Update 9-21-04

Hi,

Yeah, there was some discussion about Jerry's letter from last week, but, first, some other news:

From Paul DeMartino: Just a quick note on Tom McPartland. We had spoken twice last week, discussing his class reunion and the preparations he had made. He was the organizer and had selected the same site for the Class of 64's reunion that we had selected two years ago. He seemed excited about the upcoming reunion and was going to drive to Long Island on Friday. I must say that he did sound somewhat tired, though this could just be Tom's demeanor normally. I was to call him the week after the reunion to see how things had turned out, and you can imagine my shock at reading that he had been hospitalized.
I called Southside Hospital Tuesday night and was transferred to the Intensive Care Unit. Tom is in ICU, and there are no telephones. He can receive visitors, but the hospital will release information only to family. I'll keep trying, and, hopefully, he will be transferred to a regular room soon.
Quick follow-up: I called the hospital about Tom Wednesday night, and they told me he'd been discharged. I take this as good news and will try to contact him maybe over the weekend.

[Rich -- That is good news, and, again, if any of you know Tom, please give him our best.]

Some sadder news, from Barnett Zinger: Larry Coleman's mother passed away last week. If you'd like to write him, his home address is: 183 Locust Street, Valley Stream, New York 11581. Thanks.

[Rich -- Larry doesn't get our e-mail, but anyone seeing him, please give him the class's best.]

More from Paul DeMartino, this time about our reunion: As for our own affair, we held a small meeting on Sunday, and we will be contacting several potential sites within the next two weeks. After that, we will reconvene and a selection will be made. At that point, I'll let everyone know the details regarding the site and arrangements. Once we have an idea about the number of our former teachers coming as our guests, entertainment costs, and other extras, we can come up with the amount needed per person. (Solely as a guide, the Class of '64 charged $100 per person, and that was for the buffet dinner and a DJ. Teachers were not "comped" for that party, the "Hospitality Suite" was just a small room off the lobby, and all beverages and snacks for it were purchased from the hotel. The room rate was a group rate of $126.)
The consensus at our meeting was that unless we can get a true Hospitality Suite "comped," or be allowed to bring in our own beverages, there is no sense being charged $500 or more for a small conference room only to be required to purchase everything through the hotel. We may as well hold a cocktail party in the lobby. All the potential hotels have huge lobbies, so that is not a problem, and if I recall, we ended up in the lobby last time anyway.
That's it for now. Dennis Shapiro and I should be able to visit one site this Saturday, and then I'm headed to Sicily for about 9 days.

[Rich -- Aw, Sicily. And, all summer, I haven't been east of Burbank. But, thanks, Paul, for the report and the committee for its work.]

Now, about Jerry's letter: A number of people were upset that I'd run such one-sided political content. As many people were pleased. Jerry and I had discussed both possibilities, and he said that if there was any chance of problems, he'd rather I didn't reprint his editorial. My point was that, as soon as there was a chance that his writing would be reprinted nationally -- and someone from the New York Daily News has already asked to see it -- then we should legitimately cover it as class news. And it seemed dumb to tell everyone that something Jerry had written was about to get national distribution, then not let you read what he wrote.
Still, to be fair, here's the other point of view, mainly from Larry Rugen. For those of you who disagree with Larry, please write him directly at: larry1800@aol.com For those of you who disagree with Jerry, please write him directly at: crazygeronimo@yahoo.com All other discussions can be taken out to the bridge.

From Larry, point-by-point: I'm not sure how Caroline Scheidies would answer, but many of us would answer something like this.
Jerry wrote: Can Scheidies inform us how many times President Bush has come to Nebraska during the administration?
Larry: No offense, but no one goes to Nebraska, if it can be avoided. I had to go there numerous times, to Mutual of Omaha, but it was strictly business. Still, all presidents must be kept out of harm's way.
Jerry wrote: Can Scheidies inform us why, because of the war, our country's reputation is at its lowest of all time?
Larry: This is open to all kinds of opinions. But the United States takes care of its world affairs when it must. And while we do the job, other countries can worry about our reputation.
Jerry wrote: Can Scheidies inform us how Bin Laden has gone from being wanted to it not being imperative that we capture him.
Larry: Because he's in hiding, less active than he was, and we have more immediate world problems.
Jerry wrote: Can Scheidies inform us why no members of the Bush and Cheney clan are fighting in Iraq?
Larry: No parents sent their kids anywhere -- they are all volunteers.
Jerry wrote: Can Scheidies inform us how many funerals of servicemen the President has attended?
Larry: Once any president starts doing this, it sets an impossible precedent, and only seems political. But you can't think any president likes seeing servicemen killed.
Jerry wrote: Can Scheidies inform us why the Bush Administration has banned all taking of photos of American draped coffins?
Larry: Because it should be private out of respect for the dead, and this practice has been in place for almost 15 years.
Jerry wrote: Can Scheidies inform us why she and others justify the Bush administration's right to criticize whomever they want?
Larry: This is just free speech.
Jerry wrote: Can Scheidies inform us how Vice President Cheney said that neither he nor the White House had any doings in Halliburton being granted government contracts in Iraq, when proof has come out that they indeed aided Halliburton?
Larry: That is what he said.
Jerry wrote: Can Scheidies inform us how we went from having a budget surplus to having the largest deficit of all time?
Larry: First, the tech bubble burst. Then, other high tech purchases stopped in January 2000, before George W. Bush became president. Finally, the tragedy of September 11th has had a long-lasting impact on our national economy.
Jerry wrote: Can Scheidies inform us how during this Administration more jobs were lost than at any other time in the past 75 years?
Larry: The same answer as above.
Jerry wrote: Can Scheidies inform us why during the Bush Administration more leases were granted by the Bureau of Land Management, but they are not being used?
Larry: I'm sorry, but I don't understand the importance of this question.
Jerry wrote: Can Scheidies inform us where President Bush and Vice President Cheney were during the Viet Nam War?
Larry: Like most young men their -- and our -- age: not there.
Jerry wrote: Also, did everyone see in the news that Tony Blair -- Bush's biggest international ally -- has refused to endorse him in this election?)
Larry: And which foreign government has endorsed Kerry?

On more neutral ground, other news, from Allen Moss: Hello again everyone. Well, I got some fun news this week for any one of you who is STILL interested in listening to the continued ravings of their lunatic Maine classmate! I mentioned way back that I collect vintage Marx toy playsets from the 1950s-1970s -- the ones that lots of us played with as kids. I can't imagine that some of you didn't have a "Fort Apache," "Army Camp," "Prehistoric Times," "Dollhouse," or any of the 800-plus playsets that were made specifically for us young baby boomers. Anyway, they have become very collectible, and I started to collect the farm sets several years ago. "Playset Collector" is a national/international magazine devoted to collectors and fans for these vintage sets. They are doing a two-issue series on farm sets, and seven of the eight sets they are going to highlight will be taken from my collection. So here's how I look at my "15 minutes of fame." I didn't make the "Playgirl" magazine centerfold, so I will gladly settle for the "Playset Collector" magazine centerfold. At my age and condition, I'll take whatever I can get! Best to all. PS: It's 40 degrees and windy here in beautiful Maine, and I LOVE IT!

From Barnet Kellman: Allen, I am in awe of your memory and of your knowledge of classic cars!

Some more hurricane news, first from my friends Cathy and Daryl in Baton Rouge: Ivan missed us completely and is over to our east beating up Mobile. Not even rain here. The biggest effect we had was the traffic coming from the evacuation of New Orleans. Parts of two interstates were turned into one-way, four-lane roads on Tuesday morning. A normal 70-minute journey from New Orleans to Baton Rouge suddenly took up to 8 hours, as something over a million folks passed through here on their way west. The word we got was that Interstate 10 was bumper-to-bumper at an average speed of 30 mph all the way to Houston. Why would folks go clear to Texas to escape a storm in Louisiana? Because there was no room in any inn here, even up in the Shreveport area.
One good thing though: the planning folks now know what worked and what needs to be improved in case of a New Orleans evacuation. Local TV stations videotaped the traffic, and the mayor said he'll take the tapes to Washington to convince the homeland security folks that Baton Rouge needs more money to improve local interstates. So, someday, someone will be safer.

And from my friends Steve and Kathy in Florida: Whenever you see news stories showing Floridians getting ready for a hurricane, they always show people putting up plywood. Most folks around here use steel storm shutters; almost nobody still uses plywood. The most expensive storm shutters are motorized, to open and close at the push of a button. This is a bad idea, given that hurricanes are often accompanied by electrical outages. More people have 1/8 inch steel shutters that look like an accordion and are locked shut with a key. It takes about a minute to secure each window.

Finally, faced with Hurricane Ivan, those same friends left Key West and were holding in an Orlando motel, waiting to see if they should push on to Alabama. Since that's where Ivan was predicted to land, I e-mailed them, "Isn't that Appointment in Samara?" They wrote back, "Huh?"
I first read the anecdote that kicks off John O'Hara's novel Appointment in Samara in fifth or sixth grade. It tells of a man who meets Death one morning in the marketplace. Death looks stunned, and the man spends the rest of the day getting out of town and as far away as he can, only to meet Death again that evening. He surrenders to Death, of course, but first asks, "Why were you so shocked to see me this morning?" Death replies, "Because I knew we had this appointment, tonight, here in Samara."
That thought has been one of the touchstones of my life, as I chased all over the place, trying to get somewhere. Along with Moliere's: "But why the devil did he go on board that boat?"

Rich