midwest thoughts

So Long, and thanks for all the fish

2011-06-21T16:40:00.002-04:00

well, it's finally happened -- I'm now retired from THE Ohio State University Department of Theatre. Not officially retired, since I haven't signed the paperwork yet-- waiting for final advice from financial planner. But that will happen in the next day or so, so I'll be cleaning out the office in Drake[!!!] and trying to get organized. Oy! Nice things said at the Department's end of year party, of course, but still pleasant--

Thoughts on Arizona, and others

2011-01-19T22:38:00.001-05:00

Not much need to add to the waves of commentary about the shootings in Arizona, other than to note, once again, that the ready availability of firearms, of the massive ammunition magazines, and the vitriolic political rhetoric that's escalated since Obama's election, all play their parts. Wanted to add photos from our most recent vegetarian meetup, in December, but photos are formatted in a way that doesn't agree with blogger, so no go there. So above is one of us on the dome in Florence, a couple of years ago.

Mid Ohio Food Bank

2010-07-18T14:39:00.004-04:00

Had a great time touring the wonderful new facilities of the Mid Ohio Food Bank yesterday afternoon. Here are some images.

Here's our guide, Elaine, welcoming us into the Mid Ohio Food Bank

truck entrance at back, so that food pantries and other groups can pull right into the Food Bank to load up the groceries and other things

central aisle of the Food Bank

Our tour group in the central aisle of the Food Bank: Mairead, Ann, Alan, tour guide Elaine, Eliza and Tim, and their two kids

the community garden, planted and maintained by volunteers from local companies, high schools, and service groups, watered from rain collected from the Food Bank roof, and released by timers run by the solar panel on the pergola in the background; water barrels standing about, with a composter behind the cabbage on the left

stringbean towers in the community garden

tomato cages in the community garden

eggplant starting to grow in the community garden

While the community garden is exciting, even more exciting is the fact that the Mid Ohio Food Bank distributes over 34 million tons of food a year. Yes, you read that right: 34 million tons!!!

Much more information at their website, http://www.midohiofoodbank.org/ -- check them out. They're performing a much-needed service, and doing it extremely well.

Farewell, Uncle Bill

2010-03-31T22:05:00.003-04:00

Haven’t posted for a while; too much time on Facebook, etc. Also very busy with various things, including arranging readings for the Heckart plays. Plus a lot of other things as well. We also had the sadness of the recent death of uncle Bill Woods in the family hometown of Front Royal, Virginia. Ann and I drove down for the funeral on March 30th (and back on the same day, but that’s another story). Bill had been in poor health the last few weeks; he moved several years ago to Southerlands, the retirement home/assisted living community where mother was for her final years in Front Royal before we brought her here to Columbus; they provide excellent care there. And Bill was 92, so he had a full, good life. The funeral was good, and it was good to see various family members and old family friends – including Uncle Bob, Bill’s twin, and his good wife, Pauline, who we hadn’t seen for several years. Also reconnected with cousins Thelma and Les, daughter and son of Uncle Neill. Brother Gary was able to be there as well, so it was a good time, even if sad. Rest in Peace, Uncle Bill.

Summer and Smoke

2009-11-27T16:10:00.001-05:00

just finished a run at Ohio State in Tennessee Williams's Summer and Smoke, in the Thurber Theatre; I was the older Dr. Buchanan. Terrific cast, great direction by Jimmy Bohr, one of our major faculty directors. Enjoyable couple of weeks, although learning lines isn't as easy as it used to be! Here's cast and stage manager, with a couple of folks from Palmer Park, which was playing next door at the Bowen Theatre. The red xxxs across the lead for Palmer Park were added by the stage manager!

On health care and birther/deather crazies

2009-09-04T19:00:00.005-04:00

It's ironic that we're now visiting relatives in Vancouver, BC, where universal health care is a given -- and we're hearing many tales of how our relatives and their friends here have personally benefitted, even though there are occasional waits and administrative inconveniences (not that the American system is any better -- ask me sometime about trying to convince insurance companies that two procedures last year were, in fact, two procedures, and that they weren't being double billed, even though the bills came from different providers with different dates, etc.), while the crazy people in the States are besieging and hollering about 'death committees' and spreading absolute lies with fervor, all but drowning out the sane majority who think it's high time to get universal health coverage as an option -- it is, after all, only some 70 years since it was first proposed by Francis Perkins back in FDR's second term. As a number of people have pointed out, the senior citizens most vocal seem not to be aware that Medicare and Medicaid, along with Social Security, are all examples of the government programs they violently oppose. The cynicism of the right wing commentators and congresspeople who are orchestrating all this is blatantly obvious. Which doesn't seem to matter. Barney Frank's response to the woman in Massachusetts who compared Obama to Hitler (!!!!) was classic. In case anybody missed it, check out www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGX-2oTNens -- or, for the full town hall meeting (with several other odd people, it's at www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ss3PnhP8cp0

And there are also the crazy 'Christian' preachers announcing that they're praying for President Obama to die; see
www.talk2action.org/story/2009/9/2/12392/06622 for the third one to surface. (This particular preacher, by the way, has no training; his church's website states proudly, "Pastor Anderson holds no college degree but has well over 100 chapters of the Bible committed to memory, including almost half of the New Testament." Wonder which half of the New Testament that is? And just wait until he has it all memorized. Then he'll declare himself a bishop or archbishop, no doubt. Organized religion again proves its usefulness in attacking anyone perceived to be opposed to some doctrine or other. These calls are so extreme that they've caused a backlash, as in a veteran of the Iraq war who compared these statements to the more fanatic calls of extremists mullahs -- www.wtsp.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=112785 for more details.

Anniversary

2009-08-08T00:05:00.005-04:00

Celebrated our 42nd anniversary this week with a spectacular meal at Dragon Fly Neo-V (and no surprise that the meal was spectacular!). Below, Ann with her barbequed tofu

and me with a splendid risotto, with mushrooms and flowers and fried sea vegetable

and a closeup of the risotto

(for more about Dragon Fly, see http://neo-vevents.com/ -- we first ate there in the second week they were open, some dozen years ago, and it's truly a world-class place!)

As for the anniversary, we find ourselves vaguely astonished. Four decades? How is that possible? It seems just yesterday we were students and meeting casually as friends, before things began to change and deepen. And even more recently than yesterday when we arranged for a ceremony at the chapel at Columbia University. And drove across the country in a tiny Simca (until it died in South Dakota) to get to graduate school in Los Angeles. Many adventures and wondrous events, wonderful friends, and a daughter and son-in-law and now granddaughter later, plus satisfying careers and terrific travels (I've hit all the continents except Australia; Ann's yet to get to Africa and Australia). It's been a marvelous journey, and even more miraculous is that we're still delighted to be with each other. We are, indeed, blessed, and grateful to whomever or whatever arranges such things.

Took a While

2009-06-11T22:13:00.015-04:00

AP Photos by Alex Brandon

. . . for enough outrage to build up! But now it has, between the murder at the Holocaust Museum in Washington on June 10th and the increase in neo-Nazi and other hate groups because of the election of President Obama. Obama's historic election has set the extremist fringe groups, mostly white power types, or Holocaust deniers, like the 88 year old nutcase who killed security guard Stephen Tyrone Powers

Stephen Tyrone Johns; AP photo by Alex Brandon

at the Holocaust Museum, apparently because the killer thinks the Holocaust never happened, into frenzies of activity, trying to assert their skewed vision of how the world should work. That von Brunn, the murderer, has a long history of far-right-wing crime, further indicates the depth of this depravity. It's a further irony that the Holocaust Museum was to host a reading of a new play, Anne and Emmett, by Janet Langhard Cohen, this week, which dealt with an imaginary meeting between Anne Frank and Emmett Till, both victims of bias and hatred, to mark Anne Frank's 80th birthday. That means Frank and von Brunn are of the same generation, to further compound the irony.

James von Brunn, Holocaust Museum murderer; Talbot County (MD) sheriff photo

The impact of all this is made clear by the photo from this morning, of President Obama, in a Secret Service limosine, being driven past the Holocaust Museum. von Brunn parked in front of the museum, and walked in the door with a loaded shotgun, according to press reports.

AFP photo by Tim Sloan

While it's pretty clear what motivates these white people who feel dispossessed from what they regard as their birthright to have power and control -- and it's significant that most are underemployed and undereducated, and so have no particular prospects other than their self-perceived superiority due to their ethnicity -- it's less clear how to deal with them. They can be marginalized, as they have been, even when (as in the American Nazis marching some years ago in Skokie, Illinois, in an area heavily populated by Holocaust survivors) given a platform through their right to freedom of speech. They can also be characterized as pathetic losers, which they often are. But those pathetic, marginalized losers can arm themselves, and create chaos. And their numbers seem to be growing; who'd have thought that relatively stable Riverside, California, could be home to an American Nazi barbeque, created by the new youth leader of the Riverside chapter of the Nazis? But here they are, in all their superior race glory, in a photo taken from their website, at the January barbeque in January, 2009.

2009!!!. Who'd have thought there would still be people spouting the Nazi hatred 60 years after the Nazi movement was brought to an end? One wonders if any of those happy Riverside barbequers had grandfathers or fathers or uncles who fought in the war. Or if any of them have bothered to learn what the Nazis were all about.

But we all know that anti-Semeticism thrives, both as bias/prejudice, as well as in national policies by a number of Middle Eastern states. And, of course, in the United States as well, as this cartoon, also from the American Nazi party website, indicates

One wonders when will it ever end? When will this futile blaming others for one's own inadequacies finally end? And history gives us a grim answer: never. Humans have always created an 'other' who can be blamed for failures/failings. Columbus's own James Thurber eloquently captured that in his classic fable, "The Last Flower." Why must each generation, each nation, each ethnic group, each religious group, each neighborhood manage to recreate the tensions/hatreds/inside/outside. When will we ever learn (to quote Pete Seeger)? When will we ever learn?

Chestnut noodles, a season of sorrow and of joy

2009-02-17T00:36:00.007-05:00

In a break from politics, we return to cooking. Ordered some chestnut flour in order to make Chestnut Cake (Castanacchio), and it arrived last Friday. But instead of the cake, made Farina di Castagne (Chestnut noodles). Fairly simple: just chestnut flour, some egg replacer for us vegans, and a bit of salt. Form the dough, let it rest, then put it through the pasta machine until it's the thinness wanted, then cut into noodles or spaghetti. Here are the noodles drying on a sheet on the dining room table:

And here the finished, dried, noodles

Cooked them quickly (barely three minutes in boiling water); served with a tofu/tempeh/chili bean tomato sauce. No leftovers!

This was a good end to a dreadful few months. Ann's brother, Carl, died just after Christmas; she'd planned to fly to Vancouver to see him, but he asked that she not come, then called to say he was sorry and had made a mistake. She had a good talk with him, and remade flight reservations, but he died before Ann and her sister could get there. Ann was able to connect with Carlo and Margarita's two daughters, Yoshi and Maria, both adopted from China and whom she'd not met.
Here's Ann and Maria

Barbara Kachur, my former student, died shortly thereafter, so as soon as Ann returned from Vancouver, we were off to St. Louis for Barb's memorial service. Spent a good couple of days with Barb's longtime partner, Joann Lindsay, and several of Joann's sisters. Good to see them, just as it was good for Ann to meet her nieces, although we both wish the meetings could have been under better circumstances.

And the Eileen Heckart Drama for Seniors Competition is now underway, for the third time (it happens in alternate years). More details at www.heckartdrama.blogspot.com -- 122 manuscripts in already, and there's a month to go.

The eight year nightmare ends

2009-01-20T23:22:00.005-05:00

So long, George! Finally!

Saul Loeb / Pool via Reuters

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

perhaps the most inspiring words from an inspiring day

the Obamas dance. (Charles Dharapak / Associated Press)

and so long, George! At last!

audio description training again

2009-01-20T00:00:00.010-05:00

Just finished a weekend of training for the Matrix Theatre in Detroit; here are the trainees--

from the left--Queen, Sean, Daniel, Melanie, MaryBeth, Jen

I described the Stagecrafters production the "La Cage aux Folles" as part of the training-- a very credible community theatre production, with a cast of about 40 and a huge number of very elaborate and sophisticated costumes (there were 26 people on the costume construction crew!). And the theatre, a beautifully and carefully restored 1927 vaudeville house, all blue and gold leaf, is itself spectacular.

The Baldwin Theatre, Detroit

Adding to the pleasure was the luxurious B&B I was housed in, the Woodbridge Star, in a lovingly restored 1891 mansion, with opulent furnishings and very complete and gourmet breakfasts (the co-owner/chef is an award-winning pastry chef and cook); more about the Woodbridge Star at www.woodbridgestar.com -- a terrific place to stay if you're in Detroit.

The Woodbridge Star

But I must remind myself that scheduling a workshop in Detroit in Mid January is not a good idea. Housing great, training went well, good production to describe. And cold, snowy weather!

It's That Time Again

2008-12-24T23:09:00.003-05:00

It's Christmas. We're surrounded by Christmas music, Nativity scenes, Salvation Army kettles, plastic ice decorations, and relentless Christmas cheer -- all of which is supposed to be non sectarian. Right.

This has been an awful few months. My mother died just before Thanksgiving (which was not awful; at 96 1/2 years, she'd lived a full life, and had a peaceful and calm death -- the sort of death we all hope to have -- but it was still wrenching), we learned that Ann's brother Carlo is suffering from liver cancer with a not-positive prognosis, and that a good friend (and Ohio State alumna) is in the final stages of lung cancer. So it's not been a great time. Plus, an external review of my workplace done this fall identifies me as one three people who are an impediment to any approval in our area, and that nothing will change until we retire, or leave, or . . . Well, that was a cheerful holiday present!

And on top of all that, problems at the Coop, which take up an enormous amount of time. They will, I believe, eventually be resolved. But it drags on and on, ... and on. Although why, if I'm an impediment to any change at Ohio State, am I spending all these hours on Coop business? Surely an impediment one place will still be an impediment at another place 1 1/2 miles distant? And, if so, shouldn't the impediment simply resign, so that progress can continue unchecked?

Oh, well. the holiday season is here. The controversy in Olympia, Washington, about what the city government should or should not display (Christian, Jewish, Muslim signs, but no atheist), resulted in this sign being posted>

and posted it was. And torn down. And reposted. Sigh. When will they ever learn? when will they ever learn??

Ginger's Passing

2008-11-25T12:42:00.004-05:00

Virginia Kathryn Sloane Woods -- best known as "Ginger" -- passed away last Friday, 11/21, at about 4:30 in the afternoon. She'd been unconscious for the last three days of her life and was not in any visible discomfort or pain -- simply slipped away. Ann and I were with her most of the time on Thursday and Friday, and were holding her hand as she drew her final breath. And although she was not conscious during her last three days, it was not until a few minutes after the last grandchild called that she finally let go.

Ginger on New Year's Day, 2007

She'd celebrated her 96th birthday last May, and was able to hold her newest great grandchild, Summer Grace Woods Prentice, on her birthday. It was a quiet and peaceful end to a long life, filled with love and good works. Rest in peace, mother.

Yes, We Did!

2008-11-07T20:39:00.007-05:00

Haven't had time to add to the blog of late; too busy campaigning! And it worked! We're still floating with the joy/surprise/shock/elation of the landslide that Obama pulled off on Tuesday. We spent election day at our precincts in Gahanna, then went to the Ohio Democratic Party celebration in downtown Columbus. And here's part of the crew from our ward, having just learned that Obama won!

The party was terrific, and there was literally dancing in the streets of downtown Columbus--at least near the Renaissance Hotel where the Democrats were! A different story at the Republican headquarters a few blocks away; more about that in The Other Paper -- for details, see http://www.theotherpaper.com/articles/2008/11/08/cover_story/doc49122d18310e6004426032.txt
Still a bit surprised that, despite lots of indications of efforts to suppress votes (some apparently successful), Obama carried Ohio. Our celebrations were as festive as those in New York: here are a couple of photos of Times Square on Election Night, courtesy of OSU alumnus John H. Johnson:

(A portfolio of John's terrific photos of New York City is available at http://www.h2gphotos.com/)

Back in Central Ohio, we're still waiting on the results of the close race that has Mary Jo Kilroy only a few votes down from her Republican opponent, now going into a recount. And despite a desperately dirty campaign from the McCain/Palin ticket, the general voting public clearly didn't buy the smears, the guilt-by-association ploy, and the outright lies. The satirical photo below, which was sent me by Mary Steelsmith, a wonderful playwright from southern California, sums it up nicely:

Our local organization, Ward 19H in Clintonville, was exceptionally active and effective in getting out the vote -- 70% of the registered voters actually voted, and the precinct went 78% for Obama! -- and the early voting that was possible here in Ohio for a month before Election Day clearly made a difference. Democracy works again, finally, after a hiatus of some eight years--

And the enthusiasm continues; we were scheduled to phone bank tonight (11/8) to contact people who'd voted on provisional ballots to make sure they got the needed information in to the Board of Elections by the deadline -- but when we arrived at the Democratic headquarters, we were told that there'd been such a huge turnout of volunteers that the phone lists had all been completed -- so we came home. Terrific to experience such involvement again -- hasn't been this exciting for several decades--

Another War Casualty

2008-08-03T19:27:00.002-04:00

Associated Press Photograph by Warren Zinn

Joseph Dwyer, an Army veteran who was photographed carrying a wounded Iraqi boy to safety from fighting in 2003, died June 28th of an apparent drug overdose. Dwyer enlisted after the terrorist attacks of 9/11. A member of the 7th Cavalry Regiment, which was among the first American units sent to Iraq, he saw constant action during his three-month deployment, and soon was showing symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome. His marriage collapsed, and there were occasional brushes with police. He’s another clear victim of this illegal war.

Warren Zinn, the Associated Press photographer who took the photo, records his reaction to learning of Dwyer’s death, and writes movingly of his contact with Dwyer over the years since the famous photo was taken.

http://blog.cleveland.com/pdopinion/2008/07/my_photograph_made_joseph_dwye.html

Independence Day

2008-07-04T21:40:00.001-04:00

Fourth of July again, and again we celebrate the founding of the United States. And count down for the end of the Bush presidency, marked today by protests at Monticello, where the President went to swear in new citizens, a tradition each year for new citizens, if not for Presidents (according to press reports, Bush is only the fourth president in history to attend; it was his first visit; the previous president to attend was Gerald Ford). The protesters were part of the "Impeach Bush" movement; one of them, David Swanson, has provided and explanation and photos and videos of his actions at http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/34528 -- well worth looking at.

We celebrated a bit more quietly. Very rainy in Columbus today, so didn't get to the DooDah Parade this year. A good neighbor, Jan Fleming, had a gathering at her house, so we spent some time there (and ate far too much) -- good talk, good people, and, of course, good food. We also talked to our folks in Japan last night, July 4th by their schedule, and learned that the world's most adorable baby took her first independent steps on Independence Day; all details (and photos!) of this momentous event at www.summerprentice.blogspot.com
here's one--

Senior Theatre Festival USA

2008-06-17T23:37:00.005-04:00

Just back from the Senior Theatre Festival USA in Baltimore (June 10th-14th); I'm on the board of the organization, and put together a playwriting workshop, which met each morning of the festival. Playwright Stuart Hall joined me in conducting the workshop; the festival also heard a reading of his new short play, "Spindrift Way," on Friday night. We had between five and ten writers (some came and went, because of other programs), and gave them various exercises and assignments. Lots of creative work, from both accomplished and frequently produced playwrights, as well as from people hoping to get started.

some of the group assembled; that's Stuart in the red shirt

Stuart started us out on the first day; he'd prepared three envelopes. One had professions, the second had an emotion, and the third a line of dialogue. So a writer could draw "carpenter" "frustrated" and "where is the exit?" and then have to write a short piece incorporating those details. Great fun. A couple of folks had brought short pieces, which we read aloud, and then talked about. At the end of the first day, we gave the writers an assignment: to produce a short monologue on the topic, "What Shall We Do About Mother?"

Stuart, Shirley, and John study a script

On the second day, the playwrights read their monologues, which were inventive (and for senior theatre folks, the topic was close to home). And we worked on additional exercises, and read a few more short pieces or scenes from longer works brought in by the playwrights. The homework assignment for the next day: write Mother's response to the first monologue.

One group of playwrights and actors listen to readings

Again, readings, and again, wonderfully inventive work. More discussion, more readings, with volunteer actors. Then the assignment for the next day: write a five minute play which incorporates the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, a bouquet of flowers, and the line, "Myrtle really did it this time!"

The playwrights really outdid themselves; terrific work (perhaps inspired by seeing Stuart's play the previous night!). Volunteer actors again, who then rehearsed later in the morning, then performed the plays in one of the festival's performance spaces in the afternoon.

That afternoon also saw a reading of my short piece, "Limbo, Ohio" on a bill with Doug Stewart's short play, "Final Exam." The cast for my play included Doug Stewart as Willy Loman, joan kohl as Jocasta, and Daneen Axelrod as Cleopatra. I read in Doug's play as St. Peter, with joan as Mother Earth.

Drove to Baltimore with my colleague Joy Reilly, who presented several workshops and one of the creators of senior theatre, having founded a major company, Grandparents Living Theatre, some twenty years ago, and Columbus senior actor Sarah Worthington, founder and artistic director of the Senior Theatre troupe, Footsteps of the Elders. The Festival included lots and lots of performances, workshops, panels, and great energy. Only drawback: the campus of the University of Maryland--Baltimore County, where the Festival was held, isn't fully ADA compliant, and there were very long walks between the housing in dorms and the performance/festival sites. And it was hot and humid! But the discomfort was, in the end, minor; the energy and excitement about the senior theatre movement more than made up for the weather and distances.

(The text of "Limbo, Ohio" is available at seniorplays.blogspot.com, and more about the senior theatre program at Ohio State can be found at osuseniortheatre.blogspot.com)

On Memorial Day

2008-05-26T14:32:00.004-04:00

President George W. Bush with Memorial Day wreath at Arlington National Cemetery, 2008. Reuters photo by Jonathan Ernst.

Anita Lewis at the grave of her son, Cody Clark Grater, Florida National Cemetery, Memorial Day, 2008. AP photo by John Raoux.

Two images from Memorial Day. One of a president who avoided service and has caused the deaths of over four thousand Americans (to date) in a war based on over 900 lies; and a grieving mother in Florida by the grave of her son, one of those Americans sent to their deaths. As we remember those who served our country, we cannot forget those who did not, and who are now, still, in positions of power with dreadful consequences for Americans and Iraqis alike.

This is Why I'm Mad

2008-05-07T00:34:00.002-04:00

a needless death in Iraq

Fairfield County Marine dies in Iraq
Tuesday, May 6, 2008 11:12 AM

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

A grieving Fairfield County family and his hometown community are preparing to bury U.S. Marine LCPL James F. Kimple, killed in action in Iraq last week.

Kimple, 21, was among four Marines killed in an explosion set off by a roadside bomb Friday, said Lewis Taylor of Taylor Funeral Home in Amanda.

The married father of three young children was based out of Camp Pendelton in California and was on his second tour of duty in Iraq. He leaves behind his wife, Amber, and their two children, Drake J. and Maleah R. Kimple, all of Amanda, and his child Dominic J. Kimple of Carroll.

Family members did not wish to be interviewed immediately. "Right now they just want to grieve," Taylor said.

Kimple was remembered warmly by those who knew him at Bloom-Carroll High School, which he attended through December of his senior year. He earned his GED afterward.

"He was a very bright young man, very intellectual; he loved to read," said teacher Jan Hodge, who had him for two years in her Occupational Work Experience course, which provides career-minded students with a taste of working life.

Kimple knew exactly what he wanted, she said: a military career.

"He wanted to get out of school to be in the military, and he chose the Marine Corps. I knew he would be successful."

Kimple came to see his former teacher in November, when he was home on leave. He was dressed handsomely in his uniform, and he showed her pictures of his young children. He was so proud of his children.

"He knew he was going back," Hodge said. "He wasn't afraid. The Marine Corps was like a family to him."

Of course, added Hodge, whose nephew is in the Army and did two tours over there, "When you say goodbye, you always wonder."

The news came. "It just takes your breath away. There are no words," the teacher said, choking up.

It is a small community, a small school district.

Bloom-Carroll Superintendent Roger Mace recalled Kimple as one of the brightest students he had met.

"When you saw James in the hall, you always saw him with a novel. He loved to read," the superintendent said. "He always had a smile on his face."

The family provided the funeral directors with more information about Kimple, saying:

"James died doing what he wanted to do since age 16. He did it for his family and his country and will always be our hero. The few, the proud, one of our finest."

Besides his wife and children, Kimple leaves his parents, Cate and John Kimple, and brothers, Jovid and Parker Kimple, all of Carroll.

In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to a trust fund established at Fifth Third Bank for the education of his three children.

Calling hours are scheduled for Friday, from 2 to 4 p.m. and 6 to 8 p.m. at the Taylor Funeral Home at 111 W. Main St. in Amanda.

Additional calling hours Saturday starting at 11 a.m. at Bloom-Carroll Middle School's auditorium will precede a 1 p.m. funeral service there. Burial will follow in Greenfield Township Cemetery in Carroll.

Of Popes, Presidents, and war casualties

2008-04-16T22:15:00.002-04:00

Contrasting images from mid April: the Roman Catholic Pope visits the American President in Washington -- pomp, circumstance, celebrations of the Pope's birthday, all in full measure

White House photo by Eric Draper.

The Adminstration's version of all this available at http://www.whitehouse.gov/infocus/papal/ --which, understandably, downplays the small fact that the Pope is not going to the festive state dinner in honor of his visit and his birthday, preferring to meet with American bishops instead (and that's a late addition to his schedule--as of last week, he was not attending but had nothing else scheduled).
Meanwhile, the casualty rate for Americans has passed 4000 in Iraq, while the number of verified civilian deaths in Iraq has passed 90,000. Details at http://www.iraqbodycount.org/database/
That makes photos like this one, from a car bombing yesterday in Kerkouk, all too common.

Associated Press photo by Adem Hadei

And the sectarian violence continues--an Associated Press photo by Karim Kadim shows the result of street clashes this morning in Sadr City, Baghdad.

Daily reports of the violence in Iraq are posted by the McClatchy Newspapers at http://www.mcclatchydc.com/212/story/33879.html

The Pope's opposition to the Iraq war is well known. But he and the President apparently didn't get to that topic in their chat today; according to the White House press release, "During their meeting, the Holy Father and the President discussed a number of topics of common interest to the Holy See and the United States of America, including moral and religious considerations to which both parties are committed: the respect of the dignity of the human person; the defense and promotion of life, matrimony and the family; the education of future generations; human rights and religious freedom; sustainable development and the struggle against poverty and pandemics, especially in Africa."
That is, if one reads past the language: no abortion, no gay rights, no sex education, and safe topics like 'religious freedom' -- which for these leaders doesn't mean freedom from religion -- and continued battling poverty in Africa, but apparently not elsewhere. Like, for example, Washington, D.C., where last fall a report noted that employment rates for African American adults fell from 62 percent in the late '80s to 51 percent in 2006. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/23/AR2007102302230.html
And that was during the boom time that's now ended.

Meanwhile, the Iraq war is costing roughly 341 million dollars each day. (And full details of the war's costs at http://www.nationalpriorities.org/costofwar_home)

What's wrong with our nation's priorities, as set by the Administration and funded by the Congress, as is clear now without regard to which political party is in the majority?

March Madness -- again!

2008-03-15T23:55:00.002-04:00

It's March again, and again, I'm still mad! and here's why --

I took this photo 42 years ago. Forty-two years!!! And still we've learned nothing. Our president -- who didn't serve in the war in the photo -- keeps us mired in a war with no apparent end. One major presidential candidate, himself a war veteran, says we could be in Iraq for a century. The other major candidates are being a bit vague about getting out, each getting more vague as the campaign continues. Enough is enough.

I'm mad at hearing right wing politicos saying that the 'surge' in Iraq has worked. Yes, it's reduced American casualties. For the moment. But Iraqi casualties have risen sharply. What the surge has done is to protect American soldiers. Which is terrific. Although if they weren't there in the first place, they'd hardly need protection.

and more and more voices are being heard, saying this whole war is futile. what will it take for our 'leaders' in Congress to pay attention? Obviously, the 'president' will pay not heed -- he never has paid much attention to what the public wants. And the delicious news about his favorite painting -- which he thinks is of an evangelist bring the Methodist word to the prairie is, in fact, an illustration of a horse thief! Delicious! Or would be if he didn't have the power of the presidency behind him.

It's also a pretty awful irony that (1) this is the Ides of March and (2) tomorrow is the 40th anniversary of the My Lai massacre.

Again, apparently we never learn. Or our leaders never learn, a point made by Seymour Hersh, who broke the story in 1969.

On Primaries and Ohio

2008-03-05T19:33:00.007-05:00

Barack Obama in San Antonio on March 4th; photo by Emmanual Durand, AP

Hillary Clinton in Columbus March 4th with Stephanie Tubbs Jones, Ohio Congresswoman, and Governor Ted Strickland. Photo by Mark Duncan, AP

Meanwhile, President George W. Bush demonstrates his tap dancing prowess while being kept waiting by Senator John McCain, coming for hot dogs and endorsement at the White House, March 5. Photo by Jason Reed, Reuters. This is the leader of the Free World, folks; the guy with the red telephone and the button to launch nucular missles.

and McCain arrives at an election night celebration in Texas; photo by LM Otero, AP

After a long day as a precinct judge in Gahanna, Ohio, came home last night and watched returns. Hillary by about ten percent (although provisional votes may change that); received wisdom appears to be that Republicans voted Democratic in order to either vote for Hillary or to vote against Barack. No way to tell, of course. The vote in our two precincts was something like 112 votes for Clinton, 98 for Obama, and only 12 for John McCain -- which indicates a lot of crossover voting, since Gahanna is a heavily Republican suburb of Columbus. At least we can be grateful that Dennis Kucinich beat back a challenge -- heavily funded by special interests -- in his primary in Cleveland.

and a photo from some 40 years ago; a young information specialist in the field in South Vietnam--one of the reasons I worry about bellicose statements from politicians, whether or not they served honorably, as did McCain, or dishonorably, as did Bush, or didn't serve at all, as was the case with Obama.

Of masks and election results

2008-02-12T22:50:00.005-05:00

Three wonderful masks by Lauren Raine just acquired. This is her Bast, the goddess of Sunrise; and below, Maat, goddess of truth (among a bunch of other things)--

More about her terrific work at www.rainewalker.com

Interesting results of the primaries tonight, with Barack Obama having pretty much a clean sweep, and John McCain doing the same. Not sure what to make of it all, although it's certainly a relief that the Huckabee candidacy on the Republican side has been such a fizzle; glad his theocratic absolutism hasn't attracted wide support. Some of his narrow-minded and bigoted rhetoric has been pretty scary. It'll be intriguing to see how the Clinton forces deal with the Obama movement, particularly since Ohio is now being touted as a major battleground and a chance for Clinton to regroup and beat back Obama.

Impeachment

2008-01-26T23:56:00.000-05:00

Are you listening, Nancy Pelosi? Obviously not. Just yesterday, Dennis Kuchinich had the integrity to call Bush and Cheney liars on the House floor, and was forced to retract his comments after a Republican congressman threatened to have him reprimanded for disrespect. Disrespect? for simply reporting the truth?

How many lies does it take to justify impeachment? 1? (Bill Clinton) or 935? (Bush/Cheney)

And Bush will do a State of the Union address on Monday? Like he knows?

The Grinch strikes again

2007-12-29T15:17:00.000-05:00

What's wrong with this photo?

President Bush at the White House, 12/21/07, AP photo by Charles Dharapak

A smiling President, a week before he vetoes a military spending bill that includes pay raises for active duty service members, increased support for returning veterans of the Iraq War, and other benefits for those who've served the country. And why? Because it exposes the Iraqi government to suits by those who suffered under previous Iraqi regimes, notably that of Saddam Hussein. Must protect those we've put in power--and their financial resources--at all costs. Even if those costs were paid for with the blood of American military. It's not as if, of course, anyone in the administration has any personal stake in any of this. Nor any sitting member of Congress, for that matter.

Happy holidays, vets.

Another Holiday Desecrated by Christians

2007-12-18T22:43:00.000-05:00

Well, the holiday is here again, and, again, fundamentalist Christians are doing their damndest to turn a seasonal holiday into a religious one. Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee is even airing a commercial urging us all to remember that the we need to simply 'celebrate Christ's birth' and settle in with our families. Guess the non-Christians don't count in the Huckster's vision of the United States. It was pretty clear before this commercial that that was the case, but he's made it solid as he pitches, presumably sincerely, his message to the fundamentalist Christian voting base; if you managed to miss this cringing ad, catch it at http://news.aol.com/political-machine/2007/12/17/huckabees-christmas-card-to-the-voters/
Dennis Kucinich looks better and better all the time!

Meanwhile, we celebrate the traditional holiday, the solstice, with visits to good friends, various parties, and with family. Here are a couple of photos of Ginger, my 95 1/2 year old mother, recently, as we visited with her in her assisted living quarters here in Columbus--it's a relief to have her five minutes away, rather than the eight hours drive it was to visit her in northern Virginia--what a good idea it was to arrange to have her move here three years ago! Now we can visit several times a week, and, just as importantly, monitor her health care and medications.

Ginger Woods

Ginger with Ann

Ginger with middle son

Very busy with the Limbo play project, which has mushroomed into a major task, coming on top of the Heckart plays; will be awash with readings for the next few months! Details on both at two sites: http://limboplays.blogspot.com and http://heckartdrama.blogspot.com

Thanksgiving update

2007-11-26T09:47:00.000-05:00

been a while--busy getting course underway at Ohio State, dealing with elections (we both served as precinct judges for the November 6th election--wound up in Gahanna, a suburb east of Columbus. Fairly light turnout, but good experience for the election in the spring, which will be far more heavy, presidential primary and all (if there's any contest left at that point, given the headlong rush of various states, including Florida and Michigan, to have the earliest primary possible).

We spent the Thanksgiving weekend cooking--mainly soups, which we then canned. Ann did potato/leek, a favorite adapted by Mollie Katzan, then her own Verde, inspired by a green soup from Whole World Restaurant here in Columbus, but made of whatever greens are in season. I did a couple of squash soups, since there was a great buy on squash locally last week, so I got a couple. Made a Butternut/pear/ginger soup, from a recipe in Deborah Madison's soup cookbook, a winter stew with Delicata and Kambocha squash with red lentils, from a recipe found on an animal rights' organization flyer, and Mollie Katzan's Firecracker Chili, slightly modified. Put up fifteen quarts of soup among us, and Ann got to try out the new 7 quart slow cooker that we charged out on Black Friday to get cheaply. Kitchen smelled fantastically by the time we were done!

Then to celebrate, we wound up eating out twice: Friday night at ChiThai, a new -- and good -- Asian restaurant, with Chinese and Thai specialties, with Ann's good

friend and fellow calligrapher Lisa Rodgers, in from Kansas City with daughter Jackie to celebrate Thanksgiving with Lisa's dad, then the following night at Dragonfly NeoV, our favorite world-class vegan restaurant in Columbus (actually, the only world-class vegan restaurant in Columbus). Ann had a spectacular tower of tofu with a fiery sauce, while I had trumpet mushrooms over mashed potatoes with a red wine sauce. Both were (as usual) plate-licking-clean quality. A surprisingly small selection on the menu, but then learned that Magdiale and Cristin were out of town for the holiday, and clearly had left things in a purposefully simplified state for the staff to handle.

No, it's not the touring company of "The Mikado"

2007-09-12T00:50:00.000-04:00

---just us Woodses and Prentices doing the traditional thing that military people in Japan apparently do: have ourselves photographed in traditional Japanese dress. It was fun, although I wouldn't want to have to dress like this all the time.

Some merit in getting old--

2007-09-01T10:37:00.001-04:00

--apart from the pleasure of having a grandchild. The Columbus Dispatch, in a feature story, "20 over 60" last Sunday (8/26. That's the illustration with photos by Renee Sauer of the Dispatch (that's me in the right hand column, third from the bottom--for once in my life the order of the photos is not alphabetical! The profiles, however, are, true to form); the whole article is at

http://shop.dispatch.com/newsarchive/ArchiveDisplay.asp?DBLIST=cd07&DOCNUM=33626&TERMV=129:8:179:2:181:4:185:2:2&md=dir

all pretty superficial, but it at least recognizes a bunch of folks. And I'm in good company, with several people I've known and respected for decades now. I've no idea about selection criteria--I can think of a number of people who are more important to the arts in Columbus than I am who didn't get chosen. But these things are all subjective, so it's all chance (like most of life, of course). And how nice to access it all from Japan!

The First Bread Loaf

2007-08-21T03:12:00.000-04:00

A contest on the Year in Bread blog (http://ayearinbread.earthandhearth.com/) asks for our favorite bread stories; here's mine:

I first started baking bread when we were poor graduate students; it made sense financially, and also psychologically--kneading (make that pounding) the dough took out a lot of frustrations built up from classes with conservative professors (this was the late 1960s). After doing ok with white bread, I decided to move on to whole wheat. Without Peter Reinhard to guide me, or Bernard Clayton, or King Arthur, I plowed ahead, making a dough of whole wheat flour rather than white. Only whole wheat. It never occured to me that some mixture of white and whole wheat would be a good idea. And, of course, I was using Gold Medal off the shelf. Really a rank, rank beginner.

I baked the bread. I had two loaves of small, grey, bricks. Heavy, solid. And essentially unedible. My loving bride took one taste and said, diplomatically, "I'm sure you'll do better next time." I took one taste and contemplated throwing out my loaf pans and breaking my rolling pin across my knees.

Luckily, at that point, two neighbors arrived, along with another graduate student. They'd all been drinking, and perhaps something else as well, it being the late 1960s, and were giddy. And hungry. I offered the bread. They devoured it, both loaves, among three people, in less than an hour.

And I learned a basic lesson, both for baking and for life: no matter how much you screw something up, there will always be people who think it's terrific. You just need to find them.

Summer Grace Woods Prentice!!

2007-08-16T18:13:00.000-04:00

And here she is--the world's most adorable grandchild--born 8/10/07, 8 1/2 lbs, 20 inches, and roughly ten days ahead of her projected arrival date; born in Misawa, Japan

two days old!

with her proud father, a few minutes old--

and her grandparents meet the World's Most Adorable Baby in the Hachinoe train station; she's now four days old!

The July 4th Tradition: Doo Dah!

2007-07-05T21:35:00.000-04:00

I drive the truck, while Martha Maas and Estelle Silberman ride in back. Ann Alaia Woods, Libby and Jayne Wetherholt, and Steve and Maria Rosenthal walked alongside and in front. Ann took the photos.

Did the 24th annual Doo Dah parade in Columbus on the 4th. It's an anti-establishment thing that began a number of years ago; we've marched several times, including the very first parade in 1983. This year, through Uptown Progressives, we went as "Citizens For Global Warming," borrowing a truck from a neighbor, loaded with banners and things praising the joys of hot weather. Had a blast. Local reviewer/reporter Richard Ades, in orange prison garb and on a motor scooter labelled "Scooter Commuter" zipped about us throughout the two-hour long parade. More about Doo Dah at http://www.doodahparade.com/

Martha and Estelle hold up signs that Ann lettered

What's Important: Paris

2007-06-08T22:18:00.001-04:00

And Paris Hilton was sent back to jail, screaming, etc. Here she is, in the back seat of the police car. Without makeup! In sweats!

AP photo

This was what dominated the news today, along with heart-rending reports of Paris in tears in the courtroom, turning to her parents and mouthing, "I love you!"

Darfur? Forget it. This is what's important.

Darfur, Bread, and G8

2007-06-07T22:37:00.000-04:00

An interesting day. A friend sent a link to the new Amnesty International website devoted to the tragedy in Darfur, with satellite photos, eyewitness reports, and enormous amounts of information detailing the tragedy. The evidence remains overwhelming of systematic destruction, murder, rapes, all apparently with the support of the Sudanese government. Yet the United States stands by, distracted by our military follies in the Middle East and by the celebrity culture that blindsides most of us (Paris Hilton released from jail today! Will she go be sent back by an intolerant judge?--or so screams the headlines online, as we lurch from triviality to triviality, breathlessly seduced by the antics of incredibly trivial people). But we need to pay attention to Darfur, before we're pulled into yet another military debacle--or, worse, ignore what's happening as we did in Ruwanda. People need to look at http://eyesondarfur.org/index.html -- if they do, one hopes they'll be moved to action.

Meanwhile, in Germany, the G8 issues a call to slow down global warming, but with no real recommendations, due to the United States blocking German chancellor Angela Merkel's original proposal to cut global emissions by 50% by 2050--too harsh on American business, apparently.
Merkel looks unhappy--Bush grins

Although Merkel and other leaders are calling the watered down statement a good beginning, at least one environmentalist says it's not, according to Claudia Kemmer of the Associated Pres, who writes today

“I know Chancellor Merkel is declaring victory, but in fact President Bush has shut the door in the faces of the other seven leaders at the table," said Philip Clapp, president of the U.S.-based National Environmental Trust, pointing to the "seriously consider" phrase.

"That is a far cry from the United States having signed up to any such reductions," he said.

Clapp said the agreement showed progress among the other countries in reaching a consensus that could be taken up by the next U.S. president after Bush leaves office in January 2009.

So again we're stymied by Bush and his crew. How long will it take us to undo the damage this bunch has done, both to the United States's reputation, as well as to the disasters, both natural and military, that they've either created or allowed to become disasters? It'll be years--

So what do I, as an involved citizen, politically and socially active, do in the face of these continuing disasters? It should be obvious: I bake bread. Herewith today's mostly whole wheat; mixed up the starter and basic dough on Sunday, aged for four days in the refrigerator, and baked early this morning.

Here's the recipe; made five loaves, so was able to use a lot of different flours (four loaves now in the freezer); great crumb, and terrific taste. And, as always, kneading the dough works out a lot of frustrations and anger at world events. Very therapeutic, a lot cheaper than psychoanalysis, much more rewarding that firing off yet another letter of protest, and you get something good to eat at the end!

Mostly Whole Wheat

Org whole wheat flour
King Arthur traditional whole wheat flour
Org rye flour
Org teff flour
Org quinoa flour
Org cornmeal
Org spelt bran
Org wheat germ
Oat flour
Chickpea flour
Millet flour
Ground sunflower seeds
Ground flax seed
Hemp seeds
Ground golden lentils
Kosher salt
Agave nectar
Org canola oil

And the term grinds to a close----

2007-06-04T21:27:00.001-04:00

We're now officially in exam week, and there'll be a bit of a break before summer teaching starts on June 18th (I'm doing the censorship class again)--student projects due on Wednesday, which shouldn't be too bad--the current class has had its problems, but they're relatively minor. One unexpected result: a student asked me to be in a scene for his directing class (for new colleague Jimmy Bohr, who staged the Our Town I was in last spring), so I'm doing the father of the boyfriend in Terrence McNally's Andre's Mother with one of our first year M.F.A. actors, an undergraduate student, and a woman from the community.

Also having fun with a new blog, "Molds 'R Us." (There's a link over in the column on the left). Here are three of my current favorite molds:

smoked tofu

some sour cream

and some coffee. Great what nature produces!

Mother is 95! Play Read! Wolfowitz Resigns!

2007-05-19T23:06:00.000-04:00

Well, it's been a full week, hasn't it? Paul Wolfowitz, seen here, finally resigned, not officially in disgrace,

after cutting a wide swath at the World Bank. The quickness with which his staff turned on him suggests that he's perhaps not the best manager around. Still waiting for Gonzalez to go, as the news about the fired attorneys-general gets more and more damning. With the latest being the entire business of Adminstration lawyers--including then Presidential lawyer Gonzalez trying to get then-Attorney General Ashcroft in hospital to approve wire taps that Ashcroft had already said would be illegal. And this is John Ashcroft trying to stop the Bush Adminstration from committing illegal acts!

But enough of that ongoing scandal. This was also the week of mother's 95th birthday. All sons in town (albeit somewhat serially) for the event. Here's kid brother Brian, Ginger, and Alan earlier in the week. Brian, recently retired from his career as a nuclear engineer with the electric industry in southern California, visited early in the week, departing on the 14th. Eldest brother Gary arrived on the 16th, leaving on the 18th.

at Whestone Gardens

Mother's holding orchids sent by granddaughter Kat from Japan.

On the 19th, Twentieth Night, my short sequel to Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, was given a reading at Stonewall Columbus, thanks to the executive director, Karla Rothan, who read Viola, while her real life partner, Linda Schuler, read Olivia.
Linda and Karla read
The reading was in Stonewall Columbus' new space, The Center on High--a long room on the second floor of the headquarters in the Short North neighborhood. About 25 people came to hear the reading.

Here are Adam Peal (bowing) as Danish courtier Osric, Alex Coccia as Young Sebastian, Linda/Olivia, Karla/Viola, and Rhea Kavari as Young Olivia. Osric has come seeking Prince Hamlet, who had been visiting Illyria. And below, a happy playwright follows along as Olivia teaches Young Olivia some fencing techniques.

Twentieth Night exists because of an error on my part. Saw a notice last summer that a new classical theatre company, Pointed Remarques, was looking for Shakespearean prequels or sequels that included large amounts of sword fighting. So I wrote Twentieth Night and sent it off to Colorado, where the company exists to reinvigorate swashbuckling drama--all company members are swordfolks. It then occurred to me to check the company out. So I found their website, http://www.pointedremarques.org/ -- and found this photo

I'd managed to write a play requiring three swordswomen and one swordsman for a company of three swordsmen and one swordswoman! So I wrote a new play, a prequel to Hamlet I called Downstairs at Elsinore. In the meantime, I'd asked Karla if she and Linda would read the first play aloud so I could hear it--and Karla, now executive director of Stonewall Columbus, in turn suggested that it be read to inaugurate their new community space, The Center on High. So that culminated this Saturday in the reading that took place, to my great satisfaction. Lots of ways to improve the play.

And in the meantime, Downstairs at Elsinore was accepted by the Pointed Remarques company, and is scheduled for performance in their Festival of Honor in June--so two Shakespearean sequels/prequels in two months! More about Pointed Remarques at www.pointedremarques.org/POINTEDREMARQUESNews.htm

On Vetos, Staying the Course, and other assorted follies

2007-05-02T23:59:00.000-04:00

Just when you think it can't get any more silly, we have this:

The President vetoing,as
promised, the spending bill containing a timetable for withdrawal.

on the grounds that to do so would "send a signal to the terrorists." How about to the over 3100 Americans who've died in Iraq to date? What signal does it send to continue the war in perpetuity?

Here, for example, some American solider prepare to cross the street in Barbouq; takes a while to prepare the way. Glad the war is going so well, and that continued progress is being made, as the President has repeatedly assured us over the past four years.

The Al-Sarafiyah bridge in Baghdad on April 11th, 2007, after being blown up. Another clear sign of progress.

Transportation a bit more difficult in Baghdad when the minibuses keep exploding.

These aren't the happy Iraqis we were told would greet American troops upon invasion.

And the Iraqi agony we rarely see or hear about, except in the obscene term, "collateral damage"--two women wait to claim the body of a relative in Kirkuk, murdered in the sectarian violence we've unleashed.

These samples of images are all from one month, including the President's veto, signed four years to the day after his "Mission Accomplished" speech in San Diego Harbor.

The further, most recent obscenity: the train of Republican lawmakers repeating the party talking point, "if we put a timetable on the war, the terrorists will just follow our troops home, and we'll see increased violence and terrorist attacks in the United States." All the intelligence briefings (at least the ones that made public) say exactly the opposite: it is our presence in Iraq that creates terrorists, and terrorists plotting against the United States, both in Iraq and on North American soil. Have the party loyalists, to borrow a phrase from the McCarthy hearings of a half century ago, no shame? Have they, at long last, no shame?

March Madness -- Again!

2007-03-22T23:42:00.000-04:00

It's March again, and, again, I'm mad. (See posting for March, 2006 for original madness.) Not about basketball, although Ohio State seems to be doing well in the tournament at least thus far. I'm mad, still, at the administration, for its shameful neglect of veterans, from the shoddy hospital situation to cutting benefits to ignoring funerals. I'm mad at Congress for having allowed conditions to get where they are, with no meaningful oversight having been exercised for at least ten years. I'm mad that this immoral war in Iraq has just passed its fourth anniversary, and that there's no end in sight. I'm mad that the American military that have now died in Iraq outnumber the victims of the attacks in New York, Washington, and Pennsylvania on 9/11 (quite apart from the fact that there was no connection between those attacks and Iraq). I'm mad each time another example of how government does its work has been corrupted for party and personal loyalty over competence, whether its the Justice Department, FEMA, supplying equipment to the military, ordering substandard trailers, or any of the rest of it. And I'm really mad at the lapdog media that doesn't bother to investigate anything or verify anything (with a very few noble exceptions), and hopping mad at a public more than willing to be distracted by sports, the latest naked rock star crotch, or talentless celebrities and their deaths/lives/imbroglios. We get the government and policies we deserve, and we certainly deserve what an arrogant and authoritarian Administration is giving us now, as we lurch towards homegrown Christian Fascism more and more on the time passes and the good Christians try to exert more and more control over what everybody does.

And it just doesn't stop!

2007-03-16T20:25:00.000-04:00

The news from Washington gets more and more bizarre. Now we have the firing of Federal prosecutors, with emails flying back and forth between the White House and the Department of Justice. Again, as with the Veteran medical scandal, it's clear that there were political considerations at work, with no one being concerned for anything other than finding prosecutors who were politically reliable and firing those who weren't pursuing political rivals with enough fervor.

But has been the case consistently, the administration first denies, then takes responsibility, then fires an underling, all the while insisting that nothing really wrong took place. Here's Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, at a press conference earlier this week, explaining that he's really busy and can't really be expected to on top of everything that happens in his large department, but that he takes ultimate responsibility.

what he couldn't possibly know, of course, was that his chief of staff, D. Kyle Sampson, had spent a great deal of time over the past six months planning the firing of the federal prosecutors, explaining to Karl Rove and Harriet Miers that firing all 93 prosecutors would create some difficulties for the Department of Justice carrying on its business. Presumably Gonzales and Sampson had little occasion to see each other and keep up with what they were doing.

Gonzales, testifying below, of course has no intention of resigning. Although there are increasing calls for precisely that from the Senate, especially since it's now quite apparent that a whole series of Justice Department officials simply lied when testifying before Congress. No reason to tell the truth, after all, when one is under oath. More important to keep the Adminstration's doings under wraps.

oh, and Mr. Sampson is still at the Justice Department; he's keeping his office, his computer, his phone, etc., until he can find more work. Suppose he'll have a problem?

And of course, today saw Valerie Plame testifying about the vindictive outing of her CIA status by the Administration as retaliation against her husband's having had the nerve to reveal some of the lies behind the Iraqii invasion. It's long been known that revealing her identity placed many people in danger; now she's talking publically about the recklessness of this vindictive Administation. More details and analysis on the BBC website, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6460227.stm

There They Go Again

2007-03-13T00:29:00.000-04:00

So discussing funding for the war in Iraq doesn't support the troops. So says Vice President Dick Cheney. Richly ironic, coming from a man who avoided service in the military during wartime some forty years ago. And doubly ironic (and, indeed, "richly" fits here in more ways than one), since today Halliburton's CEO announced that he was moving his office to Dubai. To be closer to the oil.

And infuriating. The government in which Cheney is second-in-command (or heads, depending on who's talking) has created a war under false pretenses, failed to properly equip the soldiers it's sending into harm's way, refused to enter into any sort of negotiations that might help defuse the situation until today--almost 3 years and more than 3000 American lives later--, refuses basic legal rights to anyone it decides doesn't deserve them, and has essentially created a facist dictatorship in the United States.

So why are his statements today even being reported? There's no credibility left in the Bush administration, so this sort of spin should be named for what it is--another part of the neverending and continuous attempt to create a reality by repeating lies and false talking points, over and over again. It's clearly not working, given the polls. But still it goes on. And still these draft-dodging chicken hawks get respect from the press, despite the blood on their hands of thousands of Americans and countless thousands of Iraqis. And all for a series of lies--and to pay back Hussein. And to distract all of us from the administration's manifest failures across the boards.

And like sheeple, we're distracted. We have the government we deserve.

Taking Care of Veterans

2007-03-06T21:13:00.000-05:00

So now we have it confirmed by The Washington Post expose of conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington: not only are the coffins of the military dead from Iraq and Afghanistan hidden from view, so too are the wounded veterans relegated to moldy walls and substandard treatment. Joseph L. Galloway's angry editorial for McClatchy Newspapers, printed in the Austin (Texas) American Statesman -- at least that's where I found it, although it's syndicated, states it best--

Who among the smiling politicians - who regularly troop over to the main hospital at Walter Reed for photo-op visits with those who've come home grievously wounded from the wars the politicians started - have bothered to go the extra quarter-mile to see the unseen majority with their rats and roaches?

read the whole article at http://www.statesman.com/opinion/content/editorial/stories/02/25galloway_edit.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=45

Once again we have the twisting of reality for appearances--the photo op with the veterans (and precious little of
that), who are then shoved aside when they're no longer useful as props.

Army Surgeon General Lt. Gen. Kevin C. Kiley, left, talks with Marine Aaron Schoenfeld of Navarre, Fla. on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, March 6, 2006, prior to Kiley testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center

And President Bush addressed the American Legion convention today, and had the gall to sternly announce that conditions at Walter Reed "unacceptable to me" and "are not going to continue." Excuse me? Who's been in charge since 2000? Isn't it a bit late to suddenly discover shameful conditions in what was in the past the shining example of our country's providing for veterans who need medical treatment? And despite the rhetoric in today's speech, veterans and care for veterans have been conspicuously low on Mr. Bush's agenda. You can read his entire speech at http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/03/20070306-1.html -- it's deeply infuriating. And it's also infuriating to read his smarmy humor. And this on the day that the Vice President's former chief of staff was convicted of lying to a grand jury over the out of a CIA agent. Have they, to paraphrase a famous question asked of Senator Joseph McCarthy over a half century ago, no shame?

And the answer, clearly, is "No. Not a bit." Instead, President and Mrs. Bush host a state dinner this evening for King Abdullah and Queen Rania of Jordan. No Presidential visit to Walter Reed planned.

Our Town ends

2007-02-25T21:51:00.000-05:00

Closed Our Town last night, after a three-week run. Fun to do, especially since I played two very small roles, so wasn't terribly crucial to the success or failure of the piece. It was a good production, however. Not very good photos of my small roles; here I am
as Professor Willard
in the first act; he gives details about the geological and anthropolical context for Grovers' Corners--caricature all the way, but fun to play. And in the last act, I was the undertaker, Joe Stoddard

loved the hat. Sorry the costume folks didn't give me black gloves, however!

Played to mostly full houses; production was in honor of Dr. Roy Bowen, a major figure in Columbus theatre for half a century, who died last year at 93; Our Town was his favorite play--and the production was truly an appropriate homage--terrific press, great response, and an auspicious debut for director Jimmy Bohr. Terrific performance from alumus Glenn Peters as the stage manager, and guest performers Damian Bowerman as Doc Gibbs and Mary Gray as Mrs. Webb. Good performances from first year MFA students Kal Poole, Julie Ann McMillan, and Bruno Lovric as Editor Webb, Mrs. Gibbs, and Simon Stimson, respectively. And undergraduates Cole Simon and Angela Henderson were moving as George and Emily. Good show all around. Was happy to have been a part, however small.

snow!

2007-02-14T22:01:00.000-05:00

This week's blizzard left several inches of snow on the deck in the back yard
and filled the bird feeder

leaving a cushion of snow on the table and chairs

and since I'm newly clean-shaven for a production of Our Town at Ohio State--and clean-shaven for the first time in forty years!--the cold is particularly noticeable!

After Our Town, readings of five short plays for International Women's Day on March 8th--details at http://osureadings.blogspot.com -- plays by members of the International Centre for Women Playwrights that we archive in the Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee Theatre Research Institute.

Our Town -ing

2007-02-07T17:19:00.000-05:00

After all these years, I'm back on the stage--the brief appearance last spring for Women at Play's Hungry Hearts hardly counts, since I was on for only about three lines. Now I'm in Ohio State's production of Our Town in two fairly small roles: Professor Willard in the first act, and Joe Stoddard, the undertaker, in the third. A new faculty member, Jimmy Bohr, is directing, and asked me to be in it--since Jimmy had done a reading for me in November, of Emily Mann's Meshugah as the first step in what may become an ongoing Jewish Theatre Festival (and more about that at http://beyondborschtbelt.blogspot.com/), it was the least I could do. Memorizing lines is the most difficult part -- don't think I've gotten through a single rehearsal without a flub of some sort. Ah, well. It opens tomorrow. February 8th, and plays through the 25th. More about it at http://theatre.osu.edu, and a feature story in the OSU faculty/staff news magazine, http://www.oncampus.osu.edu/article.php?id=1095

Supporting Our Troops

2007-01-25T22:31:00.000-05:00

Participated in an event organized by MoveOn on January 24th outside the Columbus office of Senator George Voinovich, Ohio's senior senator. We presented petitions urging the Senator to support the non-binding resolution being presented by Senator Hagel and others strongly disagreeing with President Bush's plan to escalate the conflict in Iraq by sending in 21,000 additional troops. Three of us spoke: Lance Shrefler, a World War II veteran, Karen McCoy, whose son has served in Iraq and who'll be returning, and me--representing the veterans of the Vietnam war.
Here I am, saying my piece

Lance addresses the group

And Karen, on crutches because of a sprain, talks about her son.

In the end, the resolution passed the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations with bipartisan support. Senator Voinovich voted against it, although he's criticized the President's plan (and did so after the State of the Union speech the previous night). We did get some coverage, and had a segment on the Ohio News Network (a cable network) in the evening. And the event was videotaped by one participant, and posted on YouTube by Greg Hoke, who organized it; it's at www.youtube.com/watch?v=FsWJ77H4Isk

and the text of my comments:

My name is Alan Woods. I’ve lived in Columbus for 34 years. I’m a decorated veteran of the war in Vietnam, where I served from late 1965 through late 1966. I’m also the parent of a currently-serving military person who spent much of 2004 on a Navy destroyer in the Persian Gulf and off the horn of Africa. I know about futile wars. I fought in one, and saw men die in battles over villages or territory that we had previously captured--often three or four times before. My unit spend much of that year in the same province, refighting the same battle. After returning to the United States, I watched a president escalate by sending increasing numbers of military into a sectarian civil conflict that was impossible to win. Now we are led by another president who ignores the clear will of American citizens, and the advice of many of his own military leaders. Fortunately, at least members of Congress are heeding the mandate of the last election. I ask Senator Voinovich to support the bipartisan resolution opposing this senseless escalation, and to start a responsible exit from Iraq. We need to end our involvement, not expand it.

Yet More Cannon Fodder

2007-01-11T00:01:00.000-05:00

Well, as expected: more troops to Iraq. To get it right. 21,000 more Americans to be placed in harm's way for a failed policy by a failed Administration. To quote the old song, "When will they ever learn? When will they ever learn?" I only hope that the Congress can stop the madness, through denial of funding to support blind folly. But I despair.

Readings and End of Year Stuff--

2006-12-21T23:37:00.000-05:00

2006 draws to a close; the war in Iraq doesn't, and gets more tragically nutty each day--including the astonishing events of the past couple of weeks--a blue ribbon Iraq Study Group concludes that it's a disaster, the President concludes he'll ignore their report, the new Secretary of Defense has to go to Iraq to see what's going on (hasn't he been watching television or listening to the radio for the past four years?), and yesterday the President admits he hasn't had a strategy, but is now actaully going to get one! And close to 3000 American soldiers are dead, and more will die before there's an official strategy! For this Vietnam veteran, that's uncomfortably familiar. Thousands of American soldiers died in Vietnam after Nixon was elected and revealed he really had no plan, but rejected the North Vietnamese offers, then--years later--accepted essentially the same offers. Why must we repeat history because of the hubris and arrogance of our leaders? Who are now literally swimming in blood, as did the hubristic and arrogant leaders before them, who also ignored the lessons of history. Not to mention common sense.

And the equally tragically and nutty idea of sending still more troops--the 'surge' in troop numbers that's now being widely discussed. Stretching thin an already thin to the point of real danger to our national security military--it's no wonder that active, onduty troops are now organizing in protest against being deployed into combat with no clear mission. More about that movement at www.appealforredress.org --but the sight of active duty military publically questioning the validity of the commander in chief is astonishing. Along with the number of recently-retired generals also saying publically that this whole venture is a colossal blunder.

High expectations for the new Congress and its Democratic majority. As well as for the new Democratic officeholders in Ohio--although there are troubling signs locally. The Republican majority in the Ohio Senate and House has passed a number of bills that will restrict our new, incoming Governor, and a couple of bills changing or limiting initiatives passed by the voters before their majority, which still being maintained, will be reduced beyond the veto-proof level with the new legislature taking office in a week or so. Slimbags.

But at least good response to the reading at the beginning on the month of the short play I wrote for the Senior Theatre League meeting in St. Louis last October; here's the audience at Gallery 202 in Westerville for the reading of Who's Herbert? -- filling out the evening with Nancy Gall-Clayton's Levels of Living.

and the happy playwright with the Westerville cast: Ira "Bill" Simons, Sarah Worthington, and Tatyana Yassenoff. More at www.osureadings.blogspot.com --but putting the reading together was a pleasant distraction from the horrors of what our government is doing abroad.

Also meetings of the Clintonville Area Commission's Education Committee, with further awful news about the effects of "No Child Left Behind"--our government doing to us domestically what it's doing to the Iraqiis in the Middle East. But no more of that--far too depressing a note to end the year on. So we celebrate achievements both personally and politically, and hope that the overwhelming rejection of the Bush program at the ballot box in November will have some effect, and not be simply ignored. Onward to a more just and same world in 2007!

From St. Louis in October/Senior Theatre League meeting

2006-11-25T15:02:00.000-05:00

A bit late, but some images from the Senior Theatre League of America meeting in St. Louis in late October; here's the arch,

and the arch's shadow
from the arch itself.

The STLA meeting was itself pretty good. Lots of contacts, lots of performances, ranging from groups that produce lively musical revues, to serious drama. My short play, "Who's Herbert?" was acted by Sarah Worthington of Columbus and Pat Barnett, of Salt Lake City; they were both part of the Theatre and Aging Seminar last July, and asked me to write something for them to perform in St. Louis. It was well-enough received that we'll be performing it again next month in Westerville, Ohio, at Gallery 202. Sarah will repeat, while Pat's role will be taken by Tatyana Yassenoff.

My collegue, Joy Reilly, brought her performance group, Howling at the Moon, who also performed. And OSU photographer Jo McCulty came along to check out the world of Senior Theatre. A side benefit was being able to visit with OSU alumna Barbara Kachur, now chair of the English Department at the University of Missouri--St. Louis. Barb and Joy were featured speakers at the old American Theatre Association Debut Panel for new scholars in San Diego back in 1980; here they are a quarter of a century later, both highly successful.

Dr. Joy C. Reilly and Dr. Barbara A. Kachur in St. Louis, 2006

As Barb's advisor and Joy's co-advisor, I was pleased to see them together again-- even if the event was a bit bittersweet, since the Education Theatre Association of America, the sponoring organization for the Senior Theatre League, has announced the severing of ties between the two groups. Seems a bit quick, after only three years--but times are hard, and the STLA apparently wasn't generating enough income.

Well, stuff happens, as (now former) Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld so famously said. Now on to the Eileen Heckart Drama for Seniors competition, which will start up in January for the third round of seeking new plays for senior performers and audiences.

Elections! Democrats Sweep!

2006-11-08T13:25:00.000-05:00

Great results from yesterday's elections! A virtual Democratic sweep of state offices, and federal ones as well -- along with a cliffhanger in our Congressional district, as we wait for absentee ballots and provisional ballots to decide whether or not Mary Jo Kilroy will unseat Deborah Pryce. We spent Election Day in various ways: Ann was a circuit rider, checking on poll watchers at five different precincts all day, while I spent the afternoon (from 1 to the polls' closing at 7:30) at a single precinct. The good news: Ted Strickland (here, celebrating with his wife, Frances) is the new governor of Ohio!

And Sherrod Brown, kissing his wife, Connie Schultz, is the new Senator, unseating Mike DeWine

while Jennifer Brunner, a smart and savvy judge, replaces the partisan Ken Blackwell as Secretary of State

and County Commissioner Dewey Stokes, defeated by Democrat Marilyn Brown, is here consoled by Congresswoman Deborah Pryce--who has a very slim lead over Mary Jo Kilroy, startling for the fourth-ranking Republican member of Congress, who ran an exceptionally dirty campaign with repeated lies and misleading statements of Kilroy's positions--then painted herself as the victim of dirty politics! We even got a mailing yesterday which said Kilroy would destroy Social Security if elected--when it was Pryce who was the point person for the failed effort to privatize Social Security last year!

These wins despite the attempts at voter suppression (which had an effect) through the new voter identification law pushed through by Republicans and enforced through vastly confusing rulings by Blackwell's office: first driver's licenses needed current addresses, then they didn't. Then they did. Then they didn't. Then you had to bring a current utility bill with your name and address. And so forth. Court challenges, conflicting rulings. All aimed at who? The elderly, students, and low income people. Truly despicable efforts, in effect reinstituting a poll tax-like suppression of those who would be likely to vote Democratic.

Despite that: almost a clean sweep, of landslide porportions. And I'm sure it was only the landslide porportions which made stealing the election impossible. Lots of reports of problems with the voting machines. OK: can we return to paper ballots now, folks?

Cut and Run

2006-10-21T14:27:00.000-04:00

We hear much from the Adminstration and its surrogates these days about how those opposed to the war in Iraq want to 'cut and run.' Those surrogates include my representative, Congresswoman Deborah Pryce (Ohio 15th distict), the 4th ranking Republican in the House and a staunch supporter of Secretar Rumsfeld. As she said recently, he's doing a good job, and he should be allowed to do his job. (She also said she'd visited Iraq and all the people there were delighted we'd liberated them. Guess she hasn't seen much news coverage in the last year or so.)

I thought I'd check out the phrase. Turns out it means rather the opposite of what the Adminstration thinks it means. 'Cut and run' is a nautical term. Say you're the Captain of a ship, tied up at a dock in a harbor--as here, the Clipper City is docked in Baltimore's Inner Harbor.

And a storm starts brewing.

photo by STG1 Kathryn Woods Prentice, USN

What do you do? If you stay docked, turbulent waters are apt rock your ship back and forth, smashing it against the dock. So you cut the line that secures you to the dock, and run before the storm into open water, staying clear of docks (and other ships) until the storm passes.

Seems to me that cutting and running makes a lot of sense. That's what we should be doing in Iraq: cutting away from our losses and running ahead of the storm, rather than doggedly staying lashed to a bad policy and getting battered against the docks. That's why I'm supporting Mary Jo Kilroy for Congress in the 15th District.

Travels and readings

2006-10-11T20:34:00.000-04:00

Much travel of late; here are my colleagues Nena Couch and Beth Kattelman and me with Janet Waldo Lee at her home in Encino, California, in September; Janet's the widow of playwright Robert E. Lee, herself a wellknown voiceover actress (Judy Jetson, most famously; also Morticia Addams in the animated Addams Family, Penelope and the Pussycats, and many, many more).

In Los Angeles in late September; here I am with fellow Fellows of the College of the American Theatre John Cauble of U.C.L.A. and screenwriter/playwright Fay Kanin; we were at the presentation of the Margo Jones Medal posthumously to Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee, both of whom were also Fellows of the organization based at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.

and with Columbus friend Carol Shelton at the Theatre and Aging seminar in July

Food Porn

2006-09-22T22:15:00.000-04:00

from DragonFly Neo-V vegan restaurant in Columbus--one of our favorite places-- www.dragonflyneov.com --these were among our meals with Kat and Pat during their stay here before leaving for Japan.

heirloom tomatoes

two views of polenta with melon granita topped with deepfried basil

Playwrights and campaigning

2006-09-15T22:37:00.001-04:00

First, family. Daughter Kathryn and husband Patrick here for short visit prior to departure for three years in Japan. Celebrated their first wedding anniversary with us--

and at the Clintonville Arts and Music Festival

where they bought a mosaic dog

and we talked politics with a couple wearing stickers for Ted Strickland; we're, of course, in our Kilroy shirts

In August, hosted the third annual retreat for the International Center for Women Playwrights. Here Robert Monoghan and Carol Shelton read from a work in progress

and Scottish playwright Margaret McSeveney, Maine playwright Carolyn Gage, and Boston playwright Geralyn Horton sing to Andrea Jill Higgins's playing a song from a new musical she and Carolyn are writing.

Geralyn makes a point

and volunteer actors Greg Fusco and Bev Brewton read a scene in progress

Campaigning

2006-08-30T21:40:00.000-04:00

Back at Deborah Pryce's office at the end of August--focussing on the costs to local taxpayers of the Iraq war Pryce has supported. Over $660 milllion to date.

We've also spent time doing volunteer work for Mary Jo Kilroy (www.kilroyforcongress.com) in Ohio's 15th District. All indications are positive--and from the sudden influx of expensive 4-color brochures from Pryce (all franked, of course, so we're paying for the mailings, if not the printing--which, come to think of it, we probably are, since although they're clearly campaign material, they're billed as newsletters or surveys) that have arrived in the last couple of weeks, she's running scared. Polls seem to show a dead heat at this point, which is a bit astounding. So there's hope for some progressive representation at last!

Anniversaries--and more dismal news from the Middle East

2006-08-23T22:08:00.000-04:00

An exhilirating week last week, hosting the third retreat for members of the International Center for Women Playwrights--ten playwrights here writing during the days, then in the evenings cold readings of what they were working on with local performers. Also working as dramaturg for CATCO, our local professional theatre, and their production of original short plays, Ghost Light: The Shorts Festival 2006. That last brought me downtown today for a meeting--the theatre's across from the State Capitol. More news while driving home of corruption and graft on the funding for Katrina recovery, echoing the corruption and graft on suppliers in Iraq. Which reminded me--earlier in the month was the one-year anniversary of an explosion which killed eleven members of Lima Comapny, 3rd Battalion, 25th Marines--a reserve company based in Columbus which, during its seven-month deployment in Iraq, lost a total of 23 men. The parents of one of the men killed last August joined us at a MoveOn vigil we organized to commemorate the 2000th American service member to die last fall. Aaron had been dead less than a month. Their memories made the vigil powerfully moving for the dozen of us gathered in the ravine with votive candles.

In June, "Eyes Wide Open", a travelling exhibit organized by the Quakers, visited Columbus. Here are some images of it, in front of the same State Capitol:

A pair of boots for every service member killed in Iraq was set on on the lawn, with tags attached giving their name, rank, age, branch of service, and home town. The boots were set out by state.
Here are Aaron's boots

and the view towards downtown office buildings.
In the center were shoes, slippers, and other footwear representing the Iraquis who've died.

After a week of being surrounded by creativity and artistry (and more about the retreat is available at http://icwpohioretreat.blogspot.com, which I hope captures some of the excitement that was palpable in the rehearsal rooms and theatre spaces), it was jarring to be returned to the world where politicians and profiteers and pundits all surround themselves with graft and outrageous profits, while other people suffer and die--apparently regarded as nothing more than means to profit or power or both.

And worse. In yesterday's Columbus Dispatch, Michael Barone, a syndicated columnist, accuses those who fail to celebrate the glories of the United States's past and its long history of bringing democracy to the world of being "covert enemies" which are equated with terrorists; in his words, "[t]hese covert enemies are those among our elites who have promoted the ideas labeled as multiculturalism, moral relativism and (the term is Samuel Huntington’s) transnationalism." Moral relativism, slipped in there, becomes the center piece, as those 'covert enemies' apparently publically proclaim that Adolf Hitler was entitled to his point of view.

Fifty years ago, when Senator Joseph McCarthy talked about a "fifth column" of traitors, the Communists were the villains. Now the connection is made to Hitler. The tactic is the same: slime those who disagree with you or who challenge the hegemony in any way. Discussing the fact that some of our Founding Fathers were slave holders is apparently equivalent to supporting the Holocaust.

And, of course, Barone's approach is not original with him. The drumbeats began in the early spring, all going in the same direction: to challenge the Administration is be cowardly, if not downright treasonous. Lieberman's primary defeat gives comfort to terrorists. To argue that there should be some reasonable exit strategy to extracate ourselves from the growing civil war in Iraq is defeatist, "cut and run!"

A side note. "Cut and run" is a naval term. It's what you did when tied up at anchor, and a particularly dangerous storm was approaching. You cut the lines keeping your ship moored at the dock--a dangerous place to be if strong winds were bashing the ship against the dock--and ran before the wind out to sea, for safety. Cutting and running is a wise defensive maneuvre, meant to protect the ship and its crew. As with so many other terms, the radical right has managed to totally subvert and distort the original meaning. In its original sense, cutting and running is precisely what American policy in Iraq should be.

Just when you think it can't get any worse . . .

2006-07-27T10:37:00.000-04:00

Our Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Prime Minister Fuad Siniora of Lebanon in Rome, July 27, 2006; the body language tells us how prepared she is to deal with the emerging crisis in Lebanon.

Well, after all the war news of the past week, and the long delayed trip of our Secretary of State to Lebanon and Israel and Rome, with no results at all, it seemed like things couldn't get much worse. No surprise that things can indeed get worse! Items:
--the Wall Street Journal reports that fundamentalist American talibanista John Hagee leads a Christian movement urging Israel on to greater warfare in hopes of jumpstarting Armageddon. Hagee's craziness is documented on http://www.jhm.org/home-new.asp --take a look. Here's a sample:

Become a Part of Biblical Prophecy For I will take you out of the nations: I will gather you from all the countries and bring you back into your own land. Ezekiel 36:24 (NIV)
Through John Hagee Ministries, Christians are joining forces with the Jewish people to rescue Jews from all around the world who wish to relocate to Israel. To date, John Hagee Ministries has donated in excess of $8.5 million to bring Jews from around the world to Israel. We have done this with the generous help of our partners throughout the Western Hemisphere.

As Christians, we must recognize the critical importance of the Jewish people in God’s plan for us all. We must, in direct fulfillment of Jeremiah's prophecy, help bring God’s people home to Israel.

The rapturous glee with which the American fundamentalists are greeting the new battles in Lebanon is its own obscenity, of course; along with the drumbeats for attacking other Middle East nations (Syria appears to be in the Administration's crosshairs at the moment, although there's still ominous mutterings about Iran), sure gives credence to those who are now suggesting that World War III has already begun.

--the Columbus Dispatch reports this morning that a Republican operative has sent out an email accusing Democratic gubernatorial candidate Ted Strickland and his wife of, among other things, being gay. The Ohio Republican party head didn't disavow the email, only saying that their campaign's "social conservative coordinator" message was sent on his own. The Dispatch story is at:

http://www.dispatch.com/news/news.php?story=dispatch/2006/07/27/20060727-A1-03.html

the mud slinging has already started, and the Republicans have already started playing the gay card. It can only get worse.

Short Play in Kitchener

2006-07-03T14:41:00.000-04:00

My short play, Last Call, will be produced in Kitchener, Ontario, as part of the Asphalt Jungle Shorts Festival in September. Details at http://www.skyedragon.com/asphalt.html

ComFest, Pride March, Politics--and bread

2006-06-26T00:08:00.000-04:00

A busy week. This was the 34th annual Community Festival in Columbus, an event begun in 1972 as a university area, radical student event. It's grown and moved to Goodale Park just north of downtown Columbus a number of years ago. Although it retains its radical, post-hippie sensibilities. Lots of craft artists, leftist and progressive political groups, environmentalists, animal rights folks, and so forth. And several hundred thousand others. We usually wind up volunteering at community or political booths. This year, we were to be at the booth sponsored by the Coalition of Democratic and Progressive Organizations of Central Ohio (grand name, no?), groups that grew out of the 2004 election campaign efforts and decided to continue on after the disappointing results of that election (about which more later). (The Coalition's activities are at www.coalitioncentralohio.org ) That was for Sunday afternoon. But since Ann thought she might put some of her 'Some Women Are Born Leaders' tee-shirts at the booth for sale, we went down late Saturday morning.

The booth was too busy with various groups (including our own Uptown Progressives) and representatives for candidates to put out the shirts. But we ran into the formation of the Pride Parade, about to start at Goodale Park, the ComFest site.

A church group heads down State Street

The Marching Flaggots of Central Ohio

We wound up marching with the Kilroy for Congress group.

Which meant a long walk as part of the march, and an even longer walk back to the car. But there's nothing quite so exhilarating as rounding a corner from a side street onto the main north/south artery and finding some 80,000 cheering people lining the sidewalks.

the kelly green shirts are for Kilroy

The march was logical, since we'd hosted a fundraiser for Mary Jo the night before, sort of! We'd worked with the campaign to set up a house party, invited a bunch of folks over, cleaned the house, bought food and wine, and then had the event cancelled--Mary Jo couldn't make it. We had the party anyway, although it was no longer a fundraiser. But we had a great time, and had a lot of terrific conversations about politics, both secular and religious (the Episcopal Church had just finished their convention in Columbus, and a couple of gay Episcopalian activists were with us).

Here's the group on the deck

Sunday we were back at ComFest, at the Coalition booth. Good conversations again, and very reinforcing to be with like-minded folks.

And more bread on the testing circuit; this time all rye. With decent results. The bread testing is fun, although the freezer is filling up with loaves; will have to start giving some away soon!

Protesting a Congresswoman's ties to defense contractors

2006-06-13T11:13:00.000-04:00

Tim Revel photo, Columbus Dispatch, 6/12/06

Here I am presenting letters to Congresswoman Deborah Pryce's press secretary as part of the MoveOn.org 'Red Handed' series of ads aimed at seated congresspeople (poster in background shows a bit of the redhand on Congresswoman Pryce, pictured with Tom DeLay). The event, for which I was the representative spokesperson as a veteran, highlighted the seeming connection between Congresswoman Pryce's having accepted donations from defense contractors, then having voted against a bill which would have established oversight. The Dispatch article, at http://www.dispatch.com/news/news.php?story=dispatch/2006/06/12/20060612-B5-00.html takes the 'outside interests' approach, pretty much ignoring the reasons why we were there in the first place, although it does get mentioned, however briefly! And not a bad photo of the back of my head! Pity no view of my face.
here's a photo of our 'motley group'

I brandish letters to the Congresswoman, demanding she return oil money

All the more reason, of course, to support Mary Jo Kilroy for the 15th District!

as always, http://kilroyforcongress.com

We learned the following week that Time Warner cable locally was refusing to run the MoveOn "Red Handed" spot on defense contractors donations--so that caused another demonstration, a protest at their studios.

I'm in dirty jeans, talking to Justin Symonds, because I'd been gardening. Hardly the radical occupation!

Time Warner had the class to provide water and cookies--the kids especially appreciated that!

Thinking about migration

2006-05-31T22:02:00.000-04:00

All the blather over the past few weeks about illegal immigrants, the news that the National Guard will be joining the effort to guard the border, plans for fences, and the really scary Minutemen people taking the law into their own hands got me thinking. Illegal immigration is, of course, a problem--both in human and economic costs. But a couple of thoughts--
--why aren't major business interests being more vocal about hte problem? Could it be they like cheap labor?

Mexican workers going to the fields

--Could the concerted effort to break unions and reduce wages have some connection with the oft-repeated statement that we need immigrants because they do the jobs Americans don't want to do? Americans were perfectly happy doing many of those same jobs in the past. What's changed?

--why is it that the attention appears to be almost exclusively on Mexican and other Central/South American migrants, and our southern border? The border with Canada appears to be virtually porous--but I don't remember hearing anything about posting national guardsmen on the northern borders of Washington State, Idaho, and Montana.

Photo Copyright © Manuel Echavaria These farm workers are picking chili at Santa Maria in 1971.

--so I just wonder--could the fact that these illegal immigrants have dark skins be part of the concern, even if unstated? Is this another aspect of our basic racism, still prevalent if less publically expressed than in the past? Why isn't there the same public bloviating by politicians and pundits about the waves of illegal Asian immigrants? Oh, of course; they disappear into Chinese restaurants and laundries.

After all, as Ronnie Gilbert sang some twenty years ago, "We all came here in separate ships/But we're in the same boat now!" (on the Lifeline album with Holly Near). Most of us are the children of immigrants from someplace, either welcomed or not, legal or illegal. Don't really know about my own family, although a generally specious family history has us coming from Scotland by way of Ireland in the seventeenth century. Ann's family is from Italy--her mother's parents from Sicily, her father from Naples. Her maternal grandparents arrived in much the same way as the folks in the archival photo below:

Italians en route to America at the turn of the century.

I have no solutions. But it seems to me that addressing the economic engines driving all this should be part of the discussion. Why don't Americans want to do the jobs that illegal immigrants take? What about the pay and working conditions stop poor Americans? Shouldn't that be addressed? Shouldn't the businesses that hire illegal immigrants be involved in the solutions?

On Memorial Day

2006-05-31T14:10:00.000-04:00

Memorial Day seems more powerful this year than before. Perhaps because of the continuing, and escalating, violence in both Iraq and Afghanistan. Perhaps due to worries about our daughter in the Navy, and her new husband, just retired. And perhaps because the day caused an outpouring of press coverage of veterans, and particularly those coming home from the Mideast. And also because of the course I'm teaching on censorship, which had me checking out radical websites so as to challenge the students, who tend toward the libertarian view that censorship is bad in general, but that one needs to protect children. That led me the protests from the Westboro Baptist Church, the Phelps family enterprise that's picketing funerals of servicepeople since, the Phelps family believes, the war is God's punishment on the US since it's become so liberal and pro gay rights; this photo, from the AP's Haraz N. Ghanbari, shows a passer-by shouting at the demonstrators as they picketed at Arlington National Cemetery on Memorial Day.

The look on John Keck's face says it all

To get a sense of what these 'Christians' do, here are a couple of photos, from their website--which has to be seen to be believed--www.godhatesfags.com--of their appearances at funerals in Indiana and Illinois earlier this month, and one from Illinois in April. I've seen these folks picketing the Gay Pride Parade in Columbus and, as is clear on the website and their various flyers, they're quite sincere.

They're happy to attract attention

and utterly convinced of their righteousness

This should all be no real surprise--religious intolerance obviously has a long history around the world, and "Christians" have been in the forefront of doing hideous things in the name of a diety for the past two thousand years. Still, it remains disquieting to see these wholesome Kansans smiling happily while spewing hate, and cheerfully documenting the anger their protests cause as further proof of the inevitable decline and decay of the United States. So just as religious extremists in Iraq murder tennis players for wearing shorts in public and slaughter members of other Islamic sects, Taliban followers stab women in Afghanistan, Orthodox Serbs kill Moslem Albanians in the Balkans, and Christian militia kill Moslem tribesmen and women in Darfur, we have our own, homegrown Taliban in the United States. It's hardly shocking that these folks should demonstrate at Arlington on Memorial Day--where better to get national coverage, rather than just the local coverage they gain at real funerals? Except it seems not to have worked; a web search turned up only the photo at top, on AP--none of the Westboro church folks, and only a passing mention in a couple of the press stories about ceremonies at the Cemetery of the small group of protesters. More stories about the new law President Bush signed on Memorial Day that limits demonstrations at military funerals, mentioning why the legislation was necessary.

And, of course, President Bush spoke at the ceremonies at the tomb of the unknown soldier. He predictably used the occasion to promise that our forces will stay in Iraq as long as it takes to defeat 'terrorism'; it was reported that the President teared up while speaking of the sacrifices made; "I'm in awe of the men and women who sacrifice for the freedom of the United States of America," he's quoted as saying. Meanwhile, the count of American military deaths is almost 2500, and yesterday, 96 Iraqis died at the hands of insurgents.

The President at Arlington

I won't belabor the deep irony of such brave words from our Commander-in-Chief who himself avoided active military service; it's particularly easy to be in awe of sacrifice when one took care not to be in a position to be asked to sacrifice. It's also easy to speak firmly and bravely about staying the course and being resolute when one has no personal stake in the matter--none of the President's family or friends or political colleagues have connections with the war or military. And what did the President do on Memorial Day weekend? Gave a speech at West Point, telling newly commissioned second lieutenants that they were about to go out and save the world. A question: how many military funerals has the President attended? How many fallen soldiers, sailors, and marines has he personally honored? The answer, of course, is none. Plenty of photo ops with flags, but funerals? Which might remind folks about the continuing death and destruction in our 'let's bring democracy to the world' wake.

But I digress. Memorial Day marks the sacrifices made over the past two centuries and lets us celebrate those true patriots who served when called, even if the cause was not necessarily the right one or even a just one. The war I fought in was unjust, and should never have happened--but that doesn't lessen the sacrifices members of the armed services made in that war, although it does make the evil of the leaders of the day more manifest, and makes the sacrifices far more poignant.

The Government Protects Us Yet Again!

2006-05-23T17:03:00.000-04:00

I was going to talk about immigration, when the story about the personal data of 26.5 million--that's 26.5 MILLION -- veterans being stolen from a Veterans Adminstration employee--who took a laptop home with him. Here are some of our good leaders reassuring us that everything's really ok

AP - Mon May 22, 5:13 PM ET Veterans Affairs Secretary James Nicholson, right, and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, answers reporters questions at the Justice Department in Washington, Monday, May 22, 2006 to discuss stolen personal data of U.S. veterans stolen from a VA employee's home. (AP Photo/Lawrence Jackson)

Stuff happens, right? Just another typical day of our adminstration's carefully chosen, competent, leaders running things with their usual efficiency, careful planning, and foresightedness, heading off potential problems. It's good to know that our affairs and records remain in such good hands. Thank goodness there wasn't a real emergency; although that might have allowed the Bush appointees to really strut their stuff.

On Aging, playreadings, productions, and colds

2006-05-20T22:46:00.000-04:00

Updates: busy weeks, slowed down by a knockout cold. Briefly: busy with seminars on Theatre and Aging that a colleague and I will be doing as two-week intensives in July. Webpage now available at www.seniortheatre.com/html/osu_theatre___aging_seminars.html through Art Age Publications, Bonnie Vorenberg's site for all things senior. I'm doing theory and history and literature of the field, while colleage Joy Reilly's doing the handson how-to section. We did the first last summer, and worked pretty well--so we'll be finetuning this summer, plus a massive push to try to get enrollment from people working in the field (retirement communities and the like).

Also continuing plans for the Jewish Theatre Festival, "Beyond the Borscht Belt," that has its first event next November. Just after I should be getting back from Senior Theatre Festival in St. Louis, set for October. Also had a whirlwind trip to Chicago for a reading of Caridad Svich's new piece, The Tropic X, at Teatro Vista. As always, a solid piece--two teenagers in a sordid tourist Caribbean town trying to survive the exploitation that surrounds them, and eventually destroys them. Like all her work, the play is written in intensely lyrical and heightened language, with a savagely clear view of how exploitation works. More about Teatro Vista and their work at www.teatrovista.org/current.html Well worth the drive up and back (roughly 6 1/2 hours each way)--got to see some old students and catch up. Stopped in Lafayette, Indiana, on the way back to sleep in a motel. Getting too old for all that driving!

Back in Columbus, a good production of Tony Kushner's A Bright Room Called Day at the university, directed by colleague Mo Ryan with intensity and passion. And excellent performances from a mixture of graduate and undergraduate actors. Fascinating play, well done. So a good reading and a good production, both in the same week! Also juried work at the Denman undergraduate honors competition--several of our undergraduates did first rate work (I judged architecture projects, not ones in theatre), and two of them placed in the top five. And as the term is drawing to a close, we're all inundated with projects, theses, etc., needing examinations. So that's busy as well. And still have to get to see mother as often as possible--couldn't visit for the past week because of the cold, although was finally able to stop by today. Her laundry is on now. Also managed to test bake another loaf for the whole wheat book--a multigrain that works pretty well. Also baked some regular pumpernickel this morning, as a bit of relief from the whole wheat! Haven't tasted it yet, but it smells terrific.

And, of course, there's also politics: watching the immigration follies progress, plus the Republicans busily trying to make issues out of gay marriage, flag burning, and immigration.

(Flag burning???? This is an issue???? Who's been burning flags lately? Yet apparently the Senate, led by Dr. Frist, plans to devote a full week to flag burning shortly. Pay no attention to massive illegal phone taps and the creation of databases containing millions of American phone lines that are being monitored. Along with some reporters who might publish embarrassing things about the Adminstration. But more on that when I can focus on politics, or when I can stand to focus on politics.

These, by the way, are the images of the flag

that Senator Frist--and the rest of Congress--should be focussing on. God knows the Administration isn't. Nor are these images appearing in the major press.

Post Election--and Post Wedding

2006-05-10T20:44:00.000-04:00

The election is over, and our favored candidate, Jan Fleming, came in second to John Patrick Carney--he's a former Ohio State student body president (for two years), who managed to get bus passes on the municipal bus system as a benefit for students, so there's a record there. More about him at www.votecarney.com. We'll be working particularly for Mary Jo Kilroy, who's the candidate for the 15th Congressional District, hoping to unseat Deborah Pryce, who's part of the Republican House leadership.

Mary Jo Kilroy; more at http://kilroyforcongress.com/

Mary Jo's a neighbor on the ravine, and a current Franklin County Commissioner. She'll be a fine representative, as we hope to take the House back from the crew of bribe-taking, cynical cronies now in power there.

The political news, of course, just gets worse and worse--more indictments, more confessions, more proof of the illegality of what the President and adminstration are doing. And as an article in this week's Sunday New York Times, "Contra-Contraception," makes clear, the right wing is trying to return us to the 17th century: wanting to ban all contraception, and maintaining that sexual relations are solely for the purpose of procreation (in marriage, of course); that's a position that hasn't been espoused by governments since the days of the Puritans in England. Contraception, it seems, is responsible for all moral decay of modern life--although that flies in the face of all the studies of the effects of contraception. But, as one Congressman is quoted in the Times article is saying, that's just Science, which is just another opinion. (For the complete Times piece, see http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/07/magazine/07contraception.html )

And in Republican primary in Ohio, as predicted, Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell won handily. Blackwell makes Rick Santorum look like a moderate (asnd on a side note, there's Dan Savage's brilliant use of Santorum's name: www.spreadingsantorum.com/ -- as inspired as his more recent 'impeach the mother fucker already campaign, http://www.itmfma.com ) Blackwell campaigned mightilly on a constitutional amendment he's been pushing for a year that would strictly limit government spending, slash taxes and make it virtually impossible to raise them. But now that almost every major group in Ohio has come out against the amendment, citing the irreparable damage it would do to education, social and government services, state funding for municipalities, and the like, suddenly Blackwell's backpedalling as fast as he can.

But on to more pleasant matters, as promised in the heading: brother Gary's younger daugther, Catherine, got married on Saturday at a resort in the Catskills. All guests were required to come in costume, which made for a really fun event. Here's groom Tim as a spaceman, and bride Cat as a dancing girl.

More photos at http://catandtimgetmarried.blogspot.com. None of me--I was taking the photos, after all. And Ann was in Kentucky for the annual UK College of the Arts Distinguished alumnus award--this year to rising young operatic tenor, Gregory Turay. More about that, and images of the award, later. Touray's career is pretty impressive for someone not yet 35--more about him at www.gregoryturay.com -- and listening to the recording of William Bolcom's A View From the Bridge (Turay sings Rudolfo) --as I have while Ann was designing and producing the certificate -- makes it all pretty understandable.

So: politics, weddings, and nothing yet about the theatre and aging work I'm now embarked on. That'll have to wait for another time also!

more hypocrisy--and yet more bread

2006-04-30T22:32:00.000-04:00

With gas prices at the pump going higher and higher, and the primary elections on Tuesday, the political rhetoric is flying fast and furious--and watching politicians suddenly posturing about alternatives and talking about needing to investigate the oil companies to see if they might be profiteering (!!!! I guess that 49% rise in profits announced last week for Chevron, and the record 8.4 billion dollars in profit for Exxon Mobile, were both purely accidental)--and this from people like Senator Frist who saw no need to explore how energy companies coordinated prices or even to question the administration's energy policies only a few months ago, and who've taken record contributions from energy companies and their lobbyists. And, of course, much of this is to distract us all from the spectacle of an Administration adrift on all fronts, led by a man who can barely keep his eyes open at the White House Correspondents' Dinner last night--
probably not hearing Stephen Colbert
But the best political hypocrisy of the week (at least on a national level--the battle for the Republican nomination for the Ohio governor's race has had both major candidates, J. Kenneth Blackwell and Jim Petro, labelling each other hypocrites in a barrage of television commercials all week. And, of course, they're both right) goes to House Speaker Dennis Hastert. Who this week made a pitch for hydrogen powered vehicles in Washington. Here he is riding in one:

And here he is, thinking he's out of camera range, leaving the hydrogen-powered car and getting into his SUV--his gas-guzzling SUV, provided by the government--to be taken the several blocks back to the Capitol.

It's so patently more of the same practice perfected by President Bush and his Rovian band of merry men: do the photo op suggesting one thing, then once the cameras are gone, revert to your old practice--assuming the image is more important than the actuality.

So it was a relief to get back to the actuality of bread--and at least the bread worked this time--a mixed grain whole wheat for the baker for whom I one of a couple of hundred volunteer recipe testers. This is a multi-grain; last time I tried it, it was far too soft. Still a softer bread than we normally like, but good flavor, and pretty good development. Almost entirely whole wheat flour, with a little bit of cornmeal, oats, and (in this try) some barley flour.
a low loaf, but with a slight dome
it makes good sandwiches and toast

and has a decent crumb

Divas, local politics--and bread again

2006-04-24T10:38:00.000-04:00

Three events over the weekend: divas, politics, and bread. First: the divas. Old friend Luke Yankee came in to do his one-person show, Diva Dish, as a benefit for the Eileen Heckart Scholarship Fund at Ohio State. Luke's mother was Eileen Heckart,

Eileen Heckart

the celebrated Broadway actress, winner of Oscar, Tony, Emmies, more awards than can listed, and a central Ohio native and Ohio State alumna. Luke's put together a warm tribute show, telling the many (and wonderful) stories he heard and witnessed growing up as her son.

Eileen and Luke

He performed three times, to enthusiastic crowds, and Ann and I were able to spend some time with him at lunch, and at a reception following the Saturday night show. Luke's also published a book that puts the stories into literary form, Just Outside the Spotlight; it's terrific reading.

More about the show, the book, and Luke himself at http://www.divadish.net/ and at www.lukeyankee.com Eileen was a wonderful actress and great to know, and Luke's terrific in his own right.

Also got to spend a little time with our neighbor, Jan Fleming, now a candidate for the Ohio House of Representatives; see http://www.janfleming.com/ We knew Jan by sight from seeing her running down the street, but really met her through the Kerry campaign and the organization of Uptown Progressives in the past year. She'll make a wonderful state rep, with her background in both higher education and in banking--what a combination! Here's me and Jan at her campaign kickoff party earlier this year:

Alan and Jan schmooze

Then I also continued on my bread recipe testing experiments, following Peter Reinhart's recipes as he develops a new book on whole wheat braed (and there's a great deal more about that whole process at his blog, http://peterreinhart.typepad.com/ Here are some photos of yesterday's bread, a multi-grain loaf. Far too soft, as you can see from the 'shaped' loaf. But a great tasting bread, even if it remained moist (all right, wet) in the middle. Will try again, with more flour and less than the original recipe calls for.

the shaped loaf in the pan: very soft!

it was so soft it stuck to the pan

too moist!

Ah well. All good events, good people, and good (tasting) bread that's now terrific bruschetta. A welcome distraction from the leak follies happening in Washington!!

Thoughts of Easter--and bread

2006-04-17T11:48:00.000-04:00

Now it's Easter Monday. The Christian holiday always makes me think of the sharp distinction between the message in the Christian New Testament, and what contemporary American 'Christians' say and do. Perhaps very well expressed in a post on Daily Kos on Saturday, http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/4/15/6556/58209
that I recommend. And the news of the translation and publication of the 'Gospel of Judas' -- along with the earlier 'gospels' of Thomas and Mary Magdalene -- is a reminder of just have politically and historically determined are both the content and structure of the Christian Scriptures. Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne has an interesting column on the Judas 'Gospel'--see it at http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/editorial/outlook/3795204.html
And how those same Scriptures are used to justify intolerance, injustice, wars, torture, and so forth--all the things that the Jesus portrayed in the Scriptures spoke against. Mark Twain's savage satire of a war prayer still, sadly, remains all too apt. For the full text of Twain's satire, go to http://www.libertystory.net/LSDOCTWAINWARPRAYER.htm

Easter also brings thoughts of bread. And since I'm baking these days to test recipes for a forthcoming book of whole wheat bread (I'm one of some 250 testers, so it's hardly very special!), here are some photos of the most recent experiment: entirely whole wheat flour. Great taste!
cooling on the rack

in profile; didn't dome as well as it could have

and great crumb!

Hypocrisy

2006-04-07T11:32:00.000-04:00

Two politicians, one national, one local. Both revealed this week (not for the first time, of course) as hypocrites. First, our President: according to press reports today, I. Lewis Libby, Vice President Cheney's former chief of staff, now under indictment for having revealed the name of an undercover CIA agent as part of an apparently orchestrated plan to discredit criticisms of the Administration's justification for invading Iraq, has revealed that President George W. Bush personally authorized the release of classified intelligence to reporters as part of that campaign. See coverage at http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0407/dailyUpdate.html

President Bush has said repeatedly that he would fire anybody on the White House staff who leaked classified information to the press. Guess he didn't include himself. And do you suppose his phone is wiretapped, as all of our phones can be, secretly, if the Administration chooses to?

On the state level, Ohio Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell, now running for Governor, may be remembered as the state official who both was Bush's campaign manager in Ohio during the 2004 election as well as being charged with overseeing the election. And who has required that Ohio counties purchase Diebold voting machines, despite widespread accounts of irregularities with those machines (and you may also recall that Walden O'Dell, president of Diebold said he was "committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president" in 2003). It was revealed at the beginning of the week that Blackwell purchased stock in Diebold. And it was revealed today that Blackwell also purchased stock in International Gaming Technology, which manufactures slot machines.

http://www.columbusdispatch.com/?story=dispatch/2006/04/07/20060407-A1-05.html

There's a ballot initiative in Ohio that will be voted on in November to allow slot machines at Ohio race tracks. Blackwell says he's opposed to allow slot machines at race tracks. Guess he's covering his bets.

And the same story reveals that Blackwell--a staunch and vocal opponent of abortion--also owns stock in Barr Pharmaceuticals, the company that manufactures the 'morning-after' abortion pill. Profits always trump ethics, I guess.

The hypocrites remain with us. And are blatant in their hypocrisy. Apparently, the general public doesn't mind very much. After all, neither involves hot button social issues that really matter, such as sex education or gay people's lives.

Night Out

2006-04-05T14:19:00.000-04:00

So a visit from daughter and son-in-law, for the past several days. First time since the wedding in September, and good to see them--even though we've learned that her next Navy post will not be in Tennessee as scheduled--her job there is now being outsourced and civilianized--but in Japan. Pat's now retired from the Navy, and so will be free to accompany her. He made a terrific curry on Monday night; last night, we all went to Dragonfly Neo V, our favorite gourmet vegan restaurant, and, as usual, had a meal to dream about. For appetizers, Kat, Pat, and Ann all had the three seaweed soup; I had oyster mushrooms rockefeller, served on a slice of raw beet. Ann then had a portobello tart; Pat the smoked tofu; I had delicate Japanese mushrooms over tomato risotto, and Kat a dish that she loved, and that I don't remember. All mixtures of exquisite tastes. And started with little tastings of shaved beets topped with fresh flower blossoms and a lentil pate. Not to mention the sour dough baquette with white bean purree. No room for dessert! And sorry not to have photos of the stylish new flatware and china service. More about the restaurant at www.dragonflyneov.com --highest recommendation!

March Madness

2006-03-29T15:02:00.000-05:00

No, it's not about basketball and the final four or whatever. It's about the fact that it's March, and I'm mad. I'm mad that the defense budget's being cut again, that military folks returning from Iraq and Afghanistan and other trouble spots that the chicken hawks in the Bush Administration have sent them to have lower benefits that I received almost 40 years ago, after my two very reluctant years in the U.S.Army (the photo below is of me, taking a break while trying to keep the Viet Cong from overrunning at least one patch of South Vietnam, in 1966. And yes, that's a cigarette. We all smoked then. The Surgeon General hadn't gotten around to telling us that it would kill us all someday, more efficiently than the Viet Cong ever did. But I digress). The GI bill and education benefits helped pay for my graduate education, for which I'm grateful. I wish it hadn't been necessary to pay for the degrees that way, but the funding was available, so I used it.

And now? With the administration having to pay for the follies in the Middle East while simultaneously cutting taxes for their rich friends and family members, they've shredded support for veterans. While at the same time outsourcing much of the military's work to higher paid civilian contractors. It's all about the money, as has become increasingly clear in recent weeks--not about supporting troops, not about equiping them properly, not about planning the Iraqi War from the beginning. And it's infuriating. President Bush's ratings are at an all time low--but let's see how that translates into votes this fall. After all, it's the Congress that's supported these policies, approved the spending and budget cuts, and which bears the ultimate responsibility for the country's business.

A reminder: how many of the present adminstration are combat veterans? One. Jim Nicholson, the Secretary of Veteran's Affairs, served in Vietnam and, like me, earned a Bronze Star medal there (if his also has a 'V' for valor attached to it, it's not mentioned in the official bio). Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld, Secretary of Transportation Mineta, and Attorney General Gonzales all served in the military, but during peacetime. Of the cabinet members and inner circle advisors at the time of the Iraq invasion and its planning, only Colin Powell, then Secretary of State, had combat experience. And his advice was apparently ignored. Paul Wolfowitz, a primary architect of the anti-Iraq effort also never served. And the military records of President Awol and Vice President Too Busy to Serve are well known. Chicken hawks all.

One could also ask how many members of the present Congress have children serving in the military. According to New York Congressman Charles Rangel: one. Again, chicken hawks all.

Our leaders are thus removed from the actuality of war almost entirely. Few have any direct experience of it, virtually none have any personal investment of loved ones in the military. No wonder the government both acts as if the military is an instrument of policy without worrying about the human results, and simultaneously hides their casualties from public view as much as possible--no press coverage of caskets returning to the continental United States, and our leaders have yet to attend a single funeral.

It's March. This war--unjust, unwinnable, unnecessary--has now dragged on for three years. More than 2300 Americans have died in Iraq. See what I'm mad?

The Facist legacy; musings on Strange Fruit

2006-03-15T00:12:00.000-05:00

A screening of Joel Katz's documentary, Strange Fruit, tonight, as part of the Columbus Jewish Film Festival--a history of the Billie Holliday song (written by a Jewish New York schoolteacher active in progressive politics, Abel Meeropol). A deeply moving exploration of the song and its context (for more on the film, see http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/strangefruit/film.html
"Strange Fruit" is, of course, about lynching, and powerfully evokes that peculiarly violent American tradition. What's clear from Katz's film is the linkage between progressive politics, protests against racism and violence, and the deep connections between the struggles against all prejudice, be it racist or anti-Semitic. The linkage between protest and progressive politics is made clear when Meeropol's two sons, Robert and Michael, are interviewed--and we're reminded that they are the sons of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, adopted by the Meeropols after the Rosenbergs' executions in 1953. A montage at the end of the film, which evokes the murders of Matthew Shepherd in Montana, James Byrd in Texas, and other acts of violence caused only by the ethnicity or gender or sexual preference of the victim, makes the lynchings of the past connect powerfully with the present.

Lynchings were, and are, horrendous (and for more on that part of our past, checkout the Without Sanctuary site, http://www.withoutsanctuary.org/main.html). But even more hideous is the other bit of history the film suggests: the use of violence as an oppressive measure by the hegemonic forces of society. What becomes clear in looking at this aspect of our past is the readiness with which a majority finds means to terrify and subdue a minority, to 'keep them in their place,' and to affirm, through violent means, the dominance of the majority view.

Those violent means are often accompanied by dehumanizing the minority 'other'--turning the African-American, the Jew, the Italian, the Indian, the Asian, the Central or South American, the Mexican, the gay, the woman (and fill in the blank here) into something other than fully human, which then removes any compunction about the use of violence. That dehumanizing process is frequently aided by loud public figures, be they politicians (Senator Joseph McCarthy comes to mind), religious leaders (Father Coghlin, Pat Robertson, Rabbi Meir Kahane, Osama Bin Laden, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi), or commentators (Bill O'Reilly and any number of other radio talkers might well qualify). Those being dehumanized are first made into 'others'--and that's on religious grounds, or skin color, or national origin, or--equally frequently--on the basis of political benchmarks: "radical left" "Communists" "free thinkers" "pacifists" "unAmerican antiwar demonstators" "unpatriotic cowards"--the list could go on and on, and does.

This is essentially a facist operation. And it's chilling to see it played out over decades, always encouraged and fomented by the power establishment, always to oppress minorities. In this context, our current adventure in Iraq, and the trashing of anyone who objects or questions as either cowardly or unpatriotic and/or traitorous (see Congressman Murtha's experience, or that of Valerie Plame and Joseph Wilson) is sadly familiar. As is the President's "you're either with us or against us"--setting out a stern warning for those who might disagree.

The main lesson? The facists seem to be always with us. And almost always in power, oppressing anyone who disagrees or might be a threat to their power--or figuring out ways to oppress.

starting

2006-03-10T14:14:00.000-05:00

1948; perhaps a good place to start. A war just over--not that I was at all aware of any of that; the Korean War was the first to penetrate consciousness, just as the first election of Eisenhower was the first national election I found interesting. The latter half of the 40s, by contrast, were all family centered, with little awareness ourside the immediate family circle. So I reached some sort of external awareness, at about the traditional age of reason. By then, the family had moved from Tennessee to Massachusetts. And we were Republicans, although my mother's uncle was at the time a Democratic state senator in Maryland. Don't recall any political discussions from the adults, other than Cold War worries. It was, after all, the time of duck and cover.
Hamilton was about 35 miles north of Boston, on the North Shore--but not on the shore--just inland from Beverly, Ipswich, Essex, Gloucester, which were on the actual coast. When my family moved there in 1949, a highway had just been completed going north into New Hampshire from Boston--an early freeway--which made a commute into Boston by car possible (there was also a train)--but the town was not yet a commuter place. We were among the first families there whose breadwinner--then always the father--actually worked in Boston. The town was otherwise all local people, divided into three widely separated groups, who rarely intermingled: 1) very, very, very rich people, who lived on very, very, very large estates. One was the owner of the United Fruit Company (of Chiquita Banana fame), Mrs. Bessie Preston Cutler. Another was the widow of General George S. Patton--indeed, a tank purported to be General Patton's sat in the center of the small park, called "Patton Park," and we climbed through it when we weren't on the swings or the teeter/totters (which about exhausted the playground equipment. 2) the people who serviced group 1--maids, butlers, groundsmen, gardeners, etc. Since Hamilton was also the home of the Myopia Hunt Club and Golf Course, there were also the folks who kept up the greens and the stables. Supposedly, the Myopia Hunt Club was founded in the nineteenth century by some myopic rich guys; I've no idea if that's true, but the golf course is apparently famous; see http://www.golfclubatlas.com/myopiahunt1.html --like most male kids in town, I served my term as a teenager as a caddy there. Wasn't much good at it, in those pre-golf cart days. 3) the people who serviced group 2 and occasionally group 1: merchants. Hamilton had a small downtown with a train station, a post office, a small grocery store, the 'paper store' where you bought newspapers and sundries (and could buy milk and bread on Sundays when the grocery was closed due to the 'blue laws'), a dry goods store, a bar, and a package store. There were also a few gas stations, some plumbers and contractors, the town librarian, and so forth. What there wasn't: a restaurant, other than a lunch counter at the drug store and a snack bar at the railway station--you had to go elsewhere to buy a meal. There was no movie theatre in town, although films were shown on Friday and Saturday nights at the Community House, an all purpose gathering place near Patton Park; there was also a Saturday matinee film showing, either of the regular weekend film or, if that was thought to be too adult in focus, of a special film for kids. For every kid in town went to the Saturday matinee, which usually turned into a screaming mass of kids; at some point nearly every week, the film was stopped, and the testy manager appeared on the stage in front of the screen to tell us all to shut up, or the film would be cancelled, and we'd have to go home. That usually quieted us down. My family were anomolies, at least at first, belonging to none of the groups. We weren't rich, weren't merchants, weren't part of the service class (most of whom were Irish and Roman Catholic; the merchants and rich were Protestants--the merchants mostly Methodist or Congrationalists, the rich almost exclusively Episcopalian). That made us hard to type. We were also hard to type since my folks were from the south, and had traces of southern accents. And the kids in school--I began second grade in Hamilton, my older brother in fourth grade--had all been together from kindergarten, and so were a cohesive unit. And it was a small school. My grade was the first to have two classrooms of 25 kids each--on the cusp of the baby boom. That was a huge number for the town's school, which up to that point had only a single classroom for each grade. And note that I said the town's school--there was only one, in two buildings: grades 1-6 in a building a block from our house, grades 7-12 three blocks away. So: the town was small. And people who've grown up in small towns know what that means: everybody knows everybody. You know family tragedies, and personal quirks. You don't buy candy at the paper store from just anybody, but from Neil Crockett, the son-in-law of the Millericks who live across the street who's married to their daughter Peggy who's slowly becoming crippled with arthritis. You go to school with the boy whose father was asphyxiated with the babysitter while they were making love in his car in midwinter and left the motor running to keep warm, so they were found nude and dead of carbon monoxide poisoning. And that girl's older sister disappeared one December after growing fatter and fatter, only to return six months later, newly slim, at about the same time her parents adopted a baby who'd been born to distant cousins. And the scoutmaster . . . .
In any event: my folks bought a brand new house, a Cape Cod cottage, with two bedrooms, one bath, and an unfinished attic. Here it is, that first winter (from the vacant lot across the street--the front yard wasn't all that large, even with the non grass strip left for a future sidewalk):