Folly

“People cling to folly as if it were their most prized possession. Defending it, sometimes with violence, against the possibility of wisdom.” Richard Russo, “Intervention”

In a recent New York Times column discussing Trump’s foreign policy blunders, Jon Meacham referenced Barbara Tuchman’s “The March of Folly: From Troy to Vietnam” (1984), which concluded that folly begins with a self-destructive will to power combined with “wooden-headedness,”or “assessing a situation in terms of preconceived notions while ignoring or rejecting any contrary signs.”  Meacham sees folly at work in Republicans’ blind tribal loyalty -  the refusal of most to acknowledge that their leader might not only be wrong but truly dangerous.

 Kendall Svengalis

In a scathing rebuttal to a Timeseditorial endorsement of Gary Emergency Manager Peggy Hinckley’s hare-brained plan to auction off the school city’s valuable art collection, including a bust of Superintendent William A. Wirt, to pay off “a miniscule fraction of its $98 million debt,” Gary native and historian Kendall F. Svengalis wrote:

  If it hadn’t been for William A. Wirt, Gary would have been no more than a blip on the national educational landscape.  He alone is responsible for building a school system on national renown, one that expanded the curriculum of his day, achieved remarkable economies so that schoolchildren could have access to first-class facilities and equipment, like swimming  pools and auditoriums.  His K-12 “unit school” concept helped encourage students to go on and graduate from high school at a time when barely 9 percent of students did so.

  As this gritty industrial city became home to thousands of immigrants and southern blacks, he gave them art and music that would be the envy of many suburban schools today.  Gary had band and orchestra throughout the city, beginning in the fifth grade, and city-wide festivals that allowed students to showcase their talents.

  And Gary had art, not only in the classroom but original art on the walls of many of its schools.  For Wirt, art was not a frill but an essential element of a well-rounded education.  And that art was paid for, not with taxpayer funds, but with the three-fourths of a cent earned on each lunch served in the school cafeterias.  Wirt gave as much attention to the arts as he did athletics. Gary had much of which to be proud. This legacy should not be sacrificed due to mismanagement by successive waves of school administration.  Where would we be as a civilization if, every time a municipality experiences fiscal challenges, its first thought is to sell off its history?

Toni and I attended a Gary SouthShore RailCats baseball game as guests of Dick Hagelberg, whose company, Kidstuff Playsystems, reserved a party deck for the families of its employees. The pitcher for the visiting Sioux Falls Canaries walked the first four RailCats betters, all of whom scored in a 4-3 victory.  On the centerfield wall were retired numbers 23, 42, and 45.  I knew 42 stood for Dodger pioneer Jackie Robinson and learned later that 23 was for pitcher Willie Glen, who led the team to Northern league titles in 2005 and 2007 and was 2010 Pitcher of the Year. Number 45 honored Joe Gates, a Gary Roosevelt grad, former White Sox second baseman, Wirt baseball coach for 28 years, and RailCats coach from its initial home season in 2003 until his death in 2010. The postgame fireworks display was the best that Toni could remember.

Joe Gates in 2006 with South Holland mayor Don DeGraff; Times photo by Natalie Battaglia

At Abuelo’s in Merrillville, Angie Stojanovic, who used to work in Admissions at IUN, waved, and I stopped to talk with her. Friends with favorite student Shannon Pontney, Angie, despite misgivings (she was very religious), came to my retirement celebration at Mark O’s Bar in Portage, where Voodoo Chili performed.  After a great meal, eight of us played party bridge at the Crown Point home of Connie and Brian Barnes.  Evelyn Passo mentioned accompanying Herb on several business trips to Guangzhou (formerly Canton), which I visited during my 1994 China trip with 15 others, mainly Aussies and new Zealanders but including a young guy from Berkeley who was persistently tardy getting back on the bus, usually carrying a bunch of presents.  We both got a kick out over how horrified the other were about Chinese traffic and bathroom facilities.  One afternoon he had the hotel concierge send a masseuse to his room.  A beautiful young woman gave him a “happy ending” and then asked whether he knew anyone who wanted a similar experience.  He dutifully knocked on my door accompanied by the eager hooker, all smiles and hands extended toward my crotch, but I declined.  Later, the guy confessed to having shown the woman a necklace intended for his fiancé that she snatched up as her tip.

In Richard Russo’s short story “Horseman” a brilliant, compassionate African-American English professor named Marcus Bellamy has a profound influence on grad students Janet and Robbie Moore, who later named their son after him.  In a Proletarian Literature seminar, Janet wrote about John Dos Passos, knowing the novelist was a favorite of Bellamy.  I, too, am a big fan of his early work, especially the U.S.A.trilogy, written before Dos Passos became disillusioned with radical causes as a result of experiences during the Spanish Civil War. At a bar people were reciting their favorite poem.  Bellamy chose “Windy Nights” by Robert Louis Stevenson because his deceased father read it to him as a child. It became the favorite poem of young, autistic Marcus Moore:

Whenever the moon and stars are set,
Whenever the wind is high,
All night long in the dark and wet,
A man goes riding by.
Late in the night when the fires are out,
Why does he gallop and gallop about?
Whenever the trees are crying aloud,
And ships are tossed at sea,
By, on the highway, low and loud,
By at the gallop goes he.
By at the gallop he goes, and then
By he comes back at the gallop again. 

I wonder if Russo named Marcus Bellamy for Black nationalist Marcus Garvey and utopian novelist Edward Bellamy, author of “Looking Backward.” In “Horseman” dilettante Tony Hope was a corny comedian (a la Bob Hope) who drank with his students, and seduced female faculty and staff.  House-husband Robbie Moore, an arrested adolescent, played in a garage band and could recite by heart the opium-inspired Samuel Taylor Coleridge dream vision “Kubla Khan.”

IUN Elementary Education major Amber Ortiz’s journal described being married, the mother of two-year-old Lily, and working at Eagle Park, a special education school for kids with developmental and physical disabilities:

  Introduction:  I first attended IUN after graduating from Crown Point H.S. in 2010. After several semesters I lost interest in school and stopped enrolling in order to focus on work and my relationship with my boyfriend and now husband Javier. I became passionate about special education from peer tutoring in high school. At Eagle Park I have the title of Premier Sub and fill in when a teacher or paraprofessional is absent. I have been there for 4 years.  My desire to have my own classroom is one motivation for completing my education. Another is to be an example for Lily. 

  February 14, 2018:I enjoy Valentine’s Day because I have two loves, Javier and Lily. Today the kids in my class, grades 3 to 5, shared Valentine cards. The excitement caused some anxiety and physical aggressiveness.  It made for an exhausting day that required doing control techniques on some students. During my lunch break I picked up a Valentine’s Day treat at CVS for Lily for when I pick her up from her grandma’s.  Once home. it was time to unwind and start my daily chores, clean up and make dinner, and keep Lily entertained. Javier arrived home bearing gifts, a card and chocolates for me and a card and stuffed hippo for Lily. She was so excited. We ate dinner, played in Lily’s room, and then watched a bit of TV before he called it a night since he gets up at 4 a.m. when on day shift. 

  Feb. 17:Since Javier was off work, I made Belgium waffles and sausage links for breakfast. We spent the day chasing our crazy 2-year-old around as she climbed on furniture and put stuff in her mouth. While Lily napped, I washed dishes and cleaned up the kitchen. After I fed her chicken nuggets and cut up fruit, we dropped off Lily at her grandmother’s and started our night. At Longhorns in Portage I ordered a ribeye with mashed potatoes and mixed veggies. After we stuffed our faces, I dragged my husband to Portage Imax to see 50 Shades Freed.He was dreading this movie all week, but I thoroughly enjoy chick flicks and had seen the previous 50 Shadesmovies. Once we sat down with popcorn and drinks, I noticed the theater was filled with women and a few random me.  Javier hated it, but I enjoyed it.  Lily was still wide-awake running around like the Crazy Carl nickname we gave her when we picked her up. 

 Feb. 27:I had lunch at House of Kobe with two close friends whom I have known since kindergarten. One lives in New Chicago and the other in St. Charles, IL.  Lily cried the entire time, starting when they lit the fire. Her previous time there, she was fine. At IUN I got a ticket from not properly displaying my parking pass. At home Javier had cooked hamburgers on the grill. He sensed my sour mood from the ticket so our night ended abruptly. I put Lily to bed and went to sleep myself.

  March 9:My sister, aunt, and I attended Nordstrom’s Spring Makeup and Clothing Trend Fashion Show.  I got my makeup done at the Bobbi Brown and M.A.C. counter. I missed my appointment to get my hair done since there were so many people they could not fit me in. My aunt considers me and my sister as her little babies.  We’d play with her makeup and put curlers in our hair like she did. At a boutique I found a cute bathing suit for Lily and a spring jacket for myself. At Star of Siam I ordered a dish with glass noodles, shrimp and chicken. My usual Thai item is just Pad Thai noodles, so I am proud of myself for trying something new. At the parking garage our validated parking ticket expired an hour before so instead of paying $15 dollars, the total was $49. It’s amazing how much Chicago visits cost, but if I could have my way I’d definitely live downtown. 

  March 15:I got to work a little late because Lily has been sick with a fever. Work was stressful. We had 3 control techniques (holds or restraints) after the students became aggressive or unsafe. Thursdays the kids usually have art class as well as gym so that helps the day go by a little faster. Before going to bed earlier than normal, I packed Javier’s lunch and got Lily’s outfit and diaper bag ready for her grandmas

  March 16:Work today was fairly easy; the kids will make up for it another day in the future.  I visited my mom in my old Crown Point home. Now divorced, she lives by herself. For dinner, she ordered Chinese food from a nearby restaurant, so I was pretty excited. My mom is very introverted and has anxiety when around people. I am a quiet person but still likes to have a good time. I have tried to talk her into joining a gym but she worries people will think she’s fat. 

 March 17:Being 50 percent Irish, I was planning on doing a St. Patty’s run in Crown Point but it was raining and I didn’t want to take Lily outside and risk her getting sick.  She drags baby dolls with her everywhere. After her nap, we drove to Miller. My dad, aunt, and grandparents all live with a few blocks to each other near the beach. My dad grew up on Gary’s north side and went to Holy Angel’s and then Andrean. My sister came up from Indy.  I have never met someone in today’s age care so little about having a cell phone. Once home, Lily ran to Javier like she hadn’t seen him in ages. She really is a daddy’s girl; when he’s around, I’m chop liver. 

  March 18:After a full night’s sleep, I made chorizo and eggs and gave Lily a bath.  At the mall I picked out a birthday gift for my mother-in-law. We found a nice necklace and then I took Lily to the Disney Store and Build-a-Bear. She picked out a stuffed animal character in the Disney Store from the TV show “Puppy Dog Pals.” I despise stuffed animals since she has so many, yet I have the hardest time throwing any of them away.  After Lily’s nap, I made her a grilled cheese with pickles for lunch, one of her favorites. Then she colored a birthday card with finger paints. Needless to say, she made a masterpiece but a mess as well! When Javier came home, we met his family at Cooper’s Hawk. Lily ran up to her grandma and gave her a hug and her special card. I ordered the soy ginger glazed salmon. We sang Happy Birthday with chocolate covered strawberries and gave her the necklace.   It being her 50^thbirthday, next weekend friends and family will celebrate at Bar Louie’s in Merrillville. 

  March 29:Tomorrow is Good Friday so no school; the following week is spring break, which means 10 days of freedom. Lily and her cousin Kai who is a year younger got pictures taken at J.C. Penney with the Easter bunny.  Unlike her Santa pictures, when she cried, this time they came out cute. She and Kai wore matching dresses and hair bows and my heart just melted all over the floor. Back home I made homemade pizzas and a garden salad.  It was a successful day in my book.

  April 1:On holidays we usually invite my mom to join us as my dad’s.  She lives alone and her family is in Ireland, where she grew up.  On the rare occasions when she has come, she doesn’t say much. On top of that, most holidays my mother cooks an excessive amount of food and then expects me to take home the leftovers. After breakfast at Jelly’s pancake house, Lily received an Easter basket form my dad and grandma and her eyes lit up.  Next stop was to my mom’s for lunch.  She had an entire couch covered in Easter baskets and gifts plus more food than necessary as usual: ham, green beans, Brussel sprouts, mashed potatoes, salad, rolls, and dessert. After dinner Lily opened all her gifts. When Javier called to say he was on his way home, I loaded the car with leftovers and Lily’s Easter gifts.  We said our thank yous and goodbyes, met Javier at home, and headed to his mom’s. Awaiting us was a ham, 7-layer salad, green beans, cheesy potato casserole, and dinner rolls. I brought over a carrot cake for dessert. Lily had another Easter basket and emptied everything on the floor. Back home, we FINALLY gave Lily her basket from the Easter bunny. 

  April 8:Kid’s Day at Chicago C2E2 is an entertainment convention at McCormick Place. We have gone the past 2 years. Javier is into comics, video games, and anime. Though not my cup of tea, it still is a cool event.  People dress up in creative costumes. The first year Lily went as Minnie Mouse, then she was in Power Ranger Gear; this year’s theme was Star Wars. At Suicide Squad photo booth one could pick an outfit and props and take an action shot in front of a green screen.  At a New Orleans seafood restaurant called Pappadeaux we waited almost an hour to get seated.  The mussels we ordered had a fishy odor and seemed extremely slimy. We let the server know, and he took them off the table. The manager confided that she receives several complaints about the mussels daily but each shipment they keep getting bigger and bigger.  When I lifted a drink menu, I noticed a big dead sider on the table. The waiter quickly removed it with a plastic bag. When our meals finally came, but I had completely lost my appetite. Though the bill was on the house, I doubt we’ll ever go back.

Becca and James at Chellberg Farm

Sunday we had Dave’s family for dinner.  Toni served delicious mussels and scallops with mango salsa and a salad. For the fourth straight game the Cubs manages just one run on a solo HR.  Nonetheless, the split the series with the Pirates thanks to shutout performances by John Lester and Cole Hamels.  James and Becca are back to school already, and Dave has been coaching tennis since the beginning of August.

Ain't No Better

“You’ve heard the news

An awful lie has been told to you

You’re the best thing in town – no lie can hold you down

So keep your silence, the truth is bound to turn things around.

We all know – ain’t no better than you!”

         Hollis Donald, “Ain’t No better Than You”

Ain’t, frowned upon in polite circles, is short for am or are not.  Midge (my mother) loathed the contraction as a sign of being poorly educated, but, like many postwar suburban wives, she was unduly influenced by etiquette books. I was constantly reminded to keep my elbows off the table, and drinking soup straight from the bowl was a definite taboo.  When greeting a stranger, one should say the meaningless phrase, “How do you do?”rather than the more natural, “Pleased to meet you.”  I could go on and on.

Jack Lynch in “The Lexicographer’s Dilemma” called ain’t “the most stigmatized word in the language,”  but it can be useful when employed for rhetorical effect.  The word can be found in many songs, including two favorites, “Ain’t That a Shame” by Fats Domino and “You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet” by Bachman-Turner Overdrive.  Elvis Presley sang the lyric, “You ain’t nothing but a hound dog,”and Clarence “Frogman” Henry lamented, “Ain’t got no home.”  Presley once philosophized, “Truth is like the sun.  You can shut it out for a time, but it ain’t goin’ away.”Depression-era pitcher Dizzy Dean once said,“I lot of people who don’t say ain’t, ain’t eatin’.”  Sojourner Truth made this point at a Woman’s Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio, in May 1851:

 And ain't I a woman? Look at me! Look at my arm! I have ploughed and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me! And ain't I a woman? I could work as much and eat as much as a man - when I could get it - and bear the lash as well! And ain't I a woman? I have borne thirteen children, and seen most all sold off to slavery, and when I cried out with my mother's grief, none but Jesus heard me! And ain't I a woman?

 Sojourner Truth, circa 1870

A New York Times crossword puzzle asked what Senate Majority Leader succeeded Bill Frist, a Republican from Tennessee who had graduated from Harvard Medical School.  Answer: Nevada’s Harry Reid after Democrats won control of the Senate as a result of the 2006 election and served eight years until succeeded by present Majority Leader Mitch “The Bitch” McConnell.

The “Momma Mia!” sequel, “Here We Go Again,” had great Abba numbers that made up for the schmaltz, maudlin parts, and a whacky timeline. Cher, playing Donna’s grandma, belted out the Abba hit “Fernando” and looked fabulous.  Meryl Streep came back from the dead to reprise a couple songs as well. Sad to see fewer than a dozen others in attendance at the Michigan City AMC Showplace.  Will theaters go the way of video stores, I wonder, now that most everything is available on cable.

Hazel Hannell, "Dunes - Winter Day" (1959) 

 

Leafing through a 2017 “Sand and Steel” Brauer Museum exhibit catalogue, I was struck by the vividness of “Dunes – Winter Day” (1959), a watercolor by Hazel Hannell, who lived for 50 years in Furnessville, now part of Chesterton. Along with husband Vin (also a painter), she was active in Save the Dunes Council and traveled to Washington, D.C., with founder Dorothy Buell to lobby Congress on behalf of preserving the Indiana dunes.  Still painting when she turned 100, Hazel Hannell died at age 106 while living in Oregon with longtime dunelands artist Harriet Rex Smith.

In “The Destiny Thief” Richard Russo recalled being on a Bulgarian talk show when the band, knowing he was a Springsteen fan, played “Land of Hope and Dreams” from the 2012 “Wrecking Ball” album, in Russo’s opinion, perhaps the greatest anthem of his lifetime.  Recalling that “The Boss” had helped a weary nation get through the Vietnam War, the AIDS epidemic, and the World Trade Center attack, Russo teared up when the singer from Sofia came to these stirring words::

Grab your ticket and your suitcase
Thunder's rollin' down this track
Well, you don't know where you're goin' now
But you know you won't be back . . .

This train carries saints and sinners

This train carries losers and winners

This train carries whores and gamblers

This train carries lost souls . . .

Big wheels roll through the fields where sunlight streams

On meet me in a land of hope and dreams.

I said this train, dfeams will not be thwarted,

This train, faith will be rewarded,

This train, steel wheels singin’

This train, bells of freedom ringing.”

In the Post-Tribune was a photo of VU History professor Heath Carter, chairman of Valparaiso’s Human Relations Council, being wheeled across Lafayette Street by 11-year-old son Isaiah in an experiment to test accessibility of local businesses for disabled residents.  Carter told reporter Becky Jacobs: “Downtown is an older part of town. From the sidewalks to the entrances, things are tight.”  He added that it is daunting to realize what wheelchair-bound people have to go through  to get to a store or restaurant. Some have outside seating that make it too narrow for wheelchairs get by. 

Javier Baez is having an MVP season.  Today against the Padres, “El Mago” (the magician) hit a home run and triple and made a great throw home to nail the potential tying run. Games don’t get much better than that, nor the meal Toni made of ribs, rice, salad, and corn on the cob for Dave’s forty-ninth birthday. For a second birthday celebration the following evening at Kevin and Tina Horn’s, Toni made mango salsa with scallops that was so good it took all my will power not to devour more than my share.  

At Kevin and Tina's: Toni, Dave, John, Jimbo, Kris, Becca 

original section of Overseas Highway

At Kevin and Tina’s, daughter Kaela talked about seeing Bruno Mars at Lollapalooza and John English, about to embark on a trip to Key West, discussed being fascinated with the life of financier Henry M. Flagler, responsible for building a railroad line to Key West, which some branded “Flagler’s Folly.” Even though damaged beyond repair during the 1935 Labor Day Hurricane, the roadbed and bridge became the foundation for the Overseas Highway, which was eventually abandoned after a new highway opened in the 1980s. Dave was grieving over a friend in critical condition after being a hit-and-run victim and two former students who died, one at a railroad crossing and another caught in a crossfire of bullets.  

Peggy Hinckley, emergency manager for the Gary schools has approved the auctioning off of 78 items, including Chicago sculptor Emory P. Seidel’s bust of former School Superintendent William A. Wirt.  After protests by historians Ronald Cohen and Kendall Svengalis and others, Councilwoman Rebecca Wyatt, chair of the council’s art, culture and history committee got the online auction postponed at the last minute by unearthing a legal requirement that Mayor Karen Freeman-Wilson be notified at least 30 days prior to property being sold.  At the time, bidding on the bust had reached $6,000.  Wyatt told Post-Tribunecorrespondent Carole Carlson, “We don’t want to sell off our history. The historical  significance is more valuable than any money brought in.”  While the mayor expressed the view that historical artifacts should be preserved and not auctioned off, so far she has not taken action and the online bidding is continuing.

 English professor Carolyn Boiarsky

At an Open House celebrating the life of Historian Lance Trusty were several of his former Purdue Calumet colleagues that I recognized, including Bernie Hollicky, Naomi Goodman, and Marcia Gaughan.  English professor Carolyn Boiarsky solicited my advice about researching the history of land use in East Chicago, and I told her to check out city directories that she could find in East Chicago.  I told Jan Trusty that I considered Lance a mentor when it came to researching Region history and speaking to community groups.  She replied that Lance had respected my work and that their library contains many Steel Shavingsissues.

Kaylan Zimny, a 2016 Hobart H.S. grad and IUN Elementary Education major, kept a journal as a class assignment. Here are excerpts:

  February 26, 2018:I hope to teach second or third grade because those students are generally enthusiastic about learning new things.  If I’m not studying, I am probably working at Subway in Hobart or hanging out with my boyfriend of 3 years. 

  March 11, 2018:Scheduled begin to work at 6 a.m., I forgot we lost an hour because of daylight saving time and was 10 minutes late. Good thing the big boss wasn’t there. We were so busy, the lines were out the door.  That evening, my boyfriend and I went to Cappos, an Italian restaurant that makes the best pizza around. We decided to visit Indianapolis and Brown County during spring break. When we got back to his house, we researched places to stay and things to do during the trip. 

  March 12, 2018:My boyfriend and I went to Denny’s for breakfast and then to the grocery store for food for our trip. We got granola bars, muffins, cereal, frozen pizzas, hot pockets, and sandwich makings. We plan to go to the Indianapolis Zoo and do hiking and fishing in Brown County. At home I packed and played Uno, which is very competitive in my family, before going to bed early because we’re leaving tomorrow.

  March 13, 2018:I woke up at 6 and picked up my boyfriend at 6:30. After loading my car with luggage, we went to get coffee and breakfast sandwiches from Dunkin Donuts before we hit the road. The drive to Indianapolis went by quickly, and we got there too early to check into our Airbnb. Instead, we walked around downtown and got lunch at Buca di Beppo, an amazing Italian restaurant.  At the Airbnb, there was a lockbox under the porch with a key to the house. The owners had left breakfast foods, and the house was very tidy and homey. After a romantic dinner at St. Elmo Steak House, we relaxed the rest of the night. 

  March 14, 2018:  The Indianapolis Zoo was very well kept and the animals all looked healthy. My favorite part was the dolphin show. We stayed at the zoo all day, so we were exhausted when we got back to our place. 

  March 15, 2018:  We woke up a little later than we hoped, but, hey, vacations are for relaxing. The drive to Brown County only took about an hour. We rented this beautiful cabin in the woods (again from airbnb) with a private fishing pond in the back. It was raining, so we decided to stay in and watch movies. We foolishly watched Cabin in the Woods, which terrified me because we were literally in a cabin in the woods. 

  March 16, 2018:  At the pond we caught about 5 fish each and made a frozen pizza before we went hiking. Brown County State Park has many amazing trails to pick from. You would never have guessed that this was Indiana, there were so many hills. It was absolutely breathtaking. As the sun was starting to set, we made spaghetti and relaxed in the hot tub. 

  March 17, 2018:  In Brown County, an entertaining St. Patrick’s Day Bash took place at the Seasons Lodge and Conference Center.  I wore a green dress, while my boyfriend wore a green shirt and black pants. It very different than what we would have done in Chicago. 

  March 18, 2018:We woke up early enough to see the sunrise just over the pond while in the hot tub, a nice way to end our trip. After driving almost 4 hours, we finally made it home. 

  March 24, 2018:My boyfriend and I went to Fair Oaks Farms, a fun place for all ages, and did the Pig Adventure. I never knew how huge pigs could get! The baby pigs were so cute I wanted one.  Before we left, we had delicious chocolate milk and ice cream. 

  April 1, 2018:My boyfriend and I went to Easter church service and ate with our families afterwards.  We found an old dying kit and colored Easter eggs with a Star Wars theme; mine was R2D2 and his was Chewbacca. Then, we had a mini Easter egg hunt.

  April 7, 2018:For was my sister’s 13th birthday, I took her and friends to a hotel with a swimming pool for the night. After having cake and saying Happy Birthday, they all wanted to do “makeovers.” Little did I know they’d brought makeup and wanted to practice on me.  It was a disaster that took about 30 minutes to remove from my face. 

  April 14, 2018:My friend Hannah invited a bunch of us to her family’s lake house in Michigan for  her birthday. We fished and it was a very fun getaway with my girls.

  April 21, 2018:My boyfriend and I started planning a summer trip to the Pocono Mountains in Pennsylvania to go white water rafting and hiking. Since my boyfriend loves the Steelers, we’ll stop in Pittsburgh and eat at a Steelers-themed restaurant. 

Teachers Fight Back

“Students, because you’re mine, I walk the line.”  Sign at West Virginia rally of teachers during 9-day strike, borrowing a Johnny Cash line

 Oklahoma state Capitol on third day of nine-day strike

Teacher walkouts and strikes have occurred in West Virginia, Kentucky, Oklahoma, and Arizona – red states, for the most part -  to protest low salaries, large class size, inadequate supplies, including obsolete textbooks and lack of computers, plus threats to teachers’ pensions.  In Kentucky, Governor Matt Bevin claimed that the walkout led to a student being sexually assaulted, then was pressured into apologizing for the outrageous remark. He vetoed a bill that included a hefty budget increase for education, but lawmakers managed to override his action. The situation for teachers in Indiana is also dire.  In fact, the state appropriates less money per pupil than where walkouts have occurred. Since the 1990s, when Dave started at East Chicago Central, teachers’ salaries have been stagnant and lost ground to inflation.  What a sad commentary on America’s priorities that teachers are so underpaid and burdened by policies that force them to respond to unrealistic guidelines intended to undercut public education in favor of for-profit charter schools.

 Hedy Lamarr

Bridge was at Herb and Evelyn’s in Ogden Dunes, where granddaughter Alissa and their son Alex used to play in their swimming pool.  The huge Passo dog would get so excited when company came that they’d have to keep the friendly beast in the garage, where he’d bang against the wall in frustration.  After a few loud barks, current dog Hedy Lamarr, named for a Forties movie siren was friendly.  When Dick Hagelberg noted that he had Finnish ancestors, I mentioned reading a history of Finland because of my upcoming trip to a conference in Jyvaskyla and that their language is different from neighbors Sweden and Russia.  Connie Barnes noted that one of her great-grandmothers boarded a train to get married only to discover that her fiancée already had a wife, so she wed someone she met on the train.  It was her second marriage and lasted a lifetime.  Evelyn Passo, a kindergarten teacher, is planning to retire soon.  There’s even pressure at that level for teachers to drill stuff into their charges instead of making their first year of school mainly a socializing experience.

In “Straight Man” Richard Russo compares a situation to the plot of “Scuffy the Tugboat,” Gertrude Crampton’s 1946 best seller.   Bored with being confined to a bathtub, Scuffy embarks on a great adventure but in the end realizes he’d rather be back home. Russo also references Brobdingnag, the land of giants in Jonathan Swift’s eighteenth-century satire “Gulliver’s Travels.” When Hank, an English Department chair under duress from both professors and administrators, muses that he must be Porthos to others’ Athos and Aramis, the reference is to “The Three Musketeers” (1844) by Alexander Dumas.  A literary allusion I particularly liked was saying that someone, like Oliver Twist in the Charles Dickens novel, went from a poor home to an even worse one.  One section begins with lines from English poet Stephen Spender, who wrote about social injustice and class struggle:

What I had not foreseen

Was the gradual day

Weakening the will

Leaking the brightness away

Two interesting words Russo employs are dudgeon(a feeling of deep resentment) and ellipsis(the omission of obvious or superfluous) words. Reviewing “City of the Century,” historian James Madison called my Gary book elliptical, which I took to mean, rather than obscure or ambiguous, that I left readers to draw their own conclusions. 

Like Hank, there was a time in academe when I went a little crazy – in my case, soon after achieving promotion and tenure.  I decided to revive the near dormant IUN student newspaper by teaching a History of Journalism course and becoming adviser to the Northwest Phoenix.  Under my guidance it came out weekly and didn’t shy away from controversy.  I was sensible enough, however, to leave editorial decisions to student editors John Petalas and Joe Salacian and discourage articles about professors’ personal lives, such as one about Economics professor Les Singer being a practicing nudist. While I took pride in my teaching and influenced a fair share of students, my impact was miniscule compared to son Dave at East Chicago Central.

There are so few movie comedies worth seeing that, after deciding I didn’t have an appetite for the spy knockoff Beirut, which received mediocre reviews, I debated between Blockers(about parents trying to keep daughters from getting laid on prom night) and Girls Trip(four old friends reconnect in New Orleans),  I opted for the latter since Queen Latifah was in it, I could watch it free on HBO, and it got a 90% Rotten Tomatoes rating. It was  quite raunchy, but Queen Latifah didn’t disappoint, and I enjoyed musical cameos by Ne-Yo, Sean Combs, and New Edition and the dirty dancing scenes. Critics evidently loved Tiffany Haddish as an impulsive party animal, comparing her performance to Melissa McCarthy in Bridesmaids (2011).

 Cindy Bean

Emerson interior ruins

Cindy C. Bean granted Ron Cohen and me permission to use her photo of Lake Michigan and area steel mills for our new edition of “Gary: A Pictorial History.”  It originally appeared in Jerry Davich’s “Lost Gary.”  Cindy and husband Larry frequently visit abandoned buildings in Gary, such as City Methodist Church, Union Station, the Palace Theater, and Emerson School.   Its disgraceful present condition is a sad testimony to the city lack of resources. According to historian Kendall Svengalis, an Emerson grad, the latter cannot be demolished due to it being on the National Register of Historic Places, but Cohen disputes this. 

In “The Defeat of Black Power: Civil Rights and the National Black Political Convention of 1972” (2018), Leonard N. Moore described how Jesse Jackson stole the spotlight at the West Side black summit in hopes of becoming Martin Luther King’s successor as the leader of African Americans. Following is Moore’s account of Jackson and the three conveners, poet Amiri Baraka, Detroit Congressman Charles Diggs, and Gary Mayor Richard Hatcher, at the opening press conference:

All four men were dressed in garb appropriate to their constituency: Diggs in a conservative suit as representative of the National Black Caucus; Hatcher in an expensive tailor-made suit exemplifying the new generation of young, educated, urban mayors, controlling black-majority cities; Baraka in his dashiki representing black nationalists; and Jesse Jackson dressed like Superfly – wide-collar shirt, vest, with a large medallion engraved with the image of Martin Luther King, Jr. hanging from his neck.

Ray Smock wrote tongue-in-cheek about Stormy Daniels showing up at Trump attorney Michael Cohen’s court appearance in an attempt to block authorities from seeing his email correspondence:

     While I have not made a scientific study of the phenomenon, it did appear to me from video clips of the event that there were more reporters, cameramen, and paparazzi at Stormy Daniels' court appearance today than there were people at Trump's inauguration.

     Since we know that Trump's inaugural crowd was the largest in history, according to our highest authority, I will settle for Stormy's crowd as being the second largest.

     For those of you who may feel I am exaggerating a bit, let me find a way of stating this that cannot be disputed. The crowd at the courthouse to see Stormy Daniels today was the largest crowd in history ever to gather for the purpose of seeing a porn star who had an affair with a President of the United States.

 Chase Utley heroics in 2008 World Series

At bridge Dee Van Bebber and I finished second with a 63.89 percent and finished second despite my twice being too cautious in not pushing us to game.  Having lived many years in Florida, Dee is a Tampa Bay fan and resented Joe Madden leaving the Rays to manage the Cubs.  Commenting on last Saturday’s atrocious weather at Wrigley, Madden mentioned that his worst experience was the deciding 2008 World Series game 5 in Philadelphia. A Phillies fan, I vividly recall it being suspended in the sixth inning with the Phils holding a one-run lead and being resumed next day.  I was at the bowling alley with the TV on mute when, with the score tied, Philly second baseman Chase Utley knocked down a grounder headed for centerfield, faked throwing to first, and then nabbed the lead runner at the plate, thanks to a great tag by Carlos Ruiz.  At the time I wasn’t exactly sure what had happened, but, by all accounts, it saved the Series for the Phillies.  I also recall the on-field celebration after closer Brad Lidge, a perfect 48 for 48 for the season, struck out the final batter with a nasty slider, causing me to let out a whoop.