Windjammer Accordion and Leadbelly/How the Beckers Met

Now, I have found validation for my last 15 years of accordion mania....

It turns out the Leadbelly (Huddie Ledbetter) not only sang and played the 12 string guitar, but also played a single row diatonic accordion called a windjammer.   I've got a picture of him with it that I'll load below this when I figure out how.

Here's the story of how he got the accordion (he had talked to his parents to get him some kind of instrument he could play)..

"When Huddie was seven, this dream came true when his Uncle Terrell dropped by the house, returning by mule from Mooringsport. A "windjammer" (a small button accordion) hung from the saddle and he gave it to his excited nephew. Huddie worked on it all evening and into the night, trying to find the proper combination of rhythm and buttons to make a tune. His experience wore down Sallie and Wes's patience, but they understood his enthusiasm. By morning Huddie had mastered a rough version of "There's No Cornbread Here." A few days later his mother taught him an old jig called "Dinah's Got A Wooden Leg." Soon she was adding to his repertoire some of the lullabies and sprituals she sang in church, and Huddie was learning that the windjammer could be as much at home in church as it was at the local square dance."


From "The Life and Legend of Leadbelly," by Charles Wolf and Kip Lornell (1992)
In 1940 Woody Guthrie lived with Leadbelly in a NYC apartment.  He wrote to Henrietta Yurchenco, stating:  "Huddie plays a little old $4 accordion and you can actually hear the sad note[s] of his people singing in the swamps and jungles and echoing in the Louisiana moss.   And when you hear it you almost know that it's [the] sad and losensome music of a people [sic] can't even vote."

My parents also have a Leadbelly connection sort of.   Abe and Harriet met at an adult camp somewhere in Western New Jersey called Nature Friends.   This was apparently an international socialist/ecological movement of camps that started in Europe.   Well, one day Harriet's friend Dorothy Nadel talked mom into going up to this camp to check it out (probably around 1938, Harriet age 26.)    Apparently Dot pointed out this large family clan and said "there's the crazy Beckers."  The rest was love and history.  Well the Leadbelly connection was that my parents always remembered hearing Leadbelly sing at the Nature Friends camp.

(By the way, they did go back to camp)

Obesity, Economic Status, and Race among Women

There are is strong evidence that obesity is inversely related to economic status.   Explanations include, cost and access to nutritious food, education, access to exercise, etc.

A recent study compared this relationship among Caucasian, African American and Mexican American women.  Most of what they found is consistent with the above statement, with one exception:

Low economic status as children was a predictor of obesity among Caucasian, Mexican American, and African American women.

Low economic status as adult was a predictor of obesity among Caucasian and Mexican American women.   There was no clear relationship between adult economic status and obesity among African American women.

The article was focused on the Mexican American experience so did not attempt to explain the lack of relationship between adult economic status and obesity among African American women.

Any idea?

Publish Post

(Comparing the Influence of Childhood and Adult Economic Status on Midlife Obesity in Mexican American, White, and African American Women, Pamerla J. Salsberry and Patricia B. Reagan)

One more holiday season memory...et al

One of my Haverford College roomates lived in NYC.  He and another roomate introduced me to renaissance clasical music.   One of our greatest moments was going to midnight mass on Chritsmas eve at one of the huge cathedrals in NYC.   I believe we did both St Patrick's and St Thomas.   I believe one year it was B Minor Mass (Bach) which used to be one of my all time favorite pieces of music.   The night we went to B Minor, I recall driving into NYC on Jersey highways in that same 1948 Plymouth, with B Minor loud on the radio on WQXR.   I had this overwhelming vision of the perfect death....an accident in the car, the car ending up upside down, the wheels still turning, me expired, but B Minor still blasting on the radio.

I noticed when I was young that lots of grown up books dealth with what I considered an obsession with mortality.   Of course as a teenager, that issue wasn't on the agenda for me.  I had a few years in the early 7th decade (I'm now 65) where onset of mortality bothered me a bit.   Now I'm conforted by the fact that there is no sense of loss.   If I'm dead, I'm not here to experience it.   Period, end of problem.   I hope this isn't too morbid for my kids to read....I find it comforting.  Recall the death rate is always, ultimately 100%.

Speaking of mature books read young, Alex Kapnicky (sic) my freshman English teacher got on me for reading James Joyce Portrait of an Artist for a book report.   He complained that I was both too young and not Catholic so I couldn't understand the book.   It got so bad, my father had to come in to defend my right to read the book.   Kapnicky probably had something going for him.   But I really loved reading the book back then.   So what if I missed 30%!

STOP! (skiing)

Still recalling Friday's cross country ski (or was it Saturday?) It was the best snow I've seen at Cooper's Rock.  I'm pitiful...just sit there watching Roz swoop by.   I'm fine on a flat, fine going up, fine going down straight, but at the turns.....I don't. (nor snowplow!)  So the way I spell "stop" is "F" "A" "L" "L".   Luckily it only happened once.

Model Trains

Christmas seems to be the prime time for model train shows.   My dad used to take me every christmas season to Hoboken for the Lakawanna Railroad Exhibit.  I checked, and found it still exists.   Here's a YouTube link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JG6OFdrI1s8

I remember more more about one snowy trip to Hoboken to see the exhibit than I do about the trains themselves.   Somewhere in snow and ice we went up a ramp to the McCarter Highway in Hoboken coming home.   Apparently conditions were so bad that my father backed his 1948 Dodge panel truck back down the ramp to avoid the highway.   I must have picked up from him how dangerous this was, because I was scared to death.   We went home through the snow and ice on the streets.   I think I was aware of my father's love and wish to make me happy making that trip.

Our family also made a yearly christmas season trip to the Lionel train store in NYC.   It was somewhere in lower midtown manhattan, maybe Herald Square.   My Lionel trains, when they arrived (in Newark) were a set of Santa Fe diesels.  I had a double set of engines and a normal train of cars.and caboose.  The fanciest car was a milk loader that used magnets to offload big cans of milk.  It worked about half the time.   I had a lot of switches and an x so I could make a pretty complicated layout.   I had a pretty fancy transformer that could control two different trains.   What was coolest was that my father made me a train layout board that had a hole in the middle where I the engineer could operate the whole show.   I spent many hours with my trains.   Later I even brought them to college and briefly set them up in a college suite living room.   I think the roomates were pretty tolerant though there were some tripping and toe subbing issues.   Bad decision....I sold them after I moved to Morgantown.   I still have a two car street car set (also Lionel O gauge) that could probably run if I cleaned it up and had a layout.   It was much older than my trains....probably pre WWII.   My father just showed up with them one day.   One day, I'll get them going. 

He actually showed up with all kinds of strange stuff from time to time.   I think he bought this stuff cheap somewhere near his laundromat on Bergen St.  Some other things that turned up:

An antique sled.   This one looked like your typical metal runners, but was at least 50% larger than any other sled I'd seen.  At least 3-4 ten year olds could ride it down Eckerd Avenue.   The only thing wrong with it was that it got some much momentum going straight, turnining the steering bars did almost anything.   We just hurtled down that hill.   (Of course I just looked at that hill on Google, and it was not as gigantic as I remembered....in fact it was barely a hill.)

An antique wire recorder.   I don't know what happened, but it didn't stay long.

An accordion.   I think it was in pretty pitiful shape.  It didn't stay long either.... maybe it did make an impression on me.....

A bumper pool table.   This one we kept for a long time.   I got pretty good at this  pool like game that uses a much smaller table.   In fact we bought one over Ebay and it is still used in our basement in Morgantown. 

Did this blog wander a bit?   Let your mind go...especially with childhood memories...and see where it gets you.

Interconnectedness helps restoration of long leaf southern pine

This from a Wood Technology Article by Richard Jagels in Wooden Boat.

Southern Long leaf Pine was a valued wood for boat building.   It is eminently workable (bend to shape) and apparently its high resin content makes it relatively resistant to underwater pests.  However it is not readily available today partly because it was logged out and because it requires frequent fires to prosper.  It is not a good initial competitor for space and nutrients without fires to help, and it itself prospers well with fires.

A resurgence of long leaf is helped by two fortuitous relationships.  The almost extinct  red-cocked woodpecker requires a high resin wood to survive (as in Southern Longleaf.)  The resin serves an important purposes:  it repels tree climbing rat snakes which eat the woodpecker young.  In fact it is a necessary element for the woodpecker to survive. As this species becomes protected on all public lands, longleaf cultivation (with frequent fires) increases.   The frequent fires also benefit another protected species , the Louisiana pine snake feeds on gophers that feed  on grasses that prosper following fires.   This snake is protected in Louisiana and Texas.

Usually these interconnection tales are ones leading to downfall of species.   In this case the policy to protect the bird and snake are leading to resurgence of long leaf pine.

As Jagels points out, these relationships are, "...tantalizing, and provide ample evidence  for the amazing complexity and interconnectedness of ecosystems - and should give anyone great pause before messing about with nature.  I'll reserve that activity for boats."   (as in Wind in the Willows! PB)

Rough Edges

I'm a guy with more than a few rough edges.   The women in my life have generally wanted to smooth them off.   While I don't want to affront them,  I'm generally not interested.

My guess is that this lack of polish comes partly from my gender, partly from my upbringing in a pretty rough part of Newark NJ, and partly from my wish to hang on to a certain piece of blue collar class consciousness I grew up with (particularly inherited from my father.)

How does this show?  I like music with a hard edge and sexual words:   Chicago blues.   I like spy and adventure movies with explicit sex and violence.   I read a lot of spy and mystery novels.   I like to look at attractive women and am not ashamed to say so.  I'm not too put off by dirt.   I revel (sometimes) in funkiness (ie old diners.)   You will never hear me complain that the restroom in a restaurant is dirty. etc. etc.

But hopefully I'm not stuck in the rough either..   In the last several years, I have found myself listening to wonderfully smooth female vocalists:  Eva Cassidy, Liz Wright, Nora Jones, Raya Yarbrough, Jaimee Paul,  Hope Waits, and (Abby teases me for this one) even Sara McLoughlin.   Maybe I'll start listening to smooth male vocalists as well, though that seems like a bigger jump.

If everything was smooth and sophisticated, we'd be missing a lot.   I appreciate the smooth for the rough and vice versa.   How do we love the light if we don't also love the dark?

...Speaking of Haverford II

In the fall of 1963 I attended an anti-war demonstration in Philadelphia.   Who was the object of the demonstration?  ... that later to be lionized president, John F. Kennedy.   We definitely did not think him a hero for his escalation of the war in Vietnam.   (I say with pride that we were very early opponents of the war.)

I remember being very surprised that he appeared so accessible and physically vulnerable in his open limousine.   (Too prescient, perhaps)

I truly appreciated the value of Friends' Meeting following his assassination.  As usual there was mostly silence with each of us following our own thoughts and feelings.   There were a few people who rose to speak, but the power was in the silence.

Speaking of Haverford....

We were a hot bed of radical and anti-war activity.

At graduation in 1966 our ceremony took place opposite a plywood construction fence protecting some new construction on campus.

The morning of graduation, 8 ft black letters appeared for all the graduates and parents to stare at:

HAVERFORD PRODUCES COGS FOR THE AMERICAN WAR MACHINE!

Paul Samuelson, RIP

Samuelson died Dec 12 at 94.  The Nobel winner is credited with bringing mathematics to economics.   And whom among us did not use his textbook in Economics 101?  According to David Colander and Casey Rothschild, "Sins of the Sons of Samuelson,", his legacy "has paralyzed the best brains in the Anglo0Saxon branch of the profession for the last three decades."  They say don't blame Samuelson.  It was his disciples who siad it wasn't economics if it couldn't be reduced to a model.  They argue that's why most economists didn't see the financial crisis coming.

...which reminds me of my freshman economics course at Haverford (1962.)  We used the Samuelson text.   I remember it as large format text book, colored gray on gray.   Anyway, I found it pretty darned easy and got a 100% on the first fall exam.   So what did I do?   I stopped going to class (as a part excuse, I had already found I learned better from books than lectures.)   I also stopped reading the book.   Well, Haverford required you attend class the day before Thanksgiving, so off I went to Economics...to be greeted by the second exam.   I had no idea!   I can still remember the panic I experienced.   Stomach knot, racing pulse, spinning brain, and flush rushing to my face.   I failed the exam with something like a 57.   After the holiday, the professor called me in to explain the dive.   I came clean on what had happened.  I went on with the course and went back to my A grade ways and got some kind of C for the class.  I can feel my stomach muscles contract when I think of that stupid experience.   Ah well, live and learn....

Later by the way, some liberal economists published a counter Samuelson beginning economics text.  I never have had the interest to read it, but probably should.

More on Corporate Malfeasance

NYTimes business section article by Gretchen Morgenson reports on board members who were there when big banks crashed and burned, just "glide to the next boardroom"


Thomas P. Gerrity, prof of mgt at Wharton Bus School, U of Pa; formerly on board at Fannie Mae; now on board of Sunoco

John Wulff former chairman of Hercules (chemicals) was also on the board of Fannie Mae during the meltdown; also on the board of Sunoco.  He was also on the board of Moody's when it failed to analyze the risk in the mortgage bubble.

Robert Parry, former board member of Countrywide the failed (bought at file sale by Bancofamerica) subprime lender; now on board of Paccar

William G. Reed, Jr; was chair of Washington Mutual (largest bank to collapse in US history) is also on the board of PACCAR.

Hugh  Grant , formerly of IndyMac (failed spinoff from Countrywide) on board of TetraTec

Also  Patrick Haden went from failed IndyMac to Tetra Tec.

Now you could argue these guys have learned there lessons, but not one has made any public statement of apology, knowledge, or accountability.   Just move on and cash a new paycheck of 100's of thousands for a few meetings a year!

All these directors join their boards with legal fiduciary responsibility to protect shareholder interests, but tend to be silent partners with management and not rock the boat.

"Here's a conversation you'll never hear. ' Yes I get paid $475,000 a year.  I play golf with the CEO;  he's a personal friend.   I go to interesting places for board meetings, I am around interesting people, and I never would say one word that would jeopardize my position on the board/"...Frederick Rowe, President  of Investors for Director Responsibility.

...and by the way, whom do you think votes for those obscene executive salaries and benefits that by the way encourage the kind of short term risk taking that lead to the crash?

The article also points out that it is nearly impossible for investors to fire an incompetent board member.  The rules are stacked in many ways for the executives that run the companies to select and manage the boards to whom they are supposed to be accountable.

That this can continue is a continuing tribute to the power of corporate lobbying power, and perhaps the notably short term memory of the American public.

What do Jews Do on Christmas? II

Abe and Harriet Becker, my parents, were married by Rabbi Zinn in Newark, NJ on December 24, 1939.  I have grainy footage of them leaving the wedding ceremony in snow with three living parents (my grandparents, my) their siblings and spouses and climbing into my father's old panel truck.  

I always wondered whether there was some special reason for a Jewish couple getting married on Christmas Eve. I never got to ask them, so I will never know.....

Where did they go on their honeymoon in that truck?

They went to what West Virginians would call a camp, somewhere near the tri state border of New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania.   A friend had loaned them a cabin for the honeymoon.   (Remember this was still the end of the depression.)  The previous weekend, my father had gone up to the cabin and sealed the cracks in the walls by covering the thing with roofing (tar) paper.

I also have movies of the honeymoon.....of my father walking to the outside well and pumping water into a bucket, of my mother entering the outhouse, and ultimately of my father ice skating on a frozen pond.   Like me he was a pretty good athlete, a good skater, but moved with a kind of jerky stiff motion.   They looked:

REAL COLD
IN LOVE
REAL HAPPY

49 years later when my mother died they:

HAD KEPT EACH OTHER REAL WARM IN BED
WERE STILL IN LOVE
WERE PRETTY HAPPY

Christmas Day

What do the Jews do on Christmas?

That was a question asked of European survivors at Klezcamp.  The gist was....stay under the radar.

Today Roz and I went to serve food for the residents of Rosenbaum house.   Rosenbaum house provides housing and meals for people visiting relatives at Ruby Hospital from out of town, needing a place to stay.Hilda Rosenbaum donated and still supports the facility.   She had her share of illness in her family.Tree of Life jews usually take this over on Easter and Christmas, so christian families can celebrate with their families.  

When we showed up to serve lunch there was a hymnal sitting on an old out of tune piano in the dining room.   So I sat down and started sight reading hymns.   Right away I got into the four square comfort of the hymns.   Like blues, there is very little unpredictability in hymns.   They are so just right.   Then I found the Christmas section and one and then another woman got up to sing with me.  One woman had a very attractive voice with a slight pleasant quaver....kind of like Dolly Parton light.   The other was a low alto who sang perfect harmony on every note.   We did about six songs.   This was definitely a moment I will always remember and treasure.   I could feel the human voices surrounding me, with the piano keeping things anchored.   Religious music for the pure joy.  It just happened, good will, music across religious and class boundaries, and likely sustenance for the families spending Christmas visiting their seriously ill close ones.

Cohen's knishes

In Newark I attended Hawthorne Avenue School.   My Hebrew school was a block away down Clinton Place, called Bet Yeled.   It was not a pleasant place, seemingly filled with very strict Israeli teachers who wanted to talk about Israeli military prowess.   I often ended up standing in the corner, or worse punishment (for unruly talking) standing outside the door.  Since Bet Yeled started about an hour after school, my parents gave me money to buy a snack at Cohen's Knishes, which was directly across Hawthorne from the school.   I usually got a "pig in a blanket."   This was a hotdog wrapped in dough....like the miniature ones you can see at Jewish weddings and Bar Mitzvahs, but this one was full size.   I never thought about it, but that's a pretty unlikely name for a Kosher hotdog.   Well the kosher hotdog could fill many blog entries for me, but right now the main point is that:
1. It's brown, not pink
2. It has a real animal casing that's real chewy
3. It's got a phenomenal garlicky taste.
4. It demands good brown mustard.
5. The dough (blanket) is perfectly matched in blandness and soft texture, to the almost overpowering flavor of the hotdogy.

That treat surely made the wait for Bet Yeled worthwhile, and almost made the boredom that awaited within tolerable as well.

Cohen's gave out pigs in blankets on Halloween.   That clearly outclassed anything else a kid could get for free on Halloween, so the lines went around the corner to Clinton Place.   You got a stamp when you got one, so you couldn't cheat and get two.

Accordion dream

Last night I dreamt that I was in a small nightclub playing an  accordion on stage.  The club seemed very European and had a kind of circus atmosphere.  The accordion I was playing was cream color with lots of inlay decoration and generally very old fashioned looking.   I have several 1930's accordions that look kind of that.   The unusual nature of the accordion was that instead of a typical bass (left) side with chord buttons, the accordion had a live head that moved in and out while I played.   It had sort of a paper mache appearance that matched the accordion, but was definitely alive and generally smiled out at the audience.  As I watched the dream, I waited till I (the accordionist on stage) put down the accordion to see where the rest of the head was hidden.   However when I put down the accordion, there was no sign of a body, and the head just sat there on the end of the accordion, smiling out at me and the audience.   As can be in dreams, this was a bit of a surprise, but really didn't feel that unusual.....like saying, "Oh, it's just a live head."

Wish I could draw well enough to recreate that image.

Health Care Bill is Real Big

Whatever the worts and blemishes in the bill and process.  Hip Hip Hooray!.   Senate passage of Health Care Reform is really big social policy accomplishment for all of us!

US political polarization

A good article in the NYTimes describes the partisan and often bitter nature of the 60-39 party line vote this morning on health care.  Offerred explanations are interesting, but conflicting:
1.  Party line voting comes because  the parties have each become ideologically narrower.
2. Party line voting comes from practicality because politicians are afraid to vote outside the party position.
3. Party line voting is associated with the increase in lobbying moneys spent.

I don't really have an opinion on this.   Clearly the capacity to vote outside the party line(as was done in 1965 on vote creating Medicare when 13 Republican Senators voted for, and 7 democrats voted against) is disappearing.  And if the primary reason is actually to defeat the other party in an upcoming election, it seems we've lost the sense of the greater interest of the people....another version of the "end justifies the means."

It makes me think again about the 60 vote requirement in the Senate to bring about debate....which in turn makes me want to read Lani Guinier's The Tyranny of the Majority  I just ordered it used on Amazon.

On language and history from a fictional spy

This from The Bourne Sanction by Robert Ludlum (yes the spy novels and movies)

"Learning languages is like learning history from the inside out.  It encompasses the battles of ethnicity, religion, compromise, politics.  So much can be learned from language because it's been shaped by history."

Christmastime for the Jews

Stan Cohen reminded me of this oldie:

http://www.hulu.com/watch/1373/saturday-night-live-christmas-for-the-jews-song

expert village

A year ago, I made three videos for a web site called expert village.  For while there were just a few hits, so I forgot about them.   Some time along the way, these got posted to YouTube, and so I have up to 70,000 hits on some of the video segments.   The comments were also interesting.   Mostly positive, a few thought I sucked, and here are two on the blues site having to do with age.   I'm thinking my age self knowledge is about ten years behind chronlogy, so I was surprised to see these folks call me old guy.   At any rate I'll take the intended praise:

damn old man 5 stars old people rule!!!! No offense man but cool old people like u rule!!!!! 

 

I have no idea what you did, but it was amazing! I have the deepest respect for you wisened sages of blues/jazz improv. You guys are my piano-playing idols. :-D

 

Since this is my blog, I have no obligation for balance.   If you want to see the negative comments, look on YouTube for yourself!

60 vote senate

UCLA political scientist Barbara Sinclair reports that in 1960's "extended-debate-related problems" - threatened or actual filibusters affected 8% of major legisaltion in the US Senate.   By 1980's that had risen to 27 %.   Following Democrats retaking cotrol of Congress in 2006, this soared to 70%.

The 60 vote rule in the senate is not in the Constitution, but a self imposed rule by the Senate.  While I am little squemish about abolishing the rule completely, the number required to close debate could be lowered to 55, or there could be rolling debate closings (as in a bill by Tom Harkin) that initally called for 60, and then a couple of days later 57, then a couple of days later 55, etc, until a simple majority was needed.   Democrats could also no longer allow the "courtesy" of not actually speaking on the floor to "continue" debate, but make the minority view actually stand and speak.

I could sympathize with filibusters if they represent truly held positions, but when used to paralyze a government of the opposite party for pure political purpose (to kick them out,) it is irresponsible use of the parliamentary device.   With a narrowly polarized nation, we won't likely see much done under any majority if this continues.   Of course, who suffers?   we the people!

New words

The Sunday NYTimes Week in review filled its front page with new words in 2009.   Here's a few:

Aporkalypse:  Undue worry in aresponse to swine flu.  Includes unncessary acts like removing nonessential kisses from Mexican telenovelas and the mass slaughter of pigs in Egypt.

Chimerica:   The intertwined economies of China and the Unites States, which together dominate the world economy.   Popularized by Niall Ferguson in his book "The Assent of Money"

Octomom:  Nadya Suleman, who gave birth to octuplets in January.

CarTone:   Music or amabient noise proposed for use by electric cars, whose quitness otherwise makes them go unnoticed by pedestrians.

Ununbium:  The temporary name of a newly found element.  Uub for short.  It omes fromt he Latin for the element's number, 112.

Check it out (on line?) for more.

World's Best Latkes Recipe

Last night of Hannukah tonight.   I'll be making latkes big time.

This was my mother's from a cookbook called, "So Eat My Darling."   I have altered the cookbook recipe by doubling the pepper and doubling the oinions.   (Don't do it again!)

Here's the recipe:

6 medium potatoes
1 large onion
2 eggs, lightly beaten
3 tablespoons flour
 1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
cooking oil

I believe two techniques I learned from my morther are crucial:

1.   Grate the potatoes and onions.   Do not use a food processor.   You'll lose the good texture.  I use my getting to be antique kitchen aid with the grater attachment.

2.  Squeeze the  water thoroughly out of the grated onion/potato mix before adding the other ingredients.   This way you can get away with this little flour, so they taste more like a fritter than a cake.  I guess the professional way to do this is cheese cloth.   I generally use an old dish towel.   The best method I've used is to use some stockings.  I've bought dollar store variety and wash them once before use them.The ergonomics for squeezing are really good.  Since the latkes made with this reciped are still a bit fragile, I use two spatulas to turn them.

Hint: if the heat in your pan is not even center to edge, it's worth spinning each side 180 degrees, so they cook evenly.

Am I demonstrating hubris with my world's best title?   No, Roz once introduced me to Abby's grade school class as the world's best latke chef.   Of course the kids didn't get the joke, so that title has stuck.   The proof of the latke:  the family made me an apron with the words "World's Best  Latkes Maker," ......probably should be my epitaph.

A Change is Gonna Come

Written by Sam Cooke.
Produced by Hugo Peretti and Luigi Creatore.
Instrumentation by Rene Hall (arrangement and conductor of orchestra),
Engineering by David Hassinger



This is one of my all time favorite songs.   And a lot of other people must agree.

This song was first sung by Sam Cooke in 1963, but the extant recording was made in 1964.  The album on which the song appeared did ok, but Cooke was disappointed with its play and appeared in February of 1964 to sing it on the Tonight Show.   Unfortunately the Beatles' blackbuster appearance on Ed Sullivan two days later overshadowed the Sam Cooke appearance.  The tape of Sam Cooke's appearance has disappeared and there is no record of his performance.

Prior to his writing this song, Sam had written and performed mostly smooth and light songs.   He was very taken, however, by Bob Dylan's Blowin' in the Wind, especially that a white musician would write and perform a song about racism in America.   In addition to Dylan's inspiration, Sam experienced the death of his 18 month old son by drowning, and his and his band's arrest in Shreveport Louisiana for trying to check into a "whites only" hotel.   The fact that he doesn't specifically identify the change that's gonna come likely represents both these incidents.   In December of 1964, Sam Cooke was killed in a California hotel (under mysterious circumstance) and did not live to see the success of the song.  By 1965, the song had risen to 31 on Billboard charts.   Despite its lack of commercial success, the song became an anthem for the 1960's civil rights movement and remains influential to this day.   Obama quoted the song in his acceptance speech.   The song has won many awards during the intervening decades.

Here are the lyrics:

I was born by the river
In a little tent
And just like the river
I've been running ever since

It's been a long, long time coming
But I know a change gonna come
Oh, yes it is

It's been too hard living
But I'm afraid to die
I don't know what's up there beyond the sky

It's been a long, long time coming
But I know a change gonna come
Oh yes it will

Then I go to my brother
I say brother help me please
But he winds up knocking me
Back down on my knees

There's been times that I thought
I wouldn't last for long
But now I think I'm able to carry on
It's been a long, long time coming
But I know a change is gonna come
Oh, yes it will 

The song has been covered by:
Cory Wells, Bob Dylan, Aretha Franklin, The 5th Dimension, The Band, Wane Brady, Billy Bragg, Solomon Burke, Ternce Trent D'Arby, Gavin Degraw, the Fuggs, the Cold War Kids, the Gits, Deitrick Haddon, Patti Labelle, Solo, Prince Buster, Morten Harket, th eNeville Brothers, Jacksoul, Ben Sollee, Johnny P., Bill Presont, Otis Redding, Michael Thopson, Bobby Womack, Leela James, Tin Turner, The Righteous Brothers, and the Supremes.   It's also been sampled by numerous rappers.


So if you haven't heard it, buy it.  You can get an mp3 from Amazon for $.99.


Well having written this, I'm very aware that the printed page just doesn't come close to touching the beauty in this song.   If you don't know it, I hope I've gotten you interested.


A fantasy:  an album of Sam's version plus the best covers.  I wouldn't get bored.




....most of this information comes from Wikipedia

Raves

It's a lot easier to rant than rave.   Ergo, I created a "rants" section several days ago.   My better nature has asserted itself and gets me to also create a "raves."   Let's see how I do.

America, save thyself..... (not the Muslim world)

Excerpt from a Harper's article by Andrew J. Bacevich:

"In short, time is on our side, not the side of those who proclaim their intention of turning back the clock to the fifteenth century.   The ethos of consuption and individual autonomy, privilege in the here and now over the eternal, will conquer the Muslim world as surely as it is conquering East Asia and as surely as it has already conquered what was once known as Christendom.  It's the wreckage left in the wake of that conquest that demands our attention.   If the Unived State today has a saving mission, it is to save itself. Speaking in the midst of another unnecessary war back in 1967,  Martin Luther King got it exactly right, 'Come home, America.'  The prophet of that era urged his countrymen to take on 'the triple evils of racism, economic exploitation, and militarism.'

Dr. King's list of evils may need a bit of tweaking - in our own day, the sins requiring expiation number more than three.   Yet in his insistence that we first heal ourselves, King remains today the prophet we ignore at our peril......"

Stop Reasonable Health Care

The work of a few blue dog democrats and Joe Lieberman to junk public option and medicare buyin is drivin' me crazy.  ... why the contrast that liberal senators are willing to compromise important policies to the larger interest of getting a bill passed?

I just want to RANT!

So to save this blog post from more of these, and allow me to vent, I'll create a RANT section on the side of the blog.   View it or not.....at your own risk.

The Flying Kibbutz

When the kids were little I somehow made up a bed time story that was only used when we were going to sleep away from home.  It was called the Flying Kibbutz.   Maybe it started on a trip to Israel.  The way the story went was that there were children living and working on this kibbutz.   Their names were amazingly similar to those of our kids.

Well on special occasions, the kibbutz would just get up and fly.   When that happened, everybody on the kibbutz went into a trance but the select children.   The kibbutz would take off slowely with a ritual series of sound effects our kids loved.  RMMMMMML  BMM BMMM   BMMMM   chuga chuga chuga, chucka chucka chucka, etc.  First it vibrated, then it shook, and eventually it just left the earth and flew to some location.  Once it went to New York.   Another time to London.  There our intrepid kids would get off and look around.   Then, with the same sound effects, the kibbutz would return to base.   Everyone would wake up,, not noticing they had been in a trance, and the children would tell the kibbutz leader where they had been. Of course no one believed them.   But usually they had brought back something like a shell or other artifact that proved they had flown somewhere.   But no, frustratingly, the adults never believed in the flying kibbutz.

While the story might have been most delightful on first telling, the repeated telling the story on trips added history and memory to the story.....which more than made up for the lack of surprise.  

Maybe I'll make up a Flying Kibbutz story for myself, tonight before I go to sleep.

Contra Klez

No, I'm not against klezmer music.   This past sunday Mike Attfield and I played a mixture of traditional contra and klezmer music for a loca contra dance.   It all happened because it turns out that contras were often formally choreographed by court dance masters, and that was frequently a jewish profession.   So these dance masters took the dances home to their villages and ran the same formations (what do you call those things?) to their own music.   Of course the dancing style was also jewish with beseeching reaches toward heaven and motions immitating a tailor sewing (sublime to ridiculous???) 

So I told this story to Cindy O'Brien, local contra dance organizer, and right away she jumped on it and we had a date, a caller, a place, a sound system, etc.

Everything went great.   The crowd  was a bit small, but very enthusiastic.   Nobody can say that shers aren't foot stompers.  One comment from a dancer unfamiliar with the music.   "I didnt' realize that music was so anxious."   I guess we musicians did our job in communicating the underlying tam (soul) of the music.   Roz had a mandolin cameo on two Sirbas, taught some body motions and language, and lead a circle dance.   Who had the most fun?    Probably me.   I'm really enjoying getting out and playing!

Bankers Don't Learn

Paul Krugman has an excellent column in NYTimes on bankers behaving as if the last year had not taught them anything about wild speculation, deregulation, and financial  crisis.   They are strenuously opposing new regulations to keep the same from happening again:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/14/opinion/14krugman.html?_r=1

In explanation, he quotes Upton Sinclair as saying,

“It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it.” 

That also helps to explain the increasing number of Americans who report they don't believe global warming is for real.

Harper's Index Quotes

Harpers magazine has had a Harper's Index as long as I've read the magazine.   Here's a few from the latest issue:

On carbon footprint:
1. Tons by which US greenhouse-gas emissions would be reduced if our obesity rate were cut to 3 percent: 185,000,000  (wish I new the denominator)
2.Tons of CO2 that All Nippon Airways expect to save per month by asking passengers to use the bathroom before boarding: 42
3. Factor by which the carbon footprint of a German shepherd exceeds that of an SUV:  3

On Children and Lobbyists:
1.  Number of registered drug-company lobbyishts in Washington, DC for every member of Congress: 2
2. Average amount spent on congressional lobbying per day, by US health-care companies in 2009: $1,500.000
3. Average amount tahe US government spends on each child during his or her first eighteen years:  $140,000

Don't Mourn Organize

Last night, Roz and I watched the History Channel's The People Speak, a performance narrated and inspired by Howard Zinn and co-produced with actor Matt Damon.  The show is spiced with guest appearances from many actors and musicians.   It's well worth watching.  I think I'll buy the DVD.   My father recommended Howard Zinn's A Peoples' History of the US, sometime while I was an undergraduate.   Roz and I heard him speak some time around 1991 while we were on sabbatical in Watertown, MA.   He's one of the people I admire enough to fantasize about "being him."   Of course the liberal press (ex: Washington Post) has panned the show as heavy handed.  Zinn has a point of view that history is not just made by great leaders, but by common people.   For example in the show, he brings Roosevelt down a few notches as a hero saving the people from the depression, and argues that Roosevelt acted because of the demonstrations and direct actions of unionists, women, poor people, etc. forced the government to act.

Here's the site for the show:
http://www.history.com/
During the show, one section read was a portion from a Marge Piercy poem,    .....   Here's the most powerful stanza:

Two people can keep each other 
sane, can give support, conviction, 
love, massage, hope, sex. 
Three people are a delegation, 
a committee, a wedge. With four 
you can play bridge and start 
an organisation. With six 
you can rent a whole house, 
eat pie for dinner with no 
seconds, and hold a fund raising party. 
A dozen make a demonstration. 
A hundred fill a hall.
A thousand have solidarity and your own newsletter; 
ten thousand, power and your own paper; 
a hundred thousand, your own media;
ten million, your own country.

You can view the poem at:

http://www.margepiercy.com/sampling/The_Low_Road.htm

I love the way she conjoins the power of personal and political elements.

Who said it's fair????

If a company goes bankrupt a judge can  dump their pension plans, change their health coverage.   If an individual goes bankrupt,  a judge can not change the terms of the individual's mortgage.   And the House of Representatives was unable to pass a measure to change that.

Special Offer

Join my blog and I'll write a special entry on a topic of yourchoice.   

1st day at Haverford

In 1962, I was accepted and decided to go to Haverford.   My dad's car at that time was a 1948 Plymouth.  It was a kind of grayish blue.   It was a for real little old lady car that had sat in a garage for a bunch of years.   Well along comes first day for freshmen to arrive.   We drive down from Springfield, NJ to Haverford PA in the old Plymouth, pull up in front of Barclay Hall in that car and park behind another arriving freshman.....in a maroon Rolls Royce!!!!   Uh oh!   My dad and I looked at each other.   We both shared the same somewhat fierce class consciousness. 

Mom's cookbooks

I have two cookbooks from my mom.   They have her handwritten notes amending or commenting on recipes.     They are a north Jersey Jewish Guild Cookbook, and a Jewish Cookboock (So Eat My Darling..)   Given that she was working school teacher, most of her notes dealt with shortcuts that allowed for quicker cooking.   I remember, for example, that she made a sausage with potatos, onions and peppers in tomato sauce thing.   Her short cut was to use frozen french fries, rather than cook potatoes from scratch.

I love using those cookbooks.   I also am fond of the Fannie Farmer Cookbook, which she also used.   It's a great place to go for a "basic" recipe.   I confess, however, the internet is pretty cool for getting great recipes.   Will my mom's handwritten notes migrate to the internet?    LOL.

Coney Island Tales plus Parking Car Digression

My father grew up in sight of the Coney Island Roller Coasters.   He took me there pretty often as a kid.   (This wasn't an obvious destination, since we lived way over in New Jersey, and could go to Palisades Park or Olympic Park, much closer.)   I'm guessing he had a hog in front of that judge for those trips.

One time my mother was away for some reason in the summer and we went.   I remember riding the big coaster.   My father wouldn't ride.   I was petrified, mostly because I was so small, the safety bars didn't exactly hold me tight.   In fact I got kind of knocked around on the ride.   This was also my first burying in sand experience.   I did my dad, and then he did me.   The last (ouch) memory is that we both got real sunburned.  He said we looked like lobsters.   Seems like the cure when we got home was serial ice water baths.

We also went regularly to fourth of July at Coney Island.   For whatever reason, that was also just me and my Dad.   I hardly remember the fireworks which were off a barge in the water.  What I remember most was what we called Coney Island corn.   Sweet as candy, slathered in butter, and eaten on a stick.   What is the appeal to kids of finger food?  I also remember that one time after the fireworks, we had trouble finding where we parked the car.   Is there anyone who has gone a lifetime without that irritating experience.

Parking car digression:
My high school girl friend's parents didn't like her going out with me because I was Jewish.   She was brought up protestant, but turned out her family was originally Moslem.  They were trying to assimilate, and I wasn't helping.   She was banned from going out with me.   Well we found all kinds of ways to get around that....mostly friends of mine picking her up.   Once we drove into NYC to hear Beethoven's 9th in Central Park.   I can remember the Ode to  Joy echoing off the surrounding buildings!   Anyway, when we got done, we couldn't remember where we parked the car (a 1948 Plymouth.)   We were getting pretty uptight about getting her home, so in the end we had to hire a taxicab to go up and down the streets on the East side of Central Park until we found the car.

Another time we went out and so were the parents...so we parked my car a few blocks from her house and I sneaked in.   We were kissing on the couch when the parents came in, one from the front, one from the back door.   They had spotted my car.   I remember them saying how disappointed they were.   The next day the mother called my mother to seek an ally in banning us from seeing each other.   WRONG THING TO  DO!  She got an earful from a jewish mother turned tiger.   Just the hint that her son wasn't good enough for the girl....well you can guess.   Plus my mother knew enough to tell her this kind of parental interference was not appropriate and sure not to work.

Back to Coney Island:

I also remember once standing in front of Nathan's hotdogs and dropping my hotdog on the boardwalk.   I had picked up food off the ground before, but this seemed especially gross, given the hoards that passed those boards.  For some reason I struggled over whether to pick it up and eat it or not.   In the end I can only remember the sadness of dropping it and the consternation over whether I should eat that hot dog off the ground.

My father distracted me with a Coney Island story about his father.   Grandpa Becker was "observant" and kept strictly kosher.   My Dad said one day, as a kid, he was walking on the Coney Island Boardwalk and caught site of Grandpa eating lobster in front of Nathan's.   I was made to understand that this was a huge scandal, and perhaps even a Shonde!

Financial Reform is goin bust

The House considers financial reform written by the big banks.   Derivatives will again thrive, with oversight by the Fed (with its built in conflict of interest being made up of the biggest bankers, themselves.)  Even Greenspan and Volcker oppose these reforms as too weak.   Volcker proposes to undo last decade of deregulation and prohibit commercial banks (insured by the fed govt with our money) from taking risky actions.   Don't make the Fed the regulatory agency, so it can focus on monetary policy.   Greenspan calls for anti-trust action against the biggest banks:   if they're too big to fail, they're just too big. 

A strong voice for effective reform is Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO.   He objects to Obama's plan to to put the Federal Reserve in charge as super regulator is "effectively giving the banks the ability to raid th eTreasury for their own benefit>"  "Our members were not invited to Wall Street's party, but we have paid for it with devastated pension funds, lost jobs and public bailouts of private-sector losses.  Our goal is a financial system that is...the servant of the real economony rather than its master."

Amen, brother!

Invade the US, why don't you

A chicago man has been arrested for plotting the bombing of a Norwegian newspaper over its "muslim cartoon" and is now linked to the Mumbai (India) bombing.

I expect that any one with a sense of fair play (ie US actions in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan) would counsel Norway and India to invade the U.S. as part of their wars against terrorism.

Senator Byrd statement endorsing climate control legislation and restriction of mountaintop removal

In the context of his history and of the WVa Governor's knee jerk cheerleading for mountaintop removal, this is huge:

COAL MUST EMBRACE THE FUTURE

Senator Robert C. Byrd (D-W.Va.)

For more than 100 years, coal has been the backbone of the Appalachian economy. Even today, the economies of more than 20 states depend to some degree on the mining of coal. About half of all the electricity generated in America and about one quarter of all the energy consumed globally is generated by coal.

Change is no stranger to the coal industry.  Think of the huge changes which came with the onset of the Machine Age in the late 1800’s.  Mechanization has increased coal production and revenues, but also has eliminated jobs, hurting the economies of coal communities. In 1979, there were 62,500 coal miners in the Mountain State. Today there are about 22,000. In recent years, West Virginia has seen record high coal production and record low coal employment.

And change is undeniably upon the coal industry again.  The increased use of mountaintop removal mining means that fewer miners are needed to meet company production goals. Meanwhile the Central Appalachian coal seams that remain to be mined are becoming thinner and more costly to mine. Mountaintop removal mining, a declining national demand for energy, rising mining costs and erratic spot market prices all add up to fewer jobs in the coal fields. 

These are real problems. They affect real people. And West Virginia’s elected officials are rightly concerned about jobs and the economic impact on local communities.  I share those concerns.  But the time has come to have an open and honest dialogue about coal’s future in West Virginia.

Let’s speak the truth. The most important factor in maintaining coal-related jobs is demand for coal. Scapegoating and stoking fear among workers over the permitting process is counter-productive.

Coal companies want a large stockpile of permits in their back pockets because that implies stability to potential investors. But when coal industry representatives stir up public anger toward federal regulatory agencies, it can damage the state’s ability to work with those agencies to West Virginia’s benefit. This, in turn, may create the perception of ineffectiveness within the industry, which can drive potential investors away.

Let’s speak a little more truth here. No deliberate effort to do away with the coal industry could ever succeed in Washington because there is no available alternative energy supply that could immediately supplant the use of coal for base load power generation in America. That is a stubborn fact that vexes some in the environmental community, but it is reality.

It is also a reality that the practice of mountaintop removal mining has a diminishing constituency in Washington. It is not a widespread method of mining, with its use confined to only three states.  Most members of Congress, like most Americans, oppose the practice, and we may not yet fully understand the effects of mountaintop removal mining on the health of our citizens. West Virginians may demonstrate anger toward the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) over mountaintop removal mining, but we risk the very probable consequence of shouting ourselves out of any productive dialogue with EPA and our adversaries in the Congress.

Some have even suggested that coal state representatives in Washington should block any advancement of national health care reform legislation until the coal industry’s demands are met by the EPA. I believe that the notion of holding the health care of over 300 million Americans hostage in exchange for a handful of coal permits is beyond foolish; it is morally indefensible.  It is a non-starter, and puts the entire state of West Virginia and the coal industry in a terrible light.

To be part of any solution, one must first acknowledge a problem. To deny the mounting science of climate change is to stick our heads in the sand and say “deal me out.” West Virginia would be much smarter to stay at the table.

 The 20 coal-producing states together hold some powerful political cards. We can have a part in shaping energy policy, but we must be honest brokers if we have any prayer of influencing coal policy on looming issues important to the future of coal like hazardous air pollutants, climate change, and federal dollars for investments in clean coal technology.

Most people understand that America cannot meet its current energy needs without coal, but there is strong bi-partisan opposition in Congress to the mountaintop removal method of mining it. We have our work cut out for us in finding a prudent and profitable middle ground – but we will not reach it by using fear mongering, grandstanding and outrage as a strategy. As your United States Senator, I must represent the opinions and the best interests of the entire Mountain State, not just those of coal operators and southern coalfield residents who may be strident supporters of mountaintop removal mining.

I have spent the past six months working with a group of coal state Democrats in the Senate, led by West Virginia native Senator Tom Carper (D-Del.), drafting provisions to assist the coal industry in more easily transitioning to a lower-carbon economy. These include increasing funding for clean coal projects and easing emission standards and timelines, setting aside billions of dollars for coal plants that install new technology and continue using coal. These are among the achievable ways coal can continue its major role in our national energy portfolio. It is the best way to step up to the challenge and help lead change.

The truth is that some form of climate legislation will likely become public policy because most American voters want a healthier environment.  Major coal-fired power plants and coal operators operating in West Virginia have wisely already embraced this reality, and are making significant investments to prepare.

The future of coal and indeed of our total energy picture lies in change and innovation. In fact, the future of American industrial power and our economic ability to compete globally depends on our ability to advance energy technology.

The greatest threats to the future of coal do not come from possible constraints on mountaintop removal mining or other environmental regulations, but rather from rigid mindsets, depleting coal reserves, and the declining demand for coal as more power plants begin shifting to biomass and natural gas as a way to reduce emissions.

Fortunately, West Virginia has a running head-start as an innovator. Low-carbon and renewable energy projects are already under development in West Virginia, including:  America’s first integrated carbon capture and sequestration project on a conventional coal-fired power plant in Mason County; the largest wind power facility in the eastern United States; a bio-fuel refinery in Nitro; three large wood pellet plants in Fayette, Randolph, and Gilmer Counties; and major dams capable of generating substantial electricity.

Change has been a constant throughout the history of our coal industry. West Virginians can choose to anticipate change and adapt to it, or resist and be overrun by it.  One thing is clear.  The time has arrived for the people of the Mountain State to think long and hard about which course they want to choose.

###

...makes me feel marginal

46% of americans believe Fox News is reliable

39% of americans think the government should "stay out of Medicare"


btw 5% and 11% of back and Latino Americans have the same "reliable" opinion about Fox News.


....from Harper's Index

Filibuster

The Nation has an interesting editorial on the filibuster.   Seventy-five % of polled Americans favor a health care public option.  Obama favors it, the House has voted for it.   Right now it looks like as few as two democrats in the senate could scuttle the public option by way of denying Senate democrats cloture (the 60 votes needed to close debate.)   Retained to protect minority opinions, the filibuster ends up giving you huge doubts about the US as the world model of democracy.   Filibuster is not in the Constitution; it;s a Senate rule and the vote level to end debate was decreased from 65 to 60 not too long ago.   Senate Majority Leader Reid needs to have the courage to change the rules again so our representative system can more accurately represent!

If you're interested in the issue of respecting minority views in the American political system, check out the writings of Lani Guineer (yes the woman quickly torpedoes by Bill Clinton as nominee for Attorney General.)

Music and missing the bus

In 1958 a Texan won the Tchaikovsky piano competition in Russia.   Given the political climate of the times and his youth and dramatic style, Van Cliburn became an instant American celebrity.   When he gave his first concert in NYC (It was outdoors somewhere at a college in upper Manhattan or the Bronx) my mother and I went by bus from our home in Springfield.  We had it pretty good since the Somerset Bus Co 148  stopped once an hour at the corner of Mountain and Hillside Avenues and took 50 minutes to the Port Authority.

I was fourteen and pretty heavily into my piano playing.   The concert was phenomenal.   He played a pretty romantic brew of classical.   Well the crowd went wild and I believe he played more than 10 encores.   We stayed to the end, discarding any concern for getting home.   When the concert finally ended, we hussled back to Port Authority, but the last bus to Springfield had gone.   What to do.   My mother wheedled with the bus dispatcher and they put us on a bus to Plainfield, that waited (seemed like the middle of the night) on Rt 22 just to switch us to a 141 from Newark to Springfield so we could get home.   That was a little scary but pretty cool.

Some winter break in during college I went with  a friend in NYC to hear a Christmas eve midnight mass at one of the big churches in Manhattan.   We also  missed the last 148 to Springfield.   This time there was no bus option.  It was cold.  We were stuck.  It was really really cold.

Our solution.....we took a subway down to the Staten Island Ferry (I remembered it ran all night and was really warm) and slept all night as the Ferry went back and  from Manhattan to Staten Island.   The trip took about 20 minutes each way, so we had pretty frequent wakeups.   If no one official was around we just stayed on our benches.   But if there was a ferry person, we'd get up, get off, and quickly turn around and reboard the ferry.   I can feel the heat of the ferries and the curve of the wooden benches.   It wasn't a bad night at all. 

Whither goest the middle east?? ...or do the settlements preclude a two state solution?

Four recent depressing events may be setting the stage for a change in the middle east ...

1. The Gaza conflagration with its documented  human rights violations on both sides.   (As a side note, how come Richard Goldstone's UN sponsored report of these violations has been politely filed in the world circular file.)  

2.  Election of right winger and west bank settlement supporter Netanyahu.   Of course the moderates in Israel continue to shoot themselves in the foot or worse through seeminingly unending corruption scandals.  Possibly more depressing here is the apparent role of American Jewish money machers in using their financial clout to push the right wing in Israel.

3. Obama's caving in on settlements.   Here was the moment in the first flush of his election for America to stand up for peace and not toady to the settlement right wingers.  This isn't even a wink, but a green light.

4.  Abbas bowing out of the next Palestinian elections.   Most commentators assume he is just plain discouraged by the impasse and Obama's cave was the last straw.   When I worked in Labor Studies, I watched a management consultant and union buster lecture management that they (management) got the union they deserved.   Same goes for Israel and the Palestinians.....both ways!

An interesting thought suggested by John Nichols in the Nation is that successfully maintaining and expanding the settlements could lead to a new stage in the middle east.   If Jews occupy the West Bank, there is no way to achieve a two state solution.  That leaves two choices:   ethnic cleansing (which I continue to believe the Jewish people and state are not capable of either by will or by overwhelming Arab resistance) or a one state solution.   The latter (as Olmert has noted) would mean the end of Israel.   I translate this to mean the end of Israel as a Jewish state.   Are we looking at the renewed possibility of Arabs and Jews sharing the land?  Are we looking at a democracy that conciliates two warring peoples through elections (this has occurred...think of south Africa.)  As a nonzionist, I would call this a happy prospect...though one filled with tremendous irony.   Perhaps it's a fantasy, and impasse will continue at least as long as I live.   Now that's a sad prospect.