April 30, 2021--Rudy

Why can't I stop myself from smiling?

Why can't I stop myself from smiling?

April 27, 2021--Yankee Stadiums

 At the height of the Vietnam War when hundreds of American soldiers each week were being killed in action, there were a variety of ways that the media reported the numbers. To honor the dead and make their deaths more vivid. 

I remember the tallies that were presented at the end of each week. On Fridays, the newspapers of record and the nightly news shows (famously including Walter Cronkite's) published lists of the deaths, including the hometowns and photos of the fallen. 

A picture indeed was worth many more than a thousand words.

Needless to say, this unleashed a swell of sadness and anger and took a toll on the political course of the war. Over time, as the slaughter became increasing personal, as more were wounded, killed and reported about support evaporated. 

I was reminded of this the other day when checking in with how the Yankees were doing while it's still early in the season (not good).

A memory flashed through my mind of yet another way the war was represented. Surrealistically, by using Yankee Stadium itself as a form of measurement.

With 58,000 as the ultimate number killed in Vietnam and with the stadium having a 55,000 seating capacity, the total number of American casualties in Vietnam was 3,000 more than a sold out house. 

Vivid enough. Especially when the field cameras panned the tiers and tiers of seats and one could see how many 55,000 people really is.

So, with 578,000 COVID deaths in America alone, to apply this crude measurement, this means the dead could fill up more than10 Yankee Stadiums.

The differences between a war and a pandemic are obviously many. But this still is not a bad way to honor and show respect for those who have already died.

April 22, 2021--Boxers & Briefs

 For no good reason we haven't chatted in months. Perhaps six. A long time.

So he asked me when I called what I've been up to.

"Not much," I said. "I think I'm a victim of the pandemic."

"Sick? The hospital?"

"Thankfully, not that kind of sick. Physically I have no complaints. My neurologist the other day said I should just enjoy myself. 'You had the two shots. You're fine. So just forget about COVID.'" 

I said, "He's my kind of doctor, looking not for obscure illnesses but for diagnostic reasons to live day to day.

"So, that's what you've been up to? Trying to lead a simple life? You were always so activated. I don't recognize what you're turning into."

Feeling hurt and unfairly characterized, I said, "I've been trying to use time meaningfully.

For example?"

"I intend to learn Spanish." 

"Did you say intend?"

"You got me there," I confessed. 

"Anything else?"

"I reread most of Hemingway's novels. That took a few months. And the major biographies. Also James Mellow's three volumes about Gertrude Stein and her circle in Paris in the 20s. He was a part of that"

I began to feel good about myself.

"You said most of them. Why not get the job done. Read all of them?  That's what a pandemic is about. I almost said for. It takes time out of life's equation."

Now he was smiling. I could see that; we were chatting via Zoom.

I decided to take this down a level and said, sheepishly, "I'm growing a ponytail." I reached back to touch it.

"I guess that's something. A little pathetic at your age but I suppose OK." 

And one more thing I thought would impress or puzzle him, "After 70 years I switched from briefs to boxers."

He didn't ask why. 

Actually, there's quite a story associated with that.

April 19, 2021--The Un-Cool Kid

I know I've been asleep at the switch, but what's all this love for Joe Biden that Maureen Dowd and half the editorial and op ed staffs of the New York Times are sending his way? 

Here's a sample from Maureen from about two weeks ago--

Joe Biden never had a seat at the cool kids’ table at the Obama White House.

Heading into 2016 and 2020, if you told the hotshots from Obamaworld that you thought Biden would be a good candidate, they would uniformly offer a look of infinite patience, tolerance and condescension and say something like, “Well, I could understand how someone would think that.”

The message was unmistakable: Biden was not part of the Obama entourage. He was sort of a goofball and windbag. He was a member of an older, outmoded generation. In other words, uncool.

The West Wing attitude was that Biden should simply be grateful that the Great Obama had handed him a ticket to ride. Biden was viewed as a past-his-sell-by-date pol who needed the president’s guiding hand to keep Uncle Joe from making a fool of himself as vice president.

So now comes a delicious twist: President Biden is being hailed as a transformational, once-in-a-generation progressive champion, with comparisons to L.B.J. and F.D.R. aplenty, while Obama has become a cautionary tale about what happens when Democrats get the keys to the car but don’t put their foot on the gas.

Thus spoke Maureen Dowd. 

What to make of Biden being referred to in the same reverential breath as F.D.R. by Times opinion writers Frank Bruni and David Brooks as well as most of WAPO's political columnists.

Many days even the Wall Street Journal folks are chining in.

What's going on here? Is Biden a malaprop-generating late-night joke or already an historically significant president? All before his first 100 days in office?

Don't feel any pressure, Joe. You're too old and experienced not to know this can come crashing down on you (and us) by the end of the week. See Russians in Ukraine, China in the South China Sea, and Kim lobbing missiles at Japan or Seattle.  

I know. To get through this I need to get a grip.

April 16, 2021--The R-Key

It's bad enough I'm a two-finger hunt-and-peck typist, it's bad enough that my right hand is tremoring more and thus typing is difficult and writing almost impossible, to make matters worse, the r-key on my laptop has been working intermittently and this means I have to do a lot of searching to find the r's and then insert them one at a time before saving what I've written.

To boot, I am not good at dictation and a terrible speller.

To give you a sense of the magnitude of my r-problem, how many r's do you think were needed to make what I've just drafted coherent? Including those in this sentence?

Exactly 24.

If it was my karma that I needed to sacrifice a key, why not the x, u, or z key? How many z's do I ever need when writing these pieces?

Fed up with listening to my own complaining we broke down and bought a new computer.

Now I'm feeling the pressure to make good use of it. No more excuses when stalled out in my writing.