Janis Kliphardt (Emery)

The voices we listen to shape our lives: friends and family, news and entertainment, self-improvement articles and "life hacks" — even our own thoughts...

I’m thinking Longfellow and  “A Psalm of Life”

“Let us, then, be up and doing,

        With a heart for any fate;  

 Still achieving, still pursuing,  

      Learn to labor and to wait.  

And, departing, leave behind us

  Footprints on the sands of time.”

Make 2018 your best year yet.

Janis Kliphardt (Emery)

Birthday greetings, Nancy Novak.

...all best wishes for the coming year.

How’s the weather in North Texas?

What new adventures are you pursuing?

Happy Birthday,

    happy days to you.

Janis Kliphardt (Emery)

Spring Training (or Practice Season as it was called 100 years ago) is a truly unique baseball experience - what with unparalleled player access, intimate ballparks with distinct personalities, and up-close encounters with veteran stars and blossoming prospects - the sights, sounds, and smells of spring arrive just in time for fans emerging from the winter cold.

Each club sets its own Spring Training reporting dates during given timeframe.  

Many who have gone to Spring Training describe it as the best sports has to offer.

Sloan Park in Mesa, AZ, is home to Cubs Spring Training— it’s where Cubs begins each season. 

Cubs Pitchers & Catchers report for Spring Training Thursday, February 15th (first workout not yet announced).  

Cubs Position Players report for Spring Training Monday, February 19th (first full squad workout Tues. 2/20).

(Proximity of Cactus League parks in AZ makes for easy travel to pre season games.)

2018  Earliest  Ever  MLB  Opening Day

          THURSDAY, MARCH 29th

                 and for first time since 1968 -

      every team will open on same day 

early start due to recent Collective Bargaining Agreement creating 3 to 4 additional off days during regular season

Latest home opener: Pirates at Cubs - Monday, April 9th

Janis Kliphardt (Emery)

Question of the day:

Who said,

“Madam, I’d rather be a liar than a bore.”  

  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  

Vic Stroetzel

It sure sounds like a Churchill to Lady Astor intercourse. 

But, I wish you all the best of New Years. I'll go back to lurking.

Vic

David Steinberg (Noel)

CUBS PITCHERS AND CATCHERS REPORT TO MESA ONE MONTH AFTER MLK JR. DAY.

Janis Kliphardt (Emery)

Vic, the quote does have a Churchillian ring - though there’s little chance Churchill would have touted himself a liar... the quote is a comment Waldo E. Sexton (1885-1967) made to a tourist in Vero Beach, FL.

Good for everyone to receive your wishes for “all the best of New Years”...  

there are good ways and bad ways to lurk... thanks for modeling positive lurking. 

Doc, you are great with birthdays— sending good wishes to classmates on your own November 1st birthday and recognizing that this year we will commemorate MLK Jr on his actual January 15th birthday.  

All best wishes to you...

there are positive and negative ways to post... thank you for putting yourself out there and contributing to the Forum.

Janis Kliphardt (Emery)

“In a long-forgotten era, the telling insult did not incorporate foul language or invective ... Instead insults exemplified the participant’s erudition, class, intelligence, and wit.  The putative insults between Winston Churchill and Lady Astor exhibited Churchill’s mastery of this art form.  

“What is less well known is Lady Astor’s equally acerbic tongue and repartee skills.”

“The well-spring of Churchill’s withering insults were used effectively during WWII to lift the spirits of the British people in times of adversity.  Instead of insults, his oratorical abilities were utilized in rousing speeches which set the British on the path of resistance to Hitler.  

“Therein lay Churchill’s true greatness.”  

Janis Kliphardt (Emery)

It’s 103 days and counting since Senate Republicans let funding for CHIP (Children’s Health Insurance Program) expire -- placing nearly 9 million children from low-income families health care coverage at risk.  Instead of ensuring these children will be able to see a doctor when they get sick, Trump and his GOP enablers spent these past few months jamming through a hugely unpopular $1.7 trillion tax giveaway to corporations.  

What are our values?

We need adequate, long-term funding for CHIP-- the program has widespread bipartisan support, but Republican leaders in the House and Senate refuse to fully extend the program until a budget agreement is reached.  Children around the country need CHIP today.  

The funding necessary to extend CHIP for five years is roughly equivalent to 0.1% of the total cost of the GOP scam tax bill -- yet Republicans are holding the health care coverage of millions of children hostage.  

Time’s up to show we care as much about health care for children as we do about tax cuts for millionaires and corporations.

Janis Kliphardt (Emery)

Right-wing Republicans are desperate to slash earned benefit programs like Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.  They know direct attacks on these programs are deeply unpopular with the American people, so they often resort to backdoor attempts to undermine these vital programs in any way they can.  

Senate Republicans have proposed a $492 million cut to the Social Security Administration (SSA) in the new federal budget.  Over the past decade, Congress has underfunded the SSA by billions of $$$.  As a result, more than 1 million people are currently awaiting a hearing regarding their eligibility for Social Security disability benefits.  Thousands of people have reportedly died while awaiting a hearing.  

Imagine what an additional $492 million cut to Social Security will do to Social Security recipients--  the new proposal to further cut SSA funding in the federal budget is nothing more than an attempt to undermine confidence in the program and make it more difficult for the American people to access the system.  

Nancy Doyle (Sudlow)

Janis Kliphardt (Emery)

and the irony is that he signed the MLK resolution today.  

We’re better than our President represents us to be.  

What now? why no condemnation by Republican office holders?  what’s the content of their character?

What is Trump distracting us from?  

Kathleen Moyes (Clewell)

Hello all -- I have some sad news to share. 

One of our favorite Niles West teachers, Leon Fox, passed away on Thursday, January 4. I had been in touch with him via email since our 50th reunion.  Leon's wife, Vanessa Zecher, kindly let me know of his passing. She asked that I share the news with all of his friends from our days at Niles West.

There will be a Celebration of Life for Leon on Sunday, January 21, 2018 at 1:00 pm at the San Jose Country Club. All who wish to join will be welcome. Hopefully some of you in the Bay area might be able to attend.

Should you wish to make a donation to charity in his memory, per the family, Leon would have wanted folks to contribute to a charity of their choice.

You can find a nice article online at the San Jose Mercury News website dated January 4. For those of you who may not have known, Mr. Fox went on to become a judge in the Santa Clara County superior court.

Kathy

Kathleen Moyes (Clewell)

As long as I am logged in (for the first time in ages), thought it would be appropriate to say a general hello to everyone. And thank you to all of you who have sent birthday wishes in years past. I will try to check in a little more often in the future so that I don't miss your kind notes.

I must confess that I do lurk and appreciate reading much of the political commentary. I have been a registered Democrat since voting for McGovern! Hoping that the mid-term elections will turn things around. Thank goodness for Stephen Colbert, Seth Meyers, Trevor Noah, and others to help get us through these crazy times. 

Also -- I follow the Cubs as religiously as those of you who comment regularly. We go to their games with the Padres in San Diego every year. We have also seen them in spring training a few times in the past and hope to get over to Mesa again this spring.  I did get back to Chicago last July and went to a game at Wrigley for the first time in decades! Hoping for another winning season in 2018!

Happy New Year everyone!  Looking forward to our 55th in 2019! - Kathy

Paul Richard Hain

Hi Kathy,

It is so refreshing to see a new person post. Wish you all a wonderful New Year!

Alan A. Alop

President Donald Trump reiterated the need for his proposed massive wall on the southern border of the US to be "see-through" during a Wall Street Journal interview published Thursday.

While funding has yet to be secured for the wall, the president explained why the wall needs transparency.

"If you have a wall this thick and it's solid concrete from ground to 32 feet high which is a high wall, much higher than people planned," he said. "You go 32 feet up and you don’t know who's over here. You’re here, you've got the wall and there’s some other people here."

"If I'm standing here, I want to be able to see 200 yards out," he added. "I want to be able to see, I don't want to have a piece of concrete that I can't see."

If the wall was not see-through, Trump said people would "have no idea who's on the other side. Does this make sense or am I just wasting my time?" Trump asked. "One of the things with the wall is you need transparency," Trump said. "You have to be able to see through it. In other words, if you can't see through that wall — so it could be a steel wall with openings, but you have to have openings because you have to see what's on the other side of the wall.

"And I'll give you an example: As horrible as it sounds, when they throw the large sacks of drugs over, and if you have people on the other side of the wall, you don't see them — they hit you on the head with 60 pounds of stuff? It's over," Trump continued. "As crazy as that sounds, you need transparency through that wall. But we have some incredible designs."

Janis Kliphardt (Emery)

Hi Kathy-- it’s wonderful to hear from you.  

Thanks for sharing news of Leon Fox and arrangements to celebrate his life.  

Thanks also for sharing appreciation for the forum-- hope/trust you speak for many...

Janis

Stephen Spitz

Kathy: Very sorry to hear about Leon Fox. Your note about looking forward to our 55th reunion in 2019 raises the following  questions, among others: 1) How many of our classmates would be interested in such a reunion? 2) Who would be interested in serving on a reunion planning committee? 3) When and where would such a reunion be held? This may, for some, sound like a premature discussion. However, I would like everyone to be aware that the first meeting of our 50th Reunion planning committee occurred at the late great Art Wulf's house in March 2013 and we essentially needed all the time between March 2013 and June 2014 to plan the reunion. Happy New Year everyone! Stephen Spitz

Janis Kliphardt (Emery)

As I sit on the veranda of my hotel in Miami Beach enjoying the warmth and beauty in this place, I am, in the same moment, savoring the richness of the incredible serenade of voices around me and struck by the poverty of our billionaire president.  He lives a life bereft of awareness in the home we provide him which was built by slaves.  He sees the world divided into enclaves of white people imprisoned behind gated walls to protect themselves from people of color he assigns to “s***holes”.  

Unlike others, the president cannot travel to London to even perform the ceremonial event of opening a new embassy for fear he will be greeted by massive demonstrations.  He cannot hold a press conference for fear he will be confronted with uncomfortable questions about his words and his actions.

Racism is evil not only because of the injustice it imposes on its intended victims, but also because it robs the racist of the one gift we all are freely given-- our humanity.  In this case, Donald Trump has not only robbed himself of humanity, he has diminished the honor accorded the President of our United States and soiled the pride we share as Americans.

Frances Garfield (Brown)

So sorry to hear about Leon Fox! He was hearing about our 50th Reunion and kept in touch. Is he the last teacher we remember of Niles West???

---fran

Janis Kliphardt (Emery)

SAN JOSE — Retired Judge Leon Fox, who presided over cases in Santa Clara County Superior Court for decades, died Thursday. He was 77.

The court’s presiding judge, Patricia M. Lucas, announced his death in a brief email to court employees on Thursday afternoon.

“It is my sad duty to share the news that Leon Fox, our retired colleague and beloved husband of Judge Vanessa Zecher, passed away this morning,” Lucas wrote. “Details will follow concerning the date and location of a celebration of Judge Fox’s life.”

Responding to a request by this news organization, Lucas underscored the loss to the legal community.

“Judge Fox was a valued member of our bench for many years,” she wrote. “He was always willing and available to assist his colleagues on the bench who were so appreciative of his encyclopedic knowledge of the law.”

Lucas also said that his wife, as well as the court and Fox’s family and friends, ”are heartbroken over the loss  His legacy will live on through his wife and all those whose lives he touched.”

Fox was also remembered fondly by veteran defense lawyer Dan Mayfield.

"A good and fair judge," Mayfield said.  "If he was going to rule against you he would always tell you why, and explain his reasoning."

PUBLISHED: January 4, 2018  The Mercury News

Janis Kliphardt (Emery)

   Norwegians sailed back and forth --

                  "raping and plundering"

   I have Norwegian relatives... sigh

   talk about scary...

  "Ten thousand Swedes ran through the weeds

                               chased by one Norwegian."

  (I have lotsa Swedish ancestors...

    Ironic matchup--

            vs   SAINTS 

                      --today in Minneapolis

Paul Richard Hain

I got this email and thought it is something to share.

"Those who hate him will always hate him, no matter what. In his stead, I certainly couldn't imagine Hillary (or Bill, for that matter) or Obama making anything even close to this gesture. If you cannot understand the meaning of this I feel sorry for you. Please try to understand the weight of this image. This soldier lost both arms. The feeling of a handshake is now lost to him."

"Trump realized this, and so touched his face, so he can feel the human connection.  This is what I see when I think of Trump's motives.  He gave up a billionaire lifestyle to now be insulted, dragged through the mud, and lied about, on a daily basis.

All to save this country and people he loves."