NO SECOND ACTS? GAIL PARKER, TOM PARKER, AND THAT "BENNINGTON AFFAIR"

A LOOK BACK AT 

BENNINGTON COLLEGE'S 

FIRST WOMAN PRESIDENT -- 

AND HER VICE-PRESIDENT 

THOMAS D. PARKER 

GAIL THAIN PARKER 

and their daughter 

JULIA THAIN PARKER 

Published in Women's Wear Daily  

July 27, 1972, p. 24 

To quote from Lee Wohlfert's opening paragraph:  "You could almost hear the outrage in college faculty rooms across the country when Bennington College broke the news.  Come September, its new president would be Gail Parker, a 29-year-of slip of a girl who's currently an assistant professor of American history and literature at Harvard.  To top it off, they named her 30-year-old husband, Tom, now a senior tutor at Harvard, Bennington vice-president." 

The Parker presidency-vice presidency did not last the typical four-year undergraduate term, and ended with a bang, not a whimper, taking the Parker marriage with it. 

But separately Gail and Tom Parker went on to other careers.  Both remarried.  President Parker, as Gail T. P. Wickes, has a short biography here.  Vice-president Parker, Thomas D. Parker, has his here.  Julia Thain Parker made the news on a happy occasion, here.      

DOWN IN THE MINES II

WALL-EATING 

MACHINE 

WITH HUMAN 

(yes, over on the left) 

COAL MINE 
POLAND 1981 

DOWN IN THE MINES

PORTRAIT OF 

A COAL MINER 

POLAND 1981 

THE DAY AFTER, AND NEARLY FORTY YEARS AGO: THE "DEFENSE" OF MARRIAGE

THE SUPREME COURT 

SPEAKS ON 

SAME-SEX MARRIAGE 

June 26, 2013 

TWO MOTHERS AND SON 

PHOTOGRAPHED AT THEIR HOME 

FOR NEWSWEEK 

Issue of September 24, 1973, p. 9 

RUDD'S BACK! KEVIN RUDD BEATS JULIA GILLARD FOR THE AUSTRALIAN PRIME MINISTERSHIP

KEVIN RUDD 

WINS  

THIS ROUND 

THE FORMER PRIME MINISTER 

OUSTS JULIA GILLARD -- 

WHO EARLIER OUSTED HIM -- 

AS LEADER OF THE LABOR PARTY 

AND PRIME MINISTER OF 

AUSTRALIA 

Read more here  

SIXTY-THREE YEARS SINCE THE KOREAN WAR STARTED; STILL NO PEACE TREATY

NORTH KOREA 

INVADES 

SOUTH KOREA 

June 25, 1950 

NIGHT FALLS ON SHOPS 

NEAR THE SOUTH KOREAN SIDE 

OF THE DMZ 

(Demilitarized Zone) 

An account of the invasion can be found here; an overview of the war ("police action") here. 

ZHOU XIAOCHUAN AND THE PEOPLE'S BANK OF CHINA "FINE-TUNE" MONETARY POLICY

CHINESE STOCK MARKETS 

FALL 

ZHOU XIAOCHUAN 
GOVERNOR OF THE 
PEOPLE'S BANK OF CHINA 

Monday, June 24, 2013, the People's Bank of China (PBOC), led by Zhou Xiaochuan (above) "indicated that its credit tightening policy would continue" (BBC report here).  More discussion on the background and implications here and here. 

FIVE YEARS SINCE BARACK OBAMA BROKE THE CAMPAIGN FINANCING SYSTEM -- AND WON THE ELECTION

BARACK OBAMA 

ANNOUNCES 

HE WILL NOT 

TAKE MONEY 

FROM THE 

PUBLIC FINANCING 

SYSTEM 

June 19, 2008 

"UNITE FOR CHANGE"

LOTS & LOTS & LOTS 

OF "CHANGE" 

Millions and Millions of Dollars of  
"Change" 

Yes, the campaign was against "unilateral disarmament" on the financial front; it could argue that it got lots of small contributions -- but already right away, five years ago, the stark fact was that "Obama is the first U.S. presidential candidate to bypass the public financing system since it was created after the Watergate scandal in the mid-1970s" (Reuters, June 21, 2008, here). 

CITYSCAPE IN A SIDE MIRROR

REFLECTIONS 

IN A SIDE MIRROR 

SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA 

VLADIMIR PUTIN CENTER STAGE AT TODAY'S G-8 SUMMIT

"INSIDE THE TENT, 

OUTSIDE THE TENT" 

RUSSIAN PRESIDENT 

VLADIMIR PUTIN 

APEC 2012 Summit 

Vladivostok, Russia 

Today the G-8 leaders met in Lough Erne, Northern Ireland, for their annual summit, and the U.S. and Russian presidents met on the sidelines.  Much analysis was dedicated to the differences between Russia and the U.S., Putin and Obama, on Syria. 

Some of the headlines:  "Putin, Obama face off over Syria at tense G8 summit meeting" (Reuters); "Russian, U.S. view on Syria doesn't match: Putin" (Sydney Morning Herald); "Obama, Putin in stare-down over (no, not the Super Bowl ring) Syria war" (Christian Science Monitor).  One of the more positive reports: "G8 meeting: Obama and Putin push for Syria summit" (BBC). 

The White House provided a transcript; and the Kremlin its account and transcript. 

WHY IS THIS WOMAN RUNNING? II

THE U.S. SUPREME COURT 

AS SHADOWS LENGTHEN 

GROWING TO LOOK LIKE ONE'S FATHER: ISAAC TAYLOR AND JAMES TAYLOR

ISAAC M. TAYLOR 

June 15, 1921-November 3, 1996 

ISAAC MONTROSE TAYLOR, M.D. 

 then Dean, Medical School of the 

University of North Carolina 

Photographed backstage at a performance of 

his son, singer-songwriter James Taylor 

A photograph of the son from the concert then here; 

a photograph of the older James Taylor, here 

THE BRIDE AND THE GROOM DANCE AT THEIR WEDDING

JOY 

AND 

INSTANT 

POLISH COUSINS 

WEDDING DANCE 

POLAND 

THE SUMMER OF 1981 

STREET MARKET WITH VEGETABLES ... AND TWO MEN

POLAND IN 

THE SUMMER 

BEFORE 

MARTIAL LAW 

STREET MARKET WITH VEGETABLES 
AND TWO MEN 

IN THE RAIN  

SUMMER 1981 

SPEAKING OF "SHIRTSLEEVES SUMMITS" ... HERE'S ONE "WITHOUT NECKTIES": YELTSIN AND HASHIMOTO

A SUMMIT 

"WITHOUT NECKTIES" 

RUSSIAN PRESIDENT 

BORIS YELTSIN AND 

JAPANESE PRIME MINISTER 

RYUTARO HASHIMOTO 

Krasnoyarsk, Russia 

November 1997 

To be continued 

in 
RUSSIA REDUX  

JACKIE STEWART TURNS SEVENTY-FOUR

SIR JOHN YOUNG 

"JACKIE" STEWART 

b. June 11, 1939 

JACKIE STEWART 

THE WINNER 

AT THE 1972 

WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. 

U.S. GRAND PRIX 

Published in Women's Wear Daily, October 11, 1972 

"Jackie Stewart Retires," The Glasgow Herald announced on October 15, 1973.  "The Flying Scotsman" was thirty-four.  His "extrovert manner and trendy dress did not please everyone," the paper continued, "but no one could ever doubt his virtuosity as a driver and his sportsmanship."  An editorial in the same issue glowed with pride:  "The domination of Scots in world racing circuits during the past ten years has been phenomenal in this exclusive sport.  Stewart is arguably the most successful driver in history.  Having won the world championship three times and holding a world record of 27 Grand Prix wins out of 99 races, this supremely skilful Scot has left a void which will be hard to fill." 

But it was not just Stewart's "brilliant driving" which was noteworthy:  "Neither will anyone fail to respect the prodigious efforts he put into motor racing to make it safer not only for drivers but also for spectators."  So that aspect of his accomplishments has been on the record for decades. 

Just this past month the 1972 Roman Polanski film "Weekend of a Champion" (Stewart at Monte Carlo) was re-released at Cannes, with additional material by Polanski and Stewart now; some background and commentary can be found here and here and here (including a contemporary photograph). 

F. LEE BAILEY IS EIGHTY; CAN PRACTICE LAW AGAIN

FRANCIS LEE BAILEY, Jr. 

b. June 10, 1933 

F. LEE BAILEY 

in his heyday 

in his Boston law office 

For more background and another photograph, see here 

Once, "if a person knew the name of only one lawyer, that lawyer was probably F. Lee Bailey," wrote Peter J. Reilly in Forbes 

But "Bailey has not practiced law since the early 2000s, when he was disbarred in Florida and Massachusetts.  He moved to Maine

in 2010," reports the Bangor Daily News 

In the news  now:  F. Lee Bailey can practice law in Maine 

(the story and a contemporary photograph, here) 

WHY IS THIS WOMAN RUNNING?

THE WOMAN IN RED 

AND 

BLUE 

WARSAW 1981 

IS A MEETING OF XI JINPING AND BARACK OBAMA A SUPERPOWER SUMMIT?

Some news of the day, 

June 7-8, 2013: 

Xi Jinxing 

comes to California 

for a "Shirtsleeves Summit" 

with Barack Obama.  

In a billionaire's resort. 

Sometimes they leave 

their jackets on. 

But not their ties. 

Are they establishing 

ties that bind? 
Or at least, connect? 

XI JINPING TAKES OVER 

AS GENERAL SECRETARY 

OF THE CHINESE COMMUNIST 

PARTY, November 2012 

Xi Jinping's 'fast start,' here 

'More Maoist than reformer, so far,' here 

Summit reporting, with shirtsleeves photograph, here 

Some background on the summit, with jackets, here 

A sober look at the possibilities for the U.S.-China relationship, here  

JOHN DINGELL BECOMES THE LONGEST SERVING MEMBER OF CONGRESS

JOHN DAVID DINGELL, JR. 

REP. JOHN DINGELL 

(D-Michigan) 

roughly halfway through his career in 

the U.S. House of Representatives 

Published in the August 13, 1984 issue of 

BUSINESS WEEK (p. 65) 

Today Rep. Dingell becomes the longest-serving member of the U.S. Congress (trumping former Senator Robert Byrd), having first won an election to replace his deceased father, Rep. John David Dingell, Sr., on December 13, 1955.  There are many tributes and lists of accomplishments.  See here and here and here and here and here.  For another photograph, see here. 

New:  Two accounts of the party honoring Dingell, June 13, 2013, can be found here ("Leave it to John Dingell to bring left and right together, if only for a little bit") and here "a heartfelt ceremony" capped by Mary Wilson of the Supremes -- and friends -- singing "Stop! In the Name of Love." 

THE PUTINS ANNOUNCE ... THE END

VLADIMIR & LYUDMILA 

PUTIN 

DIVORCE 

THE PUTINS HOSTING 
THE FIRST RUSSIAN G8 SUMMIT 
St. Petersburg, July 2006 

Today the Russian President and First Lady publicly announced the end of their marriage.  They did make one -- last? -- public appearance together today, attending one act of the ballet Esmeralda, at the Kremlin Palace. 

Some discussion here and here. 

DRAGONS UP ABOVE

DRAGONS 

IN THE CEILING 

GEUNJEONGJEON HALL 

GYEONGBOK PALACE 

(KYŎNGBOKGUNG) 

경복궁 

景福宮 

SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA 

WEDDING BANQUETS; SPORTS MASSAGES: BILLBOARDS GANGNAM STYLE.

GANGNAM 

HOTEL BILLBOARDS 

SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA  

PAUL VOLCKER IS IN THE NEWS...AGAIN

PAUL VOLCKER 

SOUNDS THE ALARM 

PAUL A. VOLCKER AS 

CHAIR OF THE 

FEDERAL RESERVE SYSTEM 

Published in Business Week, March 26, 1984, p. 30 

To Be Continued 

PHILADELPHIA TRAINSCAPE, WITH THE STATUE OF WILLIAM PENN

VIEW FROM 

AN ACELA TRAIN  

DASHING THROUGH 

PHILADELPHIA 

CITY HALL 

WITH THE STATUE OF 

WILLIAM PENN ON TOP 

(at the right of the photograph) 

THIS WAY. NOT THAT WAY. STOP.

GANGNAM HOTEL-STYLE 

TRAFFIC DEVICES 

SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA 

A HEART-TO-HEART TALK IN THE GYEONGBOK PALACE, SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA

HEART-TO-HEART 

ALMOST EYE-TO-EYE 

GYEONGBOK PALACE 

(KYŎNGBOKGUNG) 

경복궁 

景福宮 

SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA