Words To Live By

     And in the end

     The love you take

     Is equal to the love you make

Women's Suffrage in the United States

      The one hundred year anniversary of women receiving the right to vote is August 18th 2020. It marks progress in our society just like abolishing Slavery and outlawing Child Labor. We need a holiday in August and this would be my choice. 

      June 19th has been proposed as a holiday to commemorate the end of Slavery. This year marks the 155th anniversary of that day.

     Maybe we could begin by allowing people to take the either Women's Suffrage day or Juneteenth off without pay. Or put it in a pool of paid holidays and allow people to make the choice at the beginning of each year just like we do with health insurance plans. With remote work being the new normal it might make sense to allow people to work when they want and making it part of business planning. Not everyone drinks on New Year's Eve or even goes out. They could plan to work on January 1st and take another day as a holiday. 

     We are growing less similar in our interests and cultures. This might be a way of creating a new work culture that takes into consideration what workers find most important. One holiday is just as valid as another.

     As long as the element of planning remains it would be a plus for everyone. Times have changed. We all don't shop on the day after Thanksgiving. The added flexibility in my opinion would be viewed as an important perk.

Try A Little Tenderness

      Social distancing is hard. I won't offer any comparative analysis to previous troubled times as this is what we have now and we don't know when it will end. Everything we can compare it to has ended and been categorized and analyzed. This Covid-19 pandemic looks endless.

     Like the last pandemic 100 years ago the suffering is being felt disproportionately by people at the lower end of the economic scale, who can't work at home, don't have savings, and can't afford not to risk their lives going to work.

     I am sure there will come a time when we will be able to laugh together, hug one another, and generally be able to have a good time in a large group. No guarantees about when this might be and if I will be able to partake. I take nothing for granted these days and my optimistic nature has been severely chastened. I'm going to keep taking things one day at a time and when the mood supports it, "I'll try a little bit of tenderness."

 

Absentee Ballots

      I downloaded the application for an absentee ballot today. I filled it out and mailed it to another part of Queens, when in due course I will be sent a ballot for the upcoming General Election. I have never voted absentee before and the school where I vote is a short walk away. 

     Covid changed my mind about waiting on line and voting in person this year. School are used as polling places and they were never designed with social distancing in mind, which is fine in normal times. Too bad these are not normal times. If these were anything close to normal times we wouldn't all be worrying about viruses without cures or a feckless president threatening to de-fund the Post Office.

Arthur Ashe

     "Arthur Ashe was dying of AIDS. This was in the early 1990s. And he told an interviewer that being black was harder than having AIDS." This story is told by my pal the music critic and editor of the National Review, Jay Nordlinger: https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/the-heaviest-burden/

 

 

     Mr Ashe called being black the heaviest burden he had, not his heart attack or contracting AIDs long before medicine caught up to it.

     When I used to watch Tennis on TV in the 1970s it was a sport played by gentlemen and women. They were required to wear white, though I now appreciate the current trends toward individual sports wear. They didn't try to "game" the refs by stopping a match to question calls, or like those who came after Arthur Ashe, to berate the refs with foul language. There wasn't as much money at stake and coincidentally there were far fewer commercials. Yes, the sport was largely segregated and the women earned less money than men. No era is perfect and this time I fondly recall was far from it. 

     In my mind what I liked about watching the tennis matches was the old school nature of the contest: Wooden rackets and quickly played matches. But I can also recall rooting for Arthur Ashe to win. Not that he needed my help, he was an extraordinary tennis player who matches up well with the all-time greats of any era. It felt appropriate to cheer for Arthur Ashe. He was playing for everyone and his victories meant one more nail in the coffin or racism in America. He didn't call it that though I imagine he thought it sometimes.

RHS Hybrid Approach to Opening Schools

      I sent Tim Monahan this note after he posted an update on LinkedIn regarding the re-opening of schools in September. Here is the original post: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/assessment-remote-teaching-arena-timothy-b-monahan/?trackingId=Pi56zc7MSVqTTr9maTN0%2Fw%3D%3D

     

     Tim, Thank you for the update! You and your fellow teachers are working in a brand new world. Your challenges are immense and I hope that everyone in the RHS community understands the pressures both teachers and students are working under.

     If we had the wherewithal, I would suggest asking for 3-5 minute videos from RHS alumni to help supplement classroom materials. No teacher would be obligated to use them but they might contain a nugget or two worth sharing.

     Might be something to bring up to the RHS Alumni Association. Quite a few subject matter experts are now working from home, out-of-work, retired, or otherwise have time on their hands. They might welcome the opportunity to contribute to their alma mater.

    #LovingKindness

Crowded Hallways

      This picture was all too true when I was growing up.

     When the subject of opening up schools is raised I have to admit I see the reasons why we have to do it. Children need to socialize with their peers, they need to be instructed in person, and they have to learn the difference between right and wrong. 

     I also look at this picture and see why we can't. Crowded hallways are a certainty, unless we create doors going outside for every classroom on every floor of a school.

     The scene below is repeated at least 10 times a day at a high school. A couple of minutes each time the bell rings to prompt students to got to their next class. It starts to add up when you figure the exposure in a single week. And when you are trying to contain the spread of an infectious disease like Covid-19, this is counter productive.

     When need a serious reset of expectations regarding when it will be safe for teachers and students to return to classrooms.

     When need a serious effort to provide Internet access to all students. The Internet is a utility just like water. We cannot live without it, let alone try to educate our young people. 

     These are huge changes I am proposing, but I don't see any other way. Until we have a vaccine for Covid-19 that a majority of people will take, it does not appear we have much choice other than to social distance. It would be much easier to provide Internet access. Fortunately, 5G speeds exist and would do a great service if everyone had access to equipment and the bandwidth. We have encountered problems like this before if you recall World War II. America was able to muster the resources and build the equipment we needed. Can we do it again?

Make Lying Wrong Again

      Children lie. We expect it because they are afraid of what would happen if they uttered the truth.

     Adults lie. This we don't expect and it unsettles us no end when we discover that we have been lied to. Not the little white lies like, "I am running late" when the fact is we have over slept. The disturbing lies are those which are corroborated by others and thus made more hurtful.

     I remember organizing a high school reunion and group of my classmates decided to have a "free" party for 60 to 100 invited guests. I had put a lot of time into organizing the event, along with a committee of volunteers working in the Cloud. We used Social Media before it had become a dirty word and expected a great turnout by our classmates.

     Sad to say that other classmates with less lofty ambitions also noticed all our work.  Their plan was clever in that they timed their party so it would roughly end when the actual reunion was set to begin. Unfortunately, many of the invitees got so drunk on the "free" food and drink they were either late or didn't show. The smart ones only bought one ticket and left me wondering if they had recently gotten a divorce. 

      The not so amusing feature of the story was I could tell something was wrong by the names of those electing not to come or cancelling at the last minute. I was a restaurateur for a long time so I was very familiar with reservation patterns. I figured it out for certain on the day before the party. I decided on the spot not to mention it to anyone.

      You might ask yourself like I did, "Why would they do such a thing?" and lie to my face about it? The best answer I could ever come up with was, "They did it because they could." It likely didn't cost anything because the hosts were rich and could easily bury it somewhere in their taxes as a business expense.

      You might also ask yourself , "Why is he writing about it now?" The answer is simply because I can. I also don't every want to seeing lying on such as epic scale again. It's bad enough our Federal Government has been corrupted to no end. No need for it to trickle down to the local level. It will be at the local level we will begin to rebuild our economy. It will initially take thousands of people trusting one another. The thousands of transactions and network connections will have to grow into millions before we start to feel good about ourselves again. This is all predicated on our not lying to ourselves or to our friends and neighbors. It might be too late to rectify the damage from eight summers ago. The instigators a long time ago moved into hiding behind their gated communities. Maybe someday they might feel some remorse and try to make amends. All I can offer is the words of Dr. Martin Luther King:

     The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.

 

TikTok

     The president of these United States wants to shut down TikTok. TikTok is a community. Of youngsters. It is loaded with people who don't like the current president. Not sure shutting it down will change any minds. Not sure letting Microsoft buy it will achieve his goal of silencing dissent.

     TikTok/Douyin is a Chinese video-sharing social networking service owned by ByteDance, a Beijing-based Internet technology company founded in 2012 by Zhang Yiming. It is used to create short dance, lip-sync, comedy and talent videos. ByteDance first launched Douyin for the Chinese market in September 2016.Wikipedia

     https://www.tiktok.com/

     The clips I've seen on TikTok are short and sometimes very witty. I see no reason to close the service in the vain attempt to make the president look better. That is impossible. He has committed enough atrocious acts for one lifetime and it will take years to undo the damage. Leave the kids alone.

Jury Duty

     I have served my fair share of jury duty in my life. It is interesting to see the machinations of justice from the jury room, even if you are mostly watching movies. Today the Federal Court in Brooklyn sent me a summons. This time I had to pause and ask myself if this was a good idea.

    My household has been inside since the beginning of March. We work from home, wear masks in public, and socially distance. This is nowhere near the sacrifice that previous generations of Americans have endured. It hasn't been easy, there have been misunderstandings to be sure.

     To make a long story short, I filled out the jury questionnaire online. At the end of the form there was a box for remarks. I used it state that I was afraid, yes afraid, of bringing the virus home to my immune-compromised spouse. No idea if this will matter or if I'll be chosen, but at least I have said my peace.

George Washington Junior High School circa 1960s

     This is how I remember GW. It was before a group of citizens, including my father and many of his friends and neighbors bought the land across the street and created Citizen's Park. There was a stone placed around 1970 in the driveway with a plaque which contains the names of all the donors.

     As of late there has been quite a bit of building at GW, and at all the schools in the Ridgewood Public School system. With all this building they had to eliminate Home Economics, Wood Shop, Electrical Shop, and Body Shop. Who knew these pedestrian skills would come back into vogue during the pandemic of the 21st century? I wasn't much for Wood or Body shop but I did develop an interest in cooking that has come in very handy through the years.

     Given my way I would close all the computer labs and bring back some of the trades that used to be taught. I am not a Luddite by any means. I just believe we have enough computers and the Ridgewood school system doesn't need to be providing them. Students can use their own and the ones that are in the library. The computer labs are overkill, unless they are tied to trades which can be used to rebuild America's infrastructure. I don't believe we need to teach to the test anymore, or teach so that students can go to college. College is an expensive frill for an eighteen year old, that more often than not buries students under a pile of debt. I am all for gap years where high school graduates travel, work in the Peace Corps, or learn a trade. There will be nothing special about attending a residential college for quite a few years. In the meantime, learn something about a topic you will use the rest of your life or at least during your first career. My first career as a restaurateur didn't earn me much cash but it did teach me a lot about people and how to operate, organize and lead a kitchen.

Good Trouble

GDP and More Important Tools

     I'm not a big fan of GDP or Gross Domestic Product. Today we have a chart which accounts for all the ups and downs we have seen in GDP in my lifetime. Not that it is news to anyone with a pulse but we just experienced a quarter where the GDP dropped 32%. This number actually needs another number for it to make sense. But since the drop is so huge we don't really have a single number to compare it with. Let's just look at the graph and say this is the worst we will ever see. We can only go up from here.

     When I saw the previous quarter's drop I recalled "Paul's Law" in my mind. It stated you can't fall off the floor, but you can fall through it! I believe we have fallen through the floor and hit rock bottom. I have no corollaries to Paul's Law so we can all be spared the expense of me ever writing again about how bad things are.

     I'm using this down time to remind people of the many tools we have at our disposal for re-igniting our economy and making this dumb, imprecise indicator go up again. Yes, to raise our animal spirits so we can go about the business of buying and selling things.

     These tools are household names and can be downloaded for virtually nothing from the Internet. They include Zoom, Slack, Trello, and a huge list by Jeremy Caplan which he calls his WonderTools 2020

https://bit.ly/wondertools

       The list has over 100+ tools which you can no doubt use in many creative ways.

Please Cancel All Sports

     As much as I enjoy engaging in and watching sports, the time has come to close them down. The testing equipment can be used in more productive ways.

     The news out of Miami, Florida is that the Miami Marlin baseball team "will temporarily take a break as 15 players — half their active roster — and two coaches tested positive for coronavirus over the past few days."

     I'm willing to face facts that the games being played with no fans are of little interest to me. Plus, every time I see players without masks I cringe. They are young and simply don't understand what it could mean to their lives, let alone their careers, if they got sick. Time for adults to make the correct decision and send everyone home until it is safe.

A Glimmer Of Hope

     Our economic and political systems are not working for the majority of people in this country. This is different from when I was growing up in the 1960s and 1970s. It was much clearer then what was wrong and more importantly what we could do to fix our problems. People protested. Protests and the ensuing media coverage helped to end the war in Vietnam, and to create The Great Society. I wish today we only had these as our main goals those of The Great Society: ending poverty, reducing crime, abolishing inequality and improving the environment (think Earth Day). Sounds pretty easy when you consider how Covid-19 has ravaged the world and shown us far we have to go to protect one another.

      Protests back in the day gave us hope that we could make the world a better place.

     Today our problems are much bigger. Fortunately, people are protesting. The protests are holding our attention to horrific images like the cop kneeling on a Black man's neck while staring into the camera of a smartphone. The protests are energizing people across all age groups. Some have never protested anything before, others haven't done it in a long time. I'm just glad to see them all out and giving voice to their feelings. I wish they wouldn't burn things like police cars, but there are bad apples in every group.

     The protests show me we have a glimmer of hope. Because in the end we have nothing left to lose if we give up calling attention to what's wrong with the world

Scott Galloway

     With a single report Professor Scott Galloway of Columbia University succeeded in temporarily breaking the Internet. Not literally, only by the interest his spreadsheet and info graphic generated. The huge amount of traffic was generated, quite rightly, by all 436 of the academic institutions he and a legion of graduate students had rated as to whether they would financially survive the current Pandemic.

     When I saw my alma mater among the group which will perish I was not surprised. $300,000 for a 4 year residential Liberal Arts college is quite an investment and since they run it like a business I felt no sympathy at all. I have fond memories from 40 years ago but a lot has changed, not just the price. They committed the usual sins of raising tuition faster than the rate of inflation, hiring too many administrators, and building more science buildings than they could support. On the last point, the old saying was language students supported the science students because they cost less to graduate by virtue of being able to teach them languages in any setting. The science students needed costly buildings which were always in need of being upgraded with new scientific equipment. It was necessary to "Keep Up With The Jones" or risk being seen as a less than stellar place to study organic chemistry.

     The chart is here

     The spreadsheet is here

     The six minute explanation is here

Protesting Now And Then

      Well the protests in Portland, Oregon are certainly going to continue, with or without anonymous Federal troops to try and maintain order. I suggest this because their movement just went viral on the Internet with a single photo:

     I am told it is legal in Portland to appear nude in public as part of a protest is a protected form of political expression, it's not an act of public indecency as you might think. She was only wearing a mask and a hat. She appeared from out of the haze of tear gas and pepper balls, much to the surprise of the occupying troops. In all, the woman’s appearance lasted about 15 minutes. News photographers said she slipped away, uninjured, into the crowd.

     I've written previously about the Kent State protests which ended so badly 50 years ago. Today's images are just as startling as the image below of a girl kneeling over one of her fallen classmates. Now we have color images and video, a lot more than when I was growing up. History doesn't repeat itself exactly but it does rhyme. Don't know who said it but it seems apropos today.

    

    

The Long View

    

John Lewis, congressman and civil-rights legend, never lost hope.

      “Be Brave, Bold & Courageous”

       My friend Stephanie Jones knew him and eulogized him in this way:

      "John Lewis was one of our rare angels flying low. He showed us how to move gently and fiercely through this world and how to bend the arc of the moral universe toward justice.

     Now he's flown away to that land where joy shall never end. Rest in peace, dear sweet good brave man."

      John Lewis who began building his legacy as a young when he was knocked unconscious while peacefully protesting. He continued adding to this legacy by serving as a Congressman and Civil Rights leader. The entire time he never lost hope or would allow those around him to do so.

     He is gone now and we all must gather our wits about us. Remember the words of Kipling:

If …

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream – and not make dreams your master;
If you can think – and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;

If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with wornout tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings – nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;

If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run –
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And – which is more – you’ll be a Man my son!

Beauty In All Colors

     Guest post by RHS graduate Mishti (Vidushi) Sharma

     Beauty in All Colors:

https://maildropbymishti.substack.com/p/beauty-in-all-colors?r=2jjgf&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&utm_source=facebook

RHS Graduation 2020

     I really like the current RHS Principal Thomas Gorman. He grew up on the west side of town like me and graduated from RHS. He has been a staunch supporter and Trustee of the RHS Alumni Association from its inception. My admiration for teachers and administrators knows no bounds because it is a very difficult job, even in a wealthy school district like Ridgewood.

     Now tell what is wrong with this photo taken on July 8th during the RHS 2020 Graduation Ceremony:

     You are observant if you ask, "Where is his mask? How about some gloves? Not the example you want to be setting during a pandemic. I can also tell you that many of the graduates in the ceremony were not wearing masks. I know it was hot and the artificial turf of the football field probably made it feel like over 100 degrees. But wear a mask. #LovingKindness

Haircuts

      We used to go to barbershops in Hohokus for our haircuts because it was closer than downtown Ridgewood. First it was Ray's Barbershop next to the Hohokus brook. This later became Joe's. When the old building was renovated and became office space I started going to Dominic and Pietro. They are still in business and are a barber studio, as opposed to a barbershop.

     I mention all this because I just had my first haircut in four months. The barber came to our house and we let him ply his trade in our garden. It was my first ever outdoors haircut. I told him this could become a trend and that forward thinking shopping malls could use their open spaces for cutting and styling hair. Not so sure it will save any shopping malls but it could be part of a new master plan. Imagine Doctor's offices, therapists for the mind and body, and anything else which can't be ordered over the Internet or accomplished via telehealth.

     The shopping mall as we know it is long overdue for a complete renovation and the introduction of some new ideas. The small stores have to give way for social distancing. Though the department stores which anchor the malls do have potential for other uses. It's worth some brainstorming because to tear all the shopping malls down would be costly and ruinous to the local tax base. Perhaps converting some of the parking lots into alfresco dining would be a seasonal option and ready-to-make meals ordered in advance and delivered to people in their cars could help re-invent the food courts.

     I'm all for some new thinking so I don't have worry about getting my next haircut outside in the rain or snow. A pop-up barbershop in the empty parking lot of a mall works for me. Ten chairs and no waiting in line. Need a new generation of portable bathrooms to keep everyone happy but they are easy enough to imagine. It will all be part of a huge period of reflection in this country and other developed nations. The old ways will have to be altered so people can get back to work and even more importantly so children can go back to school. We have to do it all while keeping public health as our top concern.

The Internet

    

     How do we deal with the effects of the Internet?

     I helped build it over the last 25 years with thousands of other people by installing routers in offices which connected networks large and small via telephone lines. We started before broadband was being offered by cable television companies and The Cloud simplified and automated the once crude process of connecting to the Internet. I used to my tell the customers who were curious as to what we were doing that I believed that the Internet would bring people together. Now I believe the truth is that the Internet drives us further apart!

      That's the question of our age.

     Our classrooms were heading in this divisive direction even before the pandemic, with each student in their own virtual space as well as going to brick and mortar buildings. Online learning was a fact of life as homework assignments and teacher conferences could be done anytime and anywhere. This was both a convenience and a necessity as both parents had to leave the home for work to make ends meet.

     Now in July 2020 we have the added uncertainty of whether to send children back to school buildings on a regular basis. We all know them to be germ factories in the best of times, but the Covid-19 virus makes this an even more chilling prospect. The younger the children the more concern we have to have as they need direction, unlike most teenagers and college students who prefer to figure things out on their own. My only suggestion is that we need to first admit our mistake, that we opened too soon. Then we need to do a better job of testing and tracing the people who are infected. All concerned need to do a better job with online learning, parents, students, teachers, and administrators. It would also be very helpful to have our federal government leading, instead of telling the states to figure things out on their own. We don't tell states to determine their own standards for bridges and highways, why would ever think that the health of our country would be any different? We are these United States of America and we have to assert our belief that we are stronger and healthier when we work together, rather than when we compete with one another and attempt to divide the benefits. My two cents. Peace.

Modern Elders

      There is an seen the African proverb: “When an elder dies, it’s like a library burns down.”

      Here’s a passage by Dr. Bill Thomas that amplifies this point of view:
 

“After a person has productively lived his or her life as an adult in the community, he or she is honored by a second initiation (with different ceremonies) into the Elder circle. This usually happens around the age of sixty-five. These Elders, now masters of the school of life, have the responsibility of facilitating the transition from childhood to adulthood of new generations. They are responsible for and oversee the process of initiation. The idea of Elders as ‘library’ also reveals the fact that only the Elders have full access to the tribe’s knowledge base. The Elders safeguard the highest secrets of the tribe and protect its medicine and inner technologies. They incarnate the wisdom of the society, which they happily share often in the form of storytelling. In the community, the older you are the more respect you receive. One of the reasons for this practice is the fact that age brings you closer to the ancestors who are themselves ‘canonized’ and seen as intermediaries between the divine beings and us.”

https://drbillthomas.org/

Why We Need To Wear Masks

     My profound apologies for not having a better example, particularly for women. Though everyone can get the point. Please remember that it was Shakespeare who coined the phrase: brevity is the soul of wit.

Sports Do Not Matter, People Do!

     With all the discussion about sports these days and whether we ought to be doing any of them, my position is clear: Sports do not matter, people do. Please just give it a rest and let's work together to contain Covid-19. There is nothing more important we can do at this moment.

     It will be viewed I predict as a tremendous waste of time and energy to resume playing sports (Professional, Amateur, and Casual) in the near future. This will hold true until we no longer live in fear of contracting a virus with no known cure.

     There is no amount of money that will prove me wrong on this point. If the leagues take the money and put people's lives on the line before it is generally agreed to be safe, then it will be on their shoulders to bear the responsibility.

     Fortunately, the overwhelming amount of evidence is going to decide this very soon. There will be no sports until at least April of 2021. Get used to it. Get over it.

    

Silver Linings

     I had to reprint this post from my RHS 1977 classmate Cindy Myer. It's from her Moving Moments blog:

    

      "I just feel I need to mention this before starting this months blog. June 11th 2020, marked the 15^th year that my husband Robert passed away and I began a new career….running Ridgewood Moving. At the time I had a choice, and I chose to try to run a company and move forward. My daughters Melissa and Samantha were 14 and 16 and I needed to show them that we would be ok. It certainly has not been easy, especially in the beginning but life teaches us many lessons, shines a light on opportunities and I believe in silver linings…."

    

Older Dogs

     Older dogs teach you patience. Blind older dogs teach you empathy. Diabetic, blind older dogs teach you how to administer insulin to another living creature.

      This is Angus our 14 year old rescue dog. He's been diabetic for four years and blind for about the last two years. He comes to me regularly when he needs to go outside. This can sometimes be in the middle of the night, though usually not when it is raining.

     Dogs do not react too much to the loss of eyesight. Yes, I know it probably bothers him but he just carries on and wants to be around us. Stoic is the word I would use to describe him. All our neighbors marvel at him when we walk by their houses. The neighborhood dogs bark their greetings as soon as the see him. One day another 14 year old dog saw him and got up to give him a sniff. This particular dog had been having trouble with her back legs, but the sight of an old friend give her the impetus to rise and greet Angus. I don't believe we can assign too many feelings to dogs. They are too good for words. Or as Mark Twain once said:

     "Heaven goes by favor; if it went by merit, you would stay out and your dog would go in."

Pictures of Older Adults

     It's hard to find pictures of older adults. The one below is from a 1935 collection sponsored by the Farm Security Agency and entitled, "Eternal Love."

     A site called Photocrowd has plenty more.

     Why would anyone authorize a federal government agency to take pictures of people during a Depression, not too unlike our current one? Probably so future generations could see that even in the worst of times, people can retain a sense of dignity and compassion.

     Government does not have all the cost-effective answers to society's problems. Business does not have all the profitable solutions either. It takes a balance and sometimes you don't find out until well after the fact.

A Guide For Athletes

      When I was growing up I was a student-athlete. Athletics and competition were true passions of mine, though I'm glad the student prefix came before the athlete. I watched and read about so many retirements of athletes that it always made me wonder what I would do when the inevitable presented itself. I was lucky to have numerous sports to retire from that when I reached the end of the road it was clear. I'm still a ping-pong player and horseshoe thrower but the days of team activities are pretty much behind me.

     Baseball is my favorite sport. Probably because if someone from the 19th century were taken to Yankee Stadium they would be able to recognize the game and follow along with ease. I also like the game because it has so many variations: hardball, softball, stickball, and wiffleball to name a few. Each and every game begins with a discussion of the rules. What is fair and foul, the number of balls and strikes, and the style of pitching which will be allowed (overhand, underhand, or lobbed). These discussions regarding rules also included deciding who plays what position and for which team. This taught us all the basics of fairness as nobody wanted to be on a losing team.

     I stopped playing hardball at fourteen. During my last game I committed two errors in one inning in the outfield. Then I was the lead off batter in the next inning. Our coach had given us some basic signs so after drawing a walk I took a look at him and noticed the steal sign was on. On the first pitch I was off and made it to second safely standing up. No sooner had I dusted myself off I looked over at the coach and the steal sign was on again. I went on the first pitch and made it to third standing up safely. The small crowd in attendance started cheering me as I tried to get my breath back. I looked at the coach and I'd like to write that the steal sign was on again, but it wasn't. People actually wanted me to steal home! On the first pitch I took a huge lead and faked going home. This created some real drama on the field and off of it. Fortunately, the first pitch was hit for a single and I scored easily. My night was over as the coach took me out immediately after I scored, in order to give everyone a chance to play. It was an all-star game, with the point being that everyone was pretty good. This was fine with me as I had no desire to return to the outfield and greeted the coach's decision with a thumbs up.

     My guidance to athletes is to try and feel a goodbye before it becomes apparent to you and everyone else. Enjoy the feeling of the adrenaline rushing through your veins before and after each and every event. Win or lose your last game will be memorable, try to be aware of this feeling. Most importantly, you must anticipate the loss of something that defines you. There will be a sense of something missing for a while, but it eventually will occur to you that stopping was all for the best. It was something you did and something you can endure no longer. Sports are a metaphor, so be happy for all the clarity about Life that they give you. The time you spent doing them was not wasted. Bottom line is that we need to replace these activities with something else, hopefully it will be less taxing on your body and just as rejuvenating for your mind. Consider your options and stick with your decision. There are plenty of people to take your place. If you aren't capable of being a coach or mentor, then simply do what I do now and just watch. Cheer if something good happens, but don't ever boo or make a snide remark to an athlete. They are doing what they love and might be trying at that moment to feel their own goodbye to the game. Make it easy for them.

    

    

Langston Hughes

     A wee bit of poetry to welcome in the Summer Solstice and to honor what I hope will become a new national holiday: Juneteenth Day

My People

by Langston Hughes

Dream-singers,
Story-tellers,
Dancers,
Loud laughers in the hands of Fate—
           My People.
Dish-washers,
Elevator-boys,
Ladies’ maids,
Crap-shooters,
Cooks,
Waiters,
Jazzers,
Nurses of babies,
Loaders of ships,
Porters,
Hairdressers,
Comedians in vaudeville
And band-men in circuses—
Dream-singers all,
Story-tellers all.
Dancers—
God! What dancers!
Singers—
God! What singers!
Singers and dancers,
Dancers and laughers.
Laughers?
Yes, laughers….laughers…..laughers—
Loud-mouthed laughers in the hands of Fate.

UNIVAC I

    

     Today in 1951 the first UNIVAC 1 debuted.

     In 1978 at Dickinson College we had a computer room with an IBM mainframe and terminals for end users. As memory serves the scene was fairly similar to the one pictured below.

     The room had ultra air-conditioning which was great in the summer and a delight to me because my family had only recently replaced its fans for a central air-conditioner. The other special part about the room was that it was open 24 hours a day. The door had a little window and you had to appeal either verbally or visually to whomever was in the room to let you in. After a few visits it wasn't a problem to earn your status as one who saw the future and this was IT!

     I was studying the BASIC programming language in the spring of 1978. We used to write in pencil the arcane flows which would produce the examples our professor asked for. I was worried at the time that I couldn't keep up with the pace of innovation, as newer languages were being developed and proclaimed the one to know. I asked a learned professor of physics what he thought and he gave me the best advice on the subject of computer languages, which I still repeat today and receive silent nods of acceptance from people who weren't even born when he uttered the words.

     A little background: Professor T. Scott Smith had a Princeton and NASA pedigree. His other claim to fame was that his introduction to Astronomy was taken by more students than any other class at Dickinson. It wasn't because it was easy, but because he was funny as well as very informative. His advice to me was that newer computer languages would always be based upon BASIC. Every time I do a deep dive into a language now I think about the words of Professor Smith. Of course, he was right! I see those simple words I used to write in pencil like IF and THEN and wonder what I was ever concerned about. The 4 year residential Liberal Arts education is still paying dividends. It makes me sorry that it has become so expensive and now completely inaccessible to a new generation of younger students.

      T. Scott Smith first appeared in my life at the Freshman Banquet on I believe the first or second day of school in 1977. He was cordially introduced by then College President Sam Banks. The beard was only a glimmer in his mind but he did possess a fine mustache. The first thing I remember after the introduction was him getting up on the table located on a dais in the front of the cafeteria. He looked around and pulled up his pants so we could all see his socks didn't match. He then told us we would remember nothing about this day except for the fact he stood on a table and showed you his mismatched socks. There was probable some explanation as to why it didn't matter whether your socks match, but I have long since forgotten.

Mr. October

     We are finding out what it is like to live in a world without regular sporting events. I don't include the Professional Wrestling matches being staged in Florida because that is simple entertainment. And I don't include the caged Ultimate Fighting spectacles which are simply too barbaric for words.

     I am speaking about my favorite game which is baseball. It can be wiffle, soft, stick, or hard ball as the game is the same despite some tinkering with the rules. We always started a game with explanations of the rules: what was foul territory, how many outs per side, and how many strikes per batter. It ultimately came down to pitching to a batter who was always trying to hit a home run. People who complain that a rule change somehow desecrates baseball never played on some of the awful fields that we played on as kids. We had to make rules concerning puddles of mud that we collect in outfield. Did that change the name of the game? Not a bit.

     I was delighted to read a story about Reggie Jackson today. I still check the sports pages everyday even though there isn't usually much news. Today "Mr October" himself offered his perspective on our current times. He grew up Oakland, California and knows all about riots in his neighborhood. He lent his opinion which gave me some hope, kinda like he used to during his playing days:

     This is his unabridged post:

“Our Protest feels different this time.

“I could see it in the rainbow of skin colors in the crowd a couple days ago in my town at the Monterey Protest Walk.

“It pumped me up inside. Made me feel others could feel what my heart needs.

“I WAS A TEENAGER IN THE 60s. I’VE lIVED IT !

“Finally more are understanding what I’ve felt for the past 60 years. And they’re with me. Made me smile, gave me hope.

How Do We Do Our Essential Thinking?

     How we think might seem like a trivial question in these times of riots in our cities, 40 million unemployment applications, Covid-19, and bills are bills due to come. Or it might be the best question we can ask. I'm in the latter group if you are keeping score at home.

    

    

    

      Back when vinyl albums use to cost us dearly and we made purchases with all the seriousness we could muster, I came across Carole King's best seller at a garage sale. Upon inspection it was warped and

scratched from intensive use. The cover was bent and scratched, too. Album covers always made us stop and pause for a bit of reflection, even if there was no chance we were going to pay $1 for this legendary album. In this case it was just a bit far gone to include in an amateur album collection. All I could do was gaze at the image of a painfully shy artist and read the liner notes. That was enough to produce a warm feeling and to make note that if I came across some money that this was an album to own!

All songs written by Carole King except where noted.

Side 1

1. "I Feel the Earth Move" – 3:00
2. "So Far Away" – 3:55
3. "It's Too Late" (lyrics by Toni Stern) – 3:54
4. "Home Again" – 2:29
5. "Beautiful" – 3:08
6. "Way Over Yonder" – 4:49

Side 2

7. "You've Got a Friend" – 5:09
8. "Where You Lead" (lyrics by Carole King and Toni Stern) – 3:20
9. "Will You Love Me Tomorrow?" (Gerry Goffin, King) – 4:13
10. "Smackwater Jack" (Goffin, King) – 3:42
11. "Tapestry" – 3:15
12. "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman" (Goffin, King, Jerry Wexler) – 3:59

     To answer the question I posed at the beginning of this post: I like to think while listening to music. I still am fond of Class Rock but have developed a love of Classical music, especially Romantic Era composers like Beethoven. I am fortunate to have had a friend these last 12 years who is a music critic. He always receives two tickets and often takes me along. I now have seen and heard all nine of Beethoven's symphonies as well as a wide variety of old and modern classical music. My favorite venue is Carnegie Hall with Lincoln Center a distant second. I'd like to believe I could live with just classical music but then I come across the old album covers, which the artists used to spend a great deal of time considering, as did we who bought them. One glance at a cover and I can recall whether or not I owned it. This also produces warm memories which then helps me with my thinking for the rest of the day. Often one look will prompt me to open Spotify where I now have all the music in the world (almost) at my fingertips. Yes, I threw away all the albums of my youth and sold all the CDs of my late twenties and thirties. I don't miss them too much when I consider how many times I had to move them and the dust they used to collect. I will say that the images on the albums are timeless and not without their own rewards. Though sometimes we have to let go of things if we want to have time to do some essential thinking.

Coach Years

     Coach Jeff Yearing, RHS Class of 1966, became "Coach Years" long after I moved on from Ridgewood. He is a retired teacher of 39 years. Taught PE and health in the Ridgewood Public Schools. He was the Varsity soccer coach and married his high school sweetheart.

     Here is a post of his I found on FaceBook, a site I read but rarely post on these days. I share his belief that athletics can teach some very profound life lessons. How we play the game is much more important than the winning of a particular contest.

     "Thank you for your repost. In these trying times it is more important than ever to live in a world that recognizes the basic right of equality and our responsibility towards treating everyone with kindness and respect. Athletics is a great equalizer and teacher. It exposes us to the pragmatic fact that the result doesn't depend on race, ideology or sexual preference. The only thing that matters is the result and how we conduct ourselves as competitors win or loose. Many say sport is a microcosm of society. If we all could learn and embrace positive lessons it offers through good coaching, leadership and grace under pressure, I think we could help make a dent in the problems that continue to persist and are exasperated by those that choose to impose their misdirected wills upon those less able to respond. Treat others as you would have them treat you. Such a simple philosophy that so many have not grasped, been taught or practice. Be safe and keep fighting the good fight for equality, human rights and social justice.
Years."

Classic Rock, Classic Jocks

       WNEW-FM 102.7 was a cool radio station in the New York tri-state area to say you listened to or to have on when people visited or rode in your car. We knew the DJs and their time slots by heart. They worked very hard to keep their audiences interested and didn't talk down to their listeners. People like Richard Neer, Vin Scelsa, Dave Herman, Dennis Elsas, Carol Miller, Alison Steele (The Nightbird), and Pete Fornatale were prominent on the airwaves.

     These aforementioned DJs began their legendary run in the late 1960s and lasted well into the 1990s. For their last gasp they touted themselves as "Classic Rock, Classic Jocks." It was a nice way of saying they understood what their audiences wanted to hear and would listen to their suggestions. This occurred before the "bean counters" finally noticed how much DJs cost in comparison to "canned" shows and younger, less experienced disc jockeys. The numbers were too obvious to ignore, even if authenticity was thrown out the window and maximizing shareholder value made no sense in the long run. WNEW-FM owners had succumbed to what many firms have done to their own detriment: they defined short-term gain as the only thing which mattered.

     It was sad to hear their last chance to produce ratings. We had so many choices by the 1990s to select from that we forgot how our "old friends" at WNEW had inspired us and cheered us on through our adolescent years. It's easy now to see our error in judgment and how nothing can bring them back. Perhaps we'll be more forgiving to future local phenomena and make room for their easy and appealing presence in our lives. They never harped on how Classic Rock was the only type of music to listen to. DJ Jonathan Schwartz would regularly slip in Frank Sinatra on Sunday evenings. Fortunately, we were fine with this and welcomed the change of pace. I still love the albums they played and will always make time in my music listening to appreciate the music. The lyrics and harmonies still resonate with me and will no doubt last much longer than anyone might have expected back in their heyday.

Uncle Harry Ahearn

     He was the only teacher I could ever recall being given the nickname "Uncle Harry." It was if he were the kindly old uncle we loved to visit with.

He believed every student could and should get A's. He posted the Rangers(not Texas) score in the morning after every game. If they won, it was large. If they lost, it was tiny. He was also a member of the Finnigan's Wake Society and read about a third of a book every night!

Karen Rose:

He was my favorite, what a sweetheart! Bob Sullivan and I sat next to each other and talked endlessly about the Boston Bruins before class began. He was always supportive and patient, but when we got the "disapproving parent look" we knew it was time to shut up fast. He loved to "argue" about hockey with us after class though.

Laura Fleming:

My sister had him for US History Through Literature. Apparently, he used to have little ants making the comments on essays. One of his US II students came to me upset one day because Mr. Ahearn was telling them that he was a communist in class! He didn't realize it was just a "devil's advocate" technique. I felt very fortunate to become his colleague and learn a little bit from him to take with me. I think I get the prize now for spending the most time on the Constitution, something for which he was notorious! There is a scholarship in his name that one of the Mrs. Rosengrens (sorry I forget which one!) announces every year at the Senior Awards ceremony.

Etch A Sketch

     Etch A Sketch is 60 years old. It was invented by André Cassagnes of France and subsequently manufactured by the Ohio Art Company and now owned by Spin Master of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The Etch A Sketch has sold over 100 million units world wide

     On the inside surface of the glass screen is coated with aluminium powder, which is then scraped off by a movable stylus.

     I remember being shown this gadget when I was 5 or 6 years old. Anyone can make something and some people make extraordinary images. The beauty of this toy is that it allowed for all manner of creation and technical expertise. If something wasn't very good all you did was shake it and the image was gone. Calling it a toy almost does the genius of it some discredit.