Rickshaw Run Update

John & David made it safely to Kathmandu, coming in 14th out of 64 contestants. Full story here: http://mercycorpsrickshaw.blogspot.com/. Congratulations!

Twin US Doctors Treat Afghan War Victims

Here's a link to an inspirational story about Drs. Vance and Vince Moss from Saturday's Washington Post:

The doted-on sons of Josephine and Haywood Moss were raised in Upper Marlboro, and as Boy Scouts they had learned an affinity for those less fortunate. They always thought they were put on earth to do something significant, Vince said.

"We had been taught that we could do anything we wanted, but when we started thinking about medicine, we had a guidance counselor at Oxon Hill High School who told us we should think about something else because we'd never be doctors," Vance said.

"After we got into Penn [State], we had an adviser to tell us that we should have a backup plan because it was really tough to get into medical school," Vince said. "All of our lives, people have been trying to limit us, so when we decided we wanted to go to Afghanistan, we were determined to do it."

The Army Reserve said no but did agree to provide some medical equipment, the brothers said.

Then, Col. Gary Davis, an Army doctor in Afghanistan, set them up with an Afghan physician who helped find the people they would need to move safely through the war-ravaged country, they said.

People were found who would be "translators, escorts, security, intelligence and even our transportation," Vince said. "Once we had everything in place, we were ready to go."

A Slight Case of Murder (1938)

"Golden Velvet Beer--It's the Tops!"

That's Edward G. Robinson's advertising slogan for Remy Marko's formerly bootleg beer at the end of Prohibition, in Damon Runyon's 30s Warner Brothers' screwball comedy, A Slight Case of Murder. Playing off his "Little Caesar" image, Robinson's attempts to go legit and enter high society in Saratoga, NY are still funny some 60 years later...

We got it from Netflix on DVD, and so can you. Five stars.

Rickshaw Run Update

John and David have reached Nepal...more on their blog, here: http://mercycorpsrickshaw.blogspot.com/

Facebook, the Next Google...Not.

Tonight's 60 Minutes featured Lesley Stahl's interview with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. After watching the exchange, I'll stand by my earlier post. Facebook is not Google. For example, Bill Gates owns a piece of the action, which might tell you something...

Why Wasn't Auschwitz Bombed?

Recent news reports quote President Bush as saying that FDR should have bombed Auschwitz, during his visit to Israel's Yad Vashem museum, and discussed various theories as to why Auschwitz was not bombed.

I dealt with this very controversy in my film, Who Shall Live and Who Shall Die?. The explanation came from Josiah Dubois, a Treasury official who served with the War Refugee Board actually rescuing Jews-- who then went on to prosecute Nazi war criminals at the Nuremberg trials. As Dubois noted in his memorandum to Secretary Morgenthau on the acquienscence of the US government in the extermination of the Jews, one reason that steps were not taken to rescue Jews from Hitler was oppostion from the British government, an important American ally. To appease Arab public opinion, the British had persuaded the US government not to rescue European Jewry, using a variety of excuses. For, as the mandatory power in Palestine, the British were concerned that if Jews were rescued, they might go to their historic Jewish homeland, despite the 1939 White Paper restricting immigration . So, British foreign policy objectives required trapped European Jews to die, rather than be able to move to Israel. By the time American protests led to the formation of the War Refugee Board in 1944, it was too late--the vast majority of Jews had already been killed.

After the war, surviving Jews did manage to immigrate to Palestine in violation of the White Paper...so, Israel was born. When Israel declared independence, it received arms from the US and Russia. Meanwhile, Britain supported Glubb Pasha's Arab army's attempt to drive the Jews into the sea. (This political configuration changed by 1956).

More on this subject at the Wikipedia Auschwitz bombing debate page...

Luisa Maria Güell Sings "Uno"

Our favorite Cuban-American filmmaker has done a music video for Luisa Maria Guell, from her 2007 Grammy-nominated UNA, based on the Tango, "Uno." Here it is:

Masterpiece Theatre's Makeover (cont'd.)

Lynn Smith published her article in today's Los Angeles Times about PBS''s attempt to reach younger viewers by re-branding Masterpiece Theatre. An excerpt:

"What we wanted to know was why aren't more people watching it and what would it take to attract a younger audience?" said Bob Knapp, president of Neubrand, a marketing and brand consultant. Viewers had told researchers they perceived the series as a "dusty jewel that was hard to find in the PBS crown," Eaton said. They wanted to know whether to expect "Jane Eyre" or Jane Tennison, "Bleak House" or "White Teeth"?

The result was a compromise between changing everything or changing nothing, Knapp said, the literary equivalent of "brand new look, same great taste."

Faithful Anglophiles

However, one informed observer suggested that PBS, by trading off the halo effect of the "Masterpiece" name may actually cheapen the brand by diluting it like Cherry Coke and Vanilla Coke. Laurence Jarvik, author of "Masterpiece Theatre and the Politics of Quality," said that under the original Mobil Oil sponsorship, the series preserved its brand integrity because its executives were driven as much or more by personal passion than market research. "What was good about it is that you knew what you were getting: A slice of British costume drama," he said.

You can read Smith's full article on the LA Times website.

Why Do They Hate Us?

Someone I know sent me a translation of Erla Ósk Arnardóttir Lillendahl's shocking story of an encounter with the Department of Homeland Security while on a Christmas shopping trip to New York City, from Iceland's Eggman Blog:

Last Sunday I and a few other girls began our trip to New York. We were going to shop and enjoy the Christmas spirit. We made ourselves comfortable on first class, drank white wine and looked forward to go shopping, eat good food and enjoy life. When we landed at JFK airport the traditional clearance process began. We were screened and went on to passport control. As I waited for them to finish examining my passport I heard an official say that there was something which needed to be looked at more closely and I was directed to the work station of Homeland Security. There I was told that according to their records I had overstayed my visa by 3 weeks in 1995. For this reason I would not be admitted to the country and would be sent home on the next flight. I looked at the official in disbelief and told him that I had in fact visited New York after the trip in 1995 without encountering any difficulties. A detailed interrogation session ensued. I was photographed and fingerprinted. I was asked questions which I felt had nothing to do with the issue at hand. I was forbiddento contact anyone to advise of my predicament and although I was invited at the outset to contact the Icelandic consul or embassy, that invitation was later withdrawn. I don't know why. I was then made to wait while they sought further information, and sat on a chair before the authority for 5 hours. I saw the officials in this section handle other cases and it was clear that these were men anxious to demonstrate their power. Small kings with megalomania.

I was careful to remain completely cooperative, for I did not yet believe that they planned to deport me because of my "crime". When 5 hours had passed and I had been awake for 24 hours, I was told that they were waiting for officials who would take me to a kind of waiting room. There I would be given a bed to rest in, some food and I would be searched. What they thought they might find I cannot possibly imagine. Finally guards appeared who transported me to the new place. I saw the bed as if in a mirage, for I was absolutely exhausted. What turned out was something else. I was taken to another office exactly like the one where I had been before and once again a long wait ensued. In all, it turned out to be 5 hours. At this office all my things were taken from me. I succeeded in sendinga single sms to worried relatives and friends when I was granted a bathroom break. After that the cell phone was taken from me. After I had been sitting for 5 hours I was told that they were now waiting for guards who would take me to a place where I could rest and eat. Then I was placed in a cubicle which looked like an operating room. Attached to the walls were 4 steel plates, probably intended to serve as bed anda toilet. I was exhausted, tired and hungry. I didn't understand the officials’ conduct, for they were treating me like a very dangerous criminal. Soon thereafter I was removed from the cubicle and two armed guards placed me up against a wall. A chain was fastened around my waist and I was handcuffed to the chain. Then my legs were placed in chains. I asked for permission to make a telephone call but they refused. So secured, I was taken from the airport terminal in full sight of everybody. I have seldom felt so bad, so humiliated and all because I had taken a longer vacation than allowed under the law.

You can read the rest of the story at http://eggmann.blog.is/blog/eggmann/

From measurement to judgement...

This just in from the UK, thanks to a tip from my BBC podcast of Radio Four's Today Programme this morning: John Purnell's Department for Media, Culture, and Sport has relased a White Paper intended to re-organize arts funding in Britain. Known as the Mcmaster Review, it is titled: Supporting excellence in the arts - from measurement to judgement.

The author, Edinburgh Festival director Sir Brian McMaster, calls for the abandonment of quantitative "targets" for cultural grants, to be replaced by qualitative evaluations of "excellence." His proposal has already generated a fuss in England, including some protests against the initiative. More on the backlash in this article from the Daily Telegraph.

Meanwhile, I read through the report, and can see why people are upset. He's asked the right questions, but so far has not come up with the right answers. There's a lot of procedural and bureaucratic boilerplate--including an unfortunate call for more peer review (often merely "crony review")--with little discussion of competition. Especially odd from a government ministry also responsible for sport.

In the hopes of moving the discussion along, here's a memo to Sir Brian, who is has claimed that the UK is the verge of a new "Renaissance":

If you want a "Renaissance," instead of more bureaucracy and peer panels, encourage competition. Set the "Royal" institutions against the "National" ones, the West End versus the South Bank, and the Regions against London. Artists are as competitive as footballers. Use that energy to foster excellence. Let artistic organizations compete openly and fairly for funding according to fixed criteria, ranked like athletes, so that the heavyweights can't crush the bantamweights.

Still, it is nice that Sir Brian is even talking about "excellence" in the arts. Sir Brian's report has started a debate that I wish we were having here in the USA, and for that he deserves thanks.

Facebook?

Somebody "friended" me a while back, so I joined Facebook. So far, I don't get it. I understand that it might be nice for teenagers or college students looking for new friends, and maybe I'm just too old, but it seems less convenient than email while more complicated than blogging. Maybe I'm missing something, but there may be less to this "social networking" phenomenon than meets that eye.

I'll take an "IdeaBook"--or just a book--any day...

Masterpiece Theatre's Makeover

I got an email the other day from Lynn Smith, a Los Angeles Times reporter covering PBS. She found my book about Masterpiece Theatre with a Google search, and wanted to know what I thought about the big changes to the series. I'll let the LA Times report what I had to say to Ms. Smith (the story is scheduled for Friday's Calendar section).

After the interview, I took a look at the MT website. The new hostess, Gillian Armstrong of The X-Files played Lady Deadlock in Bleak House. The website confirmed my interviewer's report that Masterpiece Theatre will soon be running a Jane Austen marathon. This recalled an earlier post on this blog, quoting Mark Twain on Jane Austen:

"I haven't any right to criticize books, and I don't do it except when I hate them. I often want to criticize Jane Austen, but her books madden me so that I can't conceal my frenzy from the reader; and therefore I have to stop every time I begin. Every time I read 'Pride and Prejudice' I want to dig her up and beat her over the skull with her own shin-bone."

Mark Twain Letter to Joseph Twichell, 9/13/1898

Thanks to my own Google search, I discovered Emily Auerbach's interesting article in the Virginia Quarterly Review: "A Barkeeper Entering the Kingdom of Heaven": Did Mark Twain Really Hate Jane Austen?" Here's an excerpt:

Mark Twain expressed unparalleled hatred of Jane Austen, defining an ideal library as one with none of her books on its shelves. "Just that one omission alone would make a fairly good library out of a library that hadn't a book in it," Twain insisted in Following the Equator. Did Mark Twain genuinely detest Jane Austen? Or was the bushy-eyebrowed, irascible Twain merely posing?

In his extensive correspondence with fellow author and critic William Dean Howells, Mark Twain seemed to enjoy venting his literary spleen on Jane Austen precisely because he knew her to be Howells' favorite author, In 1909 Twain wrote that "Jane Austin" [sic] was "entirely impossible" and that he could not read her prose even if paid a salary to do so. Howells notes in My Mark Twain (1910) that in fiction Twain "had certain distinct loathings; there were certain authors whose names he seemed not so much to pronounce as to spew out of his mouth."

His prime abhorrence was my dear and honored prime favorite, Jane Austen. He once said to me, I suppose after he had been reading some of my unsparing praise of her—I am always praising her, "You seem to think that woman could write," and he forbore withering me with his scorn, apparently because we had been friends so long and he more pitied than hated me for my bad taste.

Rather than pitying Twain when he was sick, Howells threatened to come and read Pride and Prejudice to him. Twain marveled that Austen had been allowed to die a natural death rather than face execution for her literary crimes.

Separate But Equal (1991)

Just watched this the other night, somehow missed the 1991 TV showing. Sidney Poitier, Burt Lancaster, Cleavon Little, and Richard Kiley bring the 1953 Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education to life in a memorable, if sometimes slow-moving, epic. Five Stars.

You can get it from Netflix, here.

Penguin Plunge

While the cousin of someone I know is driving across India in an auto-rickshaw for his favorite charity (and employer), my cousin Dan is preparing to dive into a frozen section of Hampton Beach in New England...also for a charity--New Hampshire's Special Olympics. You can follow his Penguin Plunge on the official website, here.

Rickshaw Run Update

John's mother has heard from her Rickshaw Run contestant, and shared the URL for his blog, where his team's progress across India can be tracked:

http://mercycorpsrickshaw.blogspot.com/.

Trans-India Rickshaw Run

The cousin of someone we know is racing across India, from Cochin to Kathmandu, in an auto-rickshaw, to benefit the NGO he works for in Darjeeling. We found the official website for Rickshaw Run, but can't track his vehicle across the map of India, because we don't know where he is (the race began on January 1st, to run for 10 days). No GPS transmitter, apparently. You can find out more about the race on the Rickshaw Run homepage. We checked the website for the travel agency behind the concept, The Adventurists, but no tracking him there, either...(John, if you read this, please phone home, your mother is worried about you...)

Did Steinberg's New Yorker Cartoon Begin Here?

Does this map looks familiar? An old print, as spotted on the wall of the bathroom of the sister of someone we know, in Florida...

...Looked like it may have inspired this famous Steinberg New Yorker cover.

Sunset in the Tropics, December, 2007

 

Beach Scene, December 2007

  As seen on holiday...

Happy New Year!

  Back from winter holiday in sunny climes, blogging resumes...