Dilly Dilly

  “What is this?”

  “This is a spiced honey wine that I’ve been really into lately.  So, dilly dilly, right?

  “Please follow Sir Brad.  He’s going to give you a private tour of the pit of misery.”

         Bud Light TV ad

Of all the commercials that aired during the NFL playoffs over the weekend, Bud Light’s 45-second “Dilly Dilly” spot ranked among the silliest; but it also has become one of the most popular, with several million YouTube hits.  “Dilly Dilly” threatens to join the Seinfeld “yada yada yada” phrase, meaning “blah blah blah,” in common usage, in this case as a statement of approval.  Webster’s actually defines “dilly” as meaning delightful.  Hearing “Dilly Dilly” reminds me of the silly Burl Ives song “Lavender Blue,” which begins:

Lavender blue, dilly, dilly
Lavender green
If I were king, dilly, dilly
I'd need a queen

In our troubled times, with such a dangerous demagogue occupying the White House, maybe a little silliness is called for.  Trump’s latest repulsive statement referred to Central American and African nations as “shithole countries” and expressed regret that more immigrants weren’t from places like Norway.   Sports is a great diversion, and both the Eagles and the Vikings won nail biters to set up an NFC championship showdown that this Philadelphia fan is certain to watch.

On Meet the Press, New York Times correspondent Helene Cooper responded to Trump’s statement about shithole African nations in this manner:

This country has always been seen as a nation of immigrants. And I'm one of them, coming from Liberia, which I guess would qualify for one of those African countries that President Trump disparaged. What I find really upsetting about this is that for so many years, I felt like such a proud American, like this is my country. When my family left Liberia when I was 14, we could have gone anywhere. But I would never have gotten to the point that I got in my life if we had gone somewhere other than the United States.  And that has always made me proud of this country: that you can come to with nothing and make something of yourself. And I feel like we're starting to lose that. And I can't begin to describe just how upsetting that can be personally, but also just how much damage that can do to the United States around the world and how other people look at us.

Also on Meet the Press: former U.N Ambassador and Atlanta mayor Andrew Young.  Asked by Chuck Todd whether he considered Trump a racist, Young replied:

I’m of the opinion that we were born in a very complex, multicultural situation. I prefer to use the term ethnocentrism because it goes way back and it doesn't help to put the label on any single person.  Martin Luther King said that nothing is more dangerous in all the world than sincere ignorance and enthusiastic stupidity.  And I think that could be applied to both parties and just about every member of the House of Representatives, that we don't really grasp the complexity of the times that we're in. And we're trying to simplify it and personalize it. And that will not work.  

When Todd asked if he thought Trump at age 71 was capable of change and redeemable, Young said:

Let me tell you something. I'm a Christian. And if we were not redeemable, we would not be committed to our Lord and savior Jesus Christ as much as we are. We are committed because we are sinners and know we cannot make it on our own. And I think he's kinda got to realize that too.

At the Archives last week, Amherst senior Max Steinhorn was researching Gary voters who supported George C. Wallace in the 1964 Democratic primary, when the Alabama governor carried every white precinct in the city, and, to a lesser degree, in 1968, when he was a third party presidential candidate.  I showed him my Sixties Steel Shavings and L.H. Whittemore’s “Together: A Reporter’s Journey into the New Black Politics” (1971). Wallace railed against “limousine liberals” who ignored white ethnic workers and forced inner city desegregation while sending their own kids to exclusive private schools.

Post-Tribune photo by Zbigniew Bzdak

Weather has caused traffic nightmares.  One day after an ice storm, a utility pole snapped, and a power line fell across 80/94 in Gary near Chase Street, blocking all lanes in both directions for hours. A sign warned me of the problem in time to exit at Route 249.  Some 5,000 Hammond residents lost power.  A few days later, ours went out for six hours. I did get to bowling and rolled my first 500 series of the season with games of 191, 144, and 171 in a losing effort to Just Do It Again.  Nearby, 81-year-old Gene Clifford had a 637 series.  When I congratulated him, he said, “Every dog has its day.” 

Becka’s Chesterton show choir performance went off as scheduled despite the threat of lake effect snow. So did bridge at the condo with the Hagelbergs, Barnes, and Herb and Evelyn Passo, in our group a quarter-century ago.

Becka and fans

I met Anne Balay at Flamingo’s in Miller prior to a gathering at Beach Café to celebrate the life and legacy of Jan Gentry, one of the 40 LGBT steelworkers featured in Balay’s “Steel Closets.”  Anne attended her funeral in a western Pennsylvania coal town and stressed how important Jan had been as a source for her path-breaking book. Anne asked me to participate in a roundtable discussion at October’s Oral History Association conference in Montreal entitled “Talking to strangers: teaching ethical Oral History Methods to undergraduates.”  Most participants are interested in marginalized groups – in Anne’s case, LGBT workers.  I suggested she ask Donald Ritchie, author of the popular primer “Doing Oral History,” to chair the session. My contribution will be to emphasize that interviews should be, in the words of historian Michael Frisch, a shared experience and that the goal should be “eureka moments” when both participants gain new insights.  It’s important that the interviewer believe in the importance of the task and, secondly, not discuss the content in detail beforehand with the subject.

My all-time favorite student Shannon Pontney’s brother Ricky died at age 35.  His father Rich Sr. passed away several years ago after falling and hitting his head.  He and wife Audrey once went with us to a Henry Farag’s Oldies concert with Dion as headliner.  Shannon and sister Megan were fans of Voodoo Chili.  The band learned “Don’t Change” expressly because Shannon was an INXS fan.  Ricky’s death is a real tragedy.  Shannon wrote:

My baby brother: I smelled your sweatshirt today that you wore a day before you died. It still smells like you. I just wish you were here with us. Mom misses you like crazy. She will forever be filled with pain. She will miss your company. I will miss you calling me Shanny and hugging me and laughing with me when I was in Hobart. I will miss your help on March Madness soon too! I wish I could just rewind time.

I almost went to the memorial service for Ricky but couldn’t bear to face the family.  Instead I put on The War on Drugs and listened to “Pain.” Here’s the chorus:

I've been pulling on a wire, but it just won't break
I've been turning up the dial, but I hear no sound
I resist what I cannot change
And I wanna find what can't be found

“Pain” made Robert Blaskiewicz’s “Best of 2017” CD, along with favorites “Can I Sit Next to You?” by Spoon and “Whiteout Conditions” by the new Pornographers, along with a bunch of good songs I hadn’t heard before.  Robert wrote: “It’s been a year of trying to find our bearings in the world, and a lot of songs here speak to that.”  The first selection, “Quiet” by MILCK, is a call for women to be true to themselves.

Tom Eaton, more than twice Ricky Pontney’s age, also passed away after having been stricken with cancer.  His beloved companion and bridge partner Pat Cronin told me that Tom spent his last days in a hospice, where the staff did all they could to make him comfortable.  Like me, he was a big Gary high school basketball fan.  Until recently, he made yearly visits to Paris and Rio; when Phil and I flew to Brazil for an International Oral History Association conference, Tom briefed me on what to expect and how to get around in Rio.  During the World Cup we both rooted for the Brazilians.  A leader in the Miller Citizens Corporation, gourmet cook, gardener, and collector of art produced locally, he was a true friend and sweetheart.

January 16 was Toni and my fifty-third wedding anniversary.  I mentioned to Becka and Angie, who spent the night due to heavy lake effect, that it snowed in Philadelphia the day of our wedding at St. Adalbert’s and that we took off cross-country in a VW the next day en route to California and, ultimately, Hawaii.

Federal District Court Judge James Moody sentenced 72-year-old former Lake County sheriff John Buncich to 15 years and 8 months in prison and fined him $250,000 for supposedly pocketing approximately a tenth of that amount in order to recoup campaign expenses.  After lecturing Buncich about his “shameful” conduct, he was immediately taken away in handcuffs.  During the sentencing hearing Buncich declared: “This is the darkest day of my life.”   I'm no fan of Buncich, but he got penalized for refusing to plea bargain and insisting that he promised nothing to towing companies who made campaign contributions to him and therefore had committed no crime.  His deputy who actually collected the money and copped a plea will likely get off virtually scot free.

Carolyn Potasnik

Barb Walczak’s Newsletter mentioned Dee Van Bebber and my 70.83% game and quoted my bridge partner as saying, “Jim is quite a gentleman, a very nice partner who does not criticize, and that’s always appreciated.”  Honored for becoming a bronze life master, Carolyn Potasnik told Walczak that her mother and uncle were great players and that she learned bridge while in high school:

My friends and I would meet at someone’s house after school and play bridge usually in the kitchen, hence the term “kitchen bridge.”  At college in Bloomington after dinner you would inevitably hear someone call, “Fourth for bridge.”  In Indianapolis at the medical center we played for one twentieth of a cent per point. Then at home I played in several bridge clubs. When I was introduced to duplicate, I was excited and loved the challenge.

During a Senate hearing 83-year-old Utah senator Orrin Hatch was caught removing a pair of nonexistent glasses.  Late night hosts had a field day, and a video of the incident has gone viral.  After he made the gesture, he made a motion as if putting down the imaginary spectacles.

 Deb and Jim Reha

My practice has been to reread Christmas cards when Toni removes them from the front of the China closet.  We have been exchanging Holiday greetingss with Deb and Jim Reha, one of my first students, ever since the 1970s, when he started teaching in Michigan. Once, in my evening Diplomatic History course, he ordered a pizza to be delivered to my classroom.  This year Deb wrote on their card: “Jim loves working for the Saginaw Valley Naval Maritime Museum.  Who ever thought an old army guy would find so much joy on board a navy destroyer.”