Takin' It to the Streets

“Take this message to my brother
You will find him everywhere
Wherever people live together
Tied in poverty’s despair.”
“Takin’ It to the Streets,” Doobie Brothers

“Takin’ It to the Streets” is a Sixties reader that Nicole Anslover used in her class and also the name of the 1976 Doobie Brothers album as well as the song. During the chorus are lines such as “no more need for runnin’” and “no more need for hidin’.” Steve Martin, my favorite Seventies comedian, was a riot singing about “funky King Tut.” Unfortunately Egyptian treasures of antiquity are in peril due to turmoil near the Cairo Museum. So far two mummies have been destroyed and looters have broken into at least ten display cases. Shades of Baghdad after the Americans invaded. Rioting in the street has been a daily occurrence for the past week. Crowds are demanding the ouster of 82 year-old Hosni Mubarak, who has been in power since the assassination of Anwar Sadat in 1981. Students were the first to take to the streets, but Muslim groups are trying to take charge of the protests. The U.S. has given billions to Mubarak’s government, much of it probably ending up in a Swiss bank account. The unrest started in Tunisia, whose president was forced to resign, and has spread to other Middle East nations such as Jordan. Young people have communicated via Twitter and the Internet.

“Smithsonian” magazine has an article about the reissuing of Samuel Eliot Morison epic naval history of WW II. He spent three years aboard ships to capture firsthand the tribulations and exhilaration of battle. Previously he had sailed routes Columbus had taken 460 years before in researching “Admiral of the Ocean Sea.” The article mentioned that he believed historians should write for the masses, not just each other but that his famous textbook co-authored by Henry Steele Commager, was demeaning toward African Americans, at least in the early editions. Here’s how Morison explained the significance of the Battle of Leyte Gulf, which basically rendered battleships obsolete: “When ‘Mississippi’ discharged her twelve 14-inch guns at ‘Yamashiro’ at a range of 19,790 yards, at 0408 October 25, 1944, she was not only giving that battleship the coup de grace, but firing a funeral salute to a finished era of naval warfare. One can imagine the ghosts of all great admirals from Raleigh to Jellicoe standing at attention as the Battle Line went into oblivion, along with the Greek phalanx, the Spanish wall of pikemen, the English longbow and the row-galley tactics of Salamis and Lepanto.”

Had lousy luck in bridge Saturday night but won all five games Sunday morning thanks to an astounding run of luck and (in Stone Age at least) Tom and Dave underestimating my chances. We didn’t play Egizia fortunately, yet another ancient Egyptian board game where players build monuments requested by the pharaoh, but Tom let me take it home to study. Dave’s softball captain stopped by to give him a shirt commemorating their championship season last summer. Coincidentally I was wearing an Eagles shirt with “Doc” and the number 55 on the back, my age during the 1997 season. IU gave slumping Michigan State a fight before losing by a single point. Students and cheerleaders had signs and pictures honoring gymnast Kathryn Mahoney, who fractured a cervical vertebra while vaulting in practice last month, leaving her paralyzed from the neck down. What a horrible thing.

Alissa broke her leg while playing soccer. A guy twice her sixe stepped on her. Her boyfriend Josh took her to the ER. Toni is going to Michigan with food, pajamas, and other things for her. Alissa will need surgery Thursday. She had been all set to get her own apartment. Miranda put a photo of the foot on Facebook. Alissa’s spirits are good, but she refers to herself as disabled.

Book contract from IU Press arrived in the mail for Sheriff Dominguez and me to sign. I finished making the changes he requested and added paragraphs about the “Honeybee Killer” from our interview last week. Gunman Gary Amaya shot several people in both Illinois and Indiana after asking his victims if they knew anything about caring for honeybees. He was later shot and killed while attempting to rob a tanning salon. In a note Roy called me a good man and a godsend, adding: “None of this would have been possible without your guidance and awesome patience.” Nice.

Former student Kass Stone, now living in London because of his girlfriend and working as a tutor, reports: “I have written a book, “A Zen master in Oz.” It does not purport to be a text on the Dharma or anything. I just had a dream at a Zen retreat once about a Zen master in the Emerald City. It's silly fun with bits of insight as far as somebody this early in my practice can provide it. A Zen master falls through a closet and ends up in Oz. Princess Ozma is in a deep depression and as a result a kind of dissatisfaction has spread amongst the Ozites. An egomanical, right-wing, Munchkin radio host has fostered an anti-Ozma uprising that threatens to destroy Oz. How can the Zen master help? The answer can only be found in the book, which would have been released about a year go through a small publisher with illustrations by popular Oz artist Dennis Anfuso. Financial difficulties arose so I chose the Kindle route in order to get the story out there and maybe generate interest in a slick, fully illustrated paper version.”

Traded anecdotes at lunch with George Bodmer about locking keys in your car (it happened to me twice in six months ten years ago) and not being able to recall where you parked your car. Once he was late for a talk at DePaul and had to walk in concentric circles in the pouring rain before he found the vehicle. The key to life, Kurt Vonnegut taught us, is to become an old geezer gracefully. I’ve tried to learn from older mentors like Tom Higgins and Carroll Vertrees, who are still writing.