Motley Moose – Archive

I post a weekly diary of historical notes, arts & science items, foreign news (often receiving little notice in the US) and whimsical pieces from the outside world that I often feature in “Cheers & Jeers”.

OK, you’ve been warned – here is this week’s tomfoolery material that I posted.

ART NOTES – works by Margaret Neumann in an exhibition subtitled Inscapes – inspired by the poet Gerard Manley Hopkins’s concept of the distinguishing characteristics that define individuality – are at the Boulder, Colorado Museum of Contemporary Art through June 7th.

HAIL and FAREWELL to the decorated Bay Area police officer Ed Tracey – no, not yours truly (I’m quite a bit older) – but a Hong Kong native of whose career I was alerted to (by West Coast friends) several years ago, and seemed to be an example of law enforcement at its best – who has died from cancer at only age 45 …… next, to the soul singer Percy Sledge – whose song Take Time to Know Her was my favorite of his – who has died at the age of 74 ….. and to the founder/producer of the long-running TV music show “Austin City Limits” on PBS, Bill Arhos – who has died at the age of 80.

HAVING SEEN ONE MYSELF back in 1999, I am still quite envious of the Italian geologist Carlo Dellarole, who in the past sixteen years has witnessed eleven total solar eclipses – and he will be in the USA on August 21, 2017 – when that solar eclipse’s “belt of totality” will stretch cross-country, from Oregon to the Carolinas.

THURSDAY’s CHILD is Lutece the Cat – a Missouri kitteh who disappeared from his family during a move seven years ago – but now about to be reunited, due to his microchip.

EVEN THOUGH I realize the Grateful Dead chose Chicago as the site of their final three shows because (a) that was the site of their final show twenty years ago before the death of Jerry Garcia, and (b) it is centrally located in the North American continent …… still, it seemed odd that there would be no final S.F. Bay Area shows. Well, they have rectified the situation by adding two shows in Santa Clara, before the final shows at Soldier Field.  

YUK for today – here is the address label on a piece of mail received at my local Humane Society …. and just look at the second line:

Donald Rumsfeld …………… call your office.

BRAIN TEASER – try this Quiz of the Week’s News from the BBC.

SCIENCE NOTES – Australia’s Great Barrier Reef faces many challenges … and none more threatening than the crown-of-thorns starfish which scientists are trying new ways to combat.

FRIDAY’s CHILD is Paddy McCourt the Cat – a Scottish kitteh who is being hailed as (an unwitting) hero after meowing to be let out of the house at 1:30am … thus allowing a man to detect a fire started by vandals (which threatened a gas main pipe).

ONE INTERESTING OBITUARY of the recent death of the televangelist Robert Schuller goes into detail as to how he rose (applying business principles to religion, embracing economies of scale and customer focus) and how he fell (poor succession planning, and a failure to react to dynamic new competitors).

LEST YOU THINK this something limited to US worshippers of Ayn Rand … a Toronto business reporter says that Canadian PM Stephen Harper’s desire to have balanced-budget and debt-ceiling laws are just as loopy – and also aimed at destroying government.

SEPARATED at BIRTH – two TV stars: televangelist pastor Joel Osteen and “Home Improvement’s” Tim Allen.

   

…… and finally, for a song of the week ………………………… I have not taken a look at Great American Songbook composers in some time, so let’s remedy the situation with someone deserving more notoriety. Vernon Duke had, in some ways, a career modeled upon that of George Gershwin, with works in musicals, symphonies, ballet, oratories and even poetry. Yet his name has faded: with works often not in print, nor any anthologies of note. His versatility is probably part of the answer, as well as an inability to break-through in the post WW-II return to recordings. Suffice it to say, you’ll recognize some of his songs from that era, and those who perform them to this day.

He was born Vladimir Dukelsky in 1903 in the old Russian Empire (what is today Belarus) and studied at the Conservatory in Kiev (where one of his classmates was the future star pianist Vladimir Horowitz). His family fled the post-revolution chaos in 1919, with the family eventually settling in New York City. He eventually befriended George Gershwin, who convinced him to adopt an American-sounding name. He did adopt Vernon Duke for his popular music, yet decided to keep his given name for his other works (which probably also partly accounts for his lack of notoriety today). He worked in Paris and London for part of the 1929’s, before returning to the US in 1929 … where he was to achieve his greatest fame on Broadway, composing four songs that are considered part of the Great American Songbook.

The first of these came in 1932 with April in Paris (with lyrics by Yip Harburg, of “Over the Rainbow” fame) in the production of Walk a Little Faster. Count Basie has a noted instrumental version of this, with the coda repeated twice (per the Count’s instructions to his band, which you hear on the recording).

While principally a music composer, Vernon Duke did add his own lyrics to his composition Autumn in New York – from the play Thumb’s Up in 1934. Following the death of George Gershwin in 1937, he was asked to complete Gershwin’s last score, from the film Goldwyn Follies, written by Ben Hecht.

His greatest commercial success came with the 1940 Broadway musical Cabin in the Sky – that featured an all-black cast, starring Lena Horne, Eddie “Rochester” Anderson and Ethel Waters. Staged by George Balanchine, Vernon Duke wrote the music (with lyrics by John La Touche) and the signature tune was one that Ethel Waters sang, Taking a Chance on Love – which is a staple of jazz singers to this day.

Meanwhile, under his given name, he wrote music for other fields. In 1934 he wrote music for the ballet Jardin Public (from a scenario by André Gide), a concerto entitled Dédicaces plus a 1938 oratorio The End of St. Petersburg and a 1946 Third Symphony.    

World War II saw him join the Coast Guard, where he became an officer overseeing their music program. He can be said to have “discovered” a young Sid Caesar perform one of his foreign-language double-talk monologues – and Vernon Duke hired him for a comic role in a Coast Guard musical, “Tars and Spars.”

However, Vernon Duke did not regain the fame he had achieved before the war: never having another major Broadway hit. He did continue and, once again, in varied fields. He collaborated on a 1952 musical Two’s Company with the poet Ogden Nash, in 1962 published his own first book of poetry (“Epistles”), and in 1966 composed “Anima Eroica (An Ode to St. Brigitte)” for soprano solo, two flutes, oboe, clarinet and piano. He was also the founder of the Society for Forgotten Music – an organization dedicated to reviving interest in neglected classical composers and compositions.

Vernon Duke died during an operation for lung cancer in January, 1969 at the age of 65. He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame the following year, but his true legacy lies in the number of musicians who have performed his works. Among those who have recorded Vernon Duke-written tunes are Eddy Arnold, Nat King Cole, Judy Garland, Peggy Lee, Dinah Shore, Billie Holiday, André Previn, Tony Bennett, Benny Goodman, Rosemary Clooney, Andy Williams, Charlie Parker, Doris Day, Thelonious Monk, Barbra Streisand, Liza Minnelli and Dionne Warwick. A diverse group, to be sure.    

   

Of all of his work, my favorite song is I Can’t Get Started – with lyrics by Ira Gershwin – that was first sung by Bob Hope (to Eve Arden) in the Ziegfeld Follies of 1936. It has become a jazz standard, with cover versions by Bunny Berigan and Frank Sinatra, plus the bassist Charles Mingus (who wrote “Started Melody” based upon Vernon Duke’s song) – with some more recent renditions by Jamie Cullum and Rod Stewart. And below you can hear Ella Fitzgerald sing it.  

It appears that the lies that Scott Walker has told for his entire career, and his uncanny ability to stay one election ahead of any inquiries into his activities, have finally caught up with him.

Scott Walker won the Wisconsin governor’s race in 2010, in a low turnout election year, after lulling people into thinking that both parties were essentially the same. He did not bother to mention to the voters what he was telling his donors: that he intended to crush unions in Wisconsin, starting with the public employee unions. And he never shared his plan to cut $900 million from state aid to K-12 education. Gov. Scott Walker beat a recall in 2012, an election that 900,000 Wisconsinites signed petitions to force, by blanketing the airwaves with ads bought using out-of-state money he got by gaming the campaign finance laws. Scott Walker then won reelection in 2014, in another low turnout election, by flat out lying in campaign ads and public statements about his position on abortion and on unions and by glossing over his job creation record and the impending budget deficit.

In all three of those elections, he was able to get away with the lies because the captive press in Wisconsin was too lazy to investigate and report with any rigor: on his malfeasance in the Milwaukee County Executive’s office, his sleazy 2010 gubernatorial campaign activities which led to some of his staff being convicted of felonies, and, in 2014, the facts that put a lie to his boasts about job creation, the truth about the pending budget deficit, his plans for private-sector unions, and his disregard for the election financing laws of the state.

So Scott Walker won and was able to launch his presidential campaign in 2015 from the Wisconsin governor’s mansion based on the myth of his electability: “Three elections in 4 years in a state Obama won! They love me!!”

Gov. Walker forgot one little thing: once he entered the national arena, he had to dupe the entire country and he could no longer count on the Wisconsin press to print his words without investigating his deeds.  

First, the national press aggressively pursued his record, and his propensity for talking out of both sides of his mouth, reported on it and suggested that maybe there was more to the Walker story than the fluff pieces in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel and the Wisconsin State Journal archives.

Second, Walker started believing his own press releases and assumed that he could sign laws that harmed Wisconsin’s working families and propose a budget that would eat the last bit of seed corn by taking more whacks at education including the university system.

Now, the chickens have not only come to roost but feathers are flying.

The latest Marquette poll shows that only 41% of Wisconsinites approve of the job Scott Walker is doing; 78% hate that he has largely defunded public education in Wisconsin in order to give tax breaks to the wealthy and 70% are angry that he is planning to destroy the jewel of our state, the University of Wisconsin System, and specifically, UW-Madison – not only a source of pride but a huge driver of our state’s economy.

When Scott Walker buoyed the crowds at the Iowa Pig Convention in January by declaring that “you don’t have to move to the center to win the middle” what he meant was that you can just lie to the voters and when you have a lazy press unwilling to call out your lies, you can win an election.

The game is up. Ed Kilgore:

Scott Walker has a distinct advantage over the rest of the potential Republican presidential field in terms of electability arguments. They have theories and analogies. He’s got a recent track record. They can talk about attracting swing voters or boosting base turnout. He can simply point to three victories in Wisconsin-a state carried twice by Obama-since 2010. Combined with his much-bruited Destroyer of the Unions persona buttressed by other ideological crusades, it’s a seductive pitch for conservatives who want to win but who don’t want to cede an inch of policy or cultural ground to do so.

But anyone with nagging doubts about Walker’s future electability need look no further than 2015 polling on Walker’s standing in Wisconsin. […]

Keep an eye on those Wisconsin numbers as the months go by. If they keep looking like this, other candidates or their flacks may start arguing Walker just doesn’t have it any more. And there’s nothing much sadder than an over-the-hill demagogue.

Well, actually there is one thing sadder. The sad future of the State of Wisconsin and the people here, left with an educational system once considered a model for other states and a lagging economy held hostage to the trickle-down delusions of those in power who think we are just one more tax cut away from prosperity.

I hope that “the middle”, in Wisconsin at least, now realizes that they were duped. We can’t elect a new governor until 2018 but we can elect enough Democrats to the Wisconsin State Senate in 2016 to build a firewall between the awful policy choices of the incumbent governor and those things in the state we love that have not been completely destroyed.

Let’s tell the Republicans in the Wisconsin state legislature that the game is up for them, too.  

(Crossposted from Views from North Central Blogistan)

Welcome to The Moose Pond! The Welcomings diaries give the Moose, old and new, a place to visit and share words about the weather, life, the world at large and the small parts of Moosylvania that we each inhabit.

In lieu of daily check-ins, which have gone on hiatus, Welcomings diaries will be posted at the start of each week (every Sunday morning) and then, if necessary due to a large number of comments, again on Wednesday or Thursday to close out the week. To find the diaries, just bookmark this link and Voila! (which is Moose for “I found everyone!!”).

The format is simple: each day, the first moose to arrive on-line will post a comment welcoming the new day and complaining (or bragging!) about their weather. Or mentioning an interesting or thought provoking news item. Or simply checking in.

So … what’s going on in your part of Moosylvania?

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The President’s Weekly Address post is also an Open News Thread. Feel free to share other news stories in the comments.

From the White House – Weekly Address

In this week’s address, the President spoke about his commitment to combatting the threat of climate change and to keeping ourselves and future generations safe. The effects of climate change can no longer be denied or ignored – 2014 was the planet’s warmest year recorded, and 14 of the 15 hottest years on record have happened this century.

Climate change poses risks to our national security, our economy, and our public health. The President has already taken historic steps to address climate change, but there’s more that the United States and the international community can do. That’s why next Wednesday, on Earth Day, in the latest part of his effort to call attention to and act on the threat of climate change, the President will visit the Florida Everglades and speak about the threat that climate change poses to our economy and to the world.

Transcript: Weekly Address: Climate Change Can No Longer Be Ignored

Hi everybody.  Wednesday is Earth Day, a day to appreciate and protect this precious planet we call home.  And today, there’s no greater threat to our planet than climate change.

2014 was the planet’s warmest year on record.  Fourteen of the 15 hottest years on record have all fallen in the first 15 years of this century.  This winter was cold in parts of our country – as some folks in Congress like to point out – but around the world, it was the warmest ever recorded.

And the fact that the climate is changing has very serious implications for the way we live now.  Stronger storms.  Deeper droughts.  Longer wildfire seasons.  The world’s top climate scientists are warning us that a changing climate already affects the air our kids breathe.  Last week, the Surgeon General and I spoke with public experts about how climate change is already affecting patients across the country.  The Pentagon says that climate change poses immediate risks to our national security.

And on Earth Day, I’m going to visit the Florida Everglades to talk about the way that climate change threatens our economy.  The Everglades is one of the most special places in our country.  But it’s also one of the most fragile.  Rising sea levels are putting a national treasure – and an economic engine for the South Florida tourism industry – at risk.

So climate change can no longer be denied – or ignored.  The world is looking to the United States – to us – to lead.  And that’s what we’re doing.  We’re using more clean energy than ever before.  America is number one in wind power, and every three weeks, we bring online as much solar power as we did in all of 2008.  We’re taking steps to waste less energy, with more fuel-efficient cars that save us money at the pump, and more energy-efficient buildings that save us money on our electricity bills.

So thanks in part to these actions, our carbon pollution has fallen by 10 percent since 2007, even as we’ve grown our economy and seen the longest streak of private-sector job growth on record. We’ve committed to doubling the pace at which we cut carbon pollution, and China has committed, for the first time, to limiting their emissions.  And because the world’s two largest economies came together, there’s new hope that, with American leadership, this year, the world will finally reach an agreement to prevent the worst impacts of climate change before it’s too late.

This is an issue that’s bigger and longer-lasting than my presidency.  It’s about protecting our God-given natural wonders, and the good jobs that rely on them.  It’s about shielding our cities and our families from disaster and harm.  It’s about keeping our kids healthy and safe.  This is the only planet we’ve got.  And years from now, I want to be able to look our children and grandchildren in the eye and tell them that we did everything we could to protect it.

Thanks everybody, and have a great weekend.

Bolding added.

~

There are still places in America where sensible, commonsense regulations can be crafted in a bipartisan fashion. Montana is one of them.

Back in 2010, Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy famously posited that unlimited corporate money donations could not possibly lead to corruption or any erosion of people’s faith in the fairness of elections. That fantasy theory became the law of the land as the Supreme Court ruled in favor of corporate “free speech” and  Citizens United.

At that time, Montana, which is part of The Real World™, had a very strong campaign finance law in place because of abuses from the early 1900’s related to copper mining:

Montana’s massive copper mining corporations and those who controlled them-known as the “Copper Kings”-dominated state government and elections. “The corruption of Montana politics was by no means limited to bribery,” explains the state’s [attorney general in 2011], Steve Bullock. “The ‘Copper Kings’ dominated political debate in Montana and drowned out Montanans’ own voices. This was corruption as it was understood since the framing of the Constitution: not mere theft or bribery, but harnessing government power to benefit a single corporate faction at the expense of the broader and more diverse interests represented by the people themselves.”

A strong law banning corporate money from elections, the Corrupt Practices Act, was passed in 1912. The Montana law was challenged and ruled unconstitutional in December 2011 because of the Citizens United ruling.

Fast forward to 2015. Montana has now put in place a law that will not run afoul of the Supreme Court’s guidelines, that you can’t restrict the money but you can require disclosure of where the money is coming from.

Even the Supreme Court agreed that identifying the sources of campaign contributions would not limit free speech and invited Congress to pass some laws related to disclosure. The lame duck Congress of 2010 had the opportunity to do so and came up short because of the extra-constitutional 60 vote requirement for legislation to pass in the Senate (a law had already passed in the Democratic House of Representatives).

Montana’s bipartisan legislation was signed by Gov. Steve Bullock (D), the state’s former attorney general, who had made getting this law in place a priority for his administration:

In early 2015, Bullock teamed up with Republican state Sen. Duane Ankney to introduce Montana Disclose Act. The bill passed the Senate on the first try and went to the House, where a bipartisan majority of 41 Democrats and 10 Republicans passed it 51-48. The bill was sent to the governor’s desk on Wednesday. […]

The bill will require all groups, no matter their tax status, to disclose their donors if they spend money on electoral communications either targeting or mentioning a candidate within 60 days of an election.

Governor Bullock on the Montana Disclose Act (PDF):

“Montana elections are about to become the most transparent in the nation, requiring those trying to influence our elections to come out of the dark money shadows,” Gov. Steve Bullock (D), who plans to sign the bill, said in a statement. “Our elections should be decided by Montanans, not shadowy dark money groups.” […]

“What Montana shows is that the issue of money in politics is really only a partisan issue in Washington, D.C.,” Adam Smith, spokesman for the campaign finance reform group Every Voice, said. “People can come together — Republicans and Democrats — and pass real effective reforms of the system.”

Two other states have similar bans: California, which passed legislation, and New York, where rules were imposed through regulatory action.

Good job, Montana. Insuring clean honest elections is not a red state or blue state issue … it is an issue essential to the democracy of the United States.

 

Over the weekend, President Obama traveled to Panama City for the Summit of the Americas. The White House reports:

This past week, President Obama participated in the seventh Summit of the Americas, in Panama City, Panama. The Summit of the Americas is a tradition that brings together the leaders of North and South America to discuss issues that impact the Americas. President Obama’s participation in the Summit highlights the continuing commitment of the U.S. to upholding the role that independent civil society and the private sector play in a shared democratic agenda.

While in Panama City, President Obama participated in a CEO summit along with prominent business executives and heads of state from Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Jamaica, Mexico, Panama, Peru, and Trinidad and Tobago.

During the Summit, President Obama sat down with Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff. The two discussed shared priorities, like food security and climate change.

President Obama also sat down with Panamanian President Juan Carlos Varela to discuss the partnership between the U.S. and Panama on security, the economy, and education, and how they could further deepen ties between the two countries.

Additionally, in a historic first, President Obama met with Cuban President Raul Castro, in their first full meeting since the U.S. decided to chart a new course in relations with Cuba.

President Barack Obama participates in a pull-aside with Cuban President Raul Castro during the Summit of the Americas Second Plenary Session at the Atlapa Convention Center in Panama City, Panama, April 11, 2015. (Official White House Photo by Amanda Lucidon)

President Obama and President Castro discussed our shared histories, and the significant change in policy and the relationship between our two countries. Both leaders agreed that the majorities of the American people and Cuban people had responded positively to the thaw in relations.

“This is obviously a historic meeting.”

– President Obama on his first full meeting with Cuban President Raul Castro

President Obama announced that both Cuba and America were working on the next step in normalizing diplomatic relations between the U.S. and Cuba, and were working to open embassies in both Havana and Washington, D.C.

Transcript: Remarks by President Obama and President Raul Castro of Cuba Before Meeting

TLAPA Convention Center, Panama City, Panama, 2:46 P.M. EST

PRESIDENT OBAMA:  This is obviously a historic meeting.  The history between the United States and Cuba is obviously complicated, and over the years a lot of mistrust has developed.  But during the course of the last several months, there have been contacts between the U.S. and the Cuban government.  And in December, as a consequence of some of the groundwork that had been laid, both myself and President Castro announced a significant change in policy and the relationship between our two governments.

I think that after 50 years of policy that had not changed on the part of the United States, it was my belief that it was time to try something new, that it was important for us to engage more directly with the Cuban government and the Cuban people.  And as a consequence, I think we are now in a position to move on a path towards the future, and leave behind some of the circumstances of the past that have made it so difficult, I think, for our countries to communicate.

Already we’ve seen majorities of the American people and the Cuban people respond positively to this change.  And I truly believe that as more exchanges take place, more commerce and interactions resume between the United States and Cuba, that the deep connections between the Cuban people and the American people will reflect itself in a more positive and constructive relationship between our governments.

Now, obviously there are still going to be deep and significant differences between our two governments.  We will continue to try to lift up concerns around democracy and human rights.  And as you heard from President Castro’s passionate speech this morning, they will lift up concerns about U.S. policy as well.

But I think what we have both concluded is that we can disagree with the spirit of respect and civility, and that over time it is possible for us to turn the page and develop a new relationship in our two countries.

And some of our immediate tasks include normalizing diplomatic relations and ultimately opening an embassy in Havana, and Cuba being able to open an embassy in Washington, D.C. so that our diplomats are able to interact on a more regular basis.

So I want to thank President Castro for the spirit of openness and courtesy that he has shown during our interactions.  And I think if we can build on this spirit of mutual respect and candidness, that over time we will see not just a transformation in the relationship between our two countries, but a positive impact throughout the hemisphere and the world.

And President Castro earlier today spoke about the significant hardships that the people of Cuba have undergone over many decades.  I can say with all sincerity that the essence of my policy is to do whatever I can to make sure that the people of Cuba are able to prosper and live in freedom and security, and enjoy a connection with the world where their incredible talents and ingenuity and hard work can thrive.

PRESIDENT CASTRO:  (As interpreted.)  Well, Mr. President, friends from the press, we have been making long speeches and listening to many long speeches too, so I do not want to abuse the time of President Obama or your time.

I think that what President Obama has just said, it’s practically the same as we feel about the topics, including human rights, freedom of the press.  We have said on previous occasions to some American friends that we are willing to discuss every issue between the United States and Cuba.  We are willing to discuss about those issues that I have mentioned and about many others, as these — both in Cuba but also in the United States.

I think that everything can be on the table.  I think that we can do it, as President Obama has just said, with respect for the ideas of the other.  We could be persuaded of some things; of others, we might not be persuaded.  But when I say that I agree with everything that the President has just said, I include that we have agreed to disagree.  No one should entertain illusions.  It is true that we have many differences.  Our countries have a long and complicated history, but we are willing to make progress in the way the President has described.

We can develop a friendship between our two peoples.  We shall continue advancing in the meetings which are taking place in order to reestablish relations between our countries.  We shall open our embassies.  We shall visit each other, having exchanges, people to people.  And all that matters is what those neighbors can do; we are close neighbors, and there are many things that we can have.

So we are willing to discuss everything, but we need to be patient — very patient.  Some things we will agree on; others we will disagree.  The pace of life at the present moment in the world, it’s very fast.  We might disagree on something today on which we could agree tomorrow.  And we hope that our closest assistants — part of them are here with us today — we hope that they will follow the instructions of both Presidents.

Thank you so much.

END

2:57 P.M. EST

~

Feel free to share other news stories in the comments.

I post a weekly diary of historical notes, arts & science items, foreign news (often receiving little notice in the US) and whimsical pieces from the outside world that I often feature in “Cheers & Jeers”.

OK, you’ve been warned – here is this week’s tomfoolery material that I posted.

ART NOTES – an exhibition entitled Ansel Adams: Early Works is at the Long Island Museum in Stony Brook, New York through August 2nd.

HAIL and FAREWELL to the Emmy-winning actor who was the head of the legal firm in the NBC series L.A. Law, Richard Dysart – who grew-up in central Maine – who has died at the age of 86 ….. and to the humorist, advertising man and satirist Stan Freberg – whose 1961 album Stan Freberg Presents the United States of America (a history lesson in songs and sketches) Time magazine opined may have been “the finest comedy album ever recorded” – who has died at the age of 88.

CHEERS to the musical group Rising Appalachia – whose concert tour has recently commenced, and in which they will be travelling by Amtrak to their venue’s cities.

BRAIN TEASER – try this Quiz of the Week’s News from the BBC.

THURSDAY’s CHILD is Wonky the Cat – a deaf kitteh (suffering from cerebellar hypoplasia) … yet is ‘competing’ to become the “meower” of San Antonio, Texas.

ATTENTION, READERS –  posted a few months ago in this space was this year’s quiz from King William’s College (a prep school located on the UK’s Isle of Man) – with said quiz known as its General Knowledge Paper officially.

It consists of 18 groups of 10 questions – the first section on events 100 years ago, and the last on events of 2014. Each group has a common theme (though perhaps not immediately recognizable) that helps if you can answer at least one of that group’s questions – and is among the most difficult general knowledge quizzes on earth (quite British literature-laden, as you might well imagine) in part to being very cryptic.

At this link is the 2014-15 year’s quiz if you didn’t have a chance to take it.

Well, now the answers are available at this link – and yours made a 50% improvement over my blistering 2013-2014 total … of 2 (out of 180) correct. That’s right: I am up to 3(!) correct for 2015!

FRIDAY’s CHILD is Cleo the Cat – an Edmonton, Alberta kitteh who went missing in Ontario six years ago … but located on the street and eventually reunited due to her ear tattoo.

POLITICAL NOTES – in a tough election year, a lefty has held on to the leadership post of the regional parliament in the southern, more conservative Spanish region of Andalusia – and at only age forty, Susana Diaz may have a future in national politics.

CONGRATULATIONS to the winners of the NCAA men’s hockey championship, Providence College – with two goals in the final period to defeat Boston University 4-3 last night.

HAPPY 75th BIRTHDAY to one of my favorite musicians, the pianist Herbie Hancock – who, while best known as a jazz musician: has also had recordings in the field of rock, funk, hip-hop …. and who performed a Mozart piano concerto with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at age 11 (in 1951).

FATHER-SON? – a young Newt Gingrich and New Zealand-born film star Jemaine Clement (“Men in Black 3”).

   

…… and finally, for a song of the week ………………………… a look at my favorite solo piano tune of all time, recorded fifty-six years ago this month.

After leading a legendary swing-era big band in the 1930’s-40’s, Duke Ellington had started to become much less relevant by the mid-1950’s – due to the increasing popularity of modern jazz (and the difficult economics of maintaining a big band, post-WWII). But due to a legendary Newport Jazz Festival concert in 1956, his fortunes had started to rise once again. In 1958, his orchestra was invited to perform at an October arts festival in Leeds, England organized by the Earl of Harewood (whose brother Gerald was a major jazz devotee). Ellington was persuaded to perform – for the first time in Britain in 25 years – by the Canadian-born wife of the noted English music writer Stanley Dance – whose clinching line was that Queen Elizabeth would be attending.

And at a post-festival reception at the Leeds Civic Hall, it was Ellington to whom the Queen and Prince Philip spoke with the longest – answering the question of when his orchestra had last performed in Britain with the words, “1933, your Majesty … years before you were born” – and having been advised beforehand of his wit, Elizabeth II merely smiled in mock protest. Later, Duke and his songwriting partner Billy Strayhorn were also feted by the mayor of Leeds.

Ellington was so delighted at the reception he and his orchestra received that, upon his return to New York, he composed The Queen’s Suite (six pieces that totalled twenty minutes in length) and had his orchestra record it in the spring of 1959 at his own expense. Only one vinyl record was made of it, which Ellington had shipped to Buckingham Palace.

Having heard parts of it performed at subsequent concerts, critics and the public clamored for a public release but Duke would not hear of it. “It was written for her and there is no point dedicating something to the Queen of England and then just publicly releasing it”. It was not until after the death of Duke Ellington in 1974 that this suite (along with two others) was released on an album available to the public.

   

The signature piece of the suite (and the one that was most often performed publicly was The Single Petal of a Rose which (as the author David Bradbury described it) was “a serene Debussy-like piano solo“. Unlike the rest of the suite, it was actually composed during the orchestra’s stay in Britain – and at a party given by some of Ellington’s London friends, he named the tune after noticing that a petal had fallen off one of the roses placed upon the piano. And while I describe it as my favorite solo piano piece of all time: on the April 1959 recording, Ellington did enlist the help of bassist Jimmy Woode halfway through the piece.

And below you can listen to it.

My favorite picture of a GBH taken in the Padden Creek estuary within a quarter mile of the Heronry. This was taken a few years ago in early spring, about now.

The Great Blue Heron (GBH; Ardea herodias) is found in all parts of North and Central America. Although many areas like to claim them as their own, residents of Puget Sound and the Salish Sea in particular, feel a strong affinity for these statuesque creatures. To most locals, they are right up there with eagles and gulls as being part of our “native” landscape and part of our ecosystem. While not endangered at this time, they are considered a species of interest.  

As is probably of true a large number of heronries and their habitats around the country, our local ones have been encroached upon by development, polluted by industry, and degraded by loss of habitat. We have four such heronries in Whatcom County (the far northwestern corner of Washington State), and all have required preservation and reparation efforts to keep them viable. Recently significant restoration efforts have been taken locally and the Great Blue Heron (GBH) seems to be holding its own. This diary shows our local GBHs from one heronry that has survived in spite of habitat loss and industrial encroachment to within 30 yards of its closest nesting trees.

The industrial encroachment was the expansion of the city’s sewage and waste water treatment facility located at the edge of a stand of alder and fir trees near the bay that hosts the heronry.

The sewage plant is to the left, the dog trail and fence are in the foreground, and the heronry is in the trees to the right.  

The nests are also less than 50 yards from a Burlington Northern & Santa Fe train track that hauls coal and crude oil trains north day and night. Further, the adjacent estuaries which are the herons’ fishing holes, lay between the heronry and the train tracks. They have been polluted and diminished in size. The good news is that the estuaries are also in process of being restored.

The heronry is called the Post (Poe’s) Point Heronry and is known to many on the south side of town, especially dog owners as the path to the “off-leash dog park” borders the sewage plant on one side and skirts within thirty yards of the nesting trees. Fortunately there is now a fence to keep the dogs and people on the path.

Local monitoring of the heronry during the construction of the sewage plant in 2013 recorded 16 nests during the active construction time. Today I can easily count 14 and there may well be several more tucked away in the fir trees that I can not see from the path.

My photos of this heronry are from the end of March when records suggest that some of the nests should contain eggs and indeed there are often two herons at many of the nests. One, presumably the male periodically flies off and returns with some nice twigs that the female then expertly weaves into the nest. The fact that some nest building is going on suggests that some are still getting set up while others are well into the incubating process in which the parents trade off sitting on the eggs.

Below is a sequence of a male bringing branches back to the nest.

Here are few photos of them standing by the nest, awaiting their turn? I don’t know if they are male or female.

Each nest will hold three to five pale, greenish-blue eggs that will hatch after 25 to 29 days of incubation. We should see or hear some new activity by the end of April. They typically fledge at about 60 days of age.

Besides humans, herons don’t have many natural predators. They used to be hunted for their attractive plumes for ladies’ hats. More currently, one of the most concerning predators is the eagle that will snatch eggs, the young, and even adult herons at times. This heronry is in an area with a fair number of eagles and as seen in the following photo, an eagle is keeping an “eagle eye” on potential groceries. He is sitting in the same stand of alder trees and is not more more that 10 yards from the closest nest where parents stand guard. You can see a heron perched in the lower left corner of the photo. Hopefully it is a standoff.

Fast Facts:

    – Herons may live to be 15 years old, but six to eight years of age is the norm, although one banded heron lived to 24.

    – Great blue herons have one brood (clutch) per year, however, they may renest if their first clutch fails.

    – Adults are 4 ft. tall with a 6 ft. wingspan – but most only weigh about 5 lbs.

    – Great Blue Herons have specialized feathers on their chest that continually grow and fray. The herons comb this “powder down” with a fringed claw on their middle toes, using the down like a washcloth to remove fish slime and other oils from their feathers as they preen.

    – Great Blue Herons can hunt day and night thanks to a high percentage of rod-type photoreceptors in their eyes that improve their night vision.

Following are a few of my favorite photos of herons fishing in the various estuaries and along the shore of Bellingham Bay.

GBH’s little cousin –  Green Heron at the estuary

And finally for any Game of Thrones fans out there, a couple of photos that showed up on my download, although a bit blurred reminded me of Daenerys’ flying dragons.  

Later today, the first candidate for the 2016 Democratic presidential nominating contest will throw her hat into the ring.

No, not her. She is doing a great job right where she is. She is just a reminder of what is at stake.

Former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton will officially enter the Democratic Party nominating contest. There will be much weeping and gnashing of teeth … and then the Republicans will weigh in, too! I believe their slogan will be “First the black guy, now the girl!?!1!!”

It should come as no surprise that I expect to weigh in as well and my theme for 2016 will be simple: we need to nominate the strongest candidate possible for the general election. This is not a “take the party back to our grassroots!” election, this is not a time to show our purity and consider only candidates who have never met anyone on Wall Street, this is not a time to dredge up the parts of the past that are unlikely to be good predictors of the future: it is a time to come together and emerge as strong as possible from the primary season and well positioned for the general election.

There are core Democratic Party principles that should guide all of our candidates. There are also hot button issues that make a candidate less attractive or more attractive to certain groups. But the only litmus test should be: can our candidate win in 2016?

Reason number 1: The Supreme Court (and the appellate courts and the district courts).

The next president could have the opportunity to choose 3 or 4 new justices for the Supreme Court. The chance to tilt the court to the left is a real possibility.

President Barack Obama appointed two justices for the Supreme Court: Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagen. Justice Sotomayor became the first Latina on the court and holds dear the values most  Democrats embrace.

More …

Last month Justice Sotomayor spoke to students at Davidson College, a liberal arts school in North Carolina, and shared her judicial philosophy and philosophy of life:

Sotomayor herself is an example of diversity in a court that until recently was overwhelmingly male and white. She is known as much for her upbringing in housing projects in the Bronx as for her rulings in favor of civil liberties and social justice. She emphasized that diversity is essential to the court, because life experience – as well as legal expertise and knowledge of the Constitution – plays a vital role in how judges make decisions.

“Every life experience helps in judging,” she said. “We get cases in every field of human endeavor…so you want [justices] with broad life experiences, because those are the people you are asking to make the decisions.” […]

She has dissented on several important court rulings since her 2009 appointment by President Barack Obama, but she said she is optimistic that unjust rulings will eventually be overturned.

“We move from tolerance to intolerance and back again,” she said. “Really bad decisions have been overturned.”

But if the court is to rule in favor of justice, instead of lagging behind the rest of the country, Sotomayor said empathy has to play a part in justices’ decision-making. “When I meet someone,” she said, “I try really hard to project myself into their lives, to understand how they must be feeling.”

In this video reflecting on the talk and the reaction of the students and faculty, she stressed the need for a well-rounded education, not just in the law but in the liberal arts:

Justice Sotomayor: “Use your liberal arts education to make you rounded and whole people”.

(Link to video with the entire presentation on Vimeo is here)

Justice Sotomayor first served as a Judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (nominated by President George H.W. Bush, before Republicans became completely insane) and then on the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, nominated by President Bill Clinton. We build our bench (literally!) by appointing  intelligent and thoughtful jurists to our federal courts.

Those intelligent and thoughtful jurists were in evidence at last month’s celebration of the 150 year anniversary of the federal court of Eastern District of New York:

The Eastern District of New York (EDNY), with its primary courthouse located on Cadman Plaza East in Downtown Brooklyn, celebrated 150 years on Monday during a special session of the court presided over by the Chief Judge of the Eastern District Carol Amon.  Hons. Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor, associate justices of the U.S. Supreme Court, and the judges of the Eastern District joined Amon. […]

The respected Supreme Court jurist [Ruth Bader Ginsburg] was given a humorous T-shirt by Hon. Amon-who is known for her sense of humor-which read “You Want the Ruth? You Can’t Handle the Ruth!” for those pressuring the 82-year-old justice to retire from the Supreme Court bench.  Ginsburg’s colleague, Sotomayor, did not speak at Monday’s event but will officiate a naturalization ceremony in October to commemorate the court’s anniversary.

That is what is at stake. And it requires Winning Elections.

~

UPDATE: We have our first Democratic Party presidential candidate as of Sunday, April 12, 2015 at 2:27 Central