Whitney

“If I should stay,
I would only be in your way.
So I’ll go, but I know
I’ll think of you every step of the way.”
“Whitney Houston, “I Will Always Love You”

Whitney Houston’s face is on the cover of virtually all the supermarket magazines and tabloids, flattering shots for “People” and “Us,” disheveled images for the scandal rags like “Globe” and “Enquirer.” She made the Dolly Parton song “I Will Always Love You” her own, and hearing it over and over in the days after she died in a hotel bathtub made one think of how unique was her talent (as Clive Davis said, a voice like that comes along once a generation). How corrosive must have been her insecurities and need for drugs that in the end killed her. New Jersey governor Chris Christie ordered flags on state buildings at half staff. The funeral at the New Hope Baptist Church in Newark had moments of grandeur (Stevie Wonder singing with the choir) and farce (ex-hubby Bobby brown storming out because of the seating arrangements). Whitney and Madonna were the female stars of MTV during the 1980s, and in those videos she was impossibly beautiful and talented. So sad she couldn’t age with grace like her mentor Aretha Franklin.

I had to limit my “Choice” review about the Kennedy administration forcing the Washington Redskins to desegregate to 190 words, so there was scant opportunity to go into detail about the disparate lives of racist owner George P. Marshall, idealistic Interior Secretary Stuart Udall, or Hall of Fame running back/wide receiver Bobby Mitchell. The Skins started out in Boston and suffered a humiliating loss to the Chicago Bears 73-0 in the 1940 championship game. Years later Washington QB Sammy Baugh suggested that his teammates didn’t play hard as a rebuke to their obnoxious owner.

Jonathyne Briggs is on a Chicago bar trivia team. My reaction time for coming up with Jeopardy answers has fallen off. Brian, Jonathyne, and Anne debated the merits of “Mockingjay,” the third book in the Suzanne Collins sci-fi trilogy aimed at young adults. A film version of volume one, “The Hunger Games,” the first book in the series, is due out soon. Chesterton’s library is all out of their four copies. I’m on the reservation list.

A “Vanity Fair” article claims “Diner” is the most influential movie of the last half-century. The 1982 comedy about high school friends reuniting at their old Baltimore hangout for a wedding inspired scores of coming-of-age movies and sitcoms like “Seinfeld” and “The Office.”

Radio host Tavis Buchan of Merrillville’s Lakeshore Station 89.1 FM discovered my blog and wants me as a guest. The NWI Times is also considering linking the blog to their website. It might be a good way to publicize Steel Shavings issues still in print.

On February 17, 1842, William H. Prescott, biographer of Ferdinand and Isabella and author of histories about the Spanish conquests of Peru and Mexico, noted: “I consume too much time on notes and on pettinesses every day. Think more of general effect and impression. Don’t quiddle nor twaddle.” Great words, quiddle (meaning to dawdle) and twaddle (idle talk or chatter). I’ve played a card game called Quiddler where you make words with letters or letter combinations (TH, CL, IN, ER, QU) in your hand.

“The Artist” was at the AMC in Michigan City, the only area theater other than Schererville where it is playing. It was basically a black-and-white silent movie set in 1927 and about an actor whose career is threatened by the advent of “talkies”. I can see why it got so many Oscar nominations, including Jean Dujardon for best actor and Berenice Bejo for supporting actress. Berenice could have qualified for best actress, but now won’t have to compete against Meryl Streep (“The Iron lady”), Viola Davis (“The Help”), and Michelle Williams (“My Week with Marilyn”).

I had almost decided not to use Jon Resh’s “Amped” in my Fall course when I came across how influenced Resh was by William O. Douglas’s “Points of Rebellion” (1969) in particular this quote by the liberal Supreme Court justice: “The dissent we witness is a protest against the belittling of man, against his debasement, against a society that makes ‘lawful’ the exploitation of humans.”

Resh introduces a chapter called “Pastacore” (an amalgam of pasta and hardcore that was the band Spoke’s rallying cry) with this Voltaire quote: “Everything must end. Meanwhile we mist amuse ourselves.” Concluding that “simply, pastacore is life lived maximally, every moment savored,” one example Resh cites is “lying on your driveway at midnight listening to Hank William, Sr., on a Walkman and watching the stars, wondering what music the aliens are listening to as they watch Earth.” Another is playing at full volume the fourth movement of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony (a recent “NY Times” crossword puzzle answer for the soundtrack of “A Clockwork Orange”).

The Westchester Township History Museum located in the Brown Mansion is a 16-room brick structure built 125 years ago in the Queen Anne architectural style and located near downtown Chesterton. I had hoped to use the Prairie Club archives and peruse their 1920s bulletins, but a reception was in progress so I set up an appointment to return in five days. I browsed through some of their holdings, including notebooks of Alice Gray (Diana of the Dunes) and artist-author Earl H. Reed. On the way home I bought a Subway Philly cheese steak from Brady Wade, who started working there earlier in the week. “Welcome to Subway,” he said as I entered.

Assholes angered over the decision by the Bureau of Motor Vehicles to allow people to buy a license whose proceeds go to a pro-gay organization. Folks can pay an extra 40 dollars for a plate showing six different colored hands rising up from a ring with $25 going to the Indiana Youth group. Never mind that an anti-abortion group and 65 other groups have specialty plates, even the national Wild Turkey Federation.

The Post-Trib’s Mike Hutton wrote a column praising Andrean coach Carson Cunningham’s hilarious, poignant new book “Underbelly Hoops: Adventures in the CBA” the author’s last, quixotic attempt to get picked up by an NBA team. One paragraph quoted from Carson’s book describes the funeral of former Purdue teammate Gary McQuay, who died of leukemia: “We mourned that day, and yet we also celebrated Gary’s life. When the pastor spoke, he started passing a basketball around, asking people to keep it moving, just like Gary would want us to do. And the ball flowed through the pews. This is the type of thing that can happen at funerals in Indiana.”

While not as spectacular as the Jeremy Lin story, the Bulls hit the jackpot signing 36 year-old Mike James to a ten-day contract. He has a championship ring from playing with Detroit but after receiving no offers from NBA teams chose to play in the D (Developmental) League. “I went from Ritz Carltons to Howard Johnsons,” he quipped. Now he’s back at high-priced hotels, at least for the time being.

Sunday’s SALT column was on Nick Mantis, who is working on a documentary about Jean Shepherd. I suggested the idea to Jeff Manes after meeting Mantis at the Archives. Nick told Jeff: “My mother and father met at a bus stop in East Chicago. My father is from Greece and my mother is from Mexico. My father looks like Anthony Quinn, who was born in Mexico. My mother is very fair complected for a Mexican lady. When they saw each other, me dad thought, ‘Hey, here’s this good-lookin’ Greek chick.’ My mother was thinking, ‘Here’s this good-lookin’ Mexican guy.’” Only in the Region.

Delores Crawford sent out a “media report” listing all the local newspaper articles for January mentioning IUN. One was the SALT column on Dick Hagelberg, where it mentioned me as his friend. We played bridge with the Hagelbergs Sunday and visited the house son Corey and Kate bought high atop a sand dune near Lake Street in miller.

I called Alex Karras at his home in California and, lo and behold, he picked up. He credits his mother Emmiline, an outdoors person and good ice skater, for being mainly responsible for the athletic prowess that ran in the family. He confirmed what brother Ted told me about their father teaching them to swim at the Gary YMCA and how they frequented the neighborhood doughnut shop. All in all, he was very affable. Good friend and former student David Malham, whose older brother Nick was a friend of Alex Karras, told me about the time he saw the two boxing for “fun” on his front porch. After Alex had a split lip and Kick a bloody nose, Mrs. Malham finally broke up the fight.

I got the following anecdote from Dave Malham’s brother Nick: On August 11, 1950, after starring at Purdue, brother Lou played in the College All-Star Football Classic at Soldier Field in Chicago, in which his team upset the Philadelphia Eagles 20-17. The next morning Nick Malham found Alex sitting on his front porch proudly wearing Lou’s helmet and jersey. A year or so later, while Lou was playing for the Washington Redskins, Alex told Malham, “I’m going to play professional football and then I’m going to become a Hollywood actor.”

Fellow U. of Maryland grad student Don Ritchie informed me that our old adviser Sam Merrill’s widow Marion passed away at age 97 and is finally going back to her hometown of St. Johnsbury, Vermont, to where she always claimed she wanted to return. I replied: “Thanks for letting me know. I had been thinking about seeing her in April when I came east for Ray Smock’s Alumni lecture. I wish Marion had agreed to the living eulogy program Richard wanted to have for her. Terry Jenkins, my best friend from high school had a surprise party all planned for his parents’ fiftieth wedding anniversary. A week before the event, his mother said, “Please don’t plan anything” so he called everyone and said it was off. Numerous people had to cancel airplane reservations. On the day of the anniversary his mom said, “It’s a shame we didn’t plan something involving old friends.” He would have liked to have strangled her.” It was Don who suggested the title “The Professor Wore a Cowboy Hat (And Nothing Else)” for an oral history paper I delivered on “Ethical Issues in Handling Matters of Sex in Institutional Oral Histories: Indiana University Northwest as a Case Study.”

Ray Smock has decided to title his speech “I Did It My Way, By Accident: Lessons from an Unconventional Career.” He also was the first to wish me an upcoming “biblical three score and ten,” adding: “How did we get this old? Many more to you dear friend.”

IUN was open despite it being Presidents' Day (an amalgamation of what once were days celebrating the birthdays of Lincoln and Washington, two of America's best three leaders, FDR being the third). At lunch George Bodmer noticed my black sweater with the SI logo and asked if Sports Illustrated gave it to me. I told him I selected it from among several choices offered to subscribers. He quipped that at first he thought it stood for Supplemental Instruction, an IUN tutoring program. Friday I wore a bluish-white turtleneck under my crimson IUN t-shirt and looked pretty, pretty, pretty good if I do say so myself.

Former Indiana Congresswoman Katie Hall died at age 73. An ally of Mayor Richard Hatcher, she sponsored the bill that made the birthday of Martin Luther King a national holiday. After Pete Visclosky defeated her in 1984, she was elected Gary city clerk. An A.P. reporter asked me to assess her career. I indicated that the Post-Tribune had it in for her as a Hatcher ally and led the charge for her to be indicted for forcing members of her staff to sell candy (kadydids) during a time when virtually all political appointees were expected to do similar things, such as buy tickets to fundraisers. Small potatoes compared to how Dick Cheney and others of his ilk have become multi-millionaires thanks to their connections.