

A look back at 2015

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“Baby New Year 1905 chases old 1904 into the history books…”

The image above shows Baby New Year 1905 as “personification of the start of the New Year.”

(Personification is giving “human form and characteristics to abstract concepts such as nations and natural forces likes seasons and the weather.” Or of a whole new blank slate.)

So this personification of New-Year-as-baby symbolizes a rebirth. (Spiritual or otherwise.) In turn the birth of that New Year can only come with the passing – the “dying” – of the Old Year.

But before thinking too much on the possibilities presented by “Baby 2016” – like the personified Baby 1908 at right – it helps to look back at the year just past. (I.e., 2015.)

That is, the end of an old year – and birth of a new year – is a time to “take stock and review the outgoing year.” It’s a time to look back at the “wins, the challenges, the mistakes” of the old year. And it’s a time to identify areas for improvement.

So for starters, I did my first post here last March 12.

On “Birdman,” the movie reviewed the “2014 American black comedy–drama film” starring Michael Keaton. (An actor playing a “faded Hollywood actor.”)

And just as an aside, I started this blog as a spin-off of my first blog, DOR Scribe. (This one let me work on more “secular” issues, like weird movies with “farce and morbid humor … on subject matter usually considered taboo.”) But unfortunately, it took awhile to translate the lessons learned from that other blog. As a result, Birdman looks a bit “blog-primitive…”

At least to me and in hindsight.

But Birdman also reminded me why I started this blog. In large part it was and is an homage to Harry Golden and his style of writing. For years he published and wrote the Israelite, “a pre-Internet blog of sorts.” And eventually – in 1958 – his book Only in America came out. A collection of what today would be called his “blog posts.”

Harry’s book Only in America has been “an inspiration [to me] ever since…”

Birdman also explained the blog’s nom de plume, “Georgia Wasp.” Then there was this:

Apparently there’s a website, “dating psychos…” One of the bulletins tells of a crazy guy – “Alias ‘Georgia Wasp’” – who is said to be a “pathological liar” who’s been “married many times and has cheated on each wife with multiple partners!”

So here’s a heads up: I’m not that guy!!!

Exodus: Of Gods and Kings, out on December 12 in U.S. theaters tells the story of Moses (played by Christian Bale, left) rising up against the Egyptian pharaoh Rhamses (played by Joel Edgerton, right) So anyway, on March 28 I moved on to review “Exodus: Gods and Kings.” (Complete with images of Moses – Christian Bale, at left – and Ramses – Joel Edgerton, at right.)

One thing I liked about the movie was how it showed Moses growing ever more senescent. (Thanks largely to his having to metaphorically herd cats or “shovel fleas.”) I noted that something like that happened to Abraham Lincoln, after four years as president:

He arrived at the White House as a sinewy 6-foot-4, 180-pound strongman. In the course of four years, he dropped 30 pounds. “He was sunken-eyed and grizzled, nothing like that bright-eyed lawyer of Springfield [and] looks 75 years old, but he’s 56.”

That led to some lessons including this: To “the icons that we choose to throw our cares and responsibilities on – like Moses – we followers are pretty much a pain in the neck.”

Which seems especially apropos as the 2016 election season heats up.

Other post-highlights from 2015 included Operation Pogo – “Into the Okefenokee,” and The mysterious death of Ashley Wilkes.

“Pogo” – told in three parts – was about fulfilling a life-long dream. The dream involved and led to an overnight camping trip deep into the sinister and mysterious “Swamp Water” locale. (The Okefenokee Swamp, as illustrated by the 1941 movie poster at left.)

Ashley Wilkes detailed the circumstances surrounding the mysterious death of Leslie Howard. (Best known for playing Wilkes in 1939’s Gone with the Wind.)

Briefly, the commercial airliner in which he was flying got shot down by eight German fighter-bombers in 1943. It happened over the Bay of Biscay – west of France – on a flight from ostensibly-neutral Lisbon and London.

The shoot-down spawned a number of conspiracy theories. One said German spies mistook Howard’s friend and bodyguard for Winston Churchill. Another noted Nazi propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels calling Howard “Britain’s most dangerous propagandist.” A third said Howard really was a British spy, on a secret mission with the help of the beautiful Conchita Montenegro. (One of many women with whom he’d ostensibly had a “torrid love affair.”)

That post ended: “And some people think those were better and simpler times…”

And speaking of politics… On April 2, I posted On Blue Dogs and the “Via Media.” It addressed the dearth of moderate Republicans and conservative Democrats. One point the post made was that the Political Middle [Seems To Have] Disappeared. But the good news seems to that our political system was “specifically designed to keep moving back to the middle, even though it’s clumsy at times.”

In other words, “Don’t Forget That Politics is Cyclical.” That – I wrote – could be “the best political news ‘we’ve’ heard in a long time…”

Then came “Great politicians sell hope” on June 12. (Featuring the shot at right, of Ronald Reagan and Ted Kennedy “supping” with a political enemy.) That post led off with the Peanuts cartoon below. That in turn was a kind of spin-off from a quote from Chris Matthew’s 2007 book, Life’s a Campaign. I then wrote: “When I [first] heard that a few days ago I thought, ‘What rock have you been living under?‘”

But then I noted that Matthews’ book – after actually reading it – gave me a sense that our presidents have been mostly “decent, honorable and capable.” And it gave me a sense “that the same applies to politicians in general. (Gasp!)” Then a third thought: Maybe politicians today are especially nasty because too many voters they’re trying to woo are just plain nasty.

But the 1950s and ’60s – when Harry Golden did most of his writing – weren’t any bed of roses either. (They featured McCarthyism, Vietnam War protests, and the Civil Rights Movement.) Yet through all those dark years, Harry Golden exuded hope.

All of which brings us back to the old saying noted in the Peanuts cartoon [below], that in “bad times or hopelessness, it is more worthwhile to do some good, however small … than to [just] complain about the situation.” See also Better to light a single candle. And that great bloggers – like great politicians – should work harder on “selling hope.”

Which is exactly what this blog will try to do. In 2016 … and Beyond!

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The upper image is courtesy of New Year – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The full caption: “Baby New Year 1905 chases old 1904 into the history books in this cartoon by John T. McCutcheon.” See also ‘Ringing’ Or ‘Bringing In The New Year:’ A History.

The full “take stock” quote is courtesy of The Year in Review (Huffington Post):

Before we start to talk about the plans, goals and resolutions for the new year. It is important to take stock and review the outgoing year. This includes looking at the wins, the challenges, the mistakes, the areas for improvement and just appreciate how are you feeling at this time of the year. When you take the time to take stock of the past year’s experiences you will achieve 2 things[:] 1) Ability to count your blessings[; and] 2) Identify the areas for improvement.

Re: “Life’s a Campaign.” (“What Politics Has Taught Me about Friendship, Rivalry, Reputation, and Success.”) My first exposure to the book was listening to the six hour book-on-CD version.

The Reagan-Kennedy image is courtesy of www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/08/senator_ted_kennedy.

The lower “stupid darkness” cartoon is courtesy of You Stupid Darkness! | Kurtis Scaletta’s Site, which in turn links to comics.com/peanuts, “one of the most amazing but little-known Internet resources.” See also lightasinglecandle.wordpress, and The 5 Greatest (newspaper) Comic Strips Of All Time.

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Other notable 2015 posts included On American History, “patched and piebald,” the Mid-summer Travelog series, and On RABBIT – and “60 is the new 30,” Parts I and Part II.

“Piebald” talked about history as it actually happens – and is lived through – compared to how we learned in schools. In “school-taught” history, the Founding Fathers – for example – knew exactly what they were doing. They were “carried [on] by a sure and steady tide.” But the more-real version – history actually lived through – was “improvised, patched together, made up from one moment to the next.” That thought was exemplified by John Adams, a Founding Father himself:

I’ll not be in the history books. Only Franklin. Franklin did this, and Franklin did that, and Franklin did some other damn thing. Franklin smote the ground, and out sprang General Washington, fully grown and on his horse…

The Mid-summer Travelogs were on a two-week early-July road trip to Atlantic City and New York City. Modeled on Steinbeck’s Travels with Charley, they spoke of pilgrimages in general, driving pilgrimages especially, and had a nod to a canoe trip 12 miles offshore. Part II added this:

Maybe understanding is only possible after. Years ago when I used to work in the woods it was said of lumber men that they did their logging in the whorehouse and their sex in the woods. (E.A.)

Which was another way of saying it seems we can’t truly enjoy our “road trips” until they’re over; “Now that my trip is over … I can look back and relish the memories just lived through.”

And finally, RABBIT [and] “the new 30” talked about the series of books by John Updike centered on Harry “Rabbit” Angstrom. They started with Rabbit as a new father in 1960. Then:

Updike revisited his hero toward the end of each of the following decades in the second half of this American century; and in each of the subsequent novels … Updike has chronicled the frustrations and ambiguous triumphs … the loves and frenzies, the betrayals and reconciliations of our era.

Part II led off remembering when you could buy a beer at a bar for 40 cents and leave a dime tip. But at the same time, turning 65 back then meant you looked and felt old, with “liverish scoops” below your eyes and broken veins on the sides of your nose. But these days a 60-year-old looks like this:

“Here’s to Plough Monday!”

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January 6 – last of the 12 Days of Christmas – leads to “Plough Monday…”

Christmas Day has come and gone. But that doesn’t mean the Christmas season is over. As noted last year here, the Twelve Days of Christmas are “both a festive Christmas season” and the title of a “host of songs and spin-offs (including one on a Mustang GT):”

The Twelve Days of Christmas [begin] on Christmas Day (25 December)[, they celebrate] the birth of Jesus [and are] also known as Christmastide… The Feast of the Epiphany is on 6 January [and] celebrates the visit of the Wise Men (Magi) and their bringing of gifts to the child Jesus. In some traditions, the feast of Epiphany and Twelfth Day overlap.

The post also said that technically this holiday season really started back on Halloween.

The thing is, winters back in the really old days – when life was nasty, brutish and short – were really long and really boring. So folks back then looked for any good reason to throw a party and get sloshed. (Which explains why the “party season” started on Halloween.)

So in one sense you could say the end of that extended holiday season comes on January 6.

But in another sense you could say the season extends to the Monday following January. That’s the Monday known as Plough Monday. (Which is another way of saying some of the post-Christmas holidays and/or Feast Days can be extremely confusing.) So the end of that extended holiday season – this year, on January 11 – was also known as Plough Monday.

Getting back to January 6, another name for it was Twelfth Night. That in turn was the name of famous play by William Shakespeare. The play “expanded on the musical interludes and riotous disorder expected of the occasion,” to wit: the “occasion of the ‘drunken revelry’ of 12th Night.”

And finally, January 6th has yet another name. It is perhaps best known as the Epiphany.

But getting back to Plough Monday: In England it marks the start of the new Agricultural Year. The Church of England had a long church service to mark the occasion, with prayers for a bountiful harvest. And that service included both a blessing of the seed to be planted and a “blessing of the plough” – as illustrated at right:

Blessed are you, Lord God of all creation: for in your abundant care you have given us fertile land, rich soil, the seasons in their courses… By your blessing, let this plough be a sign of all that you promise to us. Prosper the work of our hands, and provide abundant crops for your people to share.

In turn, Plough Monday was preceded by Plough Sunday. Plough Sunday was seen as a way of celebrating farming and the work of farmers, in church. But since you weren’t supposed to work on Sundays – back in the good old days – the new agricultural year didn’t really start until the next work day: “work in the fields did not begin until the day after Plough Sunday.”

Put another way: Since Epiphany always came on January 6, Plough Sunday came on the Sunday after the Epiphany. (The Sunday between January 7 and January 13.) Thus Plough Monday is usually the first Monday after Twelfth Day (Epiphany), 6 January.

The point of all this – January 6, Plough Monday, etc. – was to have one more big blast before getting back to work. (Resuming farm-work after the extended Christmas holiday season.) As such it was one more occasion for general tomfoolery, as shown in the top picture:

In some areas, particularly in northern England and East England, a plough was hauled from house to house in a procession, collecting money. They were often accompanied by musicians, an old woman or a boy dressed as an old woman, called the “Bessy,” and a man in the role of the “fool.”

In turn it may help to remember that one big reason for all this general tomfoolery was that – otherwise – life back then was indeed “nasty, brutish and short.”

And finally, people usually celebrated Plough Monday by eating Plough Pudding, as seen at left: A “boiled suet pudding, containing meat and onions. It is from Norfolk and is eaten on Plough Monday.”

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All of which brings up the topic of Ringing In The New Year. That web article noted that bells – as in the ringing of bells – are “a deeply spiritual part of ushering in both life and death for ancient cultures. (In a practice that serves as an “apt metaphor for the changing of the New Year.”

Or see New Year – Wikipedia, which noted that New Year’s Day wasn’t always January 1:

During the Middle Ages in western Europe … authorities moved New Year’s Day variously, depending upon locale, to one of several other days, among them: March 1, March 25, Easter, September 1, and December 25. These New Year’s Day changes generally reverted to using January 1 [with] local adoptions of the Gregorian calendar, beginning in 1582…

Note also that the ancient Hebrews celebrated a type of New Year with Rosh Hashanah. (Hebrew for “head of the year.”) Rosh Hashanah is a two day holiday “commemorating the culmination of the seven days of Creation, and marking God’s yearly renewal of His world.”

As for January 1, that started in Rome: “During the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire years began on the date on which each consul first entered office.” But then in 45 BC – and the new “Julian calendar” – the Roman Senate fixed January 1 as the first day of the year.

At that time, this was the date on which those who were to hold civil office assumed their official position, and it was also the traditional annual date for the convening of the Roman Senate. This civil new year remained in effect throughout the Roman Empire, east and west, during its lifetime and well after, wherever the Julian calendar continued in use.

So here’s wishing you a happy, healthy and prosperous 2016 in advance!

“Baby New Year 1905 chases old 1904 into the history books…”

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Note that this post was modeled on a similar one at DOR Scribe, my other blog.

Re: Mustang GT. See also Jeff Foxworthy – Redneck 12 Days Of Christmas lyrics.

Re: “Nasty, brutish and short.” That’s a quote from the book Leviathan, written by Thomas Hobbes and published in 1651. Hobbes described the natural state of mankind as a “warre of every man against every man,” a life which was in turn “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.” See Wikipedia, and also Nasty, brutish and short – meaning and origin.

The lower image is courtesy of New Year – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The full caption: “Baby New Year 1905 chases old 1904 into the history books in this cartoon by John T. McCutcheon.” See also ‘Ringing’ Or ‘Bringing In The New Year:’ A History.

A late-fall mountain trek…

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Wayah Bald Lookout Tower

The Wayah Bald Tower, a highlight from my recent trek on the Appalachian Trail…

I’ve now officially hung it up for the winter. “Which is being interpreted:”

“No more outdoor adventures … at least not ’til next spring.” Which means the two adventures I had this (late) fall pretty does it for this year.

To explain: Last October I fulfilled a life-long dream. A two-day overnight kayak into the Okefenokee. (As told in Operation Pogo.)

Then last November – 20 and 21 – I fulfilled another life-long dream: At least one overnight trek on the Appalachian Trail.

I touched on this dream in “A Walk in the Woods.” (Parts I and II.)

Back in 1967 – when I was 16 – my next-older brother and I hatched the idea of hiking the Trail from Springer Mountain to Gettysburg, where our aunt and uncle lived. (Some 623 miles…) But for some reason my parents didn’t bust out laughing [or] slap their knees while wiping away tears of laughter…

Needless to say we didn’t make it. Ever since then it’s bugged me that we didn’t make it. And that’s why hiking the A.T. has been on my bucket list. (Long before the term was coined.)

Among the highlights: The temp dropped to 31 degrees that Friday night. (11/20.) Another thing: Hiking in the late fall – when the leaves have fallen – means the Trail is really slippery.

A related note: Even now – three weeks later – my left big toenail is still purple-bruised. (From the Saturday-afternoon slip-and-slide down toward Tellico Gap.)

I’ll get to the details later, but first a word about those “balds.” There’s a lot of ’em on the A.T., but they’re not meant as an insult to the “follicly challenged.”

The term Bald in the Appalachians means a summit or crest, covered mostly by thick vegetation; “native grasses or shrubs occurring in areas where heavy forest growth would be expected.”

Thus the towers at Wayah Bald and Wesser Bald. (Of which more below.) Then of course there’s Roan Mountain, seen from Grassy Ridge Bald, at right.

Getting back to the hike itself: I originally planned to go from Winding Stair Gap to the Nantahala Outdoor Center, near Bryson City.

That’s a hike of about 27 miles.

Fortunately, I found an old high-school friend who lives in Franklin, North Carolina. (Right on the Trail.) So in September I arranged to drive up to his place on Thursday afternoon, the 24th. From there he agreed to drop me off Friday morning, the 25th. (And hopefully pick me up on Saturday afternoon, the 26th.)

Under that original plan I might have made 27 miles. (If I’d been able to hike before the time change. See Spring Forward – Fall Back.) Unfortunately, that September try got rained out. Which meant by late November, I had an hour or two less hiking time per day.

Be that as it may… I made new arrangements. (Before the weather got too cold.) My friend dropped me off at 8:35, Friday morning, November 20. (At the parking lot at Winding Stair Gap, where the Trail crosses U.S. 64, known locally as Murphy Road.)

And now a word about hiking speed. A good ambling-speed on level ground is a mile every 20 minutes. (Three miles an hour.) But a friend at church hikes the Trail regularly, and she says on a good day she and her husband can cover eight miles. Other sources indicate a good speed – with full pack and up and down mountain trails – is about two miles an hour.

That’s what threw me off. Like my paddling in the Okefenokee, I overestimated my ability to trek. (With less daylight, and slipping and sliding on fallen leaves. Not to mention the recent rains that put much of the Trail under water, as seen at left…)

So anyway, that Friday afternoon I reached Wayah Bald about 4:40. See also Wayah Bald Tower.

My slightly used handbook – published in 1994 – said there was a camping area a mile and a half further on. But the sun was setting, it was getting cold and the ground was flat and grassy there. So I pitched my tent. (Expecting a ranger to come by and say “You can’t camp there!”)

But then three young folk came by. (A young man and two young ladies, all college age.) We’d been passing each other all afternoon, and after stopping for a bit, they started to head off to the farther-up camping place. But then they came back and camped on the other side of the tower. (Which was some comfort. You never know about those “Dueling banjos…”)

So anyway, I pitched my “Eureka” one-person tent just to the left of where the stone wall at the bottom of the picture turns down. (As seen in the photo below right.)

Wayah Bald Lookout Tower I’d packed five layers of sweaters and down vests, plus Gore-tex gloves. (Not to mention a small mouthwash bottle filled with rum.) And like I said, that night it got down to 31 degrees or so.

I shivered some during the night, and could have used some extra padding for my side hip-bones. Still, I got a fairly good night’s sleep. (And there was a nice view of the lights of Franklin, shimmering in the distance, when I got up to answer nature’s call.)

Next morning it took a while to pack up. It was so cold I had to keep warming my fingers to untie things, then tie them in or to the pack, etc. But I eventually hit the trail at 8:21.

Like I said, my original plan was to reach the “NOC,” some 27 miles away. But as I hiked along Saturday afternoon, I formulated a secondary objective: The Wesser Bald Lookout Tower.

But finally – as the sun got lower and lower on Saturday afternoon – I found a rare place with cell-phone reception. (And they are pretty rare.) I called my buddy and negotiated a pick-up at Tellico Gap. (See Wayah Bald to Tellico Gap.)

Over the phone I read the directions – from the 1994 guidebook – to my friend. They told of an 8-mile drive (for him), west from Highway 28. Then a 4-mile gravel road up to Tellico Gap.

By some miracle he actually found the place, on the Trail, and with a place to park. And he got there about 10 minutes before I did. (Slipping and sliding downhill.)

Boy was I glad to finally sit down in his pickup truck!

One lesson I learned was that hiking in the Trail in late fall means most of the leaves have fallen. That means much of the Trail is covered by leaves. The leaves in turn cover up many if not most of the rocks and tree roots that can trip you up. (As shown below left.)

Then there’d been the recent rains, making parts of the trail more like streams than trail, as noted above.

Aside from all that, I deliberately chose to go slow, knowing one wrong move could mean a twisted knee or ankle. (Which speaks to the wisdom of not traveling alone.) And finally, my main objective was to see how fast I could travel comfortably.

As I alluded in “Okefenokee – Part II:” Not only did my Utah brother propose a 16-day, 500-mile, “primitive-camping canoe trip down the Yukon River.” Also for the Summer of 2016, he’s proposed a four-day hike along the Chilkoot Trail. (In Alaska.) So this overnight A.T. hike served as a kind of “shakedown cruise.”

Which leads to the specifics: It was 5.9 miles from Winding Stair Gap to Wayah Gap. (Before Wayah Bald.) It was another 13.5 miles from Wayah Gap to Tellico Gap. That made a grand total of 19.4 miles. I covered that 19.4 miles in some 11 hours, 29 minutes of actual hiking.

That averaged out to 9.7 miles a day. (Or 1.68 miles per hour, over rough ground. It was actually 1.689895 miles per hour, but who’s counting?) Still, despite my doing better than the eight-mile-a-day average noted above, it was a learning experience…

And a pretty humbling one at that. But I’m glad I did it. For one thing, that first beer and that nice soft bed Saturday night felt really, really good!

And incidentally, the word “trek” – as used in the headline and text – comes from Trekboer. (A term later shortened to just “Boer.” See also “kommando,” from Afrikaans as well.)

The point being: The image below gives an accurate feel for some of the conditions on the A.T. – in late fall, this past November 2015. (Though without the oxen, whips and wagons.)

The original Trekboers, “Passing Cradock Pass…”

Re: The Appalachian “balds.” See Bald Mountains – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

The Bald Mountains are a mountain range [bordering] Tennessee and North Carolina in the southeastern United States. They are part of the Blue Ridge Mountain Province of the Southern Appalachian Mountains. The range gets its name from the relatively frequent occurrence of grassy balds atop the more prominent summits.

Re: Hiking the whole Trail. At 64, I realize I’ll probably never do that. (Or want to, for that matter.) But my bucket list does include hiking at least one portion of the Trail in every state that it passes through. (So far I’ve done Georgia and North Carolina.)

Re: “Dueling banjos.” As the link noted, “If you ever see the film [Deliverance,] you will never be able to enjoy banjos again. Or go canoeing. Or visit rural Georgia. Or, you know, sleep.” And I must admit to a certain trepidation even kayaking in the remote Okefenokee. Still, there is a certain dark humor in the trope illustrated at right…

The lower image is courtesy of the Boer link in the article, Trekboer – Wikipedia. The caption: “Passing Cradock Pass, Outeniqua Mountains, by Charles Collier Michell.” Note that “Boer is a Dutch and Afrikaans word for ‘farmer.'”

Re: “Kommando.” Another word of Dutch/Afrikaans origin, later spelling-changed to Commando: “The word stems from the Afrikaans word kommando, which translates roughly to ‘mobile infantry regiment.’ This term originally referred to mounted infantry regiments, who fought against the British Army in the first and second Boer Wars.”

Alice’s Restaurant – Revisited

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December 2, 2015 – Every year around this time I do my best to listen to Alice’s Restaurant. (The “musical monologue by singer-songwriter Arlo Guthrie,” released in 1967.) When it first came out – in 1967 – the war in Vietnam was at its height. Then there was The Draft.

There’s more on all that later, but first a lighter note.

In 1993 I started a tradition of listening to Alice’s Restaurant every Thanksgiving. It has nothing to do with eating turkey or getting together with family. Instead it has everything to do with my favorite college football team playing its hated arch-rival. Back in 1993 that favorite college football team won its first national title. And it just so happened that for that Thanksgiving weekend I had to drive up to Jacksonville. (My late wife Karen was working as a traveling sales lady for a church directory company.) It also just so happened that was when my team played the hated arch-rival that stood as a final obstacle to the title game.

And that’s when I heard the full rendition – on the radio, of Alice’s Restaurant – for the first time in years. And as it happened, 1988 was also when I met the woman who became my first wife. It also turned out that 1988 was when I started getting serious on making a ritual sacrifice for my team. (Doing things to help them win. See also sublimation – referring to my former hobby.)

So anyway, at the end of 1988 I drove home from a Christmas vacation in Yankee-land. Coming through Gainesville, I heard the full rendition of Alice’s Restaurant for the first time since the 1960s. (When I also saw the singularly-depressing movie of the same name.)

There followed five years of close, but no cigar for my favorite team, from 1988 to 1992.

But it was different in 1993. For Thanksgiving that year I drove north – not south – when I heard the song. For another thing, in 1993 my radio played the song not once, but twice. The result was that my team won its first national title. And the last big test before the title game itself was playing and beating my team’s hated arch-rival, on that Thanksgiving weekend of 1993.

So again – ever since then, since 1993 – I’ve done my best to listen to Alice’s Restaurant every Thanksgiving weekend. And if that all seems weird, see Was Moses the first to say “it’s only weird if it doesn’t work? But getting back to those “Good Old Days of Yesteryear.” For one thing, Alice’s Restaurant reminds us that – for many folks – those good old days weren’t so good. As in the song itself was “notable as a satirical, first-person account of 1960s counterculture.” I’m not sure if we have that kind of counterculture today. (Unless you count “liberals,” as Fox News does.) But back in 1967 we sure had one. In Arlo’s case – and to many young men of the time – the “opposition” was to the Vietnam war. And as Wikipedia also noted:

The ironic punch line of the story is that, in the words of Guthrie, “I’m sittin’ here on the Group W bench ’cause you want to know if I’m moral enough to join the Army – burn women, kids, houses and villages – after bein’ a litterbug.” The final part of the song is an encouragement for the listeners to sing along, to resist the draft, and to end war.

Unfortunately we haven’t ended war yet. (We still have plenty of those to go around.) On the plus side, today’s young men no longer have to worry about the Draft. (Which may or may not be a good thing, depending on your viewpoint.) All of which reminds me of a conversation I overheard on a flight out to Salt Lake City a summer or two ago.

There was an old bigmouth – about my age actually – sitting in the seat behind me. He proceeded to “pontificate” to the young man next to him about the 1960s, and how much better they were than today.

I forgot exactly how he put it – and there’s more in the notes below – but his words literally blew my mind. (To borrow an old idiom from the 1960s.)

Or to put it in the words of Alice’s Restaurant, his recollection of the ’60s fit in precisely with the definition of massacree. (The term Arlo used in the full, original title of the song.) The term itself -as used in the song and/or title – refers to “an event so wildly and improbably and baroquely messed up that the results are almost impossible to believe.”)

Which is how I reacted to this particular bigmouth. It was only later – after the drive home from the airport, and while enjoying one of Utah’s famed 3.2 beers – that I started to remember some of the things that were going on back in the ’60’s. Race riots. Assassinations. The war in Vietnam. Draft dodging. Draft resistance. The upshot being that while some great music came from the era – including Alice’s Restaurant – the decade itself was not fun to live through.

And in a big way, the 1960’s are still with us. Then there’s the old saying: “If you stand on the bank of the river long enough, you’ll see the bodies of your enemies floating by.” Which could be another way of saying Arlo did a reprise? (See Arlo Guthrie Returns to ‘Alice’s Restaurant’ 50 Years Later.) In it, Arlo’s voice was deeper and more mellow. On the other hand, at times he seemed to “overplay his hand.” (To add some drama that seemed a bit forced, which sometimes afflicts us older folk. On the other hand, the original had the spontaneity of youth.)

But the big news was his account of visiting the Jimmy Carter White House.

In 1977, Guthrie got invited to the Carter Inauguration. (Which he figured would be pretty much the only time he’d get such an invitation.) Here’s what happened next.

Chip Carter (the president’s son) advised Guthrie that they had found a copy of the ALICE’S RESTAURANT album in Richard Nixon’s record library. Guthrie … found that interesting [but] didn’t think much about it until years later, when Nixon died and there was all this talk about the 18.5-minute gap in the former president’s tape collection. At which point, it occurred to Arlo that “Alice’s Restaurant” also clocked in at 18.5 minutes!

See “Alice’s Restaurant” and Watergate. (See also the note below on Carter pardoning the Vietnam era “draft dodgers.”) So one point of all this rambling is that Arlo Guthrie turned a patently absurd situation into a timeless classic. (And a Thanksgiving tradition to many.) But there’s another point. People who “wax poetic” on the Good Old Days usually forget what it was like actually living then. See for example On American History, “patched and piebald.”

Nothing was clear, inevitable, or even comprehensible… The real drama of the American Revolution … was its inherent messiness.

And that’s not to mention the “fractious disputes and hysterical rhetoric of [those] contentious nation-builders.” The upshot? Fractious disputes and hysterical rhetoric seem to have been with us in the past, and remain with us “even to this day.” Or as John Adams put it, “as it is now, ever was, and ever will be, world without end.”

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New York’s Lower East Side “in the early 20th Century…”

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For details about what happened to the original “Alice’s Restaurant,” see Wikipedia, and/or The original Alice’s Restaurant – Review of Theresa’s Stockbridge Cafe.

The original original post had photo – seen at left – courtesy of Draft evasion – Wikipedia. My lead caption: “Potential “draft dodgers” – before the Draft lottery of 1969.” The full Wikipedia caption, “U.S. anti-Vietnam War protesters at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. A placard to the right reads ‘Use your head – not your draft card.'”

Re: church directories. Aside from the link given, other directory companies today include Church Directories & Family Portraits – Lifetouch and Barksdale Church Directories. In 1993, the company provided one “free” full-color photograph to each family. The sales staff – who came to the church a week or two after the photographers – earned their commission by selling extra copies and/or photographs.

Re: “Counterculture.” That’s a “subculture whose values and norms of behavior differ substantially from those of mainstream society, often in opposition to mainstream cultural mores.”

The Ethan Bronner quotes – listed below – are from his 1989 book, Battle for Justice How the Bork Nomination Shook America. (Anchor Books, published by Doubleday, at pages 249-50.)

The lower image is courtesy of Lower East Side – Wikipedia. The caption: “‘Cliff Dwellers‘ by Bellows, depicting the Lower East Side as its in the early 20th Century” (sic):

In Cliff Dwellers, George Bellows captures the colorful crowd on New York City’s Lower East Side. It appears to be a hot summer day. People spill out of tenement buildings onto the streets, stoops, and fire escapes. Laundry flaps overhead and a street vendor hawks his goods from his pushcart in the midst of all the traffic. In the background, a trolley car heads toward Vesey Street.

For more on Alice’s Restaurant, see The Story Behind ‘Alice’s Restaurant‘: the 50-Year-Old Song that Is Forever Young, Arlo Guthrie Looks Back on 50 Years of ‘Alice’s Restaurant,’ 50 things about Arlo Guthrie’s ‘Alice’s Restaurant,’ and Arlo Guthrie Returns to ‘Alice’s Restaurant‘ 50 Years Later.

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Re: the draft. See Vietnam War Draft, Draft lottery (1969) – Wikipedia, and content.time.com/time… article/0,28804,186225, regarding President Jimmy Carter’s pardoning the “Vietnam war draft dodgers” in 1977. Other articles of interest include Was Trump a ‘draft dodger’? | PunditFact – PolitiFact, and How I Got Out of the Vietnam Draft – And Why That Still Matters.

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And finally, here’s a portion of the post where I started going off on a tangent.

(Beginning with the sentence, “Unfortunately we haven’t ended war yet…”)

Unfortunately we haven’t ended war yet. On the other hand, today’s young people no longer have to worry about the Draft. (Which may or may not be a good thing, depending on your viewpoint.) That “phasing out” started in 1969 with the Draft Lottery:

In the late 1960s, President Nixon established a commission to recommend the best ways to raise military manpower, to keep the draft or to institute a volunteer army. After much debate … it was decided that an all-volunteer force was affordable, feasible, and would enhance the nation’s security…

And that’s what we’ve had ever since. But Wikipedia also noted that the 1970s “were a time of turmoil in the United States, beginning with the Civil Rights Movement.” Further, the draft lottery “only encouraged resentment of the Vietnam war” – and the draft – and “strengthened the anti-war movement.” Which brings up a conversation I heard a summer or two ago.

I was flying out to Salt Lake City. In the row right behind me, the older guy in the window seat was pontificating. (Actually he was about my age. The subject of his pontification – to the young man “captive audience” in the next seat – was how great things used to be – in the 1960s.

I forget exactly how this bigmouth put it, in his unchallenged opinion.

But what he said fit in precisely with the definition of massacree Arlo used in the full, original title of Alice’s Restaurant. (Meaning “an event so wildly and improbably and baroquely messed up that the results are almost impossible to believe.”) Or respond to in a timely manner.

It was only later – after the drive from the airport and the comfort of one Utah’s famed 3.2 beers – that I fully started to remember why the ’60s and ’70s weren’t so great. Or more precisely, what exactly happened during those years of turmoil.

As Ethan Bronner noted, “In the 1960s much changed,” beginning with the U.S. Supreme Court. Court rulings began protecting the private possession of obscene materials (for example). The Court did so under the theory that the right to receive information and ideas – “regardless of their social worth” – is fundamental to a free society.

But to many others, “the sixties were where America went wrong.” To them, the government existed to make value choices. To them, allowing such “free speech” as the 1978 March on Skokie (Ill.) led to feelings of “powerlessness and alienation of many Americans:”

Citizens’ efforts to take control of their lives and environments were further undercut by the growing power of courts and bureaucracies. No wonder so many Americans dropped out of the political process…

Which could bring up the term Kafkaesque. Illustrated by “Kafkaesque bureaucracies,” the term means something marked “by a senseless, disorienting, often menacing complexity,” and/or “by surreal distortion and often a sense of impending danger…”

Like I said, that’s where I started going off on a tangent, last night, as I tried to finish this post in time to be relevant to Thanksgiving weekend, 2015.

And one final note, Franz Kafka – who’s name gave rise to the term “Kafkaesque” – died in 1924, at the age of 41. He was noted for writings that explored “themes of alienation, existential anxiety, guilt, and absurdity.” (Perhaps in his way not unlike Arlo Guthrie.) See Wikipedia.

The point being that alienation, anxiety, guilt and absurdity seem to have been with us – as Adams noted – now and forever, “world without end.”

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A Mid-summer Travelog – Part III

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Atlantic City, seen at dusk from the balcony of the Wyndham Skyline Tower…

This post continues Mid-summer Travelog (Part I), and Travelog – Part II. Of course now that it’s October 2 – a full 10 weeks after that road trip ended – this third-of-four installments will be more of a remembrance. And among other things, I’ve taken another trip since then.

In August I took a trip out west, to Utah, and from there to “the Columbia River, near Astoria, on unfinished canoe-trip business.” (See Ashley Wilkes.) That trip took nearly three weeks, from August 10 to the 27. In the meantime football season is once again upon us. Which means it’s been a busy time for me.

And it’s also a good time for reflection.

But before we continue the travelog itself, I should remember that these shouldn’t be just the boring ramblings of an aging Geezer. That’s because:

The journey motif, where a story’s protagonist must complete a quest … is one of the oldest in storytelling. Usually, there is a prize or reward promised, but often the true reward is different and more valuable, as the protagonist both proves and humbles himself.

See What is a journey motif? (Emphasis added.) So I’ll try to keep that in mind…

Anyway, in Part II I noted Steinbeck’s comment: “when I used to work in the woods it was said of lumber men that they did their logging in the whorehouse and their sex in the woods.” Then I added my own twist: “Which is another way of saying that it’s only now that my trip is over that I can look back and relish the memories just lived through.” That was back on July 22, which means this Part III will be doubly reflective.

We resume this installment in Atlantic City. And as shown in the upper image, from the top floor of the Wyndham Skyline Tower. That was one of the most pleasant surprises of the trip. (I’d thought my brother’s saying “we rented a condo” would mean a quaint little three- or four-bedroom house, somewhere near the beach.) Being able to look out on “AC” from a 32d-floor balcony – at dawn and dusk – was refreshing indeed.

The installment will end – perhaps metaphorically – at (or near) “Old Swedes” Episcopal cemetery in Swedesboro, New Jersey. That’s where where we surviving three brothers – along with a niece and matriarchal aunt – laid our father’s ashes to rest.

(As noted in Part I, that memorial lent “a certain gravitas to the whole ‘joint venture.'”)

Also in Part I, I told of trying to fashion my road trip in the manner of Steinbeck’s Travels with Charley. Which meant – first of all -noting some key differences between highway travel in 1960 and 2015. (Differences including but not limited to cruise control.)

I noted another difference, on camping not being a cheaper way to travel. That is, before leaving I decided not to camp as Steinbeck did. That was because even for tent camping, the price you pay is almost as much as a Motel 6. But since then I’ve learned that’s not entirely correct.

It is true that camping at a state park these days – even with online reservations – can cost almost as much a night at a Motel 6. But after the trip I found a website, Freecampsites.net. (See also FreeCampgrounds.com.) I haven’t actually tried one of these yet, but it does bode well for the future. (And I suppose there’s some kind of object lesson in all this…)

That brings up another key difference between Steinbeck’s time and ours.

On page 167 of the Penguin Edition TWC, Steinbeck wrote of driving across the “upraised thumb of Idaho and through real mountains that climbed straight up.” There he had a problem: “my radio went dead and I thought it was broken, but it was only that the high ridges cut off the radio waves.” The point? Steinbeck had only a car radio to entertain him.

I on the other hand had radio, and a CD player that could – and did – provide an education via lectures on CD. (Like American History, “patched and piebald,” as seen below left.)

Or I could listen to plain old CDs with music. (I had around 50 such CDs.) Or I could listen to pre-programmed music on my iPod Shuffle. (Which had some eight hours of music.)

And last but not least, I had a six-month trial of SiriusXM (satellite) Radio. That trial came with the new Ford Escape I’d bought the previous May. It alone had over 175 channels, with comedy, sports, news and information, “commercial-free music,” and traffic and weather.

Which I suppose is as good a metaphor as any for the Information Explosion that now envelopes us today. (And which “can lead to information overload;” that is, a difficulty in making decisions and understanding issues, caused by too much information.)

But before writing more about Atlantic City, I wanted to note another similarity.

On pages 136-37 of the Penguin Books TWC, Steinbeck wrote about rarely making notes along the way. But (he added), “I made some notes on a sheet of yellow paper on the nature and quality of being alone.” Such notes – he said – would normally have gotten lost, “as notes are always lost, but these particular notes turned up long afterward wrapped around a bottle of ketchup and secured by a rubber band.”

He found three notes altogether – all on being alone – with one lying “obscurely under a streak of ketchup.“ He took over a full page of TWC on the third note, “Reversion to pleasure-pain basis.” He then concluded, “so much for the three notes below the red stain on the ketchup bottle.” Public Chicago Hotel - Chicago, IL, United States All of which had to do with the fact that “After the comfort and the company of Chicago I had had to learn to be alone again.” (His wife flew out to meet him in Chicago, and for a few days they stayed at the “Ambassador East.” The lobby is seen at right.)

Along the same lines, I recently found a note I’d written during my road trip. It was from Sunday, June 28, written on an odd scrap of paper in the Walmart parking lot on Virginia Beach Boulevard.

Road trip – Sometimes you’re amazed at how well things turn out like you “planned.” (Appearance of Walmart this morning.) And sometimes you have to adapt – Saturday driving up I-95 through rain and traffic.

That all had to do with how “fouled up” the driving had been on Saturday, the 27th. Not only was the traffic on Interstate 95 even worse than usual… Aside from that, a strong and long line of thunderstorms took it’s sweet time, taking all day Saturday to pass through the area.

(And knocking out the power for five hours in Williamsburg. See Part II.)

But then on Sunday morning the sun was out, and driving was fun again. The only problem was that I needed cash for the toll onto the Chesapeake Bay-Bridge. I pondered the question while driving east toward Virginia Beach. I wanted to visit the beach itself, and also looked for First Landing State Park, when all of a sudden – “as if by magic” – a Walmart appeared to my left. (That’s my normal routine when needing cash. Rather than pay an ATM fee, I generally go to a Walmart, get some inexpensive necessity and get cash that way.)

All of which could be just another way of saying, “Sometimes you get the bear, and sometimes the bear gets you.” Or as Steinbeck said, “we do not take a trip; a trip takes us.” (TWC-2, 4)

And by the way, I’m pretty sure they didn’t have ATMs in 1960.

Then too, that “magical moment in travel” was pretty much what happened when – later in the week – the three parts of the family got together for the memorial in Swedesboro. We all came together “as if by magic.”

In the meantime I just checked the word counter. It said the last paragraph put me at 1,344 words. That means it’s time to start wrapping this up.

So here’s a condensed version of journal entries for this trip-part. For readers more interested – or more masochistic– there’s a longer version at the end of the notes.

On Monday evening, June 29, I treated my hosts to dinner at the Hard Rock Café down on the Boardwalk. (“I made believe I lost my credit card. Hah! Fooled everyone.”) Then at another restaurant a day or so later, I walked off and left my cell phone. I got it back, but it reminded me of something a fellow old-person once said: “I’m not senile, I’m processing!”

Which probably qualifies as the travel writer “humbling himself.”

I don’t recall Steinbeck writing of such problems in his journey. But see also A “Travels With Charley” Timeline, which noted “screaming signs of fictionalization,” Steinbeck’s being “fuzzy about time and place,” not to mention vague and confusing:

The book also includes scenes of several lonely overnight campouts under the stars that didn’t happen and it omits many things Steinbeck did with his wife Elaine when she joined him for a month on the West Coast.

But hey, nobody’s perfect. (See also “young pup – definition … from the Oxford dictionary.”)

One definite highlight of the stay in Atlantic City was a visit to the Tuckerton Seaport & Baymen’s Museum (seen at right):

“Only six bucks and a great bargain at that, even though many of the exhibits were still closed, due to Superstorm Sandy.” And among other things, I learned about the Battle of Chestnut Neck, which I’d never heard of. (In the Revolutionary War.)

See also Travel broadens the mind, with 50 inspiring quotes, including one from Steinbeck: “A journey is like marriage. The certain way to be wrong is to think you control it.”

On that note, we also did a lot of walking along the Boardwalk over several days in AC, marked by “stopping and starting, shopping, and watching the ‘passing panoply.'”

But getting back to that Journey Motif, “leading to an epiphany, or some sort of self-realization.”

We left Atlantic city on Thursday, July 2, heading for the Swedesboro cemetery. I followed my even-more-delightfully-retro brother, who refuses to use anything like a GPS. West on U.S. 322, not wanting to pay a toll or go through the traffic on the Atlantic City Expressway. There were a number of stops and starts, not to mention turnarounds and dead ends, and we were supposed to meet up with the rest of the family at noon.

I was starting to have my doubts, but we ended up getting “to the cemetery right at 12:04, just behind the Prius;” i.e., the one carrying the oldest brother, his wife and matriarchal aunt, “just getting out of the car.” It reminded me of Steinbeck’s finding a friend’s house on Deer Isle:

I climbed a hill and turned right into pine woods and on a smaller road, and turned right on a very narrow road and turned right again on wheel tracks on pine needles. It is so easy once you have done it.

(TWC-2, 46) As I wrote in my journal, “We laid Dad’s ashes to rest where the nice guy had dug a huge hole. Each of us said a little something, then we had a nice lunch at a ‘Fireside’ restaurant in Swedesboro.” (Rode’s Fireside Restaurant, at left.)

Then we drove across the Delaware Memorial Bridge to our aunt’s house in Wilmington.

Which brings up the matter of my crossing the Delaware River in my kayak the next morning. It seems that crossing the Delaware is why there are two “Old Swedes” on each side of the river:

The journey across the Delaware by canoe and sailboat was hazardous and often impossible. In 1706, the first priest serving St. George’s, The Reverend Lars Tollstadius was drowned while crossing the Delaware.

See the notes below, St. Georges Episcopal Church Pennsville, and also The Delaware Finns: “on the 29th of May 1706, Tollstadius was drowned in crossing the Delaware in a canoe. Before his death, the congregation had found objections against him, for his irregular mode of living.” But see also Trinity Episcopal Church, Swedesboro, which had it this way:

After Tollstadius’ apparent suicide in 1706 (he was under indictment by the Burlington Court), he was succeeded by Jonas Auren, one of the three pastors to arrive in 1697. (E.A.)

Be that as it may… (I don’t want to get into either “irregular modes of living” or being under indictment.) Be that as it may, I myself paddled across the Delaware in a little 8-foot kayak, early the next morning and notwithstanding the danger! (As noted in Parts I and II.) It took almost exactly an hour, from Battery Park in New Castle, across the river to Riverview Beach Park in Pennsville. But aside from a couple of humongous freighters on the river – and the wakes they generated – the crossing was pretty uneventful.

So much for learning from history…

“Old Swede’s Church [Trinity Church] in Swedesboro, New Jersey…”

The upper image is courtesy of Wyndham Skyline Tower – 64 Photos, and/or “Giovanni A.“

The “football” image is courtesy of College football – Wikipedia. The caption: “The Rutgers College football team in 1882.”

A note: Quotes from “Travels with Charlie” are generally from the 1980 Penguin Books edition. Quotes from “TWC-2” are from the 1962 “Viking Press” edition.

Re: Old Swedes, New Jersey. That’s not to be confused with Old Swedes – Wilmington, across the river, known as Holy Trinity. Old Swedes New Jersey was built because of the difficulty in crossing the Delaware River, as noted elsewhere: “To attend church, the Swedish settlers in Raccoon had to cross the river to Wilmington or Philadelphia. The difficulty of this crossing led to the decision to build a new church on the banks of Raccoon Creek.”

Another note: The “laying to rest” of my father’s ashes actually occurred at Lake Park Cemetery in Woolwich, some six-tenths of a mile south of the Jersey Old Swedes. Thus the phrase “at (or near) “Old Swedes.”

Re “Ambassador East.” See The Pump Room, Chicago – Wikipedia: “The Pump Room … is a restaurant located in the Public Chicago Hotel, formerly The Ambassador East, in Chicago‘s Gold Coast area.” The lobby image is courtesy of Public Chicago Hotel – 136 Photos.

Re: “Sometimes you get the bear, and sometimes the bear gets you.” A variation of the phrase popularized in 1998’s The Big Lebowski. (See Wikipedia.) See also Urban Dictionary: sometimes you eat the bear, and/or What does this quote from The Big Lebowski mean?

The lower image is courtesy of Swedesboro, New Jersey – Wikipedia.

* * * *

Other highlights of this portion of the road trip included a visit to the Absecon Lighthouse, dinner at the LandShark Bar & Grill Restaurant in Atlantic City (on the Boardwalk), a visit to Longwood Gardens (north of Wilmington in Pennsylvania, “one of the premier botanical gardens in the United States”), and another dinner at Gallucio’s Italian Restaurantt in Wilmington.

All highly recommended by this “travel writer…”

The mysterious death of Ashley Wilkes

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Lesley Howard – middle – played Professor Henry Higgins in the 1938 film Pygmalion.

* * * *

Leslie Howard was best known for playing Ashley Wilkes in 1939’s Gone with the Wind. (As the man Scarlett O’Hara was obsessed with.) At that point Howard was a mere 46 years old. And – while no one could know at the time – he had only four more years to live. In June 1943 his passenger airliner was shot down over the Bay of Biscay, between Portugal and England. According to one theory, “he” got shot down because the Nazis thought he was a British spy.

Howard’s airliner did get “shot down by the Luftwaffe,” but we may never know if he was really a British spy or if this was a case of mistaken identity. Even so, the question itself is intriguing.

That airliner was shot down some nine months after the release of Howard’s 1942 movie Spitfire. (A poster is shown at left.) And his death did come about under suspicious circumstances.There’s more on that later, but first a word about how I learned about this mysterious death. In August 2015 I’d flown out to Utah for to visit my brother, and the night before I was to fly back we watched “Spitfire.” There’s more detail in the notes, but watching that movie got me on the path to learning about how Howard died so mysteriously.

Spitfire was originally called The First of the Few in Britain. (The name was changed to “Spitfire” for American audiences.) Howard played “R.J. Mitchell, who designed the Supermarine Spitfire.” The British title alluded to Winston Churchill‘s memorable speech, attributing victory in the Battle of Britain to “the few.” (That is, the few men who piloted British fighters in the battle, and especially those who flew the Spitfire.) As Churchill put it, “Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.”

The film came out in Britain on September 12, 1942. Less than nine months later – “on or about” June 1, 1943 – Howard’s airliner was attacked by eight Luftwaffe Junkers Ju 88C6 fighter aircraft. The airliner – with 16 other passengers and crew – was attacked some 500 miles west of Bordeaux, France. The plane – or parts of it – came down in the Bay of Biscay, some 200 miles north of La Coruña, on the far northwestern tip of Spain.

As to why the Luftwaffe shot down the airliner, here’s what Wikipedia said of Howard:

He was active in anti-German propaganda and reputedly involved with British or Allied Intelligence, which may have led to his death in 1943[. He] was shot down over the Bay of Biscay, sparking conspiracy theories regarding his death.

There was an alternate theory: That the Germans were really after Winston Churchill.

During the early years of World War II, Churchill routinely flew over the Bay of Biscay. By June, 1943, he was just finishing up a month-long trip to North Africa, including an inter-Allied conference in Algiers. The North Africa Campaign was just ending, and Allied leaders were planning the invasion of Sicily and Italy. The normal stop-over for such trips from North Africa to London was Lisbon, in ostensibly-neutral Portugal. (Often via Gibraltar.)

But also during the war, Lisbon was a hotbed of “trade, conspiracy, and subterfuge.” (Note that Lisbon was the destination of refugees and reprobates alike in the movie Casablanca.)

When Churchill took such flights – to and from London and/or North Africa via Lisbon – he was accompanied by a single bodyguard, Detective Inspector Walter H. Thompson. Thompson was tall and slender, and looked much like Howard. But in a strange twist, when Howard took his flight from Lisbon, he was accompanied by a close friend and business manager, Alfred Chenhalls. And to some people, Chenhalls looked “Churchillesque.” Which brings up this:

A long-standing hypothesis states that the Germans believed that Prime Minister Winston Churchill, was on board the flight. Churchill, in his autobiography, expressed sorrow that a mistake about his activities might have cost Howard his life.

See also “Churchill’s Bodyguard,” the BBC television series that suggested German intelligence agents knew of Churchill’s comings and goings from the area. On that note, Detective Thompson later wrote that Churchill often seemed clairvoyant about threats to his safety. And according to Thompson, Churchill had a premonition about his proposed flight over the Bay of Biscay on June 1, 1943, and so changed his departure to the following day.

Thus because of a perceived threat to his safety, Churchill changed his planned flight home:

Full of confidence, the Prime Minister flies home. And unwittingly causes a tragedy. Aware of his presence in North Africa, the Germans have prepared a trap. Their watchful agents in Lisbon report the departure of a thickset gentleman smoking a big cigar aboard a commercial aircraft leaving on a scheduled flight. Shortly after take-off it is pounced on by a German fighter [sic] and shot down with ridiculous ease. Among its fourteen passengers is film star Leslie Howard. The innocent cause of their death is a brilliant accountant and amateur musician called Alfred Chenhalls, whose resemblance to Churchill is superficial merely.

(TVY 186) William Manchester‘s book The Last Lion added some telling details. He indicated that on June 4, 1943, Churchill boarded an Avro York for the flight to Gibraltar, from Algiers. He said Churchill planned to transfer at Gibraltar to a more-comfortable “Boeing flying boat [seen at left] for the final leg of the trip,” to London. But bad weather forced him to transfer to a B-24 Liberator instead. And there was some other confusion:

That day, a German spy at the Lisbon airport reported to his superiors that a thickset man smoking a cigar had been seen boarding a commercial flight, another flying boat, destination London. Phone calls were made, German fighter aircraft scrambled. The hapless aircraft was shot down over the sea, killing all fourteen passengers, including the popular screen actor Leslie Howard.

According to Manchester, when Churchill got back to London he noted the brutality of the Germans, as exemplified by the attack on Howard’s airliner. But – he said – their brutality “was matched only by the stupidity of their agents.”

(Just as an aside, Manchester said this latest incident “unsettled Britons,” who “felt ill at ease” about Churchill’s being away from the country for a full month. They were equally ill at ease about his taking such unprotected flights so close to enemy territory.)

Roy Jenkins made a similar point in his biography of Churchill. He wrote that Churchill flew back to London “on the night of 4-5 June (1943),” and that the journey was without incident, except for bad weather. That in turn meant that Churchill couldn’t transfer to a “more comfortable flying boat,” but had to continue by uncomfortable bomber. (The B-24.)

Later that same day however another Pan American flying boat did take off from Lisbon for Plymouth and was shot down with the deaths of a full load of passengers, including Leslie Howard of Scarlet Pimpernel fame. In the same month a Liberator bomber (a companion to Churchill’s plane) flying from Gibraltar to England was also shot down, with the death of General Sikorski, the head of the Polish forces, and two accompanying British MPs.

The point being that Churchill appeared to be taking unnecessary risks. (Note also that the two “MPs” in this case were Members of Parliament.)

But there were other theories as well. According to the “Churchill” theory, the German intelligence agents in and around Lisbon were really stupid. But according to some alternate theories, those agents knew exactly what they were doing.

One such theory had it that Howard was on a top-secret mission – for Churchill – to persuade Spain’s Francisco Franco not to join the Axis powers, Germany and Italy. (Spain was officially neutral at the time.) Howard’s go-between was said to be Conchita Montenegro (at right), with whom he’d ostensibly had a torrid love affair.

(Not to mention Tallulah Bankhead and Merle Oberon, two of his other leading ladies. While he was said to be something of a ladies’ man at the time, Howard once quipped that he “didn’t chase women but … couldn’t always be bothered to run away” from them either.)

Other sources indicate that Howard’s successful anti-Nazi activities in the early years of World War Two “enraged Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels, who called Howard ‘Britain’s most dangerous propagandist,’” and that Howard also worked for British Intelligence.

Still other sources note another passenger on Howard’s airliner, “leading anti-Nazi activist Wilfrid Israel, who had helped Jewish refugees escape from the Holocaust.” You can see even more theories about this or these mysterious death(s) in the notes, but all of them lead to this thought: To think, some people thought those years were better and simpler times…

* * * * Leslie Howard as Ashley Wilkes in Gone With the Wind trailer cropped.jpg “Ashley Wilkes,” anti-Nazi agitator?

* * * *

The upper image is courtesy of Leslie Howard (actor) – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. I changed to this image on January 5, 2016, after reviewing the post for a New Year’s “retrospective.” That look-back showed a foul-up in the image-transfer, originally from The First of the Few – Wikipedia. That’s where the image to the left of the paragraph beginning “His airliner was shot down” came from.

Note also that while some sources said Howard’s airliner was shot down on June 1, others give the date as June 4, 1943. Thus the phrase “on or about” June 1, 1943.

Here’s what I wrote in the original post, back in 2015. “In case you hadn’t noticed, I’m back in the saddle after three weeks out of town. (Part of that time was spent on the Columbia River, near Astoria, on unfinished canoe-trip business…) And it was only during that three-week hiatus – from home and daily routine – that I found out there were mysterious circumstances around Leslie Howard’s death. (Aboard an airliner like the one below right.) That happened because my brother is more delightfully retro than [me…]

“[T]he night before I took my own commercial flight back home to God’s Country – the outskirts of Atlanta – we watched an old black-and-white movie: 1942’s Spitfire, starring Leslie Howard… On VHS no less, while enjoying some of Utah’s famed 3.2 beers…” The “airliner” image is courtesy of BOAC Flight 777 – Wikipedia, noted further below.

Re: “The film was released … 1942.” See First of the Few (1942) | Inafferrabile [sic] Leslie Howard. The site said in the U.S., Spitfire was released on June 12, 1943, “a few days after Leslie’s death.”

Re: 3.2 beer. See The Legacy of 3.2% Beer | The Society of Wine and Jurisprudence. The site said such beer is a “relic” of Prohibition. “In an attempt to limit the availability of higher-octane beverages, 3.2% is currently the only beverage allowed for sale at grocery stores in Colorado, Utah, and several other states.” (E.A.)

Re: “German fighters,” as to the Junkers Ju 88C6. As Wikipedia noted, a fighter aircraft is a “military aircraft designed primarily for air-to-air combat against other aircraft, as opposed to bombers and attack aircraft.” The Ju 88C6 was a “twin-engined multirole combat aircraft,” designed to be “too fast for any of the fighters of its era to intercept.” It was used in roles including but not limited to “night fighter … heavy fighter and even, during the closing stages of the conflict in Europe, as a flying bomb.”

That there were eight Ju 88C6s came from the article, List of airliner shootdown incidents – Wikipedia.

“Full of confidence … TVY.” See Winston Churchill: The Valiant Years, Jack Le Vien and John Lord, Bernard Geis and Associates (1962), at page 186. Note also:

1) Manchester’s “Last Lion…” See The Last Lion[:] Winston Churchill Defender of the Realm 1940-1965, William Manchester and Paul Reid, Little, Brown and Company (2012), pages 688-89.

2) William Manchester – noted American author, biographer and historian – died in 2004, while still at work on Last Lion. He chose his friend Paul Reid to finish the work. As Reid himself noted, Manchester began this “third and final volume of his biography of Winston Churchill” in 1988. Reid indicated that Manchester’s research on the book was complete but that he’d written only some 100 pages between 1988 and 1998, due to increasingly poor health. After Manchester died, Reid began the process of completing the book. See also Wikipedia:

Following the death of his wife in 1998, Manchester suffered from two strokes. He announced that he would not be able to complete his planned third volume of his three part-biography of Churchill, The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill: Defender of the Realm, 1940-1965. He was also initially reluctant to collaborate with anyone to finish to work. In October 2003, Manchester asked Paul Reid, a friend and writer for The Palm Beach Post, to complete the Churchill biography.

Re: Roy Jenkins. See Churchill[:] A Biography, Farrar, Strauss and Giroux (2001), at pages 712-13. For what it’s worth, Jenkins put the “cumulative risk to which Churchill’s manifold journeys exposed him” at some 30 per cent.

Re: “flying boat.” The airliner in question was built by Boeing, flown by Pan American Airways and called the Clipper: “Twelve Clippers were built; nine were brought into service for Pan Am and later transferred to the U.S. military. The remaining three were sold to British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) by Pan Am and delivered in early 1941. (BOAC‘s 3 Short S.26 transoceanic flying-boats had been requisitioned by the RAF).” See Boeing 314 Clipper – Wikipedia.

As to other theories, including that Howard’s plane was shot down because another passenger was “leading anti-Nazi activist Wilfrid Israel: Israel was a “friend of Albert Einstein, the philosopher Martin Buber, and Chaim Weizmann, later the first president of the state of Israel.” Wikipedia indicated that in the wake of Kristallnacht – the 1938 pogrom or “night of broken glass” in Germany – Wilfrid Israel took an active role, contacting among others “the Council for German Jewry in London, informing them that extraordinary measures must now be taken to save at least the children.” Regardless of such theories why this particular airliner was shot down, this fact remains: The tragedy made Howard “the first cast member from Gone With The Wind to die.”

But other cast members lived long and productive lives. For example, Vivien Leigh – who played Scarlett O’Hara) – lived on until 1967. Olivia de Havilland – who played Melanie Hamilton, Scarlett’s rival and the cousin Ashley married – is still alive and has been living in Paris since 1960. And it was only in 1960 that Clark Gable died.

Gable played Rhett Butler in GWTW, but went on to numerous other movie roles including The Misfits, his final screen appearance. That movie also starred Marilyn Monroe. (At the time she was going through a “breakdown” of her marriage to writer Arthur Miller. Miller wrote the Misfits screenplay, and “revised the script throughout the shoot as the concepts of the film developed.”)

Monroe herself died on August 5, 1962 – at age 36 – a little over a year after the release of Misfits on February 1, 1961. The coroner listed the cause of death as “acute barbiturate poisoning” and/or “probable suicide,” but there were other theories here too:

Many theories, including murder, circulated about the circumstances of her death and the timeline after the body was found. Some conspiracy theories involved John and Robert Kennedy, while other theories suggested CIA or Mafia complicity. It was reported that President Kennedy was the last person Monroe called.

The “Conchita” image is courtesy of www.flickriver.com/photos. Wikipedia added this:

Following a rare interview with Montenegro shortly before her death, Spanish author José Rey-Ximena claims that British actor Leslie Howard used her to get close to Spanish dictator Franco after being given the special mission by Winston Churchill. She claimed that she used her husband’s influence to secure a meeting between the British actor and the Spanish dictator. “Thanks to him … Spain was persuaded to stay out of the war.” (E.A.)

Re: Franco and Spain’s neutrality. See Francisco Franco – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, which noted that on “23 October 1940 Hitler and Franco met in Hendaye, France, to discuss the possibility of Spain’s entry on the side of the Axis. However, Franco’s demands, which included food, military equipment, and Spanish control of Gibraltar and French North Africa proved too much for Hitler.”

Note that an agitator is someone who “actively supports some ideology or movement with speeches and especially actions.” The term originally referred to elected soldier-representatives of “the New Model Army of Oliver Cromwell, during the English Civil War. They were also known as adjutators.” See Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

* * * *

Other sources for this post include Leslie Howard (actor), Ashley Wilkes, and Gone with the Wind (film) – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, as well as the following:

See Clarecolvin.com/ian-colvin/flight-777-the-mystery-of-leslie-howard:

He was travelling with his tax adviser, cigar-smoking Alfred Chenhalls, who bore a resemblance to Winston Churchill – Churchill was at that time about to fly back from an Allied conference in North Africa. Also on board was leading anti-Nazi activist Wilfrid Israel, who had helped Jewish refugees escape from the Holocaust.

See also BOAC Flight 777 – Wikipedia, which noted that “the Douglas DC-3 lost in this attack had twice survived attacks by Luftwaffe fighters in November 1942 and April 1943.”

The Shootdown of Leslie Howard | Defense Media Network listed the date as June 1, and added:

Never entirely comfortable with Hollywood life, when war broke out, Howard, a Jew, decided to return to England and apply his fame and talent to a higher calling – helping his country fight the Axis. Howard starred, directed, and produced anti-German war films [like Spitfire] and radio broadcasts, and conducted lecture tours. His success enraged Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels, who called Howard “Britain’s most dangerous propagandist…” What the public didn’t know, though the Nazis did, was that Howard also worked for British Intelligence.

Note also the critical British base at Gibraltar, which played a key role in Churchill’s travels to and from North Africa. The base guarded the entrance to the Mediterranean Sea, where the Strait of Gibraltar is a mere eight miles wide or less. The base was “used primarily as a training area … and as a stopover for aircraft and ships en route to and from deployments East of Suez or Africa.”

And finally see The actor, the Jew and Churchill’s double. – Eye on Spain, and also Churchill A Photographic Portrait, by Martin Gilbert, Houghton Mifflin (1974):

1) Photograph 292 in Portrait shows Churchill standing between U.S. General George Marshall and Field Marshal Montgomery, with the caption: “While in Algiers, Churchill finalized the plans for the invasion of Sicily and Italy with the British and American leaders. This photograph, taken on 3 June 1943, was annotated by General Montgomery.” Montgomery later recalled, “Winston wanted me to say the Sicilian invasion would be all right. But I wouldn’t.” Despite Montgomery’s doubts, the Allied invasion liberated Sicily in some six weeks. (July 10-August 17, 1943.)

On rectal thermometers and “you’re entitle'”

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“Voyageur canoe shooting the rapids,” not unlike what yours truly will do in the next few weeks…

I’m leaving town on Monday, August 10, and won’t be back until August 27. (A matter of some unfinished business, canoe-trip-wise.) So here’s a post that I hope will tide you over.

I recently ran across one of Harry Golden‘s later books. It’s called You’re entitle’ , and it was published in 1962. (By the World Publishing Company of Cleveland.) As noted in Harry Golden, My Father & ‘Entitlements’ – Zest of Orange, that was the “expression of a free man:”

You’re Entitle’ … was not nearly as successful as its predecessors[, including] Only in America (1958), For 2¢ Plain (1958)… Golden dedicated the book to his father[:] “All his life he spoke a halting English, though he certainly made his ideas clear enough,” wrote Golden. “He was enamored of the phrase, ‘You’re entitle’.’ In his youth, Golden would correct him, saying, “It ends with a d, Poppa.” His father would nod understandingly “but the next time it still came out, ‘You’re entitle’.”

As noted below, this later book contains a number of gems that could be reflected on. Things like “the good life,” the ongoing Conservative Tide, and rectal thermometers as a sign of gradual integration. (Not that there’s any connection…)

Product Details The first nugget of wisdom came on page 25, “A note in passing:”

I am a reporter and, I hope, no sermonizer. But that doesn’t mean I don’t know something about this process of living. I shall soon see my sixtieth year and along with hundreds of thousands of other middle-aged men, I believe the good life, as the Greeks called it, is within reach. We only have to be careful about two things. First, don’t get in trouble with the Internal Revenue people; and second, don’t get mixed up with a woman.

Those last two are still good advice. But I was struck by the combination of his referring to almost-60 as “middle aged,” and the connotation with it, that he was “older and wiser.” Of course we all tend to get wiser as we grow older, but Harry’s idea of “60 as the new 30” seems way ahead of his time. See On RABBIT – and “60 is the new 30″ – (Part II), which noted John Updike’s “overall image of 65-year-olds in 1969 is of people who really are over the hill. ”

So once again, Harry Golden was ahead of his time.

Which brings up his meditation (also on page 25), “Memo to Senator Goldwater.”

One of the things which the country could stand right now [1962] is a movement spearheaded by Senator Goldwater [seen below right] and Mr. William Buckley, of the National Review, to change the designation of the “liberal arts college” to the “conservative arts college.” We might as well have this thing out in then open.

There’s some debate whether the “Conservative Tide” in America is waxing or waning. See Conservative tide continues to ebb, particularly on social issues, posted in 2014. But see also Conservative tide that swept Reagan in may be subsiding, which said basically the same thing in 1985. The fact remains, however, that Harry had a fine sense of irony.

Which brings up again the title of Harry’s 1962 book, as meditated on by the Zest of Orange blogger:

That word, wrote Golden, “was the expression of a free man. No one was entitled in Eastern Europe. You served in the army for 10 years and it entitled you to nothing. Your taxes entitled you to no franchise. But in America men were free and entitled…” Golden wrote those words in 1962. My, how times have changed.

Times have indeed changed, but so far America remains free…

Which is due in large part to both our national despising of phonies and our sense of American ingenuity. Harry gave an example on page 108, “You had to have baggage.” This essay had to do with the Raines law. Passed in 1896 by the New York legislature, the law “prohibited the sale of alcoholic beverages on Sunday except in hotels.” As Harry noted, the law was also designed to improve the morals of hotel-keepers (and guests), and to cut down on prostitution.

But as Wikipedia noted, the result was “dozens or Raines law hotels,” usually right over saloons. The result was an actual increase in prostitution, “as the rooms in many ‘Raines law hotels’ were used mostly by prostitutes and unmarried couples.” There were also the “saloon keepers who mocked the law by setting out ‘brick sandwiches,’ two pieces of bread with a brick in between, thus fulfilling the legal requirement of serving food.”

But Harry noted yet another example of the law of unintended consequences:

When the Raines law was passed … it was designed to improve morals, especially the morals of hotel-keepers and their guests. One of the provisions of the law was that you could not rent a room to a couple unless they had baggage. A day after the law went into effect, a dozen luggage stores opened up along Sixth Avenue with big signs, “Baggage rented.” A fellow with a girl walked into one of these stores and for a two-dollar deposit and a fifty-cents-an-hour rate got a bag filled with newspapers, and they went off together happily to the hotel. When they were through they returned the bag and got the deposit back.

Which brings up what Calvin – of Calvin and Hobbes – had to say on the matter:

See also On “expressio unius,” which discussed the concept of gaming the system, otherwise known as “manipulating the system for a desired outcome.” (At which Americans seem adept.)

And finally, getting back to Harry Golden’s “fine sense of irony.”

On page 218 of You’re entitle’, Harry noted a telling anomaly. (Again, in 1962):

In the emergency room of the Alachua General Hospital at Gainesville, Florida, there are three thermometers. They stand in a row on a small shelf with nothing else. The first is in an open container labeled: “WHITE – ORAL,” the third is in an identical container labeled, “COLORED – ORAL,” and the middle one, which protrudes through a cork, in its otherwise sameness, is labeled “RECTAL.”

This is what I call gradual integration.

Sometimes you don’t know whether to laugh or cry…

The upper image is courtesy of Canoe – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Re: World Publishing. See Encyclopedia of Cleveland History: WORLD PUBLISHING CO., which noted that “World” was a “major publisher of Bibles, dictionaries, and children’s and trade books.”

The Goldwater image is courtesy of Barry Goldwater – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

The Calvin cartoon is courtesy of Calvin on Obeying the Law – Debate Photo (1160519) – Fanpop.

The lower image is courtesy of wikipedia.org/wiki/Racial_segregation_in_the_United States. The caption: “An African-American man goes into the ‘colored’ entrance of a movie theater in Belzoni, Mississippi, 1939.“

The Georgia Wasp

A blog of life-reviews by an old guy who still gets a kick out of life.

Category Archives: Nostalgia reviews

On that OTHER “Teflon Don”

Remember “transcendent” meditation?

Welcome to the “Georgia Wasp…”

Be that as it may…

On spam, today’s “thorn in the side”

“The horror, the horror… Exterminate all the brutes!!”

A look back at 2015

“Here’s to Plough Monday!”

So here’s wishing you a happy, healthy and prosperous 2016 in advance!

A late-fall mountain trek…

Alice’s Restaurant – Revisited

A Mid-summer Travelog – Part III

So much for learning from history…

The mysterious death of Ashley Wilkes

On rectal thermometers and “you’re entitle'”

Sometimes you don’t know whether to laugh or cry…