“The American people never carry an umbrella. They prefer to walk in eternal sunshine.” Al Smith
Al Smith with trademark derby
According to Tanya Basu, writing for Mental Floss,umbrellas were once used almost exclusively by women, and for a man to carry one was considered effeminate. The Chinese invented umbrellas 2,000 years ago to provide shade for rulers’ carriages. Some conspiracy theorists believe a mysterious “Umbrella Man” played a role in JFK’s assassination. Basu provided a logical explanation:
Shortly after noon in Dallas, as President John F. Kennedy’s car drove past Dealey Plaza, a man opened his umbrella and waved it from east to west. Moments later, a shower of gunshots fell from the sky and killed the 35th president of the United States. Why did he have an umbrella? Was he signaling the assassin(s)? Did he have a gun attached to the umbrella that delivered the fatal wounds? These questions were debated for years but never quite answered until Louie Steven Witt appeared before the House Select Committee on Assassinations a decade later to testify about his umbrella, claiming he’d not only been unaware of the brouhaha but that he was simply heckling the President for his father’s role in working with former Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain in appeasing Adolf Hitler before World War II (the effete Chamberlain’s fashion accessory of choice was a black umbrella).
New Yorkercartoonist Carolita Johnson told a National Writers Union reporter that practitioners in her profession were underpaid and struggle to make ends meet:
I’ve had to work nights for a few months at a call center, selling season tickets to the Washington Philharmonic, I think it was. I also earn some of my income trying on clothes for patternmakers—as a junior medium—in Manhattan’s Garment District, which is pretty good work, but I’m getting too old for it, and will soon have to find something else. Anyway, that’s all to say that even the most successful cartoonists at the best publications can’t ever rely on their income from cartooning. Unless they live with their parents or have a rich spouse. As long as I find things funny in life, I’ll sit down and draw cartoons about them, as a matter of desire and habit. I can’t really stop myself until some philanthropic urge possesses me to go dig ditches in a third world country, or feel I can be more useful doing something else. But for now, this is my contribution to the world.
I opened my umbrella walking from the parking lot to IUN’s library. Most students use hoodies to keep rain off their heads. Once notorious for losing umbrellas, I’d sometimes fail to find it at Lost and Found and simply claim another black one. When Al Smith, “The Happy Warrior,” was New York governor during the Roaring Twenties, the outlook was sunny, but the Wall Street Crash was just around the corner, dampening the horizon.
Hatcher (left) debating Jessica Renslow
At bridge, by the time I was hungry for one of Dottie Hart’s chocolate chip cookies, they were all gone. With six full tables, director Alan Yngve employed a straight Mitchell movement. Partners starting North-South remained at the same table and those starting East-West played three hands and then moved. Dee Van Bebber and I finished second among the stationary players to Rich and Sally Will. In the key hand, with 6 Clubs to the Ace nine, I overcalled Alan’s 1 Diamond bid; Janice Custer doubled, expecting Alan to respond, but everyone passed. With a 4-1 split against me, I went down 1 vulnerable for -200 points and second low board, as 4 other East-West pairs made partial scores of 140 or 170. Meanwhile, top board went to the Wills, playing East-West, who bid and made game at 3 No-Trump.
Walter LaFeber farewell lecture before 3,000 people at Cornell, 2006
Historian Walter LaFeber, 86, the country’s foremost diplomatic historian, and supposedly part of the Silent Generation, replied to mention of him in Steel Shavingsvolume 47. I had repeated his remark that “Ours was supposedly the generation that never showed up. But some of us did show up.” I added: “The son of a Walkerton, IN, grocer and a lifelong Cubs, fan, LaFeber treasured a photo of Hall of Famer Ernie Banks inscribed “Keep Going, Walt.” It adorned his Cornell office, along with a sign warning, “Chicago Cubs Fans Parking Only.” LaFeber’s email read: “Many thanks for your writing. It was good of you to remember the so-called Silent Generation. Not as many left anymore, and too many of those who are around are voting for Trump, so that's not exactly bragging about them, I guess. Best wishes, Walt” A New Left revisionist but neither doctrinaire nor an economic determinist, LaFeber wrote two path-breaking books during the 1960s, “The New Empire” and “America, Russia, and the Cold War,” and in 1989 the standard foreign relations textbook, “The American Age.”
Tori with Alissa and T. Haas
Hanging with sister Alissa at the “Study Abroad” booth, on Tori’s freshman orientation day at Grand Valley State University, she took a selfie with popular President Thomas J. Haas, “T. Haas” to students.
Dakota Yorke
Jerry Davich’s column provided an update on transgender Portage graduate Dakota Yorke, a prom queen nominee two years ago. He seemed particularly interested in asking plumbing questions, reporting, for instance, that she has not yet had any surgical or cosmetic procedures. Dakota told him, “Genitalia doesn’t define gender, and I constantly repeat that to myself.” She has been taking hormone treatments, in part to augment her breasts but told Davich, “Unfortunately I haven’t really seen any growth.” Explaining that she has been dating men and exploring her sexuality, Dakota added: “How are you going to know what you’re into if you don’t try?”
Bakker brothers; Post-Tribune photo by Kyle Telechan
Camelia Murry; Post-Tribune photo by Kyle Telethon
Among the 778 students graduating from IUN were three brothers from Cedar Lake, Dakota, Dyllan, and Dustin Bakker. Camelia Murry, 29, who was awarded a master’s degree in social work and hopes to be a school counselor, wore a cap containing family photos and this message: “I did it 4 my boys.”
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