Candy Man

“Who can take a sunrise, sprinkle it with dew

Cover it with chocolate and a miracle or two?”

“The Candy Man Can,” Sammy Davis, Jr.

“The Candy Man Can,” written by Anthony Newley and Leslie Bricusse for the 1971 film “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory,” became Sammy Davis, Jr’s lone number one hit.  It later was used as a jingle for M & M candy commercials. In 2006 Christina Aguilera released a sexy single called “Candyman” that included the lines “he’s a one stop shop, makes the panties drop” and later:

He's a one stop shop, makes my cherry pop
He's a sweet talkin' sugar coated candy man

Aguilera’s “Candyman” music video was innocent-looking and reminiscent of the Andrews Sisters entertaining troops during World War II with Christina playing all three women.  Roy Orbison’s 1961 “Candy Man” hit was more innocent, promising to treat a woman right by giving her “candy kisses every single night.”

 Richard Albanese

Steve Baba

Candy man Richard Albanese passed away at age 88, 34 years after co-founding Albanese Confectionary, first located in Merrillville and now also in Merrillville. He began a business career in construction and was a member of Elks Lodge 1152, where, according to the obit, “he enjoyed dancing with his wife (of 66 years) Dorothy and many friends.”  This obit for Stephen Thomas Baba appeared in the NWI Times next to the one of Albanese:

  Gifted musician and professional candy eater Stephen Thomas Baba, 72, was a star gazer, Geode hunter, and beach lover.  There wasn’t an animal he wouldn’t pet, feed, or try and save.  Steve was an architect of mass destruction and a master builder of mess, especially around the house or in his garage, where his brilliant mind led to many creative endeavors, some awesome, some requiring the fire department. He was a proud pyromaniac when given the opportunity, especially when trying to impress his grandchildren. Steve was also incredibly proud to wear his speedo bathing suit to the beach, impressing the locals with his European flare while horrifying the rest of us.  Steve also had the incredible ability to eat pounds of sugar, salt, and butter, which in his later years led to healthier eating choices like organic chocolate cake, snuck to him by Melissa Culbertson. The man, the myth, the legend known to many as Hadji Baba, was a Ball State graduate who worked as a driver’s education teacher, insurance agent, and, most recently, at Bridges of Indiana, helping people with disabilities.  Steve’s dedication and love for people enabled him to share his genuine tender heart.

Bridge partner Dee Van Bebber returned after three weeks on the DL.  Her first name is Delores, but, as was the case with nephew Beamer’s mother, she prefers Dee. When folks ask how she pronounces Van Bebber, she jokes that she’s been called everything from Van Peeper to Van Blubber. Against Tuesday evening winners Charlie Halberstadt and Naomi Goodman (we finished third), I twice bid and made 4 Spades. On the third hand, I again opened one Spade and Charlie overcalled with a 3 Diamond preempt, forcing me to go to the three level, where we got set.  Wednesday in Valpo, however, Dee and I were first among the 13 couples, finished with a 66.25 percentage and, as a result, garnered 1.30 master points, a record for me. The most frustrating hand came against Fred Green and George Sisco.  I was dealt 16 high card points but no Aces.  Dee raised my Club bid, and when the opponents ultimately bid 4 Spades, I bid 5 Clubs.  I went down one, but Fred and George would have made 4 Spades, as did another couple who had stopped at 3.  Four other pairs, like me, bid 5 Clubs, but we were the only ones doubled.  Result: low board; otherwise, we might have had a shot at the coveted 70 percent.

Barbara Waczak’s Newsletter congratulated John Goring and Larry Rapideau on scoring a 72.73 percent game.  Rapideau told Walczak: “Having a big game involves a lot of factors, especially luck – but defense is so important and John is one of the best in this department.  How many times have you found yourself thinking, ‘I hope he leads a heart (or spade or diamond or club)?’  With john, just relax – you’ll be getting your wish most of the time. And when you don’t, his shift is usually right!”

 New York Times photo by Lyndon French

In the New York Times appeared Brendan Donley’s “A Day at the Beach in, Yes, Gary, Indiana.”  Steve Spicer, Karren Lee, and Kirsten Bayer-Petras shared the Facebook link. Donley wrote:

  Gary, Ind., is rooted at the bottom of the U-shaped curve of Lake Michigan, a region of crisscrossing highways, casinos and forests of smokestacks.

Gone are the days of the Jackson 5, its greatest claim to fame. Gone are many of its other residents, the prosperity of its steel mills, the letters listing the showings on the Palace Theater marquee. Gone, too, are the Chicagoans each day of the summer, stopping, if at all, for gas as they head east on road trips and summer vacations.

They should consider making a stop. Far from the cement grid lining the city’s heart, there are sandy ridges of wooded pines, serene footbridges over natural ponds, and the feeling of some faraway world — the dream of Michigan’s Mackinac Island winking its way onto the scene, a mirage that just can’t be true.

“It’s our own world down here,” said DeAundra Joshua, an employee of Carmella’s Café, which overlooks the lake and acts as a venue in the summer months for karaoke, jazz, folk music, and group sessions of yoga.

The refurbished Gary Aquatorium has been “repurposed into a museum of aviation,” Donley reported.  Mayor Karen Freeman-Wilson discussed focal points, including Marquette Park and Lake Street in Miller, the airport, and the Glen Park neighborhood surrounding IUN, and told Donley: “My rule is to make investments for the people that are here, to honor the people that have remained and weathered the storm.”

Michelle Abila had this reaction to Donley’s article:

  Rush Street beach was my backyard throughout my childhood. It's all I ever knew. My dad still lives in my childhood family home and I was able to share the amazing gift of Miller Beach with my daughters. Now my 3 oldest children are adults and love taking their friends there from various towns in Indiana who don't realize the gift we have living in Miller. We love seeing their reaction when they lay their eyes on our beach on Lake Michigan for the first time.

 Jerry Lewis

Dick Gregory

R.I.P.: Brilliant comics Jerry Lewis and Dick Gregory, the one a genius at slapstick, the other an acerbic social critic, who both got a bit too full of themselves as they aged.  As a kid, I LOVED hyper-active Jerry Lewis when he teamed with laid back Dean Martin on NBC’s “Colgate Comedy Hour” and in movies such as “The Stooge.”  One of my biggest disappointments was attending a Dick Gregory talk at IUN and discovering that his distrust of the FBI and CIA led him to believe all sorts of far-fetched conspiracy theories.

My Indiana Magazine of History (IMH) June 2017 review of Stephan Meyer’s “Manhood on the Line” made these points about the misogynistic workplace subculture of Michigan automakers between 1920 and 1945:  

In seeking union recognition, labor militants viewed their battles as manly struggles against forces out to exploit and emasculate them.  When the workplace was largely a male preserve, masculine manifestations included cursing, fighting, vulgar bantering with undertones of racism, hazing of newcomers, and crude horseplay, including such homoerotic behavior as goosing unsuspecting co-workers and pulling at their nipples.  Meyer uses this quote from Peter N. Stearns’ “Be a Man: Males in Modern Society” (1979): “When I was eighteen I knew it took four things to be a man: fight, work, screw, and booze.” In ascribing labor solidarity to masculine bonds forged in locker rooms, barrooms, and union halls, Meyer argues that while “manly bearing” was conducive to opposing managerial authority, the underside was resistance to change when minorities began to occupy positions formerly reserved for white men.

F.B. Johnston photo of President Benjamin Harrison's son and grandchildren on White House lawn

The June IMH also includes an article about “New Women of the Harrison Era,” an exhibition at the Benjamin Harrison Presidential Site.  Featured are murderess Nancy Clem (successfully prosecuted by young Ben Harrison), feminist Belva Lockwood (won ran for President in 1884), and photojournalist Francis Benjamin Johnston (whose White House portraits included one of Harrison’s son and grandchildren on the lawn).  The exhibition space has a model of “Fannie” Johnston’s famous self-portrait with a beer mug in one hand and cigarette in the other and includes, according to Gloria Lopez and Dawn Bakken, “an interactive feature allowing visitors to take a selfie posing as Johnston.”

 Sheriff Buncich leaving courthouse; NWI Times photo by Bill Dolan

The verdict is in: Lake County sheriff John Buncich, guilty on all counts. Prosecutor Philip Benson had told jurors: “He’s dumb, cocky, arrogant, and that’s why he’s seated there (in court) today.” According to Times reporter Bill Dolan, defense attorney Larry Rogers stated that the FBI paid Scott Jurgensen of Samson Towing $130,000 over a five-year period to entrap Buncich.  The FBI evidently came up with the plan to have Jurgensen pay the sheriff in cash rather than checks and lure him into incriminating statements.  Rogers told jurors, “What the government has done over the past two weeks is systematically dirty up the sheriff so you will believe he is guilty as charged. The government was 100 percent in control of the situation. They produced, directed, scripted and acted this out, seeking a conclusion that was not there.” Mike Repay, president of the Lake County Board of Commissioners issued this statement: “John Buncich violated the public trust with his actions. It will not only cost him his freedom, it adds another black mark against Lake County.” Buncich was guilty of sloppy bookkeeping, but the prosecution failed to prove that he explicitly promised special treatment to towing company donors.