Entry tags:
The October Catch-Up
This is one of those big, catch-up entries. Basically, it is everything up to my mother's death.
Celebrity Death Watch: Socialite Deborah Cavendish was the last of the colorful Mitford sisters. James Traficant was a scandal-ridden congressman. Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier continued his father’s ruin of Haiti. Michael Sata was the president of Zambia. Jerrie Mock was the first woman to fly solo around the world. Barbara Washburn was the first woman to climb Mount McKinley (in 1947, when nobody called it Denali.) Polly Bergen was an actor and game show panelist. Marcia Strassman was an actor, probably most famous for her role on Welcome Back, Kotter. Geoffrey Holder was an actor, dancer, and choreographer. Singer Paul Revere (of the Raiders) died appropriately at 76. Oscar de la Renta was a fashion designer before he bought it. John-Roger was a cult leader.
There are 2 celebrity deaths I want to particularly highlight. First, Ben Bradlee was the editor of the Washington Post for many years and set the newspaper on a path to being a major leader in investigative journalism by publishing The Pentagon Papers. in the early 1970s. And, finally, Tom Magliozzi was either Click or Clack, of Car Talk, an NPR show that actually made auto mechanics accessible and amusing.
Non-celebrity Deaths of Note: My mother will get her own entry. The past couple of months also saw several losses of people I used to work with, including Barbara Ching and Howie Holtz. The biggest loss in that category was my long-term mentor, Trudy Bergen, who taught me a lot about how to succeed as an engineer, with some specifics about life at the Circle-A Ranch and satellite ground systems, in particular. She also was a great model for balance in life, as she was a respected quilt artist and spent a lot of time on bicycle touring and had, in more recent years, taken up ice dancing with her husband, who she lost just a couple of years ago. I will dearly miss her wisdom and good humor.
Food Pornography: I went out to dinner a few times in October, but all of them were at places I have been to multiple times before, so there is nothing especially revelatory to note.
Walking in Cleveland: I spent part of Columbus Day weekend in Cleveland, mostly to do a couple of volksmarch events (both qualifying as baseball walks). One took me through Lake View Cemetery, which has the graves of several famous people (e.g. John D. Rockefeller, James A. Garfield, Eliot Ness, Harvey Pekar). Most significantly from the volksmarch standpoint, the walk included the grave of the only major league player killed by a thrown baseball, Ray Chapman. It was, of course, a pitcher for the Source of All Evil in the Universe who threw the fatal pitch. The other walk was around downtown Cleveland and would have been far pleasanter had there not been a football game, with the resulting large crowds. If the team is the Browns, why is most of their team clothing orange? By the way, I stayed at the Hyatt at the Arcade, which was convenient, but had the usual Hyatt sound-proofing (or lack thereof) problem.
Havana Curveball: This movie, which I saw as part of the year-round offerings of the Washington Jewish Film Festival, involves a boy who chooses to collect baseball equipment for Cuba as his Bar Mitzvah project and his efforts to get the equipment to Cuba and distribute it. His family eventually travels there and he has a few surprises along the way. I had a personal interest in this since my grandparents lived in Havana for a while. And, of course, I like baseball.
Elmer Gantry: Signature Theatre put on a revival of this musical. It was lively and entertaining. I have never read the novel nor seen the movie, so I can’t say how much it deviated from those. There was a hint at a racial side plot, involving a black family who become part of the traveling evangelical troupe, that I thought could have been exploited more. The performances were also good, with Nova Payton continuing to demonstrate true stardom even in a relatively minor role.
Wordless: This program was part of the Jewish Literary Festival and featured Art Spiegelman (the author of Maus) in collaboration with jazz composer Philip Johnston. This was a mix of lecture, slide show, and music, all built around wordless comics from the past, primarily the early 20th century. It was interesting, though I’d have preferred more of Spiegelman’s own material and less of, say, Lynd Ward.
Monterey: I was all set for a lovely weekend in Monterey, part of a FlyerTalk DO. I flew in after work on Friday. Saturday morning started with breakfast, followed by a tour of Tor House (the home of poet and amateur stonemason Robinson Jeffers). We stopped for lunch and headed to Point Lobos, which is beautiful. And then my cell phone rang. My uncle told me the bad news and I scrambled to change my flights so I could get home and drive to New York to bury my mother.
Celebrity Death Watch: Socialite Deborah Cavendish was the last of the colorful Mitford sisters. James Traficant was a scandal-ridden congressman. Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier continued his father’s ruin of Haiti. Michael Sata was the president of Zambia. Jerrie Mock was the first woman to fly solo around the world. Barbara Washburn was the first woman to climb Mount McKinley (in 1947, when nobody called it Denali.) Polly Bergen was an actor and game show panelist. Marcia Strassman was an actor, probably most famous for her role on Welcome Back, Kotter. Geoffrey Holder was an actor, dancer, and choreographer. Singer Paul Revere (of the Raiders) died appropriately at 76. Oscar de la Renta was a fashion designer before he bought it. John-Roger was a cult leader.
There are 2 celebrity deaths I want to particularly highlight. First, Ben Bradlee was the editor of the Washington Post for many years and set the newspaper on a path to being a major leader in investigative journalism by publishing The Pentagon Papers. in the early 1970s. And, finally, Tom Magliozzi was either Click or Clack, of Car Talk, an NPR show that actually made auto mechanics accessible and amusing.
Non-celebrity Deaths of Note: My mother will get her own entry. The past couple of months also saw several losses of people I used to work with, including Barbara Ching and Howie Holtz. The biggest loss in that category was my long-term mentor, Trudy Bergen, who taught me a lot about how to succeed as an engineer, with some specifics about life at the Circle-A Ranch and satellite ground systems, in particular. She also was a great model for balance in life, as she was a respected quilt artist and spent a lot of time on bicycle touring and had, in more recent years, taken up ice dancing with her husband, who she lost just a couple of years ago. I will dearly miss her wisdom and good humor.
Food Pornography: I went out to dinner a few times in October, but all of them were at places I have been to multiple times before, so there is nothing especially revelatory to note.
Walking in Cleveland: I spent part of Columbus Day weekend in Cleveland, mostly to do a couple of volksmarch events (both qualifying as baseball walks). One took me through Lake View Cemetery, which has the graves of several famous people (e.g. John D. Rockefeller, James A. Garfield, Eliot Ness, Harvey Pekar). Most significantly from the volksmarch standpoint, the walk included the grave of the only major league player killed by a thrown baseball, Ray Chapman. It was, of course, a pitcher for the Source of All Evil in the Universe who threw the fatal pitch. The other walk was around downtown Cleveland and would have been far pleasanter had there not been a football game, with the resulting large crowds. If the team is the Browns, why is most of their team clothing orange? By the way, I stayed at the Hyatt at the Arcade, which was convenient, but had the usual Hyatt sound-proofing (or lack thereof) problem.
Havana Curveball: This movie, which I saw as part of the year-round offerings of the Washington Jewish Film Festival, involves a boy who chooses to collect baseball equipment for Cuba as his Bar Mitzvah project and his efforts to get the equipment to Cuba and distribute it. His family eventually travels there and he has a few surprises along the way. I had a personal interest in this since my grandparents lived in Havana for a while. And, of course, I like baseball.
Elmer Gantry: Signature Theatre put on a revival of this musical. It was lively and entertaining. I have never read the novel nor seen the movie, so I can’t say how much it deviated from those. There was a hint at a racial side plot, involving a black family who become part of the traveling evangelical troupe, that I thought could have been exploited more. The performances were also good, with Nova Payton continuing to demonstrate true stardom even in a relatively minor role.
Wordless: This program was part of the Jewish Literary Festival and featured Art Spiegelman (the author of Maus) in collaboration with jazz composer Philip Johnston. This was a mix of lecture, slide show, and music, all built around wordless comics from the past, primarily the early 20th century. It was interesting, though I’d have preferred more of Spiegelman’s own material and less of, say, Lynd Ward.
Monterey: I was all set for a lovely weekend in Monterey, part of a FlyerTalk DO. I flew in after work on Friday. Saturday morning started with breakfast, followed by a tour of Tor House (the home of poet and amateur stonemason Robinson Jeffers). We stopped for lunch and headed to Point Lobos, which is beautiful. And then my cell phone rang. My uncle told me the bad news and I scrambled to change my flights so I could get home and drive to New York to bury my mother.