THE TRANS-SIBERIAN RAILWAY BEGINS CONSTRUCTION, May 31, 1891 (N.S.)

RIDING THE RAILS

THROUGH SIBERIA

1984

FLOWERS FOR THE AMERICAN

When the дежурная, the woman on duty in my train car on my first trip to Siberia, in 1984, discovered I was an American, she put these together for me.

"I was that summer wandering around the Soviet Union for seven weeks by myself, exploring and taking photographs." More on 1984, the USSR, and the US, here and here.

More photographs from the Trans-Siberian Express here and here; more from Siberia, here.

THE LUNGS OF LIMA

THE PARK

LIMA, PERU

TREES IN THE DESERT CITY

Much more of Lima, here

JOHN F. KENNEDY WOULD HAVE BEEN NINETY-FIVE TODAY

JOHN FITZGERALD KENNEDY

May 29, 1917-November 22, 1963

35th U.S. PRESIDENT

January 20-1961-November 22, 1963

JFK DEBATING RICHARD NIXON ON TV (1960)

The link to the Kennedy Library and Museum website is here; the New York Times obituary, in five parts, starts here; JFK the icon discovered being used for commerical purposes on the Ginza, in Tokyo, is here; and a thought about Kennedy and Khrushchev and the Cuban Missile Crisis, here.

THE GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE IS SEVENTY-FIVE

THE GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE

Officially opened May 28, 1937

A DETAIL OF A WORKADAY

VIEW OF A GRAND CONSTRUCTION

A broader (top to bottom) view

from the practical side

"Man on the Street"

"Person in a Car on the Bridge"

Point of View

here

The story of the anniversary festivities, and lots of gorgeous bridge-with-fireworks photographs, here.

YASUHIRO NAKASONE, Oldest of Japan's Surviving Ex-Prime Ministers, Is Ninety-Four

YASUHIRO NAKASONE

b. May 27, 1918

PRIME MINISTER OF JAPAN

November 27, 1982-November 6, 1987

From a vocal critic of the American postwar occupation of Japan to a strong advocate of the importance of the Japanese-American relationship, from an early proponent of atomic energy in the atomic-bombed Japan to last year's turning away to embrace solar energy after Fukushima, with a six-decade-long political career not without its touches of scandal, Yasuhiro Nakasone has become an admired elder statesman. Some articles about the former prime minister's more recent activities and history and can be found here (with a contemporary photograph) and here and here.

THEODORE WEESNER'S THE CAR THIEF IS RE-ISSUED

"THE CAR THIEF"

FOR THE DIGITAL AGE

TED WEESNER AT HOME

June 1, 1972

Published in NEWSWEEK

with S. K. Oberbeck's review of

"THE CAR THIEF"

"THE CAR THIEF" was the first novel for Flint, Michigan, native Theodore Weesner, characterized by one current review as "a classic -- a black sheep, but a classic nonetheless." More about the newly re-issued book (and a current photograph of the author) can be found here and here.

JOHN KING FAIRBANK, "Dean" of American China Studies, b. 105 Years Ago

JOHN KING FAIRBANK

May 24, 1907-September 14, 1991

WILMA CANNON FAIRBANK

Daughter HOLLY FAIRBANK

JOHN KING FAIRBANK

and PHOEBE

at home at 41 Winthrop Street

Cambridge, Massachusetts

(not present, Elder Daughter LAURA FAIRBANK)

More about the FAIRBANKS here

RONALD REAGAN'S KITCHEN CABINET, AND KITCHEN CABINETS IN THE AGE OF SUPER PACS

KITCHEN CABINETS

THEN & NOW

JUSTIN DART, HOLMES TUTTLE,

& WILLIAM FRENCH SMITH (l to r)

Members of RONALD REAGAN's Kitchen Cabinet

Published in BUSINESS WEEK, July 28, 1980, p. 42

"Closest to the candidate [Reagan] is a small band of conservative California businessmen who pushed Reagan into politics after a series of living room discussions in 1966 and who have provided the financial support to keep him there ever since," said the article (on p. 41). "The group includes Holmes Tuttle, who owns a string of Los Angeles auto dealerships; William French Smith, a prominent West Coast attorney; Justin Dart, founder of Dart Industries Inc.; and William A. Wilson [not pictured], a rancher with substantial real estate holdings."

That was 1980. Looking back almost a decade after Ronald Reagan retired from the White House, in 1998 Bob Colacello reflected in Vanity Fair on the president's "California tycoons": "Known as the Kitchen Cabinet -- a term that goes back to the gang of cronies who unofficially advised President Andrew Jackson -- they reached the apex of their power in 1981, when they helped pick President Reagan's first Cabinet." (William French Smith became the Attorney General in that first Cabinet.)

In May 2012, in the age of Super PACs, we find this comment: "'You don't have kitchen cabinets made up of well-intentioned friends and neighbors who don't know what they're doing but eat up a lot of your time,' said Bob Schuman, who ran a super PAC called Americans for Rick Perry during the Republic presidential primaries."

The point is apparently supposed to be that political operatives who know what they are doing are to replace the amateur kitchen cabinets. Just a small note: Ronald Reagan with his kitchen cabinet managed to win the Republican presidential nomination and the election; Rick Perry and his Super PAC did not even manage to win the nomination. Just the facts; no doubt, not totally fair, but the facts, in the face of a bit of know-it-all-ness.

More RONALD REAGAN here and here

VANCE PACKARD b. May 22, 1914

VANCE OAKLEY PACKARD

b. Granville Summit, Pennsylvania

May 22, 1914-December 12, 1996

VANCE PACKARD

Author, THE HIDDEN PERSUADERS

THE STATUS SEEKERS, THE WASTE MAKERS

THE PYRAMID CLIMBERS, THE NAKED SOCIETY

THE SEXUAL WILDERNESS

A NATION OF STRANGERS

OUR ENDANGERED CHILDREN

THE PEOPLE SHAPERS

ULTRA RICH: HOW MUCH IS TOO MUCH

Could the man pick titles, or what? A "journalist turned social critic," the New York Times obituary called Packard. It also credits him with helping to "lay the ground for the muckraking works of the more turbulent 1960's, like Rachel Carson's 'Silent Spring' in 1962 and Ralph Nader's 'Unsafe at Any Speed' in 1965." More of a formal general summary of his life work can be found here.

In 2007 Mark Greif celebrated Vance Packard's enduring legacy in a personal essay on the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of THE HIDDEN PERSUADERS, here. "Packard traced how products like gasoline and detergent, so standardized and reliable in the 1050s, needed to develop 'personalities' to survive," Greif wrote. And the same techniques were applied to political campaigns. Packard saw it in the 1956 race: "Presidents would be elected on 'personality'"; "professional advertisers were hired to 'swing crucial voters' in 'the undecided or listless mass,'' who could switch votes "'for some snotty little reason such as not liking the candidate's wife.'"

DAN WAKEFIELD IS FOUR SCORE

DAN WAKEFIELD 

b. May 21, 1932 

THE AUTHOR'S PHOTOGRAPH ON 

DAN WAKEFIELD'S 

"STARTING OVER" 

For Dan Wakefield, journalist, novelist, screenwriter,

spiritual journeyer, today, watch this "WakeSpace," here. 

TIP O'NEILL'S CENTENNIAL IS LAUNCHING, Part II

COMING

THIS TUESDAY

A CELEBRATION OF

THE CENTENNIAL OF

THOMAS P. O'NEILL, JR.

"MILLIE" MILDRED MILLER O'NEILL

& TIP O'NEILL

TIME Magazine, February 4, 1974, p. 16

NORA EPHRON HAS A BIRTHDAY -- AND A NEW PLAY COMING TO BROADWAY, STARRING TOM HANKS

NORA EPHRON

b. May 19, 1941

DROPPING IN ON BOSTON

IN PRE-MOVIE-WRITING-

DIRECTING-PRODUCING DAYS

"LUCKY GUY" is the name of Nora Ephron's new "bio-drama," a play about Pulitzer-Prize-winning newspaper columnist Mike McAlary, famed for covering crime stories for New York tabloids including The Daily News and The New York Post. Michael Riedel says Ephron is "a tabloid baby herself, having worked at the The Post in the 1960s."

Tom Hanks, who starred in two of Ephron's movies, "Sleepless in Seattle" and "You've Got Mail," has signed up to make his Broadway debut in "Lucky Guy" next season.

June 26, 2012: Nora Ephron, sad to say, has died today. Two early appreciations, here and here, and another photograph, below:

Left to right: SONYA HAMLIN

JACQUELINE SUSANN

NORA EPHRON

DAN WAKEFIELD

A BIT OF A PEACEFUL SCENE FOR FRIDAY

LOVE PARK

EL PARQUE DEL AMOR

LIMA, PERU

More LOVE PARK here and here

"THAT GRIN": OBAMA STORYBOARDED

"THE DEFEAT OF

BARACK

HUSSEIN

OBAMA"

BARACK OBAMA

Someone leaked a copy of an ad campaign proposal targeted at separating a particular billionaire, one by the name of Joe Ricketts, from ten million of his dollars, and the fuss hit the fan today, with front-page coverage in the New York Times.

The focus seems to have been largely on the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr., connection to the Obamas (anybody remember 2008?), and Ricketts, and Governor Romney, have since been reported as disdaining to stoop to use the "Not God BLESS America, God DAMN America" minister to try to bring down Barack Hussein Obama this time around.

And here the political strategists who proposed this campaign, and this angle of attack, were hoping to get Mitt Romney to do "exactly what John McCain would not let us do," it was reported.

But there is much more of interest in this campaign proposal. Especially if you have never seen a storyboard for an ad, have a look at at this one, here. Lots of bases covered: the deficit, job losses, foreclosures, healthcare, the Russians. Yes, the Russians: Obama "Gets caught red handed caving to the Russians" (and this is apparently consistent with Governor Romney's threat assessment). Shades of their superpower days; shades, anyway, at least two decades old. And isn't there some other rising power? Second-largest economy in the world, and all that? Not in this universe.

Go beyond the voiceovers, and read the fine print instructions on the slides, to the left, to see the subliminal messages, and glimpses into the psychology behind this attack on "BO," on "Barack Hussein Obama," who is to be defeated. "BO" is "slick and cocky," and gives us "that grin" (their quotes, my italics).

See above.

More OBAMA here and here

TIP O'NEILL'S CENTENNIAL GETS AN EARLY KICKOFF

LAUNCHING THE

O'NEILL CENTENNIAL

THOMAS P. O'NEILL, JR., IN THE COBBLER SHOP

OF JOHN GIMIGLIANO, CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS

Cambridge, Massachusetts, is getting an early start on the centennial of its native son, Thomas ("Tip") O'Neill, Jr., longtime Representative and Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, born December 9, 1912. The Main Public Library in Cambridge is hosting a two-month-long O'Neill exhibit, and next Tuesday, May 22, from 7-8 p.m., will host a panel discussion entitled "Mr. Speaker: The Family of Tip O'Neill Reminisces."

More Tip O'Neill here and here

JOHN SPOONER ON MONEY & BEING DIFFERENT

"NO ONE EVER TOLD US THAT"

JOHN SPOONER

As "Brutus"

Being different

"Don’t be afraid to be a little different in life.

Don’t be a cookie cutter." -- John D. Spooner, Author,

NO ONE EVER TOLD US THAT: Advice for Your Life and Your Wallet

on WBUR, May 14, 2012

SPOONER The Bull: "It turns out that in every panic that I’ve seen — Kennedy assassination, 9/11, the crash of ’87, and the meltdown of the financial system in the last three to four years — in every case, you should have been a buyer not a seller."

WHEN IT IS STILL A PLEASURE TO FLY

WINGING THROUGH

A MOON-LIT SKY

OR, PERHAPS MORE PRECISELY,

A SKY IN WHICH THE MOON

IS RISEN BUT

THE SUN IS NOT

LONG "DOWN"

OR PERHAPS,

MORNING IS DAWNING?

("like the first morning")

P.S. There is a news peg, if you want one: a BBC News piece speculating whether this time surfing the web "above the clouds" may really take off.

SAMSON & THE LION

SAMSON TEARS OPEN

THE JAWS OF THE LION

THE GRAND CASCADE

PETERHOF PALACE

ST. PETERSBURG, RUSSIA

See also the Putins at Peterhof, here,

and Vladimir Putin and George W. Bush at Peterhof, here.

CARL LEVIN THEN, & CARL LEVIN NOW, ON THE CASE OF THE TWO BILLION DOLLAR TRADING LOSS OF JP MORGAN CHASE

ON THE CASE OF

JP MORGAN CHASE'S

$2 BILLION TRADING LOSS

Senator CARL LEVIN (D-Michigan)

on the Armed Services Committee

back when he was a member, but not yet the Chair

currently also the Chair of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations

Senator Levin has been thrust into the news now by the sudden revelation of the post-financial-crisis losses by one of the banks which was thought to have weathered the crisis better than most, JP Morgan Chase. JP Morgan's chief executive, Jamie Dimon, has been a harsh critic of the Volcker rule, which calls for greater bank regulation; Levin was one of its sponsors. Today Levin said the two-billion-and-expected-to-rise loss on Dimon's watch "was a 'stark example' of what can happen without proper regulation," and that "US taxpayers had been forced 'not too long ago' to bail out banks that had made these types of bets" that had now gotten JP Morgan in trouble. "And we don't want to be put in that position again."