Sharp Dressed

“Black shades, white gloves,

Lookin’ sharp, lookin’ for love.

They come runnin’ just as fast as they can

‘cause every girl crazy ‘bout a sharp dressed man.”

         “Sharp Dressed Man,” ZZTop

Miranda's post: officially won "most over-dressed" 

For Phil, Robert Blaszkiewicz, and Jimmy Satkoski’s fiftieth birthday celebration, young women were dressed up to the nines while most guys opted for casual.  Our upstairs bathroom that afternoon smelled like a beauty salon, not that I’m complaining. Both Dave and I wore Helsinki t-shirts. It was perfect weather, and I spent much of the evening outside on the Shorewood clubhouse porch, where a nearby band played Jimmy Buffet and the Grateful Dead and fireworks periodically went off from several directions.  I talked to the Bayers about Dave and my Helsinki stay with Mike’s brother Joe and wife Jaana.  John English told me he was a high school exchange student in Tampere, Finland.  Two security guards observed teenagers playing cornhole and appeared to sniff their drinks to ascertain if they contained alcohol.  Dave and Jimmy Satkoski joked that had it been them at that age, the answer probably would have been yes. Dave welcomed them and by evening’s end they were eating birthday cake.

 Bayer family

Josh Leffingwell and Lane gang

Lisa and Fritz Teuscher with Phil

sharp dressed men; photos by Alissa Lane

Once karaoke got underway with Dave as m.c., things inside got lively, starting with Andrew English doing “Sweet Caroline.” Kirsten’s nine-year-old son Nick requested Imagine Dragons.  Miranda and Tori did a rousing Chainsmokers number that got everyone up dancing, and Dave persuaded former LINT bandmates Jimmy Satkoski and Hans Rees to harmonize on a couple REM songs.  Spotting Tom and Darcy Wade getting ready to leave, Dave put on ZZTop’s “Sharp Dressed Man” and Tom, Dave, Phil, and I did our by-now polished routine where we pretend to be playing guitars in sync.  A high point was Phil doing Clarence “Frogman” Henry’s “Ain’t Got No Home” and “My Chaw,” with lyrics he made up in high school to the tune of “My Guy.” His sisters dragged Anthony out onto the dance floor, but once there, he was a hit with the girls.  Afterwards, Toni brought home so much pizza that I’ll be having it for lunch all week and then some.  On Saturday I had made bacon and blueberry pancakes for our houseguests. On Sunday Toni cooked omelets.

Nephew Beamer and family drove in from Tremont, Maryland for the occasion, and at Chesterton’s European Market seven-year-old Nick observed a man make clever balloon creations. Beamer introduced us to the board game Gravwell, which we liked so much we played twice, with Phil winning each time.  Gravwell publisher Cryptozoic Entertainment provided this overview:

After being pulled through a black hole, four spaceships find themselves in a dimension with physics never before encountered and without fuel. By mining and collecting basic elements from the space dust and asteroids in the area, you can muster just enough thrust to move your ship. But in this bizarre dimension, gravity is not working like how you’ve been taught. Your ship will typically travel towards the nearest object… which is usually another ship… and those ships are moving. Sometimes forwards, and sometimes backwards. It’s a real mind—bender!

Cubs took 2 of 3 from Cincinnati to complete a 7-1 home stand.  In the rubber game, Jason Heywood, my favorite player, scored the lead run from first on a single by Javier Baez, something I hadn’t seen since a mad dash by Jose Cardenal during the 1970s.  Heywood had taken off for second on a hit and run and scampered home when the centerfielder took his time getting the ball back to the infield.

 Curtis Hill

Indiana lawmakers, led by Governor Eric Holcomb, are urging Republican attorney-general Curtis Hill to resign after four women accused the African American of groping them on March 15 while drunk at a party celebrating the conclusion of the legislative session.  He allegedly gave one a back rub, hugged another, slid his hand down one’s back under her clothes, and grabbed a fourth’s buttocks. The former Elkhart County prosecutor denies the accusations.  If reports of the egregious behavior are true, one wonders why colleagues did not intervene before things went so far.  Could it be because of his race?  In 2016 Hill garnered more votes than any office holder in Indiana history. Perhaps some Republicans viewed him as a threat and welcomed his comeuppance.

I dropped off my latest Steel Shavingsat Jackie Gipson’s house.  She was pleased to see Mayor Hatcher on the cover. Jackie had a house full, as her sister’s family and relatives from Atlanta were visiting.  I stumbled descending the porch steps, my right knee still weak from dancing to “Sharp dressed Man.”  I think Dave played a long version, and, of course, I stuck with it to the very end.

I invited Dave Serynek to be my book club guest and told him to arrive early if he wanted free bar food.  Gino’s did not disappoint, serving sausage with fried onions. A record crowd turned out to hear Rich Miroc talk about Chief Justice John Marshall.  I restricted my remarks to defending Jefferson for regarding Justice Samuel Chase as a threat to free speech and Aaron Burr as a scoundrel up to no good after killing Andrew Hamilton in a duel and heading west with several dozen armed filibusterers.  I introduced Dave to Roy Dominguez, Lorenzo Arredondo, and Brian and Connie Barnes; he enjoyed himself so much he added his name to Joy Anderson’s email address list.

Staying Alive

“Got the wings of heaven on my shoes

I'm a dancin' man and I just can't lose.

You know it's all right, it's O.K.

I'll live to see another day.”

    “Staying Alive,” Bee Gees

Within days of each other disco queen Donna Summers and Barry Gibb of the Bee Gees, whose falsetto made “Saturday Night Fever” one of the best-selling albums of all time, succumbed to cancer.  They epitomized the freewheeling 1970s, an era fading from our collective memory. In Spike Lee’s “Crooklyn,” set in 1972, black kids watch an episode of “The Partridge Family” and knowe the words of the sappy song the group is performing  Once a teen idol, singer David Cassidy turned 60 two years ago and has been in and out of rehab. 

On the 2012 Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame induction special Ronnie Wood showed up with the Seventies band Faces, looking ancient (Rod Stewart was a no show).  The main honorees were Red Hot Chili Peppers and Guns ‘n’ Roses (sans Axl Rose), and the final number, “Higher Ground,” had Wood playing with Slash and Flea.  Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top was also in the house on behalf of blues great Freddie King.

I recently renewed my Traces subscription and among the things I received in the mail was the Summer 2011 issue containing the article on "Madura's Danceland."  That was serendipitous since it gives us an extra copy to put in our "Traces of Northwest Indiana" exhibit.

I took James to Chesterton’s European Market.  He hadn’t eaten much breakfast, so he enjoyed a mango smoothie with whipped cream on top and got a container of cookies for later.  We ran into Omar Farag, who again will provide the musical entertainment for this summer’s Thrill of the Grill events on campus.  I expressed the hope that he’d bring back My Brother’s Salsa Band.  In the evening Tom and Dave came over for gaming.  I managed to stay up for most of SNL.  Mick Jagger did a terrific job hosting, playing a gay actor, paying tribute to Kristen Wiig, singing the 1974 Rolling Stones classic “It’s Only Rock ‘n’ Roll (But I Like It)” with the Foo Fighters and even impersonating Steve Tyler.

Reading an excerpt from Frederick Buechner’s “The Sacred Journey” brought back memories of my dad.  Buechner’s father died when he was ten; Vic died of a sudden heart attack at age 50 when I was 24.  On drives to visit my great grandmother Frace in Easton he’d sing endless verses of “Abdul Abulbul Amir,” about a “son of the desert” who did battle with a Muscovite named “Ivan Skavinsky Skivar.”

Jeff Manes’s SALT column on Dave finally appeared in Sunday’s Post-Trib.  First rate as always, it mentioned Dave’s growing up near Wells Street Beach, attending Portage H.S. and IU (majoring in History and English), working as a sub at West Lafayette H.S. while playing in a band with Hans Rees.  After enrolling in IUN’s Urban Teacher (UTEP) program, he landed a teaching job at East Chicago due to his willingness to be yearbook and school newspaper adviser. Asked if he missed teaching history, Dave said, “My students tease me because I incorporate a lot of history in my lessons.  I think it goes hands in hand with the literature.” 

Dave talked a lot about his students, including Manuel Mendoza, captain of the tennis team, senior class president, and presently at Harvard.  The 2000 home invasion came up and how when he returned to school he received a standing ovation during an assembly.  Angie was pregnant with James when three thugs broke into their place, and it took all our wits, guile, and self-control to survive the ordeal.  I ended up with a partially collapsed lung and Dave had a concussion from being hit on the head with a hammer.  For the most part they left Angie alone or we’d have fought them and probably all be dead.  Good friends Clark Metz and Garrett Cope called, excited about the article.  Dave went to Alternative Public School in Glen Park with Clark’s daughters and performed in three of Garrett’s summer musicals at IUN.  Bill Lee’s kids were also in “Finian’s Rainbow.”

Protests have been taking place in Chicago during the NATO meetings. Sam Barnett was among those in the streets as were Occupy Wall Streeters and the usual assortment, bless them, of peaceniks, lefties, and hippies.In a moving scene evoking memories of Vietnam, veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan threw their medals away to atone for participating, directly or indirectly, in the destruction of villages and the deaths of civilians. 

Tom Morello of Rage against the Machine played at a nurses rally and at a concert at the Metro that Ron Cohen attended entitled “This Land is Our Land: A Centennial Celebration of Woody Guthrie.  Ron’s weekend house guest was folk music historian Scott Barretta, who edited Living Blues magazine and hosted Toni and I while we were in Sweden 14 years ago.  He’s writing a biography of Folklore Institute founder and Beat poet Izzy Young, who we also stayed with, thanks to Ron’s connections.

In Lowell for an afternoon of bridge with members of the Hobart Unitarian church, of the 12 participants I finished second to Dick Hagelberg.  He got 800 points by passing when Toni, with an opening hand, doubled my bid of one diamond.  I had five diamonds, but he had six and my partner had just two points, giving us a grand total of 15.  We were vulnerable, and I only got four tricks.  A woman named Wendy had seen Jeff’s article about Dave in the paper and said she had several Shavings issues.  We encountered a storm on the way home.  The temp dropped 30 degrees and the sky turned black.  At IUN large tree branches were down and the air condition unit for Marram was knocked off its foundation.  A possible tornado touched down a mile away.

Jeff Manes’s column, entitled “This teacher following his own Lane,” generated 180 “likes, tweets or shares,” compared to a normal 10.  The all-time record is 212 for one on Irene Basile, whose husband died after contracting frontotempolar degeneration, a disease similar to Alzheimer’s but more virulent.


At the invitation of CURE director Ellen Szarleta I attended the Barden Gary Foundation luncheon, which honored Roosevelt students who helped on rehab Buffington Park.  I spoke to them a few months ago, and they greeted me warmly.  College-bound, they will receive $4,500 scholarships from the Barden Foundation.  Ja’Mire Wayne, pictured below, sat next to me and intends to major in social work at Indiana State.  Attractive and affable, she played center on Roosevelt’s basketball team, and her Twitter handle is “badfreckleface.”  

Vice Chancellor Malik filled me in on the FACET retreat.  I told him I had offered to pay my own way and do some interviews but that Kim said it didn’t fit in with their plans.  I told Times publisher Bill Masterson that I liked his recent columns on plans for a Boys and Girls Club building in Tolleston.  Gary Parks Superintendent Caren Jones asked if I knew when her department was founded. I guessed 1909 when Gary became a city although there could have been one as early as 1906 when the first town board was created.  U.S. Steel created a few parks but kept control of them until their nemesis, Mayor Thomas Knotts, left office in 1913.

Neighbor Sue Harrison’s friend Dave brought over some venison salami from a larger hunk someone gave them.  Now I have to get up the nerve to try it.

Two of Miranda’s high school classmates died around 4:20 Sunday morning when the car they were in rolled off the I-196 off-ramp into an embankment.  The six people in the car had attended a party where alcohol was served, and the driver is in jail.  Miranda wasn’t real close to the victims but had posed with her arm around one of them at her prom.  A candlelight vigil took place at Wyoming Park School last night.  How sad for all involved and so close to graduation.

White Wedding

“It’s a nice day for a white wedding

It’s a nice day to start again.”

  Billy Idol

Drove to Lafayette for the wedding of Brittany Bunte and Hans Rees, who we’ve known since he was in a high school band, LINT, with Dave.  Since guitarists Jim Satkoski came in from California and Erick Orr from Arizona, during the reception LINT did a reunion set featuring songs by the Ramones, Sex Pistols, REM, Billy Joel, and The Cramps.  Near the end Dave announced that the next one was going out to his dad (me). “Hate to Run” by the Shoes ended with a tremendous drum finale by Hans.  Five other acts performed, including Frank Muffin, featuring Hans and Brittany (who looked beautiful in a white dress) and five others, including a banjoist and horn section.  Hans wore a green vest under his formal suit and a green clip-on tie (Toni helped him put it on) identical to the men in the wedding party, seemed very happy.  Hans’s two kids stayed overnight with Dave, Angie, Becca, and James in a two-room suite and had breakfast with us.   James and 14 year-old Graham (named for Graham Parker whom I turned Hans onto) stayed up till 3 a.m. playing a video game.  I pigged out on the buffet and didn’t eat anything else the rest of the day except for a small bowl of chicken noodle soup.

Jonathyne Briggs loaned me a documentary about the Flaming Lips called “The Fearless Freaks: The Life and Times of an American Invention??” Wayne Coyne and the group started out as a no-talent (his words) punk band and evolved into one of the most original and long-lasting groups of their time.  One person described them as “Yes meets the Sex Pistols.”  Lead singer Wayne Coyne has led a fascinating life and seems like a person who would make a great friend.  He is quoted as saying, “A couple hundred years ago we probably would’ve been pirates, or something.  We would’ve got on some ship and sailed off somewhere and met a bunch of crazy [people and did some crazy things.”  One subplot in the documentary is bandmate Steve Drozd’s battle to get off heroin.  Many of Coyne’s songs are about death, but performed in a fun, birthday party-like atmosphere in live psychedelic concerts and on their music videos.

Monday was grandparents’ day at Discovery Charter School. Becca’s class used balloons and paper-mâché to make objects that kids will later turn into globes of earth. James’s teacher sent groups on a scavenger hunt where at each station we took photos.  Afterwards the teacher made CDs for each set of grandparents.  Impressive. At the school was former Porter Acres softball teammate Sam Johnston, whom I hadn’t seen in 30 years, with his wife and twin granddaughters. 

In Michigan for Miranda’s soccer game: She scored a goal and assisted on the other in a 2-1 victory for Park against Rogers. Next year the two Wyoming schools will combine into one, so it was the final contest between the two rivals.  Afterwards Chinese food at Phil’s we spent the night at Alissa and Josh’s apartment.  Their young dog Jerry can leap a good four feet in the air.  Josh recently put this on Facebook: “Step 1 to dressing like a grownup: iron your dress shirts.”

Learned in Roger Crowley’s “City of Fortune: How Venice Ruled the Seas” that around 1200 Crusaders led by Enrico Dandolo, Venice’s blind, 90 year-old doge, sacked Constantinople rather than try to take back Jerusalem.  Among the spoils taken back to Venice were bronze horses from the Hippodrome, which still adorn St. Mark’s Basilica.  The treachery resulted in riches for the city and a 300-year period of imperial glory for the avaricious, enterprising “lagoon dwellers” who made a living by trade. 

The Blackhawks are out of the Stanley Cup playoffs, but the Flyers eliminated Pittsburgh and will have my complete allegiance.  The White Sox have won four straight and rookie pitcher Philip Humber hurled a perfect game.  Chicago might have at least one decent team.  The Cubs are 5-11 and have the least home runs of any major league team.

Former Financial Aid director Leroy Gray died.  He started at the campus in 1970, same year as me, and was a Dodger fan because that team was the first with African-American players, not just Jackie Robinson but numerous others including pitchers Don Newcombe and Joe Black as well as Roy Campanella and Sandy Amoras.  In poor health a couple years ago Leroy seemed hale and hearty last week at the credit union.  Once Leroy patiently talked to a student for over an hour who then went to the bursar’s window trying to get Leroy’s decision overruled.  Normally the most even-tempered guy in the world, when he saw what she was doing, he lit into her verbally.

 “Mad Men” episodes are now set in the year 1966.  Civil rights is in the forefront.  Peggy has a lesbian friend and a counter-culture activist boyfriend. In the latest one of the partners drops acid, for god’s sake.

Two trials are in the news.  Former Presidential candidate John Edwards has been accused of violating campaign finance laws to support a woman who had his child.  What he did was no worse than what FDR, JFK, and others have done, and going after Edwards seems a waste of money.  More horrific is the case of Chicagoan William Balfour, accused of killing singer Jennifer Hudson’s mother, brother, and seven year-old nephew Julian (nicknamed Juice Box).  Estranged from Jennifer’s sister, Jennifer’s brother-in-law supposedly had threatened to kill family members on several previous occasions.

For the Final Jeopardy category “Women’s Firsts” the question had to do with what cabinet post Juanita Krebs held under Jimmy Carter.  The first person knew it was Secretary of Commerce and doubled her score to $12,000.  The second person was incorrect and ended with $12,001.  Had the third person missed, she would have ended with $11,999 – and just two dollars would have separated the contestants, but she got it right.