While the president proudly crows, ‘we'll never bend,’
And cheers their replacements marching off again,
That's the sad and silent song of a soldier.”
Phil Ochs
Bettie Erhardt posted a WW II photo of her father
on Facebook in honor of Veterans Day and prayed that all our soldiers overseas
get home safely. I echo that emotion. Jerry Davich wrote a column about a Veterans
Treatment Court graduation ceremony, the culmination of a program overseen by
Porter County Judge Julia Jent. Most “students”
had developed drinking problems after getting out of the service that resulted
in DUIs and jail time.
Pretty typical weekend: watching James bowl,
dinner and bridge with Hagelbergs, NFL football. I watched the final five “Sopranos” episodes
from season five and was sorry about the demise of two favorite characters,
Adriana (for talking to the FBI) and cousin Tony (for whacking a NYC mobster
without authorization). Saturday evening
IUN’s Lady RedHawks upset Grace College 67-65 as freshman Nicki Monahan scored
with just four seconds to go. Megan
Holland led the team with 27 points.
Coach Ryan Shelton has won a hundred games in just over five years after
going 0-24 in 2007-2008.
Coach Ryan Shelton
In “Dear Abby” a woman complained that an
acquaintance claimed that her husband must not love her because she was at a
concert without him. “My husband comes with me even though he
hates these things,” the bitch added.
Abby agreed that dragging one’s spouse to something he dislikes was
hardly a sign of love.
Reading Bryan Burrough’s “Public Enemies” for
Monday’s book club, I was struck by J. Edgar Hoover’s insatiable egotism and
reluctance to tackle organized crime. He
preferred the glory of chasing band robbers and made up lies to enhance his
reputation while diminishing the heroism of others. The capture of Barker Gang member Alvin
Karpis in April of 1934 was typical.
Even though out of harm’s way until others surrounded Karpis’ car and
got him to surrender, Hoover claimed he rushed to Karpis and grabbed his collar
before he could reach his rifle in the back seat. After he briefed reporters, the New York Times claimed falsely: “KARPIS
CAPTURED IN NEW ORLEANS BY HOOVER HIMSELF.”
Karen Newlin found a photo of President John Ryan
dedicating Hawthorn Hall and wondered if I was the gentleman wearing sunglasses
near the podium. The man bore a slight
resemblance to the way I look now, with gray, wavy hair, but I didn’t own suits
as expensive as the man’s, nor fancy sunglasses for that matter.
At the emeritus luncheon Ron Cohen, Fred Chary,
and I had the History Department well represented. Fred said my blog inspired him to write his
memoirs, which he is hoping U. of Pittsburgh Press will publish. He recently talked about Bulgaria in France
and at the University of Oregon. I sat next to 87 year-old Panayotis Iatritis,
for many years head of IUN’s Medical School.
Alan Lindmark remarked that John Dustman, who started the med school,
passed away last year. Neither of us had
heard about it. Dustman was a
controversial figure who passed around a dildo and showed porn to Nursing
students in his Anatomy class on the rationale that they should not be
squeamish about sex. In the Seventies
Dustman agreed to be a guinea pig at a student fair that featured people
getting dunked in the water (something Anne Balay did last year). After being repeatedly dunked, Dustman
suffered a mild heart attack. “Remind me to be out of town if they do that
again,” Chancellor Lowe quipped.
Dr. Iatridis, who came to the U.S. from Greece in
1962, was delighted to discover that I was a Region historian and told me his
wife loved history. We talked about
Greek-born Gary mayor George Chacharis (someone I admire despite having served
jail time) and (in answer to what I was currently working on) the parents of
Nobel laureates Paul Samuelson and Joseph Stiglitz. I brought up the fact that after Iatridis had
gotten the state legislature to pass the hotel/motel tax to help subsidize the
med school, tourism director Speros Batistatos tried to grab that money for the
South Shore Convention and Visitors Authority.
Iatridis worked out a compromise that benefitted the med school
greatly. He gave me a business card
after I promised to send his wife “Gary’s First Hundred Years.” I threw in “Froebel Daughters of Penelope,”
featuring the reminiscences of five Greek-American women who attended Gary’s
immigrant school during the time Iatridis would have been a teenager.
Pat Bankston, William Lowe, and Panayotis Iatridis
I debated sending Dr. Iatridis “Educating the
Calumet Region: A History of IU Northwest.”
He’s in it four times. A trustee
asked Chancellor Peggy Elliott to see a cadaver so, in her words, “Dr. Iatridis and I took him to the Gross
Anatomy lab and stood next to him because we figured he’d faint.” David Holland from Physical Plant suffered a
heart attack in 1989 while on top of the med center. Interrupting Iatridis’s class, which was
normally verboten, Vic Winslow took him there, and the diagnosis was
confirmed. Allied Health director
Margaret Skurka told me: “Dr. Iatridis
sought me out and had me lecture to the medical students for a couple hours
about the business side of health care.
Now it’s part of the curriculum.”
Mark Reshkin noted that John Dustman started the
medical school but then got squeezed out as permanent director in favor of
Iatridis because “the administration
wanted somebody with better rapport with the medical community.” Acting Chancellor Herman Feldman added: “Dustman worked like a mule, and then they
turned it over to somebody else.”
Truth is, Dustman was a loose cannon who went out of his way to get a
rise out of others. Once, knowing that
Bloomington bigwigs were on the way to his office, he played a porn video on a
TV to see their reactions.
After a chicken and ravioli meal, Chancellor Lowe
joked that at least one of us (meaning me) has probably been on campus during the
past month more than he. He announced
the new building to be built on the east side of Broadway between 34th and 35th
will be by far the largest on campus and include a state-of-the-art theater. It’s
always good to see John Ban, who is speaking at Reiner Center next week on WW
II music. As usual, at the end of the Q
and A Ban thanked the Chancellor for continuing the luncheon tradition. Afterwards I talked to Lowe about President
McRobbie’s firm stand against the effort to pass a constitutional amendment
banning same-sex marriage. Lowe, who recently wrote an essay entitled “A
Diverse Community: Recognizing our Demographic Facts as Assets,” replied that
such a ban would hurt the ability of companies and universities to hire and
retain highly quality people.
Ron Cohen’s talk in Nicole’s Sixties class concentrated
on Bob Dylan, Phil Ochs, Pete Seeger, and “Country” Joe McDonald. Ron threw in such asides as that actor Alan
Arkin was with the Terriers, who recorded “The Banana Boat Song” in the
mid-1950s. Pete Seeger recorded the
County Joe song “”I Feel Like I’m Fixin’ To Die Rag” for Columbia, but then the
record label didn’t release it. Seeger sang “Waist Deep in Big Muddy” on the
Smothers Brothers TV show only to have CBS cut it. At Tommy and Dickie’s insistence Seeger was
invited back and successfully performed just before the network cancelled the
entire show because it was deemed too controversial.
After Ron mentioned Stax, someone asked what
musicians recorded on the Memphis label.
Ron called on me, and I answered Sam and Dave and Otis Redding. Marla Gee added Booker T and the MGs. Blues legend Albert King was also in their
stable. Nicole called on me after a
student claimed that Richard Nixon was no more of racist than Lyndon Baines
Johnson. Whatever their private thoughts
on the matter, LBJ championed civil rights legislation while RN appealed to
racists not only in making “law ‘n’ order” the central feature of his 1968
campaign but in the selection of nominees to serve on the Supreme Court. There’s also plenty of derogatory stuff on
the Nixon tapes. He once told National
Security adviser Henry Kissinger that Secretary of State William Rogers could
take care of the “niggers and Jews” (meaning Africa and Israel) and Kissinger
could deal with more important areas of the world.
I won my Fantasy football clash with Dave, thanks
to Marshawn Lynch and Peyton Manning, both listed as questionable beforehand. I still need a dependable wide receiver to go
with Brandon Marshall. Anquan Boldin,
Dwayne Bowe, and Greg Jennings have been major busts.
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