Dispatches from Vilnius

In an effort to appeal to an ever-widening range of readers, Library of America offers a collection of 16 Broadway classic musicals from 1927-1969.  It is much more than a "fake book," with plenty of illustrations and revealing insights into the long running musicals, but I think you have to be a serious fan to shell out 60 bucks for this two-volume set. It is one of many interesting titles due out in the coming months.  A collection of Ring Lardner came out in August, which tempts me a great deal.   A set of early Elmore Leonard novels also caught my eye.  There's also a new collection of Louisa May Alcott , keeping in their classical vein. Library of America has grown to over 200 volumes since it was established in 1979, and is making a concerted effort to keep up with the times.  It has covered an impressive range of topics over the past 35 years, from the colonial years of America to contemporary journalism, with just about every piece of America...

Sorry, I couldn't resist.  Seems everyone is talking about Barry's new tan suit  and looking for a clever way to title there opinions.  This appears to be the age we live in when an unexpected choice of clothes creates more stir than what is going on in the world, notable the crisis in Ukraine, which took a nasty new turn , which President Obama responded to, but the glare of his new tan suit was simply too much for reporters to digest. August is usually a difficult month, with Congress out on holiday (again) and focus on the many Congressional and gubernatorial races around the country.  Obama didn't exactly distinguish himself by saying his administration doesn't have a strategy yet on Syria.  In fact, he seemed pretty low key about what's going on in the world, but I imagine his administration has a pretty good sense of events. Unfortunately, this administration has been unable to communicate that effectively, leading many critics to think that he h...

Driving across Wyoming in the summer of 1988, I found myself limited to the southern half of the state due to the smoky haze of the fires that engulfed Yellowstone National Park.  It was a contentious issue as park policy was to let the fires burn, as they were initially started by lightning, but as the fires threatened to engulf the entire park and surrounding areas, firefighters were called into bring the fires under control.  This proved to be a mammoth undertaking that involved thousands of firefighters as well as troops from Fort Lewis, Washington.  Ironically, it was rain that finally put the fires out in early September.  The damage was immense, leaving nearly 500,000 acres scorched and countless wildlife dead. Yellowstone was the nation's first national park, established in 1872, two decades before Wyoming was granted statehood.  The expeditions of Ferdinand V Hayden, stunning photographs of William Henry Jackson and the meticulous paintings o...

Lou Gehrig bids farewell to Yankee fans in 1939 It seems everyone is dumping a bucket of ice water on their heads these days in the name of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, or more simply ALS .  The origins of this challenge are debated, but it evolved into the ALS challenge earlier this summer when golfer Chris Kennedy challenged his cousin, Jeanette Senerchia, whose husband has ALS, and was immediately picked up by the social media and television media in turn, and has quickly spread around the world with the mayor of Vilnius recently taking the challenge. Instagrams make it easy for just about anyone to film and instantly download their ice cold bath, which has become a big hit among teenagers, sometimes with disastrous results.  Celebrities try to one-up each other in the name of charity, but the arty poses look more like self-promotionals.  Lost in all this is the serious nature of the disease, which was first called to the public eye when ALS ended Lou Gehrig'...

When I was living in Ballard, I remember seeing this warehouse church and wondering what these guys were about.  There were always young persons hanging out Friday and Saturday night like it was some music club.  As it turns out, it was the hip new church in Seattle, led by a charismatic young minister, Mark Driscoll, who would use any hook or crook to attract new parishioners into his Mars Hill Church .  Within in a few short years, he went from this garage church to a megachurch.  Doesn't seem like too many persons asked questions at the time, but now Driscoll finds himself under a harsh spotlight . He is part of the new wave of religious teachings where you have to be a man's man to enter heaven, as there is no longer any room for "pussies."  One of Driscoll's catch phrases was that America had become a "pussified nation."  He assumed the moniker of William Wallace and took to the blogs chastising a liberal country that had become much too sen...

My biggest impression of Utah is the Wasatch Range, which loom like a snow-capped wall over Salt Lake City.  It is the sudden rise from the plain of the long valley that creates this indelible impression.  I had never seen anything like it and could only imagine the impact this made on the early Mormon settlers, who felt they had found their divinely ordained home. Utah probably would have become a state much sooner had the church renounced polygamy, but the insistence on this practice by Mormon elders and the authority invested in these religious leaders, held up statehood for decades.  This article also points to a pervasive anti-Mormon bias in the United States that led to clashes in the territory, a.k.a. The Mormon Rebellion , especially with the advent of gold rushers and the railroad that threatened Mormon hegemony in the region.  It was 46 years between territorial status (1850) and statehood (1896), much longer than Nevada and Colorado, more sparsel...

William Stadiem starts his book, Jet Set , with the classic song by Frank Sinatra, only as Stadiem tells it Frankie wouldn't have been caught dead on a commercial airline, opting  for his dual-prop Martin 404 instead, although he later traded it in for a Lear Jet.  In fact, most of the "jet set" traveled in their private planes, shepherded away from the tarmac in a flotilla of limousines to avoid the unruly mobs waiting for their arrival.  Just ask the Beatles, who were literally assaulted on their first visit to New York in 1964.  But, even they weren't able to save Pan Am. Nevertheless, the 50s and 60s were the heyday of commercial air travel, offering comfy seats, meals and an unlimited supply of booze in mini bottles to wherever you were going, whether it be Acapulco Bay or Peru.  For a few dollars more you could fly first class and be treated to unparalleled comfort, especially aboard the inaugural flight of the 747 in 1969 with its super bar and oth...

Glenn Beck seems to have undergone a change of heart , not so much politically as personally.  Beck no longer wants to serve as the conservative lightning rod.  Howard Fineman speculates that this kinder, gentler Beck is trying to appeal to more cable companies to carry The Blaze , his video-streaming television channel.  It has proven quite lucrative, pulling in about $20 million a year for him, but could do much better if more cable companies carried it. The talk show host had already expressed some remorse in an interview with Megyn Kelly earlier this year, saying "he played a role, unfortunately, in helping tear the country apart," not realizing how "fragile" people were.  He would now focus on "uniting principles." Glenn Beck credits Mormonism for this, but he had converted back in 1999 (thanks to his future wife Tania), when he attempted to break his alcohol and drug dependencies once and for all.  However, it seemed he replaced one addict...

One of the most evoked images in politics is that of Jimmy Stewart mounting his filibuster in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington .  The filibuster was once regarded as "democracy's finest show."  There were many quotes that were "good for headlines" in that movie, written by Sidney Buchman and Lewis Foster.  Mr. Smith was railing against corporate lobbying, which is still seen as a scourge in Washington. Frank Capra was careful not to take an overt political stance.  Rather, "the contest is between guileless virtue and the intrinsic corruption of business as usual," as Tom Carson notes in this article for The American Prospect.   Carson contrasts this with the overtly political filibuster Ted Cruz staged last year that garnered so much press attention and made Cruz the darling of the Tea Party. No doubt Cruz studied the film, as did Rand Paul who mounted a  filibuster a few months before, when he tried to stop the nomination of John Brennan as he...

As a kid I was drawn to the shield on the Oklahoma state flag.  It was an Indian shield, an Osage Nation buffalo-skin shield to be exact, with seven eagle feathers and an olive branch and native peace pipe across the front.  It represented the union of the Oklahoma and Indian territories, which came in together as the State of Oklahoma in 1907. It wasn't the first flag however to represent the state.  I guess after struggling four years to come up with a design, the state went with this rather banal banner , which didn't please anyone, so the state chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution sponsored a competition and Louise Fluke won with the much more appropriate buffalo shield. Oklahoma is one of those states you hear about but rarely have the opportunity to pass through.  I first came to the state not so much for its native American heritage, as the Price Tower in Bartlesville, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.  It was the only "skyscraper...

History has always been a sensitive subject, but no more so than it is today as conservatives take exception to the "negative" framework being offered by the College Board for Advanced Placement United States History in high schools across the country.  The Republican National Committee issued its challenge to the revised framework, based on an analysis by Larry Krieger, a deeply concerned retired American history teacher.  The RNC apparently wants Congress to block funding for the AP history program until the College Board addresses its concerns. Krieger's lengthy analysis revolves largely on the scope of the program, which he feels doesn't stress the role the United States played in promoting religious tolerance and democratic institutions.  He notes that there is virtually no mention of this during the Colonial era (1607-1754).  Instead, there is too much focus on the Pueblo Revolt and other "Indian Wars" and emphasis on British cultural superior...

It seems the new Ivanpah Solar Power Plant in the Southern California desert has raised some concerns.  Its 460 feet tall water towers, heated by a huge array of solar panels, have been dubbed a "mega-trap" for birds, resulting in numerous avian deaths.  The "solar flux" field generates temperatures up to 800 degrees Fahrenheit, literally vaporizing birds in mid air, dubbed "streamers" by employees, as all you see of them is the vapor trail.  While the Fish and Wildlife Office of Law Enforcement has expressed its concerns, it also noted that nearly 1 billion birds die each year flying into windows around the country. Yet, this story has been picked up by conservative blogs and Fox News, voicing their "concerns" over the impact large scale solar power plants have on wildlife.  At least,   Fox News notes that cats are the biggest culprit in the death of birds, an estimated 1.4 billion kills per year, but "opponents say that would d...

After watching the uninspiring remake of Rosemary's Baby , courtesy of NBC, I read the book over the weekend.  It is a quick read.  I got the sense Ira Levin was essentially writing a working script for producers who would quickly bite on the story, which they did. It wasn't even in print before Paramount bought the movie rights from Random House.  Robert Evans, the executive producer, had Roman Polanski in mind from the start.  Apparently, it didn't take much convincing, as Polanski had already done one "apartment" movie, Repulsion , and immediately accepted the offer. What made Levin's book so good was the subtle sense of humor that disarmed the reader.  It was hard to imagine a doddering old couple like the Castavets as leaders of a witches' coven in central Manhattan.  In fact, there was little to suggest any such association other than an odd locket filled with "tannis root," which Minnie gave to Rosemary after the awful fate of T...

The scariest part of the ongoing Ferguson riots is the degree to which the police department is outfitted with military-grade equipment to deal with the crisis.  Rather than attempt to calm residents by showing some empathy for the situation, the Ferguson Police Department has gone into full assault mode, quelling the riots by force, often excessive, which has resulted in more injuries and arrests in the aftermath of the shooting of Michael Brown. Since 1990, police departments across the country have been quietly amassing a sizable arsenal of military-grade equipment thanks to the National Defense Authorization Act that allows them to buy surplus military equipment at greatly discounted prices.  For instance, The Police Department of Watertown, Connecticut acquired a mine-resistant, ambush-protected (MRAP) vehicle for less than $3000, which cost the military over $730,000.  The 1033 Program was initially aimed at combating drug activities, which often saw drug ...

According to Ronald Kessler,  guarding Hillary  was "a form of punishment" as she treated her detail like "sub-humans."  The author has compiled a list of such anonymous revelations from former security staff to show readers the "character" of their leaders.  He also said that Biden liked to take dips in his pool  au natural  whether there were women security staff present or not.  Kessler also writes of the numerous security breaches that put the first family in jeopardy such as Bradley Cooper being allowed onto the White House compound without a full security check of his SUV.  Many of these allegations have been refuted by a spokseman for White House security, Ed Donovan, who called the book "intellectually lazy and riddled with inaccuracies." Kessler has written a number of books over the years on the White House, the FBI and the CIA, but this one seems to be a bit too much on the salacious side.  For the past 8 years he has been co...

I first saw Robin Williams at Gator Growl in 1982, a Florida pep rally so to speak.  I had never laughed so hard in my life.  The guy had most of those in the stadium bent over laughing for the one hour plus he took the stage.  He focused a little too much on his "Mr. Happy" that night for alumni who had brought their children, but that was signature Robin, poking fun at every part of himself. Williams and Reeves at Julliard For all his great performances, it was his unscripted moments that stood out.  Christopher Reeve recalled the time Williams burst into his hospital room before the first surgery on his spine, and in a heavy Russian accent said he was his proctologist and was there to give him a rectal exam.  Reeves said that was the first time he laughed since the accident.  Hopefully, he was heavily sedated so that it didn't hurt.  Reeves and Williams had been roommates at Julliard. His appearances on Saturday Night Live, the Tonight Sho...

A recent lawsuit against Pespico and other companies associated with Aunt Jemima pancake mix brought to mind the many other racially tinged logos that have dominated American advertising for years.  David Pilgrim has devoted a museum to such memorabilia, recalling not only the many manifestations of Aunt Jemima since 1890, but Uncle Ben and the black chef on Cream of Wheat.  Moss Kendrix provides a bit of the backstory to these three enduring images. Aunt Jemima was apparently taken from a minstrel play in the late 19th century, with various women portraying her at fairs and other promotional events since 1893.  Anna Harrington became the face of the company in the mid 1930s, although the company refers to her as Anna Robinson in their product history.  Her descendants claim that Quaker Oats, the parent company, appears to have misidentified her in order to avoid paying royalties.  As a result they are suing for $2 billion. This may sound like a frivolo...

All the Vladimir Nabokov novels got a makeover last year, including Lolita, which remains as controversial today as it was when released on an unsuspecting public in 1955.  The first edition came in a plain green cover and was printed in France, since no American publisher would touch the manuscript with a ten foot poll.  The controversy that swirled around the book in France virtually assured it would be a big hit in the States when it was finally made available in 1958.  It also came with a simple cover belying the toxic tale of romance within.  With the success of the novel, Nabokov firmly established himself as an American author and could quit his day job at Cornell.  The interesting thing is that soon afterward he fled the US all together, settling in Montreaux, Switzerland far from the madding crowd. You either love Lolita or hate the novel, there seems to be very few in between.  The name soon entered into the American lexicon, with just ...