Blue Dog

“Who let the dogs out

woof, woof, woof, woof.”

    Baha Men

In the wake of the shocking margin of Senator Dick Lugar’s defeat, Senatorial candidate Joe Donnelly is stressing that he is a so-called “Blue Dog” Democrat.  In 1995, after Republicans gained control of the House, a group of moderates, mainly Southerners, some of whom subsequently became Republicans, gave themselves that moniker.  They met regularly in offices of Louisiana Congressmen who had “Blue Dog” paintings of Cajun artist George Rodrigue on the wall and felt that they had been “choked blue” by the leftwing of their party.  The nickname may have been a take-off on so-called “Yellow Dog” Democrats, loyal to a fault in that they’d even support a yellow dog if such an animal were on their party’s ticket. Another explanation is that dogs left out in the cold allegedly turn blue.  How sad if Donnelly thinks he has to distance himself from Obama and the Democratic House leadership.  Shades of Evan Bayh.  When I moved to Indiana in 1970, both senators were good liberals.  Vance Hartke lost to Lugar in 1976 and Dan Quayle defeated Evan’s dad Birch in the 1980 Reagan landslide.  Asked by Chuck Todd about Obamacare, Donnelly at least praised the parts that mandate insurance coverage of preexisting conditions and allow young people to remain on their parents’ policies through age 26.  Favorite student Shannon Pontney’s hubby works for Donnelly, who married them, and I’ll be a volunteer if called on to help defeat Tea Party stooge Mourdock, whose idea of compromise is for the other side to totally capitulate.

When grandson Anthony was a kid, he’d drive everyone crazy playing “Who Let the Dogs Out.”  He loved the woof woofs, and after the first 30 seconds would repeat the opening over and over.

Sadly Roy Dominguez lost his bid to unseat incumbent Lake County Commissioner Gerry Sheub, perhaps partly the result of cynicism among voters distrustful of candidates born in Gary with Latino names. Scheub’s main residence is elsewhere, and the 76 year-old pushed for the government to support a dubious trash-to-ethanol scheme.  Roy’s political enemies planted misleading innuendoes with newspaper columnists all too willing, perhaps out of fear, to do their bidding.  With such low voter turnout, Sheub benefitted from having the support of a Democratic machine that had its roots with Club SAR, an Eastern European clique put together 75 years ago by Gary boss George Chacharis. The two most powerful county officeholders, Hammond mayor Tom McDermott and Sheriff John Buncich, each had reasons for fearing a Dominguez victory and did everything they could to derail his candidacy.  I told Roy that he should consider seeking a seat on the IU Board of Trustees.

In West Virginia some jerk who is in a Texas jail garnered over 40 percent of the votes in the Democratic Presidential primary and a majority of voters in North Carolina want to ban same sex marriage.  The results show that prejudice is very much alive in border states among folks who seem to care more about social issues than their economic self-interest.  

One Sunday in May 1774, 69 year-old Puritan minister Joseph Fish preached to just eight Narragansett Indians and afterwards asked an old woman why more didn’t come to hear him. In his diary he wrote of being told that “she supposed they dare not come for Sam Niles warned them not to hear any of our ministers that wore great white wigs.”  Good for Sam.  Fish hated Baptists, looked down on Native Americans, and in church matters believed that women should be seen but not heard.

I exchanged several emails with childhood friend Paul Turk, whose daughter will attend William and Mary College in the fall.  A sports fan originally from Cleveland who lives in the D.C. area, he refers to his two favorite baseball teams as The Tribe and the Gnats.

I renewed my Traces magazine subscription.  In looking to expand our “Traces of Northwest Indiana History” exhibit I discovered an article by Todd Gould on Mexican Repatriation (“Forced Exodus from the Calumet Region”).  Gould has written books on the early days of pro basketball in Indiana and on Charlie Wiggins and the African-American racing car circuit.  

The teenager semi-finalists on “Jeopardy” had trouble with the Citizenship category.  Contestants didn’t know the minimum age for a Congressman (25) or that freshmen take office in January.  The guy ahead prior to “Final Jeopardy” failed to write down “Hunger Games” author Suzanne Collins, setting up an all-female final.

In a recent episode of “Mad Men” the news in the background mentions Vermont Senator George Aiken’s October 1966, statement that the U.S. should declare victory in Vietnam and leave.  Don’s 12 year-old daughter Sally comes across her dad’s mother-in-law fellating Roger.  Later she calls her brother and when asked how ‘s the city, responds, “Dirty.” Don’s trophy wife gives him a copy of the Beatles’ “Revolver” album, and he seems totally mystified listening to “Tomorrow Never Knows.”

History secretary Vicki informed that former student from the 1970s Daniel Kozlowski was asking about me.  He left a business card indicating that he is a judge advocate at Camp Atterbury in Edinburgh, IN, with the rank of colonel.  I published his article about growing up in Highland in my Sixties Shavings.

I’ve been invited to an event honoring Maria Reiner Center’s volunteers because of my talk to seniors on the “Age of Anxiety.”  Ellen Szarleta also invited me to an event where the Barden Gary Foundation will honor Gary Roosevelt students who have worked to clean up Buffington Park.

I picked up slacks at Nuvo Cleaners in Chesterton.  Entering the establishment, I said, “Hi, my name is Jim Lane and I’m here for a pair of pants.”  With a smile a young woman replied, “Hi, my name is Jill and I’ll get them for you.”

Wedding

“You may say I’m a dreamer,
But I’m not the only one.”
John Lennon

I have been corresponding with economist Paul Samuelson’s sister-in-law about his parents as well as an intern at Duke University’s manuscript library, where his papers are. Frank, his father, moved to Gary in 1911 when the owner of Economical Drug Store wanted to go to medical school in Chicago. So they traded positions. Dr. Antonio Giorgi, whom I wrote about in “Gary’s First Hundred years,” had an office above the pharmacy, became good friends with him, and sent patients downstairs to have their prescriptions filled. In 1915 he delivered Paul, Frank and Ella’s second son, in his office and expressed the wish that he be named Antonio. The parents settled on the name of Giorgi’s son Paul and chose Anthony as the middle name in honor of the physician. Later when he obtained his birth certificate, Samuelson discovered that Giorgi had put down Antonio, not Anthony, as his middle name. The pharmacy flourished during the war years but encountered financial difficulties during the early 1920s. In 1923 there were more than two dozen drugstores in Gary, including several within eyesight of the Economical Drug Store

I saw “J. Edgar” starring Matt Damon as the racist FBI director (in FDR’s opinion, one of the two most dangerous people in the county during the 1930s and beyond, along with General Douglas MacArthur. Some of the scenes seemed contrived and inaccurate, in particular a depiction of the so-called 1919 Centralia Massacre that took place on Armistice Day. Wesley Everest fired on WW I vets only after they took a detour from and parade route and attacked Wobbly headquarters, while the film portrayed Wobbly “terrorists” shooting the vets as they were marching along the parade route. Everest was seized from jail and lynched, but Hoover never was concerned about radicals or blacks being lynched. In the film Hoover learns about JFK’s death while listening to a tape of Martin Luther King having sex in a motel room and supposedly informs brother Bobby about it in a single sentence and then hangs up on him. Concerning Hoover’s alleged homosexual relationship, in the movie second-in-command Clyde Tolson attacks J. Edgar when the latter says he’s thinking about getting married and then gives him a kiss on his bloody mouth. Judi Dench gives a chilling performance as Hoover’s controlling mother, and director Clint Eastwood is judicious in not turning Hoover into a mere caricature. Rather than a moral paragon, as Hoover sought to be remembered, he was a megalomaniac totally bent on advancing his power and image. Two things would seem contrived if not for the fact that they were true – Hoover never forgiving Melvin Purvis for catching bank robber John Dillinger and his loving the horse races because the track owners didn’t make him pay if he lost.

Knowing I am a Redskin fan, Ron Cohen gave me a “NY Review of Books” article on Thomas G. Smith’s “Showdown: JFK and the Integration of the Washington Redskins.” Owner George Marshall, who moved the team from Boston in 1937, was a notorious racist who had one part-Indian coach dress up in war paint and feathers for home games and commissioned a fight song that contained the line, “Scalp ’um, swamp ’um, we will take ’um big score.” JFK’s Interior Secretary Stewart Udall forced Marshall to integrate his team as a condition of using a new stadium built on federal land.

Herman Cain finally bowed out of the Presidential race by using a quote taken from a Donna Summers song, “The Power of One,” used in the 2000 “Pokemon” movie, to wit: “"Life can be a challenge, life can seem impossible, it's never easy when there is so much on the line. But you and I can make a difference.” Writing “No wonder he said he was a leader not a reader,” Ray Smock compared the statement to Newt Gingrich’s admiration for the Power Rangers, adding: “I don’t give a hoot about his affairs with women as long as they were consensual. The man was dumb as a post. The fact that people thought him inspiring and even smart makes me fear for the nation’s sanity. Thank God Pokémon, Power Rangers, computer games, or even movies were not around when Abe Lincoln was learning by candlelight.”

I traveled to Elkhart Saturday for former student Shannon Pontney’s wedding. The invitation had Jimi Hendricks on the cover and included musings by John Lennon. My first and best supplemental instructor and a big Voodoo Chili fan, she looked dazzling. The unique ceremony featured second district Congressman Joe Donnelly marrying her and Hodge (who works for him). They wrote their vows themselves and did a great first dance routine. Shannon used to work in Admissions, and several IUN personnel were at our table, as well as two artists, including Julian Alcantar, a talented “abstract evolutionist” who showed me some of his work on his IPhone. Most tables were named for rock stars like David Bowie and Steve Winwood, but ours was the Frida Kahlo table, named for the brilliant Mexican artist Frida Kahlo, a bisexual communist who was married to muralist Diego Rivera. The head table was named for Shannon’s dad Rich, who died a few months ago after a fall at work. I talked to Congressman Donnelly about his intention to run for the Senate in 2012 against either Senator Richard Lugar or his wingnut Tea Party challenger Richard Mourdock. He is friends with Sheriff Dominguez and was pleased to hear about his autobiography “Valor.”

Tom Wade won a trio of board games Sunday before I triumphed in Dominion, using a simple but remarkably effective strategy. Bears totally sucked in succumbing to the lowly Chiefs, 10-3, surrendering a Hail Mary TD on the final play of the first half. The game was utterly without any redeeming merit, as disgusting as poorly made porn.

A woman called to ask if I could tell her the name of a life insurance company on the northeast corner of Fifth and Broadway during the Fifties. Using a Gary City Directory I found the names of three on the second floor of the Marshall House Building at 21 East Fifth: American States Insurance, Bankers Life and Casualty, and the Thomas C Stimple Agency. She’s looking to locate a missing policy, and I wished her luck.

Heartache and Pain

“I gotta take a little time
A little time to think things over
I better read between the lines
In case I need it when I'm older”
Opening lines of Foreigner’s “I Want To Know What Love Is.”

A sports jock on WSCR (The Score), referring to WDRV (The Drive), claimed he’d never listen to a station that played Foreigner. True, many of their songs were shallow and repetitive (i.e., “Head Games,” “Hot Blooded,” “Cold As Ice”), but who can resist singing along to Lou Gramm while in the car? I love their rendition of the 1984 power ballad “I Want To Know What Love Is,” recorded with backing vocals by a gospel choir. The song plays in the background during a chilling scene in one of my favorite “Miami Vice” episodes called “Rites of Passage.” The Pam Grier character is making love to Detective Rico Tubbs while her sister, entrapped in a prostitution ring headed by John Torturro as David Traynor, is being murdered with a syringe. How versatile Torturro is. I love him as the nerdy Paulie in “Jungle Fever.”

San Antonio Spurs Coach and Region native Gregg Popovich will be on hand for the Thanksgiving weekend Lakeshore Classic at the Genesis Center. Born in East Chicago and a Merrillville High School grad, he and Chamber of Commerce director Chuck Hughes, coordinator of the event, played together on a championship AAU basketball team. Hughes told Post-Trib correspondent Tommy Williams of running into Popovich 15 years ago and being asked if they were still “hooping” at 39th and Broadway on the old Glen Park school playground. It was a place kids like Popovich from could test their talents in pickup games against Gary’s best black players. With “twin towers” David Robinson and Tim Duncan leading the way, “Pop” has accumulated four championship rings. Only Phil Jackson (11), Red Auerbach (9), Pat Riley (5), and John Kundla (5) of the old Minneapolis Lakers have more.

In the news: All 33 Chilean miners reached the surface after being trapped underground for 69 days. Wearing special Oakley sunglasses until they got used to the light, they embraced loved ones, sang, prayed, led the crowd in cheers. President Sabastian Pinera pronounced them to be heroes and gushed that the rescue was one of his small country’s proudest moments. Darcy Wade exclaimed on Facebook: “Yeah!!!!!!!! People working together and helping their fellow mankind – now there’s an idea.” They’ve been invited to visit several countries and a possible reality show is in the works. Their lives will never be the same, for better or worse. One guy’s mistress showed up, so angering his wife she refused to be in attendance.

Police commander Rolando Flores was zealously investigating the murder of American David Hartley, attacked while jet skiing on the Mexican side of Lake Falcon. Drug cartel members murdered him and delivered his head in a suitcase to the Mexican military.

During a debate between Delaware Senate candidates Christine O’Donnell and Chris Coons the daffy Republican “wingnut” (as Chris Matthews on MSNBC likes to call Tea Partiers like her) drew a blank when asked about recent Supreme Court decisions. Her mentor Sarah Palin fanned on a similar question during the 2008 Presidential campaign. One of O’Donnell’s commercials starts out, “I am not a witch.” She probably has no clue that it reminds older voters of Nixon’s “I am not a crook” speech.

The Post-Trib and The Times have on-line obituary Guest Books where people can offer their condolences to family members. John Bianchi wrote to the Pontney family: “I am very sorry for your loss, my prayers and thoughts are with you all. I worked with Rich at Inland, he always raised my spirits.” Returned to Burns Funeral Home for the second time this month. Rich fell and hit his head four months ago and died as a result of complications. I expressed my condolences to wife Audrey, son Rick, and daughters Megan and Shannon, looking radiant despite her grief. Rich was so full of life, the heartache and pain must be almost unbearable. Shannon was like him in so many ways.

Toni and I saw the Second City traveling troupe at Chesterton High School with the Wades. In the crowd was Education professor Paul Blohm. Beforehand loud music impeded conversation, but I did enjoy hearing MGMT’s “Electric Glide.” Brady and his attractive girlfriend preferred sitting with their friends. We were in the first row but weren’t pulled up onto the stage or asked questions by a faux fortuneteller, as several people nearby were. In one short piece two parents were called to talk with their son’s school counselor. “Is the problem ADHD, ADD, ASD,” they ask. “No, it’s DUMB,” the counselor replied. The five young comedians were excellent. I don’t usually like improvisation all that much, but they did a hilarious, impromptu “Lewis and Clark in Mexico” skit featuring Sacajawea and her sister Wacojawea. Whenever the narrator stopped the action Lewis, Clark, and the two Indian maidens had to break out in song starting with the previous line.

Got a Facebook message to the effect that former student Samuel A. Love and high school classmate Wendy “Snowhite” Wellin had changed photos. For a minute I thought that it meant they had “exchanged” photos and gotten to know each other through me. Strange as that seems, I guess such a thing is possible. Also on the Wall: Sam turned his profile picture pink to support breast cancer detection. Miranda posted a photo of her in a high school band uniform and also noted, “Finally beat my time for cross country.” Dean posted a great photo of Toni, Joanell, and me by the front door of our condo. A friend mistook me for Dean commented on how good he and Joanell. I kidded him about it, saying she must have thought he shaved off his beard and grew his hair long. Sent Joanell my “Retirement Journal” after she mentioned enjoying my 2000 “Survival Journal.”