Strong Women

 “Tomorrow is my turn
No more doubts no more fears
Tomorrow is my turn
When my luck is returning
All these years I've been learning to save fingers from burning
Tomorrow is my turn”

    Nina Simone, “Tomorrow Is My Turn

Joe Biden fulfilled a pledge to select a strong woman as his running mate by choosing California Senator Kamala Harris, and former district attorney, attorney-general, and rival for the Presidential nomination. In typical dismissive style, POTUS called Harris nasty and inconsistently branded her a radical leftist who will disappoint Bernie Sanders supporters.  He even resurrected the racist “Birther” argument maliciously deployed against Obama even though Harris was born in Oakland, California.  Eric Trump retweeted a misogynist calling the choice “a whorendous pick” and a Trump spokesperson sniped that Harris sounded like Marge Simpson.  Initially I had hoped for Amy Klobuchar but am rapidly warming to the choice.  She’s been thoroughly vetted and Biden is comfortable working closely with her.  Her biography is inspiring, the daughter of an Indian and Bahamian immigrant scholars who met at Berkeley through their involvement in civil rights issues. Valparaiso councilman Rob Cotton wrote: “A vital characteristic of authentic leadership is evident in what Joe Biden said. Something to this effect, ‘I asked Kamala to promise me that she'd always be the last person in the room. To ask me the tough questions, to challenge my perspective, and freely offer your own without fear of disagreeing with me.’”  Ray Smock believes Kamala Harris is the most significant VP pick since a critically ill FDR selected Harry S Truman in 1944. 

 

Recent TV watching includes the Clint Eastwood film “Richard Jewell,” about a security guard wrongly accused by the FBI and press of planting the bomb during the 1996 Olympics at Atlanta’s Centennial Park. The title character was grossly overweight, lived with his mother (played fetchingly by Kathy Bates), was overly zealous, and naïve about the forces arrayed against him. The only sour note was an exaggerated, sexist depiction of reporter Kathy Scruggs as one who would do anything to break a story, including sleeping with sources.  In real life both the victim and Scruggs died young but in Jewell’s case not before learning of the 2003 confession of terrorist Eric Rudolph, an anti-abortion militant who also bombed two health clinics and a gay bar.  Similarly, the biopic “Judy” shows how child actor Judy Garland was a victim of Hollywood moguls forcing pills on her (uppers and downers) and holding her to a ruinous diet while she played Dorothy in “The Wizard of Oz” – leading to a lifetime of addiction and sleep disorders.

 

I enjoyed the HBO “Perry Mason” mini-series starring Matthew Rhys, who shined on the long-running series “The Americans.”  The original CBS “Perry Mason,” debuting in 1957 and starring Raymond Burr, played a role in my wanting to become a lawyer.  It was based on crime fiction stories by prolific Erle Stanley Gardner, who published hundreds of books, including 70 about Perry Mason, beginning in the mid-30s.  The 60-minute shows climaxed with Mason out-dueling prosecutor Hamilton Berger, often with a confession from the stand. In the mini-series Mason starts out as a private investigator, secretary Della Street saves the day, and African-American Chris Chalk plays investigator Paul Drake while William Hopper (son of gossip columnist Hedda Hopper) assumed the role in the original.

 

IUN student Iris Contreras with Helen Boothe

Feisty bridge buddy Helen Boothe sent this letter to the Chesterton Tribune:

    Since the flat earthers are still refusing to wear masks, perhaps we can persuade them to wear their “Trump” arm bands, so we will know from whom we must keep social distancing

 

Ray Boomhower cited turn-of-the-century novelist Edith Wharton (1862-1937), author of “The House of Mirth” (1905), “Ethan Frome” (1911), and “The Age of Innocence” (1920): “The true felicity of a lover of books is the luxurious turning of page by page, the surrender, not meanly abject, but deliberate and cautious, with your wits about you, as you deliver yourself into the keeping of the book. This I call reading.”  A bisexual whose childhood nickname was Pussy and who engaged in lesbian affairs with Janet Flanner and Theodore Roosevelt’s sister Corrine, Wharton was the first woman Pulitzer Prize recipient.

 

Anne Koehler (right, in younger days) wrote of being unfamiliar with pop, folk or other culture when she and her husband came to America from Germany six decades ago. She recalled:

    I picked up a booklet "Folk Music USA" in Chicago and gradually came to know the people featured in it through their music. On WMFT Studs Terkel interviewed people from all walks of life. On Saturday night we did not miss the "Midnight Special,” a program of folk music and satire. On New Year's Eve they would pull out all the stops. Linda Anderson would bring many good programs and entertainers on campus at IU Northwest and it was through one of these that I got to hear Peggy Seeger In the 1990s IUN professor Ronald Cohen organized a folk music conference at Indiana University in Bloomington, which my family attended. We slept in dorm rooms.

 

After Toni and I played bridge online with Charlie Halberstadt and Naomi Goodman, it being a beautiful evening, the four of us decided to dine outside at Wagner’s Rib Restaurant in Porter, only we discovered upon arrival that it was closed. A staff member, it turned out, had tested positive for the coronavirus. Charlie suggested the Village Tavern, where I had attended several annual reunions of our Seventies Porter Acres softball team.  Inside, I recalled, was so heavy with cigarette smoke that I stripped and showered as soon as I got home. We arrived wearing masks and found an outdoor table; the only others donning masks were the waitresses.  When a guy who arrived on a motorcycle wearing a holstered sidearm asked one why she had it on, she replied that it beat being out of work. My hamburger and fries were delicious and the 20-ounce Yuengling refreshingly cold.  It was the first time Toni and I dined out since March.

Charlie and Naomi on right

Nina Simone

Charlie Halberstadt gave me a dozen CDs that he hadn’t played in years and intended to get rid of one way or another.  He had shown me a list of almost 200, mostly jazz, and I opted for Ramsey Lewis performing “The In Crowd” and several Nina Simone albums.  Born into a poor North Carolina family in 1933, probably the worst year of the Great Depression, Simone was a prodigy on the piano and won a scholarship to the Julliard School of Music in New York City.  Her vocal career took off with the George Gershwin song “I Loves You, Porgy.”  In 1963, at the height of her fame, she recorded “Mississippi Goddam” in reaction to the assassination of NAACP leader Medgar Evers. In retaliation, Simone claimed, the IRS and FBI hounded her for a decade.  A fixture at civil rights events, in 1969 she recorded “To Be Young, Gifted, and Black.” She titled her 1992 autobiography, “I Put a Spell on You,” after her trademark ballad.


While on a bicycle ride along Route 12, Photographer Martha Bohn detoured to take some great shots of Beverly Shores vistas.

Historic Marker

“We were the pioneer.  Ours was IU’s first major building program.  President Herman Wells insisted that Gary main have a full[-scale auditorium.  At the dedication a play was performed by a cast from Bloomington.” Acting Director William M. Neil

I spoke at a dedication ceremony for the unveiling of a Tamarack Hall historic marker at the site of IUN’s first Glen Park building, known as Gary Main when I arrived in 1970.  Archivist Steve McShane, who nominated Tamarack Hall for the honor and helped write the inscription, presided. The program commenced with Northwest Indiana ROTC cadets posting the colors.  Steve’s welcome statement quoted Bill Neil labeling the new facility a “cultural catalyst” for the Region.  There were brief remarks by Chancellor William Lowe, Faculty Org president Susan Zinner, and IU University Historian James H. Capshew, who noted that IU “extension” courses in Gary began a century ago and that many Glen Park residents opposed bequeathing 26.5 acres of Gleason Park to Indiana University – although he did not bring up the primary reason, fear that it might lead to the arrival of “riff raff” (i.e., blacks) into the segregated community.

 James Capshew at dedication; below, Lowe flanked by SGA President, Laila Nawab and Sue Zinner; 

photos by Tome Trajkovski

In my five-minute talk I recalled Garrett Cope’s children plays that drew thousands to the campus and  summer musicals that Phil and Dave acted in, including “Finian’s Rainbow” and “Hello, Dolly.” I mentioned teaching in Room 93, which held up to 200 students and Faculty Org meetings there listening to Leslie Singer, Jack Gruenenfelder, and Bill Reilly, who frequently employed Latin phrases. In the lounge adjacent to the History Department, I recalled, George Roberts and I met Birch Bayh at a Young Democrats function and the History department held a memorial service for Rhiman Rotz, then planted a tree nearby in his honor.  I told of rescuing Arredondo family photos from my office during the 2008 flood and the annual spring bug infestations.

I helped myself to a sandwich, salad, and cookie embossed with the cream and crimson IU logo.  Business professor Ranjan Kini reminded me that Gary Rotary met in the Blue Lounge, thanks to the efforts of administrator Bill May.  Chancellor Lowe commented on my “Toadies and Bugs” speech, and Gary Chamber of Commerce director Chuck Hughes vowed to ask me back as a speaker.  The impressive turnout included historians Chris Young, David Parnell, and Jonathyne Briggs.  IU Historian James Capshew praised Paul Kern and my history of IUN, “Educating the Calumet Region,” and promised to help secure that an appointment of Steve McShane’s successor prior to his retirement.  Aaron Pigors, sporting an impressive beard, noticed me in the short documentary about Tamarack making the rounds online.  It also features Garrett Cope and Lori Montalbano, a student at IUN and then a Communication professor.

Aaron Pigors

Charlie Halberstadt and I finished first among the North-South couples in the Third Quarter Chesterton Club duplicate bridge championship, scoring  66.22% and garnering 1.75 master points each.  Sally and Rich Will did even better (67.78%) as the top East-West couple.  Beforehand, director Alan Yngve’s lesson was based on not pushing opponents to game unless prepared to double the contract.  I did exactly that on the very first hand, resulting in a high board.  Terry Bauer bravely wore a Cubs shirt even though the Cubbies are mired in a nine-game losing streak. Next day at Banta Center I learned that Ric Freidman’s uncle had been a tennis pro and tournament director in the Catskills and once disqualified young John McEnroe for bad behavior.  Afterwards, McEnroe’s dad thanked him and hoped it would teach the brat a lesson.  Fat chance. Through the uncle Ric got free tickets to a U.S. Open won by Althea Gipson.  I told him I once saw tennis great Vic Seixas play a Davis Cup match against Italian champ Nicola Peitrangeli at Philadelphia Cricket Club.

      Vic Seixas and Nicola Peitrangeli     

The Ken Burns “Country Music” episode on the 1930s opens with the Mavis Staples gospel number “Hard Times (Come Again No More)" written by Stephen Foster in the mid-1850s.  Its concluding lines:

'Tis a sigh that is wafted across the troubled wave,
'Tis a wail that is heard upon the shore
'Tis a dirge that is murmured around the lowly grave
Oh! Hard times come again no more.

Burns highlighted the film career of Gene Autry, the “singing cowboy” whose popularity spawned a hundred imitators, including Tex Ritter and Roy Rogers, real name Leonard Slye, who sang in The Sons of the Pioneers and appeared in an Autry movie before becoming a box office attraction rivaling his mentor.  After distinguished service during World War II flying cargo planes over the Himalayas to China, Autry had a successful TV series in the 1950s whose theme song was the Autry hit “Back in the Saddle Again.”  In the 1960s the “Singing Cowboy,” whose yodeling style imitated country legend Jimmie Rodgers, became owner of the California Angels.  When the team won their first (and only) World Series in 2002, four years after Autry died at age 91, strains of “Back in the Saddle Again” came over the public address system.

A whistleblower has exposed Trump’s attempt to coerce Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky into gathering dirt on former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter, on the board of Burisma, a Ukrainian gas company, by holding up military aid approved by Congress in an attempt to besmirch the Democratic Presidential frontrunner.  He wants to run against Elizabeth Warren, which he has accused of being a socialist – and worse. Trump once claimed he could shoot somebody in the middle of New York’s Fifth Avenue and not lose his base.  Now he’s convinced the entire Republican Party is beholden to him. We will see – I’m not holding my breath that much will change prior to the 2020 election.  I still think Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar has the best chance to beat him. 

Bowling teammate Ron Smith greeted me with the Bugs Bunny refrain, “What’s up, doc?”  When an opponent made light of the whistleblower hearings on TV, Smith ridiculed Trump’s contention that he’d had a “perfect” telephone conversion with the Ukrainian president.  Joe Piunti was the only Engineer to bowl above average, but we took two games from Frank’s Gang despite Mike Reed’s 570 series.

Discussing our upcoming oral history conference “Flight Paths” session in Salt Lake City, I alerted Liz Wuerffel and Allison Schuette that the audience will question them about the validity of their narrators’ recollections of leaving Gary during the Sixties.  Most describe a dramatic racial “breaking point” (a home invasion, their kids’ accosted, a brick through a window) that precipitated the decision while downplaying other push and pull factors. Distorted negative images of Mayor Richard Hatcher often play a prominent role in these narratives.

Despite my proposed talk, “A Queer History of IU Northwest” having been rejected, as anticipated, I attended the two-and-a half-hour “Celebration of Faculty Research” hosted by Assistant Vice Chancellor Cynthia O’Dell.  I ran into Pat Bankston entering the A and S theater, whom I had sat next to the day before.  “If we sit together again, people will start talking,” I joked. Dean Mark Hoyert was in charge of the clock warning speakers when their time was up.  The program got off to a great start with Bill Allegrezza reciting nine poems within his allotted eight minutes.  One began, “I grew up dreaming of a post-earth people.”  Another based on recurrent dreams of wrestling with a water buffalo concludes, “But I didn’t let go, as I should, as we all should.” One written after getting divorced about his daughter coming to him with a broken toy ends: “Some things, once ruptured, are broken forever.”

Subir Bandyopadhyay showed excerpts of a an IUN digital scrapbook  featuring photos and film from the Calumet Regional Archives and narrated by Steve McShane. Monica Solinas-Saunders spoke movingly about the mounting numbers of women being incarcerated, most the victims of abuse, mentally scarred and drug offenders.  A prisoner Monica worked with recently took her own life during a weekend furlough.  “Our circle was broken,” she concluded. Mark Baer told of being part of the Gary Shakespeare Company, which stages plays throughout the Region. Showing a photo from Macbeth, he joked that his Theater students are familiar with his expression. 

Youthful-looking Biology professor Ming Gao claimed that the DNA of humans and fruit flies are 77% identical and their germ cells a fruitful field of study. It’s always a treat witnessing Spencer Cortwright’s enthusiasm, whether about frogs and salamanders or efforts to preserve the Region’s natural habitat – dunes and swale, oak savanna, and tall grass prairie. Yllka Azemi explained marketing strategies to attract lifelong customers to Gary businesses.  Cara Lewis discussed her upcoming book, “Dynamic Form: How Intermediality Made Modernism,” and described the 1920s cross-fertilization between visual artists and writers. 

At the reception I spoke with IUN Fine Arts student Casey King, whose work I had highlighted in the lastSteel Shavings issue.  His father owned a sign business and Casey is interested in an area sign in front of a Frank-N-Stein Restaurant where 12 and 20 come together west of Miller, a popular hangout during Gary’s heyday.  Inquiring where he could get more information,  I suggested consulting Gary city directories in the Archives and contacting realtor Gene Ayers.  Dr. Surekha Rao appreciated my mentioning Garrett Cope during the Historic Marker dedication.  When she and her husband, Computer Information Systems chair Bhaskara Kopparty (who remembered James from IUN summer STEM camp), first started teaching at IUN Garrett took them on a tour of the area and made them feel welcome.  Chris Young appreciated my memories of Rhiman Rotz and asked the location of the tree planted in his honor.  His most vivid memory of Tamarack Hall during its last days was his books becoming moldy after a month in his office near the overgrown west wing courtyard.  I told Dean Mark Hoyert, a fellow Marylander, that I missed his introductions of new Arts and Sciences faculty at Faculty Org September meetings.  Recently, he told me, he’d learned that a new English professor had been struck by lightning and had the audiences in stitches describing its probable effect. I brought up Herman Feldman, who hired him, and he mentioned taking off an earring and getting a haircut before the interview.

A Good Jolly

“A good jolly is worth what you pay for it.” George Ade

Ray Boomhower’s “Indiana Originals” contains a chapter on Hoosier’s “warm-hearted satirist” George Ade, mentor to both acerbic Jean Shepherd and fantasist Kurt Vonnegut.  Following in the footsteps of Mark Twain, Ade wrote humorous columns and books about everyday Americans.  His “Fables in Song” bore a resemblance to Shepherd’s semi-fictional tales of the Calumet Regional and certain characters that appear in Vonnegut’s novels.  Like Progressive urban reformer Jacob A, Riis, Ade’s writing career began as a beat reporter for a big city newspaper, in his case the Chicago Morning News.Riis’s big break was scoring a scoop covering a New York City fire.  Ade was the first reporter on the scene following an explosion on the steamer Tioga on the Chicago River on July 11, 1890, caused by naphtha vapor and resulting in at least 26 deaths. 

Boomhower referenced Jazz Age songwriter Hoagland “Hoagy” Carmichael’s autobiography “Sometimes I Wonder,” the first line of Carmichael’s classic “Stardust.”  Born in Bloomington, Carmichael was named for a circus troupe that stayed at his parents’ home during his mother Lida’s pregnancy.  Lida, whom Hoagy was much closer to than his dad, an electrician, played the piano at home in preparation for dances on the campus of Indiana University as well as at local movie houses.  Carmicael’s mentors included black pianist Reginald DuValle and Bix Beiderbecke (he named a son Hoagy Bix).  In “Indiana Avenue and Beyond,” a history of jazz in Indiana, DuValle’s son, Reginald Jr., recalled that when Hoagy was a young aspiring jazz pianist, he’d sit on their front porch in Indianapolis and listen to his father practicing until he was finally invited in to take lessons. From DuValle Hoagie learned how to improvise and play stride. In turn, once he became famous, Hoagy he would frequently visit the DuValle family when passing through Indianapolis.Carmichael’s repertoire of popular standards included “Up the Lazy River,” “Georgia on My Mind,” “Heart and Soul,” and “The Nearness of You.” He died at age 82 in Rancho Mirage, California.

 son Hoagy Bix with Annie Lennox

At duplicate bridge in Chesterton Charlie Halberstadt and I finished in first place with 62.5 percent, earning each of us .90 of a master point.  Our best hand came when Charlie overcalled a Club by bidding one Diamond.  The opponent to my right bid a Spade, and I passed, having just six points but six Hearts to the Ace Queen.  When Charlie bid 2 Hearts, I jumped to 4 Hearts, causing Charlie to exclaim, “I woke him up.”  He made the bid on the nose, and we were the only pair to be in game. Charlie asked Dottie Hart for the recipe for her snickerdoodle cookies, only he butchered the four-syllable name, causing a caustic rejoinder from the cool octogenarian.  

 John and Karen Fieldhouse in 2016

Next day at Banta Center Charlie and I finished third, scoring 55 percent sitting north-south in a six-table match.  I told John Fieldhouse, who was a chemist for Firestone Tire and Rubber Company in Akron, Ohio, that my father had been an industrial chemist for Penn Salt (later Pennwalt Corporation) in Easton, Pennsylvania before being transferred to the company’s Philadelphia executive office.  Like Vic, John had been expected to comply to a strict dress code, even to an extent of wearing white shirt and tie under a lab coat.  Firestone frowned on employee behavior that might reflect badly on the company, similar to the situation with Vic, who even wore the requisite monogrammed polo shirt on the golf course of Manufactures’ Country Club in Fort Washington, PA.  Both traveled often for work, in John’s case to Prescott, Arkansas.  One time his travel agent booked him on a flight to Prescott, Arizona.  A chlorine expert, Vic often went to Paducah, Kentucky. Both secured valuable patents for their respective companies.

 Manufacturers' Golf and County Club clubhouse

Elton John and family, 2015

While the film biopic “Rocketman” had great production numbers, it mostly concentrated on the reasons for Elton John’s admitted drug, alcohol, and sex addiction – a result, according to the screenplay, of feeling unloved and ashamed of his homosexuality, augmented by the temptations and insecurities endemic to his profession. The triumphant final number, “I’m Still Standing,” follows the singer’s long stint in rehab going to group therapy and precedes mention that Elton has been drug and alcohol free for 28 years, happily married to Canadian filmmaker David Furnish, and the father of two boys, Zachary and Elijah, born to a surrogate.

The U.S. women’s soccer team slaughtered Thailand 13-0, including a half-dozen goals in the waning minutes, celebrating each like it was the winning shot, jumping on each other’s backs and shimmying on the sidelines – the wretched excess creating an international backlash.  The rout reminded me of Phil’s soccer team beating Lew Wallace by a similar score, only the boys acted more maturely rather than rubbing it in.  Phil took exception to my original characterization of the women’s behavior as disgusting, pointing out that rules prevent more than two substitutions and a World Cup goal is more momentous than a high school feat.

The White Sox raised eyebrows by distributing commemorative t-shirts to celebrate the fortieth anniversary of the Disco Demolition riot that took place between games of a doubleheader, causing the nightcap to be forfeited due to fan hooliganism.  Among other things, some hard rock purists tossed albums like frisbees at Tiger players and dug up sod as souvenirs, rendering the field unplayable. 

The St. Louis Blues won their first ever Stanley Cup upsetting the favored Boston Bruins, who dominated the first period only to find themselves down 2-0 after 20 minutes.  A day later, the Toronto Raptors won their first NBA title over defending champ Golden State after both Kevin Durant and Trey Thompson were badly injured attempting to play hurt.  All in all, plenty of grist for the sports talk radio mill.  For a true fan, nothing beats that first championship.  I still recall where I was when Bobby Clarke and the Flyers beat the Bruins in 1974, the Phillies won the World Series in 1980, and the Cubs in 2016.

 Charlotte Cushman

In the “New Books” section of Chesterton library I discovered the “young people edition” of Michael Bronski’s “A Queer History of the United States.”  According toTime, what mainly got expunged were graphic photos and written depictions of sex acts.   For example, sodomy was defined not in terms of oral stimulation or anal penetration but as intercourse of some sort between two people of the same sex – misleading since fellatio and cunnilingus performed between males and females were also criminalized under sodomy laws. In a chapter titled “Nineteenth-Century Romantic Friendships: BFFs or Friends with Benefits?” the author leaves the posed question unanswered, concluding that such relationships may or may not have included sex, we have no way of knowing in most cases.  He examines George Washington’s relationship with General Lafayette to demonstrate that an intimate bond need not be a a “queer” one, consummated sexually.

Bronski’s chapter on acclaimed mid-19th century tragic actress Charlotte Cushman, titled “American Idol, Lover of Women,” leaves no doubt that the thespian was a practicing lesbian. Cushman’s lovers included African-American Sallie Mercer, British journalist Matilda Mary Hays, sculptor Emma Stebbins, and paramour Emma Crowe, to whom she wrote:

 Ah, what delirium is in the memory. Every nerve in me thrills as I look back and feel you in my arms, held to my breast so closely, so entirely mine in every sense as I was yours. Ah, my very sweet, very precious, full, full of ecstasy.

Bronski leaves out intimate details of orifices explored and erogenous zones aroused, but each relationship was stormy, filled with agony as well as sexual climax, but long-lasting despite not being monogamous.  At Charlotte’s death bed, Bronski writes, were Emma Stebbins, Emma Crowe, nephew Edward, and Sallie Mercer.

Charlotte Cushman, friends with President Abraham Lincoln and rich and powerful cosmopolitan New Yorkers of her day, had a fondness for men’s attire and often played male roles, such as Romeo in the Shakespeare’s romantic tragedy “Romeo and Juliet.”  She was most famous for her role as ambitious Lady Macbeth, who, like Romeo, took her own life.  After Cushman’s death of pneumonia in 1876 at age 59, Reverend W.H.H. Murray delivered this eulogy: “She was a Samson and Ruth in one. In her the strength of the masculine and the tenderness of the feminine nature were blended.  She seemed to stand complete in nature, with the finest qualities of either sex.”  As Hoosier humorist George Ade would have put it, she had a gay old time and plenty of good jollies for which she must have deemed the price paid worth it.

 Charlotte Cushman as Meg in "Merrilees"

George Ade wrote: “After being turned down by numerous publishers, he had decided to write for posterity.”  I self-publish my musings and write primarily for posterity.  For an end-of-the-week “good jolly” I might smoke out, watched a couple episodes of “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” and put on “Living Mirage,” the new Head and the Heart CD found in the library’s “New Acquisitions” section. Missed Connection” contains these lines:

Don't tell me I lost a step
Criss-crossed in the wrong direction

Phil also discovered the new Head and the Heart album and likes the track titled “Running Through Hell.”  It begins:

Well you know those times
When you feel like there's a sign there on your back
Says I don't mind if ya kick me
Seems like everybody has

The song advises:

If you're going through Hell
Keep on going, don't slow down
If you're scared, don't show it
You might get out

         Before the devil even knows you're there

Dave is sore from participating in a softball doubleheader, subbing for a team he used to play on. He wondered at what age I retired (56 was the answer, but I spent my later career on the mound). Dave went four for four in the opener and made a diving stop of a ground ball but was spent by the second game and may have pulled a hamstring.  It was at Hidden Lake, the same field in Merrillville where I pulled a “hammy” at his age attempting to break up a double-play on a hard-hit grounder to short. I recovered and played for several more seasons on a team put together by Dave and Kevin Horn.

On the cover of Timeis Bernie Sanders, whom Toni has not forgiven for challenging Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination in 2016. There are articles on “Late Show” starring Emma Thompson and the appearance of Meryl Streep in the second season of the HBO series “Little Big Lies.” The role of a passive-aggressive mother-in-law was tailor-made for Streep.

Hamlet

“Give every man thine ear, but few thy voice; take each man’s censure, but reserve thy judgment.” Hamlet

Hamlet refers to a small rural settlement and, of course, is the title of one of William Shakespeare’s greatest plays. Because its hero was indecisive, which prevents Hamlet from acting until it’s too late, the word has been used to categorize those, such as 1952 and 1956 Democratic Presidential candidate Adlai Stevenson, who procrastinated, in Stevenson’s case, about throwing his hat in the ring. Historian Lance Trusty described early Munster, Indiana, as a hamlet during the 1860s with a general store opened by Jacob Munster with a postal station in back and serving as a gathering place for local farmers.  At bridge Naomi Goodman told me that Lance’s widow Jan is taking her granddaughter, who loves theater, to London and Stratford-upon-Avon to attend numerous plays.

 above, Jimbo, Riley Ash, Charlie, Kody Frasure; below, Savanna Sayiov, Tom Rea, Carre Allen

Oregon-Davis math teacher David Pinkham brought eight high school students to Charlie Halberstadt’s duplicate bridge game at Banta Center in Valparaiso. Most started playing about five months ago as part of a club Pinkham originated and seemed to enjoy themselves – or at least didn’t appear stressed out.  Charlie was initially worried many regulars wouldn’t be there because of a monthly women’s “Assembly” taking place at the same time; but he had enough for eight and a half tables, which enabled the four students pairs to play East-West, switching tables every three hands while the North-South pairs remained stationary.  Most were seniors except for Riley Ash, who was without her glasses, which had been busted, she said, during a game at Bible camp. Shvanna Sayiov plans to attend Miles Community College in Montana; her goal is to take part on rodeos.  Charlie and I finished second to Chuck Tomes and Dee Browne among the nine North-South pairs. After the final round former Portage math teacher Chuck Tomes stated, “Since I have the loudest voice, let me thank the Oregon-Davis students for enlivening the game.”  He received a round of applause from everyone. 

 depot in Hamlet, pre-1911

I had heard of the Oregon-Davis Bobcatas because of my interest in high school basketball but not Hamlet, Indiana, the town where it is located. Like Munster, Hamlet’s origins date back to the 1860s when John Hamlet established a post office.  Located in Starke County south of Valparaiso, the town of Hamlet had 800 residents according to the 2010 census.  In 2014 Oregon-Davis won the girls IHSAA state championship seven years after the Bobcats captured the boys title.

One reason I wanted to play in Valpo was to give the new Shavings to Rick Friedman (above) and Ed Hollander, whom students in Steve McShane’s class had interviewed for an oral history project. Barb Walczak’s Newsletter recently profiled Rick, an ophthalmologist for 40 years who learned bridge while in medical school but then took a break for nearly a half-century although, as he told Barb, he kept up by reading the bridge newspaper column.

At dinner Toni and I were talking about the recent images of a black hole, a phenomenon unknown when I was in school and until now never detected. Albert Einstein paved the way with the assertion that gravity was a warping of spacetime but initially was dismayed by German physicist Karl Schwarzchild’s prediction that when mass becomes too dense, it collapses into a black hole. Photographer Kyle Telechan wrote:“Scientists with the Event Horizon telescope have produced an image of a  black hole, or if we are being pedantic, the shadow of a black hole surrounded by particles in the accretion disk, some moving as fast as the speed of light.Totally ignoring how cool it is that we were able to get an image of a freaking black hole, how incredible is it that they were able to predict, correctly, what it would look like based on our understanding of black holes, without ever seeing one?It might be blurry, but it's the first of its kind. Can you imagine the images that'll be captured in our lifetimes?”

 Daniel Webster letter emancipating Paul Jennings; below, Webster

I finished “A Slave in the White House: Paul Jennings and the Madisons.” Jennings finally achieved his freedom from Dolley Madison in 1847 after going to work for Massachusetts Senator (and two-time Secretary of State) Daniel Webster, who had purchased him the year before for $120.  Branding slavery “a great moral, social, and political evil,”Webster had previously helped others attain their freedom.  During the 1840s both Webster and former First lady Dolley Madison threw lavish parties in the nation’s capital that nearly bankrupted them.  In an effort to save the Union, Webster, known as “The great Expounder and Defender of the Constitution,” supported the Compromise of 1850, which abolished the slave trade in Washington, DC, but strengthened the Fugitive Slave Act.  Abolitionists branded it the “Bloodhound Law,” and it tarnished Webster’s reputation.  For 14 years until his retirement Jennings worked at the pension office of the Interior Department, earning between $400 and $720 annually.  He died eight years later.

 Terry Kegebein and granddaughter

At Hobert Lanes after two terrible games I rolled a 180, as the Engineers salvaged a game from Frank’s Gang.  After a 170, Terry Kegebein quipped, “Another 60 pounds, and I’d have bowled my weight.”  Opponent Mike Reed, wearing a shirt reading “My mind is in the gutter,”took good-natured ribbing after he actually threw a ball in the gutter in an otherwise outstanding game. When he claimed to have exceeded his weight of 168 pounds, some teammates were disbelieving; but he is in good shape with no pot belly and noted that he has to keep his weight down due to high blood pressure.

 Archives holdings moved for renovation

Anne Balay is en route to St. Louis, where she has a new home and hopes to teach at a local college while beginning research on a third book about sex workers. Steve McShane updated Ron Cohen and me on the latest change of plans regarding what to do with Archives files while workers install new heating and air conditioning: “We had movers in yesterday, taking out all kinds of collections and materials from the CRA and moving them down the hallway to 2 “staging” rooms.   Phase 1 will begin in earnest on Monday, as contractors invade to tear down ceilings and remove lighting from this first half of the Archives:  reading room, large cage, and corner storage/work room.”  Still remaining in the main room are bookcases containing yearbooks and books about the Calumet Region, including Anne Balay’s pathbreaking accounts of LGBT steelworkers and long-haul truckers.

above, Anne's tattoo; below, Toni, Becca, Angie

We were all set to see James shine in the Portage H.S. senior musical, but a small fire that damaged the curtain caused its postponement.  Bummer! The previous evening Becca has honored at a ceremony for outstanding students.  Tomorrow Becca has a solo in Chesterton's talent show.

In the opening chapter of Saidiya Hartman’s “Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments” is this portrait of a turn-of-a- twentieth-century "ghetto girl" living in Africa Town, the Negro quarters of Philadelphia or New York:

 You can find her in the group of beautiful thugs and too fastgirls congregating on the corner and humming the latest rag, or lingering in front of Wanamaker’s and gazing lustfully at a fine pair of shoes displayed like jewels behind a plate-glass window.  Watch her in the alley passing a pitcher of beer back and forth with her friends, brash and lovely in a low-cut dress and silk ribbons; look in awe as she hangs halfway out of a tenement window, taking in the drama of the block and defying gravity’s downward pull.  Step onto any of the paths that cross the sprawling city and you’ll encounter her as she roams. Outsiders call the streets and alleys that comprise her world the slum.  For her, it is just the place where she stays.

Bent on using fear of immigrants as a primary campaign issue in 2020, Trump recently declared that the United States is filled up and doesn’t need any more newcomers, especially from south of the border.  Earlier he had expressed a preference for Norwegians over those from “shithole countries.”  The Washington Postrevealed that on two separate occasions the White House suggested migrants seeking asylum be bussed to sanctuary cities such as San Francisco, part of Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s Congressional district, in retaliation for Democrats’ opposition to his draconian policies. When the idea was floated, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials responded that it was not feasible on several grounds.  Perhaps that is one reason Trump, at the advice of diabolical Stephan Miller, ordered a shake-up of top DHS leaders, beginning with Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen. I predicted that the President, as Shakespeare once wrote in Hamlet,that he will be“hoisted on his own petard.”

 below, defeat of Spanish Armada

In the New YorkerJohn Lanchester reviewed Philipp Blom’s “Nature’s Mutiny: How the Little Ice Age of the Long Seventeenth Century Transformed and Shaped the Present.”  I learned that for 300 million years the earth was entirely covered in ice and that 34 million years ago, the opposite was true and, in Lanchester’s words, “crocodiles swam in a fresh-water lake we know as the North Pole, and palm trees grew in Antarctica.”  For 110 years beginning in 1570, the temperature dropped almost 4 degrees Fahrenheit, which produced crop failures, disrupted feudalism, caused the Ming dynasty to fall, and contributed to such events as the defeat of the Spanish Armada (due to an unprecedented Arctic hurricane) and the 1666 London fire ( during an ultra-dry summer after a bitterly cold winter).  As Lanchester concluded, “Climate change changes everything.”