Monday, March 4, 2013

Pruniphobia


“Natural abilities are like natural plants; they need pruning by study,” Francis Bacon

Landscaper George Brenn gave a power point presentation to condo members on what he called “Pruniphobia.”  As the title indicates, he tried to lay to rest the fear that pruning will destroy a plant and pointed out how, when, and where best to do it.  We’re hoping to hire him to beautify our grounds.  He certainly knew his stuff and his estimate seems reasonable. I still need to get assurances from him that he plans to plant a rose of Sharon bush near where we lost an ash tree last year.

Jerry Davich reported that The Lure on Route 20 in Portage had closed.  I am amazed it stayed open so long.  Bob McGuire told Davich: “The building was a dump but the food was fabulous.”  Joseph Baruffi said, “I drove by it for a decade and never saw a car there.  I figured it was a mob front.”  Once while in the drive through line the kid in front of me mishandled the change and drove off without bothering to collect it.  I got out of the car and picked up about 85 cents.

On the way to school an 80/94 overhead sign warned that at mile 9.5 the left lane was closed due to a clean-up following a crash.  Right before the I-65 exit I noticed traffic was completely halted but was able to get onto I-65 and get off at Ridge.  Around noon it was off to Indy for the 33rd annual Indiana Association of Historians (IAH) conference.  I arrived at Comfort Inn without incident, found a Taco Bell nearby and settled in for an evening of reading and TV.  On “Real Time” Bill Maher was particularly acerbic in going after the Catholic cardinals gathering in Rome.  Absent will be Scotland’s Cardinal Keith O’Brien, enmeshed in yet another sex scandal.  One wonders if there are any clerics among them who haven’t covered up sex crimes of those under them.  Referring to the fact that Pope Benedict won’t be wearing red shoes after he resigns, Maher quipped that people will no longer know who is tapping them from the next men’s room stall.  One impressive guest was California Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newson, formerly mayor of San Francisco and an outspoken advocate of gay rights.

In the middle of the night someone kept knocking at my door every few minutes or so.  I figured it was either a robber, a hooker or someone who had forgotten his room number, so I did not respond.  After 8 or 10 tries the intruder gave up.  Thirteen years ago I had to deal with a home invader (See my “Survival Journal” in volume 33) and dealt with a prostitute during a 1994 China trip.  A young man from Berkeley had ordered a masseuse from the hotel front desk.  For a “happy ending” she charged extra, and when the guy showed her a necklace he had purchased for his fiancé, she thought it was an extra tip and took it.  Then she inquired if he knew anyone who might want a massage.  I answered his knock and a beautiful young woman smiled and made a motion toward my crotch.  The Berkeley guy, though embarrassed stated the reason for the visit, and I declined.

The theme of the IAH meeting was “Dreams of Freedom” in honor of anniversaries of Lincoln’s Emancipation and Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech.  Arriving shortly after the 8:45 sessions had begun, I walked into the wrong room and found just the moderator and the two speakers, discussing Africa.  They were so pleased someone had joined them I didn’t have the heart to leave.  In fact, both papers were excellent, one on the Boer War and the other about the South Sudan.  Commenter Phyllis Boanes reminded me of favorite high school English teacher Delphine Vandling.

At a session Eric Sandweiss chaired entitled “Race and War in 20th century Indiana Norma Erickson discussed the first African-American hospital in Indianapolis, which only lasted six years.  One doctor complained that some black patients preferred to be treated by whites, a claim which seemed dubious but caused me to recall a “Sanford and Son” episode where Redd Foxx was upset that the dentist assigned to treat him was black.  In Gary, denied access to white-controlled hospitals, blacks went to a clinic started by Italian-born Antonio Giorgi and then black-owned St. John’s on 22nd and Massachusetts, which was in operation for a quarter-century, beginning in 1929.  Praising the papers, Sandweiss, good editor that he is, suggested that the presenters needed to put their findings in a larger historical context.
St. John's Hospital in Gary
At a session on Black freedom struggles moderator Wilma Moore, from the Indiana Historical Society, passed out free copies of the latest Traces, with a photo of AIDs victim Ryan White on the cover.  Being a subscriber, I already had one but took another for the Archives.  The paper that most interested me was Monroe Little’s “The Battle for Educational Freedom: The 1949 ‘Fair Schools’ Bill.”  When signed into law by Governor Henry F. Schricker, it supposedly ended de jure school segregation although the realities of neighborhood housing patterns meant that there was little meaningful change.  Little talked mainly about Indianapolis but made mention of developments in Gary.  Afterwards I promised to send him a copy of “Gary’s First Hundred Years.”

Purdue Cal’s Saul Lerner, at least ten years my senior, was supposed to deliver a paper but cancelled due to illness.  In the final session George Geib of Butler University introduced two papers on Richard Lugar, first his years on the Indianapolis school board and finally a very abstract assessment of his political philosophy as a pragmatic conservative Mayor and Senator. As mayor, Lugar pushed through a concept known as unigov to basically broaden the political boundaries of Indianapolis to include all of Marion County. Under unigov Indianapolis flowered while Gary declined due to white flight and business disinvestment, which might not have happened had Gary been able to annex area to its south including Merrillville.  Lugar’s successor as mayor, William Hudnut, was someone Richard Hatcher admired even though Hudnut was a Republican.  Geib stated that he was not surprised that Richard Mourdock was able to defeat Lugar in the 2012 Republican primary, given that he had attended countless Lincoln Day dinners in 2006 and 2010 whereas Lugar hadn’t.  I told Geib I voted in a Republican primary for the first time in my life to cast a ballot for the Tea Party’s statesmanlike target.

At the Indiana Magazine of History Board of Trustees Meeting, my main reason for coming, Eric Sandweiss was fairly optimistic about the journal’s future at a time when so many publications were going out of business save for becoming online periodicals.  Afterwards Pam Bennett from the Indiana Historical Bureau asked me for help with a marker being prepared to commemorate Froebel School as a historical landmark.  Eric thanked me for coming and invited me to have lunch with him next time I was in Bloomington.

Having decided to spend another night at Comfort Inn rather than drive at night, I watched the Indiana-Iowa game.  Despite having an off-night offensively IU won handily thanks to a stellar game by Cory Zeller.  At one point he dove to knock the ball away from an opponent, then got off the floor to run down court to catch a pass and get a slam-dunk basket. 

Opening up Traces magazine I found an article by Wilma Moore entitled “Everyday People: Signing for the Cause.”  It reproduced petitions and resolutions having to do with race beginning in 1814, when citizens of Harrison County petitioned Governor Thomas Posey protesting blacks settling in their midst.  A 1915 resolution from black YMCA members requested that hair product mogul Madam C.J. Walker not leave Indianapolis for New York City (she did anyway).  In 1922 black residents wrote a letter of protest to the Indianapolis school board requesting that a segregated school not be built (it was anyway).  Finally Moore included letters on behalf of death row inmate Paula Cooper.  A Swedish member of Amnesty International wrote to the Indiana Supreme Court: “It is sad that the leading democracy in the world still uses this cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment.”  After the Indiana General Assembly raised the minimum age for the death penalty to 16, but not retroactively, the Supreme Court commuted Paula’s sentence to 60 years.

I made it home in plenty of time for the “Guys and Dolls” musical at Memorial Opera House.  Based on short stories by Damon Runyan about underworld gamblers and chorus girls, it had a long Broadway run in the early 1950s and was a successful 1955 film starring Marlon Brando, Frank Sinatra, Jean Simmons, and Vivian Blaine.  I was familiar with several songs, such as “Luck Be a Lady” and “Bushel and a Peck,” and the four main actors were topnotch, especially Mary Kay Steele as Miss Adelaide.  Rotund Jordan Chaddock as Nicely-Nicely Johnson almost stole every scene he was in.  We finished off a nice day with the Hagelbergs at Sage Restaurant.  I had potato soup, the house salad, two Southern Tier IPA beers, and crab cakes.

On Facebook someone posted 20 things lesbians are tired of hearing including these: “You don’t look gay?”  “So which of you is the guy?”  “So how does scissoring work?”  I correctly guessed what the last one meant and found on Wikipedia that it also is called tribadism or tribbing.

My trip to Indy caused me to miss Anthony’s final basketball game (a 67-63 victory with him contributing 16 points), Tori’s thirteenth birthday (we left a phone message), and Dave performing with Blues Cruise at Camelot Lounge (which was a huge success, according to all reports).  Oh well, there will be more ball games, birthdays, and concerts.
 Blues Cruise at Camelot Lounge
Neighbor Dave Elliott spotted that a rear brake light on the Corolla was out, so Monday afternoon I stopped at Lake Shore Toyota and also got an oil change.  Passing Leroy’s, I noticed Planetary Blues was performing Friday night.  Wonder if old student Joe Hengstler is still with them.  I finally got the go-ahead from IU Central Purchasing to take volume 42 to Home Mountain and stopped at Wise Way on the way home for fruit, coffee, and milk.

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