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John Jackson

Mike, this whole sorry episode has left me with a really bad taste in my mouth.  I can’t help thinking your “plague” challenge was just a trick question designed to sucker in and embarrass poor engineers like me.  I confess that I cheated and Googled your quote and it came back – “Music Man” (I swear!).  Or was I just a victim of that “Fake News” stuff that everyone's talking about?

After flaming out in such an inglorious manner (and to try to rehabilitate my image as someone who only posts tiresome anti-Trump diatribes), I’ll mention that Carol (my wife) and I usually take some type of fall trip  and this year we’re going to Ottawa, capital of our great neighbor to the north.  We’ve been there a few times over the years and it’s a lovely city, very green and park-like with both the Ottawa River and the Rideau Canal system (built in 1827 to connect Ottawa to Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence) winding through the center of the city.  The city is small and walkable  - wherever you stay you can easily walk to Parliament Hill or along the canal (now devoted strictly to recreation) or you can even cross the river on a footbridge and you’re in Quebec.    

Normally we go when the fall colors are at their peak but this year we’re going a bit later to see a concert by Loreena McKennitt, a Canadian singer, at the National Arts Center (which I assume is Canada’s version of the Kennedy Center in Washington).  She got her start writing/making music for the Stratford (Ontario) Skaespeare Festival but has been on her own for the last 30 years or so.  She writes most of her own songs (a few are traditional) and they mostly have ancient Celtic themes but some also have Middle Eastern/Moorish influences (it sounds odd but it works).  I thought of her now because she’s put some excerpts from Shakespeare to music as well as  classic English/Irish poetry including Tennyson’s “Lady of Shallot” and  Yeats’ “The Stolen Child”.

It may sound kind of ethereal and high brow, but IMHO she takes some fairly esoteric musical themes and really pulls you in.  The links below are all from a concert she gave at the Alhambra in Granada, Spain in 2006.  PBS showed it as a special (maybe some of you saw it).  As usual, YouTube video quality leaves a lot to be desired, but I have the DVD (remember those?) and when it’s played on a big-screen TV hooked up to a decent sound system it’s pretty awesome.  For this concert she’s accompanied by three musicians (playing electric fiddle, cello, and guitar/mandolin/electric guitar) who have been with her since the start and another half dozen local musicians playing ancient/exotic/really obscure instruments (any oud or hurdy-gurdy fans out there?)

The first link below is to one of her own compositions and Halloween-appropriate, “All Souls Night” and  the second is Yeats’ “Stolen Child”.  The last, my favorite, is “The Bonny Swans” an ancient song with many, many versions – details vary from version to version but all tell the story of a young woman who drowns her younger sister in a fit of romantic jealousy.  The song has a fantasy/fairy tale aspect – the older sister gets her comeuppance when the drowned sister’s body is transformed first into a swan and then into a harp.  The harp somehow makes its way to the court of the king (who happens to be the father of the sisters) where it starts to play and sing on its own, telling the story of the older sister’s treachery. Are you all with me on the story line?  Ok, even if you’re not, listen to the guitar riffs - Led Zeppelin devotees might scoff, but for my money the guitar work approaches “Stairway to Heaven” territory.

All Souls Night: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kp2cOUb_Wgo

Stolen Child:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2DcrSGl9E8

Bonny Swans: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdRsRuGqDC8

Lawrence Foster

A Little More Shakespeare.

Mike,  I appreciate being able to share the White Castles' prize for the Romeo and Juliet Shakespeare quote.  But, I am giving it all to Clare so she can take the grandkids out and spoil them rotten that way.   After all that is what we are supposed to do as grandparents.

I have just made a long post over on the User Forum about Shakespeare and added some photos and scans (a dozen) most of which are from my great aunt's visit to Stratford in 1904.  But here is one of them to tempt you all to go look at the others.

Below is a charcoal rubbing from Shakespeare's grave when she was there in 1904.  It now hangs in my home.  The security folks in Stratford said they don't allow rubbings to be made and originally said that rubbings don't exist.  When they found out it was from the early 1900s (115 years old now) they said that maybe one does exist.   If you have time to go over to the User Forum I hope you will enjoy the read.   

The poem written by Shakespeare says:

Good friend for Jesus sake forbear,

To digg the dust enclosed heare!

Blest be the man that spares these stones,

And curst be he that moves my bones.

There is a story that at one time Shakespeare's remains were going to be moved to Westminister Abbey and buried in the Poet's Corner where now are buried writers and poets like Browning, Chaucer, Dickens, Kipling, Tennyson, and many others.  But when the workers came and read the curse they refused to exhume the remains.     

Michael McLeod

Had breakfast with MC Hummer and Brian McNamara today.

Forgot to bring her the White Castles.

Guess this means I need to come back soon. Back to Orlando tomorrow am.

John: all you have to do to get me back is to ask me a simple nuts and bolts engineering question. Or watch me try to change a tire, Thanks for the music. Glorious.

Larry: I have seen that rubbing in the lobby of the Orlando Shakes. Love it!

Mark/Jocko: Brian and I regaled Mary Clare with our tale of the state fair escapade.

Jeanine Eilers (Decker)

On a lighter note...David Barbour came through Phoenix last Thursday and stayed the night with us.  We had a great time considering we really didn't know each other from a hill of beans.  But the WHS veins run deep so the conversation was constant.  Hope your ears were burning.  David is on his way home with a couple of stops left so we wish him safe travel.

David Mitchell

Damn!

I thought I had gone to a Loreena McKennitt chat room, but a Shakespeare Festival broke out!

Yikes!  English majors commin' outt'a the woodwork. 

Well, not that one guy. He wandered under the shade of a "Golden Dome" and got seduced by quadratic equations. I guess he went on to do okay at something. Personally, I never thought slide rules were all that much fun. To each his own, I guess.

But I knew him way back when he got straight A+s in English. And he thought Peter, Paul & Mary was cool music. To bad about him. Oh well, stuff happens! 

Damn Liberals, they'll listen to just about any kind of music.

(his parents should have taken those Cheiftains and Mary Black albums away from him years ago)

As any intelligent person wood know, what the world reely needs is morr Joe Cocker, Jerry Jeff Walker, or George Straight.

James Hamilton, M. D.

All,

Unbelievable! Who would have thought that a simple topic like the plague would have led to such a great discussion of the Bard, William Shakespeare? What great historical and literary posts, as well as Larry's classic turn-of-the-twentieth-century photographs, resulted. Our classmates never cease to amaze me with these historical musings.

O.K., you will soon be challanged with yet another quiz regarding a long forgotten, but still present, disease, to see if you can connect it with any of your historical and literary knowledge.

Think: armidillos!

Jim

Michael McLeod

Not sure if this is where you are headed Jim but I remember many years ago seeing something about one of the weirdest creatures on earth being studied in connection with a possible cure for a terrible disease with longstanding historical roots.I'll say no more but I hope something has come from that research.

James Hamilton, M. D.

Mike, 

You are barking up the right tree... 

Jim

Michael McLeod

well don't keep me in suspense. Leprosy cure come through? This was at least 20 years ago when I saw an article about it.

Boy it was great to be in Columbus on a football weekend. Just got home.

James Hamilton, M. D.

Mike, 

Be patient, quiz will be coming later today! 

​​Just got in from shoveling and snow blowing 7-9 inches of wet, heavy snow. Need some coffee and rest first. My 33 year old, trusty, all metal, Ariens snow blower still works! 

​​​​Glad you got home safely. 

Jim 

Mark Schweickart

John --- Thanks for introducing us (maybe I should just say "me")  to Loreena McKinnett. I had never heard of her. However, as fascinating as her musical accompaniment is, and her unusual choice of lyric material, nevertheless, I must admit that (especially in the Bonny Swan song) I could not follow the words at all. I am assuming you had some sort of lyric sheet to follow along with since you summarized the plot for us.

Mike -- appropos what I just said to John above, and since you and I seem to be the two biggest Springsteen fans in the group, I am wondering what your take is on his new concert film, Western Stars, that just hit the theaters. I hate to say this, but I was not overwhelmed... not underwhelmed, I guess I was in the middle (I was going to say "whelmed" but that seems to mean the same thing as "overwhelmed" -- had to look that up). Anyway, it was a huge departure for him, backing himself not with a rock band but with a full orchestra, and the musical arrangements were very pleasant to listen to, but the lyric writing left me cold, if not confused, more often than not. His in-between song comments which acted as lead-ins to the songs were often helpful (often poignant, even profound, as he is so good at doing), but the songs themselves felt too vague to me. There was much to like about the film, the setting in this 100 year old cathedral like barn, the photograghy of the American Southwest, the use of home movie footage from the 50's, and of course one cannot help but admire him daring to try something this different. But it certainly did not pack the wallop that his Springsteen on Broadway did that was on Netflix earlier this year, which, I might add took the exact opposite approach. There, the musical accompaniment, was minimal--just an accoustic guitar, or piano, and the power came from the lyics and his performance. This time, although the lyrics were generally understandable, I thought their vagueness just didn't convey much of a recognizable story or emotional message.

Mary Margaret Clark (Schultheis)

"Pardon the interruption"......I hate to barge in on the the current topics, but I came across this video of a presentation given by Tim Tebow, and although I had watched it some time ago, I was once again reminded that there are very few true coincidences in life.  Looking back into my own past, as I often do nowadays, I understand more fully that those "aha moments" which I once considered "conincidences" were, in fact, those times when God was revealing His presence to me through this very physical world in which we live.

I have also provided a link from ESPN verifying the statistics spoken of in the video. 

 https://youtu.be/nyxjRcyrj8s

https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/page/10spot-divisional/tim-tebow-phenomenon-gets-eerie--adam-schefter-10-spot

David Mitchell

Mark,

If you ask me, they should make a film about Don and Phil - the Everly Brothers. And they could shoot it in their daddy's old barber shop. I still don't think there was better two-part harmony sung by anyone - ever! Not George and Paul, not Simon and Garfunkle - not ever.

I recall watching them on TV in the fifties - absolutely loved 'em. Then followed a long breakup (over 20 years I believe), and then seeing them reunited on stage at Royal Albert Hall in London. It was terrific seeing them together again. The Brits loved it! 

Ironic - the Beatles were strongly influenced by their music - made such a success that they helped push Don and Phil's careers asside - and finally for Don and Phil to come back on one of the very stages where the Beatles rose to fame.  

---------------

On a more serious note - can you tell us where you live in relation to the fires. It sounds as if these high winds have brough hell to visit earth for those areas. A geographic locator on you would help me follow the news.

David Mitchell

this just in.......................

News has just reached us that a joint House Committee has supoenaed Cincinnati resident Larry Foster.

He is being ordered to bring all of the historic memorabilia he can carry, and then some.  

He is charged with possession of every damn historical document, letter, or memo, and every photo, artistitic rendering, or news clipping between the time of the invention of the printig press, and the present day. Committee members are concerned that he may have documents linked to every single one of us - information that could be used to tamper with the next elections, or just be too damned interesting for our own good.

Everyone is advised to Be Very Afraid!    

James Hamilton, M. D.

Medical History Quiz #4

As I recall - please correct me if I am in error - in our English classes at BWHS among our assignments each year we were given one Catholic/religious novel to read. The one that stands out in my memory was about St. Damien De Veuster of Molokai - Damien the Leper. I'm sure you all know his story of ministering to the sick in the leper colony on the Hawaiian Island of Molokai, where he, himself, became infected and died of the disease in 1889.

I think most people think of leprosy (Hansen Disease) as something of the past, a disease of biblical times. Actually, it is a not uncommon problem in some countries throughout the world, including the Americas, and infects about 150 or so people in the USA yearly.

The causative bacterial agent(s) is (are) Mycobacterium leprae (and the genetically different but related M. lepromatosis,which causes the same clinical disease). You may recognize the genus, Mycobacterium, as the same one that produced the species that causes tuberculosis.

These leprosy-causing bacteria are obligate intracellular bacteria, which means they cannot grow or reproduce outside of a host cell. Thus, one cannot grow them on agar plates like strep and most other germs. That makes it difficult to test them to different antibiotics and develop specific vaccines to immunize those at risk of infection.

Outside of man, the only known host/reservoir creature whose cells carry these microbes is the Nine Banded Armadillo, a common resident of the Southwest and South. In 2015 three armadillo-related cases were reported in one county in Florida. It is very difficult to track down sources of leprosy infection from these critters (or human sources also) since the incubation period for leprosy can be up to ten years.

Leprosy is not easy to get. It is believed to be respiratorily spread but not casually. Handling or eating armadillos is also a source. The disease affects skin and peripheral nerves as well as eyes. There are six various stages of infection, but that is beyond what I want to discuss.

Treatment is multi drug (antibiotics which includes some that are used to treat TB along with a medicine called Dapsone) for up to 24 months or longer. Why so long? These buggers have a VERY slow growth rate and antibiotics work when they are in a growth phase. If treated in the early stages there can be up to a 99% "cure" rate, BUT late recurrences - up to 20 years later - can occur.

A vaccine that has been used to help prevent TB, Bacillus of Calmette-Guerin (BCG vaccine), is only about 50% effective for leprosy prophylaxis.

So, here are the Quiz Questions:

1. Leprosy causes nerve damage and pain is not always felt. How did Father Damien realize he had contracted the disease (in the book)?

     A. When his hand brushed over a candle flame he felt no pain

     B. He dropped an iron pot on his bare foot and felt no pain

     C. He splashed boiling water on his hand and felt no pain

     D. He noticed a characteristic lesion on the bottom of his foot

     E. He noticed a characteristic lesion on his chest

2. The leper colony on Molokai has long since closed. The last one in the USA , which is now a museum, was located where?

     A. Las Vegas, New Mexico

     B. Carville, Louisiana

     C. Lufkin, Texas

     D. Mossyrock, Washington

     E. Newton, Georgia

Jim

David Mitchell

As for Question #1 - I give up.

But for Question #2 - it has to be Mossyrock.

I'm pretty sure Damien's only living relative works for a lawn mowig service there.

Mark Schweickart

Dave-- Thank you for expressing your concern, but thankfully there have been no fires in my area (yet). I live in Sunland 91040, an area of the San Fernando Valley, north of Burbank, that lies in a little valley between what is called the Verdugo Hills to the south and the much larger SanGabriel Mountains to the north. Consequently, we are somewhat vulnerable to fires breaking out in either of these areas (as has happened a few times in the last 10 years). However, so far this year the fires have not been at all close, and the stong winds have been blowing away from us, so we do not see or smell the smoke. Let's hope this continuees to be the case. Better yet, let's hope these fires disappear soon altogether. Again, thanks for asking.

Jim -- I have no clue as to your quiz questions this time, although I do distinctly remember reading the book about Father Damien for English class (freshman or sophomore year, I think). I still have this image of him leaning in to hear a leper's confession, when suddenly the leper coughed up some sort of noxious I-don't-know-what, all over Fr. Damien's face. I remember thinking, "Oh no, he's a goner now." 

And let's give a shout out to Larry Foster, who has recently undergone surgery for one hernia, and is facing another for a second hernia in a couple of days. I think Larry said the second involves the esophagus, and may be a bit trickier than the first. So, Good luck, Larry. Hope all goes as well with the second as with the first.

Kathleen Wintering (Nagy)

So glad you were able to hook up with David, Jeanine! I think people will be  much more inclined to come to the next reunion, despite the passing years, with all the communication of Janie`s website! Kathy W.

David Barbour

I think Janie deserves a gold star for making our website.  I don't know anyone in our age group

with such a marvelous meeting place for classmates.

Dave M.    Saw a billboard out west for impossible sliders!  Is nothing sacred?

DB

Lawrence Foster

Thank you Mark for the good wishes for the surgeries.  The inguinal went well and recovery is going fine.  I was able to sit upright for a while and make that long Shakespeare post the other day on the User Fourm.  Just now got off the phone with the pre-op nurse for tomorrow's hiatal surgery (yes, the esophagus).  All is going well and I have confidence in the MD.  Same one who did the inguinal.  Just going to be looking at a very soft diet for a while but the good side of that is it means milk shakes and chai tea lattes!  I do plan on playing that sympathy card as much as I can.  While sometimes people respond that they will keep one in their thoughts and prayers durng times like this I suggest that you keep my wife Peggy in those thoughts and prayers.  She's the one who will be putting up with me!  Later now.

Michael McLeod

Man this joint is jumpin'!

So happy to see so many people chiming in.

I'll try to keep this tight. Much as I may have groused I always wound up loving it, believe it or not, when editors told me to cut a story because space was limited that day. You discover how many words you use that are unnecessary. Or should I say that more briefly: you discover so many unnecessary words. So:

Love how leaves save their best for last. May I be as graceful as they are when they say their goodbyes, wafting that crisp, cheery, embracing scent along the way down but only after showing off their colors in one last memorable display.

I timed it just right this visit. Think I caught autumn at its peak. I see fall with appreciative eyes when I can make it up north because it basically doesn't happen down here. Mostly the leaves that do fall just turn brown and plop down on a different timetable and with no color-chart pageantry involved. Florida has its moments. Fall is not one of them. The Walhalla ravine near my sister's house puts this whole state to shame. 

Having moved away from home and around the country for so long something else I am reminded of when I come home is connectivity in a community: My sister can fill me in on the ups and downs not only of many of my classmates but with footnotes on how their siblings are doing and commentary on their shared family characteristics. I mentioned one friend in a mostly complimentary way and my sister knew that person's family well enough to say "Well, of course he's like that. He's a ....." filling in what I discreetly left as a blank with the friend's family name.

Plus, speaking of communal connectivity,  the Buckeyes won. So who the hell cares that it rained?

Mark: I agree that the Bruce doc was a disappointment but in terms of creating a very simple but evocative tale -- filled with telling details, a striking melody, a sense of place and powerful emotions -- I think "Moonlight Motel" is one of his greatest songs. Some nice lyrics tucked into the title track as well. Not consistently good as an album, though.

Finally: We watched the majority of Ken Burn's documentary about country music when I was at my sister's house. I was reminded once again of the power of being direct and utterly honest and using very few simple words to say what's most important. Also had no idea that Brenda Lee had country roots and Ray Charles embraced its spirit and made it his own. The power of music. Just the power of music. I thought I had a sense of it but I'm still learning how profound a part of the human experience it is.

Jim: I will always remember "Death Be Not Proud." Not sure when/where we read it but pretty sure it was assigned. Can't be sure about the author's name. I want to say John Gunther but that could be wrong. It was about his son's death. 

David Mitchell

 Dave B.

"impossible sliders" ????   

James Hamilton, M. D.

Mike,

No argument from me on the beauty of the autumn leaves in the Clintonville ravines. You describe your fall feelings very well. I truly enjoy the change of seasons but bemoan the fact that autumn is so brief. Yesterday and today I have been shoveling and snow blowing a lot of the winter white stuff which is beautiful when undisturbed but a pain in which to drive. At least it has hidden a yard full of pine needles, for awhile. 

Jim 

​​ 

Kathleen Wintering (Nagy)

-Larry, Lots of prayers ! Take good care of you!! Kathy Wintering

Kathleen Wintering (Nagy)

I agree Dave, Janie deserves tremendous thanks for all she has done for this website and for reunions. I don`t know where our class would be without her!! Kathy Wintering