Good evening,
919 Gang. Twenty-nine member have sent new or revised bios for the 919 Gang
Directory. Obviously, we have a long way to go. Please start typing.
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JOE CANTLUPE writes:
A
quarter century later, even if memory dims some specifics, the snapshots stay
in my mind: the ghastliness of Ground Zero.
Our
team from Copley’s Washington bureau was there in NYC the day after the Sept.
11 attacks. Against the backdrop of the ruined and toppled Twin Towers,
every story was painful. Walking block after block, stopping at firehouses,
police stations, and churches, I saw the constant flow of crying people,
their bloodshot eyes, faces showing anguish and distress: where is my
son, my daughter, my mom, my dad, my everyone? Like bewildered
vendors, people hawked little signs and big signs, or plastered them on
telephone poles: DID YOU SEE THIS PERSON?
Block
after block, (repetitive, yes) parked cars were smashed, heavily covered
in dust. The World Trade Center Cortlandt subway station, a convenient
stop for lower Manhattan, was destroyed, mounds of debris having crashed in
from the demolished towers.
Breathing
was pretty miserable. Each breath took in metallic aromas, a harbinger of the
toxic poisons that continues to take more lives beyond those nearly 3,000
killed in the initial attacks. Getting a mask – finding any pharmacy
that still had one to sell – was a top priority.
Life
immediately reminded us of its lack of guarantees.
Looking
up at the sky, where commercial flights were banned, you couldn’t help
but ask: would there be another attack? And you got the sense that the world,
at least our world, would be different and you would be right.
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JAMES GRIMALDI writes:
My
West Coast swing (all by mass transit and rides from friends) continues with
another visit with a former Trib colleague, Dennis Foley (see pic below)
following my meetup with the delightful and hilariously sardonic Dee Anne
Traitel (never change, Dee Anne).
On Tuesday, I headed over to UCSD. The
last time I was on the UCSD campus was for my son’s college tour (he chose a
university on the East Coast). This time, it was damn hot. This is not the San Diego weather I recall,
though we all know climate change is a hoax.
I successfully conducted my review of
30 boxes in the Jonas Salk collection at the Geisel library at UCSD and
navigated the idiosyncratic, labyrinthine rules of the genial librarians.
Among
the many strictures: No cameras, notebooks or bags in the archival reading
room, though iPhones, which have cameras of course, are allowed — only for
streaming music or sending texts and non-photographic activity. Laptops are
allowed but notes also can be taken using grid-lined paper and Ticonderoga
pencils, supplied free of charge by the archivist reference desk. One can mark
any pages for copying — but no more than 250, if a researcher is going to copy
them without assistance using a library laser scanner and thumb drive, one
still must pay 25 cents per page; if one exceeds 250, then the researcher must
pay 50 cents per page. Unless the chief archivist grants a special reprieve to
300, and then one must reduce the 320 pages selected by 20.)
The first floor of the library is
filled with drawings and sculptures donated by Ted and Audrey Geisel stretching
across his career, including his first Seuss book that was rejected by more
than two dozen publishers before he made it into print.
Geisel
proved his humor was worldly and timeless with these editorial cartoons that
could run today. (My take on global topics, and the new papal encyclical can be
found here in a recent NYT essay:
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/26/opinion/pope-leo-just-war-theory-encyclical-ai-iran.html?unlocked_article_code=1.6FA.dIdR.JFJKEm7_PJOH&smid=url-share )
After
a surprisingly nice evening in Old Town, where I had not been in decades (I
recommend a visit to Societe Brewing Co. tasting room), I headed north and
arrived in Santa Ana via Amtrak. Dennis Foley, also on a Southern California
swing, met me there and updated me about his friends, family, and triumphant
return to Michigan, where he remains busy with volunteer work (food bank,
mentoring high school students), golfing, and canvassing for candidates
for one of the major political parties (which shall not be named pursuant to
Reber rules).
After
breakfast at a longstanding vegetable-forward fresh food cafe in homey downtown
Orange and coffee with a dean at Chapman University, Dennis and I took this
selfie about a quarter of a mile from our former workplace, The Orange County
Register, where we landed after departing the Evening Tribune. (The vacated
Register building still retains its newspaper name prominently on the outside
and is far more sad and ghostly than the U-T building in Mission Valley.)
I
apologize to the dozens of other Reber readers who reached out and wanted to
meet, but I was quite busy. I hope to see you next time I visit the unbearable
furnace that San Diego has become.
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ANITA
PALMER writes:
Erik
Slavin, the Stars and Stripes editor-in-chief fired Aug. 21 by the
Pentagon, tells the backstory in an Atlantic magazine article posted
Tuesday. Here’s a “gift” link for anyone interested who doesn’t have a
subscription.
https://tinyurl.com/3yj2ab5b
