January 05, 2009

Reading a Non-Trilogy Russian Trilogy

Recently I read three Russian-themed books by separate authors and enjoyed them all. They are not strictly related, but in my mind they stand as a trilogy, starting in 1941, moving to 1953, and then on to the current social miasma that is Russia. In the correct order, the books are "City of Thieves" by David Benioff; "Child 44" by Tom Rob Smith; and "Stalin's Ghost" by Martin Cruz Smith.

Two of the books have strikingly similar openings. Child 44's first page says,

That had been the moment Maria decided to die, with nothing to eat and nothing to love.

City of Thieves has an equally haunting sentence, in which a character tells his grandson:

You have never been so hungry; you have never been so cold.

Stalin's Ghost brings back Moscow investigator Arkady Renko for another round of battles against bureaucracy, criminals, memory of his father, and a well-heeled rival for the hand of his girlfriend Eva.

All the books mesmerized me with their mix of history, danger and romance in a cold, dangerous place. For readers who want even more Eastern European skullduggery, Alan Furst's The Spies of Warsaw has a French-Polish atmosphere, with Russian spies sliding into the plot at key points.

Fans can join me in twitching in anticipation, because Tom Rob Smith is writing a sequel to Child 44, called "The Secret Speech," a reference to the 1956 denunciation of Stalin by Nikita Khrushchev. All I can say is -- bring it on.

Van | 07:50 PM | 01/05/09 | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Categories: Sensual pleasures

January 04, 2009

Writing That Hits Home: U.S.A. by John Dos Passos

I read the U.S.A. trilogy by John Dos Passos over 25 years ago. The trilogy's introduction hit me like an anvil dropped on my head. It still does, although I'm no longer 25 years old and living the freelance writer life in a tin-roofed top-floor studio apartment in Brooklyn:

The young man walks by himself, fast but not fast enough, far but not far enough (faces slide out of sight, talk trails into tattered scraps, footsteps tap fainter in alleys); he must catch the last subway, the streetcar, the bus, run up the gangplanks of all the steamboats, register at all the hotels, work in the cities, answer the wantads, learn the trades, take up the jobs, live in all the boardinghouses, sleep in all the beds. One bed is not enough, one job is not enough, one life is not enough. At night, head swimming with wants, he walks by himself alone.

No job, no woman, no house, no city.

Van | 04:20 PM | 01/04/09 | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Categories: Life and how to live it

January 02, 2009

CSI Katonah: Raiders of the Lost Wallet

The case began in the opening hours of 2009, on the 1:04 a.m. Metro-North train churning through the center of Westchester County. My friend and I got ready to stumble off at the Katonah stop. For some reason I looked to my left and down as I zipped up my coat. On the floor, between two facing seat sections, sat a black wallet.

Ever the curious one, I picked it up. Nobody had sat in those seats for several stops. I asked some young people a few rows back, "Hey, did any of you drop your wallet?" Nobody did.

New Year's Eve was fading, but the Raiders of the Lost Wallet were just swinging into action.

Continue reading " CSI Katonah: Raiders of the Lost Wallet"

Van | 04:19 PM | 01/02/09 | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0) | Categories: Tikkun olam

December 25, 2008

Happy Holidays from Hamas: Crucifixion OK'd as Punishment in Gaza

I suppose the Jews forced them into this: the tradition-minded legislators of Gaza reached way back into the annals of jurisprudence to find appropriate censure for some crimes. As filtered through various sources and finally mentioned on Solomonia:

Hamas members of the Palestinian Legislative Council in Gaza have approved a new bill "to implement Koranic punishments," including hand amputation, crucifixion, corporal punishment and execution.

It's nice to see Hamas finds the old Roman ways worth emulating. What's next, reading chicken entrails and speaking Latin?

When Hamas does crucify someone, I wonder what kind of play it will in the mainstream press. "Ancient Penalty Reflects New Strictures Imposed by Israel" sounds about right.

Van | 03:34 PM | 12/25/08 | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Categories: - Gaza and Palestine

December 21, 2008

Hamas Names Madoff "Financial Jihadist of the Century"

January 1, 2009: The terrorist group Hamas honored financier Bernard Madoff as its "Financial Jihadist of the Century" last night with a gala dinner at the Gaza Conference and Suicide Bomber Training Center. The event celebrated Madoff "for his decades of unstinting and effective service to fulfilling the dictates of the yetzer hara, the Evil Inclination, in destroying Jewish institutions."

The honor capped a whirlwind year for Madoff, whose careful investment strategy paid huge dividends for Hamas and other Islamic terror groups. The U.S. financial crisis led to withdrawals from his investment funds, which, in fact, were in all probability never actually invested. Madoff simply used new investments to pay off earlier investors. His entire financial structure collapsed, taking with it billions of dollars of investments from many Jewish families and organizations.

Due to some passport problems, Madoff was unable to attend the gala, but he appeared via video and simply said, "Thank you for this honor. You're too kind. I couldn't have done it without all the little people, and big people, who blindly trusted me."

Speaker after speaker extolled Madoff's innovative approaches to financial jihad directed against Jewish organizations. One speaker declared, "We have had success in killing and injuring individual Jews -- bus bombings, Chabad in Mumbai, kidnappings. But our friend Bernie has taken jihad to an entirely new level. We killed individuals but he harmed institutions and wounded the entire Jewish communal infrastructure. That takes a true visionary. And most important, Bernie destroyed hope and trust among Klal Yisrael. Families are devastated, institutions and charities are closing, Jewish communities will never recover. What will happen now when solicitation letters and calls go out? Jews will think, 'Am I giving to a cause, or giving to support shmucks who shovel donations to their ganif cronies without a thought for whether the pals are criminals or not? Am I helping the worthy poor, or the yacht industry?' The cause of jihad simply cannot buy that kind of support."

The dinner tribute booklet overflowed with notices from many groups, praising Madoff's accomplishments and pledging funds for Gaza's new Madoff Family Institute of Advanced Financial Jihad. His voice choking, Madoff said, "My only regret is that my beloved mother and father are not alive to see this legacy. They would have been so ashamed of me."

The back cover ad brought tears to the eyes of the hundreds of jihadi dinner guests, clad in their finest evening wear and bomb belts. It simply said,

"Bernie, we deeply appreciate your outstanding disservice to the Jewish community worldwide. Although you're the son of apes and pigs, you are a truly unrighteous man unto our generation. That's why we're going to kill you last. Yasher Koach, Osama."

Van | 12:06 PM | 12/21/08 | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0) | Categories: Doing Jewish

December 20, 2008

Dissolving: James Joyce's "The Dead"

Snow and illness stalk my thoughts this weekend. In that light, James Joyce's "The Dead" strikes me as a work of great emotional truth.

The air of the room chilled his shoulders. He stretched himself cautiously along under the sheets and lay down beside his wife. One by one, they were all becoming shades. Better pass boldly into that other world, in the full glory of some passion, than fade and wither dismally with age. He thought of how she who lay beside him had locked in her heart for so many years that image of her lover's eyes when he had told her that he did not wish to live.

Generous tears filled Gabriel's eyes. He had never felt like that himself towards any woman, but he knew that such a feeling must be love. The tears gathered more thickly in his eyes and in the partial darkness he imagined he saw the form of a young man standing under a dripping tree. Other forms were near. His soul had approached that region where dwell the vast hosts of the dead. He was conscious of, but could not apprehend, their wayward and flickering existence. His own identity was fading out into a grey impalpable world: the solid world itself, which these dead had one time reared and lived in, was dissolving and dwindling.

A few light taps upon the pane made him turn to the window. It had begun to snow again. He watched sleepily the flakes, silver and dark, falling obliquely against the lamplight. The time had come for him to set out on his journey westward. Yes, the newspapers were right: snow was general all over Ireland. It was falling on every part of the dark central plain, on the treeless hills, falling softly upon the Bog of Allen and, farther westward, softly falling into the dark mutinous Shannon waves. It was falling, too, upon every part of the lonely churchyard on the hill where Michael Furey lay buried. It lay thickly drifted on the crooked crosses and headstones, on the spears of the little gate, on the barren thorns. His soul swooned slowly as he heard the snow falling faintly through the universe and faintly falling, like the descent of their last end, upon all the living and the dead.

Van | 06:44 PM | 12/20/08 | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0) | Categories: Sensual pleasures

December 18, 2008

Drinking and Blogging

Drinking and driving is a bad combination; drinking and blogging is almost as dangerous, as impaired judgment can lead a blogger to bang out the most outlandish thoughts and think, "how profound."

At the office party this afternoon I let my freak flag fly by having a Bud Light-Lime, a line extension that I liked, although it wasn't nearly as good as any drink with a little umbrella in it, but I'll take what I can get. Given various life issues bearing down on me, a little release tasted good. I had enough common sense to avoid a second Bud Light-Lime, because, as I told a friend, that would have me up on a table bawling out "Danny Boy."

I then strolled steadily to Grand Central Terminal, obsessively playing the Muddy Waters song "Long Distance Call" in my head, which has the greatest line of blues lyrics ever written: "Another mule is kickin' in your stall."

Finally, however, even as my head cleared, I couldn't resist the temptation to recite from memory the lyrics to Merle Haggard's immortal "Mama Tried," with these lyrics:

Continue reading " Drinking and Blogging"

Van | 10:48 PM | 12/18/08 | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Categories: Sensual pleasures

December 03, 2008

Unspeakable Acts, But We Must Speak Out

Tuesday night I attended a memorial service at Chabad of Stamford for Rabbi Gavriel and Rivkah Holtzberg and other victims of terror in Mumbai. Hundreds of people packed the sanctuary to hear Fairfield County rabbis, Stamford Mayor Dannell Malloy and others speak.

The terrorists committed unspeakable acts, and my sense is they did so with glee and delight at the opportunity to have Jews in their claws. The blood-drenched walls of the Chabad House, the tears of the Holtzbergs' two-year old son, Moshe, the funeral on the Mount of Olives all testify to "Kiddush Hashem" -- the sanctification of God's Name through martyrdom.

At the memorial, the speakers addressed a great Jewish question: How do you speak about, and against, unspeakable acts? The rabbis combined grief with a Jewish version of Joe Hill's dictum: "Don't Mourn -- Organize!"

Continue reading " Unspeakable Acts, But We Must Speak Out"

Van | 05:06 PM | 12/03/08 | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Categories: - Jews in odd places

November 26, 2008

Puritan Action Plan for Bail-Out Recipients: No, No, and NO

Citigroup is catching flak for having its name on the replacement for Shea Stadium, now dubbed Citi Field. Set to open the 2009 season, Citi Field shows exquisitely bad timing as a (mis)use of corporate assets. Two NY City Council members want to rename it "Citi/Taxpayer Field." Good idea! (Others have suggested Heimlich Field, because the Mets are always choking.)

Their renaming made me think about a Puritan Code of Conduct for corporations and their executives who are escaping self-inflicted destitution courtesy of tax payers. Yes, the Pilgrims had Thanksgiving, but I always associate the Puritans with stern behavior. So, to honor the spirit of the Puritans and their view of excess, I'm pleased to channel the jolly spirit of Oliver Cromwell and present this Puritan Action Plan for Bail-Out Recipients. Drawing on my first-hand observation of the excesses of corporate life, it will ensure that corporate chiefs will wisely spend their largess. As with any effective moral code, the Puritan Action Plan uses the word "no" many times.

Continue reading " Puritan Action Plan for Bail-Out Recipients: No, No, and NO"

Van | 06:40 AM | 11/26/08 | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Categories: Domestic Politics

November 23, 2008

24: Jack, Back, Hack

After 18 months off the air, 24 returned with a two-hour movie, "24 Redemption" that took Jack Bauer out of LA and plopped him down somewhere in Africa. The Africa sequences were very well done, but the political chicanery in Washington foretold a tedious season of 24 with the usual sneaking around in the White House with cell phones, crooked corporations, trouble members of the extended First Family -- hasn't 24 covered that territory over and over and OVER again?

Watching 24 again feels more like an obligation than a pleasure. It's a good thing Fox sticks in plenty of commercials for more important matters.

Van | 10:42 PM | 11/23/08 | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0) | Categories: Sensual pleasures

November 10, 2008

The Dutch-Jewish Films of Renee Sanders, This Week in NY

Dutch-Jewish film maker Renee Sanders will be screening four of her documentaries this week at "Celebrate Independent Thinking," a series at the Ann Frank Center USA at 38 Crosby Street in New York. The films explore the Holocaust in the Netherlands and its aftermath in the decades that followed. Renee, whose parents were hidden during the war, is a good friend of mine and I've had the honor of seeing several of her films. They are all compelling and blend historical insight with a great feel for the humanity of the subjects.

On Wednesday at 6 pm, the program consists of "Resisting Forces: The Jewish Council in Enschede, 1941-1943" and "A Jewish Counterforce." On Thursday, Renee will screen and discuss "Mink Hides My Misery," about German-Jewish women who moved to the Netherlands and then survived the Holocaust there, and "From 'S Graveland to the Promised Land." They're in Dutch with English subtitles.

The series is part of the "5 Dutch Days, 5 Boroughs" events celebrating New York's Dutch heritage. For more information, go to www.5dutchdaysnyc.org.

Van | 09:46 PM | 11/10/08 | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Categories: Doing Jewish

November 09, 2008

Before the Hurricanes: A Trip to Jewish Cuba

The place was jumpin’ in the 1950s. Congregations expanded with new buildings and programs, the community collected funds for Israel, the descendants of Americans, European and Middle Eastern immigrants were respected professionals who built businesses that kept the economy growing.

The United States in the Eisenhower era? No – Cuba, a thriving community of 15,000 Jews until the Revolution of 1959 resulted in 90 percent of the Jewish population fleeing. After the new government takeover, temples closed (for a lack of congregants, leadership and money) and the religious memory withered, kept alive in the immigrant population that settled a world and 90 miles away in South Florida and elsewhere.

Yet like embattled Jewish communities everywhere, a spark remained in Havana and smaller cities. In the 1990s, the government eased restrictions on religious observance and Havana’s Jewish community gradually returned to more open activity. Smaller communities across the island also began to reopen.

The U.S. embargo against Cuba severely restricts Americans’ ability to visit Cuba, but it can be done legally. One way is through a religious mission, licensed by the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control.

That’s how I satisfied a long curiosity about Cuba with a week-long trip there in June 2008 with a group led by Miriam Saul, a Cuba native who moved to Atlanta in the early 1960s and has led almost 30 licensed trips in the last eight years for the Cuba-America Jewish Mission, a non-profit group in California. I first contacted Miriam in February 2007, and signed on for the June 2008 mission.

Continue reading " Before the Hurricanes: A Trip to Jewish Cuba"

Van | 04:11 PM | 11/09/08 | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Categories: Doing Jewish

November 07, 2008

The White House Mountaineer

I'm keeping an open mind about the new administration. The website www.change.gov lays out the issues and areas of focus. Some of it makes sense, such as the discussion of ethics in government.

Other parts give me pause, like this gem buried in the "Other Issues" section. It sounds downright Stalinist in tone, a celebration of the infinite abilities of the far-seeing wise man:

Our nation's creativity has filled the world's libraries, museums, recital halls, movie houses, and marketplaces with works of genius. The arts embody the American spirit of self-definition. As the author of two best-selling books – Dreams from My Father and The Audacity of Hope – Barack Obama uniquely appreciates the role and value of creative expression.

Uniquely? Really? Is there nothing the White House Mountaineer cannot accomplish?

We can't say we weren't put on notice.

Van | 06:37 AM | 11/07/08 | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Categories: Domestic Politics

November 04, 2008

Grim Milestone Watch, Week Zero: Texas Views

I looked for political messages as I tooled around central Texas recently. The view from the Lone Star State is mixed. Signs for both candidates dotted the landscape, with the predictable urban-rural split. These pictures show some of what I found.

Below, McCain and Obama share the space outside an early-voting place in the arty town of Salado. McCain gets two signs for Obama's one, but, still, this is rural central Texas. I like the way the Obama sign looks like a Texas flag -- sure to win Texas hearts and minds for two good ol' boys from Hawaii/Harvard/Chicago and Delaware.

Not everybody's getting on the Obama bandwagon, as this screed posted on the main street of McGregor indicates.

Finally, I hit the brakes and leaped out of my rental car to snap a picture of this sign. It's not a campaign sign, but it does show the political tendencies the Democrats are bumping up against in parts of Red-State America. And, I didn't even know the Birchers still existed. But in Temple-Belton, they do.

Van | 06:00 AM | 11/04/08 | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Categories:

November 02, 2008

Obama Loves Me, This I Know, for the Liberal Bible Tells Me So

The New York Times slipped comfortably into Obama Girl mode today with another fawning article about Barack Obama, this one titled "Obama-Inspired Black Voters Warm to Politics." The article practically writes itself with no pretense of balance. Political participation derives from one source only, without the possibility that new black voters may be voting Republican. Maybe the National Black Republican Association could provide some, shall we say, diversity of perspective light on this aspect of the story.

What caught my attention in the story was a quote that instantly echoed an upbringing 40 years ago among the Texas Baptists. One passage reads,

For Darnell Harris of Cleveland, an 18-year-old private in the Marines, the legal voting age could not come fast enough. “I’m excited that the first time I get to vote, it’s for Barack,” he said. And echoing many others, he said that race is only part of the reason. “Obama cares about everybody, whether they’re white, black, Chinese, whatever. He’s not just for one little group.”

Where have I heard that thought before? Could Darnell Harris be channeling this song with this well-known (among some groups) refrain?

Jesus loves the little children,
All the children of the world.
Red and yellow, black and white,
All are precious in His sight,
Jesus loves the little children of the world.

Van | 06:10 PM | 11/02/08 | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Categories: Domestic Politics

On the Road to Crawford, Texas

I spent a most enjoyable hour or so with the good people of Crawford, Texas last Tuesday during a trip to Texas. The nearness of the election led me to drive 100 miles from Austin. I wandered the three-block downtown, snapping photos and chatting with the friendly manager of The Red Bull, the gift shop where I stocked up on Bush memorabilia. The Crawford cookbook, complete with recipes from First Lady Laura Bush, was a big hit, along with the armadillo refrigerator magnets. After careful consideration, I passed on the Jenna Bush-Henry Hager wedding mousepads. At $10, they were a little rich for my tastes.

The photo below shows, definitively, that I was there, very close to a reasonable likeness of a famous local resident soon to have more time for his ranch.

My timing was perfect, on the eve of Tuesday's historical shift. The center of presidential kitsch will soon shift to either Arizona/Alaska or Hawaii/Chicago/Indonesia/Kenya, but whatever the outcome, my sense is that Crawford will take the vote in stride.

Van | 08:29 AM | 11/02/08 | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Categories: Liberal hawks and friends

October 31, 2008

Wallach Does Sondheim

Wallach does Sondheim? I'm not referring to me, but to that tall and talented Wallach -- my nephew Tyler, the one who can sing and dance and act. Last weekend I had the pleasure of seeing him star as Robert in Stephen Sondheim's "Company" at Texas State University-San Marcos. I hadn't seen the play in years, so I came at it fresh, and thoroughly enjoyed the Saturday closing performance at TSU's outdoor Glade Theatre.

The topic, being single in New York, resonated with me from my younger days of being, well, single in New York in the 1980s. And the songs are unforgettable: "Sorry-Grateful" (boy, did that bring up some feelings), "Marry Me a Little," "The Ladies Who Lunch" (with a spine-tingling performance by Lindsay Hicks as Joanne) and the closing "Being Alive."

Tyler added Company to an already impressive resume, which includes The Rocky Horror Show (he was Brad!), Move Over Mrs. Markham (Alistair) and A Chorus Line (Mike). As the doting uncle, I've already given him a permanent claim to space in my apartment when he comes to the Big Apple for auditions.

In the photo below, Tyler and delightfully bubbly cast member Macey Mayfield celebrate after the play. All I can think of now is the great line from 42nd Street:

"You're going out a youngster, but you've got to come back a star!"

Van | 01:52 PM | 10/31/08 | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Categories: Sensual pleasures

October 06, 2008

New Year Greetings from San Francisco

Asher Abrams | 11:38 PM | 10/06/08 | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Categories:

Best (Worst) Timing Ever for an Investment Story?

Smart Money magazine certainly takes a firm position on the cover of its October issue. The publication goes way, way out on a limb with the cover line

DOUBLE YOUR NEST EGG: Now is the Time to Jump Into Cheap Stocks, Funds and Real Estate

Online, we learn the article appeared on the dread day of September 16, 2008, the day the avalanche began to pick up speed and gather hapless i-bankers others in its terrifying, and continuing downhill plunge.

I would like to hear from anybody who took Smart Money's advice and went bullish into the market when it looked like the Dow would settle into a great buying opportunity at, say, 11,000. That's got a nice ring to it.

Now that I think of it, 8000 sounds like an even better buying opportunity.

For this investment, maybe?

Van | 09:01 PM | 10/06/08 | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Categories: Life and how to live it

October 05, 2008

Choices and Consequences

As the economy shudders, financial decisions I made years ago appear in a new light. I kicked myself when I had to sell my shares in Merrill Lynch in the late 1990s -- but now, that's not such a bad move, since, given the glacial pace of change in my investments, I no doubt would have hung on to September's bitter end (I still have 10 shares of GM, the remnant of 100 shares that I inherited from my mother in 1985. Those dividends ain't paying many bills these days).

Wherever I worked, I always opened a 401-K. When I changed jobs, I left the 401-K at the old job rather than rolling it over to another account. Over the years I collected four or five such accounts, on top of plain old IRAs. I could barely remember the passwords on the accounts, much less rationally manage them. I had multiple variations of S&P 500 index funds, some more aggressive funds, other odds and ends, the equivalent of a junk drawer with any old stuff thrown in. They were like old ratty blue jeans -- hard to be rid of.

Until . . .

Continue reading " Choices and Consequences"

Van | 03:16 PM | 10/05/08 | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0) | Categories: Life and how to live it

October 03, 2008

Drifting Prayers: My Rosh Hashanah Eve with the Rebbe

Several friends had suggested I visit the gravesite of the Lubavitcher Rebbe in Queens, so when I had an email from Chabad of Stamford about a trip there this past Sunday, I decided to take the plunge. I'm always open to new experiences and I know something's going to be special when I have to push myself a little to do it.

Given the timing before Rosh Hashanah, I expected a huge crowd at the Ohel, as it's called. RVs and cars lined the avenue fronting the cemetery, but the Chabad center didn't seem overly crowded. I had no idea what to expect, but others who made the trip steered me to services (where I donned tefilin for the first time in years) and then to an area where visitors wrote letters to the Rebbe.

I'll leave the theology of this act for others to consider, but I found it powerful myself. To think: who, truly, do I care about and want to mention in a written prayer, in this mystical time and place?

Continue reading " Drifting Prayers: My Rosh Hashanah Eve with the Rebbe"

Van | 06:38 AM | 10/03/08 | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Categories: - Holy Days

September 29, 2008

The Whale and the Amoeba: Paul Newman and Me

One benefit of a career in journalism is that it brings you occasional brushes with greatness. I had that in my career, none more memorable than a few minutes with Paul Newman. For 11 years we shared the same zip code -- 06880 -- but I met him only once. I encountered Old Blue Eyes, my fellow Westportonian, thanks to my work as East Coast Editor of Video Store magazine.

While members of the video trade press rarely traveled in the exotic circles of those covering theatrical movie releases, occasionally we'd get to partake of those thrilling press junkets that drummed up (invariably positive) press for a new release. That happened with "Nobody's Fool" in 1994. I got to see the movie, then joined other video-trade journalists for tightly choreographed, friendly group interviews with actors and and directors; these group interviews were technically known within journalistic circles as "gang bangs."

I don't remember many details of my time with Newman; I might have mentioned something about Westport. But we were both there, his blue eyes, my hazel eyes flitting around the table. He was very good, hoarse of voice, and plainly he held our attention. We never met again -- I got laid off by the magazine a year later -- but I always treasure the memory of our brief encounter.

Oh, and one of the other interviews was also memorable. The movie also starred Melanie Griffith as Newman's love interest in the film. Unlike Griffith, she came across as very ill-at-ease in the interview, and even had her high-octane publicist, Pat Kingsley, in the room in case any of the sheep-like trade press got rambunctious. We never did (no questions about Don Johnson!), and Griffith could rotate to the next group of ink-stained wretches with her composure intact.

Update: Vanity Fair magazine had a long piece about Newman in its September issue, planned before his passing. Read it here.

Van | 06:40 AM | 09/29/08 | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Categories: Life and how to live it

September 23, 2008

Grim Milestone Watch, Week 7: Obama Mails It In

My fingers trembled with anticipation as I touched the envelope. Electricity fairly crackled as I reverently touched this envelope, emblazoned with the most inspiring words I've heard since Chicago released "Wishing You Were Here" in 1974:

This is our moment. This is our Time.

Yes, Barack Obama had sent me, as a loyal registered Democrat since 1976, a letter. What did it say? What special services could I render to the campaign in these tumultuous times?

Continue reading " Grim Milestone Watch, Week 7: Obama Mails It In"

Van | 06:47 AM | 09/23/08 | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Categories: - GOTV '06 to '08

September 18, 2008

Jewish People Who Need People (But Not Republican People)

That must have been some swift kick from the leather boots of the Democratic Party to the flabby tuchuses of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, which invited and then uninvited Sarah Palin to its protest next week at the UN. JTA provides the sordid details here.

I guess the good graces of the Democratic Party matter more to the Conference than support from the most intriguing and controversial politician -- dare I say, Madame Statesman? -- in the country. The Conference wants people at its event, but the right kind of people, not those icky Republicans whose views and fashions differ by an iota or two from the Style section of the New York Times. By blowing off Gov. Palin, the Conference removed a huge draw for its event. I was going to go, but now -- eh, why bother? If some fellow KTers want to give it a whirl, let's attend in those "I Am Sarah Palin" shirts, waving our lipstick.

Funny, but I don't recall agonies over partisanship two years ago when the Conference held a pro-Israel demonstration at the UN in July 2006. Senator Clinton appeared, and Democratic primary opponents Mark Green and Andrew Cuomo took the stage together (see the picture in my 2006 post for proof). Maybe rivals can appear if they're both Democrats. The Conference is made up, I suppose, of people -- people who need people, just not Republican peeeooople.

I've got an idea: why don't the Sarah Palin fans, with our t-shirts and lipsticks (or, failing that, some other cylindrical objects), hook up with the Neturei Karta folks, who you know will be protesting. Make it a joint protest -- while we wouldn't be sharing any philosophy, we'd be showing the Conference that it's policies are not winning friends among some groups of Jews.

Van | 11:18 PM | 09/18/08 | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Categories: - Useful idiots

September 16, 2008

Grim Milestone Watch, Week 8: Channeling Huey Long

The Wall Street collapse introduces a crazy element into the election. While it's been building for months, the problems introduce a problem as urgent and immediate as Iraq into the campaign, although I still think Bristol Palin's pregnancy is the great dividing line between the tickets.

The financial tangle will enable some smart candidate, one open to trying new personae to communicate with his or her constituency, to try on some Huey Long-style populist table pounding. Share the wealth! Every man a king or queen!

I won't say who I think ought to channel the Kingfish, but he or she would say something like this:

Well, I know a lot of them smart Harvard or Princeton fellas are down on Wall Street, 'n they know a lot more 'n I do about stocks and bonds and credit swaps and derivatives and CBOs n' all those things we don't talk about that much in the country or Training Union. But I know they're not doin' too good a job a runnin' the place. Fact is, they're mostly running their businesses into the ground and leavin' the taxpayers to pick up all the pieces. Is that fair? Maybe we need some average fellas from Illinois or Arizona or Delaware or Alaska to come in and say what's what.

Who'll pick up the mantle of the Kingfish and start the ball rolling for some good ol' backwoods harangues?

Van | 08:49 PM | 09/16/08 | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Categories: - GOTV '06 to '08