THIS & THAT #43

Having a Brawl

Over the Wall

Donald cries foul whenever anyone opposes granting him the needed funding to help him finish his Cam Pain Promised Wall. The list of those “anyone’s” keeps growing, as most rationale and intelligent individuals, on either side of the aisle (or the fence), realize that his doomed request will end up as an abject failure.

Unless.

A Change Is Afoot

He is taking the wrong approach and is thinking too big. Those Central Americans — mainly young mothers­ — are attempting to escape from their own lands that are saturated with poverty, violence, hopelessness, gangs, and an inevitably horrid future for their young children.

Between he and his inept advisors playing games at Mar-A-Lago, Donald hasn’t given much thought to scale down the height, density or weight of his irrationally promised wall. If he looked at his own facts, he would discover that the mothers bringing their children are relatively short, matching the shortness of Donald’s thinking.

While the average height of American women is 5’4”, the average for Guatemalan women is 4’10”, 4’11 ½” for Peruvian women, 5’0” for Honduran women, 5’1/2” for Nicaraguan women, and 5’2 1/2 “ for Mexican women.

Cut the Height

Shave the Price

The March of Nines

Franklin Delano Roosevelt, best noted for issuing Executive Order 9066 on February 19, 1942, which enabled the forced incarceration of 120,000 Japanese Americans living in the West, to be resettled in ten barren camps. This was ostensibly done to insure that they would do no harm to our country, and not aid their “brothers and sisters” from Japan in destroying American cities, towns, farms, and soon-to-be-built casinos.

Sadly, two-thirds of these Japanese-Americans sent to camp, were already American citizens, and during the entire episode until the war officially ended in 1945, there were no instances to disloyalty, except by the U.S. Government.

What’s $5.6 Billion

Among Loyal Friends?

If Trump were smart, he could easily raise the needed wall monies, and not have to do so by declaring a “national emergency.” The only foreseeable national emergency is the continuation of Donald as our leader through a second term, or even as President for the rest of his current term.

In the 2016 Presidential election, Donald amassed 62,980,160 popular votes, which gave him 304 Electoral College votes; Hillary received 65,845,063 popular votes, and 227 Electoral Votes.

Original Signs Along the Road

If Donald still has such a loyal base that he has been catering to with great sound and fury,

and needs $5.6 billion for the wall, he should be easily able to raise that in contributions directly from the feckless base that elected him. Just send out a solicitation letter to those       nearly 62 million Trump voters and ask each to send nine dimes to the White House, and then there’s enough money to pay for the $5.6 billion entity. 

Today, for only $225, a Burma Shave aficionado can purchase one hand-painted, wooden sign that’s 17” x 40” x 6” tall. For less than $5.6 billion, the USA could ward off the not-too-tall invaders from the south with Burma Shave signs.

Once these signs are strategically planted, the combined total of 337,806 GOP voters in Wyoming and Alaska, should feel reassured that no Guatemalan infiltrators will invade their hamlets and do dastardly deeds, especially to their livestock during breeding seasons.

If you are even the least bit stressed about what's occurring in the world today, or any day, take a little time and try these easy THE OY WAY exercises, and relax: https://www.youtube.com/user/TheOyWay

To devour other recent blogs, click on the Blog Archive links on the upper left corner of this page, especially February 2019. Have been inundated by calls from people with Indian accents, and not from the Pine Ridge Reservation or from any Navahos.

Today I received a call from myself from "Matt" with an Asian Indian accent, and I asked him if his real name was Rajul, Kumar, Vaani, or Fazar. He insisted that it was "Matt," and he asked me if I was Indian. I said yes, but from the Chippewa Tribe in Michigan, and my name was Alcindor, which meant "Not As Tall as Jabbar."

Beware of Indians with accents; just hang up before they try and scam you.

THIS & THAT #42

Big Brother IS Watching You

If you think that you can sit in front of your computer with the door closed and just enjoy the privacy of the moment, think again.

BEWAREnaïve one; you may be being watched at this very moment. It may not be by Google, or Facebook, or your friendly, local politician, or an unfriendly national entity.

There is no privacy anymore, nothing personal that you can hide, and as a journalist, I recently found that out for sure.

                   








          

Pick A Subject

As a journalist, I have no limitations about the subjects that I want to write about. A quick perusal of my writings in magazines, newspapers, blogs and books indicates that I have written about a myriad of subjects including the Holocaust, education. advertising, corporations, press freedom, travel around the world (Australia, New Zealand, England, Lithuania, Canada, France, Israel, Hungary, Poland and more locales), profiles, music, race cars, bicycles, celebrities, common people, table tennis, Holocaust denial, basketball, pro athletes, inequities in life, family searches, Japanese internment, massage, Tai Ji, relaxation techniques, reunions, life, death, and too many other subjects in between to list here.

Author Beware

Unfortunately, whenever and whatever you search for, some unprincipled  person may be keeping an eye on your searches, for devious and self-aggrandizing purposes. I have recently been researching the subject of massages, both safe and standard ones, and ones that offer a “happy ending.”

For those of you who live in what you consider safe and secure suburbia, the latter quote indicates rubs that rub you the right way to perhaps give you a satisfied smile when the actual massage is over. During my research, I may have watched a few-too-many interesting, albeit salacious, massage videos.

The Price You Pay

If you go into unchartered waters with your search, you may be the subject of an unwanted search by an unscrupulous computer maven, who decides to squeeze penance out of you, by threatening to expose your “discretions” to all on your email lists. But that person could offer you an alternative, for example, I just received a spam email from such a person, who told me directly that he (or she) would refrain from exposing my legitimate searches of a non-mainstream topic, but only after I send $718 to this person’s BITCOIN WALLET within forty-eight hours.

There’s a friendly closing stating, “I hope you will be prudent. Bye.”

The Price You Don’t Pay

I have discussed the entire conundrum with my dear wife, and we have agreed that I should just publish this piece.

If need be, I can explain what happened to any of the recipients of this attempt to blackmail me, who ask, “What is this nonsense all about? 

For the Moment

I will publish this piece, possibly under an alias, get on to my next writings on Trump and his Bawl Wall, and the young, naïve women who are now media stars, and are scrambling to discover what to do next.

But always remember, there’s the possibility that no matter how hard you try to avoid those unwanted eyes…….     

                                                                                                                           

If you are even the least bit stressed about what's occurring in the world today, or any day, take a little time and try these easy THE OY WAY exercises. and relax: https://www.youtube.com/user/TheOyWay   


To devour other recent blogs, click on the Blog Archive links on the upper left corner of this page.

                      .

THIS & THAT #41

San Jose State University

Reaches For New Hypes

What’s In a Name?

Do any of you remember when San Jose State University was called Minns Evening Normal School, after George W. Minns founded it in San Francisco in 1857. George was an 1836 graduate of Harvard College, and we have a Harvard connection. In 1862, it became the California State Normal School and graduated fifty-four women from a three-year program. Your school was ahead of today’s times regarding women in higher education.

The school moved to San Jose in 1871, and in 1882, a southern branch of the now named California State Normal School opened in Los Angeles, and eventually became UCLA. So add to the school’s pedigree, that it helped to foster UCLA’s phenomenal basketball empire.

In 1921, the northern school changed its name to the State Teachers College at San Jose. In 1935, the name was changed once again to San Jose State College, and in keeping with the school’s need to change names as often as possible, in 1972 SJSC was granted university status, and was renamed California State University, San Jose. In 1974, the California legislature voted to change the school’s name to San Jose State University.

Change by Degrees

My Master of Science Degree granted in 1971 was granted by the Department of Mass Communications at San Jose State College, and would have come from San Jose State University a year later.  At one time it was the Department of Journalism and Advertising, and that morphed into the School of Journalism and Mass Communications (JMC).

Change by Decrees

For many years, JMC was part of the College of Applied Sciences and Arts (CASA), but that has recently changed and has now been prestigiously renamed as the College of Health and Human Sciences.  Journalism and Mass Communications have nothing to do with Health, although under the Trump reign, they may be needed to teach students on how to improve the nation’s mental health.

Football Is a Kick

During the 2017 football season, the SJSU football team played at CEFCU stadium that once was called Spartan Stadium. It was completed in 1933 with a seating capacity of 18,000, and n the 1980s capacity was increased to 30,456.

Not that many seats were needed last season as SJSU’s home attendance in 2017 averaged only 14,206 people per game, including 18,483 in attendance for the Spartans’ 27-10 home game loss to Fresno State. During most recent football and basketball seasons, attendance spiked whenever a caravan of Bulldog fans drove over and put more red-clad people in the stands than the Spartans were able to muster.

$old to the Highest Bidder

In August 2016, the aforementioned Spartan Stadium became CEFCU Stadium, after the Citizens Equity First Credit Union purchased the naming rights for $8.7 million over the next fifteen years. SJSU became the only university in the CSU system to sell the naming rights to its football stadium, for $580,000 per year.

With a 2 win and 11-loss season in 2017, and a total home attendance of 85.235 over six games, will it be worth it for CEFCU? Last September, SJSU absorbed a 56-0 loss in an away game against the University of Texas, in front of a crowd of 88,117 fans.

The Rest Is Yet to Come

With only an 14,206 average attendance last year, San Jose State was able to transfer their October 13, 2018 game against the U.S. Military Academy — Army — from CEFCU Stadium to Levi’s Stadium in nearby Santa Clara. Levi’s has a seating capacity of 68,000, however, it is expandable to 75,000 to host major events such as the Super Bowl and the World Cup.

Will SJSU vs. Army be such a major event? How many of USMA’s 4,389 undergraduate students will be willing to drive the 2,951 miles to Santa Clara, take more than forty-three hours to do so, and then pay $59 for a single ticket to attend? They won’t be filling up Levi’s for a match between San Jose State’s 2017 team with their 2-11 record. Army with a 10-3 record last year, will warm up in 2018 by playing, among others, Liberty, Hawaii and Buffalo before SJSU, and then Miami of Ohio, Eastern Michigan, Lafayette, and Colgate.

Spartan’s head football coach Brent Brennan was beside himself when he enthusiastically endorsed the venue change. "It's going to be an awesome experience for our team. Any chance you get to play in an NFL venue like that, be in an NFL locker room, play of an NFL surface, it will be an incredible experience for our fans and our football team." 

"Just knowing the Pac-12 Championship is played there every year and having the College Football Championship there, it doesn't get any bigger than that. I think it's a great lineup of college football in the stadium this season and we're excited to be a part of it."

Hope that the 2018 Spartans will be as thrilled with Levi’s NFL venue, NFL locker room, and playing on an NFL surface, as their coach is.

One advantage of this match-up is that the SJSU players will be able to look into the stands, and easily find and identify their family and friends occupying a few of the seats at Levi’s.

THIS & THAT #40

Two Wayne State Grads

Gave Much to the World

If you went to Wayne University in the 1950s or 1960s, you may have been fortunate enough to meet either Eugene Applebaum, or Johnny Kline. Eugene passed on December 2017 at the age of eighty-one, and Johnny was eighty-six when he died in July of 2018.

Had In Common

They had a few things in common, including attending Wayne University, where Johnny played basketball, and joined the track and field team setting a school record in the triple jump. At that time, it was called the hop, step and jump event. They also were both connected with the world of drugs, in completely different ways.

Gave All He Could

Eugene was a ∑AMMY and the founder of Arbor Drugs, which grew to 208 stores before he sold out to CVS. He used his financial gains for many worthwhile, charitable endeavors through the years. Among his many such contributions was the Eugene Applebaum College of Pharmacy and Health Science building that opened in 2002. Next time you stop by the Yiddish Book Center in Amherst, Massachusetts, check out the Applebaum-Driker Auditorium, that two Eugene’s “built,” in honor of their parents.

As for Johnny Kline, his athletic endeavors hurt his grades, making him academically ineligible to stay on the team. He joined that Harlem Globetrotters, tried out for the Pistons, but lost it all in the 1960’s, as he fought a drug addiction.

Tried His Very Best 

He conquered his addiction, became a drug abuse counselor, and resumed his education earning a bachelor’s and a master’s degree, and then a Ph.D. in education. In 1986, he was named the director of education and substance abuse for the City of Detroit’s health department.

Both Ended Well 

They both started out as Tartars, and left this world as Warriors. These two Wayne University men, each left a lasting impression on their particular worlds.

THIS & THAT #39

AGE OLD POLITICS 

We just returned from ten days in Michigan, where I visited with family, having lost my dear brother-in-law Stanley Halprin. It was truly an emotional experience for all of us. 

Getting Together

I also attended the 65^thanniversary of my high school graduation. Amazingly, some of my classmates from Central High School’s 1953 class were unrecognizable, for they had grown older, some were friendly, and some were not. One, who had subscribed to my Ho-Ho-Kus Cogitator, bitterly complained that he had not received an issue in some time, which was quite logical, since I hadn’t written one in some time. When I returned home, I found a check from another fellow graduate, who renewed a subscription that had not yet run out. It was a treat to talk with others whom I had missed at the 60^thanniversary celebration. It was then agreed to have reunions more often, for our numbers were diminishing, but not the animosity felt for me by one disgruntled graduate, who wrote stinging responses to anything I wrote that didn’t toe the far right line on either our president or Israel’s.

In May, before the reunion, he sent me the following, brief email after reading something I wrote, “ I will have suicde(SIC) pills forU, or will gladly pay your way out of the country, if you cannot handle him!!! please do not bother talking to me at the reunion!!!!”

The Past Has Passed

That seemed to be as direct as possible invitation to avoid him, and although our eyes met at the celebration across a crowded room, we avoided any face-to-face exchange of words. Near the end of the gala, we were walking parallel to one another about ten feet apart in opposite directions, when he raised his arm, pointed at me, and uttered, “Harvey Gotliffe.” I, in turn, raised my arm pointed at him and said his name.

It felt good communicating with him in person one last time, since we had known each other for more than sixty-eight years, and who knows when we will meet again.

One Letter Off Truly 

Changes the Meaning

John James, GOP candidate for the U.S. Senate from Michigan, declares himself to be “A True Conservative Republican,” and one campaign mailing emphasized that, “John James and President Trump Are Committed to Securing Our Borders.”

In the last line, he strongly states, “We must protect our borders and DEFUND sanctuary cities.”

DEFUND is in bright red type because someone on John’s team, including the candidate himself, neglected to proofread the copy of his previous mailing. The following explanation appeared on the bottom of James’ second mailing. “A2Z Printing regrets a printing error on a previous piece of mail you received falsely saying John James will “Defend Sanctuary Cities.” This was a mistake by A2Z Printing and does not reflect John James’ true position to DEFUND Sanctuary Cities. We are responsible for this error and not the candidate.”

Perhaps the candidate is just following his party’s leader in saying something, changing his mind, and not meaning what he originally said.

Pence the Pontiff 

Don’t wish for Trump to leave office because he is bored, is tired of all the confrontations he initiates, wants to play more golf, or will be impeached. If so the next in line is Michael Pence, who is nearer to God than thee, followed by the astute Mitch McConnell, who mumbles in an incomprehensible twang.

Here’s a non-biased, honest, unprejudiced opinion piece from the GOP’s favorite print medium, the New York Times. Notice how Pence blends in with his co-religionists.

Newer Friendships

May Last Longer

 Back in 1963 or so, when I was driving an MG-TD, I was at an inner-city party at Cliff Frasier’s house in Detroit. There I met a Black man with the Jewish last name of Abrams, who was driving a Jaguar. We clicked together as auto buffs, jazz enthusiasts, and relatively simple human beings without any pretenses.

At one time, he and I lived a few blocks apart around Wayne State University. Later, when Tyrone lived in New York City in the 1960s, and my first wife Chellie, daughter Amy and I lived in Ho-Ho-Kus, New Jersey, we would visit him in his East Village pad on the weekend. My wife enjoyed sleeping late, and when I ventured across the George Washington Bridge by myself one early Sunday morning, I was greeted at his door by two naked white chicks. They welcomed me in while Tyrone was getting bagels for a trip we eventually all took to a reservoir for a swim in the exclusive, all-white, Westchester County suburb. Passersby gawked at us, infringing on their unoccupied waters.

When Tyrone would occasionally come to Ho-Ho-Kus when I was at work, my wife, daughter and Tyrone would shop at the small A & P down the block from our home. He’d carry my daughter on his shoulders as they strolled through the grocery store, and she would call him “Uncle Ty.” This so unnerved the locals, seeing a young white child atop the shoulders of a Black man, that they would give my wife a cold shoulder on any subsequent shopping trip.

Tyrone and I continued to stay in touch through the years, and he moved into his late Mother’s home in what was the Jewish section of Northwest Detroit. Whenever my current wife Carmen and I visited Detroit in recent years, we would get together at the Shangri-La Restaurant in the suburbs. This year, we shared a lunch at its locale around Wayne State’s campus, and although Dave Rambeau never showed, we enjoyed each other’s company once again.

When I told Tyrone that we wouldn’t be coming back to Detroit again, due to our aversion to flying, he poignantly said, “It’s been a good run.” It’s a shame that my finger pointing, reunion classmate couldn’t say the same thing. 

THIS & THAT #38

TRUMP OR DRUMPF?

Trying to Write World History Now

While Rewriting His Family’s History

 An “immigrant,” who Donald J., the GOP, and “the base” denigrate as part of their daily ritual, and are encouraged to do so by Donald. His latest foray into promulgating extremely negative descriptions of immigrants, include, “These aren’t people, these are animals.”

When it comes to describing south of the border individuals, he unequivocally describes them as “rapists, drug dealers, who are bringing in crime.” He strongly qualifies his off-the-mark rhetoric, by adding, “Some, I assume, are good people.” 

If you look long enough and hard enough, you may be able to find a politician who could be considered “a good person.”

They Came from Europe

Germany, Not Sweden

Trump’s grandfather, Friedrich Trump (or Drumpf) came from Kallstadt, Palatinate, in 1885. It was then part of the Kingdom of Bavaria. He changed his name to Frederick in 1892 when he came to the U.S. at the age of sixteen, and started working as a barber. That’s when the Trump tradition of better hair for the masses, first began.

According to Wikipedia, Friedrich (below left) was approaching the age of military conscription in the Imperial German Army, and immigrated to the United States. Avoiding the draft seems to be another family tradition. Because of his wife Elizabeth’s homesickness, the family returned to Germany in 1904, and Bavarian authorities determined that he was a draft dodger, and should lose his German citizenship.

After an unsuccessful attempt to stay, he and his family returned to New York in June 1905, and their son Frederick C. Trump was born that October. As Donald’s father, Fred Trump (center below), told people that he was of Swedish ancestry, concealing the family’s German heritage.

A Family of Immigrants

Friedrich’s grandfather, Johann Trump, was born in the village of Bobenheim am Berg, where his grandson Friedrich was born in 1869, and was Donald’s grandfather.

Trump’s mother Mary Anne MacLeod, came from the Hebridean island of Lewis, off the west coast of Scotland.

Of his three wives, Donald’s first wife, Ivana Marie Zelnickova, (left below) was born in Zlin, Czechoslovakia, and his third wife, Melania (or Melanija) Knavs (center below), was born in Novo Mesto, Yugoslavia, the present-day Slovenia.

Barron William Trump is the youngest child of Donald and Melania, whom Donald recently referred to as Melanie.

Marla Ann Maples (far right below), Donald’s second wife was born in Dalton, Georgia, making her his only wife who was an American citizen at the time of their marriage. 

      

A Very Sensitive Man

Donald J., whose thoughts, opinions, and items he deems to consider as important, varies according to his mood. He recently cancelled his meeting with Kim Jong-Un, because of what Trump considered to be an insult to America’s great Vice-President. In a North Korean statement cited by Donald J., a top foreign Ministry official referred to Mike Pence as a “political dummy,” for his comments on the North.

Because of Donald’s warm and cozy relationship with Michael, he was offended by the truth of that description. If that benign remark infuriated him that much, neither he nor Pence are ready to deal with the reality of foreign affairs.

Who Shouldn’t Be Here, Donald?

Today, Donald suggested that those professional football players, who kneel during the playing of our National Anthem, shouldn’t be allowed to remain in the United States.

Bravo, draft evader Donald, who never served in the military.

Lest the country forget, oh patriot, that Donald J. attended the New York Military Academy — a high school. After he graduated from college in the spring of 1968, he was eligible to be drafted and sent to Vietnam. However, the brave, future leader of our great nation, managed to receive a coveted 1-Y medical deferment exempting him from ever wading through the swamps of Vietnam. That’s the medical deferred Trump in the middle of this photograph.

This deferment was one of five Trump received during Vietnam, and it was based on “the fact” that he had bone spurs in his heels. The other deferments were for education. Trump was quoted as saying, “I had a doctor that gave me a letter — a very strong letter on the heels.”

He never needed an operation for that devastating problem, but confessed in an interview with the New York Times. “Over a period of time, it healed up.”

“Time heals all wounds,” sayeth Chaucer in “Troilus and Criseyde,” although the exact olde English words were, “As tyme hem hurt, a tyme doth hem cure.”

Others prefer that in the case of Trump, Menander (342 BC – 291 BC) should be given credit with his Greek Version, “Time is the healer of all necessary evils.” More apropos to Donald and has actions, would be “Time wounds all heels,” and the sooner the better.

Sadly, many of Trump’s wounds seem to be more self-inflicted every day.

THIS & THAT #37

HEIR APPARENT TO

THE WORLD POWER

We are at a precarious time in history, with no one firmly ensconced at the top of the world power ladder, but with several individuals trying to flex their muscles.

Perhaps if we look at the Bible’s Book of Judges, we can see how Delilah deceived Samson, and had him finally reveal that his strength lay in his hair. She, in turn, let the Philistines know of his weakness, they shaved his locks, and he lost his strength.

If those on the ladder could have their lock shaven, perhaps they would each become more docile and less inclined to hold the ultimate of the power they now seek.

It sure would help make the world a better place.

WHAT DO WILL DO?

Who are these hirsute hombres, each with their own inimitable coiffures, and if they were shorn, would they each be a better person?

Donald J. Trump

Bob Dylan and/or Peter, Paul and Mary, both expressed that “the answer is blowing in the wind.”  When that song was released in 1963, Donald and his hair was worlds away from that reality, and he is still quite consistent, being away from any reality today.

Vladimir Putin

Here is another leader searching for his place in history. “Putin on the Ritz” was written by Irving Berlin and first published in 1929.  Vlad is power hungry, looking for a way to recreate a dominant USSR, but that time is long gone. Watch Vlad here, as he rides to conquer the world: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3z841UJiVk

Kim Jong-un

He currently serves as Supreme Leader of North Korea, and anyone who conflicts with him and his policies, may be dispatched relatively quickly. This 5’7” giant is quite inconsistent, except for his hair. He was born on January 8, 1982, or 1983, or 1984.

Sheldon Adelson

Sheldon is an American businessman involved with the Las Vegas gambling scene, and has a fortune of US40 billion. Much of that money goes to deciding which way to comb his hair. He is a devout Zionist and a right-leaning GOP, who donated heavily to Trump’ 2016 campaign.

Benjamin Netanyahu

Bibi, like many of these power players, is firm in his resolve to cover any frontal bald spots by combing his hair from left to right. It’s a very apropos gesture for Israel’s right-leaning Likud Party leader. He admires Trump and Trump’s hairdresser, and looks forward to a two-state solution — one state for Likud members, and another for settlers.

WORLD LEADERSHIP

IS A HAIRY PROBLEM