Armchair Travel
Monday, April 30, 2007
Substitute Teaching and Mom's Advice
My mom told me (Didn't yours?) : "If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all."
That's why I have never said much about substitute teaching, which I have done a lot of in the last 30 years to try to make ends meet, a trick I have seldom been able to master.
I met a lot of wonderful kids and a lot of brilliant educators in hundreds of schools all over New England. I met one sixth grader in a middle school in Dorchester who quoted a poem by Mohammed Ali: "Why do men fight and kill each other like animals?" I didn't have an answer for him, except to say he was asking the right questions. The other teachers said he was a problem child because he wouldn't sit down.
I met a lot of brilliant educators, too, but it seemed that the system always attached an adminstrator to them to act as a remora. If you're unfamiliar with Dilbert cartoons, I should explain that a remora is an eel that attaches itself to fish and sucks the life juices out of them.
Don't take my word for it; ask the educators you know. I'm not making this up.
Whenever they put together this next study on what to do about education, notice that they never talk about supporting teachers. They always talk about what to do TO teachers to make the system work. Incentive programs, 'super teacher' awards -- things that absolutely rule out giving any assistance, under any circumstances whatsoever, to people who tackle problem students and turn them into honor students.
The reward systems always give the benefits to 'high-performing' schools like Newton North High School in Newton, Massachusetts, which has three theaters and several swimming pools and withhold them from Jeremiah Burke High School in Roxbury, Massachusetts, ten miles away, that has the old kind of desks that were attached to the floor, but they're all falling apart and there's a pile of busted desks in the corner, no theaters, no swimming pools-- you know, 'low-performing' schools.
Just keep rewarding those 'high-performing' schools, you stupid buttheads. (Sorry, mom)
Most teachers and department heads with whom I have had to do did not treat me as a colleague, and so I have nothing to say about them. In fairness, they had to deal with lots of subs who didn't bathe or launder their clothes, but in my opinion this explains, but does not excuse their attitude toward me, a person of whom they knew nothing.
But I am happy to report that I recently subbed at Great Falls Middle School in Montague, Massachusetts, where Principal Jeff Kenney, at the morning assembly, introduced all the subs -- guest teachers he called us -- and explained to the students why it's important to treat your guests well. That has never happened before in 30 years of substitute teaching.
And you know something? These kids were paying attention. They better send out a bulletin to the bureaucrats: CODE ONE -- somebody attach a remora to this guy, he's educating students.
Jeff has introduced some other innovations at GFMS that are really helping students. I'll tell you about them if you promise not to tell Remora-Central. ¶ 7:18 PM 1 comments
That's why I have never said much about substitute teaching, which I have done a lot of in the last 30 years to try to make ends meet, a trick I have seldom been able to master.
I met a lot of wonderful kids and a lot of brilliant educators in hundreds of schools all over New England. I met one sixth grader in a middle school in Dorchester who quoted a poem by Mohammed Ali: "Why do men fight and kill each other like animals?" I didn't have an answer for him, except to say he was asking the right questions. The other teachers said he was a problem child because he wouldn't sit down.
I met a lot of brilliant educators, too, but it seemed that the system always attached an adminstrator to them to act as a remora. If you're unfamiliar with Dilbert cartoons, I should explain that a remora is an eel that attaches itself to fish and sucks the life juices out of them.
Don't take my word for it; ask the educators you know. I'm not making this up.
Whenever they put together this next study on what to do about education, notice that they never talk about supporting teachers. They always talk about what to do TO teachers to make the system work. Incentive programs, 'super teacher' awards -- things that absolutely rule out giving any assistance, under any circumstances whatsoever, to people who tackle problem students and turn them into honor students.
The reward systems always give the benefits to 'high-performing' schools like Newton North High School in Newton, Massachusetts, which has three theaters and several swimming pools and withhold them from Jeremiah Burke High School in Roxbury, Massachusetts, ten miles away, that has the old kind of desks that were attached to the floor, but they're all falling apart and there's a pile of busted desks in the corner, no theaters, no swimming pools-- you know, 'low-performing' schools.
Just keep rewarding those 'high-performing' schools, you stupid buttheads. (Sorry, mom)
Most teachers and department heads with whom I have had to do did not treat me as a colleague, and so I have nothing to say about them. In fairness, they had to deal with lots of subs who didn't bathe or launder their clothes, but in my opinion this explains, but does not excuse their attitude toward me, a person of whom they knew nothing.
But I am happy to report that I recently subbed at Great Falls Middle School in Montague, Massachusetts, where Principal Jeff Kenney, at the morning assembly, introduced all the subs -- guest teachers he called us -- and explained to the students why it's important to treat your guests well. That has never happened before in 30 years of substitute teaching.
And you know something? These kids were paying attention. They better send out a bulletin to the bureaucrats: CODE ONE -- somebody attach a remora to this guy, he's educating students.
Jeff has introduced some other innovations at GFMS that are really helping students. I'll tell you about them if you promise not to tell Remora-Central. ¶ 7:18 PM 1 comments
Sunday, April 22, 2007
The Eureka Principle
Isaac Asimov once wrote an essay about the "Eureka Principle" which he applied when he was stuck on a problem with his plots or his characters. He'd put the problem out of his mind and go to the movies and the answer would come to him (or not).
It was the Greek philosopher Archimedes who first proclaimed "Eureka!" ("I have found it!") He was working on a complicated geometric problem and took time out for a nice warm bath. Never a bad idea in my opinion.
The problem was rather complicated. The king of Syracuse was having a very splendid gold crown made, and he wanted to be sure that the makers were not cheating him. He wanted to be sure that all the gold he gave them ended up in the crown.
Now gold is so heavy, compared to the base metals that might be substituted, that you can tell how much gold is in the crown -- if you know its volume. The problem was figuring out the volume of an irregular shape -- in this case very irregular with lots of little fancy artistic motifs.
Archimedes thought it over and couldn't think of an answer. So he took his famous bath, and he noticed that he was displacing a bit more water when he got in. Maybe putting on a little weight. When it dawned on him...
He needed to go to the gymnasium! Well yes, that, but also how to get an exact measurement of the volume of an irregular solid. Immerse it in water and see how much water it displaces. Simple, precise, brilliant.
Of course I never think of "Eureka" without thinking of the Three Stooges rejoinder: "You don't smell so good, yourself." ¶ 7:03 PM 0 comments
It was the Greek philosopher Archimedes who first proclaimed "Eureka!" ("I have found it!") He was working on a complicated geometric problem and took time out for a nice warm bath. Never a bad idea in my opinion.
The problem was rather complicated. The king of Syracuse was having a very splendid gold crown made, and he wanted to be sure that the makers were not cheating him. He wanted to be sure that all the gold he gave them ended up in the crown.
Now gold is so heavy, compared to the base metals that might be substituted, that you can tell how much gold is in the crown -- if you know its volume. The problem was figuring out the volume of an irregular shape -- in this case very irregular with lots of little fancy artistic motifs.
Archimedes thought it over and couldn't think of an answer. So he took his famous bath, and he noticed that he was displacing a bit more water when he got in. Maybe putting on a little weight. When it dawned on him...
He needed to go to the gymnasium! Well yes, that, but also how to get an exact measurement of the volume of an irregular solid. Immerse it in water and see how much water it displaces. Simple, precise, brilliant.
Of course I never think of "Eureka" without thinking of the Three Stooges rejoinder: "You don't smell so good, yourself." ¶ 7:03 PM 0 comments
Friday, April 20, 2007
Leo and Ayesha - Working on Their Relationship
This entry is about H. Rider Haggard's two books about "She Who Must Be Obeyed" -- She and Ayesha.
OK now we know all we ever wanted to know about the Caves of Kôr -- the potsherd, the head of the African, the ancient canal -- and we're getting beyond that now.
As we mentioned earlier, Ayesha slew Leo, in an ancient incarnation, and waited around for 2,000 years until he was reincarnated and came back to her. Then after dancing in the pillar of fire one too many times she shriveled up into a mummy-like shape and appeared to die.
These things happen.
Now it's 16 years later and we're somewhere north of Tibet and Ayesha has resumed her supernaturally beautiful form and she and Leo are at last together again.
But there are some telltale signs that the relationship is not going to work out in the long term.
First, there's religion. Leo is an Anglican and refuses to engage in any other form of idolatry.
Ayesha is worshipped by thousands of fearful followers whom she smites as she wills. She has 100 priests and a like number of priestesses and she is unaccustomed to addressing anyone whose forehead is not pressed to the floor.
Then there's politics. Ayesha, a bright, inquisitive mind, has spent 2,000 years preparing for this great reunification, and she has learned a thing or two. She can smite entire armies with a wave of her hand. Her plan is to conquer China and use China's enormous population to overwhelm "the little Western nations."
But Leo is completely against this carefully drawn-out plan. Even when she shows him that she can transmute iron into gold, and has been doing so for the last 16 years, all he can say is that it would destroy the economic system that he's used to. What kind of stupid negativity is that?
I think this guy is a certifiable nitwit.
Your girlfriend has just announced that she has enough gold to shape the destiny of the world... Okay let's give him a moment to think about this... Nope. He just doesn't get it. He's a complete butthead.
And then he's all over her because she saw in a vision him grappling with a leopard and almost had his hunting buddies executed for being careless, when really they were trying to save him...
Is she going to use her powers to watch him all the time? and even smite his buddies?
Leo and Ayesha have some serious issues to deal with. ¶ 12:34 PM 0 comments
OK now we know all we ever wanted to know about the Caves of Kôr -- the potsherd, the head of the African, the ancient canal -- and we're getting beyond that now.
As we mentioned earlier, Ayesha slew Leo, in an ancient incarnation, and waited around for 2,000 years until he was reincarnated and came back to her. Then after dancing in the pillar of fire one too many times she shriveled up into a mummy-like shape and appeared to die.
These things happen.
Now it's 16 years later and we're somewhere north of Tibet and Ayesha has resumed her supernaturally beautiful form and she and Leo are at last together again.
But there are some telltale signs that the relationship is not going to work out in the long term.
First, there's religion. Leo is an Anglican and refuses to engage in any other form of idolatry.
Ayesha is worshipped by thousands of fearful followers whom she smites as she wills. She has 100 priests and a like number of priestesses and she is unaccustomed to addressing anyone whose forehead is not pressed to the floor.
Then there's politics. Ayesha, a bright, inquisitive mind, has spent 2,000 years preparing for this great reunification, and she has learned a thing or two. She can smite entire armies with a wave of her hand. Her plan is to conquer China and use China's enormous population to overwhelm "the little Western nations."
But Leo is completely against this carefully drawn-out plan. Even when she shows him that she can transmute iron into gold, and has been doing so for the last 16 years, all he can say is that it would destroy the economic system that he's used to. What kind of stupid negativity is that?
I think this guy is a certifiable nitwit.
Your girlfriend has just announced that she has enough gold to shape the destiny of the world... Okay let's give him a moment to think about this... Nope. He just doesn't get it. He's a complete butthead.
And then he's all over her because she saw in a vision him grappling with a leopard and almost had his hunting buddies executed for being careless, when really they were trying to save him...
Is she going to use her powers to watch him all the time? and even smite his buddies?
Leo and Ayesha have some serious issues to deal with. ¶ 12:34 PM 0 comments
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
Hats Off to Frank Sinatra
A lot of people, including me, like Frank Sinatra's singing. He's a real professional and like Benny Goodman, he performed as a teenager, so by the time he reached his prime he was a consummate showman as well as a great singer.
And when he went into acting, he went all the way. Think of Elvis in all those stupid movies. Think of Frank Sinatra getting the shit beat out of him by Ernest Borgnine, or learning the steps in "Guys and Dolls."
But leaving aside his musical and acting talents, I think Frank Sinatra made a fundamental positive change in American society that almost no one else could possibly have made. He simply announced that racism is uncool and his legions of adoring fans immediately discarded their ancestral prejudice.
And Frank reached a lot of people who could never be reached by Gandhi or Thoreau, people who didn't devote much of their time and energy to confronting their inherited prejudices, guys (especially) who didn't do too much deep thinking. You know what I mean?
When people -- including the tough, mean guys -- saw that Sammy Davis Jr., an African-American, was a member of the Rat Pack, they didn't involve themselves in a lot of self-evaluation and discussion.
Frank snapped his fingers and they changed their attitude. Simple as that. It's not often that one guy has that much power and uses it so effectively for the good of humanity.
I found a great article by Michael Nelson in Popular Music and Society about Frank Sinatra's lifelong commitment to equality and justice.
¶ 4:02 PM 0 comments
Monday, April 16, 2007
With Ayesha in the Caves of Kôr
.
My blog has dropped back down to a Google rank of four. All because I've been with Ayesha in the caves of Kôr.
I've been rereading She Who Must Be Obeyed by H. Rider Haggard and the sequel Ayesha a.k.a. Return of She Who Must Be Obeyed. I keep thinking I will get some blog entries out of them, but it's so difficult to summarize them. Hell, it's difficult to even read them. His characters start declaiming in King James English and it's hard to stop them.
The action scenes make up for this because they're really brilliant, but they're few and far between.
The last time I dropped to a four, it was Caulaincourt and the French retreat from Moscow. I got a few blog entries, but mostly I was just engrossed. Now it's Horace Holly and his adopted son Leo Vincey as they traipse around the world in fulfillment of some nutty dream.
Don't get me wrong, I endorse both books as great reads. But now I'm reading them again, and on second reading, I look at how a book is put together, how an author designs his plots and builds his characters. Since She was originally written in installments, naturally there are some inconsistencies, but you really don't notice them on first reading. The whole thing is too well done.
In the first book I went with Horace and Leo, guided only by some writing on an ancient potsherd, to East Africa and the ruins of the ancient civilization of Kôr, where Ayesha, now 2,000 years old and still beautiful and cruel, ruled over the savage Armahagger who almost et our heroes.
Holly and Leo were saved from the pot and met up with her there, but she danced into the great fiery pillar of life one too many times and shrivelled up and died, or... changed.
They knew she would come back somewhere in the second book, because the first one was such a big seller, and she did, in this place in central Asia that it took them 16 years to find, guided only by a vision in a dream -- and even then she was still this shrivelled up little mummy kind of being until Leo kissed her and she resumed her supernatural beauty. No kidding. Just like the princess and the frog.
The thread of credulity is stretched mighty thin, but I'm a fan so I'm with them all the way. Now they just have to deal with the vengeful Khania of Kaloon -- you know, the reincarnation of the Egyptian princess Amenartes.
She was the one, you'll remember, back in the first book, who caused Leo, in his ancient incarnation as Kallikrates, a Greek who had become a priest of Isis, to forsake his vows.
Then he and Amenartes fled the wrath of the Goddess and ended up (Where else?) in the ruins of Kôr, where Ayesha fell in love with him and slew him out of jealousy and then waited around for 2,000 years for him to be reincarnated and come back to her.
And of course when he does come back, as Leo Vincey, there's no hard feelings about her slaying him, as Kallikrates. She was upset. He wasn't really paying attention to her feelings. It was just an outbust. The javelin was there handy... And he had just fallen in love with an Egyptian princess and broken his sacred vows, so he wasn't really at his best, either.
They decide to let bygones be bygones.
So now 16 years later they're back together in Tibet or some place, in the giant mountain - Ayesha tends to favor domiciles that have been hewn from the living rock in ages long past -but somehow I don't think things are going to go well for them. I'll keep you posted. ¶ 3:48 PM 1 comments
My blog has dropped back down to a Google rank of four. All because I've been with Ayesha in the caves of Kôr.
I've been rereading She Who Must Be Obeyed by H. Rider Haggard and the sequel Ayesha a.k.a. Return of She Who Must Be Obeyed. I keep thinking I will get some blog entries out of them, but it's so difficult to summarize them. Hell, it's difficult to even read them. His characters start declaiming in King James English and it's hard to stop them.
The action scenes make up for this because they're really brilliant, but they're few and far between.
The last time I dropped to a four, it was Caulaincourt and the French retreat from Moscow. I got a few blog entries, but mostly I was just engrossed. Now it's Horace Holly and his adopted son Leo Vincey as they traipse around the world in fulfillment of some nutty dream.
Don't get me wrong, I endorse both books as great reads. But now I'm reading them again, and on second reading, I look at how a book is put together, how an author designs his plots and builds his characters. Since She was originally written in installments, naturally there are some inconsistencies, but you really don't notice them on first reading. The whole thing is too well done.
In the first book I went with Horace and Leo, guided only by some writing on an ancient potsherd, to East Africa and the ruins of the ancient civilization of Kôr, where Ayesha, now 2,000 years old and still beautiful and cruel, ruled over the savage Armahagger who almost et our heroes.
Holly and Leo were saved from the pot and met up with her there, but she danced into the great fiery pillar of life one too many times and shrivelled up and died, or... changed.
They knew she would come back somewhere in the second book, because the first one was such a big seller, and she did, in this place in central Asia that it took them 16 years to find, guided only by a vision in a dream -- and even then she was still this shrivelled up little mummy kind of being until Leo kissed her and she resumed her supernatural beauty. No kidding. Just like the princess and the frog.
The thread of credulity is stretched mighty thin, but I'm a fan so I'm with them all the way. Now they just have to deal with the vengeful Khania of Kaloon -- you know, the reincarnation of the Egyptian princess Amenartes.
She was the one, you'll remember, back in the first book, who caused Leo, in his ancient incarnation as Kallikrates, a Greek who had become a priest of Isis, to forsake his vows.
Then he and Amenartes fled the wrath of the Goddess and ended up (Where else?) in the ruins of Kôr, where Ayesha fell in love with him and slew him out of jealousy and then waited around for 2,000 years for him to be reincarnated and come back to her.
And of course when he does come back, as Leo Vincey, there's no hard feelings about her slaying him, as Kallikrates. She was upset. He wasn't really paying attention to her feelings. It was just an outbust. The javelin was there handy... And he had just fallen in love with an Egyptian princess and broken his sacred vows, so he wasn't really at his best, either.
They decide to let bygones be bygones.
So now 16 years later they're back together in Tibet or some place, in the giant mountain - Ayesha tends to favor domiciles that have been hewn from the living rock in ages long past -but somehow I don't think things are going to go well for them. I'll keep you posted. ¶ 3:48 PM 1 comments
Thursday, April 12, 2007
Charles Fourier
Here is a passage from The Worldly Philosophers by Robert L. Heilbroner describing the French utopian Charles Fourier:
"Fourier, to be polite, was an eccentric; to be accurate, he was probably mildly insane. His world was a fantasy; the earth, he believed, had been given a life of eighty thousand years; forty thousand of ascending vibrations and the same number of descending. In between (never mind the arithmetic) lay eight thousand years of the Apogée de Bonheur [the pinnacle of happiness].
"We lived in the fifth of eight stages of advancement, having pushed through Confusion, Savagery, Patriarchism, and Barbarousness. Ahead lay Guaranteeism (not a bad bit of insight), and then the upward slope of Harmony. After we reached utter bliss, however, the seesaw would tip and we would work our way right back down through all the stages to the beginning.
"But as we worked our way deeper into Harmony, things would really begin to pop: a Northern Crown would encircle the Pole shedding a gentle dew; the sea would become lemonade; six new moons would replace the old solitary satellite; and new species would emerge, better suited to Harmony: an anti-lion, a docile beast and most serviceable; an anti-whale, which could be harnessed to ships; and anti-bear; anti-bugs; and anti-rats.
"We would live to be one hundred and forty-four years old, of which one hundred and twenty years would be spent in the unrestricted pursuit of sexual love."
Now that's what I call progress.
Heilbroner then describes how Fourier wanted to organize society into different phalanxes, each living in a kind of grand hotel. Fourier decided there had to be 2,985,984 of them. He was a very precise guy.
"Weird and fantastic as it seems," Heilbroner continues, "the Fourierist idea took some hold, even in that fortress of practicality, the United States. At one time there were over forty phalansteries in this country."
Only 2,985,944 to go! ¶ 3:22 PM 0 comments
"Fourier, to be polite, was an eccentric; to be accurate, he was probably mildly insane. His world was a fantasy; the earth, he believed, had been given a life of eighty thousand years; forty thousand of ascending vibrations and the same number of descending. In between (never mind the arithmetic) lay eight thousand years of the Apogée de Bonheur [the pinnacle of happiness].
"We lived in the fifth of eight stages of advancement, having pushed through Confusion, Savagery, Patriarchism, and Barbarousness. Ahead lay Guaranteeism (not a bad bit of insight), and then the upward slope of Harmony. After we reached utter bliss, however, the seesaw would tip and we would work our way right back down through all the stages to the beginning.
"But as we worked our way deeper into Harmony, things would really begin to pop: a Northern Crown would encircle the Pole shedding a gentle dew; the sea would become lemonade; six new moons would replace the old solitary satellite; and new species would emerge, better suited to Harmony: an anti-lion, a docile beast and most serviceable; an anti-whale, which could be harnessed to ships; and anti-bear; anti-bugs; and anti-rats.
"We would live to be one hundred and forty-four years old, of which one hundred and twenty years would be spent in the unrestricted pursuit of sexual love."
Now that's what I call progress.
Heilbroner then describes how Fourier wanted to organize society into different phalanxes, each living in a kind of grand hotel. Fourier decided there had to be 2,985,984 of them. He was a very precise guy.
"Weird and fantastic as it seems," Heilbroner continues, "the Fourierist idea took some hold, even in that fortress of practicality, the United States. At one time there were over forty phalansteries in this country."
Only 2,985,944 to go! ¶ 3:22 PM 0 comments
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
Name Dropping
¶ 7:27 AM 1 comments
Don't you hate people who are always dropping names and talking about the famous people they hang out with? Me too. But I can't help it; I have to post this photo; and yes, that is the one and only Sony Stark, aka Pilotgirl. She happened to drop into the dive where I was tending bar, just like Ilsa in Casablanca.
Monday, April 09, 2007
Bad Writing
You would think, wouldn't you, that if someone discovered a sequel to a great American classic like Huckleberry Finn, that that would be big news? Turns out there is one. In fact there are two, Tom Sawyer Detective and Tom Sawyer in Europe.
I have them both, but I bought the only copies that I have ever seen in 30 years of collecting. They're both out of print and ever so likely to remain so, because they're just plain bad books. I should dig them up and go through them and cite some passages to document this point, but, honestly, there's a limit.
Mark Twain, unarguably one of America's greatest writers, and certainly her greatest lecturer, thought everybody was as fascinated with Tom Sawyer as he was. That's why he put that long stupid part in Huck Finn where Jim has to write letters in blood before Tom and Huck can help him escape.
Twain (Samuel Clemens, that is) thought that stuff was a riot, but no one else that I know of ever has. The bit about getting other guys to paint the fence, that was funny, but that was about as far as it went.
Innocents Abroad and Roughing It, written about his own experience, were instant laugh-out-loud masterpieces, which I recommend without qualification as wonderful hilarious reads. But his fiction took some time to develop. In fact his first work of fiction, The Gilded Age, was a collaboration with William Dean Howells which doesn't have much to recommend it, outside of its historical value.
My point is, great writers write terrible stuff sometimes, and that should be an inspiration for us all. A lot of people write some bad stuff and start to think they are bad writers, so instead of writing better stuff, they give up.
I say go ahead and write all the bad stuff and then you'll start seeing some really good stuff, or at least something that you like, and if you like it, it doesn't matter what anyone else thinks. ¶ 7:57 PM 0 comments
I have them both, but I bought the only copies that I have ever seen in 30 years of collecting. They're both out of print and ever so likely to remain so, because they're just plain bad books. I should dig them up and go through them and cite some passages to document this point, but, honestly, there's a limit.
Mark Twain, unarguably one of America's greatest writers, and certainly her greatest lecturer, thought everybody was as fascinated with Tom Sawyer as he was. That's why he put that long stupid part in Huck Finn where Jim has to write letters in blood before Tom and Huck can help him escape.
Twain (Samuel Clemens, that is) thought that stuff was a riot, but no one else that I know of ever has. The bit about getting other guys to paint the fence, that was funny, but that was about as far as it went.
Innocents Abroad and Roughing It, written about his own experience, were instant laugh-out-loud masterpieces, which I recommend without qualification as wonderful hilarious reads. But his fiction took some time to develop. In fact his first work of fiction, The Gilded Age, was a collaboration with William Dean Howells which doesn't have much to recommend it, outside of its historical value.
My point is, great writers write terrible stuff sometimes, and that should be an inspiration for us all. A lot of people write some bad stuff and start to think they are bad writers, so instead of writing better stuff, they give up.
I say go ahead and write all the bad stuff and then you'll start seeing some really good stuff, or at least something that you like, and if you like it, it doesn't matter what anyone else thinks. ¶ 7:57 PM 0 comments
Sunday, April 08, 2007
George E. Holtzapple - A Clever Boy
In 1885 a country doctor in Pennsylvania heard a 16-year-old pneumonia patient say, "Doctor, if you don't give me something to breathe, I'm going to stop."
The doctor, George E. Holtzapple, who was also a chemist, as a hobby, decided that what the patient needed was oxygen, so he went and got some chlorate of potassium and black oxide of manganese, and "conducted the gas to the bottom of a bucket filled with water beside the patient's bed."
In short, it worked. One of the patients later saved by this technique was George's sister Mary.
She remarked, "My brother always was a clever boy."
I found this Rick Bromer story in Old News, a fantastic publication for those interested in history. ¶ 5:08 PM 0 comments
The doctor, George E. Holtzapple, who was also a chemist, as a hobby, decided that what the patient needed was oxygen, so he went and got some chlorate of potassium and black oxide of manganese, and "conducted the gas to the bottom of a bucket filled with water beside the patient's bed."
In short, it worked. One of the patients later saved by this technique was George's sister Mary.
She remarked, "My brother always was a clever boy."
I found this Rick Bromer story in Old News, a fantastic publication for those interested in history. ¶ 5:08 PM 0 comments
Thursday, April 05, 2007
Closing Up Essie's House
Back in 1948 my grandparents bought a house in Edgartown on Martha's Vineyard. When she passed away in 1992, my grandmother left the house to her ten grandchildren, which we enjoyed for many years and finally sold this year.
We all went down to close up the house and take whatever had any sentimental value, and to say farewell to our great neighbor Ann MacKenzie.
It was a sad time for us when we remembered all the great times that three generations of Hartshornes and their many friends enjoyed in that house. After her passing I always enjoyed going there to commune with Essie, my ever so dearly beloved grandmother.
But that time has passed now. The Vineyard is big business. The wear and tear of managing all the rentals in July and August and the family visits in June and September finally became too much.
In fact, the very fact that we managed it together for 15 years without any real bloodshed to speak of says a lot about our family, and about Essie. Every one of us loved that dear lady with all our hearts, and we still do.
She taught us just about everything we know about being decent human beings -- how to respect one another and say we're sorry when we're wrong and not walk in front of people and not eat peas with our knives -- things like that.
I remember her advice to me once when I was down and out one time. "Keep your chin up," she said, and darned if that didn't do the job and put me right back on track. ¶ 7:45 PM 1 comments
We all went down to close up the house and take whatever had any sentimental value, and to say farewell to our great neighbor Ann MacKenzie.
It was a sad time for us when we remembered all the great times that three generations of Hartshornes and their many friends enjoyed in that house. After her passing I always enjoyed going there to commune with Essie, my ever so dearly beloved grandmother.
But that time has passed now. The Vineyard is big business. The wear and tear of managing all the rentals in July and August and the family visits in June and September finally became too much.
In fact, the very fact that we managed it together for 15 years without any real bloodshed to speak of says a lot about our family, and about Essie. Every one of us loved that dear lady with all our hearts, and we still do.
She taught us just about everything we know about being decent human beings -- how to respect one another and say we're sorry when we're wrong and not walk in front of people and not eat peas with our knives -- things like that.
I remember her advice to me once when I was down and out one time. "Keep your chin up," she said, and darned if that didn't do the job and put me right back on track. ¶ 7:45 PM 1 comments
Monday, April 02, 2007
The Ubiquitous JQA
While Napoleon was standing at the gates of Moscow waiting for the deputation that never came, guess who was in St. Petersburg at the court of Czar Alexander? The ubiquitous JQA -- the same guy who witnessed the Battle of Bunker Hill, rescued the Smithsonian Institution after its funds were stolen, and saved the crew of the liberated slave ship Amistad from being sold back into slavery.
John Quincy Adams' mission to Moscow is chronicled in yet another great article from an old American Heritage (February, 1958) by William Harlan Hale called "The Yankee and the Czar."
You just can't beat old American Heritage. I buy them whenever I see them and every one has lots of great articles.
In what must be considered a diplomatic coup of the first order, JQA actually became friends with the czar himself. Turns out they both liked to take early morning walks along the Neva. JQA was the first diplomat admitted to court without a wig. He told Alexander that he didn't like wearing them, and Alexander told him not to bother.
In St. Petersburg in 1810, JQA met Armand de Caulaincourt, later Napoleon's master of horse during the Russian campaign, then serving as the French ambassador to Russia. They sat down at a splendid eight-course dinner for 50, glittering diamonds and decorations everywhere.
Caulaincourt gets to chatting with JQA, who remarks that he had dined in the same hall back in the time of Catherine the Great. That was when he was 15 years old, during the American Revolution. The Continental Congress was short on translators, so John Adams sent his young son to translate for American emissary Francis Dana.
The Russians actually spoke French at the time, as they continued to do right up until a certain butthead French emperor invaded their country. In War and Peace Tolstoy mentions the Russian nobles who actually have to take lessons in Russian once the war starts.
JQA also got Alexander to get the Danes to admit American vessels into the Baltic ports and Napoleon actually gave that as his pretext for invading Russia, claiming that that was the same as admitting British vessels, so you could say JQA messed up and caused a war that killed more than a million people. I don't happen to see it that way. After all Russia was at war with England at the time, and America went to war with England that same year. Whatever.
One of Caulaincourt's splended entertainments while he was French minister in St. Petersburg involved the construction of giant ramps covered with ice that his guests could slide down. Ironically, later on during the French retreat from Moscow, the army came upon a steep slope where all wagons and carts and horses had to be pushed down the hill and everybody, even the emperor himself, had to slide down on their rear ends.
JQA had diplomatic missions in Holland and Prussia, and he visited Finland and Scandinavia, so he was a real world traveler. And he later acquired a pet alligator. How cool is that?
The story of how he saved the Smithsonian I read in a great historical publication called Old News, which my mom gets for me, Thanks Mom! I'll save it for a future entry. It's pretty funny. ¶ 8:41 PM 0 comments
John Quincy Adams' mission to Moscow is chronicled in yet another great article from an old American Heritage (February, 1958) by William Harlan Hale called "The Yankee and the Czar."
You just can't beat old American Heritage. I buy them whenever I see them and every one has lots of great articles.
In what must be considered a diplomatic coup of the first order, JQA actually became friends with the czar himself. Turns out they both liked to take early morning walks along the Neva. JQA was the first diplomat admitted to court without a wig. He told Alexander that he didn't like wearing them, and Alexander told him not to bother.
In St. Petersburg in 1810, JQA met Armand de Caulaincourt, later Napoleon's master of horse during the Russian campaign, then serving as the French ambassador to Russia. They sat down at a splendid eight-course dinner for 50, glittering diamonds and decorations everywhere.
Caulaincourt gets to chatting with JQA, who remarks that he had dined in the same hall back in the time of Catherine the Great. That was when he was 15 years old, during the American Revolution. The Continental Congress was short on translators, so John Adams sent his young son to translate for American emissary Francis Dana.
The Russians actually spoke French at the time, as they continued to do right up until a certain butthead French emperor invaded their country. In War and Peace Tolstoy mentions the Russian nobles who actually have to take lessons in Russian once the war starts.
JQA also got Alexander to get the Danes to admit American vessels into the Baltic ports and Napoleon actually gave that as his pretext for invading Russia, claiming that that was the same as admitting British vessels, so you could say JQA messed up and caused a war that killed more than a million people. I don't happen to see it that way. After all Russia was at war with England at the time, and America went to war with England that same year. Whatever.
One of Caulaincourt's splended entertainments while he was French minister in St. Petersburg involved the construction of giant ramps covered with ice that his guests could slide down. Ironically, later on during the French retreat from Moscow, the army came upon a steep slope where all wagons and carts and horses had to be pushed down the hill and everybody, even the emperor himself, had to slide down on their rear ends.
JQA had diplomatic missions in Holland and Prussia, and he visited Finland and Scandinavia, so he was a real world traveler. And he later acquired a pet alligator. How cool is that?
The story of how he saved the Smithsonian I read in a great historical publication called Old News, which my mom gets for me, Thanks Mom! I'll save it for a future entry. It's pretty funny. ¶ 8:41 PM 0 comments
A Tough Year For Harry Golden
After writing three bestsellers, Harry Golden traveled widely and covered the trial of Adolf Eichmann for Life Magazine in 1961. He was granted a full pardon by (guess who?) Richard Nixon in 1974.
¶ 4:00 PM 0 comments
Nineteen fifty-eight was a tough year for Harry Golden. He was the editor of the Carolina Israelite in Charlotte, North Carolina, an eccentric, blog-like, one-man newspaper he had started in 1942 with 600 subscribers, which by 1958 had grown to a circulation of 45,000.
His home, office, and library burned down, and people from all over the world helped him rebuild and replace the 2,000 books that had been destroyed. The Charlotte Police used state-of-the-art infrared techniques to save his subscriber list.
Fortunately, the week before the fire, Golden had mailed the manuscript for his first book Only in America to a publisher in New York. I'll let Harry himself take it from there in a passage from the introduction to his second book, For Two Cents Plain:
"Within the week of its publication, Only in America reached the bestseller lists. A month later it was Number One.
"There the book stayed for many weeks, and in the fall CBS asked me to appear on a television program about racial integration along with Harry Ashmore, the Pulitzer Prize-winning editor of Little Rock and [Arkansas] Governor Orval Faubus [an opponent of racial integration].
"When I arrived in New York the afternoon of the telecast, however, I learned that an anonymous letter had been sent to a New York newspaper revealing a secret I had guarded for many years. The secret was that I had served a prison sentence in 1929."
[Golden sold securities at a neighborhood "bucket shop" and probably came up short when the market crashed. He was prosecuted for fraud and served five years in prison.]
"I knew I owed an obligation to CBS," he continues, "and I showed a copy of the letter to Mr. Howard K. Smith of the network staff. I told him it was true. He urged me to go on the air anyway. But after a long discussion, several other CBS directors and I agreed that I would not be at my best, and considering the emotionally packed issue of racial segregation, the revelation of my past might obscure this basic and important problem. I did not appear on the program.
"The story, handled sympathetically, broke the next morning in the Herald Tribune and across the country as I prepared to return to Charlotte. It was a lonely and somewhat terrifying trip. My work, I thought, now ends.
"But on my return I was greeted with warmth and affection by the press of North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and Georgia. Bernard M. Baruch, Billy Graham, Fannie Hurst, Carl Sandburg, and Adlai Stevenson, and many others gave highhearted statements to the wire services and newspapers; the leading Protestant clergymen of my city, the Catholic bishop of the North Carolina Diocese, and practically the entire rabbinate of America offered expressions of fellowship; all of which indicated that I might continue to publish my newspaper.
"In fact, after the incident became known, I received almost four hundred requests for speeches around the country, and in fulfilling some of these I have had the pride of standing before the entire Congregation of Temple Emanu-El on Fifth Avenue in New York City, before many Christian fellowships throughout the South, and before the Rotary Club of Charlotte, which represents the 'power structure' in my home town.
"I was the guest speaker at the Annual Dinner of the Alumni Association of CCNY where I was photographed in fellowship and mutual respect with a fellow guest, The Honorable Charles H. Tuttle, who was the prosecutor in my case.
"But what impressed me most is that the students of the leading high schools of Charlotte and Chapel Hill chose me to deliver the commencement address of 1959."
His home, office, and library burned down, and people from all over the world helped him rebuild and replace the 2,000 books that had been destroyed. The Charlotte Police used state-of-the-art infrared techniques to save his subscriber list.
Fortunately, the week before the fire, Golden had mailed the manuscript for his first book Only in America to a publisher in New York. I'll let Harry himself take it from there in a passage from the introduction to his second book, For Two Cents Plain:
"Within the week of its publication, Only in America reached the bestseller lists. A month later it was Number One.
"There the book stayed for many weeks, and in the fall CBS asked me to appear on a television program about racial integration along with Harry Ashmore, the Pulitzer Prize-winning editor of Little Rock and [Arkansas] Governor Orval Faubus [an opponent of racial integration].
"When I arrived in New York the afternoon of the telecast, however, I learned that an anonymous letter had been sent to a New York newspaper revealing a secret I had guarded for many years. The secret was that I had served a prison sentence in 1929."
[Golden sold securities at a neighborhood "bucket shop" and probably came up short when the market crashed. He was prosecuted for fraud and served five years in prison.]
"I knew I owed an obligation to CBS," he continues, "and I showed a copy of the letter to Mr. Howard K. Smith of the network staff. I told him it was true. He urged me to go on the air anyway. But after a long discussion, several other CBS directors and I agreed that I would not be at my best, and considering the emotionally packed issue of racial segregation, the revelation of my past might obscure this basic and important problem. I did not appear on the program.
"The story, handled sympathetically, broke the next morning in the Herald Tribune and across the country as I prepared to return to Charlotte. It was a lonely and somewhat terrifying trip. My work, I thought, now ends.
"But on my return I was greeted with warmth and affection by the press of North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and Georgia. Bernard M. Baruch, Billy Graham, Fannie Hurst, Carl Sandburg, and Adlai Stevenson, and many others gave highhearted statements to the wire services and newspapers; the leading Protestant clergymen of my city, the Catholic bishop of the North Carolina Diocese, and practically the entire rabbinate of America offered expressions of fellowship; all of which indicated that I might continue to publish my newspaper.
"In fact, after the incident became known, I received almost four hundred requests for speeches around the country, and in fulfilling some of these I have had the pride of standing before the entire Congregation of Temple Emanu-El on Fifth Avenue in New York City, before many Christian fellowships throughout the South, and before the Rotary Club of Charlotte, which represents the 'power structure' in my home town.
"I was the guest speaker at the Annual Dinner of the Alumni Association of CCNY where I was photographed in fellowship and mutual respect with a fellow guest, The Honorable Charles H. Tuttle, who was the prosecutor in my case.
"But what impressed me most is that the students of the leading high schools of Charlotte and Chapel Hill chose me to deliver the commencement address of 1959."
After writing three bestsellers, Harry Golden traveled widely and covered the trial of Adolf Eichmann for Life Magazine in 1961. He was granted a full pardon by (guess who?) Richard Nixon in 1974.
