Leap Year

“Oh Bobby, Bobby
Where can you be?”
“The Ballad of Bobby Fischer,” Micah Ellison

The HBO documentary “Bobby Fischer against the World” was deeply disturbing. His absentee mother was a communist activist hounded by the FBI, and the chess prodigy who became world champion in 1972 by defeating Russian grandmaster Boris Spassky was a full-fledged nut case by the end of his life. He almost pulled out of the 24-game championship, quit when at the top of his game, disappeared from public view for decades at a time, and ended up an anti-Semitic conspiracy nut living in exile in Iceland, scene of his triumph over Spassky, who crowed that America got what it deserved on 9/11. Other chess champions developed psychological problems, including nineteenth century American genius Paul Morphy. As the final credits ran, on came Micah Ellison singing “The Ballad of Bobby Fischer.”

The teachers tournament Final Jeopardy category was The 1960s.
The question had to do with a 1967 appointment that LBJ called the right person at the right time in history. Easy, Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall. Only one contestant got it right. They did better on the “Human Body” category, so they must not have taught history. Let’s hope not.

Dave and Angie’s cockatiel Razz and parrot Olive died suddenly, apparently of Teflon poisoning. The grief-stricken family held a burial service at Angie’s grandparents’ farm in South Haven.

Mitch Lenyo, a law student at IU, described his first year as “a serious kick in the ass.” He wondered when I decided law was not for me. I advised him to get through the year. If he moves to Hawaii (his reoccurring fantasy) a law degree would be good to have in hand.

Four famous people born on February 29 were bandleader Jimmy Dorsey (1904), singer Dinah Shore (1916), stripper Tempest Storm (1928), and rapper Ja Rule (1976). Leap year coincides with Presidential elections, and Mitt Romney took a step closer to the Republican nomination by eking out a victory in his home state of Michigan against Rick Santorum. The former Pennsylvania Senator self-destructed with stupid comments about Obama being a snob for wanting everyone to have an opportunity for higher education and JFK’s 1960 comments about the separation of church and state making him gag.

In 1948 a neighbor kid warned that if Dewey beat Truman, my dad would lose his job. My life prior to the family moving from Easton to Fort Washington in 1950 is basically a blur except for a few images, such as: being forced to take cod liver oil at breakfast with Spike Jones on the radio; watching a snowy TV at Bradford’s; the trauma of being dropped off at a party where I knew nobody; walking into a room and seeing my friend’s mother naked; almost falling out of a moving car when I inadvertently opened the passenger door; playing a game where my brother and I tried to kick stuffed animals past each other; seeing my dad play donkey softball where he rode on said animal.

Maine Republican Senator Olympia Snowe won’t run for re-election because of the polarized climate caused by rightwing partisans in her own party. In 1925 Will Rogers quipped: “When a gentleman quoted me on the floor of Congress the other day, another member took exception and said he objected to the remarks of a professional joke maker going into the Congressional record. Now can you beat that for jealousy among people in the same line?”

As Subway’s February five-dollar sale was coming to an end, I bought a roast beef 12-inch (half for lunch today, half for tomorrow) and they threw in a free cookie. The temperature reached 59 and shoots of plants are starting to come up at school. Students were walking across campus in t-shirt and in a few cases shorts. The demolition of Tamarack Hall is underway. The coup de grace was the 2008 flood. Once the only building on campus, it was where my office was during my entire teaching career.

Anne Frank doubted that anyone would be interested in her “unbosomings” or unburdenings but wrote because she had no real friend. Similarly Anaïs Nin called her journal “the only steadfast friend I have, the only one which makes my life bearable because my happiness with human beings is so precarious.”

The NY Times Sunday crossword puzzle asked “half of a 1960s pop group” (Mamas) and “they can help worriers” (beads). Responding to an article on the war in Afghanistan, Vietnam helicopter pilot Rod Carlson wrote: “Soon the marines will leave Afghanistan, but that won’t end the war, not for those who did the fighting. For them it will rage on with nightmare firefights, daytime flashbacks of explosions and screams, with pain that never fades and wounds that never fully heal. Some will suffer through sad holidays unable to forget those deprived of yet another year. A country can walk away from a war, but those who fought it cannot. For them it never ends.” President Obama is holding a state dinner for 200 Iraq vets from all 50 states. Some nitpickers want a more inclusive event.

The Engineers won just one game against a team called Harry Richards, who last week gave me the Déjà vu t-shirt. I wore it at their insistence and posed for pictures with David and Johnny. The front had the gentleman’s club logo of two legs with alluring stockings while the back featured babes in bikinis and the words “have a beachin’ good time.” A lane over from us Nick Dedonna rolled a 299, leaving the ten-pin on a perfect hit on his final ball. Home to watch Derrick Rose and the Bulls win a close one against San Antonio, coached by Region native Gregg Popovich. Letterman has a great bit of Chris Christie appearing to pull up his shirt, revealing a morbidly obese upper body.

Monkees singer Davy Jones died at age 66 of a sudden heart attack. I was never into his group, but they were really big in 1967 after their TV show about a band similar to the Beatles was a smash. Last year they played in Merrillville, and admittedly “I’m a Believer” and “Daydream Believer” were catchy tunes.