Vice

“Vice president – it has such a nice ring to it.” Geraldine Ferraro, 1984 Vice Presidential candidate“

After reading four-star reviews of “Vice,” starring Christian Bale and Amy Adams as Dick and Lynne Cheney, I decided to go see it.  When I arrived at Portage 16, I noticed to my surprise that “Green Book,” which had previously come and gone after just one week, was also playing.  It started ten minutes after “Vice,” so figured that I could always change theaters after a few minutes if I decided to but soon discovered the theater no longer posts where the films are playing. Evidently a theater-hopper recently got detained and turned over to police, but as a soon-to-be 77-year-old, I’m sure I could weasel out of any difficulty claiming confusion upon realizing “Vice” was not an update of Miami Vice,my favorite Eighties TV show.

The acting was spot-on, with Sam Rockwell and Steve Carell stunning as George W. Bush and Donald Rumsfeld, but I was somewhat disappointed that “Vice” provided few insights about the most powerful and dangerous vice president in American history. It glossed over the fact that Cheney made millions as CEO of Halliburton and that the company made obscene profits from governmental contracts during the Iraq War, which Cheney pushed the country into.  I already knew about director Adam McKay employing such unorthodox gimmicks as rolling the credits prematurely and including a surrealistic bedroom scene where Dick and Lynne recite lines from Shakespeare.  It begins showing Cheney as a 22 year-old Yale dropout with a drinking problem and concludes with daughter Liz becoming Wyoming’s lone House member after denouncing gay marriage despite her lesbian sister Mary being wed to a woman. 

Cheney’s main vice, according to the movie, was a total absence of humility or self-doubt. He seemed to feel no need to apologize for anything, whether shooting a friend while hunting or ordering the incarceration and torture of Muslims in some cases only indirectly connected to those who carried out the 9/11/01 attacks.  In the movie’s final scene Cheney, facing a reporter’s camera, utters a statement eerily similar to a line in Shakespeare’s Richard III: “I can feel your incriminations and your judgment, and I am fine with that.”  Washington Postmovie critic Ann Hornaday wrote:

  Structurally, “Vice” is a mess, zigging here and zagging there, never knowing quite when to end, and when it finally does, leaving few penetrating or genuinely illuminating ideas to ponder. . . . The historical long game, with all its ambiguities and unforeseen consequences, isn’t as compelling to director Adam McKay as delivering as many kitschy, cartoonish parting shots as he can to someone who even today seems both pathologically self-serving and supremely indifferent to being liked.

 George and Ruth Leach with cousin

Electrical Engineers swept three games from Pin Chasers, the first place team that two weeks before had skunked us during position round. I rolled a 481, well above my 143 average, without many strikes, but I picked up most spares, including the 3-9 twice, usually a tough one for me.  On a 6-7-10 split I threw my 40-year-old “spare” ball exactly as needed but the 6-pin stopped within an inch of the 7.  Mel Nelson pulled something in his upper arm at the beginning of game two, so we had to bowl the last two games with a ten-pin penalty.  Opponent George Leach’s name was on a list of recent 300 bowlers.  He told me that he had a perfect game 30 years ago and again last month with the same ball. Marie Roscoe’s granddaughter’s boyfriend, a bowler, came to give her tips.  She tended to leave the seven-pin on pocket hits.  

Dave’s family was at the condo playing a dice bowling game, having helped Toni put away the Christmas tree and decorations. After calling captain Frank Shufran to report bowling highlights, I joined them for a Piglet dice game. I finished dead last, prematurely “pigging out” too many times.  For dinner Toni served spaghetti, meatballs, angel hair, salad, garlic bread and scallops.  A feast! 

Rolling Stone’s “Year in Music” issue arrived with Travis Scott (above) on the cover.  I asked Tamiya what she thought of Scott Travis, our private joke ever since I mistakenly referred to Kendrick Lamar as Lamar Kendrick.  She told me to check out J-Cole.  The year’s top five albums were all by females led by Carli B and followed by Kacey Musgrave, Camila Cabello, Adriana Grande, and Pistol Annies (Miranda Lambert, Ashley Monroe, and Angaleena Presley).  Overkill for past slights, perhaps?  Beginning with Scott and Drake, rappers by far outnumbered rockers although Kurt Vile’s “Bottle It In” was #9.  Also making the top 25 were worthy albums by John Prine, Paul McCartney, and Beach House.

As Philadelphia and Chicago faced off on the gridiron, I was rooting for the Eagles but wouldn’t have been too disappointed had the Bears advanced in the NFL playoffs. It all came down to a 43-yard field goal attempt by Cody Parkey, who had endured a mediocre season, missing eight 3-point attempts and three extra points.  Against Detroit he had hit the goal post upright several times.  Unbelievably, he did it again, not only plunking the upright but then dropping down to the crossbar and bouncing back into the end zone. On TV Chris Collingworth called it a “Double doink.”  A Philadelphia newspaper headline read, “Clanks for the Memory.” Parkey said afterwards, “You can’t make this up.  I feel terrible.  I let the team down.  That’s on me. I have to own it.  I have to be a man.  Unfortunately, that’s the way it went today.”  The fickle finger of fate, as Sixties comedian Dick Martin would say on “Laugh-In.” Eagle Treyvon Hester evidently got a couple fingers on the ball, but pundits were making comparisons to such infamous Chicago sports moments as Leon Durham’s miscue in the final game of 1984 NL playoffs and Cub fan Steve Bartman interfering with a catchable foul ball in 2003.  It reminded me of Buffalo Bills kicker Scott Norwood missing a 47-yard attempt (“Wide right!”the announcer famously exclaimed) on the final play of Super Bowl XXV against the Giants in 1991.

Last week Becca’s Chesterton choral group sang the National Anthem at Valparaiso University’s Missouri Valley Conference opener against Illinois State.  At the game Allison Schuette (above) was honored for winning VU's Faculty Research award. The following morning on the CBS morning news was a clip of a miracle buzzer-beating half-court shot by VU’s Markus Golder, which won the game for the Crusaders, 58-56.

Before leaving for IUN I stocked the downstairs fridge with beer and grabbed my satchel, an empty Yuengling bottle, and a pair of slacks on a hanger.  Halfway up the stairs I somehow stepped on the slacks, stopped to rearrange them, and grabbed the bannister as I began to lose my balance and possibly fall backward.  Close call! Near my library carrel three students were at a table where I normally put down my stuff to unlock the door.  A young coed confirmed it was her first day of the semester but didn’t seem very excited.  I asked if she had any History courses; she was taking Western Civilization with David Parnell.  I raved about him, but sadly its online, so she won't see him in action in the classroom.

I thought I had cleaned out my Archives cage, but Steve found a few interesting items, including some ancient floppy disks and steelworker W.P. Cottingham’s 1943 work diary (quite fascinating, including weather reports and time left for home) that Steve returned to its rightful collection.

Joe Louis and Ann Gregory 

Traces editor Ray Boomhower is interested in publishing my article on Joe Louis in Gary and wants photos for it.  I sent him of the heavyweight champ at a Gary Par-Makers golf tournament and another of Louis with Gary golf great Ann Gregory, who supposedly said as she paid her whites-only South Gleason green fee: “I want to play the big course.  My tax money helps pay for this course. If you don’t like it, send the police out to get me.”  She got some angry stares, but nobody stopped her.  The Archives also had one of North Gleason Park pavilion in 1953, where the nine-hole course was located, and another of the North Gleason clubhouse at present, which Indiana Landmarks is attempting to save.  

I got a phone call from Douglas Dixon, author of a Traces article about the Campos family that settled in southern Indiana, which I wrote about on my blog.  He pointed out that I misspelled the Spanish word for road or route - “La Via” as La Vie.” I promised to correct it, and we went on to talk for 20 minutes.  He praised my book (with Edward Escobar) “Forging a Community” and upon learning I was co-director of the Calumet Regional Archives recognized it as the source for several photos used to illustrate his article. The former IU student asked me to review a manuscript about IU diplomatic historian Robert Ferrell. I told him about my friend David Malham being in his class and pronouncing Valparaiso, Chili like the Indiana city (with the third syllable like an “a” rather than an “i”), causing Ferrell to ridicule him. 

A Facebook post by Steve Spicer began: “Did you know that Miller Beach was the site of the first ‘Miss Indiana’ pageant? Or had the first radio station in the region? Or the St Mary of the Lake congregation got its start in a ballroom?”  His website contained information on Gay-Mills (short for Gary and Miller) ballroom, founded in 1922 by Frances Kennedy, a vaudeville comedienne, and husband Thomas, and for a decade the venue for dance bands, prize fights, beauty contests, and the Region’s first radio station, WJKS (“Where Joy Kills Sorrow”). One person recalled that a host watched to make sure couples weren’t dancing too close together and forbade anyone from doing “The Shimmy.”

At bridge I learned that former partner Dee VanBebber passed away over the weekend at age 89.  Daughter Lissa informed the Times: 

She loved her family dearly and rallied for one last, great gathering at the home of her sister Nanette (Jerry) Rushton where she delighted in the company of her other siblings Michael (Gloria) Davis and Daneeta (Arvin) Phelps. Also present were her children Lissa (Tom) Yogan, Bill (Tina) VanBebber and Jim VanBebber. She was the loving grandmother of Justin VanBebber, Billy Yogan, Rylee Yogan, and Maria Yogan who were also present at the Christmas gathering. Dee was a high school teacher and girls' golf coach in Greenville, OH and was known affectionately as 'mom' by many of her students. She continued teaching after moving to Crystal River, FL when her husband sold his jewelry store. She loved playing bridge and golf and excelled at both.

Dee was a class act and great conversationalist as well as a very skilled bridge player who never faulted partners for low boards. A Tampa Bay fan, she harbored a grudge against manager Joe Madden for abandoning the Devil Rays in favor of the Cubs.  Either Chuck and Marcy Tomes or Tom and Lori Rea brought her to games, and she had 70 percent scores with several of us.  Her ashes will be spread at her favorite golf courses in Ohio and Florida.