When a
resolute young fellow steps up to the great bully the world and takes him
boldly by the beard he is often surprised to find it comes off in his hand and
that it was Only tied On to scare away the timid adventurers.
300 quotes from Emerson
To
view more Emerson quotes or read a life background on Emerson please visit the
books blog spot. We update the blog bi-monthly emersonsaidit.blogspot.com
Chapter Excerpt from "On the waterfront: The making of a great American Film"
CHAPTER
5
THE
COLLABORATION, KAZAN AND SCHULBERG
FALL
1952
"I
often think of film-making as a horse race in which teams of three or four or
five horses must run together. If they
run at all, it is rather remarkable. If
they run as well as they can, manage not to trip each other up, and cross the
finish line together, it is a not-so-small miracle. This may explain why the
most gifted of film-makers, Ford, Stevens, Huston, Kazan, may achieve only
three or four truly memorable films in a lifetime of hard work.” Budd
Schulberg in Writing in America
In
late 1951, after three years of prowling the docks, Schulberg started writing
the screenplay for On the Waterfront"
But when he finished the script, both Joe Curtis and Robert Siodmak had
backed out of the project. They had
shown the play to Curtis’s uncle, Harry Cohn of Columbia Studios, who called it
“Communistic” a Cohn-ism meaning, essentially, that a Hollywood haunted by the
HUAC and a Red Baiting public, would never make the film.
As Schulberg explained: “A few months later, in the early spring of
1951, my script was finished. Robert
Siodmak, who was to direct it, seemed happy about it, and I thought my days on
the waterfront were done. But the months melted away without production. The
little film company was something less than a financial rock. In fact, it was
unable to get up the ''scratch.'' The subject matter was a little too hot to
handle. If the longshoremen's locals were gangster run, how could our picture
company get on the docks? Why not make a nice Western or a musical? Prospective
backers backed away.
Another
year passed. Now the rights to the script had reverted to me. And, when
Johnson's option with the original company lapsed, I took plunge number two and
bought his material. Truth was I couldn't get the waterfront out of my mind.”
13
By
the spring of 1952, Curtis, Siodmak and Miller had pulled from the project. Fox
Studios had turned it down once and Columbia Studios had turned it down
twice. Regardless, Kazan, a director and
Schulberg, a screenwriter, knew the story would make an excellent film, a great
film. What they needed was the spark to make it happen.
Kazan,
who had never met Schulberg, wrote to Schulberg to discuss building a film
built around the Malcolm Johnson articles and suggested that they meet.
Schulberg wrote back and invited Kazan to his farm in Pennsylvania. Kazan
leaped on the offer, however, what he found was that Schulberg was willing to
discuss the film but was reluctant to commit to the project. He told Kazan that
he had quit films because he had never been permitted to make a film in his own
way. “Because the writer” said Schulberg “Is always the low man. They take his
script and everybody rewrites it, the director rewrites it, the actor rewrites
it, the producer rewrites it. To hell with it” 14
and
that the recent bad experience with Joe
Curtis had further soured his outlook on Hollywood. Kazan listened and said
“Budd, I promise you this, if you’ll do this film, I promise I will treat the
script with the same respect I would give to an Arthur Miller play or a
Tennessee (Williams) play or a Bill Inge play. I’ll make all kinds of
suggestions, I’ll criticize it, I may be hard on it, but you will have the
final say. I won’t change a line without
you.
“And”
Schulberg recalled five decades later “He lived up to it too, he really did” 15
Convinced that Kazan was serious about making
a meaningful film, Schulberg shared his recent creation with the director, a
play based on his experiences on the docks, entitled, On the Waterfront. They
read it on the floor of the writer’s living room. Kazan was enthralled. He
pushed Schulberg to convert the play into script. Schulberg agreed and the
rewrites began. They produced 8 script drafts over the next 2 years before
completing a final draft with the working title "Golden Warriors" a
name Schulberg was enamored with but was later changed by Kazan who saw it
as a potential trouble spot with the
HUAC as glorification of the working
man. Schulberg kept it in the film, naming Terry Malloy's racing club The Golden
Warriors. (Another explanation,
offered by Kazan, was his attempt to resurrect Clifford Odets' Golden Boy the
stage play that had brought Kazan so much early success.)
Kazan
did make his own "original golden warrior," in the character of Terry
Malloy, a warrior who will take on the mob, rise from temporary defeat and
depose of his corrupt adversary, Johnny Friendly. That optimistic theme, to
face seemingly overwhelming adversity and win, was wholly suited to the outlook
of the scrapping and determined immigrant inside of Kazan. In prior stage work, especially Tennessee
Williams' A Streetcar Named and of Arthur Miller's All My Sons and Death of a
Salesman, Kazan often added bits and pieces that spoke out against
exploitation, degradation, pointless materialism while advocating moral
responsibility. However, the pessimism infused in those dramas by the
playwrights was suited to Kazan’s true outlook on the American way of life as
it would be in Waterfront.
To
accomplish that, he turned to what he knew best and what had been his highest
success to date, Streetcar. He would revive and meld Tennessee Williams'
characters from Streetcar into his Waterfront script. Blanche DuBois "an
ambivalent figure who is attracted and repulsed to the harshness and vulgarity
surrounding her, became in, some part
the character of Edie Doyle. Her ambivalence, however, is transferred to the
character of Terry Malloy (The original Terry Malloy as written by Schulberg
was anything but ambivalent) and Terry shared several characteristics with
Stanley Kowalski including the inability to control his violence or to
comprehend his situations and actions. Terry, like Kowalski is vulnerable with
a thin coat of sensitivity. However, unlike Kowalski, Terry holds the facility
to grow and change. (The original Terry
Malloy, in both Siodmak’s and Miller’s versions, are driven, somewhat educated
men on a mission.)
In
the final script of Waterfront, Schulberg and Kazan delivered a
three-part
structure, each marked by a death. In
part one, Terry goes along with corruption revealed in the "shape-up"
scene and helps set up the death of Joey Doyle.
In part two, Terry discovers depth of his corruption. This part ends
with the death of Kayo Dugan. Part
three, the martyrdom scene with Father Barry's sermon, Terry is resurrected and
fights back after death of his brother Charlie.
”That picture is terribly simple. It's all up
front” Kazan said “It's mostly about this dumb kid who's unprepared and to whom
it's painful to do what he did, who realizes through the girl and through what
he knows in his heart and sees with his eyes, that telling on his friends was
the better of the two choices facing him.
The
early death of Joey Doyle, who had obviously caused enough trouble within the
rank and file to have the corrupt union bosses order his killing, signals, for
Kazan, the birth of a new labor leader “In the labor movement” Kazan said “a
new movement starts with the death of a person, through the memory of a
martyr.” 16 This again is a possible allegory
for Kazan’s testimony before the HUAC.
While the reworked Waterfront script clearly
displays Kazan-the -immigrants belief that determination of purpose leads to
positive change, (his own remarkable life is a testament to that)
There
was also in the Kazan credo, a lack of moral judgment. In immigrant Kazan’s
view, there was no room for such lofty notions, as his testimony before the
HUAC clearly showed.
He
had, like so many of his characters, a
moral ambivalence. Clearly, the social consciences influence of Miller (and
probably Schulberg) would define the scripts clear notion of good and evil,
right and wrong. Conversely, it was this
combination of Kazan’s optimism and moral ambivalence and Miller /Schulberg’s
social conscious, which would blend to make the script so perfect.
Kazan
had also reviewed the script that Schulberg had outlined for Curtis a few
months before and determined that although the Curtis script although it had
many similarities to the Waterfront script, it was, as Schulberg recalled, not
as good. In the Curtis script, the
protagonist is a reporter who finds himself facing the Mobs vengeance for
reporting about the real conditions on the docks.
In
the new script, written by Kazan and Schulberg, the character was changed from
a news reporter working on the outside of the docks to a dockworker thug
working on the inside of the operation.
Even
with those changes, there is a slight hint of the influence of director Rickard
Siodmak left in the final Waterfront script. Most prominent (as it is in many
of Siodmak films) domestic strife, such as sibling rivalry, is a key component
that resonates in Waterfront in the relationship between Charlie and Terry
Malloy. Another Siodmak trademark is the uneasiness in the family unit. Something
either has gone wrong or is changing at a disturbingly rapid pace and one
member of the family manipulates the other for material gain, as Charlie Malloy
did with his brother Terry; fixing the fight of his life so Charlie can earn a
fortune from Terry’s defeat. When change comes between the brothers, it comes
fast and it comes violently.
It
is also interesting that in Siodmak’s brilliant film, The Killers, with its
hard-boiled realism, a promising young boxer turns criminal and works with
gangsters whom he later betrays and is killed as a result.
Both
films, Waterfront and The Killers, open with a graphic murder scene by
gangsters.
The
ever-present powerful mother figure in Siodmak’s films warns the protagonist of
impending danger. In Waterfront, hoodlum Johnny Friendly is clearly the father
figure to Terry Malloy and Charlie Malloy, who warns Terry of the contract to
murder him, is the Mother-side of the relationship.
Waterfront
also echoes The Killers grimly purposeful mission and employees the same simple
sets, atmospheric lighting and nightmarish nocturnal world of shadowy streets,
seedy bars and brutish gangsters. The
Killers also includes a network of professional hoodlums, a devastating double
cross, the spirit of heavy fatalism and a hard-boiled protagonist doomed by
existential fate
Like
Kazan, and probably not lost on Kazan, Siodmak was the benefactor of great
actors and outstanding filmmakers and by his own ability to inspire stellar
performances from minor characters.
Siodmak
was also notorious for creating sets full of other psychological tensions, use
of music, visual images and the expressionistic montage to convey sexual
energy. Siodmak’s use of deep-focus, like Kazan’s in Waterfront, is also
notable.
Siodmak’s influence is also found in Terry
Malloy’s jacket, the films motif noir, which symbolizes a form of lost
identity. Siodmak frequently had his male characters wear uniforms as a means
to help male characters reclaim their lost identity. In Terry Malloy’s case,
the jacket symbolizes his lost innocence, his goodness.
On
a less symbolic stance, the jacket also serves another, more practical purpose,
to keep the wearer warm. Kazan’s longshoremen
are working poor and the script is filled with remarks about making ends
meet and keeping food on the table. In their world, a fine leather jacket is
expensive and not to be tossed aside because two men were murdered in it.
None of these similarities was lost on Siodmak
who entered suit against On the Waterfront producers shortly after the film was
released. Although the details of the
suit were not made public was awarded $100,000 in a settlement.
Before
Kazan went back to California, Schulberg took him on a tour of the Waterfront
and introduced him to his friends down there including Father John Corridan. As
Schulberg recalled “The day I brought Kazan, Father John was yelling, "I'm
going to stop (New York’s powerful Cardinal) Spellman.” He was cursing--"that son of a
bitch"--and shouting. Kazan could not believe a priest would talk like that.
That day he was going up in smoke. He was furious that (Powerful New York
Cardinal) Spellman was giving an award to John McCormack--the "Mr.
Big" of the waterfront. Mr. McCormack was a respectable man. He had lots
and lots of money. He put Mayor Impellitteri in office. Nevertheless, the
people under McCormack were monsters and killers. Kazan asked Schulberg
"Are you sure he's a priest? Maybe he's working there for the waterfront
rebels in disguise." Assured that Corridan was in fact a Priest, Kazan shook
his head in amazement and said, "We have to make him the centerpiece of
the movie." 17
EXCERPT FROM MY AUTOBIOGRAPHY; NO TIME TO SAY GOODBYE: A MEMOIR OF LIFE IN FOSTER CARE.
The
view from rock bottom is often the reason, the inspiration, for getting back
up.” Maslow
At seventeen, I had hit rock bottom, a high-school dropout living in my car. If I
wanted to survive, if I wanted to get out of that car, I had to have a job. The
war in Vietnam was still on so factories were hiring, but the minimum age for a
job in the shops was eighteen. However, the working world, especially in
Waterbury, was a different place then. If you said you were old enough, you
were.
Scovill
Manufacturing, one of the largest and oldest mills in the city, hired me as a
floor man in the rivet shop. I picked up enormous bales of nails and eyelets
and poured them into eight rivet machines as they started to run empty. Since
the machines ran empty only every half hour, and only took a minute to fill, it
was the simple job, even if the hours—three p.m. to midnight—weren’t the best.
Better yet, some of the rivets we made were used in car doors, so I was a
member of the United Auto Workers union. I earned a large paycheck, considering
my age: enough money to support a small family.
The worst
part of the job came after the shift ended. The rivet machines, all eight of
them, made extremely loud slamming sound while pounding the nails through the
rivet eyelet. One slam a second per machine, eight hours a shift. When the
shift ended and the machines were shut down, everyone on the floor was
temporarily deaf for the rest of the night.
The
foundries were vast, dark castles built for efficiency, not comfort. Even in
the mild New England summers, when the warm air combined with the stagnant heat
from the machines or open flames in the huge melting rooms where the iron was
cast, the effects were overwhelming. The heat came in unrelenting waves and
sucked the soul from your body. In the winter, the enormous factories were
impossible to heat and frigid New England air reigned supreme in the long
halls.
The work
was difficult, noisy, mind-numbing, sometimes dangerous and highly regulated.
Bathroom and lunch breaks were scheduled down to the second. There was no place
to make a private phone call. Company guards, dressed in drab uniforms straight
out of a James Cagney prison film [those films were in black and white,
notoriously tough, weren’t there to guard company property. They were there to
keep an eye on us.
No one
entered or the left the building without punching in or out on a clock, because
the doors were locked and opened electronically from the main office.
Between
management and workers was a very clearly defined line. Managers spoke first,
and we spoke afterwards. There were other dividing lines. Skilled and
semi-skilled labor kept apart from the common laborers, and within the ranks of
the common laborers, during coffee and lunch breaks, women stayed with women,
men with men, white with white, black with black.
Although
there was little fraternizing, the bosses played favorites and every boss had a
rat, a fink on the floor who reported every detail of every single conversation
and act. Our shop’s rat was a razor-thin Vietnam combat vet named Bobby Parent,
a French Canadian tool and die maker. Two guys in the shop named Jimmy and
Wayne, tough bikers with waist-long hair, beards, and serious dope problems,
shot up heroin in a stall in the bathroom and again it was a surprisingly
violent thing to watch, but Jimmy and Wayne were violent people and I was lucky
they took a liking to me. I soon found
out how lucky I was.
A secretary
in the offices passed the word that Bobby Parent had told the bosses about the
heroin. Management planned to have Jimmy and Wayne searched by the guards and
arrested the next time Parent suspected they were high. A few nights later,
when the shift ended, Bobby and I were walking through the dark parking lot to
our cars when a squad of bikers, armed with chains and whips, encircled us.
One said,
“Which of youse is Parent?”
“I am,” he
said.
“The biker
turned to me and said, “Take a walk.”
I watched
the beating from my car. There was nothing I could do, even if I had wanted to.
When they were done with Bobby, he couldn’t walk for a couple of weeks. The
mills were tough places.
With my
first paycheck I rented an apartment close to the foundry, a furnished second-
floor one-room walkup in a dicey neighborhood where my neighbor in the next
apartment was an amiable streetwalker named Peaches. I didn’t care what the
neighborhood was like. I was barely there. It was a place to hang my hat. But
as modest as that tiny apartment was, it was mine. And when I walked through
the front door, it was the first time in my life that I arrived someplace of my
own free will.
I had
never been free to choose any aspect of my life. Other people, dozens of them,
people I barely knew and some I didn’t know at all, had decided my fate without
having to deal with the consequences of their decisions, and in the process
they had reduced me to the status of a human basketball, bouncing me all over
the state. Now I was free to screw up my own life, maybe not with their
creative pizzazz, but now my life decisions were my own.
In
1962, six year old John Tuohy, his two brothers and two sisters entered
Connecticut’s foster care system and were promptly split apart. Over the next
ten years, John would live in more than ten foster homes, group homes and state
schools, from his native Waterbury to Ansonia, New Haven, West Haven, Deep
River and Hartford. In the end, a decade later, the state returned him to the
same home and the same parents they had taken him from. As tragic as is funny compelling
story will make you cry and laugh as you journey with this child to overcome
the obstacles of the foster care system and find his dreams.
http://www.amazon.com/No-Time-Say-Goodbye-Memoir/dp/0692361294/
http://amemoirofalifeinfostercare.blogspot.com/
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
John
William Tuohy is a writer who lives in Washington DC. He holds an MFA in
writing from Lindenwood University. He is the author of numerous non-fiction on
the history of organized crime including the ground break biography of
bootlegger Roger Tuohy "When Capone's Mob Murdered Touhy" and
"Guns and Glamour: A History of Organized Crime in Chicago."
His
non-fiction crime short stories have appeared in The New Criminologist,
American Mafia and other publications. John won the City of Chicago's Celtic
Playfest for his work The Hannigan's of Beverly, and his short story fiction
work, Karma Finds Franny Glass, appeared in AdmitTwo Magazine in October of
2008. His
play, Cyberdate.Com, was chosen for a public performance at the Actors Chapel
in Manhattan in February of 2007 as part of the groups Reading Series for New
York project. In June of 2008, the play won the Virginia Theater of The First
Amendment Award for best new play.
http://www.amazon.com/No-Time-Say-Goodbye-Memoir/dp/0692361294/
Contact
John:
MYWRITERSSITE.BLOGSPOT.COM
JWTUOHY95@GMAIL.COM
Angel
A Short story
by
John William Tuohy
Every afternoon at four, just before
dinner crowd rush, Alexandros Goumas sat in the front booth and sipped a black
coffee and checked the race results from the New York tracks and later he would
lay a view bets with Nick the Greek.
They had a nice arrangement, him and Nick. When his horse won, Nick
would pay him. When his horse lost, Nick
never collected. They looked on it as rent for the space Nick occupied in the
place five days a week.
Goumas had owned and operated the
dinner for forty-eight years. Before that, as a teen, he had waited tables in
the place when his father owned the place and before that, when he was just a
kid, he had washed dishes in the back where his mother had been the cook and
taught him the skills of working a short order grill.
He knew the diner business from the inside
out. He worked at it six days a week, Sunday’s he was an Usher at the Holy
Trinity Greek Orthodox Church over on Hubbell Avenue.
Unlike him, his children had no
interest in the business. They were
professional people, nice people.
Suburban people who didn’t eat in diners unless it was a last resort and
even then, they tried to eat healthy. They told people that their father was a restaurateur, not a diner man.
Angel, the dishwasher, stepped out of
the back and said “It’s slow”
Goumas nodded and answered him in a
teachers tone “Yeah, it always is about this time, Angel, that’s how the
business flows”
Angel used the statement to sit down in
the booth, the boss’s booth where few people were ever invited to sit and was
kept empty even when Goumas wasn’t using it.
“The reason there is no one here” Angel said “Is because of advertising.
More people don’t come here because we
don’t advertise the place. You have to
advertise to make your business grow if your business depends on pedestrian
traffic”
Angel took a textbook out from under
his arm and held it in the air
“It’s all in here”
Goumas waved for Angel to hand him the
book and taking it he read the cover aloud “Principles of Business
administration”
“It’s what I study at the college.”
Angel said passively “Community college”
“Community college?” Goumas asked “You’re a cook, what do you want
that for?
“Do you know” Angel said “that we could
double the breakfast rush in this place just by adding a few inexpensive items
to the menu, like rice and beans, salsa, fried Yucca, boiled plantains.”
He was excited and spoke quickly and
with passion “You see, every morning, all those construction guys lined up at
that truck in the parking lot down the street?”
“Yeah” Goumas replied “It must be good.
There’s always a line”
“No” Angel said loudly “It’s awful and
full of grease and stale vegetables and you got to eat it out of those
Styrofoam boxes and plastic forks and its freezing out there and that guy, the
guy who owns the truck, he charges top dollar for that stuff. If we put that
same stuff on the menu here, we can pull all of those guys in here every
morning, you know why?”
Goumas shook his head “No”
“Because it’s warm in here and it
doesn’t rain on your plate and we got real forks and knifes not no plastic crap
and we got nice places to sit and pretty waitresses and we can undercut his
prices and still make money”
He was excited and spoke rapidly and
with all of the zeal of an evangelical “I’ll tell you something else; you know
how to get people in here after the dinner rush?
“I’m guessing you’re going to tell me.”
Goumas said
“The menu again. We offer one diet
item, tuna salad with a slice of tomato.
That’s all. Everybody in America is on a diet and we offer one diet
item. Expand the diet items, you can charge more for them and place less food
on the plate. This is the only country in the world that will pay more for less
food”
He stood and paced the floor “The menu we got
now, it comes from, what? Thirty maybe forty years ago? I would change almost
all of it, fewer items, less starch. We don’t have a kids menu, I would have a
kids menu and a TV over the counter, you know, bring people in for the games.
Stuff like that, you know, you combine all the things I’ve been talking
about….this could work”
“You put a lot of thought into this I
see” Goumas said.
“Yeah” Angel answered quickly
“Why?” Goumas asked just as quickly.
“Because when you decide to sell the
place, I want you to sell it to me”
“No kid, I won’t sell you the business”
Goumas said.
“Why not?” Angel asked “Why not?”
“Because you’ll go under in less than
six month, that’s why” Goumas answered
“There’s more to this business than
filling seats and sling’n hash. That’s the basics of what we do here, but
there’s a lot more to it than that”
“Then” Angel said “I want to tell you I
will look for a place to buy and ….”
Goumas raised his hand to stop “Hold
up, hold up, relax” he took a sip of his coffee and motioned Angel to sit down.
“You know” Goumas said slowly “ A long
time ago, I’m talking before your parents were born, I stood in about the same
spot where you’re standing now and told my old man that he needed to step aside
and let me run the business”
“And he did right?” Angel asked
“No” Goumas answered “But he laughed so hard
he almost swallowed his cigar. For the next three days, every time he saw me,
he would start to laugh, check behind my ears, see if they were still wet, you
know, that kind of thing. I was like you, a young guy, full of piss and vinegar,
so I got mad and told him I quit and I walked out. I stayed home for a week or
so and one day he says “All right, I’ll tell you what, you order the stock this
month. You take care of the whole thing. Do the inventory, call it in, unload
the truck, shelf it, the whole thing, let’s see how you do with that”
“And how did you do with that?” Angel
asked.
“I ordered three times as many fresh
vegetables we used. It all went bad. We took a real hit on that. I didn’t order
enough butter, so we ran out within a week I think it was. I forgot to order
the hand towels and toilet paper for the bathrooms….boy oh boy, what a mess”
“So what happened?” Angel asked
shirting himself in the booth.
“The next week I got it right” he
answered “So he put on the counter, seating people, you know that sort of
thing. So the mayor comes in. In those days Johnny Flynn was mayor. I can’t
remember when he wasn’t mayor. He’s dead, he’s probably still mayor for all I
know. So I seat him, I give him menu, he orders, he eats. I give him a check he
pays it and leaves. A few hours later every health inspector in the country is
in here citing me for this and for that, the cops are out in the parking lot
writing tickets, and I’m thinking what the hells is going on and my old man
sees all this and he checks behind my ears and says “Still wet behind there,
huh?” Turns out Johnny Flynn, who ate here every day of his cheap miserable
life, never paid a check, not even once. Same went for every cop above the rank
of sergeant”
He leaned forward and clasped his large
rough hands together and smiled at the memories “And that’s how it went for
weeks and weeks. Turns out there was a million and two things you had to know
about making this place click”
“I can run this place” Angel said “You
know I can this place”
He wasn’t listening. He was still in
yesterday.
“I’ve never forget that goddamn Flynn,
you know why?” he asked “Because I hated him. I hated how he took from us,
after all out work, he just took. Be careful who you hate, kid, I’ll tell you,
all it does is makes them live forever in your mind”
“I can run this place” Angel said “You
know I can run this place”
Goumas sat back in the booth and turned
his face towards the young man and said “The truth is, I want to let go, but my
heart don’t. My heart wants to stay here. I’m a businessman. I don’t think with
my heart but…..”
“Letting go of this place” Angel said
“it doesn’t make you like a…a….a…..uh….traitor or something. It don’t mean
like, that you don’t care no more about this place. I know you do. Everybody
knows that about you. At least think
about. That’s all I’m asking. Think about it.
What is love………….
Love is the river of life in the world. Henry Ward Beecher
Frederick H. Evans spent hours trying
to take this portrait of illustrator and author Aubrey Beardsley, a close
friend. It wasn’t until Beardsley grew exasperated that Evans was finally able
to capture this image. Beardsley was the most
controversial artist of the Art Nouveau era, renowned for his dark and perverse
images and grotesque erotica, which were the main themes of his later work. His
most famous erotic illustrations concerned themes of history and mythology;
these include his illustrations for a privately printed edition of Aristophanes'
“Lysistrata,” and his drawings for Oscar Wilde's play “Salome,” which premiered
in Paris in 1896. Frederick H. Evans is best known
for his platinum prints, also called platinotypes, of English and French
cathedral interiors. However, he stopped printing shortly after World War I,
when the cost of platinum began to rise.
HERE'S SOME GREAT ART TO ENJOY.......................................
Winter Landscape, Wassily Kandinsky
HERE, HERE'S A GREAT POEM FOR YOU.....................
"O Karma, Dharma, pudding and pie,"
by Philip Appleman
O Karma, Dharma, pudding and pie,
gimme a break before I die:
grant me wisdom, will, & wit,
purity, probity, pluck, & grit.
Trustworthy, loyal, helpful, kind,
gimme great abs & a steel-trap mind,
and forgive, Ye Gods, some humble advice—
these little blessings would suffice
to beget an earthly paradise:
make the bad people good—
and the good people nice;
and before our world goes over the brink,
teach the believers how to think.
Philip D. Appleman
(born February 8, 1926) is an
American poet. He is Professor Emeritus in the Department of English at Indiana
University, Bloomington. He has published seven volumes of poetry, the first of
which was Summer Love and Surf and the latest of which is Perfidious Proverbs
(Humanity Books, 2011); three novels, including Apes and Angels (Putnam, 1989);
and half a dozen nonfiction books, including the widely used Norton Critical
Edition, Darwin and the Norton Critical Edition of Malthus' Essay on
Population. His poetry and fiction have won many awards, including a fellowship
in poetry from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Castagnola Award from
the Poetry Society of America, the Friend of Darwin Award from the National
Center for Science Education, and the Humanist Arts Award of the American
Humanist Association, and have appeared in scores of publications, including
Harper's Magazine, The Nation, New Republic, New York Times, Paris Review,
Partisan Review, Poetry, Sewanee Review, and Yale Review. He has given readings
of his poetry at the Library of Congress, the Guggenheim Museum, the Huntington
Library, and many universities. He read several of his poems on the July 6,
2012, episode of Moyers & Company. He is a founding member of the Poets
Advisory Committee of Poets House, New York, a former member of the governing
board of the Poetry Society of America, and a member of the Academy of American
Poets, PEN American Center, Friends of Poets & Writers, Inc., and the
Authors Guild of America. Appleman has written many poems drawing on the work
of Charles Darwin. In 2003 he signed the Humanist Manifesto.
GOOD WORDS TO HAVE....................................................
Leviathan: (li-VY-uh-thuhn) Something large and powerful.Via
Latin from Hebrew liwyathan (whale). Earliest documented use: 1382.
Behemoth: (bi-HEE-muth, BEE-uh-) 1. A huge or monstrous
creature.2. Something large and powerful, as an organization. From Hebrew
behemoth, plural of behemah (beast). Earliest documented use: 1382. Behemoth is
a huge beast mentioned in the Book of Job 40:15-24.
Tohubohu: (TOH-hoo-BO-hoo) noun: Chaos; confusion. From
Hebrew tohu wa-bhohu, from tohu (formlessness) and bhohu (emptiness). Earliest
documented use: 1619.
“Frugality
has its place, but not in the larder of language. We rely on words to help us
detail how we feel, what we once felt, what we can feel. When the blood drains
out of language, one’s experience of life weakens and grows pale. It’s not
simply a dumbing down, but a numbing.” Diane
Ackerman, An Alchemy of Mind: The Marvel and Mystery of the Brain
Each Day, 731,000 People Are in
Jail, Many Because They Can’t Afford Bail
by NationSwell
Kalief Browder spent three years
in jail despite never being convicted of a crime.
He was arrested for a stealing a
backpack in the Bronx — a crime the then 16-year-old maintained he didn’t
commit. His mother was unable to put up the $3,000 bail, so he was locked in
solitary confinement on Rikers Island, New York City’s central jail, for
roughly two years as he awaited trial. Browder tried to commit suicide several
times — once with shredded bed sheets hung from a light fixture — and suffered
physical abuse from guards and inmates alike, as detailed in The New Yorker.
In 2013, prosecutors dismissed
the charges, and he was released. Last month, Browder committed suicide,
sparking a wave outrage against the system that had imprisoned a young man for
years only on the basis of an accusation. With its “unfortunately-long history
of horrible abuses,” Rikers Island became an “example of failing to save jail
for people who are convicted, as opposed to people who have just been accused,”
Karin Martin, professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, tells NPR.
“We’re realizing that we can’t afford, both financially and kind of morally,
the horrible impacts of mass incarceration.”
In New York City, the emotional
outpouring that resulted from Browder’s premature death recently crystallized
into real reform as Mayor Bill de Blasio announced a sweeping, $18 million
overhaul of the city’s bail system. Since 2009, the Big Apple had tested
alternatives to monetary bail at a jail in Queens, offering “supervised
release” through a nonprofit to low-level or nonviolent offenders. The only
requirement? That a person had to do was check in regularly. Nearly nine out of
10 defendants — 87percent — still showed up to court. Similar to programs in
Washington, D.C., Chicago, Charlotte and Phoenix and states like Kentucky,
Arizona and New Jersey, nonprofits in the Big Apple will be following up with
text messages reminders, visits with case managers and other check-ins to
ensure that people keep their date with the judge.
“We know that there are thousands
of people who are now being held pre-trial in the city’s jails simply because
they cannot afford to pay a few hundred dollars in bail. Instead, they are held
at great expense in jail and frequently lose their jobs, have to drop out of school
and lose daily contact with their children and families,” Michael Jacobson,
executive director of the CUNY Institute for State and Local Governance, says
in a statement. “Using risk as a standard for pre-trial detention as opposed to
how much money someone has will increase public safety, reduce unnecessary and
costly detention and make our pre-trial system more fair and just.”
Jails don’t get the same
attention as their larger counterparts, state and federal prisons, but the
average American is 19 times more likely to be locked up locally than thrown in
the slammer. On any given day, 731,000 people are in jail; about 12 million
people are admitted in the course of a typical year, according to research by
the Vera Institute of Justice. Some are serving out a sentence, but most are
simply waiting for their case to be resolved, either through a trial or a plea.
Though the cash bail system is
intended to ensure that a person shows up for trial, it’s the most significant
reason why some remain locked up and others are released. Put simply, if the
accused or his family can’t find the cash for baile fast enough (or at all), he
or she will remain behind bars. Most of the time, bail isn’t astronomically
expensive. In New York, more than half — 54 percent — of inmates held through
the end of their case were behind bars because they couldn’t post bail of
$2,500 or less, mostly for misdemeanors.
“There’s no reason to keep people
in jail at great costs, when they are no threat to anybody,” says Jonathan
Lippman, chief judge of New York State. It “strips our justice system of its
credibility and distorts its operation.”
To aid cities and states in
determining whether a person is likely to reoffend, the John and Laura Arnold
Foundation developed risk assessment tools. Among the key factors that are
considered are the person’s criminal history, whether the offense is violent,
the age at their first arrest, any prior incarcerations and any prior failures
to appear in court, Anne Milgram, the foundation’s vice president of criminal
justice, tells NationSwell. Drug use, employment and other criteria
traditionally weighed at arraignment hearings are almost meaningless, she adds.
The judges who used the Arnold
Foundation’s criteria have seen notable drops in the jail population and
correlated drops in crime. In Charlotte, for example, the number of inmates
dropped 20 percent.
“The central challenge of our
work has been getting people on board thinking a little differently about how
these decisions are made,” says Milgram, a former criminal prosecutor. “There’s
a lot of individual discretion for police, prosecutors and courts, but we
haven’t used objective data to inform those decisions. We’re not taking away
any decision making; we’re providing information that you both need and should
want.”
New York will likely develop
their own “updated science-driven risk assessment tool” in the near future
(Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance called for one), pending an update to
state law in Albany.
There’s been some criticism
leveled at the latest changes in Gotham by some of bail reform’s biggest
promoters. Robin Steinberg, executive director of The Bronx Defenders, a legal
aid service, and David Feige, board chair of The Bronx Freedom Fund, which
assists those charged with a misdemeanor make bail for $2,000 or less, both
called the reforms “long overdue” but stressed that the city must not intrude
too far into the lives of defendants. There’s no benefit in being released from
jail, they say, if an organization can impose even stricter pretrial
requirements, the violation of which could result in reincarceration or other
penalties.
“Here’s how it works: A young man
arrested for shoplifting might plead guilty and be sentenced to perform one day
of community service. But that same defendant who is innocent of the charge
might, as a condition of his release, be ordered to attend a one-day drug
education program, report to a pretrial-services officer every week, and
undergo drug treatment or testing — all because he claimed to be innocent and sought
to challenge his arrest,” Steinberg and Feige write in an op-ed for The
Marshall Project. “The problem with the pretrial-services model is that these
‘services’ … are often identical to, and sometimes far more onerous than the
sentence one would receive for actually being guilty of the crime.”
Natalie Grybauskas, assistant
press secretary for the city, tells NationSwell that the only conditions for
release will be “whatever check-ins are deemed appropriate by the provider.”
Any added services, like a referral to drug education, will be voluntary.
The city expects to select
providers from a group of applicants in the fall, she adds.
The
paradox of happiness
Tom Westfall
We live in a pleasure-oriented society.
We are told repeatedly by those in the advertising game to, proverbially
speaking, "Find our beach." Images of "happy" people doing
exotic things are thrust in our faces via social media, television and print
media. If you aren't happy, you probably need a new car, a new television
system, or some better grade tequila. You might be suffering low libido and
there are any number of "cures" for what ails you. It's a constant
message — happiness and fulfillment are out there waiting for you; all you have
to do is take charge of your life and go out and find the happiness and joy
that you deserve.
Many people buy into this message and the harder they try to find happiness, just like quicksilver, the more elusive it becomes. Looking around, many people find that their lives are empty and devoid of joy. Social media serves a useful purpose, but according to social researchers, it can also be very depressing for some people because their own lives never seem to measure up to those they see posted every day by friends, family, and acquaintances on Instagram and Facebook.
Many people buy into this message and the harder they try to find happiness, just like quicksilver, the more elusive it becomes. Looking around, many people find that their lives are empty and devoid of joy. Social media serves a useful purpose, but according to social researchers, it can also be very depressing for some people because their own lives never seem to measure up to those they see posted every day by friends, family, and acquaintances on Instagram and Facebook.
Another message that we receive on a
daily basis is that "no one has to feel sad." Got the blues? Go
shopping. Feeling like your life is going nowhere? Throw a party and make certain
that everyone is well-lubricated. There are pills and substances for every sort
of existential malaise. Not buying it? Watch three hours of prime time
television and count how many advertisements you see for alcohol,
anti-depressants and remedies for sexual dysfunction. The not-so-subtle message
is that happiness is just a pill or a drink away.
I would propose that it is impossible
to "find" happiness. Happiness isn't a product that can be purchased,
nor is it a place. Real happiness and joy have very little to do with
excitement and fun. Getting high may be fun, but even as a mood altering
substance takes you up, it will always let you down, and if you weren't happy
before you got high, you aren't going to be happy when you land.
Happiness and joy, in my opinion, are
the by-products of a life well-lived. They are achieved through hard work and
the recognition that the world is bigger than our own desires. I like to think
of happiness and joy as sort of serendipitous experiences.
The term serendipity was coined by
Horace Walpole in a letter to Horace Mann in 1754. He took the word from the
Persian fairy tale, "The Three Princes of Serendip." In that
particular tale, the heroes "were always making discoveries, by accidents
and sagacity of things they were not in quest of," the message being that
when we open ourselves up to life and we live in a manner that is kind, caring
and compassionate; when we live to serve rather than living to attain; the
by-product of that lifestyle will most likely be true happiness and joy.
Over the years the term serendipity has
come to be associated with the notion of "good fortune" or a
"happy coincidence" but that's not accurate. Serendipitous joy could
be described as finding meaning in life as a by-product of having good relationships
with those in your sphere of influence.
A young mother in one of my parenting
classes was talking about how hard it is sometimes to want to play with her
children after a full day of work. "I come home exhausted" she said.
"The last thing I want to do is get down on the floor and play with the
boys. But you know what," she continued, " when I put my children's
needs ahead of my own; when I go ahead and embrace the task before me and get
down there on the floor, time and time again I find that my spirits are lifted.
I have renewed energy and I just sort of have this happiness in my heart."
That's serendipity.
The paradox of happiness is that the
more we seek it, the less we'll find it. On the other hand, when we put the
needs of others ahead of our own; when we engage in relationships which build
other people (and society) up, we are likely to find that at the end of the
day, our lives will be enriched.
Tom Westfall teaches parenting classes
at Family Resource Center.
I LOVE BLACK AND WHITE FILM PHOTOGRAPHY......................
Increased
anxiety associated with sitting down
Low-energy activities that
involve sitting down are associated with an increased risk of anxiety
Low energy activities that
involve sitting down are associated with an increased risk of anxiety,
according to research published in the open access journal BMC Public Health.
These activities, which include watching TV, working at a computer or playing
electronic games, are called sedentary behavior. Further understanding of these
behaviors and how they may be linked to anxiety could help in developing
strategies to deal with this mental health problem.
Many studies have shown that
sedentary behavior is associated with physical health problems like obesity,
heart disease, type 2 diabetes and osteoporosis. However, there has been little
research into the link between sedentary behavior and mental health. This is
the first systematic review to examine the relationship between anxiety and
sedentary behavior.
Anxiety is a mental health
illness that affects more than 27 million people worldwide. It is a
debilitating illness that can result in people worrying excessively and can
prevent people carrying out their daily life. It can also result in physical
symptoms, which amongst others includes pounding heartbeat, difficulty
breathing, tense muscles, and headaches.
Megan Teychenne, lead researcher
and lecturer at Deakin University's Centre for Physical Activity and Nutrition
Research (C-PAN) in Australia, said: "Anecdotally -- we are seeing an
increase in anxiety symptoms in our modern society, which seems to parallel the
increase in sedentary behavior. Thus, we were interested to see whether these
two factors were in fact linked. Also, since research has shown positive
associations between sedentary behavior and depressive symptoms, this was
another foundation for further investigating the link between sedentary
behavior and anxiety symptoms."
C-PAN researchers analyzed the
results of nine studies that specifically examined the association between
sedentary behavior and anxiety. The studies varied in what they classified as
sedentary behavior from television viewing/computer use to total sitting time,
which included sitting while watching television, sitting while on transport
and work-related sitting. Two of the studies included children/adolescents while
the remaining seven included adults.
It was found in five of the nine
studies that an increase in sedentary behavior was associated with an increased
risk of anxiety. In four of the studies it was found that total sitting time
was associated with increased risk of anxiety. The evidence about screen time
(TV and computer use) was less strong but one study did find that 36% of high
school students that had more than 2 hours of screen time were more like to
experience anxiety compared to those who had less than 2 hours.
The C-PAN team suggests the link
between sedentary behavior and anxiety could be due to disturbances in sleep
patterns, social withdrawal theory and poor metabolic health. Social withdrawal
theory proposes that prolonged sedentary behavior, such as television viewing,
can lead to withdrawal from social relationships, which has been linked to
increased anxiety. As most of the studies included in this systematic-review
were cross-sectional the researchers say more follow-up work studies are required
to confirm whether or not anxiety is caused by sedentary behavior.
Megan Teychenne said: "It is
important that we understand the behavioral factors that may be linked to
anxiety -- in order to be able to develop evidence-based strategies in
preventing/managing this illness. Our research showed that evidence is
available to suggest a positive association between sitting time and anxiety
symptoms -- however, the direction of this relationship still needs to be
determined through longitudinal and interventional studies."
Story Source:
The above post is reprinted from
materials provided by BioMed Central. Note: Materials may be edited for content
and length.
The
evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones.
Visit our Shakespeare Blog
at the address below
http://shakespeareinamericanenglish.blogspot.com/
FROM LLR BOOKS. COM
Litchfield Literary Books. A really small company run by
writers.
AMERICAN HISTORY
The Day
Nixon Met Elvis
Paperback 46 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Day-Nixon-Met-elvis/
Theodore
Roosevelt: Letters to his Children. 1903-1918
Paperback 194 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Theodore-Roosevelt-Letters-Children-1903-1918/dp/
THE ANCIENT GREEKS AND CIVILIZATIONS
The Works
of Horace
Paperback 174 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Works-Horace-Richard-Willoughby/
The
Quotable Greeks
Paperback 234 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Quotable-Greeks-Richard-W-Willoughby
The
Quotable Epictetus
Paperback 142 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Quotable-Epictetus-Golden-Sayings
Quo
Vadis: A narrative of the time of Nero
Paperback 420 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Quo-Vadis-Narrative-Time-Nero
CHILDRENS
BOOKS
The
Porchless Pumpkin: A Halloween Story for Children
A Halloween play for young children. By consent of the author,
this play may be performed, at no charge, by educational institutions,
neighborhood organizations and other not-for-profit-organizations.
A fun story with a moral
“I believe that Denny O'Day is an American treasure and this
little book proves it. Jack is a pumpkin who happens to be very small, by
pumpkins standards and as a result he goes unbought in the pumpkin patch on
Halloween eve, but at the last moment he is given his chance to prove that just
because you're small doesn't mean you can't be brave. Here is the point that I
found so wonderful, the book stresses that while size doesn't matter when it
comes to courage...ITS OKAY TO BE SCARED....as well. I think children need to
hear that, that's its okay to be unsure because life is a ongoing lesson isn't
it?”
Paperback: 42 pages
http://www.amazon.com/OLANTERN-PORCHLESS-PUMPKIN-Halloween-Children
BOOKS
ON FOSTER CARE
It's Not
All Right to be a Foster Kid....no matter what they tell you: Tweet the books
contents
Paperback 94 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Right-Foster-Kid-no-matter-what
From the Author
I spent my childhood, from age seven through seventeen, in
foster care. Over the course of those
ten years, many decent, well-meaning, and concerned people told me, "It's
okay to be foster kid."
In saying that, those very good people meant to encourage me,
and I appreciated their kindness then, and all these many decades later, I
still appreciate their good intentions. But as I was tossed around the foster
care system, it began to dawn on me that they were wrong. It was not all right to be a foster kid.
During my time in the system, I was bounced every eighteen
months from three foster homes to an orphanage to a boy's school and to a group
home before I left on my own accord at age seventeen.
In the course of my stay in foster care, I was severely beaten
in two homes by my "care givers" and separated from my four siblings
who were also in care, sometimes only blocks away from where I was living.
I left the system rather than to wait to age out, although the
effects of leaving the system without any family, means, or safety net of any
kind, were the same as if I had aged out. I lived in poverty for the first part
of my life, dropped out of high school, and had continuous problems with the
law.
Today, almost nothing
about foster care has changed. Exactly
what happened to me is happening to some other child, somewhere in America,
right now. The system, corrupt, bloated,
and inefficient, goes on, unchanging and secretive.
Something has gone wrong in a system that was originally a
compassionate social policy built to improve lives but is now a definitive
cause in ruining lives. Due to gross
negligence, mismanagement, apathy, and greed, mostly what the foster care
system builds are dangerous consequences. Truly, foster care has become our
epic national disgrace and a nightmare for those of us who have lived through
it.
Yet there is a suspicion among some Americans that foster care
costs too much, undermines the work ethic, and is at odds with a satisfying
life. Others see foster care as a part
of the welfare system, as legal plunder of the public treasuries.
None of that is true;
in fact, all that sort of thinking does is to blame the victims. There is not a single child in the system who
wants to be there or asked to be there.
Foster kids are in foster care because they had nowhere else to go. It's that simple. And believe me, if those kids could get out
of the system and be reunited with their parents and lead normal, healthy
lives, they would. And if foster care is a sort of legal plunder of the public
treasuries, it's not the kids in the system who are doing the plundering.
We need to end this
needless suffering. We need to end it
because it is morally and ethically wrong and because the generations to come
will not judge us on the might of our armed forces or our technological
advancements or on our fabulous wealth.
Rather, they will judge
us, I am certain, on our compassion for those who are friendless, on our
decency to those who have nothing and on our efforts, successful or not, to
make our nation and our world a better place.
And if we cannot accomplish those things in the short time allotted to
us, then let them say of us "at least they tried."
You can change the tragedy of foster care and here's how to do
it. We have created this book so that
almost all of it can be tweeted out by you to the world. You have the power to improve the lives of
those in our society who are least able to defend themselves. All you need is the will to do it.
If the American people,
as good, decent and generous as they are, knew what was going on in foster
care, in their name and with their money, they would stop it. But, generally speaking, although the public
has a vague notion that foster care is a mess, they don't have the complete
picture. They are not aware of the human, economic and social cost that the
mismanagement of the foster care system puts on our nation.
By tweeting the facts laid out in this work, you can help to
change all of that. You can make a
difference. You can change things for
the better.
We can always change the future for a foster kid; to make it
better ...you have the power to do that. Speak up (or tweet out) because it's
your country. Don't depend on the
"The other guy" to speak up for these kids, because you are the other
guy.
We cannot build a future for foster children, but we can build
foster children for the future and the time to start that change is today.
No time
to say Goodbye: Memoirs of a life in foster
Paperbook 440 Books
http://www.amazon.com/No-Time-Say-Goodbye-Memoir
BOOKS ABOUT FILM
On the
Waterfront: The Making of a Great American Film
Paperback: 416 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Waterfront-Making-Great-American-Film/
BOOKS ABOUT GHOSTS AND THE SUPERNATUAL
Scotish
Ghost Stories
Paperback 186 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Scottish-Ghost-Stories-Elliott-ODonell
HUMOR BOOKS
The Book
of funny odd and interesting things people say
Paperback: 278 pages
http://www.amazon.com/book-funny-interesting-things-people
The Wee
Book of Irish Jokes
http://www.amazon.com/Book-Series-Irish-Jokes-ebook
Perfect
Behavior: A guide for Ladies and Gentlemen in all Social Crises
http://www.amazon.com/Perfect-Behavior-Ladies-Gentlemen-Social
BOOKS ABOUT THE 1960s
You Don’t
Need a Weatherman. Underground 1969
Paperback 122 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Dont-Weatherman-Notes-Weatherman-Underground-1969
Baby
Boomers Guide to the Beatles Songs of the Sixties
Paperback
http://www.amazon.com/Boomers-Guide-Beatles-Songs-Sixties/
Baby
Boomers Guide to Songs of the 1960s
http://www.amazon.com/Baby-Boomers-Guide-Songs-1960s
IRISH- AMERICANA
The
Connecticut Irish
Paper back 140 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Connecticut-Irish-Catherine-F-Connolly
The Wee Book of Irish Jokes
http://www.amazon.com/Book-Series-Irish-Jokes-ebook/
The Wee
Book of Irish Recipes
http://www.amazon.com/The-Wee-Book-Irish-Recipes/
The Wee Book of the American-Irish Gangsters
http://www.amazon.com/The-Wee-Book-Irish-American-Gangsters/
The Wee book of Irish Blessings...
http://www.amazon.com/Series-Blessing-Proverbs-Toasts-ebook/
The Wee
Book of the American Irish in Their Own Words
http://www.amazon.com/Book-American-Irish-Their-Words/
Everything
you need to know about St. Patrick
Paperback 26 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Everything-Need-About-Saint-Patrick
A Reading
Book in Ancient Irish History
Paperback 147pages
http://www.amazon.com/Reading-Book-Ancient-Irish-History
The Book
of Things Irish
http://www.amazon.com/Book-Things-Irish-William-Tuohy/
Poets and
Dreamer; Stories translated from the Irish
Paperback 158 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Poets-Dreamers-Stories-Translated-Irish/
The
History of the Great Irish Famine: Abridged and Illustrated
Paperback 356 pages
http://www.amazon.com/History-Great-Irish-Famine-Illustrated/
BOOKS ABOUT NEW ENGLAND
The New
England Mafia
http://www.amazon.com/The-New-England-Mafia-ebook/
Wicked
Good New England Recipes
http://www.amazon.com/Wicked-Good-New-England-Recipes/
The
Connecticut Irish
Paper back 140 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Connecticut-Irish-Catherine-F-Connolly
The
Twenty-Fifth Regiment Connecticut Volunteers
Paperback 64 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Twenty-Fifth-Regiment-Connecticut-Volunteers-Rebellion
The Life
of James Mars
Paperback 54 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Life-James-Mars-Slave-Connecticut
Stories
of Colonial Connecticut
Paperback 116 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Stories-Colonial-Connnecticut-Caroline-Clifford
What they
Say in Old New England
Paperback 194 pages
http://www.amazon.com/What-they-say-New-England/
BOOK ABOUT ORGANIZED CRIME
Chicago
Organized Crime
Chicago-Mob-Bosses
http://www.amazon.com/Chicagos-Mob-Bosses-Accardo-ebook
The Mob
Files: It Happened Here: Places of Note in Chicago gangland 1900-2000
http://www.amazon.com/The-Mob-Files-1900-2000-ebook
An
Illustrated Chronological History of the Chicago Mob. Time Line 1837-2000
http://www.amazon.com/Illustrated-Chronological-History-Chicago-1837-2000/
Mob
Buster: Report of Special Agent Virgil Peterson to the Kefauver Committee
http://www.amazon.com/Mob-Buster-Peterson-Committee-ebook/
The Mob
Files. Guns and Glamour: The Chicago Mob. A History. 1900-2000
http://www.amazon.com/Mob-Files-Guns-Glamour-ebook/
Shooting
the Mob: Organized crime in photos. Crime Boss Tony Accardo
http://www.amazon.com/Shooting-Mob-Organized-photos-Accardo/
Shooting
the Mob: Organized Crime in Photos: The Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre.
http://www.amazon.com/Shooting-Mob-Organized-Valentines-Massacre
The Life
and World of Al Capone in Photos
http://www.amazon.com/Life-World-Al-Capone
AL
CAPONE: The Biography of a Self-Made Man.: Revised from the 0riginal 1930
edition.Over 200 new photographs
Paperback: 340 pages
http://www.amazon.com/CAPONE-Biography-Self-Made-Over-photographs
Whacked.
One Hundred Years Murder and Mayhem in the Chicago Outfit
Paperback: 172 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Whacked-Hundred-Murder-Mayhem-Chicago/
Las
Vegas Organized Crime
The Mob
in Vegas
http://www.amazon.com/Mob-Files-Vegas-ebook
Bugsy
& His Flamingo: The Testimony of Virginia Hill
http://www.amazon.com/Bugsy-His-Flamingo-Testimony-Virginia/
Testimony
by Mobsters Lewis McWillie, Joseph Campisi and Irwin Weiner (The Mob Files
Series)
http://www.amazon.com/The-Kennedy-Assassination-Ruby-Testimony-ebook
Rattling
the Cup on Chicago Crime.
Paperback 264 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Rattling-Cup-Chicago-Crime-Abridged
The Life
and Times of Terrible Tommy O’Connor.
Paperback 94 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Life-Times-Terrible-Tommy-OConnor
The Mob,
Sam Giancana and the overthrow of the Black Policy Racket in Chicago
Paperback 200 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Giancana-ovethrow-Policy-Rackets-Chicago
When
Capone’s Mob Murdered Roger Touhy. In Photos
Paperback 234 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Capones-Murdered-Roger-Touhy-photos
Organized
Crime in Hollywood
The Mob in Hollywood
http://www.amazon.com/Mob-Files-Hollywood-ebook/
The Bioff
Scandal
Paperback 54 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Bioff-Scandal-Shakedown-Hollywood-Studios
Organized
Crime in New York
Joe Pistone’s war on the mafia
http://www.amazon.com/Joe-Petrosinos-War-Mafia-Files/
Mob
Testimony: Joe Pistone, Michael Scars DiLeonardo, Angelo Lonardo and others
http://www.amazon.com/Mob-Testimony-DiLeonardo-testimony-Undercover/
The New
York Mafia: The Origins of the New York Mob
http://www.amazon.com/The-New-York-Mafia-Origins
The New
York Mob: The Bosses
http://www.amazon.com/The-New-York-Mob-Bosses/
Organized
Crime 25 Years after Valachi. Hearings before the US Senate
http://www.amazon.com/Organized-Crime-Valachi-Hearings-ebook
Shooting
the mob: Dutch Schultz
http://www.amazon.com/Shooting-Mob-Organized-Photographs-Schultz
Gangland
Gaslight: The Killing of Rosy Rosenthal. (Illustrated)
http://www.amazon.com/Gangland-Gaslight-Killing-Rosenthal-Illustrated/
Early
Street Gangs and Gangsters of New York City
Paperback 382 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Early-Street-Gangs-Gangsters-York
THE RUSSIAN MOBS
The
Russian Mafia in America
http://www.amazon.com/The-Russian-Mafia-America-ebook/
The
Threat of Russian Organzied Crime
Paperback 192 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Threat-Russian-Organized-Crime-photographs-ebook
Organized
Crime/General
Best of
Mob Stories
http://www.amazon.com/Files-Series-Illustrated-Articles-Organized-Crime/
Best of
Mob Stories Part 2
http://www.amazon.com/Series-Illustrated-Articles-Organized-ebook/
Illustrated-Book-Prohibition-Gangsters
http://www.amazon.com/Illustrated-Book-Prohibition-Gangsters-ebook
Mob
Recipes to Die For. Meals and Mobsters in Photos
http://www.amazon.com/Recipes-For-Meals-Mobsters-Photos
More Mob
Recipes to Die For. Meals and Mobs
http://www.amazon.com/More-Recipes-Meals-Mobsters-Photos
The New
England Mafia
http://www.amazon.com/The-New-England-Mafia-ebook
Shooting
the mob. Organized crime in photos. Dead Mobsters, Gangsters and Hoods.
http://www.amazon.com/Shooting-mob-Organized-photos-Mobsters-Gangsters/
The
Salerno Report: The Mafia and the Murder of President John F. Kennedy
http://www.amazon.com/The-Salerno-Report-President-ebook/
The
Mob Files: Mob Wars. "We only kill each other"
http://www.amazon.com/The-Mob-Files-Wars-other/
The Mob
across America
http://www.amazon.com/The-Files-Across-America-ebook/
The US
Government’s Time Line of Organzied Crime 1920-1987
http://www.amazon.com/GOVERNMENTS-ORGANIZED-1920-1987-Illustrated-ebook/
Early
Street Gangs and Gangsters of New York City: 1800-1919. Illustrated
http://www.amazon.com/Gangsters-1800-1919-Illustrated-Street-ebook/
The Mob
Files: Mob Cops, Lawyers and Informants and Fronts
http://www.amazon.com/The-Mob-Files-Informants-ebook/
Gangster
Quotes: Mobsters in their own words. Illustrated
Paperback: 128 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Gangsters-Quotes-Mobsters-words-Illustrated/
The Book
of American-Jewish Gangsters: A Pictorial History.
Paperback: 436 pages
http://www.amazon.com/The-Book-American-Jewish-Gangsters-Pictorial/
The Mob
and the Kennedy Assassination
Paperback 414 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Mob-Kennedy-Assassination-Ruby-Testimony-Mobsters
BOOKS ABOUT THE OLD WEST
The Last
Outlaw: The story of Cole Younger, by Himself
Paperback 152 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Last-Outlaw-Story-Younger-Himself
BOOKS ON PHOTOGRAPHY
Chicago:
A photographic essay.
Paperback: 200 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Chicago-Photographic-Essay-William-Thomas
STAGE PLAYS
Boomers
on a train: A ten minute play
Paperback 22 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Boomers-train-ten-minute-Play-ebook
Four
Short Plays
By John William Tuohy
http://www.amazon.com/Four-Short-Plays-William-Tuohy
Four More
Short Plays
By John William Tuohy
http://www.amazon.com/Four-Short-Plays-William-Tuohy/
High and
Goodbye: Everybody gets the Timothy Leary they deserve. A full length play
By John William Tuohy
http://www.amazon.com/High-Goodbye-Everybody-Timothy-deserve
Cyberdate.
An Everyday Love Story about Everyday People
By John William Tuohy
http://www.amazon.com/Cyberdate-Everyday-Story-People-ebook/
The
Dutchman's Soliloquy: A one Act Play based on the factual last words of
Gangster Dutch Schultz.
By John William Tuohy
http://www.amazon.com/Dutchmans-Soliloquy-factual-Gangster-Schultz/
Fishbowling
on The Last Words of Dutch Schultz: Or William S. Burroughs intersects with
Dutch Schultz
Print Length: 57 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Fishbowling-Last-Words-Dutch-Schultz-ebook/
American
Shakespeare: August Wilson in his own words. A One Act Play
By John William Tuohy
http://www.amazon.com/American-Shakespeare-August-Wilson-ebook
She
Stoops to Conquer
http://www.amazon.com/She-Stoops-Conquer-Oliver-Goldsmith/
The Seven
Deadly Sins of Gilligan’s Island: A ten minute play
Print Length: 14 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Seven-Deadly-Gilligans-Island-minute-ebook/
BOOKS ABOUT VIRGINIA
OUT OF
CONTROL: An Informal History of the Fairfax County Police
http://www.amazon.com/Control-Informal-History-Fairfax-Police/
McLean
Virginia. A short informal history
http://www.amazon.com/McLean-Virginia-Short-Informal-History/
THE QUOTABLE SERIES
The
Quotable Emerson: Life lessons from the words of Ralph Waldo Emerson: Over 300
quotes
http://www.amazon.com/The-Quotable-Emerson-lessons-quotes
The
Quotable John F. Kennedy
http://www.amazon.com/The-Quotable-John-F-Kennedy/
The
Quotable Oscar Wilde
http://www.amazon.com/The-Quotable-Oscar-Wilde-lessons/
The
Quotable Machiavelli
http://www.amazon.com/The-Quotable-Machiavelli-Richard-Thayer/
The
Quotable Confucius: Life Lesson from the Chinese Master
http://www.amazon.com/The-Quotable-Confucius-Lesson-Chinese/
The
Quotable Henry David Thoreau
http://www.amazon.com/Quotable-Henry-Thoreau-Quotables-ebook
The
Quotable Robert F. Kennedy
http://www.amazon.com/Quotable-Robert-F-Kennedy-Illustrated/
The
Quotable Writer: Writers on the Writers Life
http://www.amazon.com/The-Quotable-Writer-Quotables-ebook
The words
of Walt Whitman: An American Poet
Paperback: 162 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Words-Walt-Whitman-American-Poet
Gangster
Quotes: Mobsters in their own words. Illustrated
Paperback: 128 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Gangsters-Quotes-Mobsters-words-Illustrated/
The
Quotable Popes
Paperback 66 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Quotable-Popes-Maria-Conasenti
The
Quotable Kahlil Gibran with Artwork from Kahlil Gibran
Paperback 52 pages
Kahlil Gibran, an artist, poet, and writer was born on January
6, 1883 n the north of modern-day Lebanon and in what was then part of Ottoman
Empire. He had no formal schooling in Lebanon. In 1895, the family immigrated
to the United States when Kahlil was a young man and settled in South Boston.
Gibran enrolled in an art school and was soon a member of the avant-garde
community and became especially close to Boston artist, photographer, and
publisher Fred Holland Day who encouraged and supported Gibran’s creative
projects. An accomplished artist in drawing and watercolor, Kahlil attended art
school in Paris from 1908 to 1910, pursuing a symbolist and romantic style. He
held his first art exhibition of his drawings in 1904 in Boston, at Day's
studio. It was at this exhibition, that Gibran met Mary Elizabeth Haskell, who
ten years his senior. The two formed an important friendship and love affair
that lasted the rest of Gibran’s short life. Haskell influenced every aspect of
Gibran’s personal life and career. She became his editor when he began to write
and ushered his first book into publication in 1918, The Madman, a slim volume
of aphorisms and parables written in biblical cadence somewhere between poetry
and prose. Gibran died in New York City on April 10, 1931, at the age of 48
from cirrhosis of the liver and tuberculosis.
http://www.amazon.com/Quotable-Kahlil-Gibran-artwork/
The
Quotable Dorothy Parker
Paperback 86 pages
The
Quotable Machiavelli
Paperback 36 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Quotable-Machiavelli-Richard-L-Thayer
The
Quotable Greeks
Paperback 230 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Quotable-Greeks-Richard-W-Willoughby
The
Quotabe Oscar Wilde
Paperback 24 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Quotable-Oscar-Wilde-lessons-words/
The
Quotable Helen Keller
Paperback 66 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Quotable-Helen-Keller-Richard-Willoughby
The Art
of War: Sun Tzu
Paperback 60 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Quotable-Confucius-Lesson-Chinese-Quotables-ebook
The
Quotable Shakespeare
Paperback 54 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Quotable-Shakespeare-Richard-W-Willoughby
The
Quotable Gorucho Marx
Paperback 46 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Quotable-Groucho-Marx-Devon-Alexander
BLOGLAPEDIA’S BLOGS
ARCHITECTURE
Architecture for the blog of it
http://architecturefortheblogofit.blogspot.com/
THE ARTS
Art for the Blog of It
http://artfortheblogofit.blogspot.com/
Art for the Pop of it
http://artforthepopofit.blogspot.com/
Photography for the blog of it
http://photographyfortheblogofit.blogspot.com/
Music for the Blog of it
http://musicfortheblogofit.blogspot.com/
Sculpture this and Sculpture that
http://sculpturethisandsculpturethat.blogspot.com/
The art of War (Propaganda art through the ages)
http://theartofwarcleverhuh.blogspot.com/
Album Art (Photographic arts)
http://albumartsocheesyitsgood.blogspot.com/
Pulp Fiction Trash (The art of
Pulp Fiction covers)
http://pulpfictiontrash.blogspot.com/
Admit it, you want to Read this Book (The art of Pulp Fiction covers)
http://goaheadadmitityouwanttoread.blogspot.com/
FILM
The Godfather Trilogy BlogSpot
http://thegodfathertrilogyblogspot.blogspot.com/
On the Waterfront: The Making of a great American Film
http://onthewaterfrontthefilm.blogspot.com/
FOOD
Absolutely blogalicious
http://absolutelyblogalicious.blogspot.com/
The Wee Book of Irish Recipes (Book support
site)
http://theweeblogofirishrecipes.blogspot.com/
Good chowda (New England foods)
http://goodchowda.blogspot.com/
Old New England Recipes (Book
support site)
http://oldnewenglandrecipes.blogspot.com/
And I Love Clams (New England
foods)
http://andiloveclams.blogspot.com/
In Praise of the Rhode Island Wiener (New England foods)
http://inpraiseoftherhodeislandwiener.blogspot.com/
Wicked Cool New England Recipes (New England
foods)
http://whickedcoolnewenglandrecipes.blogspot.com
Old New England Recipes (New England
foods)
http://oldnewenglandrecipes.blogspot.com
FOSTER CARE
Foster
Care new and Updates
Aging out
of the system
Murder,
Death and Abuse in the Foster Care system
Angel and
Saints in the Foster Care System
The
Foster Children’s Blogs
Foster
Care Legislation
The
Foster Children’s Bill of Right
Foster
Kids own Story
The
Adventures of Foster Kid.
HEALTH
Me vs. Diabetes (Diabetes education site)
http://mevsdiabetes-bloglapedia.blogspot.com/
HISTORY
The Quotable Helen Keller
http://thequotablehelenkeller.blogspot.com/
Teddy Roosevelt's Letters to his children (Book support site)
http://teddyrooseveltsletterstohischildren.blogspot.com/
The Quotable Machiavelli (Book
support site)
http://thequotablemachiavelli.blogspot.com/
HUMOR
Whatever you do, don't laugh
http://whateveryoudodontlaugh.blogspot.com/
The Quotable Grouch Marx
http://thequotablegrouchmarx.blogspot.com/
IRISH-AMERICANA
A Big Blog of Irish Literature
http://abigblogofirishliterature.blogspot.com/
The Wee Blog of Irish Jokes (Book
support blog)
http://theweeblogofirishjokes.blogspot.com/
The Wee Blog of Irish Recipes
http://theweeblogofirishrecipes.blogspot.com/
The Irish American Gangster
http://irishamericangangsters.blogspot.com
The Irish in their Own Words
http://theirishintheirownwords.blogspot.com/
When Washington Was Irish
http://whenwashingtonwasirish.blogspot.com/
The Wee Book of Irish Recipes (Book
support site)
http://theweeblogofirishrecipes.blogspot.com/
LITERATURE
Following Fitzgerald
http://followingfitzgerald.blogspot.com/
Shakespeare
http://shakespeareinamericanenglish.blogspot.com/
The Blogable Robert Frost
http://theblogablerobertfrost.blogspot.com/
Charles Dickens
http://charlesdickensfan.blogspot.com/
The Beat Poets of the Forever Generation
http://thebeatspoetsoftheforevergenera.blogspot.com/
Voices from the Valley
http://storiesfromvoicesfromthevalley.blogspot.com/
Holden Caulfield Blog Spot
http://holdencaulfieldblogspot.blogspot.com/
The Quotable Oscar Wilde
http://thequotableoscarwilde.blogspot.com/
NEW ENGLAND BLOGS
The Quotable Thoreau
http://thequotablethenrydavidthoreau.blogspot.com/
Old New England Recipes
http://oldnewenglandrecipes.blogspot.com
Wicked Cool New England Recipes
http://whickedcoolnewenglandrecipes.blogspot.com
Emerson
http://emersonsaidit.blogspot.com/
The New England Mafia
http://thenewenglandmafia.blogspot.com/
And I Love Clams
http://andiloveclams.blogspot.com/
In Praise of the Rhode Island Wiener
http://inpraiseoftherhodeislandwiener.blogspot.com/
Watch Hill
http://watchhillwesterly.blogspot.com/
York Beach
http://yorkbeachfortheblogofit.blogspot.com/
The Connecticut History Blog
http://connecticuthistory.blogspot.com/
The Connecticut Irish
http://theconnecticutirish.blogspot.com/
Good chowda
http://goodchowda.blogspot.com/
NOSTALGIA
God, How I hated the 70s
http://godhowihatedthe70s.blogspot.com/
Child of the Sixties Forever
http://childofthesixtiesforeverandever.blogspot.com/
The Kennedy’s in the 60’s
http://thekennedysinthe60s.blogspot.com/
Music of the Sixties Forever
http://musicofthesixtiesforever.blogspot.com/
Elvis and Nixon at the White House (Book support site)
http://elvisandnixonatthewhitehouse.blogspot.com/
Beatles Fan Forever
http://beatlesfanforever.blogspot.com/
Year One, 1955
http://yearone1955.blogspot.com/
Robert Kennedy in His Own Words
The 1980s were fun
http://the1980swereokayactually.blogspot.com/
The 1990s. The last decade.
http://1990sthelastdecade.blogspot.com/
ORGANIZED CRIME
The Russian Mafia
http://russianmafiagangster.blogspot.com/
The American Jewish Gangster
http://theamericanjewishgangster.blogspot.com/
The Mob in Hollywood
http://themobinhollywood.blogspot.com/
We Only Kill Each Other
http://weonlykilleachother.blogspot.com/
Early Gangsters of New York City
http://earlygangstersofnewyorkcity.blogspot.com/
Al Capone: Biography of a self-made Man
http://alcaponethebiographyofaselfmademan.blogspot.com/
The Life and World of Al Capone
http://thelifeandworldofalcapone.blogspot.com/
The Salerno Report
http://salernoreportmafiaandurderjohnkennedy.blogspot.com/
Guns and Glamour
http://gunsandglamourthechicagomobahistory.blogspot.com/
The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre
http://thesaintvalentinesdaymassacre.blogspot.com/
Mob Testimony
http://mobtestimony.blogspot.com/
Recipes we would Die For
http://recipeswewoulddiefor.blogspot.com/
The Prohibition in Pictures
http://theprohibitioninpictures.blogspot.com/
The Mob in Pictures
http://themobinpictures.blogspot.com/
The Mob in Vegas
http://themobinvegasinpictures.blogspot.com/
The Irish American Gangster
http://irishamericangangsters.blogspot.com
Roger Touhy Gangster
http://rogertouhygangsters.blogspot.com/
Chicago’s Mob Bosses
http://chicagosmobbossesfromaccardoto.blogspot.com/
Chicago Gang Land: It Happened Here
http://chicagoganglandithappenedhere.blogspot.com/
Whacked: One Hundred years of Murder in Gangland
http://whackedonehundredyearsmurderand.blogspot.com/
The Mob Across America
http://themobacrossamerica.blogspot.com/
Mob Cops, Lawyers and Front Men
http://mobcopslawyersandinformantsand.blogspot.com/
Shooting the Mob: Dutch Schultz
http://shootingthemobdutchschultz.blogspot.com/
Bugsy& His Flamingo: The Testimony of Virginia Hill
http://bugsyandvirginiahill.blogspot.com/
After Valachi. Hearings before the US Senate on Organized Crime
http://aftervalachi.blogspot.com/
Mob Buster: Report of Special Agent Virgil Peterson to the Kefauver
Committee (Book support site)
http://virgilpetersonmobbuster.blogspot.com/
The US Government’s Timeline of Organized Crime (Book support site)
http://timelineoforganizedcrime.blogspot.com/
The Kefauver Organized Crime Hearings (Book support site)
http://thekefauverorganizedcrimehearings.blogspot.com/
Joe Valachi's testimony on the Mafia (Book support site)
http://joevalachistestimonyonthemafia.blogspot.com/
Mobsters in the News
http://mobstersinthenews.blogspot.com/
Shooting the Mob: Dead Mobsters (Book
support site)
http://deadmobsters.blogspot.com/
The Stolen Years Full Text (Roger Touhy)
http://thestolenyearsfulltext.blogspot.com/
Mobsters in Black and White
http://mobstersinblackandwhite.blogspot.com/
Mafia Gangsters, Wiseguys and Goodfellas
http://mafiagangsterswiseguysandgoodfellas.blogspot.com/
Whacked: One Hundred Years of Murder and Mayhem in the Chicago Mob (Book support site)
http://whackedonehundredyearsmurderand.blogspot.com/
Gangland Gaslight: The Killing of Rosy Rosenthal (Book support site)
http://ganglandgaslightrosyrosenthal.blogspot.com/
The Best of the Mob Files Series (Book
support site)
http://thebestofthemobfilesseries.blogspot.com/
PHILOSOPHY
It’s All Greek Mythology to me
http://itsallgreekmythologytome.blogspot.com/
PSYCHOLOGY
Psychologically Relevant
http://psychologicallyrelevant.blogspot.com/
SNOBBERY
The Rarifieid Tribe
http://therarifiedtribe.blogspot.com/
Perfect Behavior
http://perfectbehavior.blogspot.com/
TRAVEL
The Upscale Traveler
http://theupscaletraveler.blogspot.com/
TRIVIA
The Mish Mosh Blog
http://theupscaletraveler.blogspot.com/
WASHINGTON DC
DC Behind the Monuments
http://dcbehindthemonuments.blogspot.com/
Washington Oddities
http://washingtonoddities.blogspot.com/
When Washington Was Irish
http://whenwashingtonwasirish.blogspot.com/