Cub Scout Cookie Sales

The glory:   I think it was my dad's idea to make a wooden stand out of wooden crate with verticles that held a sign for the cookies.  Each year I walked with this booth and a stock of cookies to the front of Beth Israel Hospital down at the end of Huntington Terrace.   What a great idea!

The misery:   Hardly sold a thing!

Mini memories

Brenner Street: 1948:  Grandma Sarah, cookies, milk, gray hair, tiny woman, big heart

Huntington Terrace, 1952:  Horse chestnuts in the fall, so smooth to the touch,  leaf pile jumping

Springfield,  1955:   First slice of thin pizza I bought myself....mmmm greasy great

Lake Owassa 1952:  Rowing boat from cottage to grocery store, creaking sound, water running down oars, facing back is mystically great

Springfield, 1956:  Mom's dinners always a colorful arrangement,  bright intense green peas

Since 1960:  standing on my head, still do it

Wall Street Likes Obama

(Click title to link to article)

Business Week points out the a national poll conducted by Bloomberg finds that Americans 2-to-1 believe America's economy has worsened in the last year, Wall street as polled by the Standard & Poor 500 Stock Index is up more than 74% from March 2009.   BW also says Obama's programs are consistent with the general view of Robert E Rubin, Clinton's Secretary of the Treasury

Business week says Wall Street is right and that public confidence will return soon as well.   Its argument is that the public just has not seen what Wall Street sees.

Is there an alternative interpretation:   the public reflects the populist distrust of wall street as well as their own experience with the economy.   Wall Street reflects policies that benefit the fat cats on Wall Street.   Perhaps their financial success will trickle down and create jobs.   Still it's not the way I would have flown this ship.  The alternative would have been to nationalize the banks, rather than provide them with additional capital to stay afloat.

BW does credit Obama with reducing economic inequity.   The corporate world understands too much inequity is destabilizing.

New York Times Changes Headline on Tea Party Poll Article

 Click on headline above for link to article.

Yesterday the NYTimes published an article about a poll of the background and views of Tea Party members.   The headline stated something to the effect of Tea Party being class based.   Today the headling changed to "Poll Finds Tea Party Backers Wealthier and More Educated."   When I read yesterdays version I had problems with the headline.   Apparently the Times did too, since they changed it online for today.   While the reports of the poll do indicate that Tea Party Backers are mostly wealthier middle class white males, their views don't appear to be primarily class based.

 The most significant driver for Tea Party members (as reported in the poll) is a view that the current administration is favoring poor people over middle class people.   It is also an important view that Obama is still considered a Muslim and not American.   Tea Party members consisitently hold on to the view (reported as incorrect by the Times) that Obama has raised taxes on the middle class.   According to them, Obama does not share their (Tea Party members') values.

While Tea Party members report that they are better off financially than most Amercans self report, they are  profoundly pessimistic about where the current administration is taking our economy.  All of this is bound up in not just dissatisfaction but a large degree of anger with Washington.

Here's a reported quote:“He’s a socialist. And to tell you the truth, I think he’s a Muslim and trying to head us in that direction, I don’t care what he says. He’s been in office over a year and can’t find a church to go to. That doesn’t say much for him.”

While there is a class aspect to this view, my own take is that in the end much of this is deeply motivated by personal distrust of Obama, and a significant part of that distrust is due to his being an African American.   LIkewise, "the poor" continues to be code for black people.

I'm glad NYTimes removed the "class based" headline.   I wish their poll had explored the issue of race.

My comments on classical performances for musical showcase

I last performed classical piano in public in 1965. Since that time I’ve learned blues and the accordion.   Preparing this showcase has been a treat, particularly finding the joy and discipline to work on challenging classical pieces.

 It’s been almost hypnotic to practice the Bach.   The music continues to turn, move, and manages to be both abstract and highly emotive.  It’s also a tremendous challenge.   Because Bach did not compose extraneous notes, each note needs to be in focus, yet completely in service to the direction and movement of the work.   This piece was not written for the harpsichord.   It needs to use the entire depth of tone and dynamic of the piano(forte.)  I hear this music as deep dark brown, like hands sifting through rich loamy soil.

The Mozart Fantasie is kind of a big piece, but also kind of a hoot.  Its style is highly operatic.  You can almost hear the baritone and soprano answer each other.  In contrast to Bach, Mozart masters the pause, the empty space, the hold.  They need to be respected.  The challenge with this piece is to keep the whole together leaving the listener with a single impression of the whole piece.

The Debussy Arabesque is ultimately impressionist.  I can feel the water moving in the arpeggios.   When the piece switches to A major, the first five rhythmically dissonant 3 against 2 notes are as close to saccharine as you could get while still staying on the right side of the expressive/saccharine divide.  I like to dig into most music, so the light touch is a challenge for me.  

Interviewees' Revenge

The frequently interviewed clearly get tired of certain obvious questions that they are repeatedly asked.  Here's a couple of answers intended to stop the conversation:

Bobby Huggin,s coach of WVU bsketball team, asked just before half time with his team behind:
"What are you going to tell your team?"
Answer:
"Score more points."

Chinua  Achebe, 80 year old author of Things Fall Apart, asked by NYTime interveiwer:
"Are you writing every day?  What are you working on?"
Answer:
"I'm working on this interview."

Brenner Box

Reading about Da'Shan Butler (WVU basketball player from Newark) clicked in another Newark memory.  After living briefly on Broadway, we moved to Brenner Street near 10th St and Springfield Ave.   Later this was the heart of the area for the Newark riots.   (oh yearh...also home of the Jewish ice cream story.)

A huge discovery, brought to me by neighborhood kids was the fun to be had with very large boxes.   The day a refrigerator or washer was delivered was a great day.   Cut out the ends, climb inside, roll....and roll....and roll.   Looking back it seems like it should have been painful, but it wasn't.   You could roll yourself.   Others could roll you.   Sometimes we tried more than one kid at a time inside the rolling box.   That was a bit of a problem.    I can't begin to communicate the delight, excitement, and great fun brought by a box.   Big day in the 'Hood!

At Brenner Street I attended one semester of a private kindergarten....something or other Country Day School.   I don't think I was to crazy about the place.   One time they had a pet day.   I was maybe the only kid without a live pet.   My parents had me bring my bronze statue of a cowboy horse.   I don't remember suffering at all for that.   I think they (and the school) did a good job of convincing me my statue was just as significant as the live pets.   Go Abe and Harriet parents!   I still have that horse, though one leg has been half broken off since I was about 10.

Anyway, I left that school for public school at the end of the semester.   Now I wish I was the fly on the wall hearing the parents discuss why first I went to private school, and then I didn't.