Welcome

Welcome
John William Tuohy lives in Washington DC

I hope you make the best of it......





WE FOUND WALDO...AND THE NEWS AIN'T GOOD 



I'm a big big Fan of Bukowski 



I sit across from her as she tells me about her life, I give her refills, light her cigarettes, I listen and the City of the Angels listens…  Charles Bukowski, “downtown L.A.”, You Get So Alone At Times That It Just Makes Sense

such singing’s going on in the
streets-
the people look like flowers
at last
Charles Bukowski, The People Look Like Flowers At Last

if there is light
it will find
you.
Charles Bukowski, The People Look Like Flowers At Last




The art and joy of cinematography


MISH MOSH..........................................

Mish Mash: noun \ˈmish-ˌmash, -ˌmäsh\ A : hodgepodge, jumble The painting was just a mishmash of colors and abstract shapes as far as we could tell. Origin Middle English & Yiddish; Middle English mysse masche, perhaps reduplication of mash mash; Yiddish mish-mash, perhaps reduplication of mishn to mix. First Known Use: 15th century


General George Meade’s headquarters after the Battle of Gettysburg. He commanded the Union Northern Army. Note the dead horses on the road.


MUSIC FOR THE SOUL
Lou Rawls



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





















































DON'T YOU JUST LOVE POP ART?
Wayne Thiebaud

GOOD WORDS TO HAVE…………

Onerous  (ON-uh-ruhs, OH-nuhr-) 
1. Oppressively burdensome.
2. Having obligations or responsibilities that outweigh the benefits.
From Old French onereus, from Latin onerosus, from onus (burden). Earliest documented use: 1395.


HERE'S PLEASANT POEM FOR YOU TO ENJOY................



Instrument of Choice
Robert Phillips

She was a girl
no one ever chose
for teams of clubs,
dances or dates,

so she chose the instrument
no one else wanted:
the tuba.  Big as herself,
heavy as her heart,

its golden tubes
and coils encircled her
like a lover's embrace.
Its body pressed on hers.

Into its mouthpiece she blew
life, its deep-throated
oompahs, oompahs sounding,
almost, like mating cries.



I LOVE BLACK AND WHITE PHOTOS FROM FILM
William Klein



THE ART OF PULP
Excerpt from my book “On the Waterfront: The Making of a Great American Film”

HERE IS AN EXCEPT FROM MY BOOK "THE BOOK OF AMERICAN-JEWISH GANGSTERS"
(Max Zellner is a pen name, it was my grandfather's born name. During World War 1 he changed it to the less German sounding Paul Selner)


Excerpt from my book "When Capone’s Mob Murdered Touhy.” 


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 No Time to Say Goodbye: Memoirs of a Life in Foster Care and Short Stories from a Small Town. He is also 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.
Contact John:
MYWRITERSSITE.BLOGSPOT.COM
JWTUOHY95@GMAIL.COM


HERE'S MY LATEST BOOKS.....






DON'T WORRY, WE'LL PROTECT YOUR IDENTITY  
 

Maligned for decades, MSG comes back
The flavor enhancer was discovered more than a century ago
A letter to the editor in 1968 started the anti-MSG backlash
Some modern chefs have begun to sing its praises

BY BLAIR ANTHONY ROBERTSON
brobertson@sacbee.com

Plenty about monosodium glutamate, better known as MSG, is puzzling and peculiar. Indeed, many would argue that the ongoing assault on this ubiquitous flavor enhancer is just wacky.
MSG has its defenders, including some of Sacramento’s top mainstream chefs, but unless you’re a hardcore foodie or culinary insider, probably everything you’ve heard about MSG is wrong.
Is it possible that many of us have expended far too much time and energy through the years awkwardly asking about it at Chinese restaurants, avoiding it whenever possible and repeating claims about it that have long since been debunked?
To this day, a popular and widely respected restaurant like Chinois City Cafe in the Arden-Arcade area of Sacramento notes in small print on its menus that it does not cook with MSG.
“It’s something that goes way back,” said co-owner Terry SooHoo. “We really just assumed also that it was bad, without any scientific facts. But our guests are the ones who perpetuate it. We just have it in fine print on the menu that we don’t use it. We don’t actively promote it as being bad for you.”
When SooHoo ventures out to eat at other Chinese restaurants, “I don’t avoid it. I don’t even ask,” he said. “It’s not us. It’s our guests who are concerned.”
Despite its link to the so-called “Chinese restaurant syndrome,” MSG can be found in nearly every culture and cuisine. MSG is what makes the flavors in your bag of Doritos pop. It’s lurking in all kinds of fast food. It’s found naturally in Parmesan cheese, mushrooms and tomatoes. Canned soup and packages of crackers? More than likely, MSG is the unheralded flavor star in both, sometimes disguised on labels as flavor enhancer E621.
“Working in restaurants for so long, you just keep on looking for other things,” said Michael Thiemann, owner/chef of two acclaimed Sacramento restaurants, Empress Tavern and Mother. “There was a light bulb moment when I was in L.A. at a hipster Mexican restaurant, of all things, had this simple Brussels sprouts dish. I couldn’t figure out why it was so good. Then it hit me – it’s MSG. It couldn’t have been anything else.”
Thiemann began dabbling with MSG and has used it to bring out flavors in certain vegetable dishes, though it’s not something he advertises.
“To me, it’s just another tool, another spice,” he said. “I find nearly all brassicas vegetables – broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbages – taste incredible with the smallest dash of MSG. You don’t have to add as much salt and it’s freakishly good.”
Chefs have been using MSG for more than a century and its origins can be traced to Japan, not China. This ubiquitous and much-maligned seasoning salt was discovered by a Japanese chemist, Kidunae Ikeda, who noticed that his wife seasoned her soup with a type of seaweed called kombu.
In 1908, Ikeda named the so-called fifth flavor umami (beyond salty, sweet, sour and bitter) after a chemical analysis showed that the savory note from kombu was from glutamic acid. MSG is the sodium salt of glutamic acid, a naturally occurring amino acid and one of the building blocks of protein.
For 60 years, MSG flourished throughout the world. Simply put, it elevated the flavors of nearly everything in its path, from grains and vegetables to meats and sauces.
Then something went awry. As renowned chef David Chang has put it, MSG became the most vilified ingredient in America, and wrongly so.
“The purpose of using MSG has always been commercial,” said David SooHoo, Terry’s brother and a longtime restaurateur and chef who stopped using MSG in the 1980s. “You can taste the beef flavor of chow mein or chop suey and it tastes like it has twice as much beef when you use MSG. It tricks the taste buds because of the way the brain is wired. Customers leave feeling very happy even though they didn’t eat as much meat.
“It’s not just in Chinese restaurants. Look closely on the labels, and you’ll find it in almost everything.”
In the 1970s, cooking at the family-owned Ming Tree restaurant, David SooHoo said, the kitchen “pioneered cooking with no MSG. Everybody freaked out. Chinese people said, ‘What’s wrong with this guy?’ But I knew that if you used fresh ingredients and more ingredients, you didn’t need MSG.”
Given the food science era in which we live, it is worth noting that the anti-MSG brigade was inspired by an eminently non-scientific letter to the editor in the New England Journal of Medicine in 1968. It was penned by a Chinese American doctor, Robert Kwok, who noted he felt numbness in his arms and neck for two hours after dining at a Chinese restaurant.
The anecdotal contents of that letter took on a life of their own. Other letter writers weighed in, concurring with Kwok, and the subsequent letters were published together under the headline, “Chinese restaurant syndrome.”
A year later, two researchers published a study blaming MSG for Chinese restaurant syndrome. But when their methodology was challenged and they did subsequent blind studies to eliminate biases, MSG, it turned out, was off the hook. No adverse health problems could be detected when measured against a placebo.
But it was too late.
The American dining public made it the villain of the food world and began insisting en masse that Chinese restaurants cook without MSG or at least warn them about which dishes included it. Chinese restaurants had little choice if they wanted to attract a non-Chinese clientele.
But there are signs these days that MSG is on the upswing and the message has begun trickling out that it’s no longer something to fear. Scores of progressive chefs outside of Chinese cuisine have embraced it, albeit in a mostly underground, hush-hush way.
Chang, the owner/chef of the acclaimed Momofuku restaurant group, gave a speech at a food symposium in 2012 he dubbed “MSG: Delicious or Evil?” in which he sought to recast the notorious flavor enhancer as an innocent victim of pseudo-science, innuendo and cultural bias.
Justin Lower, the executive chef at Taylor’s Kitchen in Land Park, has been known to cook with MSG for the staff meal, known in the industry as “family meal.” He likes how it makes the flavors really sing in that coveted “umami” way. He likes the positive reactions he gets from hungry restaurant staffers.
“I always use it for family meal, but it will probably never make it onto the menu because of the stigma,” said Lower, who previously worked in such highly regarded kitchens as Hawks and Enotria.
“I’d like to see it kind of rehabilitated. One of the issues is it doesn’t have a catchy name. If they called it ‘umami salt’ it might have a better chance.”
Bill Ngo, the chef/owner of Kru, uses a type of MSG to cure fish and make stocks at his Japanese restaurant and sushi bar.
“My family is Chinese-Vietnamese and my parents had a Chinese restaurant when I was growing up. I remember seeing them use MSG. It was in the kitchen, so it was a normal thing for me. It’s just another flavoring agent, like salt and sugar.”
Ngo often uses a version of MSG derived from kombu for curing fish at Kru.
“It firms up the fish and adds a certain flavor,” he explained.
When he’s not working, Ngo enjoys going out to eat, especially at hole-in-the-wall Chinese and Vietnamese eateries. One of his favorite places, which we won’t name because of the ongoing stigma, has a deep-fried chicken dish “and they serve it with a side of MSG and white pepper mixed together. They just tell you it’s salt and pepper,” Ngo said.
Ngo says MSG’s reputation is ready to be rehabilitated and he suggests home cooks simply try it for themselves. Though it is available by the bucket at restaurant supply stores, the most common grocery version is Accent seasoning.
“You can just add it to anything to make it taste better,” he said.
After all this time and a stigma that won’t go away, MSG – or, better yet, umami salt – may be ready to come out of hiding.

Blair Anthony Robertson: 916-321-1099, @Blarob








GREAT IDEA



....BUT PAY YOUR BILL



  STILL, I WOULD REALLY LIKE TO HANG OUT WITH THIS GUY...............






SPACE
The Antennae Galaxies




THE ART AND BEAUTY OF BALLET

Nicolás J. Moreno C.- photo by Rachel Neville

Sculpture this and Sculpture that

Jacqueline Kern Shaman (WIP), 2016

Angelo Bozzola - ,Funzione - sviluppo di forma n. 11 , 1956


Andreas Theurer - Agony, 1995



DON'T YOU WANT TO SEE THE ENTIRE WORLD? 
I DO

Damüls, Austria by  Marco Stolle



MY DOG, BART THE DOG
                                                   Bart, my dog and hang around go to guy
Bart showing off his new shirt, the yellow doll is his Pal, the amply named "Yellow guy"



MARY AND I TOOK SOME PHOTOS OF EACH OTHER LAST YEAR, I JUST FOUND THEM  







AND HERE'S SOME ANIMALS FOR YOU................... 














MY BIRTHDAY WAS JANUARY 6TH






HERE'S SOME NICE ART FOR YOU TO LOOK AT....ENJOY!


Girl with Peaches, Valentin Serov


Western Motel I Edward Hopper I 1957

Moscow in Winter, View from the Window onto Srednaia Kislovka, Maria Yakunchikova (1889)






IT SNOWED LIKE HELL HERE IN JANUARY, WE GOT THREE FEET IN ONE DAY




                                                   
   SOME ONE'S ON A LIST NOW




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/

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/





AND NOW, A BEATLES BREAK 

THE BEATLES FLY TO SHAY STADIUM IN NEW YORK FOR A CONCERT















 






Greetings NYCPlaywrights

*** FREE THEATER IN NYC ***

Uncomfortable Comfortable Spaces
A spoken collection of prose and plays
Written by Cesi Davidson
Directed by Mary Hodges
Featuring Sandra Mills Scott & Gha'il Rhodes Benjamin
February 20, 2016
3-4 PM
George Bruce Library
518 West 125th St.
New York, New York  10027
Free Admission
http://www.nypl.org/locations/george-bruce

*** PRIMARY STAGES - SHORT FORMS ***

Is Your Short Play Portfolio Submission-Ready? Join KARA LEE CORTHRON (Writer, Julius By Design at Fulcrum Theater, "Kings" on NBC) for SHORT FORMS at Primary Stages Einhorn School of Performing Arts (ESPA) and build a solid portfolio of submission-ready short plays. Short plays require an ability to convey character, effective dialogue, and action without extensive exposition, and in this 10-week class, you'll learn how not to waste a single word. From this class, you'll take away the skills to craft surprising pieces of theater, regardless of length, that reflect something deeper about the world at large. Payment plans available. Register at:http://primarystages.org/espa/writing/short-forms

*** PLAYWRIGHTS OPPORTUNITIES ***

New American Voices - We intend to do a one week production run of 6 to 8 selected short plays in a London West End theatre in late autumn. The 2016 theme will be Twenty Twenty. Therefore we are accepting submissions of short plays (maximum 20 minutes) on any topic that would reflect our theme. That could mean the year 2020, perfect vision or anything else that comes to mind.

***

The World Sinophone Drama Competition for Young Playwrights project seeks to encourage production of new dramatic works that reflect upon global Chinese culture from a variety of perspectives and enrich our understanding of Sinophone cultures, circulations, histories, and communities. To this end, we invite young playwrights (aged 18-35) to submit new scripts composed in either English or Chinese for the inaugural round of this international drama competition. For English-language submissions, we welcome works of self-reflection from members of Sinophone communities, as well as those that explore encounters among the Sinophone and other cultural contexts; for Chinese-language submissions, there are no specific requirements for content.

***
Theatre503’s Playwriting Award is an unprecedented opportunity for playwrights at all levels to be recognised for writing an outstanding, original piece of work for the stage. It will build upon the foundation of the venue’s reputation for engaging with the next generation of playwrights, whilst broadening its opportunities to include more experienced, produced writers.
To be considered for the 503Five you should have no full-length professional production credits.This is defined as a run of 3 weeks or more in an established venue for which you have received coverage from the national press.

*** FOR MORE INFORMATION on these and other opportunities see the web site athttp://www.nycplaywrights.org ***

*** That’swhatshesaid ***

Erin Pike stands onstage and apologizes for over a minute. At various moments a disembodied male voice describes her as mousy, elegant, attractive, a mess, and Pike struggles to embody each of them in quick succession. She runs up and down the stairs wearing heels. She stands in the spotlight and takes off most of her clothes. She immediately puts them back on. She takes them off again. An invisible hand pushes her to the floor. She picks herself up. She's pushed to the floor again.

These are a handful of actions Pike performs in That'swhatshesaid, a dramatic collage written by Courtney Meaker and directed by HATLO. To construct this piece, Meaker compiled lines from only the female characters in American Theater's list of the 11 most-produced plays of the 2014—2015 season. Only two of these plays were written by women. According to Meaker's script, these plays contain 74 total roles, 34 of which were written for women. Of those 34 roles, 28 were written by men.

More…
http://www.thestranger.com/blogs/slog/2016/02/05/23529285/erin-pike-performs-only-the-womens-parts-from-the-most-produced-plays-in-america-and-its-brilliant
***
About 15 minutes ago, Samuel French, the publisher of Joshua Harmon's play Bad Jews, sent a cease and desist order to Gay City Arts Executive Director Fred Swanson, demanding that the show That'swhatshesaid, which opened Thursday night in the tiny theater at the back of Gay City, not be allowed to go on tonight as planned.
The one-person play, created and performed by Erin Pike and written by Courtney Meaker consists entirely of dialogue from the female characters that appear in the 10 most-frequently-produced Amercian plays during the 2014—2015 season (according to American Theater magazine). Bad Jews is one of them. (So are The Whipping Man by Matthew Lopez and 4,000 Miles by Amy Herzog, also published by Samuel French.)
http://www.thestranger.com/blogs/slog/2016/02/05/23534251/samuel-french-tries-to-shut-down-thatswhatshesaid-an-hour-before-curtain
***
Erin Pike’s web site
http://www.erinpike.com
***
AMERICAN THEATRE’S TOP 10 MOST-PRODUCED PLAYS OF 2015–16

Disgraced by Ayad Akhtar: 18
Peter and the Starcatcher, adapted by Rick Elice from  Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson: 16
Outside Mullingar by John Patrick Shanley: 11
To Kill a Mockingbird, adapted by Christopher Sergel  from Harper Lee: 9
Buyer & Cellar by Jonathan Tolins: 9
Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike by Christopher Durang: 8
Mr. Burns, a post-electric play by Anne Washburn: 7
Fences by August Wilson: 7
Sex with Strangers by Laura Eason: 7
Stupid Fucking Bird by Aaron Posner, inspired by Chekhov: 7

https://www.americantheatre.org/2015/09/16/the-top-10-most-produced-plays-of-the-2015-16-season/
***
AMERICAN THEATRE’S TOP 10 MOST-PRODUCED PLAYS OF 2014-15 (Actually 11 Because of Ties)*
Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike by Christopher Durang: 27**
Outside Mullingar by John Patrick Shanley: 10
Bad Jews by Joshua Harmon: 8***
Other Desert Cities by Jon Robin Baitz: 8****
Around the World in 80 Days adapted from the novel by Jules Verne: 7(note, 6 for the Mark Brown adaptation and 1 for the Toby Hulse adaptation)
Peter and the Starcatcher, adapted by Rick Elice from Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson: 7
The Whipping Man by Matthew Lopez: 7
Tribes by Nina Raine: 7*****
4000 Miles by Amy Herzog: 6
Into the Woods, book by James Lapine, music and lyricsby Stephen Sondheim: 6
Venus in Fur by David Ives: 6

https://www.americantheatre.org/2014/09/23/top-10-plays-2014-2015/
The Top 10 Most-Produced Plays: 1994–2014
Want to see what were the most-produced plays from the 1994-95 season to the 2013-14 season? We’ve got you covered here!
BY AMERICAN THEATRE EDITORS
Below is American Theatre magazine’s Top 10 Most-Produced Play list, as printed in AT‘s annual Season Preview issue in October, from 1994 to 2014. These numbers are as reported to TCG at press time by its member theatres nationwide.
As of the 2009-10 season the Top 10 List omits holiday themed shows (such as The Santaland Diaries and A Christmas Carol) as well as works by Shakespeare. OnStage/Theatre Profiles will reflect more up-to-date data.
2013-14

A tie for the final slot makes this a Top 14.

Venus in Fur (22)
by David Ives

Clybourne Park (16)
by Bruce Norris

Good People (14)
by David Lindsay-Abaire

Other Desert Cities (13)
by Jon Robin Baitz

The Mountaintop (13)
by Katori Hall

4000 Miles (12)
by Amy Herzog

Tribes (12)
by Nina Raine

Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike (11)
by Christopher Durang

The Cat in the Hat (8)
adapted by Katie Mitchell from Dr. Seuss

Detroit (7)
by Lisa D’Amour

God of Carnage (7)
by Yasmina Reza

Red (7)
by John Logan

The Whipping Man (7)
by Matthew Lopez

Water by the Spoonful (7)
by Quiara Alegria Hudes


2012-13

Good People (17)
by David Lindsay-Abaire

Clybourne Park (15)
by Bruce Norris

The Whipping Man (14)
by Matthew Lopez

Next to Normal (13)
by Brian Yorkey (book and lyrics) and Tom Kitt (music)

The Mountaintop (12)
by Katori Hall

Red (11)
by John Logan

Time Stands Still (10)
by  Donald Margulies

Other Desert Cities (10)
by Jon Robin Baitz

The Motherfucker with the Hat (9)
by Stephen Adly Guirgis

A Raisin in the Sun (8)
by Lorraine Hansberry

Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson (8)
by Alex Timbers (book) and Michael Friedman (music and lyrics)


2011-12

Red (23)
by John Logan

God of Carnage (23)
by Yasmina Reza

In the Next Room, or the vibrator play (13)
by Sarah Ruhl

The 39 Steps (11)
adapted by Patrick Barlow from Buchan and Alfred Hitchcock

Time Stands Still (11)
by Donald Margulies

Next Fall (11)
by Geoffrey Nauffts

To Kill a Mockingbird (8)
adapted by Christopher Sergel from Harper Lee

Spring Awakening (7)
by Steven Sater (book and lyrics) and Duncan Sheik (music), adapted from Frank Wedekind

Race (7)
by David Mamet

August: Osage County (7)
by Tracy Letts

Clybourne Park (7)
by Bruce Norris


2010-11

The 39 Steps (23)
adapted by Patrick Barlow from Alfred Hitchcock

Circle Mirror Transformation (15)
by Annie Baker

Superior Donuts (10)
by Tracy Letts

Ruined (10)
by Lynn Nottage

August: Osage County (9)
by Tracy Letts

God of Carnage (8)
by Yasmina Reza

In the Next Room, or the vibrator play (8)
by Sarah Ruhl

The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (8)
by Rachel Sheinkin (book) and William Finn (music and lyrics)

To Kill a Mockingbird (7)
adapted by Christopher Sergel from Harper Lee

Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (7)
by August Wilson


2009-10

boom (9)
by Peter Sinn Nachtrieb

The Seafarer (8)
by Conor McPherson

Speech & Debate (8)
by Stephen Karam

Dead Man’s Cell Phone (8)
by Sarah Ruhl

The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (7)
by Rachel Sheinkin (book) and William Finn (music and lyrics)

Around the World in 8o Days (7)
adapted by Mark Brown from Jules Verne

The Glass Menagerie (7)
by Tennessee Williams

Opus (7)
by Michael Hollinger

Our Town (6)
by Thornton Wilder

Shipwrecked! An Entertainment (6)
by Donald Margulies

Souvenir (6)
by Stephen Temperley

Yankee Tavern (6)
by Steven Dietz

Black Pearl Sings! (6)
by Frank Higgins

Boeing-Boeing (6)
translated by Beverly Cross from Marc Camoletti (6)


2008-09

Doubt (14)
by John Patrick Shanley

The Santaland Diaries (14)
adapted by Joe Mantello from David Sedaris

Rabbit Hole (13)
by David Lindsay-Abaire

The Seafarer (12)
by Conor McPherson

Eurydice (11)
by Sarah Ruhl

To Kill a Mockingbird (10)
adapted by Christopher Sergel from Harper Lee

The Glass Menagerie (9)
by Tennessee Williams

Souvenir (9)
Stephen Temperley

Mauritius (9)
by Theresa Rebeck

Noises Off (8)
by Michael Frayn

Radio Golf (8)
by August Wilson


2007-08

Doubt (34)
by John Patrick Shanley

Rabbit Hole (12)
by David Lindsay-Abaire

The Clean House (12)
by Sarah Ruhl

Moonlight and Magnolias (10)
by Ron Hutchison

9 Parts of Desire (8)
by Heather Raffo

A Year with Frog and Toad (8)
book and lyrics by Willie Reale; music by Robert Reale

The Little Dog Laughed (8)
by Douglas Carter Beane

The Piano Lesson (8)
by August Wilson

The Santaland Diaries (8)
adapted by Joe Mantello from David Sedaris

Gem of the Ocean (7)
by August Wilson

Its a Wonderful Life (7)
adapted from Frank Capra

The Diary of Anne Frank (7)
adapted by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett


2006-07

I Am My Own Wife (13)
by Doug Wright

The Pillowman (12)
by Martin McDonagh

The Santaland Diaries (11)
adapted by Joe Mantello from David Sedaris

Gem of the Ocean (9)
by August Wilson

Intimate Apparel (9)
by Lynn Nottage

Moonlight and Magnolias (8)
by Ron Hutchison

Rabbit Hole (8)
by David Lindsay-Abaire

Tartuffe (7)
by Moliere

Tuesdays with Morrie (7)
by Mitch Albom and Jeffrey Hatcher

The Underpants (7)
adapted by Steve Martin from Carl Sternheim


2005-06

A tie for the final slot makes this a Top 14.

Intimate Apparel (16)
by Lynn Nottage

Crowns (15)
by Regina Taylor

I Am My Own Wife (13)
by Doug Wright

Frozen (12)
by Bryony Lavery

A Number (11)
by Caryl Churchill

Bad Dates (9)
by Theresa Rebeck

Disney’s Beauty and the Beast (8)
book by Linda Woolverton; lyrics by Howard Ashman and Tim Rice; music by Alan Menken

The Importance of Being Earnest (8)
by Oscar Wilde

Bug (7)
by Tracy Letts

The Santaland Diaries (7)
adapted by Joe Mantello from David Sedaris

Seussical (7)
book and lyrics by Lynn Ahrens; book and music by Stephen Flaherty

Stones in His Pockets (7)
by Marie Jones

Urinetown (7)
book and lyrics by Greg Kotis; lyrics and music by Mark Hollman

A Year with Frog and Toad (7)
book and lyrics by Willie Reale; music by Robert Reale


2004-05

Take Me Out (12)
by Richard Greenberg

Anna in the Tropics (11)
by Nilo Cruz

Crowns (11)
by Regina Taylor

The Drawer Boy (11)
by Michael Healey

The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia (10)
by Edward Albee

The Underpants (9)
adapted by Steve Martin from Carl Sternheim

The Exonerated (7)
by Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen

The Santaland Diaries (7)
adapted by Joe Mantello from David Sedaris

Tuesdays with Morrie (7)
by Mitch Albom and Jeffrey Hatcher

A Year with Frog and Toad (7)
book and lyrics by Willie Reale; music by Robert Reale


2003-04

A tie for the final slot makes this a Top 12.

The Drawer Boy (16)
by Michael Healey

Proof (14)
by David Auburn

Topdog/Underdog (13)
by Suzan-Lori Parks

The Santaland Diaries (12)
adapted by Joe Mantello from David Sedaris

The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia (10)
by Edward Albee

Stones in His Pockets (10)
by Marie Jones

Ain’t Misbehavin’ (9)
book by Murray Horowitz and Richard Maltby Jr.; music by Thomas Fats Waller

Private Lives (9)
by Noël Coward

Yellowman (9)
by Dael Orlandersmith

Blue/Orange (8)
by Joe Penhall

Lobby Hero (8)
by Kenneth Lonergan

Nickel and Dimed (8)
adapted by Joan Holden from Barbara Ehrenreich


2002-03

A tie for the final slot makes this a Top 11.

Proof (29)
by David Auburn

Dirty Blonde (15)
by Claudia Shear

Copenhagen (14)
by Michael Frayn

Fully Committed (12)
by Becky Mode

The Santaland Diaries (10)
adapted by Joe Mantello from David Sedaris

The Laramie Project (9)
by Moisés Kaufman and Tectonic Theater Project

Bat Boy: The Musical (9)
book by Keythe Farley and Brian Flemming; music and lyrics by Laurence O’Keefe

The Drawer Boy (9)
by Michael Healey

Lobby Hero (8)
by Kenneth Lonergan

My Way: A Musical Tribute to Frank Sinatra (7)
by David Grapes and Todd Olson

The Piano Lesson (7)
by August Wilson


2001-02

A tie for the final slot makes this a Top 14.

Art (15)
by Yasmina Reza

Dinner with Friends (15)
by Donald Margulies

The Laramie Project (14)
by Moisés Kaufman and Tectonic Theater Project

Spinning into Butter (12)
by Rebecca Gilman

Proof (11)
by David Auburn

Fuddy Meers (10)
by David Lindsay-Abaire

I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change (9)
book and lyrics by Joe DiPietro; music by Jimmy Roberts

Fully Committed (8)
by Becky Mode

The Santaland Diaries (8)
adapted by Joe Mantello from David Sedaris

The Glass Menagerie (7)
by Tennessee Williams

Wit (7)
by Margaret Edson


2000-01

Art (30)
by Yasmina Reza

Wit (22)
by Margaret Edson

Side Man (11)
by Warren Leight

I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change (9)
book and lyrics by Joe DiPietro; music by Jimmy Roberts

Closer (8)
by Patrick Marber

Fuddy Meers (8)
by David Lindsay-Abaire

The Beauty Queen of Leenane (7)
by Martin McDonagh

Picasso at the Lapin Agile (7)
by Steve Martin

The Santaland Diaries (7)
adapted by Joe Mantello from David Sedaris

A Streetcar Named Desire (7)
by Tennessee Williams


1999-2000

The Beauty Queen of Leenane (16)
by Martin McDonagh

The Last Night of Ballyhoo (12)
by Alfred Uhry

Master Class (12)
by Terrence McNally

Side Man (9)
by Warren Leight

As Bees in Honey Drown (8)
by Douglas Carter Beane

The Cripple of Inishmaan (8)
by Martin McDonagh

The Glass Menagerie (8)
by Tenessee Williams

Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde (8)
by Moisés Kaufman

The Old Settler (8)
by John Henry Redwood

Wit (8)
by Margaret Edson


1998-99

How I Learned to Drive (26)
by Paula Vogel

The Last Night of Ballyhoo (20)
by Alfred Uhry

Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde (16)
by Moisés Kaufman

Picasso at the Lapin Agile (10)
by Steve Martin

The Glass Menagerie (9)
by Tenessee Williams

Death of a Salesman (8)
by Arthur Miller

Having Our Say: The Delaney Sisters’ First 100 Years (8)
by Emily Mann

The Old Settler (7)
by John Henry Redwood

The Importance of Being Earnest (7)
by Oscar Wilde

Always! Patsy Cline (7)
by Ted Swindley


1997-98

Having Our Say: The Delaney Sisters’ First 100 Years (15)
by Emily Mann

Old Wicked Songs (12)
by John Marans

Skylight (11)
by David Hare

Moon Over Buffalo (10)
by Ken Ludwig

Sylvia (10)
by A.R. Gurney

To Kill a Mockingbird (9)
adapted by Christopher Sergel from Harper Lee

Valley Song (9)
by Athol Fugard

Molly Sweeney (7)
by Brian Friel

An Ideal Husband (6)
by Oscar Wilde

Private Eyes (6)
by Steven Dietz


1996-97

Sylvia (28)
by A.R. Gurney

Arcadia (13)
by Tom Stoppard

The Glass Menagerie (12)
by Tennessee Williams

To Kill a Mockingbird (12)
adapted by Christopher Sergel from Harper Lee

Having Our Say: The Delaney Sisters’ First 100 Years (10)
by Emily Mann

A Tuna Christmas (8)
by Jaston Williams, Joe Sears and Ed Howard

Love! Valour! Compassion! (8)
by Terrence McNally

The Diary of Anne Frank (8)
adapted by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett

The Woman in Black (7)
adapted by Stephen Mallatratt from Susan Hill

The Cryptogram (7)
by David Mamet


1995-96

All in the Timing (15)
by David Ives

Three Tall Women (12)
by Edward Albee

The Sisters Rosensweig (11)
by Wendy Wasserstein

Arms and the Man (8)
by George Bernard Shaw

To Kill a Mockingbird (8)
adapted by Christopher Sergel from Harper Lee

Angels in America: Millennium Approaches and Perestroika (7)
by Tony Kushner

Blithe Spirit (7)
by Noël Coward

Private Lives (7)
by Noël Coward

Arcadia (6)
by Tom Stoppard

Later Life (6)
by A.R. Gurney


1994-95

Keely and Du (14)
by Jane Martin

Dancing at Lughnasa (11)
by Brian Friel

To Kill a Mockingbird (10)
adapted by Christopher Sergel from Harper Lee

Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me (8)
by Frank McGuinness

From the Mississippi Delta (8)
by Endesha Ida Mae Holland

Oleanna (8)
by David Mamet

All in the Timing (7)
by David Ives

A Perfect Ganesh (6)
by Terrence McNally

Forever Plaid (6)
by Stuart Ross and James Raitt

Lost in Yonkers (6)
by Neil Simon


https://www.americantheatre.org/2014/09/23/top-10-most-plays-1994-2014/




Photographs I’ve taken

This is the view from Mt. St. Johns School in Deep River Connecticut where I lived from 1968 through 1970. In those days the school was more or less a storage place for boys in the foster system. It's a whole other place now and those days are over for this grand old lady who has served and protected boys for one hundred years in 2017.  That's the Connecticut River down at the bottom of the hill.

I will be running a wellness/ writing seminar from here this summer 
This is the back of the school 
 
 
 
 
 
 



 

Excerpt from my book "No Time to Say Goodbye: 
Memoirs of a Life in Foster Care.


 It was time for the annual autumn dance that the school sponsored with Mariam Hall in Hartford, St. John’s counterpart for foster girls.  The night before the dance, we assembled in the gym to hear Father MacDonald pontificate on social graces, manly behavior, and the importance of cleanliness to young ladies. At the end of the talk, there was the mandatory reminder about lust in the heart.

  “The Sisters from Mariam Hall and our prefects will be on the dance floor,” he said, “and the gym lights will be left on during the dance due to that unfortunate event several dances ago.” I could only begin to speculate what that was about.

 When he finished speaking, one of the nuns who taught at the school part-time took the stage and gave a lecture on how to approach a girl for a dance. “A young gentleman,” she began, “speaks to a young lady with graciousness and decorum. The young gentleman makes a slight bow and introduces himself, and requests the next dance. And by this I do not mean,” she said, “that you say, ‘Hey, sister! You’re a cute number! How’s about a swing around the boards?’”

  That line drew a laugh, and the more she spoke the more we laughed, until finally she left the stage, defeated, and returned to the world of 1942 USO dances.

  The next speaker was our school nurse, Mrs. Lagasse, a tall, magnificent, shapely, blue-eyed blonde who did wonders for her nurse’s uniform. When she took the stage all the men in the room, including Father MacDonald, shifted their clothing a little bit, mussed with their hair and sat a little taller in their seats. No one knows what she said. It probably had something to do with health.

  Then Father MacDonald took the stage again and explained that the staff would now teach the boys how to dance properly. We were broken into groups, one prefect per group. Amid enormous sighs and moans, the prefects took turns waltzing us around the gym floor, teaching us where to place our hands and where not to place our hands during the dance.
  “Just do a circle eight over and again until the music stops,” one prefect said. Across the gym, another could be heard telling his group, “Just keep dancing in a square over and again until the music stops,” or “Move your weight from one foot to the next in time with the music.”

  At dinner on the night of the dance, the mashed potatoes went untouched due to a rumor that had started and spread years before—perhaps even decades before I heard it—that on the night of the dance, the cook always spiked the potatoes with saltpeter, a white powder that kept boys from attaining an erection. Exactly what we would do with erections on a brightly-lit dance floor, surrounded by vigilant Catholics sent directly from the Inquisition, never played into the equation.

   We were standing in the gym when the girls arrived by bus from Hartford, a mist of Aqua Velva and Old Spice floating just above our heads. Like us, they were dressed in their best clothes, and like us, they had taken hours to get ready, primping in the mirrors.

  They walked into the gym, silently, heads down, following a nun who directed them to wooden chairs lined up on the side of the room opposite from where we were standing. They hung their long winter coats over the backs of the chairs and then stood in a long line at the edge of the playing floor. They wore skirts, short skirts, mostly. Their hair was set in various styles that were lost on us. They wore earrings and rings and charm bracelets and too much lipstick and heavy coats of makeup.

  I studied their faces. The poverty and desperation they came from showed on their faces and in their posture. They looked rough, unhappy and older than their years.

I suppose we looked the same way to them but I’m not sure, because they say girls take this life, the poor people’s life, harder than boys do, that they feel it more. I don’t know, but it’s what I heard once, someplace.

  An awkward silence fell over the gym. Some of them glared at us defiantly, angry at having to partake in this ritual. Others stared at the floor and bit their lips. A few were talking to themselves. They were waiting for us to do something, but despite all our boasting and ranting down in the dorm about how we would “bag a couple of chicks” before the night was done, we were too scared to do anything. So we stood there, watching them watch us, and the staff from both schools stood at either end of the gym watching all of us.

  This ungodly silence went on for a while until someone had the good sense to put on “What Does It Take?” by Junior Walker & The All-Stars, a song that starts with a long melodic riff from a sax.

  A very short Puerto Rican boy named George Maisonette glided out to the center of the floor and started to sway, alone, slick and graceful, to the music. At first he was so soulful about it that everyone giggled, and then, realizing that George was the only one in the gym enjoying himself, the rest of us slid out to the floor and danced the rest of the night away.
  It was a good night—no, it was better than that: It was a great night. We danced and flirted and talked, and for a few hours we weren’t poor or scared or desperate and didn’t have on hand-me-down clothes and cheap shoes. We were just kids, doing what kids do, and it felt good. It was a great night. Yeah, it was great night. 



WHEN I WAS IN CONNECTICUT, MY HOME STATE , FOR A VISIT I TOOK A TOUR OF OUR STATE HOUSE IN HARTFORD














































Hartford








Summer housing in Maine 







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