A Mile High with Joe Theismann and Cathie Lee Crosby

(IAD, Sunday morning, December 23, 1984):  Vaulting from the tarmac onto a 7:30am flight from Washington to see the family for Christmas, I saw that row 1 was "reserved" (unusual for a PeopleExpress cattle-car), and grabbed the middle seat in row 2.  Eventually every seat on the plane was taken save that first row and the captain announced that we'd be waiting just a minute or two more and then we could 'secure the cabin doors' and be on our way to Boston.

Theismann: Confident in his Masculinity

Moments later, huffing and puffing, into the cabin charge Redskins ace QB Joe Theismann and "That's Incredible" hostess Cathie Lee Crosby.  Each in a floor-length fur coat!

The entire plane roars at the sight of their hometown quarterback and his gorgeous, glamorous girlfriend.  Down they plunk into the row ahead of me.

Cathy Lee: Catfight!

The two were obviously enchanted with each other - totally engrossed, beaming and smiling together the entire short flight.  I too was spellbound.  His stature, her hair, her perfume...  Her hair right there within reach... But I knew enough to not make an ass of myself, so I left them in peace.

CLC - The Poster

Not so restrained, the clown in row 3.  Over my shoulder came a gasping, panting Redskins fan, with pen and airline in-flight magazine in his hand.  Grunting and motioning 'forward', begging, pleading with me to tap Joe on the shoulder for an autograph.  I shook him off, but he kept flailing, so I reached between the seats and interrupted our QB.  "Excuse me," I said.  As he looked back at me, I made a very exaggerated gesture back over my own shoulder, shaking my head, raising my eyebrows and shrugging as if to say "Guys like you and I, Joe - we have to put up with these 'little people' interruptions. I know it's a pain but we understand it comes with the territory!"

I brokered the transaction, in each direction, and then the rest of the flight passed without incident.  When we landed, again there was pomp and circumstance as we were asked to 'remain seated' until our celebrities could de-plane.  That we did.

The two must have felt that they could slip away, for a  moment during this magical "bye-week" bubble of time between the Skins' December 16th 29-27 final game victory over the St. Louis Cardinals, and their coming December 30th 23-19 playoff loss to the Chicago Bears.

Before his next Christmas, Theismann would suffer [see 0:50 in this clip] his terrible, career-ending injury during a sack at the hands of Lawrence Taylor of the Giants.

But on this day - helming the great Washington Redskins, flying high in a fur coat, in love with his sweet All-American girl, and with visions of Christmas sugarplums surely dancing in his head, Joe Theismann was on top of the world.

And I was there with him!

Let's not forget: Cathy Lee played Wonder Woman before Lynda Carter did!

Let Me Be Perfectly Barney Frank:

. . .this character is going to be missed!  Even among the pantheon of disgraced pols, Barney towers above the rest.  A raucous high note in the fanfare of the cacphonous, ever-sounding American Rhapsody.

BUDDY HACKETT ??

Never - well, not since Marion Barry - has so destructive, so spiteful, and so high-handed a fellow flauted the laws of decency and decorum and ridden his surfboard to re-election after re-election, until Barney Frank.  And in his role as longtime member and (2007-2011 - he oversaw the disaster as it unfolded) Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, Barney committed his destruction, of the housing market and the financial system, on a global scale.

As a Massachusetts voter, I've reconciled myself to the notoriety he brings our fair Commonwealth.

UMass Press: Big Man On Campus

When he visited the UMass Amherst campus during his book tour in 2010, I wanted to meet Barney.  No axe to grind, but an idea to pitch.  I maneuvered before, during and after his acidic and self-righteous address to the crowd.  Knowing of my intent an unhelpful, second-string UM staffer tried to block my access so I end-ran her, snatched a book and paid for it, got my place in line, and did get the face time.  When Barney heard my pitch he actually stopped, considered what I'd suggested, and took out a card to give me the name of his chief of staff.  And we did indeed follow up!  And I got satisfaction.  They say politics makes strange bedfellows... I'm glad we hit it off.

He lied in a jolly, entertaining way throughout his speech

To recall the Steve Gobie scandal (below)* is almost as rich as to hear this gentleman blame President Bush for failure to adequately regulate Fannie Mae when in fact Frank himself, as partner (1987-1998)  to FNMA senior executive Herb Moses, was neck deep in conflict of interest throughout the decade-plus run-up to the housing crisis and all of the devastation that followed, and still follows, that debacle.

* [from Wikipedia]: In 1985 Frank was still closeted. That year he hired Steve Gobie for sex, a male prostitute, and they became friends more than sexual partners.^[24] Frank housed Gobie and hired him with personal funds as an aide, housekeeper and driver and paid for his attorney and court-ordered psychiatrist.^[24]

In 1987 Frank kicked Gobie out after he was advised by his landlord that Gobie kept escorting despite the support and was doing so in the residence.^[24][25]

I Love You, You Love Me ...

Later that year Gobie's friends convinced him he had a gay male version of Mayflower Madam, a TV movie they had been watching.^[24] In 1989 Gobie tried to initiate a bidding war for the story between WUSA-TV (Channel 9), the Washington Times, and The Washington Post.^[24] He then gave the story to The Washington Times for nothing, in hopes of getting a book contract.^[25] Amid calls for an investigation Frank asked the House Ethics Committee to investigate his relationship "in order to insure that the public record is clear."^[26] The Committee found no evidence that Frank had known of or been involved in the alleged illegal activity and dismissed all of Gobie's more scandalous claims; they recommended a reprimand for Frank using his congressional office to fix 33 of Gobie's parking tickets and for misstatements of fact in a memorandum relating to Gobie's criminal probation record.^[27] The House voted 408–18 to reprimand Frank.^[28][29]

The attempts to censure and expel Frank were led by Republican Larry Craig, whom Frank later criticized for hypocrisy^[30] after Craig's own arrest in 2007 for lewd conduct while soliciting gay sex in an airport bathroom.^[31][32][33] Frank won re-election that year with 66 percent of the vote.

. . . 

Hallowe'en and The Visible Hand of the Market: Trick-or-Treat with Alan Greenspan

Smith got it right*

All Hallow's Eve, 2003 and I am the chaperone to my daughter and her fourth grade friends as we wend our way door-to-door toward the upper end of tony Chain Bridge Road, N.W. in Washington, D.C.

Knock! Knock!  A door swings open and NBC Newswoman Andrea Mitchell beams at the kids. I beam back - I've always thought Andrea was delicious.

Wealth Redistribution

Andrea reaches for the large candy bowl and prepares to offer it, but stops herself short as it's nearly empty and in need of replenishment.

Holding the bowl in mid-air, our lady of the house calls back over her shoulder, "Dear! More candy!"


A rustling of plastic is heard, and then a gnarled hand appears from behind the door, extends over the bowl, and deposits a 4 or 5 "fun size" 3 Musketeers bars.

Greenspan: Visible hand of the market

The hand retracts, then appears again - three more times, the hand extends, like The Addams Family's "Thing," but sporting French cuffs and a suit jacket.


Chairman of the Federal Reserve Alan Greenspan, Ayn Rand acolyte** who freely admits the U.S. income tax system is a wealth redistribution scheme, doling out scarce resources to the needy.

A couple of Romantics

Fun Size from the Fed

...and,

this night, to the irrationally exuberant.



* Smith (1776): "It is not from the benevolence of the Butcher, the Brewer or the Baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest. We address ourselves, not to their humanity but to their self-love, and never talk to them of our own necessities but of their advantages"

** Greenspan (1957): “ ‘Atlas Shrugged’ is a celebration of life and happiness. Justice is unrelenting. Creative individuals and undeviating purpose and rationality achieve joy and fulfillment. Parasites who persistently avoid either purpose or reason perish as they should.” 
(emphasis mine)
 

Patrick Ewing: Skyscraper

Hoya Saxa Hallelujah !!!!

Fall, 1984.  Georgetown Hoyas are defending NCAA champs after beating Houston 84-75 that spring.

It's a Big Man's Game ...

Mentor/Coach Thompson and disciple

Walking with kooky girlfriend downhill on the north side of Wisconsin Avenue, N.W., 1400 block, on a Georgetown Saturday night - shoulder to shoulder with the hipsters and wannabees, just about in front of Commander Salamander.  Jostling for position as the sidewalks groan.  Suddenly up ahead, looming like Ted Hughes' Iron Man or a gigantic tsunami, comes Patrick Ewing.

Looming...

He's in a pack or entourage and towers head, shoulders and torso above the fray.  The pack at ground level is moving herky-jerky and jostling as well - like Kurt Rambis in the paint.

...But, planing uphill, Patrick is like a giraffe - the long, graceful upper body rocking the same way that a giraffe moves, hinged at the low end of the neck when crossing the veldt at a lazy gallop.

Ewing hove into view, passed above us like the Empire State Building, and was gone!

Jobs for One and All - Walter Isaacson in Silicon Valley

Steve Jobs - Genius

Lots of hooting and hollering today about the new Steve Jobs biography.  I can't wait to read it!

Jobs' biographer Walter Isaacson (he's also written bio's of Ben Franklin and Al Einstein) is a fixture of the American literary-intellectual firmament.  Within Time Inc. he helmed TIME Magazine and later CNN; more recently he's been head of the prestigious Aspen Institute.

"The Thinker" - Stanford's Cantor Arts Center

In the autumn of 1994 while he was "Editor of New Media" (a passing fancy) at TIME, Walt was invited to appear on the Stanford University campus for Della Van Heyst's vaunted Stanford Publishing Seminar (Della happened to be romancing FORTUNE Magazine, at the TIME).  I too was invited to join the same panel.

A fresh-faced Cardinal MBA student picked me up at SFO, whisked me to the campus and I wandered in the Rodin sculpture garden - to which I would return in 1997 - before joining the gang for a cookout preceding the evening program.  Walt appeared at the dais with tech reporter/author Kara Swisher, WSJ tech reviewer Walt Mossberg, and me - then Publisher of Discovery Channel Multimedia.

Our most interesting exchange that night, prompted by my observation during discussion of the future of books and magazines, concerned whether writing for interactive media was best and most creatively accomplished 'from whole cloth,' versus when adapted from literary source material.

One half of this Hollywood dichotomy is "Best Writing - Original Screenplay" (in 2011, David Seidler for The King's Speech) - from 1976 to 1978, in a fit of disclosure, the Academy formally referred to this category as "Screenplay written directly for the Screen - Based on factual material or on story material not previously published or produced").  The flip side of course is the Oscar for "Best Writing - Adapted Screenplay" (Aaron Sorkin for The Social Network - from Ben Mezrich's Accidental Billionaires).

Birches not Aspens - Walt Isaacson

At the time I was trying to negotiate a license with Warner Brothers for a CD-ROM tie-in with the upcoming Twister film, and separately (personally) developing a screenplay concept: a re-make of a film that had originally been produced in the mid-60's based on a 1950's Cold War novel. As he was then a Time-Warner executive-suite guy, I drew Walter out on the development processes at HBO and Silver Screen Partners.

I got the T-shirt...

The earnest Stanford kids pursued the thread, lobbing in some excellent comments and questions.

Walter was a nice guy - made some trenchant observations in his interesting New Orleans accent that is bent a bit conspicuously to the Brahmin by time spent in Cambridge.  He came off as pompous, I then thought . . . but not without solid justification, I now think!

Isaacson and I later shared the panel dais again in April, 1995 at the Software Publishers' Association confab in Atlanta.  More of the same, and a lot of fun!

Walt definitely got the big "get" with this book from Simon & Schuster.  Here's an excellent NPR story and interview from Fresh Air.  At this moment when "jobs" are the biggest issue of the election season, and "Jobs" the departing icon of American ingenuity and growth, can the biography fail to captivate?

  I think not !!

Steve Jobs - Zen and the Art of Innovation

R.I.P. Charles Napier - He Put the Square Jaw in "Big Bosoms (and...)"

Napier: "Where's The Growler?!"

Farewell to Charles Napier - a tremendous character actor who embodied the best and the worst of power & authority.  He died at age 75 on Wednesday in Bakersfield, CA.

Napier and his leering, maniacally toothful smile captivated audiences in Super Vixens, Blues Brothers, Rambo, Silence of the Lambs, and a host of other films over his long career.

Russ Meyer's - A Life Well-Lived

My first-ever theater experience of a Russ Meyer film (Campus Cinemas III, Hadley, MA) was Super Vixens, and it's still my favorite of all his masterpieces.  Charles Napier, as homicidal cop Harry Sledge, is the dastardly accelerant that propels the film, bedeviling Clint Ramsey hither and yon.  As Ramsey, Charley Pitts charges from one pair of breasts to another (six abreast -that's twelve breasts all told; fourteen if you count Angel and SuperAngel separately), one step ahead of Sledge, like the Road Runner leading Wile E. Coyote a merry chase.

Napier, Eubanks - Mountaintop Tableaux

You'll think twice, "Hoss!" after seeing how Sledge brutalizes Angel (Shari Eubanks) - beating and stabbing her before electrocuting her - how? - by dropping a plugged-in radio into her bathtub.  In 1975, the whole thing was one of the most gory, protracted killing scenes that had been played out on screen.

Charles "Super Vixen" Napier

Of course in Meyer's world, Shari comes back to life as SuperAngel and runs around the desert in high heels and a crazily-short waitress uniform, the whole thing ultimately leading to a mountain-top square-off punctuated by a long, raucous series of harsh and non-sensical threats and taunts bellowed across the echoing valley by Sledge, like "She'll squeeeeeeeze ya like a lemon!" and "Why buy a cow, when y'can git free milk?!"  SuperAngel ultimately has her revenge in, let's say, the film's explosive climax.

In 1994, I was fortunate to have an introduction to Charles by RM himself when Napier was in Vegas to promote the video release of "Raw Justice" (re-titled for video as "Good Cop, BackCop") in which Charles had played Mayor Stiles, whose daughter's death is to be avenged.  When I met Napier, I persuaded him to re-deliver the 'free milk' line - and he roared when I told him of the movie's indelible power and imagery 'persisting for me from boyhood to adulthood Undiminished, and Unrefined' - he recognized the reference and hooted "Thank you, Mr. Portnoy!"

Super Vixens (1975) - Harry Sledge . . . about to Explode

Russ chided Napier over having given him his first feature break, as a crooked sheriff in Cherry, Harry and Raquel (1970) before casting him for Super Vixens in the defining role of Harry Sledge.  When Chuck rebutted that he'd appeared in two earlier films (a dog Western and an obscure Swedish vehicle) and cameo'd on Star Trek before their meet-up, Meyer rejected those as 'nonsense,' and corrected himself: "Not your first break, but your only important break."

Our star said that he mostly "played (him)self, or some version of (him)self."  But Charles Napier had a serious talent that went beyond central-casting villainy, and was especially admirable playing Judge Garnett in the beautiful film, "Philadelphia."  An Army man before heading to Hollywood, Napier had the features, the intensity, and the talent to capture authority in its best and worst forms.

Charles Napier, b. April 12, 1936 - d. October 5, 2011

God rest his merry soul!

My Cousin the Hero: Jerry Della Salla

My cousin Jerry is an actor and writer, former Diamond Gloves boxer, and all around GREAT KID who was living in Brooklyn ten years ago.  Following September 11, he joined the National Guard, vowing to defend NYC in the event of any future attack.  As way leads on to way, he was eventually called up for the full tour of duty in Iraq.

Jerry reads it and weeps at send-off

PAPI and crew... VINDICATORS!

My brothers and I traveled to NYC in Red Sox caps just following the 2004 baseball season, to meet Jerry the Yankees fan for a send-off lunch before he reported to Fort Dix for training.

The next thing we knew in early 2005, he'd been shipped out with security forces to Abu Ghraib to keep peace following the prison scandal.

Shortly that spring, Jerry was present to defend the prison during a 4+ hour seige involving an internal uprising and multiple coordinated simultaneous external attacks and diversions.  He was shot but the U.S. forces held the line and Jerry later received The Combat Action Badge and is under review for the Purple Heart.  Among Jerry's other medals and citations are the Army Good Conduct Medal, the Army Achievement Medal, The Generals Coin for Excellence, The Iraqi Campaign Medal and the Global War on Terrorism Medal.  He's a great soldier and the real deal.

Months later, I broke down in tears, the day the news came that Jerry had returned safely home from the war after serving his full 13 month tour.  He'd made it home.

Subsequently, Jerry participated in a virtual-reality-assisted PTSD therapy session presented by PBS on FRONTLINE.  Watch this - it is riveting.

Jerry continues his career as an actor.  In 2008, Matt Damon cast Jerry, and other "real vets" in the Paul Greengrass film "Green Zone."  As Sgt. Wilkins, Jerry has several great scenes and interesting lines, including one made notorious in which he tells Matt, "We're here to do a job and get home safe, that's all - the reasons don't matter!"

Jerry - as Army Squad Sgt. Jerry Wilkins

On 9/11/01, our cousin Doug Pedalino was reporting to work in New Jersey for the last time; his company was to relocate him the following Monday, 9/17, to the 99th floor of tower #2. If the attack had been carried out a week later - and it might have - we could have lost Dougie.

Give thanks today for your freedom, and count your blessings.

Jerry, you are my hero and I salute you, Cousin!

Remembering Ann Judge

God Bless You and all your loved ones today, Ann, and every day:

Ann C. Judge, b. December 28, 1951, d. September 11, 2001

The Ann Campana Judge Foundation exists to help people.  Please support them.

Ridin' the Storm Out with Bob Hager, NBC News

Robert Hager - Newsman & Family Man

You've seen the dashing Bob Hager on NBC since the late 1960's.  He covered Vietnam and the Palestinian atrocity at the 1972 Munich Olympics.  43 years ago today he was in lock-up, arrested in Chicago while covering the protests at the Democratic National Convention.

Over time, Bob developed a couple of specialized beats, notably Air Disasters (TWA 800, Pan Am 103, ...) and Weather Disasters.  Every year, when NBC changed its new anchor set and logo, Bob would be issued a new company windbreaker to wear on camera as wind, waves and rain battered the coastline somewhere, or as volunteers picked through tornado wreckage.

Well, in 1981, I dated Bob and wife Honey's daughter for several months.  She and I had a great time and once made a trip north, stopping in Westport to visit her old home (and to make a furtive dash up the driveway of neighbor Mary Travers).  This Hager house - and all others the itinerant newsman and his family had inhabited - were lovingly recreated as scale models (Bob had impressive skill as a woodworking hobbyist), and linked by a string of Christmas lights in a village scene that the Hager family would set up each year.  An entire town center made up of their past homes.  I'm a sentimentalist and have never seen a similarly sweet scene, anywhere.

Buck Henry: "Mr. Leech"

Jessica: Golden Girl

My favorite inside-NBC News story that came from Bob (via his lovely daughter who observed the tableaux as a teenager at the time) is of bow-tied old Irving R. Levine chasing the ill-fated but quite gorgeous Jessica Savitch around the Hager living room during a cocktail party, with fingers a-pinching (a bit like Buck Henry coming after Mary Woronov in "Eating Raoul," I always liked to imagine).

With Irene bearing down on the east coast, let's salute Bob Hager, NBC Newsman Emeritus.

Airborne with Magic Johnson

Magic in the Air: Head to head w/MJ

I Got the Magic Stick!
 May, 1996. Following a grueling E-3 show, my boss and I are waiting to board a commuter flight from LAX - SFO for meetings with software developers, when there in the conjoined boarding area is The Magic man, Earvin "Magic" Johnson, - in line to board at the very next gate.

Yes, he'd made the announcement of his HIV condition about 5 years earlier and was now retired, but even out of uniform to see that face, and that smile, was like a radiant blast of L.A. sunshine.

Magic Johnson: A Love Supreme

My boss had lamented in the cab that she didn't make time to get a picture taken with Sonic the Hedgehog at the SEGA booth, for her kids, so I urged her to hit up Magic for the goods. "Drive for the lane, shoot and score an autograph!" I pushed, so she'd have a trophy for her young son, a wild NBA fan. No NBA captain, she mustered a Hello, but didn't have the guts to request an autograph

Yours truly was less bold than that, just staring slack-jawed at the Magic Man.  He boarded his flight, and that was that....

I've always been a Celtics fan.

But I will not deny the incredible natural talent, the on-court leadership, and the warm personal appeal of this giant.

Roger Mudd and the Fannie Mae Kerfuffle

Newsman Mudd

One afternoon in 2005, on the sidelines at Washington Episcopal School in Bethesda, MD, I met Roger Mudd - star CBS correspondent throughout the 1960's and 1970's, and subsequently host, co-host or contributor to NBC News, Meet the Press, and McNeil Lehrer Newshour.  I knew Roger's son Matt because our daughters were lacrosse teammates and playing against WES that day.

Matt greeted me, introduced me to Dad, and we enjoyed a few moments of sunshine before I told Matt "I just heard your brother on the radio as I was driving here!"   Roger's ears perked up: "How did he do?"  "Fine - they didn't lay a glove on him!"

Dan Mudd: Taught me Laddered T-Bills and Mark-to-Market

At the time - that very day in fact - older son Dan, then the C.O.O. in Franklin D. Raines' Fannie Mae, had spent 2 hours testifying before a senate committee regarding improprieties at FNMA.  These problems, from which Dan himself emerged wholly intact, did reveal substantial wrongdoing by Raines and CFO Tim Howard, in what would be preamble to the unraveling of Fannie Mae as a structural support to the housing and financial markets in 2008 (see Reckless Endangerment for a superb account).

Dan too had kids at the school, and he and I served for 4 years together on the Budget & Finance committee for the small ($6 MM annual budget) operation.  A USMC vet,  he patiently taught me some simple principles and terms of art in the course of our work together.  On one occasion, attending a winter fundraiser together, Dan (well, his driver) jumped the dead battery in my Isuzu Trooper.  Today, Dan is CEO of Fortress Investments.  And today Fannie Mae is asking the U.S. Treasury (that is, you and me) for another $5.1 BB in protection against the consequences of its business decisions.

Of my exchange with Roger regarding Dan, I'll say it was funny to share the news I'd just consumed retail, from NPR, with this giant of journalism, but satisfying to learn he'd suffer this fool gladly, and I guess that he needs to source his facts like anyone else, no matter how dubious the source.  In this case, he was able to get corroboration later - not only from other news sources and intermediaries, but likely direct from the subject.

Roger Mudd at 83 continues to consult on the presentation of documentary programming and and to share historical, political and ethical context on the History Channel.  He has also generously endowed a center for Ethics study at Washington & Lee University in Virginia.  And he's a devoted grand-dad who likes a good lacrosse game once in a while....

Appreciating Jerry Liebling's Vision

R.I.P. Jerome Liebling, 1924 - 2011

In Focus: Jerome Liebling: (photo of, not by ...)

Jerome Liebling was a visionary photographer and documentarian of the American experience, who taught and inspired so very many, and whose pictures illustrate unique, personal and transcendent stories. It is said that "Jerome Liebling and his camera saw into the souls of America" - have a look here and see what you think.  He passed away on Wednesday.

In 1969, moving from Minnesota with his family, Jerry rented our home in Amherst for a year (my father had an exchange to teach American Literature at Keele University in the British Midlands). Upon arrival, Liebling started the interdisciplinary film and photography program at brand-new Hampshire College.   I challenge you to think of a better artist at combining film and photography than Ken Burns, who has many times expressed his deepest debt to Professor Liebling under whom he studied at Hampshire.

* * * Today begins the Emily Dickinson International Society's annual meeting, in Amherst. Come one, come all!  The EDIS was founded in 1980, my father keynoting and organizing the events.  At around this time, Jerry began capturing images for his spectacular book, The Dickinsons of Amherst.

Dickinson Fence  - Amherst, MA (1980)  Jerome Liebling

"Like Emily Dickinson, he is constantly wondering what happens to us after we die. Liebling: "In the body that remains, is there some residue of the spirit, of the soul?"  Dickinson: "Do people moulder equally. / They bury, in the Grave?"  Liebling's photographs are always asking where the line is between life and death.  What of our feelings lingers around the objects we loved?  Why is grief, even when 'tongueless,' so palpable?"

Christopher  Benfey

The Dickinsons of Amherst

While his imprint is admired the world over, and his work appears in the Corcoran Gallery of Art and the Museum of Modern Art,

Emily, by Jerry

 Jerry and his family made a huge mark on the Amherst academic, social, and political community for over forty years.  I feel fortunate to have known him.

God Rest His Soul.

J. C. Duffy: Fusco Father

Porter Brothers Meet the Fusco Brothers

J.C. Duffy, the hilarious cartoonist whose work appears frequently in the New Yorker and elsewhere, is a friend of my brother's whom I met at the bachelor party that I'd organized before Dave's wedding in 1997.  The two were classmates at U. Penn in the glory days.

We chatted again at a 40th birthday cookout in Trenton, N.J.

A lot of Duffy's tableaux take place in bars - and I support that!  For instance this one and that one. And here is something to enjoy in the sunny summer season:

Happy Summer Reading, friends...

Yes . . . a laughing, funny, burly guy is J.C. Duffy!

Once Around the Track with Andrew Cuomo - Champion of Same-Sex New Yorkers

Beginning this Sunday, New York citizens may legally enter into same-sex marriages under the law signed by Governor Andrew Cuomo one month ago.

At a high school track meet this spring, I snapped a shot of my parents, who had come along to see their granddaughter run the individual 400m and the 4x400 relay.  Seconds later my mother turned around, spotted the gent nearby and exclaimed "That's my paesano, the Governor of New York!"

Indeed, it was he.  Forza Italia !!

Governor Cuomo lurks behind my opposite-sex parents

Strauss-Kahn Scrum with Maid, the NY County D.A., and Me

One day sometime in autumn,1981, down on the Mall by the Lincoln Memorial and where the Viet Nam Memorial would shortly be unveiled, I joined a college classmate and his rowdy soccer club for a game of - not soccer, but rugby.  Among the players: Cy Vance, Jr.

Cy Vance, Jr. May Throw Out Case Against Strauss-Kahn

Then a law student at Georgetown U., Jr. was noted more for his father's recent stint as Secretary of State under Jimmy Carter (a performance that received mixed reviews), than in his own right.  But it turns out that he is now the Manhattan DA.


And just look at Jr. now!


Although some are heckling him...