Clash of the Titans

Before leaving school yesterday I attended a surprise birthday party for Charlotte Reed, who was so helpful to son Dave when he was in IUN’s Urban Teacher program. I was in a sour mood after learning about an adverse and unwarranted tenure and promotion decision made by university higher-ups. Toni and I caught the 1:30 playing of “Clash of the Titans.” I ran into Paul Blohm, who had just seen it and was off to grade papers. Although not a particularly good remake of the 1981 film, Sam Worthington was fine as the hero Perseus and had an especially neat scene fighting Medusa. The title was rather a misnomer since Titans were elder gods overthrown by Zeus, the son of King Cronus, whereas in this flick Zeus and his allies were fighting rebellious humans led by demi-god Perseus, whose mother had been raped by Zeus. In school I could never understand why we were asked to memorize names of gods since they weren’t real.

My back, which has been bothering me all week, is much improved, but now I have a rash from where I have been applying (perhaps too vigorously) Ben-Gay and a heating pad. I wish I could trade in my body for a better model. At least my PSA reading was normal. Dr. Quackenbush thought maybe I have shingles, which is a virus that can attack nerves and then manifests itself in a rash. That makes sense. Unfortunately not much can be done to treat it if not caught quickly. Like a cold virus it just has to run its course, which can take some time.

Toni went out to dinner with Angie and the kids, so I could play music loud. Right now the five CDs I have ready to go are by Frank Black, MGMT, Owl City, the Donnas and “The Crow” soundtrack. I got well into Kurt Vonnegut’s “Timequake.” The author has such a splendid wit. I’ve read “Breakfast of Champions” at least five times. In “Timequake” Vonnegut claims most marriages go bust because extended families are largely a thing of the past. He adds that what women want are a whole lot more people to talk to. He also writes: “I am told there is a photograph often used in textbooks that supposedly shows immigrants disembarking here, but actually they are getting on a ship to go back to where they came from.” Wonder if that is true. Must ask Ray Smock. The book is quite autobiographical, and Vonnegut reveals that his two greatest heroes are socialists, playwright George Bernard Shaw and five-time Presidential candidate Eugene Victor Debs, whose famous line he quotes: While there is a lower class, I am in it, while there is a criminal element, I am of it; while there is a soul in prison, I am not free.”

In the news: Goldman Sachs executives took a grilling from Senator Levin’s subcommittee. The S.O.B.s still won’t admit there was anything wrong with selling short on stocks they were telling their customers to buy. Republicans are having trouble pretending to be for reform yet refusing to allow it to come up for open debate. Arizona’s Governor Jan Brewer is taking heat for signing a bill demanding that police stop suspicious people (read MEXICANS) and demand that they produce papers proving that they are not illegal immigrants. Demonstrations have taken place, and her opponents are vowing to organize boycotts similar to when groups would not hold conferences in Chicago in the wake of the police riot at the 1968 Democratic convention.

Today’s Times had an article about a Muslim school in Merrillville called Avicenna Academy. About 60 students go there in grades up to fifth, and they are planning to add sixth grade next year. In addition to regular subjects kids have lessons in Islamic Studies and Arabic. The school is named for Abu Ali Sina, an Arabian physician and philosopher who lived a thousand years ago. I’d love to put out a Steel Shavings issue on Muslims in Northwest Indiana. Quite a few attend classes at IUN, and it would be great to interview such folks as the woman who manages the gas station at Ogden Dunes or the Palestinians who own Four Brothers Grocery on Twenty-First Avenue in Gary. When I started at IUN, there was a popular student government president named Sami Jadallah. One of my old softball teammates named Mustafe was also Palestinian. The big question would be how candid would the people be, given the paranoia about Muslims and the legitimate fear they’d have about saying something that could get them in trouble. When I was researching the history of Gary, many ethnics with relatives living “behind the iron curtain” (as Winston Churchill put it) were unusually close-mouthed even about the most innocuous things.

John and Doris Ban, looking great despite probably being around 80, visited the Archives to finalize plans for a June 10 workshop for senior citizens interested in the history of Northwest Indiana. I’m scheduled to talk to them about my postwar Shavings entitled “The Aga of Anxiety: Daily Life in the Calumet Region, 1945-1953.” I’m looking forward to getting them to read excerpts. I’ll get a box lunch featuring a chicken salad sandwich for my trouble. A former Education professor, John was head of the Faculty Organization several times. Soft spoken but once a tremendous athlete, years ago we both were in a campus ping pong tournament. He claimed he hadn’t played in years but came from behind to beat me. Then he pulled out of the rest of the tournament due to a bad back. For years I teased him, saying “If you were going to forfeit your next match, the least you could have done is let me win our match.”

I got a rightwing email claiming that Barack Obama had ordered the post office to commemorate Eid al-Fitr the Muslim version of Christmas that occurs at the end of Ramadan. I discovered on a site called Hoax Slayer that such a stamp has been in existence since 2001 and Obama had nothing to do with it. Here is part of the hateful group email:
“REMEMBER the MUSLIM bombing of Pan Am Flight 103!
REMEMBER the MUSLIM bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993!
REMEMBER the MUSLIM bombing of the Marine Barracks in Lebanon !
REMEMBER the MUSLIM bombing of the military Barracks in Saudi Arabia !
REMEMBER the MUSLIM bombing of the American Embassies in Africa !
REMEMBER the MUSLIM bombing of the USS COLE!
REMEMBER the MUSLIM attack on 9/11/2001 !
REMEMBER all the AMERICAN lives that were lost in those vicious MUSLIM attacks!
REMEMBER to adamantly & vocally BOYCOTT this stamp, when you are purchasing your stamps at the post office.
They (MUSLIMS) don't even believe in Christ, & they're getting their own Christmas stamp! BUT, don't dare to dream of posting the Ten Commandments on federal property! This is truly UNBELIEVABLE !!!”
The folks that spread such hateful lies dare to call themselves patriots.