Good evening, 919 Gang. We are back, but I am ailing.
Tomorrow's schedule calls for a miraculous cure and a resumption of 919 Gang
Reports.
P.O. Box 2239
Ramona, CA 92065
U.S.A.
Tuesday, March 31, 2015
Wednesday, March 25, 2015
Time out
Good evening, 919 Gang. This will be the last nightly
report for a few days. No. 1 son is running in the annual police relay race
from Baker to Las Vegas this weekend, and his wife also is involved. So, Mary
and I will keep the gkids occupied. Won’t be hard. Las Vegas have several nice
museums. I plan to be back Tuesday (March 31) and file that night.
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CAROL GOODHUE SHULL
writes:
Tidbits gleaned from today's memorial
service for Gerry Warren at Goodwin House, where he lived in his final years
and which is just a few miles from the home of my daughter, son-in-law and
almost 1-year-old granddaughter in Alexandria, Va.
- Journalists weren't the only ones
who learned they could have intense political debates with him without
jeopardizing their friendship or familial ties. His daughter was one who said she
was more liberal than he and could count on him to listen to her arguments with
interest and politeness -- but no chance whatsoever of changing his mind.
- You can take the editor out of the
newsroom and even allow him to get a seminary education, but you can't take the
editing habit away from a journalist. The Rev. Dan Duggan, who delivered the
homily, said Jerry often favored him with forthright -- and welcome --
critiques of his sermons.
- Although Jerry planned his memorial
service in painstaking detail, he didn't exactly get everything he asked for.
Those carrying out his wishes as much as they could agreed to omit one reading;
as it was, the program ran 16 pages long -- without a biography and with only
one photo.
- Jerry did get two of his wishes,
though. The final "hymn" was the Nebraska University fight song. That
drew smiles from attendees who included not only his son and daughter, but also
former colleagues from several of his careers and some dapper friends he'd made
more recently at Goodwin House. With them he had shared lively dinnertime
discussions, poker games and the learning, peace and grace he found in his
longtime spiritual quest. He'd apparently also shared his bow ties. Several of
his Goodwin House friends fulfilled another of his wishes by proudly wearing
one of them. It was a sweet and classy tribute.
REBER: Thanks so much for your report, Carol.
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T.R.
REINMAN writes:
Re: Tokyo trip. I was lucky enough to
go to Tokyo and Hiroshima with the U.S. Olympic volleyball team for a week
after the 1988 Olympics. In the interest of your time I’ll relay just three
vivid memories of Tokyo. First, the curtains in, I believe a Tokyo Sheraton,
were hung on rods that overlapped in the center of the window, thus eliminating
the annoying slash of morning light that seems to wake me on about 68 of my
annual 70-something stays in U.S. hotels. Second, when I stood to offer my
train seat to a tiny, elderly and severely stooped woman who was practically
dragging two large and laden shopping bags, she backed away and frowned at me,
as did every other passenger, one or two of whom came up to my shoulders. None
of them helped the woman on or off the train or with her burden and when I got
off two stops later several were still giving me the stink-eye. Three, with
hours to kill before an evening volleyball match I decided to go to a driving
range in the city center on a Sunday afternoon. It was a semicircle three
stories high with hundreds of hitting bays. Balls in the air looked like a
Syracuse blizzard. The range itself looked like a popcorn popper; it was an
asphalt slope on which balls were landing and immediately launching again.
They’d eventually end up in streams of water that flowed back under the hitting
bays and be pumped up to waist-high dispensers at every bay on this enormous structure.
The price of a small bucket was astounding, and the wait was about an hour.
Finally my assigned spot opened up. I strode to the mat, took a couple of
swings with a driver that felt like a fishing rod, knew this wasn’t going to go
well, put my tokens in the slot, took a couple more swings, noticed people
stopping and staring and . . . whoa, the bucket. Forgot to put that under the
spout. Now balls are bouncing around, many off my perch on the second deck. A
half-dozen diminutive men are now surrounding me as we try to capture a few
balls and not bump each other to our deaths 30 feet below. There's a lot of
bowing and backing away going on. Now it’s time to hit a rock with a fishing
pole to an asphalt hill. Which meant it’s time for a couple dozen people who
have been watching me -- reading, strolling, and looking like such a clown that
I’d probably offer a seat to an elderly woman on a train -- try to hit that
ball with that driver with my relative size and not crown the guy in the bay a
couple of feet behind me. I was right. It didn’t go well. Robin Klevon Dishon,
have a blast in Tokyo. There’s plenty to see but if you have a few spare
minutes you might want to check the range, see if any big American galoots are
on display. Sorry to run long here but you asked, sort of.
-----------------------------------------------------------
JOE
HOLLY writes:
Hey
Jack, Here we are with another March and another equinox and another fabulous
San Diego day…
A
good day to be a bird…
--------------------------------------------------------
REBER:
Bob Laurence and Doug Williams will celebrate birthdays while we are gone.
Happy Birthday to each on March 29.
P.O. Box 2239
Ramona, CA 92065
U.S.A.
Tuesday, March 24, 2015
Do you belong in the zoo?
Good evening, 919 Gang. Here’s a job
opening that looks right for several of our members. If this job is not to your
taste, follow the link and you will see they also need a couple of snake
handlers.
DENNIS CORBRAN writes:
San Diego Zoo Global has an opening
for a public relations representative. The PR staff works out of our office in
Mission Valley, and serves the Zoo, Safari Park, and Institute for Conservation
Research. The Rep will do everything from writing press releases to assisting
media on grounds to crisis management. This is a full-time position with
benefits at a great organization. The jobs website is at http://zoo.sandiegozoo.org/jobs where you can see this and other
currently available positions by clicking on View Open Jobs.
---------------------------------------------
JERRY SCHULTZ writes:
Jack, if
there are those among us who want to send an email note to Betty Walker's
memorial, they can send it to jerryschultz@cox.net
and I'll deliver it.
----------------------------------------------
DAVID
FARMER writes:
Peter
Kaye told about regretting his role in stories about a group of homosexual men
in Gov. Ronald Reagan's office. As I understand it, Peter was prevented from
publishing his own report in The Union, but provided guidance to other
reporters whose organizations were willing to run the story.
As
for Peter's regrets, the simple truth is that journalists are no smarter or
more enlightened than other kinds of professionals. We hold the same beliefs
that most other people do at a given time. I had an experience that illustrates
this point.
When
I was running the Los Angeles office of CNN in the 1990s, I started getting
complaints about the lead entertainment reporter in the bureau. PR people and
others outside of the bureau told me that this reporter -- I'll call him Sandy --
would show up at events drunk. They said he was tarnishing CNN's reputation. At
first, I didn't feel that I had enough information to take action.
But
one night a celebrity died, and we had to call Sandy at home to come to work.
He arrived very intoxicated. I confronted him, and he said he'd taken Nyquil
for a cold. It was clear that this was a stock excuse he had prepared.
I
sent Sandy home, informed our Atlanta headquarters, and within a few days he
was fired. Now, here's where my own regrets come in. I wish that I'd urged the
bosses to suspend Sandy without pay for, let's say, six months. He could have
been invited to return if he successfully completed rehab.
As
it was, Sandy did attend rehab, but his CNN position was gone. I assume he kept
whatever Turner pension he'd accrued, but he fell from a top job in network TV
to doing radio in a small town. He moved to New York, where it took him several
years to reach the same level in his profession that he'd held with CNN.
I
had acted on the common assumption that alcoholism is a sort of voluntary
condition, that it should be punished by termination if you didn't shape up. I
finally learned the reality when a person in my own family began to suffer from
the illness.
I'm
truly sorry for my role in Sandy's fall. He and I remain Facebook friends, and
he even credits me with saving his life through my intervention. But I know now
that I could have been much kinder and achieved a better result.
-------------------------------------------
CARL LARSEN writes:
Public
safety advocates voice alarm at upcoming changes in rural East County ambulance
service that are being made without public notice or a vote by county
Supervisors. No input was given by medical experts aside from the companies
bidding on the contract. Once the new service takes effect on April 1, longer
waits for care are foreseen, especially jeopardizing accident victims on the
I-8 corridor and those with strokes and heart attacks. The story, reported in
East County magazine, says little has been done to secure mutual-aid agreements
from other jurisdictions, although one ambulance service in Imperial County
said they’d be glad to help! (link below)
-------------------------------------------
REBER: Tonight we wish Happy Birthday,
March 25, to Rick Davis.
---------------------------------------------
TIM WILSON forwards:
Here are the world’s most popular
beers. (Click on the graphic for a larger
world view.)
TIM WILSON forwards:
Remember the Pythagorean Theorem?
Here is a brief history of how it
came about, created by a math teacher:
P.O. Box 2239
Ramona, CA 92065
U.S.A.
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