My Brother, Mr. Mouth-to-Mouth - Scot Samis

If you are preparing for summer beach action and looking for a good kick in the rear, check out or "NetFlix" (verb) the film "Summer Rental," a low-budget early-'80's Rob Reiner gem.  John Candy stars, Rip Torn chews the scenery, and Richard Crenna is riveting as the jackass One-Pecenter whose greed and venality might scuttle Air Traffic Controller Candy's family vacation.

The film was shot in the Tampa/St. Pete basin and needed local talent for extras, so my college buddy Scot Samis, then earning a law degree at Stetson, answered the call of duty.  He so impressed Reiner and crew that they gave him a name ("Russ" rather than Lifeguard #1, #2, ...), wrote him a few lines and bumped him to talking head of the otherwise interchangeable and mute tribe of spear-carrier lifeguards who inhabit the group house next to Candy ("Jack Chester")'s rental.

Mr. Mouth-to-Mouth, Scot Samis, Esq. as "Russ"

Scot's moment in the summer sun comes when he and the gang of roommates charge out of their rental, underneath a jockstrap-festooned clothesline, and he stays behind to meet underage neighbor daughter Jennifer Chester.  The exchange mesmerizes daughter (and provides bedevilment for old dad Jack) when - carrying an inflatable doll - Russ explains that the lifeguards refer to him as "Mr. Mouth to Mouth."

Scot is now a respected lawyer in St. Petersburg, FL.  Well, I still respect him; while presenting a paper recently on "preserving error in the trial court for review on appeal," his wag colleagues unspooled a few choice scenes from Summer Rental on the screen behind him, to prank our unwitting barrister.

His recollections today nearly as crisp as the events were during that "busy" time, Scot shared this with me:

As for an anecdote ... the one that sticks with me is when John Candy, knowing I was a local, told me that he was going on the Pritikin Diet and wanted to go out for one last night of indulgence.  I suggested "Watership Down," a local bar that had a popular reggae band.   He was a classic, big-man raver in the Steel (RIP) tradition - - bellowing at the top of his lungs, buying drinks and even getting up on stage and singing a tune with the band.  I know this is a pretty mundane story, but it was nice to see that he was a good guy.

A Stroll Up-Hill

I'd never refer to him this way today, but I'm proud to recall Scot as my "Little Brother," as he was during the pledging and initiation period of early 1978. Now that he's a big shot, we grateful, aging New Englanders occasionally get to head south for a weekend of nightspot-hopping, and a full battery of Red Sox/Rays games courtesy of the law firm's excellent box seats.

And if I ever find myself in the Pinellas County clink, I have a friend to call....

Goodtime Academic Community Nonsense!

In our little college town, the Candy-colored clowns at the local bakery/coffeshop put on a Candy Symposium during inter-semester break a year ago, and I urged them to include Summer Rental.  We argued over the counter about whether Uncle Buck really topped Summer Rental, and although I think I knew better, the baker held the programmer's lever and proceeded as he wished.

Maybe next semester!

Swing Time in the NBC Commissary with Betty Furness

Dapper Fred, Glamorous Betty

She danced with Fred "Lucky Garnet" Astaire (Swing Time, 1936), and had a good run in the 30's as an RKO contract player. 

But by the time I came along, Betty Furness had served as a consumer protection advocate in the Johnson administration, and had become well-known for consumer affairs reporting on NBC, alongside of - and sometimes substituting for - Barbara Walters.

In the late 1970's, Betty's reporting for NBC was appearing regularly on both the nightly news and the Today Show.

Once at that time, during the college spring break holiday, with brothers and cousin I was visiting my uncle whose office at NBC sat high above the skating rink at Rockefeller Center.

NBC Reports: Furness on Chemicals in Food, Sept. 8, 1976

We marveled at Uncle Tony's executive suite complete with shower, snagged tickets to sit in the audience for Saturday Night Live (host: Christopher Lee, musical guest: Meatloaf), and then headed to the cafeteria for lunch.

Now, the NBC Commissary has been the setting, or itself the butt, of many, many jokes dating back to The Tonight Show and Laugh-In, and the tradition had been perpetuated on SNL.  So we felt excited just to be allowed in there!

A Thermometer for French Fries?

We had just settled in with our lunch-room trays, when Tony pointed out the elegant and proper looking woman at the next table as Betty Furness.  She was eating a healthy, responsible meal of cottage cheese and fruit and she eyed us and our plates of fries with a bit of disdain.

We didn't think much about it at the time, and she thought even less about us I suppose.  But how many women can say they've danced with Fred Astaire?  If I'd only known it at the time, I'd have shaken her hand....

Mo Udall, Sweetheart of Theta Delta Chi

Well, it was a snowy, snowy winter's Saturday night, of which we had many, on the Hill.  Morris Udall (D, AZ) who had tried to capture the 1976 Democratic presidential nomination by running to the left of Jimmy Carter, visited the campus to speak in the Hamilton College Chapel.

Have a Drink on Me, Mr. President

My politico friends attended, I didn't.  I was at the Pub.  But some of the leftest-leaning students on the Program Board, who'd brought ol' Mo to Clinton, were upperclass members of Theta Delta Chi where I had friends, and where a second-shift party was to occur as the Pub was closing.

In the inexorable political movement of the moment, I followed in the hip-deep, snowy peloton of the happy throng ... to the promise of more beer.

Never Fail

Inside, it was elbow to elbow, cheek-by-jowl, and I found myself braced in a huddle of Psi U varsity basketball players just outside TDX's dimly-lit "library." Into the scene came Mo, himself a former pro hoopster with the [original] Denver Nuggets.  Lots of back-slapping and Q&A about the Continentals' prospects ('77-'78: ECAC finalists, 23-3) - "Go Conts!" we loved to shout.  So yours truly, head and shoulders shorter than the gaggle, was suddenly face to face - or chin to chest - with the Senator.

"What's your name, son?" he boomed.

"Tom.  And I loved your speech!"

But for 7,500 votes to Carter in the Wisconsin primary two years before, Big Mo might have been in the White House that night in January, 1978.  Instead, he was holding forth in Clinton, NY with clowns like my friends and me, leaning on a broken-down frat-house piano in the Great Hall of TDX.

I know that we were all right where we belonged.

To Rome With Love - and an Espresso with Vincent Gardenia

The Path to Celebrity Begins on the Via Veneto...

My first youthful brushes with Celebrity involved chance encounters with actors Vincent Gardenia and Jim Nabors (no, they weren't together) - the latter at the then-stately-later-tawdry-now-defunct New Haven Motor Inn, and the former on the always-grand Via Veneto.

At the time - long before People Magazine begat Entertainment Tonight begat E! network begat The Kardashians and their appalling ilk - as a kid from the provinces I was jolted by, then later conditioned to celebrate, the honor of having luckily shared space on mortal ground with "somebody famous."

"Birds fly to the stars, I guess . . . "

The meeting with, rather sighting of, Vincent Gardenia occurred one beautifully sunny spring afternoon in April, 1970 as our family strolled away to the southeast from the Villa Borghese and down the Via Veneto on our Easter-time Roman Holiday.

Passing the glorious Hotel Excelsior,it was la mia cara madre, native of Avella in the Campana province inland of Naples, who spotted the star.  Signor Gardenia, nee Vincenzo Scognamiglio and also a Naples paesano.  He was sipping an espresso at an outdoor table and "watching the world go by."  E anche noi: he watched us go by too.

Perhaps Vincenzo was studying a script as he sipped, for his upcoming project, Norman Lear's Cold Turkey, to shoot that summer in Des Moines.  Co-staring with an incredible cast that included among many others Dick Van Dyke, Tom Poston (as town tippler), Jean Stapleton and evil Bob Newhart, our Signor Gardenia would play the Mayor in this fantastic farce.  Among later work, he is well recalled as Frank Lorenzo from All In The Family, Mr. Mushnik in Little Shop of Horrors, and Cosmo Castorini in Moonstruck.

Mayor Wappler Goes for Broke, as the Clock Strikes Midnight

And while we're in Rome together, . . .

[ - SPOILER ALERT -

I will explain the crux and creative impetus of "To Rome With Love," as it will of me, a questo punto: ]

To Rome With Love treats the Woody Allen fan to a comic collage of four (five) parallel plots involving ten+ relationships (the term "relationships" being understood to span a continuum of consummated human interactions).  Comedy and pathos abound - it's a good Woody film, nearly on par with Midnight in Paris, not as 'whole' but rather a rollicking mash-up, and equally effective as una posta-carta magnifica (senza francobolli), for the national tourism industry - in this case, the Italians.

Quando dico che ti amo . . .

The common thread?  Celebrity.

Its pursuit by Monica destroys Jack's earnest but illicit dreams; its unaccountable appearance makes Leopold a reluctant, anonymity-craving sensation - and its disappearance drives him mad; its allure leads Giancarlo to allow Woody/Jerry to parade him naked and soaking wet across Rome's Teatro dell' opera stage; and its attraction mesmerizes la paesana Milly into forgetting her new marriage on the chance of bedding down with film star Luca.  To a degree, everyone - even the pro-bono idealist and hard-leftee Michelangelo - succumbs sooner or later to the lash of celebrity.  Nearly everyone, that is: the one honest, psychologically 'healthy' line of the film is uttered by il Rapinatore, the hotel thief (who 'also dabbles in break-ins and hold-ups').  As screen star Luca Salta weakly protests robbery, saying "Don't you know who I am?" the thief retorts, instantly and con forza: "I Don't Care!"

I encourage everyone to see To Rome With Love.  Any film in which Alec Baldwin ("I'm here from Downtown - I'm here from Mitch an' Murray!") plays the foreseeing conscience, the angel Clarence, is going to be a winner in my book [Note: Baldwin's character, architect John Foy, does not really exist - or, probabilmente, he is the only character in his vignette who exists].  But moreso, To Rome With Love a splendidly entertaining and inventive paean to the fickleness, elusiveness and risk of celebrity - and our obsessions with it.

Arrivaderci, Roma!

 

Feeding the World with Harry Chapin

Harry Chapin - Gone too soon, too soon.

"Hunger is an obscenity and hunger in America is the ultimate obscenity.. We have to stop feeding the symptoms and get to the real root causes of hunger and poverty"

Harry Chapin

Wild About Harry

At the height of Harry Chapin's considerable impact and well-earned acclaim as a troubadour in the pop music world, he was actively involved in a number of social reform movements including the Union for Radical Political Economics.  And in the summer of '79 the URPEs came to Hampshire College for a few days of fomenting to envision a new world order.  Yours truly was earning money before returning to Hamilton College, by scrubbing pots for Food Services in the Hampshire dining hall, and working occasional extra hours at special events.

One afternoon, I joined a couple of co-workers including my brother and signed on to man the cookout grill for these Radical Economists.  Experience on the grill at McDonalds made me a good man for the job.  We clowns did set-up, fired that thing up, and got the burgers and dogs cooking.  Up the hill came marching the grimy throng - one with guitar case in hand.

We the noble laborers watched, rapt, as Harry jawboned with professors and organizers - his eyes lit up, his speech and body highly animated.  It was clear he was passionate on the topic, and very inspiring to those within earshot.  Then we rang the chow-bell, and it was time to line 'em up at the trough.

To Each, According To Need

As they all filed through the line with paper plates, each had to declare "Hamburger" or "Cheeseburger."  Harry requested a cheeseburger, saying "I'll take a Cheeseburger!"  I made sure he got one, responding "Here's your cheeseburger!"

It is worth pointing out that my brother Dave was inclined in these situations to tape a sheet of paper to his apron, announcing the hand-written message "I am the Condiments Man. If you Don't See It, we Don't Have It.  So, Don't Ask Me For It."

Rumor had it that Harry would be performing, campfire-style, to rollick the assembled rabble rousers after dinner as night fell.  And we learned the next day this is precisely what happened.  He'd played Chapin, Seeger, Guthrie, and Kingston Trio numbers.  But we working stiffs had been shoo'd away (by management, not URPE mind you) as soon as the last burger was issued and the grill scraped.

Chapin was then lobbying and cajoling the Carter government to establish the Presidential Commission on World Hunger and - with New World Order subversive Bill Ayres - he co-founded World Hunger Year (now Why Hunger).  The Chapin family continues this work today.

Note: Harry's older brother Jim had graduated from Hamilton College in 1963, and by this time in 1979 Harry's step-daughter, Jaime, was attending Hamilton along with me.  Although we had not previously become acquainted, Jaime and I had a brief and lighthearted moment when I introduced myself to her later in the fall of 1979 to recount my "cheeseburger" anecdote.

31 years ago this week - a year after I graduated, but before Jaime's senior year - Harry was killed in a car accident at 38.  His stories and works live on, and on.

Chapin recorded long narrative ballads ... that told stories about the extraordinary lives of ordinary people, about the social and political events of the day and the angst and struggles of human existence.

(excerpted from a really nice post on Colin Pinter's blog).

Blow, Man, Blow! Archie Shepp and Jazz School

Archie Shepp, Professor of Jazz

Archie Shepp came to UMass in 1971 to teach Jazz Ensemble and History of African American Music, and it was the beginning of a long and fruitful association.  On tenor sax, Shepp was among a cadre of recruited faculty who would build a pre-eminent jazz braintrust in swingin' Amherst.

Drummer Max Roach was aboard for the ride.  So, by the way, was horn-blowin' elder statesman Yusef Lateef, nee Bill Huddleston, who also performed as Bill Evans ("I"), not to be confused with other jazz musicians Bill Evans ("II" - pianist) and Bill Evans ("III" - other tenor saxaphonist)... Oy!

In-Crowd scene-ster

On arrival in Amherst, Archie was already established as a giant since his groundbreaking 1960's work, which included performing on Coltrane's Ascension (Shepp's earlier contributions in collaboration on the A Love Supreme sessions were left on the cutting room floor, but can now be enjoyed here).

Archie's eldest son Pavel, two years behind me in school, was a good friend of my brother's and Pavel also played drums in Jazz Workshop, where I was swinging the bass my senior year.

I saw Archie a number of times, and met him first, when he would come to pick Pavel up from football practice as we soccer booters too were being released from locker room miasma into the same rich Amherst air.

Shepp/Porter: Rhythm Unlimited.

But it was with awestruck reverence that we Jazz Workshoppers - runny-nosed mere mortals - performed when Archie seated himself among the parents for our year-end concert.  My big moments as bassist were on the Mingus standard Goodbye, Pork Pie Hat and on Bill Evans II's awesome So What? that everyone associates with Miles Davis' Kind Of Blue LP.

As we self-consciously plowed through these standards - in-form to begin, free-form to unwind, back into form to close - I saw Archie rocking slowly to the former, and then nodding in time as I kicked off the latter.  Fortunately, I had managed to not disgrace myself.  As it turns out, 'twas the pinnacle of my jazz career.  Hot socks, we wuz hittin' on all sixes.

Archie's still at it, mostly in Paris but, like a giant who steps down from Olympus, he visits Amherst from time to time.

Here's a video of Archie playing recently, and featuring Tom McClung (Amherst Regional H.S. too!) on keys.

... to Olympus

From Earth...

How bold of UMass to assemble the jazz all-star club.  Archie and Max collaborated, and everyone grooved.  And I mean everyone!

Professor Roland Wiggins, whose daughter Roz cooked me crepes once, was the svengali behind this recruiting triumph.  We in this lovely town are truly, truly blessed.

I Tell Ya, Things Have Got To Change!

On-Stage with Tony Goldwyn

Tony Goldwyn ... presently President Fitz ... formerly Crow

He's the President of the United States now - on Scandal, that is - but in 1978 he was just a fresh-faced lad landing the second lead in a campus production of Sam Shepard's "Tooth of Crime," and we became friends.

Lights, Camera, Beer... in the Pub

My roommate and fraternity brother Chris Walsh played the aging and decidedly Jagger-esque rock star Hoss, who is challenged and ultimately unseated by the up-and-coming rock star Crow, played by freshman Tony Goldwyn.  This play was cast during the early autumn and produced that semester.

7 Truly Bold Plays by Master Sam

Four of us - Dave Scofield, Dave Schleifer, John S. Keim, and yours truly - comprised the band.  Billed as the "Overhead Lifters," the band was on-stage and the music was an up-front element of the play, particularly during Becky's soliloquy, and the scene when the two rockers square off inside a boxing ring as the Rolling Stones' "Sister Morphine" plays.

In another scene, Crow warms up for a confrontation by singing Cream's "I'm So Glad."

Following this exposure to Sam Shepard, I became a fan - and particularly loved seeing the Quaid brothers tear up the stage in "True West" at the Cherry Lane theater in 1984.  As for Tooth of Crime, I can recite every word of dialog in this fantastic play.

What I most vividly remember about our little Minor Theater production at Hamilton College are two mesmerizing, invigorating vignettes: Tony warming up behind stage using bizarre impressive and in-your-face method acting technique, and - in the second act, night after night - "Becky" taking her shirt off ten feet away on-stage, while delivering a bitter monologue.

Have a "Futchnerf's" Summer

Chris and I tried unsuccessfully to rush Tony for Psi Upsilon, but he went to Sigma Phi instead, and ultimately left Hamilton early.  Next stop was Brandeis University and I don't believe he even admits to having attended Hamilton, now.

I ran into Tony on the street in NYC the summer of 1980, and since then I've seen him as you have: a cad in Ghost, a lawyer in The Pelican Brief, behind camera (as Director) with the tremendous A Walk on the Moon, and now - his star turn on TV as Fitzgerald Grant, President of the USA, in Scandal.

I suppose that Tooth of Crime - the zenith of my own stage career, as I never auditioned for anything else, before or after - was a small but wildly interesting steppingstone on Mr. Goldwyn's path to craft mastery.  I remember Tony well as a genuinely nice guy,  unassuming - even quiet, while also full of energy and intensity - a totally committed thespian.

And he's really knocking it out of the park on Scandal!

"I'll develop my own image. I'm an original man. A one and only. I just need some help."

... as Crow, in Tooth of Crime

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.

Russell Smith & Co. - In Studio with the Amazing Rhythm Aces

All The Aces: Russell & ARA

Christmas week, 1977 I was in Nashville with my girlfriend's family, visiting her songwriter brother.  One night that week we went by, late, to the Jack Clement Recording Studios where Casey had lately been doing session work.

Tennessee band Amazing Rhythm Aces was in town and in tight, and laying down vocal tracks that evening for the album "Burning the Ballroom Down."  A bottle of Jack Daniel's sour-mash whiskey helped Russell Smith get exactly the right pitch and growl.  I was thrilled to watch Russell's painstaking process of one take after another singing the lead to two songs: the greazy, Skynyrd-esque "A Jackass Gets His Oats," and the one that ended up to be the album-closer, "Spirit Walk."

I've made the Nashville scene again, been in the studio on other occasions, and seen bigger stars, but this seminal evening, for me, was the fascinating topper.  Hard work and good fun, - with a great result!

"Still and all, her legs were long..."

Russell Smith & James H. Brown, Jr.

Elizabeth Taylor, R.I.P.

February 27, 1932 - March 23, 2011

Elizabeth Taylor is the only celebrity appearing in Celebrity Romp whom I never actually met (although we did attend movies at the same cinema).

Liz and I, in our prime ...

Here's another great picture from 1970 - "our year."
We shared a birthday.  It is sad that she is gone.

The Day We Moved Charlie Rich's Piano

"Who is the coolest guy, what is, what am?

That's fast-talkin', slow-walkin', good-lookin' Mohair Sam"

In '79, my girlfriend's family visited her older brother in Nashville, TN and I - on college spring break - tagged along.  Big bro' Casey Kelly, an accomplished singer and songwriter, took me to Randy Wood's Ol' Time Pickin' Parlor (combo custom instrument shop & bluegrass nightclub) and other points of interest.  Then Casey asked me to join his gang to move a piano (from one room to another in the same house).  Turned out to be Charlie Rich's house!

The Silver Fox was not home, and once we got behind closed doors we quickly did our job and then went on with our charmed lives.

Sample a rare, early (Elvis-era Sun session) Charlie Rich tune:
Courtesy of PowerPop: Key Changes of the Gods: "From 1959, please enjoy the great Charlie Rich -- one of the most unjustly underrated figures of American popular music in the second half of the 20th century -- with his infectious minor regional hit "Whirlwind"...

Nell Newman, Soapsuds, and Me

During the long, hot summer of 1979, I won a Movie Star Look-Alike contest (entering as James Dean), at the AMC Theaters' Grand Opening in Hampshire Mall.  I also toiled away with my brother Dave, some HS soccer team buddies and assorted others on the Hampshire College Dining Hall food service crew.  Dave was The Condiments Man, and I washed pots.

Among the assorted others: a live wire with a pixie cut named Nell Newman.

I assumed that Nell was a Hampshire undergrad, but cannot confirm that she really attended the school (Hampshire then was like a Grateful Dead tent city or a KOA Kampground - you could blow in from any direction, land there and stay as long as you liked).

Wow!! - Nell had her Dad's brilliant, knock-you-back-on-your-heels blue eyes. We scrubbed pots side by side for several shifts as various groups (Doll Collectors of America, the Union for Radical Political Economics, MA-state meals program for children of migrant workers, Martial Arts camp, etc.) passed through town, using Hampshire College facilities for their programs and needing to be fed.

350cc V-8 & a plain plastic "bench" seat up front: Glorious!

At the time I had a '74 Chevy Nova SS-350 and Papa Newman was making a name for himself on the race car circuit, so - as our casual acquaintance grew - I invited Ms. Newman to take a spin with me around the campus, and showed off the hotrod, suggesting that she "Tell your father I'm ready to race him!"  Nell was polite enough but, as you've already presumed, we never got that far...

I think of pretty Nell whenever I sip a Newman's Own coffee, or bite into a Fig Newman.  Exquisite!

Christina Romer and the Economics of Celebrity

It's hard to predict the outcome of a situation, even when the choices seem so well-defined: 4th and goal - go for it, or take the field goal? Economy melting down - $862BB stimulus, or not?

Christina Romer and her husband Dave left their UC Berkeley Economics positions and came east when she took the role of Obama's Chief Economic Advisor in 2009. She now regrets knuckling under to make the Administration's difficult case that only by enacting the stimulus ("American Recovery and Reinvestment Act") could we cap unemployment at 8% - without the stimulus, the jobless pain could reach 9-10%. Well, the stimulus was passed - and the rate hit 10% anyway (a year and a half later, it still has not dropped below 9.5%). And she's about to return to Berkeley.

As married colleagues, Dave and Christy Romer have shared professional counsel and collaborated on writings during their careers.

Dave and I were classmates in the Amherst public school system through graduation in 1976. In addition to being the sharpest math wiz in the class, Dave was notorious for at least two monumental contributions to the life of the school: first, his grand front yard on Snell Street became the Polo Grounds of Wiffleball for a long-running gang of ruffians (mostly Amherst College brats). And second, he founded and ran Ye Olde Football Pool, and elaborate, dime-a-play weekly contest to predict the winners of all Sunday NFL games, with the winner and score of the Monday Night Game being the tie-breaker. Gambling - particularly by underage schoolkids, for $$, and on school property - being illegal, we merrye olde players used pseudonyms. Mine was 4-Pi-r-cubed (formula for area of the surface of a sphere - or was it the volume of a sphere?).

I note Dave's affectionate thank you to Christina in his fascinating paper on using NFL statistical evidence (the 4th-and-goal scenario noted above) to understand whether and how firms "maximize." If you're an economics neophyte, and a football fan, I highly recommend it.

Perhaps Obama should have listened to Joe Paterno, and David Romer, when calling the plays last year. And should have listened more to Christy Romer, and less (or not at all) to that jackass Larry Summers!