Janis Kliphardt (Emery)

Stewart Myrent

Janis, Sean Grimsley's awe of Sandra Day O'Connor had really nothing to do with the quote I included about water.  I included it because I liked it.  His awe of her, if you'd like to characterize it as such, had way more to do with her ability as an executive, and nothing more.

Janis Kliphardt (Emery)

In light of the Trump Administration’s immigration policies, it is time for all of us to read and re-read the words etched on the Statue of Liberty.

The New Colossus   by Emma Lazarus

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,

With conquering limbs astride from land to land;

Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand

A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame

Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name

Mother of Exiles.  From her beacon-hand

Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command

The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she

With silent lips.  “Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

Janis Kliphardt (Emery)

Texas is pleading with Beto to come home / to stay home and run for U.S. Senate.  It’s not a decision he has to make today, but Americans can hope Beto is serving in political office come January 2021.

In the wake of the El Paso massacre, Beto was asked whether the president bore some responsibility for the tragedy... At last - Beto (for many) - expressed frustration with the press for asking questions they know the answers to...  

“The American Psychological Association recommends prohibiting firearms for high-risk groups like domestic violence offenders or persons convicted of violent misdemeanor crimes.  Research has shown that only a very small percentage of violent acts are committed by people who are diagnosed with, or in treatment for, mental illness.  As our nation tries to process the unthinkable yet again, it is clearer than ever that we are facing a public health crisis of gun violence fueled by racism, bigotry, and hatred.  The combination of easy access to assault weapons and hateful rhetoric is toxic.”

Janis Kliphardt (Emery)

Remember the mean girls? just heard about a mom who demonstrated good advice for all of us... 

The night before the start of middle-school, she gave her daughter one last task to be prepared for the morning... she gave her a tube of toothpaste and asked her to squeeze it out onto a plate.  When the bewildered young girl finished, her mom asked her to put the toothpaste back into the tube - (which of course she couldn’t do).  

Just hearing the story, I hope to carry the visual demonstration with me -

“Our words have power: for good or ill, they carry a lot of weight.  

"We have the opportunity to use our words to hurt, demean, slander, and wound others.  We also have the opportunity to use our words to heal, encourage, inspire, and love others.”  

I think of times I have used words carelessly and caused harm.  

“Just like the toothpaste on the plate, words out of our mouth cannot be taken back. 

“And when words are being misused and emotion escalates, we must especially be on guard and use words carefully.”

“It is our choice - every day - to choose kindness and use life-giving words.” 

Stewart Myrent

Janis, I don't know anything about the "Mean Girls", but I have always loved the closing & timeless lines of the "New Colossus".  It has to make one wonder, what does Lady Liberty stand for these days?  I'm afraid I don't want to seriously consider the answer to that question.  Because it's too damned depressing.  Perhaps your fascination with Beto is not misplaced.  I could easily see him being a front-runner for the Democratic nomination, if not next year, in 2020, but certainly by 2024.  It occurs to me that the 55th Reunion is rapidly approaching.  See you all soon.

Janis Kliphardt (Emery)

We cannot legislate that people love you,

but we can legislate that they cannot use an assault weapon to shoot to kill you.

Governments are formed for the common defense.  

Six police officers were shot and wounded serving a warrant in North Philadelphia -

A suspect with an AK-47 put most of North Philadelphia in gridlock:

streets cordoned off, city bus routes detoured, line train stations bypassed...

and the Health Services Center Campus of Temple University on lockdown...

Is this how free people want to live?

Janis Kliphardt (Emery)

Go to You-Tube to "Stephen Colbert Anderson Cooper interview": select full interview -

Anderson Cooper’s CNN interview with Stephen Colbert is one of the most profound conversations I’ve experienced... a rare insight into life itself and a gift from two public figures who share their personal lives and feelings.  I highly recommend the interview to all.

Nancy Doyle (Sudlow)

Stewart Myrent

Just finished reading "Louisa on the Front Lines: Louisa May Alcott in the Civil War".  I'm not sure why I picked up this book, as I have never read "Little Women", "Little Men" or "Jo's Boys", which I believe are her 3 best-known books.  I have only the faintest idea of the characters in "Little Women" & less than the faintest idea, relative to the plot.  I don't even remember it being required reading at any educational level.  I thought perhaps Louisa May Alcott had had a long & productive career as a nurse, but she was never on the front lines (which I expected - women were not allowed to serve in the armed forces during the Civil War), she was behind the lines, working at a Union army hospital.  Also, she was not a Florence Nightingale, or Clara Barton, devoting years of her life to being a nurse, or improving the nursing profession.  She was working at the Union Hotel hospital, in D.C., from 12/14/1863 through 01/21/1863, slightly over a month & was sent home, mainly due to her own illness, with symptoms of either typhus or pneumonia.  Most of the nurses (8 of 10) at the hospital, were brought low by illness.  Describing her family upbringing in Concord, MA, of which her father, Bronson, was a leading transcendentalist & was good friends with Ralph Waldo Emerson & Henry David Thoreau: "Although the most influential philosophers of the transcendentalist movement at the time lived in the small village of Concord, most of the townspeople didn't really understand what 'transcendental' meant.  But they did consider it completely unorthodox.  It was a radical notion at that time to believe in a direct relationship with God and a oneness with nature, and that a divine spirit is present in every human and in all of nature."  Further, "Although Bronson was not as famous as Emerson and hadn't attended Harvard University like Emerson (and Thoreau), his loyal and well-respected friend looked up to him and considered him 'the most transcendental of the Transcendentalists'.  Bronson's ideas had influenced Emerson in his defining essay, 'Nature', which launched Emerson's career."  Although this book was an easy read, I would not recommend it to anyone.  It was a fairly short book (less than 200 pages), but I really wouldn't recommend it.  It seemed to me that perhaps it was from a doctoral dissertation, but I don't know that to be the case.

Janis Kliphardt (Emery)

Anderson Cooper's CNN interview with Stephen Colbert will re air tomorrow, Sunday, 8/18 at 8 p.m. ET. (see posts #1340 and #1341)

Janis Kliphardt (Emery)

DK, watching the U.S. Amateurs play the semi-finals today at Pinehurst; tomorrow - the finals.  Wish they’d identify the course(s) they’re playing. (mention just made they're playing Pinehurst #2 today; tomorrow #4.)

Janis Kliphardt (Emery)

Donald Henry Kuehn

Because of the Amateur this week, we didn’t play #2 (or #4) last week for the North & South Senior. Watching some of the shots those kids played and seeing the speed of the greens, maybe I’m glad we didn’t. When Coore and Crenshaw re-did #2 about 6 years, or so, ago you had to be pretty unlucky to have interference from the native “scrub” they planted in the roughs. Now, you have to be pretty lucky to have an unobstructed shot from off the fairway. Of course, they are playing #2 from its maximum yardages (over 7500 yards, I think) and they are still hitting shorter clubs into greens than I did last year!

If I’m not mistaken, the 36 hole final will be played on both courses. I would think the morning round will go off of #4 and the big finale will conclude on #2 after lunch. These match play tournaments are a marathon that test more than one’s skill with a club in hand but, in the North Carolina heat and humidity, a test of endurance as well.

In my event at Tobacco Road 2 weeks ago I had to play 5 matches in 3 days. We, however, had the luxury of being able to ride in a cart, whereas these guys are walking. They played practice rounds on both courses, then 2 rounds of stroke play qualifying to determine the low 64 players to go into the bracket, then 5 matches to reach the finals and 36 holes the last day. That’s a minimum of 9 rounds (or partial rounds if they end early, longer if they require extra holes to determine the winner of any round) in 6 days. Must be nice to be that young!

DK

Janis Kliphardt (Emery)

DK: "You've heard the old saying: 'You can't win 'em all [the holes]' (well, actually you can, but of course, no one does)." 

In match play, [win plus 1 hole (more than half)] and win playing a partial round (Thanks for your insight: that's why they played #4 this morning; they played both courses) -

or - even after leading all day, one can play all the holes [and extra (if necessary)] and lose the match...

Endurance challenges the young as well...

Which do you prefer - stroke play or match play?

Donald Henry Kuehn

I enjoy the challenge of match play, going head-to-head against a single opponent is great fun. In stroke play tournaments there’s is the challenge of having to be “on” for three or four days and not being able to get away with too many bad shots. Bogeys and worse cost you dearly in stroke play, not so much in match play because it’s just one hole. I think most people would say a bogey hurts you more than a birdie helps you in stroke play. Each format presents a different challenge and a different mind-set. I had to adjust mentally from the match play tournament to the stroke play format at the N&S at Pinehurst. Not sure how to quantify it, it’s just different.

Janis Kliphardt (Emery)

Hear you, DK, match play is sounding better and better - back to the way golf was originally played.  Why did stroke play come to be?   to create a handicap system ? ? ?

Stewart Myrent

Janis, appreciated your post from this past weekend, referencing the letter sent to our current CIC from Ellen L. Weintraub, Chair of the Federal Elections Committee, relative to Trump's empty claims of voters voting illegally in New Hampshire.  Of course, she is NEVER going to get ANY response from Trump, relative to his false claims, but I'm pretty sure she realizes that already.  My guess is that she sent the second letter, knowing that he would never respond to her 1st letter, just to get under his skin.  I appreciate her efforts, even though she knew she was wasting her time, sending either letter.  As much as I would prefer that Trump was out of office, by the time we all meet for our 55th Reunion, I realize I just have to be patient, until the electorate votes this moron out of office.

Janis Kliphardt (Emery)

Talking different styles of playing sports -

On the campaign trail, Pete Buttigieg was asked about baseball's designated hitter...

He was surprised by the question, but answered directly that he likes National League style...

He's getting kudos for being straight forward...

Stewart, I am grateful for Ellen Weintraub’s effort to shine light on facts.

Are our eyes blind and our ears deaf?

After the debacle of the 2016 election, I make no assumption about the 2020 election.

Stewart Myrent

Janis, I also am making no assumptions about the 2020 election, and, in fact, am growing vewy, vewy fwightened about the upcoming decision about what direction we wish our country to go.  But, I choose to be optimistic & hope for the best; I've also decided that if the 2020 election does not result in quenching my thirst for change at the top, and I am unlucky enough to see the beginning of the end (for America as I've always envisioned it), I will have a relatively short time left to deal with the realities of the fallout from our folly.  I don't think I'll last long enough to see the final, bleak result, but this is all, of course, dependent on us having an unhappy election result.  2020 can't get here soon enough for me.  If it doesn't work out the way I hope, we'll have no one to blame, but ourselves.

Janis Kliphardt (Emery)

Stewart, I too am impatient for 2020, but there’s lots to do in the meantime.  Though our campaigns are too long (and way too expensive), voters hopefully move beyond name recognition and become aware of the candidates and how they wear, the issues, and candidates’ vision for the future of our great nation.

I’m eager for the primaries to see how engaged voters are.  We cannot allow ourselves to feel comfortable (or passive) about the 2020 election.  

You’ve heard “it’s not the guns...  ”

how ‘bout “it’s not the opioids...  ”

Of course, it’s the opioids and of course, it’s the guns.  

The easy accessibility to guns and opioids has been disastrous for our country. 

Janis Kliphardt (Emery)

Stewart, did you get the memo from Donald Trump? that American Jewish people who vote for Democrats show “either a total lack of knowledge or great disloyalty.”  ?   ?   ?

Bernie Sanders responded to Trump in front of a cheering rally in Iowa: “I am a proud Jewish person, and I have no concerns about voting Democratic.  And in fact, I intend to vote for a Jewish man to become the next president of the United States.”  

(Trump’s comment is all about politics and the Rapture.  Netanyahu has made no public response to or about Trump's comment.)

"More addition by division a’la Trump."  -- David Axelrod

Stewart Myrent

Janis, I did NOT get the memo from CIC Trump.  Before I respond, I need a little more time to decide if I'm just plain ignorant, or disloyal.  It MUST be one or the other.

Janis Kliphardt (Emery)

Trump caves to NRA pressure, but doubles down on “Jews who” he says “show a total lack of knowledge or great disloyalty by voting for Democrats.” 

March For Our Lives declares Gun Violence a National Public Health Emergency and has an ambitious new plan for addressing gun violence: The Peace Plan for a Safer America.  The student movement wants 2020 presidential candidates to endorse their new platform.  "Gun violence is destroying our generation.  This is simply unacceptable.  That's why, as survivors and students of March For Our Lives, we believe it's time for a Peace Plan for a Safer America ... the level of gun violence in the U.S. is unprecedented for a developed nation -- and only bold, new solutions can move the needle on the rates of gun injuries and deaths."

"Their multipoint plan has three desired outcomes: reduce gun deaths by 50% over the next decade; push for a 'higher standard' for gun ownership in the US; pressure federal officials to enact more laws to protect Americans from gun violence."

American Jews are rightfully taking offense at Trump’s strategy to single them out in his effort to divide and conquer.

Attention voters: It’s on us to make change at the ballot box.  Trump looks forward to remaining in office for more than 2, make that 3 or more presidential terms.

Stewart Myrent

Just returned a new release to the library, that I picked up about a week ago, "The Legendary Harry Caray: Baseball's Greatest Salesman", by Dan Zminda.  I think I picked it up, as I hadn't read a sports book since "Commander in Cheat".  From Chapter 2, "Early Days", Harry was born in 1914, in St. Louis, as Harry Christopher Carabina.  He never met his father, as his father ran off to fight in WW1, either before, or just after he was born.  After the war, his father went back to the "old country".  Italy? Albania?  Not sure.  From Chapter 5, "New Partners", Harry had handled play-by-play broadcasts since 1945 for the Griesedieck Bros. Brewing Co., but before the 1954 season, Anheuser-Busch Brewery bought the team.  But after 9 yrs. of pushing Griesedieck Brewery products, Harry had no problem realigning himself with the Anheuser-Busch products, & along the way, became very good friends with August A. "Gussie" Busch, Jr., grandson of one of the co-founders.  From Chapter 6, "KMOX", for the first time in 15 yrs., Cardinals broadcasts returned to KMOX, & in 1940, "KMOX became one of the few radio stations in the countrty designated as a 50,000-watt clear channel station, meaning that no other station in the country could use the same frequency.  KMOX's signal was so powerful that on a good night, it could be heard in 44 states, and reportedly listeners as far away as East Africa and Guam could listen to the station."  From Chapter 9, "End of an Era", On November 2, 1968, Harry was a pedestrian hit by a car, resulting in compound fractures of both legs & other injuries.  At the Cardinals home opener against the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1969, "Caray, who was slated to introduce the Cardinals' players before a packed house of 38,163, hobbled onto the field using crutches - even though he no longer needed to use them.  As he passed the first-base line, he theatrically threw away one of the crutches.  Then, with the crowd urging him on, he tossed away the other crutch as well, to tumultuous applause.  'Well, it's all show biz', Caray admitted later.  'I hadn't needed those canes in weeks.'"From Chapter 12, "South Side Blues", after Harry went to the White Sox for the 1973 season, "Primarily a TV broadcaster for the first time in his career, Caray could be seen on TV for six innings for each of the Sox' 130-plus telecasts (he switched to radio for innings four through six).  He was a hit in the new role; at the end of the season, the team announced that Sox TV ratings on their new flagship station, UHF channel 44 WSNS, had improved by 70 percent from 1972.  Caray could also point to the fact that despite the fifth-place finish, the club's home attendance of 1,032,527 was the highest for the White Sox in 13 years, and fourth highest in franchise history."  And from Chapter 21, "North Side Versus South Side", "At the end of the 1992 season, "Caray knew he couldn't last forever, but he wanted to go out doing what he loved.  'One day it's going to be over,' he said in September.  'I hope I die with my boots on, yelling "Cubs win!"  Keel over and die.  Lug Caray away'"  And, "...for the 26-year span from 1993 to 2018, the Cubs not only outdrew the White Sox every year, but also in most seasons it wasn't even close.  For that 26-year period, the Cubs' average home attendance margin was more than 875,000 fans per season.  In the final 2 years of that period (2017-2018), the Cubs outdrew the White Sox by more (than) 1.5 million fans in each season, while nearly doubling the White Sox in total home attendance (6,380,651 to 3,238,287).  The battle for Chicago baseball supremacy was over: The Cubs - and Harry Caray - had won."  I'm not sure about his brief tenure with the Oakland A's, but whether in St. Louis, White Sox, or Cubs, their attendance was vastly improved, when Harry took over as lead broadcaster for each team.  Enjoyed the book; it was an easy read.  Finished in less than a week.  Short chapters.