Lake Michigan Sunset

“Power politician leaning to the right

Baby’s got a trust fund

That she’ll want to go off like that.”

    Rogue Wave, “Lake Michigan”

Anne Balay posted a photo of a Lake Michigan sunset with Chicago’s Loop in the background.  Out of view are steel mills whose fumes add to the orange glow.  Hope to be on Miller Beach Saturday to celebrate Emma (the painter) Balay’s graduation from college.  Microsoft used Rogue Wave’s song in an ad for its MP3 player Zune, and Rob Kardashian waltzed to “Lake Michigan” on “Dancing with the Stars.”

Steve Pickert posted nine remarks that NBC Olympic commentators would like to take back.  My favorite is the anal retentive dressage analyst who noted, “This is really a lovely horse and I speak from personal experience since I once mounted her mother.”  At the rowing medal ceremony an announcer’s Freudian slip went, “Ah, isn’t that nice, the wife of the IOC president is hugging the cox of the British crew.”

Ron Cohen got me invited to a “meet and greet” event In Miller featuring Democratic gubernatorial candidate John Gregg.  Hosts Michael and Susan Greenwald’s house had a great view of the lake.  Hosting a bridal shower for her daughter, Nancy kicked Ron out of the house so he came from the latest “Bourne” movie.

In a TV ad Gregg introduced himself as a folksy guy with two first names from the small town of Sandborn.  Stating that most political ads are silly, he showed three old friends, Frank, Jerry, and Hobo, who used to “loaf around” at Sandborn’s Blue Jay Restaurant until Hobo got cancer, so now they loaf around at Hobo’s house.  Gregg’s final words: “It might seem like a small thing, but I want to keep Indiana a place where people look out for each other.” An aide gave me a “Gregg for Governor” bumper sticker featuring a big blue mustache and a brochure entitled “I’m John Gregg” that stated, “Some people think that I should shave my mustache, but I’m not going to change who I am to run for Governor.” Let’s hope.

On hand were Mayor Karen Freeman-Wilson and Ogden Dunes State Representative Karen Tallian. Another former colleague, Charlie Brown, introduced the former Indiana State Assembly Minority Leader as a fighter and referred to an anecdote in Gregg’s 2008 autobiography “From Sandborn to the Statehouse” when the two of them gave Governor Evan Bayh a dressing down for abandoning his support for a bill based on expediency. Gregg quipped that the last mustachioed Indiana governor was Thomas R. Marshall a century ago but that one had to go back even further to find a United States Congressman who became governor, the only reference to his troglodyte opponent Mike Pence.  Marshall once expressed the wish (during the disputed mayoralty election of 1909) that Gary would fall into Lake Michigan. Gregg argued that people from southeastern Indiana feel the same way as Region folks, that politicians in Indianapolis don’t have their best interests at heart.  He asserted that if an important artery linking Indy to Carmel needed repairs, it wouldn’t be neglected or forced to be a toll road like happened to the Cline Avenue Bridge.

I asked Gregg why his election material makes no mention of his Democratic Party affiliation (something that annoyed George Roberts) and added that up here we’re proud to be Democrats.  He replied that he was seeking support from moderate Republicans and following the practice of previous nominees, who recognized that there are more Hoosier registered Republicans than Democrats.  Perhaps he could benefit from literature targeted for Lake County voters that stresses his being a Democrat.  I gave Gregg a copy of “Valor” and told him former Sheriff Roy Dominguez would help in any way he wanted.

Sunday after cooking eggs and kaibasa, I won two of four board games (Acquire and Union Pacific) and then edged out Dick Hagelberg in bridge before dining outside at Popolano’s in Chesterton.  I had the pot roast meal with two bottles of Brooklyn Ale.  Alissa called, excited over a weekend event connected with her new job at Grand Valley State.  One summer she interned for IUN Marketing director Chris Sheid, something she had that on her résumé that gave her a notch up on the more than hundred other applicants.  We’ll see her Wednesday when we attend grandson Anthony’s freshman soccer match.

Chris Young showed me how to post messages and syllabi on IUN’s OnCourse system.  Only three students have registered for my Fall class so far.  Oops.

Back on WVLP as Jerry Davich’s only guest, I got in a plug for “Valor” and mentioned that Jerry is in “Calumet Region Connections” (Steel Shavings, v. 41) nine times, in connection with columns he’s written on such topics as the passing of veterinarian Doc Okone, WW II casualty Irwin Fann, and Anne Balay’s search for gay and lesbian steelworkers (which created much controversy, something that newsman Davich welcomed).  He recently wrote about a Valpo teen dying of a heroin overdose and asked whether I thought drugs were as prevalent in the suburbs as in cities.  Speaking not as an expert, I said that starting in the Sixties, drugs seemed to be everywhere.  Davich told Facebook readers, “Cedar Lake was once a Midwest tourist destination?  Al Capone (gang members) once used to hide out in the Hotel Gary? Richard Hatcher was a political scapegoat for Gary's demise? This is what you missed on today's "Out to Lunch" radio show with special guest James Lane, local historian, author, and all-around fascinating guy. The show will be re-aired this Thursday at noon.”  Kim Hunt responded: “Doc Lane is a fantastic guy AND a great historian.”

Talking to Steve’s two Senior College classes about the Region during the Roaring Twenties, I ran into Veronica Rollins, who took courses from me 40 years ago.  After she mentioned her name, I remembered her.  Also in attendance was Morning Bishop, whose Theater Playhouse I wrote about in “Gary’s First Hundred Years” as an example of positive things going on during the 1990s despite the city’s economic woes.  Born, like me, in 1942, she moved from western Pennsylvania to Gary in 1967, the year Richard Hatcher was elected mayor, with six kids and a husband who deserted them soon afterwards.  After she called into WWCA’s “Talk with the Mayor” show, Hatcher got her a job at Metro Corps and she later became a substance abuse counselor at Gary Drug Treatment Center.  While working on a degree at IUN, she took Performing Arts courses with Garrett Cope.   The Morning Bishop Theater Playhouse started out as a children’s YMCA group. Her vision and doggedness enriched the lives of countless residents.

The Republican establishment is calling for Missouri Senate candidate Todd Akin to resign after he claimed on TV that “legitimate rape” doesn’t cause pregnancy because in those cases a woman’s body shuts down.  Of course, the statement, which Akins has partially retracted, ignores the fact that 32,000 pregnancies occur each year as a result of rape.  Akin’s views on abortion are virtually identical to Romney’s, and running mate Paul Ryan co-sponsored a bill with Akin that would have provided abortion funding only in cases of “forcible rape.”  Let’s see Romney try to weasel out of this one.  I predict a backlash among Tea Party fanatics if Akin is forced off the ballot.  Akin’s opponent is Senate incumbent Claire McCaskill, a former prosecutor who specialized in sex crimes and knows Akin’s comments are complete bullshit.

Ann Balay posted this advice: “There’s one thing women’s bodies can shut down, and it’s called the Republican Party.”

Ray Smock repeated something told to him by Lindy Boggs, who served 18 years in Congress following the death of her husband, House Majority Leader, in a plane crash. She said "In politics the party you vote for is never as good as you expect it to be and your opponents are never as bad as you think they will be."  Ray continues, “She was one of that last generation of House members who made friends across the aisle. But her thought is a realistic one and a practical one. During campaigns we demonize one another and then most of the time figure out how to get things done after the election no matter who wins. This has been the case through most of our history.  I do think Lindy's point is harder to swallow in these times of continuous campaigns and never-ending demonizing.”

I checked out “Drood” by novelist Dan Simmons, which deals with the last weird years of Charles Dickens.  Normally I shy away from books that take liberties with historical facts, but Gaard Logan’s book club loved it.  The first few pages remind me of John Updike.