Birthday Bash

Last evening Toni and I went to Lake County Roy Dominguez’s Birthday Bash at Avalon Manor in Merrillville. I’ve been working on a book project with the sheriff for nearly a year now, and it was fun to observe him greet the many guests and perform in front of the crowd. Earlier in the week he had brought to the Archives all sorts of photos, family Christmas cards, flyers, literature, and other campaign memorabilia, including decks of cards, buttons, writing pads, and even an umbrella. I had met his wife Betty before, but I got to meet his charming daughters Maria and Veronica for the first time, as well as his brother Jesse and his nephew Alex, who is a candidate for county judge in the May Democratic primary. The Fundraiser invite announced that hors d’oeuvres would be served, but there was a sumptuous buffet plus a dessert table. Roy’s mom, whom he describes as feisty, gave a brief but passionate speech. The guest speaker was USWA District 7 Director Jim Robinson, whose father-in-law Jim Balanoff was a crusading union leader a generation ago. He said it was unfair having to follow Roy’s mother. Roy himself was very dynamic and mentioned that in Kokomo someone on a newspaper editorial board mentioned that nobody from Lake County had ever been elected governor. He replied that nobody from Lake County had ever run for governor before but that was going to change. The crowd roared its approval. I enjoyed watching local politicians go from table to table, including Lake County Treasurer John Petalas, who was a student in my 1979 History of American Journalism class and editor of the student newspaper, the “Northwest Phoenix.” Several candidates to succeed Sheriff Dominguez were in attendance including onetime rival John Buncich.

Today I attended a Women’s Studies “Celebrating Our Students” conference. My buddy Anne Balay was one of the main organizers, and she mentioned that her youngest daughter designed the program, which featured Virginia Woolf on the cover. During the morning sessions eight IU Northwest students delivered papers. I especially enjoyed Nicole Yoder’s exploration of imagery in Wallace Stevens’ modernist poem “The Emperor of Ice cream.” It made no sense to me until Nicole explained that the “Emperor” stood for death. Also interesting was Catherine Brilmyer’s presentation on flooding in Ogden Dunes that occurred in the spring of 2009. Kathy Kwiatkowski discussed the silhouettes of black folks drawn by African American artist Kara Walker depicting antebellum days. Some critics have criticized her work as demeaning, but her message, I think, is that it was the institution of slavery that was demeaning, so she does not idealize her subjects, just the reverse. After lunch children’s book author Maiya Williams gave a fascinating talk and reading from her book “The Golden Hour.” She also wrote for various Hollywood shows including “Fresh Prince of Belair,” “Rugrats,”and “Mad TV.” Several people inquired about how ones goes about getting a book published ("get a good agent," was her advice) and about her writing habits. Maiya said she is a type A personality who can write for four hours or so while her kids are in school and then think about what she'll next put on paper the evening before so she's ready to go at 8 the next morning. I have gotten good at doing that, too.

On “Final Jeopardy” the category was animated movies, not a good one for me, but I thought I knew the answer – “Who Killed Roger Rabbit?” – only to find out that the proper title was “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?” Somebody on the show made the same mistake. Last week the question had to do with the 39th and 40th states to join the union on the same day during Benjamin Harrison’s presidency. I correctly guessed North and South Dakota, but thought it was a tough question until discovering that all three contestants got it correct.