My Vietnam Your Iraq

Ronald J. Osgood of IU’s Department of Telecommunications sent me a screening copy of his documentary “My Vietnam Your Iraq.” It’s a documentary about eight parents whose sons or daughters have served in Iraq. Earlier, Osgood, a Vietnam vet, had requested a copy of “Brothers in Arms” and especially liked the interviews with E. Everett McFall and Omar Farag. I watched Osgood’s 61-minute film on Saturday and found it to be awesome. One guy talked about going berserk upon hearing that his son had been killed, knocking down a wall full of awards and plaques. Osgood did such a good job I’m hoping to interest him in helping me put together a documentary about IU’s FACET program and its charismatic founder Eileen J. Bender. Tome and Aaron from Instructional Media Services have finished editing the DVD of my December interview of Bender in South Bend.

Played a board game called Small World with Dave and Tom Wade that I had played once before at Halberstadt Game Weekend. You try to conquer territory with a combination of races (dwarves, trolls, ghouls, sorcerers, etc.) and abilities such a flying, pillaging, and the like. It has potential to join out three favorites, Amun Re, St. Petersburg, and Acquire, in heavy rotation.

Looked at a book Kim and Terry Hunt sent us called “The Art of Frank V. Dudley” featuring his Dunes paintings as well as four interesting essays, including one by “Sacred Sands” author Ron Engel and his wife about Dudley’s efforts to save the Northwest Indiana dunes. The book served as a catalogue published simultaneously with a 2006 exhibition at Valparaiso University’s Brauer Museum. In my retirement journal I talked about Dudley being honored with a plaque at the Lake County Tourist Bureau’s Wall of Fame along with boxer Tony Zale and actor Karl Malden. Coincidentally the Post-Trib had an article about a Miller resident, Jim Nowacki, who wants to retrieve a 1927 Dudley painting entitled “Landing the Fishing Boat” from the Indiana State Museum. Evidently it was donated to the city of Gary (I think to the Gary schools and was part of the art collection at Emerson School) but somehow got waylaid and ended up in Indianapolis.

The Sunday Post-Trib has a Jeff Manes SALT article about 80 year-old retired East Chicago librarian Gloria Dosen. Her dad worked for Inland Steel, and when she was eight years old she witnessed Chicago police firing at picketers in front of Republic Steel, something that became known as the Memorial Day Massacre. She’s lived in the same house on Olcott Avenue since 1951 and told Jeff, “My son and daughter know they’ll never get me out of here. I’ll stay here till they wheel me away.”

The GRAMMY awards show was worth staying up for even though Phoenix (winners of the best alternative album, Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix) didn’t perform. What got most attention was a Cirque du Soleil-like performance by scantily-clad Pink doing “Glitter in the Air” and a 3-D tribute to Michael Jackson after which his kids Paris and Prince spoke. My favorite moments were Lady Gaga and Elton John teaming up to her song “Speechless” and Taylor Swift doing a few bars of “Rhiannon” with Stevie Nicks, even though the 20 year-old, perhaps awed by her duet partner, appeared to be a little off key.

Interviewed Lake County’s sheriff for almost two hours. He has patched up relationships with two old political enemies, both of whom are seeking his support in the upcoming election. He might want some of the criticism of the two softened in the nearly completed autobiography am helping him with. George Bodmer is getting around campus with a walker after being hit by a car crossing Broadway on his way to a parking lot last December and having his knee all smashed up. He thanked me for sending him the Anne Tyler book "Digging to America" while he was in the hospital.

I’ve been helping Eva Mendieta, who teaches in IUN’s department of Foreign Languages, edit a long articles she did about an East Çhicago mutual aid society named after Mexican-American hero Benito Juarez. In 1957 it was one of three organizations that merged to form the UBM (Union Benefica Mexicana), which is still in existence even though its clubhouse burned down a couple years ago. Came to find out that Eva has a new book out called “In Search of Catalina de Erauso: The National and Sexual Identity of the Lieutenant Nun.” The seventeenth-century Basque heroine was a swashbuckling transvestite who led an unbelievable life. Must check it out. It was once my goal to teach a summer course at the Basque university of Bilbao where Eva is from, which is a kind of sister school to IUN.