Return to My Lai, Seymour Hersh cont.

26 Thursday Mar 2015

Posted by Richard in Articles & Books of Interest, The Outer Loop

Tags

"Return to Mylai", Katie Orlinsky, Mylai massacre, Symour M. Hersch, The New Yorker, Vietnam War

Pham Thanh Cong, the director of the My Lai Museum, was eleven at the time of the massacre. His mother and four siblings died. “We forgive, but we do not forget,” he said. Credit Photograph by Katie Orlinsky – The New Yorker

Having recently returned from a trip to Vietnam and Cambodia and being continually disturbed, and sometimes mystified, about the US role and legacy in that part of the world, I was attracted to the current issue of the New Yorker and Seymour M. Hersh’s article Return to My Lai: The Scene of the Crime – A reporter’s journey to My Lai and the secrets of the past.

Hersh, as you may remember, particularly if you ‘came of age’ during the Vietnam War, broke the story about the My Lai massacre, which, in part, led to a reexamination of our role in that war and in that part of the world.

Now, 47 years later, Hersh returns to Vietnam and specifically to My Lai and discovers things he did not know when he uncovered and wrote about the My Lai massacre.

Check out: Return to My Lai

Also, in a companion ‘article’, there are photographs by New Yorker photojournalist Katie Orlinsky, who accompanied Hersh on this trip. Check out: The Memory of My Lai.

MillersTime Wins an Award

25 Wednesday Mar 2015

Posted by Richard in Escapes and Pleasures

≈ 9 Comments

Tags

"A Sad Apology", "Thomas Wolfe Was Wrong", "You Can Go Home Again...Almost", Millerstime, Sam Wo's Chinese Restaurant, Thommie Award, You Can't Go Home Again

For real.

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Normally I wouldn’t brag, but my wife Ellen insists I post the following:

While looking at my email in the middle of the night recently (I know, bad form), I saw this: Congrats! You’ve won a Thommie Award for outstanding work on your blog “MillersTime”. I thought it was spam and almost deleted it.

But I took a chance and opened the email. Don’t we all like winning awards?

I saw that a group named Thomas Wolfe Was Wrong was looking for writers who have commented on whether or not you can go home again (the adage taken from Wolfe’s 1940 novel You Can’t Go Home Again).

In choosing MillersTime as “our first recipient of the prestigious Thommie Award” — for excellence in literary interpretation — they cited me for “rescinding (my) initial comment regarding Thomas Wolfe’s faultiness.” They cited my post A Sad Apology and quoted from what I had written:

In October of last year, I wrote, “Thomas Wolfe was wrong. You can go home again – almost.”… . Sam Wo’s is closing. You can read about the details as written in the SF Chronicle, but basically, the place is so far from being acceptable to the Health Department, that it would take a mammoth rebuilding to keep it open… … And so my apologies to the also deceased Thomas Wolfe. After going ‘home’ to Sam Wo’s for the last 50 years, that is now no longer possible.

Basically, after returning to my favorite San Francisco Chinese Restaurant, Sam Wo’s, I wrote a review (You Can Go Home Again…Almost), saying it was still a good restaurant, and, therefore, Thomas Wolfe was wrong in his famous adage.

Not long after that post, I was ‘forced’ to write another one acknowledging the closing of Sam Wo’s. I think it was that post (A Sad Apology) that accounted for my winning of the Thommie Award.

I sincerely want to thank the Thomas Wolfe Was Wrong folks for this ‘prestigious’ Thommie Award.

Miami Film Festival – 2015

12 Thursday Mar 2015

Posted by Richard in Escapes and Pleasures

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"Cut Snake", "Paco de Lucia", "Set Fire to the Stars", "The Fool", "The Salt of the Earth", "Warsaw 44", "Wild Tales", #MiamiFF, 32nd Miami Film Festival

We spent an all-too-brief time this past weekend at the Miami Film Festival. As we found and enjoyed in last year’s Philadelphia Film Festival, we loved the idea and actuality of seeing three films a day, often very different films.

The main drawback, of course, is the lack of time to savor each film. Still, I suspect we will make a habit of going back to both Philly and Miami, where it is possible to get into almost every film, assuming just a bit of advanced planning. And the costs are reasonable.

Six of the seven films we saw over two plus days are ones that are worth considering if you love movies.

Here are very brief notes on them:

It’s Gonna Work – Betcha

12 Thursday Mar 2015

Posted by Richard in Go Sox

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

A Prediction for MLB in 2015, baseball, New Rules for 2015, Speeding up the Game, Spring Training

I was in Jupiter, FL Monday and Tuesday to take in a couple of Spring Training games, and I noticed something that I suspect we’ll see continue in the regular season this year.

Now I know, Spring Training is not indicative of the regular season. And you can find at least a dozen reasons to question what I’m about to say. But if I were a betting man — and I have been known to make an occasional wager on both baseball (and blackjack) — I would bet on the following statement:

How Selma Changed Todd Endo’s Life 50 Years Ago

04 Wednesday Mar 2015

Posted by Richard in Articles & Books of Interest, Family and Friends

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

"Selma", Japanese American, The Washington Post, Todd Endo

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(Todd Endo, 73, portrait by Matt McClain/The Washington Post)

Todd Endo, a long time friend, was featured in an article in the Washington Post last week. In A Japanese American in Selma, he describes how a trip to Selma 50 years ago changed his life.

Todd is returning to Selma this week to compare 1965 to now and “to make a connection again.”

I look forward to hearing about his return trip to a place that had such an impact on him and suspect he’ll find a very different Selma.

Or maybe not.

Check out the WaPo article.

2015 MillersTime Baseball Contests

28 Saturday Feb 2015

Posted by Richard in Go Sox

≈ 10 Comments

Tags

"20 Best Basebll Books Ever Written", 2015 Millerstime Baseball Contests, baseball, Baseball Contests, MLB

Contest # 1: Pick your favorite MLB team and predict what their regular season record will be in 2015. Tie-Breaker: Will they make the playoffs, and how far will they go if they do?

Prize: Two great seats/tickets to a Nationals’ game in 2016.

“He Wanted the Moon”

26 Thursday Feb 2015

Posted by Richard in Escapes and Pleasures

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

"An Unquiet Mind", "Darkness Visible", "He Wanted the Moon", bipolar disease, Dr. Abigail Zuger, Dr. Perry Baird, Eve Claxton, Kay Redfield Jamison, Mimi Baird, NYTimes, William Styron

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He Wanted the Moon: The Madness and Medical Genius of Dr. Perry Baird, and His Daughter’s Quest to Know Him. By Mimi Baird, with Eve Claxton. Crown. 272 pages.

The book is autobiography, biography, science, history and literature all in one, as instructive as any textbook and utterly impossible to put down.

from NYTimes review by Abigail Zuger, M.D.

If you’ve read William Styron’s small masterpiece Darkness Visible, you’ve ‘heard’ from a wonderful writer what “madness” is and what it feels like.

If you’ve read Kay Redfield Jamison’s An Unquiet Mind, you know, from both a personal and a scientific perspective, what it is to experience bipolar disease today (manic depression).

Now comes a just released book, He Wanted the Moon, to add to those two wonderful insights into what it is like to experience mental illness. Or in the case of this book, what it was like to experience bipolar disease before we understood it or had any treatment for it.

This one has many of the strengths of the two previous books, and more. I indeed agree with the review quoted above that it is “autobiography, biography, science, history and literature all in one, as instructive as any textbook and utterly impossible to put down.” And, I would add, it is told in such a manner that you haven’t read anything quite like it before.

At least I haven’t.

“Ghost Boy” and “Wonder”

24 Tuesday Feb 2015

Posted by Richard in Escapes and Pleasures

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

"Ghost Boy", "Wonder", Books Most Enjoyed by MillersTime Readers in 2014, Martin Pistorius, Megan Lloyd Davies, NPR, R.J. Palacio, Raquel Jaramillo

I’ve read two books recently that I think will have interest for some MillersTime readers, especially for those of you who have had some involvement with children, adolescents, and/or adults with some form of disability, either in your teaching or counseling, in your own family or with someone you know. Both books have been ‘out’ for a while but are new to me. Both books are quick reads. One is nonfiction; the other is fiction. They address somewhat similar issues, and both are positive books that have much to teach all of us.

“Hip, Hip, Hooray” – Photos of the Third Grandchild

22 Sunday Feb 2015

Posted by Richard in Family and Friends

≈ 10 Comments

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Ryan Hip.1

Usually, by the time there’s a third grandchild, particularly if all three are siblings, there aren’t many pictures of the ‘last’ one.

So that’s our excuse for posting these of Ryan, age 20 months, as ‘captured’ at a recent play date at our house. Photos come courtesy of Ellen Miller, known as “Nonna” to the three grandkids.

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Chronicling “The Fallen Slugger’s Winding Road Back to Pinstripes”

20 Friday Feb 2015

Posted by Richard in Articles & Books of Interest, Go Sox

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

" J.R. Moehringer, "Open", "The Final Walk Off", "The Tender Bar", A-Rod, Alex Rodriquez, Derek Jeter, ESPN The Magazine, Pulitzer Prize Winning author

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PEOPLE HATE HIM. Boy, wow, do they hate him. At first they loved him, and then they were confused by him, and then they were irritated by him, and now they straight-up loathe.

More often than not, the mention of Alex Rodriguez in polite company triggers one of a spectrum of deeply conditioned responses. Pained ugh. Guttural groan. Exaggerated eye roll. Hundreds of baseball players have been caught using steroids, including some of the game’s best-known and most beloved names, but somehow Alex Rodriguez has become the steroid era’s Lord Voldemort. Ryan Braun? Won an MVP, got busted for steroids, twice, called the tester an anti-Semite, lied his testes off, made chumps of his best friends, including Aaron Rodgers, and still doesn’t inspire a scintilla of the ill will that follows Rodriguez around like a nuclear cloud.

from The Education of Alex Rodriquez by J.R. Moehringer

If you don’t know the name or writing of J.R. Moehringer, you’re in for a treat. He won a Pulitzer Prize for feature newspaper writing in 2000 and at least two of his books over the past few years have been among my favorite reads of the year(s): The Tender Bar, a wonderful memoir of Moehringer’s own growing up and Open, the most honest and most informative sports memoir (about Andre Agassi) I’ve ever read. (Agassi’s name is on the cover of the book, but Moehringer wrote it). He also wrote what I think was the best tribute to Derek Jeter in his ESPN article The Final Walk Off.

If you do know of him, then know that he has once again produced an article that goes beyond what all other writers have produced about a current story in the news – A-Rod’s return to baseball after his 162 game suspension.

Oliver Sacks Announces He Is Dying

19 Thursday Feb 2015

Posted by Richard in Articles & Books of Interest

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

"My Own Life", Dying of Cancer, NYT Times Essay, Oliver Sacks

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I just happened across an essay written today by Oliver Sacks in which he announces that he has an incurable cancer and is facing death. He tells us how he hopes to face his remaining time alive.

Sacks has long been one of the men I’ve greatly admired.

His essay, My Own Life, is eloquent and affecting.

Not True That the Rich Are Getting Richer While the Poor Are Getting Poorer

18 Wednesday Feb 2015

Posted by Richard in Articles & Books of Interest, The Outer Loop

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

David Leonhardt, Income Inequality, Matt Stoller, NYTimes

I was quite surprised when I was led to a NY Times article yesterday by a particularly astute (and younger) former colleague of Ellen’s (thanx Matt Stoller) that basically said what most people think is the case about the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer is not the case.

At least not since 2007.

The article tells us that even though income inequality is high historically, “The income of the top 1 percent – both the level and the share of overall income – still hasn’t returned to its 2007 peak. Their average income is about 20 per cent below that peak.”

While this may be more of a statement about who lost more in the period between 2007 – 2010, there is much in this article that is worthy of consideration.

Take a look at the article for yourselves:

Inequality Has Actually Not Risen Since the Financial Crisis, by David Leonhardt, NY Times, Feb. 17, 2014, p.3.

Easter Island: Thru Ellen’s Lens

18 Wednesday Feb 2015

Posted by Richard in Escapes and Pleasures

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

"Ahu", "Moai", "Pukai", Ahu Akivi, Ahu Tongariki, Anakena, Easter Island, Elllen Miller, Explora Lodge, Orongo, Rano Raraku, Rapa Nui, Tahai

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As I wrote earlier (see The Trip: Easter Island & Antarctica), the time we spent on Easter Island was a revelation to us. Tho it was an ‘add on’ to our Antarctica trip, it turned out to be a fascinating few days.

I’m posting here a few of Ellen’s photos from that part of the trip and then linking below to her full slide show of Easter Island (Rapa Nui).

A bit of explanation might help as you look at the photos. The island is small and the moai (pronounced mo-eye – statues representing ancestors) and their ahu (platforms) are spread over the 64 square mile island. While there are remnants of as many as 887 statues spread throughout the island**, only about 100 are ‘standing’. There are only about 5 or 6 principle sites where they have been restored to their ‘original’ positions. There are also other historic sites on the island which relate to how the Rapa Nui people lived. The Explora Lodge, where we stayed, arranged guided hikes which often took in visits to several sites on the same day. (We couldn’t always arrange these at the optimal time from a photographic point of view, but Ellen has made the best of what she had to work with.)

Antarctica: Thru Ellen’s Lens

15 Sunday Feb 2015

Posted by Richard in Escapes and Pleasures

≈ 16 Comments

Tags

Antarctic Circle, Antarctica, Ellen Miller, Photos

A dozen or so to start you off.

These, and those in Ellen Miller’s Antarctica slide show (see instructions below), come from Ushuaia & the Beagle Channel, the Drake Passage, the South Shetland Islands, the Lemaire Channel, Booth & Petermann Islands, the Antarctic Circle, Port Lockroy and Paradise Bay.

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The Trip: Easter Island & Antarctica

12 Thursday Feb 2015

Posted by Richard in Escapes and Pleasures

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

"Ahu", "Moai", Anarctica Peninsula, Antarctica, Drake Passage, Easter Island, Icebergs, Lindblad Expeditions, National Geographic, Rapa Nui, The Explorer, Ushuaia

Usually, I’m not at a loss for words.

But we have just returned from a three-week trip, first to one of the smallest, most isolated and most fascinating islands in the middle of the Pacific Ocean and then on to the most remote, virtually uninhabited and most picturesque continent on our planet, and I’m having trouble trying to capture what we experienced.

Nothing I can write will match the photos that my wife Ellen has taken and that I’ll post on this site when she has sorted through her 1600 saved pictures.

In the meantime, however, here are two iPhone photos I took and an attempt at relating some of the impact these two very different places had on me.